Chapter 77: Overwhelming Force

Unlike Baimu, who deliberately hid his head and showed his tail.

His opponent not only wore the team uniform of his affiliated faction, but also roared out his own background.

"Remember well, this is the name of the man who beat you today!"

He had to spout pre-match trash talk even in such a short time?

Baimu ignored this fellow who once again shouted "Leave your name, incoming general!", and took out a Poké Ball to take a deep breath.

No matter whether the other party was a fool or not, he could not underestimate them.

The red light on the wall began to flash.

The opponent also stopped talking, took out a Poké Ball and got ready.

The next instant.

The green light lit up along with a long hum.

The two men swiftly ran toward each other's position and threw their Poké Balls!

Bang bang.

Bai Guang flickered.

Roggenrola landed first, raised its head and looked at the Pokémon opposite—

A giant lizard, pitch-black all over with crimson flame patterns, looking seductive and sinister, radiating a thick hormonal aura.

Salazzle, a Poison Lizard Pokémon of Fire and Poison types.

"Mmm~"

"Be careful of its poison, it might be effective against you too."

Baimu turned his head to warn Roggenrola.

Although Salazzle was indeed a Poison-type Pokémon, it possessed the 【Corrosion】 Ability, able to use 【Toxic】 to poison even Steel-type Pokémon.

It had to be guarded against.

"Rog!"

Roggenrola growled lowly to show it understood.

The opponent across, who had just been about to rejoice upon seeing the Steel-type Roggenrola, heard Baimu's words and his expression immediately collapsed.

"You actually know!"

Salazzle's Ability had let him trick countless opponents without them knowing; who would have thought that in the first round of the preliminaries it would be seen through—how could this be!

"Rock Tomb!"

Baimu couldn't be bothered to waste more words with this fellow, and decided to drag out the fight against Salazzle in this match.

Close combat made it too easy to silently take poison damage—when a Pokémon released Toxic at close range, it was just as fast, accurate, and ruthless as a natural-world animal, leaving basically no room for commands.

It all depended on one's own Pokémon's reflexes.

Roggenrola's two claws stomped the ground, and countless hard, massive rocks surged forth one after another toward Salazzle!

Whooosh whoosh whoosh—

The rocks let out an intense sound of breaking wind.

"Use Flamethrower to smash them apart!"

The opponent immediately roared.

A long whip of flame instantly condensed into shape, and with Salazzle's swings it struck the incoming rocks one after another, blasting them apart with a rumble.

At first it did succeed in smashing one or two, but starting from the third it began to struggle somewhat.

The fourth and fifth directly lost the explosive force to whip them apart, and in the instant its movements slowed, it was hit.

Rumble rumble!

Two rocks smashed down one after another; Salazzle's face showed pain, and it retreated repeatedly to barely withstand them.

"So hard!"

The opponent couldn't believe it.

One knew one's own affairs best—he had already verified time and time again through battle just how powerful Salazzle's Flamethrower truly was.

Let alone rocks of this scale, even ones twice as large shouldn't have been much for it!

How could this be!?

The other side.

Baimu slightly raised an eyebrow.

Roggenrola's moves had improved in all aspects as proficiency rose, including the hardness and impact force of the rocks it chose after giving up on continuing to enlarge them—all of which had been certified by Mawile's fists.

What surprised him was that Salazzle, as a fully evolved form, was not as powerful as he had imagined.

Just two giant rocks had left it dizzy, staggering as it walked……

So fragile.

Thinking about it, Salazzle's physical defense probably wasn't high anywhere, and it was also countered by Rock-type—who else would be unlucky if not you?

As for the opponent, as always, only knowing how to clash head-on and never choosing to dodge—he had long grown used to it.

Every single one of these trainers had a mysterious confidence in their own Pokémon's strength, thinking your moves I can easily break through, my moves you can't withstand.

Therefore they often didn't know the wonderfulness of the godly skill "Dodge quickly."

The brute-force fighting style did rather fit their Yakuza identity—after all, to make a name in the Yakuza one had to rely on two parts reason and eight parts "courage."

"Rock Blast!"

"Rog!"

Roggenrola growled lowly, and the gravel on the ground and dust in the air gathered under an invisible ripple into glowing, sharp rock chunks, whistling as they flew toward Salazzle.

Compared to the large and hard Rock Tomb, the advantage of Rock Blast was its faster impact speed, and its starting motion was also considerably shorter than Rock Tomb's.

Seeing his Flare Lizard dazed and unable to recover, the opponent gritted his teeth.

"Hide behind the rock and don't move!"

Since there was no way to move in a short time, he could only use the environment.

The Flare Lizard, hearing its trainer's command, wobbled dazedly behind the giant rock and used it as a shield.

Who would have thought the power of Rock Blast exceeded the opponent's expectations—two consecutive shots directly smashed that giant rock with a bang, then bombarded the Flare Lizard's body in succession.

Bang bang!

"Ugh—"

The Flare Lizard let out a hoarse scream; the smoke from the exploding rock covered it, then quickly dispersed.

Dizzy circles replaced those originally bewitching, lively eyes.

Red lights began flashing on the wall.

"..."

The opponent was struck dumb, completely not expecting his Pokémon to be defeated so easily.

Yet that Aron looked completely at ease.

Baimu was not at all surprised that Rock Blast shattered the giant rock from Rock Tomb, because he had specifically practiced it.

In a previous battle, Mawile had used the rocks from Rock Tomb to dodge Aron's follow-up attacks, giving him a lesson learned from experience.

If Mawile would hide behind rocks, then the enemy might also hide behind rocks.

Didn't expect it would come in handy so soon.

He waited for the opponent to switch, but didn't expect the other party to just stare at Aron in a daze—spacing out in the middle of an important battle!

Suddenly.

The red lights flashed faster, and the broadcast overhead began counting down.

The opponent, as if waking from a dream, recalled the Flare Lizard and sent out a new Pokémon—

Slugma, the Lava Pokémon.

Its entire body seemed composed of crimson magma, like some kind of mollusk, with a pair of bright yellow eyes and flame-shaped antennae, the magma on its surface constantly churning to maintain its vitality—a wondrous creature.

But just as it flew out of the Poké Ball and landed, the ground beneath it suddenly crumbled and collapsed, and a giant ant hole large enough to swallow the opponent himself instantly formed.

Slugma had no chance to dodge at all, falling in and struggling.

"Ah!"

The opponent, as if waking from a dream, looked at Baimu with uncertainty and suspicion—he hadn't heard any command just now?

"... Sand Tomb."

Baimu, with a "satisfied-you-now?" expression, completed the verbal command.

Then, he looked at Slugma with a sympathetic gaze—running into a trainer who spaces out in a two-on-two, and whose type is Fire, which is hard-countered by Aron.

If you're not unlucky, who is?

"Lava Burst!"

The opponent tried to let Slugma struggle, and the latter did stir up the magma on its surface, creating a giant magma bubble that suddenly burst open.

Unfortunately, the splashing magma couldn't reach Aron outside the pit.

"Smokescreen!"

The opponent shouted again.

But Aron simply wouldn't come closer—how could it possibly hit?

Doesn't he have any other-type Pokémon?

"Finish it, Rock Tomb."

Baimu pointed at the sky.

Aron understood, its two claws slammed the ground, countless giant rocks shot up into the sky, then fell in a parabolic arc into the ant hole, smashing down onto the struggling Slugma.

Boom boom boom!

Rock after rock surged forward one after another, burying it completely.

Securing Baimu's victory.

A one-sided counter, a one-sided overwhelmingly crushing battle.