"Everything after that—you've probably heard it already. Brother Su got his first Pokémon and just kept winning. He entered Shangqing University as the nation's top scorer, then not long after graduating, he earned the title of Elite and became the youngest Elite in Longguo's history."
After Auron Vale finished telling the story to his friends, the two Pokémon were fully treated and brought back out.
The group drifted along, chatting as they walked back to the hotel.
When they returned, Su Qianyan was already gone. A hotel staffer handed them a note, saying Su Qianyan had left it for them.
"Little Ze, I'm heading out first, okay? Next time we meet, I'll spank you. Bye-bye~"
Auron unfolded the note and sighed, deadpan.
"Don't we have phones? Why leave a note instead of sending a message?"
Somewhere on a plane, Su Qianyan sneezed.
"Huh? Sea breeze is strong—am I catching a cold? Miss, can I get some cold medicine?"
He rubbed his nose and waved the flight attendant over to mix him a cup of cold medicine.
............
A week later, Auron and the others were back in Vantora. The day after their showdown with the Shuihua Team, they spent two more days playing around before starting the trip home. Maybe they'd played too hard—everyone felt worn out once they got back and ended up lazing around the house for several days.
After Auron loafed for a few days, he finally unlocked an epic skill: Mom's Disdain.
With no way around it, Auron had to head out during the day for a stroll, preferably somewhere outside Mom's line of sight where he wouldn't get scolded.
"When's this going to end…"
He slouched down the street, wandering aimlessly.
"Huh?"
He looked up. Without noticing it, he'd drifted all the way to the Pokémon Battle Center.
A spark lit in his eyes.
"Come to think of it, Charmander and Corphish haven't had any proper, systematic training yet. And the training room I booked isn't expired either. So… why not?"
He went from thought to action, grinning as he stepped through the Battle Center doors and headed to the private training room he'd rented earlier.
"Charmander, move out—jog to warm up!"
Once he released his Pokémon, he put Charmander on a dash to get the blood flowing.
Crobat and Snorlax, old hands at this, went straight to their usual training stations.
Their match against Su Qianyan's Arcanine last time had hit them hard.
It wasn't just Auron who wasn't used to losing—Crobat and Snorlax hardly ever lost either. And then they got steamrolled in that battle.
Sure, there was a gap in training time and battle experience between both sides, but a loss is a loss. Any excuse after losing is just an excuse.
Snorlax started buckling down to drill the proficiency of the moves it had mastered after evolving.
Crobat, for his part, had realized he still wasn't fast enough. If his speed were high enough, he wouldn't need to rely on [Tailwind] to stall until the battle ended. So Crobat focused on speed work and sharpening his evasion efficiency.
Auron, meanwhile, stared at Corphish in front of him and fell into thought.
"This little guy… how should I train him?"
He racked his brain for everything he knew about Corphish, thinking through its development path.
The other Pokémon already had their lanes mapped out.
Snorlax was the heavy tank: high offense, high defense, slow speed—counterpuncher. Sometimes he could counter an opponent's Trick Room setter, or they could even set [Trick Room] themselves and let him be the setter.
Crobat was the high-speed disruptor, a turret, a special sweeper, and a counter to opposing setup sweepers. High speed gave him nimble movement and room to boost himself; on the special side, he had [Nasty Plot] to ramp up Sp. Atk. He didn't have much in the way of self-boosting moves on the physical side, but his STAB [Brave Bird] still hit like a truck. And with that speed, he could play keep-away and wear foes down with guaranteed-hit [Toxic].
Charmander was even simpler—he was the "mage" slot. Once Crobat set [Tailwind], whether it evolved into Mega Charizard X or Mega Charizard Y, it could go wild under [Tailwind].
Right now, the only one giving Auron a headache was the Corphish whose bright eyes practically gleamed with wisdom.
He rubbed his temples while scrolling through Corphish's information panel. There was no getting around it—these were his Pokémon, so he had to design their training plans and chart their future tracks himself.
"Dragon Dance? Aqua Jet? Aqua Jet? Aqua Jet? Dragon Dance?"
He muttered through Corphish's movepool, eyes growing brighter with every repetition.
"Once Corphish evolves into Crawdaunt and learns Swords Dance… Dragon Dance plus Swords Dance—dual-dance setup! Add already solid Attack on top… that's exactly the kind of setup sweeper I've been looking for."
Auron's gaze lit up as he stared at his keen-eyed little Corphish.
With the Ability [Adaptability], Corphish could deal huge damage off its same-type moves.
On the Dark side, it had [Knock Off], [Sucker Punch], and [Crunch].
On the Water side, there were [Razor Shell], [Waterfall], and its signature [Crabhammer].
Yeah, it's a bit funny that a lobster's signature move is [Crabhammer], but hey—if a lobster can inherit [Dragon Dance], then [Crabhammer] doesn't feel that weird, does it?
What's more, Crawdaunt's Sp. Atk after evolving wasn't low, and it even had access to [Nasty Plot]. Special Dark STAB like [Dark Pulse], and special Water moves like [Surf], [Scald], and [Water Pulse] opened up potential for true mixed attacking.
Speed was on the awkward side, sure—but [Aqua Jet] gave it the face-to-face, point-blank capital it needed.
All told, it wouldn't be at a disadvantage in battle. It might even catch most people completely off guard.
"Decision made. Corphish, you're pairing with Snorlax to grind move proficiency."
Auron handed Corphish a Pokéblock, then led the slightly-buzzing-with-excitement crustacean over to Snorlax, pointed at the target dummy, and said:
"Corphish, use Aqua Jet on that target!"
Corphish's eyes sharpened; water streamed over its whole body. It shot forward and slammed into the practice target.
Auron nodded. "Mm-hm, great. Train the move's proficiency exactly like that. Tonight you're all getting an extra meal."
Hearing that, Corphish worked even harder, firing off [Aqua Jet] again and again into the target dummy.
Snorlax, off to the side, also straightened up a bit, taking things more seriously.
"I've got to set a good example for the junior. Yeah. I can do this."
Watching his four Pokémon grinding away, Auron gave a satisfied nod and stepped out of the training room.
He was heading to the battle arena to see if there were any suitable opponents for Corphish.
He needed to get Corphish into a few fights as soon as possible—fast-track it to evolve into Crawdaunt.
Once it evolved and learned [Crabhammer], Corphish would count as having "achieved minor completion" in battle strength.
From then on, the game plan would be simple: open with a dance, then close in with [Aqua Jet]; follow with [Knock Off], [Sucker Punch], or [Crabhammer] for damage.
Aim to take them out in one swing. If one swing doesn't do it, then two. If two swings don't do it—drop dead on the spot. Either way, my Crawdaunt lives by a three-axe routine!
Kidding. Even if two swings don't finish it, it's not like he'll "drop dead on the spot." Crawdaunt's defenses—both sides—are decent enough.
But that three-axe routine really does come down to those three signature moves, which is why Auron wanted Corphish to be like Snorlax: able to use both claws at once.
He didn't need different moves with each claw. As long as both claws could throw out [Crabhammer] simultaneously, that would be enough.
Left hammer, right hammer—who could possibly stand up to that?
When that day comes, I'll be Vantora's Hammer King! Any objections? Anyone dare oppose?
(End of this chapter)