Why did Silas say his opponent "got a bit of an advantage"?
The main reason was that Honchkrow couldn't learn Agility—its Speed couldn't be boosted so easily.
Silas had anticipated this. There was no way his opponent would ignore the speed gap; Psych Up was practically a must-have move for Honchkrow to compensate for such shortcomings.
But he wasn't worried.
In terms of raw Speed, Honchkrow was far behind Pidgeot. Once a difference in speed reached a certain level, even a tiny edge—just a fraction of a second—could decide everything.
When both Pokémon were under the effect of Agility, Pidgeot's advantage only grew greater.
Sometimes, all it took was that 0.0000001-second reaction difference.
A dozen or more Pidgeot illusions, formed by Double Team, hovered throughout the sky, all glaring down at Honchkrow, whose eyes gleamed from beneath its wide brim of feathers.
"Pidgeot, use Heat Wave!"
Silas swept his arm forward, commanding the attack.
All the Pidgeot in the air reared up in unison, flapping their wings at blinding speed. A surge of hot air rolled across the entire battlefield.
"Honchkrow, Feather Dance!" Shizuo's voice came a moment later.
"Caw—!"
Honchkrow cried out, spreading its wings wide. Countless feathers scattered through the air, blanketing the sky.
Though the scorching wind burned the feathers to ash before they could reach the Pidgeot clones and lower their Attack, Shizuo's goal had already been achieved.
Got you, Shizuo thought, pushing up his glasses as he locked onto one of the Pidgeot. That one was the real body.
It was true that the copies created by Double Team could appear to perform moves but they were only illusions. They had no substance, no damage potential, no effect—just a dazzling display meant to overwhelm the eye.
By tracking the way the falling feathers ignited in the Heat Wave, Shizuo and Honchkrow had located the true Pidgeot's position.
In his past life, when Silas hadn't experienced Pokémon battles firsthand, he'd always wondered something—would bird Pokémon that used Feather Dance eventually go bald?
After all, the move description explicitly stated that the Pokémon "scatters feathers," and it certainly looked like a lot of them!
Only after arriving in this world and truly studying Pokémon did Silas learn the truth: objects produced by moves existed in a state between reality and energy—both physical and elemental. They could create effects, yet also be destroyed.
So turning bald wasn't really possible. Usually, just a few feathers acted as catalysts to manifest the attack.
For bird Pokémon that shed feathers regularly or used moves like this often, the cost was practically negligible.
A Pokémon's recovery ability wasn't something to underestimate.
Now that the real Pidgeot's position was revealed, things became much simpler.
Shizuo remained calm and issued his next command: "Dodge, then use Nasty Plot!"
Honchkrow dove sharply to its right, passing through a layer of illusory heat and emerging close to the real Pidgeot.
Of course, "close" was relative—for two Flying-types whose speed was enhanced, that distance still spanned a large portion of the sky. If this were between Gigalith and Onix, the two would have to lumber for a while to cover the same ground.
Honchkrow's eyes flashed with intensity. Nasty Plot activated, sharply boosting its Special Attack.
Silas's expression grew serious.
So, he's planning to end it with a special attack, he thought. It was a different approach from before, but he couldn't rule out the possibility that it was a setup.
Although Honchkrow excelled at both physical and special attacks, its super-high critical-hit ratio made it deadly in close combat. If it landed a critical hit, the damage could instantly double—no joke.
Given Honchkrow's lower speed, Silas doubted that his opponent would willingly choose a strategy that favored Silas's strengths over his own weaknesses.
The man across from him wasn't some clueless rookie.
"Pidgeot, use Work Up!"
Watching Honchkrow maintain its Nasty Plot stance, Silas ordered his Pidgeot to stop its Heat Wave and instead use a move that would boost both its Attack and Special Attack.
Both the trainers on the field and the audience knew perfectly well—once these buffs started stacking up, this battle wouldn't simply come down to enduring a couple more attacks.
But that was exactly what made it exciting.
Silas licked his lips slightly like a mischievous villain, a rare smile tugging at his face.
"That smile looks kind of creepy…" Yezo muttered from the spectator stands.
He had never seen Silas smile like that before.
Perhaps it was because, in this life, Silas had spent more than a decade living on his own. Though he usually interacted with others using the polite, approachable demeanor he'd carried from his previous life, in truth—he wasn't someone who smiled easily.
Most of the time, he just had that "dead-fish expression."
If it weren't for his good looks making him appear more "cool and aloof," a guy like him wouldn't survive past three minutes in an anime unless he were the protagonist.
High above, Pidgeot let out a piercing cry that echoed through the sky.
Its proud voice rang out as its aura grew stronger and stronger.
Even though the two Pokémon hadn't exchanged any real blows yet—the Heat Wave following Double Team had only been a warm-up—the audience's adrenaline was surging higher and higher.
Their excitement was reaching a breaking point.
And finally, that tension found release.
"Pidgeot, use Air Slash!"
"Honchkrow, use Dark Pulse!"
Silas and Shizuo shouted their commands simultaneously.
"Piiidgeot!"
"Honchkrow!"
Both Pokémon cried out fiercely, unleashing their power at once.
"Fwoosh—!"
In the blink of an eye, dozens of gleaming white blades of air slashed outward in rapid succession, slicing through the sky with a sharp whistling sound.
Pidgeot's glowing wings shone with blinding brilliance, embodying the pride of a true sky Pokémon.
Compared to Pidgeot's dazzling display, Honchkrow's attack seemed far less eye-catching.
A dark aura spread outward from deep within Honchkrow's body, forming a murky barrier of shadow that enveloped the area around it.
Because Dark Pulse required a slightly longer charging time, by the time Honchkrow finished preparing its move, Pidgeot had already launched its Air Slash barrage.
As the white blades of air streaked through the sky, the dark pulse finally erupted in response.
Upon closer inspection, that seemingly black aura wasn't truly black—it was actually a very deep shade of brown, almost dark enough to appear black.
As dozens of Air Slash blades collided with the rippling wave of darkness, both Silas and Shizuo's expressions turned serious.
There wasn't much difference between the two Pokémon in terms of the buffs they'd built up.
Even though Honchkrow had slightly superior stats overall, Air Slash's cutting precision gave it the advantage in concentrated impact.
It was still too early to say which side would prevail.
.....
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