The Threshold of the Champion and Elite Four

Heiduo briefly described how the battle had gone.

After listening, Umbreon looked teasingly at him. "You throw heavy punches when bullying little kids, but the moment you run into a Top Trainer, you turn all meek? Aren't you just picking on the weak and fearing the strong?"

Heiduo's current strength was in a rather awkward position—he was not strong enough compared to those above him, but more than capable against those below.

He definitely could not win an all-out battle against a Top Trainer, but in a single-Pokémon match, that was not necessarily true. Take Clair's level-seventy-one Gyarados—how strong could it be? It would still get shut down by Electivire.

Pokémon battles had never been a one-on-one game. If he encountered an opponent he could not beat, he could just switch out. Why insist on taking it head-on?

"How am I being meek?" Heiduo used the small stove Cynthia had left behind to boil himself a pot of tea. The rising steam moistened his nostrils. "Isn't it only proper to give it everything you have when facing a powerful opponent?"

He felt he had fought quite well. Though Scizor's match had been a bit of a letdown, there was nothing he could do about that. The other side had calculated everything, even its landing spot. If they wanted to win one match, then let them win one.

In Electivire's match, Gyarados had been extremely formidable. If Heiduo had never seen that love-powered spinning Tornado Hurricane, he might very well have suffered an upset.

After all, he had not been familiar with it.

But after seeing the low-end version, dealing with the high-end version became simple and clear. The principles were the same no matter how it changed, and the advantage of a fourfold type matchup was genuinely overwhelming. There was