To verify his guess, Terrance thickened his skin* and reached out to Steven. [TN: Shamelessly or without any shame.]
“Indeed, that’s the case. When active Elite Four members or Champions confront certain enemies, it’s mostly in the form of team battles,” Steven nodded during the video call, acknowledging this theory.
“And sometimes, when Legendary Pokémon go on a rampage, sheer numbers alone can hardly suppress them. Only through team coordination built around a tactical system can one bring out power comparable to some of the stronger Legendary Pokémon.”
Steven knew that Terrance had already touched the threshold of becoming a Top Trainer, so he didn’t hold back on these not-so-secret secrets.
“What’s wrong? Hit a setback for some reason?” Steven asked with a smile.
In Steven’s eyes, Terrance was indeed an excellent Breeder. Each of his Pokémon had a very distinct “individual style,” but this also created a drawback: those Pokémon couldn’t form a cohesive unit that complemented each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and could only fight independently.
In a 6 vs. 6 battle under League rules, a team like Terrance’s was already at a significant disadvantage.
And if it came to facing a Top Trainer proficient in team battles, assuming the opponent’s Pokémon were as strong as Terrance’s, Terrance’s side could very well be defeated in a minute, or even within tens of seconds.
“That’s not it,” Terrance said with a bitter smile. “I just have some ideas for building a new team going forward.”
“Heading in a team battle direction?” Steven asked. “Why not participate in the Champion League? After you secure an Elite Four position, you could study this systematically. Exploring team battle tactics on your own might be very challenging.”Terrance shook his head. “I don’t have that in mind for now.”
After some further discussion, Steven’s advice gave Terrance a lot of help. Combining what Master Victor and Champion Steven had said, Terrance’s understanding of the team battle system became clearer.
As for team battles, Steven gave Terrance a simple example: a weather team is one such well-formed team battle system.
For instance, in rainy weather, several Pokémon can use the rain as the core of the tactic to form a team. Rain effect: the damage of Water-type moves increases. Moves like Thunder and Hurricane will change, the speed of Pokémon with Swift Swim ability will increase significantly, Pokémon with Dry Skin or Rain Dish ability can recover health during the battle, Pokémon with Hydration ability can restore all Status Conditions in the battle, and the damage of Fire-type moves will be greatly reduced. Moves such as Solar Beam, Morning Sun, Moonlight, and Synthesis are all weakened!
Terrance could imagine it. Under the premise of similar strength, in a team battle between his team and a Rain team, the latter would significantly increase their strength with the help of the Rain tactic, crushing Terrance’s side one-sidedly.
By contrast, even if Terrance’s six main Pokémon could cooperate, it was usually just pairs of Pokémon working together. Worse still, that cooperation might interfere with the performance of other Pokémon, causing more harm than good.
However, according to Steven, a standard weather team was still a relatively rough and well-known tactical system—once the weather effect was gone, the whole team would collapse.
A team that revolves around only one tactic as its core is something nearly every Elite Four can put together. It’s not considered particularly advanced coordination.
A truly powerful team is one that has two, three, or even four different tactics that don’t interfere with each other, don’t conflict, and can even blend together seamlessly!
“If someone could perfectly merge over a dozen tactics, given a strong foundation, that Trainer would probably be unbeatable,” Steven joked.
“Is it really possible to reach that level…” Terrance murmured in confusion. From the way Steven described it, even a simple weather team could easily crush him in a team battle, and that was a team with only the simplest kind of tactical core. How powerful would a team be if multiple tactics were fused together?
“But, you know, all of this is just theory. Team battle theory is really just the experience summed up by those before us; it’s not some absolute truth,” Steven said.
“And there is one situation that stands as an exception to all of this.”
“What?” Terrance asked.
“Cynthia,” Steven replied.
At Steven’s words, Terrance suddenly felt a strange sense of awe and pressed for more.
“The Champion of Sinnoh doesn’t rely on this team battle tactical theory that almost all top Trainers study. As for the specifics… I can’t explain it well. Her situation is somewhat similar to yours, but that’s not to say she isn’t proficient in team battles. It’s just that her talent has allowed her to transcend this theory.” At this point, even Steven couldn’t hide his admiration for that female Trainer.
“It’s just a shame I’ve never truly battled her. So in the end, Terrance, the path you choose will have to be based on your own decisions,” Steven advised.
“Yeah, I understand,” Terrance nodded.
Finally, after ending the call with Steven, Terrance fell into contemplation again.
Master Victor wanted him to focus entirely on research, afraid that building a team battle system would distract him and waste too much time. But Master Victor didn’t know about Terrance’s situation.
Altaria’s Fairy Aura—now that was a tactical core!
Under the effect of Fairy Aura, not only could the potential of Fairy-type Pokémon be better developed and training efficiency improved, but all Fairy-type moves would also gain increased power. This boost even applied to moves used by other Pokémon. And unlike weather effects, Fairy Aura couldn’t be disrupted by the opponent. In that sense, Fairy Aura was already a perfect tactical core.
By building a Fairy-type team around this ability alone, Terrance had already formed the prototype of a team battle system, and it was the kind of team that could be formed quickly. Moreover, as Fairy Aura continued to develop, there could be even more unique abilities revealed. If Master Victor knew about the extraordinary effects of Fairy Aura, he wouldn’t think that raising a new team would demand so much effort.
“Terrain… boosts… defense… offense… baton pass… disruption…” Terrance thought about all the things a team battle system needed and suddenly found it amusing, as if he’d discovered a whole new world.
Researching Fairy Aura and building a Fairy Team had been Terrance’s early idea, and now, after understanding team battle theory, even though he might not have many chances to engage in team battles, that didn’t stop him from building such a team.
If he could master a full team battle system, it might even help improve his command abilities. With Fairy Aura as support, not giving it a try would just be too boring.
“However, according to Steven’s evaluation, it seems that Cynthia has already reached an incredibly high level,” Terrance was startled.
Five years ago, Cynthia was already someone Terrance looked up to. Five years later, the gap between them didn’t seem to have narrowed. While Terrance had grown, the prodigies of this world were growing rapidly as well. It reminded him of the “bold words” he’d said when he first left the academy to travel through Kanto.
“I’ll let you all bask in glory for now, I’ll be there soon,” Terrance muttered, scratching his cheek. He hadn’t expected himself to be so childish back then, but that thought had never truly disappeared. [TN: Chapter 148]
“A team battle system, huh? Looks like my Fairy Team finally has a training direction. At last, it’s not aimless anymore.”
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