Chapter 078

"Charmander, dodge and use Slash!" yelled Alex.

Charmander dodged the Fury Swipes by the Vigoroth and Slashed it in the face.

Vigorth replied back with pain.

"Now! Finish it off use Flamethrower!" yelled Alex.

Charmander spit out flames at Vigorth, who wailed in agony at the heat and soon fainted.

"Good job Charmander!" said Alex.

Currently, Alex was standing next to the Moss Rock in Petalburg Forests. He had found it easily after exploring for a bit after he arrived at Rustboro City and entered Petalburg Forest. He had arrived here after reaching the Hoenn region after a 15 day boat journey and a 5 day commute to Rustboro City after that. Now, he was trying to find out how the Moss Rock could evolve the 8 Eevee running around it.

"Well levelling up is not the trigger it seems, " thought Alex. He had levelled up the Eevee several times over the last few days and not one evolved. Eevee couldn't learn Grass type moves, so he wasn't sure how to proceed.

"Nidoking! Please continue to look after the Eevee alright? I will go and challenge that Breloom again" said Alex.

Breloom was the Pokemon that was occupying the territory of the Moss Rock before Alex arrived. It was at level 29, right at the last bottleneck before the Veteran Stage. When Nidoking chaced it out, it went away unwilling, but challenged Alex instead. He fought it with his level 24 Charmander, expecting a clean win due to its Fire typing advantage, but the battle ended in a double knock out. The Breloom proved cunning, fast, and unafraid of confrontation, as it used a chain of speedy Mach Punch and a close range Stun Spore to whittle down Charmander. While leaving that day, he challenged it to a rematch in a week, which it accepted. Now Charmander was level 25, with 90% training complete. Alex theorised that it would be ready to evolve into Charmeleon at level 28.

Lapras had crossed the Baby stage and entered the Novice stage, and was now level 13 and had learnt to use mist.

Magnemite was still leading the pack, having newly entered the Veteran stage at level 31 and having learnt Magnet Rise by itself and Thunderbolt, Reflect and Light Screen from an Electabuzz at the ranch. Its training was still only 60% done though, which meant it had a long way to go to evolve into a Magneton.

Breloom was looking for a fight to stimulate it to break through, so it was eager to change Charmander, as its type disadvantage could stimulate its potential and possibly allow its breakthrough after a tough fight.

"Breloom! We are here to fight you!" yelled Alex, as they neared Breloom's new territory.

"Breloom" cried the Pokemon as it marched out from between some trees.

"Let's go Charmander! Be careful this time!" said Alex.

"Chaar!" it cried.

Breloom came forward, bent its legs, and leapt forward using Mach Punch.

This Breloom had the characteristic Technician, which meant this attack was extra powerful and painful.

"Dodge, and use Ember" said Alex.

Charmander dodged, and attacked with Ember, but the Breloom sidestepped and shot Stun Spore.

"Use Smokescreen, then Dragon Breath" said Alex. Charmander executed his commands, and blocked Breloom's sight and connected a direct Dragon's Breath.

The smoke cleared after a short moment, and both the Pokemon seemed to be suffering paralysis.

"Charmander! Flamethrower!" yelled Alex.

Breloom dodged towards the side completely avoiding the attack, and then leapt forward again while using Mach Punch.

"Charmander! Tank it, and then use Fire Fang!" said Alex.

Charmander took the attack and connected Fire Fang on Breloom. Breloom took enormous damage from the super effective mobe and wailed in agony, but afterwards, it briefly glowed and pushed the glow towards Charmander, who was sent flying right after.

"Counter" recognised Alex. "But it seems stronger than usual. And what was that sudden rush of energy into Breloom?"

He then checked Breloom's stats, only to see that it had broken the bottleneck and reached level 30.

"Well. Let's stop here for today. Breloom has just broken through, and it needs time to adjust" said Alex, as he returned Charmander.

"Breloom Breeeloooom" cried Breloom as he left, which he thought of as an invitation to fight again.

But there was a reason Alex decided to end the fight early and go back. When the Breloom broke through the bottleneck, he could feel all the surrounding energy sucked into its body in an instant. Alex had never observed this before. If every Pokemon instantly sucked the energy around them when they broke a bottleneck, would an Eevee that broke a bottleneck near a Moss Rock suck the energy of the Moss Rock into it and then be able to evolve?

Looking at the two level 19 Eevee playing together, Alex decided to give it a try.