Ariados was knocked back by Mach Punch, but the actual damage wasn't significant. Seeing Breloom charge forward again, Ariados rushed up without hesitation.
"X-Scissor. Continuous attack!"
Ariados leaned slightly, its two front legs crossing each other as it met Breloom's rising punch.
Evenly matched?
No.
Although both sides were locked in a standoff, the attacks clearly landed on each other.
Breloom had a 2x weakness, while Ariados took only 1/4 damage from Fighting-type moves. With similar attack power, the difference in damage was obvious.
"Brelo…"
As expected, Breloom was the first to falter. Unable to withstand the X-Scissor, it jumped backward to narrowly avoid a head-on clash.
However, Ariados and Sato naturally wouldn't let go of such a great opportunity to press the attack and immediately launched Megahorn.
Two minutes later, Ariados stood in the middle of a group of Breloom, surrounded by defeated opponents, and it blatantly taunted the entire group.
Sato calmly watched Ariados show off. He had already observed that among this whole group of Breloom, there wasn't a single one above Peak Elite level.
Afterward, a few more Breloom of Elite level stepped in, but none of them posed much threat to Ariados and were easily taken down.
"Forget it, let's go." Seeing that none of the Pokémon here were suitable opponents anymore, Sato simply turned to leave.
The Breloom group glared fiercely at Sato and his team, but since Sato had challenged them openly and didn't try to capture them after the battles, the Breloom could only glare menacingly at him while letting him stroll away at ease.
"Ariados, you rest for now. Umbreon, your turn," Sato said to the two Pokémon beside him. Ariados tactfully stepped back while Umbreon automatically moved forward, ready to face the next challenge.
Then, according to the map's icons/markings, Sato sought out Ursaring, Shiftry, and Hariyama, and won all the battles.
However, when dealing with the final Hariyama, the roles of Ariados and Umbreon completely reversed: Ariados focused on defense while Umbreon launched a frenzied assault on the side.
Only then did they manage to secure victory.
By that time, the sun had already set. Sato recalled both Pokémon and patted the sleeping Ralts in his backpack.
"Ralts, teleport us to the Pokémon Center, please," Sato said directly.
"Ralts~"
Ralts seemed to have just woken up. It let out a light yawn and observed its surroundings.
Whoosh!
With a flash of white light, Sato was precisely teleported to the living room of their room.
Sato's sudden appearance startled Mark, and his scream then scared both Pichu and Togepi.
"Boss is back! Was today's training successful?" Mark asked while soothing Togepi and trying to curry favor.
"Not bad. We'll continue tomorrow." Sato nodded and turned to his room to rest.
---
A week passed quickly. Once Ariados' level had completely stabilized, Sato switched in Cacturne.
There was no shortage of Elite Pokémon on Dewford Island, but most were only below Peak Elite level, which made them perfect for training Umbreon and Cacturne, who were still only Low Elite.
During that week, aside from inside Granite Cave, nearly all the Elite Pokémon on Dewford Island had encountered Sato, the "relentless challenger".
And after putting up a fierce resistance, they were crushed by Sato one by one, without exception.
During this time, both Umbreon and Cacturne experienced tremendous improvement in battle performance.
Moreover, something happened with Cacturne that greatly excited Sato.
Cacturne's Grass-type potential had been elevated from Pseudo-Elite Four level to Elite Four level!
Originally a Shiny Pokémon, Cacturne had even been rejected by its own group before meeting Sato.
But none of that affected its excellent potential and unique ability.
Now, despite all of them having consumed Energy Crystals or Origin Ore, Cacturne was the first to break through its limit, which surprised Sato greatly.
Perhaps Cacturne's original Grass-type potential was already extremely close to Elite Four level, and the Grass-type Energy Crystal simply became the breakthrough trigger.
In any case, energy crystals truly could help a Pokémon overcome potential limitations, and Sato would definitely pay more attention to this in the future.
After all, many Pokémon had two types, which meant that in theory, they could use such a treasure one more time.
With the potential increased, training naturally had to follow. Sato focused more of his attention on Cacturne, helping it fully absorb the power boost brought by its enhanced potential.
Thus, the training on Dewford Island was far from over!
----
A new day began, and Sato once again entered the Dewford Island forest with Cacturne and Umbreon.
One trainer and two Pokémon moved easily through the forests, heading northwest.
Sato recalled that on the map, near a rocky hill, there was a very active group of Golem.
'With so many Golem in the group, there were sure to be some worthy opponents.'
Soon, Sato and his team arrived at a rocky clearing, where a Golem was furiously rolling around.
"Eh? Peak Elite!" Sato was pleasantly surprised, he hadn't expected to run into a strong opponent right away.
He glanced sideways to signal Cacturne, then stealthily crept forward and tossed a small stone.
"Gole?"
The pebble struck Golem accurately, immediately drawing its attention, but after looking around, Golem didn't see anyone.
"Gole~"
Golem lowered its head to resume rolling, smoothing its jagged edges. Another pebble flew toward it.
"GOLEEEEM!"
Golem was enraged. Someone had dared to challenge its authority on its own turf… 'ABSOLUTELY UNFORGIVABLE.'
Once again, Golem used Rollout, charging in the direction from which the pebble had come.
Suddenly, a cloud of cotton-like Cotton Spore filled the path of Golem's attack. As it barreled through, it found its speed slowing more and more.
Abruptly, a golden Energy Ball pierced through the cotton, blasting straight toward Golem.
The Energy Ball, with its 4x effectiveness, emitted immense power that Golem could feel… but it was moving too fast to dodge!
"Gole!"
With a wave of its arm, countless rocks rose into the air as it unleashed Rock Slide directly at the Energy Ball.
Boom!
An explosion erupted instantly.
The surrounding area was rocked by the impact, and at the same time the ground began to tremble. The spot where Golem had been standing collapsed completely.
A massive yellow-green head slowly emerged from the collapsed ground…
.
.
.
150 Power Stone = Extra chap.
P4730n/Romeloff …