Chapter 370: Baffling Behavior
Shuckle is a crustacean-like Pokémon that resembles a small tortoise, with a Rock/Bug typing.
This Pokémon is best known for its extremely polarized stat distribution—
Its natural strength is less than a Psyduck's, its special attack is abysmal, and in its normal form, its speed is slower than a tortoise's.
But its defensive capabilities are exceptional!
It is incredibly resilient against both physical and special attacks. Its shell is as if it's been enchanted. Even a wild Shuckle with no training can easily withstand a full squad's machine gun fire if it completely retracts into its shell.
Of course, a wild Shuckle has almost no counter-attack ability. If faced with a military force, there are still many ways to deal with it.
But since Leo was daring enough to use a Shuckle in a captain's battle, its strength was clearly on another level!
It could only be tougher!
For a moment, the audience, the commentators, and even Arthur himself were all trying to guess the purpose behind Leo's move.
Sage Hwang spoke quickly, "We see that in the first round, Captain Leo has started with a new Pokémon that was not previously in his records: Shuckle! When we think of Shuckle, the first thing that comes to mind is the one belonging to the Blaze Team's main player, Simon. Simon's Shuckle, with its Contrary ability and its signature Power Split, can not only tank but also deal damage after it gets going. Will Captain Leo's Shuckle be the same style?"
The only other person in the league who uses a Shuckle as a main Pokémon is Simon from the Blaze Team.
In a team as free-spirited as the Blaze Team, you wouldn't be surprised to see any kind of Pokémon. A Metronome Clefable, a main Shuckle… that's just their standard operating procedure…
Simon's Shuckle is a completely different species from a normal wild Shuckle!
It is an extremely warlike and ferocious Shuckle!
Its signature move is the Psychic-type Power Split. As the name implies, after it's used, it averages out the Attack and Special Attack stats of the user and the target!
Of course, in reality, this move can't achieve a perfect average. When the power gap between the two is too large, the effect of the move is greatly diminished, but the general trend is the same: the strong will become weak, and the weak will become… philosophical.
But in reality, this move also has a condition: it can only be used through close-range contact. So, at the beginning, Arthur was cautious and chose not to have Old Flame rush forward.
"Evolve first, then ascend. Use Rock Slide from above!"
Shuckle has the Rock type but is also weak to Rock, so Old Flame's Rock Slide would be quite effective.
However, Leo didn't seem to be in a hurry to find an opportunity for Power Split.
"Use Defense Curl, then use Rollout!"
The moment Shuckle used Defense Curl, Arthur could at least be certain of one thing: Leo's Shuckle did not have the Contrary ability.
Contrary reverses the increase or decrease of one's own stats, though in reality, there's a limit to this.
A Shuckle with Contrary would not use Defense Curl, as that would only weaken its own defense.
The next moment, Leo's Shuckle retracted its head and limbs into its shell. The shell glowed with a "shing," and its edges became even more rounded.
Defense Curl is the cheapest buffing move. It's fast to cast, has a quick cooldown, but its effect is also better than nothing.
It only slightly increases one's own defense.
However, this move has a combo with Rollout. After using Defense Curl, the body becomes rounder, which is more in line with the principles of motion, and it can roll faster.
And in the next second, the Shuckle was rolling across the field!
Its start was very smooth, its acceleration silky!
It made the audience in the official live stream uncontrollably spam a wave of "Deja Vu"!
But on site, the newcomer commentator and the live audience were a bit confused.
The newcomer commentator asked directly, "Shuckle has started to use Rollout! But Charizard can fly. Is Leo planning to have his Shuckle build up a certain amount of speed and then charge into the air to attack the Charizard? But that would take a long time to build up momentum. Arthur surely won't give him that chance, right?"
Indeed, Arthur quickly had Old Flame put a stop to the opponent's baffling behavior.
"Dive down and interrupt its Rollout!"
The Rock-type Rollout is a move that needs to build up momentum. At the beginning, its damage is very average. It needs to roll for a while to increase its speed and the intensity of the attached energy before it can deal significant damage.
People are used to calling this "shifting gears!"
The power in first gear is not worth mentioning. It only becomes a threat in second or third gear. Fourth gear, you're the king of the mountain pass. Fifth gear, you're a god-slayer!
But to get to a high gear, you need to be rolling continuously for a long time.
"What is Leo thinking? How could Arthur give him that chance?" a Starlight and Frost fan asked with a scoff.
Sure enough, Old Flame quickly dove down and stopped Shuckle's Rollout without much trouble.
But Leo didn't seem to care at all.
"Maintain Withdraw. Let him hit you."
Another extremely cheap-looking, seemingly worthless move: the Water-type Withdraw.
Its effect is identical to Defense Curl, a very small boost to one's own defense.
And that's it…
Leo's move once again felt like a piece of baffling human behavior.
"Captain Leo… is he really not just wasting his move slots?" the newcomer commentator asked, voicing the thoughts of many in the stadium.
Arthur also found it a bit confusing. He could only continue to play at his own pace.
"Be careful to avoid any angle where he could use Power Split. Continue to attack with Rock Slide!"
Old Flame continuously summoned falling rocks to smash down on Shuckle's shell. When its move was on cooldown, it would attack itself, its claws and fists continuously hailing down on the turtling bastard, while always keeping an eye on the hole in Shuckle's shell where its neck retracts.
To prevent the opponent's head from suddenly popping out and hitting him with a Power Split.
But after a long time of fighting, Leo seemed to have no intention of doing so.
He just kept repeating the same three moves: Defense Curl, Withdraw, and Rollout. And every time he started Rollout, it would be interrupted by Old Flame. He couldn't even get into gear.
The audience was scratching their heads more and more.
What? What? What? What is this?
It wasn't until a good twenty minutes had passed that Arthur finally realized that something was wrong!
Because a very obvious signal had appeared—Old Flame was starting to pant.
Old Flame was old, after all. His stamina was not what it used to be. He was not suited for a long battle. Being constantly stalled by his opponent like this, unable to deal effective damage, unable to crack the shell.
And his opponent's held item this round was the continuous recovery item, Leftovers.
After fighting for half a day with little to show for it, it was Old Flame who was getting tired first.
Now, Arthur finally realized—this was likely Leo's true intention!
He was deliberately dragging this into a stall-fest, deliberately draining Old Flame's stamina
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