"Roar."
As the saying went, where there was smoke, there was no damage. When the smoke cleared, Ursaring stood opposite them completely unharmed. The aftereffects of Hyper Beam left it unable to move for now, so it could only fix its eyes on the two of them.
Turtwig and Piplup stood bravely in front of the pair. Although Ursaring was enormous, neither Pokémon was afraid in the slightest, their little bodies facing it with adorably vacant eyes.
Xiaoyun took the opportunity to size up the bear. An ordinary Ursaring stood 1.8 meters tall, but this one looked to be 2.2 meters, and the power it had just displayed was nothing like that of an ordinary wild Pokémon.
Xiaoyun thought, An Ursaring at this point in time... could this be that broken bear Paul would have later? The main force behind the Lake Acuity massacre?
Besides, if Paul called it "nothing special," there definitely couldn't be anything wrong with its potential.
As it happened, apart from Sceptile, Turtwig was his only Pokémon right now. He was even one short for a Gym battle, and he hadn't encountered a suitable Pokémon along the way.
But since Paul hadn't caught this Pokémon yet, this bear was clearly fated to be his. He wouldn't stand on ceremony, then.
At that thought, Xiaoyun's gaze gradually grew heated as he looked at Ursaring. The more he looked, the more he liked it. "Dawn, have Piplup stay to the side for now. I'll handle this bear myself."
"Oh, okay!"
Dawn said nothing more and obediently took Piplup behind him.
"Turtwig, this battle is yours. Feeling confident?" Xiaoyun encouraged the Turtwig in front of him.
He wasn't planning to send Sceptile out this time. He wanted to test Turtwig's current ability in actual combat.
"Turt!" The little turtle nodded confidently to show it was no problem.
"Roar!"
When Ursaring saw that the human before it had sent only a little turtle to fight it, it took that as blatant provocation. He was looking down on it, plain and simple.
It immediately decided to teach this human a lesson and show him the dangers of the wild.
White light gathered around Ursaring's arm, and it charged like a tank, raising its arm with mountain-splitting force before bringing it crashing down on Turtwig!
"That's Ursaring's Hammer Arm. Turtwig, use Withdraw!" Xiaoyun responded swiftly.
Bang!
The turtle was quick to withdraw. Before Ursaring's arm came down, Turtwig had already retreated into its shell and withstood the attack, but the blow still sent it flying.
"Roar!"
Seeing its opponent knocked away, Ursaring let out a victorious roar on the spot.
"What are you yelling for? You big oaf."
The attack hadn't done much damage to Turtwig while it was using Withdraw. After taking a jab at the noisy Ursaring, Xiaoyun gave another command.
"Turtwig, use that momentum to unleash Razor Leaf in midair!"
"Turt."
Turtwig poked its head out of its shell. Hearing the command, it swung its head, forming sharp leaves that struck at Ursaring.
Clink, clink, clink!
With a tailwind behind it, Razor Leaf successfully hit Ursaring, though the effect wasn't particularly significant. It could only be said to provide some measure of harassment.
"Good, just like that. Keep going with Energy Ball," Xiaoyun continued.
Xiaoyun understood the importance of following up. While Razor Leaf was keeping Ursaring occupied, he would deal it a heavy blow.
"Turt!" Upon hearing him, Turtwig slowly began gathering Grass-type Energy around its mouth. The energy grew bit by bit into a ball the size of a soccer ball, which it fired at Ursaring.
Boom!
Ursaring reacted and immediately prepared to knock the Energy Ball away with Slash, but Turtwig's aim was exceptionally tricky, targeting its lower body and blasting it straight in the knee.
There went another round of damage.
The Energy Ball hurt Ursaring, and its knee immediately buckled, forcing it down onto one knee.
Catching Pokémon wasn't something to rush. You had to stack all sorts of debuffs and gradually wear them down. This still wasn't the best moment to catch it, so Xiaoyun continued giving orders.
"Leech Seed!"
Turtwig obediently complied, forming a seed on its body with a color brimming with vitality and shooting it at Ursaring.
And so, before Ursaring could recover from the Energy Ball, that shameless fellow Xiaoyun inflicted another stamina-draining buff on it.
"Roar..."
The seed struck Ursaring, and countless vines burst out of it, binding the bear. Green light on the vines continually squeezed away what little energy Ursaring had left, leaving it with nothing but feeble roars.
Xiaoyun was kindhearted and simply couldn't bear to see Pokémon hurt, so he immediately spoke.
"Hang on a moment, Ursaring. You'll be able to get some proper rest soon."
"Turtwig, one last Energy Ball!"
Still struggling in the vines, Ursaring wanted to resist this Energy Ball but lacked the strength. It could only watch quietly as the attack shot toward it.
Thud!
As the Energy Ball exploded, Ursaring collapsed helplessly to the ground.
Ursaring felt its defeat in this battle had been terribly unfair.
First, it had chased those two humans and a cat through more than half the forest. By the time it fought this turtle, its stamina was already almost spent.
Then Xiaoyun's kiting tactics had simply worn it to death.
It was clearly just an ordinary turtle, the sort Ursaring normally wouldn't even spare a glance, yet its opponent simply refused to fight head-on and kept wearing it down.
How shameless!
At that thought, Ursaring couldn't help shedding tears of humiliation. (ಥ_ಥ)
"Wooo..."
"Go, Poké Ball."
Watching the Poké Ball fly toward it, Ursaring no longer wanted to struggle. It only wanted to be caught quickly and bring this humiliating battle to an end.
Ding, ding, ding.
With Ursaring cooperating, the Poké Ball soon stopped shaking and lay quietly in the grass.
"Xiaoyun is so amazing. He makes commanding a battle look so easy. Every command he gives always works. Ursaring wasn't a match for him at all."
"Why did catching Buneary feel so difficult for me? In the end, I only caught it because Piplup learned a new move on the spot..."
Watching from the side, Dawn tilted her head in disbelief at how Xiaoyun had caught such a powerful Ursaring with just Turtwig.
Was this what a trainer's level meant?
"I caught Ursaring!"
Seeing that Ursaring had been caught, Xiaoyun's inner chuuni took over, and he couldn't resist striking a classic pose and shouting.
"..."
"Ahem..."
"Wow! Xiaoyun, you're amazing!"
"Pip, Piplup!"
It was also Dawn's first time seeing Xiaoyun strike a pose like that, and she froze for a moment. Sensing the sudden silence, she hurriedly applauded and cheered along with Piplup.
"Uh... Dawn, your reaction was so slow."
Snapped back to his senses by Dawn's belated applause, Xiaoyun felt a little embarrassed too. How could someone as outstanding as him strike such a chuuni pose?
Didn't that make him just like that idiot?
"Achoo!"
Elsewhere in the forest, Ash sneezed and looked around warily, checking whether Team Rocket had shown up again. Just now, he'd had the feeling that someone wanted to harm his Pikachu.
"Pika?"