Chapter 24

Wendell entered the spot across Misty, who had called yet another goldeen.

Pokemon: Goldeen

Ability: Swift swim

Stage: Rookie

Mastery: Water 24%, Normal 19%, Flying 12%, Psychic 2%

He called his sandslash out.

Pokemon: Sandslash

Ability: Sand veil

Stage: Advanced

Mastery: Ground 55%, Normal 37%, Rock 21%, Poison 2%, Bug 2%

Wendell's choice made it clear that sandslash was probably his second best pokemon after his gloom and he didn't have a better choice than to use the ground type in a pool against water types.

"Horn attack."

"Bulldoze."

Goldeen flew towards sandslash, attacking sandslash with its horn and using the force of collision to bounce back in water. Sandslash had no chance to attack.

This was the gym's difficulty, one that wasn't made clear in Daniel's fight due to him being prepared with a strategy and Dyson beating her in a water type battle, simply brute forcing through the challenge.

Wendell was unfazed. He had his own way to deal with goldeen.

"Poison sting."

As soon as goldeen struck sandslash another time, sandslash attacked the goldeen with the poison projectile while it was midair.

This exchange happened a few times before goldeen was finally poisoned.

"Defense curl."

Sandslash curled up, its defense increased. The damage dealt by the next horn attack was lowered.

"Rollout."

The curled up sandslash used rollout, which confused everyone. Daniel understood what he was up to.

Sandslash rolled in a small circular path within the platform. It had no intention at attacking the goldeen. Goldeen attacked sandslash with another horn attack, but was repelled by the rock energy surrounding it. Goldeen was unable to break through the advance ranked sandslash's rollout.

"Water pulse."

Goldeen shot water pulse at sandslash but the rollout destroyed it. Goldeen was now unable to damage sandslash.

After a while, the round ended with a tired and damaged sandslash and a goldeen who was knocked out by poison damage.

They both called their pokemon back. This dragged out win wouldn't have happened if sandslash wasn't an advance ranked pokemon that could take multiple horn attacks and could sustain a rollout powerful enough to make all attacks against it useless.

After all, a win was a win.

They both called out their next pokemon, a staryu and a gloom.

The staryu was at a similar level to the others. Daniel checked the glooms stats.

Pokemon: Gloom

Ability: Chlorophyll

Stage: Advanced

Mastery: Grass 70%, Poison 53%, Normal 20%, Fire 3%

Gloom's strength surprised Daniel. It also explained Wendell's previous actions. As long as goldeen was defeated by sandslash, gloom could easily win against staryu. This round was basically over before it began.

Wendell simply asked gloom to exchange moves with staryu. Staryu used swift which hit gloom for some damage. Gloom answered with mega drain, directly knocking staryu out and healing itself back. Compared to the stally previous round, this one basically lasted for one move.

This immediately ended todays day with all three students winning their matches, one crazier that the other.

Rod's match was tomorrow.

Next day, day 2 of the Cerulean gym tour.

The first two students lost their matches. Goldeen was too strong. The only time it was vulnerable was while it was out of water, while it attacked. This short window wasn't easy to grab.

Next match was Rod's. He sent out his pidgeotto first. Tangela would have an easier time with goldeen but it needed to be healthy to take on staryu.

Pidgeotto took the skies and looked down at the goldeen.

"Water pulse."

Goldeen formed a ball of water and shot it towards the flying pidgeotto who dodged it.

"Gust."

Goldeen simply submerged its body underwater. The gust hit the water surface, making the water splash.

At this rate goldeen would eventually land a hit on pidgeotto.