Poliwrath did not need instructions.
Tyranitar was another matter. Powerful as it was, the hulking pseudo-Legendary was a terrible matchup against something as fast and hard-hitting as Poliwrath, especially with a x4 weakness to Fighting.
When the dust from their last collision finally settled, Reiji saw a massive crater gouged into the side of the rock field where Tyranitar had landed. Considering how solid the terrain was, the force behind that hit had been ridiculous.
Tyranitar slowly dragged itself back to its feet and spat several broken teeth onto the ground. It glared at Poliwrath and roared, furious that something so much smaller had been throwing it around.
Reiji almost laughed. "Still angry? Tough bastard."
A Fighting-type hit that clean would have put most Pokémon down already. Tyranitar had taken two brutal blows and was somehow still standing.
Its Trainer had finally realized the problem too.
Tyranitar was immensely strong, but it was too slow to pin Poliwrath down. Worse, the earlier Hyper Beam had left it helpless long enough for Poliwrath to land the first decisive Focus Punch, and by now Tyranitar was angry enough that getting it to follow careful instructions was becoming difficult.
He reached for Tyranitar's Poké Ball.
Reiji had been expecting that.
The moment the ball came up, Poliwrath fired Hydro Pump behind Tyranitar. The blast cut across the return beam before freezing into a thick wall of ice, completely blocking the recall.
Poliwrath immediately drew a deep breath.
Its muscles tightened as Belly Drum pushed its attack to the limit, and it began charging another Focus Punch. If an opening appeared, Drain Punch was available too; after everything it had already spent, stealing back some HP would be useful.
Tyranitar slammed one foot into the ground.
Stone spikes erupted across the battlefield and tore toward Poliwrath, but it was already moving. The attack shattered the ground behind it while Poliwrath sprinted toward Tyranitar.
A second stomp changed the entire field.
Sandstorm exploded outward.
Within seconds, the battlefield disappeared behind a wall of sand. Grit hammered against the protective barrier hard enough to produce a constant rattle, forcing the stadium staff to keep the system running at full power. An Elite Four-tier Tyranitar could turn the storm into a genuine hazard for the spectators if the barrier dropped.
"Rock Tomb!" its Trainer shouted into the storm. "Cover the whole field!"
Whether Tyranitar could even hear him was another question.
The man had finally calmed down enough to understand what Reiji had done before the match. The provocation had been deliberate. He had let anger dictate his opening choice and thrown Tyranitar straight into the worst possible matchup.
Unfortunately for him, realizing that now did not make recalling Tyranitar any easier.
Inside the Sandstorm, Poliwrath remained calm.
It no longer depended on moisture sensing alone. Training with Lucario had given it another option, and Poliwrath closed its eyes to feel the vibrations traveling through the ground.
Against the chaos of the storm, Tyranitar's footsteps stood out like stones dropped into still water.
Poliwrath moved.
A thin layer of water spread across its body and froze into fitted ice armor, sealing in moisture while shielding its skin from the cutting sand. Its arms and legs remained free enough to move normally, leaving the storm scraping harmlessly against ice instead of flesh.
Once Focus Punch was ready, Poliwrath followed Tyranitar's vibrations through the storm and drove another heavy blow into its head.
Tyranitar went flying.
From there, Poliwrath refused to give it a clean exchange. It darted in and out with short bursts of movement, landing Drain Punch whenever it found an opening and recovering some of the strength the battle had already taken from it.
Tyranitar could barely touch it.
Poliwrath never got careless enough to make long leaps or commit itself in midair. Reiji had drilled that lesson into it long ago: keep each burst to a few meters, stay close enough to the ground to change direction, and never give a slower opponent the chance to catch you with nowhere to push off from.
It was an ugly matchup for Tyranitar. Poliwrath had the speed to dictate every exchange and a x4 Fighting advantage whenever it landed cleanly.
Tyranitar's roars kept breaking through the Sandstorm, each one sounding rougher than the last.
Its Trainer could do little more than listen.
Several minutes passed before a final impact tore through the storm and scattered the sand across the barrier. As visibility returned, the rock field came into view one battered section at a time.
Almost none of it remained intact.
Cracks ran everywhere, deep craters covered the battlefield, and Tyranitar lay motionless in one of the largest.
Poliwrath was still standing on Reiji's side, though only barely. It supported itself with one arm while breathing heavily, and its right arm hung uselessly beside it. The shoulder had probably been dislocated somewhere during those final exchanges.
"Tyranitar is unable to battle!"
The referee pointed toward Reiji's side.
Its Trainer recalled the pseudo-Legendary with a look that could have burned a hole through Reiji.
Then the stadium erupted.
"Poliwrath! Poliwrath! Poliwrath!"
The commentator barely had time to raise the microphone before the chant swallowed him.
"What a victory! Poliwrath has defeated Tyranitar!"
The crowd only got louder.
"This isn't even the first pseudo-Legendary Reiji's Poliwrath has brought down! It defeated Garchomp at the Indigo Plateau Conference before reaching Elite Four tier, and now it has beaten Tyranitar after reaching that level itself!"
Pseudo-Legendaries had earned their reputation through generations of overwhelming performances. They were stronger than almost any ordinary species and were treated accordingly.
That was exactly why a Pokémon like Poliwrath drew so much attention when it beat one.
Poliwrath slowly straightened as its name echoed through the stadium. Its right arm was useless and one eye was swelling shut, but it raised its good fist toward the stands and let the cheers wash over it.
This was not a victory somebody had handed to them.
Poliwrath had earned it through years of training, through countless punches thrown until its arms could barely move, and through every battle it had fought beside Reiji to reach this point.
It threw back its head and roared.
The crowd answered with another deafening cheer.
Reiji watched with a smile. Whatever anyone thought ordinary Pokémon were supposed to be capable of, he and Poliwrath had already disproved it twice. It had beaten a pseudo-Legendary before reaching Elite Four tier, and now it had done it again after getting there.
"Nice work, Poliwrath."
Only then did Poliwrath look back at him.
Its face was battered, one arm hanging limp, yet it still managed that familiar goofy grin.
Across the field, another Poké Ball was already flying.
"Gyarados! Get out there and crush it!"
A huge Gyarados emerged onto the ruined field.
Reiji recalled Poliwrath immediately.
His opponent was still angry enough to send out another Elite Four-tier Pokémon without slowing down to reconsider the matchup.
Perfect.
That was the entire reason Reiji had provoked him before the match. Once the man got angry, he stopped controlling the pace and started throwing his strongest Pokémon forward one after another.
As for whatever trouble came afterward, Reiji would deal with it afterward.
The Black Ship was already Naoki's enemy, which made it Reiji's problem too, and these people hardly had clean hands to begin with. Keeping his head down was not going to make them disappear.
Besides, he had spent long enough hiding how much influence he had accumulated.
Once this Orange League was over, anyone who wanted to come after him could try. Reiji had allies of his own now, and there was no rule saying he had to face every problem alone.
And if anyone had forgotten why the underground called him the Smiling Spider, they were welcome to remind themselves.
The commentator had already moved on.
"Poliwrath has been recalled after an incredible victory! Now the question is what Reiji plans to use against an Elite Four-tier Gyarados!"
Reiji reached for his next Poké Ball.
"Go, Electivire."
The reaction was immediate.
"Electivire! Reiji has been hiding an Electivire this entire time! And against Gyarados, that x4 Electric weakness could be disastrous!"
Across the field, Reiji's opponent kicked the railing in frustration.
"Electivire? Damn it!"
Reiji gave him the same calm look as before.
"I'll give you another chance. Forfeit."
"Go to hell!"
The answer came with enough venom to confirm that the man still had not regained control of himself.
"Gyarados, Earthquake!"
"Electivire, Rain Dance."
Electivire beat its chest and called dark clouds over the stadium.
The first Earthquake was already racing through the rock field when it casually lifted one foot and slammed it down.
Earthquake met Earthquake.
The opposing shockwaves collided near the center of the battlefield, splitting the damaged rock apart and throwing another cloud of dust into the air.
Electivire did not wait for visibility to return.
It roared toward the sky, and the light rain quickly became a downpour. The dust was dragged back to the ground almost immediately, revealing Electivire with both cable-like tails driven deep into the rock.
Electricity crackled between the conductors on its head.
Then lightning struck.
A bolt came straight down onto Electivire.
The Pokémon lit up gold as electricity surged through its body and down its tails into the ground, drawing startled cries from the stands.
The commentator sounded just as confused.
"Thunder? Electivire called Thunder down on itself! Is it absorbing the electricity?"
Reiji gave him no answer.
More bolts followed.
Each one struck Electivire and poured through its body before excess current escaped through the tails embedded in the ground. The stadium's power system even captured some of that energy for the protective barrier, giving the support Pokémon maintaining it a little relief.
Reiji watched until Electivire had taken enough.
"Thunder. Cover the field."
Across the battlefield, his opponent finally hesitated.
Why would Reiji keep ordering Electric attacks around his own Pokémon?
The answer became obvious a moment later.
Electivire's ability was Motor Drive.
Electric-type attacks could not hurt it. Instead, every surge pushed its Speed higher.
The golden light around Electivire flared upward into the storm clouds. Lightning writhed overhead before bolts began crashing down across the entire battlefield, and Electivire stood among them without flinching as Motor Drive kept feeding on the electricity.
Reiji had stopped counting the strikes.
It did not matter. Electivire's Speed was already pushed as far as he needed it.
Gyarados had just watched Tyranitar get dismantled by a terrible matchup.
Now it had one of its own.
"Electivire, Thunder Punch."
Reiji pointed across the field.
"Let's make this storm hurt."
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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