"Diancie, Stone Edge!"
After hearing Eddie's words, Diancie wanted to launch an attack immediately, but the sluggish feeling in her body slowed down her reaction.
At this time, Valerie also ordered Aromatisse: "Aromatisse, Calm Mind."
After hearing Valerie, Aromatisse completed her ability enhancement in just a moment. Calm Mind is a skill that can greatly improve a Pokémon's special attack ability.
At this time, Diancie's Stone Edge was finally launched, but Aromatisse's speed suddenly became extremely fast, and she dodged the rock spear flying towards her in the blink of an eye. Diancie continued to fire spears, but Aromatisse dodged while continuing to use Calm Mind to enhance her special attack ability.
This was simply a mind-blowing situation.
Diancie hadn't yet learned the skill of Light Screen from Gardevoir, and currently didn't have the ability to strengthen special defense. Therefore, if he blindly let Aromatisse strengthen special attack, then even if Diancie's special defense was very strong, the situation would become very troublesome later.
As Diancie continued to launch attacks, Eddie began to lower his head and ponder. He tried to find a way to break the deadlock brought about by Trick Room.
At this time, Aromatisse finally finished strengthening, and she stopped avoiding Diancie's Stone Edge attacks.
"Aromatisse, Moonblast!"
Following Valerie's order, a crescent moon suddenly appeared behind Aromatisse. The bright moonlight poured down on Aromatisse and was controlled by her, transforming into a silver beam of light that blasted towards Diancie.
Diancie was suppressed by Trick Room and had no way to react and dodge in time. She could only use her body to take on the Moonblast.
"Little Diancie!"
Eddie shouted worriedly, only to see Diancie shake her body to indicate that she was fine. She had a very high defense and could take a couple of hits without any problem.
At this time, Eddie took a look at the square Trick Room and suddenly an idea came to him.
"Diancie, Harden."
Although Diancie didn't understand why Eddie asked her to strengthen her attack at this time, she still did so. Her edges and corners suddenly flashed with white light, especially the parts inlaid with diamonds, which faintly revealed a sharp feeling.
"Aromatisse, Moonblast!"
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Valerie once again commanded Aromatisse to attack Diancie.
Boom!!!
The silver beam of light hit Diancie again. Diancie shook her body but remained stable.
"Diancie, keep Hardening!"
Now not only Diancie was confused, but even Valerie was confused. Did he want to continuously strengthen Diancie's attack, and then finish them with one blow? But strengthening the attack power alone would be useless if you couldn't hit others!
Thinking of this, Valerie continued to shout: "Aromatisse, Moonblast!" Eddie ignored Aromatisse's attack and just let Diancie strengthen her attack. After being hit by the fifth wave of Moonblast, Diancie was already covered with scars.
During this period, the Trick Room ended once, but was quickly restored by Aromatisse. It was a seamless connection, showing Aromatisse had a certain level of mastery in this skill.
Aromatisse began to prepare for the next wave of attack. At this moment, Eddie suddenly shouted:
"Diancie, Stone Edge, Form 2!"
[TL: Not sure what form 2 is but its in the original book]
"Diancie~"
Upon hearing this, Diancie's eyes suddenly became sharp. After many rounds of strengthening, her attack power had reached its peak. She slammed towards the ground with great force. In an instant, countless stone pillars rose from the ground inside the Trick Room and instantly covered the entire venue.
Aromatisse, who was brewing Moonblast, was caught off guard and hit by a stone pillar, and the skill that was halfway through was interrupted. She tried to fly somewhere else, but the stone pillars erected everywhere in the space greatly restricted her movement.
"Diancie, Stone Edge, Form 2!" Eddie shouted again.
The Stone Edge attack isn't limited to rock spears. Depending on the user's development, it can appear in various forms, and stone pillars are one of them. Diancie had been trained by a master like Flambeau, so it was natural that her mastery of this skill couldn't be just superficial.
Following Eddie's order, countless stone pillars rose up again in the Trick Room. "Aren't you fast at moving? Then I will leave you no space to move." Anyway, Diancie was just a standing pile and couldn't move at all. The stone pillar couldn't affect her and could even serve as a defensive shield for her.
Because of the enhanced attack power, every stone pillar created by Diancie was now extremely thick. As more and more stone pillars appeared in the space, Aromatisse's range of movement became smaller and smaller. She had to be on guard against stone pillars that appeared out of nowhere at all times, otherwise she might be knocked away by accident.
She wanted to attack Diancie, but Diancie was hiding behind the layers of stone pillars, and she was helpless.
At this time, Eddie said: "Diancie, Gravity, and then Earthquake!"
Aromatisse, who was carefully exploring between the stone pillars, suddenly felt a restraining force. The next second, she was crushed to the ground by the Gravity skill. Then the ground began to shake, and the stone pillars standing in the space also began to shake.
"Aromatisse!"
Following Valerie's scream, all the stone pillars suddenly fell towards Aromatisse, who was pressed to the ground.
Boom~~~
In the blink of an eye, Aromatisse was buried under countless stone pillars.
After a long while, the stone pillars formed by rock energy turned into light spots again and slowly disappeared into the air, and Aromatisse was able to emerge from the pile of stone pillars. But at this moment, she was already unconscious.
"Oh~~ I lost, I lost," Valerie said regretfully as she took out the Poké Ball and put away Aromatisse.
Eddie walked over to Diancie, looked at Valerie and said, "Keep working hard, you will definitely get the badge."
"Of course, just wait, I will definitely come back!" After putting away the Poké Ball, Valerie ran away.
After Valerie left, Eddie released Larvitar from the Poké Ball, fed him a fruit, and let Chikorita give him a healing wave, and he slowly woke up.
After remembering how he was defeated by Mawile, Larvitar fell into depression.
It was so shameful that he showed such an ugly appearance in the battle and lost so helplessly.
Eddie comforted him, "Okay, everyone has a first time. It's just a battle. Just keep working hard in the future."
"Yo… Yo~"
Little Larvitar shrank into a corner, drawing circles on the ground with his little fingers. He was completely depressed and refused to say a word.
At this time, Diancie came over and said to him: "Don't worry, I will train you well in the future. If you encounter this kind of situation again in the future, you will definitely be able to handle it."
As a Rock-type Pokémon, young Larvitar did learn a lot from Diancie, not only skills but also combat techniques. So when Diancie said that, little Larvitar believed it. His previous depression disappeared and he followed Diancie happily.
Seeing young Larvitar regain his composure, Eddie shook his head helplessly: "Emotions really come and go quickly."
Next, Eddie continued to stay in the gym. When no one came, he read and studied, and time passed in the blink of an eye.
On this last day, there was only two challengers, Valerie and someone else. As soon as the sun set, he packed up and went home.
Eddie helped Master Ramos guard the gym for a total of three days and received two challengers in total. In addition to Valerie, another male challenger came the next day. He also did not get the badge from Eddie.
After Master Ramos came back, he listened to Eddie talk about his battle achievements and shook his head helplessly.
"As Gym Leaders, we aren't saying that we will not issue badges to challengers who lose. You can give the badge to the novice trainer girl you received on the first day. If you continue to do this, I'm afraid few people will be able to get the badge."
Eddie was speechless: "How would I know? You didn't tell me."
Master Ramos sighed and said, "Forget it. If she still wants the badge, she will definitely come back. It is indeed in line with the rules for her to lose and not get the badge."
"Yes, yes, that's right," Eddie nodded quickly.
Seeing this, Master Ramos slapped him on the back in annoyance, and then said: "Since you helped me take care of the gym for a few days, I brought you a gift this time."
Eddie's eyes lit up when he heard this: "What gift?"
After coming back, Master Ramos did not tell Eddie why he went to ... this time, and Eddie did not ask, but if there were gifts, Eddie would of course welcome them.
Uncle Master Ramos turned around and searched for a while, then took out a U-shaped magnet. The magnet wasn't big and looked very small.
"I'll give this to your Heliolisk. After you carry it, the power of your electric skills will be increased."
So that's it! Eddie took the magnet and said to Master Ramos, "Thank you I shall!" He then released Heliolisk and handed the magnet to it.
"Helioptile~Helioptile~"
Heliolisk happily took the magnet and hung it on its body, and the magnet was firmly hidden under its neck frills.
After chatting with Master Ramos for a while, Eddie went home.
A few days later, Valerie came to the Coumarine Gym again to challenge, and she also specifically asked Eddie to accept her challenge.
Master Ramos called to ask for Eddie's opinion, but he decisively refused, saying, "You can challenge anyone you want. I have completed my mission and I don't care about anything else."
Valerie protested several times, but got no response from Eddie, so she had no choice but to challenge Master Ramos, then took the badge and left Coumarine City.
From then on, Eddie became the man that Valerie "wanted but could not get."
Eddie got up in the morning that day and walked out of the room in a daze. As he reached the door, he suddenly felt as if he had kicked something. He subconsciously looked down and saw a gray kitten sitting on the ground, looking at him innocently.
"Espurr, Espurr, Espurr? Where did this Espurr come from?"
"Hattrem ~Hattrem ~"
At this time, Hattrem hurried into the living room and picked up the Espurr, who was sitting on the ground.
Eddie rubbed his eyes, and when he regained consciousness, he discovered that there was another Espurr lying on Hattrem's body.
"So these two Espurr were hatched from those two eggs?"
"Hattrem ~" Yes, that's them.
Hattrem held the two Espurr tenderly, her eyes full of love.
Eddie was a little surprised. He didn't expect that Hattrem could pick up two rare Psychic-type Pokémon eggs. This was not easy. Fortunately, he saw that there was no movement on the other side of the road, so he went to the police station to report the lost and found, but still no one came to claim the two eggs.
That's not right. A few people came to claim it, but they were just trying to take advantage. The Pokémon eggs were not lost by them at all. Officer Jenny tricked them into telling the truth in just a few words, and finally criticized them severely.
"Now that they've hatched, let's take good care of them," Eddie said.
"Hattrem ~Hattrem ~" Hattrem nodded in agreement.
Eddie walked out of the courtyard and saw the Pokémon working hard early in the morning.
Selene still had a passionate competition with Captain Talonflame every morning.
Young Larvitar and Diancie worked together to figure out how to develop a Stone Edge attack, and the ground was littered with the rocks they created.
Chikorita was wantonly lavishing her overly vigorous energy among the flowers, causing the fairy flowers to bloom abnormally vigorously early in the morning, attracting the Flabébé to linger.
Eddie didn't see the Brionne, but he could guess that she must have gone to the reservoir at the foot of the mountain, where she had a group of little brothers who needed her "care."
Heliolisk lay on a large rock, raising his head high, opening the frills on his neck to the maximum, and pointing it at the rising sun to absorb the sun's energy. Ever since Eddie started helping Heliolisk light up its hidden energy circuits, he discovered that Heliolisk had gained a new ability. That is, it could generate a large amount of electricity by absorbing solar energy, and its main organ for absorbing solar energy was its frills.
This ability was not possessed by the previous Heliolisk. For this reason, Heliolisk spent a lot of time basking in the sun every day. He also wanted to learn the skill of Sunny Day by basking in the sun.
After having the ability to absorb solar energy to generate electricity, if Heliolisk could also learn Sunny Day, it would be even more powerful in battle. However, weather skills are not so easy to learn. After trying hard for several days, Heliolisk did not learn how to deal with Sunny Day. Instead, he unexpectedly comprehended another skill: Flash.
"How should I put it, it's just… Anyway, something is better than nothing. It's much better than not learning anything at all."
Seeing that Heliolisk couldn't understand what Sunny Day was, Eddie could only think helplessly: "Forget it, I'd better go ask Master Ramos for help!"
Although Sunny Day is a Fire-type skill, it is very easy for Grass-type Pokémon to learn. As a trainer specializing in Grass-type Pokémon, Master Ramos had many Pokémon that could use Sunny Day.
After breakfast, Eddie called Master Ramos. Not long after, Master Ramos's Tropius slowly landed on Mystic Mountain. This Tropius, which Eddie had ridden many times, was also one of the Pokémon in Master Ramos's hand that could use Sunny Day.