"Voltorb, use Rollout!"
Wattson issued the command.
Voltorb moved quickly; using Rollout skill allowed it to reach sufficient speed in a short time.
"Sandslash, curl up and let's roll too!"
Rex didn't expect Wattson's tactics to be similar, but he was confident in Sandslash's rolling power.
After receiving the command, Sandslash curled up and started rolling too.
However, its startup speed was much slower than Voltorb's. Fortunately, Rollout could accelerate over time, so as long as it avoided Voltorb's impacts early on, it would be fine.
Once Sandslash's rolling speed caught up, with its weight advantage and speed boost, Voltorb would be no match for it.
"Sandslash, watch out for Voltorb's attacks," Rex reminded.
After Sandslash started rolling, Voltorb began targeting it, adjusting its direction to collide. At this point, Sandslash hadn't yet reached its full speed; if hit, it would definitely stop rolling.
Fortunately, after Rex's training, Sandslash could turn more smoothly and narrowly avoided Voltorb's attacks several times. As its speed increased during this period, it gradually caught up.
"Sandslash, don't dodge anymore, just ram into it!" Rex felt that Sandslash's current speed was at its limit, continuing to accelerate might make it lose awareness of its surroundings, so he instructed Sandslash to charge directly.
"Voltorb, show your resilience!" Wattson knew that the longer it dragged on, the less advantageous it would be for him. Now that Rex was willing to face him head-on, he naturally wouldn't refuse.
*Boom!*
After the collision of the yellow and red high-speed rotating spheres, a huge sound rang out, and the field was filled with smoke and dust, making it impossible to see what was happening inside for a while.
"Both Pokémon have lost their battle abilities simultaneously; both sides, please send out your next Pokémon!"
Once the smoke cleared, Sandslash and Voltorb were both unable to battle. As the Gym Referee, Liam promptly made the judgment.
"Come back, Sandslash, you did well this time!"
Rex felt that he had underestimated Voltorb's strength a bit, but he didn't feel like he was at a disadvantage, considering they exchanged Pokémon equally. However, he wasn't sure if Sandslash would lose interest in battling again and continue to lie low.
"Delightful, truly delightful! Young man, battling with you has brought me immense joy!"
Wattson, as a Gym Leader, was actually quite indifferent to winning or losing. He simply enjoyed the excitement of the battle.
"Well then, it's Magneton's turn!" Wattson looked at Magneton beside him.
"Heracross, come out too!" Rex promptly released his third Pokémon.
Magneton is formed by the evolution of three Magnemite coming together. It emits strong magnetic force and high voltage. When connected, the heads of the three Magnemite also merge, but their intelligence doesn't triple; they possess about three times the electricity of a regular Magnemite.
The magnetic force between the Magnemites is so strong that it can cause water to evaporate around them. In places where Magneton resides, delicate machinery malfunctions. Due to its strong magnetic force, it often causes damage to machines during research.
Because of its destructive magnetic force, when Magneton appears in large numbers, major towns sound alarms to alert everyone, warning of impending danger if not captured in a Poké Ball.
Rex obtained this information from the Pokédex. It shows that Magneton is much stronger than its pre-evolution, Magnemite.
"Magneton, Electric Terrain!" Wattson issued the command first. He had gauged the young man's strength from the previous battles and wanted to test Rex's abilities better by increasing the match's difficulty, allowing Magneton to display more powerful strength.
"Heracross, charge forward with Brick Break!" Rex had no good strategy against Magneton's Electric Terrain enhancement of Electric-type moves. The only idea he had was for Heracross to quickly approach and launch an attack.
"Magneton, use Thunderbolt!" As Heracross's Brick Break was about to hit Magneton, it heard its trainer's command and emitted a tremendously powerful electric light towards Heracross.
"Heracross, dodge quickly!" Rex, seeing the terrifying Thunderbolt, knew that if Heracross was hit, the match might end, so he hurriedly reminded it not to try to resist directly.
Originally intending to continue the attack against Thunderbolt, Heracross, upon hearing its trainer's words, chose to trust the judgment and pushed off the ground forcefully, leaping quickly, narrowly avoiding this attack.
The Thunderbolt attack hit the spot where Heracross had stood just a moment before, creating a large crater in the ground, charred and blackened, demonstrating the terrifying power of this move.
"Magneton, use Tri Attack!" Although Thunderbolt missed its Thunderbolt attack on Heracross, Wattson didn't hesitate, taking advantage of Heracross's inability to quickly dodge in midair, continuing Magneton's attack.
A triangular circuit formed in front of Magneton, then three beams of different colors shot out from the triangle's three points.
Due to the rapid activation of the move, Heracross, still in the air, couldn't dodge in time, directly hit by these beams, flew out, and crashed heavily onto the ground.
"Heracross, are you okay?" Rex, seeing Heracross being attacked so badly, asked anxiously.
"Cross!" Hearing its trainer's call, Heracross slowly stood up, responding.
However, a faint flame could be seen emanating from Heracross, indicating that it was affected by the Tri Attack's burning effect.
"Heracross, continue attacking, and be careful!" Seeing that Heracross was okay, Rex quickly commanded.
At this point, the time advantage was not on his side; the longer the battle, the weaker Heracross would become.
"Magneton, let's keep attacking!" Wattson didn't hesitate either, choosing to continue the assault.
Learning from the last attack, Heracross anticipated Magneton's attack points and avoided the damage, quickly rushing to Magneton.
"Heracross, use Close Combat!" To counter Magneton's Sturdy ability, Rex chose to use Close Combat, a multi-hit attack.
"Magneton is unable to battle, so the winner of this gym challenge is Rex from Fallarbor Town!"
Ultimately, Magneton couldn't withstand Heracross's intensified Guts ability-enhanced attacks. By the third hit, it was unable to battle.
Afterward, as the referee, Walter checked everything and announced the result of the match.
"Congratulations, Rex, your battle was truly delightful for me, hahaha!"
Although he lost the match, Wattson was very happy. He felt that the young man before him had fully demonstrated his level, surpassing the standard for him to award gym badges.
"Same here, it was an impressive match that I benefited a lot from!"
Rex responded with customary compliments.
"Haha, this is our gym's
Electric Badge, earned by your own strength!" Wattson chuckled, handing the Electric Badge to Rex.
"Thank you!" Rex politely thanked him, accepting the Electric Badge.
The Electric Badge's appearance is a rod passing through concentric circles, colored yellow with a hint of blue, symbolizing the concept of electromagnetic conversion.
(End of this chapter)