Chapter Seventy - Clever Strategizing

Jazz had seen plenty of pokemon battles. She'd watched them religiously on TV just like all of the other kids, especially near the end of the circuit when the Indigo league tournament was on. There were other interesting tournaments too spread out across the year, but that was the big one.

Trainers, some only a few years older than the young hopefuls, with eight-badges under their belt fighting on a platform for the world to see.

It was exciting.

But she'd never witnessed a battle like this. This wasn't just a scuffle or a little fight, this was a high-tier battle that she was seeing live. There was something very different when seeing it with her own eyes as opposed to on a small screen.

Her friends were taken in too. She'd released her pokemon to see the battle as well to let them see how steep the rest of the climb would be.

Zubat's ears were twitching, and Weepinbell was staring agape. Sage, on his part, seemed contemplative.

Broccoli was cheering, and so were her pokemon. Oran and Choco had decided to root for the gym leader and the challenger respectively, and they were chanting along to encourage them. Broccoli was smiling and cheering for both, but... there was something in her eyes. A weighty calculation as she watched the battle.

Tabitha... looked bored.

Jazz had pieced together that she was either a gym trainer herself before, or had spent time in a gym. The sister of a gym trainer? She'd probably seen her share of seventh and eighth level battles.

Jazz refocused ahead of her.

The switch out from Whitney was masterful. Avoiding a powerful attack via switch out was generally considered rude, but it wasn't against the rules. It was better to recall a pokemon than let them take a blow that might injure them, and trainers had a limited number of recalls to begin with. Abusing it would mean forfeiting that recalled pokemon after the first two.

Hers was beautiful, however. The Baton Pass, which if Jazz remembered correctly allowed her pokemon to transfer its own power-ups to the next pokemon summoned, was a sweet tactical move.

The bibarel out there now had the buffs that Delcatty had secured for itself, and it was using them to the best of its ability.

The exeggutor stumbled back, its body either dripping wet or covered in a sheet of crackling ice that wafted vapours into the air.

"Grass is weak to Ice, right?" Jazz asked.

"It is," Tabitha confirmed. "There's no special interactions between Ice and Psychic, or Water and Psychic. But there is a special property to Psychic moves that's rarely discussed."

"Oh?" Jazz asked. Below, the exeggutor was making space with some Sludge Bombs. They were decent moves, well executed too.

"Psychic moves require concentration and thought. Constant pain is a good way to lose focus, and Ice's damage tends to linger a little. Even before affecting a pokemon with Freeze, the cold can be a powerful distraction."

"I didn't know that," Jazz said.

"Ice-types are rare," Tabitha said.

It was still good to know. Rare types were a great way to foil someone unprepared for their strange interactions.

Like how Bibarel launched a second Surf that washed across the arena and plunged the exeggutor down. The pokemon splashed about, launched a Psychic at the bibarel, and then failed to do anything about a second Ice Beam to the face.

That took it out, and the trainer, Brucey, tossed out his next pokemon. A Vileplume. Jazz sat up a little straighter. If she didn't have Weepinbell in her team, she might be interested in picking up an oddish, the first-stage evolution of Vileplume.

The pokemon was a small bluish figure under a massive pink and yellow flower that oozed Poison-type energy into the air.

Brucey started with a Stun Spore, then used that as cover for a Petal Dance.

Bibarel didn't have much hope to dodge, so instead they struck with a Charge Beam.

Electric on Grass was a weird, kinda foolish move. But when that Grass-type pokemon was standing in ankle-deep water... Well, it had an effect. While the vileplume was reeling, Whitney ordered a Double-Team from her bibarel, and she had her back away from the cloud of Stun Spores.

A third Ice Beam smashed into the vileplume who retaliated at the same time with a move Jazz was unfamiliar with. "Moonblast?" she asked.

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"I'm... not too familiar with that one," Tabitha admitted. "A Normal-type attack, maybe?"

It didn't matter, in the end. The Double Team made bibarel fast enough to dodge, and then it was over one Quick Attack later.

And then Brucey conceded, and Jazz felt herself caught entirely flat-footed by the move. He still had... two pokemon to Whitney's three. And hers were mostly alright. Bibarel looked tired, the multiple Ice Beams taking a toll, and they had been singed a little, but the rest of her team was likely still in top form.

"Gym Leader Whitney is the champion!" the referee declared, ending the fight officially.

Jazz wasn't sure if the gym leader jumping up and down and cheering at her own victory was good manners or not, but she felt like maybe it wasn't really all that kind. Still, the match was over, so the crowd cheered and clapped. There were even some cheerleaders at the front, jumping up and down in distractingly short skirts.

Jazz turned her attention away from those. "Should we go?" she asked.

"I think so," Broccoli said. "That was an interesting fight to see. Those pokemon were moving fast. All of them. And those attacks were... big."

"As pokemon grow in strength, almost all of their characteristics grow with them. Even a traditionally slow species of pokemon, at the right badge level, will move much faster than a traditionally fast species at the first badge level," Tabitha explained. "With exceptions, of course. Pokemon grow quickly when battling and facing hardships. This growth is rarely contained to a single facet, though it's often more obvious in one facet than in others."

"You know, I never asked," Broccoli began as they stared towards the exit. There was a bit of a lineup there already, too many people leaving at once. This was definitely the most packed Jazz had seen a gym before. Either Brucey had fans or... Whitney had a lot of fans... no, she definitely had a lot of fans, and most of them were women.

"What did you never ask?" Jazz asked.

"Do you guys see floating menus? Screens with numbers on them for stats?" Broccoli asked. She made a gesture in front of her face which could have meant anything.

"No," Tabitha said.

"Un," Choco replied with a shake of his head.

"Broccoli, were you on any medication before you arrived in Johto?" Jazz asked.

"Hey, it's a fair question," Broccoli said. "I didn't think there was anything like that going on, but I never asked so I just wanted to make sure, you know?"

"Uh-huh," Jazz said doubtfully. Arceus, Broccoli could be weird sometimes. "So, what did you think of the battle?"

"I don't think Oran or Choco are ready for a seventh-badge level fight," Broccoli said. "There were a lot of little tactics and such going on that were hard to keep track of too. I think I see why trainers are needed at this level instead of just letting the pokemon battle like they want to."

Tabitha nodded. "Higher tier battles tend to have a lot of strategy and tactics involved. Terrain manipulation, positioning, type advantages but also special abilities that some pokemon have leveraged in strange ways. Whitney's Delcatty used an Electric-type move, but it used Normal-type energy, hitting a foe it should have been weak against at its full potency."

"And all that from Whitney, a gym leader mostly known for being someone with a collection of hammers who only sees nails," Jazz said.

"So she's not good at tactical stuff?" Broccoli asked.

Tabitha shook her head. "She's good enough to be a successful gym leader, one that people, as far as I can tell, generally avoid for their higher-badge level matches if they can arrange it that way. I prefer battles with more care and finesse, but there's nothing wrong with merely smashing an opponent into submission with powerful moves, not if you're prepared to counter that strategy somehow."

"Hmm, I feel like we're going to have to toughen up before our own fight, then, right guys?" Broccoli asked her pokemon. "A few Fireballs won't cut it. We need to learn even stronger moves! To kick butt!"

"Bun!"

"Mar!"

Jazz smiled. At least seeing that level of fight hadn't diminished anyone's fighting spirit. It might be a tough battle, but she suspected that they'd come out of it on top.

***