Pokemon: My Pokemon Has a Tailed Beast Template

Chapter 286 286: The New Elite Four

"Don't put too much pressure on yourself, Clair. Even if you lose to Sam, it's fine as long as you show your own style."

Lance handed the wine glass filled with red wine to Clair as he spoke seriously.

Taking the glass, Clair rolled her eyes at her cousin.

"You already think I'm going to lose before the battle even starts?" she snorted.

"I'm definitely going to win!"

Lance could only smile helplessly.

His cousin was exactly like he had been when he was younger—equally proud, confident, and stubborn.

He only hoped that battling Sam wouldn't damage her confidence too badly.

Noticing the concern in Lance's eyes, Clair sighed.

"Don't worry, cousin. I know my limits."

"I'm not blindly overconfident. I really do think I have a chance against Sam in this Gym Exchange Tournament."

"Oh?" Lance asked curiously while taking a sip of wine.

"Explain."

"If this were a normal battle, I honestly wouldn't stand a chance," Clair admitted openly.

"Sam's Tyranitar is terrifying. No matter how confident I am, I don't think I could handle that monster."

Lance nodded slightly.

She was right.

Sam's Tyranitar was terrifying enough that even he would have to fight seriously against it.

"But this tournament is different," Clair continued confidently.

"It's impossible for Sam to use Tyranitar here."

"Everyone knows he transformed the Viridian Gym into a Flying-type Gym, so there's a high chance he'll use Flying-type Pokémon during the exchange matches."

"And Flying-types aren't Sam's strongest specialty."

"So I definitely have a chance to beat him this time."

Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she spoke.

After hearing her analysis, Lance fell silent for a moment.

Objectively speaking, Clair's reasoning wasn't wrong.

If Sam's choices were limited to Flying-type Pokémon, then Clair really might have a chance to defeat him.

Still…

It was far too early to think that far ahead.

Nobody even knew whether the two of them would actually be matched against each other yet.

⸻

Early the next morning, Sam was forcefully woken up by Erika.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked sleepily while glancing at the clock.

It was only seven in the morning.

"Get up already," Erika urged helplessly.

"Lance announced there's a meeting at eight."

Sam rubbed his forehead in annoyance.

These higher-ups really loved surprise meetings.

There had been plenty of free time yesterday, yet they insisted on scheduling everything early in the morning instead.

After hurriedly washing up and grabbing breakfast, Sam and Erika finally arrived at the conference room.

By then, all the Gym Leaders were already seated.

Since they were the last ones to arrive, the moment the two entered together, everyone's eyes immediately shifted toward them.

This was practically the first time Erika had publicly revealed her relationship with Sam in front of so many people.

Even someone as composed as Erika couldn't help feeling embarrassed.

Naturally, she didn't dare sit beside Sam under everyone's watchful gazes. Instead, she quickly moved away and sat down beside Sabrina.

Looking at Sabrina's cold expression, Erika almost laughed.

It seemed her romantic rival was in quite a bad mood today.

Of course, these were only minor incidents before the meeting officially began.

Soon, the atmosphere inside the conference room turned serious.

The sixteen Gym Leaders from Kanto and Johto sat on opposite sides of the long conference table, clearly divided into two camps.

Even though the tournament hadn't started yet, the sense of rivalry had already become obvious.

At the head of the table sat Lance.

To his left sat Bruno.

Nobody found that surprising.

As one of the current Elite Four members and Lance's longtime companion, Bruno naturally deserved that position.

But the person seated to Lance's right surprised many people.

It was none other than Koga.

The moment everyone saw the seating arrangement, they immediately guessed what was about to happen.

After all, people capable of becoming Gym Leaders were rarely foolish.

Sure enough, before the meeting truly began, Lance calmly announced:

"Everyone here should already know Leader Koga."

"The main purpose of today's meeting is to vote on his promotion to the Elite Four."

"Let's begin the vote by show of hands."

Although it was called a vote, the result had essentially been decided beforehand.

With Lance personally recommending him, almost nobody would dare oppose Koga's promotion.

Besides, none of the Gym Leaders had any personal grudge against him.

There was absolutely no reason to offend a future Elite Four member for nothing.

More importantly—

Nobody wanted to make an enemy out of a ninja like Koga.

The voting process proceeded extremely smoothly.

In the end, Koga was unanimously approved as Kanto and Johto's newest Elite Four member.

---------------Author---------------

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