The battle site Christina prepared was located on an empty island near the main sky island.
This was a dedicated battle island with no audience seating, only a referee machine responsible for presiding over matches. Others wishing to watch could only observe through live broadcast.
"Miss Christina, isn't this place rather fragile?" As he spoke, Daralon stomped the ground several times.
Christina wasn't surprised by Daralon's question. "This is a special venue unique to Sky Island. Its durability matches ordinary battle arenas. Even if destroyed, it doesn't matter, battles won't be suspended."
"Of course, it's up to you trainers to decide how to utilize this special terrain."
Hearing this, John and Daralon immediately understood Christina's meaning.
The site before them wasn't a standard ground-based arena, but rather the unique Sky Island terrain. This functioned similarly to ocean, lava, forest, and other environmental battlefields. Trainers needed to adapt to it or strategically exploit this special setting.
"Flying-type environment venue," John roughly categorized it.
Soon, John and Daralon took their respective positions.
"Excuse me, what battle format will be used?" Christina began adjusting the referee machine.
John looked toward Daralon.
"Standard battle, let's do a two-out-of-four match," Daralon replied, intending to test John's strength first.
In standard battles, choosing four out of six could easily reveal trump cards.
This was merely a casual invitation battle, not an Eight Masters challenge. No need to reveal all strategies, lest defeating John now would prepare him for formal challenges, making future encounters even more difficult.
1v1 was too brief to gauge John's true strength.
Two-out-of-four represented the optimal choice.
"Fine." John agreed casually. He had nothing pressing today and possessed patience to entertain Daralon.
Christina quickly finished adjusting the referee robot and departed via Charizard.
The danger of battles between two trainers ranked among the world's top 30 was self-evident.
After Christina's departure, the referee robot began announcing battle rules according to programmed parameters.
"Competition rules: Choose two from four! When one trainer accumulates two Pokemon defeats, the battle concludes!"
"Now, both sides send out your starting Pokemon!"
Daralon gripped his Pokeball and gestured toward John. John's fingers traced the Pokeballs at his waist, showing slight hesitation.
Currently, even his second-string team contained numerous capable Pokemon.
Somewhat difficult to choose.
Then he'd select someone particularly aggressive lately.
John retrieved a Pokeball and signaled to Daralon.
Both trainers' eyes met, confirming readiness, before simultaneously hurling their Pokeballs skyward.
The Pokeballs opened mid-air.
In flashing silver light, two Pokemon figures landed on the battlefield.
The Pokemon Daralon sent was Walrein.
John's Pokemon was Arcanine.
That's right, it was the Arcanine John had nicknamed "Little Sun" due to its golden shiny coat while running wild in the pastures.
But now it was no longer a little sun, it had become a blazing inferno!
WOOF!
The thunderous roar immediately echoed throughout the sky island.
Arcanine stood menacingly before John, its golden fur rippling in strong winds like flickering flames.
Although John consistently used his main team for high-level matches, his second-string Pokemon hadn't been neglected. Beyond legendary Pokemon materials, they'd long since grown tired of ordinary treasure-grade supplements.
Additionally, continuous real-world training and game-world leveling hadn't been missed.
Arcanine's current level had reached 88, and coupled with excellent tactics, its combat effectiveness was absolutely stunning.
Daralon was initially startled by the menacing Arcanine, but concern quickly transformed into elation.
Walrein's typing was Water/Ice. Arcanine was Fire-type, completely vulnerable to Water-type attacks.
The advantage was his!
However, before the referee robot announced battle commencement, Daralon witnessed his Walrein "thud" and collapse to the ground, swirls in its eyes.
"What happened?" Daralon's eyes widened, unable to identify what caused Walrein's defeat.
Had John used some underhanded method to launch a sneak attack before battle began?
No, he'd been concentrating on battle preparation. If John had made any moves, he would have noticed, but there'd been absolutely no problem.
Could Walrein have eaten something contaminated last night and not fully recovered? That wasn't right either, it had just been examined by Pokemon doctors at World Pokemon Tournament headquarters.
Daralon was utterly bewildered.
John wasn't surprised by this scene at all.
This was called... Conqueror's Haki!
[Intimidate: Upon appearing or gaining this ability, reduces the attack of all opponents within range.]
Or perhaps now it deserved a different description.
Based on game explanations, this shouldn't relate much to "conquering enemies without fighting." However, one must remember the crucial difference between reality and games.
For instance, items like King's Rock and Twisted Spoon.
In reality, intimidation could not only reduce opponents' attack power but could even make them timid and fearful. These attributes couldn't be quantified numerically but proved extremely important in actual battles.
What caused all this was Arcanine's ability: Intimidate.
After John's specialized training, he'd used numerous related treasures for Arcanine.
Among them, the training tool crafted by Mew, OppressionTwisted Spoon, remained its favorite toy.
[Oppression Twisted Spoon: Increases Psychic-type move power of the carrying Pokemon by 40%, enhances mental strength, and adds "oppression" effects to all mental-power-related abilities.]
[King's Rock: When the carrying Pokemon causes intimidation or flinching effects, the effect increases by 50%. When targets experience intimidation or flinching for the first time in a short period, the effect increases by 50%. Effects double against Pokemon of lower levels.]
His opponent's pokemon had collapsed before his Arcanine before battles even commenced. This wasn't his first such experience.
Arcanine's Intimidate could now be renamed.
If opponents lacked sufficient willpower or strength when facing it, they'd be instantly defeated!
Arcanine's current intimidation functioned like Psychic Pokemon's mental attacks, possessing damaging capabilities alongside overwhelming intimidating effects!
John had simply developed Arcanine's Intimidate ability to absolute perfection.