Chapter 435: The Gym Leader Is Cheating!?

Peng Peng Peng!!

Thick smoke billowed amid the flickering of flames and lightning.

Skarmory, like a spinning umbrella of fire, scattered the Lickitung charging straight at it with lightning in their hands one by one. It was hard to imagine that a steel giant bird could spin so nimbly on a single claw, and push the strike-type move Brave Bird to such an extreme.

The spectators inside and outside the arena held their breath, watching the scene in rapt attention.

"Skree!"

Skarmory's hoarse cries echoed across the field along with the whoosh of its spinning, accompanied by the patter of light rain.

"Lickitung…"

The real Lickitung stood at the side. Seeing it couldn't break through the burning spiral, and that under gravity it was hard to leap on top to land a punch, it could only retreat first.

The remaining illusory figures vanished one after another as they charged in.

By normal logic, a field under heavy gravity should restrict movement itself, not just jumps and flight.

Judging by the situation, rather than gravity, "anti-air" might fit better.

As Lickitung retreated, Skarmory, which had been spinning for who knows how many cycles, also came to a stop. Slightly winded, rain fell on its body and sent up visible white steam.

"It blocked it?"

"It really blocked it!"

"Young Lady Naqi really is amazing! When I saw those Lickitung charging in, I thought Skarmory was going to follow Wingull's footsteps!"

The TV station staff buzzed with discussion, and the director quietly let out a breath of relief.

Although this battle wouldn't have many of its scenes included in the broadcast, as a live audience member he still didn't want the Gym battle to end so easily—even if All Baimu's Pokémon really did look very strong.

He understood that a large part of this situation was due to the move Gravity: the inability to fly was too targeted at Flying-type Pokémon, and too targeted at Naqi, whose specialty was reading the wind.

"Sweet Scent!"

At the command, Lickitung thrust its massive jaws forward, and pink mist rapidly sprayed out from within, quickly spreading toward Skarmory's position.

In the anime, this move's most obvious effect was to dull the opponent's reactions—perfect for dealing with the quick-witted Skarmory.

Naqi dared not be careless either, shouting quickly: "Whirlwind!"

"Skree!"

Skarmory, with the pink mist rushing at its face, forced itself to stand firm. Its hook-like talons sank deep into the ground, and its massive steel wings unfurled like a flower in bloom. The crimson feathers gleamed coldly like swords, and as it beat them with all its might, a visible hurricane swept forward!

In an instant.

The pink mist, which had been slowly spreading through the air, was scattered. The gale swept the mist and rain together, blowing toward the Lickitung dodging to the side.

Woooooo—

The wind howled like wailing ghosts, a blood-chilling moan.

"Lickitung!"

Lickitung violently swung its massive jaws, adjusting its stance to hold them in front of its body like a giant wall to keep itself from being blown away—but Skarmory's Whirlwind was fiercer than it had imagined.

Its legs gradually left the ground.

All Baimu frowned deeply. "Baton Pass!"

"Lickitung…"

The Lickitung resisting the gale forced out one finger. A flash of Bai Guang lit up at the tip, then enveloped its whole body, sending it flying back into the Poké Ball All Baimu held out.

Another prepared Poké Ball opened in response.

Whirlwind's forced switch and Baton Pass's voluntary one are different: the former will randomly open one of the Poké Balls on All Baimu, while the latter lets him choose. The difference between the two is really quite large.

Bang!

Bai Guang flickered.

A shiny Milotic landed, its massive body splattered with plenty of muddy water from the ground.

But that didn't stop it from radiating that breathtaking beauty.

Under the dim light, its resplendent golden scales shone in a riot of colors. The water-blue hair-like fins seemed to be coated with a thin layer of glitter, and when the surrounding light hit them, they sparkled like a sky full of stars.

Naqi and Skarmory both froze for a moment.

The cameras, which had been pointed at various parts of the field, all swiveled to focus on Milotic at once. The staff stopped their chatter and even held their breath; the only sound left in the arena was the faint patter of falling rain.

But the rain was letting up.

The dark clouds had already begun to disperse when Wingull lost its ability to battle. After some time brewing, they had now completely cleared.

Bright sunlight returned to the earth.

For Naqi, this was neither good nor bad.

Although without the rain Skarmory had "gained" a weakness, and judging wind direction wasn't as convenient anymore, it also meant Gravity might be ending too.

She wouldn't assume Gravity was a move that could last particularly long.

She had to keep stalling for time!

"Air Cutter!"

"Skree!"

Skarmory cried hoarsely, its crimson steel wings beating and sending translucent blades of air flying out one after another, tearing through the air with terrifying shrieks.

"Ice Beam at the ground!"

"Milo!"

Milotic took a deep breath, completely ignoring the incoming wind blades. An icy-blue orb of light gathered in its mouth, and jagged lightning shot out, landing on the ground. The rain-soaked mud began to freeze!

Crack crack crack crack—

In an instant, frost covered the entire battlefield, even freezing Skarmory's claws in place.

At the same time, the wind blades arrived.

Peng Peng Peng!

Clumps of white smoke burst across Milotic's body, and the pain of slashes and typed energy exploding made it let out a low cry, but that did not stop it from using ice and snow to cover the field.

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"Charge in! Awaken!"

Baimu's voice made Milotic force itself to endure the pain from the Air Slash, its long thick tail twisting sharply, surging forward like a great dragon at tremendous speed toward the Skarmory struggling to pull its claws free from the ice.

Naqi's expression shifted rapidly. "Use Metal Sound to suppress it!"

"Ee-ah!"

The Skarmory, which had only just pulled one claw free, hurriedly opened its beak, and a fan-shaped wave of pale-blue low-frequency sound spread forward, shooting straight at the onrushing Milotic.

But the latter's figure was like a phantom; facing the pale-blue sound wave, it dropped straight to the lowest point, instantly dodging the sweeping Metal Sound, and arrived within a few meters of the Skarmory.

Countless points of light gathered around its body, then condensed into flickering orbs of electricity that hovered around it.

"Milo!"

Milotic let out a sharp cry, and the electric orbs spiraled forward like they were being fired!

The Skarmory, with half a claw still stuck in the ice, couldn't dodge, and was struck again and again by the electric orbs; its steel-like body convulsed wildly.

Naqi clenched both fists and shouted, "Use Steel Wing to smash the ground and channel the current into it!"

"Ee-ah—"

The Skarmory endured the agony of paralysis, its left wing gleaming with a metallic sheen as it slammed the ground. As the ice surface cracked, its expression unexpectedly softened at once, as if the current from Awaken had stopped working.

Gasps of astonishment rose from all around.

When had they ever seen such a wild play, let alone one pulled off for real!

Shota and Sega, on the other hand, looked utterly unfazed—clearly they were used to scenes like this. Channeling current into the ground was nothing more than basic technique to them—

This is even possible?!

Baimu's brow furrowed deeply, and he suddenly recalled that this was Naqi's signature move: using her wing to pretend to be a "ground wire" to channel the current, drastically reducing the damage she took.

Ash's Pikachu had once nearly fallen to this deadly technique; in the end it had only managed a mutual knockout by seizing the moment when the Wingull using Steel Wing to ground itself lifted its wing off the ground.

He had guarded against everything, yet still ended up falling for it.

The key was that Skarmory's resistance to electricity was genuinely strong! Normal weak-electric Pokémon, once zapped, were basically paralyzed and unable to move, only regaining free movement after the current ended.

How could it be like this thing, still able to force out a move? No wonder its build was so much larger than a normal Skarmory's!

But fortunately, Milotic had already closed the distance with Skarmory to almost nothing—less than two meters.

It was time!

"Finish it! Blizzard!"

"No good! Skarmory, dodge it now!"

Baimu's and Naqi's shouts rang out almost simultaneously, but Skarmory's reaction was a beat slower than the shiny Milotic's, so it could only watch helplessly as the blizzard's freezing surge came rushing at it!

Boom-boom-boom—!!

The overwhelming white torrent looked just like a collapsing Bingshan!

Skarmory struggled desperately to move, but at such close range there was no dodging; the ice and snow on its body grew thicker and thicker, until its entire body was frozen into an immovable ice sculpture.

The situation changed drastically within just a few seconds—something almost no one had anticipated, just as they hadn't anticipated Skarmory being able to perfectly defend against Mawile's attack and force it off the field.

"Take it down!"

"Milo!"

Milotic mercilessly twisted its body and lashed its gorgeous golden long tail!

Peng!

Ice and snow burst apart.

Skarmory toppled straight to the ground with a crisp clanging sound, even sliding a short distance away.

"Skarmory is unable to battle! M-Milotic wins!"

After Sega's voice came through, the staff reluctantly moved their cameras away.

They had to admit, Baimu's Milotic was simply too charming; in their eyes it was even a little more beautiful than Mi Ke Li's Milotic.

Otherwise the cameras wouldn't have stayed locked on it the whole time.

Those few fans of Baimu were still whispering among themselves.

"The one from the Akiba Conference finals?"

"Definitely!"

"So beautiful, sniff—way prettier than in the video, I really want to go up and touch it!"

"Your expression is way too over the top, but I really want to touch it too. If I could touch it, I wouldn't wash my hands for at least a day."

Not far away, Shota was still half in shock, completely unable to come back to his senses.

Especially when he saw Baimu give Milotic an order, having it condense a Water Ring to heal the wounds on its body.

Young Lady Naqi...

It seemed like she'd been on the back foot most of the time?

Even though Skarmory seemed to have forced Mawile off the field, the latter hadn't really taken much damage, whereas Naqi's side had already lost two of her heavy hitters!

And the Gravity—

"The Gravity seems to have worn off."

Naqi acted as if she didn't care at all that two of her Pokémon had been taken down, smiling brightly at Baimu. "Baimu-kun, do you know what matters most to a trainer who specializes in raising bird Pokémon?"

"What?"

"The freedom of flight!"

She tossed out a Poké Ball. "I won't let you pull that off so easily this time! Go, Swellow!"

Bang!

Bai Guang flickered.

A shiny Swablu with green back feathers and orange chest feathers soared above the field!

"Sii-ba!"

The shiny Swablu cried out in a high-pitched voice, about to let out an intimidating cry at the Milotic below, only to discover that at some unknown point numerous sharp glowing rocks had silently materialized around it, then exploded like grenades, sending countless rock fragments flying!

Peng peng peng!

Stealth Rock triggered a second time!

Unfortunately, the Swablu still burst forth full of spirit through the swirling smoke, completely unaffected by Stealth Rock just like Skarmory — and it was clearly a Flying type.

A godly singles technique in the games had actually fallen to this state…

Baimu could only say the actual situation deviated far too much; fortunately he hadn't counted on Stealth Rock to deal much damage, so disrupting things a little was fine too.

"Ice Beam!"

"Mii-lo!"

Milotic raised its head, and the icy-blue lightning streaked across the sky but failed to hit the extremely agile Swablu.

This one's evasion speed and reaction ability were far faster than the previous two — though of course that might also be because the latter was flying in the air; Skarmory basically had no spare capacity for evasion.

"Aerial Ace!"

Naqi's voice was quite resonant, and the Swablu also dove toward Milotic, the air currents from its charge gathering behind it into streaks of white spray!

Shiny versus shiny!

The director's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly waved to the people beside him. "Quick, quick, quick! Close-up, close-up!"

Unfortunately, Baimu gave him no such chance.

"Mist!"

"Mii-lo~"

Milotic lowered its head and spewed out a large amount of mist; the fog instantly affected the Swablu's vision, causing it to fly even higher on top of its already prepared dive-then-climb.

And it didn't come down right away.

"Sii-ba!"

The Swablu looked down from on high at the mist that had been scattered by its charge and then immediately gathered again to obscure it, flapping its wings unsure what to do.

Naqi gave it a hint. "Clear the fog!"

"Sii-ba!"

The shiny Swablu's eyes lit up, its broad wings rapidly began to flap, and a sky-blue gale whistled downward; the mist surrounding Milotic was instantly blown away by the gale.

The same went for the Stealth Rocks hidden in the air — under the invasion of Flying-type energy, they revealed themselves one by one and crumbled to dust.

This discovery delighted the shiny Swablu immensely.

But clearly, when it activated its move — especially one that whipped up a gale — its evasion ability would plummet straight down.

The instant the mist was blown away, the shiny Swablu could see the shiny Milotic's eyes covered in blue light, an invisible wave brewing within.

"Hypnosis!"

Pink psychic ripples surged upward into the sky like shockwaves!

"Sii-ba!?"

"Dodge it quick!"

The Swablu and Naqi cried out together, but clearly the former's reaction was too late — the Hypnosis ripples, spreading into a circle several meters in diameter, directly engulfed it.

It widened its eyes slightly, and very cleanly plummeted from the sky.

Thud.

The Swablu crashed to the ground, eyes tightly shut and fast asleep, shocking the television station staff who could hardly believe their own eyes.

Less than three minutes into the match, and the outcome seemed already decided?

Was the third one going to be taken down this easily!?