After their Pokémon were healed, Ash and his two companions briefly said goodbye to Professor Oak and the others, planning to head back to the Athletes' Village to rest for a bit. Along the way, the three of them discussed how to deal with Vincent.
"Ash, Vincent definitely has a lot of Pokémon from Hoenn, so you need to be careful," Brock said along the way, thinking about the fact that Vincent came from Hoenn. Aside from Blaziken, he surely had other Pokémon from that region. "Vincent's ace is Blaziken, Ash, so you should prepare some Water-type Pokémon. Are you planning to send out both Squirtle and Croconaw?" Misty reminded Ash to watch out for Blaziken.
"No problem at all, no problem at all. I'm very familiar with Hoenn Pokémon too. As for fighting Blaziken, I'm planning to send this guy out," Ash said as he pulled out a Pokéball.
"I can't believe you still remember him, Ash," Brock said, slightly surprised by the Pokéball Ash produced.
"Yeah, we all thought you'd forgotten about him," Misty chimed in with another jab.
"Pika-pika," even Pikachu jumped out to agree with Misty and Brock.
"You two shouldn't underestimate my memory!" Ash felt quite indignant. His memory was perfectly fine; why were Misty and Brock acting as if he were an old man?
"By the way, Ash, since when did you get so familiar with Hoenn Pokémon?" Misty asked, feeling very strange. She felt like Ash wasn't even all that familiar with Johto Pokémon.
"In a dream," Ash replied impatiently.
"Look, I told you Ash has a bad memory. He's already talking nonsense," Brock and Misty whispered to each other nearby.
"You guys will find out tomorrow. Let's go, Pikachu, time to get ready for tomorrow's match!" With that, Ash walked toward the Athletes' Village.
The next day, Silver Stadium.
"The second round of the tournament has begun! The first match of the second round is set to take place on the Grass Field!" Vincent and Ash entered the arena one after the other to the announcer's voice.
"Ash, after watching your match with Misty yesterday, I've prepared a lot of countermeasures against you," Vincent started right off the bat with some psychological warfare.
"Me too. I've made plenty of preparations for your lineup, Vincent." Even though hearing Vincent's words suggested he might have changed his lineup, Ash still had absolute confidence that he could defeat him.
"I choose you!" Ash made the first move. With a *bang* and a flash of white light, an extremely robust, giant beetle emerged onto the field. This time, Ash had sent out his bug king—Heracross!
"Hera-hera!" Heracross flexed its muscles and shadowboxed. This was its very first match in the tournament.
"Go! Houndoom!" A large black dog appeared on the battlefield. As soon as it came out, it let out a fierce bark at Heracross. Because Heracross was naturally quite gentle by nature, it was startled by Houndoom and took a few steps back.
"Heracross, don't be afraid. Your strength is much greater than his!" Fortunately, seeing this, Ash immediately encouraged Heracross. Upon hearing Ash's words, Heracross felt as if it had been injected with adrenaline and signaled to Ash that it was ready.
"Alright, then let's use Swords Dance!"
Heracross immediately stood its ground, exerting all its strength to tense its muscles and boost its attack power and defense.
"Use Heat Wave!"
Vincent had no intention of letting Houndoom engage Heracross in close combat, so he let Heracross stand there and use Swords Dance while ordering Houndoom to take Heracross out directly with a Fire-type move. A series of scorching hot winds rushed over from Houndoom, covering a huge area and striking Heracross dead on. Heracross wore an expression of intense pain and discomfort. Seeing this, Ash told Heracross to fly up into the sky, hoping to dodge this fierce Heat Wave.
"Damn it, there's no way to attack like this!" Ash was getting anxious now. Most of the moves Heracross currently knew were close-combat attacks, and now Houndoom's wide-area Heat Wave made it impossible for Heracross to get close. "No choice. Heracross, keep using Swords Dance!" Ash could only have Heracross continue using Swords Dance to raise its attack and defense, hoping it could hold out a bit longer, or so Ash thought.
"Houndoom, use Taunt!" At this moment, Vincent issued his command. He didn't want Heracross to keep powering up, so he had Houndoom use Taunt to provoke Heracross into attacking. High in the air, Heracross was just getting ready to perform its third Swords Dance when it saw Houndoom execute the mocking gesture of Taunt. Instantly, blood rushed to its head, and it immediately unleashed Megahorn, charging right at Houndoom. Ash shouted for Heracross to stop right away, but it was to no avail; instead of stopping, Heracross picked up speed.
"Fine! Since it's come to this, use Megahorn with all your might! Show them the strength you gained from Swords Dance!" Since Heracross had already fallen for the opponent's Taunt, Ash simply let Heracross charge forward with full force. *How strange, why isn't Houndoom moving?* Ash noticed that Houndoom wasn't using any other moves to defend itself. At that moment, Ash suddenly remembered a move Houndoom could learn—Counter! He immediately shouted a warning for Heracross to watch out, but it was already too late. Houndoom took the Megahorn hit head-on, and then let out a fierce howl. *Boom!* Heracross was blasted straight back down to the ground. Although Heracross's defense had been raised by two stages, keep in mind that its attack power had also been rising, so this Counter dealt it massive damage. Heracross struggled to push itself back up.
"Heracross!" Ash worried deeply for Heracross.
"Use Flamethrower!"
Seeing Heracross get back up, Vincent pressed the attack, directly ordering Houndoom to use Flamethrower to finish Heracross off once and for all. Heracross had no time to dodge; the Flamethrower hit it square in the chest. Heracross's entire body was scorched black, and it slowly collapsed to the ground. Seeing this, Vincent let out a sigh of relief, thinking to himself that he had finally secured a round. But a moment later, Vincent suddenly noticed the referee still hadn't declared Heracross unable to battle. Realizing what was happening, Vincent immediately ordered Houndoom to use Flamethrower again. Houndoom was a bit caught off guard, so its execution was half a beat too slow.
"Did you notice? Heracross, use Reversal!" Seeing Vincent make a move, Ash immediately ordered Heracross, resting flat on the ground, to use Reversal.
In a flash, Heracross leaped up from where it lay, appearing directly in front of Houndoom, and delivered a single raised-fist punch that knocked Houndoom clean out of the battlefield.
"Houndoom is unable to battle! Heracross wins!" The referee finally announced the result of the match. However, right as the referee finished the announcement, Heracross could hold on no longer—that last Reversal had used up every last ounce of its strength. The referee then added the ruling that Heracross was unable to battle as well.
"Ash, how did Heracross manage to withstand that Flamethrower?" Vincent was utterly baffled. The overall situation had clearly been decided, only to suddenly suffer a dramatic reversal.
"Because Heracross used Endure just before, combined with Reversal, so the battle instantly turned around," Ash replied after recalling Heracross.
"So that's how it was. This is what you call Ash's unpredictability; I finally get it. Well, I won't lose the next battle! Go, Kecleon!"
"As expected, you sent out Kecleon. Go, Muk!"
"Ash, Kecleon is a Hoenn Pokémon."
"I know Kecleon's ability and moves."
"Is that so? Of course, a problem like this can't stump Ash," Vincent thought to himself. As far as Vincent was concerned now, Ash was an extremely composed trainer who mastered flexible tactics.
"Muk, use Sludge Bomb!"
"Stealth immediately, evade it!"
Muk spewed countless Sludge Bombs from its mouth toward Kecleon, but Kecleon was extremely fast. After turning invisible, it immediately vanished into the grass. The Sludge Bombs hit nothing. Seeing this, Muk immediately began searching the surroundings, but it couldn't pin down Kecleon's location at all, and all of Muk's subsequent Sludge Bombs missed completely.
"Muk, watch out for Kecleon's red pattern."
"Use Slash!"
A long tongue immediately shot out from the grass at blinding speed, heading straight toward Muk. Seeing this, Ash instantly told Muk to grab Kecleon's tongue, but unfortunately, Kecleon was far too fast for Muk to keep up. Although the Slash landed on Muk's body, Muk's body absorbed most of the force remarkably well. At this point, Vincent realized that ordinary attacks wouldn't be enough to take down Muk.
"Kecleon, use Psybeam!"
"Muk, use Minimize to dodge!"
Muk's body began to shrink rapidly, successfully dodging the attack. Seeing his attack evaded, Vincent had Kecleon start running, continuously unleashing Psybeam from all directions to bombard Muk.