Chapter 618: The Might of Painting Dog

"Electrode Lizard has lost its ability to fight! Milotic wins!"

The referee raised his flag high.

Amid the excited cheers of countless spectators, the commentator shouted: "Electrode Lizard's movement was limited by the icy terrain! Player Baimu drew first blood! Player Ilima still has five Pokémon remaining!"

On the field.

The limp Electrode Lizard's eyes turned into spiral shapes, and the shiny Milotic swam back to the trainer's half of the field to observe the new opponent and listen clearly to the trainer's commands.

Ilima silently recalled it, soothing gently: "Good work, Electrode Lizard. Rest easy."

He took out a new Poké Ball, his expression solemn as he looked at the shiny Milotic and Baimu, then threw it.

"Go! Smeargle!"

Bang!

A white light flashed.

A white humanoid puppy landed, its head hair looking just like a painter's beret, and its tail stained with green paint held in its paw like a paintbrush.

Unlike Electrode Lizard, Smeargle's stance was very steady, seemingly completely unaffected by the icy surface.

"Player Ilima moves quickly! He's switched in Smeargle! How exactly does he plan to handle Player Baimu's Milotic?"

"U-turn!"

Baimu commanded without hesitation.

Boom!

Surging water like towering waves crashing against the shore — blue water waves shot up from beneath Milotic, carrying its body flying toward Smeargle!

Ilima hurriedly shouted: "Use Stealth Rock! Then dodge!"

"Dowo!"

Smeargle barked once, swung its paintbrush-like tail in a circle, and green paint lingered in the air. Sharp stones fell from the green rings, scattering across the field.

After finishing this, it immediately retreated toward the ice-rock cluster behind it.

At the same time.

Milotic, transformed into raging waves, arrived. Roaring sounds came from the churning water as it plunged straight into the ice-rock cluster where Smeargle was hiding.

Boom!

Countless shattered ice chunks of various sizes mixed with water sprayed everywhere. A cold white fog rolled up, covering most of the field and concealing Smeargle's faint groan of pain.

A red light flashed in the hazy field.

Ilima was slightly stunned — had Milotic been recalled?

Impossible, right?

How did Baimu know where Milotic was? And before the white fog dispersed, it would to some extent obstruct the recall beam…

He didn't know that 【U-turn】 was the Water-type version of 【Baton Pass】, and assumed it was just 【Water Pulse】.

The two looked extremely similar from the outside; the only difference was their scale — one long, one short.

"Smeargle!"

He shouted loudly, thinking Milotic had used some switching move after Water Pulse.

A howl immediately came from the gradually dispersing white fog.

Then Smeargle's figure was revealed — it was clutching its dizzy head and swaying, clearly having failed to dodge and having been struck by the lunging Milotic.

Seeing it was largely unharmed, Ilima breathed a slight sigh of relief, but grew even more puzzled.

He couldn't figure out the reason for the switch.

The objective had been achieved, though.

Bang!

A white light flashed.

The shiny Gengar appeared once more. This time it didn't play tricks, but observed its surroundings with utmost seriousness.

"Geh…"

Sharp glowing stone pillars suddenly materialized in the air, attacking it as if they had eyes.

Gengar tried to dodge, but the glowing stone pillars instantly exploded, and the flying stone fragments rained down like drops, striking various parts of its body.

"Geh!" Gengar grunted.

"Player Baimu has switched!"

The commentator's astonished voice rang out: "He's sent out Gengar, which has a type disadvantage against the Normal-type Smeargle! Stealth Rock dealt damage to it? Is he going to showcase Gengar's equally powerful Poison-type?"

Normal-type and Ghost-type have no effect on each other, and while Gengar does have the Poison-type, most Gengar trainers only focus on cultivating its Ghost-type — Poison-type is basically a side role.

Ilima's face showed vigilance, but he was also very confident in Smeargle.

The latter's Sketch had already copied many powerful moves, so no matter what situation arose, he could handle it with ease.

"Spore!"

"Woof!"

Smeargle spun its paintbrush above its head, a glowing doodle-like mushroom appeared, and then with a pop it transformed into countless glowing green powder spreading forward.

In no time it reached Gengar.

Baimu's eyes narrowed, calm and composed: "Psychic!"

"Geh!"

Gengar raised both claws, its eyes lighting up with pink-purple light, and casually pushed away all the glowing green powder in the air.

It then stirred up a storm of psychic power to send them completely outside the field.

Spore might be a godly sleep move in the games, putting one side to sleep then the other, but as a physical substance, there's actually quite a lot of room for practical countermeasures.

It's just that using Psychic to dispel it tests the Pokémon's fine psychic control skills quite a bit.

Gengar's fine-control technique isn't bad — second only to Blissey.

Seeing the Spore be broken so easily, Ilima couldn't help feeling a touch of regret, thinking as expected All Baimu wasn't that easy to deal with.

His thoughts shifted, and he continued:

"Quiver Dance!"

"Smeargle!"

Smeargle swung its paintbrush, and at once translucent butterflies materialized in the air, fluttering around it in a dance.

An orange-red glow flared — its Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed all rose sharply!

So when abnormal tactics won't work, you switch to boosting tactics?

Honestly…

Each one is harder to handle than the last!

Seeing this, All Baimu sighed inwardly and gave the order: "Hypnosis!"

With no limit on the number of moves a Pokémon can carry, the only thing limiting how many moves Smeargle can copy with Sketch is its memory.

As long as it still remembers them, it can master the vast majority of astonishingly bizarre moves.

Its move pool is terrifyingly deep.

All Baimu didn't care about this thing's offense — what worried him were those weird, effect-heavy moves like Stealth Rock, Spore, and Quiver Dance from earlier.

They jabbed relentlessly at his nerves, forcing him to come up with all kinds of countermeasures.

"Gen!"

Gengar shot forward. Its Ability isn't Levitate, but it can still leave the ground and fly — a trait inherent to its Ghost typing.

Bright, colorful light welled up in its eyes, and countless warped ripples poured out from them, trying to engulf Smeargle.

Ilima answered without a hint of panic: "Magic Coat!"

"Smeargle~"

Smeargle raised its paintbrush, and a deep-brown barrier instantly appeared before it, perfectly reflecting the spreading ripples back.

Gengar's face went slack with shock, and it hastily twisted aside to dodge.

It just barely avoided it, which let it breathe a sigh of relief — at least it wouldn't have to suffer the indignity of being swapped out right after coming on.

It looked at Smeargle's two chubby little paws clenched tight — from the moment it entered the field, it still hadn't managed a single effective attack.

How embarrassing!

Gengar could hardly hold itself back any longer.

As for Smeargle knowing Magic Coat as well, All Baimu could only grit his teeth.

Every move Smeargle had used since the start was one it hadn't used in the earlier Gym battle. In other words, that guy Ilima had very likely prepared a batch of "new" moves specifically for him.

This can't go on…

Gengar might not be able to take the pressure!

The scene from Dragapult's first official battle was still vivid in his mind — he didn't want a repeat of that embarrassing moment; he had to learn from it.

Go on the offensive hard, smash through trickery with raw power!

He shouted: "Haze!"

"Gen!"

Gengar angrily opened its mouth wide, spewing out a huge cloud of black smoke that swiftly covered the half of the battlefield where Smeargle stood.

It vanished into the air along with it.

Clearly exploiting the Ghost type's trademark talent for appearing and disappearing out of nowhere.

A wave of grumbling cries rose from the stands — battles you can't see are the most annoying.

And Smeargle couldn't escape the Haze; it could only watch helplessly as the boosts it had stacked with Quiver Dance were wiped away, while the world around it plunged into pitch darkness.

But the Trainer's commands weren't blocked.

"Use Foresight!"

"Woof!"

Smeargle wiped its paintbrush across its eyes, and at once its gaze swept over the smoke-shrouded air like a searchlight — the hiding Gengar was immediately lit up.

Not even that can stop you?

"Genga~!"

Gengar was practically driven mad with rage, feeling utterly unable to lay a finger on Smeargle.

Fortunately, All Baimu's shout reached its ears in time — not loud, but perfectly clear: "Don't panic! Don't trade trick-for-trick with it! Just pull out a Focus Blast and smash it! Give it everything you've got!"

"Gen!"

Gengar responded with a loud cry, its chubby little paws rubbing together in front of its body like kneading dough.

Anger drew on the anger point, pulling countless motes of energy from the void to gather between its two paws; a terrifying azure wave of light gradually took shape and throbbed ceaselessly, making the air tremble.

Smeargle sensed something was wrong, and no new command came from its Trainer — it understood that under the Haze's effect, its Trainer had no idea what state it was in either.

Then I'll handle it myself!

Smeargle twirled its paintbrush before its body, and a honeycomb-patterned spherical shield of light swiftly unfurled.

Whoosh!

Then came a muffled roar of wind — a massive azure wave of light tore through the thick black smoke and came flying in, slamming brutally into the shield!

Boom! Crash!

Two sounds rang out in quick succession!

The black smoke before Ilima suddenly parted, and immediately after, the agonized Smeargle came flying backward, shattering an ice rock in front of him.

"Smeargle! Use Recover, quick!"

He hurriedly gave the order, watching the Gengar floating in midair as though it had just vented its spite, hardly daring to believe it.

This guy's offensive power was actually this outstanding!

The commentator chimed in as well: "What a ferocious Aura Sphere! Tutut Dog's Protect couldn't withstand it and was shattered along with the Aura Sphere! This move is extremely effective!"

A green wave of light glowed on Tutut Dog's body.

Having vented its spite, Gengar was unwilling to let it off.

"Sludge Bomb!"

Baimu also had no intention of continuing to beat around the bush trading varied moves with Tutut Dog, and straightforwardly used an offensive move to send this guy packing.

Tutut Dog itself is a frail Pokémon; its only reliance was the bug move Sketch, and without an in-game Focus Sash there was no way it could tank damage.

The previous gym battle had already proven this point well — so what if it landed a Payback? Wasn't it still sent crashing down by a headbutt from Steelix?

"Genga!"

Gengar let out a great shout, a clump of pitch-black sludge-like energy surging from each of its claws, purple currents of electricity crackling across the surface — utterly terrifying.

Ilima saw the situation turning bad and shouted: "Baton Pass!"

Tutut Dog, covered in green light, heard the command and immediately stopped its HP-recovery action; its paintbrush pointed skyward, and a flash of white light lit up from its body.

The next instant.

It turned into a red light and returned to Ilima's Poké Ball, and in its place a Skuntank from another Poké Ball dropped back onto the field.

Gengar's Sludge Bomb arrived right along with it!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Several mud-like projectiles slammed toward the caught-off-guard Skuntank. The latter tried to dodge by rolling, but the Sludge Bomb detonated mid-air, turning into a shower of mud that splashed all over Skuntank's body.

Sizzle—

Green smoke drifted up amid the hissing sound of corrosion; Skuntank, in unbearable agony, released the wooden post it had been clutching and simply went limp, limbs splayed, its eyes turning into spirals.

Ilima's face was full of shock.

The commentator shouted excitedly, "One hit! Just one hit took down Skuntank! Player Ilima used Baton Pass to swap out Tutut Dog, but unfortunately Gengar's wrathful attack couldn't even be withstood by Skuntank! Player Ilima has only four Pokémon remaining!"

The referee swiftly raised the flag.

"Skuntank is unable to battle! Gengar wins!"

This is… a critical hit?

Baimu was also quite surprised — after all, although Skuntank knows Grass-type moves, it is only Normal-type, so by rights Sludge Bomb doesn't have a type advantage over it.

For it to be one-shot KO'd, either the level gap was too huge, or Gengar had a small burst of power and landed a critical hit.

He looked at the panting Gengar floating in midair and waited in silence.

"Heh."

"Heh-hee-hee-hee—"

Hearing that familiar eerie laughter, Baimu knew Gengar's confidence had returned; this guy hadn't ended up in the same awkward situation as Dragapult after all.

After all, the strength of the opponents the two had faced differed quite a bit.

He looked at Ilima — although the latter had already lost two Pokémon, he was well aware that Ilima still had plenty of trump cards up his sleeve.

The match had really only just begun.

On the other side.

Ilima guiltily recalled Skuntank into its Poké Ball and said softly, "Sorry, Skuntank — that was my misjudgment. Rest easy, the rest of us will win this back!"

Gengar's offensive momentum just now had been so overwhelming that it had startled him into recalling the Heavy Impact of Steelix, and his subconscious had reacted by sending Skuntank out to tank the move.

He had thought it would be able to hold on, but in the end…

A miscalculation.

He sighed, looked at the giggling Gengar floating in midair, and resolved that he had to take this guy down to repay Skuntank's sacrifice.

"I'm counting on you next! Ditto!"

Pop!

White light flickered.

A pink, blob-like creature dropped onto the icy field, and the instant it locked eyes with Gengar its body lit up with a dazzling white light.

"Player Ilima has sent out Ditto! This is — the Imposter Ability!"

The commentator cried out in surprise.

The Imposter Ability means that the moment it sees its opponent it enters a transformed state, without needing to use the move Transform once.

Don't think the difference between the two is small — in actual situations, the order of operations is just as important as in the game.

It can to a certain extent prevent the opponent from getting a cheap shot off, and also use the chance to sidestep certain field-type moves that only take effect after entering the field.

Under Gengar's curious gaze, a gray Gengar identical to itself appeared, cackling eerily as it floated up into the sky, gazing back at it from afar.

【Transform】 — once successfully cast, it can almost perfectly copy the opponent's stats and known moves, but there are some things it cannot copy, such as energy level and stamina.

But to be honest, Gengar's stamina, if untrained, is actually not much better than Ditto's.

And if Ditto wants to make better use of Transform, it inevitably needs to train its own stamina, which leads to the two actually differing very little in practice.