Chapter 732: A Bunch of Idiots

The Swamp King reappeared.

The situation hadn't improved much since it left the field.

Although the Chinchou had been hit by the Rocket Head Hammer, its sufficiently fluffy and slippery fur absorbed much of the impact, leaving damage negligible.

"Ji nuo!"

It disdainfully shook off tiny grains of sand from its snow-white fur.

Faced with such a crisis, Lady Ayana, who had previously seemed impatient, suddenly took a deep breath, her tense body relaxing as she stared intently at her opponent's Pokémon—this made Baimu smile.

Hard to beat.

But if we stay calm, we can win!

"Seed Machine Gun!"

"Mud Bomb!"

Both sides gave their orders in sequence.

Chinchou puffed out its cheeks and spat out a torrent of emerald-green energy bullets like a machine gun; the Swamp King retaliated by violently spewing clumps of brown-black mud.

But their numbers differed greatly, and the Swamp King's mud clumps scattered chaotically, unlike Chinchou's Seed Machine Gun, which fired straight, continuous, unbroken streams like a green beam—

Chinchou had clearly trained hard in this area.

Yet Lady Ayana's goal was never to have the Swamp King and Chinchou exchange moves head-on.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Mud clumps that met the emerald energy bullets exploded, spraying countless mud splatters; some of the following bullets veered off course due to the collisions.

The explosions generated small puffs of smoke.

Meanwhile, one mud clump exploded near Chinchou, sending mud splashes onto its fur, causing the fastidious little creature to briefly lose focus.

"Circle around from the left!"

Lady Ayana's voice was soft, but clear enough for the Swamp King, familiar with her, to hear.

Due to this momentary distraction, Chinchou's subsequent energy bullets failed to pierce through the smoke in time; the delayed shots all landed in empty air—the Swamp King's figure had vanished.

"Gone!?"

Marlin and Chinchou's hearts tightened, but fortunately, the opponent was large—moments later, they spotted the Swamp King, crouched low like a slithering snake, charging forward through the faint, drifting smoke on the left.

Leveraging the rain-soaked ground, it surged forward at a speed far exceeding that of bipedal running.

Chinchou quickly turned around, but had only fired three pathetic shots before running out of ammunition; in its panting breath, the distance between the two Pokémon was closed to within five meters!

The crowd erupted in shock—Chinchou's "firepower" was indeed not dense, but had it really been breached so easily by the Swamp King without the latter expending any stamina?

"Use Grass Knot to trap it!"

Marlin gave the order hastily, and Lady Ayana's voice rang out at the same moment.

"Muddy Flow!"

"Nong wo!"

The Swamp King let out a muffled roar, and around it, a shallow-brown murky tide surged into existence; the water-type energy, active under the rain, churned violently, forming a mudslide-like wave rushing toward Chinchou!

Splash!

The sound of rolling waves was clearly audible.

At the same instant, countless tough blades of grass burst from the ground beneath the Swamp King, writhing like living things to coil around its lower body and restrict its movement; even its sluggish senses could not ignore the grass-type energy's painful vibration.

Lady Ayana pretended not to hear, her lips curling slightly.

Because her opponent, in desperation, had made a foolish move.

Marlin, realizing too late that the command was wrong, screamed: "Chinchou, use Protect immediately!"

"Ji—"

Chinchou stared in utter terror at the approaching mud wave; the stench of mud nearly made it faint. It could tolerate minor dirt from move explosions, cleaning it off after the battle.

Mud flow? No!

The thought of its beautiful fur being soaked in filthy mud drove Chinchou nearly mad.

It frantically retreated backward, but like a beachgoer facing a tsunami, no matter how hard it ran, it was futile—it could not escape the wave's grasp.

Splash!

"Chinchou!"

Marlin's fingers tightened around the Poké Ball until her knuckles turned white, helplessly watching the mud wave swallow Chinchou, its small gray-white body rolling in the sludge.

Several seconds passed before Chinchou barely managed to stand up.

The oil coating every strand of its fur had been completely scraped away by sand and mud; its once-plush fur was now shriveled and filthy, the little rodent frozen in place.

"Come back—"

"Water Tail!"

Lady Ayana would not miss such a golden opportunity—just as Marlin's Poké Ball shot out a red beam, the Swamp King, freed from the Grass Knot, swung its massive body around.

"Nong wo!"

A blue-green stream wrapped around its thick tail, instantly expanding and elongating into a water column as thick as a barrel, slamming violently into Chinchou!

Boom!

Water exploded outward; the pale red recovery beam was blocked, and Marlin's face turned grim.

A tremendous advantage had been reversed in such a short time.

This person…

Were those reckless commands earlier meant to deliberately lull her into complacency?

Marlin bit her lower lip lightly.

Outside the arena, the crowd roared with excitement—teenagers from Silicon Beryllium City refused to believe even Marlin had fallen on the defensive.

"Lady Ayana, the big sister, is so strong!"

"Truly worthy of being the youngest executive of the Quicksand Team! Ah, the boss seems to be even…"

"Seeing Lady Ayana as strong as ever puts my mind at ease."

Otsuka and the others chatted happily.

Silver Horse and the other Arena trainers also broke into applause, overcome with emotion.

In Iron Town, Lady Ayana's name was known to everyone; as the acting president of the Rainbow Team, she had always been the object of secret envy for many Arena trainers, since the Arena had once been the most glorious organization.

Who could have imagined she would give up that position just to learn battle knowledge from All Baimu? This left many people wondering what on earth she was after.

Even though no one had figured out the answer yet, it didn't prevent them from having a clear understanding of Lady Ayana's strength.

Over the past week, she had taken part in plenty of battles; aside from Silver Ape, the only one in the Arena who could trade blows with her was Kendal, and even if anyone else won, it was luck upon luck.

"Not bad."

All Baimu smiled. "This makes things easier now."

An excellent trainer grows not only in daily training but also quietly and steadily strengthens through real combat.

And going from panic and nervousness to composure only takes a few short minutes.

Of course.

This battle is far from over.

"Nicely done, Swampert."

Lady Ayana praised the Swampert that had returned to her side, looked across at Maren recalling her Chinchou, and felt not a shred of guilt over bullying a cute Pokémon—only the thrill of defeating her opponent through the Pokémon knowledge she had learned.

That's right.

The mud clump that landed beside the Chinchou was exactly where she had deliberately signaled Swampert to spray it.

She had noticed that under the rain, the oil on the Chinchou's surface had been slightly dissolved, so that after being knocked away by the Zen Headbutt, grains of coarse sand had clung to its fur.

So she hinted to Swampert to control the direction of the Mud Shot, creating grime to give her side an opening.

She hadn't expected it to go so smoothly.

Lady Ayana couldn't help recalling what All Baimu had once told her—"Every Pokémon has a weakness; some are obvious, some not. If you make good use of their weaknesses, you can achieve final victory."

She now felt this deeply.

Continue!

She watched with anticipation as Maren sent out her second Pokémon, a Gothorita that looked like a girl in a gothic-style long dress.

The moment it appeared, a dark shadow flew out from beneath Swampert to its own feet.

"Muddy Water!"

Lady Ayana, who had just given the command, froze slightly at the sight; over the past week she had frantically crammed in knowledge of the vast majority of Pokémon, yet gaps still remained.

This manifestation… Shadow Tag?

Gothorita was undoubtedly another Pokémon Maren had held back that morning, filling Lady Ayana's heart with wariness.

"Noruu!"

Swampert raised both hands high.

Boom!

A turbid mud tide rolled toward Gothorita; the latter's expression remained composed as blue light lit up her eyes, and an invisible psychic force, like a wall, held the mud tide at bay.

Not only that.

Accompanying Gothorita's low cry, the psychic force surged forward like a warship breaking the waves, splitting the mud tide in two wherever it passed.

"Dodge it!" Lady Ayana's command had just left her mouth when Swampert on the other side was sent flying by a direct hit.

Bang!

The massive blue body flew backward several meters, landing heavily on its backside.

Fortunately it was thick-skinned and tough enough; this Psybeam hadn't done it much harm, and it shook its head and got back on its feet.

"Noruu…"

Impressive psychic power.

Even though Lady Ayana's Swampert had only average Special Attack, the rain-boosted Muddy Water wasn't so easy to break through.

All Baimu watched with keen interest as Lady Ayana worked out a counter.

Down below.

"Noruu?"

Swampert scratched its head in confusion, using Amnesia to raise its Special Defense; as the orange-red glow lit up, its attention was drawn by the Gothorita opposite.

Gothorita smiled mysteriously, an eerie black light surfacing in her eyes.

In an instant.

Swampert seemed to be infected; black qi rose in its pea-sized eyes, and anger surfaced on its honest face: "Noruu!"

A textbook Taunt status.

The status move restriction was quite severe for Swampert—at the very least, having 【Recover】 sealed directly cost it an important source of staying power.

Maren had most likely taken this into account when choosing Gothorita: Shadow Tag plus Taunt, followed by an endless stream of Psychic-type moves, gave her a great chance of pinning Swampert down.

It all came down to whether Lady Ayana could keep Swampert standing until Taunt wore off.

"Earthquake!"

Swampert slammed its fists into the ground; the flat, rain-soaked battlefield gave a thunderous rumble, sinking as if to make one feel a touch of weightlessness.

Immediately after, the earth-yellow shockwave spread out in all directions; everything visible trembled violently, and web-like cracks radiated outward from beneath Swampert's feet.

Gravel flew, raindrops scattered—such terrifying destructive force!

Yet Gothorita's expression remained unchanged; a delicate hand lifted slightly to prop up a blue spherical barrier of light, her seemingly frail body standing immovable, and neither the sharp gravel nor the earth-yellow shockwave could shake the barrier's existence.

It stared ahead and clearly saw Swampert burst through the swirling dust, rapidly closing the distance toward it.

Clearly, Swampert had treated the earthquake as cover for its offensive.

As the saying goes, a Saint Seiya will never be defeated by the same move twice, and Marin would absolutely never let Lady Ayana have her way again.

"Charm!"

"Aqua Tail!"

Gothitelle showed a pitiful expression at the spinning Swampert, and once the water current wrapped around the latter's tail, a pale blue glow also lit up on its body.

The originally bucket-thick water column instantly shrank to only a bowl-mouth's width.

Smack!

Gothitelle, having taken a water-whip strike, flew sideways an extremely long distance; when it landed, its whole body was stained with quite a bit of muddy water. It staggered to its feet, painfully clutching the struck area.

【Charm】 greatly lowered Swampert's physical Aqua Tail, yet it still had this much power — if one took a full-frontal original version head-on, just imagine?

Gothitelle didn't dare be careless, and with trembling fingers pointed at the pursuing Swampert.

Driven by invisible psychic force, countless trembling deep-purple energy orbs materialized in the air, transforming into streaks of light-arrows that shot toward Swampert.

Lady Ayana was about to have Swampert — which had previously used Amnesia to raise its Special Defense — tank it head-on, when she suddenly noticed something off about the move's manifestation: "Muddy Water, roll it up!"

A step too late.

The muddy water had barely begun to rise before the light-arrows formed by psychic force had already pierced through its body from every direction.

Swampert froze in place.

Boom!

Smoke billowed.

"What was that move?"

"Dummy! It's Psychic! Sure, it's a special move, but it tests the Pokémon's physical defense — see those light-arrows? They have form and substance!"

A noisy clamor rose behind All Baimu, but he paid it no mind, wholly focused on watching the battle below.

The rain had stopped.

The situation gradually began to develop in a direction unfavorable to Lady Ayana.

The Taunt status hadn't ended yet.

"Grrroar!"

Swampert bellowed as it charged out of the smoke, naturally abandoning its attack on Gothitelle — it had to hold out until the Taunt effect wore off.

Marin naturally wasn't willing to give up the excellent opportunity right within reach.

"Telekinesis!"

Blue light enveloped Swampert's body, forcing it off the ground to float in midair.

All Baimu knew this move better than anyone — Blissey had used it to defeat countless strong foes. Marin actually hadn't used this move to lock down Swampert right away.

Out of caution?

He looked toward Lady Ayana.

Shadow Tag limited switching, the rain had ended early, the Taunt status hadn't worn off yet, and physical attack had suffered a massive drop — could she turn this situation around?

—The answer was no.

Even if All Baimu took over, this massive disadvantage couldn't necessarily be reversed; without Swampert pulling off something miraculous, it could only struggle a little.

Muddy water churned like a tide, but before it could spread, the Swampert controlling it was first pierced through by Psychic's light-spears.

Boom!

The thunderous roar of the energy explosion rang on without end.

When the smoke cleared, Swampert's fallen form was clearly visible — it had plainly failed to withstand the relentless onslaught of psychic force.

"Mm…"

The Iron Town group was momentarily speechless, while the Rustboro City side cheered and jumped for joy.

One to one — a comeback secured!

All Baimu, however, had no particular reaction. Swampert had been countered by Gothitelle in nearly every aspect — it couldn't fight, couldn't flee — what else could it do?

【Taunt】 and 【Shadow Tag】 were two hurdles Lady Ayana needed to break through.

Currently Gothitelle's condition wasn't full, so brute-force defeating it might be a decent choice — Gothitelle wasn't exactly a Pokémon with exceptionally high defenses either.

So did Lady Ayana have a corresponding high-firepower offensive Pokémon on her team?

The answer was no.

However.

She still had other Pokémon more suitable to send out.

Bang!

Bai Guang flickered.

A Slowbro, ten times more dim-witted than Swampert, made its entrance. It looked at Gothitelle, which was clutching its abdomen, with a foolish glint in its eyes.

"Yadon~"

【Oblivious】 ability — it won't fall into infatuation or Taunt status, and is immune to the effects of the Intimidate ability.

"Ha."

All Baimu laughed. Lady Ayana really did have a special fondness for dim-witted Pokémon — just like the Battle Frontier's Pipe Queen Azalea liked Pokémon with slit eyes.