Early the next morning, everyone arrived at the battle arena.
This morning's match was the first battle, between Ash and Steven Stone.
For this battle, the two had chosen two different battle modes.
If nothing unexpected happened, Steven Stone had likely chosen Mega Evolution and Z-Moves.
"I wonder which of them will win."
In the Masters Eight's exclusive lounge, Iris watched the two already standing on the field and spoke with considerable excitement.
"We'll find out soon enough. Neither of them is weak."
Cynthia watched the two with great interest, though she was somewhat more inclined to favor Steven Stone.
After all, she knew Steven Stone's strength very well.
As for Ash, if he sent out Pokémon he had trained before, they would be extremely strong as well.
But the problem was that the Pokémon Ash had brought for this match were a team of newcomers he had only trained recently.
Of course, Pikachu was the exception.
Still, all of Ash's Pokémon had reached Master level.
It was just unknown how strong they would be in actual battle.
After all, Steven Stone's Pokémon had been trained for a long time.
On the field, after the two took their places, they sent out their lead Pokémon at referee Deng Pei's signal.
Ash chose Dracovish as his lead, while Steven Stone sent out Aerodactyl.
Seeing that Steven Stone's first Pokémon was Aerodactyl, Ash looked at Dracovish with some concern.
The Water- and Dragon-type Dracovish was only weak to Dragon type and Fairy type moves.
But Aerodactyl, as a Flying-type Pokémon, was extremely agile in the sky.
If Aerodactyl refused to engage in close combat, Dracovish would have a difficult time fighting it.
However, Aerodactyl's Attack stat was not weak, so Steven Stone would likely have it fight at close range.
They would