He knows Pokémon better than me.

"Damn it, such exaggerated destructive power!"

A-Liu gritted her teeth, she had never heard of such a Pokémon before.

Poison and Bug-type moves are not very effective right now, so we can only hope for Dark-type moves.

"Hell Thrust!"

The Dragon King Scorpion understood, its pincers covered in a dangerous purple light. Just like Melmeta, it did not need to rush forward when attacking. Its two arms could extend to a length of more than ten meters in an instant, just like telescopic springs.

The target is the black ball eye in the center of Melmeta's head; that must be its weak point!
"Interesting! Then let's meet this head-on! Steel Fist Double Strike!!"

Melmet was no longer hesitant. Before Ash could finish speaking, Melmet began to spin at high speed and then unleashed a cannonball-like steel fist.

Bang bang!

The first punch, a level strike against Hell Thrust, the two moves collided in the center of the arena, sparking intense fire.

But the second punch directly turned the spikes of Hell's Thrust into blunt angles, and the Steel Fist Double Strike continued to unleash its power.

Clang!
The iron fist slammed into the Dragon King Scorpion's face, causing cracks to appear on the latter's hard carapace.

Hit the mark!

After enduring a series of heavy blows, the Dragon King Scorpion finally gave out and its massive body collapsed with a thud.

"Dragon King Scorpion, incapacitated!"

Rotom immediately shouted, causing a stir among the crowd.

He was a former superstar, how could he fall so easily?

Who is this guy on the other side?
"Wait a minute, I think that person was Ash Ketchum?!"

"That's right, the trainer from out of town who battled Cynthia. Although her art style has changed, I remember she was still accompanied by an Electric Mouse!"

"After all, he can even compete against the regional champion, so it's not surprising that he beat A-Liu."

With a successful start, Ash gradually became recognized by many Sinnoh residents.

At the Lily of the Valley Conference that year, Ash defeated Shinji, Darkrai, and even jumped over a group of Elite Four members in the final exhibition match to have a friendly sparring match with Cynthia.
This left a deep impression on many Sinnoh members.

The voices that had been overwhelmingly cheering for A-Liu suddenly switched sides and started cheering for Xiao-Zhi, which made A-Liu's expression even uglier.

"It's not over yet! We're relying on the second Pokémon to turn the tide! Please, Queen Bee!"

A-Liu's second one is the queen bee, whose whole body seems to be wearing a long dress with yellow and black patterns, making her look very majestic.

However, in terms of attributes, it is still completely countered by Melmet.

"Let's come back first and continue the fight."

Ash still wants to recall Melmetal, since the opponent is a female Pokémon, and he plans to send Magearna to compete.

However, after securing their first victory, Mehmet has regained 70% of his confidence and now seems poised to return to his peak form.
"Steel Fist Double Strike!!"

This signature move is so useful, there's no need to hesitate, Ash shouted again.

Mehmet understood, and two steel fist shells roared out, bringing with them gusts of wind.

"Queen Bee, use the defense command to block it!"

Ah Liu quickly shouted.

Despite wearing a bulky "long dress," the Queen Bee's speed is actually worse than Melomet's.

But it's not without its advantages; hidden beneath its honeycomb skirt are many small bees that don't belong to Pokémon.

Buzz!
Countless tiny bees flew out from under her skirt, forming a yellowish-brown physical barrier around the queen bee—her signature move, "Defense Command."

boom!
Bang!! The first punch of the steel fist double-hit cracked the defensive command, and the second punch shattered the bee barrier. The force was tremendous.

However, they managed to hold on with a sliver of strength.

"Like the Dragon Arrow of Dramberto?"

Xiao Zhi touched his chin; the principle was somewhat similar.

The Queen Bee has more than one signature move, and the shattered barrier has transformed back into a dense swarm of yellow bees, swirling around her.

"Now! Attack!"

Under A-Liu's command, these little bees became more aggressive, swarming towards Melumeta and launching a frenzied attack!
However, neither the seemingly frightening scenes of bee collisions nor bee stings actually caused much damage to Melmeta.

A hard nut, or even highly flexible liquid metal, can easily withstand these dense and dispersed attacks.

"Meta?"

Mehta's confidence began to climb: 70%, 80%, 90%.
It even raised its two nut-shaped arms, leaving its armpits exposed to the attack of the swarm of bees.

"Bug type, or physical attack move?"

Xiao Zhi chuckled dryly, thinking it was just a tickle.

A single, concentrated physical attack critical hit might be effective against Melmet.

However, this dispersed attack meant that each attack failed to break through the defenses, resulting in no damage whatsoever.

"Our turn! Melmetta, use Flame Fist!"

Suddenly, Mehmet's fists ignited with intense flames, stunning the tireless swarm of bees that were charging forward and freezing them in place.

shhhhhh!
The next moment, Melmet spun around in place, causing his Flame Fist to start spinning as well, creating a "Flame Spinning Top" effect similar to DD's Golden Hook Arm.

In the blink of an eye, it burned the surrounding swarm of bees to ashes.

"Jie?!"

On the other side, the queen bee's expression changed, and she burned all of her babies in one go. Although new baby bees could still be produced continuously in the hive under her skirt, it still made her heart bleed.

However, the situation is not the worst.

But then Melumeta suddenly stopped spinning and, using centrifugal force, launched his Flame Fist like a cannonball.

It's a high-speed, long-range fire fist that incorporates the double-hit technique of steel fist!!
The slow-moving Queen Bee couldn't dodge in time, and the little bees had also run out of resources, so they couldn't use any defensive commands for the time being. They could only watch helplessly as the Flame Fist rapidly approached.

*Screech!*
The Flame Punch struck the Queen Bee squarely in the chest, and in addition to the powerful force amplified by its Iron Fist ability, flames erupted all over its body.

Outstanding effect!

The queen bee fell heavily to the ground as if her wings had been broken, and her stamina was instantly reduced to zero.

As the smoke dissipated, he collapsed completely to the ground, the red light in his eyes turning into swirls.

"Queen Bee, incapacitated!"

"Xiao Zhi has won this ranking match! The real-time rankings for both players have been updated!"

"Aerial shot," Rotom quickly declared.

The entire stadium erupted in cheers and applause—a crushing victory of one against two?!
A-Liu's face darkened as he stared in disbelief at his queen bee, for he had been planning a comeback to reclaim his glory.

Rotom, trembling, pulled out his phone. He was originally ranked 2800th, but after losing to Ash, who was ranked 3400th, he dropped to 3100th.
This means that they were completely eliminated at the very beginning.

The comeback attempt failed! (End of Chapter)