"Beedrill, you're up." As soon as Tetsuya finished speaking, Beedrill's wings vibrated, and in the blink of an eye, it had arrived on the battlefield.
Seeing Beedrill's incredible speed, Morty clenched his fist. As long as his tactics succeeded… he was determined to win this battle!
"Dusknoir, the final battle is up to you!"
Morty's words rang out with conviction, and Dusknoir immediately sensed his determination to win. Its expression instantly became serious.
"Trick Room!" Morty gave the command. Dusknoir had outstanding Defense and Special Defense, while its physical Attack was also respectable. Its only weakness was its low Speed. Trick Room seemed like a move tailor-made for it.
Within Trick Room space, the slower a Pokémon was, the faster it became instead. As a result, Dusknoir's Speed became outstanding inside Trick Room.
On the other hand, Beedrill, whose greatest strength was its incredible Speed, would mercilessly lose that advantage within this space. With its poor defenses and its Speed stripped away, Beedrill would have no way to fight.
A Beedrill without Speed was no different from a Shuckle with its shell removed!
"Beedrill, Double Team."
So this was the strategy. Tetsuya immediately came up with a countermeasure. The only option was to use Beedrill's clones to buy time. The moment Trick Room disappeared would be the moment for Beedrill to launch its counterattack.
While Dusknoir was creating Trick Room, Beedrill had already created more than twenty clones. The field was filled with the buzzing of Beedrill, creating an exceptionally spectacular scene.
Morty could not help but click his tongue. If Beedrill gained control of the battlefield, would that not leave him with no choice but defeat?
"Attack, Dusknoir!"
Trick Room had already been completed.
Whoosh~ Whoosh~ Whoosh~!
Dusknoir darted through Trick Room, swinging Shadow Punch so rapidly that it seemed to blur into afterimages. Beedrill's clones were eliminated one after another, and before long, half of them had already disappeared.
Now that Beedrill's speed had become very slow, it had no way to replenish the destroyed clones. It could only watch helplessly as Dusknoir wreaked havoc.
After relentlessly eliminating more than twenty clones, Beedrill's true body finally appeared. Dusknoir also let out several heavy breaths. After all, attacking at such a high frequency placed a considerable strain on its physical condition.
At this moment, Beedrill felt as though every flap of its wings was being weighed down by a thousand pounds under the effects of Gravity. It could barely maintain flight.
"Go, Dusknoir! Use Fire Punch!"
After spending so long attacking nothing but clones, the real target had finally appeared. How could Morty not be excited? Even Dusknoir had built up a great deal of frustration. Flames wrapped around one of its fists as it struck toward Beedrill.
"Use X-Scissor to resist it."
Tetsuya had no other choice. The only option was to meet the attack head-on. There was no way to dodge it now.
Beedrill crossed its twin stingers in front of itself and met Dusknoir's Fire Punch head-on.
Although Dusknoir had respectable strength, it gradually found itself unable to withstand Tetsuya's Beedrill. Beedrill suddenly swung its crossed stingers, sending Dusknoir flying backward, leaving an X-shaped wound carved by X-Scissor across its body.
"Th…!" Morty swallowed hard. He had thought victory was already within his grasp, yet such an unexpected turn of events had occurred. This Beedrill was not only incredibly fast, but also had astonishing strength. Even Dusknoir could not overpower it.
Now his only option was to take advantage of Dusknoir's speed within Trick Room.
"Guerrilla tactics!"
This was the most common tactic that relied on Speed. It was most often used by Pokémon that depended entirely on their Speed advantage to overcome stronger opponents. Tetsuya's own Beedrill frequently used this tactic as well. Now, however, the tables had turned, and someone else was using the same tactic against him.
"Use whichever move is most convenient to resist."
After giving Beedrill its instructions, Tetsuya watched as it immediately focused its attention, ready to respond to Dusknoir's attacks at any moment.
Dusknoir continuously attacked Beedrill from every direction. Beedrill used [Twin Fury], X-Scissor, Poison Jab, and other moves in response.
Although dealing with Dusknoir's relentless attacks was somewhat difficult, they ultimately failed to inflict any substantial damage on Beedrill. Meanwhile, Beedrill could already feel its body becoming lighter and lighter.
At last, Dusknoir stopped and began panting heavily. Such high-frequency attacks placed the greatest strain on physical condition, and it was obvious that Dusknoir's stamina had run out. Among Ghost-type Pokémon, aside from Drifblim, which had exceptional stamina, the others generally had poor stamina. Dusknoir was no exception.
Meanwhile, Beedrill had essentially been waiting in reserve. It only had to defend itself whenever it was attacked, so its stamina consumption was naturally nowhere near as severe as Dusknoir's.
Just as Dusknoir was catching its breath, Trick Room shattered!
A faint smile appeared on Tetsuya's face. "Beedrill, Double Team."
Beedrill suddenly felt the pressure disappear from its body. It soared into the sky and its suppressed power burst forth in an instant as more than twenty doubles appeared around it.
Dusknoir stared in complete disbelief.
"Q-Quick, use Trick Room!" Morty had already realized something was wrong and hurriedly gave the command.
"Give it up. Beedrill, [Twin Fury]."
More than twenty Beedrill shot downward like Draco Meteors. With Metronome, the power of [Twin Fury] increased each time it was used. Before Dusknoir even had the chance to use Trick Room, it had already been stabbed four or five times and could only struggle to defend itself.
"Use Gyro Ball to resist it!" Morty still refused to give up.
It was already too late to use anything now.
After receiving Morty's command, Dusknoir began spinning. A metallic sheen enveloped its body, forming an excellent protective barrier.
However, under Metronome's increasing power boost, Beedrill's [Twin Fury] became stronger and stronger. After several consecutive stabs from its twin stingers, even the spinning Dusknoir was forcibly brought to a stop by Beedrill.
Morty could hardly believe his eyes, while Ryuto was practically drooling. "H-How can it possibly have that kind of power…?"
Dusknoir crashed heavily to the ground, defeated by Beedrill's twin stingers. At that moment, all of Beedrill's clones merged back into one, which remained hovering high in the air with its stingers still pointed directly at Dusknoir.
Morty sighed, recalled Dusknoir, shook his head, adjusted his emotions, and said, "…I'm still far from you. This was a complete defeat…"
"It's different, Morty. On Shadow Island, we wandered between life and death every single day. In that kind of environment, both my Pokémon and I had our nerves stretched to the limit every moment. That was why all of our potential was squeezed out, letting us to reach this level of power. You still have plenty of room to improve," Tetsuya said.
Only then did Morty feel a little better. After all, he was the future Gym Leader, and this was a defeat he could accept.
In truth, being a Gym Leader was a profession that required knowing how to lose. An outstanding Gym Leader, after discovering a Challenger's strengths, would "lose" naturally.