327 CH95 (325), Global Competition Day Two (4)

Gastrodon appeared on Karl's side, while Hashirama/Venusaur appeared on mine. That had actually been a bit of a gamble on my part due to the possibility of Karl choosing his Azumarill that had Sap Sipper, but I was confident that Hashirama could still take it out without relying on grass-type moves, so I went with him regardless.

Now with Gastrodon as his opponent, the difficulty had decreased a bit, but Hashi knew not to underestimate his opponent, so he went at it seriously. He immediately executed Sunny Day, which was his sole mastered move right now, before using Growth.

Sunny Day not only doubled the effectiveness of Growth but also effectively doubled his speed as soon as the sunshine intensified and Hashi's Chlorophyll ability kicked in. Hashi became a really fast not so lean but still mean murder machine.

On the other side, Gastrodon started a Sandstorm as soon as it appeared on the field, but probably due to the difference in mastery, the Sandstorm only began when Hashirama was done with his opening move.

Not that the sand bothered him all that much, he took the little damage they caused without so much as a twitch, and since neither weather move canceled the other both remained active.

That was lucky for Gastrodon since its Sandstorm would have failed otherwise against Hashi's Sunny Day. Anyway, since Solar Beam's power was reduced due to the Sandstorm, along with his favorite move Synthesis, Hashi directly fired Seed Bomb at Gastrodon instead.

He then took off in a sprint towards it while Gastrodon was busy blocking Seed Bomb with an Ice Beam. It succeeded, but Hashi simply kept throwing one Seed Bomb after the other at it without stopping his run, forcing it to focus on defending itself.

Gastrodon were rather slow Pokemon, so it was unlikely that it could physically keep up with him anyway. It would either have to enter into close combat with Hashirama whenever he wants, or it would have to try to force him to keep his distance since it was unable to open up any distance itself.

So it was no surprise for me when a juiced-up Hashirama arrived at Gastrodon's side and tried to slap it with a Power Whip. Still, the other side knew that they were slow, and Gastrodon used Muddy Water to drag Hashirama away from itself.

The muddy wave succeeded in carrying off Hashirama for a bit, but he still managed to swat Gastrodon with his Power Whip before he got swept away, flinging it in the opposite direction.

He then used his whip and stabbed it into the ground to stop himself from being dragged along any further. The muddy wave passed him and he sent a volley of Razor Leaf at Gastrodon who after flipping back on its belly after being painfully flung away, was trying to set off a Rain Dance to get rid of Hashi's Chlorophyll.

While the Sandstorm gave way due to being triggered by its own energy, its Rain Dance failed to overwhelm Hashi's mastered Sunny Day, only reducing its energy/duration.

Unfortunately for Gastrodon, its Sandstorm was still gone, which meant Hashirama directly fired a Solar Beam at it, taking advantage of its failed attempt.

Gastrodon, being unable to dodge, tried to block the approaching Solar Beam with a last-minute Ice Beam, but the hastily used Ice Beam failed to stop the Solar Beam and it slammed right into its upper body.

Using Sunny Day as support, Hashirama kept up the Solar Beam and it carried Gastrodon with it until it slammed into the wall/shield of the field, causing the usual dust/smoke explosion.

Hashirama followed the principle of double tap and sent a Seed Bomb to the location it crashed, without waiting for the smoke to clear. He also immediately used Synthesis afterward to recover from any damage caused by Sandstorm so far.

He was done healing right as the smoke cleared and looking at the prone form of Gastrodon it seemed he had already won. I could feel that Hashirama was actually a bit disappointed that the fight was already over, and I knew that it was because he did not get to fight much this last month due to everything that was going on.

Thankfully he did not show his disappointment outwardly since he would have probably caused some Emotional Damage to Karl who was recalling his unconscious Gastrodon after the referee declared it unable to battle, and thus Hashirama the winner.

I recalled Hashirama as well, after praising him, while the referee declared me the winner of our battle, and I went up to Karl to "apologize" for Luna's ruthless strategy before I thanked him for the battle.

Karl waved off my apology saying that it had been certainly an intriguing learning experience for him and probably a lot of the viewers as well. After that, we parted ways, me as a fresh semifinalist, and him as someone that lost in the quarterfinals.

It was close to 1:20 p.m when I left the field and my personal quarterfinal battle was at 2:30 p.m, so I had over an hour before then. Furthermore, the battle would happen back at the Motochika Grand Stadium, so I had to go back there.

If I walked at a sedated pace I would make the trip in 25 or so minutes, which would leave me enough time to buy some snacks on site, and I could check out my next opponent while I was walking, so that was what I did.

I found out that my opponent was Thomas Kevlar, a Tier 2 Rock Elementalist representing the eastern continent and Fiore. From what I looked up, his abilities were pretty comprehensive.

He had a durable rock armor for personal protection, rock walls for defense, rock spikes that he could grow at pretty much everywhere within 30 meters, rock bullets for long range, and a rock weapon of his choice for close-range combat.

All in all, his abilities were pretty solid, and he deserved to make it this far. Still, after looking through everything, I was not too worried about him since his prior battles had shown that people capable of flying were his weakest point, followed by really fast ones, which I was both.

My ability to teleport, along with being able to levitate and step onto the air made fighting against me pretty hard for him. Not to mention my respectable speed when I went all out boosting my speed with aura. I doubted I would have trouble dodging or avoiding his offense, while I was confident in breaking his defense.

Still, no matter how much of an advantage I seemed to have, I was not planning to underestimate him, so I would be serious from the start. I made it to the stadium shortly after I was done reviewing the information on Thomas, but I still had 40 minutes, so I first bought myself some easy-to-digest snacks before I found a seat close to the gate I had to enter the battlefield from.

There I began to enjoy my snacks while checking up on my fellow northerners to see if Brian and Diana had made it to the semifinals as well. Unfortunately, it seemed the semifinals would not be dominated by the north since Diana lost against her opponent, while Brian barely managed to eke out a win against his opponent who was a water specialist by revealing a really strong (high) silver stage Torterra.

It managed to turn things around when Brian was losing 2:1, by first finishing off the opponent's lightly tired second and then his third Pokemon as well. Brian's victory meant that there was a 1 in 3 chance that I would be facing him tomorrow in the semifinals.

Coincidentally I saw Diana moving towards the exit of the stadium, so I wondered whether I should stand up and go toward her to express my sympathy in a way that did not give the signal that I was pitying her since there was no need for pity. That girl had made it into the Top 8 globally after all.

However, I ultimately decided to leave her be since she had just lost, and approaching her for that reason could come across as pretentious. I would talk to her tomorrow if I came across her somewhere. If not I would see her during the award ceremony.

Anyway, after that little event, I made multiple plans on how to beat Thomas in the smoothest and fastest fashion. I managed to make a few plans by the time I had to make my way to the field. so after storing my stuff in the locker at the gate, I walked onto the field while the host did my introduction, and I saw Thomas stepping onto the field a moment after I did.

After our introductions, the referee did his usual thing before he gave the signal that started our battle. I immediately teleported above Thomas's head, before levitating there.

Moving somewhere in the air instead of beside or behind him proved to be the right choice since he raised 30 to 40 cm tall rock spikes all around himself, so my feet would have become shish kebab if I had moved anywhere onto the ground close to him.

Still, I ignored that and focused on using the full focus of one of my thought streams on immobilizing him, while using the other thought stream to clad my right leg in aura while boosting my back, neck, and lower body as much as possible before doing a flip and using the momentum to slam my heel onto his head.

Thomas struggled fiercely to free himself from my telekinetic grip, but he failed to move his body to dodge my drop kick. However, after straining himself to the max, I could see the veins popping on his neck and head, he managed to tilt his head enough that my heel crashed onto his collarbone instead of his head.

He grunted in pain, and since I released my hold of his body the moment my kick landed, he was forced onto his knees by the force of my kick, which had to be hurt as well.

I instantly teleported away the moment my kick succeeded in driving him onto his knees and seeing how he managed to fight through the pain to raise a rock spike that would have skewered me, I was right to do so. Still, no matter how impressed I was by his willpower and tenacity, I had no intention of giving him time to recover.

I teleported 20 meters behind him before I immobilized him using my telekinesis the moment I reappeared. According to my estimation, 15 meters was the maximum distance of his rock spike defense against teleportation. I added another 5 meters just to be sure and considering that I escaped being skewered, I was right.

I assigned one thought stream on keeping his body immobilized before I boosted my body and ran at him at full force. Since he could not turn around to see me, he was theoretically forced to defend himself by randomly raising spikes or walls.

Well, he chose to turtle down and raised a rock dome that he hid under. I was pretty sure a spike would grow out of it the moment he heard it cracking at one side. Yet, I did not slow down but pulled out my swords from my back. Then I threw my left sword at the dome while changing my direction and throwing my second one at the other side as well.

I did not stop and kept running until I was right where Thomas should be facing. There I clade my fist in aura and boosted my arms and upper body before I threw a punch at the dome.

I heard a crack coming from the dome from the place my first thrown sword managed to hit. Less than a second later I heard a second crash and saw a spike growing out from that side just as my fist slammed into the rock in front of me and destroyed it, sending rocks inwards.

They crashed into Thomas's body, but he seemed to have covered his whole body, except for his eyes and nostrils in rock armor, so the rocks failed to cause any damage.

Seeing me he immediately grew spikes from everywhere inside the dome, forcing me to retreat or risk being pierced, but even that had been part of my plan since one of my swords flew through the hole it caused at full speed. It was heading towards his neck from behind him while he was focused on me.

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