"I’m Shiro, and my Pokémon is Gastly!"

  With a fideion, Shiro reached for his Poké Ball and tossed it onto the battlefield.

  The red and white ball opened, and out came a dark, ghostly figure surrounded by swirling purple gas—Gastly.

  After some training, Gastly had also reached the peak of Novice-level, pg it at a simir strength to Jangmo-o.

  "Gastly!" The surrounding trainers began murmuring.

  "Gastly in Gar is quite rare, and this one seems to have impressive potential."

  "I inally thought he was just a dumb kid eyeing the dragon scales, but now it's hard to say who will win..."

  "Hmph, this Jangmo-o isn't like the others. Have you seen its scales? Regur Jangmo-o don’t have shiny golden ones like that. Clearly, it's been bred with lots on-type resources and has extraordinary talent."

  Some trainers still didn’t think much of Gastly, shaking their heads at the Ghost-type Pokémon.

  The noise from the onlrew louder and louder, drawing the attention of other trainers already engaged in battles.

  However, it didn't interfere with Shiro and his oppo ihe psychic barrier.

  Ryn's presence was intimidating—years of grueling training had sculpted his body into pure muscle. His Jangmo-o, though young, was equally impressive—its golden scales and strong limbs clearly indicated its physical strength, with even some muscles visible us scales.

  Gastly, oher hand, hovered in the air, uned with its oppo who couldn’t even fly.

  "Jangmo-o! Jump up, Dragon Tail!" Ryn aaking the initiative to start the battle, his arm swinging in sync with his order.

  As Shiro had predicted, Jangmo-o’s only viable attack was Dragon Tail—a physical move.

  But Jangmo-o wasn’t like the typiovice-level Pokémon; it was surprisingly agile. The young dragon leaped effortlessly into the air, s up to six or seveers to meet Gastly, its tail glowing with a purple light at the tip.

  "Gastly, keep floating higher!" Shiro quickly responded.

  Gastly sehe immediate danger and subsciously followed the and, s a few meters higher, rising all the way to the top of the psychic barrier.

  Jangmo-o, uo gain any more height, missed with its Dragon Tail, whily swept through the spot where Gastly had been moments earlier.

  The young dragon nded heavily ba the battlefield.

  Gastly, still shaken from the close call, stared wide-eyed at the se. Seeing its bewilderment, Shiro shouted,

  "Gastly! The oppo is strong! Use Shadow Ball!"

  Gastly snapped out of its daze at Shiro’s call, eyeing Jangmo-o with renewed wariness. Several small shadowy spheres of ghostly energy began to quickly form beside Gastly’s body.

  Meanwhile, Jangmo-o wasn’t idle. Ryn knew his Pokémon couldn’t reach Gastly’s current altitude but had a pn to close the gap.

  "Jangmo-o! Use Dragon Tail, go higher!"

  Upon hearing the and, Jangmo-o swung its tail downward with immense force, causing the ground to shake with a resounding roar.

  The dust from the impact obscured Jangmo-o’s figure for a moment, and the audience couldn’t track its movements.

  The power of the Dragon Tail unched Jangmo-o upward, only slowing down noticeably after rising to a height of eight or ers. By then, it was already dangerously close to Gastly in mid-air.

  "Gaassss!"

  Gastly let out a sharp cry, its ghostly gas swirling violently around it as it saw its oppo closing in.

  Fueled by instind adrenaline, Gastly’s potential surged. The five small Shadow Balls it had prepared fired at Jangmo-o in quick succession, their dark energy spiraling toward the dragon.

  "ter with Dragon Tail!" Ryn yelled.

  Jangmo-o unched another Dragon Tail while in mid-air. The powerful purple energy pierced through two dark Shadow Balls, causing two crisp explosions.

  However, the remaining three Shadow Balls dodged the Dragon Tail and hit Jangmo-o's body directly.

  Jangmo-o let out a pained cry, its body plummeting rapidly from the force of the Shadow Balls. The earlier Dragon Tail that had instinctively aimed to end the battle with Gastly also veered off course.

  Another loud rumble shook the battlefield, but Jangmo-o merely shook its head and stood up, gring at Gastly in mid-air.

  "Jangmo-o’s strength is is defense, speed, and overall physical qualities far exceed Gastly’s!" The trainers watg voiced their shobsp;

  Jangmo-o's strength as a Novice-level Pokémon had already surpassed everyone's expectations.

  "No wonder Ryn chose dragon scales as the prize. He never sidered the possibility of losing!" A trainer who had sidered challenging Ryn sighed, "Gastly is good, but… it 't even afford to take o from Jangmo-o.”

  Ihe barrier, Shiro’s body tensed as he ched his fists.

  He knew all too well that it was highly unfair fastly, or any Novice-level Pokémon, to battle Jangmo-o. The physical prowess of Jangmo-o was overwhelmingly superior.

  If not fastly’s Levitate ability and its Ghost typing, a regur Novice-level Pokémon would have beeed in one move.

  But Gastly still had a ce to win.

  “Gastly! Hypnosis!" Shiro growled urgently after Jangmo-o hit the ground.

  Hypnosis was a low-level Psychic-type move, and Gastly could easily learn it.

  Hypnosis was an incredibly useful and crucial trol move in any battle. If it hit, Gastly would at least have a few ces to freely attack.

  Ryn uood this as well and immediately instructed Jangmo-o to avoid it.

  "Jangmo-o! Use Tackle to move!"

  Jangmo-o, already incredibly fast, accelerated further using Tackle, charging through the battlefield in random dires, leaving most of the spectators uo track its exact position.

  Gastly in the air was alsling to keep up with Jangmo-o's erratients.

  Although it was stronger in terms of dynamic ability, Hypnosis wasn’t an easy move to nd, especially si wasn’t part of Gastly’s core typing, and it wasn't particurly skilled with it.

  Gastly was bound to miss.

  But what Shiro wanted was not Hypnosis.

  He knew Gastly khe move, but iraining, they had never actually practiced it.

  Without special telepathic abilities for unication, Shiro had taught Gastly to read his arm movements for coordination during training, alongside his verbal ands.

  In the short time of training, Shiro had taught only ohing.

  That whenever he ched his fist, Gastly should use Shadow Ball, regardless of what he said.

  The same applied to the Rookidee, but with Air Cutter instead of Shadow Ball.

  This allowed Shiro to exploit the information gap, making surprise attacks more effective!

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