Your Tactic Is Great! But Next Second, It'll Be Mine!

There was only one day left until the Mahogany Gym Challenge.

Heiduo had already decided on the Pokémon he would send out—still Electivire, Scizor, and Arbok.

The lineup was exactly the same as the one originally planned for the Blackthorn Gym.

Garchomp was a little disappointed to be left out of another Gym Challenge, but that feeling lasted only a short while.

Its research into New Outrage had already taken up all of its spare time.

New Outrage had four positive effects: it slightly enhanced certain physical attributes, improved observation ability, strengthened presence, and accelerated the release speed of Dragon-type moves.

It also had three negative effects: temporary weakness, nearsightedness, and Confusion.

What Heiduo wanted to do was develop the first, second, and fourth positive effects while reducing the severity of the latter three negative effects.

At the very least, the first and third negative effects had to be solved.

The second negative effect could actually be ignored, because Garchomp's Ampullae of Lorenzini would shine precisely when its nearsightedness took effect.

After all, sharks—the creatures Garchomp was based on—had evolved that organ specifically to hunt despite their poor eyesight. What could they even see at the bottom of the ocean? Nothing, obviously!

The real problem lay in the other two negative effects. Heiduo believed the temporary weakness was the price of slightly enhancing certain physical attributes, and he had no good solution for it yet.

Confusion, meanwhile, was an inherent drawback of Outrage itself. Heiduo had thought that the drawback would disappear as the move's level increased, but not only had it failed to disappear, two more negative effects had appeared.

"Gab."

Garchomp knelt on one knee, dizzy and utterly exhausted.

To be fair, if Confusion were the only effect, Garchomp would have been unable to distinguish friend from foe