Pokémon: I picked up a reborn Eevee at the start of the game

…………

Both sides snapped out of their reverie and turned their attention back to the battlefield.

With both players in position, the referee blew the whistle to start this crucial match in the winners' bracket.

"Come out, hippopotamus!"

"Milotic, prepare for battle!"

Two Poké Balls were thrown, their white lights clashing.

Two elves, one beautiful and one ugly, with extreme contrasts, appeared on the battlefield.

The two teams' starting Pokémon were Milotic and Hippowdon.

"Homu——"

Before its four legs even touched the ground, the hippopotamus opened its enormous mouth, which could be up to two meters in diameter, and roared to the sky.

Immediately, a huge amount of yellow sand mixed with fine gravel and pebbles gushed out from the six protruding small holes on his back.

Before long, the entire site was filled with a cloud of dust that blotted out the sun.

The sand hippopotamus's characteristic [sand blowing] was activated as soon as the race began.

Jiang Pei and Xia Chen tacitly put down the dust goggles they were wearing on their foreheads.

Whether you're a trainer using Team Sandstorm or facing a trainer using Team Sandstorm, without this thing, you'd probably have to command the entire match with your eyes closed.

Even so, the glasses only served to protect against dust; the sandstorm covering the field still completely obscured the Pokémon on the field, making them difficult to see clearly.

Fortunately, this hippopotamus was only at the elite level, and the sandstorm it stirred up wasn't big enough. From the outside, the outlines of the two Pokémon on the field were still clearly visible. Otherwise, the audience would have been really bored watching this battle.

The sandstorm has formed; the real battle begins now.

"Milotic, spray water!"

"Hippopotamus, Invisibility Rock!"

Two commands came from the battlefield almost simultaneously.

Ultimately, Milotic, with its faster attack speed, made the first move.

Water energy condensed, and a continuous stream of water spewed from Milotic's mouth, quickly forming waves that, driven by the energy, surged towards the hippo's location.

Meanwhile, the air was filled with moisture, which reduced the sandstorm on the field somewhat.

…………

Jiang Pei knew that Milotic could spray water.

He knew that the water jet was very powerful.

But he clearly had the opportunity to let the hippopotamus dig a hole to avoid the water spray, but he didn't do so.

Tactics are paramount.

"Hippopotamus, continue!"

Thus, the hippopotamus remained unmoved in the face of Milotic's attack.

He let the surging waves crash against his body as he faithfully carried out the task assigned to him by his trainer.

With its mouth wide open, energy surged, and countless tiny, sharp rocks flew out of the hippo's mouth, densely surrounding Milotic before mysteriously disappearing.

Stealth Rock does not affect Pokémon on the battlefield.

However, as soon as the opponent switches Pokémon, a sharp rock containing Rock-type energy will appear and pierce the body of the newly entered Pokémon, causing considerable damage.

Looking at the invisible rocks lurking around Milotic, Xia Chen smiled slightly. He roughly understood his opponent's strategy for this match.

But there's no rush now. Just like the hippopotamus that uses stealth rock even when it doesn't dodge water spray, he also needs to do his own thing first.

However, it's not the time to use Rain Dance to steal the weather. If we open it now, the opponent will probably just yawn or blow it away and take it back. It's not the time to steal the weather yet.

He was going to do something else that would disgust his opponent.

"Milnar, Ice Beam!"

Jiang Pei was slightly puzzled. Since Milotic was the first hero to be released, why not use Rain Dance to change the weather?

What is Xia Chen up to?

Although he was confused, the situation on the field didn't allow him to think too much.

He instinctively commanded, "Hippopotamus, dig a hole!"

The hippopotamus's special ability allows it to quickly activate sandstorm weather, and Jiang Pei doesn't want the hippopotamus to collapse so soon.

Eating a powerful water spray that is double-superior to Hippomon is already bad enough; if it gets hit by an Ice Beam as well, Hippomon's condition will be extremely dangerous.

Upon hearing the command, the hippopotamus's short but powerful limbs immediately began to move rapidly on the ground.

Although Hippomon's movement speed was still not as fast as Milotic's speed in condensing and firing the freezing beam, its short body and low chassis allowed it to graz the icy blue beam containing extremely cold energy.

The hippopotamus narrowly escaped the freezing beam by suffering only a small frostbite on its back and managed to dig a hole underground.

…………

Logically, Milotic's Ice Beam should have stopped once the target disappeared.

In reality, the frozen beams shot from Milotic's mouth not only did not stop, but instead became thicker and larger.

Jiang Pei frowned slightly, realizing that things were not so simple.

But then, in their line of sight, the frozen beam of light moved slowly across the ground.

Immediately, the beam of light froze the water stains left on the ground by the previous water spray into ice.

As the frozen beam moved, the ice surface had already covered a large portion of the arena.

Having spent many years cultivating in the desert of Northwest China, Jiang Pei still lacked practical combat experience.

In addition, there are almost no water-type or ice-type Pokémon living there, so he had no idea about this kind of strategy.

At this moment, Jiang Pei finally understood Xia Chen's true intention: he wanted to use water spray and ice light to transform the arena into a "frozen arena"!

Although it wouldn't affect the sandstorm weather, he knew it would greatly weaken the mobility of his hippopotamus and dragon-headed gopher.

To put it more seriously, this could affect the release of techniques like digging and earthquakes!

Jiang Pei, of course, would not sit idly by and wait for his doom.

While Milotic was still creating the ice, he didn't hesitate to command, "Hippopotamus, go stop him!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the soil beneath the ground began to churn.

Most Ground-type Pokémon can dig burrows faster than they can run on the ground; Hippowdon is one of them.

Not having to worry about being hit by attacks, Hippowdon focused intently on digging its tunnel, rapidly approaching Milotic in a straight line.

Xia Chen doesn't care about that. You can dig if you want, and bump if you want. Let me finish making ice with my Minas first.

Before the hippopotamus could dig under Milotic, the freezing beam that lasted for nearly twenty seconds had already transformed most of the arena into a "frozen arena".

It serves no other purpose than to make your hippo and dragon-headed gopher uncomfortable.

Then, the hippopotamus emerged from the ground, like a crocodile lurking beneath the surface of the water, and opened its two-meter-diameter maw, ferociously biting at Milotic, who was still frozen by the beam of ice.

"Fuwoo!"

Because of its enormous mouth, the hippopotamus almost completely tore Milotic's long body apart with its jaws.

Although his teeth were not sharp, his bite force was astonishing, as if a huge industrial machine was crushing his body. Milotic, which was being tightly bitten, let out a painful cry.

After all, it is a seeded player with the strength to secure a top-eight finish and compete for a top-four finish. Although its main role is to open up the weather, the Hippo Beast's attack power is by no means low.

This "Crushing" attack, bursting forth from the ground and imbued with the energy of the Ground type, dealt Milotic a truly devastating blow.

…………

"Milanos, surf!"

Milotic's own strength was not enough to break free from the Hippo's mouth. Xia Chen tried to use Surf, a wide-range attack, to force back the Hippo that was biting him.

Although its body was locked, its mouth and internal energy were not. Enduring the pain, Milotic spewed out a massive amount of water.

The water quickly gathered into a huge wave beside the two entangled elves, and it looked like it was about to crash into the hippo's huge body.

First it was damaged by the water spray, then it was grazed by the freezing beam. If it were to be hit by this wave of water, even the most resilient hippopotamus would probably not be able to withstand it.

Of course, if you can replace Milotic, the opponent's most feared unit, with Hippowdon, that's also an option.

The problem is that I had Hippowdon use Stealth Rock instead of Earthquake at the start, so Milotic's stamina wasn't depleted much at all.

If it's an earthquake, coupled with the dust storms that have been causing minor but persistent damage to Milotic since the start of the event, there might be a chance to replace him.

Unfortunately, there are no "what ifs"...

Therefore, if Milotic were to fight Milotic head-on, Hippo would definitely fall first.

Having figured this out, Jiang Pei decisively abandoned his intention to pursue Milotic and immediately commanded, "Release it, blow it away!"

At this moment, Jiang Pei finally used the foreshadowing he had laid at the beginning: the Invisible Rock.

The Blowout ability not only forces Milotic, the most difficult Pokémon to defeat in Xia Chen's team, to leave the field, but also allows the Pokémon that is switched in to suffer the torment of Stealth Rock.

Most importantly, the disappearance of Pokémon that could compete with them for weather conditions is incredibly beneficial for Sandstorm teams.

If Xia Chen wants to switch to Milotic to play in the rain, he will have to be pierced by the Invisible Rock again.

This is a very mature tactic for sandstorm teams, but whether a tactic is old or not doesn't matter, as long as it works.

"Homu——"

The hippopotamus opened its massive jaws, releasing Milotic from its jaws, but instead of closing them, it channeled its energy, blowing out a strange gust of wind containing unusual power.

Blown by the strange wind, Milotic immediately transformed into a streak of red light and returned to the Poké Ball on Xia Chen's waist.

…………

In reality, moves like "wind" can't automatically bring out reserve Pokémon.

However, in Pokémon battles, if one side doesn't have a Pokémon on the field for a long time, they will be judged as having lost, so no matter what, the next Pokémon must be brought out.

Xia Chen seemed to have anticipated Hippo's whistling, and without hesitation, he took out one of the remaining two Poké Balls and threw it.

A flash of white light appeared, and a tall, elegant figure appeared on the battlefield.