629 CH10 (624), Battles Galore (1)

My next battle was scheduled for 1 p.m., and I made sure to leave Utopia 10 minutes before that. Once I made it to the battle venue I was asked to be ready, and a minute before 1, my opponent and I were asked to take our positions. Frank, that was what the guy had been introduced as, and I nodded to one another in greeting before listening to the referee do his usual spiel.

Following that the referee questioned if we were ready and upon receiving our confirmation he started the countdown. I held Freyja's ball in my grip as did Frank with his Pokeball, and as soon as the referee finished his countdown, we simultaneously released our Pokemon.

"Rise and Shine, Graveler," Frank actually used a non-generic line. Now the question was if that was just a line, or if it was linked to an opening instruction like mine. "Charm them, Baby Doll," I went with a proven opening phrase/tactic, and as soon as she appeared on the field, Freyja first used Baby-Doll Eyes on the Graveler across her before chaining Charm.

Meanwhile, Graveler actually used what seemed to be Rock Polish, showing that Frank's line was in fact an opening instruction. Still, while Graveler managed to speed up quite a bit, its strength suffered even worse than that, so I felt that it was a pretty good trade-off, at least for us.

"Defense Curl into Rollout," Frank swiftly ordered, which had his Graveler curl into a boulder before it started rolling. This was a pretty well-known combination, but that did not take away from the fact that it was a great one. Nonetheless, I naturally did not simply watch them act and concurrently gave my own orders.

"Agility, then evade," which had Freya boost her speed while Graveler was speeding towards her. She completed Agility moments before Graveler could roll/slam into her and jumped to the side, successfully dodging Graveler. "Aura Sphere," I ordered while Graveler's back was facing Freyja, and the move slammed into it with the power only a mastered super-effective move could, interrupting Graveler's momentum and causing it to fall out of Rollout.

"GRAVELER!" While Frank cried out his Pokemon's name in worry, I followed up with another order, "Mach Combat, don't miss the opportunity." Freyja closed the distance using Mach Punch before using the punch to flow into Close Combat.

"Earthquake, stop it from attacking you," Frank ordered as Freyja began to lay out the hurt onto Graveler. Gravaler managed to stomp the ground, triggering the Earthquake, but we had a counter to that which Freyja promptly applied the moment the ground began to shake. She jumped off the ground and landed on Graveler with a kick, and then she kept hitting Graveler while grappling it.

"Grab it and throw it off," Frank yelled out, and Graveler certainly tried to grab Freyja with its four arms to no avail. It kept releasing grunts of pain whenever Freyja punched, elbowed, or kneed it and with each hit, Frank's face got worse before he gave an order that took me off guard.

"Graveler, blow up, take it down with you!" As soon as Frank said that Graveler released a final grunt before he began to light up, and as soon as I saw/heard that I knew that it was going to use Self-Destruct. "Get away from there," I hurriedly ordered Freya, and she swiftly Bounced away from Graveler.

Unfortunately, she was not fast enough to completely escape the explosion radius, so when Graveler blew up, she got caught in the explosion and got hurled away. Thankfully, she successfully jumped to the fringe of the explosion, so she was not hurt too badly and managed to stand back up, though she did look slightly banged up.

Nonetheless, that was much better than Graveler's situation since that one lay slumped over in the crater it had created. The referee declared Lopunny/Freyja the winner, and Frank recalled his knocked-out Pokemon. Despite knowing that Freyja could still continue, I chose to withdraw her as well, which we were only allowed to do before our opponent called out their next Pokemon.

Seeing me also recall my Pokemon, the referee took charge and asked us if we were ready before starting another countdown after which we simultaneously released our second Pokemon.

"Go, Pelipper," Frank shouted and a Pelliper appeared on his side. Interestingly enough, Mist arose moments after its appearance, which made me glad that we had not tried to go for a debilitating move for our opening. Instead, my line had been "Let's dance, Igneel," and my draconic Charizard directly performed a Dragon Dance as soon as he appeared.

There were a lot of gasps and exclamations upon Charizard's appearance which was not surprising considering that he was the dream of every Charizard fan, an ultra-rare dragon variant, though I was sure many of the spectators initially mistook him as a shiny Charizard due to him being predominantly black, at least until they noticed the blue flames and the sky-blue belly. Admittedly, I had no idea how many correctly concluded that he had to be a dragon, but everyone had to know that he was special.

I certainly noticed the surprise on Frank's face when he saw the Pokemon his Pelliper would face, though that quickly made way to a frown which was followed by him looking up. I mirrored that act since I knew that by now the sunlight and warmth should have intensified due to Igneel's Drought ability. Yet, nothing was happening up above aside from some shimmering in the sky.

Combining that with Frank's reaction I swiftly concluded that his Pelipper had to have Drizzle as its ability which countered Igneel's Drought and vice versa, which explained why Frank had frowned since he had expected it to rain. Knowing that Pelliper could also have Rain Dish if it had decent enough potential, I was quite happy with this ability stalemate, even if it meant that Igneel would not get the full boost from his Solar Boost+ talent since he would still receive a decent boost as long as the sun up in the sky was not covered.

Anyway, I quickly accepted the ability stalemate and moved on, giving Igneel an order before Frank could. Since any kind of status reduction was not possible until the effect of Mist passed, I ordered a direct attack instead. "Use Dragonbreath," I instructed which Igneel directly executed, hitting Pelipper, causing it to cry out in pain. That got Frank's attention and had him snap back to the fight.

Meanwhile, Pelipper gathered its wits and dived to dodge out of the field of fire. "Water Gun, keep shooting if it dodges," Frank ordered which had Pelipper execute short-lived Water Guns, living up to the move's name, after Igneel dodged the first one. Honestly, it seems that Frank did not realize that thanks to his dragon-typing Igneel had no water weakness, which meant that he could easily tank these weaker rapid Water Guns.

Naturally, there was no way I would not capitalize on that, and I quickly came up with a plan to make use of it. "Keep dodging and move closer," I ordered, which had Frank double down on his order, though he did amend it a bit. "Keep your distance and keep shooting," he yelled out, which was exactly what I wanted, at least the Water Gun part.

What followed was close to a minute of Igneel moving closer to Pelipper while it was "backing away" and shooting Water Guns at him. Once Igneel managed to close in within a meter of Pelipper Frank suddenly yelled out "Now Hydro Pump," all excited, not knowing that he fell into my trap. "Tank it, then TP," I swiftly ordered and Igneel let the Hydro Pump hit him while he performed a Thunder Punch.

Igneel punched through the ongoing Hydro Pump, causing Pelliper to seize up due to the shock, which got only worse when the Thunder Punch hit its head, causing it to cry out and writhe in pain before plunging from the sky. Meanwhile, most of the audience exclaimed in surprise when Igneel tanked that point-blank Hydro Pump like that. Now, at the latest, everyone should have realized that Igneel was a real dragon-type, and while the crowd cheered, I gave my next order.

"Follow up with TF," I instructed, not planning to let up the pressure. Igneel dove after Pelipper, who had yet to fall all that much, and bit its left shoulder using Thunder Fang. I saw Frank panic a bit when that happened. "Wing Attack, get rid of it and try to recover," he called out and Pelipper tried to follow his command, but Igneel stubbornly kept biting while he tanked those hits.

"Add Thunder Punch," I shouted which he followed, adding to Pelipper's pain. Still, after the first punch hit home, Pelipper suddenly shone in a red light causing Igneel to let go of Pelipper, who was promptly drawn back into its PokeBall. Frank whispered something to the PokeBall before raising his hand.

"I withdraw Pelipper. I don't think we can win this one, so there's no reason for him to get hurt even worse," he declared. The referee raised his hand at that and proclaimed Igneel the winner, which made me the victor of the battle. With that out of the way, we left the battlefield and I went up to Frank to thank him for the battle. He had earned my respect with his last move since it was an important trait to know when to retreat to avoid unnecessary harm to one's Pokemon which many people tended to forget all too often.

"Yeah, that loss was entirely on me. The weather draw forced me to adjust my strategy, which did not go as planned either since I thought your Charizard was a special Shiny or something like that," he admitted with a bitter headshake. "Had I known that he is an actual dragon type, I would not have gone with the Hydro Pump trap. I would have tried the Stockpile stall instead," he directly followed up and I had to admit that it would have made things harder if he had done that provided that his Pelipper knew both Spit Up and Swallow.

"Say, where did you get that Charizard of yours? I always thought dragon-type Charizard were the stuff of myths and tales," Frank inquired and I could see the interested glint in his eyes as well as the curiosity radiating from him. "Honestly, pure luck," I said with a shrug of my shoulders.

"I got him as an egg from Oak Labs, and he happened to inherit Dragon Dance from one of his parents. Naturally, I've had him focus on mastering that one as much as possible ever since he was a youngling. On top of that, I had him learn a few more dragon-type moves, and then through a stroke of fortune, he underwent a mutation as a Charizard," I elaborated what I meant with pure luck.

I felt him deflate a bit when I mentioned Oak Labs, and he released a disappointed sigh once I was done with my explanation. "Yeah, that seems like pure luck. I'd hoped that it would be something I could duplicate, but luck like that is not something I can just copy," he sounded a bit defeated when he was that.

"Sorry, I can understand why you'd be interested, but it is what it is," I said with a small shrug. "Well, it's disappointing, but that's life for ya," he said before giving me a serious look. "Still, I got to say that a Pokemon like that could grab the attention of a lot of unsavory people, so make sure you're careful out there, alright?" he seriously advised, and I could feel that he was genuinely trying to look out for me, proving that he was a nice guy.

"Thanks," I thanked him before assuring him that I could take care of myself. Following that we parted ways, and I proceeded to check if my next opponent had already been determined. With my victory over Frank, I had advanced to the quarterfinals, and I was reckoning that I'd have to battle once again within the next hour or so.

As it turned out, my opponent had in fact already been determined, and I would be facing a lady called Janine, who had so far revealed a Granbull, Bellossom, Stantler, Jumpluff, and an Azumarill. The Bellossom was at the (high) silver stage, while the others were at the (mid) silver stage. As for our battle, that was scheduled for 2:45 p.m., so in a bit less than 90 minutes instead of an hour.

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