Chapter 292: Too Impatient
Even with victory firmly in hand, Arthur didn't act arrogant. He took the initiative to invite Kevin to participate as well.
This was in stark contrast to Shirou, who had made his own demands without even consulting his partner. The difference in class was obvious.
Not only in skill, but in this match, Arthur had also won in terms of character.
Afterward, Arthur and Kevin continued with a singles match. During this time, Shirou had to remain standing on the field, unable to leave, feeling as if every second was a year.
He was so embarrassed he wished the ground would swallow him whole…
Monica, on the other hand, was very relaxed.
She had the true fan mentality: it's the participation that counts. It didn't matter whether she got to show off or not.
And as it turned out, her performance wasn't needed for the rest of the match.
Greninja versus Honchkrow. Even though Greninja was slightly fatigued from its previous fight, it still secured a clean win.
Kevin had indeed improved a lot over the past year, but Arthur's progress was clearly even more staggering!
However, Honchkrow did put up a good fight, even causing some trouble for Greninja and Arthur at times. Its performance was much more impressive than Shirou's Mienshao had been.
It was an honorable defeat.
By Arthur's estimation, Kevin's Honchkrow had likely already crossed the threshold into the professional level!
He hoped that this All-Star Weekend could help him smoothly start his professional career.
That way, Kevin's trip here would have been worthwhile.
After the match ended, the audience gave Arthur a thunderous round of applause.
The host even declared, "From now on, I'm afraid no one in the professional circuit will dare to challenge Arthur's authority in the realm of close-quarters combat."
Although it smacked of deliberate flattery, it did voice the thoughts of many.
Shirou had tried to step on Arthur to climb higher, but instead, he had only used his own reputation to further cement Arthur's fearsome one.
For a long time to come, there would likely be an unwritten rule in the doubles circuit: do not engage Arthur's Greninja in close combat.
But that was a story for another time. For now, the All-Star Weekend's program continued.
With two consecutive wins, Arthur and Monica's team had locked in the championship for the fan tournament!
This left the university classmates who had encouraged Monica to sign up completely dumbfounded.
This works too?
It truly proved the saying: playing well is not as good as being carried well…
Arthur, the god of carrying!
There was one more match to determine second and third place, with Derek and Justin facing off against Shirou and Kevin.
However, this match drew much less attention, and even the players themselves weren't particularly invested.
A few minutes later, a winner was decided.
Shirou, with his deep move pool, seized the type-advantage high ground and, with Kevin's cooperation, ultimately won the match.
Unfortunately, at this point, victory brought little joy.
With that, the fan tournament officially concluded.
The organizers gave prizes to the top three teams and even presented Arthur and Monica with a proper trophy.
A fan tournament championship is still a championship, after all.
But Arthur was clearly not desperate enough to need to use this kind of title for bragging rights, so when he got back to the lounge, he just tossed the trophy into his luggage.
This was followed by another short segment of interviews, interactions, and a prize draw for the live audience.
By the time it was all over, it was past four in the afternoon, approaching five.
Prime time!
The main course of the All-Star Weekend was finally being served!
The underdog rising—the timeless, popular theme of the All-Star Weekend!
It was finally time for the segment that best embodied this theme!
The most exciting, traditional event of the year—
The segment where doubles players challenge main singles players had officially begun!
"Good luck, Luna!"
Before it started, Arthur and Bella were cheering Luna on.
Among the four from their team who had come, only Luna was qualified to participate in this upcoming segment.
Luna smiled and nodded in response.
She herself had been looking forward to this for a long time!
Although she was twenty-seven this year and technically had two more years, she didn't want to be like a beggar when the deadline came, pleading with teams to take her in.
If possible, she would rather showcase her strength and value in advance, and transition to a main singles player with more dignity and grace.
In the past, she didn't have the ability, but Arthur's appearance had given her hope and shown her the path.
In this one season, her growth had been greater than her progress in the entire previous year!
Perhaps she had a chance!
This "underdog" segment allowed doubles players to choose their opponents, but the order of the doubles players was arranged by the organizers.
The first match was not Luna's turn.
But the one who took the stage was a familiar face—at least, for Arthur.
Chen Lin from the Jinchan Team.
He had faced Arthur during the regular season, and at the time, his Champion-level Charizard had left a very deep impression.
In that match, Arthur had used Mismagius to partner with Asher's Braviary against Chen Lin's Charizard and his partner's Sableye.
Although Arthur had won that match, the opponent's Charizard had put them under considerable pressure. It was strong enough to reliably beat Asher's Braviary in a one-on-one.
But this time, Chen Lin seemed to have gotten a bit ahead of himself. After taking the stage, he directly called out the host of this All-Star Weekend: the captain of the local Metro Team, Roman!
The host offered some very tactful praise.
"Our contestant Chen Lin is showing great courage! Starting by putting himself in a do-or-die situation!"
Yes, that was the tactful way of putting it. The less tactful way was: he's asking for a death wish…
Roman was a team captain, after all.
And he was a candidate for this season's Best Captain award. His individual skill was among the top in the entire league.
Furthermore, this was the Metro Team's home city. At least eighty percent of the fans in the stadium were supporting Roman.
To say Chen Lin was in a do-or-die situation was no exaggeration.
But whether he could be "reborn" from it depended on his performance.
Unfortunately, in the end, Chen Lin couldn't handle the pressure.
The Champion-level Charizard, which had seemed unstoppable in the doubles arena, was no longer so dominant when it came to a duel between main singles players and captains.
The full-health Charizard couldn't even take out Roman's Swampert, which had already fought one battle. It was brutally slapped down onto the stage by the Swampert, whose eyes seemed to see through everything.
With his most trusted ace, Charizard, failing to score a point, you can imagine the pressure on Chen Lin afterward.
In the end, Roman had to give him a hand. His Swampert fought two consecutive battles without being switched out, giving Chen Lin some face by letting him score one point.
This kept the score at 3-1, avoiding a complete shutout.
Even so, the fact that Swampert had nearly swept all three of his Pokémon was enough to declare Roman's dominance!
"Chen Lin was too impatient," Luna commented after the match.
He shouldn't have been in such a hurry to challenge a captain right from the start. It just deprived him of a good opportunity to showcase his own skills.
And Arthur, watching from the audience, was lost in thought.
People know there's a huge gap between amateurs and professionals, but they often overlook the fact that in the competitive duels between main singles players, the level of skill and strategy is also a whole tier above that of doubles
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