Fame

"Pidgeotto has lost its ability to fight. The winner is Hisoka from Viridian City!" The referee announced the result of the match.

In the arena, a large bird around one meter in height was passed out on the ground. Traces of frostbite were faintly visible on its wings.

Hisoka's opponent in this match thought that he had the upper hand in this fight because of his Pidgeotto flying advantage and had relaxed his vigilance against Weavile. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a big mistake.

After dodging Pidgeotto's several attacks, Hisoka quickly saw the flaw in its attack trajectory and asked Weavile to jump in the air when Pidgetto went for another dive. Without even waiting for his command, Weavile had already landed an Ice Punch on Pidgeotto's wings after seeing its exposed back. The Pidgeotto then plunged to the ground with a loud thump.

"How long does this match take?" A man in an Alolan shirt asked the bespectacled man sitting next to him. Both of them had watched Hisoka's matches a few times.

"This time, it took Hisoka around 45 seconds to win this match compared to previous rounds, where he was averaging between 10 to 20 seconds," the man said with a smile as he pointed to his stopwatch.

"That's probably because his opponent this time uses a Flying-type Pokemon," said the man in an Alolan shirt.

Then, he continued, "This kid is so terrifying. And he's still averaging between 15-30 seconds now. I'm more interested to see if there's another trainer on the same level as him. At least they should give us an exciting battle if they met."

What the man said just now was also running in the minds of everyone watching Hisaoka's match. Although Hisoka was quite powerful, the audience preferred if the two trainers were evenly matched. The audience wanted to see exciting battles, not this kind of crushing victory.

To tell the truth, Hisoka wasn't that strong. There were even others that could match against him, like Brock. It was the rules of the tournament that led to the current situation. Since heavy Pokemon such as Rock, Ground, and Steel-type Pokemon weren't allowed to enter the competition, many trainers find it difficult to deal with their opponents. Also, there were many prohibitions regarding the allowed moves, which made the trainers unable to use their Pokemon's full strength.

Most of the Pokemon used by trainers in today's competition were small and medium-sized Pokemon with fast speed but weak defense. This led to the situation where Weavile dominated over her opponents.

After evolving into Weavile, her strength had significantly improved. Coupled with the daily weight-bearing training, it was even more so. Hisoka was certain that not many Pokemon could surpass her in terms of speed, especially when she had taken off her metal bracelets.

As Mike Tyson's trainer used to say, 'speed kills, speed is what kills, the speed kills.' As long as you're fast enough to hit your opponent without giving them the chance to react, you will always be on the winning side.

...

"Squirtle, use Skull Bash!"

"Squirtle!"

An odd-looking Squirtle wearing a sunglass first withdrew its head into its shell. Suddenly, it popped out its head as its body was launched at the opponent like an RPG launcher. The Venonat on the opposite side didn't have the time to dodge Squirtle's charge and was slammed on its head.

"Venonat!"

After being hit, the Venonat staggered to its feet, swaying a little before falling to the ground with swirly eyes.

"Venonat is unable to battle. So the winner is Ash from Pallet Town!"

"Yeah!"

Hearing the referee announcing the result, Ash pumped his fist in excitement, "I win the second match!"

"Squirtle, Squirtle!"

Squirtle shook its finger a couple of times in front of Ash, then it pointed toward itself as if it was saying, 'Aren't you forgetting something?'

"Squirtle, you did a great job too!" Ash praised his Pokemon while scratching the back of his head embarrassedly.

"Let's go watch the match over there. I heard there is a strong trainer named Hisoka. Someone said that he always defeats his opponents in less than one minute."

When he was walking away from the arena, he heard something from the passing crowd that caught his attention.

"Hisoka? This name sounds familiar," Ash said while rubbing his chin.

"Pika-pi" Pikachu poked Ash's shoulder and pulled his face to resemble Hisoka.

"Ah! I remember it now! Isn't he the guy from yesterday? Did he participate in this tournament too? Let's go and see his match Pikachu!" Ash said to his mouse companion.

"Pikachu!"

...

By the time Ash and Pikachu managed to squeeze through the crowd and walked to the front row, the match was already over.

The referee was holding a green flag in Hisoka's direction, signifying his win.

At the same time, a Weavile was standing on the field in a crouching position. At its feet lay an unconscious Tauros with a big lump on its head. It appeared that the Tauros had been struck hard on its head by something blunt.

Tauros's astonishing charge was fast and violent. But Weavile always dodged its charge by moving from side to side making its attack useless. After avoiding several attacks, Hisoka commanded Weavile to use Brick Break on the opponent. It was Tauros's only weakness, a Fighting-type move. However, since Weavile wasn't a Fighting-type Pokemon, it had to use Brick Break a few times before Tauros was finally defeated.

When the type of the move matched with the Pokemon type, the power of the move would be increased. For example, Psychic and Dragon-type Pokemons were naturally intelligent and could learn many moves with different types. But the power of a Fire Blast used by Psychic or Dragon-type Pokemon would be much weaker compared to a Fire Blast released by a Charizard, a Fire/Flying-type Pokemon. This was called STAB, the 'same type attack bonus.'

On another note, why did Hisoka let Weavile master three different types of attack, which were Night Slash, Ice Punch, and Brick Break? This match explained that. The three moves could restrain 11 different types of Pokemon, allowing her to deal effective damage to her opponent. Moreover, even if she was targeted by the opponents, she still could rely on her fast speed to gain an advantage over them. Once she had performed the Swords Dance twice, there won't be many Pokemon that could withstand her attack unless she was facing an Elite-rank Pokemon.

...

"Aw, man! It's already over," Ash looked at the arena in disappointment. He came here to watch Hisoka's fight, but it was too late.

"Ash, you're here too!" he suddenly heard Brock's voice.

"Brock, did you watch his match just now?" Ash turned around and saw Brock walking toward him.

Brock crossed his arms and said, "Yeah. I happened to pass by this area a few minutes ago. Then, I saw Hisoka entering the arena, so I stayed to watch his match. Ash, you'll have to be careful. Hisoka is a strong trainer. You'll have to be prepared to lose if you face him," he finished seriously.

"No way. Are you for real?" Ash was overwhelmed after seeing Brock's grave look.

"I'm not joking with you, and I'm not trying to undermine your confidence!"

Brock kept his eyes on Ash and continued, "I saw his whole match just now. From the very beginning until the end, it took him only less than a minute for him to solve the opponent's Pokemon. Do you know what this means?"

"He's strong?" he replied quietly.

Ash was still an experienced trainer despite having three Gym badges.

Brock looked at his friend's confused face with a wry smile and said, "From my professional perspective as a Pokemon breeder, Hisoka's opponent, Tauros isn't truly that bad. In fact, it might be even better than most Tauros. That speed when it charged was quite powerful, but Weavile can still easily dodge its attack without much effort. And it took Weavile only three Brick Break for it to knock Tauros out. This shows that Weavile's attacking power has reached a terrifying level. Most ordinary trainers can't resist his Weavile's attack."

"It's fine! If I'm scared to face him, then how can I become a Pokemon Master!" A fire blazed in Ash's eyes.

"And whether Hisoka is strong or not, we still have to fight to know the real result," he continued with a confident expression.

Sometimes being a simple-minded person was also kind of an advantage. Ordinary people, in this case, would be worried, timid, and thinking about a lot of things that would be detrimental in a Pokemon battle. Ash, who doesn't care about many things, does have a much better chance against Hisoka than the others. This was one of his few advantages. The rest? Well, that depended on his luck.

...

11.30 am,

The sun had fully risen. It was nearing lunchtime, so the competition that had been held since morning came to a temporary stop. A total of 120 participating trainers were eliminated after everyone had passed six rounds.

The second phase of the tournament will continue at 1.00 pm later. The winner of this Pokemon tournament will then be decided at the end of this phase.

Of Hisoka's six matches in the morning, the average time it took for him to end the fight was around 30 to 50 seconds. This also led to the spread of Hisoka's reputation around the ship. The crowd all marveled at the fact that there was such powerful a trainer onboard.

Many trainers were worried about being his opponent later because no one wanted to be eliminated from the tournament after reaching this far. Moreover, Hisoka had not fully shown his full strength yet, so it was hard for them to find his weakness.

…

Control Room,

Looking at Hisoka's striking figure in the video, Ryoichi couldn't help but brag to his chief, "How is it, boss? How is my subordinate? Isn't he strong? This kid hasn't revealed his other Pokemon yet."

"Your subordinate?" Matthias looked at Ryoichi with a vulpine smile.

"My bad, he's a partner," Ryoichi quickly replied.

Then, Matthia turned toward the silent Captain with a smile, "Captain Iron, what do you think of this young man?"

"It's your prerogative to recruit hunters as foreign security," Captain Iron said solemnly.

"Any accident that occurs to this ship will be your whole responsibility. Are you sure that this kid isn't an undercover agent of Team Rocket? We recruited four hunters in total. Three of them are already undercover agents. So why wouldn't he be one? Anyway, I don't trust this kid," he said bluntly.

Hearing Captain Iron's words, Ryoichi rolled his eyes.

What three undercover agents? He's clearly a League officer.

"I'll take all the responsibility if something goes wrong!" Matthias gentle's voice suddenly turned decisive.

"Ryoichi!" he shouted.

"Yes, sir!"

Ryoichi quickly straightened his back and stood at attention after hearing his chief's shout.

"Inform the others to get ready tonight. Also, check the traps that you have set before, and make sure they are working properly. We will start the plan tonight."

"No problem, sir!" Ryoichi replied with a grin after hearing Matthias order.

...