Sinnoh vs Hoenn.
At this moment, the Hoenn Island admin inwardly thought, 'Hopefully the top ten from the Sinnoh Region could put up a decent fight~' If his team won too easily, it would probably arouse others' suspicion. 'After all, these little brats were not yet official members of Shadow Team…' Secretly training them was already against the rules!
Now the match had already begun.
Catherine's first Pokémon was Spiritomb. Before the Fairy-type rose to prominence more than ten years later, this Pokémon was not restrained by any official type, and its battle styles were also highly diverse. Catherine's Spiritomb was very strong, not something average Pokémon could handle.
Tetsuya was perfectly clear about Catherine's five main Pokémon. The strongest were Skarmory and Chatot, followed by Gliscor and Honchkrow, and only then Spiritomb.
Four out of the five main Pokémon were Flying-type, which was also her specialty. Their combat power was not something these people could compare with.
---◓---
In merely ten minutes, Catherine used only one Spiritomb and one Honchkrow to swiftly defeat the first opponent.
This left the Hoenn admin dumbfounded. How could this little girl possibly possess such strength?
The Sinnoh admin smiled slightly, thinking that the real show was still yet to come.
As a result, in the battles that followed, the Sinnoh team only won one match…
Aside from Catherine's astonishing performance at the start, the Sinnoh team no longer had any competitors worth mentioning.
"Can you take care of one?" Catherine asked the teammate next to her.
"I'll do my best…"
"Un. Leave the rest to me," Catherine said.
Catherine's words made the eight people on the opposite side grind their teeth in anger. How could she dare speak so shamelessly? Where did such confidence come from…? Just because she defeated one person!?
There were now eight people, and every one of them possessed considerable combat power.
After defeating her first opponent, Catherine had continuously been observing the other battles. Since she could say such words, she naturally had confidence in her heart.
The other Sinnoh winner performed fairly well and successfully took down one opponent.
Catherine needed to face seven Trainers. Although the Pokémon in these seven people's hands were no longer in peak condition, they still had an overwhelming advantage against Catherine.
Honchkrow successfully defeated one opponent before collapsing as well. The people watching the battle still did not believe Catherine would win.
Next, the Gliscor that entered the battle failed to defeat two opponents, while Chatot defeated the second opponent.
Upon seeing Catherine's Chatot appear, these people could only pray for their own luck.
A Pokémon that looked completely ornamental defeated the third, fourth, and fifth opponents. Only upon reaching the sixth opponent did Catherine feel its resistance had reached its limit, and she finally recalled Chatot.
The remaining strongest Skarmory very easily dealt with the final two opponents.
At this moment, the Hoenn team wished they could find a crack in the ground to crawl into. They had completely lost to a little girl, especially the Hoenn Island admin, whose face had turned ashen.
"Yatta! Thanks for going easy on us~" The Sinnoh Island admin's voice was loud and resounding.
"…"
---◓---
In the three battles against Kanto, Hoenn, and Unova, the only Pokémon Tetsuya sent out were Koffing, Beedrill, and Houndoom. He had already become the focal point of the entire battlefield.
Catherine naturally observed every single battle carefully. Right now, she had already placed all her attention on Tetsuya, because he was the only person who might possibly defeat her.
Naturally, Tetsuya also watched every one of Catherine's battles. Aside from the first day when she revealed her strongest Skarmory, it had not appeared again afterward.
On the seventh day, after Tetsuya bagged an overwhelming victory against the Hoenn team, the previously confident Hoenn admin had already begun doubting his life. The team he had secretly trained for more than a year was actually so, eh… vulnerable. Especially this Tetsuya, whose combat power was outrageously terrifying. Up to this point, only three Pokémon had appeared!
While leaving the battlefield, Tetsuya recalled his Pokémon. Catherine was observing him from the corridor.
'Her gaze was so Ice-type…' Tetsuya felt.
'His gaze… was so Ghost-type!' Catherine felt.
When their eyes met, there was no so-called awkwardness. Perhaps in both their eyes, things had already surpassed the competition itself.
Tetsuya walked past Catherine's side.
"Hopefully we can have an exciting battle," Tetsuya said calmly, his gaze fixed ahead.
"…I hope you won't hold back."
"I wouldn't dare." 'Yeah, right…'
---◓---
Two days later, the final match of the trial, the clash between the two strongest teams. Whoever won would become the "champion" of this trial, and the Island admin would have the chance to be promoted.
The Sinnoh's Island admin knew very well that their overall combat power was inferior to Johto's. After planning countermeasures for two days, he had been thinking about how to fight in order to have a chance at victory.
However, the moment the battle began, Catherine stepped forward and said, "Who will fight me?"
"I will!"
Before Tetsuya could speak, Jacky already walked forward.
"You're not her opponent."
Tetsuya directly pushed Jacky aside and stood opposite Catherine.
The Sinnoh admin was exploding with rage. The tactics he had analysed for two days had been ruined just like that. He could only let out a long sigh. Wanting to defeat Johto was fundamentally impossible. Those tactics had merely been psychological comfort.
"Spiritomb."
"Koffing."
Catherine and Tetsuya simultaneously sent out their first Pokémon, while the other nine battles also began one after another.
"Sludge Bomb."
Tetsuya launched the attack first. In truth, he was still very familiar with Catherine's battle style. Next should be Sucker Punch.
"Sucker Punch."
'Hn.'
Catherine's Spiritomb was highly skilled at using this move. Its figure was, well… ghostly, as it suddenly darted forward, like a strand of black mist in the night, silently drifting beside Koffing.
Using Sucker Punch required extremely fast reaction speed and attack speed, allowing it to break the opponent's offensive rhythm before the opponent could attack.
"Poison Gas."
Koffing spraying poisonous gas required not the slightest buildup. Purple poisonous gas instantly shrouded Spiritomb.
If it were an average Pokémon, it would have already started retreating to readjust before attacking again.
Although such poisonous gas made Spiritomb very uncomfortable, there was no turning back once the bullet was fired. This was Catherine's battle style. It forcibly endured the poisonous gas and delivered a Sucker Punch to Koffing.
Koffing, struck by Spiritomb, was immediately sent flying backward, drifting unsteadily for quite a while before stabilizing its body.
However, Spiritomb had already been poisoned!
This left Catherine in shook. Her Spiritomb had extremely strong resistance and normally would not easily fall into such an abnormal state. Was her luck simply too poor, or was this Koffing too special?
Recalling Tetsuya's previous battles, every Pokémon that fought this Koffing had fallen into a poisoned state without exception. Catherine now understood, though she had not expected even such a small amount of poisonous gas could poison Spiritomb…
Koffing's injuries were not light, but Spiritomb's vitality was also continuously draining after being poisoned.