Noticing his old friend's rather unpleasant expression, Professor Qian laughed it off. "Young people are full of energy. They're certainly different from us old fellows!"
"Sorry, I'm standing."
Just then, Ye Qing, who was standing at the back, rubbed his nose and spoke up.
Xiao Qingyun's expression stiffened. He had never expected anyone to say something like that.
The people around them roared with laughter, pointing at Xiao Qingyun and praising Ye Qing.
"Hahaha, good!"
Principal Jiang laughed heartily, then turned to Professor Qian. "Since you're so confident, why don't we make a wager?
If we lose, I'll give you a Metal Coat."
Professor Qian smiled and pointed at Principal Jiang, refusing to be outdone. "All right. If we lose, I'll give you the Rain Dance TM I just added to my collection!"
Hearing the two big shots' stakes, everyone below looked astonished.
The Metal Coat's ability to boost the holder's Steel-type power by twenty percent went without saying.
The Rain Dance TM was also something one could only find through luck. It was easy to imagine how much a weather move like that could contribute to a battle, and it was outrageously powerful in the wild. Powerful Pokémon could even change the weather outright, rather than being rigidly limited to five turns as in the games.
Weather moves like this were almost never seen on the market. Even though some Pokémon could learn them by leveling up, they still needed the aptitude. Otherwise, they simply could not learn moves that affected the weather.
The two big shots' high-stakes wager brought the atmosphere to its peak, while both teams felt an invisible pressure bearing down on them.
Principal Jiang smiled and decided, "We'll use a king-of-the-hill format. Each side will send out three people, and each person can use only