The Will-O-Wisp had done nothing to Emboar's momentum. The flames on his body were too dense, too hot, the smaller fireballs consumed before they could make contact with anything that mattered.
But Ash hadn't expected them to stop the charge.
"Extrasensory."
Ninetales's ruby eyes lit up. The psychic pulse that followed wasn't a dramatic visible burst. It was a precise, focused detonation aimed at exactly one point, the inside of Emboar's Flame Wheel.
The wheel shattered.
Emboar tumbled out of his roll and skidded across the arena floor for several meters before catching himself, leaving long scorch marks across the stone. He steadied, shook himself, and turned back toward Ninetales with a grunt.
The crowd went quiet for a half-second, processing what they'd seen.
Then the noise came back louder.
"That's how you counter Flame Wheel," the commentator said breathlessly. "Extrasensory fired directly into the center of the technique, disrupting the rotation from the inside. I've never seen that application before."
Tokiko stared at the arena floor for exactly one second. Then her eyes sharpened.
"You're good," she said, not quite to Ash. "Don't lose yet, Emboar. Heat Crash."
Emboar reared back, flame condensing around his body until it formed a dense burning sphere centered on his mass, then launched himself forward like a cannonball directly at Ninetales.
The weight behind it was enormous. Heat Crash scaled with the user's body mass, and Emboar was one of the heavier fully evolved Pokémon in existence.
"Protect."
A shield snapped into existence around Ninetales at the last instant. Emboar crashed into it and the impact shook the air, a visible pressure wave rolling outward across the arena.
The Protect held.
Emboar bounced back, off-balance from the rebound, flame flickering around him from the exertion.
"Now. Psychic."
The blue light hit Emboar full-force while his footing was still uncertain. It lifted him clean off the ground, suspended him for a half-second, then released.
He hit the arena floor hard and stayed down for a full three-count before pulling himself back upright, visibly slower than before.
Ash watched him stand.
Still in it. Tough Pokémon.
He glanced at Tokiko. Her jaw was tight but her eyes hadn't dimmed. She was angry, the kind of angry that made good trainers better in the short term.
"Emboar is still standing after two direct Psychic hits," the commentator said, voice pitched up with genuine excitement. "That's extraordinary durability. But Ninetales hasn't taken a single point of damage yet. This matchup is looking increasingly one-sided."
Tokiko heard it. Her expression tightened further.
"One more, Emboar. Give everything you've got. Overheat."
Emboar threw his head back and roared, every last reserve of heat gathering around him in a corona that raised the temperature across the entire arena by several degrees. The technique was all-or-nothing, maximum output, draining on the user, but the raw power behind it was undeniable.
"Nine Tails," Ash said.
Ninetales looked back at him once.
"Psychic. Full output."
The blue light that followed wasn't the careful, surgical pulse from before. It was everything Ninetales had, focused in a single direction.
The Overheat and the Psychic met in the center of the arena.
For a moment neither moved.
Then the Psychic pushed through.
"CABO!"
Emboar went down.
The arena was briefly, completely silent.
Then the noise came back like a tide.
"Emboar is unable to battle! Ash Ketchum advances to the semi-finals!"
Tokiko stood very still for a moment. Then she recalled Emboar quietly, face controlled, and looked across the arena at Ash.
"You're strong," she said, loud enough to carry. "But that doesn't change anything about Kami."
Ash looked at her with mild confusion and zero idea what she was talking about.