[Palkia is radiating a Fairy Aura!]
[Fairy Aura: Powers up Fairy-type moves for all Pokémon on the field.]
[Dialga's Cloud Nine suppressed the effects of weather!]
As soon as the battle officially began, the abilities of the Temporal-Spatial duo were instantly revealed.
"Seriously, who exactly is this Fairy Aura for?"
Hakuya stared at Palkia, who was enveloped in a soft pink glow, and instinctively found it ridiculous.
To think that Palkia, a Dragon-type, randomly rolled this god-tier ability. Is it really not afraid of getting absolutely obliterated by a Fairy-type opponent?
"Nai~"
Beside him, Milcery looked ecstatic. She could feel a powerful surge of energy continuously flowing into her body.
However, even though this Fairy Aura practically functioned as a buff for Milcery, it didn't mean this would be an easy battle.
Because in a Double Battle, Sprigatito couldn't use the switch-in mechanic to activate Protean, meaning her ability was essentially a blank slate right now.
At this moment, seeing Hakuya send out his Pokémon, the opponents eagerly launched their attack.
Twin Sister (Older): "Dialga, use Roar of Time."
Twin Sister (Younger): "Palkia, use Spacial Rend."
In an instant, bizarre ripples distorted the surrounding space, and overlapping afterimages appeared on the water bridge and the surface of the river.
The wind suddenly howled, and two overwhelmingly powerful, radiant energy blades swept through the air, causing a massive wall of water over thirty feet high to erupt around them.
"Are you f***ing kidding me? Opening straight away with your ultimate moves?!"
Facing this combination attack that summoned monstrous waves, Hakuya's mouth twitched, but he didn't hesitate to issue his command.
"Sprigatito, hide behind Milcery!"
Upon receiving her Trainer's command, Sprigatito immediately did as she was told, despite her reluctance to retreat.
Tucking her head and curling her body slightly, Milcery stood like a God of War, perfectly shielding Sprigatito behind her.
Immediately following, the two devastating attacks crashed into Milcery—and were completely blocked.
Roar of Time & Spacial Rend: Both had no effect!
"Milcery, use Misty Terrain! Sprigatito, use Petal Blizzard on Palkia!"
[Misty Terrain: Protects Pokémon on the ground from status conditions for five turns. Halves the damage from Dragon-type moves.]
On a battlefield shrouded in a pale pink mist, a hurricane of emerald petals surged toward the opponents like a tidal wave.
Palkia, taking the attack head-on, let out a cry of pain. Then, it reared back on its hind legs and violently lunged at its opponent.
It was its STAB move, [Waterfall].
But just as the crushing water pressure crashed down, Milcery floated forward and perfectly blocked it once again.
"Yes, exactly like that! Milcery covers defense, and Sprigatito focuses on offense."
Seeing how incredibly effective this strategy was, Hakuya decided to abuse it to the bitter end and issued his orders.
For a time, the only sound on the battlefield was the cries of the Temporal-Spatial duo getting ruthlessly elbowed.
"..."
The elementary school twins' commands stuttered to a halt.
"Heh~ Do you understand the sheer value of a Fairy-type with Wonder Guard now?"
Seeing the visibly stunned expressions on these NPC twins, Hakuya couldn't help but smile.
He figured these NPCs must have relied on their "wheelchair" (cheese) teams so much that they practically drooled, causing a severe drop in their IQ. Now that they were in an actual battle, their only thought was how to spam their strongest moves, completely lacking the sweat-inducing tactical setups they might have had otherwise.
But it didn't take long for the twins to catch on.
If you're using a [Wonder Guard] Milcery as a shield, then all we have to do is use super-effective moves to break through the ability, right?
"This is bad. If this clash of attrition keeps going, we're not going to make it."
Ten minutes later, Hakuya couldn't smile anymore. He looked at Sprigatito, who had just been sent flying by Palkia's [Heavy Slam], and then at Milcery, who was panting heavily and barely holding on while desperately dodging Dialga's [Iron Tail].
"Milcery, charge up a max-power Dazzling Gleam."
"Nai~"
At this moment, seemingly sensing Hakuya's intention, the opponents completely shifted their focus to Milcery.
"Dialga, use Iron Tail!" "Palkia, use Heavy Slam!"
If they continued trading blows like this, the injured Sprigatito wouldn't be able to withstand the combined assault of the Temporal-Spatial duo. But to charge up a max-power Dazzling Gleam to end the battle in one decisive strike, Milcery needed time.
Since that was the case, there was only one option left...
Hakuya glanced at Milcery, who was still struggling to accumulate energy for [Dazzling Gleam], and immediately made the optimal judgment.
"Sprigatito, use Endure and take all their attacks!"
"Meowha—!!!"
A blinding white light instantly erupted around Sprigatito.
With one paw, she caught the steel tail that Dialga swung violently at her, and with the other paw, she stopped Palkia's charging headbutt. The immense impact decimated the surrounding area, but Sprigatito stood completely still, her paws planted so firmly that half the bridge collapsed beneath her.
For a moment, Hakuya could even hear Sprigatito's cry of pain from within the rising smoke.
"Sprigatito, that's enough! Return..."
Hakuya was just about to pull out her Poké Ball to recall her, but the little kitten bared her fangs, leaving him with nothing but a view of her back as she hissed fiercely.
While it was true that the Endure move guaranteed the user would survive with 1 HP, if used consecutively, its success rate would plummet.
But perhaps Sprigatito was just incredibly lucky. Not only did she withstand the first wave, but she forcefully tanked the second and third waves that immediately followed. She even used both paws to pin Dialga and Palkia in place, making it difficult for them to move.
Finally, under the terrified gazes of the Temporal-Spatial duo—
What greeted them was Milcery's fully-charged, Fairy Aura-boosted Dazzling Gleam!
A pulsating light suddenly erupted. Like a massive boulder dropped into a mirror-like lake, blinding pinkish-purple brilliance expanded outward in rapid ripples, blasting directly into the Temporal-Spatial duo before they could escape.
At this moment, evasion was impossible!
Double Battles were different from Single Battles, which relied on switching and predicting your opponent's moves. Often, victory didn't depend on the strength of a single Pokémon, but on the cooperation between two.
The synergy between the attacker and the supporter, along with the Trainer's dual commands, dictated the balance of victory.
"You pushed yourself too hard, Sprigatito. Next time you can't hold on, don't force it."
Hakuya rushed over, scooping up the exhausted Sprigatito—who was left with a sliver of HP—into his arms, gently smoothing out her messy fur.
To be honest, he initially only wanted Sprigatito to use [Endure] to buy a little time. He never expected that after tanking the first wave of attacks from the Temporal-Spatial duo, the kitten would refuse to return to her Poké Ball and stubbornly choose to tank the rest.
If she hadn't been lucky and [Endure] had failed to activate consecutively, she would have suffered severe injuries.
"Nai~"
Milcery floated around the exhausted Sprigatito, her face filled with equal concern.
"Meowha~"
Sprigatito turned her head away, her cheeks slightly flushed as she let out a soft hmph, who knows if she actually listened to him.
Seeing this, Hakuya helplessly reached out a finger and gently scratched under her chin.
"You really are a willful little thing—"
"Meow... ha—!!!"
Before Sprigatito could feign anger and hiss, her Trainer's large hand started vigorously rubbing her head.
Feeling the warm, gentle caress on her head, Sprigatito buried her face and muttered softly.
After spending so many days together, Hakuya had finally figured out Sprigatito's personality. If she heard her Trainer say even one bad thing about her, she would get annoyed, bare her fangs, and hiss frantically. But when he expressed his affection through physical actions, her anger would instantly vanish, and she would turn her head away, still grumbling while enjoying the petting.
All he could say was that a willful and slightly tsundere Sprigatito was still incredibly cute—
[Defeated the elementary school twins on the road. Obtained 5,000 League Dollars.]
"You're really strong. It feels like you've put in even more effort and sweat than we have~ It seems we need to train hard as well! Let's battle our Plusle and Minun again next time!"
After the battle ended, the elementary school twins didn't throw a crying tantrum like normal kids their age upon losing. Instead, they seemed fired up by the defeat, returning to their original spots full of fighting spirit.
"Uh, please don't train just for me. Next time, I'd really prefer to see just a normal pair of Plusle and Minun."
Having just finished calming Sprigatito down, Hakuya's face instinctively stiffened upon hearing their NPC-like dialogue about ramping up the difficulty in the future.
"But thankfully, the battle system in the Randomized Emerald isn't strictly turn-based like in reality or the games... After one full battle, it feels like the player's mechanical skill ceiling is pretty high..."
After mentally roasting the twin sisters—who clearly skipped kindergarten just to blockade the bridge and jump the next unfortunate Trainer—he turned his head and saw the dilapidated state of the water bridge behind him, heavily damaged by the collateral of the battle.
"Even with a huge gap in base stats, if your mechanics are flawless, you actually can beat a pair of Temporal-Spatial gods."
The titles "God of Time" and "God of Space" sounded incredibly intimidating, but in an actual battle, their oppressive presence wasn't as overwhelming as one might expect.
After all, in the Randomized Emerald, these two couldn't wield the actual laws of time and space like they could in reality. Without the game-breaking authority of deities, they were, at best, just Pokémon with higher-than-average stats.
And the combat system here wasn't the rigid turn-based system of the mainline games; it was more like a variant of Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
Turn-based combat was replaced with real-time action.
Trainers could move freely during battles, and the action order and attacks of the Pokémon were determined by their actual Speed stats and the specific moves they used. If a Pokémon's Speed vastly outclassed its opponent's, it could even act multiple times within a single "turn."
Moreover, real-world tactical maneuvers could be replicated here. For example, Hakuya's strategy of having Sprigatito hide directly behind Milcery to block the devastating [Roar of Time] and [Spacial Rend].
If this had been the rigid turn-based system of the games, without relying on Milcery's [Wonder Guard], even a Protean Sprigatito wouldn't have survived a Double Battle against the Temporal-Spatial duo. She would have died on the spot in no time.
Following that, paying no mind to the twins standing there (who looked like they were now waiting to jump Sapphire), Hakuya continued walking along the water bridge.
First, he efficiently dispatched a fisherman by the shore who had hooked a Torkoal, swiping a Good Rod from him. Then, he picked up a randomized Soothe Bell from a random corner. Finally, the cityscape of Rustboro City came into view.