Luther's opponent for the round of sixteen had already been decided.
Looking at the photo of the man, Luther was momentarily stunned.
This guy, dressed like a bard and fond of wearing a green hat, was named Sho. He was originally supposed to be Ash's first opponent in the Main Tournament of the Lily of the Valley Conference, someone who would normally be eliminated in the top 64.
But that was all in the past. Luther's presence had already disrupted everything.
When Luther glanced over the list of advancing contestants after the round of 32, he noticed Sho was still in. What he didn't expect was to face him this round.
According to the available data, Sho's main battling Pokémon were usually these six:
Roserade, Kricketune, Armaldo, Altaria, Lopunny, and Sunflora.
If he didn't have any hidden trump cards, then purely from a type perspective, sending out Azumarill, Houndoom, and Mismagius would make things quite comfortable.
However… Darkrai's desire to battle couldn't be ignored.
After learning that Luther would face Sho, Ash, and Dawn specifically came to describe Sho's personality to him. Luther had only needed Pokémon data, but he couldn't refuse their goodwill and patiently listened.
Ash's opponent this round was someone unheard of. The Conway, who was originally supposed to battle him, also didn't know who he would draw this round.
As for Paul, his opponent was another relatively unknown trainer who had quietly made it this far. Meanwhile, Barry, the "fine guy" who was originally supposed to face him, ended up matched against the contestant who had fought all the way back into the Main Tournament through the revival rounds.
Suddenly, a figure pushing up his glasses drifted out from behind Dawn. Conway once again appeared in everyone's view in his usual ghost-like fashion.
"Conway, why are you here in our Contestant Village instead of studying your opponent?" Dawn asked, startled, quickly stepping beside Ash and pointing at him.
"But my opponent this round happens to be staying in your Contestant Village," Conway replied with a smile.
Although eliminated contestants could still stay in the Contestant Village, they had to pay for the services.
The only contestants still living here should have been Ash, Luther, Etorre, and Dakota.
As soon as Conway finished speaking, Dakota, who had just finished lunch, walked in through the main entrance.
The moment he saw Conway, Dakota stopped.
When their gazes met, Luther froze.
Back during the group ranking tournament, Conway had already said that even if he faced Darkrai, he had a way to restrain and defeat it. That was his confidence in both his strength and strategy.
And judging from how he had specifically targeted Luther in their previous battle, Conway was definitely not just boasting.
"Contestant Dakota, tomorrow I'd like to have a six-on-six battle with you, standard Limit Four rules. Are you interested?"
Everyone present looked at Conway in shock.
His words made Dakota freeze mid-turn. His shoulders twitched slightly as he looked back at Conway with confusion.
"You should know that a six-on-six battle is a huge test of your main team's stamina. Without sufficient depth in your lineup, playing like this is practically suicide, especially with the round of sixteen to eight coming up…"
"So, will you accept?"
No one had ever seen Conway like this before. The usual gloomy aura around him was gone, he wore a faint smile, staring directly at Dakota.
Open and aboveboard.
This was Conway's strategy.
No provocation, no tricks to pressure him into changing the format.
Everyone could see that Conway had come prepared, his goal was clear:
To shatter Dakota and Darkrai's undefeated reputation.
Dakota, who was always proud, suddenly felt as if a gun had been pressed to his forehead, leaving him no choice but to draw his own weapon and fire back immediately.
"As you wish."
With that, Dakota flicked his coat and turned to leave.
Luther and Ash were still too stunned to react.
Meanwhile, Conway smiled with full confidence, making Dawn instinctively clutch her Piplup and step away from him.
"Are you really that confident you can shut down Darkrai?" Luther couldn't help asking. "Let me say this first, my Darkrai is slightly inferior to Dakota's in terms of Ability. Don't use mine as a reference, or you'll lose badly."
"If it were the official 3v3 format, my strategy wouldn't have much effect on Darkrai. But in a 6v6 battle… I'll have much more room to operate."
Conway pushed up his glasses with his middle finger and chuckled. "With your understanding of coordinated battles, you should be able to guess what I'm planning. What I'm going to do tomorrow… is drag Dakota and Darkrai off their pedestal."
At this stage of the Lily of the Valley Conference, there wasn't a single coward left among the competitors.
So what if Darkrai had been undefeated all this time?
If you didn't even have the courage to challenge it, you might as well go home and retire with your Pokémon.
Conway left, and the moment he and Dakota submitted their request to change the match format, the forums exploded once again.
There would be no more seven-day breaks now. At this stage, everyone was trying to defeat their opponents with the least possible cost and advance further.
But had Dakota and Conway lost their minds?
Etorre had taken his Pokémon for a spa treatment and gone sightseeing around Lily of the Valley Island with Mao. Only after returning to the Contestant Village did he hear the shocking news.
"Who do you think will win?"
Etorre took a sip of orange soda, let out a satisfied sigh, and lay back on a lounge chair.
Eating the chilled watermelon Mao had brought back, Ash and Luther both paused, gesturing for the other to speak first.
Ash didn't refuse. "If I had to say… I've always thought Conway is a really troublesome opponent. He always comes up with strange strategies, battling him is a headache. But Dakota is just purely strong. Between the two of them… it's hard to say."
Etorre glanced at Luther, who was absentmindedly eating watermelon. "What about you? No opinion?"
"Dakota will most likely advance," Luther said without hesitation.
"Why?"
Luther sighed. "I've relied on strategy to get this far myself. At its core, most strategies are meant to compensate for a Pokémon's lack of raw strength, to allow you to compete evenly with opponents who aren't much stronger."
"But when the gap becomes too large, raw strength can completely crush strategy. To put it simply… if I used my approach against Cynthia, who do you think would win?"
"You'd definitely lose."
Not just Ash and Etorre, even Mai, Dawn, Brock, and Mao all answered in unison.
"The bigger the gap, the less impact strategy has. If Conway's unrevealed Pokémon can at least contend with Darkrai, then he has a chance."
Luther's match and Conway's match would be happening at the same time. If he finished quickly enough on his side, he might still be able to catch how Conway planned to deal with Darkrai.
(End of Chapter)
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