Get Stronger by Pleasing Pokémon? Who Needs to Be a Trainer!

”Gardevoir?”

The moment Gardevoir saw the Darkrai sent out by the opponent, the usual smile on its face froze for just a second. But it quickly realized this was not the Darkrai it knew.

Because this wasn’t the one it remembered, it felt no emotional burden.

”Darkrai, use Dark Void!”

At that very moment, Tobias gave the command.

Darkrai moved with incredible speed, throwing a pitch-black Dark Void straight toward Gardevoir.

Seeing this, many people in the audience held their breath.

Everyone knew that in the previous battle, after Darkrai appeared, it had fought against two of Fiona’s Pokémon.

Both battles had ended the same way: one Dark Void, followed by Nightmare.

With Dark Void’s near-perfect sleep effect, combined with Dream Eater and Darkrai’s Nightmare Ability, that deadly combo was enough to crush almost anyone.

”Dark Void! As expected, Darkrai uses Dark Void again! Let’s see how Gardevoir responds… wait? A Psychic-type Gardevoir didn’t dodge?!”

Riding above the battlefield on Aegislash, commentator Li Bing’s voice broke in confusion.

A black void like that, no matter how fast it was, should have been easy to avoid with a simple teleport, especially considering the terrifying precision Gardevoir had already shown with psychic control.

But before he could finish expressing his shock—

the scene below made him even more confused.

He saw Dark Void land on Gardevoir.

Yet instead of sinking into its body like everyone expected, the black sphere stopped the moment it touched Gardevoir’s palm.

It just… stopped.

Li Bing froze.

”Huh?”

Below, Gardevoir stared at the Dark Void resting in its hand, and a trace of nostalgia flashed through its eyes.

”Gardevoir…”

(Long time no see…)

It looked toward the distant Darkrai, then lowered its gaze to the darkness in its palm.

This power had accompanied it for decades.

In the past, it had often been dragged into nightmares because of it.

But now, its resistance to status conditions had long reached its peak.

It had even directly mastered this power itself.

As its strength grew, it had used this power less and less, especially after coming to Lin Feng’s breeding ranch. There, it had never used it at all.

So now, seeing Dark Void again after so long, it was hard not to feel a little nostalgic.

But to Tobias, that nostalgic scene looked like something out of a nightmare.

”What?!”

At first, when Dark Void was about to hit Gardevoir, he had been excited.

He thought he could defeat Lin Feng’s most mysterious Pokémon first and gain hope for the rest of the battle.

But when Dark Void landed and caused no sleep effect at all, and instead was toyed with like a child’s plaything, Tobias was completely shaken.

What did this even mean?

As he watched the black Dark Void slowly dissolve into nothing in Gardevoir’s hand, Tobias gritted his teeth.

”Darkrai, use Dark Void again!”

He would rather believe the first one had simply failed to put Gardevoir to sleep.

After all, Dark Void had an extremely high chance of causing sleep, but it was never absolute.

The greater the power gap, the lower the chance.

And against Psychic-type Pokémon, the odds could be slightly lower as well.

But that did not mean Gardevoir could somehow control Dark Void itself.

Following his order, a second Dark Void shot forward like a living shadow.

But the result did not change.

Gardevoir casually erased it as well.

”Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable… my god! Darkrai’s signature move is completely useless against Gardevoir? Why is this happening?!”

Li Bing stared with wide eyes, his voice full of disbelief.

This scene had confused him again and again.

He had honestly lost count of how many times Lin Feng had left him speechless during this Horizon League.

For this tournament alone, heaven knew how much Pokémon knowledge he had crammed.

Especially after every round, once he learned each contestant’s Pokémon lineup, he would spend every break searching information about them, afraid he would run out of things to say during battle commentary.

But now, he felt like all those books had been useless.

At this point, the only thing he could say was ”unbelievable.”

And before he could even finish saying it—

Lin Feng gave an order that shocked him even more.

”Gardevoir, use Dark Void.”

A similar pitch-black void appeared.

Not only in Darkrai’s hand—

but also in Gardevoir’s.

And judging by its size, it was clearly larger than Darkrai’s.

With a gentle wave of its hand, Gardevoir sent the Dark Void flying straight toward Darkrai.

Seeing that, Tobias nearly blurted out—

”How is that possible?!”

His eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

The confidence and calmness he had shown in every previous battle vanished instantly.

He even forgot to give commands.

Forget Tobias—

even Darkrai itself was stunned.

That black energy ring, that familiar energy fluctuation, told it clearly that this was not Psychic-type imitation.

This was a real Dark Void.

And in terms of energy intensity, it was far stronger than its own.

Only when the Dark Void grew larger and larger before its eyes did Darkrai finally react and try to escape.

But at that exact moment, a terrifying pressure descended on it.

As it struggled to break free, Darkrai instantly understood.

Confusion energy had formed a sealed space around it.

Although confusion could not directly damage a Dark-type Pokémon, it could still trap it.

And the strength of that confusion meant it could not escape in a short time.

It could only watch helplessly as Dark Void descended upon it.

Its eyes slowly closed.

As if falling into sleep, it began to descend toward the ground.

When it fell, the entire stadium was stunned.

The God of Nightmares…

had fallen asleep in Gardevoir’s hands?

And it had been put to sleep by its own signature move?

What kind of joke was this?

”Th-this… this Darkrai has been hit by Dark Void and has fallen asleep…”

At that moment, even Li Bing felt his own commentary sounded ridiculous.

But the scene before his eyes was real.

Only when Darkrai was about to hit the ground did its eyes suddenly snap open.

It forcefully broke free from Dark Void’s effect.

And what replaced the sleepiness in its eyes was pure anger.

It was the ruler of nightmares.

And yet just now, it had nearly been hypnotized by Dark Void itself.

How could it allow something like that to happen?

If Dark Void was useless—

then it would use something else.

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