Twilight Gym.
During the battle, Sableye suddenly kicked up dust from the ground and scattered it over Lycanroc's mane.
The whole point was to get Lycanroc's fur dirty.
Of course, Acerola had done it on purpose.
Li Wei had already told Acerola that Lycanroc would become confused if its mane got dirty.
Winning or losing a Gym battle didn't matter.
What mattered was whether Ash and Lycanroc could overcome this problem. That was what Ash needed to work on.
Ash had developed a problem lately.
Ever since he started competing in the Master League,
Ash had gotten a little cocky.
So much so that, although he knew about Lycanroc's problem, he had never tried to fix it.
Instead, he had taken Charizard, Greninja, and the others to compete in the Master League.
If he didn't resolve this problem, Ash would probably crash out in the Master League's Points Tournament.
Li Wei knew he had to bring Ash back to his senses and help him fix this as soon as possible.
A few setbacks wouldn't hurt, especially since Ash had hit a rookie wall lately.
Ash had already dropped to fifth in the Master League standings. If he kept losing, he would soon fall so far behind that catching up would be difficult.
If Ash couldn't even make the top three in the Alola Region, Blue probably wouldn't let him compete again next year.
As Blue would put it, he was making a spectacle of himself.
Ash had the strength, that much was clear,
but lately, he had hit a rookie wall.
Once he got past it, his strength would rise another notch, giving him a better chance of breaking through his current limits.
Once its mane became dirty and disheveled,
"Awooo!!!"
Lycanroc's movements instantly stiffened, its eyes turned scarlet, and