Diane's first Pokémon was a level 44 Zweilous with Gold Talent.
It could only be said that the foundation of an old noble family was truly impressive. Nova was surprised just by seeing this first Pokémon alone.
Ordinary Zweilous have strong base stats, but their two heads often disagree with each other and have short tempers. During a battle, they can end up attacking one another for no reason, leaving themselves covered in injuries. Even a Trainer who specializes in raising Zweilous to prevent this kind of infighting still struggles, because the idea of two heads controlling one body is difficult to apply in real combat. If the two heads cannot agree, even for a moment, the Zweilous will simply freeze and be unable to act.
Reality was very different from the games Nova had played in his past life. In those games, once you sent out a Pokémon, it usually followed orders without trouble, unless bad luck caused a move to miss. But in the real world, Pokémon caused far more unexpected problems. Species like Zweilous were simply not suited for battle. Trainers had to raise them carefully just to reach the next evolution, all so they could eventually be knocked out in one hit by a Sylveon's Play Rough.
But Diane clearly had not sent out this Zweilous just to hand Nova an easy win.
This Zweilous carried a trait called Extreme Collaboration. It allowed both heads to think in harmony during battle while still acting somewhat independently, letting them use two different moves in a single turn. The power of each move was reduced by thirty percent, but the effect was strangely similar to Meowscarada's Double Magician, except Meowscarada always repeated the same move, while Zweilous's two heads could each choose their own attack.
It seemed a Pokémon with Gold Talent always came with some kind of unfair advantage built in.
Azir was currently only level 36, so the Zweilous clearly had the level advantage. Both Pokémon had Gold Talent, and their traits were so unusual that Nova could not easily judge which one was stronger. Overall, the odds were not in Nova's favor. His only real edge was that his breeding system let him see the opponent's training data, which gave him one-sided information and let him watch out for hidden tricks. That was about all he had going for him.
But Nova had not come here for an ordinary battle.
In fact, aside from Azir's match, which mattered because it was a rare chance to face an opponent of higher level, Nova planned to let Azir trade a few hits before revealing his true strategy. His other two core attackers were only there to cause chaos.
The battle began.
Nova had Vibrava use Sandstorm to take control of the weather. Since there was no barrier here to contain it, the Sandstorm would not stay confined to the battlefield. Diane clearly did not want sand blowing in her face, so she had Zweilous use Sunny Day to counter it. The sunny weather gave Zweilous no real advantage; Diane simply thought that flying sand would be worse for her skin than a bit of sunshine.
Boosted by Vibrava's Desert Prince trait, the Sandstorm rose up fast and strong. But since both of Zweilous's heads used Sunny Day at the same time, they barely managed to hold back the spreading sand and wind.
An unusual sight appeared across the open sandy field: the two kinds of weather split the battlefield cleanly in half. On Nova's side, yellow sand swirled through the air, making it impossible to keep your eyes open without goggles. On Diane's side, the sun burned so fiercely that people wanted to strip off their jackets.
Gilbert, standing in the middle as referee, had the worst luck of all, caught between both extremes. He had no choice but to send out his sturdiest Gastrodon just to clear the weather effects around himself.
Although the exchange looked evenly matched, Nova knew he actually held the advantage. Sunny Day offered almost no benefit to Zweilous, since it had no moves that gained extra power from sunlight. Sandstorm, on the other hand, did not directly boost Vibrava, but it filled the field with blinding sand, making it hard for Diane to attack without first spotting where Vibrava was. Vibrava itself was unaffected by the Sandstorm and did not even need to see clearly. It could sense Zweilous's exact position using its natural Supersonic ability.
Since that was the case, Nova saw no reason not to use his hidden position to land a few debuffs on Zweilous. Otherwise, he would not have earned the respect Trainers in Goldenlight City held for him.
"Vibrava, use Sand Attack!"
Vibrava's Desert Prince trait activated, since Sand Attack contained the word "Sand" in its name, triggering a special effect. This version of Sand Attack gave any Pokémon it struck a seventy percent chance of falling into a Blindness state, which lowered their accuracy by sixty percent. However, if the affected Pokémon had another way to track its target besides sight, the Blindness effect would only limit its vision and nothing more.
As it happened, Zweilous was exactly this kind of Pokémon. Back when it was still a Deino, unable to open its eyes, it had relied on touch and smell around its mouth to sense the world. Even after evolving into Zweilous and gaining sight, it had never lost that sharp sense of smell.
What was more, this particular Zweilous carried another notable trait, called Malicious Tracking. Whenever a move struck the Zweilous, whether a status move or a damaging one, it could sense the "hostility" behind the attack and automatically lock on to that opponent for one turn.
This was exactly why Diane felt no need to rush her attack. No matter how Nova tried to strike from within the Sandstorm, her Zweilous would lock onto Vibrava's position, and with two Extreme Collaboration moves at once, it could take out at least half of Vibrava's health.
Had Nova made a mistake by using Sand Attack?
Not at all. His true goal had been to further weaken Zweilous's already limited eyesight, because Vibrava had never been his real target in the first place.