Chapter 18: TOTAL VICTORY

By the time Rookidee dove in front of Carbink, the Reflect wall had already fully formed.

"Rookidee, use Fury Attack on Carbink!"

Li Hua chose to go straight for a brute-force assault.

Rookidee used both claws and beak, attacking frantically against the Reflect wall.

The result of all that effort was nothing more than a few shallow white marks left on Carbink's ore-like shell.

"Fly up, gain altitude!" Seeing that Rookidee's attacks were completely ineffective, Li Hua hurriedly had Rookidee return to the air.

"Prepare to use Brave Bird!" Li Hua issued an attack command again, seemingly unwilling to accept the reality.

Rookidee's small blue body was shrouded in a layer of blinding blue light, its red eyes locked firmly onto Carbink.

Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for a Rookidee at this stage to learn Brave Bird, one of the ultimate Flying-type moves, but Pokémon have a category of moves called 【Egg Moves】, and this Rookidee had inherited Brave Bird.

"Carbink, use Ancient Power to counter!" No matter how high the base power of Brave Bird was, the current Rookidee certainly couldn't unleash it fully; after all, it had taken Su Hao quite some time to get Carbink to master Dazzling Gleam and Meteor Beam.

Su Hao commanded Carbink to use a move to meet the enemy while deep in thought.

"Na-na!" (Chibaku Tensei!)

Once again shouting the name of a skill from another franchise, Carbink condensed five soccer-ball-sized rocks of Ancient Power in front of it, manipulating them to attack the Rookidee in the sky.

Just as the Ancient Power was about to collide with Rookidee, Brave Bird was finally ready.

After Rookidee dodged two of the Ancient Power rocks with all its might, it had nowhere left to dodge and collided with the remaining three.

The giant bird formed by blue light continuously impacted the Ancient Power, and finally, after shattering one... two... three rocks, it slammed headlong into the Reflect wall.

Shrouded in Brave Bird, Rookidee struck the Reflect wall with all its might, but unfortunately, it ran out of steam in the end.

The giant bird formed of blue energy gradually collapsed, and Rookidee, enveloped within it, also fell, exhausted.

"Battle over, Carbink is the winner!"

Seeing this, Jiang Chengcheng immediately announced the result.

"Oh my, even with Rookidee and me trying so hard, we still couldn't break your defense. Brother Su, how exactly do you and Carbink train?"

Su Hao smiled at Li Hua and said, "I'll bring you along next time. Go to the healing machine nearby to restore Rookidee's stamina; it's your turn to battle Brother Cheng next."

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After treatment by the healing machine, Rookidee's stamina was fully restored, and this time Su Hao began serving as the referee.

"Go, Machop!"

After Jiang Chengcheng sent out Machop, she struck the same starting pose as the Pokémon.

Su Hao knew that Jiang Chengcheng's family possessed ancestral martial arts manuals that both humans and Pokémon could learn and utilize.

The starting pose that Jiang Chengcheng and Machop had just struck was undoubtedly her family's ancestral martial art.

"Rookidee, I'm counting on you again!" Li Hua commanded Rookidee to step forward and engage.

"This time we'll attack second. Rookidee, use Sharpen first!" Li Hua chose to buff up and wait for Jiang Chengcheng's attack.

"Machop, jump up, Bullet Punch!" With a leaping ability that defied its short legs, Machop jumped in one go right in front of Rookidee, who was hovering at a height of three meters to use Sharpen.

A thin layer of gray radiance covered Machop's fists, and then, in a flurry of blows like flowing water, Rookidee was knocked to the ground.

"What the hell!? Brother Cheng, how come you and Machop don't play by the rules either?"

Li Hua, shocked by Machop's astonishing jumping ability, was also bewildered. How come everyone finds it so simple to beat me?

Li Hua was beginning to doubt his own life. Just as he was about to command Rookidee to regroup, a bolt of lightning flashed before his eyes—.

"Holy crap, how do you know an Electric-type move too??"

Thunder Punch struck the still-grounded Rookidee with lightning speed. After the current surged through Rookidee's small body, it immediately lost the ability to battle.

"Rookidee is unable to battle, Machop wins!"

Su Hao directly declared the result of the match.

"Man, how come you guys are all so ruthless? I'll let Brother Cheng slide, but I didn't expect you, Brother Su, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, to be so competitive too." Li Hua was speechless.

As far as he knew, his own progress was already ahead of many people his age.

He hadn't expected these two to be more monstrous than the other. It had left him feeling unconfident.

"Ahem." Su Hao coughed feignedly, signaling Jiang Chengcheng to restore some stamina for Machop.

"Okay." Jiang Chengcheng nodded and walked to the side to begin restoring Machop's condition.

Soon, a recovered Jiang Chengcheng and Machop stood on the other side of the battlefield, facing Su Hao.

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"Carbink vs. Machop, battle start!" This time, Li Hua served as the referee.

The moment Li Hua announced the start of the battle, Machop, as if it had discussed it with Jiang Chengcheng, charged straight toward Carbink. It seemed they didn't want to give Carbink a chance to buff or set up a wall.

Su Hao hadn't intended to play defensively this round anyway, so he directly commanded Carbink to deploy Dazzling Gleam on its body, preparing to go head-to-head with Machop.

"Na-na!" (Magic Shield!)

After Carbink deployed Dazzling Gleam, it moved at a slow pace to meet Machop.

Seeing Carbink deploy Dazzling Gleam, Li Hua looked very surprised, thinking to himself, *You have this move too? So you mean I couldn't even force this move out of you? *

Jiang Chengcheng, however, looked grave and issued a command for Machop to attack with full force: "Focus Energy, then use full-power Thunder Punch with both fists!"

Under the effect of Focus Energy, Machop seemed to sense a weak point on Carbink's body. With yellow lightning gathering on its fists, it crossed its arms and launched an attack directly at the Carbink, which was shining with colorful light.

"Hum————!" In the intense collision between Dazzling Gleam and Thunder Punch, Dazzling Gleam ultimately proved superior.

Machop retreated step by step during the struggle, and eventually, it couldn't even maintain the Thunder Punch. Machop was finally engulfed by Dazzling Gleam and knocked flying.

The knocked-back Machop landed on the ground, its eyes turning into swirls; it had clearly lost the ability to battle and fainted.

"Machop is unable to battle, Carbink wins!"

"Na-na-na~!" (I won~!) Carbink hopped happily in front of Su Hao.

Su Hao crouched down, patted her head to offer a little encouragement, and then looked at the approaching Li Hua and Jiang Chengcheng.

"I lost. When I go back, I'll urge Li Hua to train harder. We'll battle again at the entrance exam!" Jiang Chengcheng was very unwilling to accept this.

After all, every Trainer must have the determination to keep winning.

"Alright, then let's exchange notes and review," Su Hao nodded, proposing a mutual review.

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After pointing out some of the shortcomings of Machop and Rookidee, Su Hao bid farewell to Li Hua and Jiang Chengcheng and returned home.

At this moment, the rewards for completing the system mission were already stored in the system space.

Su Hao chose the 【Protect】 TM from the space grid, setting the target as 【Su Hao】 x / 【Carbink】?.

Although there were some points of contention as to why he could learn skills himself, Su Hao decided to let Carbink learn Protect first.

The other Protect TM would be reserved for his second Pokémon.

Last night, Su Hao's father had already contacted him, saying the second Pokémon prepared for him would be delivered to the Shenzhou Alliance in a while.

After today's two battles, Carbink's level had also reached 19.

Pokémon: 【Carbink】 【Mutation 12%】

Type: 【Rock, Fairy】

Gender: 【None】

Ability: 【Clear Body】

Level: 【19】

Moves: 【Tackle, Harden, Dazzling Gleam (Shield), Meteor Beam, Reflect, Light Screen, Ancient Power, Guard Split, Flail...】

Today's two battles didn't require Carbink to use its full strength.

When fully focused, Carbink could create more than ten Ancient Power rocks. Similarly, Dazzling Gleam could be actively released as a beam attack rather than just being used as a shield for head-on collisions, and Carbink also had a single-target finishing move, Meteor Beam, that hadn't been used yet.

Su Hao estimated that with all its means exhausted, the current Carbink could defeat a peak Normal-level Pokémon.

under these circumstances, it is capable of defeating a Pokémon at the peak of the Normal rank.