Chapter 19: Tournament of Champions! Epsilon Edition!
Back to square one. Epsilon had tried to start her research on the Plot Emperor from scratch. He had obviously lost all interest in working with her, and at the same time the research into his identity had achieved absolutely nothing. It was as if Epsilon had a solved puzzle in front of her, but the picture shown was simply wrong. Every piece fit with the ones around it, but the result was still wrong. And she was quickly running out of time! The tournament was just around the corner, either Polarna vatra or Slash would win and then the armor would be complete. And as soon as that was the case, Epsilon had to decide... would she try to overthrow the Emperor and re-establish her own rule as Empress, or would she make one last attempt to join him?

Likewise, she would have to do her best in the duel. Zeraora had agreed that Polarna vatra would receive the emblem if Team Slash won the title. Aurora and Kel had made a bet that they would owe Epsilon something if Team Slash won. This owed favor would be a keystone in the rest of the operation as it would force Kel and Aurora to join Epsilon, whether she joined up with the Plot Emperor or not! And equally, the course of the season clearly showed that Team Slash was quite capable of winning. But they were not the favorites. In second place in the season, the team had more than easily secured a place in the tournament, Zeraora was extremely satisfied. But Epsilon was not.

They were not the strongest, but they had to win! There was no way around it! Especially not when she looked at their arch-rivals. First place in the season, season one in the King's League! Epsilon had known that her daughter and Kel were a great team, but the total dominance of the two in the season was still a surprise. Despite the fact that it was very easy to counter Polarna vatra, nothing seemed to be able to defeat Kel. And even though he was clearly stronger, it wasn't as if Aurora didn't pull her own weight. She didn't seem to defeat every enemy unconditionally, no matter how powerful, but she still knew how to hold her own against opponents of all kinds. By the fourth day of play at the latest, it didn't even seem to be a question for the spectators that Kel and Aurora would be victorious, since they not only defeated the veterans of Ironfist that day. They demolished them, not losing a duel, not even making one close!

Darkrai, who had stayed as far away from Epsilon as possible since that meeting, had also made good on his "threat". Team Nordika had taken a break for the entire season, had not played any duels, were not listed in the rankings and were therefore not possible rivals for Polarna vatra or Slash. In retrospect, this actually seemed to be detrimental to Epsilon's plans. If neither their team nor Polarna vatra won, it would be impractical, but there would be another chance next season. A tournament victory for Polarna vatra would be the worst case scenario! And she herself had caused one of her best chances at this to fail!

The weekend was approaching and the tournament bracket showed its face for the first time. Sixteen teams, including Team Slash and Team Polarna vatra, of course. As the top two teams in the season's rankings, a meeting between these two teams before the finals was not possible. This meant that there were many possibilities that Polarna vatra would fail before a confrontation took place. This also applied to Team Slash, but Epsilon was confident in herself. In an emergency, she would have to take the team to the top on her own! But the obvious problem was... it wasn't exactly more likely that Polarna vatra would be eliminated. The final encounter was already buzzing around in Epsilon's head so much that she was having a hard time concentrating on the earlier rounds. But she would have to!

"Encounter five in the round of 16! Team Slash and Team Arboro, please get ready!"

Latias announced when Epsilon's group was about to throw themselves into the first duel. The fighter of Nordika seemed quite overwhelmed, as she had been all day. She had taken over all the announcements, while Totodile, Tepig and Latios ran around the arena, apparently responsible for the background work of the tournament. Epsilon had also spotted Darkrai earlier in the day, but only in the middle of the spectators, not moving. Apparently the league leader had no intention of actually leading the league in this tournament. A fact that Epsilon's teammates also noticed.

"Like, no offense to Latias, Latios, Totodile and Tepig, but... God, this tournament feels so improvised.", Zeraora exclaimed.
"Darkrai doesn't seem to take his leadership role very seriously.", Epsilon commented.
"You think so? I mean, yes, he's not doing much today, but I'm sure he at least tried to organize. It was probably just too much for him." "If that's really the case, then get used to it. That's unlikely to change in the next few seasons."
"But it could. He would just have to bite the bullet and do what Elementareon never wanted to do! He has to officially appoint the whole team as league leaders. Then everyone could have more of an impact and not have to rely on a single Mon to make all the decisions."
"The whole team? Is that even possible?"
"Of course it is. But some people seemingly think that a position of great power can never be truly shared!"

...yes. There was some truth in that. So if...

"I'll take the first round, okay?"

Epsilon was startled out of her thoughts when Zeraora announced this.

"Go ahead. In the end, we're just guessing anyway."

Zoroark, Zeraora, Tyrantrum on Team Slash's side, Milotic, Roserade and Togekiss on their opponents' side. The type balance of the duel seemed fairly even. Zeraora countered two opponents, but was countered by the last one. Tyrantrum and Togekiss countered each other. Epsilon was neutral towards each enemy.

The chance of a good start was two-thirds. One could certainly hope that Roserade would not go first if Zeraora had decided to go first on Slash's side. But if one had bet on that... then one would have won the bet too. Milotic, the leader of the 15th-ranked team of the season, a very durable fighter with a lot of power, faced Zeraora, who was clearly happy about his fate. The reason? If Milotic had a weakness in the ring, it would be speed. She wasn't particularly agile. This wasn't a great trait for a water-type Pokemon, as many electric types were very fast, but her current opponent was agile even for an electric Pokemon.

The following fight looked accordingly. Even before Epsilon's arrival, Zoroark had clearly mastered sword fighting and hadn't been above teaching her team leader how to use a weapon, so that Zeraora knew exactly how to use his lance of lightning. But at least the battle from a distance remained Milotic's battlefield as this was one of the fighter's strengths, out of necessity since she lacked agility. However, ranged combat was more effective against enemies who did not use their agility to get into close combat as quickly and safely as possible and then flee again before a counterattack could follow. And especially not against those who had Zeraora's lance. A lance which could reflect projectiles. Every strength that Milotic had, Zeraora's fighting style negated, every weakness that she had, he exploited. It was certainly not an exciting duel.

Duel two of the first round. Epsilon had entered the ring because Tyrantrum felt safer against Roserade than against Togekiss and Team Slash were united in expecting the fairy to be next. Rightly so, as it turned out. One look at the enemy and Epsilon was sure of victory. From the shadow of the walls created by the sun, she immediately grabbed her rainbow-colored blade. She could grab the enemy's shadow directly, making the fight very easy, but she decided to wait for just a moment. Her enemy was a fairy type with an easily visible offensive fighting style. An offensive fighting style would quickly bring about attacks with great power. What attack would a fairy type use as its greatest weapon? Moonblast! A wonderful opportunity if the enemy voluntarily drenched the battle in shadows!

This was precisely what Epsilon fought to bring about, although it quickly became clear to her that she would win even without the enemy's shadow. Most of the opponent's attacks surprisingly happened in close combat, which meant that Epsilon could use her blade to block and attack, which Togekiss obviously had problems with. Epsilon's counterattacks could have been much stronger. But in that case she would have defeated the opponent before she could have any fun. Because through passive close combat, in which she rarely attacked but blocked every attack, she had given her opponent the impression that distance would be his friend in this fight. But what good attacks could he use at a distance? As an aggressive fairy type...

Tyrantrum entered the field shortly afterwards. The duel was basically won, because even if the weakest link in the team lost, it would be two to one and Zeraora would be up against Milotic again. And that was only an "if". Because even if Tyrantrum was the weakest in Team Slash, that didn't make him weak in general. Moreover, grass was at best an alright typing against him, while poisoning a rock seemed stupid for a reason. And here a great fighter strength came into play again! Stamina. To defeat Monargoras, you had to move him, that's just how the ring works. However, Tyrantrum was anything but a lightweight. Without really strong hits, it seemed unrealistic to actually move him. If you had effective attacks, steel, dragon, fighting, ground, then even seemingly weaker attacks could have a big impact, but without that, only the elaborate and powerful hits were really helpful.

Roserade really didn't have many of those, though. Sludge Bomb was usually powerful, but poisoning a rock made little sense. Basically, there was nothing left but Wood Hammer, unless countless small blows would find their target and gain more and more space. However, this strategy suffered greatly from the simple fact that the target resisted. Tyrantrum's blows also usually took time, but it was much easier for him to actually find that time.

Nevertheless, it was without question the most evenly matched fight of this round. Because here too, a duel of agility against sluggishness arose, as with Zeraora and Milotic, just that this time it was not everything else also helping the faster mon. And yet this was a duel between second and fifteenth place. And that's how it ended. Three to zero for Slash, on to the quarterfinals.

Afterwards, when more round of 16 matches and the first two quarterfinals took place, Epsilon used the time to analyze the situation. Her team's next opponents were unfamiliar to her, but they didn't seem particularly threatening to Team Slash. Two out of three Pokemon lost automatically because of their types if they met the wrong opponents, with a Pelipper that would last for seconds against Zeraora and Moltres that had no chance against Tyrantrum.

A big hurdle could arise in the following round, however, if Ironfist won their quarterfinals. In this case, the third place of the season would face Team Slash to reach the finals. On the other side of the tournament bracket, one team stood out like no other. Polarna vatra, who had already won two 3-0 matches, a record that no other team could possibly achieve anymore except Team Slash. And equally, Epsilon hardly believed that this would change effectively. Not even the potentially strongest opponents on this side of the tournament, fourth place of the season, meant anything to her by name. This team definitely had not existed in Epsilon's former home, or at least not in the King's League. The tournament was already taking a very predictable direction. The only duel that could change anything in the eyes of the spectators was the semifinals between Slash and Ironfist. But even that only changed the lineup for the finals. Because Polarna vatra's victory almost seemed predetermined by fate. But fate? Destiny? Such things were but a myth to Epsilon! She herself decided her own fate! And if she wanted to win today, she would!