The Association was clearly impatient to root the Masked Man out from among the sixteen Gym Leaders, so the match began immediately.
The content was no different from the original story.
The first match was Brock versus Jasmine.
At the start, Erika planted a flag for Squinty Eyes, saying, "I can guarantee Brock's strength."
Then Jasmine sent out her ace.
—A Steelix clad in rock armor.
Heaven knew how she had managed to give a Steelix a layer of rocky protection. All Heiduo could say was that Olivine City's industrial technology was incredible.
Yet the Gym Leader Exhibition Match was surprisingly using actual combat rules. Those two fearless maniacs, Jasmine and Brock, stood directly atop Steelix and Onix's heads.
"This is...? Steelix?"
Red stared in shock as the rocky shell slowly peeled away, revealing a long, fishbone-shaped serpent with a body of refined steel.
Heiduo tilted his head slightly. "You know it?"
"I saw information about it at the professor's house." Red smiled awkwardly. "They say it's an evolution of Onix, and it's extremely difficult to evolve. Maybe not even one out of tens of thousands can do it. There are very few recorded sightings."
"Very few indeed. There's one right under your feet."
Heiduo gestured with his chin at Red, whose whole body was submerged in the hot spring except for his head.
Red jumped. "Huh? You mean in the hot spring?"
"I meant in the mountains of Mt. Silver." Heiduo shrugged.
There was an Onix colony on Mt. Silver, along with a Steelix, though that Steelix was not the colony's leader.
It was the youngest of the group, a lucky fool who had happened to touch what was likely a Metal Coat and then, by another stroke of chance, evolved. It was not exactly sharp-minded.
It got along