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The circular shock wave created by Conkeldurr's Earthquake attack spread outward at tremendous speed, leaving Charmeleon with nowhere to hide. It took the powerful ground-type move head-on and was violently knocked backward by the impact.
"Roar!" Charmeleon bellowed in pain.
Charmeleon, who had already been struck by a Mach Punch, was now barely hanging on after being hit hard by the Earthquake. If Jacob hadn't insisted on putting Charmeleon through high-intensity physical training every day, the Fire-type likely wouldn't have withstood the ground-type attack just now.
Judging from its performance, this Pokémon was incredibly powerful, certainly stronger than the average Elite-level Pokémon. As expected of a Gym defender—Wrenly wasn't weak by any means.
The severely injured Charmeleon glared at Conkeldurr with cruel, cold eyes, flames flickering at the corners of its mouth.
"Return, Charmeleon!" Jacob called.
"Conkeldurr, Mach Punch!" Wrenly commanded almost simultaneously.
Jacob's choice was naturally to save his low-health Charmeleon, recalling it to its Poké Ball to rest and wait for a better opportunity to re-enter the battle.
When faced with a Charmeleon on its last legs, Wrenly's strategy was to use a lower-power but high-priority move like Mach Punch to finish off the weakened Fire-type and claim the first victory.
In the games, priority moves were guaranteed to strike first, but in reality, moves like Mach Punch and Bullet Punch merely accelerated the user, making them faster and reducing the opponent's reaction time—they weren't 100% guaranteed to hit first.
Conkeldurr, enveloped in Fighting-type energy, charged forward with increased speed and threw a lightning-fast punch.
"Go, Noibat!" Jacob called out.
Wrenly's choice inadvertently gave Jacob the opportunity to switch Pokémon. Jacob had anticipated that Conkeldurr would continue using Earthquake, which would have allowed the Flying/Dragon-type Noibat to enter the field unscathed due to its immunity to Ground-type moves. He hadn't expected the Fighting-type Mach Punch instead.
But this didn't have any negative impact. Noibat had double resistance to Fighting-type moves, so this switching opportunity worked perfectly.
As soon as Noibat appeared on the battlefield, it was struck by the Mach Punch, but the damage was minimal—practically painless for the small bat Pokémon.
"Noibat, use Double Team once you're airborne!" Jacob ordered.
"Conkeldurr, consecutive Ice Punches," Wrenly countered.
Facing a Pokémon like Noibat with a quadruple weakness to Ice-type moves, Wrenly naturally chose to have Conkeldurr use Ice Punch without hesitation. If it connected, Noibat would definitely suffer severe damage—if not knocked out completely, it would at least be critically injured.
Of course, Jacob had anticipated this. The three elemental punches were basically standard moves for the Conkeldurr evolutionary line: Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, and Ice Punch. Moreover, he had already seen Conkeldurr's move list clearly through his Pokédex and was guarding against its Ice Punch.
Therefore, Jacob commanded Noibat to immediately take to the air, not giving Conkeldurr any chance to get close. The Flying-type maintained distance, dodged the Ice Punch, and then used Double Team.
"Use Air Slash, Noibat!"
"In that case, use Rock Slide to bring it down!" Wrenly countered.
Noibat flew through the air and flapped its wings vigorously. Suddenly, a strong wind formed several sharp blades of air in front of it. Wrapped in Flying-type energy, the blades shot toward Conkeldurr!
Initially, Jacob had wanted Noibat to use Supersonic to confuse Conkeldurr, but after discovering that Conkeldurr's Ability was Guts, he abandoned the idea. A Conkeldurr with the Guts Ability would increase its Attack stat after being confused. To be safe, Jacob instead had Noibat use Air Slash.
Conkeldurr acted almost simultaneously with Noibat. The Fighting-type slammed its hands into the ground, creating a large crater. Then it pulled out massive chunks of rock from the broken terrain and hurled them at Noibat with tremendous strength.
Faced with the huge rocks thrown its way, Noibat—having undergone extreme evasion training—moved nimbly through the air and easily avoided the Rock Slide attack.
Conkeldurr, however, couldn't dodge all the Air Slash blades. Although it successfully evaded some, it still suffered additional damage from others that connected.
"Use Rock Slide again!" Seeing that the large boulders were easily avoided by Noibat, Wrenly instructed Conkeldurr to switch tactics, throwing smaller rocks at the Flying-type. While the individual damage would be weaker, the advantage lay in speed and volume.
"Time to test the results of our training, Noibat! Dodge and use Air Slash again!"
Conkeldurr grabbed countless pieces of gravel from the ground, infused them with Rock-type energy, and flung them toward Noibat. Dozens of densely packed pebbles flew like bullets through the air.
To everyone's surprise, Noibat actually managed to dodge in mid-air, evading all the incoming projectiles!
"Beautiful!" someone in the crowd exclaimed.
"That Noibat has exceptional fundamentals," another spectator commented.
"It's incredibly difficult to avoid those stones without professional training," a third voice added.
Wrenly stared at the airborne Noibat with growing frustration. His Conkeldurr was completely disadvantaged against the Flying-type. Even with a super-effective move like Ice Punch, Noibat consistently maintained distance, making it impossible for Conkeldurr to land a hit. And long-range moves like Rock Slide were proving difficult to connect. What could he do now?
Switch out?
Wrenly couldn't help but consider that in this situation, he would either have to replace Conkeldurr with his burned Breloom, or reveal his third Pokémon. However, either choice would still leave Wrenly at a disadvantage.
All three of his Pokémon were Fighting-types, naturally weak against Flying-types. Coupled with Flying-types' natural aerial advantage and this particular Noibat's extraordinary evasion skills, Wrenly found himself at a significant disadvantage.
Unless he could force it down from the air...
While Wrenly contemplated how to resolve the problem using Conkeldurr's movepool, he suddenly remembered a particular move and immediately ordered: "Use Taunt, Conkeldurr!"
"Return, Noibat! Go, Grovyle!" Jacob called quickly.
[Taunt]: Enrages the opponent into confusion. Taunting can greatly increase the opponent's Attack stat but also confuses them.
Using Taunt would almost certainly confuse Noibat unless there was a significant difference in strength. If followed by Ice Punch or Rock Slide, the confused Noibat would probably be unable to dodge.
Moreover, since Noibat specialized in Special Attack, the increased Attack stat would barely benefit it. However, after being caught off-guard by Hudson's camouflage earlier, Jacob was now cautious of every move his opponents used.
He had anticipated that the increasingly desperate Wrenly would have camouflage use Taunt, so Jacob made the bold decision to switch Pokémon and send out Grovyle.
When Grovyle was taunted, its Attack would significantly increase. Although it would become confused, powerful moves like Ice Punch and Fire Punch wouldn't be enough to defeat Grovyle in a single hit!
In reality, once hurt, a Pokémon would likely snap out of confusion due to the pain. A recovered Grovyle with greatly increased Attack could then turn the battle around.
Of course, Jacob would never attempt this strategy in a video game, where confusion lasted for 1-4 turns with no chance of recovery through damage. And considering Grovyle's fragility in the games, Conkeldurr could potentially knock it out with a single Ice Punch.
Jacob's sudden substitution caught Wrenly off guard. Jacob had clearly been in an advantageous position, yet still proactively made a switch. Noting Jacob's calm expression, Wrenly guessed that his opponent must have anticipated the Taunt strategy, which explained the unexpected move.
Is this just the beginning?