Day 11 of the trip to Kanto. Overcast.
Today was supposed to be the third day of renting a training room for Toxicroak, but Reiji didn't bother.
After two straight days of practice, Toxicroak had already learned Ice Punch and Sucker Punch. The results were good enough. Since it had both new moves now, Reiji wanted to head back to the underground black market and see how strong Toxicroak really was after evolving.
Golbat had improved too. Yesterday, it learned Roost from Pelipper.
As for Agility and Steel Wing, those could wait. Learning them properly on a ship was inconvenient, and renting a room just for that was absurdly expensive. The cost wasn't worth it.
After breakfast, Reiji left lunch and dinner behind in Blaine's training room so Poliwhirl and the others could keep training there, then quietly took Toxicroak and the others off the top deck and went down to a restroom on the middle deck to change.
Once he was dressed all in black and Ditto had changed his face, he headed to the bar on the lowest deck. This time he didn't need the bartender to lead him in. He went straight into the kitchen, paid the ten-thousand-Pokédollar entrance fee, and the cook opened the door for him.
He didn't bother sending Darkrai ahead to scout. With Spinarak on his shoulder, he headed downstairs. This was his second time here now. He already knew the way.
He barely glanced at the other events. Most of them were traps anyway. He went straight to the open-match section, waited for the current battle to end, then walked up and tossed one hundred thousand League coins to the referee.
Ten thousand per match wasn't the standard here. Most matches were set at one hundred thousand. Sometimes you saw five hundred thousand. A one-million wager was rare.
"Both trainers, send out your Pokémon."
"Go, Golem!"
"Just as I thought," Reiji muttered to himself.
That trainer had already won the previous match with Golem. Reiji answered with Toxicroak.
The moment Toxicroak appeared, it drew a wave of attention from the crowd.
"That's him, right? His Croagunk evolved."
"Look at his shoulder. He's got a Spinarak there. The Croagunk trainer from the other day had one too."
"Then it's definitely him. I wonder how strong that Croagunk got after evolving."
"Toxicroak…" Golem's trainer's face darkened as he listened to the crowd.
He had seen Croagunk's streak firsthand a few days earlier. That trainer's Pokémon were nasty, the poison was worse, and the command was sharp. He seemed to know how to break all kinds of enemy tactics with barely any effort. This wasn't going to be easy.
"Golem, Defense Curl, then Rollout!"
Golem tucked in its limbs and head like a turtle, then a dull gray glow flashed over its body as it boosted its Defense.
The moment that was done, it started rolling. Faster and faster, it barreled straight toward Toxicroak.
"Toxicroak, Bulk Up first, then block it with Protect!"
Reiji had no intention of letting Golem keep building momentum. Rollout lasted five turns. It started weak, but each consecutive hit got dramatically stronger. If he didn't stop it immediately, the damage would snowball out of control.
Toxicroak tightened every muscle in its body and raised both its Attack and Defense by one stage.
Then it stared down the oncoming Golem, threw up both hands, and spread a pale green barrier in front of itself.
The shield stopped Golem cold.
"Now—Ice Punch!"
The instant the roll was broken, Toxicroak clenched its fist. Frost raced over the knuckles, and one heavy punch slammed into Golem's body. The red spike on Toxicroak's fist drove into the gaps in Golem's rocky shell, and the blow launched Golem backward.
"Golem!" its trainer shouted.
Golem hit the ground hard, then forced its arms and legs back out of its shell. It wobbled in place, dazed and barely steady.
"Toxicroak, another Ice Punch!"
Reiji saw it was still not fully clear-headed and gave it no time to recover.
Toxicroak bent its legs and exploded forward. In a blink, it was right in front of Golem again, and a second Ice Punch smashed into it.
That burst of speed shocked even Reiji.
Toxicroak hadn't used any special burst technique at all, and yet its explosiveness was already bordering on Poliwhirl's.
Those heavily muscled legs really were its racial advantage. He'd need to add weighted training later and push that explosive strength even further.
Poliwhirl's natural strength seemed to lean the opposite way. Its upper body was more developed than its lower half, but that probably wouldn't fully open up until it evolved.
"Fast…" Golem's trainer stared in disbelief.
Toxicroak had covered more than ten meters in just two leaps and still had enough left in that final burst to land the punch.
This wasn't some huge tournament field either. The arena was small, about the size of a basketball court.
From what he had just seen, Toxicroak could cross seven or eight meters in a single leap. That was ridiculous explosive power. Poliwhirl only reached that kind of burst by using Waterfall.
"Toxicroak, keep using Ice Punch!"
Reiji stuck with Ice Punch partly because he wanted Toxicroak to get used to the move in real combat, and partly because the freezing effect was already slowing Golem down.
"Golem, Rollout!" its trainer finally reacted and tried to restart the fight.
Too late.
After taking two Ice Punches, patches of Golem's body were already frozen. Its limbs no longer moved cleanly, and it couldn't pull them back into its shell.
Golem struggled in place, furious and helpless.
Toxicroak gave it no chance at all.
With two rapid bursts, it closed the distance again and brought another Ice Punch crashing down on Golem's head.
One clean, solid hit.
Golem had just enough time to look up at Toxicroak—
Then it blacked out.
"Golem is unable to battle!"
Its trainer recalled it immediately, collected the money he had won earlier, and left behind the one hundred thousand he had just lost.
He wasn't interested in continuing. Golem had only taken three Ice Punches, and that was enough to finish it. He could already tell that evolved Toxicroak was much stronger than Croagunk had been. With his current level of command, beating it was going to be hard.
The crowd burst into noise.
"That's way stronger than the old Croagunk."
"Seriously. It just evolved. How did it suddenly get that much stronger?"
"Did you see that speed? It moved so fast all you could catch was a blur."
"Forget it, I'm betting on him next round."
Reiji had won his first match cleanly. He had tested the new move, taken the opening fight, and now recalled Toxicroak to wait for the next challenger.
This time the wait dragged on. Three full minutes passed without anyone stepping up.
Just as people started thinking there might not be a challenger at all, someone walked up and dropped one hundred thousand in front of the referee.
"Both trainers, send out your Pokémon."
Toxicroak came out again and fixed its eyes on the new opponent.
"Gallade."
The moment Gallade appeared, all of its attention settled on Toxicroak. It had clearly watched the previous battle. It knew this was a serious opponent.
"Gallade…"
Reiji stared at it.
Gallade was another Sinnoh Fighting-type, just like Toxicroak. The difference was that Gallade was far rarer—and far more expensive.
Its price alone was close to one hundred million. Reiji's Toxicroak had cost him just over four million, and this matchup was awful—Gallade's Psychic-type moves were four times effective against it.
This was going to be rough.
Same typing family, but Gallade had Psychic coverage on top of that. Reiji honestly hadn't expected to run into one down here. And then another thought hit him.
The other trainer wasn't disguised.
Everyone else here either wore a mask or changed their face somehow. This guy showed up openly, as if he didn't care who saw him.
That meant one thing.
He had a reputation.
And probably not a friendly one.
"The battle begins!"
"Gallade, Swords Dance!"
"Toxicroak, Poison Jab!"
Reiji pushed his doubts aside. If this turned unwinnable, he could always surrender. At worst, the last match would end up being the only one he regretted.
Toxicroak lunged in fast. Its crimson claws glowed with a dark purple-black sheen as Poison-type energy gathered around them.
"Gallade, Double Team!"
The opposing trainer had taken his chance perfectly. Gallade got Swords Dance up first, then split into a ring of afterimages just as Toxicroak closed in.
"Toxicroak, back out!"
Reiji saw the bad position immediately. Toxicroak had run straight into a circle of copies. It jumped back out at once. In that situation, it couldn't tell which one was real.
"Gallade, Agility, then rush in with Psycho Cut!"
So it was a Psychic move after all.
Reiji gave a quiet inward sigh, then shouted, "Toxicroak, watch the footprints on the ground. Use Mud Shot!"
Toxicroak reacted instantly.
Only the real body could leave footprints. Only the real body stirred dust and airflow in a consistent line.
It locked onto the right target and spat out a Mud Shot.
"Gallade, cut through it!"
Gallade never slowed down. It swung the extendable blades at its elbows again and again, slicing through the mud projectiles.
Each slash produced a solid crescent-shaped Psycho Cut. Even after cutting the mud apart, the psychic blades kept flying toward Toxicroak.
Toxicroak sprang aside to dodge them, but that barrage broke its rhythm, and Gallade was already in close.
"Bullet Punch!"
Reiji had no choice but to switch gears.
Gallade was already within arm's reach. Toxicroak snapped out a Bullet Punch—
And Gallade dodged it.
From there, the fight turned into a close-range exchange.
Their base Speed was nearly the same. Toxicroak only had a five-point edge, which meant nothing in practice. Worse, Toxicroak only needed to get hit once to lose. Gallade could afford to fail several times. Toxicroak couldn't afford a single mistake.
Fortunately, Toxicroak's evasive training was carrying it, and Bullet Punch had priority.
Gallade kept missing clean contact.
Toxicroak, on the other hand, managed to land two Bullet Punches.
Then the third one hit hard enough to knock Gallade backward.
Gallade dropped to one knee, holding itself up with one hand. Its face had gone ugly.
"Gallade, what's wrong?"
Its trainer couldn't understand it. Bullet Punch only had forty base power. Even taking a few hits shouldn't have put Gallade in that kind of state.
Gallade turned partway toward him, and then he saw it—
Its chest had gone dark.
That was poisoning.
"Poisoned? How is that possible?"
Under the mask, Reiji's mouth curved very slightly.
Toxicroak didn't need to use a Poison-type move every time.
Those crimson spikes on its fists were venom needles.
It had a poison sac in its throat, and when it made sound from deep in there, the toxin it stored became even stronger.
That poison moved through channels in its arms and into the spikes on its fists. Once those spikes touched an opponent, the venom went in with them.
And Toxicroak also had Poison Touch.
Normally that Ability only gave contact moves a thirty percent chance to poison the target.
Normally.
But this was Reiji's Toxicroak.
As long as the attack made contact, as long as those spikes touched the opponent, the target was going to be poisoned. Every strike it threw was toxic.
So why hadn't Golem been poisoned?
Because poison was poison, not magic. You couldn't poison a rock.
Toxicroak's spikes were still dripping venom. The black liquid even stained the ground beneath it.
The crowd immediately caught on.
"That thing's insane. It didn't even use a Poison-type move, and Gallade still got poisoned."
"So you can't let it touch you at all. Not even once."
[End of chapter]
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