It was the third elimination round.
When they first arrived on the island, there had been one hundred people. Now only thirty-eight remained. No one knew how many people would be eliminated this time.
Those who had managed to survive for a year and a half in such a harsh environment all possessed a certain level of strength, and their minds had also become exceptionally resilient. The confusion and helplessness from before had long since faded away. Now everyone wanted to become the strongest.
On this day, Raven once again gathered everyone, letting the scorching summer sun to shine directly upon every person. Even though sweat had already rolled into their eyes, no one moved because of it.
"This time… eighteen people will be eliminated!"
"""!????"""
After Raven finished speaking, many Trainers could not help swallowing nervously.
"This round is also very fair. I will not force every strong person to accept death. The matches will be conducted in three rounds.
The first round will be five-on-five Single Battles. Winners will accumulate five points, while losers will accumulate points equal to the number of the opponent's Pokémon they defeat.
The second round will consist of two Double Battles. Winners will accumulate four points, while losers, again, will accumulate points equal to the number of the opponent's Pokémon they defeat.
The third round will be one Triple Battle. Winners will accumulate three points, while losers will accumulate points equal to the number of the opponent's Pokémon they defeat.
The opponents in all three rounds will be different. In the end, the top twenty will continue… surviving, on the island."
After Raven explained the rules, no one had any objections to such regulations. Furthermore, the level of most Trainers here was relatively close, and these battles were detailed down to the victory or defeat of each Pokémon. Therefore, every battle was extremely important.
---◓---
Kurusaki Sō's ship arrived as scheduled, and the competition also proceeded intensely.
For the first draw, Tetsuya drew Ben, the former leader of the Cianwood City team, a muscular powerhouse similar to the Cianwood Gym Leader Chuck. He specialized in power-based fighting styles, and his level was also formidable.
Unlike Kanta's cunning approaches, this man preferred direct frontal battles. Although simple, such battles often produced miraculous results, hot-blooded yet not lacking in rationality.
Among all the participants, his level was definitely within the top five. Unfortunately, this time he had encountered Tetsuya.
Ben flexed his muscles toward Tetsuya and said, "…There is nothing that strength cannot solve."
'…'
"Hopefully so."
After Tetsuya spoke, he had already stepped onto the field planned out by the Shadow Team. As far as he knew, Ben had three Fighting-types. However, Tetsuya had two Ghost-type Pokémon. No matter how much "strength" Ben possessed, what use was it if he could not bring it into play?
Ben's first Pokémon was Hitmonchan.
The first Pokémon Tetsuya sent out was still Golett. His next step was planning Golett's Evolution.
Piloswine already had the qualifications for Evolution. As long as it finished licking the Eternal Ice and removed the Everstone held on its body, it could evolve.
Therefore, among his Pokémon, the only one that had not yet met the conditions for Evolution was Golett.
Golett's Evolution was also of utmost importance. Although Golurk was not a Flying-type, its flying capabilities far surpassed most Flying-type Pokémon.
Furthermore, aside from Legendary Pokémon, Golurk absolutely ranked first in terms of flight time. This was an area where it greatly surpassed Flying-type Pokémon.
Flying-type Pokémon relied on the flapping of their wings to fly. After flying long distances without proper rest, their stamina would naturally decline, making it difficult to continue maintaining flight.
However, Golurk was different. It converted components from the air into its own fuel, achieving a form of flight similar to rocket propulsion. It could be said that it did not require consuming much of its own stamina, so its flight time capacity was naturally extremely strong.
The moment Ben saw Golett, he instantly felt things were going badly. Most of Hitmonchan's moves were completely sealed off, and it was quickly defeated by Golett.
For his second Pokémon, he sent out the Normal-type Ursaring. As expected, it was another power-based Pokémon. However, Ursaring knew quite a few Dark-type moves. Ben definitely did not had a Pokémon that could absolutely counter Golett, otherwise he would not have sent out Ursaring.
However, this Ursaring's strength truly was impressive. Most importantly, its Ability was Guts. It battled Golett for more than ten minutes. Even after being struck countless times by Drain Punch, it still refused to fall, and even launched a desperate counterattack, using Feint Attack to hit Golett.
The battle had already continued for a very long time. Ben shouted himself hoarse while encouraging Ursaring.
Golett smashed a Dynamic Punch directly onto Ursaring's head, causing Ursaring to enter a Confused state. However, Ursaring, in an abnormal state, unexpectedly erupted with astonishing combat power. Dark-type energy condensed around its claws as it tightly gripped Golett.
Tetsuya also sensed that the situation was becoming unfavorable and had Golett continuously use Drain Punch against Ursaring's head.
In the end, Ursaring and Golett both collapsed simultaneously.
Tetsuya recalled Golett. Ben's direct and reckless fighting style truly left people helpless once it went berserk…
However, it all depended on whether he would have such good luck next time.
Ben's third Pokémon was Hitmonlee. When Tetsuya sent out Gengar, Ben was already nearly in despair.
Gengar's battles no longer required much command from Tetsuya.
Ben's Hitmonlee was quickly defeated. Soon afterward, the Marowak and Machamp that entered the field also failed to last more than ten minutes before losing their combat ability.
After this match, Ben only obtained one point. When recalling Machamp, even his hands were trembling slightly. With such a score, he would definitely rank near the bottom in this round. In the next two rounds, he would need to put forth far greater effort to avoid elimination.
The Double Battle matches were held the next day.
This format of battle had not yet become popular. However, in the wilderness or during group fights, there were basically no battle rules at all. Usually, people simply threw out however many Pokémon they had, and two-on-two battles were also a very common occurrence.
Therefore, battles like these were all conducted through trial and error. Many Double Battle tactics that would later become popular were not yet being used by anyone.
Even those who occasionally had some ideas only came up with temporary tactics overnight. There were basically no systematic tactics at all. What they relied upon was still the individual combat ability of each Pokémon.
There would be a total of two Double Battle matches. There was a very high possibility that only one Double Battle combination would already be enough for Tetsuya to win the entire "competition".
However, battles changed in an instant, and no one could predict what would happen. Just like Ben's Ursaring, which had displayed astonishing power while in its Rampaging status. Therefore, it was absolutely necessary to prepare two Double Battle combinations.
The first combination was naturally Houndoom and Beedrill's "[Blightfire Assault]". This tactic had already been trained to perfection, and winning two consecutive matches should not be a problem.
The second combination was the cooperation between Piloswine and Gengar.
Piloswine and Gengar were currently the strongest members of his team. Their abilities in every aspect were flawless. Even without coordination, the individual strength of those two alone was enough to let Tetsuya rest easy.