Any further banter would be interrupted by the sound of the starting horn -- and Queen Zing's deafening buzzing as the giant, saddle-wearing Beedrill took off. Having brawled against Lucia Aldrete 's Tinkatink, the strategy she employed would be similar.

Beedrill venom was not effective against steel-type Pokémon, rendering her primary weapon useless unless she could pierce that metal armor. If Paxton was closely listening, he may have been able to hear a faint whirring sound amidst the loud buzzing: the sound of Queen Zing's foreleg stings whirling like a Rhydon's horn. The green Pokémon thrust both of them at the Mawile, the aim of the DRILL RUN being to bore a path to the fairy-type's soft flesh beneath.

The Mawile's MEGA EVOLUTION made Shalin flinch, the two mouths clashing with the Beedrill's whirling stings. Though the fairy-type was able to repel her before she could bore very deeply into the skin, the damage had been done.

There was now a chink in the Mawile's thick, metal armor. It was a small chink, but one Queen Zing could aim for and pump venom into. Being smacked away by the ICE PUNCH didn't deter her for long, the wasp flitting back toward Conibear with an extended FELL STINGER aimed for the hole she had created in the Mawile's armor.

The sharp stones cut deeply into Queen Zing's natural armor, the wasp's blue eyes blinking rapidly. That was one heavy hit; the match would come to an early end if the Mawile landed another so strong. Shalin couldn't allow that to happen.

Raising her fingers to the KEY STONE of her MEGA CIRCLET, both glowed with the brilliant light of MEGA EVOLUTION. Sporting four foreleg stings instead of two, she whirled them like a Rhydon's horn, boring through the earthen prison Paxton's partner had laid. She wouldn't stop with that, either; were the Mawile in sight when she was free, she would bore through the fairy-type, too!

Incarcerated in a shell of Conibear's ROCK TOMB a second time, and with her stings overheating from drilling into solid rock and metal, it would take a much more creative solution. Shalin was the wrong trainer to go up against if Paxton felt he would win by cornering her into a situation she couldn't think her way out of. She had found ways to strap a saddle to the most unlikely of ride Pokémon; wearing her Sygna Suit and in her Flygon's presence, she rode Nymris, her Pheromosa, by balancing on one of its long wings. She was certainly up there among Hoenn's outside-the-box thinkers.

Unable to bore her way out of the ROCK TOMB this time, Queen Zing buzzed her wings loudly and angrily. Wind whirled around her, bouncing off the rock faces chaotically. The air pressure from the fanning wings built and built until the cell could no longer hold her down, sending the Mawile's boulders flying in all directions at dangerous speeds!

The sound the boulders made upon impact made even Shalin flinch, Queen Zing reeling as she reverted from her apex form. The judges had seen enough, raising their red flags Paxton's way and declaring Shalin the winner.

"Phew!" Shalin breathed a sigh of relief, having squeezed out the win just before the Infinity Energy conduit ran dry. "Your Mawile's one tough Pokémon. I'm surprised I managed a win," she humbly admitted. "Hopefully this will help me shore up my position. See you 'round! Let's see if we can take a ticket together sometime."