Although Ash could proudly claim that the vast majority of the Pokémon under his command were no worse than Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon in terms of talent, potential, and rarity, he still didn't have a single Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon of his own.
Seeing Steyn casually send out a Tyranitar, Ash couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
As a descendant of Sir Aaron, the Aura Guardian, Steyn's family clearly possessed an enormous foundation and influence. On top of that, Team Rocket itself had an extraordinary amount of wealth and resources.
Steyn, however, was surprised for a completely different reason.
He hadn't expected Ash to send out Pikachu.
He had assumed Ash would choose Greninja.
After all, everyone knew that Greninja was Ash's original starter Pokémon. And as a Water-type Pokémon, Greninja naturally had a type advantage against Tyranitar, which possessed the Rock type.
In Steyn's understanding, the strongest Pokémon Ash currently had should be Greninja, not Pikachu.
He had specifically asked Ash to send out his strongest Pokémon.
Yet Ash had actually chosen Pikachu, a Pokémon that didn't possess such an obvious type advantage.
It was almost as if Ash didn't take him seriously.
Ash seemed to notice Steyn's confusion.
He merely smiled.
But he didn't offer any explanation.
After all, Ash was now a famous celebrity Trainer throughout Kanto.
Before reaching the legally recognized age, and before receiving the League's special authorization to possess additional Pokémon, secretly catching Pokémon was ultimately against the rules.
Even though the League valued Ash tremendously and wouldn't make a fuss over something this minor, as a famous public figure, if outsiders discovered that he had secretly caught Pokémon outside the rules, it would inevitably lead to criticism and gossip.
Therefore, although Ash had sent Pikachu onto the battlefield, when faced with Steyn's puzzled expression, he simply smiled and said nothing.
What Ash didn't know was that his calm, composed smile caused a surge of anger to rise within the young man standing across the battlefield.
Clearly, Greninja is your starter Pokémon.
Clearly, Greninja has the type advantage.
Yet you're the one who gets to choose second, and you deliberately send out Pikachu?
Are you looking down on me?
Arrogant.
Just looking at that smile of yours makes me angry.
Since you're so confident, then I'll make sure you lose this battle completely.
Standing at the Trainer's command position across the battlefield, Steyn glared at the sunny young man wearing a light-colored baseball jacket.
His anger continued to burn.
"System, scan Tyranitar's data."
Ash paid no attention to the waves of anger and irritation being transmitted through Steyn's Aura.
Instead, he silently issued an order to his system.
[Ding! Scanning. Please wait...]
[Pokémon: Tyranitar]
Level: Lv. 50
Type: Rock, Dark
Nature: Rash
Ability: Frisk
Potential: Purple
Moves (Copyable):
[Proficient] (1/1000): Sandstorm
[Skilled] (1/500): Thunder Fang, Ice Fang, Fire Fang, Tackle, Leer, Rock Throw, Payback, Iron Defense, Bite, Scary Face, Rock Slide, Stomp, Screech, Dark Pulse...
[Novice] (1/100): Crunch, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Thrash...
After scanning the Tyranitar's data with the system, the smile on Ash's face became even brighter.
Earlier, when Steyn had said that he only had one Pokémon, had spent the past six months training desperately, and had already raised its strength to the Gym Leader level, Ash had indeed taken him more seriously.
At that time, when Ash heard Steyn make such a statement, he had genuinely become somewhat cautious.
He felt that he couldn't afford to be careless or underestimate his junior brother.
After all, Steyn's talent as a Trainer had received high praise and recognition from their teacher, Giovanni.
Furthermore, as a descendant of Sir Aaron, Ash had already inferred that Steyn's family probably possessed considerable influence.
Then there was Team Rocket itself, with its enormous wealth and resources.
And Steyn had only one Pokémon to focus all his attention on.
Taking all these factors together, it was entirely possible that after more than half a year of desperately training and catching up, Steyn might actually have narrowed the gap with Ash.
Therefore, Ash hadn't dared to underestimate him.
But after checking the Tyranitar's data through the system, most of the pressure in Ash's heart immediately disappeared.
Tyranitar had indeed reached the Gym Leader level.
But it was only Lv. 50, having just stepped into the Gym Leader tier.
Ash's first-line aces, on the other hand, had already reached the absolute peak of the Gym Leader level.
In fact, during the period when Greninja had been undergoing its Bond Evolution training, Pikachu had seized the opportunity to train desperately and increase its strength.
It had now reached Lv. 60, officially entering the Pseudo-Elite Four level.
Furthermore, there was another major difference between them.
Ash's Pokémon had always followed a steady and carefully structured development path.
Most of their training time was spent constructing comprehensive move sets, developing tactical frameworks, and raising move proficiency.
Steyn's Tyranitar, however, had a move pool in which most moves had only been trained through straightforward leveling.
Even its only Proficient-level move was Sandstorm.
From this alone, it was obvious that during the past six months, Steyn had placed most of his time, energy, and focus on simply increasing Tyranitar's level.
Ash's approach to leveling, by comparison, had been much more measured.
His Pokémon steadily increased their levels while simultaneously strengthening every other aspect of their combat ability.
The results produced by these two completely different approaches were naturally worlds apart.
"Battle start!"
Seeing that both sides were ready, Giovanni, standing at the center line along the edge of the battlefield, raised his hand and decisively announced the beginning of the match.
"Tyranitar, use Sandstorm!"
The moment the battle began, Steyn immediately seized the initiative and ordered Tyranitar to launch the first attack.
"Oh?"
"Sandstorm."
"So this Tyranitar's ability isn't Sand Stream."
"Instead, it has the hidden ability Frisk?"
When Ash had previously used the system to inspect Tyranitar's data, his attention had been focused primarily on its level and move proficiency.
He hadn't paid particular attention to its ability.
But the instant Steyn issued his command, Ash immediately noticed the crucial detail.
His reaction was extremely fast.
The moment Steyn ordered Tyranitar to attack, Ash simultaneously issued his own command to Pikachu.
"Pikachu, use Rain Dance!"
"Roarrr~!"
"Pika~!"
On the battlefield, both Pokémon sprang into action at almost exactly the same time.
"Whoooosh..."
Tyranitar threw its head back and let out a thunderous roar.
It spread both arms wide.
In an instant, the air around it began to churn violently.
A vast cloud of dust rapidly gathered across the battlefield, forming a gray-brown curtain that swept outward like a raging desert storm.
At almost the same moment—
"Pip~"
A dense sphere of water vapor shot upward and pierced through the hazy veil of sand.
It exploded high above with a muffled pop.
The highly compressed water vapor was suddenly released into the atmosphere.
The previously dry sky rapidly filled with thick, dark clouds.
Then, almost immediately—
"Drip... drip..."
Fine rain began to fall.
The battlefield was instantly transformed.
On one side, a raging Sandstorm churned violently across the ground.
Above it, dark clouds gathered and rain poured down.
The opposing weather effects collided with one another, creating a strange and chaotic battlefield.
Ash narrowed his eyes slightly.
The first exchange had already begun.
And judging from the intensity in Steyn's eyes...
This battle was going to be far more serious than either of them had originally expected.
--------------
T/N:
Access Advance Chapters on my
P@treon: [email protected]/PokePals