"Pokémon clashed, their moves colliding fiercely! This exciting bout between our two competitors has come to a pause. With Tetsuya having lost three Pokémon, we now enter the halftime break!" the announcer declared loudly. Liu Qing recalled Volcarona and returned to the competitors' tunnel.
"Hey! Liu Qing, what's going on? How did you let your opponent catch up like that?" The moment he entered the lounge, Han Ye hurried over, unable to hold back his question.
"Han Ye, weren't you struggling just as much when you battled my older brother?" Liu Yuan couldn't resist taking a jab at him.
"All right, all right! I was just trying to keep Liu Qing on his toes so he wouldn't get careless!" Han Ye said with a sheepish laugh.
"As you saw, my opponent's strong. Doing that well against Metagross was already pretty good." Liu Qing gave him a helpless look. "And that was with Volcarona having a type advantage. Of your Pokémon, I doubt any except Tyranitar could beat it alone."
"Could you stop making me sound so useless?" Han Ye complained. Still, he knew Liu Qing was telling the truth, so he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he asked curiously, "Did you find any information on Tetsuya?"
"I know what you're asking, but I haven't received any news either. You know he was the final Sacred Fire torchbearer for this tournament, right? That honor isn't available to descendants of prominent families like us. Add in his inexperience with Metagross-he hasn't brought out its full potential at all. Otherwise, even with a type advantage, Volcarona wouldn't have beaten it so easily. I think he's probably a commoner Pokémon Trainer," Liu Qing said after a moment's thought.
"A commoner Pokémon Trainer with a Metagross? Interesting!" Han Ye stroked his chin, his eyes darting