Pokémon: Trainers Start as Bounty Hunters.

The air slashes struck the water's surface, creating waves, but Golduck dodged them all.

Fun fact: Golduck is the fastest swimmer in Pokémon.

Golduck, the swimming champion, skillfully dodged the attacks from Togekiss's Air Slash from above within the small pool area.

Actually, air slashes aren't that easy to dodge, no matter how fast you are, because they still fly very fast.

However, Togekiss is currently high in the sky, and the distance it has traveled is not short. This amount of time is enough for Golduck, with its superhuman abilities, to react.

This is also the advantage of Golduck being a single-type Water Pokémon.

It possesses powerful psychic abilities that are not found in ordinary Water-type Pokémon. Once the red bead on its forehead lights up and it unleashes its full power, it can hold its own against psychic Pokémon for a short time.

The only drawback might be that it's not durable enough.

"Find the right moment, use the immobilization technique."

Seeing Golduck dodge the air slash once again, Sugiyama Kage's eyes flashed, and he gave the order.

“Use it, look at me.” Tetsuya reacted instantly.

Golduck, which had surfaced using its webbed feet, was about to use a freeze spell on Togekiss overhead when its slightly reddish eyes suddenly dimmed.

Look at me, it's a Normal-type skill, its purpose is to attract the opponent's attention.

In doubles and triples, its effect is to help teammates draw fire, while in singles, it can disrupt the opponent's use of skills.

Tetsuya certainly couldn't let Golduck use a freeze spell.

The Psychic-type immobilization spell can seal Togekiss's previous move, Air Slash.

Then his lucky streak strategy is completely useless.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly enough.

Undeterred, Sugiyama Kage declared, "Goldfish, stir up a turbulent current!"

Since we can't completely seal your skills, let's restrict your vision first. You can't just hit yourself out of thin air without any vision.

Golduck sank into the water without a sound.

The next moment, a muddy torrent carrying soil shot into the sky.

"Wow, that's quite an impressive Water-type mastery! Golduck has disappeared into the water. How will Togekiss be able to attack it now?"

While describing their desperate escape, the narrator didn't forget to build up the atmosphere.

The audience watched the battle on the field with great concentration.

Togekiss and Golduck were evenly matched from the start, completely unlike the boring duel between Serperior and Wobbuffet earlier.

"Magic Leaf," Tetsuya commanded.

There's another reason for bringing Togekiss into the fray: this little guy's skill mastery is far superior to his other companions; he's probably stolen countless skills from them.

Regardless of proficiency and effectiveness, at least it can do it.

A few blue-purple leaves floated around Tokis.

The little guy was a bit embarrassed, but he still steered them into the muddy stream.

Although the magic leaf couldn't fly very far due to the impact of the turbid current, its direction became clear.

Within a small area of ​​turbidity, this is tantamount to revealing one's location.

Sugiyama Kage had no choice but to have Golduck stop the muddy water.

The blue Golduck reappeared on the clear water.

The two spirits, one in the air and one in the water, gazed at each other from afar.

Sugiyama Kage smacked his lips. Fighting in the air from the water and on land was really troublesome.

"Golda duck, use rainmaking!" he commanded.

Then let the opponent slow down first, and flying Pokémon also consume a lot of stamina when flying high in heavy rain.

Chapter 273 The Second Half Begins

Although Sugiyama Kage's Golduck doesn't have the Swift Swim ability, rainy weather is still extremely advantageous for it.

As for why hail, which has a greater impact on Pokkiss, is not used.

While it's true that ice and water are inseparable, the rules remain the same: the water-type Golduck is not immune to the continuous damage from hail like the ice-type Pokémon.

Tetsuya pursed his lips, thinking, "Being older is definitely an advantage."

For these veteran players, it seems like every Pokémon learning the skill to change the weather is standard practice.

Tetsuya was also quite keen for Togekiss to use Sunny Day to test his weather control against the opponent, but unfortunately the little guy didn't know how yet.

Of the six Pokémon in his current main team, only Gigalith truly masters the sandstorm weather.

Moreover, even if Togekiss can barely use Sunny Day now, it probably won't be able to offset the effect of Golduck's Rain Dance.

Their skill levels are about the same, but the difference in their proficiency is too great.

Unlike in games where a follow-up weather move overwrites the existing weather, in this Pokémon world, the struggle for weather on the battlefield is related to the Pokémon's own strength and mastery of its moves.

However, if the difference in strength and skill level is not significant, the results are usually canceled out, meaning nothing happens.

The original weather will simply change to what it is supposed to be like that day, without any overriding effect.

Therefore, in the regular battles of stronger trainers, it is rare for the audience to see tactics like weather stealing, as the benefits are relatively low.

Some sprites that are particularly adept at manipulating the weather are another matter.

In the wild, the situation is different, unless you can convince an enemy who wants to kill you to engage in a proper 1v1 battle.

Just thinking about it makes it clear that this is impossible.

This rule effectively avoids the bizarre situation of hail and sandstorms occurring simultaneously on the battlefield, and also prevents Pokémon from hiding in their own weather and engaging in ranged battles, or from one Poké Ball and the other exchanging Poké Balls, causing the weather on the field to change two times in a second.

On the field, Golduck in the pool held a small blue ball of light in each hand, then brought them together, and a large ball of light shot into the sky.

A light drizzle soon began to fall.

Golduck's next move surprised many people.

"Ok?"

Tetsuya's eyes lit up as well.

A strange light emanated from Golduck's forehead, and the dark clouds in the sky were forcibly shrunk, turning the light drizzle into a torrential downpour.

The dark clouds caused by the Rain Prayer skill are essentially generated by the spirit skill, which is why they can be disturbed so easily. Naturally formed clouds are not so easily interfered with.

But the fact that Sugiyama could think of this shows that his thinking is quite flexible, and it seems that many people will learn this trick.

Tetsuya analyzed the situation with great interest and quickly identified the problem with this approach.

First, there's the duration. With this amount of rainfall, the duration of the rain prayer will be more than half shorter than normal. Second, this operation may only be possible with the rain prayer skill.

Sunny days don't necessarily translate into sunshine; hail and sandstorms make for a much more difficult vacation experience—just think about it, and you'll realize the difference is at least two or three orders of magnitude greater.

At the same time, the bonuses to water-based systems and the weakening effects on fire-based systems will not change due to variations in rainfall.

Of course, it also has advantages.

Pokkis, which was originally operating at high altitude, had to lower its flight altitude due to the heavy rain.

This move is particularly effective against Flying-type Pokémon, as the unnecessary energy expenditure caused by flying high in the rain cannot be ignored.

"Golduck, Water Ripple!" Sugiyama Kage launched his attack amidst the torrential rain.

Rippling water, or rather, waves, formed in an instant. Golduck clasped his hands together in front of him, and the water surged straight into the sky.

“Let’s switch places,” Tetsuya said, his voice unconsciously rising due to the torrential rain.

The psychic energy fluctuations emanating from Togekiss flashed by, and the next moment, a stunned Golduck appeared in mid-air, directly struck by its own Water Pulse.

Unlike doubles or even triples matches where exchanging positions with your teammate has an effect, in singles matches, exchanging positions directly swaps positions with your opponent.

But it is difficult.

Because teammates won't resist your superpowers and will even cooperate with you, while opponents will resist.

Togekiss managed to do this by finding the stalemate that Golduck had created after using Water Pulse.

Otherwise, given Golduck's superpowers, successfully switching locations would be even more difficult.

Furthermore, and most importantly, very few people know that Togekiss is also skilled in Psychic-type moves; it's extremely rare.

People's impressions of it often revolve around the keywords "happiness" and "airplane".

Even Sugiyama Kage didn't know.

Fortunately, Golduck, a Water-type Pokémon, has decent resistance to STAB moves, so the damage it takes isn't too high.

But that's not the problem.

Sugiyama Kage quickly shouted, "Golduck, Psychic!"

He spoke in a hurried tone, mainly because Golducks can't fly.

Landing from that height requires at least a short buffer period, and that time can be fatal.

Golduck's panicked expression immediately calmed down, and blue-purple light emanated from the red bead on its forehead, soon covering its entire body.

Its freefall immediately transformed into a slow, drifting descent.

A mischievous smile flashed across Tokkis's face as he floated on the water. "You can't fly, but I can swim. I'm not a landlubber. Besides, if all else fails, I can fly up here."

With a flap of its triangular wings, Tokiss instantly soared into the air.

"Air Slash".

Tetsuya, of course, wouldn't let this opportunity slip by, and immediately commanded Togekis to launch an attack.

“Chakeyi”

Togekiss yelled and Air Slash reformed, flying towards Golduck in the air.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid," Sugiyama Kage prayed silently in his heart.

This can only be blamed on his not expecting Togekiss to have the rare psychic ability of Switcheroo, and that its psychic power was strong enough to allow it to switch places with Golduck.

Golduck, which can maintain its telekinesis in the air, doesn't have a very good way to dodge.

Even if you were to withdraw your psychic powers and try to fall quickly, it wouldn't work. Acceleration still requires a distance and time, and the speed of the air slash wouldn't give it that chance.

"Wow"

Under his tense gaze, the moment the air slash struck Golduck, Golduck's pupils visibly contracted, and the blue-purple light suddenly vanished.

Sugiyama Kage sighed in frustration.

You cannot use skills while in a cowering state, and Togekiss's attacks will definitely not be a single wave.

Just as he expected, a series of air slashes followed, striking Golduck repeatedly and sending it flying up, down, left, or right.

Golduck didn't even manage to land until the very last moment before it lost its fighting ability, under Togekiss's control.

Golduck is unable to fight, Togekiss wins.

The referee, braving the lightening rain, walked over to Golduck in the field, observed him for a moment, and then raised the flag representing Tetsuya.

On the sidelines, three of the six Poké Ball dots under Sugiyama's portrait had dimmed, each bearing the image of Donphan, Wobbuffet, and Golduck.

On Tetsuya's side, only the Poké Ball representing Serperior dimmed, while the Poké Balls of Togekiss and the remaining four Pokémon that had not yet appeared still glowed.

"The first half of the battle is over. Tetsuya has a big lead right now, but Sugiyama's ace Pokémon, Feraligatr, still hasn't come out yet, so he still has a great chance of winning."

In previous tournaments, Sugiyama Kage's Feraligatr once set a record by defeating three of his opponent's Pokémon single-handedly, demonstrating extremely powerful explosive force and attack power.

Above, the commentator continued to mutter incessantly.

Meanwhile, Tetsuya and Sugiyama Kage had already stepped down from the command platform and returned to their respective temporary rest points.

The 6v6 all-player battle is divided into two halves, and the halftime break is determined by the point at which either side loses three Pokémon.

After all, Pokémon battles are a mentally taxing activity. If you don't rest after three consecutive battles, you're likely to make some strange choices and plays in the second half due to fatigue.

Both sides followed the same procedure upon returning to the rest point: first, they handed over their Pokémon, which had lost its ability to battle, to Nurse Joy from the medical team.

Although Pokémon that have fallen into a coma due to a normal battle can automatically wake up in their Poké Balls, it's impossible to say how much they've recovered. They still need to be treated by Nurse Joy, otherwise, it wouldn't be good if they developed any lasting problems.