When Yong returned to the competitors' seating area, Kong came over, punched him lightly in the chest, and said with a grin,
"Well, well! So Marshtomp wasn't your strongest Pokémon after all!"
Rubbing his chest, Yong chuckled.
"I never said it was! You just assumed that yourself!"
"Fair enough!"
Kong shrugged and spread his hands helplessly.
"Looks like I'll have to give some serious thought to how I'm going to deal with your Steelix!"
Chatting and laughing, the two returned to their seats. Farther away, A Xing looked up at the match on the big screen, then glanced at Yong and Kong before lowering her head again, lost in thought.
The previous matches had damaged the arena so badly that it could no longer be used. Fortunately, the organizers had prepared for this. They announced that the raised arena would be scrapped, then began marking out boundaries on the ground, incorporating the old arena into the rocky terrain!
Then, amid cheers from the audience, they used white lime to mark out a larger battlefield around it-a proper rectangle, the most standard kind of battle arena!
Seeing this, the host raised his voice to address the audience once again.
"Wonderful! A back-to-basics battlefield! The most thrilling battles! Without the raised arena's restrictions, the competitors' Pokémon are sure to perform even better! We'll all get an even closer look at the excitement!"
"Now, let's continue! Please welcome our eighth pair of competitors! From..."
The matches resumed amid the venue's lively atmosphere!
Sure enough, with a larger battlefield, the Trainers and their Pokémon had more freedom to show what they could do!
The matches that followed had far more highlights, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed watching them!
Soon, with the final pair's match over, the top sixteen had been decided!
It was lunchtime, and