Pokemon: Master of tactics

After this fight, both Arthur and Elise went to the Team Rocket Pokémon Center to heal their Pokémon.

Alex waited for the two and didn't allow any challenges for the next fight until they had returned.

Simon didn't waste time and stepped forward as he said, "I want to challenge Arthur."

Alex was slightly surprised that Simon was not challenging Elise but Arthur.

'Hmm.... He must have realised that he does not have a good chance of winning against Elise, and that is why he is targetting for a place in the top 3. Really clever but a bit too cautious for my taste,' thought Alex.

The reward for the first place was much higher in this case than for the second. That's why Alex described this decision as too cautious.

Unless you are so weak that you can not win even with an optimal strategy, there is no reason to immediately give up the first place.

It's not like the difficulty is similar to a battle between LV 5 and LV 20 Pokémon. Despite Simon's Pokémon's poor stats and his Innate Talent move not being that good for this tournament, it is not that difficult and not impossible to win.

Even if you only have a 5% win rate, it is a bet with a high return, according to Alex.

What is better? A 5% chance to win 70,000 Pokédollars or 80% chances to win 500 Pokédollars.

Alex would always take the 5% chance because it is the most effective and beneficial choice. And that is why he could not support Simon's decision for aiming a relatively safe position.

Although it is smart to fight a Pokémon whose strongest move is almost useless against your Poison-type Pokémon, this is not a good reason to give up your only chance to achieve the best rank and rewards.

Simon must have thought that even if he wins against Elise, he wouldn't be able to defend against other challengers and might end up in an even worse position.

Alex understands that when it comes to his chances of survival, he plays it safe even if he loses his single shot at getting something valuable. But in this example, that is not the case.

Even if he loses the fight, he won't be losing out on much.

The main reason why he put Elise in the 1st place was so that in case Simon uses [Self-Destruct] as his last resort—with the fight ending up a tie—she would remain in the first place.

But now, it looked like he had overestimated Simon a bit.

Alex observed the fight between the two with a slightly bored look.

When Simon got his Pokémon out of his Pokéball, Alex immediately looked at the information of the Pokémon.

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Pokémon: Koffing

LV: 23

Type: Poison

Ability: Levitate

Gender: Male

Potential: Silver

Moves:

- Poison Gas, Tackle, Smog, Smokescreen, Clear Smog, Assurance, Sludge

- (Innate Talent) Self-Destruct

- (TM) Protect

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Alex saw this info of Koffing and felt that Simon really didn't have as bad a chance against Elise as he might have thought.

First of all, the level of both Pokémon is almost the same, and Koffing is also immune to [Drill Run].

Drill Run is a move in which Pokémon uses its particular body part as a drill and hits the opposing Pokémon via the ground surface.

Koffing, who has the ability to Levitate, does not need to be afraid of this move as long as he isn't hit and is still levitating above the ground.

Alex thought with seriousness, 'Together with Poison-type and the strong move Assurance, there was a relatively good chance of winning the fight with good tactics.'

Although Alex believes that Elise is stronger with much better base stats and the Expert-rank [Feather Dance], Simon's chances are even higher than Alex had previously thought.

20% or 30% would be more accurate than Alex's first assessment of 5%.

Alex now even felt a slight sense of despise for Simon being too cautious.

Before he knew the full strength of Simon's Pokémon, he could somehow understand Simon's cautious manner. But now, it felt like his cautiousness caused him to waste a valuable opportunity. He even felt disdain for Simon's behaviour.

He found Simon no longer a cautious person but a coward and a moron.

Alex's disappointment for Simon was immeasurable for a moment.

'Such good potential, but what a big flaw in his character... Welp, I think Lisa would be happy to receive such a "good" subordinate,' thought Alex.

Alex wanted to give Lisa the good rookies he didn't need anyway so that Lisa would owe him a favour.

Of course, he would give Lisa genuinely talented trainers, or it would look like he gave her mediocre rookies that Team Rocket has everywhere.

Arthur, Jasper, Simon were the rookies Alex would give Lisa if Elise meets Alex's expectations and passes his test with Gardevoir.

While Alex was deep in thought, Simon and Arthur were fighting an exciting match.

Simon's Pokémon used move [Assurance]. And since Arbok was preparing her move, Koffing could inflict a powerful first hit on Arbok.

Arthur decided to use [Screech] as his first move. So that Arbok can now inflict ridiculous damage on Koffing with his very high Attack value of 95. This was a measurement taken with consideration of this fight dragging on for too long.

The fight went into the next gear after this. It was a fight to see who can withstand the attacks of the enemy longer.

Although Koffing had a medium Attack stat, he was two levels higher, and the move [Assurance] was much stronger than Arbok's [Crunch].

Together with that, Koffing could use the move [Protect] while Arbok could not, which was also a great advantage.

In the end, the fight didn't last for too long, and Simon was able to secure a relative safe victory.

Although Koffing only had 30% HP left, it was a relatively safe win, according to Alex.

After Simon and Arthur healed their Pokémon, the tournament continued further.

*****

[EN]: Alex's disappointment was immeasurable, and his day was ruined.

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