299. 3rd Ribbon

Because Rubello Town is just a small town in some random place, the Pokémon Contest here was not large in scale as the previous ones Ash and May participated in. However the Pokémon Contest here had something that non of the other ones the two participated in had, this Pokémon Contest in the middle of nowhere was actually a rare R1 level Pokémon Contest.

In other words, the Pokémon Coordinators trying to get in here must have at least one or more official Pokémon Contest ribbons before they can participate here. Because it follows the alternative rules created by the Grand Festival Association, different Pokémon's must be used for the first round and the second round, so no Pokémon being part of both rounds.

Fortunately, both Ash and May already have the necessary Pokémon Contest ribbon to be allowed to participate, May still has one, and Ash now has two.

But the most important thing for Ash now is of course to seize the opportunity to beat the Pokémon Trainers and Coordinator's that came to participate in this Pokémon Contest.

And he surely made sure to do that whenever he saw someone who looked like they had a Pokémon with them.

"Everyone, the Rubello Town Pokémon Contest is about to begin. Only Pokémon Coordinators that have previously won one or more official Pokémon Contest Ribbons can participate in this special R1 Pokémon Contest. We can only imagine that the incoming intense performances in this Pokémon Contest will be of a very high standard!"

May and Ash were both sitting in the waiting room together, while May lay her head in Ash's lap, waiting for her turn.

Jessie was unable to participate this time around because of her previous mishaps. Because of Ash, she was not been able to get any single of the official Ribbons needed to participate this time. Ash had also taken what she believed was her Feebas away from her, which also made her feel even more unhappy with her technical boss.

"Next, it's the turn of our Pokémon Coordinator number No. 6, Coordinator May to appear on stage!"

May played it safe this time around and used the her most experienced Beautifly to perform for the first round in this new format of the Pokémon Contest.

Recently, her little Beautifly also learned a new skill under her training, Morning Sun, and now performed very well with it.

Soon enough, of course, it was Ash's turn to persuade, "Let them see our bond, rise from the shadows! Duskull!"

Snap, snap, most of the stage lights were turned off, "Duskull, use Night Shade!"

Just on the new darkened stage, a terrifying demonic shadow appeared behind Ash's Duskull. For a moment, the entire audience were silent and some were even feeling scared.

"It's an amazing performance. Coordinator Ash's performance has fully brought out the terror that the Ghost-type Pokémon's can bring!" Vivian explained, with her ever fangirl face, and no one noticed that her voice was also a little trembling.

"Will-O-Wisp!"

The blue flames began to wrap around the huge demonic shadow, and a scarlet eye opened in the void, as if it could have chose someone from the audience to devour at any given time.

It was a real spectacle down in the audience section... some of the more timid people in the audience were already covered in cold sweats.

A little boy even started to cry outloud, while his twin sister looked to be enjoying herself to the fullest.

And Ash's performance was still not over yet,

"Now, show them a spectacular Confuse Ray!"

The blue flames and how the dazzling purple eerie light, combined with the huge demonic shadow in the background, formed a ghostly dragonic picture that was frightening to say the least.

"Coordinator Ash has fully demonstrated the charm that a Ghost-type Pokémon can bring to the table! He is a true master at coordinating his Pokémon's moves with one another!" Vivian and the three judges all agreed at the same thing.

Ash had also received an unimaginable perfect score of 30 points, which was his first perfect score but definitely not the last.

The charm of Ghost-type Pokémon lies in the eerie and horror feeling they can bring in such things. Undoubtedly, many people who came here also liked to watch horror related movies, so many of these people were very delighted to see such a show happening right in front of their eyes.

"Ash, you were really amazing out there! I still can't explain how your Duskull did that!" Drew also came to this R1 Pokémon Contest, and he was also the last one to perform on stage for the first round. Like May at the beginning, he also chose to play this round safe and sent his strongest Roselia to perform out there, which was indeed an amazing performance like always.

The ones who finally passed the first round were obviously Ash with his perfect score, May, Drew with their very high score and a local girl from this Town. Her Flareon really left a deep impression on some, including Ash and his squad, which for now also included the mostly arrogant Drew.

Unfortunately, it was the same girl that May had to face in the second round. May had sent out her Bulbasaur for some reason that Ash cannot comprehend, after all she had just been caught recently and had little training. Her timid Bulbasaur had stage fright on the stage with so many people watching her almost immediately, and May was defeated in the end without being able to perform to her usual level. Once again May had missed out on her needed Ribbon.

Then it was Ash's and Drew's turn to battle on the stage.

"Ash, you don't know how much I have been looking forward to fighting you again!" Drew held a Poké Ball at said with a smirk.

"My new Pokémon is beautiful, smart, cute, brave and strong at the same time. I have been looking for her since a long time ago. She has all the characteristics and is very suitable for participating Pokémon Contests!"

"And then I was able to train her like how I wanted! Now we will show you all of our efforts! Masquerain, GO!"

The Pokémon that Drew had sent out for the second round turned out to be a Masquerain, which os the evolved form of Surskit that he had seen before on multiple occasions. The patterns on its wings look like many pairs of big eyes staring at you, all at once.

"It's up to you! Shine brightly on stage, Togetic!"

Ash had sent Togetic to fight this round. This little girl had always been loved to mess things up and cause a lot of trouble for Ash and Misty in their previous travels. But now it had evolved into a better self. Although she was still playful very playful, she was much more reliable and has become belligerent.

She saw a Pokémon Contest before and she fell asleep even before the first round ended, but now she was in a real Pokémon Contest battle.

As soon as Togetic came out on stage, her very adorable look caused the crowd cheer loudly and was laid applauded by everyone at the audience.

This was completely different from the eerie feeling that Ash's Duskull had used before as the main entrance.

"First step: Sweet Kiss!" Ash smiled slightly, he needed the audience to have full attention on this first stop, as this was what his Togetic was going to need to use for some more time.

Togetic cheerfully waved to her new fans and blew a kiss towards the opposite Masquerain. All the audience present seemed to hear the thumping of their own heartbeats by seeing his adorable Togetic looked.

"No, Masquerain, quickly avoid that attack!" Even though he didn't know what limd of move it was, Drew decisively ordered his Masquerain to avoid the blowing kiss at any cost.

After all, he was a smart guy, he knew that once Masquerain falls into whatever that move does to it, in these 5 minutes, Ash will have the perfect opportunity to instantly decimate his Masquerain with practiced ease.

"Use Bubble Beam!" The move was successfully avoided, and Drew launched a counterattack. Bubble Beam was indeed a very Pokémon Contest like move, as it had some strength behind it and also looked beautiful under the bright white light.

These bubbles ultimately did not hit Togetic like most people had thought it would, but drifted towards the sky. Obviously Drew had a back-up plan for this move if it didn't achieve what his initial plan was.

Sure enough, Drew's next order was to freeze the bubbles into small ice rain crystals using Masquerains Ice Beam.

However, these ice crystals were still bubbles and were mostly hollow in the inside area, so most of them were still floating in the air.

"Masquerain uses her Ice Beam to freeze all of the bubbles that she herself had created. It looks very beautiful and sparkling, but what does it mean in this battel?" Vivian said as she really couldn't understand what the purpose for this move was.

"It doesn't matter what it means!" Ash suddenly showed his handsome but cold grin that melted the female audience members, including May and Vivian, "Destroy them! Fairy Wind!"

He ordered his Togetic to stir up a sparkling pink wind, and rolled up all of the small light ice crystals, flying back and forth around them.

As these fragile bubbles shattered one by one with the simple tap of her wings, they turned into more ice crystal light and scattered in the ground and towards the audience. All the ice crystals were than popped into more lights by the audience, making the already beautiful and sparkling room even more dazzling.

This was the special effect that Togetic can bring out in the table.

Drew's score was greatly deducted by this single mistake, the mistake that he knew that he was fully responsible for, and he also realized at that moment thag the combination he just performed was nonsense in front of a real Pokémon Trainer like Ash.

He felt very annoyed to get played like this by his opponent.

"Togetic, now use Ancient Power!" Rock-type skills were extremely effective against Bug and Flying-type Pokémon's like Masquerain.

Masquerain was hit and completely lost all of her ability to fight. In less than 5 minutes, Drew had no ability to resist in front of Ash on both showing off his Pokémon's ability and their power.

He had trained so hard but one oversight had ruined all of his plans.

"Masquerain lost her ability to fight, meaning Coordinator Ash won this battle! The Rubello Town Pokémon Contest is finally coming to a grand finale! The final round will soon begin!"

Against that older girl, it was easier for Ash and Togetic to win compared to when they had to face the stronger Drew. Although the opponent used a dual Rock and Steel-type Lairon, which was very unfavorable in terms of typings for Ash's dual Flying and Fairy-type Togetic, the moment Sweet Kiss landed perfectly, Lairon was thrown into chaotic condition and there was no way to fight for much longer.

Togetic than bombarded the Lairon with ling range attacks, boosted by Ancient Power, to fully knock the Lairon out.

Even without doing that, Lairon was losing too much points and Togetic was gaining too much point for it to end the other way.