141 Chapter 141

For a few moments, as the battle drew to its ultimate conclusion, there was silence all around us.

Whether it was shock, awe, or just plain old confusion I couldn't be sure entirely, nor did I really care. My attention actually was more on the gleaming pokeball in my palm.

A proud smile on my face.

"Way to go mate." I praised the try hard bird within. We hadn't won, not even close, and Lance had obviously been taking it easy on us. We are nowhere near the level of a champion.

But let me put it like this. If an average Caterpie knew Electroweb and fired it off at Pidgeot, it would hardly do anything to him, even with him being weak to electric attacks.

It was simply because of how much more powerful Pidgeot was, he was on a completely different level. Though not something as arbitrary as simply numerical levels.

Why think this? Because, while Pidgeot and my other pokemon weren't even close to the level of Lance's, they were at a level where they could actually hurt them.

A level that simply could not be ignored even by the strongest.

And that in of itself was an achievement as far as I'm concerned. After all, one only had to look at Paul's battle with Cynthia to understand. Even as someone on Ash's level at Sinnoh, and with quite the strategy prepared, Paul fell short simply because Cynthia's Garchomp was so far above his pokemon in level that it didn't even matter that Garchomp was locked in place and took a full on Frenzy Plant from Paul's starter pokemon to the face.

It did fuck all.

The fact Pidgeot and my other pokemon simply couldn't be brushed off like that, told me we were on the right path, or a right path at least.

And that was amazing to me.

Clapping drew me from my thoughts and I looked up to see Lance boldly walking across the decimated battlefield towards me, his cape mantle swishing majestically from his shoulders as he did, clapping loudly and proudly, a big grin on his face, "That was a splendid battle Jord!" his voice boomed out from his lips, "Give it a few years and you're going to be a real monster." he praised me as he came to a stop in front of me and stopped clapping to hold one hand out to me.

I took it, shaking his hand, "Gimme six months." I grinned back.

Lance barked out a laugh, "Well considering your progress so far in only two, another three times that….well, you might be right!"

Before I could say anything else, the crowd of reporters erupted into a frenzy of cheers and questions.

"Champion Lance, how is it a trainer so early into his career has managed to take down two of your own esteemed pokemon!?"

"Jord, how do you train your pokemon for them to be so powerful!?"

"Champion Lance, is this perhaps you deciding to take on an apprentice for the first time?"

"Jord, there was a big focus on your love life during this battle, care to comment? What about this mysterious girl you are involved with caught your attention?"

Lance rolled his eyes at the last comment as we finished shaking hands, but I personally felt a smirk spread across my face.

Lance's eyebrows rose as I turned away from him and looked at the reporter who had asked that last question, it was that guy from Kanto News, "The first thing that caught my attention about her, can't really be said during this kind of interview, never mind live I don't think." I shrugged.

After all, the first thing that I noticed about Hilda had been that big ol' badonkadonk of hers.

"Yes, it's best not to go into detail on that part." Lance snorted in amusement, crossing his arms

The reporter from Kanto News blinked owlishly at me for a moment, before his eyes widened in understanding, "Ah…I see," he coughed, "Okay…then how about defining features that can be commented on, perhaps her personality? Surely this mystery girl must be quite astounding to catch the eye of one such as you, a rising star!"

"I'm a rising star?" I asked with a blink, looking to Lance.

"Well, you will be now, with your big debut here your name is gonna be on everybody's lips for at least the next few days, and you're gonna have a ton of eyes on you with what you've accomplished and how well you did in our battle," Lance shrugged, "Usually something like this would be more gradual, but you've kinda just exploded onto the scene."

"Huh, neat," I nodded in understand before turning my attention back to the reporter from Kanto News, "So other things about her I liked then? Well I mean beyond the obvious, she has really pretty eyes, a bright vibrant blue and her hair is like fluffy chocolate. And then there was the banter, she's great at that."

Let me see how much I can embarrass Hilda.

…Granted, it probably won't be all that much considering she's a former actress and would be used to stuff like this.

From there I went into a long tangent of bullshit about things I liked about Hilda, and some more that just popped into my head for shits and giggles.

"I see….could it be that you have already found the one you want to settle down with already?" the reporter asked, his cheeks flushed.

I think he's feeling a little embarrassed now to have had me go into this crap. Poor guy, this is why shame is useless.

"Well I'm still single for the moment, but that's for me to know mate, and you-" I looked him in the eyes and grinned at him, "To dot dot dot."

"I see." was all the man said in response.

I think he was flustered.