The first challenger launched the opening attack.
The Trainer gripped his knight's greatsword and charged straight at Wikstrom, while his Diggersby attacked Wikstrom's Aegislash.
The battle trial had been underway for less than a minute when the challenger was already being completely overwhelmed.
Wikstrom had deliberately suppressed Aegislash's strength to the same level as the challenger's Pokémon, so the two Pokémon fought back and forth, neither able to gain the upper hand.
The real difference, however, was between the Trainers themselves.
The moment the Trainer engaged Wikstrom, he was knocked down in just a few exchanges.
With the Trainer defeated, the battle was immediately over.
The result was naturally a failed trial.
"Next challenger, Ash. Please step forward and begin the trial."
The first participant had failed, and the staff member at the side immediately announced the second Trainer's turn.
There were only five Trainers remaining after passing the second trial. With the first challenger already eliminated, the odds of any one of the remaining four being called next were naturally quite high.
And the second Trainer called forward was Ash.
"Come back and get some rest, Aegislash. I'll have Escavalier handle this trial."
Just as Ash was called onto the field, Wikstrom unexpectedly recalled Aegislash and sent out Escavalier instead.
Ash's eyes immediately lit up when he saw this.
A moment ago, he had still been worrying about how he could possibly pass this trial.
But now...
It seemed that passing the trial wasn't impossible after all.
This was, after all, a trial.
Wikstrom had secretly gone easy on the participants in many ways. More importantly, there were actually hints—even outright clues—about how to pass the final trial.
And the key to those clues lay in the Pokémon Wikstrom chose to send out.
Of course, this was only the second challenger, so the clue Ash had noticed could still be nothing more than a coincidence.
It was possible that he was simply overthinking things.
But as the second Trainer to step onto the field, Ash had indeed noticed something.
He had discovered the trick to passing this trial.
~
~
Ash took the rubber knight's sword handed to him by the staff member, then leaned toward Fearow and quietly whispered a few instructions into its ear.
"Come on, Ash!"
"Go, Ash!"
"Ash, you've got this!"
"Ash, good luck!"
"Mr. Ash, do your best!"
As Ash prepared to enter the field, Serena, Clarissa Joy, and the others behind him enthusiastically cheered him on.
Even many of the spectators who had become fans of Ash during the morning exhibition match were now loudly supporting him.
"All right. I'll give it everything I've got."
Ash nodded toward everyone behind him before gripping his rubber sword and walking onto the field with Fearow.
"Ash, are you ready?"
Meeting Ash's confident gaze, Wikstrom's expression contained a clear trace of interest.
Of the five Trainers who had made it this far, excluding the first challenger who had already been eliminated, Ash was the one Wikstrom was most interested in seeing.
He wanted to know how Ash would approach the trial.
More importantly, he wanted to see whether Ash could actually pass it.
In short, Wikstrom was looking forward to Ash's performance.
"I'm ready."
Ash drew his prop sword and smiled as he nodded at Wikstrom.
"Very well. Then let's begin!"
Wikstrom also drew his knight's sword and assumed a battle stance.
"Gaaa!"
Ash said nothing.
Fearow, however, had already taken the initiative and launched an attack against Escavalier.
Fearow spread its wings and immediately began using Agility repeatedly, accelerating to its maximum speed.
Then it opened its beak and fired a powerful beam containing the energy of three different types—Ice, Fire, and Electric.
Tri Attack!
"Clang!"
Wikstrom didn't even need to give Escavalier an order.
Escavalier immediately raised both of its lances and crossed them in front of its chest, forming a defensive guard.
"Boom!"
Tri Attack slammed directly into Escavalier.
The enormous impact forced Escavalier to slide backward for quite some distance before finally managing to stop itself.
Just like during the exhibition match that morning, Escavalier was fighting while deliberately suppressing its strength.
At present, Escavalier's strength had been lowered to the same level as Fearow's—the peak of Gym Leader level.
Fearow was one of Ash's carefully trained ace Pokémon.
Throughout its battles so far, it had encountered almost no opponents capable of matching it at the same level.
Challenging opponents above its level was practically routine for it.
Escavalier might be one of the strongest Pokémon under the command of an Elite Four-level powerhouse like Wikstrom, but Ash had already proven during the morning's exhibition match that even when facing an opponent of the same level, being one of the Kalos Elite Four didn't automatically mean they could defeat him.
And there was another important difference.
During the morning's battle, Wikstrom had sent out Aegislash—a Pokémon with exceptional offensive and defensive capabilities and no significant weakness in speed.
This time, however, he had chosen Escavalier.
Compared with Aegislash, Escavalier's overall capabilities were somewhat lower, and its greatest weakness was its extremely poor speed.
Meanwhile, Ash had sent out Fearow, whose strength was no weaker than Pidgeot's performance from the morning's exhibition match.
Naturally, Ash had considerable confidence in this confrontation.
But more importantly, defeating Escavalier wasn't actually the condition for passing this trial.
Ash didn't need Fearow to defeat Escavalier.
Nor did Ash need to defeat Wikstrom.
The actual condition for passing was much simpler:
He and Fearow merely had to find a way past Wikstrom and Escavalier, reach the Klefki behind them, and take one of its keys.
From Ash's perspective, accomplishing that wasn't particularly difficult.
"Gaaa!"
After Tri Attack blasted Escavalier backward and successfully drew its attention, Fearow didn't continue fighting it.
Instead, having accomplished its purpose of drawing Escavalier's attention, Fearow immediately flew around it and headed straight toward the Klefki behind Wikstrom and Escavalier.
And this was the strategy Ash had devised for the trial.
Don't be distracted or deceived by the appearance of the trial. Target the true objective directly.
Sure enough, the moment Wikstrom saw Fearow's movement, he immediately remembered the whispered instructions Ash had given Fearow before the trial began.
He instantly realized that Ash had seen through the true purpose of the test he had designed.
"That's a very wise decision."
Wikstrom smiled.
"But if you want to take the key from Klefki, you'll first have to get past me and Escavalier."
"Do you and Fearow have what it takes?"
"Escavalier, catch up to them and use Megahorn!"
As he spoke, Wikstrom gave Escavalier its command.
At the same time, he himself tightened his grip on his sword and charged directly toward Ash.
Wikstrom's strength, combined with Escavalier's, was formidable.
Trying to force his way through both of them head-on would certainly be difficult.
Ash quickly understood that.
"Wikstrom is an Elite Four-level powerhouse, and Escavalier is strong as well. Breaking through their defenses directly won't be easy."
"If that's the case..."
"There's no need to clash with them head-on."
"Just avoid their strongest point."
"Fearow, leave this side to me. Go and grab the key!"
With those words, Ash raised his sword and took the initiative to meet Wikstrom head-on.
As a knight, Wikstrom possessed a powerful physique.
His body was strong and muscular, and his personal combat ability was indeed formidable.
But that was only when compared with ordinary people.
For Ash, who had cultivated Aura-enhanced Jujutsu and Aura-enhanced Laijutsu to the Grandmaster level—and who possessed two extraordinary psychic abilities—Wikstrom's physical prowess alone wasn't enough to intimidate him.
The clash between the two was about to begin.
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