Bonus Chapter: for a reaching 100 power stones
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Honestly, you couldn't blame Lance for his reaction, because the two Pokémon that had just appeared before him were genuinely pretty rare to see.
An Ambipom and a Dedenne.
Lance couldn't help but feel puzzled.
If he remembered correctly, Ambipom was only a blue-quality Pokémon, and Dedenne was even just white-quality.
In a battle game like this, where Pokémon stats were so important, why would anyone use these kinds of Pokémon in ranked matches?
This really must be some lucky newbie player.
Meanwhile, Kairos's livestream chat was having a field day.
[Oh my god, Ambipom, I could maybe understand, but Dedenne too??]
[Does the streamer think this is like some kiddie tournament?]
[Kid, you need to evolve at least one more stage before coming here]
[Hahahahaha]
[Streamer, why don't you just surrender and do a prize pool giveaway instead? ]
In everyone's mind, Dedenne was basically no different from a mascot—nobody had ever heard of any Elite Four member or Champion training one of these things.
The reason was simple: Dedenne was just too weak. It was naturally timid with a shallow move pool and didn't even have room for evolutionary improvement.
Generally speaking, trainers who had Dedenne simply liked their cute appearance and wanted them as traveling companions.
They definitely weren't expecting them to be much use in battle.
So seeing Kairos send out Dedenne naturally filled the stream with a cheerful atmosphere...
But Kairos ignored all the chat comments and decisively gave his command:
"Dedenne, Ambipom, use Fling directly on the opponents in front of you!"
At the same time, on the other side, Lance also spoke up.
"Garchomp, use Earthquake! Kommo-o, jump up and hit them with Boomburst!"
Earthquake, as an extremely high-power Ground-type move, could deal massive damage while hitting any Pokémon standing on the ground, including allies.
But if you had Kommo-o jump up beforehand, it could have avoided the earthquake damage.
This was a fairly simple but practical tactical combination.
After giving his commands, Lance was actually feeling a bit disappointed.
This kind of steamroll battle against a newbie trainer was honestly pretty boring for a Champion like him.
He should hurry up and climb the ladder to face stronger opponents at higher ranks...
While he was thinking, the game finished calculating and the action began.
However, the next moment, something completely unexpected happened!
Before either dragon could make any move, two objects came flying from far away and—WHAM!—hit them square on the head with pinpoint accuracy.
Both dragons' HP bars dropped by a barely noticeable amount.
"?"
Lance looked closer and saw that what had flown over was a worn golden crown and a strangely shaped, sharp fang.
A King's Rock and a Razor Fang?
So these were items carried by the opponent's Pokémon?
While he was thinking, he looked up and discovered that his Garchomp and Kommo-o were just standing there frozen in place.
Two notifications popped up:
[Garchomp flinched!]
[Kommo-o flinched!]
What the hell??
After a brief moment of confusion, he immediately figured it out.
Right, it must be the Fling move!
This move lets Pokémon throw their held items to attack, producing different power and effects depending on what they're carrying.
If you threw something like an "Iron Ball" with high mass, it would deal significant damage.
And the current "King's Rock" and "Razor Fang" would cause flinching...
This move sounded decent enough, but in actual combat, nobody would ever have their Pokémon use this technique.
Because this move was completely one-time use—after using it, it would directly consume the held item.
After all, once you threw the thing away, you couldn't exactly go pick it up and throw it again, right?
The opponent wasn't an idiot—why would they just watch you go retrieve it?
And yet this one-time move would directly waste a Pokémon's precious and unique held item slot.
In most situations, this was a choice where the drawbacks outweighed the benefits.
Right now, with Garchomp and Kommo-o in flinch state, they naturally couldn't act normally, so the game moved directly to the next command round.
Lance wasn't worried.
This move was basically just stalling for one turn without any real effect, at most using its pitiful damage plus poison to chip away a bit of his team's HP.
Next round, he'd like to see how his opponent would handle things!
With that thought, Lance gave the exact same commands as the previous round.
However, the next moment...
The King's Rock and Razor Fang lying on the ground suddenly flew up into the air on their own, switched positions left and right, and flew back to Ambipom and Dedenne!!
[Dedenne's "Pickup" ability activated!]
[Ambipom's "Pickup" ability activated!]
Lance: ???
Wait, you actually picked them up??
Hold on, doesn't this mean...
Just as Lance's expression changed and he realized things might not be so simple...
The next round had already begun, and under the boost of Tailwind, the two objects once again flew over at incredible speed, striking Garchomp and Kommo-o!
The King's Rock slapped right onto Garchomp's face, while the Razor Fang jammed straight into Kommo-o's nostril...
Their bodies immediately stiffened!
"Flinch" triggered again!
What happened next was quite dramatic.
With the Pickup ability constantly triggering, the two items kept returning, only to be thrown out again and again by Dedenne and Ambipom using Fling.
Round after round passed, and Garchomp and Kommo-o were completely unable to move, only able to watch helplessly as their HP slowly decreased bit by bit.
Two mighty Dragon-type pseudo-legendaries, reduced to just standing there getting pelted with junk!
Plus, with the toxins that Glimmora had laid down earlier, their HP would drop a little extra each turn from poison damage.
And so, when the ninth round began, Garchomp and Kommo-o finally couldn't hold on anymore and collapsed, losing their ability to battle!
The Hydreigon and Goodra that Lance sent out next got smacked the moment they entered the field...
Lance was completely dumbfounded.
Dude, is this how you're supposed to use the Pickup ability?
In that moment, sitting in front of his computer screen with his expression starting to twist, he finally understood why his opponent had chosen that username...
"Decent Person"?
This guy definitely has zero decent whatsoever!!!
Can someone please do something about this guy??