The Mighty Swampert

The Pokémon that appear in the room have been given prior notice and won't immediately attack challengers upon entering the battle room. Instead, they wait for the room's prompt before taking action.

Upon entering the room, a familiar prompt sounded, just like before.

"Please use one Pokémon to defeat your opponent."

Without hesitation, Yuga released his Roserade.

Swampert is a Water and Ground-type Pokémon, and it's quadruply weak to Grass-type Pokémon. So, Yuga had a significant advantage.

The moment Roserade was released, Swampert swung its fist, which was as large as a cooking pot, towards Roserade.

Seeing the ice-blue energy surrounding Swampert's fist, Yuga was somewhat surprised. This was a Swampert capable of using Ice Punch.

Yuga: "Roserade, use Grass Knot."

Upon hearing the command, Roserade released a green seed from the flowers on its hands, which landed right under the rapidly approaching Swampert's feet.

The green seed took root upon landing and quickly transformed into vines, entangling one of Swampert's hind legs, causing the sprinting Swampert to tumble unceremoniously.

Grass Knot was a move that Yuga taught Roserade after making it his primary battling Pokémon. It was designed to prevent opponents from getting too close to Roserade.

Roserade's abilities and skills were distinct from Yuga's other three Grass-type Pokémon: Bellossom, Breloom, and Ivysaur.

Bellossom had a different focus due to its signature move, Quiver Dance. It placed a strong emphasis on training its evasion during battles. Coupled with its ability, Chlorophyll, it had remarkable speed. When faced with enemy attacks, it could easily dodge them.

Breloom followed a more battle-centric approach. Its Poison Heal ability, paired with a Toxic Orb, allowed for continuous recovery during battles. In combat, it relied on close-quarters combat with moves like Drain Punch. It supplemented its health with moves like Leech Seed, making it a relentless brawler that didn't rely on defense or evasion.

Ivysaur took a defensive route. Its final evolution, Venusaur, possessed decent defensive capabilities. Utilizing abilities like Chlorophyll and Power Whip, it balanced defense with counterattacks. While it shared abilities with Roserade, the training methods were entirely different.

However, Roserade was in a unique position. It couldn't compete with the speed of Bellossom, which had Chlorophyll. It couldn't match the defensive capabilities and sustainability of Ivysaur. It also couldn't engage in close-quarters combat like Breloom. Its role was to prevent enemies from approaching and excel in ranged combat.

"Roserade, take this opportunity and use Toxic," Yuga called out as Swampert was immobilized by Grass Knot.

Roserade understood the command and rapidly secreted a substantial amount of venom from the two bright red flowers on its hands. It then sprinkled the venom onto Swampert's body.

Swampert was instantly afflicted by badly poisoned, and its skin turned purple in large patches. Poisoning and badly poisoned were essentially the same here, with the only difference being the extent of venom erosion.

Swampert endured the painful effects of the toxins, attempting to get up from the ground to approach Roserade. However, as soon as it took a step, it let out a miserable scream. It turned out that Roserade had laid a Toxic Spikes in front of it. For Swampert, already in a state of badly poisoned, stepping into the Toxic Spikes was akin to adding fuel to the fire.

Terrified, Swampert retracted its left foot, feeling extreme discomfort all over its body, causing its movements to become sluggish. Even as a Ground-type Pokémon, known for its resistance to Poison-type moves, Swampert recoiled in fear against Roserade's badly poisoned and Toxic Spikess. It dared not approach further.

Swampert resorted to using ranged attacks against Roserade, but Roserade had no fear of long-range battles. This was its forte.

Swampert's first move was to employ Mud Bomb. Clumps of muddy projectiles, laden with moisture, spewed from Swampert's mouth and shot towards Roserade.

Roserade, with an expression of disdain, casually flicked several energy balls that promptly dispersed all the incoming mud bombs.

And so, the two Pokémon engaged in an intense long-range battle.

Swampert's specialty wasn't special attacks, but it was Roserade's forte. Each had its own strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, under the constant erosion of toxins, Swampert quickly found itself falling behind.

Finally, after enduring several energy balls, Swampert collapsed.

"Well done, Roserade," praised Yuga.

Apart from their usual training battles in the ecological garden, this was Roserade's first formal competition, and it had performed exceptionally well.

Receiving Yuga's praise, Roserade felt quite pleased inside, although its calm demeanor didn't display its joy on the surface. It simply nodded in response to Yuga.

Yuga had been with Roserade for quite some time, so he understood its personality well. He wasn't bothered by its reserved attitude, and through his special ability to sense Roserade's emotions, he knew it was feeling quite happy at the moment.

With Swampert defeated, Yuga continued descending through the stairs that appeared, proceeding to the next challenge.

In the subsequent challenges, the strength of the Pokémon continued to increase, but there wasn't another significant spike in difficulty like when transitioning from the 10th to the 11th floor or from the 20th to the 21st floor. Thus, Yuga continued to rely on Roserade to overcome them.

What surprised Yuga was that on floors 21, 22, and 23, they encountered the Starter Pokémon of Hoenn, starting with Swampert, followed by Blaziken and Sceptile.

Immediately after, on floors 24, 25, and 26, they faced the Starter Pokémon of Sinnoh: Empoleon, Infernape, and Torterra.

Floors 27, 28, and 29 featured the Starter Pokémon of Unova: Oshawot, Tepig, and Snivy.

With these Pokémon alternately appearing, Roserade found it increasingly challenging to cope. If it weren't for its powerful Poison Point abilities, which allowed it to poison these Pokémon one after another, it would likely have fallen. After all, aside from its Grassy Terrain move, Roserade lacked the strength-draining capabilities like Bellossom, which can absorb their opponents' power.

As Yuga speculated whether the 30th-floor Pokémon would be the Starter Pokémon of the Kalos region, what appeared before him was a petite Ribombee.

Unlike the other Pokémon they encountered, this Ribombee didn't immediately launch an attack upon seeing Yuga and Roserade. Instead, it gracefully danced in the air.

Yuga found this Ribombee's behavior rather peculiar.

Ribombee was native to the Alola region, but there were no participants from Alola in this competition. Previously, he had only encountered Pokémon from the six regions: Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos.

According to previous introductions, the guarding Pokémon were sourced from various regional Pokémon Day Care Center. Yuga hadn't expected to encounter an Alolan Pokémon among them.