Chapter 366: First-Impression Kill
Seeing Leo on the other side, Lucas was stuck in deep thought just during the Pokémon registration phase.
In a main singles duel, after the players take the stage, they must first register the six Pokémon they will be using for the match, which are then revealed to each other. Only then do they choose their respective starters.
Normally, this registration process should be very quick, as it's something you should have figured out before the match.
Just like in Arthur's first match against Serena, he had already left Lina in the lounge before even taking the stage. His lineup was more or less pre-planned.
But in this match, Lucas was truly struggling.
He had never expected to be facing Leo!!
Should I still register Dragonite? It's my ace, my only captain-level Pokémon. But if I register it, will I even dare to use it? All three of Leo's main Pokémon are masters at taking down Dragonite!
Conflicted. In short, he was very conflicted…
It wasn't until the referee had urged him twice that Lucas finally registered his six Pokémon for the match.
He had kept his Dragonite, but his new favorite, Flygon, had been swapped out.
The referee then signaled for both sides to send out their Pokémon.
For the first round, Leo sent out Weavile, while Lucas sent out Krookodile.
After his Sirfetch'd had retired, Lucas's team now had a small gap in its Fighting-type coverage.
Although he still had a Lucario, it had only just reached the professional level. With so many Pokémon, he found it difficult to devote the energy to specifically train it, so he had to let it develop naturally for now.
Against a main player from a mid-to-lower-tier team, he might have dared to use his Lucario, but against Leo, he absolutely did not.
Leo was, after all, an All-Star captain!
Two of his three main Pokémon were captain-level, and one was at the peak of the main singles level. He was not someone you could just mess around with.
Helpless, Lucas had to choose the Ground/Dark dual-type Krookodile as his starter, because his Krookodile knew the Fighting-type ultimate move, Close Combat.
And Leo had led with his Dark/Ice-type Weavile!
At the start of the match, Krookodile's eyes flashed, and it let out a mighty roar. Its presence instantly soared to its peak, startling Weavile.
Ability: Intimidate!
Give the opponent a stunning display of intimidation upon first meeting, causing them to become fearful and weak, unable to exert their full strength.
The effect of this ability gradually fades as the two sides interact for longer.
When it comes to intimidation, you naturally get used to it after a while.
But in that first instant, the effect of this ability was still quite terrifying.
That sudden roar even made Weavile take a half-step back, its muscles going limp from the mysterious energy.
Lucas seized the opportunity to command an advance.
"Charge forward! Use Close Combat!"
He opened with his ultimate! There was absolutely nothing wrong with this thinking!
An Intimidate Pokémon is all about the first strike! Establishing an advantage with a first-impression kill!
You have to take advantage of the opponent while they're still stunned and haven't recovered. The longer the fight goes on, the more the opponent adapts to the Intimidate effect, and the harder it will be for Krookodile to fight.
However, Leo was also very experienced, and he knew his opponent's Pokémon's ability in advance.
"Weavile, Fake Out!"
With a crisp slap that echoed through the void, Weavile transformed into a streak of light, launching a surprise attack on Krookodile!
The Normal-type move: Fake Out!
Also a first-impression-kill type of move!
A surprise attack accompanied by a clap. When used after a long period of not using any energy, the move's power is slightly increased, and it has a very high chance of making the enemy flinch!
In the arena, a Pokémon is generally only in a state of not having used energy for a long time at the very beginning of a match. Once the battle starts, any use of a move requires mobilizing one's own energy.
Therefore, Fake Out is only at its most effective in that first instant!
It's a very classic first-impression-kill move.
And now, a first-impression-kill ability was clashing with a first-impression-kill move!
In the short term, Weavile's Fake Out was more effective!
Krookodile flinched. Its body went rigid, and for a moment, it couldn't move.
The activation of Close Combat was naturally cut short.
Leo seized the opportunity to command again.
"Quickly fall back! Warm up your body!"
Weavile retreated, creating distance from Krookodile, and then began to continuously shake its legs, expand its chest, hop, and throw punches.
By warming up, it could quickly alleviate the muscle laxity and eliminate the negative effects of Intimidate.
Although it was impossible to completely eliminate the effect so quickly, by the time Krookodile broke free from the stun of the flinch and closed the distance again, Weavile had already basically regained control of its body. Its strength and speed had recovered to eighty or ninety percent.
"Krookodile, continue using Close Combat!"
"Weavile, use Triple Axel!"
After their first clash of first-impression kills, they immediately entered a tense and thrilling close-quarters brawl!
Weavile and Krookodile's fighting styles were somewhat similar. Neither Pokémon was particularly good at long-range, pure energy attacks. Their main combat style was melee combat, using their sharp claws and fangs to tear their enemies apart!
Leo's Weavile was particularly extreme in this regard. All of its martial arts skills were in its claws. Seven steps away, its claws were fast. Within seven steps, its claws were both accurate and fast. It didn't consider long-range attacks at all.
But this fighting style also exposed Weavile's weakness even more clearly—its Dark/Ice typing is doubly weak to Fighting.
This was the reason why Lucas had chosen Krookodile for this round.
He had actually predicted that Leo would send out Weavile!
As a player from the Demon King Team, predicting the opponent's Pokémon order was a required skill. After all, they were old hands at playing the type matchup game. This was their specialty.
And in this round, Lucas had once again found an opportunity to counter!
Krookodile continuously launched a fierce assault with its ultimate move, Close Combat!
But as the fight went on, the audience and the commentators gradually noticed something was wrong.
The commentator Hwang was the first to point out the key: "It seems the skill of Leo's Weavile in the realm of close combat has improved again?! We had originally thought that Leo would choose to conservatively switch Pokémon in this round, but now, the two sides are fighting to a standstill!"
Beside him, the new commentator silently turned to look at him.
He thought to himself, Teacher Hwang, it's a good thing you didn't say what you "originally thought" out loud. Otherwise, you'd probably be in trouble again…
Lucas, at this moment, was also grim-faced.
As a player on the field, he had naturally felt what the commentators were saying much earlier.
Although he found it hard to understand, he had to admit: his opponent's Weavile had improved compared to the impression he had from his data!
In the past, among Leo's three main Pokémon—Cloyster, Azumarill, and Weavile—Weavile's raw power had ranked third. Strictly speaking, it hadn't reached the captain level yet, hovering at the peak of the main singles level, unable to take that final step.
A Pokémon at this level of strength generally finds it very difficult to make another major breakthrough.
In any field, the closer you get to the peak, the harder it is to improve.
So, according to the Demon King Team's training philosophy, they never pursue the absolute peak for a single Pokémon. Instead, after a Pokémon reaches a certain bottleneck, they begin to horizontally pursue a deeper roster and more diverse lineups.
At the end of the day, they never believe that the trust between a trainer and their Pokémon can create miracles!
So at this moment, watching the visible improvement in Leo's Weavile, Lucas's feelings were extremely complicated.
He was both bewildered and envious…
Thinking back, his own Pokémon, whether it was his retired Sirfetch'd, his current Krookodile, or his ace Dragonite, had not shown such obvious progress in a very, very long time.
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