Zweilous had been trained by Ms. Diane to have very sharp battle instincts. When sand clouded its eyes, its already poor eyesight vanished completely, so it quickly switched to relying on its sense of smell instead.
Its hidden ability, Malicious Tracking, activated at that moment. Zweilous sensed exactly where Vibrava was, and on Diane's command, it unleashed the strongest same-type attack it knew: Dragon Pulse.
Two beams of dark purple energy shot out at once. With Vibrava still locked on from Lock-On, there was no way to dodge, and the attack landed cleanly.
Taking two Dragon Pulses at seventy percent power was a serious blow. Dragon-type moves deal double damage to Vibrava, and Vibrava is not known for strong defenses or a large HP pool. Its physical and special defense are actually quite weak. For an ordinary Vibrava, a hit like that would have ended the match right there.
But Nova's Vibrava was no ordinary Pokémon. Its nickname was "Azir," and it carried a special trait called Berserk Warrior, born from raw, savage fury.
Because of this trait, Azir's HP was locked at exactly three points, and each hit it took would remove precisely one point. Once the berserk state triggered, Azir could no longer use status moves, but the priority of its attacking moves rose by two stages. In effect, the trait guaranteed Azir three sturdy, high-priority strikes before it dropped to critical condition.
The way to counter this powerful trait wasn't actually complicated: a move like Bullet Seed, which calculates damage across multiple hits in a single turn, could land three separate hits and burn through Azir's three fixed HP points, knocking it out completely.
The problem was that nobody else had access to Nova's breeding system, so no one could see the weakness hidden inside this remarkable trait.
In a normal battle, Nova would have let Azir go all out against Zweilous while the berserk state lasted. But beating Ms. Diane wasn't the real goal here. What mattered most was making her afraid enough that she wouldn't dare cause trouble for Nova again.
Fighting Zweilous directly wouldn't accomplish that. He needed to strike at Ms. Diane herself.
Luckily, after all their time training together, the bond between Azir and Nova was strong enough that it wouldn't trigger the trait's downside, the part that could make Azir ignore its trainer's orders and treat Nova as a target.
Nova called out, "Azir, use Supersonic first!"
Boosted by Azir's other trait, Sonic Demon, the confusion caused by Supersonic was much more likely to land. Zweilous, both heads at once, fell into confusion. Since the two heads had always disliked each other, being confused only gave them an excuse to start fighting between themselves, and beating each other up quickly became more important than anything else.
In that opening, Vibrava's High-Speed Flight trait kicked in. Zweilous only caught the sound of wings buzzing past its ears as something shot overhead at incredible speed.
This was the moment the blindness from Sand Attack truly mattered. If Zweilous could still see, it would have realized Vibrava was flying straight toward its own trainer, and it would have rushed to block the attack instead of fighting itself. But without clear sight, Zweilous could only sense direction through smell, not intent. It knew something was moving, but not where it was actually headed.
Vibrava sped past Zweilous and flew directly toward Ms. Diane without slowing down. Just as Nova had instructed before the match, it used no special move at all. Relying only on its speed, it curved sharply and struck Ms. Diane across the face with its tail.
Her left cheek was already a little swollen from an earlier, overly affectionate smack from her brother. To even things out, Vibrava aimed for her right cheek this time.
Even though Ms. Diane had inherited the incredible physical gifts of the Wrenleigh dragon bloodline, with stamina and strength well above an ordinary person's, she was still human in the end. And for a human, getting struck hard in the face still hurts, no matter how tough you are.
Vibrava had looked timid and harmless before the match started, almost like a shy young Pokémon with no bite to it. But once the real battle began, it held nothing back. Powered by the berserk state, its tail struck like a solid rod, leaving an angry red mark across Ms. Diane's cheek.
Before Ms. Diane could even get back on her feet, Nova raised his hand toward Gilbert, who was serving as referee. "Uncle, I'm calling a foul on myself. Vibrava made contact with the opposing trainer without using an actual move. I forfeit this round."
Gilbert stared at him, half amused and half stunned, thinking, "Of course you'd pull something like this, kid."
He cleared his throat and tried to sound serious. "Contestant Nova, please use proper titles during the match. Call me Referee."
Nova held back a laugh. "Understood, Referee. I accept the penalty and forfeit this round."
With that, he recalled Vibrava into its Poké Ball, leaving Zweilous standing on the field, confused about what had just happened.
Zweilous muttered to itself, "Wait, what happened? I haven't even attacked yet, and the other side already went down. Does that make me some kind of battle genius?"
Unlike its endearingly clueless Pokémon, Ms. Diane wiped a trace of blood from the corner of her mouth, her purple eyes burning with anger.
"Fine. Fine. So this is the game you want to play, is it? You'll regret this."
But before she could order Zweilous to attack Nova directly, she noticed his side of the field. A cheerful Lapras hummed a tune on his left, a thoughtful-looking Marshtomp gazed up at the sky on his right, and a Rotom, back in its plasma form, floated just above his head.
Three Pokémon forming a perfect wall of protection, ready to make sure none of Ms. Diane's "accidental" attacks could touch Nova.
Nova called out, "Hey, over there. Recognize this formation?"
Ms. Diane had never felt so wronged in her life. She turned to the referee to complain, but Gilbert only gave her a helpless look.
"It's not that I'm playing favorites, Miss Wrenleigh," he said. "The rules are clear. If a Pokémon makes contact with the opposing trainer, that round is forfeited and the Pokémon responsible is disqualified from continuing."
"As long as both sides still have Pokémon able to battle, the match continues. I've already disqualified Nova's Vibrava. That's all I'm able to do."