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"Sobble?"
Wendy stared at Kael and blurted out in shock.
"Why…"
"Why is it here?"
The Sobble that had shown such overwhelming power at Azure Crystal Marine Park and defeated a human Trainer had appeared at the Water-type Gym on the other side of the city after only two days.
And now, it was even acting as if it were one of the Gym's defending Pokémon.
The sudden turn of fortune left Wendy so stunned that, for a moment, she forgot to move. She could only stare blankly at Kael on the field.
There was no way she would mistake him.
The Sobble in front of her was definitely the one she had encountered in Moltenwood Forest.
The Pokémon designs in Pokémon: World were almost completely faithful to the real Pokémon world.
Pokémon of the same species might look similar at a glance, but if one looked closely, there were still many differences to notice.
Take Kael, for example.
Because he had used system potions to raise his individual potential to the maximum, his skin looked purer than that of other Sobble of the same species. It was a glossy sky-blue color, and the color of his pupils was even clearer.
More importantly, because a human soul lived inside him, the eyes of the Sobble Kael possessed held a kind of intelligence and liveliness that ordinary Pokémon would never have.
He was extremely easy to recognize.
On the other hand, the main reason Wendy could confirm that he was the same Sobble she had seen before was the system's confirmation.
As a defending Pokémon, Kael's moves and Ability could not be checked in detail through the system panel.
Even so, the words "Deep Purple" and "Dark Gold" alone were enough to confirm Wendy's judgment.
A rare Sobble with maxed-out individual potential.
Wendy did not believe her luck was good enough to encounter two of them in such a short time.
This time, she…
"The challenger may send out her Pokémon."
Suddenly, the square-faced referee's urging voice from the side of the field pulled Wendy out of her thoughts.
"Uh… oh, right."
She smiled awkwardly at the referee in embarrassment and pulled a Poké Ball from her space backpack.
"I almost forgot. I'm still in the middle of a Gym challenge right now."
"At the very least, I need to finish this battle first before making any other plans."
Her eyes were full of fighting spirit as she looked at Kael on the field.
Although she had once had a rather unfriendly encounter with him, Wendy still believed that for a cute juvenile Pokémon like Sobble, as long as she showed enough strength and enough passionate love, gaining his approval should not be a problem.
She was very confident in her current strength.
As a player, she had improved quite a lot over the past few days after Moltenwood Forest through various mission rewards.
She did not believe a Sobble without a Trainer could improve faster than she could.
Even if she had not been able to beat him before, at the very least, they should be evenly matched now.
Thinking this, Wendy's lips curved into a proud smile.
She threw the Poké Ball in her hand hard onto the field in front of her.
"The battle begins."
The referee's serious declaration rang through the open room at just the right moment.
Click.
The Poké Ball spinning rapidly through the air snapped open.
A Sentret with a huge long tail and an oval, football-like body fell from the air and landed lightly on the grass.
The brown figure was reflected in Kael's pure blue eyes.
It did not stir even the slightest ripple. His gaze remained as calm as ever.
Kael remembered this girl with twin ponytails very clearly.
After all, she was the first player he had encountered after crossing into this world. Later, she had indirectly caused him to nearly die in Moltenwood Forest.
How could he not remember such a terrible impression?
Since they had met again so coincidentally in a Gym battle, he naturally had to entertain her properly.
As Kael stared at Wendy and Sentret, a cold chill suddenly appeared in his eyes.
"Aqua Ring."
Hiss. Hiss.
Clear, gentle water flowed around Kael's body like smooth ribbons, scattering crystalline droplets across the surface of his skin.
Transparency.
Invisibility.
His environmental camouflage mode activated in an instant.
Aqua Ring, a status move originally used to recover stamina during battle, had been developed sideways by Kael using Sobble's natural characteristics. It had evolved into a state-type move meant to enhance his camouflage effect.
While preserving its regular stamina recovery effect, it had gained another use. In a way, it was quite ingenious.
Although Kael himself felt that its development had gone a little off-track.
But who cared?
As long as it worked.
The percentage-based agility boost granted by Deoxys's Cosmic DNA became more and more obvious in battle as Kael's own base attributes improved.
With only a light push from his legs, Kael's nearly invisible translucent figure glided lightly toward Sentret.
He was like a true ghost.
His speed was so fast that even Wendy, who stood at the side of the field and had a full view of the battle, could not react in time.
In her vision, she could only vaguely see a faint afterimage streak across the field.
The next second, Sobble's body vanished from where it had been.
"Oh no."
Panic suddenly surged in Wendy's heart.
The speed Kael was showing now was far more than two or three times faster than when she had seen him in Moltenwood Forest.
He had not even truly attacked yet, but just this glimpse of his strength at the start of the battle was enough to make Wendy faintly realize something.
Had she… been wrong?
This Sobble's growth speed was actually faster than hers, even though she was a player?
Uneasy, the girl pressed her lips together. Countless chaotic thoughts flashed through her mind.
With her brows tightly furrowed, she shouted a command at Sentret, who looked somewhat helpless on the battlefield.
"Use Defense Curl, quick."
Since she could not track Kael's figure, she would start with her own side and use Defense Curl to raise Sentret's defense, minimizing the damage it was about to receive as much as possible.
During the pursuit of Kael in Moltenwood Forest, Wendy had deeply felt her own weakness and how she had dragged her brother down.
Over the past few days, she had worked hard to improve herself. Aside from searching for traces of Kael, she had immersed herself in the forums, carefully studying guides shared by other players.
Having just finished her final exams, Wendy was still at the peak of her life in terms of knowledge retention and learning ability.
She quickly grasped many of the tricks inside those guides.
In terms of commanding Pokémon battles alone, she had already made fairly good progress.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
Thank you so much for your support and for reading!