Pokémon: Trainers Start as Bounty Hunters.

That's normal. Most trainers see their Pokémon as partners. It's one thing for Rai to have such thoughts, but if he says them out loud, he'll definitely get a lecture.

Tetsuya estimated that he would be educated by others afterward.

Soon, as the contestants arrived and the audience gradually entered the venue, the atmosphere became lively.

The people of this world have an almost fanatical pursuit of Pokémon battles.

A person dressed as a host walked to the center of the venue, holding a megaphone.

"Now, we are about to begin the annual St. Anne's Tournament, an official dojo event in the Kanto region."

As always, over the next two days we will see battles and outstanding performances from the young successors of various gyms.

The rules are the most basic battle rules: an elimination tournament system, with one chance to change your Pokémon. Without further ado, welcome to our players to begin the battle.

First up are Haixin Cheng from the Hailin City Gym and Jinse from the PJ City Gym. Let's welcome them!

The specific draw was conducted last night. The numbers were 1-32, number 1 vs. number 2, number 3 vs. number 4, and so on, forming 16 groups.

Each of the 16 groups is numbered, and the winner of Group 1 will face the winner of Group 2 to determine today's top 8.

The draw for tomorrow will be held tonight.

I have 24 matches to play today, but there's only one venue. Luckily, they're all 2v2, so each match only lasts about ten minutes.

Including rest time, I estimate I won't finish playing until before dinner tonight.

Tetsuya watched the two players going into the game, his mind wandering. His number was 21, which was relatively late in the rankings, so he figured he'd have to wait a while.

It should be around noon, right? After finishing, it'll be a good time to have lunch or something.

While he was thinking, the winner of the first group had already been decided, and Tetsuya mechanically clapped his arms.

There's no way around it; it's not that Zhe doesn't care, but rather that with two elite-level Pokémon at the moment, he doesn't need to think too much about tactical arrangements.

He should just go all out with his strength. Otherwise, what's the point of spending so much money? Although others have also spent money, their efficiency is definitely not as good as his.

He has a zero-level one, which can make one cent have the effect of two or even three cents. Others are lucky if they can cultivate their own materials and make the most of the material itself. They probably can't even do that.

However, Tetsuya knew that for the time being, he could only bully the young people by virtue of this.

In the more distant future, others won't spend much less money or be as efficient as him. At that point, it will come down to the trainer's command skills.

He has been working hard towards this goal.

I spent over two hours learning and observing the matches, though it was rather boring. I paid attention to a few important opponents along the way. Finally, it was Tetsuya's turn to take the stage.

"Next up are Tetsuya from Nibi Dojo and Tetsuo from WW City Dojo."

Upon hearing the host's voice, Tetsuya immediately recalled his opponent's information.

He slowly walked onto the trainer command platform on one side of the battlefield, where his opponent stood steadily opposite him.

It was quite obvious that the noise from both stands gradually increased after Tetsuya entered the arena.

You can vaguely hear people saying things like, "What a handsome guy." "So cool." "His muscles are amazing."

Indeed, while there are hardly any ugly people in this world, those with outstanding looks like Tetsuya, who can rival the readers, are truly rare.

After Tetsuya entered the arena, he blocked out the noise from both sides. After the referee announced the start, he and his opponent, Tetsuo, released their spirits at the same time.

"Go, Stone Ball." "Go, Oo-Tachi."

The Wuwei Gym mainly features Normal and Fighting-type Pokémon, including Iron Man, a common-level Ape, and a common-level Hitmonchan (or Hitmonchan) that is close to elite.

This is the information from the other side.

Tetsuo was well aware of Tetsuya's strength and basic information, knowing that he was one of the four strongest people this time, and even the strongest among the four. However, admitting defeat was out of the question.

The two spoke at the same time.

"Hidden rock ambush, use mud throw to narrow its field of vision."

"Make it rounder and curled up, being careful to avoid the eyes."

The two elves sprang into action quickly.

Shiwanzi cried out, and invisible rocks floated around the arena, their locations unknown to anyone but itself.

If you're not careful, the advancing and replaced Pokémon will be injured by these rocks.

He then picked up soil from the ground, infused it with energy, and threw it at Big Tail Stand.

Oo Tail immediately curled himself up, using both the Coil and Circle techniques to prevent mud from splashing into his eyes while increasing his attack, defense, and focus.

"Shrink the gravity field and deploy it to shoot down the attackers," Zheye calmly commanded.

At this level, the Great Tail has virtually no ranged attack capabilities, and its ability to coil up and become round is useless.

You can just keep consuming the stone balls by maintaining distance.

Iron Man estimated the distance; in a normal battle, a single lightning strike wouldn't be enough to get close enough to the opponent.

"Move at high speed, circle around him, and be careful to avoid the rocks that will knock you down."

Centered on the stone ball, the ground around it seemed to be under pressure and slightly sank down. Then, it continuously condensed rocks and threw them at Oo-o.

Daiki nimbly dodged the rocks, steadily closing in.

Suddenly, it seemed to be attacked by something, paused for a moment, and was immediately hit by a series of falling rocks.

Chapter 52 Close Combat

It was an invisible rock, and Iron Man easily determined what caused this phenomenon.

But there was no other way. He had anticipated this outcome when he ordered Oo-o to get closer. Circling around was his way of trying to avoid it, but not getting close meant certain death.

"Hold on and keep getting closer."

Iron Man can only hope that the defensive bonus from the rounded and coiled shape will allow the Great Tail to stand up and reach within range of a lightning strike.

Fortunately, Ape-Tempered is quite talented in speed. After withstanding two Stealth Rock attacks and five or six Rock Slam attacks, it entered its attack range.

"Now! Flash!" Iron Man shouted immediately.

If you get close enough to the opponent and use a fighting skill, Shimaru will immediately lose his fighting ability if he gets hit.

Ooki and his trainer were quite in sync, and without hesitation, white light emanated from their bodies as they approached Ishigaki.

Tetsuya watched as the battered and panting Oo-Tachi approached Ishimaru without any change in expression.

"fall."

Just as Daio stepped into the range of Ishimaru's gravity skill, causing his body to lose a slight balance and slow down a little, Tetsuya gave an order out of the blue.

It was as if Oo-Tachi had been hit by something; he let out a scream and immediately lost his ability to fight.

Still using stealth rocks, Ishigaki placed some of them in the air within the gravity range. As soon as an opponent enters this range, the stealth rocks will immediately attack them.

With the added effect of gravity, the damage will be even greater.

Tailback isn't exactly a Pokémon known for its defense and stamina, and having already been worn down so many times, it naturally couldn't hold on.

Iron Man gritted his teeth. Although he knew the gap between them was huge, it was still a bit too much that he hadn't even gotten close to Stone Ball.

He recalled his Ape-Tail and took out another Poké Ball. "Here you go, Hitmonchan."

A boxer wearing samurai armor resembling a skirt appeared on the field.

Unfortunately, the number of stealth rocks was limited, and they weren't deployed in too many areas on the other side. After Hitmonlee appeared, he didn't suffer any damage from the surrounding area.

"Use High Speed ​​Star!" Iron Man commanded.

Hitmonlee is his starter Pokémon, and it's not far from being an elite Pokémon. Moreover, its skill set is much better than that of Aiolytek.

Therefore, it is impossible for Tetsuya to defeat Hitler in the same way.

"Block it with rocks."

Tetsuya commanded Ishimaru to control the rocks in front of him, blocking part of the high-speed stars.

Unfortunately, Hitmonlee's release speed and the speed at which his skills traveled were too fast, and a significant amount of damage still hit Ishimaru.

The subsequent high-speed stars struck the rocks in front of Ishimaru, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Come back, Stone Ball! Go, Strong Chicken!"

"just!"

Zhe also decisively took this opportunity to replace the Pokémon. Training the Stone Golem was one thing, but for one that couldn't be defeated, it was better to switch to another Pokémon.

As for why the more restrained Pidgeot wasn't used, it's because there was no need.

The strong chicken crowed once after it appeared.

His development, far surpassing that of his peers, caused many spectators to gasp in astonishment.

A normal Lizard is 0.9m tall and weighs 20kg, so it would be quite small compared to an 1.4m tall, 50kg Hitler.

Moreover, Iron Man's Abhiron is also more developed than average, with a height of 1.5m.

Even so, Tetsuya's Riki-Chicken, standing on the field, looked no less impressive in size than Hitmonchan's.

A flicker of emotion crossed the eyes of each of the contestants on the sidelines; the data was never as obvious as it appeared at the moment.

Even though I already knew that Tetsuya's Mighty Chicken was exceptionally well-bred, this visual display of its size was still quite surprising.

Tetsuya, of course, didn't care what others were thinking, "Flamethrower!"

The Mighty Chicken spat out a long pillar of fire and charged towards Hitmonlee.

It seems to have become an unwritten rule that Fire-type Pokémon should start with Flamethrower.

All Fire-type trainers like to use this move to probe their opponents because it consumes little energy, has great power, is fast, and has a long range, making it an excellent starting move.

At this moment, Hitmonchan had already used Focus Energy during the gap when Tetsuya switched Pokémon, increasing his focus and destructive power.

"Vacuum wave, disperse him!"

Hitmonlee swung his fist and unleashed two transparent vacuum waves that met Combusken's Flamethrower.

The jet of flame dissipated considerably upon contact with the vacuum wave, but a significant amount of flame still struck Hitler.

Iron Man frowned. This was not what he had expected, but thankfully the damage was not high.

"Use high-speed movement to engage in close combat, and unleash a sonic punch!"

Iron Man didn't take it to heart and directed Hitmonlee to approach Robusta for close combat.

Although the report stated that the opponent's Mighty Chicken was skilled in fighting, Tetsuo thought that the opponent could not possibly be a match for Hitler, a close-combat expert.

What I'm worried about now is that the opponent won't engage in close combat, allowing the Mighty Chicken to attack me from mid-range.

"Charged Flame Strike, we'll retaliate with Thunder Fist!"

Tetsuya, of course, was not intimidated at all and immediately commanded the Mighty Chicken to charge forward and fight.

Iron Man was delighted to hear the other party's command, but at the same time he thought to himself that ordinary people really didn't know how to command, and had not undergone systematic training.

The audience members shook their heads in disbelief; this was a really bad choice.

The two Pokémon on the field were agile, with white light emanating from their fists, and covered in flames with electricity crackling around their claws, constantly approaching each other.

"Thump." "Bang." "Snap."

Without hesitation, Broccoli rammed into Hitmonlee, causing it to lose its balance, and then slapped its opponent with its electric claws.

How could Hitmonlee, a Fighting-type Pokémon, be so easily unable to retaliate?

After losing its balance, it used the momentum from the strong chicken's blow to quickly turn around and landed an uppercut on the strong chicken's chin.

Neither of the elves fared well, and they immediately began close combat, exchanging punches and claws without letting up.

The cheers from the sidelines grew even louder; the visceral impact of each punch sent adrenaline through the vein, making everyone even more excited.

Otherwise, so many people wouldn't admire Fighting-type Pokémon.

They were just thinking that Tetsuya's choice was bad, but now it seems that this duel is really too exciting.

Unfortunately, he had a sharp gaze, not an iron fist; Tetsuya watched the battle on the field with remarkable calm.

But this is when Iron Man's expression changes, because he realizes that Mighty Chicken is not at a disadvantage in close combat.

"It can't be that exaggerated, can it?"

Iron Man muttered to himself, "Although there is a difference between ordinary and elite, the difference between the two elves is not actually that big, one is about to break through and the other has just broken through."