The Solar Beam struck Mercilessly, pounding against Pangoro's body and completely engulfing him in the process.
"This time… you've finally lost, right?" Leo murmured with a sigh of relief. He had genuinely been afraid he wouldn't even be able to defeat Nathan's Pangoro.
If he really lost like that, he'd definitely get a beating from the old man when he got home.
Just imagining it sent a shiver down Leo's spine.
At that moment, the beam of sunlight faded, its duration ending.
Leo looked up, already envisioning the scene of Pangoro lying defeated on the ground.
But as he took in the sight before him, his eyes widened, and he stood frozen in place.
"The hell? What the actual hell am I fighting!?"
"I surrender, ref! I'm done! I'm never training Grass-types again, I swear!"
..
Bang!
"Saurr!"
With a pained cry, Venusaur was sent flying by Pangoro's Fire Punch.
The attack was so powerful that Venusaur tried several times to stand up again, but in the end, it collapsed to the ground, completely unable to continue battling.
"The winner of this match is—Nathan!"
The referee immediately waved his flag and announced the result.
Leo raised his hand in resignation without hesitation. "I surrender."
"Are you sure, contestant Leo? You really want to forfeit?" the referee asked.
"Positive. Absolutely sure," Leo said firmly.
How could he continue fighting? Even his Solar Beam couldn't hurt Pangoro, and on top of that, Nathan still had a Volcarona waiting in the back.
He was thoroughly frustrated.
He had absolutely no desire to continue battling Nathan.
Upon hearing his words, the referee nodded and announced Nathan as the winner without hesitation.
As the crowd erupted in cheers, Nathan smiled and shook his head, recalled Pangoro to its Poké Ball, and walked back through the contestant tunnel into the waiting room.
As soon as he arrived, Leo hurried over with a frustrated look on his face. "Bro, what happened to going easy on me?"
"I only have two Pokémon: Pangoro and Volcarona. You pick which one you'd rather fight," Nathan replied with a shrug.
At that, Leo fell silent, lowering his head like a pitiful, defeated man.
"Hey, Nathan, what exactly was up with your Pangoro back there?" Helen walked over and asked curiously. She had watched the match and was puzzled too.
"It's a special ability… you could consider it a kind of innate talent," Nathan replied after thinking for a moment.
Using the technical term "Ability" didn't seem appropriate right now.
After all, nobody had discovered this concept yet. If he casually threw it out there, he might be misunderstood—or even invite trouble.
His answer didn't seem to surprise Helen, who nodded in realization.
"You're lucky. Some Pokémon are just born with amazing talents. I wonder if I'll ever encounter one like that."
"You probably will..." Nathan said sincerely after thinking about it.
Once he officially introduced the concept of Abilities, more Trainers would be able to explore and develop their Pokémon's hidden traits—at the very least, they wouldn't be totally in the dark like now.
Today's tournament would end for Nathan once he won two matches in a row.
Just one more victory to go.
While chatting with Leo and the others, Nathan casually checked the system's task interface.
After winning the first match of the day, he had completed the next phase of the trial quest. However, the reward hadn't been issued—instead, he received a new option:
[Trial Tournament] Remaining stages: You can choose to accumulate all rewards until the final stage, which will significantly increase the overall reward value.
[Accept] or [Decline]? Please make your choice.
"Reward accumulation?"
Nathan stroked his chin in thought, feeling a little conflicted.
The previous rewards had been pretty generous. If he accumulated them, the final reward would surely be even more valuable.
After a moment of hesitation, he made his choice. "Accept."
[Ding! You have made your choice. All rewards from each stage of the "Trial Tournament" quest will now be accumulated. You will receive an extremely generous reward upon completion of the final stage.]
Hearing this, Nathan stopped worrying about it and focused on chatting with the others.
Everyone there came from wealthy or influential families—not top-tier elites, but certainly upper-middle class. Sometimes, they even heard interesting insider gossip.
Of course, they were all young Trainers, so their conversations mostly revolved around Pokémon—not money or politics.
At one point, Helen and Willow even started discussing how cute Banette was.
"By the way, what about that Evelyn girl—is she strong?" Nathan asked suddenly, glancing toward a corner of the room. There stood a girl in a white dress with a cold, elegant aura. She was undeniably beautiful, with a unique charm.
"Very strong," Leo replied without hesitation.
"Don't be fooled by her family background. She's genuinely talented and has been passionate about Pokémon since she was little. Her Gardevoir might not be as powerful as your Volcarona, but it's nothing to scoff at either."
Then Leo gave Nathan a look every guy would understand and lowered his voice.
"If you manage to win her over, I'm telling you—your life will be set. She's the only daughter, and her family dotes on her like crazy. You know what I mean, right?"
Oh, Nathan understood, alright.
Marry Evelyn, and you'd essentially inherit the entire family business.
On top of that, Evelyn was a goddess-level beauty. Power, money, and beauty—you'd get it all.
"Tch, you're making it sound pretty tempting," Nathan laughed. "But I do know my own limits, okay?"
Right now, he and Evelyn weren't even in the same league.
As the group chatted away, time passed unnoticed.
An hour later…
[Contestants Nathan Vesper and Evelyn Mist, please proceed through the tunnel to Arena Two. Your match is about to begin!]
[Contestants Nathan Vesper and Evelyn Mist, please proceed through the tunnel to Arena Two. Your match is about to begin!]
[Contestants Nathan Vesper and Evelyn Mist, please proceed through the tunnel to Arena Two. Your match is about to begin!]
The broadcast echoed through the hall.
Nathan looked up, surprised. He hadn't expected his second-round opponent to be that wealthy heiress.
At the same time, Evelyn turned her head toward him. Their eyes met, and she gave him a soft smile and a nod.
She then stood up and gracefully entered the tunnel.
Nathan followed suit with a grin tugging at his lips, stepping into the contestant tunnel as well.
He was genuinely looking forward to the clash between his Volcarona and the Gardevoir.
As for Pangoro—well, he wasn't planning to send that one out against a Psychic-type, especially not one like Gardevoir.
…
"Fairy-type, huh…"
Stepping onto the battlefield, Nathan murmured as he looked at Evelyn on the opposite side.
Gardevoir—Psychic and Fairy.
Fairy-type was… a tricky one.
And it completely countered Pangoro.
Any Fairy-type move would deal 4x damage to him. It was no exaggeration to say Pangoro was basically paper against Fairy-types.
A hard counter, fated by type matchups.
Although the Fairy typing hadn't been formally recognized yet, that didn't mean Fairy moves didn't exist.
It was just that many Fairy-type attacks had been misclassified as Psychic-type—like Dazzling Gleam and Moonblast.
Fairy-types had always existed.
Many Pokémon learned Fairy moves upon evolving, but the first researchers had lumped them under Psychic, and over time, Trainers just assumed they were the same.
This was one of the many reasons Nathan believed that if he wanted, he could easily become a world-renowned Professor.
There was still so much hidden Pokémon knowledge in this world waiting to be unearthed.
Shaking his head, he stopped thinking about it and pulled the Poké Ball from around his neck.
"Let's go—Volcarona!"
A red beam of light flashed.
As Volcarona appeared, a wave of heat radiated outward, causing the skies to clear and the sun to blaze.
"Vooool!"
Volcarona let out a piercing cry, its aura—worthy of an Elite-level Pokémon—erupting without restraint.
"No matter how many times I see it, it's so beautiful," Willow said from the waiting room, watching the livestream of Volcarona's entrance with envy.
Leo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Actually, you haven't seen it that many times. This is probably only your second time seeing it."
"..."
Willow whipped her head around and kicked him, snarling, "Screw you! Can't I just say it's pretty!?"
Fire-type Trainers usually had fiery personalities.
Even the girls.
Back on the battlefield—
As Volcarona appeared, the crowd erupted in cheers.
Even though the temperature was rising, the excitement only grew stronger.
"What a powerful Pokémon…" Evelyn murmured as she gazed at Volcarona. She then pulled out her own Poké Ball.
"Come on out, Gardevoir—this will be a tough battle."
A white figure appeared on the battlefield, wearing what looked like an elegant evening gown with green inner lining.
This was Gardevoir—cool, elegant, and perfectly deserving of the title "Psychic Queen."
As a humanoid Pokémon, Gardevoir was immensely popular among both male and female Trainers.
Female Trainers admired her strength and beauty.
Male Trainers… well, also admired her strength and beauty… and maybe something else too?
Possibly…
Nathan suddenly remembered: in this world, there actually were cases of humans marrying Pokémon.
With so many humanoid species, it wasn't surprising that love occasionally blossomed.
On the battlefield, Gardevoir said nothing.
She simply stared at Volcarona with a grave expression.
With both Pokémon on the field, the referee raised his flag and shouted—
"Begin!"
"Calm Mind!"
Evelyn gave her command the moment the match started.
Gardevoir's eyes sparkled as both her Special Attack and Special Defense began to rise.
This particular Gardevoir was mid-tier Gym level—around level 44 to 46.
As the daughter of the nation's wealthiest man, it wasn't strange for her to have such a powerful Pokémon.
Her family's business primarily made Poké Balls but also dipped into various other industries.
In fact, her father's company sponsored every World Tournament.
"Use Psybeam!" Evelyn followed up immediately.