The next morning, after completing their usual morning training and having breakfast, Xinhai and his partners arrived at Fortree Gym's Main Training Ground on time.
Mentor Sato was already waiting at one side of the field, holding a tablet terminal. When he saw Xinhai enter, he waved in greeting.
For this battle, Xinhai sent out six Pokémon in order: Charizard, Milotic, Eevee, Gardevoir, Krookodile, and Mightyena.
Mentor Sato, meanwhile, sent out six Flying-type Pokémon: Swellow, Pidgeot, Altaria, Skarmory, Honchkrow, and a male Unfezant.
From the very start, Xinhai realized this would be a difficult fight. Flying-type Pokémon held the advantage in the air, and Pokémon on the ground found it hard to hurt them.
Under Mentor Sato's commands, Swellow and the others continuously circled, dove, and climbed through the air, searching for openings to attack. Their attacks also came from blind spots in Xinhai's partners' vision.
Milotic's Bubble Beam and Ice Beam were accurate, but against targets free to maneuver through the air, their hit rate was far less ideal than when facing ground-based Pokémon.
Mightyena faced a similar predicament—its opponents only needed a simple sideways roll to evade most of its attacks, while it had to remain constantly wary of dives from overhead.
Among Xinhai's partners, only Charizard could contend with the opponents in the air.
However, although Charizard's size and strength were no weaker than the Pokémon Mentor Sato had sent out, after battling Swellow, its stamina was nearly depleted. It had barely enough strength left to keep fighting.
The one fortunate thing was that Xinhai still had Krookodile, a Pokémon skilled at using Rock-type moves, which allowed him to regain some advantage.
In the end, after Krookodile decisively defeated Pidgeot and Skarmory, the battle ended five to six.
All six of Mentor Sato's Pokémon had lost the