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[Defeat!]
A prominent red icon flashed on the screen, the score frozen at the almost humiliating 4:0.
Elesa before the computer showed almost no reaction—not only had her eyes completely lost focus, but her body remained completely still, sitting motionless at her desk.
After a long while, she suddenly snapped back to reality, sighing deeply.
"This is way too targeted..."
She had lost—and lost without any hope of comeback.
It wasn't that Elesa couldn't accept defeat. She never really cared about wins and losses in games anyway.
For her, "Pokémon Champion" was just a transitional space between her duties as a gym leader and modeling work.
Whenever she finished modeling jobs, she would quickly awaken her instincts as a trainer in the game, preparing to face the next day's challengers in the best condition.
So singles and doubles didn't really matter to her—losing was no big deal since she hadn't studied in-game strategies carefully.
However, being completely shut out today, without any ability to fight back, easily swept by the opponent...
No one could remain unmoved by this.
But at this point, Elesa could only accept reality.
This trainer named "Azure Wings" had indeed brought out Pokémon that caught her eye.
Amoonguss, and...
"Doesn't Manectric have a Mega Evolution?"
Elesa froze for a moment, instinctively opening the game's Pokédex and quickly confirming her thoughts.
"I see—before Mega Evolution, it can help teammates avoid Electric-type weaknesses with its Lightning Rod ability. After evolution, it can further restrict opponents' offense with its Intimidate ability."
After checking this Pokémon's basic information, Elesa immediately understood her opponent's strategy.
From his overall team composition before the battle, he had probably originally planned to play a Rain team. But coincidentally encountering her extremely counter-effective pure Electric-type lineup forced him to change tactics temporarily.
Who would have thought it would work so surprisingly well.
Especially that damned Amoonguss—how could there be such a sneaky Pokémon!
Recalling the Amoonguss facing her, Elesa couldn't help but shake her head, driving away the unpleasant memory.
At the same time, she suddenly remembered something and looked again at her opponent's ID.
"By the way... doesn't this name sound familiar?"
After some thought, Elesa quickly found information about this "Azure Wings" in her memory bank.
During breaks from photo shoots, she often scrolled through his videos and had even followed him.
He seemed to be quite popular online—a very famous streamer who, like herself, was a gym leader from Paldea.
But busy with her career, she didn't pay much attention to online content, only knowing the basics.
To completely dominate her in both command and team composition...
She muttered softly to herself while taking out her phone and opening the Pokémon TV app.
Sure enough, "Azure Wings's" live stream immediately appeared on the homepage.
Wait... live stream?
Elesa quickly realized something, her charming eyes widening in shock.
Instinctively clicking in, she didn't focus on the stream content but glanced at the top right corner.
The seven-digit viewer count immediately caught her eye, causing her to freeze again, her face instantly turning ashen.
"Oh no... aaaaaah—!"
Elesa immediately slumped in her chair, covering her rapidly flushed cheeks with a pained groan, her body twisting back and forth continuously.
Compared to this discovery, being 4:0ed was a trivial matter.
Being seen by over a million viewers in the live stream—as a gym leader whose core competitiveness was excelling in both modeling and training industries—how could she maintain her dignity?
"This is such a huge embarrassment..."
By the time Elesa realized she might have died of embarrassment, it was already too late.
Just as she was questioning life itself, a phone call suddenly came in, attracting her attention.
"Caitlin?"
Elesa tilted her head.
Caitlin was an excellent trainer who had come to Unova from Sinnoh this year. Despite being new, she had already connected with many female trainers in Unova.
Elesa quite liked this legal loli who always tried to act mature despite her cute appearance, so their relationship was very good.
Besides her, Skyla and Roxie also frequently appeared at Caitlin's girls' tea parties—they were all good friends.
"Elesa, did you lose to Aiden?"
After answering the call, Caitlin's first sentence drove the topic into a dead end, leaving Elesa in prolonged silence.
Aiden... did she mean "Azure Wings"?
Elesa's expression turned slightly peculiar as she subconsciously pondered.
How did Caitlin know she lost to him in-game? Could it be that she was also watching the stream?
"How did you know?"
After thinking for a moment, she directly voiced her confusion.
"Hmm... because I kinda know that guy. Seeing you lose to him, I came specifically to comfort you."
Caitlin quickly continued.
"Actually, losing to him is completely normal—even Wallace lost to him twice. Even Cynthia might not necessarily be his match now."
"Though this guy always likes to pull out weird stuff, his strength is really solid, and he comes up with many new strategies. So quite a few gym leaders and Elite Fours from various regions actually lurk in his live streams."
"Of course, I don't watch his streams—I just happened to scroll by!"
"..."
For Caitlin's sudden tsundere remark, Elesa fell silent for a moment, not exposing her clumsy lie.
Though she usually acted very ladylike, Elesa—who was quite familiar with her—knew well that inside, Caitlin was still a little girl who hadn't grown up, occasionally being straightforward while denying it with words.
Quite cute actually.
"I understand."
Elesa quickly replied with a smile, not forgetting to tease.
"From what you said, it seems you've also lost to him before, right?"
"..."
After a brief silence, Caitlin's voice came back with little confidence.
"Next time... next time I meet Aiden, I'll definitely beat him!"
"That's it—bye!"
A busy signal quickly came from the other end of the phone, making Elesa smile.
Talking with Caitlin had improved her mood.
Human nature is always moderate—if only she had lost to "Azure Wings," it would certainly be embarrassing.
But learning from Caitlin that there were other victims made her strangely accept what had just happened.
After all, she wasn't alone.
"However, a trainer that catches Caitlin's attention must be exceptionally strong, right?"
Caitlin had come to Unova for one purpose—to compete for the soon-to-be-vacant Unova Elite Four position. And with her strength, she was definitely qualified to be an Elite Four.
If even she recommended this streamer, she really needed to watch it herself.
...
Aiden had no idea what was happening with Elesa far away in Unova. After winning a battle, he simply chatted briefly with the chat and continued his climb.
After all, today was supposed to be about Rain teams, yet he had started by pulling out something weird instead of doing his job properly.
If he didn't demonstrate this alternative Rain team strategy, he wouldn't even have material for tomorrow's video...
Fortunately, the next few battles went smoothly, allowing Aiden to show his audience the complete form of this team lineup.
Palafin, with a base stat total of only 457 when first appearing—utterly ordinary—would immediately trigger its "Zero to Hero" ability effect upon returning to the team, revealing its full power.
Its base stats would instantly soar to 650, with Attack jumping from 70 to 160—directly matching Slaking's level.
Combined with the 120-power Water-type move Wave Crash, and the priority move Aqua Jet with considerable power, its combat ability in Rain teams was absurdly strong.
[This is the real hero—Palafin transforms back into the field, combat power instantly becomes cheat-like. Wave Crash one-shots everything—truly the ocean's hero!]
[Wait, how do your Paldea Pokémon even grow? They don't seem to be from the same world as our Kanto Pokémon...]
[Fast as lightning while also having the ability to one-shot opponents—I declare you the One-Punch man of Rain teams, the off-brand Mega Swampert!]
[Though it falls short in some aspects, at least it doesn't occupy a Mega slot. Being the Rain team leader is more than enough. Though it feels like it might be better suited for singles?]
[Doubles, it has teammates to support it—in singles, 100 Speed might not guarantee safe damage output. If only Palafin could learn Dragon Dance...]
"Relatively speaking, Palafin's strengths and weaknesses are quite obvious—it can basically be seen as trading one rotation for a massive stat boost."
After another decisive victory, Aiden quickly explained Palafin simply.
"However, rotating out is quite risky. After all, anyone who knows this Pokémon's ability would know exactly what it plans to do after entering, making it easy to counter."
In singles, ineffective rotation itself loses tempo, giving opponents opportunities to set hazards or perform other actions. If you don't want to waste a turn completely, you'd need to be greedy and try to chip damage first.
Sometimes being too greedy leads to trouble—getting knocked out or severely damaged by faster opponents, leaving it with little pressuring power when it finally enters.
Overall, Palafin actually performs better in Doubles with teammates' help to fulfill its functionality, completing "Zero to Hero" to become the true ocean hero.
So while 650 base stats seem terrifyingly monstrous, in actual battles it doesn't feel as strong as the raw numbers suggest.
Powerful when utilized well, but easy to counter—overall a very strong but not difficult-to-handle Pokémon.
Of course, with Aiden's deliberate team building, countering it wasn't that simple.
[Such satisfying prediction—Teacher Azure's plays are too impressive! Directly rotating in Manectric to absorb the opponent's Thunder, not only taking no damage but also charging up Manectric. It made me laugh!]
[Actually, keeping Amoonguss on field using Rage Powder would work too. This Thunder couldn't possibly KO Amoonguss—top tier rage bait!]
[Counting the Rain-setting Politoed, this team is purely three protect one. Normal leaders couldn't hold the bottom line—it's all thanks to Palafin's numerical domination...]
Another easy match—in doubles, after Palafin easily eliminated two of the opponent's main Pokémon with teammates' protection, the opponent quickly realized something was wrong.
Palafin alone wasn't hard to handle, but its teammates were each more unorthodox than the last—no chance to one-shot it!
Seeing the timing was right, Aiden did something extremely dirty again.
After Palafin was switched out, Politoed—the original weather starter—appeared again.
"Suddenly remembered—I mentioned earlier that Politoed has quite special functionality. Let me show it to you guys first~"
"Politoed, use Perish Song!"
Frogs were naturally creatures skilled at making sounds, and as the king of frogs, Politoed was definitely the KTV mic king.
After one Perish Song, dark music from hell lingered above the field, presenting a death countdown to all Pokémon listening to the song.
"Perish Song is a very special move. Pokémon that hear the song, if they can't rotate out quickly, will immediately lose fighting spirit after the countdown ends—a rather unorthodox way to victory."
Aiden spoke with a slight smile.
"Though this move doesn't distinguish friend from foe, we still have two Pokémon in the backfield that can be rotated out anytime."
"But the opponent, with only two Pokémon left, clearly has no rotation opportunities."
"So the moment Politoed begins Perish Song, the opponent's defeat has already begun its countdown!"
The facts proved Aiden correct.
When seeing this obscure and unorthodox move, the opponent even froze for a moment before reacting.
Time was running out!
However, with Amoonguss on the left and Politoed on the right—neither was an easy opponent to handle.
Protect then Rage Powder, Rage Powder then Protect...
Forget about the backfield—even when Perish Song's effect triggered and the opponent's two Pokémon were completely withered, Amoonguss's HP hadn't even dropped below half.
"The most traditional use of Perish Song is to lock in victory in situations like this, giving opponents no chance."
After easily securing another victory, Aiden revealed a confident smile.
"However, other uses of Perish Song require quite some skill, so Teacher Azure won't elaborate further for now."
"Interested students can review previous Master Tournament recordings—Kanto's Lorelei and Agatha are both very skilled with this system."
Miss Lorelei's Lapras and Granny Agatha's Gengar were both masters of Perish Song. Aiden had seen some clips before.
With Mega Evolution gradually becoming popular in other regions through games, Granny Agatha might soon master this powerful ability too, allowing her Ghosts to show even more terrifying dominating power.
Shadow Tag Perish Song—the classic Gengar-centered strategy might also be developed in this world.
However, in Aiden's heart, the most classic was still Rain Perish Song.
[Though to be fair, Elite Fours Lorelei and Agatha's Perish Song isn't this dirty. Teacher Azure, this isn't Perish Song at all—this is Death Note!]
[I don't even know how desperate the opponent must have been. When unable to switch, just using Protect can stall quite some time. Not to mention having Amoonguss as a sighing wall—so that's why you brought Amoonguss...]
[The person who came up with this move—Teacher Azure's family really should invite a exorcist!]
[I was wondering why it's so cool at home even without air conditioning, turns out I projected Teacher Azure's stream on the wall!]
Though it was just simple 6v4 combinations, in Aiden's hands these Pokémon displayed incredibly rich tactical functionality.
In one hour, various combination techniques emerged continuously, making viewers shout for more while also giving a "like first" for Teacher Azure's imaginative thinking.
After another easy ranked victory, Aiden glanced at the time in the bottom right corner.
Exactly 7:30—it was time to end the stream.
"Well then, see you all next week~"
While viewers were still immersed in the little tricks they had just learned, unaware of their surroundings, Aiden's live stream screen suddenly disappeared, replaced by a pitch-black screen reflecting their own faces.
"..."
The audience collectively fell silent, only reacting after a long time.
[Such skilled cutting—Teacher Azure really doesn't waste a second!]
[Even masters can't handle Teacher Azure—we need to invite a god to properly train him, not letting him off stream until he streams a full 24 hours straight...]
[This time I've learned my lesson—I'll wait for Teacher Azure's video teaching how to counter Rain teams before playing ranked matches, reverse-farming points from others!]
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