The blinding sunlight shone directly into the Rangers' eyes, only making matters worse.
"What the hell is this? Uh-oh… Arceus isn't on my side today!"
From the battle just now, the Ranger leader had already realized that Houndoom had the Flash Fire Ability, while one of his own Arcanine had the Intimidate Ability. However, although Arcanine had put on a fierce expression the moment it entered battle, the opposing Houndoom remained completely unfazed.
Today, Intimidate had become completely useless!
Without the Flash Fire Ability, this Arcanine was at a complete disadvantage against a Flash Fire Houndoom under the sunny weather.
"Fire Blast."
Tetsuya carefully observed the Ranger leader's expression and was almost certain that his Arcanine did not have the Flash Fire Ability, so Fire Blast was merely a test.
Sure enough, the Ranger hurriedly ordered Arcanine to dodge Fire Blast.
The Arcanine that had previously been poisoned by Houndoom had recovered considerably after its Trainer treated it with a Potion and rejoined the battle.
""Extreme Speed!""
Both of them now clearly understood that Houndoom had the Flash Fire Ability. Fire-type moves were ineffective, leaving them with very few options. The only move they could rely on was Extreme Speed.
The two Arcanine darted back and forth, using Extreme Speed without interruption. Houndoom could only keep dodging. Now it was simply a contest of stamina.
When elites battled, the final deciding factor was often stamina. Both sides were powerful, and neither had any flaws in the way they chained their moves together. Moves after moves were exchanged, with neither side gaining an advantage. In the end, victory came down to who had more stamina left.
The one aspect of Pokémon training that Tetsuya had never neglected was physical exercise, so he had nothing to fear.
As expected, after twenty straight minutes of high-intensity attacks, Arcanine's stamina dropped sharply, and its speed became slower and slower. The injured Arcanine could no longer endure and stopped attacking.
Houndoom, on the other hand, was still full of stamina. Seizing that brief instant, Houndoom used Feint Attack and Crunch to finish off that Arcanine.
The Ranger leader had completely run out of ways to deal with Houndoom. Conventional attacks were completely ineffective, leaving him with only one unconventional option…
"Arcanine… Outrage!"
The Ranger leader had trained Growlithe until it had learned every level-up move before allowing it to evolve into Arcanine. Outrage was also one of the moves Growlithe could learn by leveling up.
"[Blightfire Assault]."
Tetsuya did not dare underestimate a move like Outrage. He had to answer it with Houndoom's strongest combination move currently available.
Arcanine's eyes had already turned crimson, and every hair on its body stood on end. With a thunderous roar, it charged straight toward Houndoom.
Houndoom did not remain idle either. It unleashed Smog and Inferno almost simultaneously. Flames and poisonous gas intertwined as Houndoom split into eight clones and plunged into the poisonous flames.
Flash Fire activated, drawing the poisonous flames onto Houndoom's body, making it look as though eight volcanoes were advancing across the battlefield!
Bang!
The first clash between the ultimate [Blightfire Assault] and Arcanine's Outrage ended with Arcanine being sent flying!
"H-How is this possible…!?"
The Ranger leader simply refused to believe that Arcanine in its Outrage state was still no match for Houndoom. Whenever his Arcanine had used this move in the past, its power had been so overwhelming that it had even claimed the lives of other Pokémon. Now it was actually inferior to Houndoom's move… How could he possibly accept that!?
However, Arcanine no longer knew what pain was. It only knew one thing: battle, battle, baaaattle!
After being knocked away, it immediately leaped back up and collided with Houndoom once again.
By the third clash, they were evenly matched. By the fourth and fifth clashes, Houndoom's [Blightfire Assault] had already fallen into a disadvantage, forcing it to constantly readjust its posture to continue fighting.
This continued until [Blightfire Assault] came to an end.
Neither Pokémon backed down. Arcanine gradually returned to normal, but it was breathing in rapid, heavy gasps.
Arcanine had already reached its limits. At this point, even a casual Tackle would be enough to make it unable to battle.
This was where Houndoom's advantage truly showed itself. Its victory came from superior stamina.
"Fire Blast."
This time, Arcanine was completely unable to avoid the incoming Fire Blast. With a loud explosion, Arcanine collapsed for good.
"So, you really dare impersonate Pokémon Rangers… Despicable! Today I'm taking all of you to see Officer Jenny," Tetsuya said deliberately. Of all people, someone with his identity was the last person who wanted to meet Officer Jenny, so there was no way he would actually go looking for her.
"…Three Pokémon alone could never represent our true strength."
'Ugh… so cringe!'
After saying that, the lead Ranger threw out the remaining five Poké Balls on his belt. Seeing this, the other two Rangers also took out their Poké Balls. Like most Rangers, each of them carried six Pokémon. After all, they had once competed in League tournaments, so they naturally had no shortage of well-raised Pokémon.
Now things had become interesting.
Fifteen Pokémon appeared all at once!
"So you resort to ganging up on me when you can't win… Impressive," Tetsuya said as he also threw Mamoswine's and Slowbro's Poké Balls.
"Blizzard."
The remaining fifteen Pokémon were certainly nowhere near as strong as the three Arcanine that had battled earlier. A barrage of moves was launched toward Tetsuya.
Mamoswine shook its body. The bright, sunny weather immediately turned overcast, and the temperature plummeted. In the blink of an eye, hail and snow began to fall, drastically reducing visibility.
The moves launched by the fifteen Pokémon vanished without a trace as they entered the hailstorm.
'…Hm?'
What puzzled Tetsuya was that whenever the hail and snow approached Slowbro, they automatically parted around it. Not a single snowflake landed on Slowbro's body. If this had been the result of Slowbro's psychic barrier, they should have been deflected away, not naturally separated like this.
Looking at the excited expression on the Shellder attached to Slowbro's tail, Tetsuya more or less understood. Because that Shellder had consumed a small amount of Everfrozen Ice, it had become extremely sensitive to Ice-type moves. Whenever it encountered hail or a blizzard, it caused Slowbro to resemble an Ice-type Pokémon.
The hail and snow would automatically part around Slowbro's body, and it was no longer afraid of the bitter cold!
With that, Mamoswine's hailstorm no longer had any effect on Slowbro. The two Pokémon could now cooperate perfectly. Mamoswine's Ice-type moves and this weather would become even more powerful with the support of Slowbro's formidable psychic powers.
Once these two Pokémon fully matured, surpassing the Elite Four level in this life would become much smoother.
And… even reaching the level of the Champion would no longer be impossible!