Chapter 227: Blaze
In the following days, everyone's training proceeded in an orderly manner.
There were two regular season matches each day, and each team would have a match every four to five days, so the rest intervals in between were generally quite ample.
Initially, Arthur spent almost all of his afternoons making up lessons for Greninja.
Just like in the youth training camp, the instructors here also mainly used auxiliary equipment to help the Pokémon learn skills.
These auxiliary instruments, which were tied or worn on the body, could help the Pokémon mobilize and guide their own energy. Accompanied by the instructor's guidance, the Pokémon could quickly get a feel for releasing the skill.
Once the Pokémon was proficient in casting the spell while wearing the instrument, they would then consider gradually removing the instrument and letting the Pokémon complete the move independently.
With this intermediate process, the difficulty for a Pokémon to master a skill was undoubtedly greatly reduced.
Two hundred years of technological progress were enough to bring about some awe-inspiring miracles.
Arthur accompanied them for several days of classes. Although he could grasp the instructors' general ideas, he had to admit that he really couldn't understand the operation and principles of those instruments.
He lacked too much basic knowledge in this area.
He was originally a little frustrated, but once, after mentioning this to Luna, she gave him a very magical look.
Now, after having been on the internet for a while, Arthur could also read the meaning of this look.
She was probably saying: "For God's sake, act like a normal person!"
Seeing his confusion, Luna explained irritably.
"These instructors have been studying Pokémon Breeding as their major since university. After graduation, they have to pass professional title exams level by level, and then they need to accumulate at least three years of work experience in places like the youth training camp before they have a chance to be employed by a professional team.
Every one of them has been immersed in this field for a long time, some have been doing this for over a decade. You've only attended a few lessons and you expect to learn all their skills? What are you thinking?"
After hearing this, Arthur felt it made a lot of sense, so he no longer dwelled on this issue.
However, after about a week, he still ended Greninja's classes ahead of schedule.
When Luna asked, he only said, "I don't understand the earlier lessons, so I can only let him teach. But for the later content after the instruments are removed, I can teach it myself, so there's no need to attend the classes."
At that moment, the look Luna gave him once again revealed her astonishment.
This time, after interpreting the meaning of this look, Arthur roughly guessed it was—
As expected of you!
Afterward, Arthur freed up his afternoons to sign up Mismagius and Little Lapras for classes, and Greninja's subsequent practice was moved to the evenings, with him personally guiding it after the instructors got off work.
This was mainly because Arthur had always insisted on one thing: whether his Pokémon were in class or training, he himself must be present to accompany them!
It was for this reason that he would rather take time out of his evenings to guide Greninja than to leave Greninja in the care of an instructor during the afternoon while he attended other classes.
This point was actually different from the players in the team, and even from most of the professional circle.
Even Luna, when she was doing extra training with her four backup Pokémon, would entrust her other Pokémon, including her two mains, Empoleon and Kabutops, to the instructors for guidance.
This kind of托管 (tuōguǎn - entrustment/custodianship) was actually the norm in the professional circle.
But Arthur was unwilling.
He would rather stop Greninja's afternoon classes and sacrifice his own evening rest time to make up for it than to entrust it to others.
As far as things stood, many players thought there was something wrong with him.
Including Luna and Bella, the two women he was closest to, they didn't quite understand his approach.
But he always persisted.
During this period, the Sea Carp Team played two more matches.
Since their opponents were teams ranked relatively low in the league, they won both matches relatively smoothly.
Arthur played in both matches.
Following the coach's instructions, he did not reveal Mismagius for the time being and still used Greninja in both matches.
However, the final results were without any major scares, and they won both smoothly.
After a three-game winning streak, the popularity of both the Sea Carp Team and Arthur himself soared!
Except for Elijah, who couldn't get any playing time and was always sitting on the cold bench with a look of youthful angst, everyone else on the team had been in high spirits recently!
This day was a weekend again.
The viewership and discussion rates for weekend matches were much higher than usual.
The official tournament organizers would also consciously arrange more popular and buzz-worthy matches on weekends.
And in this round of the weekend, the Sea Carp Team was set to appear again—
They would have to set off in advance for an away game to face last year's best-performing Kubfu team in the Champions Cup, and also the currently most hyped-up new powerhouse team in the league: the Blaze Team!
To be fair, Sea Carp's schedule this season could definitely be described as "bitter first, sweet later."
They would encounter many of the top-ranked teams in the league in the first half of the season.
Including the three Kubfu teams that had competed in last year's Champions Cup: Otter, Blaze, and Demon King!
Afterward, the last of the traditional Kubfu "Big Three," the Jinchan Team, would also face them before the halfway point of the season.
They had already played against the Otter Team on the opening day of the league.
And in the next few weeks, they would face a strong enemy at every step, facing a tough battle every week!
It was unknown how long the joy of their 3-0 opening record would last.
On this Sunday, they set off in the morning, taking the high-speed rail to the Blaze Team's home city.
Their match was the first one in the afternoon, so there was no need to wait for the broadcast of previous battles. The match started on time at two o'clock.
As soon as they entered the arena, the mountain-like roar of cheers almost knocked them over.
This was definitely the most fanatical pre-match roar Arthur had ever seen.
In the previous three matches, they had played against two weak teams. The only match against a strong enemy, the Otter Team, was on their own home turf, and secondly, not many people were optimistic about them before the match, so the cheers back then were far from as crazy as they were now.
At the side, their own team captain took the initiative to start a topic to alleviate the awkwardness of having just been startled.
"A few years ago, the attendance for matches here was far worse than today."
A main player at the side also chimed in, "Yeah, who would have thought a few years ago that Blaze could have this kind of popularity."
Arthur, who didn't pay much attention to the league, quickly extracted some information from this—
The Blaze Team seemed to be a new dark horse that had risen rapidly in recent years!
That made sense. In the information Arthur had looked up, the old "Big Three" of Kubfu were: Demon King, Yuzhou, and Jinchan.
And before last year's Champions Cup, the one with the highest online popularity was the Otter Team they had previously faced.
The name of the Blaze Team was basically never mentioned in this information, as if they were just an unknown little entity.
However, what was unexpected was that the Kubfu team that achieved the best result in last year's Champions Cup was precisely Blaze!
They fought all the way to the losers' bracket finals, finally losing to last year's successfully defending Hoenn League champion team, taking third place. This could be considered to have saved the last bit of face for Kubfu, where half of its teams were knocked out in the first round.
If it weren't for the sudden rise of the Blaze Team, Kubfu would probably have become a laughingstock again in last year's Champions Cup.
Thinking about it this way, it was perhaps not surprising that they had such an exaggerated cheering momentum at their home stadium now.
But in this way, the pressure was invisibly shifted entirely to the Sea Carp side!
(End of Chapter)
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