Chapter 324: Toxicroak’s Ambition

Chapter 324: Chapter 324: Toxicroak’s Ambition

The challengers in the morning were all fairly normal, allowing Julian to breathe a slight sigh of relief.

During lunch, Bewear took the initiative to find Julian.

"Bewear~"

Bewear wanted to know why all her other companions could appear in Gym challenges, yet she could not.

Julian inhaled.

How was he supposed to explain this to Bewear?

After thinking for a moment, Julian said, "You only just joined, so you should watch and learn more first. Gym challenges aren’t about winning. They’re about guiding Trainers as they grow."

"Your strength is too great, and your control is still slightly lacking. If this were a regular battle, sending you out to defeat the opponent would be fine."

"But when it comes to guiding Pokémon’s growth, you still need more practice. How about this? I’ll arrange for you to spar with Miraidon."

"You need finer control, and Miraidon needs to increase his strength. You two happen to complement each other."

When Miraidon heard this, the entire dragon froze.

Boss, do you not know how absurdly strong this Bewear is?

She’s even more terrifying than Koraidon!

And you want me to fight her?

As if he knew what Miraidon was thinking, Julian smiled and patted Miraidon’s head.

"Spar properly with Bewear. That way, when we return to Paldea next year..."

"You won’t have to worry about lacking strength and being unable to beat Koraidon."

Miraidon’s tail swung violently.

But he was even more afraid of being flattened into a meat patty by Bewear before that!

Bewear had previously been poor at controlling the strength of her attacks.

After following Julian to learn extra techniques, optimise her food structure, and carry out physical training, Bewear’s strength had increased by nearly fifty percent in a short time.

Fifty percent!

Did he understand how terrifying that was?

Even Koraidon could not possibly increase his strength that quickly!

Julian continued comforting Miraidon.

"That’s because Bewear hadn’t really received formal training before, so her progress was so fast."

"Hasn’t her rate of improvement started slowing down these past few days?"

Miraidon thought about it.

That did seem to be true.

In that case, it was not impossible for him to properly exchange a few moves with Bewear.

"Goodra is careful with you now. She knows your habits, so she unconsciously holds back in the places that matter."

Julian looked towards Bewear.

"Bewear is different. Her strength is straightforward, heavy, and difficult to predict. Sparring with her will force you to respond under pressure instead of relying on clever tricks."

Hisuian Goodra was still a little too gentle.

After becoming familiar with Miraidon, she had deliberately controlled her strength when attacking.

Without experiencing that feeling of being close to death, it was difficult for Miraidon’s potential to be unearthed.

Miraidon’s problem was not intelligence.

Thinking in battle was a strength, and Julian had no intention of taking that away from him.

The issue was that he thought too much before he acted.

He was always calculating, always looking for the safest angle, always trying to find a way to win without taking the full force of the pressure in front of him.

That made him clever, but it also made his fighting spirit less direct.

Hisuian Goodra and Bewear were different.

They did not overcomplicate things. Once they decided to train, they committed fully. One was steady and patient, the other was simple and overwhelming, but both had a purity Miraidon still lacked.

Julian could not change Miraidon’s nature by force.

He could only place him beside Pokémon like them and let him experience, again and again, what it meant to face strength without retreating into tricks.

They could help Miraidon grow.

The first leg, Hisuian Goodra, had performed very well.

Julian believed Bewear would not perform badly in the second leg either.

After lunch, once they had briefly digested their food, Bewear dragged Miraidon outside to spar.

Miraidon wanted to refuse.

If he sparred with Bewear right after eating, he was afraid she would beat the meal straight out of him.

But she did not give him the chance to refuse at all.

Toxicroak was the one who stepped forward and offered to spar with Bewear first.

He did not possess her natural strength.

His power had been built slowly. Through training, poison, technique, and repeated battles.

But that was exactly why he wanted to face her.

Bewear represented the kind of raw physical force Toxicroak could not ignore. Sparring with her would force him to test how far his own strength had come, and whether his technique could hold up against overwhelming power.

Toxicroak proposed that he use Bulk Up first to raise his strength before they started sparring.

Bewear did not mind at all.

If Toxicroak was stronger, the fight would be more interesting.

After using Bulk Up three times, Toxicroak’s aura began leaking out uncontrollably.

Miraidon’s eyes widened at once.

That sharp, needle-like sense of danger...

Had Toxicroak already improved to this extent?

Compared to when they had first met in the Great Crater of Paldea, Toxicroak had quietly made so much progress.

Yet Miraidon had been thinking of every possible way to avoid training.

Back then, the actual gap between Toxicroak and Miraidon had still been enormous.

But now, Toxicroak was already able to make Miraidon feel a strong threat.

That meant the actual gap between them was no longer that large.

A feeling of anxiety immediately rose in his heart.

Miraidon was a little afraid that, in another two years, even Bagon’s strength might surpass his.

Bagon was currently the weakest Pokémon on the team.

Because Bagon liked flying, and Miraidon was the only one among Julian’s Pokémon who could fly, while also being a Dragon type, their relationship was quite good.

Bagon often used his snacks to hire Miraidon to take him flying once.

Bagon was categorised as a baby. Although he had already begun training, he still had extra snacks to eat.

Originally, Eevee had them too, but Eevee had taken the initiative to say that he had already grown up and no longer needed extra snacks.

All so he could increase his training intensity and become an excellent warrior as quickly as possible.

Even after using Bulk Up three times, there was still a large gap in strength between Toxicroak and Bewear.

Toxicroak spat out a string of Sludge Bombs, then seized the chance to use Bulk Up a fourth time.

Julian nodded in satisfaction.

Toxicroak’s timing and technique for boosting were indeed excellent.

Bewear’s weakness in lacking fine control had been fully exposed.

Very quickly, Toxicroak stacked Bulk Up to the full six times, barely reaching the point where he could clash with Bewear in strength.

But if he had not used Bulk Up three times in advance, Bewear would have shown Toxicroak exactly what it meant to break every method with overwhelming force.

Through repeated collisions, his poison gradually corroded her body.

Toxicroak combined this with Double Team and Protect, denying Bewear the chance to break through him.

Bewear tried hard to lock in victory through power, but her defeat was already becoming obvious.

Julian clapped his hands.

"That’s enough!"

Bewear stopped unwillingly.

Julian stepped forward to cure her poison.

"Bewear, you still forgot that you need to fight with technique."

Julian pointed at Toxicroak, whose hands were trembling.

"Because Toxicroak has enough technique, he knows how to make up for his lack of strength."

"But you didn’t make up for your own weak points."

Even now, Bewear still could not use Bulk Up smoothly.

Bewear lowered her head in shame.

"Think carefully about it. In that battle just now, you actually had many chances to secure victory, but you missed them."

As for Toxicroak, his goal had been achieved.

Julian took him to apply medicine.

"Skip your afternoon training. Give your muscles time to recover."

Toxicroak nodded.

His afternoon training could be changed to eating poisonous mushrooms.

There were quite a few poisonous mushrooms in Verdant Cloud Mountain. Julian had asked Kai’s fellow villagers to gather them, dry them, and deliver them to Veilstone Gym.

The purchase price was not especially high, but it was still a source of income for the villagers.

Toxicroak could also strengthen his poison by eating poisonous mushrooms.

After eating enough of them, he had even learnt Belch, a powerful Poison-type move.

At last, Toxicroak no longer needed to envy Hakamo-o learning Dragon Breath from drinking soup.

Toxicroak’s poison, when combined with several berries and plants, could form a body-strengthening medicine.

Julian had specifically studied this and let him directly eat those berries to see whether he could mix them with his poison inside his body and strengthen his body.

Unexpectedly, the effect was quite good, gradually making Toxicroak’s body stronger.

That was what gave him the idea of testing his strength against Bewear today.

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