Just like now, Flutter Mane's body was too small and her movements too agile. That mini meteor shower attack might as well have been Stars of Ruin from Elden Ring—completely incapable of landing a full hit.
"Flutter Mane, dodge right at full speed! Then fire off another Moonblast!"
Flutter Mane narrowly avoided the barrage of rocks and once again unleashed her main offensive move.
This time, she wasn't just probing. She was going for the win in one decisive strike.
"That kind of power... Even for a Pokémon from Area Zero, that's absolutely absurd."
Clavell couldn't help but make a mental note as he watched the battle.
Due to a few... now-missing acquaintances of his, he'd actually encountered Area Zero Pokémon before.
But even among those, not many could match this kind of explosive power when using a move.
Some of them even looked like pseudo-legendaries but were weaker than the real deal.
Honestly, might as well call them Iron Trash.
Even so, he still didn't believe Haru could defeat Nemona.
Or rather—Haru had only just earned the right to challenge her.
In a Pokémon battle, raw power alone doesn't decide the outcome.
And just as Clavell expected, faced with that fierce attack, Nemona made a quick and accurate judgment:
"That move's too powerful—we can't afford to tank it. Lycanroc, use Accelerock to dodge Moonblast and strike back at that Misdreavus!"
Accelerock was a priority move—essentially the Rock-type equivalent of Quick Attack.
The trick with moves like that in real-life battle terms was that they let your Pokémon act faster than the opponent, even if their actual Speed stat was lower.
Lycanroc couldn't outrun Flutter Mane, and Moonblast was coming in fast—just yelling "dodge it!" wouldn't cut it here.
So Nemona took an unconventional approach: using Accelerock not for damage, but for a burst of speed to evade the incoming blast.
And if her aim was right, the tackle-like motion of Accelerock might just let her avoid the brunt of the Moonblast entirely.
Compared to that, the move's base power didn't even matter.
As a Trainer, Nemona was no rigid battler—and certainly not the type to slap four offensive moves on her ace Pokémon. Otherwise, she never would've risen to Champion-level during her school years.
"Very good. Nemona, you didn't disappoint me!"
"But if you think that'll let you dodge my Moonblast—then you're dead wrong!"
"There's this theory I heard once."
"When you pull the trigger of a gun and your hand shakes at that moment, that shake gets passed onto the bullet... and it curves mid-air. That's what they call 'gun shake technique'!"
"Funny thing is, Flutter Mane's been shaking ever since Mr. Clavell showed up!"
"Flutter Mane—brace for the Accelerock head-on! Focus on curving your Moonblast!"
"...Huh?"
Nemona blinked, confused by Haru's nonsense—and then watched as that silver moon arc actually bent in mid-air, curving right toward her Lycanroc.
"..."
What kind of cursed logic was that!?
Even someone as energetic and unfazed as Nemona found herself a little speechless.
Who the hell fights with auto-aim!?
And yet—she really had no way to counter it.
Moonblast was just too fast. All she could do was trade hits with Haru... except her Accelerock was a weak priority move, and Moonblast was a full-power nuke.
There was no way she'd come out ahead in that trade.
"Rrawwwooo!!"
The Moonblast didn't disappoint.
Given the stat gap between the two Pokémon, Lycanroc was immediately knocked out.
"That was a fun battle, wasn't it?"
Truth be told, it had been a while since Haru had a legit Pokémon battle.
Sure, he'd clashed with plenty of top-tier Trainers lately—practically every few days—but most of the time Flutter Mane hadn't gained much experience from it.
Either he was steamrolling weaker opponents or getting crushed in return...
On the other hand, Hakkimon (his starter) had gotten very good at using moves like Hypnosis, Bind, and Power Whip—like, disturbingly good.
Guess that's what happens when you're Haru's first Pokémon.
Even so, Flutter Mane had enough firepower to handle most opponents.
And maybe it was Mew's bad influence, but she'd started practicing move control too. That curved Moonblast was the result of hard training.
After all, when you're surrounded by Mythicals and Legendaries all day, you've got to work your tail off or get left behind.
"Wow... amazing! So this is the power of an Area Zero version of Misdreavus?"
"And you can even make your moves curve... That's so fascinating!"
Even though Haru had just KO'd one of her Pokémon, Nemona was practically glowing with excitement—and her face was tinted red with... something suspicious.
"Yes! This is it, this is what I've been looking for!"
"It's so great that you appeared in my life!"
"Let's keep battling! I won't hold anything back this time—let's go all out!"
As she spoke, she pulled out several more Poké Balls from... somewhere.
"Hmm, which one should I use next?"
"I've trained several full teams—we can battle all the way until nightfall!"
"Please—become my rival. My only rival. I'll do anything for you!"
Nemona rarely lost. Or to be more accurate, once she'd grown into her own, she almost never lost.
And her mindset was unbelievably strong. Even in defeat, she only got more fired up.
It's like the concept of "losing" held no real meaning for her.
That's why—when someone capable of beating her stood before her—her enthusiasm became... extreme.
Now, she'd set her eyes on Haru.
If she could, she'd happily spend the next 24 hours battling him nonstop.
And he hadn't even used Mew yet! No wonder she was so thrilled.
"..."
Off to the side, Iono stroked her chin, starting to feel that Nemona might be even more dangerous than she'd thought.
Wasn't this how obsessed fangirls acted?
Meanwhile, Clavell awkwardly stepped in with a gentle reminder:
"Um... Nemona, perhaps you should calm down a little. You might scare him off."