After unleashing its Secret Move on the battlefield, Electrike crackled with lightning from head to toe. In an instant, it enveloped the entire field, as though it had created an artificial Electric Terrain.
The other Pokémon on the battlefield could barely hold on. Nidorino, the strongest among them, had already collapsed without any means of recovery. Only Carbink and Slowking remained, struggling to endure.
Carbink strained to maintain its two barriers, Reflect and Light Screen, against Electrike's electrical attacks. After being enhanced by the Mew Gene, Carbink's Psychic-type moves had become exceptionally powerful. Its Light Screen and Reflect could even block Nidorino's attacks completely.
But once its attacker changed from Nidorino to Electrike, its seemingly impregnable defenses crumbled like brittle paper. Although the combined protection of Light Screen and Reflect still blocked some of the damage, a torrent of electrical attacks pierced both barriers and struck Carbink, leaving it in agony.
What kind of attack was this? Weren't we supposed to be at roughly the same level?!
Carbink's confidence had shattered. After a year of training, it had believed itself much stronger, strong enough to scrape into the first tier. Even if it fell short of that, it should at least have been able to hold its own against Electrike. After all, Xiao Wu and Kaka had thoroughly thrashed Electrike plenty of times over the past year or so.
But Carbink had overlooked the fact that every one of those beatings had come from Xiao Wu and Kaka. Those two Pokémon were absolute monsters. Losing to them did not mean Electrike itself was weak.
Only now, after actually battling Electrike, did Carbink understand just how powerful the gatekeeper of the first tier truly was. Electrike had not even evolved, yet the strength it displayed alone overwhelmed every Pokémon in the