Since Maki and the others were battling in a forest, it was only natural that this Malamar had adapted its type to Grass, preventing it from being countered by Florges' Fairy-type moves.
Then, Maki saw its next move, and his heart tensed—Superpower!
One of the strongest Fighting-type attacks… Wait—doesn't the Fighting-type have the most powerful moves among all types?
However, most powerful moves come with drawbacks, and Superpower is no exception—it lowers both Attack and Defense, which is why it's rarely used.
Lowering Defense isn't too bad for fragile Pokémon—they're already frail, so losing a bit more doesn't change much.
But losing Attack is a major downside. That's why most Fighting-type Pokémon prefer moves like High Jump Kick or Close Combat instead.
For Malamar to use Superpower so decisively, there was only one possibility—Contrary!
Contrary is an incredibly powerful ability—it simply reverses any stat changes a Pokémon would normally experience.
An increase becomes a decrease, and a decrease becomes an increase. (Effects from Z-Moves don't count.)
Among Pokémon with Contrary, the most famous is Serperior from the Unova region. Its signature move, Leaf Storm, has tremendous power but normally comes with the drawback of sharply reducing Special Attack.
But for a Contrary Serperior? That's not a debuff—it's a +2 Special Attack boost!
If Mega Blaziken can spam Swords Dance and Punch its way through battles, why can't a Serperior pull off a Nasty Plot-boosted Leaf Storm?
…Ahem, back to the point.
Malamar doesn't have Leaf Storm, but it does have Superpower, which pairs perfectly with Contrary.
If Contrary has a weakness, it's that none of the Pokémon with this ability can learn Close Combat. Plus, if the opponent uses Swagger or Flatter, it can actually backfire.
This Malamar was smart—it knew that, without boosting its stats first, Superpower wouldn't deal much damage to Florges.
That's why its first target… was Absol!
A single Superpower landing on Absol would deal massive damage, given its Dark typing.
For context—Mawile obsesses over Power-Up Punch because of its stacking Attack boosts. Now imagine Contrary Superpower—it's like a hyper-powered version of Power-Up Punch!
But Maki didn't show the slightest panic.
If you think of Malamar, the first thing that comes to mind is Contrary, right?
Maki had already accounted for that.
Turning to Florges, who was standing beside him and had been waiting for instructions, Maki commanded:
"Use Ally Switch! First, target Absol. Then, target Charmeleon."
Florges nodded quickly. A glow of energy enveloped her and Absol.
In an instant, their positions swapped.
"Sa?"
Absol didn't resist the sudden teleportation, but after appearing beside Maki, it gave him a confused look.
Maki simply returned Absol's gaze with complete confidence, as if he had everything under control.
Malamar, still charging forward with Superpower, suddenly saw the space in front of it shift—its original target, Absol, was now Florges!
Boom!
The attack landed, but its power was greatly reduced—because instead of hitting a Dark-type, it struck a Fairy-type that resists Fighting moves!
Florges winced slightly from the hit but quickly recovered. After all, this wasn't an ordinary Florges—Maki had trained her to an Ultra Ball-tier level of strength.
And she wasn't done yet. Immediately after swapping places with Absol, she used Ally Switch again—this time targeting Charmeleon.
Malamar's target changed again—and this time, it found itself facing a Charmeleon up close.
And to its horror, Charmeleon was already charging up a powerful Fire attack!
Normally, Malamar wouldn't be too afraid. But it had used Camouflage earlier… which meant that right now, it was a Grass-type!
Because it had planned to hit Absol with Superpower, Malamar had positioned itself extremely close.
But now, after two rapid Ally Switches, Charmeleon had been teleported right in front of it.
There was no way for Malamar to dodge the incoming Flamethrower at this range!
The sight of the flames about to roast Malamar… for some reason, it reminded Maki of grilled squid on an iron plate.
…Man, he hadn't had good Kanto-style food in a while.
Maki smacked his lips, feeling a bit nostalgic.
With their strongest Malamar being countered by Maki's Pokémon—and with Absol keeping them in check—the remaining Malamar stood no chance against Florges and her overwhelming attacks.
Before long, they all fell just like the first one.
Even if the Florges weren't attacking, they could have just kept healing Charmeleon and the others until the Malamar were worn down.
Having finally defeated the Malamar that had tormented them for so long, the Florges seemed to have undergone a change in mindset.
But that wasn't Maki's concern for now.
"Well? Did you find out where they hid it?"
Maki was, of course, talking about the Mega Stone he'd been searching for.
The moment they defeated the Malamar, he had sent Absol to interrogate them.
Absol nodded. Surprisingly, these Malamar weren't too stubborn—before Absol could even press them, they had already spilled everything.
Total pushovers.
What Maki didn't know was that, the moment Absol asked the leader where all the shiny treasures were hidden…
Malamar almost burst into tears.
Dude… if you wanted something, you could have just said so! We would've given it to you right away!
If we had known this was all you wanted, we would've just dumped everything in front of you and called it a day!
Maki tossed a few Poké Balls, capturing the remaining Malamar.
Good thing he had brought plenty of Poké Balls before entering the Ultra Wormhole—otherwise, he might have run out.
Following Absol, Maki arrived at Malamar's storage area.
Inside, there was a huge pile of stones, scattered all over the place.
Most of them were just ordinary minerals, shaped in odd ways.
But as Absol helped spread the stones out for easier searching…
Maki suddenly froze.
Today's haul…
Might just be bigger than he expected.
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