Surrendering was just a thought—if he really did surrender, he'd probably come home to a meal of stir-fried bamboo shoots with pork, followed by a mixed doubles beatdown from both his parents.
The last challenger, Kai, stepped onto the battlefield.
As his Pokéball opened, a fierce-looking blue Gyarados appeared on the field.
Magikarp was the most numerous Pokémon and also widely recognized as the weakest. But its evolved form stood as a symbol of power and ferocity—Gyarados.
The existence of Gyarados was the perfect explanation of the saying, "A carp leaping over the dragon gate."
Unfortunately, even now, scholars had not figured out how exactly Magikarp evolved into Gyarados.
Some had succeeded by triggering its rage—but that method hardly ever worked on most other Magikarp.
The evolution of Magikarp seemed to involve a great deal of randomness.
Looking at the Gyarados on the field, Julian instinctively glanced at his right foot. He had once kicked a Magikarp into evolving into a Gyarados.
At that time, Julian thought he had discovered the secret to Magikarp's evolution.
Until one day, he tried to recreate the effect by kicking hundreds of Magikarp for a TikTok video, but in the end, none of them evolved. That plan had failed miserably.
Pokémon: Gyarados (Water/Flying)
Level: 75
Potential: Cyan
Ability: Intimidate
Item: Mystic Water
Gender: Male
Moves: Bite, Tackle, Twister, Whirlpool, Splash, Ice Fang, Brine, Scary Face, Crunch, Rain Dance, Aqua Tail, Hydro Pump, Hurricane, Hyper Beam
TMs: Water Pulse, Protect, Dragon Tail, Dark Pulse, Dragon Dance, Waterfall, Thunder Wave, Rest
Egg Moves: None
---
Gyarados didn't have any egg moves—after all, no matter how powerful a Gyarados was, its offspring would still be Magikarp, and Magikarp only knew Splash.
So there were no inheritable moves possible.
Gyarados glared fiercely at its opponent.
With its Intimidate ability and menacing appearance, it could definitely frighten weaker or more timid Pokémon.
On top of that, Gyarados naturally had a short temper. When enraged, it would destroy everything in sight.
Gyarados: 'I'll scare you to death.'
Metagross: 'What the heck is this?'
The Intimidate ability had no effect on Metagross.
All Metagross felt was that this guy looked like he needed a good beating. 'Why's your mouth so wide open? Not afraid you'll sprain your tongue?'
"Gyarados, Hydro Pump!"
Hydro Pump was fast—but definitely not faster than Metagross' Teleport.
The spot where Metagross had been standing was blasted into a deep crater.
The next second, Metagross reappeared to Gyarados' left, unleashing an Ice Beam. The beam carried a biting chill, and the moisture in the air around it began to freeze.
Gyarados reacted quickly. In response to the Ice Beam, a spinning vortex of water formed in front of it—Whirlpool.
The Whirlpool was instantly frozen by the Ice Beam, but since it stood between Gyarados and the Ice Beam, most of the freezing energy was absorbed by Whirlpool itself, and the remaining Ice Beam also just slammed into the frozen Whirlpool.
If Gyarados had used Hydro Pump to counter the Ice Beam directly, not only would the Hydro Pump have frozen, but the Ice Beam might have traveled down the water stream and frozen Gyarados as well.
This was also basic knowledge for both trainers and Pokémon.
When facing moves that could freeze, burn, or paralyze, if your Pokémon used a move to counter, it was best to make sure that move didn't have direct contact with the Pokémon's body.
Otherwise, if the opponent's move was stronger and overpowered yours, your Pokémon would be the one to suffer the consequences.
"Zen Headbutt."
Although the frozen Whirlpool had blocked the Ice Beam, but it also blocked Gyarados' line of sight. As the ice shattered with a loud crash, the next moment, Metagross slammed straight into Gyarados.
The force of the impact was so strong that Gyarados' eyes nearly popped out from the pain. It felt as if its internal organs had been smashed, and its body was flung nearly a hundred meters across the field.
Though it didn't faint and tanked the hit by sheer willpower. But the scales at the point of impact had been shattered, exposing the red flesh underneath.
Fortunately, those thick scales had absorbed most of the damage. Otherwise, Metagross's earlier strike would've likely knocked it out completely.
Kai's expression was solemn. Now, he finally understood how the previous four challengers must've felt when facing Julian.
This overwhelming sense of powerlessness was really f***ing depressing.
As a prodigy, the only time he'd ever felt this powerless was when facing the older generation of trainers.
But Julian was even younger than him.
Kai: 'Gotta come up with something. Can't lose too badly.'
Thinking that his eyeballs kept moving, rapidly searching for a solution.
Julian, meanwhile, didn't continue attacking.
He was waiting for Kai to Mega Evolve his Gyarados.
But he hadn't considered whether Kai even had a Gyaradosite to begin with.
Gyarados was already rare—its Mega Stone was even rarer.
If Kai really had it, he would've had Gyarados Mega Evolve the moment he stepped onto the field, just like Tyler.
Knowing that Julian was stronger than him, there was no reason not to Mega Evolve right at the start. Waiting to get beaten first before evolving would've just been plain stupid.
"I wonder if what those folks online said is true or not…"
Kai suddenly remembered seeing someone on TikTok saying that Julian was a Jinx, and that his opponent's move were guaranteed to inflict status conditions.
It was worth mentioning that he had paid attention to Julian's TikTok.
"Might as well try it."
With that in mind, Kai shouted, "Gyarados, Thunder Wave!"
Thunder Wave didn't do any real damage, but its biggest problem was that any Pokémon hit by it would become paralyzed. That is, unless the target was a Ground-type or had the Normalize ability—then it wouldn't be affected at all.
And Thunder Wave had very high accuracy.
Julian: 'What's he trying to pull now?'
The air was filled with tiny electric currents, which were about to hit Metagross.
But just then, a bright green shield wrapped around Metagross.
Thunder Wave failed.
There were plenty of ways to deal with Thunder Wave-the simplest being to counter with an offensive move.
But using Protect, a high-value life-saving move, just to block it… was honestly a bit of a waste.
"Hammer Arm."
Julian gave Kai a sharp look. He had a feeling this guy hadn't used Thunder Wave just to paralyze Metagross—he seemed to 'know' something.
Julian: 'You know too much, go down quickly.'
With a flash, Metagross teleported above Gyarados, and with a booming Hammer Arm, smashed down on its head.
Gyarados dropped like a rock, falling flat on the ground.
With that, Julian had defeated all five of his challengers, without switching Pokémon even once, and every single battle had been kept under two minutes.
It had taken him less than ten minutes to defeat all five trainers.
Kai recalled his Gyarados and walked over to the defeated four.
"I forced Metagross to use Protect. You guys should at least recognize my strength."
"Don't flatter yourself. That's only because you were the last one—whether Julian used Protect or not didn't matter by that point." Tyler said disdainfully: "We basically handed you the biggest advantage, and you still couldn't defeat him."
"Really a failure."
Kai: 'When it comes to shamelessness, you guys really are the champions...'
*****
Upto 30 chapters ahead on patreon :-
patreon.com/ReduxMagister