However, reality quickly proved one thing to Cynthia—
Small probability events are called small probability events precisely because their likelihood of occurring is indeed extremely low.
Take the Tangled Feet ability's trigger rate—it's only 25%. And this time, the Linoone that had fallen into a confused state wasn't affected by the confusion at all. A golden light flashed over its head, and deep purple radiant energy immediately lit up on both its claws as it leaped up toward the airborne Rotom, slashing down from left and right.
[Linoone used Shadow Claw!]
[It's super effective!]
As a Ghost-type move, Shadow Claw was effective against the Ghost-type Pokémon Rotom. Combined with Linoone's Attack boost from Belly Drum, with Rotom's remaining HP, there was naturally no possibility of withstanding this attack.
As Shadow Claw hit, Rotom let out a wail, its pitiful cry echoing through the air.
"Boss!! Leave the rest to them, roto!"
Before Rotom could finish speaking, its HP bar was completely depleted, and it just straight-up died (not really).
As it transformed into a red light and returned to its Poké Ball, Cynthia glanced down at the ball.
"You did great, Rotom."
"Now then..."
"It's your turn, Pelipper!"
A new Poké Ball was thrown, red light flashed, and Pelipper's form appeared on the battlefield, flapping its wings and soaring proudly opposite the Linoone.
It too sensed the powerful aura emanating from Linoone's body, but at this moment, with its trainer right behind it, Pelipper showed not even the slightest hint of retreat.
Each Pokémon in Cynthia's team had its own unique personality, and this Pelipper's personality was—as long as it fought alongside Cynthia, it would show no fear in battle!
At this moment, as Cynthia input her command, a new turn began. This time, Lady Luck was on Cynthia's side. Golden light flashed above Linoone's head, its body began to sway unsteadily, and the confusion effect was successfully triggered.
A notification popped up accordingly.
[Linoone used Quick Attack.]
[Linoone is confused!]
[In its confusion, Linoone attacked itself!]
With a solid thud, all of Linoone's attack power was instead directed at its own body. Its previously healthy HP bar instantly depleted at light speed under this self-inflicted damage, causing it to lose its ability to battle.
[Linoone fainted!]
Under normal circumstances, in such a situation, Pelipper's attack would be considered a miss.
But at this moment, when Pelipper's turn came, it didn't launch an attack. Instead, it flapped its wings, suddenly whipping up a strong current on the field that blew wildly toward the opposite side of the battlefield!
[Pelipper used Tailwind. A tailwind blew up on the field, and all ally Pokémon's Speed was boosted.]
Yes, that's right. The command Cynthia had input at the beginning of the turn wasn't an attack.
Because using an offensive move during Pelipper's turn would have been meaningless. If confusion hadn't triggered successfully, Linoone's attack would have instantly KO'd Pelipper.
Conversely, if the confusion took effect, Linoone would knock itself out entirely.
In this situation, attacking was pointless—better to use this turn for a support move instead.
As it turned out, Cynthia had bet correctly. Now that Linoone was down, with both Tailwind and Rain Dance active, the scales of victory had clearly tilted in Cynthia's favor.
With just one Rotom, she had taken down two of Norman's Pokémon and secured the double advantage of Tailwind plus Rain Dance. Whether it was Sceptile, Bewear, or Ludicolo coming up next, they would all have absolute priority in speed.
Of course, this was assuming Norman's next Pokémon didn't master a priority move like "Quick Attack" like that Linoone had...
As Cynthia pondered, Norman's figure appeared across from her again. He looked up at Cynthia deeply and spoke.
"My daughter, I didn't expect your growth rate to be faster than I imagined."
"But just this won't be enough to defeat me!"
"Let me see how you'll handle this massive challenge!"
He suddenly threw his Poké Ball. Red light flashed, and a massive Pokémon suddenly appeared on the field.
[Norman sent out "Slaking" (Lv. 45)!]
Yes, what appeared on the field was indeed a somewhat humanoid Pokémon that also resembled an ape.
It was covered in brownish fur all over its body. Although it had a large build, upon closer inspection, it seemed quite pudgy—you couldn't really call it muscular.
It was lying flat on the ground with a big belly, looking just like a slacking middle-aged guy...
The sudden appearance of such a Pokémon caused the live stream chat to explode with mocking comments.
[How does Norman have a Slaking? Is he really going easy this time?]
[Holy crap, Slaking's here? I almost forgot this Pokémon was Normal-type too.]
[Hahaha LOL, look at that pose—it's like it doesn't want to work and got dragged out of bed. I feel like it's going to run right back into its Poké Ball any second.]
[I really can't figure this out. Slaking can't possibly have some trick up its sleeve, right...]
At this moment, facing Norman's Pokémon, the chat was uniformly showing contempt and ridicule.
And this wasn't without reason. After all, it's common knowledge that Slaking, unlike its previous evolution, Vigoroth, has the complete opposite personality—it's naturally lazy, so lazy that even its trainer can't command it normally. It's even too lazy to move its feet to eat, requiring its trainer to hand-feed it.
According to scientific research, this seems to be a unique trait of Slaking. Some researchers have speculated that its body secretes a special chemical substance that involuntarily puts it into this lazy state, but ultimately, the scientific community hasn't discovered or confirmed the real reason behind this.
Such Pokémon are naturally unwelcome in the trainer community. A Pokémon too lazy to even eat—training and battling are completely out of the question.
Even on the battlefield, Slaking might just lie down and start sleeping once it's sent out, leading to an automatic forfeit for the trainer...
This has left trainers who were initially attracted by Slaking's robust appearance or drawn by its pre-evolution Vigoroth's speed and power feeling extremely frustrated, ultimately forced to abandon raising Slaking... and chalk it up to bad luck.
At this moment, looking at Slaking, Cynthia couldn't help but furrow her brow slightly.
Although past experience told her that in any Gym battle, any Pokémon sent out by a Gym Leader shouldn't be underestimated—there might be some unique moves or strategies hidden behind them.
But looking at this Slaking in front of her, she really couldn't get nervous about it...
She had never even seen anyone use this kind of Pokémon in the Elite Four and Champion circles...
Just like those live stream comments said, this guy was just too lazy—even the training abilities of Elite Four and Champion-level trainers couldn't overcome their nature.
From what she remembered, several Normal-type specialist Elite Four trainers had once tried to intensify training while their Pokémon were still in the Vigoroth stage, attempting to suppress the lazy nature after evolution, but they all failed without exception.
Eventually, everyone reached the same conclusion—if you really must catch a Slakoth, you might as well give it an Everstone while it's still a Vigoroth to prevent further evolution.
This way, while you'd lose some evolutionary bonuses, at least compared to Slaking, you'd have a higher ceiling for future development...
At this moment, Cynthia pulled back her thoughts. She still felt that Norman's Slaking shouldn't be as simple as it appeared.
Maybe in the game, Slaking doesn't have the laziness problem?
But... given this game's previous performance, that didn't seem right...
While Cynthia was thinking, the game notification was already flashing red before her, telling her this turn was about to end.
She could only put aside her thoughts and focus her attention back on this battle.
But soon she was in a dilemma again, because she really didn't know much about this kind of Pokémon.
But at least Slaking probably wasn't known for its special bulk, right?
With this thought, she stopped hesitating and finally selected Water Pulse.
This move was currently boosted by the rainy weather, and since no other moves were super effective against the Normal-type Slaking, this was definitely the best choice.
Although Pelipper's base Speed wasn't particularly fast, with Tailwind's boost, it naturally gained the right to move first.
Violent water currents began gathering in front of its beak, forming a powerful water ring that shot out suddenly!
Water Pulse accurately hit the opposing Slaking. However, with Pelipper's powerful Special Attack, plus the rainy weather boost, this move only dealt less than one-third of Slaking's HP!
Cynthia couldn't help but furrow her brow slightly. She seemed to be gradually realizing the seriousness of the problem.
—That damage seems a bit off, doesn't it?
But just as she was lost in thought, the Slaking lying on the ground with a lazy expression suddenly stirred. Its slothful demeanor vanished in an instant, and a sharp light flared in its eyes!
It suddenly stood up, pushed off with its feet, and transformed into a burning golden meteor charging straight at Pelipper, like a cannonball slamming into it!
Under this attack, even the entire battle interface shook violently!
[Slaking used Giga Impact!]
The next moment, Pelipper trembled, its HP bar crashed down, instantly reaching zero with no warning!
[Pelipper fainted!]
This entire process didn't even take 5 seconds, so much so that Cynthia hadn't even snapped back to reality. When the interface asking her to switch Pokémon appeared before her, she suddenly realized this was all real.
—Pelipper was just one-shotted like that??
In previous Gym battles, Gym Leaders would always use various combinations of moves, abilities, and items to show her new tactics and strategies, thereby crushing her team. Cynthia was used to this.
But what was this situation?
No type advantage.
No fancy moves or items with abilities...
No relay cooperation between Pokémon...
Slaking just appeared, used one move, and Pelipper was gone?
You have to know, in this game, Pelipper wasn't some fragile Pokémon!
While its HP stat wasn't particularly high, its physical Defense was definitely solid!
Why did it just get one-shotted like that?
???
Meanwhile, in the live stream chat, after a moment of silence, it naturally exploded again.
Half the comments were just question marks filling the screen.
[?]
[???]
[??]
The other half were comments from people who still retained some rationality.
[Wait... what?]
[Giga Impact... this move does have pretty high power, but that damage seems way off, right?]
[Is Slaking really this strong? Whoever was mocking my boy Slaking earlier, step forward!]
[Sorry, King. I spoke too loudly just now. I'll take that back.]
[You kids don't understand raw power! The power of pure stats!]
[This doesn't seem right. Is Slaking the author's favorite child? Or did Slaking actually make this game?]
As the chat went crazy, Cynthia's brow was deeply furrowed.
From her understanding of this game, the developers would never make a Pokémon this powerful without reason.
If it possessed such power, it could only prove one thing—
In the real world, Slaking truly does have this potential; people just haven't developed it yet!
Although Cynthia found this hard to believe, she had to accept this reality.
But then again, just from a game balance perspective...
Such ridiculous bulk combined with this terrifying offense didn't seem like a Pokémon that would exist in the real world—this was probably unreasonable, right?
Also, she knew about that Giga Impact move it had just used.
Among all Normal-type moves, it was one of the most powerful, with terrifying power and impressive destructive force.
But this move had a limitation and drawback—once used, the Pokémon would enter a quite long period of recharge time, becoming a sitting duck, completely unable to act.
Just as she was thinking and reluctantly choosing to switch in Ludicolo, a notification popped up before her.
[Slaking's Truant ability activated. It's loafing around!]
[Slaking's next turn will be skipped!]
Truant ability?
Seeing this notification, Cynthia was stunned for a moment, then immediately realized something.
Could it be...
The next moment, a new notification lit up before her like a brilliant flash, suddenly exploding and illuminating all her previous confusion!
—[Due to the move Slaking used last turn, it will be unable to act next turn!]
I see!!
At this moment, Cynthia completely and thoroughly understood.
Slaking's lazy nature wasn't due to some chemical substance in its body or those weird reasons the scientific community speculated about, but simply because its ability was like this!
This also perfectly explained why it wasn't lazy during its Vigoroth stage—because at that time, before evolution, its ability hadn't changed yet!
Back in the game, while Slaking's stats were powerful, it had the drawback of having to skip a turn of action after every turn it attacked.
In a sense, this was quite a significant weakness.
If the first turn's attack didn't have much effect, then facing some fast Pokémon, the opponent would have two consecutive turns to act.
Such opportunities were completely sufficient for offensive Pokémon to set up, thereby posing a huge threat to one's entire remaining team.
However, Norman's Slaking had thought of a way to perfectly avoid this—the move "Giga Impact"!
Since Slaking had to skip a turn after every attack anyway... Giga Impact's side effect was essentially nullified!
Conversely, with Giga Impact's incredible power combined with Slaking's extremely high Attack stat, it created the terrifying damage just witnessed. Even Pelipper's bulk couldn't withstand this move while at full HP and without type disadvantage...
At this moment, Cynthia couldn't help but marvel once again at how exquisitely these characters in this game had configured and designed their Pokémon.
No, to be precise—
That game author called "Wind" had an incredibly deep understanding of these Pokémon!
In her admiration, Cynthia hadn't forgotten she was still in the middle of a battle.
Her gaze immediately sharpened.
Powerful bulk and resistances, terrifying offensive threat—this Slaking had to be handled carefully and cautiously.
The good news was that Pelipper had sacrificed itself to set up Tailwind and Rain Dance while also taking away one-third of Slaking's HP.
Her remaining three Pokémon, if handled carefully, should have a chance to drain all of this guy's HP.
But just as she was thinking, a familiar glow suddenly lit up on Slaking!
[Slaking's Leftovers activated!]
[Its HP was restored!]
As blue light shone, Slaking's already fairly healthy HP directly increased by a small amount, returning to the "extremely healthy" green zone!!
Cynthia's expression instantly changed.
Again??
—Just how much do you people love feeding your Pokémon leftovers?!
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones