🎆 Happy New Year! 🎆
Thank you all for the amazing support throughout this year. 💙To celebrate the arrival of the new year, here is a special New Year code:
🎁 Code:NewYear: F3B16
📅 Code validity:
Start: December 30, 2025 at 11:55 p.m.
End: January 2, 2026 at 11:00 p.m.
Enjoy it and let's start this new year strong. 🚀✨Here's to an amazing 2026! 🎉
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Professor Oak, after a few brief words with Cain, left.
With doubts in his heart, Cain had lunch together with Steven and the others.
The afternoon battles practically held no surprises.
Only Kagen, like a dark horse, once again prevailed being the weak against the strong.
He drew the attention of many.
At the same time, Karen and Will were eliminated in this round.
Their level was still quite below.
Lorelei won, and her next opponent would be Lance.
But that battle would be held the next day.
For Cain, the beginning of that destined duel was very interesting.
That night nothing strange happened.
...
The next day.
In the stadium.
Cain and the others once again sat in their usual places to watch the battles.
But this time Professor Oak did not appear; instead, it was Delia, accompanied by a naïve Ash and a small Gary, watching.
The first battle was between Lance and Lorelei.
Thanks to Cain's warning, Lance took her very seriously.
The previous night he had even carefully reviewed Lorelei's information, concluding that the woman's Pokémon countered his quite a lot.
Everyone knows their own weakness.
Although he was known as a dragon-type trainer, in fact many of his Pokémon were flying-type, vulnerable to ice-type.
And dragon-type Pokémon were also weak to ice-type.
A Pokémon like Dragonite, being both dragon and flying-type, suffered a quadruple weakness to ice-type, a very serious effect.
However, in terms of raw overall strength, Lance was far above Lorelei.
At that moment, Lorelei's strongest Cloyster had only just reached Elite Four level, still with a great difference compared to many of Lance's Pokémon.
Who knows what went through Lance's head, but he showed not the slightest intention of holding back.
Lorelei, aware that she couldn't win, only wanted to participate as a formality and measure her distance against an Elite Four-level trainer. But what she thought, Lance did not share.
He treated her as an example to test how to deal with ice-type specialists.
And so...
The battle was brutal: Lance did not hold back at all and, with prior tactical preparation, his Charizard defeated four of Lorelei's Pokémon in a row.
She was stunned, since she thought she would be treated with more consideration.
It seemed that Lance wanted to sweep with a six to one using only Charizard.
In this tournament, up until now, even with great level differences, there had always been shown a certain courtesy, holding back a little.
But Lance wanted to humiliate her with a six to zero!
Lorelei, with her temperament, could not accept such treatment.
In truth, Lance had only been carried away by emotion, he had planned to battle seriously, but once he started he didn't know how to stop.
What he didn't know was that his attitude had just deeply wounded the pride of a woman.
Especially of a strong woman.
In the stands, Cain watched surprised.
Was Lance looking for trouble himself?
Lorelei had no intentions of giving her all; with a little consideration it would have been enough.
But he insisted on forcing her to bring out all her strength!
Very well, now you won.
And afterward?
Didn't you think of the consequences when Lorelei grew and became stronger?
With a cold face and burning rage, Lorelei sent out her trump card: Cloyster.
Lance wanted a six to one?
Then go ahead!
We would see if he could pull it off.
But Lance didn't even realize, blinded in that moment, sowing trouble for his future.
While the others were preparing to congratulate him, Cain showed a look of pity.
"It's not that I don't want to help you, it's that if you seek your own ruin, no one else is to blame."
Cain forgot that, had he not insisted to Lance to be careful with Lorelei, maybe everything would have been just a simple battle.
With a little consideration, Lorelei would not have been so humiliated.
Tsk, tsk...
The real culprit was there, enjoying the show.
As expected, Lorelei, unleashed, made Cloyster defeat the already worn-out Charizard.
For a moment, her expression improved. If Lance had stopped there, he still could have patched things up.
After all, he had already lost one Pokémon, impossible to achieve a six to one.
But Lance, as if he had been waiting precisely for Cloyster, sent out his ace.
Dragonite!
He wanted to test how much Cloyster, with its ice-type, could affect a dragon/flying-type Pokémon.
But acting like that...
Even Phoebe, from her seat, considered it excessive.
"Cain, don't you think Lance is... going a bit too far?" she asked.
At his side, Cynthia, Diantha and Drasna immediately nodded.
Cain slapped his forehead, helpless.
Very well, he had sealed his own fate.
Look now at Lorelei's eyes.
Cain then understood why, in the future, no matter how much Lance strove, he would never be able to overcome the obstacle of Lorelei to become Kanto Champion.
He had made her into his mortal enemy in this very instant!
Did you treat her like trash? And think that afterward she would just let it pass?
Did you understand the level of a woman's grudge?
No wonder that, in the future, Lorelei challenged him dozens of times in the Elite Four trial, bent on defeating him.
Although at the beginning Lance was still stronger and didn't lose, over time, each confrontation became more difficult, until he was nearly defeated in the last occasion.
The League, seeing that situation, couldn't allow Lorelei to keep challenging him; otherwise, if Lance lost his Elite Four position while being considered a future pillar, it would be ridiculous.
Thus, the League canceled Lorelei's challenges and directly appointed her as Ice-type Elite Four.
And was everything resolved there?
No, it was only beginning.
Later, not even Lance's private apologies were accepted.
She summed it up in one phrase: if he wanted to be Champion, he had to defeat her.
But by then, Lorelei had already fully grown, and beating her was almost impossible.
"So it all started here... what a way to dig your own grave..." murmured Cain with a sigh.
But right after, he furrowed his brow.
He had felt a gaze filled with malice directed at him.
By now, Cain perceived those sensations with great clarity.
Perhaps it was due to his psychic powers, or the experience acquired with Team Rocket, that made him so sensitive to such gazes.
The fact was, while the others noticed nothing, he did.
Without showing reaction, he raised his head and extended his psychic perception.
To his surprise, when scanning the entire stadium he found a dead zone.
As if a cake were missing a piece, a void too evident.
He looked toward that direction.
He saw a middle-aged man, bald, dressed entirely in black.
That man was also looking at Cain.
Their gazes crossed in the air.
Immediately, the stranger showed a mocking smile.
(End of Chapter)