Indigo Stadium.
After a brief silence,
the excitement swiftly returned. Lance's supporters shouted themselves hoarse, trying to lend him strength.
"Dragon Envoy! Dragon Envoy!"
"King of Status Moves! King of Status Moves!"
The two chants rose and fell across the vast stadium, as though shouting loudly enough could improve their favorite's chances of winning.
On the battlefield,
Baimu and Lance locked eyes once more.
Between them lay the ground, growing pitted and uneven after their fierce clashes.
Baimu had revealed Porygon2's hidden trump card, but in exchange, he had taken down the Flying Elite Four's Shiny Gyarados.
To him, that was more than worth it.
Aside from the type advantage granted by Conversion, Porygon2 was actually inferior to Shiny Gyarados in every respect.
Gyarados had withstood a Zap Cannon that was four times as effective, then pressed the attack despite being paralyzed and nearly achieved its tactical goal. That alone said plenty.
Without its major Electric-type weakness, whether Porygon2's two Zap Cannons could have brought it down at all was anyone's guess.
Hopefully the next two go just as smoothly.
Baimu breathed steadily.
The next moment,
he and Lance made almost identical moves—
they recalled their Pokémon and sent out their second ones.
"A switch! There it is—Baimu's strategy for preserving his forces!" The commentator's eyes lit up.
Baimu's fondness for switching was famous. It stood in stark contrast to other Champions' habits of keeping a Pokémon in as long as it could fight, or switching only after a defeat.
One organization had compiled the figures and found that, since Baimu had risen to the top and gained worldwide fame, trainers across every region had begun switching more often and using Status Moves more frequently, among other changes.
In a sense, Baimu had set a trend for the era.
Pop!