Chapter Ninety-Eight: Ralts vs. Magnemite

Finals day.

Outside the competition hall, the crowds had swelled again. Today, the three students who would represent Qingjiang City at the provincial finals were to be decided, and the city reporters were naturally not about to miss such major news.

But before the final ended, no interviews were allowed, so as not to put pressure on the students.

Tang Yi went straight into the arena; his opponent, Ling Wu, had arrived even earlier than he had.

The Magnemite girl wore an outer shell with a metallic sheen. Her hair was braided into two cords that curved slightly like horseshoes, one end red and the other blue, with faint currents crackling through them. Her body was equally strange, with screw-like fixtures attached at several joints.

Tang Yi studied his opponent with a grave expression.

He had managed to dig up a little information on Ling Wu, since the latter had won scholarships of all kinds more than once and was something of a minor celebrity.

His Magnemite was very strong; rumors said it had already developed a second personality. The feminized Magnemite had unique physiological traits, and as it grew older it would gradually develop additional secondary personalities.

Once it possessed two secondary personalities, a Magnemite girl would gain the ability to evolve into Magneton.

For a Magnemite’s trainer, whether the primary and secondary personalities could be properly harmonized did not merely determine whether evolution was possible; it also affected the Magnemite’s overall combat strength.

Similar situations could be seen in Pokémon girls such as Dodrio, Hydreigon, and Dugtrio, whose evolutions all depended on managing multiple personalities.

Conversely, if the relationship between the primary and secondary personalities was mishandled, it would seriously limit a Pokémon girl’s ability to perform at full strength.

Just how far could Ling Wu take this?

The instant the match began, the last trace of Tang Yi’s hopes was shattered.

"Magnemite! Press the attack!"

The Magnemite girl’s two horseshoe braids turned lightly, and a burst of crackling electricity surged toward him.

Thunder Shock, the most basic electric-type attack. As expected, Tang Yi immediately had Ralts Teleport away.

The moment the Teleport ended, a glowing sphere of electricity came crashing in—another electric-type move, Electro Ball.

"Teleport again!"

Before she could regain her footing, Ralts had no time to catch her breath and instantly Teleported a second time, widening the distance between the two sides once more.

Hah.

Tang Yi let out a small breath. He had nearly lost the initiative.

Simultaneously using two completely different moves with such ease, this Magnemite was probably already handling the relationship between the primary and secondary personalities very smoothly. The secondary personality was not only no burden at all, it even helped with using another move.

"Magnemite! Keep going!"

The Magnemite’s assault came like a flood, Thunder Shock and Electro Ball flying out almost without pause.

Ralts’s simplified flight, in truth, was also a matter of using two moves at once—Teleport and Confusion—but for Ralts it consumed too much and was hard to sustain for long.

Because it had the support of its secondary personality, the Magnemite could not only use two different moves with ease, but also launch them from different angles and directions.

It was much like one person drawing a circle with one hand and a square with the other; for a Pokémon girl like this Magnemite, it was almost effortless.

Ralts had to chain at least two Teleports in succession just to avoid the attacks completely, and that took a heavy toll on her.

Soon, Tang Yi changed tactics. He had Ralts switch to Confusion, splitting two streams of psychic power from both hands at once—a simple thing for Ralts as well.

Left and right, with the spoon-born psychic boost behind her, Ralts entered a stand-and-brawl mode. Blue light flashed all over her body as she kept batting away the Thunder Shocks and Electro Balls coming from every angle.

At once, yellow lightning and blue psychic force intertwined across the arena, while dull explosions rang out one after another without end.

The referee stood in a seat not far away, watching in amazement and inwardly sighing that this truly deserved to be the group-stage final. He even found it a little regrettable that there were no spectators for this match.

At first glance, both sides seemed to be using only simple, basic attacks against each other, but the experienced referee could see even more clearly that what this relentless exchange revealed was the exceptionally solid fundamentals of both Pokémon girls.

That was far more impressive than learning one or two advanced moves.

As the two sides traded blow for blow, the battle gradually turned into a contest of endurance. The moment either Pokémon let its guard down or made any other move, it could be suppressed in an instant and left with no chance to counterattack.

Tang Yi and Ling Wu both understood the situation very well, and so neither dared issue any other commands lightly. Under these circumstances, the best choice was simply to watch the battle quietly and trust their Pokémon.

Then Ling Wu suddenly said loudly, "Looks like this has turned into a war of attrition. Your Ralts seems pretty young, doesn’t she? Does she really have that much mental power to burn like this?"

Tang Yi laughed. "You should be worrying about your own Magnemite. Using two different moves at the same time—no matter how you look at it, even with a secondary personality, that’s not a light burden. Aren’t you afraid the secondary personality will go on strike?"

Ling Wu shook his head and said with mock seriousness, "No, no, no. However you look at it, ours is definitely the smaller one."

Tang Yi nodded in considerable agreement. "Mm, I’ll admit that too. Magnemite does look pretty small."

Hm?

That sounded a little off, didn’t it?

Why did it seem vaguely filthy?

Ling Wu, as a man, suddenly felt that something about the remark was wrong. But precisely because he was a man, he was even less willing to lose face over it, and he snapped angrily, "Bullshit! Ralts is clearly smaller! She’s so young—how could her chest possibly develop better than Magnemite’s? Are you blind?"

Tang Yi wore a look of utter disdain. "You pervert! This is the college entrance selection match, a serious occasion. How can you say such indecent things? Referee! Isn’t he breaking the rules?"

Ling Wu exploded in fury. "It was you who started talking about it in the first place! Referee, he was the one who violated the rules!"

Tang Yi was indignant. "What did I start talking about? Which of my words said anything about breast size? What I meant just now was that Magnemite’s ears are smaller than Ralts’s. Was I wrong? Look for yourself! It’s clearly your own mind that’s filthy!"

Damn it!

After being so shamelessly teased about size just now, and now you’re saying it was about ear size?

Ling Wu swallowed the words that had reached his lips and nearly choked himself to death.

At last, the referee coughed at the right moment and reminded them, "Both trainers, please pay attention. Don’t keep talking about things unrelated to the match!"

The rules did not forbid talking during a match. After all, trainers needed to give their Pokémon instructions constantly, so occasional conversation between them was naturally not prohibited either.

Of course Ling Wu knew this rule. The one who had first brought it up had originally wanted to use the rule to toss out some trash talk. Whether it worked or not, it would at least cause the opponent a little distraction.

He had not expected that the one whose mood would be affected this time would be himself.