"It's Dragonite!"
Suddenly someone shouted.
Dragonite's figure quickly emerged from the smoke.
However, its charred body showed that it had suffered serious damage.
At the same time, the smoke slowly dissipated, revealing a figure fallen on the ground.
"Magmortar... lost."
The students of Ironvale City Pokémon University sighed with regret. But seeing Dragonite's miserable condition in the air, everyone also breathed a sigh of relief.
Although Dragonite had won, it was severely injured.
In that state, if they sent out Charizard, the result would be obvious.
"Not necessarily yet. Look at Dragonite. It clearly just used the powerful dragon-type move, Outrage."
"As long as it hasn't entered a state of confusion yet, even Charizard might have difficulty defeating it."
Some spectators began analyzing the situation.
It seemed that there was still an intense battle ahead.
"You did very well, Magmortar. Now it's your turn, Rhyperior."
Ethan spoke softly to his Pokémon. Then he released another Poké Ball, and Rhyperior appeared on the field.
"Rhyperior and not Charizard?"
Seeing this, many spectators were puzzled.
Then they slightly shook their heads.
It seemed that Ethan did not want to give the opponent any chance.
First using Magmortar and Rhyperior to wear down the opponent, and then sending out Charizard as the final blow... was undoubtedly the best strategy.
"Dragg... Dragg!"
Dragonite panted in the air, but upon seeing Rhyperior it immediately regained its fighting spirit and opened its mouth, firing the move Hydro Pump.
"Rock Tomb!"
Rhyperior's reaction was just as fast.
A wall of stone rose from the ground, directly blocking the Hydro Pump move.
"Rhyperior, use Sandstorm."
At the same time, Ethan gave another command.
Immediately, countless grains of sand were gathered by Rhyperior, forming a violent sandstorm that covered the entire field.
Seeing the sand coming toward it, Dragonite showed an irritated expression. Its body once again wrapped itself in streams of water, blocking the approaching sand.
Then it flapped its wings. The strong air currents caused the water around its body to begin spinning rapidly, forming a water tornado that enveloped it as it charged toward Rhyperior.
"Rock Wrecker!"
Facing that attack, Rhyperior directly used its most powerful move.
As its arms swelled violently, rock-type energy frantically concentrated in the rocky cavities of its hands. Then two rocks suddenly shot toward Dragonite in the air.
BOOM!
With a deafening roar, both attacks collided violently.
Then, before everyone's astonished eyes, the water tornado surrounding Dragonite was destroyed in a single blow!
"What kind of move is that Rock Wrecker!? Its power is too terrifying!"
Seeing this, the spectators began to exclaim in surprise. If the Rock Wrecker move could destroy Dragonite's water tornado, then its power was definitely at the Quasi-Elite level!
"Two Rock Wrecker attacks?"
In the Daleron League area, Lucas, who was watching the battle, could not help but twitch his eye.
According to his earlier tests, a single attack of the Rock Wrecker move had enough power to rival the move Hyper Beam.
And if two were fired in succession, it was equivalent to launching Hyper Beam twice in a row. With the combined power of both attacks, its strength was simply monstrous.
Not even the Dragonite wrapped in its water tornado could withstand it.
"But after using that Rock Wrecker, Rhyperior should remain immobile for a while..." Lucas frowned as he recalled the side effect of that move.
Under those circumstances, even if Rhyperior had stopped Dragonite's attack, it would not be very useful.
After briefly reorganizing itself, Dragonite could launch another offensive, and then Rhyperior would have no way to resist.
"Wait... what is that?!"
At that moment, a cry of surprise echoed through the stadium.
Dragonite, who was flying in the air, suddenly began flapping its wings vigorously.
It seemed as though some invisible force was pressing on it, preventing it from maintaining flight.
"Again!"
"The same thing happened earlier with Swanna! That's how it lost!"
Seeing the scene in the sky, everyone focused their attention, trying to figure out what was happening.
"Could it be gravity?"
Someone proposed that theory, but it was quickly dismissed.
"Rock-type energy... could it be that move?" Suddenly, Lucas thought of a possibility.
During the tournament for the world championship qualification spots, Rhyperior had used a move similar to the move Gravity that had caused Sceptile to stop momentarily.
The current situation was very similar.
"If I'm not mistaken, it must be the move Smack Down. But I didn't expect Rhyperior to have integrated that move into the sand of the sandstorm. In that way, all the sand covering the field forms a domain of the move Smack Down, turning the sky into a completely prohibited zone for flying." After reaching that conclusion, Lucas inhaled slightly.
Being able to use the move Smack Down in that way proved that this Rhyperior had already found its own path, and had the potential to reach the Elite level or even Champion.
"Finish it. Use Rock Wrecker again."
While Dragonite struggled against the effect of the Smack Down move in the air, Rhyperior had already recovered from the side effect of the Rock Wrecker move.
Then it raised one hand, aimed at Dragonite in the sky, and fired Rock Wrecker once more.
The attack shot forward with terrifying force and struck Dragonite directly, sending it flying.
BOOM!
Dragonite crashed violently to the ground, raising a huge cloud of dust.
When the dust settled, this Quasi-Elite level Dragonite had already lost the ability to battle.
"A Quasi-Elite level Dragonite... defeated?"
Seeing that Ethan had defeated Dragonite using only Rhyperior and Magmortar, all the spectators were left with their mouths open.
For them, a Quasi-Elite level Pokémon was practically invincible in this tournament.
Once it appeared on the field, it would normally sweep through everything, with no rivals except others of the same level.
However, Ethan had managed to turn the situation around using two Pokémon that had only just reached that level, also demonstrating his extraordinary command ability and judgment.
Moreover, this Rhyperior was full of mysteries in the eyes of the audience.
The terrifyingly powerful Rock Wrecker move, and that move capable of making flying Pokémon lose the ability to fly...
What kind of moves were those?
"It seems that against that Rhyperior... it's best not to send out flying-type Pokémon."
Some trainers frowned.
After watching this battle, they began mentally readjusting the lineups of their teams to face Ethan.
(End of Chapter)