Chapter 43

Before you could do, or say anything else. Dragonair acted on his own. The serpentine dragon rose elegantly up into the air, and began flying with ease. And while there, the jewel around his neck, dark blue and shining, glowed with a bright red, blazing power.

The clouds above cleared out of the way, and the sun began to shine down, the temperature picking up almost immediately to the point where it felt like you were on a tropical island.

"Oh my, to see a Dragonair's first time controlling the weather, simply marvellous," Bill clapped, "I do believe that was Sunny Day."

Dragonite warbled something and nodded its giant head. And from the way you saw Dragonair's cloud like ears flip up, and the way his serpentine chest puffed out with pride, you'd say it was a compliment.

Sunny Day? That was good to know. Dragonair were said to be able to control the weather. So you assumed if he got that upon evolving, he probably learned Rain Dance and Hail as well.

"Don't think just because your Dratini evolved into an amazing Dragonair that you've got this in the bag," Ash warned you, thumbing his nose, "Cloyster, use your Spikes like we planned before! and Aurora Beam!"

"Cloy!" It nodded its black head, and with a mighty jump, propelled its heavy shelled form through the air, landing heavily against one of the Spike pillars and then with another heavy push, shot off, hitting into another one a moment later, and repeating. In front of your eyes, Cloyster began to bounce off of the pillars, picking up speed, faster and faster, till even for your eyes used to high speed battles it was a blur.

He was trying to confuse you! "Dragonair, go higher!" you ordered.

The serpentine dragon did just that, weaving up gracefully through the air, just as Ash punched out again, "Now!" he ordered instantly.

Clyoster shot off the pillar beneath and behind Dragonair, launching quickly up into the air, its shell clamped hard towards your pokemon's tail, but just missed, and then immediately opened up, large horn glowing with dark green like energy, and fired a thick similar coloured beam of power.

"Dodge!" you countered yourself.

Dragonair was just fast and graceful enough to contort his body around, letting the thick beam of icy power shoot through the hole he made.

"Now Slam!" you followed up, while Cloyster was stuck in the air.

"Swift!" Ash countered right back.

With a trill, Dragonair shot down and wrapped his tail around Cloyster, and spun, before with a mighty heave released and tossed the shelled ice type down towards the ground.

Cloyster fell rapidly, but as it did, its shell glowed with golden energy, and with twin thrusts, fired a wave of thick golden energy stars as it continued to fall. Dragonair snarled as they impacted against his sleek form, unable to dodge as they followed him.

While Cloyster hit the ground hard enough to crater the ground inwards a good five feet at least, and you felt your own feet rise up into the air an inch or so from the sheer force of the dual water and ice types impact.

That was dangerous! You weren't expecting Ash to use the field and those spikes to get over how poor a Cloyster was movement wise on land!

You need to end this now, before he uses some other weird gimmick like that to turn the tides of the battle. Though, you'd make sure to keep that approach to battling in mind.

"Finish it now, Dragon Rage!" you ordered, punching your own fist out this time towards the downed Cloyster.

Swirling around, Dragonair cocked his head back, sapphire blue flames peeking from his mouth. Then, he thrust forward and unleashed a gigantic beam of flame straight down towards Cloyster.

"Hang tough with Bubblebeam!" Ash shouted.

With a growl Cloyster rolled around to face upwards, and unleashed a barrage of massive glowing sapphire blue bubbles that raced up through the air to meet your pokemon's flames.

They clashed midway between them, and for a moment, it was a stalemate. the sheer power behind the flames, versus the sheer amount of glowing blue bubbles.

But then! Woosh!

The flames pushed slowly forward bit, by bit, before ploughing right through and racing down, smashing into Cloyster's immobilized frame.

You heard Cloyster cry out as the draconic ire washed over it, before being drowned out by the loud roar sound of flame.

The flames washed over its form for a good ten seconds, before petering out, the flames whisking away to reveal Cloyster, eyes rolled back up into the back of its small ebony head, unconscious and no longer able to continue fighting. "..Cloy.." it groaned.

"Damn," Ash shook his head, raising his pokeball and returning his pokemon, "Good job Cloyster, we almost had them, have a good long rest."

You took in the wrecked area, trenches torn through it, massive spikes jutting out of the ground, large crater in the middle of it, and more. Ash really did make you work for it.

You raised your hand up and called your newly evolved dragon down. The serpentine pokemon swerved down through the air quickly and gracefully and landed down beside you softly a few moments later.

"Look at you," you praised, reaching up to scratch him under the chin. Dragonair purred and rubbed his head against yours, drawing a laugh from you, "You did great buddy."

The sound of clapping caught your attention and you turned around, Ash copying you to look at Bill who stood up on Dragonite's paw, clapping away, "Jolly good show you two," the green haired researcher praised, "I honestly can't believe you two have only been trainers for a little more than a week. I wasn't as good as you two are now, until maybe my tenth year as a trainer, maybe even my eleventh."

According to his Biography, Bill should be around twenty nine right now, and he literally started his 'journey' when he was six years old. He was an apprentice to Professor Oak, and got his trainer license that early mostly through family connections. So he would have been what, sixteen or seventeen then?

You smirked in pride. Still a pretty big compliment regardless.

Bill shook his head, "Really, the youth of today sure are something else," he mused, before shooting you both a look, "Or maybe it's just Pallet Town? I made most of my growth under the watchful eye of Professor Oak, and these days can contend with even the strongest of Gym Leaders like Giovanni despite not being a battle focused trainer."

..Huh, maybe once you're stronger you should look about seeing about getting Bill to battle you?

_______________

It wasn't long after you and Ash battled, that Brock and Misty made their way out to meet you all, and prod Ash along to get moving. There was a 'big event' coming up in Vermillion City soon, that they'd heard about from Professor Oak and wanted to get a move on there quickly before the chance to take part passed them by.

You figured they were talking about the S.S Anne. So maybe a half hour after your battle with Ash, they bid you, Bill and Dragonite goodbye. Ash promising to beat you next time, and Misty giving you a little smile when you winked at her.

You wanted to get a move on yourself. But first, you stuck around and trained with your pokemon, taking part in it yourself as you usually did, and even prepared a bit of reheatable lunch and dinner for Bill to thank him again, since his cook was out on vacation currently and he was absolutely terrible at cooking.

Bill, and even Dragonite were sad to see you go. But you promised to come visit again sometime soon. And just after noon, you set off with your pokemon by your side after a good and lucrative training session. Out on the road again towards Cerulean City, adventure on the road, and your next gym badge!