"How'd it go?"
Everyone looked at Auron and Serena curiously after they both hung up their phones.
Auron wore a pained expression. "Our class advisor said the Breeding Department doesn't have that kind of rule."
"Hehe, but ours said that if you place well enough, they can guarantee you won't fail at the end of the term too~" Serena chimed in with a little laugh.
Auron gave everyone a dead-fish stare. "So basically I'm the only one here without this privilege?"
Everyone answered in unison: "Yes!"
"That's not fair..."
"That's perfectly fair!"
...
The morning with no matches passed quickly. A total of 1,221 contestants had advanced from the first round. Now the second round of battles was set to begin.
"Ding-ling~"
"Who's up first?" The instant his phone buzzed, Jace started asking around like an eager puppy.
"I am—first round. Watch me put on a show!"
Tim flashed a confident grin. A clean sweep might be off the table for now, but as the one going out first, he had to make sure he set the right tone.
"Go for it!"
"Hmph hmph, watch me bring back a strong opening for you all."
Tim headed onto the field with a spring in his step. Auron and the others shared a smile and followed after him.
None of them had a first-round match, so they could watch Tim's performance together without any issue.
"Both sides, send out your Pokémon."
"Go, Altaria!"
"Go, Inferno Camel!"
The moment Auron saw the Pokémon Tim's opponent sent out, he let out a small laugh and turned to Jace. "Inferno Camel, huh. I wonder if it's one of your kind. If it is, this ought to be entertaining."
Jace's lips curled up with the earnest cheer of a golden retriever. "If Tim can't beat one of my fellow weather guys, then I'm definitely going to have to give him a good ribbing."
Auron nodded. "True enough. His Altaria is basically the worst nightmare for any weather team."
Tim's Altaria carried the ability Irrelevant Weather—meaning that as long as Altaria was on the field, all weather effects were completely nullified. She was, in every sense of the word, a weather team's absolute counter.
While the two chatted, the battle on the field had already begun.
"Inferno Camel, Blazing Sun!"
"Altaria, Tailwind!"
Inferno Camel activated Blazing Sun, shifting the weather on the field. But thanks to Altaria's ability, none of the boosted effects took hold whatsoever.
"Flamethrower!"
"Dodge it—Rain Dance!"
This threw Tim's opponent completely off. He stared in bewilderment. Didn't Altaria have Irrelevant Weather? So why bother changing the weather at all? Just to make his Inferno Camel stand in the rain and feel uncomfortable?
Rain Dance activated. The weather shifted, and rain began to fall across the field.
Raindrops pelted Inferno Camel's body, making him shake himself irritably and glare at Altaria with an indignant huff.
"Inferno Camel, don't mind him—Flamethrower!"
"Return, Altaria."
"Go, Dragonair!"
After dodging Flamethrower one final time, Altaria was recalled by Tim and swapped out for Dragonair.
"Flamethrower!"
The moment Dragonair appeared on the field, Inferno Camel fired off another Flamethrower at the freshly arrived Pokémon.
But with Altaria off the field, her Irrelevant Weather ability no longer applied—and with it, the Rain weather's weakening effect on Fire-type moves kicked in at full force.
On top of that, Dragonair still had the benefit of Tailwind. So even a Flamethrower with its power reduced by fifty percent was something Dragonair could simply sidestep without needing to take the hit head-on.
Tim smiled slightly and spoke in a calm, unhurried voice. "Dragonair, Surf."
Dragonair let out a soft cry and closed the gap in an instant. Before Inferno Camel could even get another Flamethrower charging in his jaws, Dragonair raised a massive wave and brought it crashing down on top of him.
"What the—!"
Tim's opponent erupted the moment he saw his Inferno Camel get one-shot, absolutely livid.
"Inferno Camel has lost the ability to battle. Contestant, please release your next Pokémon. Failure to do so within the time limit results in a forfeit!"
The referee watched as Inferno Camel lay sprawled in the puddle with swirly eyes, while his trainer was too busy venting his fury to do anything about it. He frowned and spoke to him in a cold, flat tone.
"Damn it—you still have to keep fighting?!"
"Return, Inferno Camel."
"Go, Inferno Camel—Flamethrower!"
Tim hadn't expected his opponent's second Pokémon to also be an Inferno Camel, and he froze for just a fraction of a second. In that instant, Dragonair took a Flamethrower right to the face.
Tailwind's duration had already expired, and on top of that, the opponent's attack had been released the moment it hit the ground—Dragonair had tried to dodge, but simply couldn't make it in time.
Tim's expression darkened. "Dragonair, Surf!"
"Inferno Camel, Earth Power!"
The massive wave surged toward Inferno Camel once more—but Inferno Camel activated Earth Power, and the resulting shockwave shattered the wave before it could connect.
"Inferno Camel, Blazing Sun!"
Tim's opponent finally cracked a smile. Rain's duration had worn off. Now it was his turn.
"Tsk tsk. Bold, isn't he."
Watching Inferno Camel brazenly activate Blazing Sun right in Dragonair's face, Tim couldn't help but marvel at his opponent's sheer nerve.
Another massive wave bore down on Inferno Camel—but this time, there was no time left to use Earth Power to shatter it. Inferno Camel could only watch helplessly as the wave came crashing down.
Blazing Sun had gone up successfully—but the wave still sent Inferno Camel flying.
"Inferno Camel... hang in there!"
With his trainer's desperate plea echoing across the field, Inferno Camel slowly, shakily pushed himself back to his feet. His stamina was all but gone, but he hadn't fallen.
"Alright—Inferno Camel, Fire Blast!"
"Dragonair, let's see him off. Water Wave!"
Both Pokémon launched their attacks at the same time. The two moves streaked through the air in parallel and struck their targets simultaneously.
But in the end, Dragonair was still floating quietly in the air—while Inferno Camel had already gone swirly-eyed and collapsed to the ground, unmoving.
"Inferno Camel has lost the ability to battle. Dragonair wins. The victor of this match is Tim Wynn."
"What a shame. Two Inferno Camels, and he just had to run into Tim of all people." Jace clicked his tongue with a mix of sympathy and amusement. He still remembered how Tim had specifically drilled Rain Dance into Dragonair's moveset just to counter him during their training sessions.
Auron said thoughtfully, "This guy... he wouldn't happen to be running a single-species team, would he?"
"A single-species team?"
Auron blinked. "You guys haven't heard of it?"
Everyone shook their heads in unison.
"Alright then. The concept itself is pretty straightforward—it's a team built entirely around one species of Pokémon, but with different focuses for each individual. What I don't quite understand about this guy's version, though, is that normally when people run single-species teams, they pick species with versatile dual-attack styles and just shift the emphasis between them."
Auron had actually seen a version of this once before—a team built entirely out of Lucario. But that had been because of the four-move limit, which forced creative roster-building and made an all-Lucario team a viable way to cover different roles.
In practice, though, if you tried to run something like this and ran into even one hard counter, your entire team would get swept clean. It was a team philosophy where the downsides vastly, vastly outweighed the benefits.
"The upside of a team like this is that it keeps things simple. Since they're all the same species, feeding and training them is completely uniform. But I'd still strongly recommend none of you try this kind of approach. It's purely a convenience play—the cons far outweigh the pros as a team-building philosophy."
"No wonder he got swept so badly. A team like that runs headlong into its counter and it's a clean wipe, isn't it?"
Everyone nodded in agreement. They each already had their own team-building ideas well thought out. None of them would ever fall into the same trap as the guy on the field.