Chapter 99: The Man He Couldn't Have

Chapter 99: The Man She Couldn't Have

"Carbink, Stone Edge!"

Hearing Bai Feng's words, Carbink immediately wanted to attack, but the sluggish feeling from its body slowed its reaction by a step.

At this moment, Mairin also commanded Aromatisse, "Aromatisse, Calm Mind."

After hearing Mairin's words, Aromatisse completed the ability enhancement in just an instant. Calm Mind is a move that can greatly increase a Pokémon's Special Attack ability.

Just then, Carbink's Stone Edge finally launched, but Aromatisse's speed suddenly became extremely fast, dodging the rock spears flying towards it in the blink of an eye.

Carbink kept firing spears, while Aromatisse continued to use Calm Mind to boost its Special Attack while dodging.

This was simply a situation that could make one's mentality explode.

Carbink hadn't yet learned the move Light Screen from Bai Ye and currently lacked the ability to boost its Special Defense. Therefore, if Aromatisse kept boosting its Special Attack, even if its Special Defense was originally strong, the situation would become very troublesome later on.

While Carbink continuously attacked, Bai Feng lowered his head in thought, trying to find a way to break the deadlock caused by Trick Room.

At this point, Aromatisse finally finished boosting its stats. It stopped dodging Carbink's Stone Edge attacks.

"Aromatisse, Moonblast!"

Following Mairin's command, a crescent moon suddenly appeared behind Aromatisse. The bright moonlight poured onto Aromatisse, which controlled it to form a silver beam of light that blasted towards Carbink.

Carbink, suppressed by Trick Room, had no way to react and dodge in time and could only take the Moonblast head-on with its body.

"Carbink!"

Bai Feng shouted worriedly. Carbink just shook its body, indicating it was fine. Its Special Defense was high, so taking a couple of hits was no problem.

At this moment, Bai Feng glanced at the square Trick Room and suddenly had an idea.

"Carbink, use Edge Sharpening."

Although Carbink didn't understand why Bai Feng wanted it to boost its attack at this moment, it still did as commanded.

Its entire body's edges suddenly shimmered with white light, especially the parts embedded with diamonds, which subtly revealed a sense of sharpness.

"Aromatisse, Moonblast!"

Seizing the opportunity, Mairin once again directed Aromatisse to attack Carbink.

Boom!!!

The silver beam of light struck Carbink again. Carbink swayed but remained steady.

"Carbink, continue Edge Sharpening!"

Now, not only Carbink was confused, but Mairin was also puzzled.

Did he want to continuously boost Carbink's attack and then go for a one-hit knockout? But just boosting attack power is useless if you can't hit the opponent!

Thinking this, Mairin continued to shout, "Aromatisse, Moonblast!"

Bai Feng ignored Aromatisse's attacks and only focused on having Carbink boost its attack. After taking the fifth Moonblast, Carbink was already covered in injuries.

During this time, Trick Room expired once but was quickly renewed by Aromatisse. It was a seamless transition, showing that Aromatisse had a certain mastery over this move.

Aromatisse began preparing for the next wave of attacks. Just then, Bai Feng suddenly shouted:

"Carbink, Stone Edge, Form Two!"

"Miexi~"

Hearing this, Carbink's eyes suddenly became sharp. After multiple rounds of boosting, its attack power had reached its peak.

It slammed forcefully into the ground. In an instant, countless stone pillars shot up from the ground within the entire Trick Room, instantly filling the entire field.

Aromatisse, which was in the middle of preparing Moonblast, was caught off guard and hit squarely by a stone pillar, interrupting the move it was halfway through charging.

It tried to fly elsewhere, but the stone pillars erected everywhere in the space greatly restricted its movement.

"Carbink, Stone Edge, Form Two!" Bai Feng shouted again.

Stone Edge doesn't just have the rock spear form. Depending on the user's development, it can appear in various forms, and stone pillars are one of them.

Carbink had been trained by a master like Zhi Huo, so its mastery of this move naturally wouldn't be superficial.

Following Bai Feng's command, countless stone pillars once again shot up in the Trick Room.

You're fast at moving? Then I'll leave you no space to move. Anyway, Carbink is just a stationary target and can't move at all. The stone pillars don't affect it and can even serve as defensive shields for it.

Due to the boost in attack power, every stone pillar Carbink now created was incredibly thick.

As more and more stone pillars appeared in the space, Aromatisse's movable range became smaller and smaller. It also had to constantly guard against stone pillars popping up from nowhere, or it might be sent flying with a single careless bump.

It wanted to attack Carbink, but Carbink was hidden behind layers of stone pillars, leaving Aromatisse helpless.

At this point, Bai Feng spoke up, "Carbink, Gravity, then Stomping Tantrum!"

Aromatisse, carefully exploring among the stone pillars, suddenly felt a restraining force. The next second, it was pressed to the ground by the Gravity move.

Then the earth began to shake, and the stone pillars standing in the space also began to sway.

"Aromatisse!"

With a cry of surprise from Mairin, all the stone pillars suddenly fell towards Aromatisse, which was pinned to the ground.

Rumble~~~

In the blink of an eye, Aromatisse was buried beneath countless stone pillars.

After a good while, the stone pillars formed by Rock-type energy finally turned back into points of light and slowly disappeared into the air, allowing Aromatisse to emerge from the pile of rubble.

However, it was now unconscious.

"Oh dear," Mairin said regretfully, taking out her Poké Ball to recall Aromatisse. "I lost, I lost."

Bai Feng walked over to Carbink and looked at Mairin, saying, "Keep working hard, you'll definitely get a Badge."

"Of course! Just you wait, I'll definitely be back!" Recalling her Poké Ball, Mairin turned and ran off.

After Mairin left, Bai Feng released Larvitar from its Poké Ball, fed it a berry, and had Chikorita use Heal Pulse on it. Only then did it slowly wake up.

Remembering how it had been defeated by Mawile, Larvitar immediately fell into a state of self-pity.

It had actually shown such an ugly display in battle and lost so utterly without any resistance. It was too embarrassing.

Bai Feng comforted it, "It's okay, there's a first time for everything. It was just one battle; just keep working hard in the future."

"Yo... yo~"

Larvitar shrank into a corner, drawing circles on the ground with its little finger, completely lost in self-pity and unwilling to say a word.

At this moment, Carbink came over and said to it, "Don't worry, I'll train you well from now on. If you encounter this situation again in the future, you'll definitely be able to handle it."

As fellow Rock-type Pokémon, Larvitar had indeed learned a lot from Carbink, not just moves but also battle techniques.

So when Carbink spoke, Larvitar believed it. Its previous depression vanished completely, and it happily trotted along behind Carbink.

Seeing Larvitar recover its mood, Bai Feng shook his head helplessly, thinking, "Its emotions really come and go quickly."

Next, Bai Feng continued to guard the Gym. When no one came, he would read and study. Time flew by in the blink of an eye.

Only Mairin came as a Challenger that entire day. As soon as the sun set, he packed up his things and went Home.

Bai Feng helped Grandpa Fu guard the Gym for a total of three days, receiving two Challengers in total. Besides Mairin, another male Challenger came the next day. He also did not receive a Badge from Bai Feng.

After Grandpa Fu returned, he listened to Bai Feng recount his battle record and shook his head helplessly.

"As Gym Leaders, it's not that we absolutely don't give out Badges if a Challenger loses. That new Pokémon Trainer girl you received on the first day, you could have given her the Badge.

If you handle things this way, I'm afraid not many people will be able to get a Badge."

Bai Feng said speechlessly, "How was I supposed to know? You didn't tell me."

Grandpa Fu sighed, "Forget it. But if she still wants the Badge, she'll definitely come back. It is indeed according to the rules that she didn't get the Badge after losing."

"Exactly, exactly, that's right." Bai Feng quickly nodded.

Seeing this, Grandpa Fu gave him a slap on the back in annoyance, then said, "Since you helped me look after the Gym for a few days, I brought you a gift this time."

Bai Feng's eyes lit up at this. "What gift?"

After Grandpa Fu returned, he didn't tell Bai Feng why he went to Vaniville Town this time, and Bai Feng didn't ask. But with a gift, Bai Feng was certainly welcome.

Grandpa Fu turned around and rummaged through some things, then took out a U-shaped magnet. The magnet wasn't big, looking quite small.

"This is for your Heliolisk. When it holds this, the power of its Electric-type moves will increase."

So it was this! Bai Feng smiled and took the magnet, saying to Grandpa Fu, "Then I'll gladly accept!" With that, he released Heliolisk and handed it the magnet.

"Aibo~ Aibo~"

Heliolisk happily took the magnet and hung it on itself. The magnet was securely hidden beneath its Neck Frill.

After chatting with Grandpa Fu for a while, Bai Feng went Home.

A few days later, Mairin indeed returned to Coupling Gym to challenge. She even specifically requested Bai Feng to accept her challenge again.

Grandpa Fu called to ask for Bai Feng's opinion. He decisively refused. Challenge whoever you want, my task is done, I'm not getting involved.

Mairin protested several times but received no response from Bai Feng. She had no choice but to choose to challenge Grandpa Fu, then took the Badge and left Biyi City.

From then on, Bai Feng became the man Mairin "couldn't have".

This morning, Bai Feng woke up and stumbled out of his Room groggily. As he reached the doorway, he suddenly felt like he had kicked something.

He instinctively looked down and saw a small, gray cat sitting slumped on the ground, looking at him with an innocent expression.

Meow meow meow? Where did this Espurr come from?

"Rim~ Rim~"

Just then, Hatterene rushed into the Living Room and picked up the Espurr slumped on the ground.

Bai Feng rubbed his eyes. After his head cleared, he realized there was another Espurr perched on Hatterene's body.

So these two Espurr hatched from those two eggs?

"These two Espurr hatched from the eggs you picked up?"

"Rim~" Yes, it's them.

Hatterene gently held the two Espurr, its eyes full of maternal love.

Bai Feng was a little surprised. He didn't expect Hatterene to find two rare Psychic-type Pokémon eggs. That wasn't easy.

He had even gone to the Police Station to report the lost items when he saw there was no activity on the road, but still no one came to claim the two eggs.

No, that's not right. A few people had come to claim them, but they were just trying to take advantage. The Pokémon eggs weren't theirs at all.

Officer Jenny tricked them into telling the truth with just a few words and finally criticized them severely.

"Since they've hatched, take good care of them," Bai Feng said.

"Rim~ Rim~" Hatterene nodded in agreement.

Bai Feng walked out of the courtyard gate and saw the Pokémon working hard early in the morning.

Bai Ye continued his daily passionate sparring session with Talonflame Captain in the morning.

Larvitar and Carbink were huddled together researching how to develop Stone Edge. The ground was covered in rubble they had created.

Chikorita was freely expending its overly abundant energy in the flower patch, causing the Fairy Flowers to bloom exceptionally profusely early in the morning, attracting Floette and the Flabébé to linger.

Bai Feng didn't see Brionne, but he could guess it had gone to the Reservoir at the Mountain base. There was a group of its underlings there that needed its "care."

Heliolisk was lying on a large rock, raising its head high, spreading its Neck Frill to the maximum extent, and aiming it at the rising sun to absorb sunlight.

Ever since Bai Feng started helping Heliolisk light up its Hidden Energy Circuits, he discovered that Heliolisk had gained a new ability.

That was its ability to generate a large amount of electrical energy by absorbing sunlight, and its main organ for absorbing sunlight was its Neck Frill.

This ability was something Helioptile didn't possess before.

Because of this, Heliolisk spent a lot of time sunbathing every day. It also wanted to learn the move Sunny Day by sunbathing.

After gaining the ability to absorb sunlight and generate electrical energy, if Heliolisk could also learn Sunny Day, it would be like adding wings to a tiger in battle.

However, weather moves weren't that easy to learn. After trying hard for many days, Heliolisk didn't learn Sunny Day. Instead, it unexpectedly learned another move—Flash.

How to put it... it was just... well, better than nothing, at least it learned something.

Seeing that Heliolisk couldn't learn Sunny Day no matter what, Bai Feng finally thought helplessly, "Forget it, I'll just ask Grandpa Fu for guidance!"

Although Sunny Day is a Fire-type move, Grass-type Pokémon find it very easy to learn. As a Pokémon Trainer specializing in Grass-type Pokémon, Grandpa Fu had quite a few Pokémon that could use Sunny Day.

After eating breakfast, Bai Feng called Grandpa Fu. Not long after, Grandpa Fu's Tropius slowly landed on Fangxing Mountain.

This Tropius, which Bai Feng had ridden many times, was also one of the Pokémon Grandpa Fu had that could use Sunny Day.

(End of Chapter)