"Crobat, huh? That's going to be difficult."
Grey rubbed his chin and estimated how much stamina Heracross had left.
If Crobat landed a few attacks, Heracross would probably go down.
Grey would deliberately leave a few openings and see whether Gladion could capitalize on them.
After all, as a Gym Leader, his primary responsibility was to guide challengers.
"The second battle will now begin!"
The instant Bumiao finished speaking, Gladion commanded Crobat to use Air Slash.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Blades of compressed wind tore through the air. Heracross responded with Rock Blast, sending countless stones hurtling into the sky.
The stones collided with the incoming wind blades and crushed them before continuing straight toward Crobat.
Even after having its Attack sharply lowered by Charm, Heracross's physical strength could not be underestimated.
The Air Slashes were completely overpowered by Rock Blast.
Crobat had no choice but to alternately beat its front and rear wings, hurriedly dodging the incoming stones.
While evading the attack, Crobat suddenly accelerated.
A fierce wind swept across the battlefield.
"Now, Crobat! Use Quick Attack!" Gladion shouted.
A flash of white light appeared.
Crobat abruptly vanished.
With Tailwind boosting it, Quick Attack had reached a speed comparable to Extreme Speed.
Grey merely nodded.
"Heracross, use Upper Hand."
"Upper Hand?"
Gladion clearly had no idea what move Grey had ordered Heracross to use.
Heracross entered a special stance, Fighting-type energy covering both of its eyes.
Whoosh!
Crobat suddenly charged in.
Heracross slapped it straight out of the air.
"Cro?"
Crobat froze in midair as Heracross's palm clamped down on one of its wings, preventing it from moving.
It was the Fighting-type move Upper Hand.
[Upper Hand: The user reacts to the target's movement and strikes with the heel of its palm, making the target flinch. The move fails if the target is not preparing to use a priority move.]
Crobat did not take much damage from Heracross's palm strike.
Its typing gave it considerable resistance. Heracross could hit it with several Fighting-type attacks without causing any serious harm.
However, Heracross had caught Crobat's wing.
Only one wing had been seized, but that was still enough to prevent Crobat from escaping Heracross's grasp.
Crobat had immediately been forced into a disadvantageous position.
Gladion took a deep breath.
"Crobat, use Heat Wave!"
Fortunately, Crobat could still move its other three wings.
It coated their membranes in Fire-type energy before flapping them with all its strength.
Whoosh!
A wave of scorching wind erupted.
Heracross accepted a small amount of damage, then kicked Crobat and sent it flying across the battlefield.
Crobat tumbled backward through the air and flapped its wings to regain its balance.
Heracross stomped heavily on the floor.
Countless sharp stones erupted from the ground in a continuous wave, stabbing toward Crobat in midair.
Stone Edge!
Boom!
The rising stone blades split the Heat Wave cleanly down the middle.
Heracross stood protected between the lines of stone and was not harmed by the Heat Wave at all.
"Steel Wing!"
Gladion immediately made his decision.
Facing the incoming Stone Edge, all four of Crobat's wings hardened like steel before slicing through the stone blades.
Fragments of rock scattered everywhere.
Crobat's Steel Wing cut through the rocks as easily as if they were clay, slicing the incredibly durable Stone Edge into several pieces.
Using the speed provided by Tailwind, Crobat rushed forward and slashed Heracross with all four wings.
Clang!
A violent collision echoed across the arena.
Sparks flew everywhere, but the scene Gladion had imagined, Heracross being launched backward by Crobat, never happened.
Instead, Crobat remained suspended in front of Heracross, unable to advance another inch.
"Cro..." How can it be this strong? I can't overpower it?!
Crobat could hardly believe that Heracross had blocked Steel Wing with only one arm.
Good grief. If Heracross had not been affected by Charm, how ridiculous would its strength have been?
Cold sweat poured down Crobat's body.
Tailwind still had a little time remaining, so Crobat prepared to widen the distance and finish Heracross with another attack.
That was the plan.
Reality was far less forgiving.
Heracross grabbed Crobat again.
The familiar situation repeated itself.
"What a shame," Grey sighed.
Even he had not expected Gladion to remain incapable of dealing with Heracross after its Attack had been sharply reduced.
There was nothing else Grey could do.
He ordered Heracross to use Rock Blast at point-blank range.
Countless massive stones smashed into Crobat and blasted it across the battlefield, leaving it unable to battle.
However, after Rock Blast ended, intense flames surged across Heracross's body.
Heracross dropped to one knee and lost the strength to continue fighting.
It had done everything it could.
This was one of the major drawbacks of combining Guts with a Flame Orb.
Although Guts allowed Heracross to ignore the reduction to physical Attack normally caused by a burn, it did not prevent the burn from gradually draining its stamina.
The damage still accumulated.
Consequently, most Pokémon with Guts could not remain in battle for extended periods.
Of course, Grey could have ordered Heracross to use Rest, restoring its stamina and removing the burn.
It could then continue attacking in its sleep through Sleep Talk.
However, Grey generally avoided using that strategy against Gym challengers.
If Heracross had fainted, then so be it.
Besides, Gladion was his nephew.
They had only recently become family, but Grey still wanted to avoid sweeping him three to zero.
Grey understood the importance of showing a little social tact.
Judging by Gladion's expression, however, he still was not taking the result very well.
"Crobat and Heracross are both unable to battle. Both Trainers, please send out your next Pokémon," Bumiao announced.
[That was insane! Heracross really is nothing but a stat monster!]
[Can any Pokémon actually get past that Heracross? Even Psychic types risk being destroyed by its Bug-type attacks.]
[Yes. A Fairy-type Pokémon might have a chance of taking it down.]
[Bounty offer, whoever genuinely defeats Heracross gets a Governor-tier membership from me.]
Many viewers were curious whether anyone could truly defeat Heracross while Guts was active.
It really was an easy-mode Pokémon.
Its raw stats had been pushed to the limit.
Heracross already had a base Attack stat of 125. After increasing that even further, perhaps only Legendary Pokémon could compete with it directly.
Judging by Grey's choices in this match, he probably intended to use only Pokémon with Guts.
The viewers began silently mourning for Gladion.
Of all opponents, he had been forced to battle monsters with overwhelming stats.
Still, Gladion's fighting spirit only grew stronger.
His ace was about to enter the battle.
An artificially created second-class Legendary!
As long as Grey did not send out one of those absurd first-class Legendaries, Gladion believed Silvally could at least trade one-for-one.
After all, the Aether Foundation had developed it based on the Mythical Pokémon spoken of in Sinnoh's legends.
By manually inserting different Memories, Silvally could switch between multiple types.
By a generous approximation, if someone could change Memories quickly enough, every enemy attack could be met with a resistant type.
Naturally, no ordinary person possessed that kind of speed.
Even Gladion had only managed to switch between three types consecutively during his practice battles.
Switching freely among all eighteen types was extremely difficult.
"I'll send out my Pokémon first."
Grey recalled Heracross and sent out Conkeldurr.
This Conkeldurr was a Shiny Pokémon given to him by Bruno.
Its skin was brownish, while its nose was reddish orange.
Gladion sent out a Pokémon whose appearance seemed to contain features from several different species.
It possessed a birdlike head, with structures resembling wings extending from either side of it.
Its torso looked like the body of a wild beast, while its tail resembled that of a fish.
From a distance, it appeared as though several different creatures had been combined into one.
[Is that a chimera?]
[Now that you mention it, I can see it too.]
[Where did he catch that Pokémon? It actually looks pretty cool.]
[I never expected Gladion to actually help it break free from that restraint mask. Hehehe...]
[Pokémon: Silvally]
[Type: Normal]
[Level: 66]
[Ability: RKS System]
[Moves: Multi-Attack, Parting Shot, Double-Edge, and others.]
Silvally!
It was sometimes called a miniature Arceus.
It evolved from a Pokémon known as Type: Null.
Was it powerful?
Not exceptionally.
Its base stats were even five points lower in every category than those of certain Mythical Pokémon.
Mew, for example, had a base stat of 100 in all six categories, giving it a total of 600.
Silvally possessed a base stat of 95 in every category, giving it a total of 570.
Its stat distribution formed a perfect hexagon, but none of its individual strengths truly stood out.
Grey looked at Silvally and greeted it with a smile.
Level 66 was respectable.
It was approximately equal in strength to his Conkeldurr.
The final battle officially began.
Gladion immediately launched an aggressive attack.
"Silvally, use Aerial Ace!"
The winglike structures on Silvally's head rippled with pale blue energy.
It took several swift steps, moving with incredible lightness.
In an instant, it appeared beside Conkeldurr and slashed downward.
Grey remained calm.
"Conkeldurr, use Bulk Up!"
"Conkeldurr!"
Conkeldurr's muscles tightened and expanded.
Red energy surrounded its body, raising both its Attack and Defense.
Silvally's strike only left a faint white mark across Conkeldurr's body.
The attack had been super effective, but the result was underwhelming.
"Nephew, who gave you the courage to engage a Fighting-type Pokémon in close combat?"
Grey rubbed between his eyebrows.
He could not tell whether Gladion was simply too confident.
Even after learning that all of Grey's Pokémon possessed Guts, Gladion continued choosing close-range combat.
Whether he was facing Heracross or Conkeldurr, Gladion kept sending his Pokémon into melee range whenever possible.
It was far too...
Grey sighed.
He did not want to criticize Gladion too harshly, so he politely suggested that perhaps he should stop relying on close combat.
Grey was already holding back considerably.
Unfortunately, all of his Pokémon were stat monsters that did not always understand how to restrain their strength.
If Gladion continued fighting at close range, the battle would almost certainly end within ten minutes.
That was the confidence overwhelming stats provided.
Psychic-type Pokémon had clever abilities and unusual strategies.
Fighting-type Pokémon had raw numbers.
After hearing Grey's warning, Gladion did not argue.
Instead, he took a CD-like disc from his pocket and threw it toward Silvally.
A small crystal appeared to be embedded in the disc. From its design alone, Grey recognized it as a Fairy Memory.
In other words, if Silvally successfully loaded the Fairy Memory, it would change into a Fairy type.
Would Grey allow Gladion to do that?
Obviously not.
Perhaps Gladion could have succeeded if he had tried to slip it over discreetly.
Instead, he had thrown it openly across the entire battlefield.
Did he think Grey could not understand what he was planning?
Grey nearly laughed.
His eyes locked onto the approaching Fairy Memory.
"Conkeldurr, use Smack Down!"
Smack Down could knock airborne Pokémon out of the sky.
Likewise, it could be used against other flying objects.
Hearing Grey's command, Gladion hurriedly shouted, "Silvally, catch the Memory!"
Silvally nodded.
Conkeldurr had already hurled one of its concrete pillars. The object tore through the air with a terrifying sonic boom.
Silvally pushed off the ground and sprinted toward the Fairy Memory.
At the same time, three distinct forms of elemental energy gathered around the winglike structures on its head, forming a triangle before blasting toward the concrete pillar.
Boom!
Conkeldurr's concrete pillar was blasted backward.
Silvally seized the opportunity to open the port beside its head and insert the Fairy Memory.
The livestream chat immediately lost control.
[What the hell? Why does this Pokémon have such mechanical features?]
[You can insert discs into it? Then what would happen if I inserted some of my treasured discs?]
[Hey, stop right there! Keep talking like that and this stream is going to get shut down!]
Many viewers wanted to know exactly what Gladion had just done.
Then they noticed the change in Silvally's presence.
Its previously neutral, infinitely adaptable aura had suddenly transformed into the distinctly playful energy of a Fairy-type Pokémon.
Had it just manually switched types?
That was ridiculous!
Grey did not think it was particularly remarkable.
"Conkeldurr, use Poison Jab!"
"Conkeldurr!"
Conkeldurr rushed forward with powerful strides.
Its remaining concrete pillar turned deep purple as Poison-type energy surged through it. Bubbling energy rose from its surface, giving it an unsettling appearance.
Gladion ordered Silvally to retreat while using Multi-Attack to force Conkeldurr back.
"Roaaar!"
Although Silvally continued withdrawing, its presence steadily intensified.
It maneuvered around Conkeldurr, patiently waiting for the perfect opportunity to inflict a devastating blow.