Chapter 58: The Semifinals Begin

Chapter 58: The Semifinals Begin

"Welcome, everyone, to the semifinals of the 'Seaside County High School Elite Selection Tournament.' I am your host, Hudson…"

On the main stage of the Seaside County Gymnasium, the host, Hudson, dressed in a suit with a neat short haircut, was showcasing his skill of spitting out words like bullets.

The thousand-seat audience section was completely full. Not just the seats, but even the aisles were now packed with people. This was the annual grand event of Seaside County. You could miss the preliminaries, you could even miss the main tournament, but if you missed the semifinals and finals, that would be a bit unreasonable.

When the four finalists appeared on stage side-by-side, the atmosphere in the venue reached its first climax.

"Luna, women are not inferior to men!"

"Go, Felix! Go, Gligar!"

"Go, Luke, go! Victory all the way!"

The four finalists were all quite famous, each with countless supporters. The cheers rose and fell. However, compared to the fans' shouts for the others, Basalt was in a league of his own. After all, he was handsome, strong, and had a likable persona. His fan base was significantly larger.

"Go, Basalt, go! Basalt is the best!"

"Go, go, go, Baby Basalt~~~"

"Brother Basalt will definitely win and bring glory to our school!"

"Basalt is so handsome, oh my god, he's killing me!"

…

Seeing this, Basalt nodded with satisfaction. With this much popularity, it wasn't a waste to have "played pitiful" against his conscience during the interview. And with popularity, Basalt had a way to monetize it.

This was… a win-win!

Drilbur, I'm playing pitiful to raise you!

…

"This Basalt has such high popularity," Officer Tanaka on the guest panel said, slightly shocked.

In terms of popularity and cheers, Basalt seemed to command half the venue, enough to take on the other three combined.

"This Basalt should be considered the biggest dark horse of this competition. He had no fame before the tournament, yet he broke through and won all the way, and now he's in the semifinals. And his chances of making it to the finals are also very high."

Next to Officer Tanaka, a greasy middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glasses and slightly thinning hair spoke up. This was Director King, the deputy director of the Seaside County Education Bureau. He was a Senior-level trainer, but as the representative of the tournament organizer, he still sat on the guest panel, on equal footing with the other Professional-level trainers.

"I don't think this kid is a dark horse; he's shady! His strength is clearly very high, more than enough to be a seed player, but he just kept it hidden. He's very cunning!" Next to Officer Tanaka, Victor Wei's face was grim.

Last week, Basalt had used the move Dig to defeat Wade's Tyrogue, causing him to lose a secret technique. Victor hated Basalt for it. The key was that Basalt clearly had the strength to be a seed player, but he had pretended to be weak. This was so frustrating. Otherwise, with Basalt's performance, he could have easily squeezed out Luke and become a seed player himself. In that case, Basalt wouldn't have been in the same group as Wade, competing for a spot in the top four.

And by that logic, Wade wouldn't have been defeated early. He would have steadily made it into the top four and would have had the opportunity to go to the Metro City training camp. In contrast, the stronger Wade was now out of the top four, while the slightly weaker Luke had been selected.

This was all Basalt's fault!

The others pretended not to hear Victor Wei's passive-aggressive remarks. Especially Coach Miles. In any case, he had won the "Focus Energy" secret technique from the Vigor Club; he had already profited. So he let the loser have his moment of verbal victory. It was a minor issue.

"Chief Tanaka, who do you think will win the championship this time?" Director King pushed up his glasses with his finger and looked at Officer Tanaka in his police uniform.

Director King and Officer Tanaka were both in the system and had more contact with each other. In terms of relationships, they were certainly closer than the coaches of the two clubs.

"If nothing unexpected happens, it should be Luna," Officer Tanaka said after a moment of contemplation.

"That coincides with my thoughts," Director King nodded and said no more.

Coach Miles glanced at them but also said nothing. Although in his heart he very much hoped that Basalt would win, rationally speaking, even if Drilbur had mastered Screech, its chances of winning against Smoochum were still not high.

…

"Now then, let's give our warmest round of applause and welcome the first group of contestants to the stage."

With the host's shout, Luna and Felix each walked onto the stage. One handsome boy and one beautiful girl, they were quite the eye-catchers. As for Basalt and Luke, they had to temporarily return to the contestant waiting room to wait.

"Go, Smoochum."

"Let's battle, Gligar."

At the referee's signal, the two threw out their Poké Balls at almost the same time.

"Both contestants, take your positions. Let the battle begin!"

With the referee's command, the first semifinal match officially began.

"Fly up, Gligar. After creating some distance, use Sand Attack."

To be fair, Felix himself preferred a hard-hitting, punch-for-punch fighting style, but if his opponent was Luna, he felt that "dirty tactics"… were also acceptable.

Whoosh!

As Gligar exerted its strength, a small storm instantly formed, sweeping across the battlefield, instantly kicking up flying sand and moving stones, raising a large cloud of dust. Sand Attack, a Ground-type move, throws sand in the opponent's face to lower their accuracy. If one had to make a comparison, Sand Attack could be considered a weakened version of Mud-Slap. But in return, Sand Attack had a wider range and could be considered an area-of-effect attack. Just like now, the entire battlefield was swept up in the dust storm, and Smoochum had nowhere to hide.

"Smoochum, use Reflect!"

Faced with the dust storm, Smoochum was not panicked. Its eyes suddenly lit up, flashing with a strange light.

Voom! Voom! Voom! Voom! Voom! Voom!

The air vibrated slightly. In front of, behind, to the left, to the right, above, and below Smoochum, a glass-like barrier instantly appeared, forming a shield that protected it without leaving any gaps.

Sizzle…

The Sand Attack hit the Reflect barrier, creating ripples, but it could not break through at all. Hiding inside the Reflect shield, Smoochum was as steady as Mount Tai.

"It has even mastered Reflect? What a cunning schemer…"

In the contestant waiting room, Basalt crossed his arms and watched the battle on the screen, feeling a sharp pain in his teeth.

Reflect, a Psychic-type move, creates a mysterious wall to defend against the opponent's physical attacks. In the games, Reflect reduces damage. But in the real world, Reflect and Light Screen completely block the opponent's damage, unless they are broken, in which case the user takes the remaining damage. It had to be said, the Psychic type was a truly broken existence in the early stages.

"Sing!"

After defending against Felix's first wave of attacks, Luna gave a sweet smile, and Smoochum launched its counter-attack.

"Smoo~chum~smoo~~chum~~~"

As the thick-lipped Smoochum opened its mouth, a sweet melody slowly drifted out.

"First, use Reflect to protect itself, then use Sing to weaken the opponent. This kind of tactical system is truly terrifying at the high school stage," Coach Miles said from the guest panel, frowning. He hadn't expected Luna to be even more formidable than he had imagined.

"That's right. Felix has been backed into a corner. If he doesn't immediately charge forward and go all out to try and break the Reflect barrier, once the Sing takes effect and his Gligar falls asleep, it's all over." Officer Tanaka stroked his beard and shook his head slightly.

Faced with the Psychic/Ice dual-type Smoochum, Gligar's use of long-range harassment tactics was undoubtedly the correct choice. But unfortunately, Luna and her Smoochum were too monstrous. They had even mastered Reflect. How was he supposed to fight that?

"Gligar, charge forward and use a maximum power Bulldoze!"

Felix was getting anxious, his face flushed. He had to break through Smoochum's protective layer before the Sing took effect. Otherwise, all would be lost.

"Gli~~"

Gligar could sense its trainer's urgency. It didn't dare to delay. It tumbled its body towards the ground, its large stinger tail slamming into the earth.

RUMBLE!

A terrifying Ground-type energy instantly blasted into the ground. A horrifying shockwave erupted from Gligar as the center, and the ground began to shake violently. Under the effect of Bulldoze, the Reflect barrier under Smoochum's feet rippled violently. Soon, cracks spread across it, expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye. It was clear that Gligar's same-type Bulldoze was extremely powerful. Smoochum's Reflect couldn't withstand it and was on the verge of shattering.

But at that moment, as Smoochum's eyes glowed red, a strange light also enveloped Gligar's body. The power of a move like Bulldoze gradually decreases with distance. Just now, to break the Reflect barrier as quickly as possible, the all-out Gligar had closed the distance with Smoochum to less than ten meters.

And the price for that was: Gligar was caught by Smoochum's Confusion!

"Gli~~"

Assailed by the psychic power, Gligar's face contorted in pain, but it couldn't break free. Not only that, but under the control of the psychic power, the floating Gligar was getting closer and closer to Smoochum.

Poof!

Suddenly, the psychic power enveloping Gligar disappeared. At first, Gligar didn't understand what had happened. But the moment it opened its eyes, all it saw was a vast expanse of white rushing towards it, the cold air bone-chilling.

BOOM!

A point-blank Icy Wind hit its mark. Gligar was instantly frozen into a block of ice, its eyes swirling as it lost the ability to battle.

A 4x weakness to Ice is just that painful.

"We have a winner! Contestant Luna has obtained a ticket to the finals…"

The commentator held the microphone, his voice excited, roaring wildly, bringing the atmosphere in the venue to a second climax.

Almost no one was surprised by this result, including Felix himself. From the very beginning, he had never thought he would win. He was just doing his best.

Amidst the cheers, the sweet girl Luna walked away gracefully, leaving only her beautiful silhouette for the audience to see.

"Now then, for the second semifinal match, let's welcome contestants Basalt and Luke to the stage."

With a wave of the host's hand, the main screen in the venue began to project the images of Luke and Basalt as they entered, each occupying half the screen.

"It's finally my turn."

Basalt waved to the audience, a slight smile playing on his lips.