"Is the gap really that big?"
Jensen looked at his Sudowoodo, which had been so easily defeated, and felt a deep sense of disparity in his heart. He had been a Trainer for roughly the same amount of time—longer, even—so why was the gap this wide?
"I don't believe the gap is that big."
Jensen recalled his defeated Sudowoodo and sent out his third Pokémon.
"I'll leave it all to you, Aggron."
In a flash of light, it appeared.
[LV52 Aggron / Quasi-Elite]
Jensen's last Pokémon was Aggron, and its level looked fairly high, having at least reached the quasi-Elite tier.
Moreover, Aggron was a dual Steel- and Rock-type. Weavile's attacks could only deal very limited damage to it, even with level suppression on its side.
Aggron's defense was no joke.
"Weavile, use Dynamic Punch," Gary ordered.
Weavile was about to charge out immediately.
But Jensen didn't give it the chance, ordering at once, "Quick, use Dig!"
Aggron burrowed into the ground before Weavile could close in.
Seeing Aggron disappear underground, Weavile immediately stopped its advance and watched the ground carefully.
"Then we'll use Dig too," Gary ordered.
"Wea!"
Weavile dove into the ground as well.
"What!"
Jensen was stunned. No matter how he thought about it, Weavile didn't seem like a Pokémon that could learn Dig—but it clearly knew the move, vanishing beneath the earth in the blink of an eye.
"Both Weavile and Aggron have gone underground! I wonder how fiercely these two Pokémon are battling down there!" the announcer said, clearly curious.
Gary was actually quite curious himself, but he couldn't see what was happening underground either.
BANG!!
The ground at the center of the field suddenly shattered, and Aggron and Weavile burst out at the same time.
Gary and Jensen immediately checked the condition of their Pokémon.
Both Aggron and Weavile had taken damage, but it was impossible to tell which of them was hurt worse.
"Dynamic Punch!"
"Quick, use Protect!"
Taking advantage of the short distance between them, Weavile rushed in and threw a punch—but it only struck Aggron's Protect barrier.
"Keep going—Dynamic Punch!" Gary didn't care in the slightest. Aggron could block it once, but not twice.
As the Protect barrier shattered, Weavile struck with Dynamic Punch again.
This time, Jensen didn't have Aggron defend, instead letting it counterattack with Smart Strike.
Bang!!
Bang!!
Both attacks landed on their targets.
Weavile was knocked several meters back by Smart Strike. Although Steel-type moves could hurt an Ice-type Pokémon, Weavile's level suppression combined with its EX Pressure ability reduced the damage by a quarter, so the injury wasn't too severe.
On the other side, Aggron, struck by the Dynamic Punch, didn't fall—but its eyes went unfocused as it slipped into confusion.
"End the match. Take Aggron down with Dynamic Punch," Gary ordered.
"Wea!"
Weavile rushed forward at full speed.
Jensen ordered Aggron to fight back, but in its confused state, Aggron only swung wildly at empty air and took both of Weavile's Dynamic Punches head-on.
"Aggron is unable to battle," the referee announced. "All three of Jensen's Pokémon have lost the ability to fight. Gary wins!"
"Congratulations to Gary on his first victory in the preliminary round!"
The audience burst into warm cheers.
"Haha, made a nice little profit!"
"Let the outsiders talk all they want—Master Gary doesn't even need his main Pokémon to sweep this."
"Steady! Rock solid! Master Gary won't slip up this time. Fantastic!"
Gary left the venue to the sound of the crowd's cheers. He had no interest in watching the matches that followed.
There was only one competitor worth paying attention to in Arena D, and that was Tobias.
But Tobias would only ever use Darkrai to fight. No one in Arena D other than Gary could force him to bring out a second Pokémon, so there was no point in sticking around to watch.
Gary went over to Arena B to catch the matches there, since Ash had been assigned to that block.
By the time he arrived, the match between Ash and Nando was already underway.
The Pokémon Nando had sent out was Kricketune.
The Pokémon Ash had sent out was Heracross.
[LV49 Kricketune / Gym]
[LV52 Heracross / Elite]
"So he knows to use Heracross. Looks like he's learned to adapt," Gary murmured.
He had assumed Ash would fight with his Sinnoh-region Pokémon, but instead he'd brought out a Pokémon caught back in the Johto region. It seemed Ash had figured out why newly trained Pokémon were prone to losing.
In truth, Ash's reasoning wasn't quite what Gary imagined. He was simply playing it safe to secure a spot in the finals. Only by reaching the finals could he compete in Full Battles—and only then could he give more of his Sinnoh Pokémon real experience.
Without any surprises, Ash's Heracross defeated Kricketune. Gary didn't stay to watch anyone else's matches and returned to the athletes' village to rest.
At 4 PM, the first round of the preliminaries came to an end, and Gary headed to the Pokémon Center to wait for the second-round matchups to be announced.
Gary glanced around and spotted Ash and his group. Barry was tagging along with them, and Paul was there as well.
But Tobias was nowhere to be seen.
Since the matchup information could also be checked from the computer in each competitor's room, there was actually no need to come wait at the Pokémon Center at all.
Gary had only come out because he wanted to take a walk. It was past four anyway—dinner would be soon enough—so he figured he'd head out a little early.
At 4:30, the huge LCD screen in the Pokémon Center displayed the list of second-round matchups.
Gary's opponent was a girl named Maya.
Having confirmed who his opponent was, Gary turned to leave—only to be blocked by Ash and his group.
Gary looked at Ash in confusion, not knowing why he was being stopped.
"Gary, I've decided to use my old Pokémon this time. You'd better not get eliminated by Tobias, you hear me?" Ash said.
Back in Veilstone City, Gary had told Ash about Darkrai. He hadn't mentioned Tobias by name, but he had said there was a Trainer out there with a Darkrai.
Now that the Lily of the Valley Conference had begun, Ash had naturally taken note of Tobias, and after checking the brackets, he knew Gary and Tobias were in the same block—meaning the odds of them clashing were high.
"You're worried about me getting eliminated?"
Gary was at a loss for words. Ash actually had the leisure to worry about someone else's situation.
Don't you realize you're the poor guy who got knocked out by Tobias in the first place?