At that moment, the violent aura emanating from the Tyranitar suddenly transformed.
It was no longer a pure, combat-oriented desire directed at the Krookodile, but had morphed into a more ancient, more primal declaration of territory.
Rock-type energy surged like boiling magma from the crevices of its dark green carapace, causing the surrounding air to become viscous and heavy.
Small pebbles on the ground began to jump uneasily, emitting a dense, rustling sound.
In the observation room, the Team Leader, who had been sitting as steady as a mountain, suddenly stood up. He braced his hands on the console, leaned forward, and stared intently at the Tyranitar on the screen.
"It's Sandstorm!"
His voice carried a trace of barely perceptible gravity.
"Sandstorm?"
Yuki beside him was a bit confused. She blinked, trying hard to recall the knowledge in her mind.
"What's wrong, Team Leader? Krookodile is a Ground and Dark-type. Sandstorm weather shouldn't cause it continuous damage, right?"
In her understanding, Sandstorm weather only causes percentage-based HP reduction to Pokémon that are not Rock, Ground, or Steel-type.
Krookodile perfectly avoided this damage. Logically, using this move shouldn't be very effective for the Tyranitar.
The Team Leader didn't answer immediately. His gaze pierced through the reinforced glass, as if trying to see through the giant beast gathering power on the battlefield.
After a long moment, he slowly spoke, his voice low and magnetic:
"Do you know why Tyranitar is called the desert tyrant?"
"Why?"
Yuki instinctively pressed.
"Because of its ability."
The Team Leader turned his head, his profound gaze falling on Yuki.
"Tyranitar has two well-known abilities: Unnerve and Sand Stream. Which one do you think is its Hidden ability?"
The question was tricky. Yuki thought for a moment and guessed uncertainly, "Sand Stream? It sounds more impressive."
"No."
The Team Leader shook his head, his tone carrying a solemnity akin to revealing a truth of the world.
"It's Unnerve. This means that the vast majority of Tyranitar possess Sand Stream as their inherent ability from birth. They enter the battlefield already accompanied by a Sandstorm."
He paused, giving Yuki time to digest, then continued:
"This species is born to command Sandstorms, a walking natural disaster. In a Sandstorm, they are like fish in water, not only unaffected but gaining immense benefits. Although the one we use for assessments has the Unnerve ability and cannot start with a Sandstorm, you must never underestimate its ability to manually unleash one."
The Team Leader's voice grew even lower:
"In the Sandstorm it raises itself, it is the absolute king. Vision, hearing, even energy perception are severely disrupted. For Pokémon unfamiliar with this environment, it's an invisible prison, an Inferno that constantly grinds down your will and stamina. Even if Krookodile isn't disadvantaged by type, in Tyranitar's domain, it will still struggle to gain any advantage!"
He seemed to remember something, his eyes drifting into the distance with a trace of reminiscence and regret.
"That assessor a few days ago? He prepared five genuine Superior-grade Pokémon, his team composition was nearly perfect. And the result? In that very Sandstorm, they were picked off one by one, divided, and defeated, ending in total annihilation. Those five Pokémon probably never saw the Tyranitar clearly again before they fainted."
Listening to the Team Leader's words, Yuki's heart sank bit by bit.
The advantage she thought existed had, in a higher-level interpretation of battle, actually become a disadvantage.
She couldn't help but clench her fists, looking worriedly at Ariel in the arena.
Big Bro... can you really pull it off this time?
On the battlefield at that moment, everything Yuki feared was becoming reality.
"ROAR——!"
With an earth-shaking roar, the Tyranitar detonated the Rock-type energy it had accumulated to its peak!
Centered on it, a visible yellowish-brown shockwave violently expanded. The ground was instantly stripped away, countless sand and gravel were swept into the sky, forming a massive, sky-obscuring sand curtain.
The light across the entire battlefield rapidly dimmed, visibility sharply contracted, dropping to within three meters in an instant.
Howling winds brought sharp screeches; gravel and sand whipped against everything like billions of tiny flying insects.
The air was thick with the choking smell of earth; every breath felt like swallowing sandpaper.
Ariel narrowed his eyes. The wind and sand struck his face, bringing a slight stinging sensation.
So this is the weather move of a Pseudo-Legendary? It truly lives up to its reputation.
But... who said weather moves are your exclusive right?
A confident curve lifted the corner of Ariel's mouth.
He did not command the Krookodile to defend or temporarily retreat from the onslaught, as Yuki and the Team Leader had anticipated.
His voice wasn't loud, but it pierced through the violent wind like a sharp sword, clearly reaching the Krookodile's ears.
"Krookodile, show it who the true master of sand is!"
"We have Sandstorm too!"
"ROAR!!!"
The Krookodile, which had been crouching low, silently enduring the wind and sand's impact, erupted with ferocious light in its eyes the moment it heard the command!
It forcefully plunged its thick tail into the ground. On its deep red body, Ground-type energy surged with unprecedented intensity.
If the Tyranitar's Sandstorm was wild, brutal, and chaotic destruction, then the power the Krookodile was now unleashing was steady, weighty, the wrath of the earth itself!
The ground began to tremble violently. Deep cracks spider-webbed outwards from the Krookodile. What gushed from the cracks wasn't magma, but a purer, more condensed torrent of sand and soil!
"BOOM——!"
An equally vast and mighty Sandstorm erupted from beneath the Krookodile, forming a counter-rotating dust tornado!
In the observation room, everyone was stunned speechless.
Yuki's small mouth formed a perfect "O," big enough to fit a Pokémon egg.
What was she seeing?
Krookodile... could actually use Sandstorm too? And this spectacle, this scale, this energy intensity... The Team Leader's pupils contracted sharply. His fingers gripping the console turned white at the knuckles from excessive force.
The expression on his face shifted from gravity to shock, then to a kind of near-absurd disbelief.
"This... how is this possible!?"
He murmured under his breath, a statement that overturned decades of his Trainer common sense.
A Krookodile had not only learned the highly difficult weather move Sandstorm, but the intensity of the Sandstorm it released... could actually rival that of a Pseudo-Legendary Tyranitar!
This could no longer be described with just the word 'genius.' This was a monster! A complete and utter monster!
On the battlefield, the two equally terrifying Sandstorms finally clashed head-on!
On one side was the wild storm stirred by the Tyranitar, composed of countless sharp rock fragments;
On the other side was the heavy sand flow summoned by the Krookodile, condensed from pure Earth Power.
There was no earth-shattering explosion. The clash of the two forces was primal and savage.
They squeezed, ground against, and tore at each other.
The entire battlefield instantly became a giant, high-speed rotating grinder.
The screech of friction and the dull thuds of impact merged into a symphony of grating noise.
Even in the observation room, the picture transmitted by the high-definition cameras was reduced to a blurry, flickering mess of static and color blocks.
"The signal... the signal is being heavily interfered with by the intense energy!" a technician exclaimed.
The Team Leader stared fixedly at that chaos, his breathing becoming somewhat rapid.
He wasn't concerned about the signal; he cared about the meaning behind this phenomenon.
"A stalemate..."
He muttered to himself, each word seeming squeezed from between his teeth,
"No, even... the quality of Krookodile's Sandstorm seems more condensed!"
The Tyranitar's Sandstorm excelled in range and ferocity, a form of indiscriminate destruction. The Krookodile's Sandstorm, while slightly smaller in range, seemed to have each grain of sand infused with immense weight—more concentrated, more substantial!
Just how was this monster raised... What the Team Leader didn't know was that while Krookodile isn't a species that naturally learns Sandstorm,
under the influence of that sacrificed smooth rock, it had learned the move Sandstorm as soon as it evolved from Krokorok!
It was also through the accumulation of time that it could perform like this now!
"Team Leader, what's the situation now?"
Yuki asked nervously, her palms already sweaty.
"A deadlock."
The Team Leader uttered three words, but his eyes were more complex than ever.
"Neither side's weather can overcome the other's, instead creating a battlefield that is extremely disadvantageous for both... an absolute blind zone."
Yes, a blind zone.
In this chaotic domain where even light and sound cannot propagate normally, vision and hearing have lost all meaning.