Isa sent out Incineroar as her next Pokemon, just as the Trick Room finally ended. Her roar echoed through the air, slightly lowering the attack boost that Mawile stacked.
"Incineroar, Flare Blitz!"
Although Trick Room had ended, the sunlight Torkoal had summoned would still last quite a while. Isa planned to make use of this in the upcoming battles.
Incineroar's body became coated with fire as she charged forward. Her fingers were clenched, ready to strike down. The anthropomorphic tiger Pokemon made a trail of fire starting from her location and towards Mawile.
"Mawile, Power-up Punch."
Dante leisurely commanded while watching Incineroar get close. He could have let Mawile throw stones at the charging Incineroar, most likely knocking it out before reaching her. However, he chose to recover the lost attack boost from Incineroar.
After all, in a battle of strength, only a select few could defeat Mawile.
Finally, Incineroar arrived. Her arms were held in front of her chest, stamping on the ground as she tackled Mawile with her blazing body. However, one of Mawile's jaws coated in red Fighting-type energy met Incineroar.
There wasn't even a stalemate. The tiger Pokemon shot back to where she came from at more than twice the speed, only stopping when she shot out of the arena and collided with the building's wall.
"Incineroar is unable to battle. Trainer Isa, release your next Pokemon."
Isa took a deep breath. It's alright, she still had one more Pokemon left. After taking back Incineroar, she sent out her last Pokemon, Heliolisk.
Heliolisk is a Normal and Electric-type, bipedal Pokemon that resembles a yellow lizard. Its head is mostly black with a yellow lower jaw. It has blue eyes with a pointed spike over each. Covering its neck is a black frill with orange spikes around the rim. It has a long, tapering tail that is orange and then black at the tip.
Dante learned from the whispered conversation among the seniors that this was apparently Isa's Starter Pokemon.
"Heliolisk, use Discharge!"
When the battle began, Isa hurriedly issued a command to attack. With the Solar Power Ability, Heliolisk's Special Attack is boosted by 50% under the sun at the cost of its body getting overburdened.
She was hoping. Hoping Mawile would be caught by surprise and get hit by this electric attack. Sadly for her, before the electric discharge could even reach Mawile, a stone had already arrived, hitting Heliolisk on the head.
"Heliolisk is unable to battle! Isa has no more Pokemon. Main team, send out your next challenger!"
Isa stood frozen, her usual bravado nowhere to be seen. In these last two rounds, both of her Pokemon didn't even get to display their prowess before being defeated.
She walked off the stage, staring lifelessly the whole way back. Only when she reached her team did she wake up under Liuai's pat.
"Hey, why didn't you try stalling the battle?"
"What?"
"I mean, Mega Mawile's already been out for nearly 20 minutes. If you delayed a little, she would've probably reverted to her base form."
Isa slapped her face in embarrassment. Due to the heat of the moment, she totally forgot about this!
"You've done enough. Mawile and Dante should be tired by now. Next, we'll engage in a defensive battle. Imar, please."
Imar nodded. Her blue, bob-cut hair followed along with her movement as she took a deep breath and walked towards the arena.
"We're down by two already. If Imar is unable to take down Mawile either, our chances of winning against Dan..."
Mualani shook her head, a frown on her face. They didn't expect that even after two of their members went up, they still couldn't take down Dan's newest Pokemon. Mega Evolution really lives up to its reputation.
"It's fine. Even Elite Trainers can only maintain Mega Evolution for around 20 minutes. For a newbie, Dante holding it for this long is already amazing.."
Roman reassured his crush with a calm smile. He didn't mention that the average Trainer can only withstand 5 minutes of Mega Evolution, subconsciously not wanting to praise Dante any more than necessary.
10 minutes later…
"Corviknight is unable to battle!"
"Hippowdon is unable to battle!"
"Gastrodon is unable to battle!"
"Impossible!"
Roman shouted, his face twisted in disbelief. Just like they discussed, Imar adopted a defensive playstyle and drained as much energy of Mawile as possible.
However, the double-jawed Pokemon was unstoppable. She shot down Corviknight from the sky, powered through the barricade Hippowdon set up, and dispersed Gastrodon's desperate counterattack before knocking down said Pokemon.
And after doing all that, she only showed slight signs of exhaustion.
On the side, Coach Jomar glanced at Dante and Mawile, inwardly shocked inside. Although there were speculations that Dante has some kind of superpower, this feat finally confirms it.
When undergoing Mega Evolution, both the Trainer and Pokemon endure pressure to their bodies. For the average Trainer, just bearing this for more than 5 minutes would cause them to black out.
But Dante, even after 30 minutes, didn't seem to be fazed. In fact, it was Mawile that showed signs of not being able to hold on first.
To know, Mega Evolution is the fastest method for a Pokemon to reach either the Elite or Champion level in terms of stats. Mawile, who has undergone Mega Evolution and has her Attack boosted twice, has already reached Champion Level in strength.
To win against such a Pokemon, the students either have to continue their defensive strategy until Mawile gets tired, or reset her attack boost and confront her head-on.
And indeed. Right now, the main team was divided on how to proceed from here.
"We need to disperse her attack boost. She'd sweep more Pokemon otherwise!"
Isa asserted, a hand on her waist.
"No. Trust me, they're barely hanging on. Mualani and Celiz are the only ones with Haze, and we need them against Dante's other Pokemon. If we send them out now, then this whole match will be impossible to win!"
Roman argued back. His hands were clenched into a fist, frustrated at his plan going so horribly wrong.
If they lose this match in such a disgraceful fashion, most of the blame would fall on his poor decision-making.
"Kala, you go next. With your Ghost-type Pokemon, it would be much easier to buy time."
"No way! My Gourgeist has Destiny Bond! I can take down one of Dante's more powerful Pokemon if I appear later!"
Kala argued back. Going up there at this juncture is a thankless task. If Roman is wrong, he would get crushed just like Isa and the others. On the other hand, if he really won, then it would be a hollow victory. After all, Mawile already faced three Trainers beforehand.
"Do you really think he'd fall for something so predictable?"
"I don't listen to someone like you. Choose another team member. Or if you want to delay time so much, then go up there yourself!"
Roman and Kala stared at each other, tension rising. The others also noticed this and tried to de-escalate the situation.
"Hey~ don't fight you two. This is just a sparring match. If we lose, we lose. That just means we need to train harder for next time!"
Liaui optimistically said, but her words were ignored and the two continued to argue. Mualani also stepped in, trying to get them to calm down. Seeing this, Larry sighed.
"I'll do it. It's all the same whether I lose now or later anyway."
Roman opened his mouth to stop Larry. Larry's Pokemon lineup is difficult to hold back Mawile. However, Larry ignored him.
He stepped on to the arena, and in just 7 minutes, all his Pokemon got wiped out.
Dudunsparce and Staraptor crushed an oncoming rock each before getting hit by the one behind it and passing out, both of them not even lasting a minute. However, his last Pokemon, Komala, was different.
While asleep, the koala Pokemon moved its body like a drunkard, somehow dodging all of the rocks Mawile threw. But that was it.
Although Dante was briefly surprised at Komala's technique, he just commanded Mawile to get near and punch the ground, creating an effect similar to Earthquake. With an unstable footing, Komala wasn't able to dodge the two rocks Mawile simultaneously threw with her jaws.
However, at least their purpose was accomplished. Mawile finally couldn't hold on. She reverted to her base form, panting from exhaustion. The stress from staying in her Mega Evolved state and the attack boosts exhausted her so much.
The only reason Mawile can even persist until now is due to Dante taking more of the burden and supplying her with his energy through the bond.
"Thanks, Mawile. Take a rest for now."
Dante softly pat Mawile's head in praise, the cream-colored Pokemon closing her eyes in enjoyment before returning to her Pokeball. Although she can still fight in her base form, there was no need. Dante already got his desired result from their battles.
Next, he touched the three pokeballs on his waist. One of them, with a yellow and black design, shook when his palm touched it.
"Heh, well, it has been a while since your last battle here."
Dante smirked, finalizing which Pokemon to use next. And right at this moment, his opponent also appeared.
"Hey, the name's Kala. Go easy on me, yeah?"
Kala had a harmless smile as he greeted Dante with a wave. However, underneath his smile, Dante could feel a vague hint of malice.
"Likewise."
Dante just nodded, releasing their Pokemon at the same time under Coach Jomar's signal.
"Let's do this, Pikachu!"
"Decidueye, let's win!"
A/N: Wow, I had to literally form seven viable teams and make a strategy for their battle with Mawile…only to skip over to the result for most of them…
Oh well, at least I don't have to think about their Pokemon team anymore in the University Tournament, though I'll probably skip most of the fights there. Again.
For those who want to check, here's the Pokemon team of the main team members.
Talong (Top 10) - Purple-haired guy (Bewear♂, Indeedee♂)
Kala (Top 9) - Yellow-haired guy (Gourgeist♀, Decidueye♂)
Imar (Top 8) - Blue-haired girl (Corviknight♂, Hippowdon♂, Gastrodon♀)
Celiz (top 7) - Black-haired girl (Nidoking♂, Weezing♀, Amoonguss♂)
Liuai (top 6) - Green-haired girl, curious, lively. (Torterra, Poliwrath, Simisage)
Isa (top 5) - Red-haired girl, passionate and fiery. (Incineroar♀, Torkoal, Heliolisk)
Larry (Top 4) - (Komala♂, Dudunsparce♂, Staraptor♂)
Roman (Top 3) - Green-haired guy with glasses, cold and analytic. (Talonflame♂, Mandibuzz♀, Hawlucha♂)