Chapter 309: The Promised Battle

"The Pokémon Gorgeous Contest Kaina Grand Festival is about to reach its finale!"

"Who will successfully advance and earn the Longevity Ribbon Medal? Let us wait and see!"

Vivian's excited voice echoed from above the venue.

Ash and All Baimu stood at the edge of the field, chatting softly while waiting for the host to finish the opening remarks.

She said: "After all that hardship, we've finally reached this point. Good work."

"You too, good work."

"I'm really looking forward to the rest of the match."

"Because you can finally battle at full strength without holding back?"

"Exactly!"

"Then I'll be watching closely. That Ribbon Medal is mine for the taking."

"Same here!"

The two exchanged a glance, their brows brimming with fighting spirit, and walked to their designated positions as Vivian introduced them.

On the giant screen.

Two enormous portraits and circular score charts appeared side by side.

Vivian's slightly shrill voice rang out, "Round Three, Match One — the finals. Time limit: five minutes. No pauses mid-battle. Begin!"

Ding!

A crisp chime sounded, and the five-minute countdown began.

All Baimu and Ash simultaneously threw their Poké Balls forward.

Pop-pop!

"Pojaman!"

Piplup leapt out amid countless translucent bubbles, its little wings flapping in an utterly lively and adorable manner.

But when it saw the Mawile across the field descending with the flower petals, every inch the picture of grace, its expression froze solid.

Even though it had long been mentally prepared, actually facing the little penguin still left it somewhat unable to accept it.

'For the first time, I had a Pokémon I liked so much. And I gained the full support of a Trainer. These two joys overlapped, and this double joy brought even more and more joy. I should have already obtained a dreamlike, happy time — but why has it turned out like this?'

It had no choice but to make a choice between its beloved Pokémon and its soulmate friend.

And the answer was already crystal clear.

Sorry, my love!

Let it drift away on the wind~~

Tears welled at the corners of Piplup's eyes. It gritted its teeth, clenched its little wings into fists, and resolved to transform all the anguish of its heartbreak into power, to be used to defeat its former crush.

"Piplup, dodge!"

A sharp cry.

It looked up and saw, dead ahead in its line of sight, a black shadow flashing — Mawile, charging straight at it with absurd explosive force.

Vivian shouted: "What terrifying explosive power! Mawile's forward charge is so fast the naked eye can barely react!"

"Pojaman!"

Piplup was startled, but its seasoned battle experience kept it from panicking. It leapt up at the first instant!

In the blink of an eye.

It narrowly dodged Mawile's head-on charge by spinning aside.

The gorgeous evasion made All Baimu the first to have points deducted.

Yet not a trace of disappointment showed on his face. Instead, a smile of everything under control appeared. "We use Spin too! Thunder—"

Before the words were even finished, Mawile was seen doing a front flip, touching the ground on its tiptoes, then using the weight of its massive jaws to suddenly spin, violently throwing its force toward the direction Piplup had dodged to!

Electricity flickered across its body, rapidly gathering near the massive jaws.

"Bubble Beam!"

"Pojaman!"

Piplup had just landed up ahead. Seeing Mawile pursuing, it immediately opened its mouth and spewed out countless glowing blue bubbles, trying to block the other's fierce charge. But the latter spun far too fast — every single bubble of Bubble Beam was shattered by the electricity-flickering massive jaws, dissolving into a skyful of light particles.

Ash's score on the screen began to drop, but this was not the end of Mawile's offensive.

The ferocious massive jaws opened like a flower blooming. Lightning seemed to leap back and forth between the cold, snow-white fangs, carrying a heart-stopping energy ripple.

"Dodge again!"

Ash did not panic, remaining perfectly composed.

One advantage of a small body is agility — the target is small, so the opponent's moves must be far more precise to hit, and missing with non-wide-area moves is fairly common.

"Pojaman!"

Piplup leapt forward once more, trying to graze past the lightning-wreathed massive jaws.

The massive jaws slammed into the ground. It had escaped by a hair's breadth, practically slipping past Mawile. But it had not at all anticipated that, the moment it successfully dodged the move, before it could even heave a sigh of relief and properly meet its goddess's gaze—

A bolt of lightning suddenly condensed and coiled around a tiny fist came hurtling toward its face!

Mawile seemed to have been waiting for it to come right to her, striking out with a motion precise to the millimeter — as if rehearsed hundreds and hundreds of times!

Boom!

Crack!

Thunder exploded.

"Pojaman—"

Accompanied by Piplup's anguished cry, it was sent flying sideways, the flickering electricity bursting across its body like wildly dancing silver snakes, dazzlingly brilliant.

"Piplup!"

Tension finally surfaced on Xiaoguang's face.

But thankfully, Piplup was far more durable than its species stats suggested, and thanks to the Steadfast ability it couldn't be paralyzed, so it managed to stand back up.

"Pip-pip!"

"What a deceiving Pokémon! Mawile used Magnet Rise and Huge Jaw as a disguise, hiding its intent to use Thunder Punch, and struck the moment Piplup leapt up! An extremely effective attack!"

Vivian's excited commentary drew enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Xiaoguang's score plummeted, only stopping when two-thirds remained — clearly the judges were very satisfied with Mawile's extraordinary performance just now.

"No problem! Piplup! The battle's only just begun!"

She cheered Piplup on, "Whirlpool!"

"Pip-pip!"

The round-headed little penguin raised its flippers high, a glimmering blue light blooming across its body, and when Mawile lunged at it again it gathered a massive, rushing vortex and hurled it forward!

Rumble rumble—

The water vortex let out a tremendous, shuddering roar.

"Charge through! Icy Wind!"

Mawile obeyed All Baimu's command without a moment's hesitation, spinning itself once more to whip up a biting gale that slammed into the Whirlpool — the freezing energy froze the Whirlpool into a giant ice sculpture at a speed visible to the naked eye, which was then mercilessly smashed apart by the spinning Mawile!

Boom!

The ice shattered, scattering into a skyful of ice crystals.

The dazzling scene was dazzling to the eye.

But seeing the Whirlpool broken, a sudden smile appeared on Xiaoguang's face. "Now! Piplup, use Blizzard!"

"Pip-pip!"

In an instant.

Piplup opened its beak and flapped its wings frantically — the ice crystals scattered through the air were all drawn into motion, transforming into a visible blizzard that surged wildly toward Mawile!

Even though the latter tried to break through by spinning, it couldn't withstand such a fierce snowstorm for the moment, and was frozen solid in midair!

"Hydro Pump!"

Xiaoguang pressed the advantage — Piplup suddenly leapt up, transforming into a water spiral that slammed thunderously into the frozen Mawile!

Crash!

The ice shattered, water spraying in all directions!

"Pip-pip!"

Piplup's figure seemed to dance in the air, water and ice combining into countless brilliant ice crystals, falling to the ground together with the groaning Mawile.

On the giant screen.

All Baimu's score was suddenly docked by nearly a third — the points awarded for sounding the counterattack horn were so exaggerated that he and Xiaoguang were now nearly even!