"All right, Gary, you can choose now. How many matches do you want to have?" Noland asked.
"A 3-on-3, of course," Gary said.
Since there was a choice, he might as well pick the toughest option—because the rewards from the system's mission would definitely be far more generous that way.
"All right, then which Pokémon do you want to challenge?"
Gary looked over Noland's Pokémon and answered without hesitation, "I'll challenge Articuno, Venusaur, and Pinsir."
Noland's eyebrows immediately shot up. He was genuinely taken aback by Gary's choice. The three Pokémon Gary had picked were the strongest ones he had—a level of judgment no ordinary Trainer could match.
"You really have an eye for it. Those three are the strongest Pokémon I have," Noland said with admiration. "It's no wonder you're the Trainer who defeated Ms. Agatha. Let's schedule the battle for the afternoon. How does that sound?"
[Ding! Knowledge Symbol acquired. Rewards: Advanced Rare Candy x6, Ability Enhancing Stone x1, Silver Crown x1, Self-Selected Permanent Move Learning Device x1!]
The system had just issued a mission.
"All right, we'll have the battle this afternoon," Gary agreed without hesitation.
"Then let's have lunch here at noon," Noland said.
"Sure."
After that, Inla led Gary to a rest room inside the factory.
"The reward for this mission is really generous—there's even a Silver Crown," Gary said to himself. He'd known that challenging the Battle Frontier would bring rich rewards, but he hadn't expected them to be this rich.
The Silver Crown was a potential-enhancing item, normally only obtainable by completing Conference Champion missions.
Such a lavish reward almost certainly had something to do with Gary being allowed to set his own battle rules.
Unfortunately, of all the Battle Frontier facilities, only Noland's Battle Factory operated under this kind of arrangement. The rest didn't offer that freedom.
After lunch, Gary hurried to the teleporter and had Tracey send over a few of his Pokémon.
This opponent wasn't going to be easy. Aside from Blastoise and Moltres, the rest of Gary's Pokémon were all at quasi-Elite level, which wouldn't be enough to handle the afternoon's opponents comfortably.
...
At 2:30 in the afternoon, Noland led Gary and Scott to a massive chimney in the battle facility. This chimney wasn't for venting smoke—it housed a huge battle arena inside.
The uniqueness of the chimney venue really left Gary at a loss for words. There was no real point in spending money to build something this tall. It was just wasteful.
But thinking about it more carefully, none of Noland's Pokémon aside from Articuno could fly, and Noland hadn't had Articuno for the past half year. There was no way he'd tear down the chimney just for Articuno's sake.
"Gary, take the elevator on that side. That's your command platform," Noland explained.
"Got it."
Gary nodded and walked to the elevator on the right. The moment he stepped on, a curved rail rose along the edge to form a railing, and then the elevator ascended, only stopping at a height of ten meters.
The elevator on the opposite side rose at the same time, with Noland already standing on it.
Seeing that both platforms had stopped, the referee announced from his position: "The next match will be between Noland and Gary. Three Pokémon each; both sides may substitute at any time. Please release your Pokémon simultaneously."
"Let's settle this. Go, Venusaur," Noland said, tossing his Poké Ball.
A massive Venusaur appeared, its body resembling an African bullfrog.
[LV62 Venusaur / Elite]
"Glaceon, you're up!" Gary threw a Poké Ball.
A beautiful blue fox appeared on the field.
[LV58 Glaceon / Elite]
Glaceon had been with Gary for a long time. It had gradually fallen behind the Pokémon on his first team because of its potential, and even though that potential had since been raised, its level had been stuck for so long.
Seeing that both sides had sent out their Pokémon, the referee announced, "Ready… Begin!!"
"Venusaur, feel out Glaceon's strength. Use Razor Leaf," Noland ordered.
Venusaur shook its body hard, and two huge palm-shaped leaves flew out from its sides. The leaves spun rapidly, turning into two streaks of green as they shot forward.
"Icy Wind!"
Glaceon exhaled a chilling gust. The cold Icy Wind swept forward and instantly froze the two leaves solid, sending them clattering to the ground.
The first exchange ended in a stalemate.
The reason Glaceon could hold its own was of course thanks to its innate cold resistance. Without that, it would be difficult for a quasi-Elite to fight on equal footing with an Elite—unless the base species power of both sides was very different. But that clearly wasn't the case here; Glaceon and Venusaur were roughly equal in base strength.
"Use Hail!" Gary ordered.
Glaceon called up Hail, and a layer of gray clouds gathered above the chimney. Fingernail-sized ice chunks began falling from the sky.
Noland glanced up and immediately ordered, "Power Whip!"
Two vines as thick as fists shot out from Venusaur's sides, rearing back and then whipping down. Facing two Power Whips at once, Glaceon would have a hard time dodging.
"Use Double Team and rush forward," Gary ordered.
Glaceon dashed ahead, splitting into more than a dozen copies that charged Venusaur together.
"Barr!"
Venusaur wasn't fazed, and didn't bother sorting out which one was the real Glaceon. It swept its Vine Whip outward in a wide arc, the whips sweeping down and locking nearly half the field within their range.
Wherever the powerful Vine Whip passed, the Glaceon clones touched by it vanished. When only two Glaceon were left, one of them leapt high into the air.
Bang!!
The two vines slammed into each other. Though they hadn't hit the real Glaceon, the impact wiped out the last of its clones.
"Blizzard!"
At Gary's command, the Glaceon still descending from above unleashed a massive Blizzard, and freezing winds tore across the entire field.
"Barrna!"
Venusaur maneuvered its Vine Whips, folding them together to form a shield in front of itself. The frigid Blizzard slammed into it, the shield froze over instantly and shattered, and the storm crashed into Venusaur head-on.
"Barna!!"
Venusaur cried out, and a layer of frost spread across its body—it had entered the Frostbite condition. A Pokémon under Frostbite had its damage halved when using non-fixed-damage special attacks.
Frostbite worked similarly to Burn: one halved physical attack damage, the other halved special attack damage. As for the HP loss each turn, that was just a game mechanic.
In real battles, Pokémon suffering from Frostbite or Burn simply took more damage when hit.