Just as Dawn was immersed in the joy of obtaining Piplup and the identity of a new trainer, the originally closed door was suddenly pushed open again, followed by a voice that Ash and the others were not unfamiliar with.
"Professor Rowan, I'm here at the agreed time."
Ash and the others turned around and saw Paul standing at the door, whom they had met once before.
Paul was also surprised to see Ash and the others in the Pokémon Lab.
"It's you guys."
Paul's tone didn't have much emotional fluctuation, as if he was just stating a fact.
But, compared to Paul's indifference, Dawn seemed less calm.
"I didn't expect to see you again! Speaking of which, didn't you say you had something urgent to do? Why are you only arriving here leisurely now?"
Their philosophies differed, and coupled with Paul's unpleasant demeanor, his impression of him was already extremely poor in Dawn's mind.
Naturally, her tone towards him wasn't very good.
"Boring question.
" Paul snorted disdainfully.
"I am a Pokémon Trainer, so the urgent matter was naturally to capture Pokémon with potential, and then I arrived at the Pokémon Lab at the time agreed upon with Professor Rowan, so is there a problem? Defeatist guys?"
"You..."
Although Dawn took the initiative to provoke him, when it comes to the ability to make people angry, Dawn wouldn't be able to compare to Paul even if she grew up ten more years.
Knowing this, Ash just stopped Dawn, signaling her to let it go.
"Piplup~!"
Seeing Dawn so depressed, Piplup, as a Pokémon, naturally wouldn't feel good either.
If it weren't for the fact that Dawn didn't seem to want to battle right now, Piplup would have walked up to him and challenged him no matter what.
"Yeah, thanks for your hard work."
Professor Rowan seemed to be ignoring the conflict between them, or more precisely, he had no interest in knowing about it at all.
He simply took a document from Paul's hand, and then turned to sort it out, leaving Ash and the others to continue in silence and awkwardness.
"Speaking of..." After Dawn was defeated, Paul shifted his attention to Ash,
saying, "I have some free time now, and you guys don't look bored either.
How about a battle between your Pikachu and it?"
As Paul spoke, he casually threw out Electrike's Poké Ball.
Electrike, upon seeing Ash and Pikachu, seemed exceptionally excited and began to rotate its arms continuously, with bursts of Spark flickering above its head.
"Of course, just like that.
Since we're Pokémon Trainers, we shouldn't be able to say no when challenged, right?"
Ash and Pikachu looked at each other, their eyes full of fighting spirit.
For Ash, whether it was to make up for the regret of drawing with Paul in their first battle, or simply because he was angry at Paul's current training philosophy, Ash would not hesitate to accept his challenge.
"1 on 1, let's go to the field outside."
After Paul finished speaking, he easily started leading Ash and the others, as if this were his home field.
Paul's casual behavior made Dawn even more angry.
She patted Ash's shoulder and slowly said in an emphatic tone, "You can lose to anyone, but you absolutely can't lose to him! Losing to him would mean that our ideas would be easily rejected and defeated by him, right?"
"Don't worry, I won't lose."
Ash waved his hand at Dawn without turning his head, looking confident indeed, but Dawn always felt a little uncertain.
Although Paul is very annoying, in novels and comics, people like him seem to be very powerful in the early and mid stages, with no possibility of losing at all.
Only in the finale will such people be sanctioned by the main group.
If we follow the general rule, it probably won't be easy for Ash to win.
When Dawn turned her gaze towards Brock, she only read one sentence from Brock's eyes——
Believe in Ash.
Following Paul to the battle field behind the Pokémon Lab, Paul was already ready on one side, and it could be seen that he himself seemed to attach great importance to this match.
"Then I'll be the referee.
" Brock volunteered.
"No need.
" Paul said coldly, "No referee needed, a one-on-one Pokémon battle,
the end is when one side loses its ability to fight."
"Alright."
Ash said, standing opposite Paul.
This match between the two was an open-book battle, so there was no strategy to speak of.
Paul and Ash each gave their Pokémon a look, and Electrike and Pikachu stood on either side, ready to fight with great interest.
"Who goes first?"
"I'll let you go first."
Paul, or more precisely, the skills that Electrike itself is good at, have already determined that it doesn't care so much about who goes first.
Ash didn't think there was anything wrong with this, just simply nodded and directly announced the start of the battle.
"Quick Attack!"
Ash intends to seize the initiative in the battle from the beginning.
Pikachu's figure disappeared from the field the moment Ash issued the command.
The next second, when it reappeared before everyone, it was already in front of Electrike.
"Brick Break!"
Paul frowned slightly, as Pikachu's movements didn't seem to be what he had expected.
"el!"
Electrike reacted quickly, swinging its right hand down the instant Paul's command was given.
Quick Attack and Brick Break collided head-on, and both sides retreated a few ste.
"Pikachu has the advantage."
Brock watched the distance the two sides retreated and roughly judged that Pikachu's power was above Electrike's.
Paul also noticed this, and his already solemn expression became even heavier.
"Thunderbolt!"
"Spark!"
In the second round, Paul wanted to snatch back the advantage he had relinquished in the first round, so he hurriedly started to have Electrike take the initiative to attack.
Faced with the aggressive Thunderbolt, Ash didn't choose to have Pikachu confront it head-on in this round, but instead gave the command for Spark.
"pika~!"
Pikachu's body was instantly enveloped in Spark, carrying an indomitable momentum and a huge electric current, rushing straight towards Electrike's position.
Electrike's Thunderbolt, when hitting Pikachu who was in a high-voltage electric shock state, failed to stop Pikachu's movement.
Instead, the Thunderbolt's power made Pikachu's high-voltage electric shock even stronger.