"This is really troublesome..." Koga muttered, his face tense as he watched his Crobat get trapped by Gengar's Mean Look.
A bead of cold sweat trickled down his cheek.
He wasn't sure if Agatha had anticipated his tactics or if it was pure coincidence, but the situation was undeniably grim for him.
Koga had envisioned using Crobat's speed and Confuse Ray to disorient Gengar early on, causing confusion.
His plan was to then switch to Venomoth, which could take advantage of Psychic-type moves. However, that tactic had been effortlessly countered by Agatha with a simple Mean Look.
"Now, I have no choice but to let Crobat continue..." Koga clenched his fists.
This was his third Elite Challenge. If he failed to join the Elite Four of the Kanto Region this year, his chances of doing so would dwindle.
"Crobat, Air Cutter!" Koga commanded, aware of Gengar's impressive speed. He opted for a long-range attack to find an opening to close the gap.
"Cro—!" Crobat's wings stirred, slicing the air with rapid spinning air blades.
The sharp knives shot toward Gengar, their cutting sound piercing the battlefield. There were more than twenty of them.
"Gengar, Dark Pulse!" Agatha said calmly, lightly tapping her crutch on the ground as she issued the command.
"Geng—!" Gengar cackled, summoning Dark-type energy.
A deep brown energy condensed before it, and with a sweep of Gengar's hands, violent ripples of power erupted outward.
"Boom—!"
The wave of energy swept across the battlefield in an instant.
The air seemed to freeze for a split second before the devastating force surged forward, obliterating the air knives and crashing into Crobat.
Without so much as a cry, Crobat was hurled from the battlefield by the impact, slamming into the protective barrier near the audience.
The transparent shield rippled violently as Crobat collided with it, but it held firm, protecting the spectators.
The audience remained unfazed, as if they had seen this many times before. In fact, they cheered loudly, excited to witness the dramatic battle.
Moments later, the turbulent energy settled, and Crobat slid lifelessly to the ground.
It had lost consciousness, clearly unable to continue fighting.
"Crobat is unable to battle. Gengar wins!" the referee declared.
The first round ended decisively. Koga's Crobat, despite its speed, had been defeated without putting up much of a fight.
"How... damn..." Koga gritted his teeth, his gaze shifting from his fallen Crobat to Agatha, who remained calm and composed.
He realized now that he had underestimated her.
Agatha, the oldest member of the Elite Four, possessed far more power than she appeared to.
This battle... Koga feared he would leave here in defeat once again.
---
Meanwhile, a boy watching the match on television was awestruck by Gengar's overwhelming strength. It took him a moment to recover from the shock.
Unlike the Pokémon games, where battles were turn-based and even the weak could sometimes defeat the strong with clever tactics, real battles didn't work that way.
In reality, there was little time to think, and the raw strength of a Pokémon couldn't be offset by strategy alone.
In the game, as long as you used your Pokémon's abilities wisely, even a lower-level one could triumph.
But here, when Crobat tried to use Confuse Ray, Gengar had dodged it with ease.
In real life, both the strength of the Pokémon and the skill of the Trainer mattered more than anything.
There was no "level 100" Pokémon that could sweep through every challenge.
"This doesn't look good for Koga..." the boy muttered as he watched Koga recall his fallen Crobat. He sighed, feeling a little disappointed but unsurprised.
He had seen the Pokémon anime, and in the Kanto region arc, Koga was just a Gym Leader.
In the games, Koga eventually became an Elite Four member, but not in Kanto—he rose to the Elite Four in the Johto region.
It seemed likely that, after this defeat, Koga would leave the Kanto Region, head to Johto, and challenge the Elite Four there.
As the battle continued, Koga struggled to mount an effective offense.
It wasn't long before Agatha's Gengar crushed his remaining Pokémon, securing a one-sided victory. Koga had been thoroughly outmatched.
"Even though Mr. Koga lost to Agatha, his strength shouldn't be underestimated," the boy thought aloud as the Elite Challenge came to an end.
"All of Koga's Pokémon are at the Elite level. It's just... Agatha is on a whole different plane of power."
The boy turned off the TV, lying back on his bed as the intensity of the battle replayed in his mind.
"Elite Four... champion..." He raised his right hand, spreading his fingers as though reaching for something.
"I wonder if I could ever become as strong as them... or even stronger."
Suddenly, he clenched his fist tightly, his resolve hardening.
"No! I don't want to just be an Elite Four! I want to be a champion... or even a legend, the Pokemon Master!"
"Ash! Are you going to bed yet? You have an early start tomorrow!" a woman's voice called from downstairs, snapping him from his thoughts.
"Yeah, I'm going to bed now!" the boy replied.
He switched off the light, dismissing his grand ambitions for the time being. He wasn't even a Trainer yet, let alone on the road to becoming a champion.
"Tomorrow's the day... Do I choose one of the starters, or do I go with Pikachu, like in my original destiny?" he mused, recalling the famous "Electric Mouse" known as the "Pikagod."
With those thoughts swirling in his mind, he finally drifted to sleep.
In his dreams, he saw himself standing atop a peak that no one had reached before, the world's greatest Trainer, admired by everyone.
"The Pokemon Master..." he murmured in his sleep.
________________
adios~~