In the waning moments of the tournament, a waitlist had formed for arena capacity. Anyone who was in line when time was called would get to play their flight, but no new entries would be accepted. Entering his assigned arena, he waved back to blue murtagh .

"Great to meet you!" the Mauville Leader said, smiling and ready for what he thought would be an easy win. "Gym Leader Devlin, but please, call me Josh. And this is Raikiri," he gestured toward the feral-looking Zeraora that ran on all fours. The thundercat looked ready to pounce Bonnie the moment that starting horn sounded.

As the horn blared, Raikiri was just as quickly on the offensive, if not more so. The two raced toward each other at a frightening closing speed that, were the Zeraora's body not meant to withstand it, would have given him a concussion. His paws were not laced with voltage, though the QUICK ATTACK would not be any easier to evade.

Raikiri didn't care if the Mightyena's POISON FANGS nicked him; they would likely be in contact with the cool cat for such a small amount of time that the venom would be a nuisance at worst. Even so, the longer the battle went, the more likely it would end in the dark-type's favor. He had to close this one out as soon as he could.

Blue and Josh seemed to have similar battling styles, their Pokémon trying to nick each other with their natural weapons as they sped past one another like medieval knights on the backs of equines. The dark-type had the advantage, imbibing Raikiri with more venom than the Gym Leader anticipated. He couldn't ignore the pain, Josh frowning as he watched his big cat slow down.

In perhaps an unexpected move, Raikiri slammed on the brakes, a screeching sound threatening to shatter glass around them. This would not only throw off the Mightyena's timing and potentially cause it to sail over the Zeraora, but would also ignite his paws for a FIRE PUNCH-like followup.

The body slam was a nasty blow, leaving Raikiri dazed for a critical moment while the dark-type swiped at him from above. While the Zeraora was not wearing his saddle, he was still furious at the dog for trying to "ride" him. No one except Josh and anyone he approved of rode Raikiri. No one.

With a loud roar, the angry thundercat bucked and thrashed violently to try to hurl the Mightyena away. Josh winced just watching the exchange, fortunate Shalin had never come to his Gym trying to hop on the thundercat's back. Surely even her iron-hard spine couldn't withstand that kind of force, right?

The TOXIC spray was a wonderful idea to slow down most incredibly fast opponents. It was a common ploy used by challengers to Mauville Gym on a daily basis. It would take more than just venom to tense up Raikiri's muscles. As the Zeraora's QUICKINIUM-Z crystal glowed alongside Josh's Z-GLOVE, it was clear he wouldn't give poor Blue the chance to even do that.

As the mist went flying toward him, the thundercat disappeared into a HYPERSONIC PLASMA CHARGE that was beyond fast. Seemingly warping from one corner of the battle court to the other in a split second, the Mightyena would have to remain standing after the Z-Move's triple threat. The Mightyena needed to withstand supersonic paws, lightning bolts crashing in the wake of his trampling attack, and the shockwave that came with the Zeraora breaking the sound barrier if Blue were to remain in the match!

"Thanks!" Josh replied, his smile widening. "That move was the result of months of study. It's the Mauville Gym special. Not a lot of people can overcome it." The greatest misunderstanding of the supersonic ramming and trampling attack was that the physical slicing and dicing by paw and claw was the biggest threat. To many Pokémon, it was actually the sonic boom that followed.

"Good luck to you if you're trying to squeeze more matches in," Josh added before waving goodbye. "See you around, Blue!" With that, he turned around to get his Zeraora patched up. Two more match wins, and some lovely spending money would be all his.