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Chapter 51: A Mysterious Pokémon? Field Battle!
🕑 Added 2025-08-13 19:35:40 +0000 UTCUnlike the special Raichu she encountered in the Gym battle just now, Cynthia can be certain she’s never seen anything remotely similar to this Pokémon before.
As she instinctively moves her character forward, a sudden breeze sweeps through the flower field, and the colorful blooms sway back and forth, blocking the spot where that Pokémon was standing.
When the flowers settle back into place, the area Cynthia was watching… is completely empty.
“Did you guys see that?”
Cynthia can’t help but address the viewers in her livestream.
[See what?]
[I saw it! I think I saw a green Pokémon, but for some reason it suddenly disappeared!]
[I saw it too! I thought I was seeing things!]
[So what Pokémon was that? I don’t think I’ve seen it before.]
Cynthia furrows her brow slightly, but then suddenly notices something:
On the ground where the little hedgehog-like creature was standing, there was a faint, flickering glow, barely noticeable.
She moves her character closer, and a prompt suddenly pops up before her eyes.
[Something seems to be buried in the ground. Do you want to dig it up?]
After Cynthia selects “Yes,” an object immediately appears before her.
It’s actually… a flower?
This flower is hexagonal, pale red in color, and pulses with pink light like breathing.
Obviously, the glow Cynthia saw earlier was coming from here.
But the next moment, this flower suddenly withers rapidly in Cynthia’s character’s hands, its light dimming and finally disappearing.
The petals turn to powder and scatter into the air.
But that’s not all—the flower leaves behind a small red seed in her palm!
[You have obtained a special item: Gracidea Flower Seed x1]
Seeing the system prompt, Cynthia pauses for a moment, then suddenly remembers something.
Gracidea Flower?
The name sounds familiar, like she’s heard it somewhere before.
But when she tries to think carefully, she can’t quite remember where.
After a moment of contemplation, she shakes her head slightly and puts the flower seed into her bag.
Since the system indicates this is a special item, she’ll keep it safe for now.
Perhaps this flower has some connection to the Pokémon she just saw?
And her intuition tells her it probably wasn’t an ordinary, common Pokémon.
As Cynthia prepares to stand up while thinking, she notices that in the nearby flower bed, after that breeze passed, some of the previously neat flowers have fallen over in disarray.
She thinks for a moment, inputs a command, and has her character go forward to help those flowers stand upright again, restoring them to their original state.
The owner of this flower field clearly takes great care of these blooms.
In that case, she might as well lend a helping hand.
But the next moment, just as Cynthia turns to leave, a girl in a dress comes running over from the distance, with a large exclamation mark above her head.
Her voice rings out with joy and gratitude:
“Hello there, miss! I just saw you helping tidy up my garden—thank you so much!”
“I can tell you must be someone who loves flowers too… and you’re a trainer, right?”
“In that case, as a greeting gift, I’ll give you this!”
As the girl speaks, a series of prompts suddenly pop up before Cynthia’s eyes!
[You have obtained TM – Grassy Terrain!]
[Grassy Terrain: When used, replaces the current battlefield terrain with Grassy Terrain. On this terrain, all Pokémon recover 1/16 of their maximum HP at the end of each turn, Grass-type move power increases by 30%, and the power of Earthquake, Stomp, and Magnitude is halved.]
At the same time, the chat begins scrolling frantically.
[GG, I’ve discovered this game’s main theme is “good deeds get rewarded.”]
[Isn’t that how it should be? People who do good deeds deserve rewards!]
[So positive, everyone! Starting today, I’m gonna help old ladies jaywalk every day—oops, I mean cross the street properly.]
Cynthia stares at the prompt for quite a while before snapping back to reality.
—What is this? Speak of the devil?
This TM can solve her biggest current problem!
She’s about to turn and thank the girl, but finds she’s already walked away.
She figures the developer probably deliberately placed this TM here.
It’s basically a tutorial, teaching players the importance of “terrain.”
But… speaking of which.
Do these “terrain moves” exist in real life, too?
After a moment of thought, Cynthia shakes her head slightly, her expression already changing.
With this TM, Electric Terrain… won’t be a problem anymore!
So then…
Time for another Gym challenge!
Two minutes later
Another Gym battle begins.
“You bounced back so quickly after falling? Excellent! Let me see your progress!”
With Wattson’s enthusiastic declaration, he once again sends out that specially-formed Raichu as his lead Pokémon.
And on Cynthia’s side, she sends out Grovyle!
Electric Terrain begins swirling and dancing beneath both Pokémon’s feet, instantly activating!
The first turn plays out predictably—with his ability activated, Raichu once again leads with Fake Out, successfully skipping Grovyle’s first turn and knocking off just under a quarter of his HP.
As the second turn begins, Raichu moves first again. This time, due to Grovyle’s type resistance, he doesn’t use Thunderbolt but instead uses Volt Switch!
His body transforms into a yellow electric current that crashes into Grovyle, dropping his HP bar only slightly, before Raichu becomes a red light and returns to his Poké Ball.
[A message suddenly pops up – Magneton has been switched in!!]
After a flash of red light, a completely new Pokémon appears where Raichu was standing.
It’s Magneton, with Electric and Steel types that can resist Grass-type moves!
However, the next moment, Grovyle raises both claws.
Green light appears beneath his feet, and blooming flowers and grass sprout from nowhere, covering the entire field and replacing those restless electric currents!
[Grovyle used Grassy Terrain!]
[The ground is covered with lush green grass!]
[Grass-type move power has increased! Some Ground-type move power has decreased! Pokémon will continuously recover HP!]
Accompanying this prompt, two deep green light particles rise from the ground and merge into both Pokémon’s bodies.
Grovyle’s HP bar immediately recovers a small, noticeable amount!
Immediately after, the third turn begins.
Cynthia doesn’t attack but chooses to switch Pokémon, sending out Ludicolo!
At the same time, the opposing Magneton emits three sharp, synchronized calls and brilliant white light bursts from its body, striking straight at Ludicolo!
[Magneton used Flash Cannon!]
This is a high-power Steel-type special attack that should deal massive damage given Magneton’s strong Special Attack!
However, when it hits Ludicolo, his HP bar drops by less than a third—thanks to Ludicolo’s Water type resisting Steel-type moves!
As this turn ends, green light particles appear on the field again, restoring a bit of Ludicolo’s HP.
The next moment, a new turn begins, and naturally, the faster Ludicolo moves first!
“Ludicolo used Teeter Dance!”
He performs a swaying left-and-right dance, and to comical music, a giant golden star vortex and several small ducks appear above Magneton’s head.
[Magneton is confused!]
[Magneton hurt itself in its confusion!]
Seeing Magneton’s HP bar drop a chunk from hitting itself, Cynthia knows her chance has come.
She takes a deep breath and switches to Stufful.
Even though she’s solved the biggest problem in this battle—Electric Terrain—she still faced a 4-on-3 disadvantage.
So to win, she needs another way.
Earlier, she mentioned the most crucial unit in this battle was Grovyle.
That’s right.
But actually… not entirely correct.
At this moment, Stufful enters the field, and Magneton’s head sprouts golden stars again as it crashes into the ground.
[Magneton hurt itself in its confusion!]
Two consecutive confusion hits made it hurt itself, cutting its HP by half!
However, Lady Luck can’t stay on Cynthia’s side forever.
As the next turn begins, the golden stars above Magneton’s head disappear.
[Magneton’s confusion wore off!]
—The confusion status that could have lasted 3–5 turns ends early.
However, Cynthia’s expression doesn’t waver; she even smiles slightly.
“Against a Fighting-type Pokémon, Magneton is at an extreme disadvantage.”
“So he’ll definitely switch Pokémon.”
“In that case…”
“Our opportunity is here! Stufful, use Bulk Up!”
As soon as Cynthia finishes speaking, the opposing Magneton becomes a red light and gets recalled by Wattson.
Taking its place is that familiar figure again—that oddly-shaped Raichu!
However, Stufful doesn’t attack but directly raises both arms on the spot. Deep red light accompanied by blue light appears around his body.
[Stufful used Bulk Up – his Attack and Defense stats both rose!]
A new turn begins, and Raichu once again uses Fake Out.
However… this time, with the Defense boost, the hit only makes Stufful flinch without dealing much damage—just a tiny bit of chip damage.
Normally, this would be sufficient wear, but when the turn ends, green light rises from the field and enters Stufful’s body, completely restoring his HP to full!
Just like that, Raichu’s Fake Out had absolutely no practical effect!
Cynthia takes a deep breath and chooses Bulk Up again!
Raichu still moves first—even without Electric Terrain triggering his ability, his base Speed appears quite high.
Brilliant electricity instantly hits Stufful, knocking off most of his HP.
But he acts like he doesn’t care, still raising both arms and making pumping motions like he’s working out. Red and blue light shine on his body again.
[Stufful’s Attack and Defense stats rose again!]
Normally, even with Stufful’s bulk and two boosts, it would be meaningless against Raichu.
Because this move boosts Defense, while Raichu’s Thunderbolt is a Special Attack, it would deal the same damage regardless.
In other words, moving second with less than half HP, there’s no way Stufful could survive Raichu’s second Thunderbolt next turn.
But as the turn ends, green light particles appear on the field again and enter both Pokémon!
Stufful’s HP, thanks to this recovery, rises just above the halfway point!
Thanks to Grassy Terrain’s continuous effect, he’s neutralized the damage from Raichu’s Fake Out and survived the knockout threshold for the opponent’s second Thunderbolt!
And this means that with two boosts completed… he has earned the right to attack!
The next moment.
Roaring electric current flashes again as Thunderbolt hits Stufful, rapidly draining his HP.
But just as his HP bar is about to hit zero, the decline suddenly stops!
—Only the tiniest sliver of HP remains!
And with a roar, Stufful raises both claws high!
“Stufful used Payback!”
Deep black, dense light surges around his claws as he slashes at the opposing Raichu!
Payback—a Dark-type move.
This move has a base power of only 50, but when used while moving second, its power doubles to 100!
Combined with two levels of Attack boosts…
Raichu, with his weak Physical Defense, sees his HP bar plummet like a roller coaster, dropping straight to zero!
But that’s not all.
A berry suddenly flashes in front of Stufful, becoming a beam of light that enters his body, raising his nearly-empty HP bar to over 30%!
[Stufful’s held Sitrus Berry activated!]
[His HP was restored!]
Immediately after, another green light particle from the terrain appears, restoring Stufful’s HP to nearly half!
The rest of the battle proceeds naturally.
The hardest-to-handle Raichu has been taken out by Stufful in one hit.
Magneton, who has the advantage against Grass-types, also damaged itself for half its HP due to two consecutive confusion hits.
Facing a Stufful in this condition, Wattson doesn’t dare send out Magneton and is forced to bring out Manectric.
Although Manectric is faster than Stufful, as an unevolved Pokémon, his Special Attack power is clearly insufficient. Without Electric Terrain’s boost, after one Thunderbolt, Stufful’s HP bar again has only a sliver left…
Just like that, Manectric gets sent packing by Stufful’s Payback right after entering the field.
Next, although Wattson sends out his ace Pokémon Electabuzz, who uses the priority move Mach Punch to barely finish off Stufful’s remaining HP…
Neither Electabuzz nor the half-HP Magneton can do anything about Ludicolo now.
To be safe, Cynthia even sends out Grovyle again to set up Grassy Terrain one more time before bringing Ludicolo back out.
A few turns later, as Magneton falls to Ludicolo’s Bubble Beam…
This Gym battle finally reaches its conclusion, declaring Cynthia’s victory!
The moment the battle ends, Wattson stands up from his seat, laughing heartily while applauding.
“What a spectacular battle! Young people these days really are something!”
“I can see you’ve understood the importance of terrain in battle, and the teamwork between you and your Pokémon is admirable—it reminds me of myself when I was young…”
As Wattson speaks, he pulls out a lightning bolt-shaped badge and hands it to Cynthia.
“Take this—it’s the Dynamo Badge. With it, your Pokémon’s level cap can reach 30, and they can also use the HM move ‘Rock Smash.’”
“By the way, if you want to learn that move, you can visit a researcher’s house below my Gym. It’s his masterpiece, and he’d be happy to teach you.”
Then Wattson slaps his forehead and pulls out another TM disc.
“Besides that… here, take this.”
“This is the TM for Thunderbolt—yep, the very move I kept using just now. Not only does it have high power, but it might also paralyze your opponent’s Pokémon. Make sure your Pokémon put it to good use.”
“Alright, I’ve got some business to take care of in town, but feel free to come back and challenge the Gym again sometime.”
With that, Wattson laughs heartily and turns to leave.
“Haha! Keep it up, young one! The future belongs to you!”
He leaves Cynthia standing there, looking at the Thunderbolt TM in her hands with a somewhat complex expression.
To be honest, at first… that move really had her seeing stars from all the zapping.
Unfortunately, none of the Pokémon on her current team can learn it, so it’s not immediately useful…
But thinking about this, she suddenly realizes something.
Wait a minute?
Iono’s Pokémon are all Electric-types, aren’t they?
Doesn’t that mean…
—She could have all her Pokémon learn Thunderbolt right after beating this Gym??
Imagining that scenario, Cynthia can’t help but shiver.
No matter how tough the NPCs in this game are, as long as their main Pokémon isn’t Ground-type, who could withstand a full team of Electric-types going crazy with Thunderbolt?
Who could stop her?
—No way, she needs to pick up the pace!
She takes a deep breath, controls her character, and quickly heads out of the Gym.
