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The battlefield Chris had prepared was located on an empty island near the headquarters.
This particular island was specially designated for battles. It had no spectator seating—only a referee machine responsible for overseeing the match. Anyone who wished to watch would have to do so through a live broadcast.
"Miss Christina, isn't this place a bit too fragile?" Darolon asked, stomping on the ground a few times to test it.
Christina wasn't surprised by Darolon's question. "This is a specialized arena here on the sky island. Its durability matches that of any standard battlefield. Even if it gets destroyed during battle, it won't matter, and the match won't be suspended."
"Of course, it's entirely up to you Trainers to decide how you want to use this special arena."
Hearing this explanation, both Chris and Darolon immediately understood what she meant.
The battlefield before them wasn't the standard arena they were accustomed to using on the ground. Instead, it was a unique terrain type—a "sky island." This was similar to other environmental battlefields like ocean, lava, or forest arenas. Trainers needed to either adapt to these conditions or find ways to exploit the special terrain to their advantage.
"A Flying-type environment arena," Chris thought to himself. That was probably the best way to understand it.
Soon, Chris and Darolon took their respective positions on the battlefield.
"Excuse me, what battle format will we be using?" Chris began adjusting the referee machine.
Chris glanced over at Darolon, waiting for his response.
"Standard battle format. Let's make it two out of four," Darolon replied, intending to test Chris's strength first before committing to anything more serious.
In standard battles, choosing a four-on-four format where each side picks two Pokémon could easily reveal one's trump cards if not careful.
This was just a casual challenge, not an official battle for the Eight Masters ranking. There was no need to reveal all his strategies now. If he defeated Chris too decisively here, it would only give Chris more time to prepare for a formal challenge later, making things even more difficult to handle.
A one-on-one battle would be too short to properly gauge Chris's abilities.
Two out of four was the optimal choice.
"Okay, that works for me," Chris agreed casually. He had nothing particularly urgent to do today and had the patience to entertain Darolon for a while.
Chris quickly finished adjusting the referee robot and then departed on his Charizard to a safe observation distance.
The danger posed by a battle between two Trainers ranked among the top twenty in the world was considerable.
After Chris cleared the area, the referee robot began announcing the battle rules according to the programmed settings.
"The rules of this match are two out of four. When one Trainer has accumulated four Pokémon that have lost their ability to battle, the match will end!"
"Now, both sides, please send out your starting Pokémon!"
Darolon picked up a Poké Ball and gestured toward Chris. Chris's fingers traced along the Poké Balls at his waist, and he hesitated for a moment.
Currently, he had quite a few Pokémon available, even just in his second team.
The choice was somewhat difficult.
Then he'd choose one who had been particularly aggressive lately during training.
Chris selected a Poké Ball and motioned to Darolon that he was ready.
Their eyes met across the battlefield, each confirming the other was prepared. Then, simultaneously, they threw their Poké Balls into the air.
The Poké Balls opened in mid-air.
In a flash of brilliant light, two Pokémon materialized and landed on the battlefield.
The Pokémon Darolon had sent out was a Walrein.
And Chris had sent out an Arcanine.
That's right—it was the very same Arcanine that Chris had nicknamed "Little Sun" because of its golden fur as a Shiny Pokémon, the one that used to run wild around the ranch.
But it was no longer just a little sun anymore. Now, it was a blazing inferno!
"Woof!!!"
A thunderous roar immediately echoed throughout the entire sky island.
Arcanine stood before Chris with an imposing presence, its golden fur billowing in the strong wind like flames dancing in the air.
Although Chris always used his primary team of Pokémon in high-level competitions, he hadn't neglected his second team's development. Aside from legendary Pokémon materials, they had long since grown tired of ordinary secret treasure-level resources.
Additionally, continuous training in reality combined with leveling up through game simulations meant steady progress.
Arcanine's current level had reached level 88, and when combined with solid battle tactics, its combat effectiveness was absolutely extraordinary.
Darolon was momentarily startled by the sight of such a menacing Arcanine, but his concern quickly transformed into confidence.
Walrein's types were Water and Ice. Arcanine was a Fire-type, which meant it was weak to Water-type attacks.
The type advantage was his!
However, before the referee robot could even announce the start of the battle, Darolon watched in shock as his Walrein suddenly went "thud" and collapsed to the ground, its eyes spinning in swirls.
"What just happened?" Darolon's eyes widened as he frantically searched for whatever had caused his Walrein to fall.
Had Chris used some underhanded tactic to launch a surprise attack before the battle officially began?
No, that couldn't be it. He had been concentrating entirely on preparing for battle. If Chris had made any suspicious moves, he would have noticed immediately. But there had been nothing unusual at all.
Could it be that Walrein had eaten something bad last night and hadn't recovered properly? No, that didn't make sense either. His Pokémon had just been examined by the Pokémon doctor at the World Pokémon Alliance headquarters.
Darolon was completely baffled.
But Chris wasn't surprised by this scene at all.
His opponent's Pokémon collapsing before the battle even properly started wasn't the first time he'd witnessed this phenomenon.
What had caused all of this was Arcanine's Ability: Intimidate.
Intimidate: When appearing or gaining this Ability, the Attack stat of all opponents within range is lowered.
Based on the description provided by the game mechanics, this didn't seem to have much connection to "defeating the enemy without fighting." However, one must remember that reality differed significantly from games.
In reality, Intimidate could not only lower an opponent's Attack stat but could even make opponents feel genuinely intimidated and fearful. These effects couldn't be quantified numerically, but they were extremely important factors in actual battles.
All Chris had done was train Arcanine to develop its Intimidate Ability to the absolute extreme.
To accomplish this, he had used numerous related items and treasures for Arcanine's development.
For example, the King's Rock and Twisted Spoon.
King's Rock: When the Pokémon holding this item causes intimidation or flinching effects, the potency is increased by fifty percent.
When the target experiences intimidation or flinching effects for the first time within a short period, the effect is increased by an additional fifty percent.
The effect is doubled against Pokémon whose level is lower than the holder's.
Oppression Twisted Spoon: The power of Psychic-type moves used by the Pokémon holding this item is increased by forty percent. Mental power is enhanced, and mental power-related effects are accompanied by an "oppression" effect.
Among these items, the custom-made Twisted Spoon remained one of Arcanine's favorite training tools.
After Chris's specialized directional training regiment, Arcanine's current Intimidate functioned almost like the mental attacks of Psychic-type Pokémon—it possessed genuine damaging capabilities with an extremely potent intimidating effect!
If an opponent standing before Arcanine lacked sufficient willpower or strength, they could be defeated instantly before the battle even began!
Actually, at this point, it might be more appropriate to give it a different name.
Arcanine's Intimidate could now be called something else entirely.
It could be called... Conqueror's Presence!