Pokémon: Drapion (Dark Teal)
Gender: Male
Level: 42
Type: Poison + Dark
Ability: Sniper
Held Item: None
Egg Moves: Screech, Agility, Poison Tail
Basic Moves: Bite, Poison Sting, Leer, Knock Off, Pin Missile, Acupressure, Pursuit, Bug Bite, Poison Fang, Venoshock, Hone Claws, Toxic Spikes, Night Slash, Thunder Fang, Ice Fang, Fire Fang
Learnt Moves: Snore
TM Moves: Protect, Hidden Power (Rock-type), Taunt, Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb
This evolved Drapion is registered in the system, and its aptitude has successfully reached dark blue.
However, even within the same dark teal classification, there's a range in quality. For example, Aoki's Gengar currently has a dark teal aptitude too, but it's quite faint and barely qualifies. In contrast, Drapion's color is much richer — close to the threshold between teal and light blue.
If you had to redefine it, you could even call this a quasi-blue qualification, but the system still officially lists it as dark teal. Regardless, it's already an impressive accomplishment.
This Drapion is nearly twice the size of a normal one and far exceeds the strength of most Pokémon. Its mouth, pincers, and tail are all powerful weapons. With its flexible joints, thick armor, and the Sniper ability boosting critical hits, Drapion's overall strength and potential are overwhelming.
Right now, it might be the strongest Pokémon in Aoki's team, especially in terms of raw power. Only Slowking surpasses it overall.
Aoki hadn't expected this outcome — thanks to absorbing a massive amount of energy and the venom sac from a Scolipede leader, Drapion not only evolved but also soared to Level 42. It immediately surpassed Honchkrow and the others, becoming second only to Slowking.
Another crucial change is Drapion's typing.
The Bug type has vanished, replaced by Dark.
While Drapion can still use Bug-type moves, they'll no longer get the same power boost. However, its Dark-type moves will now be even stronger. This makes Drapion the first Pokémon on Aoki's team to undergo a type change after evolution.
Larvitar will experience a similar shift when evolving into Tyranitar later.
Fortunately, Aoki had already prepared for this — he focused Drapion's training on Poison-type moves, only lightly developing Bug moves. With evolution complete and its new typing stabilized, Aoki now plans to fully tap into Drapion's Dark potential.
Currently, Aoki's Dark-type Pokémon include:
Honchkrow
Weavile
Drapion
In the future, once Larvitar evolves into Tyranitar, there will be four Dark-types.
It's tempting to specialize in Dark Pokémon — but Aoki is cautious. He doesn't want to lock himself into a single type and risk getting countered by opponents who prepare specifically against Dark-types.
For example, in the future, Lance, the Dragon King of the Kanto region, was never able to sit on the throne of the Kanto Champion because the Ice-type Elite Four member, Lorelei, relentlessly restrained him.
In the end, he could only head to the Johto region to fulfill his dream of becoming a Champion.
At present, Drapion now has Dark typing, and with two big brothers to teach him, Aoki doesn't have to worry about his growth at all.
When it comes to training Dark-type Pokémon, Aoki's experience is pretty solid.
So far, after sacrificing nearly half of the Scolipede clan, Aoki finally helped the Skorupi complete its evolution.
Not only that, he also raised its potential to the dark blue level.
Actually, evolving a Skorupi isn't that difficult. The tricky part was evolving it while also improving its potential — that's the real reason why Aoki ended up slaughtering almost the entire Scolipede group.
All in all, the results were pretty good.
Honchkrow and Slowking were very pleased to see that the little Skorupi — once barely the size of a palm — had grown into a massive Drapion towering at 2.5 meters.
The little guy who used to follow them around, eager to fight and prove himself, had finally grown up.
And now, he had even surpassed them.
As for Drapion, Honchkrow, Slowking, Gengar, and Weavile — they were the ones Drapion grew up with.
The Pokémon all relaxed, stepping up to Drapion, touching him, and sensing his changes.
Drapion didn't dare resist. Even though he had become powerful, the big brothers were still the big brothers — he would stay in line and continue being the little brother.
Aoki stood beside Drapion, gesturing a bit, then finally nodding to himself.
With Drapion's current size and strength, it looked like Aoki could probably stand on his back.
And Drapion could definitely handle Aoki's weight without a problem.
Did this mean... he now had a land mount?
He couldn't really sit on it though.
The armor was a bit rough and uneven.
But it didn't stop Aoki from standing steadily.
Without hesitation, Aoki climbed onto Drapion's back.
Drapion turned his head in surprise, only to see Aoki standing there, stepping around, trying to find a comfortable spot.
Since Drapion walked on four legs, standing on his back would definitely make moving through complicated terrain much easier.
Not bad.
Aoki nodded to himself in satisfaction.
Under the amused gaze of the Pokémon, Aoki slowly climbed down.
"Ahem, Drapion," Aoki coughed lightly. "Now that you've evolved, show me your new strength. I want to see if you're still getting used to your body."
Hearing this, the Pokémon turned their eyes toward the nearby Scolipede group.
And among them were some unexpected guests!
Feeling the sharp gazes of the five Pokémon, the Scolipede were about to cry.
You're the invaders, okay?!
Bad guys!
You already killed half our group — isn't that enough?!
If it weren't for the fact that the strongest Scolipede had already been injured during the internal battles for leadership, Aoki wouldn't have been able to act so boldly.
Of course, Aoki didn't know anything about their injuries.
He just thought the Scolipede were unusually easy to bully today — no matter how fiercely they fought, the strongest ones never stepped up.
Naturally, he had to seize the opportunity to wipe out even more.
From the forest, the sounds of battle rang out once again.