Chapter 436: Earthbound Cast

The Swanna of the Odd-Colored King crashed to the ground.

Every spectator's heart leapt into their throat, but Baimu and the Odd-Colored Milotic both remained on guard.

"Ice Beam!"

"Milo!"

Milotic slightly raised its head, an icy-blue orb of light gathering in its mouth, and a bolt of frosty lightning like a gnarled branch shot forth, the air along its path crackling sharply.

Ice Beam's range is longer than Blizzard's; Blizzard's strength lies in wide coverage over a short distance, so for long-range strikes beyond that, the former is the one to rely on.

But just as the icy-blue lightning was about to land on the fallen Swanna, the latter suddenly moved.

"Sleep Talk!"

Along with Naqi's voice, the sleeping Swanna instantly turned into a streak of Bai Guang and vanished from where it was.

Ice Beam missed its mark, and a savage, razor-sharp cluster of ice shot up.

Milotic warily looked around, swiftly searching for the Swanna's figure.

"Above you!"

The trainer's voice made it instinctively look up, and it suddenly saw the Swanna in a free-fall posture, a long white trail of light streaming behind it as it dove down.

Screech—

An extremely piercing shriek tore through the surrounding air.

Quick Attack!

In its haste, Milotic found it hard to dodge, and had no choice but to swing its tail over its head, using the fan-shaped tip as a shield; a fierce crash rang out!

Boom!

The tremendous force sent the fan-shaped tail slamming hard onto Milotic's head, but thankfully there was a "cushion" in between.

It lowered its head with a muffled groan, "Milo…"

Quick Attack being able to reach this level of power is closely tied to Swanna's Comatose Ability; being in a sleep state can undoubtedly trigger this ability as well.

And when Milotic moved its tail tip aside to look at Swanna, the fellow had already spiraled back up into the sky—and was actually flying with its eyes closed!

Amid a string of gasps, cameras raised their lenses to give Swanna a close-up of its face, fully recording its feat of flying with closed eyes.

"Does this thing's design prototype include a swift…"

In Baimu's meager knowledge base, the only bird that can fly while sleeping is the swift.

Naqi continued to give orders, "Sleep Talk!"

The Swanna in the sky seemed to develop a conditioned reflex and plunged down once more, its speed still absurdly fast, but this time a sky-blue, cotton-like airflow appeared in front of it, looking just like an air wall produced by excessive speed.

Brave Bird!

Baimu's brow lifted. "Waterfall!"

"Milo!"

A tide surged up from beneath Milotic out of thin air, lifting its body to charge at the diving Swanna, taking a stance of a head-on clash.

But at the very moment of collision, Naqi suddenly shouted.

"Pull up fast!"

The falling Swanna was clearly in a dream, yet its body obediently jerked its head upward, forcibly dodging—

The trick of Brave Bird lies in pulling up quickly and then diving quickly, creating a large loop before delivering a fierce strike to the opponent; Naqi had applied this sequence to dodging the opponent's attack.

Invariably effective.

She just hadn't expected Milotic and Baimu to be prepared.

"We turn too!"

"Milo!"

Milotic likewise tilted its head upward, forcibly looping a full circle and sticking to its own lower half, transforming into a massive ring of azure water, looking just like an Ouroboros.

For one well-versed in the various feints of Pokémon Contests, this little maneuver was nothing at all.

On the other side, the Swanna, having looped a huge arc in its flight path, slammed hard into Milotic!

Boom!

Smoke burst open, and the two Pokémon each flew off to the side.

Naqi frowned tightly. She could indeed make the sleeping Swanna respond to commands, but that too was limited, relying mainly on Swanna's subconscious reactions.

Ascending and descending were purely the result of day after day of training, etched into its body.

And just now she had been aiming for Milotic's belly—who would have thought the opponent had such a move!

Suddenly.

Naqi's brow relaxed, and a look of joy spread across her face—

Swanna had woken up!

"Sii-ba!"

The Swanna, which had nearly crashed into the trainer's seating area, stared wide-eyed, suddenly beat its wings and returned to the sky. It was a little confused at first, but after a glance at its trainer, it basically understood.

The Milotic that had landed on the opposite side was recalled by Baimu.

"Come back!"

It wasn't yet suited to battling opponents as agile as Swanna; its move pool wasn't deep enough. After learning a few more moves in time, it would be foolproof.

"Happy!"

Blissey returned to the field.

The staff members began discussing animatedly upon seeing it.

"Such a decisive switch! Not going to try Hypnosis again? I thought that previous routine was pretty good!"

"What do you know? If Hypnosis can't meet the demand, of course you switch!"

"Young Lady Naqi is in trouble. All Baimu swapped in Chansey—he's definitely planning to use Gravity."

"Yeah…"

Just as they said, Naqi was, at this moment, a little troubled.

Having barely endured the Gravity state, she had no desire to let that awkward situation repeat itself, so she shouted loudly: "Don't give it the chance to use Gravity! Shadow Clone!"

"Sii-bah!"

The Swanna beat its wings sharply, transforming into a black shadow. Then the shadow split from one to two, from two to four, and within a few breaths, it filled the sky—all charging together toward Chansey.

"Dazzling Gleam!"

"Happy!"

Chansey raised its little hands, its body suddenly shining like a lightbulb. Spike-shaped energy beams shot out in all directions, instantly shattering all of the Swanna shadow clones completely.

"Sii-bah!"

The shiny Swanna at the very back spread its wings and, riding the wind blowing from the front, retreated several meters—landing just outside Dazzling Gleam's range of damage.

Naqi had never expected Chansey's offensive capability to be so outstanding. Fortunately, Swanna had retreated quickly when it sensed things going wrong.

She grit her teeth slightly. "Fifteen degrees downward! Fire Hyper Beam!"

"Sii-bah!"

Black-purple light gathered in Swanna's mouth, and then a thick, terrifying black-purple energy beam blasted toward Chansey. Its terrifying power made even the air tremble.

"Protect!"

Chansey, unruffled and unhurried, stood its ground in place, a honeycomb-shaped round light shield blocking in front of its body.

Boom!!

The light shield trembled, showing faint signs of cracking, but in the end it held firm to the very end.

"One more time! Thirty-degree angle!" Naqi shouted.

Swanna, which had flown behind Chansey by beating its wings, looked up. Showing no sign of stiffness whatsoever, it fired another black-purple Hyper Beam at Chansey!

Rumble—!!

Hyper Beam rapid-fire!

The TV station staff cried out in surprise once again. As a top-tier Normal-type move, its great power meant it was never supposed to be fired in succession—and it would even cause the Pokémon itself to fall into stiffness.

But in the hands of a sufficiently powerful and highly skilled trainer, stiffness could be mitigated through various means, and even rapid-fire became possible.

Naqi was among the very best of them.

All Baimu had long anticipated this—in the anime, Ash's Swanna had nearly been taken out by a shiny Swanna just like this. He had long been prepared for it.

Using Protect was only to test the power of Hyper Beam.

"Minimize!"

"Happy!"

Chansey instantly shrank from its one-meter-plus stature into a mini version less than knee-height. The black-purple energy beam narrowly grazed over its head and landed behind it.

Boom!!

Dust suddenly rose!

Chansey disappeared within it.

Two consecutive Hyper Beams had failed to take Chansey down or even get close, and now the location of the opponent had even been lost. Naqi couldn't help but bite her lower lip, well aware that the situation was now unfavorable. "Quick Attack—rush in!"

"Sii-bah!"

Swanna suddenly transformed into a streak of white light and rushed into the dust, trying to find the minimized Chansey.

But the latter had already launched its move.

"Gravity!"

In an instant.

The familiar intense Gravity descended, immediately slamming the airborne Swanna down to the ground. It flopped around on the ground for quite a while before barely managing to prop itself up.

The staff couldn't help but sigh in sympathy for Naqi.

"Gravity again!"

"This move just counters Flying-type way too hard!"

Shota was likewise worried for Naqi. The situation had finally improved—even Swanna had suppressed Milotic and Chansey—but who would have thought the tide would reverse again in the blink of an eye!

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The dust dispersed.

The minimized Chansey finally returned to its original size, and everyone then realized that it had been less than two meters from Swanna all along.

"Wing Attack!"

"Toxic!"

Naqi and All Baimu gave their orders in succession. The former clearly intended to use Wing Attack to resist Chansey's move and pull away from it, never expecting the latter to use such a move.

"Happy!"

Chansey, looking slightly bashful, spat at Swanna. The latter frantically flapped its wings, struggling as if in desperation on the spot, but couldn't avoid being coated by Toxic.

"Sii… bah…"

Purple bubbles quickly appeared at the corners of Swanna's mouth.

Naqi's heart sank slightly. Realizing that what was done was done, she decided to make one last all-out effort. "Hyper Beam!"

"Protect."

A black-purple energy pillar spewed from Swanna's mouth. The terrifying energy ripples dimmed the surrounding light noticeably, yet couldn't shake the pale-blue honeycomb light shield Chansey had put up in the slightest.

Rumble rumble rumble—

Thunderous trembling sounds kept coming from where the two clashed.

A moment later.

The Swellow spat out another mouthful of its highly toxic nest; its expression was nothing like its earlier vigor, and the whole bird now looked listless, as though it might pass out at any moment.

Even the speed at which it released its moves was worse than at the start.

The key was that, seeing it in such a state, Blissey instead pulled the distance even wider, with no intention of closing in at all.

Naqi, who had originally wanted to lure it in and brute-force the fight, only felt her teeth itch—

This was watertight!

"Give it the final blow! Psybeam!"

"Happy!"

Blissey's eyes lit up faintly; the invisible psychic shockwave surged forward like a tide, instantly flipping the tumbling Swellow on the ground like a soccer ball!

Boom!

"Sii-ba!"

The Swellow let out a shriek, and after a few seconds its rolling stopped, revealing a pair of swirly eyes.

Sega swallowed, stared at the Swellow for a long while without daring to speak, and only after several seconds raised his flag and shouted: "S-Swellow is unable to battle! Blissey wins!"

It was no wonder he was so unsettled inside; so far, not a single one of All Baimu's Pokémon had fallen or even been in a critical state, whereas on Naqi's side three had already been taken down in a row.

Of course, in the past there had been trainers who could charge through with an utterly overwhelming momentum.

The key was that the three Pokémon sent out so far were, without exception, the very mainstays Naqi had poured the most effort into raising!

Not the same as the Pokémon she used to deal with other challengers.

The TV station staff couldn't help whispering among themselves, and realized that while they had originally planned to film a personal feature on Naqi and her Gym challenge content, All Baimu and his Pokémon seemed to be getting more screen time than Naqi!

It was a bit of the guest stealing the show!

And the director, gripping the microphone in his hand, for a moment had no idea how to edit this Gym challenge.

You could say that when both sides trade blows back and forth, each with wins and losses, you can definitely cut a decent program together — but when it's been fought like this, how do you edit it? Surely you can't use editing tricks to falsify the fact that Naqi had three Pokémon taken down in a row while All Baimu's side was still full of energy?

But if you said it wasn't exciting, you'd definitely be talking nonsense.

A match where both trainers had given their all — how could it possibly not be exciting?

For a moment, the director was utterly torn.

Inside the venue.

Naqi was equally unsettled; it had been a long time since she'd run into a strong opponent like All Baimu who left her feeling helpless, and she now had a deeper understanding of what the other Gym Leaders thought of him.

Was this the last one already?

After taking a deep breath, her heart gradually steadied, and a smile returned to her face.

"All Baimu, what do you think of today's sky?"

"Uh, it's pretty nice — white clouds scattered about, sunshine and brightness." All Baimu wasn't sure why she was asking this, but he obediently answered anyway.

Naqi laughed: "Yes, such a beautiful clear sky — it will keep granting power to me, to my Flying-type Pokémon.

"Those who love the sky are loved by the sky in return — are you ready for the final battle!"

As her words fell, she hurled her Poké Ball forward!

Boom!

"Uwooh!"

A tall Pokémon, orange all over with a pair of small wings, landed on the ground.

All Baimu couldn't hide his surprise. "Dragonite!"

That's right.

What appeared before his eyes was unmistakably the Dragon- and Flying-type Pokémon Dragonite, not the Altaria that served as her ace in the games.

A last-minute change?

No, this had probably been planned long ago.

All Baimu had never expected Naqi to actually possess a Dragon-type Pokémon as relatively rare as Dragonite; don't be fooled by the fact that the "fatso" was a pseudo-legendary that appeared as early as Generation One — in the world of the anime, it was actually the pseudo-legendaries of later generations that were relatively more "common."

And Dragonite, as a Pokémon, was still shrouded in all kinds of mysteries; the writers had even created a place like Dragonite Island, an environment that could be called the Pokémon world's Bermuda Triangle.

But this was clearly the Hoenn region — why not Salamence?

He was a little puzzled, and grew wary of Dragonite; although the fellow was a version-trap on the world stage, its combat power in "regular matches" was still plenty formidable.

"Light Screen!"

Blissey raised its little hand, condensing a translucent pane of glass before its body.

"Dragon Tail!"

Naqi pressed on without pause, issuing the command.

At that moment.

Dragonite was seen flapping its wings, giving a little hop upward — and upon discovering it couldn't fly, it switched from the hop into long strides, covering the distance to Blissey at top speed.

The latter had wanted to retreat and widen the gap, but the opponent's speed was faster than expected!

"Uwooh!"

Dragonite roared like muffled thunder, suddenly whipping its thick tail wrapped in a shimmering green glow; the air gave out a heavy whoosh with each swing.

Boom!

The long tail crashed through the Light Screen and was about to strike Blissey's belly, but Blissey leapt aside with extraordinary agility and dodged it.

"Ha-happy!"

Blissey watched the startled Dragonite with a hint of nervousness, and tremblingly reached out its little hand to grab the tail, whose Dragon-type energy was gradually fading.

The trainer's voice came through. "Seismic Toss!"

And so.

Dragonite was flung into the air by it!