Elf: I have a secret realm of emerald green.

It felt like I had gone through so much trouble to get here... but Xia Shen shamelessly declared that he could just take one step and get there.

What about all our efforts over the years?

…………

"Coach, I'd like to have a friendly spar with Xia."

The person who volunteered was not a reserve member of the school team, but a senior substitute member, Zhou Jiahua.

He is a prime example of someone who makes up for a lack of talent with hard work.

When he enrolled, he was unremarkable among his classmates.

But at the end of the semester, he made an astonishing improvement in his final exams.

However, no one was jealous of him.

Because, in the end-of-semester statistics, he was among the top students in terms of both the time spent on elective courses and the time spent in the training hall.

Amidst such intense study and training, he successfully passed his professional assessment near the end of his second year, first semester.

Then, after years of hard work and accumulation, he was promoted to professional level 2 at the beginning of the second semester of his junior year.

This year, there is even a chance for him to challenge for a starting position.

He was a recipient of the Diligence Reward Scholarship at Chongqing University for three consecutive years and a role model for all ordinary students at the university.

Now, he was staring intently at Xia Shen, who remained calm, his fighting spirit burning.

……

Coach Ma neither agreed nor stopped him. He looked at Xia Shen with a serious expression and asked earnestly, "Are you sure you want to challenge for the substitute position?"

"I can tell you very clearly that although Zhou Jiahua is only a substitute at the moment, his strength is definitely worthy of a starting position. Moreover, if you fail in your challenge, you won't have another chance to challenge for the reserve position. So... are you sure?"

The coach's meaning was straightforward and clear: Xia Shen still had a chance to back out and could still challenge for the reserve team, but if he failed...

Then who knows when the next chance to join the school team will come.

Xia Shen, who clearly understood the coach's meaning, nodded calmly and said firmly, "I'm sure."

The crowd erupted in uproar.

"Quiet!" Coach Ma shouted down to the crowd, and the noise gradually subsided, with only a few people still discussing quietly.

The coach ignored the group still whispering and turned to give Xia Shen a deep look.

"Then let's fight right here, in the standard 3v3 format of the National College Student Pokémon Battle League. I'll be the referee, okay?"

Neither party had any objections and nodded in agreement.

After herding the onlookers to a slightly more distant spectator seat, and with nothing else to prepare, Xia Shen and Zhou Jiahua stood on opposite sides of the battlefield.

------

Xia Shen gazed at his opponent, who stood facing him from afar, his expression grave.

During this time, he learned a lot about the school team from Rou Ge.

The school team's hierarchical structure is very clear.

First-class professionals enter the reserve team, second-class professionals enter the substitute team, and the main members are basically third-class professionals, who can almost be called genius trainers.

In the classification of professional trainers, the fifth professional dan is a watershed.

For players below the fifth rank in the professional category, the assessment requirement for each rank is that at least three out of the six Pokémon must meet the standard.

For example, Zhou Jiahua is just a little short of achieving professional level three, which means that at least two of his three Pokémon are at level three.

And the last one will inevitably be a Pokémon that is only allowed to reach level three.

Moreover, common sense dictates that a professional level 3 trainer's ace Pokémon is definitely not just level 3.

In other words, the weakest Pokémon in the opponent's team is one that is on par with yesterday's Venusaur.

Faced with such a formidable opponent, Xia Shen lacked confidence in victory.

However, he was determined to win.

Only by using such opponents as stepping stones to join the school team can one be qualified!

Zhou Jiahua did not take the junior three years her junior lightly at all.

His motto is to give his all in everything he does.

This applies to both the most ordinary training sessions and the most routine matches.

Thus, amidst the tense atmosphere of battle, the whistle blew.

The battle has officially begun.

…………

"Come forth, Nidoking!"

The opponent's voice made Xia Shen feel a little dazed. How long had it been since he had heard that voice? He really missed it.

This guy is quite interesting; he practices the most traditional trainer rules.

At the same time, Xia Shen also threw out the Poké Ball in his hand.

A flash of white light appeared, and the Pokémon facing off against Nidoking was none other than the hardworking Ursaring.

This is Xia Shen's old routine: if the opponent has a high-speed Pokémon, he'll use Trick Room; if the opponent isn't as fast as Garchomp, he'll play normally.

Nidoking is a Pokémon whose speed falls between that of Ursaring and Garchomp.

However, Xia Shen wasn't in a hurry to change Pokémon right now; it's not like Ursaring can't beat Nidoking.

Let's first check if the opponent's Nidoking has a Life Orb setup.

……

The most popular and strongest Nidoking build uses the Life Orb ability and focuses on Special Attack or Dual Attack.

The [Forced] ability can increase the power of moves with additional effects by a whopping 30%, although the trade-off is losing those additional effects.

This feature also eliminates the side effect of the Life Orb causing "consuming stamina when using moves".

This item's boost has made the already strong Nidoking build even more popular.

In particular, neither Nidoking nor the Life Orb are particularly difficult resources to obtain.

Therefore, Nidoking has become an excellent and very common choice for ordinary trainers.

I just don't know if Nidoking is the opponent's starter Pokémon...

……

On the battlefield.

"Nidoking, use Ice Beam!" Zhou Jiahua issued the first command.

"Moon Bear, let's dig a tunnel to get closer." Almost as soon as he finished speaking, Xia Shen gave the same command.

Nidoking has an extremely rich move pool, encompassing almost all types.

In Xia Shen's memory, the only move he didn't know was the one with the fairy attribute, so he really couldn't predict his opponent's movements; it was too hard to guess.

But at least one thing is certain: judging from Nidoking's skillful execution of the Ice Beam, it is clearly one of his signature moves.

Nine times out of ten, this is a forced death of King Nido.

Although the biting cold light was released quickly, the Moon Bear's digging speed was not slow either.

In addition, since the two Pokémon were positioned relatively far apart at the start of the battle, Ursaring easily dodged its opponent's first attack.

Zhou Jiahua has far more combat experience than the reserve senior he was assigned to yesterday. Facing the approaching Luna with its burrowing, he and Nidoking calmly stood still, waiting for their chance to strike.

This seemed to be a warning to Xia Shen: if he dared to get any closer, an earthquake would strike.

Xia Shen didn't even need to think about whether Nidoking, a Ground-type Pokémon, would cause earthquakes.

So, while still quite a distance from Nidoking, Xia Shen decided to let Umbreon come out. "Umbreon, get ready to come out. Be careful to avoid the Ice Beam."

Xia Shen didn't use telepathy to give this command; he was speaking directly to the other side—I'm already prepared, so don't waste your energy.

However... when the Moon Bear emerged from its cave, a beam of frozen light still shot out, but how could it possibly hit the Moon Bear, which was already on guard?

As I shrank back into the hole I had just dug, the opponent's second freezing beam missed again.

Xia Shen clicked his tongue. This senior seemed to be someone who did things his own way.

This is something we can try to utilize later.

Pokémon battles are not only a contest of strength between Pokémon, but also a game of strategy and competition between trainers.

…………

"Moon Bear, charge straight in! Remember to use Protect!" Xia Shen shouted provocatively, as if afraid Zhou Jiahua, who was standing opposite him, wouldn't hear him.

Come on, try freezing the beam again if you dare!

Zhou Jiahua's face remained calm and composed, as if the two consecutive freezing beams that had missed her were not hers at all, and she seemed completely unaffected by the situation.

His unusual behavior of delaying the issuance of instructions made Xia Shen frown slightly.

Is this setup... to wait for the Moon Bear to get closer before unleashing the Freeze Beam to increase its hit rate?

Or... are you planning to switch to a different Pokémon?

Xia Shen noticed that Nidoking still showed no sign of charging up a move, so he thought the latter was more likely.

Nidoking is weak to Ground, so he thinks I'll have Ursaring use [Pounce], which can both dash forward and deal high damage.

So... what kind of Flying-type Pokémon is he planning to switch to?

Xia Shen thought it was worth a try.

"Moon Bear, pounce!"

[Make a sudden, lunging motion, then unleash a powerful, sharp stone attack!]

"Roar—" Moonbear roared, and rock-type energy, the same color as ground-type energy, condensed in its palm. It pushed off with its four legs and then leaped into the air.

This is precisely the standard charging motion for a sudden, powerful pounce.

As Xia Shen predicted, just as Luna was about to pounce on Nidoking, red and white lights flashed across the field, and Nidoking was eliminated.