LIGHT NOVEL Chapter 45: Qualifiers
The Rookie Trainer Competition was first established in order to help civilian Trainers with great potential have an easier starting journey. Therefore, the prize for the competition was mainly the Pokemon food for 1 year, with the cash only as a bonus.
In this competition, more than 400 Rookie Trainers signed up and were divided into 4 groups. These more than 100 people from each group will battle it out in a qualifying match on the first day, and the 8 undefeated Trainers in each group will qualify for the top 32 battle tomorrow.
Dante and the others in the preparation area D watched the emcee in the live broadcast TV greet the audience and liven up the atmosphere. Looking around the room, Dante could see the Trainers that look to be about the same age as him.
Only a few people were talking to each other, with most of them looking at their phone, talking with their Pokemon, or glancing around at others like him. Everyone was clearly nervous to a varying degree for the upcoming battle.
Seeing them, Dante remembered his previous self during the Trainer Examination. At that time, he felt so nervous when facing the proctor in a Trainer battle for the first time. Now however, he just felt calm and excited about the upcoming battles.
It has only been a month, but Dante felt like years had passed since then. Everyday going into the dungeon and battling other Pokemon head-on has tempered not only his body, but also his mind.
The emcee finally finished the opening ceremony and the participants started to be called on the field according to their number. The number was assigned to them along with an email of the rules of the competition, and a pin with their number was given upon entry today.
Dante was number 352, and it didn't take long for his number to be called.
"You ready, Pikachu?"
"Pika!"
"Heh, let's go face our first official battle then."
Stepping out of the room and into the open field, Dante saw 4 battle arenas spread apart from each other. He noticed that the people standing on the other three arenas were faces he had seen in room D.
'Huh, so Shinobu is in another stadium then. I hope she can get a place in the qualifiers.'
Due to tight space, the Pokemon Alliance branch in Manila has less stadium built compared to other Alliance branches that are located in less industrialized areas.
The Alliance branch has 4 different stadiums in the north, south, east, and west direction. Located at the center was the main building that also contains the largest stadium. The four small stadiums are connected to the main building through a hallway
The qualifiers for this competition are held in the smaller stadiums. Only those Trainers that entered the top 32 will battle in the central stadium tomorrow.
Dante stood on one side of the battle arena indicated by the referee. On the opposite side, a cute girl with bob cut hair shyly waved at him while tightly clutching a Pokeball in her hand.
Pikachu has also reluctantly returned to his Pokeball. Official Alliance rules state that Pokemon to be used for a match must remain in the Pokeball before the battle officially starts. Dante smiled and nodded back to the girl.
"Are both Trainers ready?"
"Yes!/Y-yes!"
"The 6th round of the qualifying match between Sarina and Dante is ready to begin. Trainers, release your Pokemon!"
"I choose you, Pikachu!"
"O-oddish, please help me win!"
Seeing that Dante released Pikachu, Sarina's mood obviously brightened. Oddish, who is Grass and Poison type, has a 2x resistance to Pikachu's Electric type moves. As long as both sides are of equal strength, then the Pokemon with a type-advantage is obviously more likely to win.
Sadly for the girl however, the strength between their two Pokemon is not equal.
"Pikachu, use Thunder Shock!"
"Pika pi!"
The moment the referee signalled for the battle to begin, Dante wasted no time in giving orders to Pikachu. Releasing electricity from his cheeks, Pikachu's attack hit the Oddish who wasn't even able to react.
With a cry of "Oddishhh!" Oddish fell to the ground. The referee checked her status before raising a flag in Dante's direction.
"Oddish is unable to battle, the winner of this battle is Trainer Dante!"
Dante heaved a sigh of relief. Luckily, he asked Pikachu to use a weaker attack first.
Pokemon rarely die in Trainer battles. Whenever an attack that is too powerful hits them, they instinctively eject all the energy in their body to form a barrier. As a result however, they will faint due to overdraft of energy. The move Protect was made on the basis of this.
If Pikachu uses Thunderbolt, Dante can't be sure whether he will be able to overcome that barrier and cause real harm to Oddish.
"Eh? Eh! Huh!?"
Sarina on the opposite side was still processing what just happened. The battle has just begun, and she wasn't even able to give any commands yet. Why did it suddenly end?
Seeing tears accumulating at the corner of her eyes, Dante felt a bit panicked. He and Pikachu looked at each other, and then decided to 'stealthily' return to the preparation room.
When they got back, Dante and Pikachu breathed a sigh of relief.
"Uhh, do you think we were too cruel back there?"
"Pika pi…" (Yeah, I feel really guilty now. Umm…why don't I let them attack me first before I knock them out?)
Dante didn't even hesitate before rejecting Pikachu's idea. What a joke! He won't let his Pokemon deliberately get hurt just to appease the feelings of others. Besides, they were already merciful enough in just using weaker moves first.
"Why don't you just use physical attacks? We can practice your melee skills on the rest of the battles."
From what Dante watched in the preparation room, the stats of the Trainer's Pokemon are only at the 10-30 range. In other words, Pokemon that just recently started Training.
Pikachu thought for a while before nodding in agreement. He only had Quick Attack, Slam, and Feint as his physical attacks. Among which, Pikachu only uses Quick Attack daily, and that was in order to reposition himself away from the enemy.
Dante already told him that he will give him an item that can double his Attack and Special Attack in the future. Therefore, practicing his melee skills in battle is a necessity.
Starting from the next battle, Pikachu only used physical attacks in order to defeat his opponents. This time, some Pokemon with high Defense survived for two or three moves.
Even so, Dante and Pikachu easily advanced through the rest of the competition and secured their spot for tomorrow's battle.