Second Round

The referee suddenly stopped his movement and glanced at his watch again.

"You're right on time. Please enter the arena. The match will start in one minute," he informed Ran and returned to his position.

"Thank you!"

She bowed deeply to the referee and entered the ring. While she was walking toward Hisoka, she kept her head down, clearly afraid.

"..."

She stood in front of Hisoka in silence.

'I am going to get scolded,' she thought in tears.

"Here, have a drink."

Instead of receiving Hisoka's scolding as she thought, a bottle of water appeared in front of her eyes. She lifted her head and saw Hisoka looking at her impassively as if he wasn't angry at all.

To be honest, Hisoka was quite angry. She almost got them disqualified from the tournament.

'Forget it,' Hisoka shook her head.

Since she had already arrived, he decided to let it go. Being angry at her would only make her feel down.

Relying on his own power, he could still fight two Pokemon at the same time. But there were many powerful trainers in the next game. He needed Ran to share some pressure for himself.

...

"Begin!"

Hisoka and Ran released Weavile and Ponyta, while the two monks had sent out Noctowl and Haunter.

"Beat 'em, Hisoka!"

Maggie's voice was heard in the stands. Hisoka looked to the side and saw Maggie and Suzie waving their hands at him, to which he returned with a nod.

...

One of the monks put his hands together and mumbled something that sounded like scripture. Then, he looked at his Haunter and said, "Hypnosis!"

'Looks like these monks came from Johto,' Hisoka thought.

They were two famous towers in Johto, the Burned Tower, and the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower monks had a Bellsprout or a Hoothoot as their companions, while the monks in Burned Tower mostly had a Ghastly or a Haunter.

"Noctowl, Use Wing Attack on Weavile," said the other monk.

Noctowl had two types, Normal and Flying. Called "The Emperor of Dark Night" by some, its exceptional eyes allowed it to concentrate even the faintest light and gave it night vision. Supple wings capable of silent flight and superior sense made it a terrible predator in the dark.

Their plan was to take out the Ponyta as soon as possible. Noctowl was going to distract the Weavile while Haunter used its Hypnosis on Ponyta.

"Weavile, Double Team," Hisoka immediately made a decision.

As Haunter and Noctowl released their moves, Ponyta didn't manage to avoid the Hypnosis in time and was unfortunately hit. He took a few steps back and slowly fell on the ground, closing his eyes.

Zzz!

"..."

Ran closed her eyes in shame.

At that time, there was only Weavile left in the field. Noctowl's Wing Attack only managed to hit a few of her clones.

"Double Team? Useless trick," One of the monks smiled.

"Noctowl! Use Foresight!"

Noctowl's eyes glowed red after it heard its master's order. Its eyes focused on Weavile's clones, trying to find the real one among them.

Soon, Noctowl locked on one of the clones as it flapped its wings, firing multiple air blades. The light blue energy blades cut through several of Weavile's clones while flying toward their target.

In response, Weavile swung her claws at the blades repeatedly, making them go off course.

Although she needed to fight alone due to Ponyta being caught in the Hypnosis, she still had the upper hand against them in terms of typing advantage.

Noctowl's powerful Psychic-type moves had no effect on her because she was immune to them. Even Gardevoir found it hard to injure her with her Psychic-type moves, let alone Noctowl, who was not a Psychic-type Pokemon.

As for Haunter, its only advantage was turning invisible, which was not very effective for Weavile with her frightening speed. Its Ghost-type moves weren't that effective to her either.

Most monks were quite knowledgeable. Although the monks had never seen Weavile before, they still knew it must be related to Sneasel somehow.

One of the monks nudged his friend, catching his attention.

"There's only one Pokemon left. Let's take it slow. There's no way it would last under our attack," he whispered.

"Okay!" His friend nodded.

"Noctowl, use Reflect on Haunter!"

Since their first plan was ineffective on Weavile, they decided to use their second plan.

Noctowl's eyes glowed red once more. Then, a blue barrier surrounded Haunter's body.

Reflect could reduce the power of an opponent's physical attack. This would allow Haunter to withstand several attacks from Weavile.

At the same time, Weavile rushed toward them, leaving several afterimages behind her.

"Agility," Hisoka gave a simple command.

Agility was a boosting move similar to Swords Dance. But more flexible in use. A Pokemon didn't need to stay motionless while performing this move.

Weavile lowered her body as she ran across the arena. The effect of Agility kicked in, and her speed began to increase drastically.

The afterimage disappeared, and Weavile's body began to blur, making it impossible to lock her position.

The spectator widened their eyes, trying to catch Weavile's figure, but her speed was so fast they couldn't even see her shadow.

"Weavile is much stronger than before," Maggie said in surprise.

She had seen Weavile's strength in the S.S. Anne tournament and thought it was already strong. However, she didn't expect her strength had improved so much in just two months.

Still, this speed couldn't be sustained for a long time. If Weavile didn't take out one of her opponents before that, she would be in big trouble.

Meanwhile, Noctowl desperately looked around, turning its head at a 180 degrees angle. It was in high concentration. Its eyes glowed red as it tried to use Foresight to catch Weavile's trace.

Seeing through Weavile's clones did not mean Noctowl's dynamic vision could keep up with her speed.

The terrifying speed made the monks feel great pressure.

"Haunter, hide!" One of the monks shouted, thinking Haunter might be the target of Weavile's attack.

As he said that, a grey phantom appeared in the arena.

The target was not Haunter but the Noctowl flying in the sky.

Everyone only saw Weavile's figure for a second before she shot herself into the sky.

Bang!

The ground even cracked under the force of her jump.

"Ice Punch!" Hisoka threw his fist.

"Aaa!"

The attack came from below and by the Noctowl reacted, it was already too late. Weavile's pulled her arm slightly and punched it hard.

Thump!

As soon as the fist made contact with the Noctowl, frost started appearing on its chest before it quickly spread toward its whole body.

Soon, it was covered in ice.

It then fell from the air and hit the ground with a smash. The ice shattered into pieces as it lay on the ground unconscious.

Seeing that, one of the monks quickly recalled the fallen Noctowl. Then, he released his Noctowl and slowly sprayed it with a Potion while glaring at Hisoka.

'There's only Haunter left,' Hisoka thought, ignoring the glare from the monk. He would be better off thinking about the match.

Although he had the opportunity to attack Haunter just now, he was afraid of its Destiny Bond, one of the strangest and most powerful moves it could learn.

After Noctowl and Ponyta were knocked out, it had become a 1vs1 situation. While Hisoka was thinking about a plan, Weavile stood in the arena, looking for the invisible Haunter.

The battle seemed to have reached a stalemate.

Haunter didn't want to reveal itself. It was going to wait for Weavile to lower her guard before launching an attack.

'Since you don't want to reveal yourself, I will force you out,' Hisoka quickly found a way to break the deadlock.

"Weavile, use Swords Dance."

Weavile crossed her arms as blue energy swords formed around her body. They then circled her several times before crossing together.

Weavile's arms bulged slightly as if she had received a boost from that.

While using Swords Dance, Weavile couldn't move at all. Hisoka was trying to bait the Haunter out.

'No?' he thought after not seeing any movement from the opponent.

"Swords Dance again, Weavile!" Hisoka gave an order again.

"We gave up!" The monks suddenly raised their hands together.

Following that, Haunter also revealed itself.

In fact, the monks knew they had lost this match after Noctowl had been taken out. The Haunter's trainer was trying to find an opportunity to ambush Weavile. But after hearing Hisoka's command, he knew he had lost the chance to win.

...

AN: Sorry for the short chapter. My stomach didn't feel good when I wrote this.