Since Larvitar was still young, Frogadier and Combusken were the eldest and second eldest in the team, so naturally, they took good care of Larvitar and Beldum.
It was their little buddy's first battle, and both Frogadier and Combusken were a little worried.
Larvitar was already battle-hungry, and with Frogadier and Combusken cheering it on, plus the thought of Su Yi, who had always cared for it, it wanted to win this battle!
"Come on! Use Rock Throw!"
Rock Throw gathered and shot toward Servine.
Seeing that Larvitar was still standing after Servine's Vine Whip, boosted by Growth, Qiao Yueyue wasn't surprised at all. Any other Pokémon with a fourfold weakness would have gone down already.
"Larvitar is Su Yi's Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon. It may still be a baby, but we can't afford to let our guard down."
Qiao Yueyue had also ranked among the top two hundred in the overall standings, so she had a sharp eye.
"Servine, use Grasstornado!"
"Servine!"
Servine nodded firmly, wildly drawing on the Grass-type energy within its body.
Countless tiny leaves of energy, each as sharp as a blade, rose around Servine.
Grasstornado: Attacks the opponent with sharp leaves swirling around them. It may lower their accuracy.
But this time, Larvitar had launched Rock Throw first.
One rock after another flew toward Servine.
Seeing this, Qiao Yueyue had no choice but to order Servine to hurl its still-incomplete Grasstornado at the incoming rocks.
She couldn't risk letting her Servine take the attack. Its opponent was Larvitar, a Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon's baby form.
There was a reason they were called Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon. Each was bound to have at least one exceptionally powerful ability.
Larvitar had tremendous physical attack power.
The rocks and Grasstornado clashed fiercely. The leaves sliced through the rocks, but then they scattered as well.
Taking advantage of the opening, Su Yi snapped his fingers.
"Larvitar, let's try Rock Slide again!"
"Larvitar..."
Larvitar gathered rock energy once more. This time, it drew on every last bit within its body, pooling it wildly until a massive boulder—far larger than the rocks it had thrown before—formed above its head!
Rock Slide formed successfully once again and thundered toward Servine!
"Servine, dodge!"
Qiao Yueyue could only shout the command instinctively, but it was already too late.
Rock Slide's boulder was huge. Servine pushed off with its little legs and jumped, but it still couldn't escape the attack.
The small Pokémon was struck directly by the boulder.
After hitting its target, the boulder exploded under Larvitar's control, dealing a second wave of damage to Servine.
"Servine..."
Servine fell.
Qiao Yueyue's face fell, though in her heart she couldn't help admiring Su Yi a little.
... ... ...
As expected of an expert. This Servine was the Pokémon she'd put the most effort into raising.
She hadn't expected that even an evolved Servine couldn't defeat his unevolved baby Pokémon.
[ Ding! Congratulations, host! Larvitar performed excellently and triggered a hidden reward: Skill Awakening Card: Slash! ]
[ Ding! Congratulations, host! Larvitar defeated Servine and gained a large amount of Battle Experience. Its level has increased to Lv. 13! ]
[ Ding! Congratulations, host! Side Quest 2 complete (7/10). Keep up the good work! ]
The system's notification rang in his mind.
Winning a battle against a higher-level opponent granted a large amount of Battle Experience.
But because Larvitar was a Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon in its baby form, it only went up two levels.
"Su Yi, everyone says you're an expert. Now I see why—you're amazing!"
Qiao Yueyue recalled Servine.
She walked over and looked at Su Yi with a hint of admiration.
"Your Servine is great too. Your battle skills are decent, but you could try having it train with Leaf Storm ahead of time. It's already learned Grasstornado, and Leaf Storm works on a similar principle. Give it a try."
Su Yi was crouching down to praise Larvitar. When Qiao Yueyue came over, he offered the suggestion casually.
He'd applied his understanding of the game's moves to the real world of Pokémon. By carefully observing Pokémon as they used their moves, he'd found that many skills shared similarities.
Qiao Yueyue nodded thoughtfully.
"Thanks, expert! Everyone says you're the type who keeps people at a distance, but you're not like that at all. Hehe!"
Qiao Yueyue stuck out her tongue playfully.
Su Yi smiled. He wasn't very interested in dealing with people who challenged him unless he stood to gain something, since they took up his time.
Unless they were strong.
Or unless Su Yi happened to need something from them, like a battle with Qiao Yueyue.
He happened to need Larvitar to battle a Pokémon below Lv. 20.
After exchanging WeChat contacts with Qiao Yueyue, Su Yi recalled his Pokémon too.
He was quite satisfied with Larvitar's first battle. It had taken some hits, but it was its first time battling, after all.
After heading to the cafeteria for a big meal, he took Larvitar to the academy's Pokemon Infirmary for a checkup. It was fine.
Days like this continued for another ten days or so. At last, the Class Battle Competition was here!
For the freshmen who had enrolled just a month ago, today was a special day.
It was the Class Battle Competition, held after a month of training.
It was only for freshmen.
That meant first-years at Jingtian Academy.
Each class had around a hundred students.
There were ten classes in all.
Although the classes were large, that didn't affect lessons.
Since Pokémon had different types, students could choose which teachers they studied under.
The week was divided into three time slots.
Every student except Su Yi had filled out a preference form at the start.
Of the eighteen known types, each had chosen three to specialize in.
First-years were limited to three.
In their second year, students could add three more specialized types if their teachers approved their performance in the first-year courses.
So the hundred students were split across three time slots each week, with only twenty or thirty students in each slot.
Today, Su Yi slept until he woke up naturally.
He let everyone out and prepared their food.
The Pokémon Su Yi currently had, along with their qualifications and levels, were as follows.
Three had Silver Qualification.
Lv. 38 Greninja, Lv. [level not specified] Vibrava, and Lv. 18 Beldum.
Greninja and Vibrava had both originally had Purple Qualification. They'd gained Silver Qualification after he used a Qualification 777 Promotion Card on each of them.
Beldum was a premium Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon awarded by the system. It had hatched with Silver Qualification.
Greninja had evolved because Su Yi had once found a teacher with a very interesting battle style.
That teacher had just caught a new Pokémon, around the same level as Frogadier. After winning the battle, Frogadier evolved. It had only been one level away anyway.
Combusken was still Lv. 35, while Larvitar was Lv. 18. Because of its qualification, it hadn't leveled up as quickly as Beldum, but it had always been the one fighting alongside Beldum.
The other Pokémon were too high-level to do anything but serve as sparring partners.
The ones with Purple Qualification were Lv. 35 Combusken, Lv. 33 Ampharos, and Lv. 18 Larvitar.
Su Yi checked Larvitar and Beldum with his Eye of Investigation and nodded in satisfaction.
In a month, the two little guys had built a solid foundation.
They should have fully absorbed their Spirit Foundation Potions too.
Now he could use those two Attack Enhancement Potions.
"Larvitar, Beldum, drink these two. You'll be stronger afterward."
Su Yi handed Larvitar and Beldum an Attack Enhancement Potion each.
Without hesitation, Larvitar and Beldum drank them.
The energy within their bodies began to change at once.
"Larvitar!"
Larvitar and Beldum started charging toward Su Yi.
"Wait!"
Su Yi hurriedly stopped them.
"I've told you so many times, don't do that anymore. You're both getting stronger and heavier. One of you is fine, but I can barely handle you when you both come at me together. Be good."
Su Yi crouched down and patted Larvitar and Beldum.
They knew he was right. There was nothing they could do.
Larvitar had learned several new moves: Tackle, Screech, Claw, Dig, Rock Throw, Rock Slide, Slash, Bite, and Sandstorm.
Beldum had broken through its limitations. Silver Qualification was no joke; it had learned more than just Headbutt.
After studying Beldum's moves and working hard alongside it, Su Yi had helped it learn Iron Defense and Iron Head in addition to Headbutt. Lately, he'd also been trying to get Beldum to activate the Psychic power inside its body so it could use Psychic-type moves.
But so far, they hadn't succeeded...
Su Yi had eaten breakfast too. In the past month, he'd spent around 1.3 million Gold Coins!
Of that, the daily meals for his six Pokémon alone had cost 300,000 Gold Coins.
Most of the other million had gone toward raising the two little guys.
His other Pokémon didn't cost as much.
Raising Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon was expensive.
Training consumed a lot of energy.
Of course, raising Pokémon normally wouldn't cost anywhere near that much.
Su Yi had calculated it according to the highest standards.
Side Quest 2 needed just one more win to complete.
It wasn't that Su Yi didn't want to finish it. After a month, hardly anyone challenged him anymore.
And when he challenged others, sometimes they refused.
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