The Loneliness of Genius~

The ability to predict moves and determine the opponent's move the moment they started it—an ultra-high-level technique only Top Trainers possessed.

Heiduo couldn't do that. He could only call it afterward, figuring out what move the opponent had used after it had already been unleashed.

...That was hard too, okay? There was so much to remember, okay?

"Garchomp."

"What the hell are you agonizing over? How old are you, and how old is she? Were you born as Arceus and created the world or something?"

Heiduo irritably smacked Garchomp on the head. Youth meant inexperience, but it also meant Garchomp still had a long, long road ahead. This defeat was merely a fist-sized stone on the road to the summit.

It might twist an ankle if stepped on, but a stone would always be a stone. At worst, it could keep climbing after its injury healed. One day, all those opponents, big or small, would only be able to raise their heads and stare at its back, futilely watching the gulf between them widen into an uncrossable abyss.

Right now, Garchomp was simply biting off more than it could chew.

While they had been chattering away, the dust obstructing their view had completely dispersed, revealing Clair standing outside the crater created by Earthquake, along with the battered Dragonair.

Just a little more damage, just as expected...

Heiduo was deeply disappointed. Dragonair's current condition was only slightly better than Garchomp's after Outrage. If Earthquake had reached just a little farther, perhaps it could have pulled them back onto even footing.

Then they could have struggled a little longer.

Forget it, forget it. Things had already turned out this way, so what was the point of dwelling on it?

"Outrage is over?" Clair flicked out her whip, and it landed at Heiduo's