"What's going on?"
"Wasn't he supposed to withstand that?"
"No problem, Captain Jason's Magmar has extremely high fire resistance."
The other four members of the reserve team also noticed the strange atmosphere on the battlefield, and their expressions changed slightly.
Boom!
Just as their words fell, a bang was heard, and Magmar's figure collapsed heavily to the ground before everyone's disbelieving eyes.
"Eh, eh, eh, what just happened?"
"Did Magmar get knocked down by a Fire-type move?"
"That must be fake! Magmar is a Pokémon that can live inside lava!"
Seeing Magmar collapse, everyone wore expressions as if they had seen a ghost. They were more willing to believe Magmar was pretending.
"Magmar!"
Even Jason Brooks, his own trainer, was stunned.
What the hell?
How could his Magmar be defeated by fire?
"Magmar has lost the ability to battle."
At some point, Professor Leonard Langford had arrived and declared it immediately.
His words caused a wave of shock.
Lucas Silver and Marcus Foster opened their mouths in disbelief.
They knew quite well Charmander's level. Even if he was strong, and even if he had completed his first evolution, how could he already have the strength to defeat a Pokémon carefully trained by the captain of the reserve team in such a short time?
They themselves had also received starter Pokémon—Piplup and Totodile, which had already evolved and grown stronger. Even so, their Prinplup and Croconaw were still not strong enough to be considered part of the main team, much less to face Captain Jason's Pokémon.
"In terms of pure strength, Charmeleon definitely cannot surpass Magmar. So how did this happen?"
"Could it be that Charmeleon has some special ability besides that temperature control skill?"
Everyone began thinking the same thing, looking at Ethan with a mix of disbelief and envy.
"It's a burn."
At that moment, Professor Langford, who was examining Magmar, announced the diagnosis.
Everyone was stunned. Magmar was a Fire-type Pokémon! How could he be burned?
"Of course, I don't mean a traditional burn. What happened is that the temperature of the flames exceeded the limit Magmar can withstand, causing an internal loss of control of its own flame, creating a state similar to a burn."
Professor Langford quickly corrected his earlier wording.
"The fire... exceeded Magmar's limit?"
The others were confused.
Magmar's body temperature was extremely high. Furthermore, with its Flame Body ability, its natural fire resistance was enormous. Even then, it couldn't withstand Charmeleon's flames?
Then how hot were Charmeleon's flames?
When they thought of that, they all looked at Ethan with even stranger expressions. That Charmeleon was far too strong.
"Seems like they still haven't realized it..."
Ethan, seeing their stares, touched his chin and shook his head.
Magmar had fallen, yes, because of the heat... But that heat did not come from Charmeleon—it came from Magmar himself.
What Charmeleon did was use his temperature control ability through the flames Magmar absorbed, slightly increasing Magmar's internal heat.
Fire-type Pokémon can withstand very high temperatures, but they still have limits. They aren't affected by rocks heated to hundreds of degrees, but if you threw them into lava hotter than their maximum tolerance... they wouldn't endure it either.
Magmar had a body temperature capable of withstanding lava—around 1200 degrees—which was extremely high. And since most lava ranges between 900 and 1200 degrees, he never had trouble inside it.
But if Magmar can withstand up to 1200 degrees... what happens if he is exposed to 1201 degrees?
Charmeleon's ability was precisely to control and raise the temperature. He couldn't raise it that high on his own... But if he used Magmar's own internal heat and raised it just a little...
That "little bit" became the drop that overflowed the glass.
Magmar exceeded his thermal limit.
In simple terms: Magmar had a fever!
It was a temporary state. Once his temperature went down, he would be fine.
Jason sighed in relief upon seeing Magmar begin to recover.
Then he looked at Ethan, his face darkening as the corner of his mouth twitched.
He had chosen to battle today to assert his authority before Ethan joined the reserve team...
But ending up losing...
How was he supposed to maintain appearances now?
"Thank you very much for the guidance, senior. Thanks to Magmar's flames, Charmeleon managed to evolve smoothly."
Seeing Jason's embarrassment, Ethan smiled and helped him save face.
The others also approached to ease the atmosphere, commenting that the battle had been a sort of instructional spar, allowing Jason to withdraw with dignity.
"Ethan, you're amazing."
"You even defeated Captain Jason!"
After Professor Langford and the others left, Marcus gave him a thumbs-up.
They also knew why Jason had come and proposed a battle.
Next semester, they would join the university team. Even though they would be substitutes, if they showed enough talent, they might even make it onto the main team.
That was why the upperclassmen wanted to show authority...
But this time, the show of strength didn't go very well.
(End of chapter)