"Go, Sceptile!" After recalling Shiftry, Tetsuya threw his second Poké Ball.
"Slowking, strike first with Confusion!" Liu Qing gave the first command.
"Sceptile, use Detect and close in!" Tetsuya hurriedly ordered. Blue light flashed in Sceptile's eyes, and with a twist of its body, it dodged Slowking's Confusion and rushed toward it.
"Slowking, use Water Pulse!" Detect could prevent damage from any attack, but repeated use lowered its success rate. With that in mind, Liu Qing immediately came up with a plan. Slowking gathered its power and slammed it into the ground, sending a huge wave surging toward Sceptile.
"Sceptile, jump up and use Bullet Seed!" Tetsuya ordered.
Although Tetsuya's Sceptile was not as blindingly fast as Ash's Grovyle, it was far from slow. It immediately leaped into the air, dodged the wave from Water Pulse, and fired a barrage of seeds at Slowking.
"Ice Beam!" Liu Qing immediately commanded.
Slowking swiftly gathered icy blue energy and fired a mass of jagged beams at Bullet Seed. In the blink of an eye, the seeds froze into chunks of ice, and the beams continued straight toward their source.
"Use Detect!" Tetsuya ordered again. Blue light flashed in Sceptile's eyes once more as it dodged Ice Beam. At that moment, Tetsuya gave another command. "Use Leaf Blade!"
"Ice Beam, full power!" It was already too late to switch to Confusion. Watching Sceptile plunge from the air with green blades of light extending from both arms, Liu Qing immediately gave his command. Slowking's Ice Beam, which had been about to stop, thickened again and swept around to strike Sceptile, threatening to defeat it.
"Sceptile, hang in there! Use Leaf Blade at maximum power!" Tetsuya shouted anxiously. He had finally created an opening that left Slowking no time to use its psychic power. It