Chapter 363: The Demon King of a Bygone Era
In the end, after a long period of contemplation, Chen Lin chose to send out a Water/Fairy-type Azumarill.
He was likely still trying to counter Arthur's Old Flame and Lina.
But it was pointless.
Arthur had Greninja continue to spar with his opponent for a while, and when the time was right, he decisively recalled it, also exercising his right to switch Pokémon mid-battle. He then sent out Specter, who swept the Azumarill off the stage with overwhelming force.
For the final round, Chen Lin could only send out the Galvantula he had just barely saved.
And then, Lina, who was sent out for a second time, roasted it to a medium-well with just a long-range Heat Wave. A little breading and it would have been ready to eat. The protein content is six times that of beef; the kids next door were crying with envy.
In the end, Chen Lin's last-second recall had no real meaning. It just looked cool for a moment and didn't solve any problems.
Its only value was perhaps that it would live on forever in highlight reels.
With the end of this match, Chen Lin had helped Arthur achieve his fifth shutout!
The moment the match ended, Chen Lin let out a wistful sigh.
How did it come to this?
Last year, when he lost, it had been a narrow defeat, by a single move. He could even comfort himself: It was mostly my partner's Sableye's fault for collapsing first. His Charizard didn't lose to the opposing Braviary!
But this year, he had no more excuses.
A 0-3 score!
A massive, chasm-like gap in skill!
And only a single year had passed…
How did it come to this?
Faced with his dazed expression, Arthur only paused for a moment during the post-match handshake, but ultimately said nothing.
This wasn't Luna. He had no real relationship with him. Even if Arthur saw many of his problems, there was no need to offer unsolicited advice.
Forcing his teachings on others wouldn't necessarily be appreciated. They might even think he was mocking them.
And most importantly, Chen Lin hadn't made any fundamental errors. In fact, by the mainstream values of the old professional circuit, his approach was completely correct.
Perhaps his current frustration could be attributed to one phrase: born at the wrong time!
If this were five years ago, a main singles player like him would have been quite common in the Kubfu professional circuit. With a bit of luck, he might have even landed a starting spot on a mid-tier team, achieving a 40-50% win rate.
But it was precisely because the Kubfu professional circuit had been stagnant under that atmosphere for so many years, with disastrous results in international competitions and repeated thrashings in the World Cup, that it had once made a military man like Old Master Everhart want to pull out his gun.
And so, in recent years, players and teams had finally begun to realize this and attempt to make a change!
From two years ago, when the incredibly free-spirited, even slightly crazy Blaze Team had unexpectedly risen to the occasion in the Champions Cup, saving the last shred of the Kubfu Alliance's honor;
To last year, when Arthur had burst onto the scene, rejecting all of the club's arrangements yet still taking the Best Rookie award, inspiring countless newcomers;
And then, in the preseason transfer period, the Blaze Team, who had won last year's playoffs, didn't sign any players from within the circuit, choosing instead to go outside and recruit a newcomer who had almost never competed before to be their main player!
All of this seemed to signal that the stagnant waters of the Kubfu professional circuit were beginning to stir!
More and more people were willing to become a light, to try and illuminate the deepest darkness before the dawn!
People like Luna, Bella, and Aaron, who had been influenced by Arthur.
Like the Blaze Team, whose spirit remained free even after winning the league championship.
Like the newly formed Otter Team, where even after a loss, players and coaches were willing to support Luna and not just accept the club's arrangements!
Perhaps the atmosphere of the entire circuit hadn't changed yet.
But in some places, the mindsets of some people had quietly begun to shift.
And Chen Lin, to this day, still hadn't seen any of these changes.
His ideas were still stuck five years in the past, in the era when the league was dominated by the tactical-minded "big three" teams like Demon King and Jinchan.
So, in this new era, where free-spirited rookies like Arthur and Zhuge Feng were bursting onto the scene, he could only languish on a bottom-tier team, barely getting by with a miserable record.
In the new season, after being promoted to a main player, he had jumped from the Jinchan Team to the Leaping Carp Team, but his mindset had remained at Jinchan, stuck in the old ways of the traditional powerhouses.
Like being trapped in a circle, unable to break out.
And as luck would have it, after Starlight and Frost had easily defeated the Leaping Carp Team, in the next round, five days from now, they were set to face the demon king of that circle!
The team that still had the best record among the old "big three": the Demon King Team!
They were a team that had taken the concepts of tactical targeting, type matchups, and Pokémon mass-production to the absolute extreme!
Their attitude towards Pokémon was fundamentally different from that of people like Arthur, Bella, and Aaron!
Last season, they were also the only team to have dealt Arthur a defeat in the regular season. In that match, they had keenly perceived that Greninja had no means of curing status conditions at the time. They had then urgently force-matured a Whimsicott and, despite being at a disadvantage in raw power, had chosen to use the self-sacrificing move Memento to evade Greninja's swift takedown, executing their tactics to the extreme!
What had angered Arthur the most at the time was not the opponent's self-sacrificing tactic.
In his past life on the battlefield, he had seen comrades take their Pokémon with them and use Explosion to take out the enemy.
What he truly couldn't accept was that, with the Pokémon clearly unwilling, the trainer had commanded it three times to sacrifice itself, and had done so without any insurance measures.
At that time, its teammate hadn't even tried to save it, hadn't even shown any intention of getting close.
They had completely used the Whimsicott as a tool! They wouldn't have cared even if it had really died.
This had always been the Demon King Team's style.
They were cold-blooded, precise, always had the type advantage, and always had a targeted strategy!
They were the undisputed demon kings of that bygone era, five years ago!
Before the rise of young teams like the Otter and Blaze, they were the veteran team that had ruled the Kubfu Professional League for the longest time.
To this day, they still hold the record for the most league championships in the Kubfu region. And even last year, they had still made it to the playoff finals, fighting the Blaze Team to the very end before being narrowly defeated.
Even though the Demon King Team's performance in the preseason Devon Cup had been as lackluster as Starlight and Frost's, getting eliminated in the group stage, no one dared to underestimate them. At the beginning of the season, the commentators had still given them an A+ team rating.
The demon king of a bygone era had not yet been completely overthrown!
He had been up and down for many years but was still a powerhouse, always coveting the top spot in the league!
And now, five days from now, Arthur would once again face this demon king who had defeated him once before.
The challenge of a B+ team against an A+ team, thoughtfully arranged by the league for this weekend
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