Chapter 736: The Talent-Only Doctrine

【Trick Exchange】.

A super ability attribute-change move, a god-tier skill that, when timed correctly, can directly decide the direction of the match.

If the 【Huge Power】 Ability gets swapped away, Mega Mawile's offensive power would surely take a major hit—Marin's play was perfectly in line with battle logic.

But how could Baimu possibly let her have her way?

A qualified trainer must avoid any move that benefits the opponent's comeback—strategically despise the opponent, tactically take the opponent seriously.

Unless taking the hit head-on can buy a chance to end it in one blow.

"Protect."

As the invisible psychic force spread outward, a spherical shield of light materialized before Mega Mawile.

The 【Protect】 he'd recently learned might struggle to block burst damage from opponents of the same level, but it was more than enough to ward off a status move.

Hum!

As the air trembled violently, the light shield flickered.

"Mafoo…"

The blue light in Delphox's eyes rapidly dimmed.

Marin bit her lip tightly. The situation was actually still within her predictions—if Mega Mawile knew Protect, she'd use Trick to cancel it out, then switch to—

"Will-O-Wisp!"

Fwoooosh~!

Countless deep-purple ghostly flames ignited out of thin air. Delphox swayed its branch wand, about to drive them toward Mega Mawile, only to see the opponent suddenly conjure countless shadow duplicates.

"Mafoo!" it cried out in alarm.

What to do?

Will-O-Wisp only has nine flames, but Mega Mawile's duplicates plus its real body number over twenty!

"Spread them to the ones at the very front!" Marin knew she had no time to hesitate—Baimu wouldn't give her that much time to find where the real body was. She could only randomly pick nine and gamble.

Unfortunately.

The young lady's luck was poor.

Nine ghostly flames burned through nine duplicates, while the remaining duplicates scattered early, charging at Delphox from every direction!

Marin struggled to stay calm: "Use Flame vortex beneath your feet—"

"Sucker Punch!"

The instant Delphox lowered its branch wand, the Mega Mawiles transformed into a wisp of black light too fast for the naked eye to catch!

First to strike, last to land—

【Sucker Punch】!

The flames had just surged from the tip of the branch when Delphox's long ears were seized by Mega Mawile, and it was slammed viciously into the ground!

Thud!

The earth trembled, cracks spreading in clusters!

The uncontrolled Flame vortex surged forward, swallowing several of Mega Mawile's duplicates and radiating billowing waves of heat.

But almost no one paid attention to where the Flame vortex went—everyone's gaze was fixed on the fox's head buried completely in the ground, Delphox looking like an overturned scallion planted head-first.

"How miserable…"

"One hit again, the floor's been punched into a hole."

"Is Delphox okay? It must be seriously hurt now!"

"Weren't you paying attention when Empoleon crashed into the ceiling earlier? About the same!"

The trainers on both sides whispered to each other, their gazes toward Mega Mawile barely concealing their longing.

The visual impact of pure violence is no less than the violent explosions caused by moves clashing—and for many people, the imagery of close combat is even more spectacular.

This is also why, aside from battle tournaments, there's another kind of Fighting-type-exclusive Fighting Pokémon P1 Grand Prix that remains popular.

On the field.

"…"

Marin stared at Delphox, its head buried in the ground and not moving at all, speechless for a long while.

She knew she couldn't blame anyone else.

Mawile knowing 【Sucker Punch】 wasn't some closely guarded secret. Using Flame vortex to create a fire wall to block the duplicates' advance might be the optimal solution for someone else's Pokémon, but for Mawile it was practically offering itself up for a beating.

She recalled Delphox, hesitating over whether to send out her third Pokémon.

Her entire strategy had been thrown into disarray.

The perfect flow was supposed to be: Lilligant buffs her own speed, debuffs the opponent's speed and attack, Delphox uses Trick, then inflicts a status condition on the opponent. After completing this whole sequence, hand it off to the last Pokémon.

Whether stalling for time or counterattacking, with more chips on the table an opportunity would surely come.

Baimu is a person, not a machine—he makes mistakes sometimes.

But the result…

Only the tailwind took effect; everything else failed. Even though it possessed the power to one-shot Lilligant and Delphox, Mega Mawile still fought with extreme caution.

So cautious it frightened her.

Marin really wanted to ask—was it really necessary?

"Go."

She sent out her final Pokémon. Though she no longer held much hope, she at least wanted to fight to the end.

After all, even Jin Ge hadn't conceded—she definitely had to fight to the end.

Poof!

A flash of white light.

"Thli!"

Young Lady landed, a shadow spreading from beneath Super Big Mouth's feet.

The 【Step Shadow】 trait is always so silent.

This time, Super Big Mouth no longer waited for Malin to strike first—it stepped forward directly toward Young Lady.

"Hypnosis!"

If Super Big Mouth could be hypnotized, there might still be a chance!

Malin still clung to a sliver of hope.

"Thli!"

Young Lady's eyes glowed blue as she released a pink-purple hypnosis wave toward the charging Super Big Mouth.

But Super Big Mouth precisely judged the distance of the hypnosis wave—twisting its body, tapping its toe on the ground, and instantly veering off!

Pah!

Sand and gravel sprayed!

Malin saw a shadow flash before her eyes—and immediately lost sight of Super Big Mouth.

Fortunately, Young Lady's motion vision was still decent; she turned her gaze leftward along the opponent's path and adjusted the direction of her hypnosis wave accordingly.

Too bad.

At that moment, Super Big Mouth had already completed its second turn, its entire body wrapped in silver light, like a firework slicing across the sky!

"Kichdo!!"

The brilliant silver light expanded infinitely in Young Lady's vision—

Bang!

Gray-white smoke mixed with silver light exploded; a black shadow shot backward like an arrow loosed from a bow, crashing through a bench at the arena's edge and embedding half its body into the wall before stopping.

Both sides' trainers were numb; after training Pokémon for so long, this was the first time they'd seen a Pokémon used as a demolition tool against its own opponent.

Is this reasonable?

Many on Silver Horse's side turned to Kendall, who raised his hands in a helpless, wry smile of surrender.

After watching Baimu and Jin Ge's battle, and Malin's, they now realized how much Baimu had held back against Kendall… he might as well have held back an entire ocean!

Who could possibly win?

How did he train his Pokémon?

Logically, the trainers of Huang Tie Arena had always known Baimu was strong—but just how strong? What kind of strength could defeat a Four Heavenly Kings trainer? They'd never had a concrete sense of it.

Today, they finally understood.

Could even Elder Ejin at his peak dare provoke such power?

If there were a few more Pokémon like Super Big Mouth, wiping out any faction in old Huang Tie Town would be effortless—could that famed battle mountain, Batrass, truly defeat Baimu?

Many eyes brimmed with awe; their gaze at Baimu no longer looked like they were looking at a person.

In the arena.

Super Big Mouth turned its head to glance at its trainer, then de-evolved back to its normal form.

"Kichdo…"

It exhaled a puff of stale air.

Since its fierce battle with Shi Yuan Zhi's Flygon, it had realized its shortcomings and quietly begun to train hard until today. Though its energy level hadn't changed much, it had learned many small techniques to enhance its punch power.

For example, releasing force first through the legs to achieve instant acceleration, then concentrating all power into a single point for full release.

Its trainer had told it that even if it practiced nothing else, mastering the 【Strong Arm】 trait alone would bring boundless benefits—and Super Big Mouth deeply agreed.

But today's opponent… no, recent opponents have all been too weak.

Super Big Mouth sighed inwardly; the quality of its opponents was so poor that its real-battle growth had slowed far behind before.

It knew another battle was coming next—but that guy was merely a slightly stronger weakling, no different from the two it just fought.

Hmm.

At least, it thought the difference was negligible.

Super Big Mouth wanted another fight with Flygon—or even against Furong's Pokémon, if it came again; judging by its aura, it shouldn't be weak.

"Well done."

Baimu praised aloud; in response, Super Big Mouth turned its head away haughtily, then bit down on his palm with its massive jaws.

Too many people around—head couldn't be petted.

On the other side.

Malin quietly arrived at Young Lady's location, recalled it with a Poké Ball, and wiped away tears from the corner of her eye without drawing attention.

To be honest.

She had tried hard to adjust her mindset, but seeing her Pokémon defeated so easily still flooded her heart with overwhelming disappointment.

She knew Baimu was strong.

Not to mention defeating Shi Yuan Zhi, the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings—just winning the League Championship was beyond her reach; the difference between semifinals and champion seemed like only two rounds, yet in reality, it was a chasm!

Only after leaving Oure Region did she realize how vast the world was—what did it matter that she ranked first in her training center? When she first arrived at Blueberry Academy, any random passerby was stronger than her.

She had struggled through countless hardships, studied tirelessly to improve herself and her Pokémon, constantly challenged League Society members to climb her school ranking, and ultimately reached only the semifinals.

But Baimu.

He'd only had his Pokémon for a year and change!

He had no Blueberry Academy platform, no similar family background or starting point—they said when he arrived in Hoenn, he couldn't even afford a million!

All her years of effort, all the support from her family, had been so easily defeated by a poor boy who'd traveled through Hoenn, challenging Gyms, barely older than her.

She couldn't even achieve the tiny, insignificant dream of defeating just one of his Pokémon.

How could Malin accept this?

She couldn't understand All Baimu's strength—one Pokémon being strong could be explained by good talent, but what explained all of them being strong?

Talent?

How could there be such talent! It's too unfair!

The more Malin thought about it, the sadder she got, nearly forgetting the post-battle handshake etiquette, until she noticed All Baimu approaching with Mawile and snapped back to her senses.

"Thank you very much for the match!"

She bent at the waist in a bow, not wanting the other party to see her reddened eyes.

All Baimu was startled by Malin's sudden grand bow and replied: "It hardly counts as teaching me anything—just a very ordinary battle. You and your Pokémon both performed wonderfully."

"Really?"

Hearing this, Malin couldn't help straightening up, even forgetting why she had bowed in the first place, and asked: "You really think I and my Pokémon performed well? Even though we couldn't take a single attack move from Mawile?"

All Baimu glanced at her expression and smiled: "Of course. You and your Pokémon both stood to the end, and you never stopped using moves. If that doesn't deserve praise, what does?"

"But anyone could do that!"

"No. You think anyone could do it because everyone around you is an excellent Trainer like that. Maintaining fighting spirit at all times and battling shoulder-to-shoulder with your Pokémon until the very last moment—you think it's simple, but for many people it's extremely difficult."

All Baimu turned sideways to look at the Trainers from Iron Town in the distant spectator stands.

Malin followed his gaze, then quickly looked away, pressing her lips together. After a few seconds she suddenly said: "It's too unfair."

"Unfair? What's unfair?"

All Baimu had just been about to leave, but hearing this he immediately stopped.

Malin said to him with infinite grievance: "It's just the gap in talent that makes our strength differ so much. I clearly started getting into Pokémon when I was six…"

"Miss, with one word—talent—you've just wiped away all the effort my Pokémon and I have put in." All Baimu said, at a loss.

Although he admittedly had a cheat, his battle techniques, battle experience, and combat awareness were all things he had cultivated slowly himself.

In order to accurately judge what moves an opponent's Pokémon was using, when did he not spend every spare moment reading books and watching videos—and now it was all being chalked up to talent in one sentence?

Fine.

If you absolutely had to say so, being able to learn it did count as a kind of talent.

Still, why did these kids keep shouting "talent, talent" one after another?

"……"

Malin also realized she had been a bit rash. Her lips moved a few times, and finally she gathered her courage to ask: "Is a person… without talent, unsuited to becoming a Trainer?"

Though she said "person," she was really referring to herself.

After so many years of effort, after enjoying so many resources, this was the result in the end—she couldn't help doubting her own ability a little.

"Why would you think you have no talent?" All Baimu, however, found it very strange and asked bluntly: "Losing a battle to me means no talent? That's not quite right, is it?"

When she battled Lady Ayana earlier, hadn't this person shown a rather proud personality?

And after fighting him, her mindset just collapsed?

Jin Ge, who was even younger, hadn't fallen this far!

Malin's neck turned red. Feeling extremely embarrassed, she continued: "From the past until now, the resources I've had access to might be a hundred times yours, and the time I've spent raising Pokémon is several times yours as well, but—"

"No, no, no, you've got it wrong. The time I've spent raising Pokémon is short, sure, but how are the resources a hundred times? Are you talking about the daily food for Pokémon? Move learning? Relaxation? The knowledge you can access? Or having a teacher to guide you?"

All Baimu waved his hand and said: "Let me put it this way for you. Not only can I cook food that's greatly beneficial to Pokémon, I also know very professional massage techniques. The knowledge I can access is definitely no less than yours, because I often ask various Pokémon Professors questions, or spend money to buy professional materials.

"As for teacher guidance, that's even more interesting. You may not be clear on this, but my teachers are very, very many—each one taught me something extremely important. The former Pewter City Gym Leader Brock, the Contest idol Miss Liuqi, the masters Mi Ke Li and Adam, and Elite Four Shi Yuan Zhi have all taught me.

"Don't rashly assume I'm far behind you in resource investment, and don't put too much pressure on yourself either. You're only in your teens, right? Kanto Elite Four Agatha is almost retirement age and still active on the battlefield! You still have a huge, huge amount of room to grow!"

Talent?

He had more than just talent! He had the rest too!

It was just that All Baimu found it hard to accept that Malin, whose life had clearly only just begun, already looked as if her Trainer career had reached its end.

Old man Shi Yuan Zhi at his age has been losing to Champion Dawu and Mi Ke Li in recent years, yet he isn't this pessimistic; Guzma has basically never beaten Champion Dan Di, and he still thinks every day about winning back.

The days ahead are still long!

Having said that.

All Baimu sighed about the youngsters of today—morals truly declining with each generation—as he strode away.

The scolded Malin stood there blank-faced, unable to recover for a long time.