Psychic Terrain spread across the battlefield, covering the entire frozen surface.
Yet aside from the pressure created by the raging Blizzard, Mr. Rime detected nothing unusual.
That could only mean one of two things.
Either Alolan Ninetales was hiding somewhere completely motionless...
Or it was flying through the air.
The second possibility was obviously impossible.
Which meant Ninetales had to be quietly waiting somewhere.
Realizing this, Mr. Rime calmed down.
Now that Psychic Terrain had been established, any movement, any action, even the use of a move, would immediately be detected.
But as the Blizzard grew fiercer and fiercer, Mr. Rime began to feel increasingly uncomfortable.
Although it resisted Ice-type attacks, enduring a Blizzard of this magnitude was far from pleasant.
Sooner or later, it had to find Alolan Ninetales.
The problem was that the thick snow now covered the battlefield, making movement extremely inconvenient.
"Use Dark Pulse!"
At that moment, Lin Feng gave a new command.
The instant those words were spoken, both Mr. Rime and Reika sharpened their focus.
An attack command meant only one thing.
Alolan Ninetales was about to move.
If they could pinpoint her location the moment she acted, they still had a chance to counterattack.
"Where is she?!"
"There!"
Reika's eyes swept across the blizzard.
Mr. Rime did the same.
Yet no matter how carefully they searched, they could not detect the slightest movement on the ice.
Then suddenly...
Mr. Rime felt a tremor beneath its feet.
Startled, it instinctively looked down.
But because all of its attention had been focused on the battlefield around it, it failed to react in time.
That single moment of negligence proved fatal.
Crack!
The ice beneath its feet shattered.
The frozen surface collapsed inward.
An instant later, a beam of dark energy erupted upward from beneath the sea.
Mr. Rime's eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
The Dark Pulse struck it directly.
Bzzzz!
Ripples of dark energy surged across its body.
A painful cry echoed across the frozen ocean.
At the same time, Alolan Ninetales burst out from the broken ice.
Countless frozen droplets scattered around her like glittering crystals, making her appear like a streak of brilliant white light.
Besides Fairy-type and Ice-type moves, Alolan Ninetales could also naturally learn Dark-type and Psychic-type techniques.
And against a Psychic-type opponent, Dark Pulse was exactly the kind of move Mr. Rime struggled to handle.
"From the ocean?!"
Both Reika in the sky and Liam watching nearby were stunned.
Especially Reika.
When the Blizzard first appeared, she had naturally assumed that Alolan Ninetales was using Snow Warning.
Later, when Psychic Terrain covered the battlefield and still failed to locate Ninetales, she considered another possibility.
Snow Cloak.
Although she had some doubts, it seemed plausible.
That was why she instructed Mr. Rime to focus on disturbances across the ice.
But now...
She was being told that Alolan Ninetales had been hiding underwater all along?
When had that happened?
Surely Ninetales hadn't entered the sea before Psychic Terrain was deployed?
The Blizzard had already been raging for more than ten minutes.
Alolan Ninetales wasn't a Water-type Pokémon.
How could she possibly hold her breath underwater for that long?
After taking the full force of Dark Pulse, Mr. Rime could barely remain standing.
Although countless questions filled her mind, Reika's first concern was still her partner.
"Come back, Mr. Rime."
A red beam returned the exhausted Pokémon to its Poké Ball.
Meanwhile, Liam had spent more than ten minutes hovering at the edge of the Blizzard.
He was freezing so badly that his entire body trembled.
But the moment he saw Alolan Ninetales emerge from the ocean, his professional instincts took over.
He immediately shouted excitedly into his phone.
"It's in the ocean! My goodness... achoo!"
"I never expected Alolan Ninetales to hide underwater and launch a surprise attack!"
"No wonder Ice Queen Reika's Mr. Rime couldn't find her!"
"One Dark Pulse was enough to completely knock Mr. Rime out of the fight!"
"As expected, Trainer Lin Feng's Pokémon have already reached Elite-level strength!"
"The score is now one to one!"
The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
His assumptions had been almost identical to Reika's.
Even now, after seeing Alolan Ninetales leap from the sea, he still couldn't understand what Lin Feng had been thinking.
"My god..."
"How did he even come up with that?"
"That's incredible."
"I still don't completely understand what happened."
"But that final scene where Alolan Ninetales burst out of the ocean was so cool."
"Now I want an Alolan Ninetales too..."
"Ying Ying Ying~!"
Seeing her victory, Alolan Ninetales immediately celebrated.
She spun happily in circles on the ice.
"What an exceptionally trained Alolan Ninetales."
Reika couldn't help but praise her.
Then, instead of sending out a second Pokémon, she gently shook her head at Lin Feng.
Lin Feng blinked.
"No more battles?"
Was this really all just to see Alolan Ninetales?
"Yes."
"I've already learned what I wanted to know."
"If we continue..."
"The moment you send out Gardevoir, I won't have any chance of winning."
Reika still remembered Gardevoir's performance during the Horizon League.
With that level of psychic power...
Even a Psychic-type Champion's Gardevoir, or perhaps even a Metagross, might not be able to match it.
Perhaps only Fuyo's Moltres could compete.
It was difficult to imagine such a powerful Gardevoir willingly following someone as young as Lin Feng.
Yet whenever she saw the bond between them, she couldn't doubt it.
The affection in Gardevoir's eyes was something fans still talked about to this day.
"Alright..."
Lin Feng didn't argue further.
He instructed Dragonite and Pidgeot to descend.
Then he asked Alolan Ninetales to stop the Blizzard.
As the snowstorm gradually faded, Lin Feng finally understood why Reika wore a white coat over a thick beige sweater despite the thirty-degree weather.
Battling Ice-type Pokémon could lower the surrounding temperature by dozens of degrees at any moment.
Without warm clothing, a person would freeze stiff before the battle even ended.
Nearby, Liam continued sneezing uncontrollably from the cold.
Yet seeing Alolan Ninetales defeat Mr. Rime had filled him with excitement.
He had been eagerly looking forward to the next battle.
And then...
They stopped.
Just stopped.
What kind of torture was this?
The Blizzard had vanished, and both trainers had already landed on the ice.
No matter how tempted he was, Liam didn't dare shout:
"What do you mean, stop?!"
"You got everyone's hopes up with this livestream, and now you're ending it?"
"Keep fighting!"
The viewers shared exactly the same sentiment.
"No more battles?!"
"Impossible!"
"We followed this all the way from the Horizon League to the breeding ranch, then from the ranch to the ocean, and now you're telling us it's over?!"
"Damn it, Liam! Convince them to continue!"
"I'll send more gifts!"
Liam's mouth twitched.
The problem was...
He genuinely didn't dare accept that request.
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