After Jace finished striking his pose, he watched the Charizard on the field showing absolutely no change. Only then did the embarrassment hit him, and he quickly turned to Auron.
"Auron, why won't it Mega Evolve?!"
"Cooldown!"
Jace froze, then muttered under his breath. "This thing has a cooldown?"
No choice but to recall the already-reverted Charizard. Jace walked over to Auron's side.
"How was that? Was my pose cool? Yeah! Hey!"
As he spoke, Jace struck up his pose again with an excited grin, doing a couple more flashy gestures at Auron.
Auron turned away, pressing his hand to his forehead. He did not want to look.
"Was it cool? I came up with those moves on the spot! Pretty impressive, right?"
Auron didn't want to engage. He quickly said his goodbyes to Grandpas Ashford and Flint, then turned on his heel and walked out at a brisk pace.
"Hey? Wait for me!"
Jace blinked, but quickly caught up.
"You didn't tell me today was going to be like this. If I'd known, I would've had time to come up with proper moves. They'd definitely be way cooler than what I did."
Auron took a long, hard look at Jace, then picked up his pace even more. This was beyond fascination. This was full-blown obsession.
"Hey, Auron, why are you walking so fast? By the way, aren't we planning to show off Mega Evolution during the freshman tournament? What kind of pose should I do then?"
Auron's stride faltered. He nearly tripped over his own feet.
"There's a prerequisite for that. You can only pull it off after making it to the main tournament. If you don't make the main event, the show-off won't be seen by enough people. It won't be satisfying. Understood?"
Jace's face lit up, a strange light flickering in his eyes. "Understood, understood!"
"Right. And don't rush into planning all that stuff yet. Train first. If you can't make the main tournament, everything else is pointless."
"Got it, I get it, haha. One day, I, Jace Rowan, will also have a name that shakes the world."
Jace spread both arms wide and shouted up at the sky.
In his view, a discovery as monumental as Mega Evolution—something destined to be written into the history books—meant the first person to use it would surely be recorded for posterity.
And on top of a three-stage evolution, there was yet another evolution beyond that. This evolution would almost certainly draw the lion's share of everyone's attention.
One of the reasons Grandpas Ashford and Flint had agreed to let them reveal Mega Evolution at a school competition was precisely to put it on display for foreign eyes.
After all, overseas Mega Stones had already been collected almost entirely. Even if other countries wanted to research the phenomenon, they had no raw materials left to work with. If not now, then when?
Besides, Skyspire University—where Auron and the others attended—was the nation's, and indeed the world's, premier academic institution. A place watched closely by all sides. The perfect stage to showcase their country's strength.
Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, six days had gone by. Once this weekend was over, Monday would be the freshman battle tournament.
During that stretch, everyone spent every moment outside of class training. And throughout their training, spontaneous sparring matches kept breaking out—Auron himself had fought several of them too.
It had to be said, one trick that works everywhere really did work everywhere. Clawitzer dominated using his signature three-move repertoire.
Day one: no battle.
Day two: Clawitzer vs. Lena's Mismagius. Opening with Swords Dance, he tanked Mismagius's Shadow Ball head-on. Then, finding his opening, he surged forward with Water Jet and finished it with a single Dark Snipe.
Day three: vs. Simon's Haunter. Haunter, having learned from yesterday, opened with Thunderbolt. But unfortunately it was dodged by Water Jet, and then Clawitzer closed the distance and delivered Dark Snipe.
Fortune seemed to be firmly on Auron's side that day. Dark Snipe struck a vital point dead-on, finishing the fight in one blow. Everyone was stunned. A battle that ended in under a minute?
Day four: no battle.
Day five: no battle.
Day six: vs. Serena's Milotic. Defeat.
Unfortunately, Clawitzer's signature three-move repertoire had absolutely no effect against Milotic.
Serena fought cunningly. She kept her eyes on any setup move and refused to let it land. The instant Clawitzer tried to boost, Milotic would snap him out of it with Dragon Tail or Aqua Tail.
And without boosting, Clawitzer's moves simply couldn't deal enough damage to Milotic.
Milotic's Water Ring paired with Life Dew made Clawitzer completely helpless. On top of that, he kept getting hit by Attract off and on.
In the end, Auron had no choice but to gamble and use Sludge Bomb, hoping to land poison. But today, fortune was not on his side. A thirty percent chance of poisoning, and it failed every single time.
Serena caught on to what he was doing and commanded Milotic to use Mystic Guard, rendering her immune to status conditions for a stretch.
Now Auron had exhausted all his options. Milotic swatted Clawitzer away with a single tail strike, and the outcome was decided.
"Remember—you have to make it to the main tournament before you use it, okay? Don't pull it in the qualifying rounds."
At this point, Auron was still on the phone reminding Jace. This absolutely could not be pulled off in the qualifying rounds—it wouldn't cause enough of a stir.
Only during the main event, with the whole internet watching the livestream, would it generate enough discussion. Only then could the news properly spread overseas.
"Ugh, I know, I know. Am I the kind of person who can't see the big picture? Of course I'd save it for the main tournament. Who even watches the qualifying rounds? I'm not stupid."
Jace grumbled on the other end. The entire school had over two thousand freshmen—whether they were in the Battle Department or not, everyone participated in this freshman tournament.
The qualifying rounds were meant to filter out a portion of contestants until one hundred and twenty-five remained. Then the main tournament began, which lasted roughly four days, with the possibility of extension.
And because everyone had just enrolled and high school didn't divide students into departments, it was all perfectly fair at the start.
But going forward, after students specialized through their respective departments, school-organized tournaments like this would almost always end up dominated by Battle Department students.
After all, Battle Department students could only earn school points through competitions. Unlike other departments—where there were more students, fiercer internal competition, and points were harder to come by—Battle Department students had fewer alternative channels.
Take the Breeding Department, for example. They could design custom nutrition plans for Battle Department students' Pokémon. Used consistently over time, these could reasonably improve a Pokémon's stats across the board—though of course, that service required points in exchange.
Or take Research Department students. They could follow their advisors into projects, or conduct their own independent research. Once results were produced, not only were there school rewards, but potentially official government rewards as well.
And then there was Serena's Coordination Department. Their way of earning points was also through competition, but Coordinators had their own combat strength too. They could participate not only in on-campus matches but also in off-campus coordination competitions. As long as they placed, the school would award points accordingly.
"Alright, alright. Remember—make it to the main tournament before you pull anything. Otherwise I'll be the only one showing off."
After Auron said this, Jace's forehead vein practically twitched on the spot. "Baby Cup?! How did I not make it past the qualifying rounds at Baby Cup?! I was unlucky, okay?! I got knocked out early, alright?!"
"Mm-hmm, right, right. Unlucky. Hope your luck is better tomorrow."
After delivering a couple of pointed remarks to Jace on the other end, Auron swiftly hung up, giving him absolutely no chance to say another word.
"Sigh. Tomorrow the tournament starts. Tsk... I'm kind of excited, actually. What do I do about that?"
That night, Auron lay sprawled across Snorlax's belly, gazing out the window at the stars scattered across the night sky, listening to Snorlax's steady, rumbling breaths. Sleep came a little slowly.