Although its spatial awareness was in chaos, Exploud, having done its utmost to shrink the range of its sound waves, could still trigger dense explosions around its body without issue.
In terms of destructive power, Mismagius’s combination of Will-O-Wisp and Ominous Wind clearly couldn’t withstand Boomburst. The result of their collision could only be one—Mismagius going down.
However, Norman gave up this perfect opportunity. Under his rapid commands, Exploud’s Boomburst quickly converged, transforming into the far less destructive Supersonic.
Supersonic also interfered with Will-O-Wisp and Ominous Wind. Under Exploud’s exertion, even Supersonic nearly dispersed Mismagius’s two moves.
Clearly, the power of Supersonic wasn’t enough to block Mismagius’s attacks, let alone deal damage to it.
But this change successfully threw Mismagius into confusion. The Destiny Bond fluctuations around it instantly dissipated, failing to lock onto Exploud through the Supersonic’s sound waves.
Seeing this, Terrance’s expression changed.
“Ice Punch!”
Even though Mismagius quickly used its illusion skill to rid itself of the confusion state, it still wasn’t as fast as Exploud. Taking both attacks head-on, Exploud strode forward, and in an instant Mismagius entered its attack range, getting slammed to the ground by a fist condensed with dense Ice-type energy.
Along with that blow that froze Mismagius’s movements, Exploud’s mouth unleashed a roar that triggered an Earthquake. Under the double impact, Mismagius fell unconscious on the spot.
“Mismagius is unable to battle…”
The sudden turn of events shattered Terrance’s plan to use Destiny Bond to take down the troublesome Exploud. Two commanding errors caused Terrance’s mood to shift. As he took a deep breath, Gallade appeared on the battlefield.
“Mismagius, you did well. Leave the rest to Gallade.”
With Gallade on the field, Norman showed no intention of switching Pokémon. Terrance decisively pulled out his Key Stone, resonating with the Mega Stone on Gallade.
Gallade, Mega Evolve!
As the red blade edges and the flowing white cape appeared on Gallade, it immediately exuded a terrifying killing intent, like a sword freshly bathed in blood.
“Sending out Gallade this early?”
Against the Normal-type master Norman, the Fighting-type and Mega-capable Gallade was considered by all spectators to be Terrance’s final trump card. Yet unexpectedly, Terrance sent it out as his third Pokémon.
“Boomburst!”
“Close Combat!”
With a flash of light, a violent sound erupted as Gallade’s attack collided head-on with Exploud’s soundwave compressed into a single line.
The clash between Close Combat and Boomburst was extremely fierce. Both Pokémon were caught at the center of the intertwining energy, enduring immense pressure. Even the aftermath of their collision caused ripples in the psychic shield surrounding the edge of the field.
Amid the clash of moves, Gallade’s aura kept rising, its power continuously increasing. Skillfully employing its force-exerting techniques, it began to suppress Boomburst instead. As a rift was carved through the sound waves, it signified that Gallade had gained the upper hand.
Launching a powerful strike forward, Gallade directly aimed at Exploud’s mouth. But the moment the soundwave shattered, a surge of Ice-type energy gathered, and Exploud used Ice Fang to forcibly withstand the attack.
Ice-type energy wrapped around Gallade’s arm, continuously freezing its body. If this continued, even if it successfully struck Exploud, Gallade would cripple one of its own arms—the cost was far too great. Just as many people began to show worried expressions, an astonishing scene unfolded.
“It’s… it’s Fire Punch!!”
Gallade’s conversion of blade energy caught Norman off guard. As the power of fire spread, the Ice-type energy instantly melted away, and Gallade’s power surged forward unobstructed, slashing Exploud away.
With the hit landing, Gallade followed up instantly with Teleport, delivering three consecutive slashes, completely depriving Exploud of its ability to fight.
Compared to Tyranitar and Mismagius, Mega Gallade displayed an astonishing advantage when dealing with Norman’s Pokémon.
“With that Gallade, even Mr. Norman will have a hard time,” Phoebe smiled.
“Although its size isn’t large, the power behind its slashes is extremely destructive. I’m really curious what it would look like if Mr. Norman’s Slaking faced this Gallade.”
“Your opponent is it.”
Amid the anticipation of the crowd, Norman made an extremely exciting decision. When a Slaking—resembling a gorilla, with a pink nose and beige skin—appeared, the entire stadium erupted into loud cheers. Its eye rings were brown, with two sprout-like tufts of white hair on its head, and a ring of white fur around its neck and body. Combined with the brown fur on its limbs, it looked imposing and majestic.
This Slaking was a head taller than a normal one, its entire body filled with powerful muscles, appearing thick-skinned and durable. More importantly, its eyes lacked the usual laziness of other Slaking. Instead, they were sharp and full of suppression.
“It’s here!! Mr. Norman’s Slaking! New viewers might be unfamiliar, but in past battles, Mr. Norman’s Slaking has smashed through shields formed by psychic power with sheer power!! But don’t worry this time, we’ve reinforced the field’s protection system, so there won’t be any situation like before where the battle’s shockwaves affected the audience. Additionally, this time Champion Steven’s Metagross is also part of the protection system. Even if you go to the edge of the field to watch, it’ll be fine. Of course, that last part was just a joke, please remain seated…”
As the announcer explained, the audience grew even more excited. Hearing the waves of cheers, Terrance and Gallade both revealed faint smiles.
Close Combat!!
With Teleport combined with Close Combat, Gallade’s speed surpassed its limits, reaching an unbelievable level. The timing of its attack was almost instantaneous. Any Pokémon that wanted to successfully block it would have to react before Gallade even used Teleport.
Slaking, due to its unique physique, possessed immense power but also certain flaws. Its slow reaction speed meant it took a long time to gather strength. Although Norman’s Slaking was well-trained and far superior to ordinary Slaking, compared to the earlier Spinda and Exploud, its reaction ability was clearly worse.
But that was only in relative terms. Against most ordinary Trainers’ Pokémon, this Slaking’s reaction speed was already extremely fast. Of course, such reaction speed still couldn’t stop Gallade’s assault. Even with prior preparation, Slaking demonstrated its domineering nature in the face of Gallade.
Slaking didn’t try to block. Instead, it gathered the strength of its entire body and used Bulk Up. With every muscle in its body tensed, its power was converted into defense. Without changing expression, it endured Gallade’s attack, then revealed a fierce glint as its palm came crashing down with Brick Break!!
“That terrifying Bulk Up move. Rumor has it that it can convert most of its power into defense, allowing every muscle in Slaking’s body to unleash incredible strength while defending. Under such conditions, the chance of truly dealing heavy damage to this Slaking is extremely slim,” the Top Trainers on the viewing platform remarked with emotion as they saw Slaking take Mega Gallade’s Close Combat head-on and counterattack.
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