Lucario struggled to its feet. At this moment, its body was covered in burn marks, and due to the burn, its body was also trembling uncontrollably.
Clearly, it was in a very bad state, in great pain, and on the verge of collapse.
After taking two heavy hits in a row, its stamina was already critically low. Fortunately, its will was still strong, and it had not given up the fight.
"Lucario, use Close Combat!"
Jasmine clenched her fists and gave the command again. In her heart, she was also very worried about Lucario's condition and had wanted to stop several times, but since her Pokémon had not given up, how could she?
And knowing that this was Lucario's last stand, Natsui naturally didn't dare to be careless.
Close Combat was one of the most damaging Fighting-type moves, capable of dealing massive damage in an instant. If he were to let his guard down at this time, he would definitely suffer a great loss.
"Charizard, dodge it quickly!"
Charizard leaped backward, creating distance and dodging the few punches that Lucario threw.
Seeing this, Lucario took a deep breath, and the next second, its body suddenly glowed with a red light, as if it had burned away all its blood, and it charged towards Charizard without a second thought.
It was Final Gambit.
Natsui's eyes narrowed.
This was a move that attacked the opponent with all one's might. Although the user would be left in a near-fainted state after using it, it would deal damage to the target equal to the user's own current health.
Which meant that the more injured it was, the harder it would hit.
It seemed that Lucario wanted to trade blow for blow, to force Charizard into the same desperate situation, intending to take it down with it.
It could only be said that Fighting-type Pokémon were like this, brave and fierce. The more seriously they were injured, the sharper their attacks often became, and the more willing they were to trade their life for their opponent's.
But since he already knew its plan, Natsui naturally wouldn't let Lucario succeed.
At his command, Charizard flew high into the air. And facing the high-flying Charizard, Lucario no longer had the extra strength to use its Aura to attack.
Under the double weakness, Lucario couldn't even lift its legs and could only look up at Charizard with an unwilling expression.
In mid-air, Charizard's abdomen swelled, and flames gathered in its mouth. Then, it opened its mouth, and a scorching flame shot out, instantly hitting Lucario.
This time, Lucario didn't even have the strength to dodge and was directly engulfed by the flames.
The flames burned fiercely, and in the firelight, one could vaguely see Lucario's body slowly falling…
A few seconds later, the flames quickly disappeared.
As the last spark burned out, Lucario was lying on the ground, covered in soot.
The referee took a step forward and, seeing that Lucario was completely unconscious, directly raised the green flag and announced the result of the match.
"Lucario is unable to battle! The winner of this battle is the challenger, Natsui!"
Recalling Lucario into its Poké Ball, Jasmine walked up to Natsui with a calm expression.
"A breathtaking pace. I lost this match fair and square."
Charizard landed beside Natsui. He first patted its neck, then turned to look at Jasmine.
"Your Metagross and Lucario are also very strong. They can be ranked among the top opponents I've faced in these gyms."
These words from Natsui were not to comfort Jasmine. Her two Pokémon were indeed very skilled, especially her Metagross, which could be said to be exceptionally well-trained.
Jasmine smiled faintly. To be praised by a champion was undoubtedly a very happy thing.
She reached into her pocket, took out a badge with a metallic luster, and handed it to Natsui.
"This is my Mineral Badge. Please take it."
Natsui said his thanks, took the badge in his hand, and looked down at it. The badge was octagonal and had a gray, smooth, mirrored surface, as if it were made from an ordinary piece of steel that had been polished.
Compared to the other gym badges, the Mineral Badge was undoubtedly very plain.
Just as he had placed it in his badge case, Erika had already walked up to them from the spectator stands.
"A wonderful match," she said, looking at Natsui with a light smile. "Especially the first round. For a moment, I thought your Blastoise would lose."
Knowing she was joking, Natsui played along and also teased back, "Then I must have disappointed you. Clearly, my skill was a cut above."
Seeing his smug and cheeky look, the two women couldn't help but cover their mouths and giggle, the atmosphere light and friendly.
After chatting for a while longer, Natsui took the initiative to say his farewells.
Jasmine had wanted to ask them to stay a bit longer, but was refused by Natsui.
It could be seen that she really wanted to spend more time with Erika, but seeing Natsui's firm attitude, she could only reluctantly give up.
She looked at Erika and said sincerely, "Ms. Erika, I hope that after your journey is over, you can come and be my guest again."
"Don't worry," Erika nodded at her. "I will definitely come back to see you when I have time. And this time, I definitely won't forget you again."
…
Leaving the Olivine Gym, Natsui first returned to the Pokémon Center. After healing his two battling Pokémon, he contacted Koharu again and transferred Blastoise back to Sakuragi Park.
It wasn't that Natsui didn't want to spend more time with Blastoise, but this journey for the Silver Conference was, after all, mainly for training and developing his newer Pokémon.
After having lunch at the Pokémon Center, the two didn't linger and planned to continue to the next gym city.
And next, two different routes appeared before them again.
Either they could take the sea route, passing through the Whirl Islands, to reach Cianwood City and challenge the Cianwood Gym.
Or, they could go directly south, first to Goldenrod City to challenge the Goldenrod Gym, and then continue southeast to Azalea Town to challenge the Azalea Gym.
Time to choose again…
In fact, only these three gyms remained. As long as he got three more badges, he could challenge the Silver Conference. Therefore, no matter which direction he chose, he had to challenge all three gyms. The only thing to decide now was the order.
Too lazy to overthink it, Natsui simply threw the problem to Erika and let her choose the route.
Erika hesitated for a moment and finally chose Cianwood City.
"Then let's go to Cianwood City," she said, looking at the distant blue sea with emotion. "These past few days have been all flying in the sky or rushing on land. It's about time we had a change of scenery and relaxed on a boat for a bit."
"A boat, huh…"
Natsui naturally had no objections and walked with her towards the Olivine pier. But he didn't know if it was his imagination, but he clearly felt that since leaving the Olivine Gym, there had been some change in Erika.
This change was hard to describe.
The most direct thing was that whenever their eyes met, she would always lower her head and look away, not daring to meet his gaze at all.