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Late at night, Dawn, who should have been sleeping indoors, stood on the balcony outside her room, boredly gazing at the night sky.
Relying on the bright white moon in the sky, she tried to wash away some of the melancholy in her heart.
"What's wrong, Dawn? Is it because you lost the battle?"
Ash suddenly walked out from the door, smiling as he asked the deeply dejected Dawn.
"Ah~ losing to Maylene so easily, it's not quite the Pokémon battle I imagined!"
Leaning on the railing, Dawn sighed in a low voice.
In her expectations, it should have been a back-and-forth battle with Maylene.
However, in today's performance, she was almost crushed by the opponent's Lucario.
Ash seemed to have figured out Dawn's thoughts. He brought Pikachu to the girl's side and offered some amused comfort.
"She is a Gym Leader after all. Even if she's a newcomer, she's not someone your Piplup can handle. Besides, as a challenger, your performance was already very good!"
Although Maylene was left depressed by Paul, she still had the strength. Dealing with Dawn's Piplup was more than enough.
After all, she couldn't handle a Trainer like Paul who had traveled through multiple regions, but defeating a newcomer like Dawn who just started her journey this year was simply easy.
"That's easy to say~"
Dawn's tone was still full of unwillingness, but the melancholy in her heart had lessened a lot.
She leaned on the balcony railing, feeling relatively happier, and continued to gaze up at the starry sky.
Seeing this, Ash imitated Dawn's posture, gazing at the stars together, occasionally teasing Dawn. The night passed quickly.
When the next day arrived, Ash and the others, along with Reiji, arrived at the Gym on time once again to conduct the Gym challenge.
Maylene didn't waste time; she immediately had the middle-aged man wearing a karate uniform read the rules, and then Ash and Maylene each sent out their own Pokémon.
As the Gym Leader, Maylene sent out a Machoke first, which was primarily gray, covered in robust muscles, and wore a gold belt.
"Hey, hey, hey~" On Ash's side, he sent out the confident Buizel, which kept beckoning towards the opponent, attempting to Taunt them.
"Buizel, Sonic Boom!" As the challenger, Ash's side had the right to attack first.
"Wei-wei~" Upon hearing the command, Buizel turned around and whipped its tail, sending two white energy waves straight at Machoke.
"Dynamic Punch~" Relying on its strong thigh muscles, Machoke leaped up suddenly, its fist glowing with white light as it shattered the incoming Sonic Boom.
"Aqua Jet!" After that, a blue water column enveloped Buizel and rushed straight toward Machoke's position.
Machoke hurriedly used Dynamic Punch to clash with the opponent, forcefully taking the Aqua Jet while delivering a counterattack.
However, during the clash, because Machoke had hastily used Dynamic Punch to defend, it was forcibly knocked back by Buizel's Aqua Jet, and its entire body went flying backward.
"Buizel, Hydro Pump~" Seeing this situation, Ash commanded Buizel to press the attack.
A thick water column sprayed from Buizel's mouth, shooting straight toward the Machoke lying on the ground.
"Machoke, come on, use Cross Chop!" Maylene shouted, striking a martial artist's pose.
Hearing this, Machoke stood up with determined eyes, preparing to use Cross Chop to confront the Hydro Pump reaching its face.
"Machoke~" Machoke's robust body exerted force suddenly, and with a majestic roar, it actually split the Hydro Pump into two parts, which was truly exhilarating.
But the consumption was not low, and Machoke stood there panting as a result.
"Aqua Jet~" Before Machoke could catch its breath, the water column enveloping Buizel rushed straight at Machoke again, knocking it flying once more.
"Aqua Tail~" Taking advantage of Machoke not having gotten up yet, Buizel rushed straight at the opponent's position, whipping up a violent current from its tail.
It whipped against Machoke's face a few times, making it howl in pain. After struggling a bit, it fainted.
"Machoke, return!" Although it lost, Machoke's persistence in splitting the Hydro Pump satisfied Maylene, so she didn't feel sad.
Her expression became more serious as she looked at Ash and sent out her second Pokémon, Meditite. It was a Pokémon with a sky-blue body and a head resembling a bun.
"Meditite, Psybeam~" "Buizel, Double Team~"
Right from the start, the bun-headed Meditite launched a fierce attack, with a seven-colored energy beam rushing straight at Buizel.
Buizel had also used Double Team in advance to increase its evasion rate, hiding its true self while splitting into seven clones to surround Meditite.
"Hydro Pump~" Buizel fired Hydro Pump from eight directions simultaneously, attacking the Meditite in the center.
"Meditite, Detect~" Meditite's bun-like head's eyes glowed with blue light, and it dodged the Hydro Pump mixed with the clones, miraculously avoiding Buizel's offensive.
"Meditite, Calm Mind~" Although it dodged this attack, Maylene's face was still full of grimness.
Because the Detect move, like Protect, has limitations, and continuous use will reduce the success rate of the move.
So, to deal with the upcoming onslaught, Maylene hurriedly had Meditite strengthen itself to increase the intensity of its Psychic power.
Meditite's entire body glowed with a faint purple light, constantly boosting its Special Attack and Special Defense.
Before Buizel's next round of attacks arrived, Meditite successfully completed its strengthening. But at this moment, Buizel and its clones used Aqua Jet and rushed over suddenly.
Then, it opened its mouth, teeth glowing with black energy, and bit down on Meditite's bun-shaped head.
"Mediti~" Although there was no double effectiveness, having its fragile head bitten caused significant damage, making Meditite cover its bun-shaped head and howl, baring its teeth.
"Oh no!" Maylene was startled. She had thought Buizel was using Aqua Jet, so she wanted Meditite, whose Calm Mind had just finished, to take the hit.
But she hadn't expected that the Aqua Jet was just to let Buizel get close to Meditite, using it as cover.
"Meditite, use Confusion to pull Buizel away" "Mediti"
The flustered Meditite only then realized this. Its eyes glowed with the blue light representing Psychic power, preparing to pull the Buizel off its head.
But it didn't expect the pain in its head to become even greater, and the Confusion dissipated because it couldn't concentrate.
"Meditite, Force Palm~" Seeing this, Maylene could only change her strategy, intending to rely on the paralysis effect caused by Force Palm to make Buizel let go.
"Water Pulse~" Ash had already anticipated this. Buizel kept biting without letting go, while its free hands condensed a blue Energy Ball.
It slammed it onto the ground, creating a wave of water that knocked Meditite down, forcibly interrupting its Force Palm, allowing Buizel to continuously deal damage through Crunch.
The victory of the second match was within reach.