Chapter 307: CH75 (305), Continental Quarterfinals
I woke up at 8 a.m, and the quarterfinals were set to begin at 9 a.m. All battles were going to take place at the Pummelo Grand Stadium. The Pokemon battles would happen first, and mine, as the third one, was tentatively set to start at 10:00 a.m.
The personal combat fights would immediately follow afterward, and mine was the second fight, tentatively set to noon. There would obviously be some adjustment in case one or multiple fights took longer than planned, but I was sure that no one expected too much of a delay.
Everyone that made it this far already had a place in the global competition, in fact not only the quarterfinalists but those that made it to the round of 16 also made it to the global competition, so it was possible that the participants would keep back their cards for the global competition.
My opponent for the Pokemon battle was Samson Vright, a student from one of the neutral academies of Kanto. The Kangaskhan I saw while checking the list of participants belonged to him, and it used to be at the (mid) silver stage at that time, but it had advanced to the (high) silver stage during the continental competition.
You know, Kangaskhan were a pretty interesting species. First of all, the hearsay that it was a female-exclusive species was wrong. In fact, the ratio of males to females was just extremely skewed. On average, out of 40 Kangaskhan, only 1 was a male, which was why herds made sure that the male was always surrounded by the females and hidden from any harm.
Due to this, the rumor that there were only female Kangaskhan sprang forth. However, multiple researchers had already disproven the rumor. Yet, the tale was still seen as the truth by most of the population, despite professors also confirming that Kangaskhan as a species disliked coupling with non-Kangaskhan.
They avoided doing so unless they became desperate or for some other special reason. Not only that, but it was also a fact that not all Kangaskhan carried a baby inside their pouch since that made no sense.
Still, probably due to the gender ratio, Kangaskhan preferred having progeny to ensure the next generation, so most Kangaskhan strived to fill their pouch with a child.
The kids stayed inside the pouch until they left the stageless phase, which could take up to three years, with the longest recorded case being 7 years, and something really interesting linked to the pouch was the safety of the youngling during fights. The child directly retreated inside the pouch for the duration of a battle.
Meanwhile, the pouch had an innate Protect fueled by the atmosphere instead of the Kangaskhan, turning the inside of the pouch virtually indestructible, ensuring the total safety of the kid for as long as the mother was alive.
Super pouch aside, once the younglings left the stageless phase they underwent a rapid maturation where they grew from their childish form to the general look of the Kangaskhan species.
As it could take up to a month, this maturation did not classify as an evolution, which was a nearly instant process. The maturation period could be sped up through nutrition and energy-rich food.
Anyway, short Kangaskhan commentary aside, Samson also had a (mid) silver-stage Tauros, a (high) silver stage Persian, and a (high) silver-stage Noctowl in his team, so Samson had in total one (mid) silver and three (high) silver stage Pokemon. At least, as far as he had revealed for now.
I decided to use Tiamat/Milotic and in the unlikely event that she got knocked out before beating all three of Samson's Pokemon, I would send out Hera/Pidgeot to finish the job.
My opponent at noontime was Yvonne Hardy, a Tier 2 First-Class Spectralist from the ghost academy in Lavender City in Kanto. Well, to be specific she was something along the line of a Spectral/Ghost Warrior, which was one of the many branches/specializations among Spectralists.
Spectralists had a plethora of abilities depending on their specialization and strength, but the ones Yvonne had access to were much more limited.
The relevant ones for our fight were her ability to mislead the senses of her foes, cause small astral wounds which temporarily hurt the soul, dim/mask her life sign, and blur/conceal her silhouette.
Pain coming from the soul was much worse than a regular wound, so any attacks she landed would double in distracting her opponent if he or she could not resist the pain. Thankfully she was not strong enough to cause permanent wounds to the soul, so she could go all out without worrying.
There was a reason why ghost types had legends related to the soul after all. Still, if the strength difference was not great it was hard to harm or consume the soul, so most legends involve children or civilians.
Anyway, enough about ghosts and my opponents. I was going to meet up with mom and dad in front of the Pummelo Grand Stadium at 8:45 a.m. Most of my friends were unable to come since it was the middle of the week, but Kinji, Misty, Aaron, and Takeshi were coming as well.
The others wished me luck over the phone even if they were unable to come in person. The four that were free would be in front of the stadium at 8:45 a.m as well.
I left the hotel at 8:30 a.m with Mr. Cameron in tow. He was accompanying me to the stadium and he got to meet everyone that was waiting for me in front of the stadium.
My parents thanked him for taking care of me, and the quartet followed suit. Aaron already knew him, so their exchange was a bit longer, with Mr. Cameron inquiring how he was doing.
Still, once the greetings were exchanged, he told me to make sure I was on time for my fights before heading inside ahead of us. I thanked him for the reminder and his thoughtfulness since I knew that he went ahead to give me and my group some space.
As soon as he was gone, mom rushed up to me to hug me before reluctantly releasing me so that I could greet the others as well. Afterward, we made our way inside the stadium as well to watch the two Pokemon battles before mine.
The fights were pretty good, and they proved why they made it so far. None of the four trainers used more than a single (mid) silver stage Pokemon. High silver stage Pokemon were the main fighting force at this stage.
The winner of the first battle was a steel-type specialist from Hoenn, who beat his opponent, an ice specialist from Johto. While Hans won, Isabel put up a good fight despite the general type advantage Hans's steel types had.
Her (high) silver-stage Cloyster resisted his (high) silver-stage Magnezone with all its might despite the major type disadvantage, and even though it fell, it managed to exhaust Mangezone quite a bit. So much so in fact, that Hans recalled it after it won. He did that to give it some time to rest, no matter how short that rest may be.
The next round was between Isabel's (high) silver-stage Mamoswine and Hans's (mid) silver-stage Scizor, who had probably expected her (mid) silver-stage Jynx. It was really cool to see a Pokemon such as Mamoswine appear in a competition like this. Magnezone were great Pokemon, but Mamoswine were rarer.
Anyway, while it took some time and Mamoswine took some damage, it managed to take Scizor down. Moreover, the damage it suffered was not serious enough to hamper its next fight by much, so Isabel kept it on the field.
Mamoswine did its best and fought a long hard battle against Hans's third Pokemon, but in the end, it fell to the (high) silver-stage Skarmory. Yet, the damage it managed to inflict on Skarmory allowed her (mid) silver-stage Jynx to take it down after some struggle.
Unfortunately, that took a lot out of Jynx, so it fell to a somewhat rested Magnezone, making Hans the first semifinalist. Still, Isabel did not look sad despite losing and went up to Hans to congratulate him, making the crowd cheer both their names. I was pretty sure she did not mind her loss too much because she had qualified for the global competition either way.
The second battle was even more heated, quite literally, since both trainers were fire specialists. The first one, Fiona, was from a fire academy in Johto, while the other one, Erik, was from a fire academy in Kanto.
They went for a blazing start, with Fiona releasing a (high) silver-stage Typhlosion, and Erik calling out a (high) silver-stage Charizard. While both Pokemon were roughly equal in strength, Charizard's aerial advantage eventually led to its victory, even if it was a really hard-earned one.
Erik decided to keep Charizard on the field but that turned out to be a mistake since it lost to Fiona's (high) silver stage Magcargo, which should have been at the (mid) silver stage according to the data on the competition website.
Apparently, it managed to advance during the competition, and its strength along with the type advantage, as well as Charizard's exhaustion from its previous fight led to its loss, forcing Erik to call out his second Pokemon. Well, at least Charizard managed to force Magcargo to expend a lot of its energy to smack it out of the air.
Erik's second Pokemon was a (mid) silver-stage Rapidash, that after some back and forth, literally ended the fight by trampling Magcargo under its hoofs. Well, Fiona's last Pokemon evened the field once more after beating a somewhat tired Rapidash.
Well, I was not blaming it, since it had to fight against a fresh (high) silver-stage Houndoom, so losing to it was not undeserved. Still, Erik decided to turn the battle into one between two doggos by calling out a (high) silver stage Arcanine.
I could unabashedly say that I was an Arcanine fan, so I rooted for the good doggo, even if that was unnecessary since it was obviously the superior doggo. Arcanine proved my perfectly unbiased opinion by beating Fiona's Houndoom, who admittedly put up a good fight.
Fiona took a page out of Isabel's book and went up to Erik to congratulate him on the hard-earned victory. Erik gracefully accepted and told her she did pretty well as well. Just as they did before, the crowd cheered for the sportsmanship both trainers showed, and the two left the field under the cheers of the crowd.
It was now my turn to fight, so after receiving the well-wishes from my parents and friends I made my way onto the field. Samson arrived on his side at the same time as I did on mine, and the host began our introduction.
The crowd cheered while he did that, and I could have sworn that I heard mom's voice when he began my introduction. Still, once the intros were over the referee did his usual spiel before giving the signal to start the battle.
We released our Pokemon and Samson's (high) silver stage Persian appeared on his side, while Tiamat appeared on mine. Her appearance had the effect I had been expecting since one did not get to see a Milotic every day, especially not a fine exemplar such as Tiamat.
Not only was she bigger than a regular Milotic, but she was a Shiny on top of that, so the crowd turning quiet before exploding into cheers was within my expectations.
Nonetheless, we on the field ignored the crowd's reaction. Both Pokemon directly began using their opening moves while the crowd was cheering. Tiamat was going for Aqua Ring and Safeguard, while Persian used what I recognized as Taunt, effectively move-blocking Tiamat, making her unable to execute her opening moves.
Tiamat did not like that at all and decided to turn Persian into a wet cat. She used Surf to submerge it underwater, but Persian used Ice Beam to freeze part of the approaching shoal. It jumped onto the ice block it created, thus escaping the wave. Not only that, it even threw Tiamat a taunting look afterward.
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