Pokémon: My Titles Know No Limits! [608]

“What the heck…?”

Ball Guy stared, wide-eyed, at the field—though admittedly, the eyes on his headgear were always wide open.

On the screen, Delibird was moving at astonishing speed through the blizzard, kicking Glimmora around like a soccer ball.

Thanks to Glimmora’s Toxic Debris ability, every heavy strike unleashed a spray of toxic spikes. Yet Delibird seemed utterly indifferent to this, unfazed as it kept battering Glimmora.

“Glimmora, [Power Gem]!”

Countless glittering stones erupted forth under Glimmora’s control, rushing toward Delibird—a grave threat to the doubly weak Ice/Flying-type Pokémon.

The stones flew swiftly, instantly colliding with Delibird and exploding violently upon impact.

Yet when the smoke cleared, there was no Delibird, only a shattered ice sculpture shaped exactly like it.

Under cover of the blizzard, Delibird had successfully deceived Geeta and Glimmora with a substitute made of ice.

An ice decoy…? When did it…?

Before Geeta could think clearly, Delibird burst out from the snowstorm, feet sliding on makeshift ice skis, its arm transformed into a razor-sharp ice blade stabbing fiercely into Glimmora from behind.

Glimmora was hurled violently forward by the impact, crashing hard onto the ground.

“Glimmora, [Sludge Wave]!”

A surge of poisonous sludge abruptly erupted from Glimmora’s body, sweeping toward Delibird as it charged again.

But at that instant, Delibird raised both arms—and created a colossal block of ice more than ten times its own size, slamming it straight into Glimmora, overpowering the sludge wave and burying it.

Boom!

The huge ice chunk embedded deeply into the arena floor. Even after the blizzard gradually subsided, Glimmora showed no sign of emerging from beneath it.

After the referee finished counting down, he finally announced the result:

“Glimmora is unable to battle! Delibird wins!”

Ball Guy: “Even at a type disadvantage, Delibird managed to defeat Glimmora! Pryce’s strength is truly astounding!”

Pryce remained exactly as calm as when he first appeared, while Geeta stared intently at Delibird, glancing at the massive hole left by the ice chunk.

She’d thought she’d taken this opponent seriously enough, but the outcome was still beyond her expectations.

As someone who had trained an Avalugg herself, Geeta knew exactly how difficult it was, even for Ice-type Pokémon, to instantly create such a massive block of ice.

Clearly, she had no idea that Pryce’s Delibird had once frozen Johto’s Lake of Rage solid with a single move.

She recalled Glimmora back into its Poké Ball.

“Kingambit!” Geeta released her second Pokémon.

The Dark/Steel-type Kingambit appeared on the field, sitting confidently upon its throne-like hair. The golden blade atop its head and the black-red blade resembling a moustache gleamed menacingly.

“Kingambit, huh?”

From the sidelines, August watched Geeta’s choice thoughtfully. Objectively speaking, it wasn’t a bad pick.

But against Pryce, would simple type advantages really matter? A huge question mark lingered.

Pryce glanced calmly at Kingambit, showing no intention of switching Pokémon.

Delibird simply resumed its battle stance.

Seeing this, Geeta decisively raised her Tera Orb.

A flash of crystalline brilliance erupted, completely enveloping Kingambit’s body.

When the crystals shattered, Kingambit stood gleaming brilliantly on the field:

Steel Tera-type Kingambit!

Brimming with a deadly sharp aura, Kingambit stared daggers across at Delibird.

Delibird, however, seemed oblivious to Kingambit’s gaze—casually reaching up to scratch its head instead.

Kingambit felt deeply provoked.

“[Iron Head]!”

Kingambit lunged headfirst at Delibird.

Yet Delibird was astonishingly agile, casually dodging sideways and leaving Kingambit’s attack uselessly slicing through empty air.

At the same moment, countless ice sculptures shaped exactly like Delibird appeared across the field.

But these weren’t mere stationary sculptures. Driven by some unseen power, the ice copies began attacking Kingambit from all directions.

“Pryce’s Delibird seems to have somehow summoned a large number of ice sculptures… and they’re all attacking Kingambit!” Ball Guy frantically flipped through the official move list, desperate to identify this move.

Of course, he found nothing.

“What kind of move is this?”

“Can Delibird even learn a move like that?”

The spectators stared wide-eyed.

August calmly observed the ice statues filling the field.

Of course, such a move didn’t exist in the official League’s move catalog—strictly speaking, this was probably Pryce’s own creation.

Under relentless siege, Kingambit had no choice but to abandon pursuit of Delibird and face the immediate threats.

“[Night Slash]!”

Kingambit swung its head-blade fiercely, slicing apart an attacking ice sculpture.

“[Fury Cutter]!”

The blade flashed again, splitting two more sculptures.

But immediately, even more ice sculptures rose up to attack, seemingly endless in number.

Kingambit was utterly trapped.

Beside August, Cynthia watched intently, carefully analyzing the situation, searching for ways to counter it—after all, it looked like Pryce would very likely be her next opponent.

After observing a while, though, Cynthia gave up, deciding on a simpler approach instead:

“August, you’ve beaten Pryce before. Any tips on dealing with this?”

Hearing Cynthia’s question, August thought back to how he had defeated Pryce…

Hmm… wasn’t it by having Mewtwo bulldoze through by sheer strength?

Cough.

He cleared his throat. “The key is finding Delibird’s true position. These ice sculptures are all created by Delibird. Once you knock out the real one, everything ends.”

Next to him, Giovanni had also been curious about August’s insight—but after hearing this, he thought it was completely useless advice.

Find the original? Who didn’t know that?

The critical question was how to actually find it.

Naturally, August had his Aura abilities, so he didn’t have to worry about such trivial details.

On the field, Geeta clearly understood the same logic. Watching Kingambit’s desperate battle, Geeta frantically searched for the real Delibird’s location.

Yet in the heavy snow, visibility was poor to begin with.

Coupled with Delibird deliberately hiding itself, finding it became impossibly hard.

But if she couldn’t find Delibird soon, even if the ice sculptures couldn’t finish Kingambit off directly, they would eventually exhaust its stamina.

Under intense pressure, Geeta suddenly had an idea.

“Kingambit, [Metal Sound]!”

Following Geeta’s order, Kingambit grasped its head-blade firmly with both hands, causing a horrible metallic screech that echoed across the entire arena.

Like fingernails scraping across a chalkboard, the piercing sound instantly gave every spectator chills.

Mew, who’d been joyfully riding Ponyta, shuddered so hard it dropped all its popcorn onto the floor.

Under the harsh sonic attack of Metal Sound, the ice sculptures remained unaffected—but Delibird itself, hidden among the sculptures, grimaced visibly, its disguise slipping away at last!

Spotting Delibird directly behind Kingambit—only a few meters away—Geeta felt a brief stab of fear.

If she’d hesitated a second longer, Kingambit would probably have been finished already!

But now…

“Kingambit, [Iron Head]!”

Kingambit’s golden blade flashed brightly, and it slammed fiercely into Delibird.

Bang!

Delibird was knocked flying backward.

Yet Kingambit felt no satisfaction at all—because the sensation had felt completely wrong!

Before the stunned crowd, Delibird’s body exploded mid-air into a puff of smoke and vanished.

A Substitute!?

It was actually a Substitute!?

At the very moment the Substitute burst, the real Delibird emerged from beneath the snow, leaping up from behind Kingambit.

[Brick Break]!

Bang!

Kingambit was smashed heavily backward.

Then an Ice Beam fired immediately afterward, striking Kingambit directly and freezing it solid.

Geeta stared blankly at her frozen-solid Kingambit, then raised her head toward Pryce’s gently smiling face, sensing deeply sinister intentions hidden behind it.

Watching this from the sidelines, even August couldn’t help sighing aloud:

“Pryce has really changed… The old Pryce wasn’t like this.”

Nearby, Diantha stared at August skeptically. Are you sure you aren’t the one influencing people? And you still claim you didn’t corrupt Cynthia?

“Kingambit is unable to battle! Delibird wins!” Even the referee sounded vaguely stunned.

It was hard to believe that Paldea’s premier Champion Geeta had actually lost two matches in a row.

The last time this happened was… well, the last time.

“Pryce has displayed astounding power! Delibird has now defeated both Glimmora and Kingambit in succession! How far can Pryce go? Let’s wait and see!” Ball Guy declared excitedly.

Just how strong was Pryce!? That was the question burning in everyone’s mind.

Just how strong is Pryce? If anyone was qualified to answer this question, it was August:

"Just strong enough that his Delibird could solo Ho-Oh, that’s all."

Hearing August’s casual, Versailles-style flexing, Diantha immediately lost interest in replying.

What do you mean, “Just a Delibird soloing Ho-Oh,” and then casually adding “that’s all”?

At this moment, Diantha finally understood Alder’s and Geeta’s feelings.

The one in trouble next was definitely Cynthia…

Suddenly, Diantha thought losing to Cynthia might not have been such a bad thing after all.

But whatever anyone thought, the match continued.

After Kingambit’s defeat, Geeta sent out her third Pokémon—Espathra.

As the brightly colored Espathra appeared, a powerful psychic force instantly enveloped the battlefield.

Having learned what happened to its two teammates from within its Poké Ball, Espathra immediately locked eyes onto Delibird upon entry, releasing psychic energy through its gaze.

Delibird instantly felt an invisible force freezing it in place.

The next second, Espathra surged forward with psychic-propelled speed, unleashing a strange, indescribable light directly at Delibird—

[Lumina Crash]!

Boom!

Delibird was violently knocked back, tumbling across the ground several times.

Under Espathra’s psychic influence, Delibird remained dazed.

“[Blizzard]!”

Delibird summoned yet another howling snowstorm.

Espathra was swiftly engulfed by the raging Blizzard. Just as everyone thought it would follow Glimmora and Kingambit’s fate—

A layer of psychic energy wrapped Espathra’s entire body, and to everyone’s shock, it broke through the Blizzard unscathed!

[Psychic]!

Espathra’s eyes flared brightly, its Psychic attack slamming into Delibird, whose Special Defense had been sharply reduced by Lumina Crash.

In an instant, Delibird’s eyes rolled back, and it collapsed into the snow.

After waiting briefly, the referee saw Delibird show no sign of rising again and declared:

“Delibird is unable to battle! Espathra wins!”

Seeing this, August sighed emotionally.

Pokémon battles aren’t just about violence. Sometimes, you have to consider giving face to others, too.

From somewhere in the stands, Alder: “?”

Care to repeat that? Face to others?

Pryce calmly withdrew Delibird and sent out his second Pokémon—Swinub.

Swinub, who had single-handedly taken out three of Alder’s main Pokémon last time, accidentally stepped on the lingering Toxic Spikes upon entering, squealing pitifully.

Seeing Swinub poisoned, Geeta felt a tiny glimmer of hope that she might still have a chance at victory—but Swinub quickly used practical actions to inform her that she was simply overthinking.

[Blizzard]!

Swinub unleashed another fierce snowstorm from its tiny mouth. Geeta immediately tried her previous tactic again, shielding Espathra with psychic power, intending to break through the Blizzard just as she did earlier against Delibird.

And then…

There was no “and then.”

Geeta didn’t witness Espathra breaking through the Blizzard this time. When the snow cleared, all that remained was a single ice sculpture—Espathra frozen solid inside.

Swinub’s Blizzard had completely frozen Espathra.

Geeta: “…”

Forget it. She really had been overthinking things. Not getting swept was already a victory.

“Espathra is unable to battle! Swinub wins!”

“Geeta has no Pokémon left to battle! Therefore, the winner is Pryce!”

“Congratulations to Pryce for advancing to the semifinals of the Masters Tournament!”

Hearing Ball Guy’s announcement, cheers erupted from the stands.

It wasn’t just because Pryce had won many fans.

More importantly, everyone was eager to see what incredible performances Pryce would show next.

For instance, the upcoming first match of the semifinals…

Cynthia—the runner-up of the previous World Championship—would be battling Pryce.

Now, the pressure shifted completely to Cynthia.

In the stands, Cynthia genuinely felt it—Pryce was incredibly tricky, especially since her ace, Garchomp, was a Ground/Dragon-type Pokémon.

But the semifinals were still some days away. Tomorrow’s match between August and Wallace was even more attractive at the moment.

“All right, let’s go,” August said, stretching. “Gotta get ready for tomorrow’s battle.”

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T/N: OYIWH HOW CAN IT SOLO HO OH I STILL CAN TBELIEVE IT

This is a fan translation of 我，宝可梦称号大师！ by 落唯 白良. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!