Gyarados VS Alolan Ninetales!
Roar—!!
Looking at the elegant yet delicate Alolan Ninetales, Lance's Red Gyarados showed not the slightest hint of restraint. Its intimidating roar was filled with blatant menace.
Lance's most commonly used Intimidate-based opening, with Red Gyarados taking the field first, had been entirely within Xia Yan's expectations.
Because if Lance had sent out Salamence as his opener, Xia Yan's Alolan Ninetales would have countered it completely, leaving it with almost no chance of fighting head-on.
So, if he wanted to continue maintaining the Intimidate lineup, opening with Gyarados was the best choice.
Although...
In theory, Intimidate would not have much effect on Alolan Ninetales.
Alolan Ninetales, which excelled at special attacks, had no need to worry about Intimidate lowering its physical attack.
But...
If Lance's Intimidate strategy was viewed as nothing more than a way to reduce the opponent's physical attack, that would be severely underestimating the tactical system he relied on.
It did not merely weaken the opponent's physical attack. More importantly, it exerted psychological pressure and influence.
Therefore...
It was hard to say which of these two opening Pokémon held the advantage. Each had its own strengths.
Whoosh, whoosh—
As Alolan Ninetales appeared, light snow immediately began to drift through the vast arena.
In the blink of an eye, the sparkling snowflakes turned into a hazy flurry of heavy snow.
Snow accumulated across the field, and within only a few breaths, the Rock-type battlefield had become a world of ice and snow.
Although Lance's Gyarados was not weak to Ice-type moves,
the plunging temperature and the snow rapidly covering its body still made Gyarados feel an intense chill, along with biting cold that seeped through its thick armored scales and into its body.
Before the battle had even officially begun, the abilities of the