"Say it. I'm listening."
Auron Vale lifted a hand to calm them.
"No need to be so tense. Your issue isn't a big deal. In short, you didn't use your own physical offense—your strong suit—to hit his weaker physical defense."
The moment he said it, Tim Wynn reacted and rubbed his face with a wry smile.
"Alright, that one's on me. I let the opening exchange of moves get dragged into his rhythm."
Auron shot Tim a approving look—the kid was quick on the uptake.
"Honestly, your reaction using [Twister] to break [Icy Wind] was great. I didn't see that coming at all. And the stuff you've been studying lately—"
He stopped short as something occurred to him and glanced toward Dragonair and Arcanine.
Pokémon: Dragonair
Gender: Male
Type: Dragon
Ability: Shed Skin (Sometimes heals status conditions by shedding.)
Potential: Red
Level-Up/General Moves: Bind, Leer, Twister, Thunder Wave, Dragon Tail, Substitute, Dragon Dance, Ice Beam, Dragon Pulse, Agility, Slam, Aqua Tail, Hyper Beam, Flamethrower, Breaking Swipe, Protect, Rest, Endure, Light Screen, Thunderbolt, Safeguard
Egg Moves: Dragon Breath, Aqua Jet, Mist, Water Pulse, Haze
Auron shook his head, half helpless and half amused.
"No wonder I thought the moves you two have been grinding lately were oddly specific—you were targeting my Golbat, weren't you?"
"[Light Screen] to blunt Golbat's special attacks; [Safeguard] to block the poisons it inflicts; [Thunderbolt] for direct damage—ring a bell?"
"As for Arcanine, [Hyper Voice] and [Heat Wave] are wide-area moves to counter Golbat's high evasion. And [Gyro Ball]—you traded for that back during Little Cup with Youyu You, right? That was for outspeeding Growlithe's Golbat matchups—shame you never got the chance to use it before Growlithe evolved into Arcanine, huh?"
The two of them met eyes and gave the same awkward smile. Damn—same brainwave…
Jace Rowan coughed and mumbled to Auron, embarrassed,
"Uh, about the college entrance exams… I feel like you matter more than those."
Tim bobbed his head in a hurry.
"Yeah, yeah. Same here. Same here."
"Hm?"
Tim blinked. Why did that sound… off?
Serena Elm and Hanling Yin, who'd been watching, burst out laughing.
Jace's face went dark.
He couldn't help poking Tim's forehead. "Brother, could you let me finish before you jump in? If I stop halfway, the meaning is… very different, you know?"
Auron's expression darkened too—their earth-shattering remarks had spooked him.
"Don't. I can't handle the two of you. I'm, uh, pretty sure I still prefer women."
Jace and Auron turned their heads at the same time.
"Pfft."
Off to the side, Serena's eyes lit up. A moment of wavering in her heart snapped back into place.
Seeing things drift further into weird territory, Auron cut it off and turned to Youyu You.
"Your issue's simple too. You really didn't need to brawl straight on. Rely on Haunter's ability to slip into shadows or turn invisible in the air—sneak in, inflict a status condition, then hit [Hex]."
"Also, I remember your Haunter knows [Smog], right? Even if his Dragonair has [Safeguard] and won't suffer a status, once the poison haze blankets the field, the initiative's in Haunter's hands."
Youyu You and Tim both froze. Pokémon battles can be played like that? That's… kinda dirty.
Catching their thoughts, Auron grew solemn.
"Boys, don't be fooled by how 'dirty' it looks. It's one of the most efficient ways to dismantle an opponent."
"And pretty much everyone develops a personal battle style, a signature approach. Look at Serena—she's already got hers."
Everyone turned to Serena. Auron continued,
"Her style is straightforward: calculation. She calculates both sides' HP, stat stages, and move power."
"For example, she just said Milotic has an eighty-percent chance to survive three [Thunderbolt]s from Misdreavus. Do you know why?"
They all shook their heads. They really didn't get how she'd arrived at that figure.
Auron smiled and broke it down.
"Let's imagine the battle's a game. Victory hinges on HP—who runs out first loses."
"What affects HP? Only the opponent's moves. Sure, in real life, using moves burns some stamina, but up until you're running on fumes it's just drizzle—negligible. We can ignore it here."
Heads nodded all around. They were more focused than they ever were in class.
Auron went on,
"When the attacker uses physical moves, in reality a hit with speed behind it—physical contact—will knock off a bit more than the same contact without speed. You all get that, right?"
nodnodnod
"But in my 'game' framing, we treat it as pure physical damage—we're not accounting for the extra harm from momentum, falling, or collisions."
"So the question is: how do you judge how many of the foe's moves your Pokémon can tank?"
"Take the battle just now. Misdreavus's [Thunderbolt]—no same-type attack bonus—traded evenly with Dragonair's [Dragon Pulse], also without STAB."
"In raw move strength testing, [Thunderbolt] edges [Dragon Pulse] in base power. But they came out even, which tells us Milotic's Sp. Atk is higher than Misdreavus's—right?"
Everyone nodded.
"From there it's clear Milotic is a touch stronger overall. So Serena estimates species profiles (base stats) and works out both sides' Sp. Atk and Sp. Def. Substitute those into Milotic's HP, and she can cleanly see how many [Thunderbolt]s Milotic survives."
"Move power has about a ±5% variance in practice, so she arrives at an eighty-percent chance of falling to three full-power [Thunderbolt]s—of course that's without factoring crit chance."
"But Serena actually made a mistake. I don't know how you concluded you needed Atk at +6 to land a clean one-shot, but when I ran the numbers from the stands, Atk +4 guaranteed the KO."
"A one-hundred-percent KO means that even if the roll is at minimum damage after the Atk +4 boost, it still crosses the knockout threshold."
They listened, half lost but fully impressed. Serena, for her part, had been following along in a fog. Even if Auron's take didn't match her own, it sounded cool enough that she made a note to explain it that way if anyone asked in the future.
Then her ears caught on the last bit—Auron said she'd calculated wrong?
Unacceptable. She whipped out pen and paper and started scribbling figures.
After a while she looked up, puzzled.
"I didn't mess up. It's after six stages that it one-shots."
Auron blinked and leaned over to read the numbers Serena had put down.
"No—see here? You've reduced the power of [Frenzy Swing] by roughly twenty-five percent. You're not using the doubles spread-move power, are you?"
Emmmm… sorry, it's late again today. I went hiking, so I'll share a few snowy pics in the comments later. Thanks for understanding (sending a heart by hand).
(End of Chapter)