First Battle

"Bai Shi, we're in Group A, and we'll be the first to play. Do you have any strategies?"

To give the players time to practice and coordinate with their teammates.

The organizers thoughtfully scheduled the first round of the match for the afternoon.

During a break, Dawn also discussed tactics with Bai Shi.

"My strategy is simple: just go all out and defeat the opponent's Pokémon in the shortest amount of time!"

Bai Shi smiled and explained his strategy to the other party without any concealment.

In battles, the fundamental principles remain the same despite all the variations.

If you can defeat both of the opponent's Pokémon, your team will naturally win.

The two Pokémon that Bai Shi plans to send out, Staravia and Zangoose, are both fast-paced attackers who excel at charging in and attacking.

Rather than asking them to be distracted and cooperate with teammates they are not very familiar with.

It would be better to let them wholeheartedly unleash their full potential.

Try to eliminate one of the opponent's Pokémon as quickly as possible.

Then, coordinate with Dawn to outnumber the enemy and take out the remaining one.

The high-speed combo series he's been training recently is for this purpose.

"Ah?"

Dawn stared in disbelief upon hearing Bai Shi's "simple" strategy.

At that moment, she suddenly felt a strange sense of familiarity.

The Pokémon Trainer she teamed up with was none other than her travel companion of many days— Ash.

"So... red bean paste... All right?"

Looking at his confident partner, Dawn couldn't help but worry about his own prospects in the competition.

Could her teammate be a liability?

The first round of the match began quickly.

Bai Shi and Dawn stood in the same command area, facing their opponents from afar.

Standing opposite them were a burly blond man and a red-haired girl.

Meanwhile, Enta stood on the sidelines, acting as the Referee for the match.

Each player may use only one Pokémon; switching Pokémon is prohibited during battle; there is no time limit for battles.

"The match ends when all Pokémon in the same team are unable to battle."

"Next, please welcome the contestants from Group A in the first round to release their Pokémon!"

After reading out the competition rules, Enta began to signal the contestants to send their Pokémon onto the field.

"Staravia, I'm counting on you!"

"Go, Piplup!"

"Go, Scyther!"

"Koffing! Take them down!"

Almost simultaneously, all four players sent out their respective Pokémon.

Bai Shi and Dawn sent out Staravia and Piplup.

The opponent's Pokémon were Scyther and Koffing.

"The Pokémon are in position, so let the battle begin!"

With a command from Enta, the competition officially began.

"Dawn, you can do whatever you want. I'll go take care of the enemy's Scyther first."

"Staravia, use Double Team!"

After the match began, Bai Shi gave Dawn some instructions and then eagerly commanded Staraptor to Pokémon at the opponent's Staravia.

"Oh, Bai Shi, don't be impulsive!"

Dawn tried to persuade Bai Shi to calm down, but it was too late.

Suddenly, a large number of Staravia appeared on the field, surrounding the opponent's two Pokémon as if they were going to fight two against one.

"Piplup, hurry and support Staravia!"

Startled, Dawn immediately gave instructions to Piplup.

Her teammate is absolutely terrifying.

How could anyone be even more reckless than Ash?

"What Power Trip brat! Koffing, use Thunderbolt!"

Upon seeing that Bai Shi seemed to intend to take on two opponents at once, the blond, burly man couldn't stand it and immediately gave orders.

"Scyther, use Air Slash!"

His teammates followed suit, issuing commands to Scyther.

The two Pokémon simultaneously launched an attack on the numerous clones of the Staravia.

As a result, the number of clones on the field began to decrease rapidly.

Before long, the area around the two Pokémon became much sparser.

Hidden among them, Staravia's true form appeared silently behind Scyther.

"Now! Staravia, use Aerial Ace!"

Bai Shi's target was always the Scyther.

The reason for surrounding them with Koffing was merely a decoy, used to draw the enemy's attention.

Now that his goal has been achieved, it's time for him to reap the rewards.

The Staravia swooped down from the sky and, with lightning speed, crashed into the back of the Scyther, knocking it to the ground.

"What amazing speed!"

Upon seeing this, the red-haired girl couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"Staravia, take it down! Use Air Slash!"

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Bai Shi showed no mercy, commanding the Staravia to continue the attack.

"Koffing! Stop it! Use Smokescreen!"

The burly man, seeing this, realized the danger and immediately shouted at the Koffing.

The goal is to use the Smokescreen ability to create a buffer time for Scyther.

However, he forgot that Bai Shi also had teammates.

"Piplup, use Bubble Beam!"

Dawn, naturally, wouldn't stand idly by and gave instructions to Piplup.

Piplup opened his mouth and fired a large amount of Bubble rays at the Koffing.

Due to interference from Piplup, the Koffing failed to "smoke" in time.

The Scyther, knocked to the ground, was completely exposed to Staravia's attack range.

The Staravia flapped its wings forcefully, releasing several transparent blades.

The Scyther had no way to avoid being struck by several sharp blades and immediately fell into a coma.

The originally balanced situation has turned into a situation where the enemy has more people than they have.

"Damn it, I'll fight you to the death! Koffing, use the Explosion!"

The blond, burly man was shocked to see his teammate gone so quickly.

He steeled his resolve and decided to perish together with his opponent.

Even if you can't win, you can't let the other side have it easy.

Inside the Koffing, a tremendous energy was boiling, like a volcanic eruption.

"Don't even think about it! Staravia, use Quick Attack!"

Bai Shi's expression changed, and he quickly gave instructions to the Staravia.

The Staravia transformed into a white lightning bolt, knocking the Koffing, which was about to explode, several meters away.

He left himself and Piplup a safe distance.

"Bang!"

After a loud bang, Staravia and Piplup were unharmed, but Koffing lost consciousness immediately.

Bai Shi's team thus won the competition.

"Muck~" (The purple-haired, grumpy-faced man washes his neck and waits for the master's favor!)

After defeating its opponent, the excited Staravia let out a triumphant Growl in Paul's direction.

It has not forgotten the human who abandoned it.

"This... this is how we won?"

The game ended so quickly that Dawn hadn't had time to process what had happened.

"Thank you for your hard work, Dawn! Your support was very timely!"

"Without your timely support, we absolutely could not have won so easily!"

Bai Shi, in a good mood after achieving a "good start," also praised his partner a few times.

"... Hehe, you flatter me."

Upon hearing Bai Shi's praise, Dawn was stunned and gave an awkward laugh.

Even now, she still doesn't understand how her team won.

Staravia quickly took down both of the opponent's Pokémon.

Meanwhile, his own Piplup was practically useless, only using a Bubble Beam.

This was completely different from what she knew about Double Battle matches.

Dawn felt that his worldview had been somewhat shaken.

Is this how a real Double Battle match is played?

"Um... Dawn's partner is really interesting!"

Brock, who was watching the game from the sidelines, said with a strange expression.

Throughout the entire match, Shiraishi was basically the one delivering the Bai Shi, while Dawn was more like a spectator.

It has absolutely nothing to do with so-called Double Battle.

However, a win is a win, and he couldn't say much more.

"That guy named Bai Shi is pretty strong!"

Ash, standing beside him, watched with great excitement, feeling a sense of "this kid is like me."

"That Staravia..."

Paul, Taunt by Staravia, wore a thoughtful expression.

When Bai Shi sent out the Staravia, he felt it looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.

Only now have I been able to recall some fragments about Bai Shi.

It seems I had given the other person an unwanted Starly before.

"Could it be that he came for me? How boring!"

Paul vaguely guessed Bai Shi's intention, but said with considerable disdain.

In his opinion, the Staravia that had just displayed was only good for easily defeating weaker opponents.

To think you can fight yourself is simply overestimating your abilities!

The Elekid alone can easily defeat it.

The premise is that your teammate's Pokémon shouldn't be a liability.

Thinking of this, Paul even glanced at Ash.

He was extremely dissatisfied with his temporary teammate.