Kala frowned when he saw Pikachu. It would have been great if Dante had sent out Azumarill instead.
As Dante became more and more famous, people began to discuss his Pokemon- especially their strength rankings. And from what Kala heard, Pikachu is ranked below Azumarill.
If he could take down Azumarill, the coach would definitely look more favorably on him. Maybe he could even get some preferential treatment. After all, although he's in 9th place, that was because he only had two Pokemon.
"Both Trainers, let the battle begin!"
"Decidueye, use Tailwind!"
"Pikachu, Thunder Wave."
Decidueye just began to flap his wings when a jolt of static current hit him. His body froze, with sparks of electricity coming out. Then, Pikachu leisurely approached the paralyzed owl Pokemon and knocked him out with an Iron Tail.
"Decidueye!"
Kala shouted his throat out. But until the end, his Pokemon was unable to move.
Dante smiled in nostalgia. When they were first starting out as an Exploration Team, spamming Thunder Wave was their go-to strategy. They stopped using it because of exploration inefficiency, but Dante still believed Thunder Wave is one of the most broken moves available; at least in the hands of Pikachu.
Normally, the method to stop Thunder Wave is to either dodge, block, rely on high defenses to resist it head-on, be immune to Electric-type moves, or use moves like Misty Terrain and Safeguard.
However, with Pikachu's current stats, almost no Pokemon can dodge or withstand it relying on their defenses. Even Decidueye, a Grass-type who is resistant to Electric moves, was unable to move when hit by Thunder Wave.
Looking at Pikachu's stats, Dante is sure even a Champion-level Pokemon wouldn't be his match.
Pikachu
Type: Electric
Abilities:
Static (Can paralyze attackers that made physical contact)
Lightning Rod (Draws Electric-type attacks and boosts Special Attack)
Level: 48
HP: 112/112
Attack: 160 (+5) Defense: 101 (+18)
Sp. Atk: 163 Sp. Def.: 98 (+15) Speed: 103
Item: Light Ball (Doubles Attack and Special Attack)
…
Kala took a deep breath. It's fine, he reassured himself. Everyone knows Dante is strong. From the start, he knew a straightforward fight wouldn't be able to get him a win.
Luckily, his Pokemon specialized in that kind of field.
"Let's show them what we got, Gourgeist!"
After the match resumed, Kala quickly commanded Gourgeist to use Phantom Force.
Phantom Force is a Ghost-type Physical move with 90 base power. It works similar to Dig and Dive. But in the case of this move, the user hides in the gap between the Human World and the Ghost World, entering a semi-invulnerable state.
Dante is very familiar with this move. After all, as a Ghost-type Pokemon in the PMD world, he also learned it more than a month ago.
He had even entered and briefly explored the Ghost World.
However, he didn't find anything of interest. It was just a dark and dreary place, suitable for the many Ghost-type Pokemon who lived there.
Because of this, even without Copycat active, Dante could feel the ripples in space where Gourgeist was hiding. So while waiting for her to come out…
"Pikachu, use Agility."
Dante took advantage of this free opportunity. With Pikachu's proficiency of the move, a single use made him double his speed. And right at this moment, Dante felt the space tearing open.
"Pikachu, Knock Off to your left!"
"Gourgeist, Destiny B-!"
Kala's word's got stuck in his throat. Before Gourgeist could even fully emerge, she was hit in the face by the yellow rat Pokemon.
His mouth hung open, staring in disbelief. He clearly timed it when Pikachu was in the middle of using a move. How could they respond to Gourgeist so quickly?
His plan, which had been to take down Pikachu in a suicide attack, ended along with his Pokemon crumpling on the ground.
—
"Hiss!"
The other seniors took a breath of cold air. This Pikachu…he seemed a much more troublesome opponent than the previous Mawile. Earlier, they only had to worry about dodging or defending against the cream-colored Pokemon's raw power.
But this Pikachu…not only does he have a fast speed, he also learned a troublesome status move like Thunder Wave. Coupled with having a powerful attack, he seemed impossible to defeat.
The next match only solidified their hunch.
Liuai was the next to come out. In their plan, she would have Torterra set up Safeguard to prevent Thunder Wave. However, her Pokemon were too slow. Before Torterra could even use the move, Pikachu interrupted him using Quick Attack, followed by Play Rough to knock him out.
Simisage and Poliwrath, who didn't have the protection of Safeguard, weren't able to escape the fate of getting paralyzed. Suffice to say, the two of them were knocked out without any struggle.
The next two matches ended in almost the exact same way. Pikachu, who had boosted his speed by double, is just too strong. For a speedy Pokemon like him, the usual counter would have been to tank the hit and make a counterattack.
However, his attacks were monstrous as well. None could take even a single one of his moves and survive. And even if they used Protect, the yellow rat would just use Feint.
Under the dull gazes of the freshmen team, the seniors who defeated all of them, lined up one by one and got sent packing one after the other.
First was Celiz, who should have been their trump card against Azumarill. Her Nidoking was sent flying by an Iron Tail, her Weezing fried by a Thunderbolt, and Amoonguss comboed with a Quick Attack and Slam.
The next was Roman, who at least put up some of a fight. He activated Tailwind at the beginning, sacrificing Talonflame to Pikachu's Thunderbolt in the process. Then, he sent out Hawlucha.
Hawlucha is a Fighting/Flying, bipedal, birdlike Pokémon with colorful plumage. Its head curves into a beak-shape in the front, but its mouth is located in a white patch under the beak's curve. It has a blue-green mask-like marking across its face, an orange blaze running from its forehead to the back of its neck, an orange ring around each eye, and a small, red patch at the tip of its beak.
And just like Accelgor, he also possessed the Unburden Ability.
At the start of the match, Hawlucha quickly consumed the Liechi Berry he was holding, boosting his attack by 20% and doubling his speed. With the added presence of Tailwind, Hawlucha obtained a Speed even higher than Pikachu's!
Roman thought he had gained a chance of victory. Pikachu's attacks and speed are so high, his defenses should definitely not be on the same level.
…but that was just his wishful thinking. Hawlucha's attack, which was raised to 105 after consuming the Liechi Berry, only caused Pikachu to take a couple of steps back after being hit by Close Combat.
Then, Pikachu let out a Discharge. With the move's large AoE, Hawlucha's fast speed became useless as he had nowhere to dodge. In the end, the bird wrestler was promptly knocked out.
Roman conceded right after, not taking the opportunity to let his final Pokemon take the field. Instead, while Tailwind was still in effect, he gave the stage to Mualani.
Mualani also fought with everything she had.
She first sent out Politoed, causing rain to descend upon the arena. Then, with the assistance of Tailwind, Politoed managed to use Haze before she was hit by Pikachu's Draining Kiss and fainted.
Although Pikachu recovered from the damage Hawlucha gave because of this, Mualani thought it's a worthwhile trade to remove Pikachu's speed boost. Next, she just needed to take advantage of Ludicolo's speed advantage to establish victory!
At least, that's what she had planned.
Against Ludicolo's Hydro Pump boosted by Rain, Dante just commanded Pikachu to activate his Lightning Rod Ability to double his special attack. Then, a massive beam of Thunder swallowed the beam of water Ludicolo spit out.
It was only thanks to his speed boosted by four times, as well as Pikachu not attacking all-out, that Ludicolo barely dodged out of the way. But it was also after this that the Tailwind petered out.
Thus, there was no more suspense for the remaining battle.
Ludicolo's speed is only slightly higher than Pikachu under the rain. After Ludicolo blocked Pikachu's Thunder Wave with Water Pulse, Pikachu charged towards him using Quick Attack. Ludicolo was unprepared and staggered backwards. Not letting this opportunity pass, Pikachu followed it up with Thunder Punch, causing the pineapple-looking, duck Pokemon to faint.
The last to appear was Sharpedo. Similar to her battle against Focalors, Mualani first let him use Double Team and Substitute.
Unfortunately, this strategy won't work against Dante. He commanded Pikachu to use Discharge. The powerful electric attack hit all of Sharpedo's afterimages, and even the Substitute wasn't spared. In the end, the shark Pokemon let out a final wail before falling on the arena floor.
And with that, Dante achieved the feat of defeating the 9 main team members of his University all by himself.
A/N: Whew, this arc had gone much longer than intended. I had to remove some of the reactions to speed it up, even summarizing some of the battles. Anyway, I hope it served its purpose to familiarize everyone with the school team members and their Pokemon.