Blaziken—a fierce attacking Pokémon famous for its power.
However, in terms of speed, it was somewhat inferior to other Pokémon.
The Blaze ability combined with Blaziken's formidable strength meant that even when facing behemoths like Aggron, it could still put up a good fight.
But if this was a Speed Boost Blaziken...
[Speed Boost: Speed increases gradually during battle.]
This meant that the longer the battle dragged on, the more advantageous it became for Blaziken.
Once Speed Boost stacked up, opponents would face a boss with both incredible attack and speed.
Even though Carver wasn't a trainer, he could immediately see through the boy's strategy.
But his opponent was a Slaking!
The battle officially began.
The boy had Blaziken test with a Blaze Kick.
However, the opposing Slaking just lay sprawled on the ground, propping its head up with one hand, lazily yawning as it let Blaziken's attack hit.
The girl showed no panic either. She keenly observed the battlefield situation. After landing the hit, Blaziken quickly flew back, trying to create distance from Slaking to avoid being caught at close range.
Although Slaking normally looked lazy, lying on its side without moving and appearing completely harmless, it was actually a Pokémon with terrifying power—anyone who took its attacks would definitely be severely injured.
Unfortunately, the retreating Blaziken inadvertently exposed an opening.
The girl immediately seized this opportunity, shouting loudly: "Slaking, Body Slam!"
The next second, the Slaking lying on the ground sleeping moved.
Its massive, cumbersome body was now jumping up at an incredibly exaggerated speed, its entire form lunging toward Blaziken.
What an agile fatty!
"Blaziken, dodge!" the boy tried to intervene, but it was already too late.
Blaziken was pinned firmly beneath Slaking, flattened like a "sheet of paper."
One-hit KO!
"How... how is that possible?!" the boy looked completely shocked. "How could that Body Slam have such power?!"
The girl curled her lips into a smile: "You lost the first round!"
In fact, what Slaking had just used wasn't a simple Body Slam at all.
It was a Body Slam infused with Counter.
People's stereotypes always made them think Slaking just lay there motionless during battle, but in reality, it was accumulating power for counterattacks.
She had developed this strategy based on Slaking's natural behavior, keeping it constantly ready to use Counter.
Once someone attacked first, they would face Slaking's full-power strike!
"Truly spectacular!"
Carver led the applause, and he also noticed that the small light bulb on the Exp. Share atop Growlithe's head was flashing rapidly.
Then, Carver saw a line of text floating above Growlithe's head.
EXP+2681!
Hm? Was that... experience gained from the battle?
Carver quickly checked Growlithe's stats.
[Pokémon: Growlithe]
[Gender: Male]
[Ability: Intimidate]
[Moves: Tackle, Sleep Powder, Baby-Doll Eyes, Swords Dance, Leer, Ember, Morning Sun, Howl, Flame Wheel, Bite]
[Status: Healthy]
[Mood: ️️️Happy]
[Joy Level: 30]
[Friendship: 100 (It considers you its closest family)]
[Description: Growl growl growl! —Growlithe]
Compared to before, it had directly gained three new moves!
This meant that this high-level battle had greatly increased Growlithe's strength—in gaming terms, it had leveled up!
One battle for 2,600+ experience... And as far as Carver knew, in the games, a Pokémon needed over a million experience points to reach max level.
Didn't this mean Growlithe could reach max level just by observing 500 battles of this caliber?
No... probably not.
Because Growlithe had hatched less than a month ago and was still a novice-level Pokémon.
Since that Blaziken and Slaking were so much stronger than it, it could gain this much experience this time.
If Growlithe's strength improved, the experience gained from battles between Pokémon of similar levels would definitely drop drastically.
As expected, the higher the level, the harder it would be to improve.
To verify this theory, Carver removed the Exp. Share from Growlithe and put it on Bewear.
As Blaziken lost its ability to battle, the boy sent out a Dustox for the second round.
But facing that well-trained Slaking, Dustox was quickly defeated again.
Carver stared intently at the top of Bewear's head.
Sure enough, when Dustox was defeated, a line of numbers floated above Bewear's head.
EXP+69!
For Bewear, Elite-level Pokémon battles could no longer teach it much.
To continue improving, it would probably need to observe battles between Elite Four-level, Champion-level, or even Legendary Pokémon.
Carver put the Exp. Share back on Growlithe and continued watching the tournament.
As time passed minute by minute, numbers representing strength improvements kept appearing above Growlithe's head.
EXP+2961!
EXP+1565!
EXP+1186!
"..."
By the end, one battle could only give it around 200+ experience points.
As evening fell and the sun set, this tournament finally reached its conclusion.
The ultimate winner was a young trainer about the same age as Ash.
His strength was neither particularly strong nor weak, but there was no doubt he shared a deep bond with his Pokémon.
He had nearly lost several times, but his Pokémon had persevered for their trainer at crucial moments and successfully turned the tables on their opponents.
Having won the tournament championship and successfully stood until the very end, the boy grinned, showing his white teeth with a brilliant smile.
"Great! Dustox, Azumarill, Pelipper! We won!" the boy said to his Pokémon behind him.
The Pokémon all responded in kind.
When the competition ended, the other defeated trainers didn't leave because they wanted to see what the grand prize would be.
Carver didn't keep them in suspense either.
He directly had Bewear bring out the last Trapinch egg and hand it to the boy.
The boy held the egg with a face full of joy.
"Congratulations on successfully winning the championship! This egg is the champion's reward!" Carver said with a smile.
"Boss, what Pokémon is in the egg?!" the boy quickly asked.
"This one? It's a Trapinch!" Carver smiled.
The Hoenn League had sent him two Trapinch eggs, one of which had already been sold.
The remaining one was an egg laid by two Flygon at Gym Leader level.
For an ordinary trainer, this was already quite an excellent reward.
Especially since Trapinch could only be found by venturing deep into dangerous desert regions, making them very rare.