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Mega Sceptile was actually far better suited for Special Attack than Physical Attack.
The main reason Jacob mostly had Mega Sceptile use Physical Attack moves was because of Sceptile's extremely limited special move pool.
Mega Sceptile was severely lacking in Special Attack moves. Besides Grass-type special moves, it only had a handful of useful options like the Fighting-type Focus Blast, Normal-type Swift, Hyper Beam, and Dragon-type Dragon Pulse. This severely restricted its type coverage in battle.
In contrast, Sceptile had access to quite a variety of very useful Physical Attack moves.
For example, there was the Dark-type Night Slash, Grass-type Leaf Blade, Bug-type X-Scissor, Dragon-type Dragon Claw, Fighting-type Brick Break, Ground-type Earthquake, Steel-type Iron Tail, Rock Slide, and many more.
This was one of the reasons why Pokémon like Sceptile had never been particularly popular in competitive battles. Another major reason was its underwhelming Ability options.
If Sceptile had Abilities like Contrary, Grassy Surge, Thick Fat, Chlorophyll, or Protean, its viability would skyrocket immediately.
Now, with a complete disadvantage in Physical Attack capability, Jacob had no choice but to have Mega Sceptile rely on Special Attack moves instead.
In the pouring rain, Mega Sceptile ran swiftly across the battlefield. Despite its massive body, it moved with exceptional agility. It stepped across the uneven ground, splashing water with every stride.
Sceptile's tail tip erupted with rich emerald Grass-type energy, shooting out a spike formed from condensed Grass-type power.
Giga Drain!
Palafin stood firm on the battlefield, his gaze fixed intently on Sceptile as it darted through the rain, attempting to lock onto Sceptile's moving figure.
"Ice Punch, Palafin!"
Facing the incoming Grass-type energy spike, Palafin swung his massive fist. A cold gleam shimmered as Ice-type energy surged around it.
He punched forward, directly shattering the Grass-type energy spike with a single devastating blow.
"Do you really think you can defeat Palafin with just speed alone?" Augustine looked at Sceptile standing in the distance, a confident smile spreading across his face. "The moment you decided to avoid direct confrontation, you already lost. You no longer have the courage to charge forward and face us head-on."
"Someone like you who tries to train both Physical and Special Attack equally, grasping at everything and mastering nothing, will only end up becoming mediocre."
"Not skilled enough in Special Attack, not powerful enough in Physical Attack."
"Even with Mega Evolution, it cannot hide Sceptile's fundamentally mediocre nature."
"All of its excellent physical advantages are being completely wasted."
"Battles are about crushing your enemies with your strongest weapon. Pokémon and trainers alike—except for the rarest of geniuses—no one can truly master everything."
"This Sceptile of yours cannot defeat my Palafin!"
"Palafin, use Jet Punch! Don't give Sceptile any chance to create distance!"
Augustine's harsh words made Jacob's expression grow heavy. Indeed, just as Augustine said, except for a very select few geniuses, no one could achieve perfection in every aspect. The same applied to Pokémon as well.
Perhaps in lower-level battles, a well-rounded Sceptile could still maintain an advantage due to its natural talent. But in elite-level battles like this one, when facing Pokémon of equally exceptional potential, the disadvantages of being a generalist became painfully apparent.
Jacob shook his head, refusing to let Augustine's words affect his focus. He concentrated his full attention back on the match.
All roads led to Rome, after all. Every Champion-level Pokémon was unique, and Palafin's training methodology might not necessarily be suitable for his Sceptile at all.
"Save your lectures for after you've actually beaten me. Sceptile, use Giga Drain!"
Jet Punch was a move exclusive to the Palafin evolutionary line. Although its base power wasn't particularly high, both it and Aqua Jet were priority moves, making them extremely fast to execute.
As an exclusive signature move, Jet Punch's power was 1.5 times that of Aqua Jet. Combined with the Same Type Attack Bonus and the rain weather boost, its total power output was still quite impressive.
Hearing Augustine's command, Palafin began gathering Water-type energy. The rain falling from the sky above became the perfect energy source.
The rain's amplification effect on Water-type moves allowed Palafin to complete the energy gathering almost instantaneously. His right hand became enveloped in dense Water-type energy as Jet Punch was unleashed.
Facing the rapidly approaching Palafin, Sceptile stomped its foot firmly. Grass-type energy surged outward explosively. In mere moments, Giga Drain was successfully executed, flying directly toward Palafin.
"Ignore it and keep attacking! Use Ice Punch!"
Facing Sceptile's attack head-on, Palafin neither dodged nor attempted to evade. It directly endured the damage from Giga Drain and charged straight toward Sceptile without hesitation.
At the same time, Palafin's left fist remained covered in frigid Ice-type energy—this was the Ice Punch move.
It was clear that Palafin was currently using two completely different moves with each hand simultaneously: his exclusive Jet Punch with his right hand, and Ice Punch with his left hand.
He would use the acceleration effect provided by Jet Punch to close the distance rapidly, then unleash Ice Punch—which dealt quadruple super-effective damage to Sceptile—to severely injure or potentially knock out Sceptile entirely.
This was Augustine's battle strategy. The strategy appeared simple on the surface, but it heavily tested the Pokémon's proficiency in controlling energy and executing multiple moves simultaneously. Without extensive training, ordinary Pokémon would find this technique extremely difficult to perform.
Seeing Palafin's dual-pronged assault approach, Jacob wasn't particularly surprised, as he had already witnessed other trainers perform similar techniques before.
However, this also gave Jacob an interesting idea: perhaps Sceptile could do something similar. Dragon Claw with the left hand, Leaf Blade with the right hand—dual Same Type Attack Bonus moves would definitely be considerably stronger than using a single Leaf Blade alone.
Just then, Palafin moved explosively. His body shot forward like an arrow released from a bow. The Aqua Jet propelling him from behind provided tremendous power as he slammed toward Sceptile.
Jacob wasn't remotely worried about Palafin's Jet Punch attack, because Grass and Dragon-type Mega Sceptile had a quadruple resistance to Water-type moves. The only thing he genuinely needed to worry about was the quadruple super-effective Ice Punch.
"Sceptile! Use Leaf Storm!"
Seeing Palafin's fierce incoming attack, Jacob had no choice but to have Sceptile unleash its most powerful Same Type Attack Bonus move at this critical moment—Leaf Storm.
Hearing Jacob's command, Sceptile's entire body erupted with brilliant emerald light. The glow was dazzling even through the falling rain, transforming into countless razor-sharp, blade-like leaves that danced violently in a devastating storm.
A verdant green storm formed across the battlefield, completely engulfing Palafin within its fury.
Palafin now faced only two possible choices: the first option was to endure Leaf Storm's full force and continue attacking Sceptile anyway, which would result in severe injury to Palafin but would likely deliver a devastating blow—or even achieve a direct knockout—against Sceptile.
The second option was to use Protect and abandon the current attack entirely.
With almost no hesitation whatsoever, Augustine chose to have Palafin use Protect, because only by doing so could he preserve any realistic hope of achieving victory.
"Palafin, use Protect!"
"Return, Sceptile!" After witnessing Augustine use Protect, Jacob decisively chose to switch Pokémon immediately.
Although Leaf Storm was incredibly powerful in terms of raw damage output, it came with the significant drawback of sharply lowering the user's Special Attack stat afterward.
"It's your turn now, Charizard!"