Chapter 125: Lapras VS Honchkrow

Chapter 125: Lapras VS Honchkrow

Upon seeing Little Lapras being sent out by Arthur, the youth opposite was still slightly stunned for a moment.

He had always thought that Arthur would send out the Frogadier that was always by his side.

Initially, he had sought out Arthur precisely because he had seen that Frogadier possessed a formidable aura and sharp eyes, looking like it had extraordinary skills, which then made his heart itch unbearably, prompting him to issue the challenge.

However, the two were, after all, complete strangers who had never met before. He couldn't really comment on what Pokémon the other person chose to send out. He could only say sullenly, "You better be serious. I'm very formidable, you know. Don't think you can also fool me like those guys who don't follow the rules!"

"Of course."

Arthur calmly nodded and, incidentally, asked.

"Doesn't your Honchkrow need to heal first?"

Just now, Honchkrow had already fought one match. Although its opponent had unethically bailed halfway through, the Pikachu had still managed to zap it several times before that. At this moment, quite a few scorched black feathers could still be seen sticking up on Honchkrow's body.

"No need."

The youth simply stroked the feathers on Honchkrow's back, then fed it a pill with recovery properties. Following that, he confidently adopted a battle stance.

Arthur shrugged his shoulders and didn't say any more.

If the opponent is confident, it's not my place to stop him, right?

Subsequently, both sides arrived at their respective ends of the field. The Pokémon entered the open ground, and the trainers retreated to outside the field lines.

"Shall we begin?"

"Let's begin!"

With both sides having agreed they were ready, the duel instantly began!

Right from the start, the youth very aggressively took the initiative and launched an attack.

"Use Sucker Punch!"

Honchkrow used the Dark-type skill "Sucker Punch"!

This move, like Frogadier's "Shadow Sneak," belongs to the category of priority skills with extremely fast activation. Its mode of operation is similar to the Normal-type "Quick Attack," similarly involving enveloping the whole body with energy, then accelerating to forcefully ram the enemy.

The power of this move far exceeds that of "Quick Attack," and furthermore, it becomes even stronger in a direct clash of attacks.

"Sucker Punch" has a very wondrous additional effect: when Dark-type energy envelops the whole body, the Pokémon, during its sprint, can absorb a portion of the enemy's attack energy. This absorbed energy is then used for a second stage of acceleration, making its own sprint even faster!

Therefore, in a direct clash of attacks, "Sucker Punch" can almost certainly seize the first move!

It is a very signature opening skill for Dark-types.

Unfortunately—

Arthur had long ago guessed that his opponent would have such a move.

A Honchkrow, being naturally disadvantaged in terms of speed, if it aspired to competitive duels, would basically find it impossible to pass up "Sucker Punch," this extremely useful Dark-type dash skill.

Therefore, at the opening, he fundamentally chose not to engage in a direct attack to grab the first move.

Instead, he calmly, with a slight delay, ordered, "Tank this hit, use the force to retreat, then use Water Gun to beat him back."

Little Lapras clenched her teeth and frontally took the full force of this "Sucker Punch."

Using the impact force to slide herself backward, she pulled distance. Simultaneously, during the sliding process, she opened her mouth and quickly sprayed a pillar of water, using the strong impact force to push Honchkrow back in the opposite direction!

"Caw!"

Honchkrow, having just finished ramming its head into the enemy, was at this moment in the skill cooldown vacuum period. Sprayed squarely by the "Water Gun," it could only passively retreat.

With this retreat, distance was then created between them.

And Lapras, as a mage-type Pokémon with an advantage in skill range, was naturally happy to see such a situation unfold.

"Skate, get sliding! Maintain distance, and continue to suppress with Water Gun."

Arthur quickly followed up with the command.

Lapras executed it perfectly as well.

During the subsequent suppression, she always strictly followed Arthur's past teachings, maximally compressing the water output of each single spray, making the fired "Water Gun" jets faster and harder to dodge.

Simultaneously, reducing the water output also effectively lowered energy consumption, causing the linking between skill releases to become faster as a result.

Honchkrow initially still wanted to step forward and pursue, but it was quickly suppressed by the continuous fire of fast, accurate, and strangely high-frequency water arrows, finding it difficult to even move.

"This..."

The youth was momentarily quite astonished.

He had originally thought that the opponent sending out Lapras instead of Frogadier was an intentional act of slacking off against him.

Who would have thought that this Lapras was similarly not simple, easily neutralizing his opening offensive.

Or perhaps... it wasn't just the Lapras that wasn't simple, but also the opponent himself?

However, the battle was still ongoing; there was no time for him to indulge in too many wild thoughts at this moment.

"Use Haze!"

Seeing the situation turning unfavorable, he also quickly sought to change his move.

Haze: An Ice-type skill, possessing the effect of removing beneficial BUFFs from the enemy, equivalent to a group dispel.

However, at this moment, the youth's purpose in having Honchkrow release this move was not for dispelling.

What he wanted was merely the Haze itself.

The next moment, Honchkrow spread its wings once, and pitch-black mist quickly overflowed from its entire body. Coordinated with its suddenly glowing crimson red eyes as it released the skill, this scene actually possessed quite the aura of a demon lord descending or a BOSS transforming!

In the blink of an eye, the dense black mist enveloped a little over half the field.

This was just like when Arthur first took Frogadier (then Froakie) to fight in the Jinqiu Cup qualifiers and would often release the "Smokescreen" skill; what they actually wanted wasn't the added effects of these skills.

What they wanted was merely this mist itself.

The pitch-black dense mist obscured vision, completely hiding Honchkrow's figure.

Little Lapras habitually spat another mouthful of "Water Gun" into it, but these few water arrows, without exception, all penetrated the black mist and shot towards the area outside the field.

It was clear they had fundamentally failed to hit the target.

This was precisely the effect Honchkrow wanted.

The opponent temporarily couldn't find him anymore.

Subsequently, although the youth didn't speak again, their tacit understanding already allowed Honchkrow to smoothly activate the next skill—

Double Team!

"Caw!"

"Caw!"

"Caw!"

Following a burst of excited crow caws sounding simultaneously...

In an instant, a full six identical Honchkrows charged out of the black mist at the same time, instantly surrounding Little Lapras from all directions!

They flapped their wings, flying while hopping. Their running appearance was slightly clumsy, somewhat like a large rooster.

Although their speed wasn't fast, their imposing manner was nonetheless full and ample!

This was precisely the tactic the youth had previously used to force Pikachu into a corner of the field—

"Haze" in coordination with "Double Team."

Two seemingly unrelated skills, yet they were unexpectedly combined and adjusted to produce a wondrous chemical reaction.

The youth's thought process had always been very clear: he absolutely had to suppress Little Lapras's movement space, forcing the opponent into a situation where close-quarters melee combat was unavoidable.

At that point, he was confident his Honchkrow would definitely overcome the enemy and achieve victory, being invincible!

Lapras, theoretically, could also possess considerable close-combat capability.

Their learnable skills list included "Bulldoze," "Zen Headbutt," "Body Slam," and even the ultimate move "Megahorn."

But these were just in theory.

Wild Lapras are purely aquatic Pokémon; they almost never go ashore in their entire lifetime. In their wild survival environment, they wouldn't use the aforementioned skills.

Therefore, wanting a Lapras to master these moves basically relied solely on postnatal teaching by humans.

The Lapras before them was still less than two meters in body length; one look and it was clear it was of a young body type.

The youth didn't believe the opponent would neglect teaching Lapras its own STAB moves and instead, so early on, teach it a pile of close-combat skills.

Therefore, he felt he had already secured victory in this round, and a smug smile couldn't help but appear on his face.

But Arthur's expression at this moment remained as calm and composed as ever.

Regarding this, perhaps he held some different views.

(End of Chapter)

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