Pokémon Court

Chapter 450 - Poison Bomb

Joyce is a rookie Trainer who has been on her journey for less than a year. Now, in order to participate in the Ever Grande Conference, she had already collected two Badges in the Hoenn region.

Fallarbor Gym is the third target of this Trainer named Joyce.

While traveling through this area, she heard from passersby that Fallarbor Gym, a newly established Gym, had just held its opening ceremony. She immediately rushed over, hoping to challenge it.

However, her arrival coincided with the time Terrance had left for Alola, forcing her to wait until now.

But Fallarbor Woods and Mt. Chimney provided Joyce with a great training environment. During this time, she continuously battled Bug-type Pokémon, all in preparation for Fallarbor Gym.

"I am the challenger."

The twin-tailed girl knocked on the door of Fallarbor Gym and called out, "Is anyone there?"

"Coming, coming, coming!"

Inside Fallarbor Gym, Scarlet, who was cleaning, quickly responded.

Opening the door for Joyce, Scarlet said, "You must be Joyce who scheduled a challenge for today. The Gym Leader is already waiting for you."

"That's me." Joyce nodded and followed closely behind Scarlet as they walked together toward the battle arena.

...

"The Gym Leader seems to be a Coordinator!" Joyce thought to herself.

During her stay in Fallarbor Town, she had learned a lot of information about Terrance.

Terrance was an incredibly skilled Coordinator, which made her feel very nervous.

Because of this, she took the time to further understand Pokémon Contests and the Coordinator profession, all to better prepare for winning the Gym Battle.

However, after studying the rules and format of Pokémon Contests, Joyce became confused—was the Coordinator profession really suited for battles?

On Terrance's side, upon seeing Scarlet bring in the challenger, he put down the book in his hand, stood up from his chair, and walked down from the platform.

"Hello, challenger. I am the Gym Leader of Fallarbor Gym, Terrance."

"The rules for the Gym Battle are a 2-on-2 match. With 'Coordination Badge' as the stake, defeat me and you will earn Fallarbor Gym's recognition."

Looking at the young girl before him, Terrance showed what he considered a kind smile and patiently explained, "Do you have any other questions?"

"No." Joyce shook her head.

"Then let's begin the battle." Terrance said.

Seeing that both were ready, Scarlet walked to the referee's position and announced the battle rules.

During the battle, Terrance could not switch Pokémon, while the challenger could. Additionally, Terrance will be the one to send out his Pokémon first. After Scarlet finished all announcements, Terrance immediately threw out a Poké Ball. "Dustox, come out!"

Dustox, a Bug and Poison-type Pokémon, is one of Wurmple's final evolutions. Its status should be the same as Beautifly, but because Beautifly has a cuter appearance, Dustox is not favored by female Trainers.

"So it really is Dustox." Joyce had already speculated on which Pokémon Terrance might send out. In her opinion, Beautifly and Dustox were the two most likely choices.

Its yellow compound eyes and multicolored patterned body made Dustox look eerie, but in Terrance's eyes, the little guy was actually quite cute.

"My Pokémon is Taillow!"

As soon as the deep-blue-feathered swallow Pokémon appeared, the atmosphere in the arena became heavy.

Even though Dustox had been raised by humans since birth, the natural predator-prey relationship between bug and bird Pokémon still had an instinctive effect on both Pokémon.

"Looks like she came prepared."

"But to pass Fallarbor Gym's test, relying on type advantage alone won't be enough."

Terrance thought to himself. If he was going to test this challenger, he might as well use the "Dust Bomb" combo move. If she could break through that, then he would let her pass.

Dust Bomb was an attack strategy that centered around the move Confusion, using powder-based moves in combination.

It was one of the key techniques trained by Dustox and Butterfree, and it had two different variations.

As the battle began with the sound of the whistle, Joyce quickly gave her command: "Taillow, use Double Team!"

Whoosh!

Taillow flew toward Dustox, splitting into four figures that kept circling around Dustox, trying to confuse Terrance.

"Use Poison Powder." Terrance snapped his fingers, completely ignoring the four Taillows.

Joyce suddenly froze. She saw that the purple powder blown out by Dustox had condensed into four glowing orbs, flying toward each of Taillow!

"What is this..." Joyce's face was full of confusion.

Poison Powder?

What were these glowing orbs?

The purple orbs were actually created by Confusion's waves gathering the Poison Powder together. Dustox then used Confusion to precisely control and launch them at Taillow.

"Dodge and use Wing Attack!" After just a brief moment of bewilderment, Joyce quickly regained her composure.

Too slow. These glowing orbs were moving too slowly—they could be easily avoided.

The four illusory copies rapidly circled around Dustox. After Joyce gave her command, Taillow charged directly at Dustox to attack.

To them, an attack at this speed posed no threat at all.

Seeing that Taillow was trying to weave past the Poison Powder-Confusion orbs to launch its attack, Terrance smiled slightly. Indeed, controlling the Poison Powder to this level with Dustox's Confusion was already its limit, but the opponent was being overly happy.

"Boom..." Terrance muttered softly.

Just as the four illusory copies effortlessly dodged the four Poison Powder-Confusion orbs and rushed toward Dustox, the orbs suddenly exploded!

From within the glowing purple orbs, the compressed Poison Powder detonated, instantly destroying three of the illusory copies. Meanwhile, Taillow's real body was also inevitably caught in the blowing Poison Powder.

"This is a tactic that combines Dustox's Confusion and Poison Powder. I call it the 'Powder Bomb,'" Terrance said to the challenger.

Then, he turned his attention to Taillow. Swept up by the sudden wave of poisonous particles, Taillow had inhaled a significant amount. A purplish hue began to appear around its eyes, and its body occasionally emitted a faint purple glow—it had entered the Poison status!

"Taillow!" Joyce cried out in shock, watching as Taillow's body trembled.

Powder Bomb was a technique developed for Butterfree and Dustox, using Confusion as the core move to coordinate with powder-based attacks. It was one of many coordination techniques Terrance had prepared for them. Once this technique was fully trained, it could be used as an independent standard for evaluation.

The test Terrance had prepared for this rookie Trainer was a variation of the Powder Bomb. With Dustox's mastery of Confusion, there were countless ways to counter this most basic version of the Powder Bomb. Given that the challenger was a rookie, Terrance believed this would be more than enough.

However, Terrance had still overestimated his opponent. Once Taillow fell into Poison status, Joyce panicked and lost her ability to command properly. Meanwhile, the poisoned Taillow lacked the willpower to continue battling in sync with its Trainer, unable to exert even 60% of its full strength.

"If that's the case, then let's end this battle quickly."

With this thought in mind, Terrance commanded Dustox to press the attack. He had no intention of giving the challenger too much time to think during the battle. He had already demonstrated the attack pattern of the Powder Bomb. Once the opponent was defeated, she would naturally have ample time to reflect, analyze, and return for another challenge.

Shortly after, Dustox used the same technique to defeat the challenger's second Pokémon.

Fallarbor Gym's first rookie challenger, Joyce, lost the challenge.

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