Chapter 396: Good Thing My Skills Were Superior
After that, the Alolan Marowak was forced to continue a close-quarters brawl with Milotic!
But the more Juri fought, the more he discovered that Aaron's resilience and fighting spirit were unexpectedly tenacious!
Milotic's "sheath and draw" combo was incredibly fluid. It was definitely not something that could be practiced in a day.
This made Juri even more curious—
After he had left, it seemed his old team and teammates had undergone a heaven-and-earth-shattering change.
What on earth had happened?
Why did he feel like he was the only one who had become an outsider?
It was a movie about three people, but I was the one who never got a name…
This feeling was incredibly frustrating.
Back when he had just been traded, he hadn't felt this way. At that time, Starlight and Frost and the Sea Carp team were more or less in the same tier.
Both teams had been eliminated in the first round of the loser's bracket in last year's playoffs, and the Sea Carp's regular season ranking was even a bit higher than Starlight and Frost's.
At that time, the two teams were evenly matched. They even had similar problems: their doubles were relatively strong, but their singles were weak.
When the transfer had just ended, Juri hadn't been too worried about his future.
He had even felt that this newly formed Sea Carp team had a lot of potential!
He himself, who had been traded from Starlight and Frost, and the other doubles pair were all playoff-level configurations. The other Sea Carp players had also made it to the playoffs last year. Weren't they strengthening the team?
Shouldn't making it to the playoffs again this year be a piece of cake?
But who would have thought that he had completely overlooked who had been earning all the points for the Sea Carp team last year…
The true powerhouse who had been consistently earning points was gone!
Juri had originally thought he was coming here to retire.
He never expected that upon his arrival, he would instead become the director of the retirement home…
This season, in the Sea Carp's singles division, he was the one with the most stable performance!
And on the other hand, at his old team, the newly arrived Arthur was creating one miracle after another. The captain could even be freed up to occasionally play in the early singles matches. And now, even the previously most overlooked benchwarming ghost, the mobile thermos Aaron, had awakened.
For a moment, Juri was in a daze.
How did it come to this?
What did you all do behind my back?
By the time Juri snapped out of it, Milotic had fought his ace, Marowak, to a mutual standstill.
Although in the end, it was Marowak that maintained the pressure after Milotic's buff had expired and successfully secured the victory.
But Milotic's final Iai tail-slash had also dealt a heavy blow to Marowak!
In this match, Juri's Marowak was much more injured than Aaron's Garchomp in the previous round!
In the past, this would have been almost unimaginable for Juri.
That wimpy, submissive Aaron could actually launch such a fierce assault?! How is that possible?!
Although he had won back a point, his ace was no longer able to fight. The outcome was almost sealed.
In the final round, he could only send out his revealed Alolan Sandslash. And Aaron, naturally, did not hold back, unhesitatingly sending out his counter-pick, Torkoal.
The Drought-ability Torkoal summoned a blazing sun at the start of the battle.
Then, while the Alolan Sandslash was forced to use Hail to fight for the weather, it opened with its ultimate move, Eruption!
A pillar of fire, like a volcanic eruption, surged from the ground and instantly engulfed the less-than-1.5-meter-tall body of the Alolan Sandslash…
Torkoal was not one of Aaron's main Pokémon. Its overall strength was only at the professional level, and its move set was relatively simple.
But it didn't matter. All it needed was Eruption!
The Alolan Sandslash had already taken some damage in its brief clash with Milotic and was not at full health. Now, at the start of the round, it was being baptized by a doubly super-effective Fire-type ultimate. It almost fell to its knees instantly.
"Get out of there! Use Endure!"
The Alolan Sandslash had just used the pseudo-weather move Hail at the start. Before it could even attack, it had to use the life-saving Endure…
Unfortunately, its Endure was no match for the causality-defying "Hang in there!" of a certain ten-year-old.
A little while later, after the stimulating effect of Endure had worn off, Torkoal simply followed up with a wide-area Eruption, easily knocking the Sandslash over.
Even if it had won back the weather, the Slush Rush ability only boosted the Sandslash's speed, not its resistance.
The Sandslash unleashed a flashy combo on the Torkoal, which took it all. In just a few short seconds, it was hit by the Sandslash's claws more than a dozen times. But when the time was up, the Torkoal simply let out a puff of thick smoke and ended the match.
Afterward, it silently took a drag of the smoke.
Good thing my skills were superior.jpg
Juri was completely numb…
At the end of the day, it was because his Alolan Sandslash had failed to beat the Milotic at the start.
As a counter-pick, not only had it failed to limit the opponent's ace, but it had also lost the exchange. So, in the end, it was naturally unavoidable that it would be targeted.
In the final round, Aaron's Garchomp took the stage and easily defeated the Marowak, which was much more injured than itself.
And with that, the last pillar of the Sea Carp's singles division had also fallen…
With his incredibly flashy personality and his max-level sarcasm skills, Juri couldn't even say a word as he left the stage.
When he had come to the Sea Carp team, he had thought he would be the final piece of the puzzle.
But now, he increasingly felt like he was becoming the only piece of the puzzle…
This feeling was just ridiculous!
With this, the first phase of the Sea Carp's strategy had gone as expected—they had indeed strategically given up the singles segment. They had given it up so well, so completely beyond expectations!
They hadn't won a single one of the three matches, and had even been shut out by Arthur. In the end, the singles segment concluded with a 0-7 deficit…
This left the coach struggling to find the right words during the halftime break.
"Don't be discouraged! We still have a chance! Now is the time to burn our bridges! We can't lose a single doubles match!"
Seeing the team's low morale, the head coach clapped his hands forcefully to get everyone's attention.
"Don't hang your heads! Wasn't this the strategy we decided on from the start? To focus our main efforts on the doubles! This is the strategy we had planned before the match!! Don't give up! Now is the time for the decisive battle!! Our Sea Carp's doubles have always been top-tier in the league!"
Thinking back to the Sea Carp's ridiculously high win rate in the doubles division last year, the team seemed to regain some of their confidence. The light finally returned to their eyes.
At this moment, they needed some psychological suggestion and hypnosis!
So, at this moment, everyone selectively ignored the fact that the doubles pair that had actually helped the Sea Carp team achieve that incredible win rate last year had, in fact, lost three of its five members. The true soul of the team was gone.
All that was left was Asher and Elijah, two players who had been carried to victory by Arthur last year.
The glorious reputation of the past remained, but there was no longer a pillar to hold up the banner…
It was a desolate feeling, like a general sending out a lesser officer because there were no great generals left in the kingdom.
And on the other side, at Starlight and Frost, all the doubles players were now rubbing their hands together, fired up and ready to end the match before the captain's battle!
Everyone had the same thought—We can't let Arthur take all the glory again!
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