Chapter 344: It's Getting Harder and Harder to Understand
After using Skull Bash, Blastoise's Withdraw effect was broken, and it was once again being pummeled by Old Flame!
Serena was still trying to salvage the situation.
"Lower your center of gravity! Continuous water pellets! Watch out for its tail!"
Even without a skill, Blastoise's cannons could continuously fire high-pressure water pellets.
She was likely trying to replicate the gun-fu tactics of Aaron's Inteleon from the previous match, using high-frequency shots to compensate for her own disadvantage in close combat.
But unfortunately for her, Old Flame was far too experienced in this area!
He didn't even need many commands from Arthur to handle it all himself.
Don't be fooled by his large size. His movements in close quarters were not clumsy at all. On the contrary, they were clean, precise, and as fast as the wind!
His response was far better than Luna's Ninetales in the previous match!
For the next thirty seconds of close-quarters pressure, Old Flame never once let his opponent lock his face, eyes, or other vital spots in its line of fire!
Neither the non-skill high-pressure water pellets nor the intervening Aqua Breaks could interrupt Old Flame's violent assault!
An Aqua Break that didn't hit a vital spot was powerless to stop Old Flame's beatdown.
When Arthur observed that Blastoise's condition had dropped to a certain point, he decisively gave the command—
"Use Outrage!"
His opponent had already used two ultimate moves. He couldn't fall behind, could he?
Old Flame decisively plucked a reverse scale from under his jaw. The blue flames around his body instantly surged, their color rapidly deepening from blue to black, transforming into demonic black flames!
At the same time, Old Flame's appearance underwent a second transformation after his Mega Evolution—his muscles bulged, his frame grew larger, and his claws and teeth extended even further.
His eyes turned completely crimson, a ferocious and cruel aura washing over the battlefield!
The Dragon-type ultimate: Outrage!
Sacrificing reason in exchange for the ultimate violence!
For the duration of the move, the Pokémon's strength, speed, and aggression all skyrocket. Its sense of pain is suppressed to a minimum, and every attack is imbued with a fighting-aura-like draconic energy!
The price is exhaustion and confusion after the duration ends, and the initial plucking of the reverse scale also causes immense pain.
But it was all worth it!
You could tell just from Serena's grim and helpless expression—
She had miscalculated again.
She hadn't switched out her Pokémon yet because she was gambling on Blastoise's Torrent ability activating after its health dropped, hoping to create a last-minute miracle.
The Torrent ability is similar to Old Flame's daughter's Blaze ability, a common trait for starter Pokémon. Its effect is to continuously increase the power of Water-type moves as the user takes damage.
Previously, in the Devon Cup, Arthur had used Old Flame's daughter's Blaze ability to deal explosive damage.
This kind of "low-health-power-up" ability is perfect for creating miracles.
Not to mention, Blastoise was also holding a Mystic Water in this match.
Serena had been holding onto a sliver of hope for a comeback.
But unfortunately, in the end, she found it was just an illusion.
Arthur had been keeping a close eye on her Blastoise's condition.
The best way to deal with this kind of ability is to burst down the opponent with a high-damage combo just before their health gets low, leaving no room for a comeback!
And so, Outrage had arrived!
Just as Blastoise was about to power up, claws wreathed in black flame had already grabbed its head and slammed it to the ground.
Blastoise: I couldn't fight back before, but now I want to be a hero!
Old Flame: Roar. Go tell it to the referee. See if he gives you a chance.
And so, a dozen or so seconds later, the referee raised his flag—
"Blastoise is unable to battle!"
After Old Flame had unleashed Outrage and quickly established a winning position, Serena didn't even bother wasting her mid-battle switch.
She used her last move slot on the ultimate move, Hydro Cannon, allowing Blastoise to achieve one last moment of glory in its turtle life.
Hydro Cannon, like Hyper Beam, is an ultimate move with a ridiculously long cooldown. But since Blastoise was going to faint after this one shot anyway, there was no need to worry about such a tiny little side effect…
First round, victory!
The stadium erupted in cheers!
The commentators were starting to panic again.
They had just been hyping up Serena as the Otter Team's most reliable point-scorer. Were they about to be proven wrong again?
No, I don't want that!
In the second round, Arthur pressed his advantage, sending Old Flame out again!
A Pokémon's status is frozen when it's recalled to its Poké Ball. So, this time, Old Flame didn't need to evolve again, and he even had some time left on his Outrage.
This round, Serena had finally learned her lesson. She sent out a Water/Fairy dual-type Primarina, holding a recovery item popularly known as Leftovers. Stall, just hard-stall!
With its Fairy typing giving it an excellent resistance to Dragon, it tanked Old Flame's dragon-energy-infused punches.
The damage from the physical impact was slowly recovered by the Leftovers.
And at the start of the round, it even used the cute-ifying move Charm, further weakening Old Flame's strength and aggression.
With this three-pronged approach, she managed to buy herself a second.
This time, Serena was finally no longer thinking about her offense…
And it was effective. After the duration of Outrage was over, Arthur had Old Flame use a final Will-O-Wisp, inflicting a burn on the opponent. Then, he very decisively recalled him and conceded the round.
It looked like he had easily given the opponent a round, but in terms of the grand strategy, he had already gained the advantage.
Serena's three strongest Pokémon were actually Blastoise, Milotic, and Serperior. This lady was a fan of turtles and snakes.
After Old Flame had defeated Blastoise, he had then forced the opponent to send out the Fairy-type Primarina, taking up one of her three Pokémon slots. This had effectively pushed one of the opponent's aces off the field.
This was already a huge win!
Not to mention, to deal with Old Flame, the opponent had already wasted a move slot on Charm, and would later have to use another move to deal with the burn status. And after Old Flame fainted, the opponent could no longer use Leftovers in the subsequent rounds.
Even though the score was currently tied at 1-1, Arthur's advantage was steadily building!
And to top it all off, in the third round, after much deliberation, Serena finally brought out her second ace, Serperior. And Arthur, once again, gave everyone a surprise—
Specter took the stage!
The commentators were once again at a loss.
"For this round, we expect Arthur to send out his Grenin—
Alright, we see that Arthur has brought out another new Pokémon we've never seen before: a Gengar! After the start of the new season, Arthur's Pokémon roster is getting harder and harder to understand!"
The commentators were smiling on the outside, but cursing on the inside.
You're making our job as commentators very difficult! Why was there no news about this beforehand? This generation of paparazzi is so useless!
In reality, it had been a year since the news of Arthur capturing a Gengar had come out. But in that year, Specter had either been recuperating or hospitalized, and had very rarely appeared in the public eye.
Over time, even Arthur's core fans had almost forgotten about the existence of this Gengar.
But this time, taking the stage, Specter was rubbing his hands together, completely fired up!
It was one thing to be less popular than Old Flame; he had never been able to compete with him back in the day. But now, how could a few junior upstarts be more famous than him?!
This would not do!
Specter was very angry.
And the consequences would be very severe!
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