Pokemon: Haxorris
Gender: Male
Type: Dragon
Ability: Mold Breaker (During battle, Pokemon with this ability can disable a portion of opponents' abilities.)
Quality: Red
Base Skills: Outrage, Scratch, Leer, Malicious Mooncutter, Dragon Rage, Double Hit, Scary Face, Slash, False Swipe, Dragon Claw, Dragon Dance, Swagger, Dragon Pulse, Swords Dance.
Egg Skills: Dragon Pulse, Endure, Focus Energy, Harden, Aerial Ace.
Auron twitched his mouth. Seriously? A fully-evolved Dragon-type in the Junior Trainer certification exam—was this even fair?
"This can be considered an exceptional situation. The Junior Trainer assessment generally uses fully-evolved Pokemon from our own breeding facility, so anything is possible."
It seemed the examiner had sensed Auron's shock, or perhaps this had happened before, so he explained to Auron naturally.
Auron shot an exasperated glance at the referee.
The referee was trying not to laugh. "Relax, you're not the first. Some people had the bad luck of the examiner pulling out a Metang."
"Fine, I believe you."
Auron had no choice but to accept it. Whether he believed it or not didn't matter at this point—things were already set.
Fortunately, Heracros had the Mold Breaker ability… that was a good thing… wait. Mold Breaker still needed to actually defeat the opponent first!
Auron exhaled slowly and glanced at the skills listed on the screen next to him.
Well, on his own system screen, technically.
Pokemon: Heracros
Gender: Female
Type: Bug, Fighting
Ability: Swarm (When this Pokemon knocks out any Pokemon on the field, its Attack raises by one stage.)
Quality: Orange
Base Skills: Tackle, Leer, Fury Attack, Endure, Aerial Ace, Horn Attack, Megahorn, Double-Edge, Brick Break, Bullet Seed, Close Combat, Abyss Thrust, Endeavor, Swords Dance, Earthquake, High Horsepower.
Egg Skills: Thief, Focus Punch, Pursuit, Revenge.
Auron studied Heracros's information and couldn't help but click his tongue. This quality, this movepool—it would be treated as a primary team member anywhere outside this exam.
But thankfully, Haxorris didn't have the Competitive ability, or this would've been a real problem.
"Are you ready?"
"Ready!"
Auron took a deep breath, composed himself, and nodded to the referee.
Seeing Auron's composed expression, the referee and examiner exchanged a look and nodded to each other.
This kid's got something.
Auron had no idea what they were thinking. He had his own calculations.
The optimal strategy right now was to immediately switch Heracros out for Blastoise the moment the match started.
Blastoise's Ice-type moves were super-effective against Dragon-type Haxorris, so switching would give him a significant advantage.
However, Auron still wanted to try—see if he could trigger Heracros's ability!
"Swoosh!"
The flag dropped. Battle start!
"Heracros, Swords Dance!"
"Haxorris, Dragon Claw!"
Both gave their commands simultaneously.
The Pokemon on the field executed their moves exactly as ordered.
But the examiner and Auron were thinking very different things.
The examiner was surprised by Auron's boldness.
Auron was grinning. The gamble had paid off.
Haxorris's movepool didn't include Earthquake.
Furthermore, Haxorris wasn't slow—by using the weaker ranged attack Dragon Pulse at range, it was better to close in and use Dragon Claw up close.
After all, compared to Haxorris's physical Attack, its special Attack lagged badly—not just a little, but a lot.
Plus, the opponent was a Heracros, also a close-quarters fighter. So the examiner's first thought wasn't to boost—it was to attack head-on.
He figured Heracros would also choose to fight, since Haxorris was slightly faster, meaning a boost had a high chance of being interrupted.
Which was why he didn't prioritize self-buffing from the start.
Outside the arena, both sides were calculating. Inside the arena, the Pokemon were simply following orders.
Haxorris was fast. By the time Heracros finished Swords Dance, Dragon Claw was already falling.
"Bang!"
Heracros had no time to react—it was sent flying by the claw strike.
"Heracros! Brick Break!"
Heracros steadied itself and rushed forward, slashing a palm toward Haxorris.
"Dragon Claw!"
Their arms collided hard, sending shockwaves rippling through the air.
Heracros wasn't about to give up. Eyes cold, body pressing down, it steadily increased its pressure.
Haxorris stayed calm. It was being gradually pushed back, but it was quietly building up power.
Waiting until it had stored enough energy, Haxorris then surged with force, sending Heracros flying.
"Good! Haxorris, Dragon Claw again!"
Auron watched Haxorris charge toward Heracros again, gritted his teeth, and made his call.
"Heracros, Endure!"
Heracros scrambled to reposition. The instant Haxorris's claw came down, it held.
"Bang!"
Another Dragon Claw landed on Heracros—but thanks to Endure, it was left with just a sliver of HP.
"Now! Megahorn!"
Haxorris's Dragon Claw connected—and this was also Heracros's chance.
Heracros's horn glowed. It lunged, slamming its massive horn into Haxorris, which was still mid-recovery and too slow to react.
"Quick! Endure! Haxorris!"
The moment the examiner saw Heracros wasn't down, a bad feeling crept over him.
But before he could act, Heracros's great horn had already struck Haxorris.
Too late. Heracros's hardest-hitting STAB move, boosted by Swords Dance—this Megahorn took Haxorris's remaining HP to zero.
"Haxorris is unable to battle. Heracros wins!"
The referee glanced at Auron with a hint of surprise, then raised his small flag.
"Haxorris is unable to battle. Heracros wins!"
As Haxorris lay on the ground, Heracros felt a white light rise from its body.
Ability triggered. Swarm. Attack raised one stage.
Looking at the now-confident Heracros, the examiner could only shake his head and return Haxorris to its Pokeball.
"That was some bold play, young man."
He knew—if his first move had been Earthquake, Heracros would've never completed that Swords Dance.
Then he would've been on the defensive from the start.
Likewise, if Haxorris had been even slightly faster, Heracros wouldn't have had time to use Endure before going down.
That's why the examiner was impressed—Auron had played it dangerously.
But what the examiner didn't know was that Auron had an edge. He could see Haxorris's movepool. He knew it didn't have Earthquake. So he'd gone all-in on the first Swords Dance boost.
That last move, though—he had been gambling. Betting that Heracros could pull off Endure in time.
The examiner collected himself, then grimly threw out his second Pokeball.
He knew this assessment was already lost.
Because his next two Pokemon were both…
(End of chapter)