The machine gradually came to a stop.
The exterior of the Friend Ball hadn't changed at all, but the Pokémon visible inside was now completely different from before.
"In that case, the evolution is complete. Mr. Alder is looking forward to your visit to the Unova region, and he also hopes your journey as a Trainer continues smoothly."
After confirming the condition of the Pokémon on his side, the middle-aged man on the other end of the call gave Silas a very official-sounding blessing.
"Got it. Thanks for the trouble."
Silas picked up the Friend Ball and replied with a smile.
The video call screen quickly went dark.
Unova Region, Nuvema Town.
The middle-aged man who had ended the call fiddled around with himself for a moment.
"Seriously, this machine is such a pain to use!"
As he spoke, he revealed his true appearance.
Bronze skin, paired with a long orange braid—it was none other than the Unova Champion, Alder, whom Silas had been eager to meet.
Nearby, the real Breeder assistant looked at Alder helplessly.
This machine was already as foolproof as possible. There were only three steps total:
Place the Poké Ball containing the Pokémon onto the platform.
Press the button.
Wait a while, then remove the Poké Ball.
Even so, teaching Alder how to use it had still taken nearly half a day.
"Sir, why didn't you speak to that young Trainer using your real identity?" the assistant asked curiously.
Alder thought for a moment, then burst into hearty laughter.
"Hahahaha! No reason at all! I just suddenly wanted to see how little Silas would react!"
"When he comes to Unova and sees me in person, his expression is definitely going to be hilarious! Hahahaha!"
"That so..." the assistant nodded.
Even though it sounded far too carefree to the point of seeming unreliable, this really was Alder's style, free and spontaneous.
Alder casually picked up the Poké Ball containing the newly evolved Accelgor.
"Anyway, I'll leave the rest to you. I'm taking this kid out for a walk so it can get used to its evolved body."
Without waiting for the assistant's response, he directly walked out.
The assistant glanced toward the direction Alder had left and muttered.
"Isn't that the residential area for the Officer Jennys and Nurse Joys? Don't end up getting chased out by Officer Jenny again!"
At the street corner, Alder seemed to hear him and simply waved his right hand without turning back.
The assistant rolled his eyes.
He felt there probably wasn't a second person in the world as obsessed with teasing every Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy as Alder was.
Meanwhile, at the Pokémon Center on White Snow Mountain.
After confirming Escavalier's physical condition, Silas happily brought it back to the room.
The other eight partners all curiously gathered around Escavalier.
"Escavalier~"
Escavalier raised its lance in greeting.
Compared to when it had been a Karrablast, Escavalier's personality had become much more outgoing. Silas felt that was a good thing.
Because of its past experiences, this Karrablast had always lacked some of the aggressiveness common to its species. This personality change would help it better display its strength in battle.
After evolving, Escavalier possessed armor like that of a knight. Its arms had become two knightly lances, and its head resembled a knight's helmet. Its entire body looked wrapped in armor, though its original blue skin and black face from its Karrablast form could still be seen underneath.
By covering itself with the shell stolen from Shelmet, Escavalier could defend and attack simultaneously using its two lances for piercing strikes.
It balanced both physical and special defense while still maintaining fairly impressive physical attack power.
Perhaps in fully data-driven games, Escavalier wasn't as popular as Technician Scizor or Ferrothorn due to disadvantages in Ability, movepool, and Speed stats.
But in the real Pokémon world, Silas believed Escavalier was at least not inferior to them, if not outright stronger.
Not to mention that due to Team Plasma's experiments, the only major weakness Escavalier originally had because of its typing, its quadruple weakness to Fire-type moves was no longer truly a weakness.
Its dramatically increased Fire resistance was an enormous buff for Escavalier.
[Escavalier
Category: Cavalry Pokémon
Type: Bug / Steel
Height: 1.2 m (average: 1.0 m)
Weight: 40 kg (average: 33.0 kg)
Ability: Shell Armor
(Protected by a hard shell, preventing critical hits while providing excellent defense.)
Hidden Ability: Overcoat
(Takes no damage from Sandstorm or Hail and is immune to powder moves.)
Moves:
(Double-Edge, Fell Stinger, Quick Guard, Tackle, Flail, Reversal, Iron Defense, X-Scissor, Revenge, Razor Shell, Horn Leech, Thrash, Agility, Close Combat, Bug Buzz, Iron Head, etc.)
Level: 32
Potential: Champion-level (artificially enhanced)]
This was Escavalier's current Zero Panel.
During the trade evolution process, probably because the opposing Shelmet's level was fairly high, the originally Level 28 Karrablast had jumped straight to Level 32 after evolving.
Combined with its relatively broad movepool, if Bug-type attacks had better offensive coverage, Escavalier's overall combat strength would rise even further.
The combination of Shell Armor and Overcoat was also within Silas's expectations. This allowed Escavalier to cooperate with its teammates in both defense and offense during chaotic wild battles.
"Tch. Perfect."
Silas couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
According to his aesthetic sense, Escavalier was incredibly cool, especially the aura it naturally radiated from within.
"Gigalith!"
He called out toward the nearby Gigalith.
"Gigalith?"
Gigalith rotated the rocks on its body and looked toward its Trainer with its yellow-and-orange eyes.
Silas broke into a huge grin.
Gigalith fell silent for a moment before reluctantly nodding.
"I'll give you extra food tonight," Silas hurriedly promised.
Gigalith clearly didn't want to bother with him.
Silas awkwardly scratched his head.
After every strength breakthrough, using Gigalith as a target dummy to test his partners' attack power really did seem a bit inappropriate.
But without the precision instruments of a research lab, this was the best and most accurate method available.
Thankfully, Gigalith ranked near the top of the team in terms of strength. Otherwise, it wouldn't even qualify for this job, even with its immense defensive power.
Leading the two Pokémon to a corner of the Pokémon Center battlefield, Silas gave Escavalier its first command.
"First, use Fury Cutter."
"Escavalier!"
Escavalier nodded, then gave Gigalith an apologetic look.
Gigalith's gaze remained calm or rather, it was always calm.
As the team's primary defensive wall, it was long used to this sort of thing.
It also didn't believe that an Escavalier that had only just broken into the Advance level could seriously injure a peak pseudo-Elite-level Gigalith. At worst, it would hurt a little.
Considering the promise of extra food tonight, it could tolerate that much.
Raising its lances, Escavalier suddenly exploded forward at incredible speed toward Gigalith.
Shing—
The knightly lances glowing with pale green light slammed against Gigalith's rock-hard body, throwing sparks everywhere.
"Gigalith."
Gigalith indicated that the force was decent—about the same as Ampharos's little punches.
Silas didn't mind.
"Next, X-Scissor."
"Escavalier!"
This time, Escavalier was clearly provoked by Gigalith's reaction.
A sharp gleam flashed in its eyes as its two lances crossed together into an X-shaped slash.
Clang!
The sound this time was even sharper than before.
That was because Gigalith had subtly hardened its body out of caution.
Still, X-Scissor's base power far exceeded Fury Cutter's, so even after increasing its Defense, Gigalith still ended up with a rather noticeable mark on its body.
Silas now had a rough understanding of Escavalier's offensive power.
Among ordinary Advance-level Pokémon, Escavalier's attack power could already be considered top-tier.
And this was with Escavalier only being Level 32. It still had enormous room for growth.
Once it reached the peak of the Advance level, purely in terms of offense, its power might not even be inferior to Gallade at the same level.
"Then after successfully triggering Fell Stinger's effect, Escavalier's offensive power should rise by another major tier."
Imagining Escavalier's future battle style, Silas felt it might not even need to rely on defensive counterattacks anymore, it could simply pierce straight through its enemies.
Fell Stinger was a Bug-type move with a base power of 50. If it knocked out the target, the user's Attack would rise drastically.
The increase was even greater than a single Swords Dance boost.
Compared to Pokémon that could also learn the move such as Beedrill, Ariados, or Drapion, Escavalier possessed considerable advantages in multiple areas.
For example, its incredible defenses allowed it to safely achieve its first boost more reliably.
And its Bug typing increased Fell Stinger's effective knockout threshold through STAB.
"Now then, let's test Escavalier's defensive abilities."
After testing its physical offense, it was naturally time to test Escavalier's specialty—defense.
This time, Silas commanded Gigalith.
"Start with Rock Slide and test its physical defense."
The next moment, several enormous rocks descended from the sky.
Escavalier abruptly spread its arms wide as its body shone with a metallic luster.
"Iron Defense," Silas muttered approvingly.
Bang bang bang bang!
A chain of shattering noises rang out.
The rocks smashed against Escavalier's body and instantly crumbled into rubble.
Silas unconsciously nodded.
"So after using Iron Defense, it can almost perfectly withstand Rock Slide? That's an absurd level of defense."
An ordinary Escavalier, no matter how defense-oriented, would not necessarily be able to withstand a Rock Slide from a pseudo-Elite-level Gigalith while still only at the Advance level.
Strictly speaking, Gigalith specialized in abilities very similar to Escavalier's, and its physical attack power was also among the best.
But Silas's Escavalier had possessed outrageously high defenses even back when it was still a Karrablast.
Even now, he still didn't understand exactly what kind of experiments Team Plasma had performed to make a Karrablast this strong.
Compared to others of its species, his Escavalier's defensive power was at least more than double.
That was an absolutely ridiculous level.
"Next is Power Gem."
Thinking that, Silas had Gigalith launch a second attack.
Brilliant light shot from Gigalith's eyes.
Boom!
This time, Escavalier failed to react in time and was blasted backward.
Rock-type energy pulsed slightly around Gigalith's body, dispersing the dust surrounding Escavalier.
"Escavalier!"
Escavalier stood back up, signaling that it was fine.
Silas looked it over carefully.
Indeed, the armor was merely dirtied, with barely visible damage.
He had mainly wanted to confirm something.
Normally, Escavalier's physical and special defensive abilities were nearly equal.
However, this attack also revealed Escavalier's weakness.
"Speed really is a troublesome issue."
Watching Escavalier breathing slightly heavily, Silas frowned.
Just as he had predicted earlier, Escavalier wasn't incapable of explosive bursts of speed.
But the price was a massive drain on stamina and greatly reduced sustained combat ability.
For Escavalier, the optimal battle style still wasn't proactive offense, because the consumption was simply too high.
"Eat an Oran Berry and rest for a bit."
Silas walked over and handed it an Oran Berry.
Escavalier accepted it with one of its lances and began nibbling on it.
After casually tossing Gigalith a special rock as an extra snack, Silas brought the two Pokémon back to the room.
Overall, Escavalier's strength after evolving was extremely impressive.
In a one-on-one battle, even Gallade with several extra levels, might not be able to defeat Escavalier quickly.
Its defensive capabilities were simply too much of a headache to deal with.
Of course, Escavalier would also have no chance of defeating Gallade.
Its mobility was far too poor; there was no way it could catch a Psychic-type Pokémon like Gallade.
And in close combat, the combat-specialist Gallade would never give Escavalier an opportunity to defeat it.
"Little guy, your strength is completely at the bottom of the team now."
Back in the room, Silas lay on the bed teasing Alolan Vulpix.
The little Alolan Vulpix was lying belly-up playing with its tail.
Hearing its Trainer's words, it merely blinked innocently, completely unconcerned.
Wasn't it normal for a baby Pokémon to be weak?
Silas chuckled and rubbed its tiny belly.
That was true enough.
Once new teammates joined in the future, the little one would probably start wanting to become stronger.
Not wanting to be surpassed by newcomers was a mindset many Pokémon shared.
Besides, Alolan Vulpix becoming stronger was simply a matter of using an Ice Stone. Once it evolved into Alolan Ninetales, its strength would increase geometrically.
For now, though, Silas wasn't in a hurry to evolve it.
Otherwise it wouldn't be as easy to cuddle anymore, nor convenient to sleep beside.
If Alolan Vulpix was merely an air conditioner, then Alolan Ninetales was basically a walk-in freezer.
Sleeping beside it all night would probably make someone sick.
Outside the window, beneath a star-filled night sky, a streak of blue light flashed across the heavens.
Neither Silas nor his Pokémon already fast asleep, noticed that their new friend had appeared once again.
...
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