"Tera Orb!"
Gary blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected Katy to reach for her Tera Orb this early in the battle.
"Teddiursa, Terastallize," Katy said gently.
"Teddi!"
Teddiursa was already prepared.
"Break out of your cocoon and become a butterfly. Grow up healthy and strong."
As she spoke, Katy threw the Tera Orb toward Teddiursa.
Brownish-green crystals burst out and surrounded Teddiursa's small frame. When the crystal shell shattered, Teddiursa reappeared, its whole body now wrapped in glittering Bug-type Tera energy.
A crooked, butterfly-antenna-shaped crystal crown sat atop its head. In that instant, Teddiursa's type had changed to Bug.
Bug type didn't resist Fighting-type moves all that well, but it at least removed the weakness Teddiursa had carried as a Normal type, giving it a slightly better chance against Annihilape.
"Shadow Punch!" Gary ordered without hesitation.
"Anni!"
Annihilape threw a punch at empty air, and a black fist-shaped shadow shot forward at startling speed.
Bang!!
"Ugh!"
The unstoppable force lifted Teddiursa off its feet and slammed it into the ground, where it lay completely still.
"Teddiursa is unable to battle! Annihilape wins!" the referee called.
"Ah! My little Teddiursa!" Katy clutched her head with both hands, looking like she couldn't accept the result. Her Teddiursa had gone down in a single hit, and she seemed genuinely crushed by how fast it had ended.
"Miss Katy, I did warn you that I'm not weak," Gary reminded her. "If you keep sending out Pokémon like Teddiursa, they'll just be taken down in seconds."
Katy froze for a moment. Then her expression sharpened into something more serious.
"What a confident boy. Fine then. I'll get serious too."
She recalled the defeated Teddiursa and drew her next Poké Ball.
"Lokix, I've found you a very good opponent. Come on out."
Katy sent out her second Pokémon.
"Lokix!"
[Lv. 49 Lokix ♂ / Current Elite]
Gary studied Lokix. The name had a domineering ring to it, but the Pokémon itself was just a dark-bodied locust. Honestly, it wasn't much to look at.
"Let's finish this. Shadow Punch!" Gary didn't bother with idle talk and attacked at once. Even though Lokix's level sat at the very top of the Gym tier, it still couldn't survive a single clean exchange with Annihilape.
"Sucker Punch!" Katy hadn't yet grasped how wide the gap between them really was, and she clearly still intended to fight for a comeback.
"Lokix!"
Lokix instantly unfolded the third pair of legs tucked at its waist and burst forward. Thanks to Sucker Punch's priority, it closed in and struck before Annihilape could even land its punch.
Dark energy wrapped around Lokix's body as it crashed into Annihilape.
Bang!!
The attack connected, but the scene everyone had pictured never came. Annihilape wasn't knocked back at all. Instead, Lokix itself was thrown several meters away by the recoil of its own collision.
"Anni!"
Annihilape paid the hit no mind whatsoever. It simply swung its arm and unleashed the waiting Shadow Punch.
Bang!!
Lokix flew backward and slammed into the ground, losing consciousness on the spot.
"Lokix is unable to battle! Gym Leader Katy has no Pokémon remaining! The winner of this Gym Battle is the challenger, Gary!"
The whole Gym Battle had taken less than ten minutes.
Gary had won it without any real effort.
"Oh my. Even Lokix was knocked out in one blow. This child is terrifying." Katy was a mature young woman, and the instant she saw Lokix go down, she understood that Gary was no ordinary Trainer. With her strength, probably not a single Gym in the entire Paldea region could stand up to this Annihilape head-on.
"Thank you for the battle." Gary spoke politely and recalled Annihilape.
"There's no need to be so modest. For you, this fight was meaningless from the very start. I'm the one who let you down," Katy said with a wry smile.
"Miss Katy, you're a Gym Leader. Your job is to test and train the challengers who come to you," Gary said. "If you'd used Pokémon closer to my level, I might not have wrapped things up so quickly."
"Haha, you really do know how to talk." Katy smiled, then took out her Gym Badge and held it out to him.
"This is the Badge. Take it."
"Thank you."
Gary accepted the Badge gratefully.
[Ding! Task completed. The reward has been distributed to System Storage.]
With the Badge in hand, Gary said his goodbyes and left Cortondo Gym.
"System, show me the item I received this time." He immediately checked the random item reward, curious about what the system had given him.
[Premium Metal Alloy: When used to evolve Duraludon, the evolved form's potential is raised to Champion level.]
"Metal Alloy!"
Gary was genuinely surprised. He hadn't expected the system to hand him an evolution item.
What made it so valuable was the result. Once Duraludon evolved with it, the new form would already meet the pseudo-legendary standard.
Even so, Gary couldn't quite understand the official classification. Archaludon already boasted a Base Stat Total of 600, yet it still wasn't listed among the late-stage pseudo-legendary Pokémon.
"System, redeem the Bug-type Permanent Move Tutor for Lunge."
In the end, Gary chose to exchange for Lunge.
Aside from U-turn, Lunge was one of the better Bug-type moves to have. Its power was a little on the low side, but its added effect more than made up for it: a guaranteed 100% chance to lower the target's Attack by one stage.
[Ding! Move redemption successful.]
After redeeming it, Gary didn't bother teaching the move to anyone just yet, since none of the Pokémon currently on his team could actually learn Lunge.
"Time to head for Artazon."
Checking the map, Gary picked out the Gym town nearest to Cortondo.
Artazon sat in the eastern part of the Paldea region, between South Province Area Three and East Province Area One, leaning toward the southern edge of East Province Area One.
An hour of flying on Togekiss later, Gary touched down in Artazon.
Artazon was a town steeped in artistic atmosphere. Plenty of artists passed through to leave their works behind, lending the place a distinctly creative feel.
Gary wasn't in any rush to challenge the Artazon Gym. It was already late, and even if he went over now, he probably wouldn't get a match in, so he decided to wait until the next morning.
This wasn't Gary's first visit to the Paldea region, and he'd noticed something curious: the Gyms here seemed oddly quiet, with hardly anyone coming to challenge them.
The reason he felt that way was simple. The Gyms in Paldea kept their battlefields outdoors and ran their matches out in the open. If battles happened often, the fences ringing the arenas should have shown the wear and scars of constant fighting.
Yet after challenging two Gyms now, Gary hadn't spotted a single battle mark on those fences. Either the staff repaired them constantly, or, more likely, there simply weren't many challengers most of the time.
That night, Gary rested at the Pokémon Center in Artazon.
At nine o'clock the next morning, he set out for the Artazon Gym.