"Oh? He actually discovered it~"
When seeing Red's trainer image on the screen make a raising hand motion, Aiden immediately realized his thoughts and revealed a knowing smile.
That's right, the pattern just now was indeed a trap question he had carefully prepared.
Under normal circumstances, the vast majority of people would default to Azumarill's ability being Huge Power. Plus, he had just used the classic Belly Drum + Sitrus Berry combination, further strengthening this mental imprint.
Belly Drum Huge Power Azumarill—once it takes shape, it becomes an existence that destroys heaven and earth, nicknamed the Dragon Slayer, one-shotting Dragon-type kids left and right.
This was also recorded in the previous Ice-type Masters Tournament, being the surprise move of Gym Leader Candice from Snowpoint Gym.
So students who didn't have comprehensive knowledge of Pokémon and gave up calm thinking would definitely mistakenly believe he was planning to use Azumarill to sweep the team, and must immediately target it.
But Red was different—he almost immediately realized something was wrong—
Azumarill's speed couldn't possibly be faster than Charizard, so it was very likely to be instantly KO'd by Charizard's Solar Beam.
And with just one more step of thinking, he would realize Aiden's trap.
Besides the Huge Power ability, Azumarill's ability list also had the weird existence of Sap Sipper. Grass-type moves wouldn't cause it any damage, but instead let it absorb this energy and turn it to its own use.
Thus, Red made the choice to switch out Charizard Y.
When the situation was still unclear, rotating could indeed give him certain initiative, and at least preserve Charizard Y's stamina.
However—
"Even if you switch, it's useless—this is an open conspiracy!"
Aiden smiled slightly, then calmly spoke.
"Mabosstiff, use Jaw Lock on the Pokémon that just rotated in."
"Azumarill, use Superpower on Snorlax."
After both sides quickly made their commands, the field situation immediately changed.
First, Red decisively raised his hand, withdrawing his ace Charizard Y from the field, and commanding Snorlax to make a Body Slam motion.
Originally when Gengar was on the field, rotating was a very difficult thing for him.
However, when Gengar was forced to retreat, the shadow surrounding the entire field and locking every Pokémon's shadow also disappeared along with it, allowing him to freely rotate Charizard Y off the field.
But immediately after, Aiden's two Pokémon acted in succession, arriving at the opponent's half before the Poké Ball's red light could flash.
After switching out Charizard Y, Red chose to send Venusaur as a switch-in defender, seemingly certain that Aiden would use the window period after Solar Beam's burst to focus fire and eliminate it, thus using Venusaur's type and bulk to avoid as much as possible.
However——he was a bit too 'decisive'.
Azumarill's target from start to finish wasn't Charizard Y, but that Snorlax sitting on the ground looking very imposing.
Even without Huge Power ability strengthening Azumarill's attack power, its strength after Belly Drum was still extremely exaggerated, even able to easily lift the half-ton Snorlax.
And as a water rabbit Pokémon very good at punching, with abundant martial skills, it naturally could also learn some Fighting-type finishing moves, extremely countering Normal-type Snorlax.
For example——
Superpower with a power of 120!
After an extremely decisive punch was thrown out, Snorlax instantly let out a mournful cry and immediately kept falling backward.
Even with its ridiculous durability, when facing Belly Drum Azumarill, the situation was somewhat disadvantageous.
Because Snorlax's solid HP bar was currently dropping at a very rapid speed, falling directly to the bottom.
As its stamina bar emptied, Snorlax slid to the ground with a thud, unable to rise again.
As for the other side's situation, it didn't seem much better either—
The Mabosstiff that should have been unremarkable, even somewhat unfamiliar to Red, seized the opening when Venusaur had just rotated in and hadn't prepared for battle, zero-frame startup, directly biting onto the flower pillar blooming on its back.
Venusaur immediately let out a cry of alarm, subconsciously wanting to shake off the opponent, but after trying to shake its body, realized it seemed completely meaningless.
After succeeding with one move, Mabosstiff seemed to be locked together with it, completely hanging onto Venusaur's body.
Venusaur's stamina also emptied almost instantly like Snorlax just now, but the good news was that at least it still had a sliver of HP left and didn't immediately fall.
On the other side of the screen, Red's expression instantly became extremely terrified.
What happened?
He could understand Snorlax being knocked down by Azumarill—after all, it was indeed his decision being slightly too aggressive, wanting to use Body Slam to lower HP while gambling on a paralysis effect to completely cripple this big guy after Belly Drum.
But what did that Mabosstiff do——
Not only was Red dumbfounded, but even the audience in Aiden's livestream room also widened their eyes, not knowing what happened.
[What's going on, Azumarill instantly KO'ing Snorlax I can accept, but Mabosstiff's combat power shouldn't be this strong, otherwise it wouldn't be that no one developed its tactics——]
[I know this! Teacher Azure's Mabosstiff should have the Stakeout ability, dealing boosted damage when attacking Pokémon that just rotated in!]
[Even with Stakeout, it still feels ridiculous——wait, could Teacher Azure's one be holding Choice Band to boost power?]
[I calculated with a calculator—if it's Choice Band then it makes sense. Such scary power could theoretically instantly KO it without problem, and Teacher Azure's luck was even slightly bad——]
No matter what Aiden just did, at least the result was already certain—the moment Red rotated Charizard Y off the field, his team immediately suffered heavy damage.
Not only was Snorlax, his strongest shield, directly elbowed away by Azumarill, but even the just-entered Venusaur almost instantly had its HP emptied, leaving only a small amount of stamina like a flickering candle in the wind.
"Now you know why I brought Mabosstiff, right?"
Aiden smiled and spoke, taking advantage of Red thinking about which Pokémon to switch in to replace Snorlax, casually explaining a few of his thoughts.
"Teacher Azure also said before—the core of this Shadow Tag Perish Song system has only one 'mon, and that's Mega Gengar."
"After Gengar sings Perish Song, the mental pressure it causes opponents is hard to estimate. Plus, Shadow Tag prevents the opponent from freely rotating, forcing them to try aggressive attacks."
"But actually, there's one situation that can solve this dilemma, and that's moves that actively replace types."
After Aiden finished speaking, he supplemented with a few examples.
"For example, Baton Pass, or functional moves like Parting Shot and U-turn, can all ignore Shadow Tag's effect and force a retreat."
"So if the opponent's thinking is clear enough, they'll understand that attacking isn't the best way to deal with Perish Song—"
"After all, once you seize the opportunity to sing Perish Song, Gengar and its teammates can completely rely on Protect and Substitute to repeatedly stall for time, until the opponent can't sustain it and falls first, then withdraw them at the time limit."
"The real offensive opportunities often only come once or twice. Trying to instantly KO Gengar is extremely difficult."
"So rotating is more reliable."
"And the situation just now was similar—even precisely because Gengar wasn't on the field, opponents without rotation pressure have no psychological burden and could decisively make rotations."
Aiden smiled, then pointed at this Mabosstiff.
"At this time, Mabosstiff plays its role."
"The Stakeout ability lets it deal massive damage to Pokémon that just rotated in, while the Jaw Lock move's effect can also replace Gengar to a certain extent, causing a similar Shadow Tag effect."
"A Pokémon that enters with low HP, with no chance to escape—what awaits it is naturally~"
"Azumarill, Aqua Jet!"
"Mabosstiff, continue using Jaw Lock on the next Pokémon!"
At this step, Aiden had completely completed a special infinite loop playstyle. Red's mistake just now made Snorlax instantly fall, while Venusaur was also ground to only a sliver of stamina by Mabosstiff's attack.
And the Pokémon Red just sent in would again be forcibly kept on the field by Mabosstiff's Jaw Lock.
Although in some chats' view, using Water-type Aqua Jet to attack Venusaur was somewhat abstract, they had to admit that after Belly Drum, Azumarill's priority attack was absolutely sufficient to harvest low HP opponents.
At this point, the art was complete.
The two Pokémon on the opponent's half would never be able to act simultaneously again. Aiden had forcibly created a 2v1 numerical advantage in a fair doubles battle——
[Teacher Azure's move is too ruthless, bro I'm you for begging for the psychological safety of the opponent stream friend!]
[Teacher Azure: Even an honors student can't solve my question—now you know what it means to treat everyone equally!]
[The commonly seen Mabosstiff in Paldea can actually be this amazing? In this world, there's probably no Pokémon Teacher Azure isn't familiar with——]
[I understand the reasoning, but——didn't Teacher Azure forget that today's tactical theme should be Shadow Tag Perish Song?]
[Shadow Tag refers to Mabosstiff locking the opponent's throat, not letting them leave the field. Perish Song refers to Azumarill one-shotting each one, using physical means to lull the opponent to sleep—what's the problem?]
[You're a fkn genius lmfao]
Red immediately realized the current situation, so he had to temporarily defend, while commanding Venusaur and the switched-in Charizard to use Protect, temporarily withstanding this round of offense.
But for the situation, double Protect stalling for time actually didn't serve any purpose at all—it just gave him a bit more thinking time.
As for the solution?
The situation was actually already a dead end.
Venusaur indeed had certain threat capability against Azumarill, but it would definitely be killed by Azumarill's Aqua Jet before it could act.
Facing Charizard Y, he couldn't use Solar Beam. Although it was possible to forcibly trade to eliminate this troublesome Azumarill, it would also be worn down considerably by Mabosstiff.
After Venusaur fell, Mabosstiff could again cause massive pressure to the next Pokémon entering—it just needed to wear down its stamina as much as possible, paving the way for the upcoming 3v2.
And when Charizard eliminated Azumarill with great effort——
What awaited it would be a Mega Gengar with healthy stamina, faster speed than itself, and able to use Perish Song to completely lock down victory.
No matter what, he already had no chance of winning on this side.
"..."
At this moment, Red sitting before the screen not only wasn't frustrated, but instead revealed an extremely pleasant smile.
Indeed, the sense of oppression Teacher Azure brought was something other Gym Leaders simply couldn't compare to!
The Gym Leaders he had challenged in Kanto before, although most could be seen to have learned from Teacher Azure's understanding, were still far from the real thing compared to the original.
So, was the shortcut to becoming stronger to repeatedly challenge Teacher Azure?
Red couldn't help but think, while suddenly feeling somewhat envious of those students born in the Paldea region.
They could repeatedly visit Teacher Azure's door to challenge every week—truly too happy. Each person must be able to get maximum growth, right?
If only he could also go challenge Teacher Azure in person once——
Red sighed, then suddenly remembered what Aiden had said when the stream started today.
Speaking of which, didn't Teacher Azure say he was going to serve as temporary Elite Four at the Victory Road over there in two days?
The timing seemed to completely clash with Kanto's side—unfortunately, he had no badges from Paldea at all, so he probably didn't have the qualification to participate——
But thinking of the opportunity to battle against "Elite Four" Teacher Azure who was using part of his strength, Red felt that if he missed this opportunity, it would be very regrettable for him.
How about, after this battle ends, going to ask Teacher Azure?
Red had an idea in his heart, then once again immersed himself in the online battle on the screen.
Even though defeat was already certain, he would absolutely not give up—he had to fight until the last second!
Three minutes later, the match unsurprisingly concluded.
From when Snorlax fell, the scales of victory had already completely tilted toward Aiden's side.
During the garbage time, even though Red used all his tricks, using his strongest Pikachu and Charizard to use their full power to eliminate that Azumarill, it was still to no avail—
When Aiden's Gengar entered, the Charizard Y that had been fiercely attacked by Mabosstiff and wasn't healthy fell first, then Pikachu also fell under the combined attacks of the two Pokémon.
At this point, Aiden easily won this not-too-difficult match, with the score settling at 4:1.
[Stop bombing, stop bombing—the stream friend is going to get psychological trauma from Teacher Azure!]
[Wait, Teacher Azure's ranked tier has already been promoted to Master Ball——but for Teacher Azure, it really seems no different from a newbie match?]
[To be honest, Teacher Azure's tactics are still too demanding on mechanics. Are there any more ordinary tactics suitable for us bronzies?]
[This is the tactic before the final exam. If it's too simple, I'd really suspect Teacher Azure is going all out—that would be even more terrifying!]
Regarding the students' discussions, Aiden didn't really mind.
However, just as he was about to speak a few words, he suddenly noticed his phone vibrating.
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