"Is that—Garchomp's brand-new Mega Evolution form?"
Only after Cynthia's Garchomp on the field one-shot its opponent with a Draco Meteor did a portion of the audience finally react...
Wait, doesn't its appearance look a bit off?
How come its hands became as big as wings, and it's actually dancing gracefully in the air?
Can your Garchomp really learn Dragon Dance???
The same confusion appeared among some of the contestants watching in the stands.
"A second Mega Evolution form—is this Cynthia's trump card?"
In the competitor's lounge, Steven narrowed his eyes, looking at the vicious-looking giant dragon that screamed "do not mess with me." He subconsciously rubbed the Key Stone in his hand.
"There's probably no doubt about it. How does Aiden always manage to get his hands on such new toys to play with—"
Wallace replied with a smile.
Unsurprisingly, this brand-new evolution form of the land shark was probably related to the new batch of Mega Stones discovered near Lumiose City recently.
Professor Sycamore, who had been jokingly dubbed online as "fleeing the country out of fear after academic fraud," seemed to have been researching them lately. And yesterday, Professor Oak and Aiden just happened to go to his lab to record a video.
Maybe Aiden came to Lumiose City a few days early specifically for this shady backroom deal!
"How about we also find some time to visit Professor Sycamore's lab?" Wallace suddenly suggested with a smile.
"Who knows, maybe our Pokémon have interesting new forms too?"
"Hmm—I guess we could."
Steven nodded after pondering for a moment.
He didn't really need it; with the bond between him and Mega Metagross, he could defeat any powerful enemy!
Even against Professor Oak, Steven was confident he wouldn't lose by too much.
However, the rules of this tournament were a bit disadvantageous for Wallace, since he rarely used Mega Evolution.
Fortunately, he had given Wallace one of the Tera Orbs he grabbed from Paldea, which might come in handy. Of course, having more options in reserve was naturally better.
"Let's do it tonight. The earlier we arrange it, the more time we have to sync up."
"But we're not very close with Professor Sycamore, so before we visit, we should probably bring a couple of crates of Moomoo Milk—"
"As expected of you."
Wallace gave a thumbs up, then stopped paying attention to him.
The camera panned back to the field.
After dealing with Scrafty, even though Garchomp looked a bit tired, the massive gap in strength allowed it to quickly deal with the Pangoro that was switched in.
It only needed Wo-Chien's "Ruination" to chip away at its HP; even though its offensive capabilities were lowered, it didn't really matter.
Their opponents were clearly completely numb.
With all the Pokémon on one side knocked out early, they had to split their attention, commanding two Pokémon simultaneously.
However, their lead Blaziken was still being hindered by Thunder Wave, and the Gallade they sent out had no ability to turn the tide.
They were even utterly grossed out.
Garchomp, who should have been recalled to rest, remained standing tall.
Logically, after firing off two Draco Meteors, its threat level should have been practically non-existent.
But once it ran out of Special moves, it could just use Physical moves~
Even with Wo-Chien's ability lowering its damage, it didn't matter at all.
Because—
You guys can't switch out anymore, right!
So eat a Leech Seed!
After Aiden's Wo-Chien fired off two consecutive Leech Seeds, targeting it further was obviously pointless.
LMAO, those Fighting-type meatheads couldn't dent Tera Poison to begin with. They could scratch away all day and still probably wouldn't out-heal the HP drained by Leech Seed.
The closer it got to the endgame, the more disgusting Grass-type Pokémon became.
Stun Spore, Leech Seed—hit them with a full rotation. If they didn't want to run away, they could even throw on an Ingrain to last even longer.
Moreover, even trying to focus down Garchomp was pointless.
Wo-Chien also knew Pollen Puff—this ghost of a move dealt damage when used on opponents, but had a healing effect when it hit a teammate.
Wo-Chien couldn't be phased, and Garchomp had an "infinite health pack" providing ridiculous sustain.
If it also had Synthesis, it would have been an absolute kill screen.
And so, after suffering continuous torture from Aiden and Cynthia, the two contestants could only watch in despair as Blaziken and Gallade fell one after the other.
The score was still 4:0, but the match duration was significantly longer than other matches.
Of course, anyone who watched the battle knew exactly why—
"Say, do you think Teacher Azure is being serious?"
After a moment of silence, Blue suddenly turned his head to look at Red and asked.
Red also pondered deeply for a moment before nodding seriously.
"The process was indeed a bit weird, but there's no doubt that Teacher Azure was incredibly serious with his tactical setup."
If he were standing across from Teacher Azure, he could probably rely on Charizard to forcefully eliminate Wo-Chien, the chief culprit that caused the situation to collapse.
But then the question arose—
Didn't Teacher Azure send it out precisely because he knew his opponents couldn't deal with it, allowing him to confidently use it as support for Garchomp?
If it were a match against himself, Teacher Azure might have pulled out even more terrifying "trump cards."
And judging from how the opponents were completely helpless and could only be led by the nose, Teacher Azure's tactical setup was undeniably a massive success.
It's just that visually it felt a bit—
Red didn't know how to put it, so Blue spoke his mind for him.
"As expected of Teacher Azure, even when he gets serious, his plays are still so toxic!"
"I wonder if there will be even more outrageous plays later on."
"After all, from what we've seen so far, Teacher Azure and Champion—Cynthia are still hiding a lot of things."
Red paused halfway through his sentence.
"True." Blue nodded in agreement.
"Teacher Azure's ace Pokémon haven't even made an appearance yet!"
"And that brand-new Mega Garchomp form is obviously the ultimate trump card they prepared for this tournament!"
Red didn't speak up or make any reaction.
Theoretically, Blue's thinking was naturally correct.
Mega Evolution was an absolute buff, no matter how you looked at it, and that Garchomp's pressure from continuous onslaughts was indeed very strong.
But Red's sharp intuition faintly felt that something was off.
If it was truly their ace, was there a need to expose it so early?
Today's opponents were clearly not on Teacher Azure and Cynthia's level. Even if they had used the Spiritomb from before, they still would have won, at most it would have just been a bit more troublesome.
So, could this actually be a smokescreen?
Red subconsciously furrowed his brows, but quickly relaxed them.
No, he was probably just overthinking it.
Using a Mega Evolution as a smokescreen was way too extravagant, wasn't it?
After all, that was Champion Cynthia's ace. Teacher Azure and Cynthia must have been extremely confident in it, which was why they revealed it without trying to hide it, right!
In reality, Red's intuition was truly terrifying.
"Phew, what a refreshing battle!"
After walking into the competitor tunnel, Aiden, feeling revitalized by the victory, stretched and his tone became noticeably lighter.
"But for our opponents, it was probably a very painful torture session, right?"
Cynthia, walking shoulder-to-shoulder with him, smiled elegantly.
"Before we left the field, the audience's cheers were mixed with a lot of comments about you using dirty tactics again, and specifically picking a fan to torture, you know?"
"You get used to it."
Aiden looked completely unfazed, even smiling wider.
"I realized a long time ago that my viewers are a bunch of tsunderes. Deep down, they're dying for me to use these kinds of tactics, they just won't admit it out loud!"
"Once they actually learn it, they use it plenty in their ranked matches. They play it even dirtier than me, and then when they're done, they still say it's my fault for polluting the battle environment—"
Aiden shook his head, suddenly realizing a blind spot in Cynthia's earlier words.
"Wait a minute? Were the guys on the other side also my fans?"
"They probably were—"
"But whether they still are after today's match is hard to say~"
Cynthia smiled as she made a little joke.
"It's fine, my fans are just like me, their mental resilience is pretty good."
"It's just losing a single match. The road ahead for a trainer is still long. Who can guarantee they'll be undefeated forever, right?"
Aiden waved his hand and shifted the topic back to Cynthia.
"By the way, that brand-new Mega form of Garchomp just now should have scared quite a few people, right?"
"Like Caitlin?"
Cynthia blinked, seemingly very interested in this topic.
"Yeah." Aiden nodded.
"She's probably already racking her brain right now on how to counter it tomorrow."
"And it's not just her. I bet all our upcoming opponents will have to prepare for the land shark's Mega Evolution."
Although Aiden wasn't actually entirely satisfied with the results it just produced.
After all, if Garchomp hadn't Mega Evolved, it could have relied on its teammate's Dragon Cheer to boost Draco Meteor.
However, a regular Garchomp's Draco Meteor just wouldn't be as intimidating, so it had its pros and cons.
It was just a spur-of-the-moment idea; he was already very satisfied that it worked.
He hadn't expected that a brand-new Mega form that was supposed to gradually appear five years later would actually be discovered by Professor Sycamore at this time—
Was this the so-called "pressure makes diamonds"?
Aiden couldn't help but recall the rumors he'd heard recently.
The rumors about this professor's "academic misconduct" had been escalating lately, to the point where he even had to hold a press conference to clarify things.
As for fleeing the country out of fear of punishment, that was naturally pure fiction.
But it seemed that precisely because of these rumors, the professor had proactively announced some evolution forms that were still in the research phase, indirectly benefiting Aiden's side?
"I don't think anyone could have guessed that the tactic we just used was actually only finalized last night."
As she spoke, Cynthia looked a bit helpless.
Under normal circumstances, a "flash of inspiration" like suddenly changing tactics right before a match would usually end up being a massive flop.
Moreover, she didn't know much about Garchomp's brand-new Mega form either.
She really didn't know how Aiden could be so certain it would perform well and put immense pressure on Caitlin.
"This is the true essence of tactical mind games!"
Aiden said, pretending to be profound.
"If even I don't know what tactic I'm going to use tomorrow, how can my opponents possibly guess it~"
"Giving up on the mind game is the best mind game!"
That was a total lie!
In reality, it was only because he happened to know some information about Pokémon Z-A, allowing him to alter the timeline and use content that wouldn't be officially revealed until the future.
In fact, he didn't even have much of an impression of Mega Garchomp Z's ability.
But of course, he couldn't say that out loud~
"You—"
Cynthia poked Aiden's cheek, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
"What if someone overhears and actually believes you? Your real goal here is completely to mess with other people's judgments, isn't it?"
"Especially Caitlin. I can already imagine it—"
"After she spends all night studying Garchomp and the two Treasures of Ruin, when she comes out tomorrow full of confidence, only to suddenly see that our lead Pokémon are completely different—"
Cynthia sighed as she finished speaking.
After all, by tomorrow, not only would Aiden use another Treasure of Ruin with even more targeted matchups, but she would also send out Togekiss, which could synergize perfectly with it.
Caitlin was probably going to bust her ass all night for nothing, and all her prep choices would likely be useless.
"Her expression at that time will definitely be hilarious, right?"
Aiden suddenly chimed in, locking eyes with Cynthia.
"—You're right."
Cynthia shifted her gaze away, feeling a little guilty.
Even though she didn't want to admit it, but—
Occasionally seeing Caitlin eat dirt and make a very cute frustrated expression actually felt pretty nice?
But if she said those thoughts out loud, would Aiden think she had a twisted sense of humor?
Aiden wasn't thinking that much, though.
He just felt that since Caitlin had already acted so cocky earlier, it was perfectly reasonable for his side to take things a bit seriously~
Pokémon battles are cruel; only the victorious side gets to smile.
So, to protect Cynthia's smile, he had to win!
As for Caitlin, their rival and frenemy—
Who's that? Don't know her.
After the second round of eliminations concluded, the collaborative upload from Aiden and Professor Oak dropped right on schedule once again.
This time, the video continued the style of the previous one. With a "live demonstration" combined with Professor Oak's professional yet humorous commentary, it allowed the audience to easily understand this Legendary Pokémon named "Wo-Chien."
Coupled with the actual match footage added at the end, Wo-Chien's ability and tactical applications weren't hard to understand.
Even viewers who didn't have the qualifications to participate in the tournament could roughly grasp Aiden's tactical setup.
[I see, no wonder Teacher Azure used such toxic tactics. Turns out the Pokémon itself is just that scummy—!]
[Those are actually pretty standard Grass-type moves, but who would have thought a Legendary Pokémon would also use these kinds of degenerate strats—]
[How can a Pokémon be this evil? The Blaziken Protection Association strongly condemns this!]
[Is there a possibility that Pokémon themselves aren't inherently good or bad, and it entirely depends on what the trainer is thinking? (Smirk)]
[So two of the Four Treasures of Ruin have been revealed now. Don't tell me the remaining two are going to be even dirtier!]
Right before the start of the third round, on their way to the battlefield, Aiden was scrolling through his video and happened to see the last bullet comment.
He immediately broke into a smile—
The first two are just for fun. When it comes to actual DPS, you gotta look at Chien-Pao and Chi-Yu!
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