Infernape was currently battling Piloswine, and after hearing Axel's words he immediately nodded.
Dodging a Mud-Slap from Piloswine, he took the opportunity to stand between Axel and Piloswine, waiting for orders.
He knew very clearly that Axel was someone who could be trusted.
Otherwise, Flint would absolutely not have entrusted him to Axel.
"Start with Mach Punch to test the waters."
Axel was extremely calm and immediately opened Infernape's panel, his gaze sweeping over Infernape's move list.
Infernape's move learning wasn't comprehensive, most were physical attacks.
Obviously, Flint had trained Infernape as a pure physical attacker.
What made it even more outrageous was that this guy was also holding a Life Orb. Clearly prepared to fight as though he didn't care about dying.
But that was just like Flint. After all, even if Infernape went down, he still had a chance to rouse Infernape and let it keep fighting.
Axel gently shook his head and quickly finalized the battle plan.
"Infernape, use Switcheroo!"
Hearing Axel's command, Infernape froze hard.
'Switcheroo?'
That move switches the held items of both sides.
'It's already tricky enough, but without the Life Orb how am I supposed to fight?'
"It's fine. Switch!"
Hearing Axel's command again, Infernape no longer hesitated and directly swapped the held items of both sides.
Immediately after receiving the Life Orb, Piloswine felt a powerful surge of energy rise from within.
As though both Special Attack and Attack had been powered up.
[A/N: In the game, the Life Orb does not boost Attack and SpA separately, it simply increases move power. Please don't overthink, dear readers.]
Seeing Piloswine's change, Pryce also froze.
Normally this move is used so that Poison-type Pokémon swap out a Toxic Orb.
But swapping a Life Orb… this was his first time seeing it.
'Bro, are you actually helping the enemy?'
'Don't tell me your conscience woke up?'
'No, no, even if Giovanni became a good guy, Axel definitely would not!'
The next moment, Axel's command made Pryce instantly understand everything.
"Infernape, use Punishment, burn this heretic to death!"
"What the— AXEL YOU BASTARD!"
"Piloswine, dodge this attack right now!"
It was Pryce's first time encountering someone who actually handed his own Pokémon a Life Orb, but the surge of power he just felt from Piloswine was definitely not an illusion.
He understood the nature of Punishment.
It inflicts a burn on Pokémon that had received a stat boost in a short period.
He didn't know whether the Life Orb's power-up counted for Punishment's condition, but he knew exactly what kind of person Axel was.
In any case, dodging was the correct move.
Axel grinned broadly, laughing.
He actually didn't know whether the Life Orb's power-up counted in the judgment for Punishment, so he was expecting the opponent to dodge it.
"Now, use Will-O-Wisp!"
"Roo!"
Infernape let out a low growl, and a Will-O-Wisp shot toward Piloswine.
Having just used a big movement to dodge Infernape's previous attack, there was no room left to dodge.
The Will-O-Wisp hit, and the opponent was inflicted with burn.
A flame flashed across Piloswine's body, and the power he had just gained disappeared by half.
The burn status reduces the damage of physical moves by half and also continuously drains HP from the Pokémon.
On top of the Life Orb's recoil…
Pryce really wanted to curse someone.
But Gardevoir, Gyarados, and Dragonair didn't give him a chance to curse.
A torrent of moves howled toward him, and after a roll to dodge them, Pryce could only place his command focus on Gastly and the others.
"Piloswine, throw away the Life Orb and then fight!"
Hearing Pryce's command, Piloswine's eyes lit up.
'Right!'
'If the opponent gave me a held item, I can just throw it away!'
'Let's see how you fight then.'
Without hesitation, Piloswine threw away the item. The Life Orb fell to the ground with a "snap".
The smile at the corner of Infernape's mouth froze, and he looked at Axel in confusion.
'This isn't going well!'
Axel sighed and couldn't help shaking his head.
'As expected of a Pokémon trained by Flint, all brawn and no brain.'
If it were his Pokémon, they would have picked up the Life Orb and thrown it right back already.
"Pick the Orb back up and toss it back using Fling!"
Infernape's eyes lit up, and he tingled as if he were getting smarter.
Without hesitation, he dashed to the Life Orb, grabbed it, and threw it back at Piloswine.
Pryce instantly felt numb.
"Axel, damn it, that's a Fire-type Pokémon, not a Dark-type!"
Axel replied righteously, "I am an important ally of the Plasma Team, of course I should use the Plasma Team's combat style. If you're not convinced, why don't you go and demolish the headquarters of our Plasma Team."
"Screw your sister!", Pryce was so infuriated by Axel that he started cursing, breathing heavily as he glared at the Plasma Team grunts on the field, wishing he could revive them just to kill them again.
If the Plasma Team hadn't suddenly shown up, he'd still be at home lying down sculpting ice statues. How would he have run into such a disgusting thing?
———
Under Axel's Orb-throwing strategy, the situation between Piloswine and Infernape instantly reversed.
Originally very high-leveled and trained by Pryce to the point of being able to confront deities, Piloswine was now beaten into complete chaos under two status effects from Infernape.
An occasional Special Attack move wasn't able to deal lethal damage due to type resistance.
Instead, Infernape's Fire- and Fighting-type attacks constantly dealt massive damage to Piloswine.
Even more fatal was that, due to base stat limitations, Piloswine's HP wasn't great.
After only a few minutes, Piloswine was already on the verge of collapse.
Meanwhile, Delibird and Mewtwo were still evenly matched.
Pryce had completely lost any chance of turning the tables.
After another roll to dodge Gardevoir's icy spear, Pryce's anger reached its limit.
How long had it been since they'd last seen each other?
And he was already being crushed by Axel.
Although Infernape was partly responsible, this was still completely unreasonable.
The more Pryce thought about it, the angrier he became, and he put all the blame on the fact that Glastrier had been snatched away.
"Damn it, if you hadn't intercepted my Glastrier, I would've crushed you today!"
Axel blinked, "Intercept? What are you talking about?"
"That was the King of the Plasma Team sparring with my Pokémon. Glastrier just happened to pass by and was convinced by my ideals. In other words, Glastrier belongs to me. If you don't believe it, go to Blueberry Academy and ask anyone."
With a cracking sound, Pryce clenched his fist and completely lost the will to fight.
'The Plasma Team. Again the Plasma Team!'
Pryce glared fiercely at Axel, and thick white mist filled the area.
When the mist dispersed, Pryce and his group had already vanished.
Only the Life Orb lying on the ground remained, and an ice puppet still speaking, "Axel, your Rocket Team's cooperation with the Plasma Team will absolutely never succeed."
"I will definitely kill them!"
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