Seeing Unfezant, Gary sneered. "Skyla, let me show you what an established fact looks like. Only a real battle can truly decide the outcome."
"Huh?!"
Skyla suddenly grew nervous, not knowing what Gary was planning.
"Chandelure, Curse!" Gary ordered.
"What?!"
Skyla was shocked.
"CHAN!"
A dark, eerie aura poured out of Chandelure. Sacrificing half of its own energy, it laid a Curse on Unfezant.
"I've… lost!"
Skyla, so used to relying on her Fantasy Battles, was suddenly gripped by despair. She had wanted to defeat Gary, but now it was impossible.
Unfezant was her last Pokémon. With no one left to switch in, all she could do was watch as the Curse drained Unfezant's strength away.
"No — even if I lose, I'll fight to the end! Unfezant, use Brave Bird!" Skyla ordered.
"SKREEE!"
Unfezant climbed rapidly to gain distance, then dove straight down, its whole body wrapped in blue wind energy.
Gary gave his order without hesitation. "Will-O-Wisp!"
Chandelure conjured balls of phosphorescent flame that drifted toward Unfezant like ghosts, homing in on their own.
Unfezant didn't try to dodge. It forced its way through the Will-O-Wisp and slammed into Chandelure head-on.
"Yes! It hit!" Skyla clenched her fist, spirits reviving.
"Chan…"
But Chandelure didn't fall. It floated back up from the ground.
Unfezant, on the other hand, was suffering the recoil from its own move, and the Curse chose that moment to activate, sapping its stamina. Worse still, although it had scattered the Will-O-Wisp, it had been burned in the process. Under the triple blow, Unfezant's body hurt so badly it could barely move.
"It's over. It's burned — use Hex."
Gary issued the final command.
"CHAN!"
Chandelure's eyes shone with an eerie red light, and it spat a massive surge of purple flame that rushed toward Unfezant.
Boom!
"SKREEE—!"
With a wail, Unfezant crashed to the ground and couldn't rise again.
"Unfezant is unable to battle! Chandelure wins!"
"All of the Gym Leader's Pokémon have been defeated. The Gym battle is over — the victory goes to Gary!"
The referee made the final announcement.
Even after winning, Gary didn't recall Chandelure right away. He looked over at Skyla and found her standing frozen, unable to accept her defeat.
"Is this the outcome your Fantasy Battle came up with?" Gary asked.
Skyla's face flushed red. She wanted to say something in her defense, but after being swept three-to-zero, anything she said would only sound like an excuse.
"Fine. I admit I guessed wrong this time," Skyla said.
Judging from her attitude, she clearly had no intention of correcting her ways. At most, she'd only battle for real when she ran into a Trainer like Gary who actively demanded it. The rest of the time, she'd keep using Fantasy Battles to decide the winner.
"Here."
Skyla handed her Gym Badge over to Gary — a Jet Badge.
Gary accepted it.
[Ding! Mission complete. Rewards have been delivered to the system storage.]
"Goodbye."
Gary left it at that, turned, and walked away.
"Skyla," her grandfather said, walking over to her. "You've seen it for yourself now. Your Fantasy Battles are flawed."
"That was just a fluke. Worst case, I'll add a rule — anyone who doesn't accept the Fantasy Battle result can fight me for real," Skyla said.
"Fine."
Seeing that Skyla had at least budged a little, her grandfather said nothing more.
System, what's the random item reward this time?
The moment Gary stepped out of Mistralton Gym, he couldn't wait to check.
[Blazikenite (When held by Blaziken, it can Mega Evolve into Mega Blaziken through a Key Stone reaction.)]
A Blaziken Mega Stone!
Mega Blaziken was very strong, but Gary had no use for it — his own Blaziken's potential rating was too low.
System, exchange the Flying-type Self-Select Permanent Move Tutor for Air Slash.
[Ding! Move redemption successful.]
"Time to check things out in Castelia City."
A week had passed by now, so Burgh should have returned to Castelia City.
Truthfully, Gary hadn't wanted to head to Castelia City just yet — he was worried Burgh wouldn't play it straight and might pull something strange with the venue — so he decided to call the Castelia Gym ahead of time.
Before leaving for Castelia City, he dropped Chandelure off at the Mistralton City Pokémon Center for treatment.
After lunch, Gary went over to Excadrill.
"Drill?"
"I'm going to raise your strength. The next Gym might be a harder fight," Gary said.
Excadrill: "DRILL! (Really?!)"
Bisharp: →_→
Chandelure: →_→
Bisharp and Chandelure were both visibly unhappy to hear that Gary was boosting Excadrill's strength.
Gary used eighteen Intermediate Rare Candies to raise Excadrill to Level 50. With Bisharp and Chandelure alongside it, he now had three Pokémon at quasi-Elite strength — taking the Castelia Gym shouldn't be a problem.
The reason Gary went this far was simple: Burgh was no ordinary Trainer.
As the Castelia Gym Leader, the Pokémon Burgh used in official Gym matches wouldn't be very high-leveled — normally between 30 and 40, possibly even lower.
But Burgh himself was no weak Trainer. He had competed in the World Coronation Series, and while his ranking wasn't especially high, it wasn't low either. His main Pokémon were certainly at true Elite-level strength.
Since Gary knew how strong Burgh was, he naturally wanted to challenge Burgh's main team.
The Unova League's management of its Gyms wasn't all that strict. The standard Gym battle rules required Leaders to keep their Pokémon within Gym-level limits, but the more powerful Gym Leaders didn't always have to abide by them. Moreover, if a challenger had already collected eight Badges from another region, the Leader was permitted to use their main team.
Gary planned to ask Burgh to battle him with his main Pokémon first. If that didn't work out, he'd collect the remaining four Unova Badges before coming back to challenge the Castelia Gym.
"DRILL!"
Excadrill felt unstoppable now. Its level had jumped to 50, crossing a major threshold in one go, and it had awakened two new moves: Drill Run and Fissure.
"That's right. You'll spar with Eevee later, so get familiar with those two moves," Gary said.
"DRILL!"
Excadrill shot Eevee a confident look.
Eevee didn't care about the provocation in the slightest.
Every time one of Gary's Pokémon shot up in level, its ego swelled with it. And every time, after a thorough beating from Eevee, it would return to its former humility and clarity.