Chapter 257: Guarding Against Nothing
Without the Trick Room field, Torkoal's slow movement speed became a glaring weakness.
Little Lapras could easily dodge its direct attacks, while Torkoal could only stand there and endure her water arrows and beams.
Even its Fire Spin could only trap Little Lapras temporarily, not forever.
If necessary, Little Lapras could simply charge through the ring of fire to escape the vortex's encirclement.
Fire was not one of her weaknesses.
Lapras is weak to Grass, Electric, Rock, and Fighting.
Torkoal did have Rock-type moves to counter her, but the problem was, it was running out of move slots.
In the battle so far, it had already used Flamethrower, Fire Blast, and Fire Spin. Then, to quickly deal with Nidoking, it used the Ground-type move Earth Power, which was super-effective against Poison-types.
In a professional match with six move slots, it had already used four.
It had to reserve at least one remaining slot for curing a status condition or for a last-ditch Protect to save itself.
After all, he knew nothing about Arthur's Lapras. Who knew what other moves it had?
Under these circumstances, he had only one available move slot left.
And yet, he had a mountain of problems to solve!
A long to-do list with only a spoonful of resources—it was just like the life of a modern-day office worker…
"Use Rock Tomb!"
In the end, he chose a functional Rock-type move rather than a purely offensive one.
Small rocks engraved with runes were launched from the holes in Torkoal's shell, tracing parabolic arcs across the field.
At this point, the opponent didn't care about the minor damage from the rocks hitting; he knew they were unlikely to connect anyway, so he didn't even aim carefully.
His goal was simply to restrict Little Lapras's movement!
The runes on the rocks weren't just for decoration; they carried a special energy that would slow down any creature that touched them. That was his real objective.
It was a nice idea, but unfortunately, Arthur just smiled faintly, completely unconcerned.
The moment that move was used, he knew Little Lapras was safe.
Lapras still had move slots to spare, and the opponent, unable to guess her move pool, wouldn't dare to casually use his last move slot.
This meant that the opponent no longer had the chance to use a high-power Rock-type attack!
So, Little Lapras simply stopped gliding.
"Continuous Water Gun!"
At Arthur's command, she immediately stopped, firing a non-stop barrage of water arrows from a stationary position, slowly chipping away at her opponent's health like a thousand tiny cuts.
The moment Torkoal opened its mouth, Arthur immediately gave another order.
"Use Whirlpool, and wrap it around yourself."
At the same time, the opponent unleashed a Flamethrower.
Whirlpool, a Water-type move, can be described as the water version of Fire Spin. It also creates a spinning vortex to surround a target.
It can be used to trap an opponent in the eye of the storm or to pull them into the swirling currents for a spin in the "washing machine."
But at this moment, Arthur, with a stroke of genius, developed a third use for this move—
Using the swirling water to protect oneself!
A water vortex shot up into the sky with Lapras at its center. The incoming pillar of fire was instantly weakened by several layers.
Torkoal's trainer had a look on his face as if he'd just been completely screwed over.
Shooting fire directly into a water vortex, even with an energy boost, was bound to have a minimal effect.
Looking at it now, his use of Rock Tomb to restrict movement had been completely pointless.
The opponent had just decided to stop moving altogether! How was that fair?!
He glanced at the scoreboard on the side of the field and felt a wave of helplessness.
The commentator mercilessly analyzed his predicament.
"The player from the Wildgrass Team is in deep trouble! Three of his current move slots are Fire-type moves, which can't break through Whirlpool's defense. His remaining Earth Power doesn't have the range, and Rock Tomb's damage is pathetic. What can he do now?"
After defending against the Flamethrower, Little Lapras glided out of the eye of the vortex. Once her cooldown was over, she went back to chipping away with Water Gun.
And the moment Torkoal made a move, she would retreat back into her Whirlpool.
The vortex lasted for a long time after being cast; it wouldn't dissipate anytime soon.
The Wildgrass player was now in a world of pain.
He really, really wanted to use his last move slot on a Stone Edge and ram it home, to show his opponent why the flowers were so red!
But his rational mind told him he couldn't. If he did, and the opponent hit him back with a Confuse Ray or a Rain Dance, he would have no way to counter it.
In reality, however, Little Lapras hadn't learned those moves yet. She couldn't use the disorienting Confuse Ray or the cloud-summoning Rain Dance.
But the opponent didn't know that!
This was the importance of information.
When facing a Pokémon you know nothing about, and it still has move slots available, you simply can't risk gambling on the depth of its move pool.
Especially not in a professional match. This wasn't some amateur battle.
The smile on Arthur's lips grew more and more pronounced.
As a practical, hands-on trainer, he hadn't been very comfortable with the move-slot limitations of arena battles at first.
It made using moves a matter of careful calculation.
But now that he had gradually adapted, he couldn't help but admit it was awesome!
Because of the move slot restriction, as long as he planned his tactics properly, he could effectively mitigate the disadvantage of his Pokémon having a shallow move pool.
Due to her short training time, Little Lapras's move pool was even more limited than Greninja's.
She currently had no status-inflicting moves, no moves to cure status conditions, and she hadn't yet learned any pseudo-weather moves that could change the field environment.
But under the cover of a solid strategy, her last remaining empty move slot had become her best defense.
Little Lapras had already demonstrated her incredibly solid fundamentals and move proficiency. Now, the problem was on the other side—
Do you dare to bet that Lapras doesn't know any of those moves?
Clearly, the opponent didn't dare.
So he held onto his last move slot for dear life.
And thus, faced with the water vortex, he was completely stumped.
To avoid provoking his opponent into an all-or-nothing gamble, Arthur, with a touch of malice, only had Lapras attack with the basic move Water Gun.
A thousand tiny cuts, slowly bleeding him out.
Boiling a frog in lukewarm water.
Finally, the opponent couldn't take it anymore!
"Let's risk it all! Use Stone Edge!"
Torkoal was on its last legs.
At this moment, the opponent finally decided to go all-in.
But Arthur responded immediately.
"Use Surf!"
Lapras summoned a giant wave and sent it crashing down on Torkoal.
The battle was about to enter its final stage!
And it was then that the opponent finally noticed something was wrong—
"I've used up all my move slots. I'm out of options. Why isn't this Lapras using Confuse Ray or Rain Dance?"
"Wait a minute... could it be that she doesn't know those moves?!"
"So I've been guarding against nothing this entire time?!"
It was all because Little Lapras's performance earlier had been too good. It made her opponent subconsciously forget—
This was just a brand-new Pokémon, brought out for the first time by a rookie trainer.
She wasn't even fully grown.
It wasn't until the referee raised the flag.
"Torkoal is unable to battle!"
Only then did the player from the Wildgrass Team finally confirm his suspicion—
This Lapras, in all likelihood, really didn't know those moves.
Damn it!
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