Gary said to the Poké Ball in his hand, "Sorry, you don't have any large-scale attack moves at the moment, so it's hard to deal with these clones."
The Poké Ball shook slightly in his palm. Weavile understood what Gary meant. It wasn't that Gary didn't want to continue using it—Weavile simply couldn't fly, which made it hard to deal with airborne units, and it had no large-scale moves to clear out those annoying clones. If Weavile had mastered Blizzard or Avalanche, it could have kept fighting, but unfortunately, it didn't.
"Magnezone, you're up."
Gary threw out the Poké Ball.
Flash!
[Lv.59 Magnezone / Champion-tier]
Seeing Magnezone, Melissa immediately ordered, "Use Mystical Fire."
A circle of flames appeared in front of the Mismagius floating in the air. Fire spurted out from its form, instantly surrounding Magnezone.
"Use Gravity!" Gary ordered.
A strong magnetic force burst from Magnezone's body, and a heavy pressure spread across the field, covering the entire venue in a gravitational pull. Twisted black lines appeared in the space, and all of Mismagius's illusory copies dissipated instantly, including the pressure that pulled the real Mismagius down toward the ground.
However, the Mystical Fire that Mismagius had already released did hit Magnezone, though the damage wasn't significant.
"Lock On!" Gary ordered.
Magnezone immediately locked onto the grounded Mismagius, and a red target marker appeared on its body.
Melissa frowned and immediately ordered, "Mismagius, use Mystical Fire again."
A ring of fire formed in front of Mismagius, and flames rushed out toward the target. Magnezone took the hit head-on.
"Zap Cannon!" Gary ordered.
A golden orb of electricity condensed in front of Magnezone, then transformed into a beam of light that shot straight toward Mismagius.
"Destiny Bond!" Melissa ordered.
"...!"
Gary heard the order and immediately understood he'd been caught off guard. There was nothing he could do about it now. Who would have expected Mismagius to actually know Destiny Bond?
Mismagius couldn't naturally learn Destiny Bond—it could only be passed down through breeding. No wonder Melissa hadn't given up until this point. Her Mismagius had inherited this rare move.
Boom!!
Zap Cannon struck Mismagius directly. A dark mushroom cloud rose, engulfing its form completely.
The next moment, Magnezone's three eyes dimmed, and its body dropped straight to the ground.
When the smoke cleared, Mismagius had also fallen. Magnezone had been taken down by Destiny Bond.
"Mismagius and Magnezone have both lost the ability to battle."
Gary and Melissa each took out their Poké Balls and recalled their fallen Pokémon. Then, both sides prepared their next Poké Ball.
Seeing this, the referee announced, "Please release your Pokémon at the same time."
"Battle Form, Drifblim, go!"
"Go, Electivire!"
Both trainers threw their Poké Balls simultaneously.
Flash!!
[Lv.48 Drifblim / Elite-tier]
[Lv.63 Electivire / Champion-tier]
"Drifblim, use Will-O-Wisp!" Melissa attacked first without hesitation.
Drifblim spun in place, and blue flames emerged one after another like malevolent spirits, rushing toward Electivire.
"Discharge!" Gary ordered.
"Vire!!"
Electric energy burst from Electivire's body. Currents as thick as its arms shot outward, shattering all the incoming Will-O-Wisp flames. The electricity also struck Drifblim directly.
"Drif...!"
Drifblim cried out in pain, immediately stopped floating, and dropped toward the ground, its bean-shaped eyes turning into swirling X's.
"Drifblim has lost the ability to battle," the referee announced. "All three of Gym Leader Melissa's Pokémon have been defeated. The winner of this Gym match is the challenger, Gary."
"Oh my god...!"
Melissa pressed both hands to her temples, unable to believe she had lost so badly. If it weren't for Mismagius's Destiny Bond, she would have been swept 3-0.
The battle had ended.
"Congratulations, Gary. Your Pokémon are so strong. If I were twenty years younger, I would definitely pursue you," Melissa said, offering her congratulations.
"...!"
Gary felt a little embarrassed being confessed to so directly.
Although Melissa was older, she was still a very charming woman. If she wanted to, plenty of young men would fall for her.
"Here, this is the Relic Badge, proof of defeating Hearthome Gym." Melissa stopped teasing Gary and took out her Gym Badge.
"Thank you."
Gary accepted the Badge.
[Ding! Mission completed. Reward has been sent to your space backpack.]
After receiving the Badge, Gary left Hearthome Gym.
Once outside, Gary immediately checked his space backpack.
[Gimmighoul's Coin Purse: Contains 999 Gimmighoul coins inside. After evolving Gimmighoul, if its potential is lower than Champion-tier, it will be directly raised to Champion-tier.]
"A Gimmighoul's Coin Purse?!"
Gary was stunned when he saw this reward.
Gimmighoul was a Ghost-type Pokémon unique to the Paldea Region. Once it collected 999 Gimmighoul coins, it could evolve into the strongest AoE-type Pokémon, Gholdengo.
What made Gholdengo especially notable was its Ability, Good as Gold, which granted immunity to nearly all of the opponent's status-changing moves. Almost every debuff move in existence couldn't affect it, while its own attacks could still reduce the opponent's stats normally.
Gholdengo also had a base stat total of 550, putting it on par with Legendary Pokémon.
The reason for this was that the threshold for what counted as "Legendary-tier" had been lowered following the emergence of Urshifu. It used to require a base stat total of 570, but after Urshifu appeared, the standard dropped to 550.
As for Ultra Beasts with a base stat total of 540, they technically came from another world entirely. Strictly speaking, they weren't considered true Pokémon from this world, so they weren't included in that calculation.
The Gimmighoul Coin Purse rewarded by the system already contained all 999 coins needed for evolution. This meant it could instantly evolve a Gimmighoul into a Gholdengo with Champion-tier potential.
As someone tall, wealthy, and successful, it only made sense for Gary to raise a Gholdengo of his own.
"Should I just go straight to the Paldea Region to get one?"
Gary considered whether he should take a trip to Paldea. After all, there was no urgent need to rush his Badge collection.
"Let's get a Gimmighoul."
Gary didn't hesitate for long and decided to travel to the Paldea Region to capture one.
Gimmighoul wasn't a particularly rare Pokémon—at least, not in the Paldea Region. Their numbers were fairly abundant, and they could often be found around antique shops.
Gimmighoul itself was also a very weak Pokémon, with only two basic moves: Astonish and Tackle. It was only slightly stronger than a Caterpie.
The key issue was that Gimmighoul couldn't evolve on its own easily, and very few Gimmighoul ever collected enough coins to complete their evolution.