Misdreavus: A family should have a matching set! I want a three-Pokémon sweep too! (Bonus update 518)

The sensation Xia Chi caused with his three-Pokémon sweep in the second round was even greater than the first.

Floragato had weathered Gardevoir and Swampert's attacks several times, achieving a flawless victory that had felt like walking on thin ice.

Pupitar's sweep, by contrast, had looked utterly simple and brutal.

Dragon Dance, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Stone Edge.

You could have called it a video game battle locked to four moves, and no one would have objected.

Oh, wait. Pupitar had also used [Iron Defense] once at the start.

But that hardly mattered.

As it turned out, [Iron Defense] had never had a chance to prove useful afterward-

From start to finish, across three opposing Pokémon, Pupitar had only taken damage from three attacks: Flare Blitz, Dragon Pulse, and Bonemerang.

That was all.

Yet that wasn't even the scariest part. What truly made Pupitar seem hopeless to fight was its damage output, which was even more terrifying than Floragato's!

Two physical moves had knocked out Turtonator, and a single Earthquake had instantly taken down Marowak-

Both of those Pokémon ranked toward the top of the entire Pokédex in Defense!

Even with the boost from Dragon Dance, countless viewers had marveled at how unreal it was.

Only Xia Chi knew why Pupitar's damage output was so terrifying-

The Dark-type Bond increased move damage, the Late Bloomer Bond and star upgrades boosted its capabilities across the board, and the energy frenzy gene further enhanced the activity of all its moves.

On top of that, it didn't have the Speedy Attacker Bond's "reduced damage" debuff.

All those factors combined had created the monstrous Pupitar the world now saw.

Still, that said.

The obvious difference between the two sweeps wasn't because Pupitar and Floragato were so far apart in strength.

It was because the gap