Elf: Start your slow-paced life after becoming a farmer.

Upon realizing that it had entered an abnormal state similar to "poisoning," the Super Ostrich immediately turned its head and picked up a green-skinned tree fruit from between its feathers and swallowed it.

Unfortunately, the "abnormal condition" on the Super Ebony did not disappear after it ate the Muzi fruit it carried.

It was at this moment that Lip's expression finally changed slightly: "Could it be that the people below have mixed up the Mu Zi Guo and Le Ba Guo?"

After all, the appearance of the Muzi fruit is somewhat similar to that of the Leba fruit, except that the Muzi fruit is more rounded.

Then Lip quickly realized: "No, the Super Ebony just ate the Mu Zi Fruit, but why didn't the abnormal status disappear? Unless, the Super Ebony was never in an abnormal status in the first place."

Seeing that Mu Ziguo was unable to remove the "abnormal status" from Super Powerful Ostrich, Lip immediately changed her tactics to a quick victory, and she immediately ordered: "Super Powerful Ostrich, use Light Impact!"

Light Surge is a Psychic-type Special Attack move, and it is also the current exclusive move of Psychic Rumblebee. The user releases a strange beam of light that can even affect the mind to attack, which can greatly lower the opponent's Special Defense.

The move "Radiant Rush" is a move that most special attackers dream of. It has considerable power and can significantly lower the opponent's special defense by 100%. Even a certain pink devil cannot withstand two hits of Radiant Rush.

However, Carl was clearly prepared for Lip's tactical change. The moment she uttered the command, he decisively continued, "Saltstone Fortress, use Defense!"

A pink hexagonal light screen appeared in front of Super Powerful Ostrich, and then a pink light fell in front of Salt Stone.

Following Karl's instructions, Saltstone Fortress erected a semi-transparent light barrier, steadily blocking the impact of the shimmering light released by the Super-Powered Ostrich.

Before Lip could command the Super-Powered Ostrich to continue the attack, Carl issued another command: "Saltstone Fortress, use Stand."

Seeing Karl easily anticipate Lip's commands, Huang Bo and Gadria, who were watching from the sidelines, frowned simultaneously, clearly realizing Karl's next tactical intentions.

Then, Cattleya noticed the barely suppressed smile on Karl's face and said in a strange tone, "Tsk, this is really..."

Chapter 235 Karl: So what?

Before watching this match, Gadria's impression of Karl was that "although this guy embarrassed me in front of Orchid, he's still a normal person."

After seeing through Karl's tactics, Karl's image in Cattleya's mind changed to "a man with a terrible personality".

In the history of Pokémon battles, some exceptionally talented trainers have developed many tactics that have left a lasting mark on the history of battles, including a tactic called "Substitute, Protect, Poison".

As the name suggests, Substitute, Guard, and Poison refer to three moves: "Substitute," "Guard," and "Poison." Players first inflict the Poison status on their opponent, and then use "Substitute" to refresh the success rate of "Guard," thereby delaying the opponent's turn until they are killed by the Poison status.

Of course, the "Substitute, Protect, Poison" strategy has a major flaw. For example, if the opponent has a Steel-type Pokémon that is completely immune to Poison, then the "Substitute, Protect, Poison" strategy will not work from the start.

For example, if the opponent interrupts the skill cycle with a skill such as "Taunt" or "Try Again" immediately after the start of the battle, then the "Substitute Poison" tactic will not be able to function properly.

In general, "substitute defense poison" does not actually refer to a single tactic, but rather a tactical concept—by applying a status effect that can cause continuous damage to the opponent, and then using skills or rotations to wear them down.

The Saltstone family, with their exclusive move "Salt," are undoubtedly the most suitable Pokémon for using the "Substitute, Protect, Poison" tactic, without exception, because the Salt status caused by Salt is not a "status disorder," and it is very difficult to remove in battle.

The Saltstone Giant family's skill pool is also very suitable for the "substitute defense poison" tactic, and with the "clean salt" trait, it will not fall into abnormal status.

As for the shortcomings of the "substitute defense poison" tactic? In Carl's view, they can be completely compensated for by his command skills.

Lip's expression changed as she realized what Karl was trying to do. To be honest, with her level of expertise, she naturally knew the flaws in the tactics Karl wanted to use, but flaws are relative. Given Karl's current command level, she didn't think Karl was unaware of the flaws in this tactic.

"So, you think your command skills can make up for any tactical shortcomings?" Lip murmured to herself, "How arrogant."

Yes, Lip thought it was incredibly arrogant for Carl to use such a "crude" tactic in front of her. After all, Carl's attitude was as if he were telling Lip, "My command skills are far superior to yours, and I can completely make up for the flaws in the tactic."

However, Lip then thought that Carl's purpose in coming to the gym to challenge was to train his students, so was this guy planning to use this "sunny" approach to torment the students?

'What a terrible teacher,' Lip thought.

Despite her thoughts, Lip didn't believe she would lose at this moment. As the Gym Leader of Bakegudo, she also had her own "pride".

"Super Raptor, use Psychic Terrain!" Lip said.

At Lip's command, the Super-Powered Ostrich endured the corrosive effects of the rock salt on its body and released its super-powerful energy into the battlefield.

Psychic Terrain, one of the four major terrain moves, can nullify priority moves and greatly enhance the power of Psychic-type moves, making it arguably the most useful of the four terrain moves.

Karl, however, paid no attention to this and calmly gave another order: "Saltstone Fortress, use rock blockade."

Although Saltstone had just used its Stand move after expending its energy, the Stand move has not yet been broken. Therefore, Carl is not in a hurry to let Saltstone use Regeneration to recover its energy. Instead, he tries to use Rock Tomb to further deplete Psychic Rumblebee's energy and disrupt its offensive rhythm.

So the battle then turned into a war of attrition. No matter how the Super-Powered Ostrich attacked, Carl would use his Stand or Guard at just the right moment to block the opponent's moves.

After a fierce battle lasting ten minutes, the Super Ostrich was finally about to succumb to the damage from the salt and was about to lose its ability to fight.

To prevent Super Rumblebee from using the "Follow the Trend" trait to boost its attributes, Carl did not allow Salt Rock to use any power-up moves during this period.

Seeing that Super Rumbo's stamina was about to decrease, Lip frowned and gave the final command: "Super Rumbo, use high-speed movement."

Carl was taken aback when he heard Lip's command, but he immediately understood Lip's tactical intention: "Take over? Then Salt Rock Fortress, use Stealth Rock again."

In Carl's mind, the Super Ostrich was a team that played the role of a relay team.

The operating logic of the Baton Pass team is actually very simple: send out a Pokémon with the Baton Pass move, then stand up to the opponent's attack at the start of the battle to boost its stats, and then use Baton Pass to pass the boosts to the next Pokémon to enter the battle.

In standard battle rules, skills like "Baton Pass" and "Rapid Return" that inherently have a rotation effect are allowed to be used.

As you may have seen, in a certain Pokémon battle, a Water/Bug-type Golisopod switched out a teammate who was 4x weak to Fire when facing Flame Burst, a perfect example of "sacrificing a friend to save yourself".

Since Lip is planning to temporarily switch to the baton system, Carl won't just interrupt her like that, after all, the clash of tactics is part of the fun of Pokémon battles.

Of course, if the opponent starts with Dragon Dance as soon as they enter the game, and their team has a certain Earth Dragon, Carl will still do his best to stop them.

After all, the Earth Dragon with the Dragon Dance buff is quite powerful. By the way, why doesn't the Earth Dragon know Dragon Dance?

As Salt Rock once again covered the battlefield with Stealth Rock, Lip's second Pokémon made its debut.

This Pokémon has green hair and a pair of beautiful ruby-like eyes. It wears a white dress, and the breeze blows through its hem, making it unforgettable at first glance.

The second Pokémon that Lip sent out was Gardevoir, the inclusive Pokémon that is widely known as the "wife beast" among players.

Gardevoir boasts a base Special Attack of 125 and a Special Defense of 115, and shares the same Speed ​​stat of 80 as Dragonite.

Having inherited the "Last Ripple" from the Psychic Rumblebee, Gardevoir now has everything it needs.

As soon as Gardevoir appeared, it simply raised its hand and swept away all the invisible rocks surrounding it.

Just by looking at this move, Karl was confident that this Gardevoir was far stronger than the newly introduced Mega Raptor.

"Are you going to increase the intensity of this attack right away?" Karl raised an eyebrow. "So what? Saltstone Barrier, use Salt Curing on Gardevoir!"

Chapter 236 The much-anticipated "Blood-Pounding Bonds" segment

Carl's command skills are undoubtedly world-class. Even when he was commanding Salt Rock, which had only recently evolved and had only received a few days of training, he was able to defeat the Super-Powered Rumbleweed that Lip used for the gym assessment.

However, when facing Gardevoir, who was clearly Ripple's main force, even with his superior command skills, Karl knew that his own Gardevoir was probably going to be eliminated after seeing the "Protect" barrier erected by Salt Rock be shattered by Gardevoir's psychic power.

And that was indeed the case. Although Karl tried his best, he ultimately failed to apply the Salted status to Gardevoir. After all, Lip, who was on guard, would have Gardevoir use Teleport to dodge when she saw Salt Rock use Salted.

Saltstone, whose strength was far inferior to Gardevoir's, was defeated in one move by Gardevoir's Future Sight, which was released at the beginning of the battle.

It can only be said that Psychic-type Pokémon that have mastered the move Teleport are still a bit too overpowered in real-world Pokémon battles.

"Thank you for your hard work, Salt Rock." Carl gently comforted Salt Rock after recalling it to its Poké Ball, then looked up at Lip, who was standing on the other side of the battlefield. "Gym Leader Lip, what do you mean by this?"

“As the gym leader, it’s natural for me to adjust the Pokémon I field based on the challenger’s skill level; that’s allowed by the rules,” Lip said, blinking and pretending to be serious.

Well, actually, after Lip figured out Carl's tactics, she knew that if her Pokémon were on the same level as Carl's, she would have a hard time defeating him.

Rather than being tormented by Carl's tactics, Lip would rather Carl defeat her fair and square with his true strength, so that at least she could "die standing up".

As for Carl's "training"? Sorry, if it's about training soldiers by torturing yourself, Lip thinks she can't handle it.

Carl clearly knew that his tactic was a bit too tedious, so after hearing Lip's answer, he just smiled and then threw out the second Poké Ball.

As the Poké Ball opened, Carl's sweet little Espeon appeared on the battlefield.

Upon seeing Espeon appear, Lip's eyes lit up, and she exclaimed, "I didn't expect you to have a Psychic-type Pokémon in your team, Karl!"

As a Psychic-type trainer, Lip felt a surge of fighting spirit when she saw Carl send out Espeon. After all, she wanted to know just how well Carl, whose command skills far surpassed hers, had trained the Psychic-type Espeon.

Seeing the fighting spirit ignited in Lip's eyes, Karl's lips curled into a smile: "Eevee, foresight."

Foresight is a powerful Psychic-type special attack move. In the game, this move will deal a lot of damage to the opponent after two turns. However, if the opponent leaves the field or is no longer on the field (that is, when using moves such as Fly, Dig, or Phantom Strikes), this move will miss.

In reality, the principle behind this technique of foreseeing the future is that the user uses superpowers to glimpse the future and then sends the attack into the future they foresee.

Even if the opponent switches Pokémon, as long as the Pokémon anticipates this, it can still damage the opponent's Pokémon.

When both are Psychic-type Pokémon, whether the ability to foresee the future works depends on how far into the future each Pokémon can "see".

For example, Espeon sees Gardevoir's location five seconds later, Gardevoir sees Espeon's location five seconds later, and Espeon sees Gardevoir's location five seconds later.

Ultimately, Espeon successfully used Future Sight to damage Gardevoir.

Simply put, predicting the future is a contest of how well both sides can control their ability to foresee the future; whoever sees further ahead can inflict damage on their opponent.

The instant Karl finished speaking, Lip gave the same command.

In Lip's opinion, as a specialist in Psychic-type Pokémon, there was no way she could lose to Carl in the field of training Psychic-type Pokémon.

As Espeon and Gardevoir simultaneously cast Future Sight, the battlefield fell silent.

While the two Pokémon were simultaneously clashing in the psychic realm, a blonde psychic girl on the sidelines secretly used her powers to foresee the outcome of this "predictive battle."

After a stalemate of about nine seconds, Cattleya, anticipating the outcome of this "battle," frowned.

Immediately afterwards, a ball of Psychic-type energy appeared on the battlefield. The target of this energy ball was not Espeon, which had just entered the battle, but Gardevoir, which Lippi had sent out.

The moment this ball of energy appeared, Gardevoir's aura immediately weakened, clearly indicating that Gardevoir had lost to Espeon in this "predictive battle." This also meant that Gardevoir had lost to Espeon in the realm of pure psychic abilities.

"Gardedoll actually lost to her opponent in the realm of pure psychic abilities. It can only be said that she is indeed a talent that even Chairman Yaji desires." Lip sighed slightly, but she did not intend to ask Gardedo to dodge, because she knew that Espeon, who had won the battle of foreseeing the future, had definitely seen her next command.

With the energy swarming Gardevoir, which foresaw the future, the outcome of this round of battle was clearly decided. Battles between Psychic-type Pokémon are clearly hierarchical; once a Pokémon loses in the realm of pure Psychic abilities, it will ultimately be defeated no matter how hard it struggles.

Nevertheless, Lip did not give up commanding the team, after all, admitting defeat outright and losing after giving it your all are two different things.

Carl, of course, wouldn't let his guard down just because Espeon had defeated him in the Psychic realm. In the end, Gardevoir lost its ability to battle after seven or eight rounds with Espeon and was recalled into its Poké Ball by Lippe.

Standing beside the battlefield, Huang Bo watched as her best friend lost to Karl in his most proficient area of ​​superpowers. While marveling at Karl's terrifying strength, she also became worried about her friend.

However, Lip didn't show the dejected expression that Huangbo had expected, because her ace hadn't been played yet.

After noticing this, Huangbo also put away the worried expression on her face. After all, in her impression, Lip was a very strong girl. She went out to make her way in the world alone with her Pokémon. Not only did she achieve success in her modeling career, but she also overcame herself to become the Gym Leader of Bakegu City.

How could such a person be discouraged by "a little" setback?

But in reality, it would be a lie for Lip to say she wasn't frustrated, after all, she had been defeated in her area of ​​expertise. But she also knew that being defeated wasn't scary; what was scary was being knocked down.

What's more, she hasn't lost this match yet.

Thinking this, Lip pulled out a Poké Ball that looked like it was custom-made. She lowered her head and kissed the Poké Ball, then threw it out with a jolt: "Mrs. Florges, let's go!"

"Has this entered the most beloved 'bond-building' phase in the Pokémon world?" Carl raised an eyebrow upon seeing this. "Damn it, don't underestimate the bond between me and Espeon!"

Chapter 237 Espeon, using Sacrifice!

Lip is quite capable as the head of the Eighth Avenue Gym of Padia, at least that's what Carl thinks.

The moment Lady Flower appeared on the battlefield, Lip immediately threw out the Padia specialty – the Crystal Pearl.

This is the final round of the gym challenge. Lip believes that if she doesn't use Crystallize at the start, given Carl's command strength, she probably won't have a chance to get Lady Florges to use Crystallize during the battle.

As the Taijing Bead streaked through the air and landed above Lady Huajie's head, its dazzling brilliance shone brightly across the battlefield.

Standing at the edge of the battlefield, Gadriya was stunned when she saw the radiance of the crystal: "What is this?"

As the future Elite Four member of the Padcia region, Cattleya knows that there is a enhancement system called Tai Crystallization in the Padcia region. However, since she has not yet officially joined the Padcia League, she has not yet received the Tai Crystal Orb, which is standard for Padcia Gym Leaders and Elite Four members.

Therefore, this was the first time that Gadria had witnessed the process of a Pokémon crystallizing.

As the crystal shell encasing Lady Huajie's body shattered, Lady Huajie, wearing a crystal crown that resembled eyes, appeared on the battlefield.

Karl had to complain that the design of the Psychic-type Crystal Crown was really too ugly. He believed that his Espeon would rather not use Crystallize than fight with such an "ugly thing" on its head.

And indeed, after seeing the Crystal Crown atop Florges' head, Espeon turned and gave Karl a deep look. Then, a soft yet threatening voice echoed in Karl's mind: 'Karl, even if I lose, don't use Crystal Transformation on me.'

Carl smiled helplessly, silently replying, "Okay, I understand."

Meanwhile, near the battlefield, Gadria, with Huang Bo's whispered explanation, also understood the effect of the crystallization.

"Although the crystallization effect is very good, I think my Pokémon would rather not be crystallized than fight with this thing on its head," Cattleya muttered to herself.

As the third round of battle began, the atmosphere on the battlefield became tense. With the enhancement of the crystallization, Lady Florges' attack power was now on par with Espeon, and even slightly surpassed it.

Furthermore, because Frappuccino already has extremely high Special Defense, many of Espeon's moves barely scratch her.

After letting Espeon test Frangipani for a while, Carl finally issued his first command of the third round: "Espeon, use Psychic."

Psychic Shock, a Psychic-type special attack move, allows the user to materialize magical psychic waves to attack the opponent, causing physical damage.

The special feature of the Psychic Strike move is that it deals physical damage, but the amount of damage is calculated based on the Special Attack value.

This also means that Espeon can avoid Flamegear's high Special Defense when using this move, and deal considerable damage to Flamegear.

As the battle progressed to this point, Lip was surprised that Karl could actually command Espeon to use such an uncommon move.

After all, according to the thinking of most trainers, Pokémon that are good at special attacks should master special attack moves in depth. Moves like Psychic, which seem to be special attacks but are actually physical attacks, are considered too useless by most trainers.