Erik Krib was the fire type specialist representing Kanto and the Searing Fire Academy of Amber City. He had shown a (mid) silver-stage Rapidash, a (high) silver-stage Charizard, and a (high) silver-stage Arcanine so far.
I wasn't sure if should call him unlucky or not, since he would have had a much easier time facing my opponent. Hans's steel-type Pokemon would have been at a major disadvantage against Erik, but then again he could have been forced to fight against me instead, like poor Hans, which was why I was not sure if I should call him unlucky or not.
At least he had a good shot at winning against his current opponent, even if he had the type disadvantage. Yes, he had to fight against Brian Stone, the ground-type specialist from Hoenn.
Brian was the only one among the current semifinalists to show more than 3 Pokemon, which together with his surname had me label him as someone with a lot of backing, but I was only realizing right now that I must have given a much "worse" picture to the others due to the Pokemon I had shown off so far, which were not only rare but also super strong.
I was pretty sure that I would have been labeled as a young master if not for the fact that my "poor" background was well-known, due to my fame as an aspiring researcher.
Well, having Ex-Senior, now Expert-Class, parents was not really what I would call a "poor" background. In fact, that was already a pretty great one, but it was far from enough to qualify as a "young master" background. I was not counting the George family here, since they had nothing to do with our family even if we were related.
Still, this made me think that I should find a way to disassociate myself from the "young master" image as much as possible. Releasing some tips regarding raising certain Pokemon might help with that, while also "hinting" at the reason why I had so many rare and strong Pokemon that were following me.
Besides, it would bring me some goodwill, and it might help raise the opinion of certain people that were considering the development of the next generation as important, which would be good for me.
*cough* Oak *cough*
Anyway, the Pokemon Brian showed so far were a (mid) silver-stage Quagsire, a (mid) silver-stage Claydol, a (high) silver-stage Flygon, and a (high) silver-stage Excadrill.
I'd say the stakes were a bit in Brian's favor, but Erik had a good chance at winning if he did well enough. Still, no matter which one won, I would be unable to use Stan/Gyarados in the finals, if I kept adhering to their teacher's request.
Oh, well, the fights would not be challenging enough for him with a type advantage anyway. The introduction ended while I was thinking about the two potential finalists, and both released their first Pokemon after the referee gave the starting signal.
Surprisingly, it became another "dragon" duel due to both trainers wanting to start out strong. Charizard appeared on Erik's side, while Flygon appeared on Brian's side, and both moves turned out to be "weather moves".
However, unlike how most weather moves canceled each other, these two showed no conflict, so both Sandstorm, as well as Sunny Day, succeeded. I had theorized that this might have been possible while working on Manami/Lapras's Freezing Rain, so I was not surprised despite not having tested it out at the time.
Still, seeing the brief surprise on the face of both contestants, and the astonishment showcased by the crowd, I belonged to the minority. Still, I was not alone, since I saw that the referee showed zero surprises. Not only him, but even the host seemed to have seen this before since he began explaining that the two moves were the only ones with synergy among the "weather moves".
He even involved us by saying that unlike with Freezing Rain, no mastery was necessary to have Sandstorm and Sunny Day work together instead of interfering with one another.
Neither of the two sides remained idle while the host was talking. Charizard went up in the air, outside of the Sandstorm's reach, while Flygon began pulling out/condensing rocks using Rock Tomb.
It was probably preparing ammo for Rock Slide, or just to throw it in general. Still, some of those rocks were as high as 7 or 8 meters. Maybe, it wanted to restrict Charizard's mobility instead.
Yet, it looked like Charizard had no plans to give Flygon a chance to use them, instead it stayed in the air and fired a Flamethrower into the Sandstorm.
It kept it up as long as it could, and it quickly became apparent that it wanted to overheat the sand turning the area into an oven. The effect of Sunny Day helped its endeavor. Even the sand began turning to glass, which would bypass Flygon's immunity to Sandstorm's damaging effect.
Flygon noticed this and rushed upwards, releasing a Boomburst as soon as it left the Sandstorm. The attack forced Charizard to stop breathing fire, and it managed to escape most of the damage. Still, Charizard dodging Boomburst allowed Flygon to close the distance between them, and it slammed into Charizard with a Dragon Rush.
What followed was a close-up fight between two dragons. Charizard's preferred moves were Dragon Claw and Drangonbreath, with a side dish of Steel Wing since those were the most effective moves it had against Flygon.
Meanwhile, Flygon was using Dragon Claw and Dragon Pulse to retaliate, while occasionally trying to nail it with a Rock Slide. Not only that, during their exchange, the two were not only attacking each other but also trying to force the fight in a certain direction.
Flygon was trying to force Charizard into the Sandstorm that had returned to normal without Charizard to heat it. Meanwhile, Charizard kept the fight above the Sandstorm, probably waiting for it to subside.
In the end, Flygon failed to force Charizard down despite having to reapply Sandstorm once and got taken out by a final Dragon Claw instead, making it fall to the ground, while Charizard was panting for breath, visibly tired after fighting toe to toe with Flygon for around ten minutes.
Brian kept a perfectly calm face while he recalled his Flygon and his next Pokemon confused a lot of people including me until I remembered Sand Rush. Excadrill made an appearance on the field, and as soon as the referee gave the starting signal, it moved at an extremely fast speed toward the stone pillars Flygon had created.
It ran on them and jumped off of them straight at a surprised Charizard who failed to dodge the Horn Drill Excadrill used, knocking it out at one shot right at the start of their confrontation.
Abilities such as Sand Rush and Chlorophyll really made some Pokemon species more viable than before, but I had kind of disregarded them before since they were bound by a condition, unlike Huge Power which was pseudo-permanent.
Looking around I was seeing a lot of faces showing realization. Meanwhile, someone sitting in from of us said "ah, so that's why Flygon made those pillars", verbalizing what many people were thinking at the moment.
While that was happening, Erik was looking at his Charizard in disbelief at how fast it had been knocked out. The referee declaring Excadrill the winner snapped him out of it, after which he recalled it.
His next Pokemon was a Camerupt, which he was showing for the first time during the competition. As soon as the referee gave the signal, Excadrill used an Earthquake to attack Camerupt, who blocked it with an Earthquake of its own.
The first exchange between the two showed that it was at the (high) silver stage as well, which made me believe that he had been keeping it back as a trump card.
After that Excadrill decided to forgo attacking from a distance and decided to make use of its speed to attack from close range instead. However, that led to Camerupt showing why exactly Erik chose Camerupt to face Excadrill.
Right as Excadrill's claws were about to slam into Camerupt, it blew up in an Eruption. Excadrill felt the full force of Eruption at point blank, and landed a few meters from Camerupt, groaning from having been hit by what was practically a volcano blowing up on one's face.
Still, Camerupt was not done by a long shot and followed Eruption up with what I recognized as Fissure. Just as everyone thought that it would be taken out by a surprise combo, since dodging seemed impossible, Brian gave a command that showed that he decide to go with the age-old "eye for an eye".
He ordered Excadrill to ignore everything and focus on hitting Camerupt with an overpowered Fissure as well. Excadrill followed the command as much as it could and slammed both its claws into the ground, setting off its Fissure, just a moment before it was hit by one itself.
I think it might have been hard-pressed to continue anyway after its latest stunt, but still, its endeavor was successful, since Camerupt followed into unconsciousness just a few moments after it did, resulting in what was effectively a double knockout.
This meant both trainers only had a last Pokemon remaining. Erik still had his (mid) silver-stage Rapidash, and (high) silver-stage Arcanine, but I was sure he would use his Arcanine, as long as he did not have another surprise reveal that he wanted to make.
The same was true for Brian, who only had his (mid) silver-stage Quagsire, and (mid) silver-stage Claydol if no surprise reveals happened. Quagsire would have been a good choice if not for its relatively much lower speed compared to both of Erik's Pokemon along with the possibility of them knowing Solar Beam.
That with Sunny Day would spell a disaster for Quagsire, so Claydol was the much safer option in my opinion. The referee's signal ended with me confirming my speculations.
Still, Claydol's first action upon receiving the starting signal reveals a little detail I could not have reasonably predicted. Apparently, it had advanced to the (high) silver stage sometime before this fight since that was what the fluctuations it released while setting off a Sandstorm despite rising into the air showed.
It seemed it wanted to passively consume Arcanine's vitality while staying out of its range. A smart if not a slightly dirty tactic, which I definitely approved of.
What followed was Claydol staying in the air peppering Arcanine with Rock Slides and Rock Throws. It also fired the occasional Psybeam, no Psychic though, since it could not get a hold of Arcanine. Meanwhile, Arcanine was firing back with Flamethrower and Heat Wave, along with the occasional Solar Beam.
Their back and forth went on for more than 10 minutes, and both Pokemon had suffered some damage, with most of the damage Arcanine suffered coming from the Sandstorm that Claydol had to reapply once during their fight.
Both Pokemon were visibly tired, and the height at which Claydol was levitating had visibly reduced. Arcanine decided to make use of that and used Extreme Speed to run along the rock pillars Brian's Flygon had created to come closer to Claydol.
Arcanine was obviously using Flare Blitz, but his mouth was also channeling dark energy, presumably Crunch, so everyone was a bit surprised at its prowess.
Yet, just as it was about to reach Claydol, its two canon-like arms appeared in front of it and released two Hyper Beams, one from each canon/arm, showing that they had been luring in Arcanine from the very start.
The Hyper Beams slammed Arcanine into the ground and caused an explosion, but Claydol did not plan to game, so it directly followed after it to release an Earth Power while it was down.
The dust cloud lifted and one could see that Arcanine was knocked out, being hit head first by two Hyper Beams after fighting for more than ten minutes proved to be too much, not to mention that Claydol double-tapped it.
Arcanine was declared unable to battle, and Claydol was deemed the winner. With this, Brian had advanced to the finals and he would be the one I would be facing next.
Not that it mattered much whom I ended up facing since the chances of me losing to anyone in this competition was close to zero. I was not talking in absolutes since a miracle, or disaster for me might happen. There was no need to have a flag or to provoke Murphy.
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