Chapter 574: Losing

Surfing is an extreme sport powered by sea waves. The number of registered participants still exceeded a thousand, but compared to the Flying Type event, the number of participants was several times fewer.

Mainly, the elimination rate of the Flying Type event scared off most people. If you’re eliminated right at the start of the event, it’s fine if you’re alone, but if you’re with acquaintances, how awkward, how embarrassing would that be.

So those who didn’t have much confidence in this event were unwilling to participate—especially since Wallace was certain to win.

The Fire-type Shooting event would progress based on overall scores and is not conducted with all participants at once.

Just like the Flying Type event, this one is also divided into several zones. The rule is to break past many hurdles and increase the difficulty of shooting, allowing the outstanding Contestants from each region to finally compete together.

Terrance’s Arcanine registered. When not encountering strong competitors, even though Arcanine is not particularly skilled in this area, compared to ordinary Coordinators and Trainers, defeating them was still very easy.

Northern Zone, a certain shooting range.

Facing a moving frisbee, Arcanine spit out a stream of flame. The flame formed into a fine beam, simultaneously piercing through three frisbees and leaving a mark on them.

The frisbees were made of a special material, which melts when exposed to fire, but does not deform due to temperature.

On the frisbees, several rings were marked. Based on where the flame pierced through and how many frisbees were penetrated by a single stream of flame, scores were given to the Fire Type Pokémon accordingly.

This was only the preliminary round rule. In the later stages, the format of the event would change further, increasing the difficulty.

In the Fire Type event, Terrance also encountered a familiar face—Flannery, the successor to the Lavaridge Gym in Hoenn.

After a year of not seeing each other, her strength had increased significantly compared to when she once battled Terrance at Fallarbor Gym. In the Northern Zone, she could be considered a slightly noteworthy opponent for Arcanine, but not a major threat.

As time passed, the Surfing event was nearing its end.

Sootopolis Outer Seas, a beautiful sea-serpent-like Pokémon drew the attention of the entire crowd.

This Pokémon was called Milotic.

And this Milotic had another identity—it was the ace of the Contest Master Wallace, who specialized in Water Type Pokémon.

Above a massive wave, Milotic whipped its tail covered in blue and pink scales, sending out countless surging currents, destroying the waves of one competitor after another.

Its movements were graceful. As it moved, the beautiful scales reflected rainbow-like colors, and depending on the viewing angle, the colors of the scales continuously shifted into various hues.

This alone made it nearly impossible for anyone to take their eyes off Milotic. It was simply too beautiful. Aside from Milotic, there were still several Water Type Pokémon that had broken through the crowd and were frantically chasing after it.

Albus’s Gyarados was among them. The waves raised by Gyarados appeared far more turbulent than those stirred up by Milotic, but including Gyarados, all the Pokémon chasing Milotic wore grave expressions.

The waves they were riding gave off a sense of collapsing at any moment.

The water flow, which was usually easy to handle and could be controlled effortlessly, now felt awkward and difficult to manage.

This change placed enormous pressure on these Water Type Pokémon.

"It’s Water Pulse..." Albus gritted his teeth. Wallace’s Milotic, from beginning to end, had used only three moves, and it was these three moves that eliminated over a thousand Contestants.

At this moment, the water throughout the entire Sootopolis Outer Seas had been disrupted by Water Pulse, becoming unstable. Without excellent control over water flow, one might not even be able to raise a single wave.

"This level of control..." Even while participating in the Shooting event, Terrance was keeping an eye on the Surfing event. Wallace’s Milotic had reached an unbelievable level in its use of Water-type moves.

In other words, the technique and difficulty contained in this single move, "Water Pulse," was no less than that of Beautifly’s top-tier technique.

Just by using one move, it affected the flow of water across the entire sea. That level of control... that coordination ability, made Terrance feel ashamed. No matter which of his Pokémon he looked at now, none had reached Wallace’s level of coordination.

"This is a combination of Aqua Tail and Aqua Ring."

This Surfing event, rather than a competition, was more like Wallace’s solo performance. A single "Water Pulse" affected the entire sea area and eliminated 90% of the Contestants.

The remaining standout Water Type Pokémon were also swallowed up in the whirlpool created by Milotic’s combined use of Aqua Tail and Aqua Ring.

The beautiful tail gently slapped down, forming a whirlpool that swallowed up one opponent after another. Its terrifyingly precise control left all the pursuing Pokémon in utter despair.

"Definitely has some real skill." Elite Four Leo silently watched Wallace’s performance. He specialized in Electric-types and wasn’t particularly afraid of Wallace. He also had a Lanturn and had originally planned to target Wallace in the Water-type event. But unfortunately, non-Water Type moves weren’t allowed in the Surfing event, so after some thought, Leo gave up on that idea and shifted his focus to the battles after the events.

Just like that, in the Water-type Surfing event, Wallace took the victory without any suspense.

On the afternoon of the second day of the festival, the Fire-type Shooting event was also approaching its end. Terrance looked at the figure of the woman and her Ninetales on the field and let out a slight sigh.

Arcanine... lost.

In terms of controlling the release of flames, Arcanine was never particularly skilled. Although its overall performance had been first-rate—better than many—it was still far from reaching the level required to win.

"Terrance lost."

Ever since he made a grand impression in the first event, the attention Terrance received wasn’t much less than what Wallace got. His participation in the Fire-type Shooting event had been under constant observation.

His initial performance was average, but didn’t disappoint most people. After all, Beautifly had done the same—hidden its true strength before stunning everyone at the end.

The audience was also expecting Terrance’s Arcanine to do the same. But... from beginning to end, the abilities Arcanine showed stayed at the same level, so when the results came out, Terrance and Arcanine’s performance inevitably let down the audience.

"Arc~anine~" Arcanine lowered its head in disappointment, apologizing for its defeat. If it were in the past, it would never act like this. Maybe if it had won, it would’ve pounced on Terrance?

Arcanine also understood that its loss had brought Terrance some negative impact, so this time, it behaved very obediently.

"Don’t be discouraged. So what if people looks down on us?" Terrance smiled as he patted Arcanine’s head and said, "This isn’t your strong suit anyway. Don’t worry, in the battle segment, you’ll definitely have a chance to show off your skills and get all that momentum back!"

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay