"..."
Staring at the fallen Cetitan, Grusha's already frosty expression froze in a daze for several seconds.
I lost...
And by an overwhelming margin, to just one of Qingyu's Pokémon-Lucario.
When he had lost to rookie challengers at the Glaseado Mountain Gym before, it had mainly been because they pulled out unconventional strategies designed to counter him. Even when he lost, he hadn't really minded.
But this battle was an entirely different matter.
They were both Gym Leaders, yet even after fielding his best team, he hadn't managed to defeat a single one of Qingyu's main Pokémon...
It sounded downright absurd. After all, they were both rookie Gym Leaders just starting out. Even if there was a gap in their strength, surely it shouldn't have been this large?
Getting swept 3-0 by someone his own age was ridiculous, no matter how he looked at it!
Yet that was exactly what had just happened.
And Qingyu hadn't even used those bizarre tactics that made people despair. He had simply smashed straight through every one of his Pokémon's defenses...
Protect had been like tissue paper before this Lucario, leaving Grusha questioning everything.
He couldn't win a direct fight, and he couldn't stall, either. Even his signature snow-based defensive strategy had been dismantled in a flash, sending the entire battle snowballing out of control just as quickly.
Every counter Qingyu made had been incredibly swift, as though he had known in advance what Grusha would do.
The instant Aurora Veil appeared, Qingyu had reacted, ordering Lucario to break through it effortlessly with Brick Break.
Normally, he couldn't possibly have responded that quickly unless he had anticipated Grusha's move.
But wasn't Alolan Ninetales supposed to be an extremely obscure regional form?
In fact, that question had been troubling Grusha ever since the battle began.