Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers

Seeing this, the referee immediately declared Roy the winner. However, Litwick had barely gotten a chance to show what it could do throughout the match.

The judges raised scorecards showing five or six points, with Agatha alone giving a high score of ten.

As a result, Roy's overall score for this match wasn't very high.

Some spectators were still discussing whether Roy's method of winning through status conditions was a little too... underhanded.

Agatha listened to the noisy discussions around the arena with a disdainful expression. What was wrong with using poison!?

Five of the Pokémon in her top lineup were Poison types. People often said she wasn't a Ghost-type Elite Four member, but a Poison-type Elite Four member, and she didn't care in the slightest.

As long as you won, wasn't that enough?

She recalled the praise the two old men had given Roy yesterday, as well as how Pheobe, the successor of Mt. Pyre, had lit up upon hearing Roy's name and praised the care he had shown her in front of Agatha.

Especially since Roy had inherited the Ghost Power unique to Mt. Pyre's lineage.

She was determined to take this disciple.

Perhaps defeating Mightyena had turned Roy's luck around, because good fortune returned to his side once again.

In the quarterfinals, the trainer of No. 10's Noctowl, who had been supposed to face Roy, won against No. 24's Golem but suffered injuries that were far too severe.

Even after being treated in the medical room at the Pokémon Contest venue, Noctowl couldn't fully recover.

If it continued battling, it might affect Noctowl's future development and could even leave permanent hidden injuries.

Seeing this, Noctowl's trainer looked painfully at his newly awakened Noctowl and could only withdraw from the competition at the last moment.

Yet no one in the arena blamed him. The sight of that Noctowl defeating Golem with all its strength was still vivid in everyone's minds.

This allowed Roy to advance to the semifinals by default, though he only received the base score of five points from each judge.

Next came the final semifinals.

In the semifinals—

Although Roy didn't run into Wallace, he still encountered the opponent he dreaded second most: Umbreon.

Roy went all out in this match. Litwick had encountered its strongest enemy since the Rookie Cup began.

Umbreon's Special Defense, which reached a staggering 130 points, simply wasn't something an unevolved Litwick could break through.

At the same time, its opponent possessed a restorative move like Rest, which also cured status conditions. It was clear that its trainer had planned for this long ago.

Roy did have a Technical Machine for Rest, but he had prepared it for Duskull. Besides, even if Litwick learned Rest, it still couldn't outlast its opponent.

There was no chance of winning at all.

So while Umbreon was asleep, Roy had Litwick display as many of its moves as possible for the judges and audience to see.

Moves such as Fire Spin, Night Shade, Ember... and more took on all sorts of forms when used by Litwick.

"Litwick, use Minimize! Let them see what we trained yesterday!"

"Lit!"

Litwick used Minimize, shrinking to half its previous size.

Above the shrunken Litwick's head, Fire Spin and Ember appeared together as a combined move.

This time, the move wasn't thrown at Umbreon, but into the air.

Fire Spin whirled rapidly like a blazing red tornado, while specks of deep-blue Ember within it resembled fire spirits drawn into the vortex, streaming into its center.

Driven by Fire Spin, the Embers were flung high into the air before scattering back down, forming dazzling arcs.

The once-monotonous Fire Spin became vibrant and colorful with the addition of the deep-blue Embers, like shooting stars flashing across the dark night sky.

As Fire Spin gradually weakened, the Embers slowly faded as well. But just as they were about to disappear—

The tiny Litwick leaped into the air. The flame atop its head instantly grew to five times its body size, drawing the fading Embers toward itself before swiftly scattering the gathered sparks apart again.

It completed an operation akin to "Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers."

Roy had only come up with this move combination on the spot last night when he couldn't sleep, inspired by an anime he had watched in his previous life.

Whether it was the judges or the audience, everyone had been treated to a feast for the eyes. When it came to displaying a rich variety of moves and combinations, there was no one else in the entire arena besides Wallace and Roy.

Wallace watched Litwick's performance intently on the screen in the preparation room and guessed Roy's intentions.

He had originally wanted to compete with Roy in the finals, but now it seemed a little too unfair. His Starmie was already in its final form, while Litwick was still only in its initial form.

He'd wait until Litwick evolved into its final form before having another battle.

Although Litwick still lost to Umbreon in the end.

Everyone could see that Litwick had already done its best, and this time, no one questioned whether Roy's previous reliance on status conditions to win had been inappropriate.

Although he lost the match, the judges unanimously gave him seven points. After the 30% score deduction for losing, it still counted as another perfect performance score of seventy.

That was fifteen points more than the trainer of No. 98's Wartortle, who had been defeated by Wallace. Roy had already secured third place in this Rookie Cup—the runner-up's runner-up, the bronze medal.