Chapter 863: Burning Sea of Fire

Such agile movements!

The audience looked at the two Dreepy that dodged on their own, amazed.

The commentator shouted: "Arcanine's Play Rough missed! The Dreepys completed the detour maneuver in an instant! Dragon Darts is still being released!"

Just as he said.

The two Dreepy, climbing violently, pulled long deep-blue tail flames, suddenly turned sideways like fighter jets, and while maintaining the same flight angle, reversed their posture and circled a large ring.

"Hee-ya—"

"Hee-ya!"

The two headed straight for Arcanine, whose pink light between its claws was gradually dimming!

Kabu waved his hand and shouted: "Use Extreme Speed to dodge!"

"Awoo!"

Arcanine roared in response, but the normal move connection simply wasn't that fast, and besides, the Rock field didn't have much space to land steadily.

It had to adjust its landing posture first.

The Dragapult siblings decisively seized this opportunity to attack, turned again to maintain a side-slip angle, went in two directions, left and right, and drove the remaining dragon flames to ram into Arcanine's waist!

Nowhere to dodge!

Kabu could only watch helplessly as Arcanine's forelimbs just touched the protruding stone pillar, and its waist received the painful blow from 【Dragon Darts】!

Bang, bang!

Azure light flames exploded!

"Woo!"

Arcanine in the smoke let out a mournful cry; clearly, the Dragapult siblings had fully utilized the knowledge they learned from their seniors in the team—

How to painfully strike canine Pokémon, seizing their weaknesses to give "crippling" blows.

The Bad Dog Team had taught Aggron, Blissey, and Mawile efficient ways to beat dogs, and they also passed this knowledge on to the companions who joined the team later through descriptions of the past.

"Arcanine!"

Kabu clenched his fists, never expecting that the Dreepy, who existed as appendages in the battle, could be so troublesome, and hurriedly ordered: "Use Morning Sun!"

It was just that.

A ghost dragon abruptly appeared not far away, slightly opened its mouth, and gathered the surging glowing blue light waves.

Using 【Odor Sleuth】 to deal with invisibility was indeed very effective, but the biggest difference between it and 【Foresight】 was that it couldn't let the Trainer also capture the enemy's scent.

So when Kabu and even the whole audience's attention was quickly attracted by the Dreepy siblings, Dragapult, the social-anxious Pokémon who knew best how to avoid others' gazes, quietly revealed its fangs.

Therefore.

Under the exclamations of the commentator and the audience, and in Kabu's gradually widening eyes.

"Hydro Pump."

"Drag—pult!"

A huge azure water column sprayed out, suddenly breaking through the air and moving forward, instantly rushing through the smoke lingering around Arcanine, and bombarded it completely!

Pfft—!!

Arcanine, with no power to fight back, withstood the water impact and flew backward straight away.

Its uncontrollable massive body smashed and shattered four or five huge rocks in a row, causing countless broken stones to splash, and smoke like fog rolled.

When the water flow stopped.

Arcanine, soaked all over, was already in a state of having more breath going out than coming in, lying on its side on the ground and twitching twice, completely losing movement.

The Rotom Drone flew over and took a look, announcing: "Arcanine is unable to battle! Dragapult wins! Kabu's remaining Pokémon is one, match continues!"

The commentator couldn't help but sigh: "What a subtle coordination! The outstanding performance of the Dreepys was too eye-catching, making us almost forget the true protagonist of this battle—Dragapult, hiding in the dark, waiting for an opportunity!"

Applause thundered in the audience, everyone excitedly whispering to each other.

A little bit of content was passed to All Baimu's ears, listening to which made his face turn black.

They were actually already worrying about who was stronger between the social-anxious dragon and Leon's Dragapult, but the general conclusion was that it wasn't as strong as Leon's.

You guys...

Who is strong and who is weak can only be known after battling!

He shook his head and praised Dragapult and the Dreepy siblings who had withdrawn to his side.

He called this tactic of using the Dreepy siblings to play "acrobatics" to attract the opponent and the opponent's Pokémon's attention, thereby creating an opportunity for Dragapult to sneak attack, the 【Firefly Tactic】.

He originally thought it was quite useful to take it out in low-end matches to bully newbies, but now it seems it's actually quite useful in mid-to-high-end matches.

At least Kabu's attention was diverted.

Or rather.

The flight skills of the Dreepy siblings, pressing step by step, made him unable to pay attention to the cannon that was releasing Dragon Darts, never expecting that Dragapult could "continuously" release two moves.

——The time delayed by the Dreepy siblings in the middle was subconsciously ignored by Kabu.

In addition, his impression of Dragapult came from Leon, but Leon's Pokémon mostly relied on hard strength to crush them, and the battle style was relatively straightforward;

Unlike All Baimu, who clearly could also crush them, but preferred to play some tactics, making people's sense of frustration double.

It could be seen that veterans are veterans.

As a first-string Gym Leader in the Galar region, Kabu still had a lot of room for improvement.

"Go!"

He tossed the Poké Ball.

Arcanine's defeat didn't seem to affect his emotions, and his expression was the same as before the battle, his excellent pressure resistance was admirable.

Worthy of being a strong person who could rise again after falling.

Bang!

Light flashed.

A giant multi-legged centipede with a red body and four burning flames on its head and tail appeared.

'Centiskorch', Fire/Bug-type Radiating Pokémon.

Every node on its abdomen had orange-yellow egg-shaped heat organs; just standing there, the surrounding air became blurry.

Kabu's ace...

However, without the big weapon of Dynamax, how much "true" strength could it exert?

All Baimu raised his hand and said: "Dragon Darts."

"Dragapult!"

Dragapult raised its head, aimed the launch hole at Centiskorch, drove Dragon-type energy, and fired the two Dreepy like missiles bang, bang!

White smoke rolled, and the azure tail flames were exceptionally bright.

"Hee-ya—"

"Hee-ya!"

The Dreepys screamed excitedly, their sharp voices simply like bombers flying through the sky, truly making one feel panicked.

Kabu stared at Dragapult, who had disappeared openly, and ordered in a deep voice: "Smokescreen!"

"Maru!"

Centiskorch raised its head slightly, spitting out a large amount of pitch-black thick smoke from its mouth, like a heavy curtain suddenly spreading, instantly covering more than half of the field around it.

And the Dreepy siblings, who rushed straight into the smokescreen, soon discovered they had lost their target.

"Hee-ya?"

They looked at each other, nodded in unison, and instead of stopping to observe, they accelerated their flight speed. They had the momentum of rather consuming all the energy of Dragon Darts than missing the opportunity to clear the smokescreen.

In fact.

The Dreepy siblings' behavior of clearing the smokescreen was against the rules, because the main body of the battle was Dragapult, and they only existed in the battle field as carriers of Dragon Darts.

But because the two were currently in the process of 【Dragon Darts】, the explainable interval was relatively large.

The Rotom Drone serving as the referee had loaded many rules of the Galar League, and seeing the behavior of the Dreepy siblings, it just recorded it silently.

If Kabu had any objections after the match, it would then be used as a basis for judgment and mediation.

In the field.

The Dreepy siblings either circled, dived, or climbed, stirring the smokescreen at high speed, hitting one big hole after another.

Who would have thought that after so much effort, they still hadn't found Centiskorch's existence; the black smoke it sprayed was like sticky kerosene, settling on the ground and not dispersing for a long time.

But logically speaking, with its body size, and spraying fire and being red all over, it should have been easy to find.

Dragapult, who was invisible, didn't show its head, proving it also found nothing.

"..."

All Baimu frowned slightly; he would just forget it if his perspective had too many obstructions or he didn't see it, but three Dragapults' overlooking perspective hadn't seen it?

Centiskorch's size wasn't small!

Could it be that it dug a hole into the ground? It shouldn't know 【Dig】, unless he had misremembered the relevant move list.

The commentator shouted: "Contestant All Baimu has lost his target! Centiskorch is hiding in the dark, waiting for an opportunity! This will be a battle of endurance!"

... Since that's the case.

He shouted: "Dreepy, come back!"

Without a doubt.

All Baimu was prepared to use the Dreepy as bait to lure Centiskorch out; what these two siblings could do was clearly expressed in the previous match.

If it were him, he wouldn't let these two continue to wander around either.

But at the moment, Dragapult was maintaining an invisible state, Arcanine's Odor Sleuth hadn't passed the scent to Centiskorch, and whether Kabu dared to let it show its head was still unknown.

In short, the bait was thrown out, and whether Kabu took the bait was his choice.

Either way, he wouldn't lose.

"Hee-ya!"

The Dreepy siblings, stirring the black smoke, slid sideways, circled a large ring, and intended to leave the smokescreen area; Kabu's eyelids moved when he saw this.

Want to block?

He only heard him shout: "Found you! Right diagonally above you! Crunch!"

"Maru!"

In the instant the fire surged, the black smoke settled on the ground exploded in the blink of an eye like methane, accompanied by a loud rumble, spraying out sky-full fire rain, falling to the ground and turning into a towering sea of fire!

The strong light of the explosion made many audience members close their eyes, but some saw a red dragon shaking off countless broken stones, roaring and rushing straight into the sky.

Black-red light formed fierce fangs at the tip of Centiskorch, biting down toward Dragapult, who was forced to reveal its form due to the explosion!

So that's it.

Kabu's goal from the very beginning was Dragapult.

The smokescreen was not only to avoid Dragon Darts, but also to better find Dragapult, and even the flammable gas used for burning in his daily life was mixed into the smoke—

Centiskorch could ferment what it ate in its body; this was something clearly written in the Pokédex.

And the ultimate goal of doing all this.

Was to use the strong light and loud noise of the explosion to make All Baimu unable to give orders normally when discovering Dragapult!

Causing an impact on the Trainer is also an unavoidable part of the battle!

Sure enough.

Kabu, as a veteran Gym Leader, indeed had two tricks up his sleeve; this move could be said to work on the vast majority of Trainers.

After all, even among top Trainers, those who prefer to give orders rather than let the Pokémon act on its own are in the majority, and being caught off guard is enough to make the opponent's Pokémon dazed.

Many battle outcomes in the anime are influenced by this factor.

It's just a pity that All Baimu and Dragapult happen not to be in this category.

And although the social-anxious dragon likes to be autistic, often feeling self-pity, sulking, or even running away from home when a match is lost, it has never fallen behind in learning things.

For example—

Drayden's secret of lightning-fast startup!

"Dragapult."

Rumble!

The wild wind whistled!

Centiskorch, who thought it had the opponent in the bag, only felt a scorching white lightning flash before its eyes, and a roar similar to a sonic boom suddenly came to its ears; the fierce black-red fang phantom bit into nothing!?

Kabu shouted urgently: "It's behind you!"

"Maru!"

Centiskorch turned around quickly, a semi-transparent tail rolled up with dazzling white light and flew over, magnifying infinitely in its field of vision!

Bang!

The massive force smashed its flat body straight into the sea of fire, causing countless sparks to splash everywhere!

The audience was in an uproar, and the commentator almost cursed.

Dragapult dodged?

It actually!

How is it possible!

It actually dodged Centiskorch's 【Crunch】, which could be called a winning move!?

Just like All Baimu's shock and confusion when he first saw Drayden's Flygon dodge Hydreigon's Draco Meteor, there was no difference in the emotions of everyone in the field at this moment!

Moreover, this was just Dragapult's clumsy imitation of Flygon.

The latter neither had the former's natural speed, nor had it improved its state through Dragon Dance; what it relied on was the powerful ability accumulated day by day, solid and steady.

The social-anxious dragon wasn't that powerful.

The socially anxious dragon isn't that impressive.

Yet, even though it only barely managed to imitate the beginning, it was enough to resolve the suddenly descending crisis.

*Giggle. *

Raihan's tightly clenched knuckles cracked slightly; he couldn't accept, let alone allow, the match to end just like that.

He watched helplessly as Dragapult vanished into invisibility once more, showing no intention of risking a charge into the sea of flames to press the advantage, nor attempting to use Hydro Pump to extinguish the fire; his heartbeat thundered like a war drum.

The final trap failed as well...

It was clear that if Dragapult had just swooped down, Burn Up, fueled by the flames covering the ground, would have burned right through it, and this half of the match would have been completely settled.

No choice, time to take the initiative!

He shouted fiercely at the Centiskorch bathing in the sea of fire: "Inferno!!"

The next second.

The raging sea of fire covering most of the arena suddenly changed color, shifting from scorching crimson to a deep, profound azure, and then, like a fiery tornado, it surged upward with a roar toward the sky.

The audience could only see a swirling "wall of fire" suddenly rise; the astonishing heat rushed toward them, curling their hair.

【Inferno】.

Originally a move with high power but low accuracy.

But Centiskorch could harness the flames covering most of the arena for its own use, forming a sky-piercing vortex for a massive-range attack.

No matter how Dragapult dodged, if it touched even a little, the flames would cling to it like maggots on a bone, trapping it in the abnormal status known as a burn.

Centiskorch's "final" trump card.

Raihan knew clearly that there wasn't much opportunity left for them, his eyes fixed tightly on the situation in the arena.

Then.

The Inferno tornado dissipated.

The flammable gas Centiskorch had mixed into the smoke screen was completely exhausted by this move, and the power was quite considerable; the rocks of various sizes within the rock arena were all destroyed, leaving nothing behind.

Yes.

Nothing left.

Including Dragapult, which should have fallen somewhere.

Raihan took a deep breath; he couldn't believe such a Pokémon would be easily burned to ashes by Inferno, so the answer was very simple.

"Phantom Force."

All Baimu said, as if to clear up the confusion.

Above Centiskorch's head, the entrance to another dimension emerged amidst rolling black mist.

Dragapult emerged, wreathed in dark, ghostly purple light; it had retrieved the two Dreepy at some unknown point, and the three of them suddenly dove downward together.

In an instant.

Centiskorch's body slammed into the ground as if it had been snapped in two!

*Thud! *

A clamorous cloud of dust billowed high!

The entire arena was silent, save for the exceptionally loud judgment voice of the Rotom Phone after confirmation.

"Centiskorch is unable to battle, Dragapult wins! The winner of this Great Ball Tier battle is—Trainer All Baimu!"