Chapter 48: In Progress_1

The next day.

The battle for the top 32 out of 64 officially began.

That same afternoon, the top 16 would be decided, taking the Little Phoenix King Cup to a fever pitch.

"The first match, Xie Ming against..."

Whenever a seed player enters the field, the atmosphere quickly heats up, and the audience hopes to see a thrilling battle.

A moment later...

"Another victory decided within two minutes. It's hard to say who's stronger between Xie Ming and the seed player of Group F, Zhang Huan."

"Both Scyther and Beedrill are Bug Type Pokemon, and it's crucial that both trainers have raised them well, especially in terms of speed, making them top contenders in this tournament."

"Zhang Huan... his style of fighting with Beedrill seems familiar. Is he related to Zhang Zizheng, a professional trainer from Magic City?"

"Could he be Zhang Zizheng's son? I remember that Zhang Zizheng's Beginner Elf was also an Unown, right? He's a classic example of a grassroots trainer making a comeback. He's quite expert at raising Beedrill..."

The guests were buzzing with discussions about the event.

Of course, it wasn't just the two of them, other seed players were also garnering attention.

"That Dream Demon's hiding technique is quite outstanding, leaving the opponent with no way to deal with it."

"It would be interesting if it encounters the seed player of Group B's Mr. Mime. Psychic Type and Ghost Type always make for natural rivals."

"Speaking of Psychic Types, Student Lu, the Eevee that your junior sister brought gave us quite a shock." A representative of the Trainer Association said to someone.

"My junior sister's supernatural abilities help alleviate Eevee's mental fatigue greatly, allowing it to learn other moves ahead of time. Her relentless efforts night and day are indispensable." The person known as Student Lu laughed.

"No wonder this Eevee looks so spirited. In my opinion, it has a higher supernatural power level than the seed player of Group B's Mr. Mime."

As time slowly passed, Fang Yuan also began his match for the day.

His opponent was a capable new trainer.

The opponent's Floatzel was a quite agile Pokemon, too.

However, under Fang Yuan's verbal barrage, coupled with Eevee's even more agile movements, neither Floatzel nor its trainer had any advantage.

"The new trainers of today are really impatient. A few words are enough to disrupt their rhythm," commented a guest in the VIP seating, who had clearly seen through Fang Yuan's strategy.

"After all, they've just become trainers. It seems that Fang Yuan really knows how to use tricks to his advantage," remarked a representative of the Dawn Group.

"In fact, both the player Fang Yuan and his Eevee are very skilled. Don't be fooled by his antics," Student Lu interjected.

The representative of the Magic City Trainer Association nodded in agreement, "This Eevee's displayed speed is already close to that of the seed player of Group A's Scyther and Group F's seed player's Beedrill. Keep in mind, those two Pokemon are naturally advantaged and would definitely have targeted training for speed. For this Eevee to attain such a level, it must have been trained very well. I guess that his trainer must have devoted the last two months exclusively to speed training."

"Such quickness, combined with Shadow Clone for distraction, and leveraging trash talk to distract the opponent, indeed makes for a cleverly arranged tactic."

Soon after, Fang Yuan won the match, with Eevee once again muddying the waters with a series of attacks including Quick Attack, Shadow Clone, and Sand Splash.

"However, after all, it's just a quick fix; in the next round, when they face Lin Sen's Bulbasaur and its Sweet Scent, they should be powerless," someone remarked.

"Sweet Scent and Sleep Powder will disrupt Eevee's movements, and Bulbasaur's overall strength isn't something Floatzel can match, most importantly, Lin Sen in the audience must have caught on to this player named Fang Yuan's tactics by now, so the trash talk will hardly be effective."

"Now that I think about it, that's indeed true." The others agreed, considering they were seed players, they wouldn't be so easily thrown off.

Unbeknownst to Fang Yuan, the guests had already predicted that he wouldn't last in the next battle.

...

"I made it into the top thirty-two just like that?!"

Lin Jing still found it hard to believe when Fang Yuan returned.

It was one thing to make it into the main competition, but for Fang Yuan and Eevee to easily advance to the top thirty-two right under her nose, it made her start to question the experts' commentary.

"The opponents are obviously becoming tougher, and Eevee has had the advantage of speed, but it will likely lose this advantage very soon."

"Is that the problem..." Lin Jing said.

"I remember most people don't think Eevee is suited for battling..."

She pinched her chin, deep in thought.

"That... we've suffered a lot," Fang Yuan sighed. In this battle, to disrupt his opponent, Eevee's movement speed had already reached its limit. If the opponent were even slightly stronger, they would probably have to change their tactics.

However, until now, he and Eevee had hidden their capabilities well, the Dangerous Premonition ability that provided super reflexes, and the Counter Shield, which they finally completed just the day before yesterday, had not been revealed yet.

These were their trump cards.

Having one more ace up the sleeve before a tough battle meant one more chance of assurance; a moment of negligence from the opponent would spell victory for Fang Yuan and Eevee.

"Alright, Lin Sen is about to start his battle." Fang Yuan's eyes lit up as he observed the field.

The competition was in full swing on this side; Lin Sen, as expected, defeated his opponent once again. After the eighth match, the ninth and tenth matches also started in quick succession.

"So far, not a single seeded player has been defeated."

"The host's eyes really are like fiery golden eyes; it seems few are like Eevee and me, still hiding some moves."

"Just don't know whether the strength the seeded players are showing now is their limit."

Fang Yuan had studied the battles of all the seeded players and already had a fair idea. However, at this stage, they had to fight for real to know the outcome, so he and Eevee just needed to do their best and win each match as it came.

Group F battles.

Lin Jing was up against the seeded player of this group, Zhang Huan.

Zhang Huan's Beedrill had solid basic qualities, especially speed, which was even higher than Eevee's and was probably one of the fastest Pokemon in this Little Phoenix King Cup.

"A High-speed Movement Technique... To think it learned that so early."

In reality, it wasn't just Fang Yuan who had his own opportunities, others did too, especially the differences brought by their family backgrounds; it's difficult to catch up through sheer effort.

No wonder the psychology club members weren't optimistic about Eevee making it to the top sixteen. Under normal circumstances, if Fang Yuan and Eevee hadn't pushed themselves so hard in the past two months, they probably wouldn't have even made it to the main competition.

"Lin Jing is going to lose."

On the field, Growlithe had already taken several hits. Its bursts of effort failed to hit Beedrill, costing it considerable physical strength.

"What a pity! If Growlithe's move set were a bit more diverse, it would easily deal with Beedrill." Fang Yuan lamented, as Growlithe hadn't even learned the Flamethrower attack. Attacking a flying Beedrill was too difficult.

Well then.

It was time to consider how to console a female classmate who lost her match.

Fang Yuan picked up his phone, opened Baidu, and started searching helplessly:

How to comfort someone?