While the crowd started to furiously clamour with each other over Dragonite’s appearance, I relaxed slightly. This was not the Dragonite that was considered one of, if not the, strongest pokemon in two regions. One on one, many pokemon would find themselves losing. I hoped I had the answer in my own starter pokemon. I’d promised as much, but that was for later.

Still, I could relax slightly. This Dragonite didn’t have the size, or the majesty that the other did. It was more juvenile. It still snorted and eyed off Sanchez with some contempt.

I had to keep my head in the match. Sanchez had taken an early lead with his one-two combo on Gyarados, but I needed to extend that. Like any other sporting match, you needed to continue to keep on the pressure. Dictating the pace was often one of the crucial elements to winning.

People began to murmur as they realized that this couldn’t be Lance’s beast.

“AND LANCE FOLLOWS UP WITH ONE OF HIS DRAGONITE! A POWERFUL SECOND MATCH UP!” The announcer’s voice boomed over the crowd. The referee once more nodded and dropped their flags.

“Start!” It was a small space but if you were smart about using such breaks they could mean a lot. I knew people that deliberately tried to drag these switch outs as long as they could, having just used a costly technique like Hyper beam. It was a potential method for me to use and abuse but I had other options open for now.

“Soar high Dragonite!” Called Lance as he swept his hand upwards. Dragonite ascended and I clicked my tongue. Tactics shifted into place as I weighed what I could do.

“Stealth Rock,” I said. Lance’s frown deepened at the order. Sanchez dutifully obeyed.

Rocks appeared along the edge of the battlefield and began to hover just slightly. They became a small threat for the next match. Lance’s eyes flickered up and down from my Golem to his Dragonite and I felt an inkling of understanding take root.

There was likely a chance this pokemon was more suited for speed than others of its kind. This could be applied on the battlefield in a multitude of ways. I eyed the circling dragon wondering if this theory held; It certainly appeared that way. It held distance at the absolute limit that the arena match would allow. This was mandatory to give the damage absorption mechanisms room to work.

“Aqua Tail!” Lance, it seemed, didn’t want to wait for me to keep building up more stealth rocks.

“Rock Throw!” I shouted as the flying pokemon tilted as if on a hinge instead of flitting around at furious speeds. The Dragonite’s body tilted as if on a dial while its wings fluttered minutely. It lined itself up with my pokemon. Then plummeted out of the sky, allowing gravity to claim it before snapping its wings shut and accelerating even faster.

Rocks tore themselves out of the ground around Sanchez as he directed them upwards. “Go-go-golem!” he chanted as more and more rocks took flight. I could almost imagine him serving as an old artillery commander with the over the top moustache and his bombastic attitude.

Rocks ripped through the air. The Dragonite expertly juked and barrel-rolled in response. It would have avoided a lesser pokemon’s barrage but I had not allowed my Golem to be anything but exemplary. There would be no denying the onslaught that Sanchez was unleashing. Rocks rifled through the air with some hidden in the visual gaps of others, resulting in a harsh wall of stone that should have cut the dragon out of the sky.

The Dragonite proved its skill though, choosing which rocks impacted it and avoiding the worst. It continued to dive, taking glancing hits that allowed it to close. Sanchez held his position, glaring up in defiance as it closed. For a moment it looked like Dragonite would miss entirely only to slam into the ground and throw itself like some parkour sprinter straight at my pokemon. It whipped its body into a controlled spin and brought about its tail. A tail laced with water that whipped around to nail Golem.

Sanchez skidded to the side and shook the arm he’d raised to handle the strike. There was a divot that let me know that hadn’t simply been shrugged off. Still, Sanchez was more than up for the fight, roaring his battle cry, “GO-GO-GO! LEM!” I relaxed my gritted jaw, pleased to see that our work had paid off. I nodded at him as he stood and pumped his arms back and forth. “Golem!”

“Rock thr—'' before I could finish the Dragonite accelerated out of close range, likely knowing that it would be destroyed without the speed to let it power through having boulders tossed at it. I hadn’t even heard Lance give a command. With the Dragonite retreating, I decided to make the most of the reprieve by changing the order. “Stealth rock!”

Lance snarled slightly as his pokemon took a few moments to reach its previous soaring height. Time, that let me get off another potential trap. I observed the Dragonite, comparing its speed now to what it had previously demonstrated; It was roughly the same but as I watched I noted a slight hitch in its wingbeats. A tremor in its body. It was only a small sign but that was enough. Dragonite wouldn’t be able to accelerate as quickly.

Looking at Sanchez revealed to me he hadn’t gotten out of his two fights scott free. His body shook, with a slight tiredness now showing through in how he tracked the dragon.

“Sanchez go for another—” Lance punched his fist directly at my pokemon. His Dragonite was probably too far away for even a shouted command to be effective over the noise of the crowd but that didn’t stop it from understanding the order. As soon as I saw the rapidly building ball of energy in Dragonite’s mouth, I shifted gears.

“Dig! Now!” Sanchez dropped into the ground. I relaxed slightly before bracing myself as Lance’s Dragonite discharged the hyper beam. The arena held its breath as the beam impacted. Dust and small bits of earth flew up, causing everyone to lose sight of the arena and for the extractor fans to kick in. I turned my head slightly and shut my eyes, using other senses to detect any developing changes in the battlefield.

I felt a few small rocks knock into my body but I was used to harsher attacks from training with my pokemon. All trainers at this level were given damage absorbers but they were notorious in being limited due to a close proximity with the danger zone. It said a lot about this Dragonite’s strength that they hadn’t felt a secondary effect against myself or Lance would hurt us. They’d keep the podium’s absorbers for the true heavyweights.

The second I felt the wind dying down, I looked back to the field with narrowed eyes. A large crater was now in the middle of the field. It wouldn’t result in any pause with the match though.

That would come later.

I looked further up. spotting the Dragonite still high in the air, huffing and puffing, now visibly spent. My pokemon popped his head up as he’d been trained to do if he couldn't sense a pokemon actually touching the ground. It had been interesting to learn that teaching a pokemon dig didn’t just convey the ability to burrow under the ground but to also detect where another pokemon was due to the minor vibrations that came from standing on the ground. Flying or levitating pokemon obviously had a much easier time evading Dig.

Sanchez stood fully and twizzled his moustache while watching the flying pokemon.

I needed to get moving. “Sanchez! Stealth Rock!” I could imagine the confusion that this command brought on from anyone watching but a cursory inspection of the field revealed that Lance hadn’t been able to have the beam scour deep enough that it might have had an effect. He should have been targeting the sides of the field, to break up some of the floating rocks.

With this move, I had prepped the field to keep later matchups in my favour as much as I wanted to.

It wasn’t a well-used technique with most people seeing it as useless due to the time required. I had the team to make it viable, so I capitalized on it. From the battles that I’d observed, Lance didn’t face many trainers that utilised field effects. Something I planned to test. For now, he ignored the floating rocks, sweeping his hand forward, “Descend on it again Dragonite!”

If he was going to try his hand again I was more than happy to show him the definition of insanity. “Rock throw Sanchez!”

“Goooooooolem!” Once more Artillery commander Sanchez called for the cannons, unleashing entire sections of rock. Something that was easier than last time due to the broken arena floor, thanks to Dragonite’s Hyperbeam.

This time the Dragonite circled, zigged and zagged but the earlier tribulations had clearly taken their toll. It avoided the Arcanine’s share of attacks except it wasn’t fast enough to avoid them all. Rocks began to not only hit in a glancing manner but fully impact with body strikes, causing the Dragonite to wail before losing control of its flight. It crashed into the ground throwing up more ground as it caused a crater. crashing into the ground. The crash landing would have had to have only worsened its condition. I stared hungrily at the still dusty cloud where the Dragonite would have been

The stadium filled with a groan as the crowd of thousands leant forward in their seats. The air shifted as they drew in a breath and waited.

I held a hand up to Sanchez to signal a halt for the moment.

We all waited as the dust was blown away to reveal a downed Dragonite on its side. It shifted, its wings beating feebly as it tried to stand. Its body twitched and spasmed its mouth opened to bare its teeth.

For half a moment, I thought it was about to roar its defiance as it rose on a single, wobbly limb. Only for the limb to give out on it. It slammed into the ground with a hard thump. It now only gave out a sad cry as it slumped further into the crater, unable to rise.

It couldn’t and Lance was once more forced to withdraw one of his pokemon.

“AND ANOTHER POKEMON GOES DOWN!” Again there was a lull as the crowd became more than just part of the scenery. I held in a chuckle as I recalled the old games I had played on my Gameboy that even featured such calls from the crowd and announcer. Those had been long, glorious hours as a child. The old memory reminded me that I really was living the dream. I glanced about and smiled, letting my stern expression shift from pleased to actually happy.

“Excellent work Sanchez!” I directed my feelings toward my first pokemon out and he happily cheered back at me.

“Go! Go-lem!” He waved happily, even making finger guns at a few sections of the crowd.

“TWO POKEMON DOWN! I DON’T THINK ANYONE EXPECTED THIS WHEN THE CHALLENGE WAS MADE CLEAR! BROCK IS SHOWING UP AND CLEANING UP! HOW WILL THE CHAMP RESPOND!?”

Lance gritted his teeth and his hand twitched towards his necklace before stopping. I wondered if he truly thought leaving his best for last would be his smartest move. I didn’t know his team but I did know there was a certain prestige in simply forcing Lance to field his strongest, let alone beat it. I had to aim for that. Two to zero was a good start but I was nowhere near clear.

“Charizard!” Lance shouted as he tossed his next pokemon.

The crowd went nuts. I chuckled, knowing that while it looked like a dragon and knew dragon moves, it wasn’t really a true dragon… Unless Lance had access to mega evolution. I licked my lips as a cold chill broke out. Then I shook myself and looked within to the darkness. I centred myself once more before looking up.

If he had something like that, I had options. I highly doubted he did as of yet, but I definitely had options. Mega evolutions weren’t a game over but merely another obstacle. Mega evolved Charizard was still something to keep in mind. I hadn’t heard anything regarding that and held to the belief that I would have if it ever occurred. Then again, he had ten million reasons at least to bring it out right now.

I didn’t see any bracelet on his wrist though, and the only necklace I saw was holding a greatball.

With Charizard taking the field, stealth rock activated. The referee was forced to instantly call match start as the trap began to impact the fire-type. It tried to take to the sky to avoid it but the move was dogged and quick enough to hit. It roared in annoyance but didn’t take enough damage to truly injure it.

Lance seemed more annoyed as the rocks showed it wasn’t able to ignore a move considered ‘weak’ by most trainers. It obviously pricked Lance and his pokemons’ pride, enough to draw their ire. “Fire blast!” shouted Lance.

I grinned. “Explosion.” Sanchez cackled even as the signature first generation fire move closed. He lit up and I locked eyes with Lance as he gaped. I had to hold myself from cackling along with my pokemon. As the explosion took hold, the damage absorbers on my podium and around the stadium lit up.

This was enough to force them to activate and I had to blink back stars even though I had looked away from my golem before it detonated. “OH!!! A CHEAP MOVE OR A WELL-TIMED SACRIFICE PLAY FROM GYM LEADER BROCK?!”

I scoffed at them even thinking the move was classified as ‘cheap’. The only times it was not allowed or punished was if it was your last pokemon. Then it was seen as poor sportsmanship, or if your opponent was also on their last and had lost them, the win went to them. Anywhere else in the battle circuit? It was fair game.

“Go! GO! GOooooo….lem,” said Sanchez before he fell to his knees, spent. He shot me a look and I raised two thumbs up. He smiled weakly and tried to reply with one raised hand only to fall. Before he hit the ground, I withdrew him.

“Great work buddy,” I said to his pokeball. I looked up to smile at the Charizard that was embedded into the ground. It had obviously not taken well to the explosion that swept the field. It must have crashed from the explosion. I grinned at my pokeball, Sanchez had done amazing. He’d even taken out the opponent with— Charizard stumbled forward but instead of falling down it took one step that turned into another. Then it flared its wings and roared out in rage, the flame on its tail blazing even stronger than before.

I whistled, impressed despite myself. It had taken a stage three stealth rock followed by an explosion and been able to walk it off. I could respect that. I’d respected it so much I’d bring out something special to counter it.

I withdrew a second pokeball for the next match. Time to show the entire world that I had prehistoric pokemon.

“AND NOW! We will pause for intermission as the arena floor is replaced. This replacement is brought to you by—” I stumbled and recalled that yes, after three pokemon were knocked out there was typically intermission in these exhibition matches.

I glanced at Lance and saw he too was rather annoyed at the forced pause. It might suit him a little more but not as much as if he’d been able to get off a hyper beam or something else. The effect wasn’t exhaustion so much as damage. If anything, he wanted to take his charged up Charizard and meet my next pokemon now.

I nodded at him and turned toward my bunker where Celia and June were staring open-mouthed at me. I nodded at them before stalking towards the fridge built into a wall. I grabbed a towel and rubbed off some dirt before taking a long gulp of water. Celia looked from me to the field, a dry sounding croak working itself loose.

“That was incredible,” June said, her voice barely a whisper. I hummed.

“It was a solid start. Sanchez really brought everything I needed of him, and more.” My body didn’t want to settle and I sat only to feel a nervous tick demanding that I bounce my leg. I stood instead and walked around, working my arms through stretches as I forced myself to breathe. “Damn, I’m all worked up now.”

I clenched my hands and relaxed them before shaking myself loose. I didn’t want to be here, I wanted to be back out there throwing down with my pokemon against Lance’s team. I looked over and saw Lance was much the same. It appeared Claire had made her way down to his bunker and was talking to him even as he stalked back and forth. His Charizard sat before the podium still on the field. Very pointedly still on display and on the field.

As a still ‘active’ pokemon with this match’s rule, he wasn’t allowed to go out of sight unless Lance was forfeiting him. There had been too many people that had switched out pokemon or used potions on them when they were out of sight. As a high stakes match, there was no way I or the League could let it happen. There was also the issue of reactivating the stealth rocks if Lance tried it. Said Stealth rocks were actually rather pitiful now that I looked. I’d need to have another pokemon reactivate them, which would cost me time. I played that over in my mind as I assessed the damage to my trap move.

I watched Machoke and Machamp haul broken rocks out of the way. The pokemon and the workers were extremely careful to not affect the few remaining floating rocks nor get close enough to cause themselves to become targets. It would probably make them work slower which was another reason that higher tier matches usually didn’t see the trap move utilized. I had no doubt that the announcers and sponsors could run with the long break caused by slower reconstruction though. They seemed to be filling the screens scattered around the arena with highlights of the match so far interspersed with adverts.

“How are you able to stand up there like that? Can’t you feel it?” Looking at Celia, I noticed how she had her hands curled around herself. The small hairs all over her forearms stood at attention as if she’d been watching two powehouse electric types fight rather than Lance and I.

June seemed confused. I merely nodded at Celia. “Ah good, you’re able to feel that? That’s a subtle effect of battling someone like Lance.”

“Is this what Elite trainer battles are like?” said Celia. “Do I need to be this level for the tournament?”

“Planning on taking on the champ when I’m done?” I smirk before shaking my head. “No, not actually. This is a bit of a slugfest with pokemon that can take and dish out beatings. There’s strategy involved, obviously, but the methods vary depending on the trainers and the pokemon that they have access to. Don’t rush into it. We'll talk about what you are feeling now after the tournament. It isn’t something to worry over for now. Focus on what’s before you.”

“Play to my strengths, not my weaknesses?” I agreed with a nod before turning my hand over to show she was mostly right before switching topics. While June was Celia’s friend, I wasn’t going to talk about Aura in front of her.

“What do you think of the match so far? I was hoping to take out his Charizard with Sanchez’s sacrifice.”

“Why’d you even sacrifice him? He was doing great!” demanded Celia as June nodded in hesitant agreement.

I considered that for a moment before waggling my hand. “I didn’t think he had the legs to do as much damage to the Charizard. While on paper, it would appear to be a better match up with fire-flying, his Charizard was his second strongest pokemon. It shows up in most of his matches and will not be something easy to take down. I was hoping the stealth rocks would have been enough to soften it up. If he had brought out anything else, I wouldn’t have made that call.”

“I think it was a mistake.”

I shrugged. “Perhaps. I didn’t get what I wanted so maybe you’re right. I didn’t want to have Sanchez get forced underground though as I know Lance can take over the field with that Charizard and set himself up. So instead, I forced the issue.”

“How… how would his Charizard have taken over?” said June. I gestured towards the field.

“If Sanchez got forced underground, I would have had more issues as Charizard could melt the upper layers of the arena. Which isn’t a big issue but it would have been able to get rid of my Stealth Rock.” Unlike the games, some moves could force the trap field effects to be wiped, as demonstrated by my own explosion. It just took more concerted effort to actually affect the field.

Celia and June seemed to mull that over. “Huh, you’ve thought about this a lot.”

I nodded. “The momentum started back when I announced my challenge. There’s not a ton of information about my team compared to Lance. I have a list of pokemon he can draw on with suspicions on some more. Being at the top is harder, with people being able to work out counters. That being said, Lance didn’t get there because of a fluke.”

“AND THE ARENA IS READY ONCE MORE! THIS BREAK WAS BROUGHT TO YOU—” I turned, ignoring the advertisements. I palmed my pokeball and locked eyes with Lance once again. I grinned at him. For a moment he grinned back, seemingly just as eager to return to the match as I was. I felt his aura sweep over but I continued to stride forward undaunted as his Charizard flared his wings and roared.

I waited for the podium to raise me up to level. The referee gestured to me and I drew back my arm for my next pokemon to take to the field.