As blue light flashed, Ayi's first Pokémon appeared on the field.
Xia You looked over. It was actually a Ninetales!
Ninetales resembled a fox, with gleaming golden fur and nine long tails. Despite its vivid red eyes, it did not look frightening, but noble and elegant instead.
Looking at it, Xia You immediately recognized it as one of the many dancing Pokémon he had just seen at the Gym.
Compared with others of its species, however, Ayi's Ninetales looked no different. He wondered whether Ayi's training method would give this Ninetales a different performance.
Still, since Ayi dared to use it against Charizard, he presumably had complete confidence in Ninetales's strength.
But...
With how confidently Ayi had spoken earlier, Xia You had thought he would send out a Charizard too, to trade attacks with his own.
After all, Charizard was Fire- and Flying-type, while Ninetales was purely Fire-type. In other words, aside from sharing the Fire type, Ninetales lacked a Flying type.
It seemed Ayi did not have enough Pokémon to achieve a completely identical type matchup in every battle.
But that was not much of a problem.
After all, although battles between identical types could reveal whose Pokémon was stronger and whose commands were better, they lacked a certain amount of spectacle and unpredictability.
Up in the hot-air balloon, one of Ayi's subordinates served as referee.
Sabrina and Mary also looked down at the battle from the air. The view was better here, allowing them to take in the entire battlefield.
Of the two, one had absolute confidence in Xia You, while the other blindly idolized her own older brother.
In their eyes, the person they supported could never lose!
Once everything was ready, Xia You gave the first command at the referee's whistle.
"Charizard, use Wing Attack!"
Charizard