Chapter 649: The Price of Youthful Arrogance
Elara started with her Scolipede.
Opposite her, Chuya sent out one of his ace Pokémon: Staraptor.
Staraptor's Flying typing countered the Bug-type Scolipede, and also countered Elara's Grass-type Serperior, killing two birds with one stone.
At the same time, his Staraptor had the Intimidate ability. Upon entering the field, it let out a fierce cry to frighten the opponent, effectively preventing them from unleashing an ultimate move at the start and then using Baton Pass to retreat.
So in Chuya's view, he held the key to victory right from the beginning!
"Staraptor, use Double Team, then attack with the clones!"
While commanding, he couldn't help but smirk, making no attempt to hide his disdain.
However, to his surprise, Elara responded calmly.
"Scolipede, set up Toxic Spikes first!"
Chuya frowned slightly.
He had studied the replays of the Kubfu Professional League. He clearly remembered that this woman always used Scolipede as a baton passer. Wasn't her ace the Contrary Serperior?
In the matches he watched, Elara always used the same three-move combo at the start: Scolipede uses the ultimate move Superpower, then Baton Pass to switch out, and Serperior enters to receive the reversed buffs and start dealing damage.
Throughout the season, Elara played like this in over 90% of her matches. Even in the few matches where she substituted in the Champions Cup, her routine was basically the same.
So when he sent out Staraptor, Chuya thought he had already sealed the opponent's strongest combo.
Unexpectedly, Elara didn't panic at all, playing steadily and leisurely.
It was completely different from what he thought!
Seeing this, the head coach off the field pushed up her glasses, the rim reflecting a wise glint.
"There's hope for this match. The opponent seems to have underestimated the enemy. Their intelligence work wasn't comprehensive enough."
The head coach had been in this business for years! She saw through this young man's thoughts at a glance.
Famous at a young age, too arrogant!
The opponent probably only diligently studied the two pillars of her team, Leo and Aaron, and didn't pay enough attention to the two rotational substitute players.
Even if they collected data, they probably just glanced at a few replays of the professional league without studying them carefully.
Admittedly, Elara really only knew one set of tactics throughout the regular season this year, playing the three-move combo from start to finish.
But if the opponent had really carefully studied the playoff replays of this player after she joined Starlight and Frost, they should have been alerted—
After coming here, her growth rate was amazing!
Chuya, young and arrogant, perhaps today was finally the time to pay the price!
Soon, the two sides exchanged several more rounds. Staraptor's Double Team clones were mostly cleared, and Scolipede's Toxic Spikes were also largely destroyed.
A minute passed in the blink of an eye.
Chuya was still wondering why the opponent hadn't used Superpower yet. He had been guarding against this move.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the minute was up, Scolipede suddenly accelerated!
"Scolipede, Poison Jab!"
The red demon's twin blades were suddenly drawn, slashing a cross in a flash of lightning!
Caught off guard, Staraptor was hit immediately. Its wings were injured, and it couldn't even maintain its flight altitude for a moment.
"What?!"
Chuya was shocked.
And the head coach was even more convinced of her judgment at this time.
"Not even guarding against Scolipede's Speed Boost ability. This young man on the opposite side really underestimated Elara too much.
"Heh, he will pay for this."
Everyone looked sideways.
At this moment, the head coach exuded a gloomy aura that was awe-inspiring.
Everyone shivered, daring not to answer.
Only Arthur thought about it and roughly understood why the coach was angry.
As an old coach who had dedicated herself to tactical research for more than thirty years, the opponent's frivolous and arrogant attitude displeased her very much.
In her team management philosophy, even a genius like Arthur had to ask for leave to skip replays.
This young man on the opposite side dared to be arrogant with just a little achievement and didn't study his opponent well. The head coach absolutely did not approve!
This might be exactly why the manager of Starlight and Frost insisted on letting her lead this young team full of problem children.
Because in the head coach's eyes, geniuses also had to train and review properly, with no exceptions or privileges!
And the coach of the Nine-Tailed Fox Team on the opposite side obviously didn't do enough in this regard.
Maybe there were too many geniuses in the team, or maybe the coach lacked prestige.
Or maybe they lacked a king of overachievers like Arthur.
In short, the discipline of the team over there was obviously not as strict as Starlight and Frost's!
This reflected on the field: Chuya didn't even guard against Elara's Scolipede having the Speed Boost ability before the match!
A minute later, Scolipede's sudden acceleration caught him off guard!
Elara seized the opportunity to launch a full suppression!
"Chase and slash! Aim for the wings, don't let him fly again! Use Fury Cutter later!"
Chuya was obviously a bit flustered for a moment. "Use Whirlwind, push her back!"
Whirlwind's forced knockback did create distance, but time was not on Chuya's side at this moment!
"Good! Now, Defense Curl plus Rollout, stall for time!"
Oh no!
By the time Chuya realized it, it was too late!
The abilities of the two Pokémon were extremes. Intimidate only took effect at the start, a standard first-encounter ability, and its effect diminished to almost nothing afterwards.
But Speed Boost was the opposite. There was no boost at the start, but over time, it would make the Pokémon faster and faster!
The first boost took a minute to warm up, but the next one only took half a minute!
The one who really couldn't afford to stall was Chuya!
Yet in his panic, he used a forced knockback move to help the opponent create distance.
"Damn it!"
He cursed, then didn't hesitate to use an ultimate move.
"Staraptor, Brave Bird!"
Unfortunately, Elara was already prepared, and Scolipede also used the cheap Defense Curl move to slightly increase her defense.
Brave Bird only grazed her a bit, not hitting fully, and the damage wasn't ideal.
At this time, Chuya dared not be arrogant anymore and recalled Staraptor without hesitation.
He didn't dare wait for the cooldown to end slowly.
Speed Boost and Rollout were both abilities and moves that would become stronger with time stacking.
He couldn't afford to wait!
However, this stunned commentators from all alliances.
"Wow! Before the match, probably no one expected that the first side forced to use the mid-battle switch authority would be the Nine-Tailed Fox Team!"
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