15 Icy Encounter (3/3)
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Bouncing back and forth in place, Izan couldn't help the smile that grew by the minute.
That feeling would probably never go away as long as he was a Pokemon trainer. Battling with real Pokemon was just such a novel experience.
It was always so… exhilarating!
He paused in his excited bouncing. 'This is technically my first ever trainer battle. Am I about to get utterly destroyed?'
A glance at Sandshrew, who was currently exaggeratedly flexing to the small crowd, made him reconsider.
'…Nah. Sandshrew is too awesome for that.' He concluded, continuing his bouncing.
He looked like he was warming up to fight a Pokemon himself, stretching and bouncing in place like he was.
Opposite him, Aurora retained her air of dignity as she silently and calmly did some form of breathing exercise.
At once, they both opened their eyes. Izan's eyes were honest and anticipating, with a hint of wild ferocity behind them. In contrast, Aurora's eyes exemplified the point of a dagger, a quality of her sharp and cold focus.
Nurse Joy, the referee, sighed.
She didn't seem to think the battle was worth having, for some reason.
"Okay, let's get this started already. This battle will be judged based on the default league rules, correct?" Joy asked both of them. Aurora nodded, Izan tilted his head.
"I, uh, don't know those rules." He admitted sheepishly.
She took out her rotom phone- 'I'm beyond jealous'- and tapped away before a buzz alerted him of a notification on his Pokegear. "Here, I can send it through the trainer app. It's not very complicated, thankfully."
Opening the Pokegear on his wrist, Izan went through the app and briefly looked through the battle request, clicking the accept button. A list of rules popped up with an 'Are you sure?' button on them, which he looked at more thoroughly.
After quickly reading through it, he clicked accept again.
The first thing he noticed was that this was an official battle on his record, and that would count toward his ranking in the future.
The second, and less important part, was that it was a ruleset that pretty much everyone besides tournaments and gym leaders used this ruleset. To put it simply, it was the casual ruleset.
Then, he read the rules themselves.
Most of them were fairly obvious. Stuff like trainers being unable to move from their designated spot or directly intervene in the battle. The most they were allowed to do was make callouts and return their Pokemon.
An interesting rule he saw was about items. If a Pokemon could hold it and it wouldn't impede the battle, it was seen as okay. Things like weapons were forbidden, but something like an 'Expert Belt' was fair game. Sadly, Pokemon could only hold one item at a time.
He knew that held items existed already. After wondering about it, he looked up why most people didn't use them, and it was because they distracted the user or would be hard to use in an intense battle.
And finally, the rule he hadn't expected but he probably should have, was that there was no 1v1 or 3v3. It was trainer versus trainer, meaning if one trainer had six Pokemon, and the other had one? Well, tough luck.
Thankfully, battles did limit your Pokemon usage to six. So you could carry a ton if you were a C-Class trainer, but you can't use them all like a maniac with an army.
Considering how the games functioned on this rule, it wasn't that surprising. But it was annoying considering he could only have 3 Pokemon at a time as an F-Class trainer.
'I'm gonna need to fill out my roster soon if that's the case.' He thought, clicking the Pokegear closed. Looking back up, he gave Nurse Joy a nod.
"This will be an official battle between F-Class Izan Ritcher and F-Class Aurora Stone. The winner will be decided when one trainer runs out of Pokemon able to battle." Pausing, she looked over both of them. "Are both trainers ready?"
"Of course." "Hell yeah!"
At their agreement, Joy nodded her head.
"Begin."
Sandshrew was front and center without a word, both trainer and Pokemon in tune. A Premier Ball trailed through the air without a word, exploding into an assortment of red and white flashes as a Pokemon appeared from it.
Shivering, it stood its ground with a surprisingly ferocious snarl. Its blue cloak was the thing that stood out the most, however.
"Snorunt."
'Are shinies really that common?' Izan couldn't help but think.
"Don't give them a chance, Snorunt. Jump and use [Spikes] as fast as possible."
"Runt!"
Despite his eagerness, Izan wasn't expecting a move that quickly. He was still in the process of thinking about possible moves Snorunt had while she had already attacked.
The thinking time for battle in the games had spoiled him.
The triangular Pokemon took a running start, jumping into the air. As it reached the apex, it began to spin and somehow stay in place, a brown glow enveloped the Snorunt as black spikes shot out from its body. Each spike embedded itself into the ground, ominously awaiting someone foolish enough to step on them.
'It's a good thing she went for that move instead of something else. That isn't too bad, actually.'
"Shoot it down with [Mud Shot], Sandshrew, and then follow up with a quick [Scratch]!"
Sandshrew reared back, its cheeks becoming full as it shot off a huge mud-like shot. It was a bit off course, but the sheer size of it still let it clip Snorunt and send it down easily.
'Gonna need to work on that aim. Though I doubt we'll be using that move often.'
Snorunt impacted the ground with a concerning amount of force despite Sandshrew angling the shot from below. Snorunt struggled to stand up, that earlier ferocity still present.
Sandshrew, however, had other plans.
Taking off from her spot, she dashed in as her claws gleamed with white light. Rolling and jumping into the air, she stretched her arm out, a savage look on her face as she put all her strength into a downward slash.
*Screeeeeeech*
Instead of the satisfying slash landing and downing her opponent, an orange barrier formed of hexagonal light appeared and clashed with her attack.
She persisted, attempting to cleave through it, but the barrier stayed strong.
Finally giving up, she flipped back onto her two feet and winced as a black spike pricked her from below.
"Calm down, Sandshrew. Look again." Izan called out. It seemed she had something to prove with how vicious she was attacking.
That much was obvious.
Sandshrew glanced over to Izan, before huffing and looking back at the Snorunt who was… standing up, unconscious.
The barrier faded as Joy's Mr. Mime put its hands down. A few eyebrows raised from the growing crowd as they reevaluated Sandshrew's strength.
Izan, however, was more impressed that Snorunt stood up despite being too exhausted to continue.
"Snorunt is unable to battle. Please call out your next Pokemon, Ms. Stone." Joy affirmed as the battle judge.
Aurora was unfazed by Snorunt's loss, simply returning it into the Premier Ball. "Sorry about that. Snorunt was only recently hatched but she's been really battle hungry."
'Yeah, I figured it was something like that.' There was no way Sandshrew could one-shot a Snorunt like that without some serious difference in power.
Especially not with a damn [Mud Shot].
"I promise, though, this next one won't be as easy." Taking out a Heal Ball this time, she let it soar through the air and everyone watched as a snow-white Pokemon appeared from the pattern of pink lights.
'That confirms it, then. She's an Ice-type specialist.' Izan deduced.
It was a Vulpix, but one of Alolan descent.
Izan winced as he heard a few high-pitched squeals go off in the crowd as they gushed at Vulpix's cuteness.
The squeals continued when Vulpix calmly ignored Sandshrew's growling and looked at her with contempt.
"Vulpix."
"Set aside your feelings, Vulpix. Let's end this here with an [Attract]." Aurora commanded, taking the lead again.
Vulpix flicked her head in one direction, sending off a pink heart toward Sandshrew at a blinding speed. It arrived almost instantly, splitting into more hearts that surrounded Sandshrew, whirling around her.
Sandshrew looked at them curiously, shrugging as she seemingly perceived no danger. The hearts struck, causing Sandshrew to glow pink for a second.
And then... nothing.
Izan laughed. "Sandshrew is a girl, dummy."
He then laughed even harder at the blank look on Aurora's face. "Ah, I see."
'So eventually, Aurora stopped thinking.' Izan laughed a bit more at his stupid inside joke. Aurora's cheeks became redder and redder by the second.
Izan wiped a tear. "That was good. Anyway, Sandshrew, use [Rapid Spin]. Let's get rid of those pesky spikes."
Sandshrew, not understanding what the [Attract] was supposed to do, simply ignored the exchange. Using her arms as an anchor, she pushed off the ground and began to spin with a white glow. The sheer momentum was enough to loosen and push away the spikes from the battlefield.
For the first time, Aurora showed an emotion other than calm or happiness. She was panicked.
"Vulpix, just rush in and go for a [Powder Snow] or something!" She cried.
'I do so love the smell of broken plans in the morning.'
"Ignore her, Sandshrew. We're gonna show off what we worked on last night, okay?" Sandshrew looked back with a surprised look. "Yep, that's right, I think it's ready. Now, go for [Defense Curl]."
Sandshrew curled up into a ball, a blue glow emanating from her to show off her increased defense.
Vulpix, on the other hand, had already arrived in front of the ground-type Pokemon. Jumping up, she reared her head back before blowing out a gust of snow and cold air.
Taking it, Sandshrew was only knocked back a bit but stayed curled up despite the pain.
That exchange got some mixed opinions from the crowd if their confused murmuring was an indicator.
What they didn't know was that last night, he decided to push Sandshrew's training forward a bit.
As it turned out, level-up moves really did exist. Just not in the way he expected. Instead of Pokemon learning moves upon hitting a certain level, those specific moves were simply much easier to learn than others.
For example, [Earthquake] was one of the level-up moves that Sandshrew got eventually. As a result, Sandshrew could learn it even with an Intermediate or even Beginner level of ground-type mastery.
However, if a Pokemon like Pinsir, who could only use the move via TM were to attempt to learn it, they wouldn't be able to until they had at least an Advanced level of ground-type mastery.
Of course, Sandshrew's would be much weaker than a normal [Earthquake] since her mastery was subpar, but that wasn't the point.
It was the fact that she could learn it at all.
"Let's put everything you've got into this, Sandshrew! Go for it, use [Rollout]!"
Sandshrew rolled in place for a minute and then...
She moved.
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->Took my own advice and did some detailed outlining up until the end of the first mini-arc. Chapters should be coming out quicker. Hopefully, that is.
Also, this chapter was longer than I thought it'd be.
