Chapter 596: A Satisfying Battle
The inability to steal back the weather caused Yudan's subsequent plans to stall at the very first step!
Goodra relied heavily on the weather, not only because of her Hydration ability—without rain, she was essentially down one ability—but also because Water-type moves made up a significant portion of her move pool.
Although Goodra didn't have the Water typing, many of her moves were related to water, and she even learned Aqua Tail upon evolving.
Without the rain boost for Water-type moves, Goodra's performance was greatly limited.
"Goodra, use Dragon Pulse!"
However, Yudan dared not risk another Rain Dance against Arthur.
The cooldown for pseudo-weather moves was quite long. Except for Hail, which had a slightly shorter cooldown of about seven or eight seconds, the other three moves often had cooldowns of around ten seconds.
Lina's offense was still fierce, and Yudan didn't dare gamble by wasting cooldowns recklessly.
Most importantly—she didn't know how many more Rain Dances it would take to cancel out Lina's Drought!
This unknown was the most terrifying part!
Such a situation had never occurred in professional arenas before, so there was no data for her to reference!
The struggle for weather and terrain had little to do with the Pokémon's own strength. Even a professional-level Pokémon's Rain Dance wasn't necessarily at a disadvantage against a captain-level Pokémon's Sunny Day!
The effect of such moves depended only on proficiency, not the Pokémon's base stats.
A powerful Pokémon could at most expand the weather's coverage and extend its duration, but strength provided no direct help in the struggle for weather dominance.
This was determined by the nature of the move.
Just like when Little Eevee's Hail clashed with Leo's Kingdra's Rain Dance. Even though Kingdra was clearly stronger on paper, the weather ended up split between them, resulting in Sleet.
In real combat, weather dominance usually depended on numbers; the side with more Pokémon had the advantage.
In the arena, especially in a 1v1 match, both sides had the same number of Pokémon. Yudan had never encountered a situation where a Rain Dance was cast, and without the opponent doing anything, the dark clouds were dissipated by the light source within ten seconds!
She hadn't even heard of it, let alone seen it!
Not just her, but commentators and professional players everywhere were hotly discussing this topic.
Some quick-witted people had vaguely guessed the truth.
"This unreasonable leap in move quality probably comes from a Legendary's gift."
But some questioned it.
"That's not right! The rewards he got in the desert should be the Sacred Fire Feather and the Meteorite Shard. What does that have to do with the Drought ability?"
After all, no one knew about the new Groudon giving him special treatment.
However, this player's words reminded his teammate.
"Wait! What were the two rewards he got in the desert again?"
"The Sacred Fire Feather and the Meteorite Shard. It's not a secret; everyone who participated in the desert event knows."
His teammate took a deep breath and smiled bitterly. "Then it's over. This wild card team definitely can't stop him. After today, this number one seed from Kubfu is going to be famous."
"Why?"
"Didn't you just say it? He also got a Meteorite Shard! That's a dragon scale from Rayquaza!"
The person froze for a moment, then suddenly realized!
"Oh, no! Please, f*ck! No!!"
Although the words were intense, they couldn't change reality...
For this round, whether it rained or not didn't matter anymore. Goodra was quickly pushed to a disadvantage!
The first Rain Dance caused her to miss the initiative, and soon Lina's Dragon Claw taught her a lesson... or rather, taught her how to be a dragon!
Dragon is a self-countering type.
Dragon-type moves are super effective against Dragon-type Pokémon!
Lina, still in her Mega Charizard X form, was also a member of the Dragon clan. Every Dragon Claw on Goodra was excruciatingly painful!
This was the effect of the third card on Lina: besides the power of the Flame Queen, she was also dominant in Dragon-type civil wars!
Inheriting her father's fine tradition, Lina had a special fondness for the close-combat move Dragon Claw.
She looked down on ranged moves like Dragon Breath and Dragon Pulse; only the flesh-rending Dragon Claw was satisfying.
It perfectly utilized the boost from the Tough Claws ability!
In the blink of an eye, Yudan's strongest ace, Goodra, whom she had switched in to save the day, was also in imminent danger...
What now?
It was one thing for the Water-type Azumarill to fail, but if even the strongest Dragon-type ace Goodra couldn't hold on, Yudan really didn't know what to do.
The local Regal commentator hit the nail on the head. "Player Yudan is in a very dangerous situation now!
"Her only sliver of hope might be to stall until the ice on the field completely melts. That way, Charizard will lose its footing, which would be a fatal blow to Player Arthur's melee-focused tactical system!
"But unfortunately, Player Arthur's previous move of sending Lapras to thicken the ice layer played a crucial role at this moment!
"Was this also within your calculations, Player Arthur?"
Not just the local commentator, but many alliance commentators and players watching the match gradually realized this.
"He sent out a Lapras first, and it actually played a role now?!"
"If this isn't a pure coincidence, that's some terrifying predictive ability!"
"From the looks of it, it's likely not a coincidence. He did it on purpose."
By now, many people saw Arthur's meticulousness.
And more importantly, Lina's dominance!
Revealing all three cards at once, Arthur fought this battle with incredible dominance!
The Champions Cup schedule was short, unlike the long regular season of the professional league.
In this situation, there was no need for him to deliberately hide his strength.
Because even if he openly revealed some abilities, the time left for opponents to think of counters was very short.
Arthur wasn't worried about showing his hand.
On the contrary, this battle was meant to give Lina a chance to perform to her heart's content!
And the flamboyant little dragoness, who loved applause and cheers, naturally wouldn't refuse such a stage.
This battle was destined to be a satisfying one for Lina!
Less than five minutes later, the referee raised the flag—
"Goodra is unable to battle!"
Then the staff leveled the field and re-froze the ice layer.
So in the second round, facing the restored ice surface, Lina naturally started burning her flames boldly again!
After just one round, the ice layer that the staff had worked hard to restore and re-freeze was melted through again...
Lina had swept two opponents without switching!
And for the third round, with the ice layer restored—
Arthur still sent out Lina, unchanged!
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