Chapter 57.2- Oak

It shed its pretense of being harmed by the attack and pounced right on the attacking water type. The creature’s scream, as a single drill hand smashed into its chest, was grating to my ears. It moved backward, ceding ground to the attacking rock type. And there, it made its third mistake of the battle. The first had been agreeing to fight the monster at all. The second was believing it could ever be harmed by an attack like its Hydro Pump. The third was letting it take a meter of space. Fucking insatiable, it was. If you gave that thing an inch, it would take a mile very comfortably. I’d seen it happen in real-time to so many challengers; it was beginning to turn into a routine.

I could practically imagine the fight in my mind's eye without even looking at it. Left punch, right hook, uppercut, body shot, swerve out of the line of sight, and move in with a trio of left-handed jabs. I predicted every move before it happened. It wasn’t even bothering to try to hide what it wanted to do next. It was only a matter of time before the Blastoise was thoroughly overwhelmed, and what little defense it relied on crumbled like stones in an Onix's mouth. It slumped to the ground, knocked out, and the challenger didn’t even bother with words as he returned his Pokemon to its ball and fled the presence of the rogue gym leader turned terrorist turned pardoned criminal.

I sighed to myself. I hadn’t had high hopes, but some part of me had dared to dream. “Giovanni!” I heard a voice boom through the forest and was shocked to look up and see Bruno himself leaping from tree to tree like a monkey as he ran towards the Rocket leader. Yes. Finally.

“Bruno of the Elite Four. What a surprise to see you here,” the traitorous bastard said as the Fighting Type Master came to a stop right in front of him.

“Prepare yourself. You will pay for the lives you reaped today. This shall be your reckoning,” the man said in that booming baritone of his that just made me trust him. It made me believe that this was going to be the end of Giovanni’s rampage in this forest. I mean, how could he hope to stand against one of the Elite Four? Strongest gym leader he might have been, but that meant nothing in the face of one of the league’s outright strongest trainers. Some called him the second strongest in Kanto even, with Donnell Oak and Agatha tipped as a joint third.

His Machamp flexed its muscles as it prepared to head into battle. Giovanni’s Rhyperior just watched it, unimpressed. “We shall begin,” the Fighting Master said, giving his opponent fair warning. That’s part of the reason no one could actually hate Bruno. He was just such an upstanding guy, really into fair play and all that stuff. The Machamp seemed to flicker in space, and the ground it stood on was shattered to pieces. The next thing I saw was it landing a terrific punch right in the center of Rhyperior’s guard. I just barely avoided falling over myself in shock. Machamp wasn't the fastest of species, but that one had just moved too quickly for me to track. It had been nothing but a flash, and the space between seconds was how long it had taken it to cover that distance in its charge. The scary part was that Rhyperior had still managed to react in time to get its guard up.

I knew it was sandbagging in some of its fights, but to have been holding back this much was just something else. Something unbelievable, really. They remained locked together for a few more seconds before Rhyperior heaved and actually moved Machamp back a few inches. It then used that leverage to maneuver out of the lock and head in for a punch of its own. Machamp dodged with ease, and its return Spartan kick hit nothing but air as Rhyperior submerged itself in the ground.

Bruno was unimpressed. “Earthquake,” was all he said, and his Pokemon began to lightly tap its foot against the ground before jumping a few feet in the air beyond what any human could do, and landing on the ground with the impact of a god’s own hammer. Even from kilometers away, I could feel the tremors of the earthquake. Someone had referred to elite trainers and their Pokemon as natural disasters in the guise of human flesh on one of the forums. While he'd been quickly shouted down for the statement, I was beginning to see his point. The earthquake practically leveled that area of the forest. Trees collapsed instantly as the ground was torn apart. It was like an actual natural disaster had gone off in that section of the field alone. Even with that kind of attack, a part of me could tell the fight was nowhere near over.

That part was proven correct when Rhyperior returned to the surface right next to the four-armed pokemon's feet and started the second part of their engagement with a stab at one of his opponent's knees with its left drill. Machamp moved out of the way with ease, and so they began their dance. Except, this time, Machamp was clearly ahead: faster, stronger, and more skilled. He showed his dominance in every exchange, and it was only Rhyperior's nigh impenetrable armor that kept it from being battered into unconsciousness. Only that armor allowed it to remain in the fight the way it did.

I scowled as Rhyperior finally managed to end the pounding it was receiving from Machamp by going underground again. This time, it resurfaced before Bruno could order another earthquake. Now that it was no longer a blur of movement, I could get a good look at it. It had quite a few scrapes here and there, but it looked nearly unscathed. I whistled in appreciation. No matter how much I hated the trainer, I had to admit that that Pokemon could throw down.

This time, it seemed determined to maintain its distance. I guess after confirming he stood no chance against the literal fighting type master in close combat, Giovanni was exploring other options.

The ground type master's Pokemon stretched its hands, and several boulders around it began to float in the air. I waited to see how Bruno's Pokemon would deal with the rocks about to be tossed at it, but Giovanni's was the one to truly surprise me. Instead of just sending the boulders flying like any other rock type would do, it seemed to close its eyes in concentration. I watched in gobsmacked amazement as the boulders shattered into pebble-like pieces, and those pieces shot right at its opponent with so much speed I could not even keep track of the individual rocks. As they approached, Machamp seemed to take a deep breath before surrounding himself in the green bubble of a well-used protect. The rocks smashed against the shield with the sound of a gong. I watched as the green bubble seemed to shudder in on itself before stabilizing and sending the rocks flying back in every direction.

I thanked Arceus for giving me the wisdom to maintain my distance as the few trees that hadn’t been destroyed by Machamp’s earthquake were torn to shreds by the pebbles. Machamp dropped its protect the moment the rocks were gone and rushed straight for Rhyperior. The ground type stomped one of its feet on the ground and a spike of rock came shooting out of the ground right where Machamp was about to step over - Stone Edge. Somehow, the fighting type pokemon managed to dodge the spike by stopping at the very last second. A dozen more spikes appeared around him like magic, and I watched as Rhyperior lifted its hands again. The spikes tore themselves out of the ground before spearing straight for Machamp. This time, the fighting type pokemon decided that the best defense was a good offense and assumed a stance I didn’t recognize. Small green balls of energy formed in each of its four palms, and each of them flew at one of the spikes, blowing it to smithereens. It repeated the same move three times till all the spikes had been destroyed, and then cocked its head at Rhyperior, as if to say, ‘Is that the best you can do?’

Rhyperior seemed to understand the message as it roared in rage and took a step forward, moving towards Machamp. The fighting type pokemon took the opening its taunt gave it and exploded from the ground. Once again, in the span of a second, I was met with a completely different position. Machamp was underneath Rhyperior’s bulk as if the armoured pokemon had somehow caught that blitz charge and wrestled its attacker to the ground.

“That attack of yours. It’s not speed. It’s strength. That’s why you did not show it off against Donnell Oak. Against a pokemon fast enough to react, your pokemon becomes nothing more than a sitting duck as it hurls through the air at speeds it can perceive but not control. It’s a genius idea, but one-dimensional,” Giovanni said to the Elite Four member, and I resisted the urge to hang my head. Even Bruno fell for Giovanni’s tricks? Was there any way to actually put down this bastard?

“Thank you for telling me, Giovanni. I will endeavor to make improvements before I face my next opponent. However, it is short-sighted of you to assume victory in this battle from a small but fleeting advantage,” Bruno said, dragging me out of my thoughts. I watched in shock as, with virtually zero leverage beyond the ground they lay on, Bruno’s Machamp began to lift Rhyperior as it prepared to stand. I watched, absolutely gobsmacked, as the Machamp actually managed to slowly but steadily make its way to its feet with a struggling Rhyperior held above its head by four straining hands. When the Machamp actually tossed Rhyperior away once it made it to its feet, I nearly cheered.

Of course, it just had to ruin the joy I was feeling by standing up almost immediately after another strong hit. The Rhyperior still looked unscathed and ready to keep going all day.

This time, both pokemon moved in unison. Machamp tried to close the distance, but an earthquake from Rhyperior slowed down its approach and gave the ground type pokemon the time it needed to prepare a charge of its own. It hunkered down and began to run forwards. Its drill moved at an extreme speed as it gathered a green aura around its body. I had little trouble figuring out what move was about to be used. Giga Impact was one of the most famous pokemon moves out there, after all. Machamp began its own charge, matching the ground type’s move with its own. I braced myself as they were about to make impact, but it proved useless.

They crashed into each other, and the shockwave bowled me over almost instantly. From my place on the ground, I watched as the trees around me were sent flying. Without Venusaur keeping a good grip on me with her vines, I was sure I would have joined the trees in their fate. Donnell Oak’s forest was nothing more than grass and ground at this point. Natural disasters, indeed.

When the winds finally died down, and I was able to look up again, I was unsurprised to find both pokemon still standing. Rhyperior seemed to have been forced back by the clash, but it was still standing thanks to the ungodly durability it sported. At this point, I had to accept that these pokemon would probably kill everyone around them in their attempts to put each other down.

Most amazingly, in my opinion, were the trainers. Both Giovanni and Bruno remained staring at each other, standing tall. Neither of them had even flinched from the impact, to the best of my knowledge. They were next to the epicentre and were perfectly fine. I had just endured a risk to my life, and I was over a kilometre away. Were these people even human? Could elite pokemon trainers still be classified as such? At this point, I was leaning towards no as my answer to the question. What the actual fuck was this? I ignored my desire to censor myself even in my own head and instead swore with abandon. Why should I prevent myself from swearing when the daughter whose innocence I had sought to protect was dead from the ambitions of a monster? A monster I could not slay. I had promised to protect her, and I had failed. I had promised to avenge her, and now with what I could see, I would never succeed. Something in me broke as I fell to my knees, and tears began to well up in my eyes.

A/N; That’s the next half done. Hopefully, we’re done with the entire thing tomorrow