Once everything was prepared, Silas followed the crowd toward the public battle arena aboard the cruise ship.
By the time he arrived, the place was already packed.
Not only with participating Trainers, but also ordinary passengers who had come purely to watch the excitement.
Silas stood quietly near a corner, Umbreon sitting calmly beside him. Like him, many Trainers had released one Pokémon to remain at their side.
Silently, Silas observed the competition.
Most League Trainers rarely bothered concealing the energy fluctuations of their Pokémon, making it fairly easy for him to roughly judge their strength.
Among all the participants:
• Pokémon above Level 30 were surprisingly rare.
• Probably less than ten percent.
Most hovered around:
• Level 10 to 20
• Or barely above Level 30
Once nearly all contestants had gathered, a referee stepped onto the platform.
Without wasting time, he briefly explained the rules again before officially announcing the start of the tournament.
Each participant would be assigned a random battlefield.
No one questioned the fairness of the arrangement. After all, the Joy family's reputation alone was enough.
Silas casually glanced at the screen displaying the brackets.
More than two hundred people had entered.
Nearly one-fifth of the entire cruise ship.
He was assigned to Battlefield 26.
The moment he arrived, his opponent's expression instantly turned miserable.
Yesterday's battle between Silas and Eric had already spread across the ship. Even people who hadn't witnessed it personally had heard the rumors.
As a result, most participants already regarded Silas as one of the strongest competitors in the tournament.
Every time he passed a battlefield, Trainers looked at him with caution and hostility And every time he walked away ,They secretly sighed in relief.
Silas merely smiled faintly. To him, it was nothing more than the complaints of the weak.
"Go! Prinplup!"
His opponent appeared to be around the same age as him. Judging from his expensive clothing, his family background was clearly decent. And the Pokémon he sent out confirmed it.
A Prinplup.
The evolved form of Piplup, one of Sinnoh's starter Pokémon.
"Prin! Plup!"
The blue penguin lifted its head proudly, looking arrogantly at Silas and the surrounding spectators.
Prinplup were known for exactly this kind of personality:
• Proud
• Independent
• Convinced they were superior to everyone else
Silas rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
'Who should I use…?'
Because Elite-level Pokémon were banned:
• Crawdaunt
• Sharpedo
• Honchkrow
couldn't participate.
Sandile was strong, but still under Level 30 and stuck in its base form. The stat disadvantage was too large.
As for Zorua It had only recently left infancy and lacked real battle experience. After considering everything, only one option remained.
"Umbreon. You're up."
"Umbre!"
Umbreon lightly leapt onto the battlefield with graceful movements. The moment she landed, her cold crimson eyes swept toward Prinplup.
An overwhelming aura of pride and indifference spread instantly across the arena.
Prinplup visibly flinched.
Still, its pride forced it to maintain posture:
• head raised
• chest puffed out
• standing stiffly in place
But combined with the fear in its eyes… It looked strangely awkward.
The spectators quickly reached the same conclusion.
'A Pokémon obsessed with maintaining appearances.'
The referee raised his flag.
"Battle start!"
Both Trainers immediately gave commands.
"Prinplup, use Water Pulse!"
"Umbreon, Shadow Ball."
Both sides chose ranged attacks to probe each other first.
Clearly, both Trainers were cautious.
However Umbreon's attack speed was vastly superior. Before Prinplup had even fully condensed its Water Pulse, Umbreon's Shadow Ball had already launched forward.
Ghost-type attacks were famous for their speed and unpredictability.
The dark sphere collided with the watery pulse.
BOOM!
Smoke instantly exploded across the battlefield.
Prinplup immediately lost its sense of direction within the smoke cloud But Umbreon? A nocturnal Pokémon specialized in fighting within darkness.
This environment favored it completely.
Silas immediately seized the opportunity.
"Umbreon. Pursuit."
Inside the white smoke, faint golden rings glowed softly.
Then A black shadow flashed through the battlefield.
Smack! Bam! Thud!
A series of impacts echoed continuously from within the smoke.
When the smoke finally dispersed, the audience froze.
Prinplup was kneeling on one wing, bruised and barely able to remain standing.
Meanwhile Umbreon stood calmly nearby, expression cold and detached.
Like an ancient snow mountain untouched for a thousand years.
Cold.
Arrogant.
Untouchable.
"Umbreon, Dark Pulse."
Just as Silas prepared to finish the match, the opposing Trainer panicked. Seeing Prinplup's injuries, he hurriedly shouted toward the referee:
"I surrender! I surrender!"
And just like that Silas won effortlessly.
The gap had simply been too large:
• Level advantage
• Breeding advantage
• Experience advantage
• Tactical advantage
Everything favored Umbreon.
In fact, the fact that Prinplup survived the Pursuit combo at all slightly exceeded Silas's expectations.
After the match ended, Silas didn't even bother heading toward the medical room. Umbreon had taken no damage and barely spent any stamina.
Instead, he began wandering around the other battlefields, observing potential opponents and gathering information And soon He noticed someone interesting.
A girl using a Glaceon.
Her battle ended in less than thirty seconds. Even Silas couldn't help narrowing his eyes slightly.
That Glaceon had been raised exceptionally well.
In fact…Even better than Selene's Glaceon from the Solans family.
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(End of chapter)