With Pikachu seizing the initiative with a crackling Thunderbolt, the battle officially detonated.
Anna Lee stopped giving a shit whether Ralts had the Trace Ability or not; since the Ability hadn't triggered, that was more than enough for her.
As long as she wasn't hindered by a traced Lightning Rod, there was no logical reason her Pikachu should lose to another female Pokémon like Ralts in a fair fight.
She admitted this Ralts was freakishly strong, and that Psychic attack was definitely a bitch to tank—it possessed a level of ntal intensity that no newborn Psychic-type should ever have.
But if it's too hard to tank, the simple solution is just not to get hit, right?
What was Pikachu's greatest advantage?
Speed!
Pikachu's raw speed could easily outclass many fully-evolved, final-stage Pokémon.
Combined with Quick Attack and her still-hidden Double Team move, dodging Ralts's telepathic waves should be a fucking walk in the park.
So far, her Pikachu had only revealed Quick Attack, Thunderbolt, and Iron Tail, keeping Double Team and Electroweb strictly up her sleeve.
Of course, when it ca to hiding cards, Lorze was the real professional.
That bastard had been steamrolling everyone with nothing but a single Psychic attack, without even exposing his Ability. God only knows how much more shit he's hiding in his dirty bag of tricks; Anna refused to believe Ralts didn't know anything besides telekinesis.
If he was hiding a move that hard-countered Electric-types, she'd just have to eat shit and take the loss.
But even if she lost, she was determined to force him to reveal his Ability or his hidden moves. To try and hide his power while facing her—wasn't that just a blatant insult to her skill?
What Anna didn't know was that it wasn't that Lorze wanted to hide his moves; it was just that his hidden moves were completely useless against a Pikachu.
He obviously couldn't use Thunder Punch against an Electric-type, right?
Only a fucking moron would try that.
So, Anna's plan to force out his hidden trump cards was destined to be a total failure.
"Pikachu! Stay mobile and spam Thunderbolt! Don't give Ralts a single second to focus her ntal energy!" Anna barked the order.
"It's useless. Did you forget we can Teleport? Ralts, dodge first, then hit back with Psychic!" Lorze commanded, his voice dripping with confidence.
The second the orders were issued, Pikachu and Ralts moved simultaneously. Pikachu's tiny, compact body was incredibly agile, weaving across the field while unleashing violent bolts of Thunderbolt.
Ralts's reaction was just as lightning-fast, vanishing in a Teleport to easily evade the strike, before instantly firing a devastating Psychic wave back at Pikachu.
Telepathic waves are normally invisible and colorless, but when concentrated Psychic energy is physically manifested, it takes on a visible, pulsating violet-crimson glow.
Therefore, as long as one's focus was sharp enough, dodging the waves wasn't an impossible dream.
Furthermore, Pikachu's speed was genuinely terrifying; under the effects of Quick Attack, Lorze couldn't even track its movents with his bare eyes, seeing only a blur of white light.
But he wasn't the one fighting, so it didn't matter if he couldn't see it—as long as Ralts could lock onto the target, they were golden.
Before the match even started, Lorze had anticipated this would be a grueling battle of attrition. Pikachu's lightning-fast strikes wouldn't easily hit a Teleporting Ralts, but Ralts's Psychic waves would find it just as hard to tag a high-speed, dodging Pikachu.
All they could do was relentlessly probe and attack, forcing the opponent into a positioning error and draining their physical and ntal stamina, never allowing them a single heartbeat to breathe.
In such a violent exchange of offense, both side's physical and ntal reserves would evaporate rapidly. The second their stamina failed to sustain such high-intensity combat, whoever slowed down first was going to get brutally eliminated!
Pikachu unleashed another Thunderbolt to force Ralts into a Teleport, then perfectly predicted her exit point, closing the distance with a Quick Attack before whipping around with an Iron Tail, aiming to smash her face in.
But Ralts was long accustod to chaining multiple Teleports; she had been sparring against a lethal Azumarill, after all. She could react to and evade attacks far more savage than anything this Pikachu could throw.
Facing the sneak attack, Ralts executed a double-chain Teleport to reset the distance, imdiately firing a high-power Psychic wave during the tiny window of Pikachu's move lag.
Just as the wave was about to connect, Pikachu's silhouette suddenly blurred and warped. In an instant, five identical Pikachus appeared on the field—Anna had finally been forced to reveal her hidden Double Team.
The Psychic wave slamd into a clone, doing absolutely jack shit.
Simultaneously, the remaining four Pikachus unleashed Thunderbolts from every direction, effectively sealing off all of Ralts's evasion routes.
Relying on her monstrous ntal energy, Ralts quickly deduced that two of the bolts were just illusions, but the other two were already screaming toward her. With no other choice, she burned more ntal power to Teleport out of the danger zone.
The two sides were locked in a vicious cycle of pulling, probing, and refusing to back down. The intensity was so high it didn't even feel like a rookie match; if soone said this was the Grand Finals, the crowd would have believed it!
Even the spectators who usually looked down on rookie events were finally drawn in, ignoring the pure white gimmick to focus entirely on the raw combat.
"What a savage offensive exchange! Both Trainers have completely abandoned defense, hunting for even the tiniest opening. Will Ralts's telepathic wave land first, or will Pikachu's speed reign supre? It's impossible to call the winner until the final strike!"
The comntator's voice was full of unbridled passion; it was truly rare to see such a high-level stalemate in a rookie tournant. The performance of both Trainers was flawless—this was a textbook model of how a Pokémon battle should be fought.
"It's impressive. They're fighting on perfectly equal footing. But that's exactly why it's terrifying. Rember, Pikachu has already evolved once, while Ralts is still just a newborn baby. Yet her ntal stamina is actually keeping pace with Pikachu's physical energy. It's unbelievable," Xue Tong noted, her eyes filled with genuine astonishnt.
You have to realize, the ntal cost for a Ralts to spam Teleport is significantly higher than the physical energy a Pikachu burns for Quick Attack.
Logically, Ralts should have run dry a long ti ago, yet she looked just as fresh and ready to rumble as the Pikachu.
This implied two possibilities: either Ralts's ntal control was so flawless that she wasted zero energy with every move, or her total ntal reserves were so astronomically high that they rivaled a Pokémon an entire evolutionary stage above her.
Either way, it proved this Ralts possessed monstrous innate talent, and Lorze's cultivation thods were incredibly unique.
Even Xue Tong was starting to feel a surge of desire to recruit him. She desperately wanted to know exactly how Lorze was raising his Pokémon.
Too bad Ralts still hadn't traced Pikachu's Lightning Rod. That pretty much confird she didn't have the Trace Ability; otherwise, she and Lorze would have had so much to talk about in bed.
The match reached its fever pitch. After several minutes of relentless, full-throttle attacking, neither side was willing to give an inch, causing their stamina to crater. They were both running on absolute fus.
Ralts's teleportation response ti and Pikachu's movent speed were both visibly slowing down.
The two Trainers were neck-and-neck in skill, but Anna was secretly fuming. Lorze still hadn't revealed a single move besides Teleport and Psychic!
It was as if he was silently telling her that she wasn't even worth his 'real' hidden moves.
Even if it was technically true, it was still incredibly insulting!
What made it even more infuriating was that during the split second she got distracted by her own rage, Lorze abruptly shifted Ralts's dodging rhythm.
"Now!"
As Lorze's command rang out, Anna jolted back to reality.
She realized with horror that the Ralts, who had been constantly backing away, had suddenly Teleported directly into Pikachu's face. This sudden change in tempo caught the electric rat completely off guard. The result was a point-blank, unavoidable Psychic wave slamming directly into its body.
Anna finally realized Lorze's strategy: he had been waiting for the exact mont their reaction tis dropped due to fatigue. Once Pikachu lost its explosive agility, it was a sitting duck for a point-blank telepathic execution.
Pikachu tried to use Double Team to create an opening, but it was far too fucking late. Ralts had finally scored the first clean hit of the match.
"Shit! Use Thunderbolt to break free!" Anna yelled in a panic.
"Too late!" Lorze instantly activated Telepathic Resonance Mode.
In this mode, Lorze's mind and Ralts's mind rged into a single, cohesive entity.
This ant his own ntal energy could aggressively pump into Ralts, refilling her ntal reserves like a hot, surging load of stamina!
Even though a human's ntal power is weak compared to a Pokémon's, victory or defeat is decided in a heartbeat!
In an instant, Ralts's ntal exhaustion vanished, and the power of her Psychic attack actually increased, pinning the struggling Pikachu violently to the floor. No matter how much it squird, it was completely crushed under the weight of her mind.
However, since Anna was an acquaintance, Lorze didn't go for a brutal execution. He had Ralts gently use telekinesis to deliver the unconscious Pikachu back into Anna's arms. He smirked and said, "Now, which sexy lady was it that said as long as Ralts could pin down her Pikachu, it would count as my win?"
"I..." Anna's mouth twitched. She was completely speechless.
How the hell do you have the nerve to win like that?!
Sure, Pikachu was exhausted, but it wasn't like it was completely out of the fight!
But she had made that promise, and the sheer intensity of that final Psychic wave was honestly terrifying.
Weren't you just as exhausted as my Pikachu?!
How the fuck could you still output that much power at the end?!
"Fine. I lost. I can't believe I couldn't even force out your hidden moves. You really are a monster," Anna glared at him with a mix of resentnt and underlying lust. She didn't try to make excuses; that final strike was more than enough to decide the match.
After this win, every future opponent was going to be terrified of Lorze. Nobody knew what other dirty tricks he had hidden, nobody knew where Ralts's ntal limit actually was, and they didn't even know her Ability. Fighting a war of attrition with him was now officially recognized as a suicide mission.
How can a newborn Pokémon be this much of a freak? What the hell did you feed her during her cultivation—liquid gold and pure testosterone?
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