The abilities used by Gengar and Mismagius were Wonder Room and Magic Room, respectively. It was these two abilities that isolated the location of Yuga and the others from the outside world and blocked all escape routes for the middle-aged man.
Space move were quite rare, but each had its unique utility.
The most commonly used was Trick Room, which reversed the speed of the two Pokémon inside the space.
During the Gym Leader selection tournament's second round, Yuga had faced the final opponent, Gym Leader Valerie from Laverre City, who was particularly skilled in this ability.
Wonder Room and Magic Room were rarely applied in battles, not only due to their high learning difficulty but also because they were challenging to use effectively.
The effect of Wonder Room was to invert the physical defense and special defense stats of Pokémon inside the space. However, it wasn't an exchange of defense between the two Pokémon but rather the individual Pokémon's physical and special defense that swapped.
The effect of Magic Room was that the effects of held items for Pokémon inside the space (most of them, not all, such as Mega Evolution Stones) would disappear for a certain duration.
Gengar and Mismagius had only gradually mastered these two abilities after reaching the peak of pseudo-Elite level.
However, not long after this discovery, Yuga found that by combining any two space skill, they could isolate the internal space from the outside world, creating an independent space.
While a single space skill created a space, it was still closely connected to the outside world, only appearing as independent in form. But when two space skill were combined, the space became entirely separate from the outside.
However, this space was not very stable, and its duration depended on the strength of the Pokémon using the abilities.
At this moment, Yuga and the middle-aged man were enveloped by such a special space.
It could be said that as long as this unique space wasn't broken, nothing that happened inside would transmit to the outside.
However, combining two space skill was not easy. Yuga, Gengar, and Mismagius had faced many difficulties in the initial stages of experimenting with the fusion.
The unstable nature of the space often led to explosions. Numerous times, these explosions had left them all heavily injured. This was how the current unified spatial technique was born.
However, after the fusion of space abilities, another characteristic emerged. This characteristic could be seen as both a disadvantage and an advantage—the original effects of space skill disappeared entirely.
Inside this space, because it was entirely cut off from the outside world, it seemed eerily quiet. The middle-aged man wore an uneasy expression as he looked at Yuga, Gengar, and Mismagius on both sides.
"Can you tell me who you are and what your purpose is for coming here?" Yuga asked the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man just pressed his lips together and didn't utter a word, but Yuga could see that he was under immense pressure.
What the middle-aged man didn't know was that to maintain an independent space, Gengar and Mismagius couldn't afford to be distracted by fighting.
The reason Yuga had them create this separate space was to prevent potential damage to the gym's buildings and the surrounding environment in case of a battle.
The man before them was a pseudo-Elite Trainer, and battles at this level could easily wreak havoc on Verdanturf Town.
So it was better to resolve this discreetly.
"Since you're not speaking, let's settle this the hard way," Yuga declared. He then gave instructions to Florges to attack. Countless Magical Leaf transformed into blades, slicing toward the Starmie standing in front of the middle-aged man.
The Starmie on the opposite side swiftly erected a Light Screen in front of itself, blocking the Magical Leaf that were flying towards it.
The Starmie before Yuga seemed quite peculiar.
Even though it emitted the aura of a pseudo-Elite level, Yuga's Insight ability indicated that its level was displayed as pseudo-Elite, but its strength was noticeably weaker than the typical pseudo-Elite-level Pokémon.
Yuga had experienced this kind of situation before when battling the other pseudo-Elite level Crawdaunt. If it hadn't been for this situation, Yuga's Absol wouldn't have stood a chance against Crawdaunt.
After all, pseudo-Elite-level Pokémon were still pseudo-Elite-level Pokémon.
However, Yuga had assumed it was an exception or special situation, perhaps due to some special circumstances. He didn't expect to encounter another case with this Starmie.
Having two Pokémon in a row displaying this unusual characteristic left Yuga quite puzzled.
After successfully blocking Florges's Magical Leaf, the Starmie retaliated against her. However, as it was about to unleash its Hydro Pump, it found itself surrounded by countless blades of grass.
These blades of grass grew taller in the blink of an eye, extending numerous vines that securely bound the Starmie. Even the Hydro Pump it was preparing was interrupted.
The Starmie struggled desperately to break free from the grasp of the grass but found itself tightly restrained by Florges's two long vines.
By the time the Starmie had wrestled free from the grass, it was already too late. Florges's vines had choked the life out of it.
With her deep understanding of Grass-type energy and her mastery of the Grassy Terrain, Florges's control over the terrain was incomparable. Her derived vines had become incredibly resilient, thanks to the miraculous combination of the green gem and Celebi's blessing.
Seeing that his Starmie was trapped, the middle-aged man immediately attempted to release another Pokémon for support. However, Florges, quick on her feet, noticed this and swiftly used a vine to knock the Pokémon ball out of his hand.
Once the middle-aged man's Pokémon ball was knocked away, countless vines sprouted once again from Florges's Grassy Terrain, binding the middle-aged man securely.
The middle-aged man, unlike the Starmie, couldn't escape Florges's bindings. He could only struggle fruitlessly.
After freeing itself, the Starmie didn't retaliate against Florges but instead used Water Gun to strike at the spatial barrier that shrouded them. It was evident that the Starmie was trying to break the unified spatial technique created by Gengar and Mismagius, likely to allow its Trainer to escape.