The Pokémon Contest's first qualifying round would advance eight people, followed by one-on-one duels until the final.
Seeing that she wasn't paired with Abigail in the first round, Serena turned to look at Abigail: "Then good luck, let's et in the finals!"
"See you in the finals," Abigail said, turning her head to look at her opponent on the screen.
anwhile, at the Pelican Town Community Center, Joy was currently explaining the rules of Contest Battles to everyone.
Everyone listened in a daze, only knowing that if moves were used gorgeously enough, it could make the opponent lose points, and if you could defeat the opponent's Pokémon, then no matter how many points they had, it would instantly drop to zero.
The Pokémon below were also hearing these rules for the first ti. However, upon hearing that as long as they could defeat their opponent they could advance smoothly, they were no longer nervous one by one, and even climbed onto the table to leisurely distribute Gus's snacks.
Gus had no objection to this. He said cheerfully: "Eat, eat. If it's not enough, I'll go make more at the saloon later."
"Rattata!"
During the discussion, the preparation ti had passed. The first battle was Abigail's.
The opponent's Trainer held an Inkay.
Seeing Abigail was at a type disadvantage from the start, Joy at the counter couldn't help but beco nervous.
anwhile, Ron helped move several boards, turned his head, and just happened to see Gunther coming out of the library. "How do you have ti to co out?" Pam couldn't help asking: "Besides holidays, I've never seen you in town during the day."
"Ca to watch—ah, there's a broadcast here too," Gunther stopped upon hearing this, looking at Abigail on the television: "No one notified . If I hadn't just called the Pokémon Center, I wouldn't have known Abigail was competing in Kalos today!"
Saying this, he leaned in to examine it: "Is this an Inkay?"
Seeing Ron nod, Gunther thought again.
He knew a bit about type advantages and had researched quite a bit himself, so he thought and said: "So that ans Gengar is countered by it?"
"Mm."
But Ron didn't think Gengar would lose.
If he had to say why, it was probably the several rings on Gengar's claws.
They were respectively a Citrine Ring with Defense 1, a Jade Ring with 10% critical hit rate, and a Ruby Ring with 10% attack power boost.
Gunther knew little about rings, so at this mont his face showed so faint worry for Abigail.
Ron glanced at him, then turned back to continue working.
"Inkay, use Psybeam!"
"Inkay gorgeously used Psybeam! Beautiful light completely envelops its body, complenting its body color! A gorgeous strike!"
The host's comntary ca from the television.
Before the words finished, Abigail had already lost five points because of this.
"Amber, use Shadow Ball!"
"Gengar used Shadow Ball!"
"Shadow Ball hit Inkay!"
"Inkay is unable to battle! Gengar wins! The winner is Abigail from Pelican Town!"
"?" Gunther paused, pushed his glasses, and didn't understand for a mont. He looked again and again in confusion: "How could this happen?"
Before he finished speaking, another cheer erupted from the Community Center.
Robin couldn't help but smile, turning back to continue hamring nails into the wooden boards.
But Pokémon battles were still a fresh experience for all of Pelican Town.
Although several families had Pokémon, no one called themselves a "Pokémon Trainer." Most treated Pokémon as family and friends, so there was no reason to have their family compete with others' families to see who was stronger.
"Too bad Gengar only has three fingers on one hand," Ron was counting Gengar's fingers, currently feeling regret about this.
Abigail had been away during this ti, and he had obtained quite a few more rings. Counting it up, even if he put them on all the toes, he couldn't stack many.
"Froak?" Froakie squatting on Ron's shoulder imdiately looked down to count its fingers.
After confirming that it only had ten fingers including its toes, Froakie's face turned solemn.
"Froakie—"
How many fingers did Bellossom have——
"Froak!"
Bellossom has no fingers!
Froakie was instantly relieved. It then patted Ron's shoulder with a face full of regret.
"?" Ron wasn't using mind-reading at this mont, so he didn't know what Froakie was thinking. He was still pondering whether to send a few more rings to Abigail, just in ti to help him test their effects in actual battle.
While calculating, Abigail had already left the stage over there.
"Although the moves weren't gorgeous enough, it can be seen that she has trained her Gengar very well," the judge said.
"This child has been raised quite well. She seems to be from Pelican Town? It seems I've been hearing about Pelican Town quite a bit recently."
With these words, the audience at the venue rembered the famous Pelican Town from so ti ago.
Because only a batch of novice Trainers' Pokémon ca from there, before long, Pelican Town's matter had already beco old news on Kalos's internet.
Only now did everyone rember that there seed to have been a batch of Fletchling that were excellent in all aspects, also from Pelican Town's nursery.
anwhile, Serena below the stage looked at the Inkay that had fallen in one hit again, her expression sowhat grave for a mont.
She had seen this scene several tis.
This ant that if she faced Abigail later, rather than gorgeous moves, what was more important was how to avoid being knocked out by Gengar before she could even perform.
While thinking, she waved at Abigail.
The next round wasn't a battle between the two, so both had to watch the competition. Serena had specifically saved a seat for Abigail.
Gengar hadn't taken any damage at all, and hadn't even exerted much effort, so there was no need to rest. It followed Abigail to sit in the audience seats.
"I'm starting to get a bit nervous," Serena said.
If she had to say, after traveling for so many years, she definitely had high-level Pokémon in her own hands too.
But this was Abigail's first competition—she always felt that winning this way would be sowhat disgraceful.
"What are you thinking?" Abigail sat down and turned her head: "You're not thinking of letting win, are you?"
"Ah—" Serena looked at her with a face that said "how did you know."
"It's written all over your face." Abigail pinched Serena's face and leaned back in her chair: "Don't let win. I've decided, regardless of win or lose, I'm only going to participate in Gym battles."
"Not participating in Pokémon Contests anymore? Why?"
"Ah—how to say it." Abigail thought and said: "I can't quite explain it. Rather than winning, I just wanted to promote this dress—but, I have a friend. I think maybe she would want to participate."
Saying this, Abigail leaned back in her chair, rembering the phone call she had just received.
------------------------------------------------------
40 Chapters Ahead: patreon/EpheralShadow
There's sothing for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)
User Comments
0 comments from readers