Chapter 87: The Worst Turn Of Events
“Match end! The winner is Li Wei and his partner Glaceon!!!”
The host passionately announced the result of the Grand Festival, and at this time Li Wei also left the battle stage amid the excited cheers of the audience.
Bringing Eevee back to the lounge, Li Wei immediately went to the monitor to watch the next match.
In the other semifinal match, the Pokémon battling on both sides were Rapidash and Butterfree.
Li Wei had an impression of these two Pokémon; they had also been particularly noted by him during the performance match, the kind of formidable ones where you could infer strength just from skill mastery proficiency.
According to Li Wei’s conservative estimate, both of these Pokémon were just one last step away from advancing to Professional Level.
The kind that could break through after focusing on condensing attribute energy for about a week.
And besides that, there was even worse news for Li Wei: both trainers were big shots who came down from the Intermediate Grand Festival to practice.
They came here mainly to find a stage to test their newly nurtured Pokémon; the next battle might be a solo or 2v2 performance match on the intermediate stage.
“Match begin!!”
After briefly introducing these two veteran Grand Festival competitors, the match officially began.
Rapidash is the evolution of Ponyta. A fire-attribute Rapidash is countless times more useful than Yu Yixian’s Ponyta, especially in the early stage at Elite Level—even if Ponyta evolves into a “unicorn,” unless mental power explodes, when nurturing degree is similar, it can never beat Rapidash no matter what.
After all, psychic power is annoying in the later stages, while flames, once mastered, already have great lethality.
Rapidash, single attribute “fire”; Butterfree, dual attributes “bug” and “flight”—and unfortunately, Butterfree is exactly countered by fire attribute.
When two powerhouses meet, the battle situation was extremely intense for a time. Li Wei and Eevee also focused their attention on watching the battle between these two Pokémon, using the limited time to quickly learn about the opponents they would soon face.
Rapidash’s control over flames was extremely proficient; from a sensory perspective, it was basically no less than Riolu’s proficiency with aura. The skill release was also as gorgeous as Master’s, and beneath this beautiful exterior, every skill’s destructive power was also extremely terrifying.
The dissolved field, and the surrounding air that had become somewhat distorted due to the sharp rise in temperature—the strength displayed by this Rapidash made Eevee somewhat worried.
And similarly, the Butterfree that was fighting evenly with it was also very skilled.
Poison-type skills with various debilitating powders, and acid with destructive power no less than Rapidash’s, floating in the safe high air for agile dodges and performances—this posture was particularly headache-inducing for Rapidash, which was known for its speed.
But in the end, amid the constant skill collisions, fire attribute still held a certain advantage. After being directly hit by a Flamethrower, Butterfree, unable to find a landing spot to catch its breath, still gave Rapidash an opportunity.
When dodging again with obvious injuries, it inevitably had some disadvantages, and it was precisely this slight disadvantage that tilted the scales of victory toward Rapidash.
Three minutes were up. Even if Butterfree still had fighting strength, its Grand Festival match was already over.
The winner was the Rapidash of the trainer named Qu Siyuan.
Seeing the result, Li Wei and Eevee both took a deep breath.
For them, this was also the worst result, an absolute bad draw.
After the match ended, there was a thirty-minute intermission in the arena; simple performances were held in the main venue, while the competitors used this thirty minutes to rest.
This Rapidash’s strength directly upgraded Li Wei and Eevee’s challenge for the Grand Festival championship to hell-level difficulty. Winning it would absolutely not be simple—perhaps even going all out would result in a miserable loss.
“What do you say, Eevee?”
Li Wei turned his head and asked Eevee.
“Bu Yi!”
【Let’s go all out!】
Saying that, Eevee began urging Li Wei to watch the videos available on the Grand Festival official website together to study the opponent and discuss tactics.
This was her Eevee’s first Grand Festival. To be fair, her ambition was huge—she wanted the championship too!
As Li Wei’s second Pokémon, how could she be content to lose to Riolu?
Why could his Riolu bring back a championship trophy?
She, Eevee, could too!
Riolu brought back the Rookie Competition trophy, while she, Eevee, would bring back the Main Competition trophy—this way, she Eevee would be stronger than Riolu; she would be the most capable, most useful, and most helpful Pokémon to Li Wei at home!
To this day, Eevee still hadn’t forgotten that day on the treadmill when Li Wei had expectations for her.
Silently taking a deep breath and steeling her resolve, Eevee began rapidly turning her brain, starting to think about tactics.
Battles have never been just the trainer’s affair; Pokémon participation, thinking, and involvement are also very important.
Thirty minutes passed quickly. Seeing the official staff coming to urge them to go backstage to prepare for the battle, Li Wei put down his mobile phone, and Eevee also stopped the continued bu yi bu yi tactic discussion with Li Wei.
“That’s it for now, Eevee. Good luck!”
“Bu Yi!!”
【┗|｀O′|┛Aoo~~!!】
At this time, the two heading to the arena stage were both full of fighting spirit, aiming straight for the championship!
The championship match began, and the host passionately started introducing the two in the final showdown.
This competitor Qu Siyuan was a contestant who had obtained five Intermediate Contest Ribbons. This time, he came to the beginner district to nurture his new Pokémon and charge up for impacting the advanced Grand Festival later.
In terms of match experience, he was absolutely here to crush noobs this time.
And Li Wei was a proper rookie competitor; the scene of Riolu crushing the Magic City Province Competition was still fresh in memory. These competitors who often followed Pokémon events saw familiar faces in the live Grand Festival broadcast and couldn’t contain their excitement.
A battle between a rookie and the long-time champion overlord of the intermediate competition.
Would the young hero pull this undefeated king down from his altar, or would the king defend his unshakable throne with overwhelming strength?
In just thirty minutes, under outstanding media copywriting and hype from the editors, both the on-site atmosphere and the online live stream rooms were already extremely heated.
After introducing the competitors’ identities, history, and their Pokémon, the host announced the start of the match!
“Rapidash, Flame Charge followed by Flame Wheel!”
A quick attack from competitor Qu Siyuan.
Fire versus ice, with a Rapidash trainer just one last step from Professional Level, he naturally had the confidence to crush all opponents.
Under absolute strength, any schemes were futile, so at this moment he didn’t have the brief mutual probing moves and gaps like the previous two competitors who battled Li Wei.
He went straight for a reckless and direct clash from the start, with the purpose of directly sending off this “rookie noob.”
Li Wei, who possessed aura, read the opponent’s contempt and ease in his heart. Based on this information, he quickly issued a defend-and-counterattack command.
Seeing Rapidash now using Agility to charge toward Glaceon at extreme speed, Li Wei knew that hiding any more strength at this point would be courting death, meaning handing himself out of the finals.
“Eevee! Ice Wall!”
Utilizing ice attribute’s malleability, in an instant whoosh whoosh whoosh, five Ice Walls stood in front of Glaceon.
Just like her previous special training, this was a special Ice Wall.
Three-layer structure: Ice Wall, Reflect, Ice Wall.
Through the precise information transmission of aura, Glaceon followed Li Wei’s instructions and uniformly erected all the Ice Walls directly in front of her.
At this time, Rapidash’s trainer hadn’t issued any commands, and Rapidash, in its high-speed running state, just charged straight into the Ice Wall.
Boom.
The first Ice Wall shattered on impact, and at the same time, the second Ice Wall also fell in succession.
But at this moment, Glaceon used this brief space whoosh whoosh to erect three more Ice Walls, while she herself began retreating backward.
For a moment, the stage was filled with shattered ice crystals from the collisions, water vapor produced from ice and fire meeting, and scattered sparks.
However, pure defense wasn’t enough. Rapidash’s gorgeous attacks far surpassed Glaceon’s defense. Under Li Wei’s another aura hint, Glaceon used psychic power to control the scattered ice crystals on the field, attacking toward Rapidash at extreme speed.
The ice versus flame showdown didn’t decide a winner at this point; Rapidash was ultimately blocked outside Glaceon’s Ice Walls.
The Flame Wheel charge ended, and Eevee used this moment of pause to complete the final piece of her all-around no-dead-angle Ice Wall puzzle.
Even with absolute strength gap, even with severe type disadvantage, her Grand Festival wasn’t over! Just like this 50-50 opening foreshadowed, even if weak and disadvantaged, she still had counterattack power!
This Grand Festival championship throne would definitely be hers!!
