Cerulean City After the Battle

His posture remained upright.

But Minglan's utterly pale face told everyone that this elderly veteran Trainer had reached his limit.

In a battle of this scale,

the Trainer was an absolutely indispensable part.

Accordingly, both stamina consumption and physical exhaustion far exceeded what ordinary people could imagine.

This was especially apparent in the elderly.

In fact, the impact of age on a Trainer could be seen from the candidates for the Regional Elite Four.

Aside from a few senior veterans such as Agatha, Kikuno, and Genji,

every other Regional Elite Four member was a Trainer in the prime of life.

They were energetic and experienced, first-rate experts in Pokemon battles.

Making way for the younger generation was certainly one reason for this situation.

But fundamentally, as they aged, these older Trainers' energy and bodies gradually became unable to sustain battles of the same level that were both intense and prolonged.

Retiring to the second line was the best and most dignified choice.

If they truly could remain seated on the throne of the Elite Four like Agatha, no one would be willing to step down voluntarily.

Of course.

That did not mean these older Trainers had become weak.

After all, there was still a considerable gap between human lifespan and that of Pokemon.

For many Pokemon, by the time their Trainers entered old age, they might only just have reached their prime by their own standards of age.

It was simply that in battles between opponents of the same level, a Trainer's poor condition would become an extremely crucial opening and weakness.

As a rising Force, Team Rocket had not grasped this point particularly well.

After all, among their executives, even Pyrus, the most senior and oldest, was only in his early forties.

In Athena's original view, these old men