Lounge.
The organizers thoughtfully arranged two separate rooms.
Baimu gently brushed off the remaining sand particles from his body and washed his face.
"Whew..."
The intermission is only five minutes, he sat on the long bench and started to rest with his eyes closed.
The finals went smoothly.
From Porygon II's "Clone," Steelix's sandstorm, to Blissey's risky reception of Horn Drill, using Imitation to counter and end the battle.
There weren't too many unexpected situations.
If anything, the battle with Excadrill at the end was quite thrilling, this guy launched various attacks as Smoke Bullet, even used True Qi Bullet to create smoke and dust to confuse the vision.
In fact, all was gambled on the one-hit kill.
This reminded him of his past battle with Shanren.
No wonder everyone likes aggressive tactics, then passively pushes themselves and their Pokémon to the limit.
Breaking through without establishment?
Unfortunately, the situation of breaking without establishment is more common.
Just like when I lost to Shanren, and earlier when Alice lost to me.
Scenes like Ash Ketchum successfully triggering Infernape's Special Fierce Fire, locking blood fiercely to win against Shinji, are indeed rare.
However.
Will Alice give up because of one failed challenge?
Clearly not.
If she did, she wouldn't be Alice.
Baimu rubbed his face, opened the Pokeball, and called out Porygon II.
"Let's rehearse one more time."
"Pory~"
Porygon II nodded and dived into the phone to start the second half of the match rehearsal.
With its processor, it can deduce Alice's upcoming choices and possible tactics based on known information, highly valuable for reference.
It's considered a kind of unique talent.
Baimu stared at the lines of text popping up on the phone, falling into deep thought.
Before the match, he guessed from Alice's recent performance and future achievements that she almost possessed a strength comparable to ordinary Celestial Kings.
But judging from the first half's situation... it seemed to be a bit lacking?
At least the level wasn't qualified.
In the network's major media and battle fans' speculations, the Pokémon level of the Four Heavenly Kings was at least above sixty-five, and those above seventy were quite normal for a little more excellency.
Also, for veteran Four Heavenly Kings like Agatha, Genji, Kikuno, and talented top Four Celestial Kings like Da Ye and Caitlin, it's not uncommon for their ace Pokémon to exceed seventy-five.
The above assumptions aren't concrete evidence.
But since many media releasing the data are authoritative in the battle arena, and as the Four Heavenly Kings didn't come forward to refute, the industry generally accepted these speculations.
Baimu discussed again with Porygon II.
They believed Alice's Pokémon level might revolve between sixty to sixty-five, Excadrill, Dragonite, and Haxorus could be a little higher.
Of course, level doesn't represent everything.
Training and battles translate into base stats—various extra Ability Values also affect a Pokémon's combat power.
Moreover, examples of defeating stronger opponents with weak ones abound in animation, level is just one condition to judge the relative strength via electronic cockfighting prediction before both sides fight.
To make Pokémon unleash power surpassing the constraints of level and Ability Value.
Has always been something trainers worldwide talk about excitedly and yearn for.
Baimu naturally agreed with this and didn't have level anxiety himself.
Despite the current team having quite a range in levels, the strongest Aggron can reach the pinnacle of the Four Heavenly Kings, while the weakest Corsola and Gengar haven't even touched the threshold.
But he has a simulator's golden finger.
Given enough time, through several Orange Talent simulations, Double Talent simulations, and even more powerful Talent simulations, eventually surpassing the paper data of all trainers in the animation world.
Soon after.
The rehearsal completed.
Baimu glanced at the dwindling time, pulling out the Pokeball and saying:
"The protagonist is about to enter the stage."
The Pokeball shook slightly.
——
Main venue.
The audience seat was extremely noisy.
Xiaoguang and Piplup finished sharing an entire glowing rice ball, and finally calmed down after gulping a large mouthful of water.
"Boga..."
"Is the second half starting soon?"
She asked the few people beside her.
Xiaogang nodded, taking the teapot from Mann Chong, who thanked him softly: "Another half minute, Baimu and the others should be coming out."
Half a minute.
Liuqia upon hearing this also placed down the comb in her hand, which she used to groom the silky Altaria feathers, and looked toward the field.
They didn't go to the lounge mainly fearing to interrupt Baimu and Alice's rest, the pace of the finals was too tight compared to previous matches, these five minutes were critical for mental recovery.
"Alice, do your best! You'll surely be alright!"
Xiaoguang secretly cheered for her.
She had known Alice for a long time, back when Ash Ketchum was traveling in the Unova Region with Alice and Celestial Tung, she followed Zhulan to Undella Town preparing to participate in the Junior Cup and even lost to the other side.
Unexpectedly, after such a long time, they would meet again in the Hoenn Region, truly it must be fate.
Suddenly.
The audience quieted down and then erupted in cheers and shouts.
Everyone looked down, indeed seeing Baimu and Alice entering one after the other.
As the two stood on stage.
The second half of the finals commenced.
Several Aerial Rotoms focused on the field, and the commentator's voice came through the broadcast.
"Welcome to the Ever Grande Conference championship finals site, after five minutes of rest, the exciting and suspenseful second half is finally about to begin! Let's take a look at the site for the second half match—"
Beep.
The big screen lit up with grassy patterns.
"Grass terrain!"
Buzz!
The lush green field slowly rose, waist-high grass remained unchanged, this is the third time Baimu fought on this field.