Fourfold weakness, but the wrong script

When Rong Fei heard the words "Triple Axel," his brain briefly froze.

Ground- and Flying-type Gliscor did not take double damage from Electric-type attacks, but did take quadruple damage from Ice-type attacks.

He had thought he had a fourfold advantage over his opponent. Instead, his opponent had a fourfold advantage over him!

"Gliscor, stop attacking! Put some distance between you first!"

Rong Fei gave the order, but Gliscor could not carry it out.

Gliscor excelled at gliding. With an updraft to ride, Gliscor could travel long distances without a single flap of the wings.

This conserved a tremendous amount of stamina in the air. Rong Fei's Gliscor had also specialized in this ability, developing a unique tactical evasive maneuver.

But this came with a drawback: without strong winds, Gliscor simply could not make sharp turns.

Faced with this situation, Gliscor went all in, adjusting posture and accelerating the charge.

Defeating the opponent before her attack finished was now Gliscor's only way out.

Charging low over the ground, Gliscor swept a tail through the loose dirt below, kicking up a cloud of dust to obscure Meownei's vision. Then both pincers lit up with the energy of Fury Cutter.

"Meow... (So dirty. How annoying...)"

The dust hampered Meownei's vision to some extent, but with a twitch of her ears, she still roughly pinpointed Gliscor's position.

Frost gathered around Meownei's foot, and she raised her leg to sweep it in that direction.

"Cha!"

Gliscor intercepted in time with a pincer, but the Ice-type energy instantly surged into Gliscor's body.

Even landing a hit on Meownei with the other pincer during the clash did little.

On its first successful hit, Fury Cutter dealt very little damage to Meownei, who had now become an Ice type.

Instead, the wing membrane on Gliscor's struck side stiffened from the cold, preventing any nimble adjustments in posture. Meownei used the pincer as a foothold to reposition herself, landing Triple Axel's second hit squarely on top of Gliscor's head.

Then she spun one and a half times in midair and stomped down toward the falling Gliscor.

Boom!

Meownei's final strike did not connect. It merely kicked a large crater into the battlefield.

Not because her aim was off, but because a beam of red light had recalled Gliscor into the Poké Ball just before her attack landed.

"You won the second round. I underestimated you."

Rong Fei put away Gliscor's Poké Ball. He had already witnessed the power of that earlier Thunder Punch. Like Fury Cutter, Triple Axel grew stronger with each successive hit.

After taking the first two hits, Gliscor had no chance of turning defeat into victory. Forcing Gliscor to take the third would only cause worse injuries.

Gliscor was his starter Pokémon, after all. Aside from those who cared only about strength and would abandon their starters, most Trainers had a special bond with their starter Pokémon.

It was a bond that Pokémon caught later could rarely match, so Rong Fei forfeited this round outright.

Still, he did not concede the match aloud. After some thought, he threw his final Poké Ball.

"Charizard, the final leg is yours!"

Having a challenger sweep all three of his Pokémon with just one was nothing to be proud of, especially when his own Pokémon supposedly had a type "advantage."

Yes, even now, Rong Fei had not realized that Meownei's Ability was not the usual Overgrow.

Even if he cybernetically turned his eyes into Pokédex scanners, he would only be able to check the Abilities of Pokémon he had caught himself.

So Rong Fei did not know that. All he knew was that if he lost, his dad would definitely mock him afterward.

"From here on, I'll face your challenge with everything I have. I hope you prove worthy of my recognition."

Having a special attachment to a starter Pokémon was normal, but that did not necessarily make the starter the strongest. In terms of growth potential, Gliscor did not have an advantage.

"Your rules allow one special battle mechanic, so why aren't you using one? Don't tell me you don't know how?"

Special battle mechanics referred to things like Mega Evolution and Z-Moves.

Seeing Rong Fei talk as though he were leading two-zero when he was actually down zero-two, Xin Mu asked just that.

If his opponent really had such an ability, it would be better for him to use it early, so Xin Mu could plan ahead.

That question successfully silenced Rong Fei.

Did he not want to use one?

Of course not. He couldn't!

Dynamax Bands and Tera Orbs were one thing. Those items were universally usable by Pokémon of different types and species.

But Mega Evolution and Z-Moves required matching components. Without cheats, even four generations of running a Gym could not let his family collect a complete set as though they were stamps.

He did have a Mega Stone, but only one for Pidgeot.

His original plan had been to sweep all three opponents with Pidgeot. Instead, the situation had reversed, and he had become someone else's backdrop.

Tugging at his sleeve to hide the bracelet holding his Key Stone, Rong Fei chose to go selectively deaf.

"Charizard! Flamethrower!"

"Chilling Water! Block the flames!"

When he saw Meowscarada release a torrent of cold water from her flower bud to cancel out Flamethrower, Rong Fei had already gone numb inside.

Grass, Electric, Water, Ice-such absurdly broad coverage left Rong Fei speechless. He felt that nothing else could surprise him now.

But on second thought, this seemed to be exactly the kind of Trainer he admired: someone who taught a single Pokémon more moves, overcoming every obstacle with one constant answer to endless changes.

"The League really ought to revise its rules. Can this still count as a rookie...

Charizard! Fly higher and put some distance between you, then blow away the mist! Don't let her get close. She's a physical attacker!"

The collision of flames and cold water had filled the battlefield with mist, making it impossible to see what was happening.

Only when Charizard took to the air and beat those wings was the mist dispersed. Then Rong Fei saw Xin Mu making a somewhat strange movement, synchronized with Meowscarada's.

"I spent all of last night doing this awkward dance. Honestly, this stuff is pretty tough on someone with no talent for dancing."

"Use Protect!"

A bad feeling rose in his heart. These were clearly the movements that preceded a Z-Move, and his opponent had even used the mist to hide the opening motions.

Rong Fei did not know what move his opponent was about to use, but whether it was Icium Z, an Electric-type Z-Crystal, or Waterium Z, none could deal quadruple-effective damage.

Even if Protect could not fully block a Z-Move, reducing its power would let him counterattack during the lull afterward.

The ideal was beautiful, but reality was cruel.

As Charizard raised the barrier of Protect, Rong Fei saw the surrounding dirt being drawn together by an unknown force, gradually compacting and rising into the air to form a mountain.

"Continental Crush!"

"F***! (A kind of plant)"