It looked as though no attack was coming. Shadow clones were usually used to reduce the opponent's chances before an attack. However, with no sign of an incoming strike, Steven prepared himself for anything unexpected.
"That's Reflect!"
Before its real body's position was completely exposed, Polygon Z dispelled its Double Team and put up Reflect. As a result, Polygon Z became more resilient against physical attacks.
Polygon Z was not a particularly durable Pokémon. However, Daigo's Pokémon were primarily physical attackers.
"You pulled it off."
"Shadow Ball!"
Aerial Armament deftly maneuvered its hard wings, destroying the Shadow Ball fired by Polygon Z, then struck hard with its wings. But Reflect blunted the damage, and its burn had also lowered its attack power, so the attack did little to Polygon Z.
"Go with Drill Peck!"
"Thunderbolt!"
Skarmory attacked Polygon Z with its drill-like beak. Even so, it failed to inflict much damage, and Polygon Z retaliated with Thunderbolt. Combined with Bullet Seed's attack and the burn, the super-effective Electric-type move proved too much for Skarmory's Special Defense. Struck by the electric blast, Skarmory's eyes rolled back, and it collapsed.
"Aerial Armament is unable to battle!"
By swiftly defeating Aerial Armament, she immediately closed the gap. Both sides now had five Pokémon remaining.
"You got me."
"You use a lot of Pokémon that focus on physical attacks. That's why I thought Reflect would work well with Polygon Z despite its low endurance."
"Haha, you've done quite a bit of research, haven't you? So why did you include Polygon Z?"
"It was a countermeasure against Skarmory. I wanted to make sure I took Skarmory down first this time. If possible, I wanted to defeat it with Mikage, but that didn't work out."
Against a strong opponent, countermeasures and strategies prepared in advance were