Very few challengers ever made it as far as the fourth Pokémon. Drifblim's Tailwind followed by Ninjask was enough to defeat ninety percent of them.
Thirty seconds remained, which seemed like plenty of time considering how far Luther had already progressed.
Yayoi had been shocked when Luther used the cold from Blizzard to disrupt Ninjask's acceleration, but she still didn't believe he could complete the challenge.
Each of the remaining three Pokémon was dedicated entirely to defense. They wouldn't give Azumarill any opportunity to unleash her strength.
"Protect!"
The moment Nosepass raised its barrier, the countdown kept ticking.
Although Azumarill had the type advantage, Protect should still waste some of Luther's remaining time.
"Aqua Tail."
Azumarill brought her water-coated tail crashing into the barrier.
A powerful sense of unease gripped the butler.
Protect should have neutralized the attack. Yet when he saw Luther's casual expression, his confidence suddenly vanished.
None of the previous Trainers who had come to claim the bounty had ever looked like that.
Some had been nervous. Others became increasingly frantic, clenching their fists as though they wanted to fight in their Pokémon's place. A few had even cursed the disgustingly defensive team they were facing.
After all, failing the challenge meant losing their deposit. Anyone would be upset about that.
Luther, however, was perfectly calm. He had even yawned when Azumarill used Blizzard to counter Ninjask's Speed boost, as though he had merely come to Yayoi's home to clock in and collect money that already belonged to him.
What gave this man such confidence?
The butler received his answer when Aqua Tail shattered the barrier.
If Azumarill had broken through by continuously pouring power into Protect until Nosepass could no longer maintain it, he wouldn't have been nearly as surprised.
But Nosepass's Protect shattered on contact, as though it had never existed.
Perhaps worried that she might destroy something else if she used too much force, Azumarill directed her Aqua Tail downward and smashed Nosepass into the ground.
Nosepass sank deep into the battlefield and lost consciousness.
"Uncle An!"
Yayoi hadn't understood what happened. Assuming there had been some failure of communication between Nosepass and the butler, she called out to him reproachfully.
This time, the butler didn't turn around to explain.
He finally understood.
He might have convinced himself that the first three victories were coincidences, but Nosepass's Protect failing to withstand even one attack from Azumarill proved everything.
The Trainer using the alias "Old Fruit Farmer" operated on an entirely different level. Only an absurd gap in strength could produce such a complete and straightforward display of superiority.
His young mistress had taken this game too far.
She offered a huge bounty to attract Trainers, then made them face an infuriating team under a one-minute time limit, all for her own amusement.
The setup had worked again and again. Eighty Trainers had fallen for it, much to her delight.
But walk through the mountains long enough, and eventually you'll run into a tiger.
Truly exceptional Trainers wouldn't have cared enough about this small amount of money to participate personally. It was also unlikely that one had simply chosen their challenge by coincidence.
Most likely, someone had grown tired of the young mistress's behavior and sent an expert to teach her a lesson.
Twenty-eight seconds remained when the fifth Pokémon, Shuckle, entered the field.
Luther had to admit that this team was absolutely revolting.
First came Clefairy with Minimize, followed by a Tailwind-boosted Ninjask, then the physical wall Nosepass using Protect. Now there was Shuckle, a Pokémon with terrifying defenses.
Without real strength, a challenger would suffer one humiliating setback after another.
"Withdraw!" the butler shouted.
His best plan was to raise Shuckle's Defense enough to withstand the first attack, then stall with Protect.
Azumarill immediately ruined that plan.
She ran up to Shuckle, wrapped her arms around its withdrawn body, and lifted it over her head. Then, wielding it like a skillet without a handle, she used brute force to slam it into the ground.
Bang!
Yayoi's table shook. Fruit rolled out of the dishes, and tea splashed from the cups.
Shuckle landed flat on its back with all four limbs sticking up in the air.
Twenty-five seconds remained.
The best weapon against a warrior in heavy armor wasn't a sword, it was a hammer. One good blow to the metal shell would send the impact straight through and cause internal damage.
This Shuckle had clearly never trained to disperse force through its body. Luther had merely wanted to test the idea, yet it worked on the first attempt.
During the Lily of the Valley Conference's ranking rounds, Conway's Shuckle had been hurled into a wall like a discus by an opponent's Nidoking. Despite being left dazed, it had recovered almost immediately and continued fighting.
Compared to Conway's Shuckle, this one was...
Well, dirty tactics were still dirty tactics, but their effectiveness depended entirely on who trained and used them.
"Uncle An, what's wrong with you today?"
Yayoi was growing unhappy. Her Pokémon were falling one after another at unprecedented speed.
Even the strongest Trainers in Sun Heart City had failed to get past the Tailwind-boosted Ninjask. Yet today, someone had torn through five of her Pokémon in a row.
She couldn't accept it.
"Is he really that strong? Why are you letting him push you around like this?"
The butler and the official overseeing the challenge both looked awkward.
Only someone with little understanding of Pokémon battles could watch a Trainer like Old Fruit Farmer and ask whether he was "really that strong."
"But he really is..." the official muttered quietly.
Before arriving, he had checked Luther's account.
The username was Old Fruit Farmer. It was a brand-new account registered less than an hour ago, and because the user had hidden both his personal information and Trainer profile, no further details were available.
The official had assumed that some hot-blooded rookie, ignorant of how treacherous people could be, had immediately chosen a hellishly difficult mission in hopes of becoming famous overnight.
Perhaps today's failure would teach him a lesson. After paying the price, he would learn not to accept missions recklessly.
That had been the official's original assumption.
After meeting Luther, however, he couldn't shake the feeling that the man looked familiar. He simply couldn't remember where he had seen him before.
When Luther first won the Lily of the Valley Conference, he had inspired many Trainers with limited teams, and quite a few had considered him their idol.
At the same time, he was also the least visible Conference winner anyone could remember. After claiming the championship, he had completely disappeared from public view.
It wasn't surprising that people no longer recognized him.
Luther himself only remembered this problem halfway through the challenge. He was already considering buying a hat or mask afterward to reduce the chance of being recognized.
The sixth Pokémon, Grumpig, had just set up Reflect to reduce the physical damage from Azumarill's attacks before beginning its own stalling strategy.
Instead, the round blue Pokémon remained where she was, opened her mouth slightly, and unleashed Blizzard.
Grumpig was knocked out on the spot.
The official had already predicted the outcome, but seeing twenty seconds still left on the clock stunned him nonetheless.
What kind of monster had just joined the Bounty Association?
He glanced at the butler, who was staring fixedly at Luther and clearly had nothing left to say.
The official cleared his throat.
"Challenger Old Fruit Farmer has completed the mission within the designated time limit. He is therefore entitled to the full bounty."
Author's Note: I'll be out this afternoon and don't know when I'll return tonight, so I'm updating early.
(End of Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395