Pokémon: Master System.

Steel-based energy swirled around the Salt Stone Giant, adhering to its blocky body and emitting a silvery-gray glow, as if coating the Salt Stone Giant with a metallic shell, greatly increasing its defensive capabilities.

Xia Yu had anticipated this tactic. With moves like Iron Defense, Pounce, Recover, and Salt, Salt Rock was a nightmare for almost every physical attacker. In addition, its Clean Salt ability granted it immunity to status conditions such as burn, sleep, poison, and freeze, and halved the damage it received from Ghost-type moves.

At this moment, the Saltstone Giant was like an iron tower, indestructible.

"Lizard King, use Trouble Seed!" However, since Xia Yu already knew the opponent's tactics, he was prepared.

To defeat the Salt Giant, the first step is to break its property of cleansing salt.

Xia Yu calmly directed the lizard king to throw the Seed of Trouble at the Salt Stone Giant.

At this point, the Salt Stone Giant's weakness was exposed: its speed was relatively slow, making it difficult to dodge even when it knew the Lizard King's attack was coming.

The seed of trouble was thrown at the Salt Stone Giant, and it quickly took root and sprouted on it, changing the Salt Stone Giant's properties from Clean Salt to Sleepless.

"Saltstone Giant, use Iron Wall!"

He Zhizhou also knew the Salt Stone Giant's weakness. Since he couldn't dodge the attack, he simply went all the way and made the Salt Stone Giant use Iron Wall again.

The two Iron Walls had already turned the Salt Stone Giant into a physical defense monster. In the current situation, Xia Yu didn't want the Lizard King to use physical attack skills at all, because the Lizard King would definitely not be able to break through the Salt Stone Giant with physical attack alone.

"Lizard King, Parasite Seed!"

Xia Yu's voice rang out again. Ever since Treecko evolved into Sceptile, Xia Yu had never used such a shameless tactic again. Now, facing the powerful Salt Giant, Xia Yu could only resort to his old tricks with Sceptile.

"Saltstone Giant, Iron Wall!"

Since the Lizard King had released the parasitic seed, He Zhizhou continued to have the Salt Stone Giant use the Iron Wall skill.

After using Iron Wall skill three times, the Salt Stone Giant's defense had reached its peak. The white and yellow blocky rocks on its body seemed to have turned into silver-gray metal with amazing hardness.

"Saltstone Giant, pounce!" He Zhizhou's voice rang out.

After the enhancement was complete, it was time for the Salt Stone Giant to launch its attack. The Salt Stone Giant leaped forward like a rocket, spreading its arms and pouncing directly on the Lizard King with astonishing force!

Even though the Salt Stone Giant moves slowly, its burst of speed in that instant was still quite terrifying. With a leap, it pounced on the Lizard King like a colossus.

"Lizard King, get out of the way!" Seeing the imposing Salt Stone Giant, Xia Yu decisively told the Lizard King to get out of the way.

"Chamo!"

The Lizard King reacted extremely quickly, using its legs to propel itself backward.

"boom!"

With a deafening roar, the ground trembled! The colossal body of the Salt Stone Giant slammed into the spot where the Lizard King had stood, creating a large crater and spiderweb-like cracks in the ground.

If the Lizard King were to take a hit from a pounce attack, it would definitely be severely injured or even defeated.

"Salt Giant! Continuous attacks!"

The missed attack did not affect He Zhizhou. Instead, he continued to give orders for the Salt Stone Giant to use a series of pounce attacks.

The Salt Stone Giant's pounce missed just now because it was too far away, but now that the distance between them has closed, it won't be so easy to dodge.

Moreover, the Salt Stone Giant can make countless mistakes, but the Lizard King cannot afford to make even one mistake. If it gets hit even once, the Salt Stone Giant can win the entire match!

“We must be extremely careful with the Lizard King. The power of the Salt Stone Giant’s pounce attack has reached an extremely terrifying level.” Cheng Taiheng explained to everyone, “You may not have a concrete concept of the power of the Salt Stone Giant’s pounce attack after the three Iron Wall enhancements. Let me give you an analogy so you can understand.”

"Everyone knows Garchomp, right? The power of a Rock Giant using Pounce after three Iron Defense upgrades is almost the same as the power of a Garchomp using Crunch after three Swords Dances. So you can imagine how many Pokémon can withstand a Garchomp using Crunch after three Swords Dances!"

Xia Yu also knew how powerful the Salt Stone Giant's pounce attack was at this moment. Facing the Salt Stone Giant's pounce attack again, Xia Yu dared not be careless this time and directly had the Lizard King use the See Through skill.

"Lizard King, see through!"

A light shield formed in front of the Lizard King, directly blocking the massive body of the Salt Stone Giant.

"boom!"

The massive body of the Salt Stone Giant slammed into the light shield, sparks flying. The light shield shook violently, teetering on the verge of collapse, seemingly about to break at any moment!

This was the first time Xia Yu had ever seen such a situation, but fortunately, the Lizard King's See-Through skill blocked the Salt Stone Giant's pounce, and now was the perfect time to launch a counterattack.

"Lizard King, Leaf Storm!" Xia Yu's voice rang out. Although the Salt Stone Giant's physical defense was high, its special defense was not enhanced.

Fluorescent green grass-type energy danced and suddenly burst forth from the Lizard King's body, with endless green leaves slicing towards the Salt Stone Giant's body like sharp knives!

Leaf Storm is Sceptile's strongest special attack move. Although the side effect is a significant decrease in special attack, it is enough to severely damage Salt Rock Giant.

With the STAB boost from Leaf Storm and the Grass-type's double super weakness against Giant Salt, Giant Salt would have been no match for Leaf Storm unless it possessed Gym Leader-level strength.

"Hold on, Saltstone Giant!"

Faced with the Lizard King's strongest attack, He Zhizhou also chose to have the Salt Stone Giant use its defensive skill.

A shield of light appeared in front of the Salt Stone Giant, directly blocking the Lizard King's crucial attack.

"Come back, Sceptile, you've done a great job!" Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xia Yu switched Pokémon, replacing Sceptile with Nombat.

Xia Yu looked at the Lizard King with a smile on his face. The Lizard King's performance since the start of the competition has been quite outstanding: "Take a good rest. I'll need you to play later."

After using Leaf Storm, the Sceptile, whose Special Attack has been greatly reduced, has completed its mission. Now it just needs to rest and wait to come back to the field later.

"Buzz Bat, now it's up to you to perform," Xia Yu encouraged Buzz Bat.

"Om~"

Noibat responded to Xia Yu with a cheerful cry as soon as it appeared. As Xia Yu's starter Pokémon, Noibat spent the most time with Xia Yu.

Similarly, Nombat was the first Pokémon that led Xia Yu to become a trainer. Nombat has always played a supporting role, but in today's match, Nombat was the key to defeating Salt Giant.

"Buzz Bat, you can't slack off today. You need to show your true skills." Xia Yu's voice rang out: "Use deadly poison!"

In order to defeat He Zhizhou, Xia Yu made thorough preparations over the past three days.

Sceptile uses the Swords Dance move in a unique way, while Noctua learned the Toxic move using a TM!

Chapter 254 The Highlight of the Buzzing Bat

The Poison skill has a very simple and direct effect: it puts the opponent into a poisoned state, causing them to continuously lose stamina. The longer the poisoning lasts, the deeper the poisoning becomes, and the faster the stamina is lost.

This skill is practically the exclusive skill of cunning and treacherous people, and it is also one of Xia Yu's favorite skills.

He Zhizhou's expression turned quite grim when he saw Nompant use the Poison move. Poison has always been one of the moves that trainers hate to face the most.

Of course, it would be so much more fun if it were your own Pokémon using it. At this moment, Xia Yu felt a surge of satisfaction. So what if it's a Gym Leader-level Gyrocopter? So what if it has the Cleanse Salt ability? I'll use Toxic, Protect, and Taunt to take down a Gym Leader-level Pokémon.

Xia Yu secretly decided that after this match, he would have Buzzbat learn a Stand skill.

Since we've embarked on this disgusting path, we're determined to go all the way down it.

Looking at the Salt Stone Giant, who was caught in a state of both deadly poison and parasitic seeds, He Zhizhou's mindset changed slightly. He had to race against time; the longer it dragged on, the more unfavorable the situation would become for him.

He hadn't expected Xia Yu to use such a war of attrition tactics today. You see, since the start of the College Cup, Xia Yu had always won by relying on the fierce attacks of Charizard and Sceptile, and had never used a war of attrition tactics in a single match.

Is this your trump card? As expected, cultured people are all cunning. You've been hiding this for so long, and this is your last resort. But I also have my trump cards.

"Saltstone Giant, use Pounce."

"Buzzing Bat, fly into the air and get out of the way!"

The buzzing bat flapped its wings and flew into the air, using its nimble body to dodge the attack of the salt stone giant.

"Buzz bat, ultrasonic wave!"

"Buzzing Bat, Shadow Clone Technique!"

…………

Xia Yu now felt that the situation was very favorable. He had carefully planned this match, with each step linked to the next. He used the Trouble Seed to break the Salt Rock Giant's Clean Salt property, and then used the Parasitic Seed and the deadly poison to wear down the Salt Rock Giant.

That's the tactic; it may be dirty and vulgar, but it's effective.

Of course, even though he had the upper hand, Xia Yu did not dare to let his guard down and remained vigilant, because He Zhizhou had not replaced any Pokémon so far, which Xia Yu found quite unreasonable.

Furthermore, Xia Yu also saw a very outrageous skill in the Salt Stone Giant's skill pool: Big Bang. This was a skill that Xia Yu needed to pay special attention to.

The Big Bang skill, as the name suggests, is a self-destruction that deals high damage to enemies, and its power is the highest among all skills.

It was obvious that He Zhizhou wanted to use the big explosion to trick Xia Yu. He kept making the Salt Stone Giant use skills such as Rock Slide and Pounce in order to force out the Nodding Bat's Guard skill and finally unleash a big self-destruct.

How insidious! Luckily, I was more skilled and discovered your scheme, Xia Yu thought to himself.

Having seen through He Zhizhou's plan, Xia Yu became extra cautious, keeping the buzzing bat and the salt stone giant at a safe distance, giving the salt stone giant no chance whatsoever.

Even if he was occasionally hit by the Rock Slide skill, Xia Yu would immediately have the Buzzbat use the Feather Perch skill to recover its stamina. As for the Guard skill, he would never use it.

Xia Yu and He Zhizhou were locked in a stalemate, with Xia Yu able to sustain the situation, but He Zhizhou certainly couldn't.

As time passed, the poison on the Salt Stone Giant worsened, and seeing that the Salt Stone Giant was about to collapse, He Zhizhou finally couldn't hold back any longer: "Salt Stone Giant, use the Big Explosion!"

"Buzzbat, hold the line!"

"Boom!" With a huge roar, the Salt Stone Giant's body burst out with brilliant light, and the energy within its body surged out.

The violent explosion generated a huge blast wave and shockwave that struck the light shield released by the Buzzing Bat.

"Crack!"

The explosion was incredibly powerful, shattering the light shield with a crisp sound.

Even with the divine skill of defense, it can only withstand part of the power of the explosion; a small portion of the aftershocks still damages the Buzzbat.

"Come back, Saltstone Giant."

After the explosion, the Salt Rock Giant lost its ability to battle. He Zhizhou decisively recalled the Salt Rock Giant and then released his second Pokémon.