"No problem!"
Caster nodded.
Koga's skills were undoubtedly among the best of the Gym Leaders, which was precisely why he had been invited by Drake to take up a position as one of the Elite Four in the Johto region. Under normal Gym challenge rules, however, Gym Leaders typically used non-primary Pokémon, so the difficulty wasn't particularly high.
When Ash had challenged Fuchsia Gym, for instance, Koga had sent out a Venonat, though it promptly evolved into a Venomoth the moment it entered battle. Even so, it was clear that Venomoth hadn't been operating at full strength.
"Come on out, Venomoth!"
Koga tossed a Poké Ball, and sure enough, out came a Venomoth that had only recently evolved.
Venomoth had a pale purple body, a white-furred abdomen, and two pairs of large wings. Its eyes were bubble-like, with black pupils inside. Three slender protrusions jutted from the top of its head, and three pairs of small legs lined its chest.
"Drat~!"
Dratini crawled forward, coiling itself into a ready stance.
"Venomoth, use Poison Powder."
The battle began with Koga seizing the initiative.
Caster remained calm and called out: "Dratini, Safeguard!"
Hmmm!
A hazy, sacred-looking glow radiated from Dratini's body.
With Safeguard active, Dratini was brimming with confidence and completely ignored the purple powder drifting toward it.
It was just about to launch an attack of its own when something felt wrong.
The moment the Poison Powder made contact, a searing sensation spread across its scales.
At the same time, a dark, purplish tinge crept across Dratini's face, its expression twisting in pain.
"That's... poisoning?!"
Caster's pupils shrank sharply.
The live stream viewers were equally stunned.
"Dratini clearly used Safeguard, so why is it still poisoned? Is Koga playing dirty or something?"
"Koga is an officially recognized Fuchsia Gym Leader. There's no way he'd use underhanded tactics in an official match. That's a bizarre take."
"Then why did Dratini still get poisoned? Did the Safeguard fail? I definitely saw that hazy white glow!"
"It's probably a matter of the gap in raw power between them. More specifically, the toxicity of this Venomoth's Poison Powder likely exceeds the threshold that Dratini's Safeguard can withstand.
In Pokémon battles, moves aren't omnipotent; everything has its limits. Even a 'block' can be broken through. People really shouldn't be too rigid about this."
One sharp-eyed viewer had clearly seen this before, cutting straight to the heart of the matter as a seasoned Trainer would.
The others quickly agreed.
This was Koga, a master of Poison-type Pokémon.
The Venomoth he had raised, even if it wasn't a frontline ace, carried toxins far more potent than those of an average Pokémon.
Dratini failing to hold out was entirely reasonable.
Caster alone wore a displeased expression.
Before coming to Fuchsia City, he had specifically reviewed Koga's recent Gym battle footage.
His Venomoth primarily relied on Stun Spore and Sleep Powder in battle, barely ever using Poison Powder, clearly out of concern that opponents wouldn't be able to handle it. Holding back was the whole point, after all.
Gym challenges were, by design, a process through which Gym Leaders held back to filter out Trainers with genuine potential.
Without holding back, even a third-rate Pokémon team fielded by a Gym Leader would be nearly impossible for an ordinary Trainer to defeat. In terms of both tactics and battle command, Gym Leaders outclassed regular Trainers by a wide margin.
"Damn it, he's actually turning up the heat on me?"
Caster cursed inwardly, yet could do nothing about it.
The right to decide how much to hold back, or whether to hold back at all, rested entirely with Koga.
"Drat~!"
Despite the rough start, Dratini gritted through the pain of the spreading poison, and the power within its Dragon Orb surged forth.
Even inside a closed room with all doors and windows shut, that did nothing to stop Dratini from gathering storm clouds that swirled up against the ceiling.
In the blink of an eye, rain began to fall inside the room.
"Is that Rain Dance? No, wait!"
Koga looked on with clear surprise. "That's not a move, and it's not an Ability either. This must be a natural talent!"
The ability this Dratini had to control the weather was simply far superior to the vast majority of Dragonair.
In that moment, Koga found himself thinking of Drake, who had just hurried off, and thought: "Even Drake's Dragonair, purely in terms of weather control, might not match this Dratini."
Of course, that wasn't to say Drake's Dragonair was weak. Drake was a Dragon-type specialist whose development focused on the raw power of Dragon-type energy rather than weather manipulation. The two excelled in entirely different areas.
That said, Koga was merely intrigued, not truly shocked.
His own frontline Pokémon harbored terrifying toxins, some carrying effects so varied and unusual that ordinary people would find them utterly unbelievable.
The Venomoth in front of him, of course, wasn't anywhere near that level.
So while Caster's Dratini was impressive, in Koga's eyes, it was still just that.
"Venomoth, Glare!"
The rain intensified steadily, yet Koga showed no sign of panic, wearing the calm air of a cat toying with a mouse.
"Veno!"
With a flap of its wings, Venomoth's black pupils began to flicker with a strange red light.
A peculiar energy seeped out from within it, and an invisible force pressed in from all sides toward Dratini, attempting to lock its body in place.
"Drat~!"
Dratini writhed and resisted fiercely.
Thanks to the nourishment from the Energy Orb and the large Dragonite scales, Dratini's physical strength had long since surpassed what it once was. Its draconic body held an immense raw power within it.
Venomoth's Poison-type abilities were formidable, but its control over normal-type energy was considerably weaker. Although Glare connected, the binding force simply wasn't enough to restrain Dratini's thick, powerful frame.
"Sludge Bomb!"
Seeing Glare fail, Koga immediately shifted tactics.
Sludge Bomb was a peculiar move whose power increased substantially when used against a target already afflicted with poisoning.
"I won't let you!"
Caster swept his hand forward and called out: "Dratini, Water Pulse, counter it head-on!"
Midair, Venomoth launched a stream of green, toxin-laced liquid from its mouth, hurtling toward Dratini.
"Drat~!"
Dratini refused to be outdone, condensing a massive sphere of water in its own mouth.
BOOM!
The two forces collided in midair and exploded outward.
In terms of raw power, Dratini's Water Pulse had clearly come out ahead.
Its Water Pulse was at the Mastered level, and with the rain providing a boost on top of that, how could it possibly lose?
The toxin was absorbed into the water and then came crashing down on Venomoth as a massive wave, a spectacle even more overwhelming than Surf.
Constrained by the narrow confines of the enclosed space, Venomoth had nowhere to flee.