"Has this kid gotten stronger again?"
Teng Jun turned his head to look at Yujian beside him.
Yujian spread his hands. "When has his strength ever stopped improving? Over in Kanto, there's a Conference Champion who's absurdly strong despite being ridiculously young. He's training with that Champion, and there's also Viridian City's Gym Leader... oh, oh, and a kid from New Bark Town."
Gold: ???
"Hahaha, geniuses really do stick with geniuses. But in that case, will anyone withdraw?" Teng Jun twisted slightly, looking at the Top Trainers in the distance whose expressions had turned extremely ugly, and smiled with schadenfreude.
In truth, some people really were considering it. They wondered whether they should just withdraw and spare themselves a humiliating defeat. With the strength Heiduo had displayed so far, he might not even need to send out Lugia. They might not even be able to beat his reserve Pokémon.
A Trainer's Pokémon were divided into aces, mainstays, and reserves. The ace was undoubtedly the strongest, but the reserves were not necessarily much weaker than the mainstays. The difference was simply whether they were commonly used or not.
Lucario, who had barely appeared before the public until now, was undoubtedly one of those reserve members.
If they could not even beat his reserves, what was the point of continuing?
No matter how hard they fought, they would only be humiliating themselves.
But so many colleagues were watching, not to mention all the younger generation present. A man lived for his reputation, just as a tree lived for its bark. If they withdrew now, where would they put their old faces?
So although most of them were intimidated by Heiduo's overwhelming strength, no one mentioned withdrawing.
What they were thinking about now was how to avoid losing too much face.
Only