All that analysis applied to normal circumstances, but this match...
Mind games?
Xia Chi chuckled.
Do you think my two starter stars are just here for show?
"Rillaboom, Incineroar, use Fake Out on them!"
On-screen, the gorilla with dark green shrubbery covering his head charged out, swinging his drumsticks, and slapped Grimmsnarl before he could act.
Then the fierce-looking, red, muscle-bound tiger charged out with a roar and gave Hatterene a slap as well.
Smack-
Smack-
The crisp slaps rang out in succession, leaving both Pokémon [flinching], unable to use their moves.
A plain, straightforward double Fake Out-no mind games allowed!
The viewers, who had never seen a double Fake Out strategy before, were delighted. A wave of "hahahahaha" comments floated across the screen.
But some raised doubts too.
"Fake Out barely does any damage, and you can only use it once. What does it do besides stall?"
Xia Chi said nothing and simply kept giving commands.
"Target Hatterene! Rillaboom, Grassy Glide! Incineroar, U-turn!"
Fake Out only made its targets flinch for a few brief moments.
Grimmsnarl soon recovered and set up Trick Room using his [Prankster] Ability, which gave priority to status moves.
Meanwhile, Rillaboom slid straight beneath Hatterene's skirt.
As the incredible move that had crowned Rillaboom king of the eighth-generation starters, Grassy Glide was terrifyingly strong.
Before its nerf, its damage rivaled Flamethrower, and it gained priority on Grassy Terrain.
Every aspect showcased the beauty of raw numbers.
Naturally, this game's Grassy Glide used its pre-nerf damage, boosted further by the same-type attack bonus and the terrain bonus.
Rillaboom's powerful leg sweep dealt considerable damage to the physically frail Hatterene.
Her health dropped by nearly half.
Then Trick Room successfully took effect.
The Pokémon's speed order on the field instantly went haywire, and the sluggish Hatterene moved before Incineroar.
A burst of Dazzling Gleam erupted, visibly stripping a sizable chunk of health from the mighty tiger, who was weak to it.
Fortunately, he immediately used U-turn to leave the battlefield and escape with his life.
Hatterene's Fairy typing offset the weakness; otherwise, a pure Psychic-type Pokémon might not have withstood that U-turn.
And the Pokémon that replaced Incineroar was none other than Amoonguss.
With a brief moment to spare, Xia Chi explained, "The second strategy for dealing with Trick Room is to use slow Pokémon. As long as I'm slow enough, reversing the speed order still leaves you slower than me."
Trick Room reversed the speed order of every Pokémon on the field.
The moment Amoonguss appeared, the opposing Grimmsnarl visibly slowed down.
Amoonguss, by contrast, instantly transformed into a nimble mushroom.
Xia Chi quickly commanded, "Rillaboom, Wood Hammer, target Hatterene! Amoonguss, use Spore on Grimmsnarl!"
Amoonguss was unquestionably the fastest Pokémon on the field. His mushroom cap shook, spraying a cloud of dark green powder into Grimmsnarl's face.
The knockout tea-no, Spore-worked instantly. Grimmsnarl collapsed on the spot and slept like a baby.
Hatterene's Psyshock followed right behind, targeting Rillaboom, whose health had already been chipped away by Dazzling Gleam.
Unfortunately, without a type advantage, Psyshock failed to finish off the astonishingly durable Tapu Gorilla.
Instead, his devastating Wood Hammer landed afterward, sending Hatterene out of the match with a pitiful wail.
First blood!
"Awesome! That's our ol' Shui. Still playing as disgustingly as ever."
"Two hulking, vicious Pokémon, and somehow Mr. Shui makes them look this sleazy?"
"Anyone still questioning double Fake Out? Just watch and learn from the Water God's plays!"
"Mods, can you ban that Shui fanboy calling him the Water God? The bootlicking makes me sick."
"."
Xia Chi ignored the teasing comments and stayed focused on the match.
Pokémon: Champion's Path placed more emphasis on real-time commands than the turn-based battles of his previous life.
Besides, the Pokémon in the game had no independent awareness and wouldn't act on their own like they would in a real battle.
If a player stopped giving commands, Rayquaza really could get pinned down and beaten up by Caterpie.
Quickly recalling the critically injured Rillaboom, Xia Chi sent out his last reserve Pokémon, the "star" of this team-
Pachirisu!
Come on, winning a match with this little fellow meant a Master Ball!
If he didn't send Pachirisu out now, what if his opponent surrendered?
The appearance of the dainty little electric squirrel sent the chat into a frenzy and stunned his opponent too.
Only after a long pause did the opponent recall the fallen Hatterene and send out Conkeldurr.
"Conkeldurr, huh?" Xia Chi mused. "Looks like their last Pokémon should be Rhyperior."
With a quadruple weakness to Grass, Rhyperior naturally wouldn't dare expose himself to the firepower of two Grass-type Pokémon.
Still, whether it was Rhyperior or Conkeldurr no longer mattered.
"Amoonguss, use Spore on Conkeldurr!"
Both were faster than Amoonguss, which meant that under the still-active Trick Room, both became slower than him.
Dark green spores sprayed out once more, this time targeting Conkeldurr's wrinkled face.
The arms holding his concrete pillars abruptly dropped, and his body swayed before collapsing mid-charge toward Amoonguss.
Now both opposing Pokémon were sleeping like babies.
That meant the only thing the opponent could do was wait for one of the two Pokémon to wake up.
What?
Send out Rhyperior?
Were there not enough sleeping Pokémon on the field already?
Unfortunately, luck wasn't on the opponent's side.
Even as Pachirisu's Super Fang and Amoonguss's Sludge Bomb repeatedly bombarded the two Pokémon, they remained sound asleep.
Faced with this scene, the opponent fell silent for several seconds before finally surrendering in frustration.
The enormous word "Victory" filled the screen. Xia Chi stretched and improvised a senryu.
"Amoonguss is great; Grimmsnarl sleeps, then Conkeldurr; even Leon sighs."
"The most depraved!"
"The most hopeless!"
"The most disgusting!"
"The most scummy!"
"Opponent: How can a Pokémon as vile as Amoonguss exist?!"
"They surrendered without sending out Rhyperior? Could they be a fan of Miss Iono?"
"What good would Rhyperior do? He's not slower than Amoonguss. Just give ol' Shui another chance to be a jerk?"
"In the end, the problem was not bringing our Ant God. If they'd replaced Conkeldurr with the even slower Trapinch, he would've wiped them out with Earthquake ages ago!"
"Lol, that's actually true! The Ant God lives forever! Ant-men!"
"Ant-men!"
"."
Before you continue