Chapter 52.1- Oak

My last battle for the day, and coincidentally, for this state of the selection tournament was against one of the other trainers who had managed to make his way through all his opponents, Bruno. Yes, that Bruno. Bruno of the elite four was my last opponent, and I was practically vibrating with anticipation. The nervous energy moving through my body made even Sabrina give up on calming me down.

My first battle against a member of the elite four. Sure, since we’d both won all our battles, there was no chance of either of us failing to qualify. The fact that it was an elite battle added all the tension that the lack of stakes was supposed to remove right back into the equation. If I wasn’t the one preparing to battle, I’d probably have some wisecrack comment about how the people in this world seemed to care about the most minor of things like a battle with no real stakes beyond personal pride. But now? I knew there were stakes. I had to prove to myself that I had the strength to fuck around at this level. When I eventually got selected for the tournament, I didn’t want anyone to have any doubts as to my strength. No, they should only doubt my sanity.

I was called up to the stage for the last, final battle of the day. It was either an extraordinary coincidence or someone was pulling a lot of strings, because Bruno and I had the last battle of the day. The participants had been weeded all through the day, as more people got disqualified for passing the maximum amount of possible losses and draws that would allow qualification, so as the day progressed, the battlers had become fewer and the battles had become more interesting. Apart from Sabrina, the only other interesting person to qualify for the next round was a trainer who used a Typlosion of all things and sent his opponents packing with nasty burns. Igneel would love to fight against that guy, and I hoped the matchup came to fruition.

Against Bruno, my options were numerous. I lost the coin toss and was slated to release first, so I prepared my choice and held the pokeball tightly in my hand. Logically, Ino was the best choice by a wide margin. Fighting types had weaknesses to both fairies and psychics, of which Ino was both. Of course, this world did not run on logic and Gai took the field. Of all my teammates, he wanted this match the most and to deny him the opportunity was to say I didn’t believe in his strength. I doubted there was a quicker way to break a strong relationship with a pokemon than that. Well, apart from all the usual suspects like abuse.

Gai took the field with a calm, smug aura. He was ready for this, and I’d trust him to do what he did best. Bruno was going to be another notch on our belt by the end of this. Bruno gave me a look and said in his impressive baritone, “I expected that impressive Gardevoir of yours, but I guess the temptation to meet me fighter to fighter was too much to resist for one such as you. I’ve monitored your growth, and this will be the first lesson among many I will impart.” His Machamp took the field and flexed its impressive muscles in warning to Gai.

I ran through both what I knew of the species and this particular one in my head. Massive, impressive muscles that only hinted at the terrible strength they had. Machamp was the physically strongest pokemon of them all, and Bruno’s was the first among equals. I’d never seen it fail to bring that terrific strength to bear in battle. However, he was still only the second of the elite four. I’ve seen this Machamp bested a few times so I just had to prove Gai as extraordinary as all the pokemon that had managed the feat. No pressure.

He liked to ramp up, so I decided to go for broke from the beginning. “Third Gate. Gate of Life” I said, and Gai nodded as he prepared the combination of moves that symbolised the third gate. A month of training with Sabrina and her pokemon had allowed us to perfect the series of enhancement moves even further than we already had before. We could get all the way up to four gates now, and I had some ideas of what would symbolise the remaining four. With the combined aura of belly drum, dragon dance and Clangorous soul surrounding him, he pushed off the ground and left a visible crater. Bruno’s machamp was able to move out of the way of the first punch, but the second one slammed right into its chest and sent it flying. It flipped and careened in the air, uncontrollably for a few seconds before two of its hands were able to slow its flight and allow it land on the ground. Gai didn’t slow down his assault one whit, but this time the elite pokemon was ready and waiting. It caught the first punch in its hand, not even wincing from the force that moved it back a few inches. From there, its three remaining hands lashed out at Gai in concentrated punches. My fighting dragon simply allowed them to pound on his scales with no visible effect as he wrenched his hand out of his opponent’s powerful grip. He moved in with his own attacks, and both pokemon just wailed on each other with no care for defence.

“We’re playing your game, aren’t we?” Bruno suddenly asked and I looked at him in shock as he whistled for his pokemon to retreat. Machamp did not retreat. He was the spear of Bruno’s team, always heading forward on the attack, what was this. My opponent, realising how much he was fucking with me, just smiled and stroked his chin. I resisted the urge to get lost looking at those muscles. No need to add feelings of inadequacy to the cocktail of emotion I seemed to be feeling everyday. “Don’t relent” I told Gai and he moved in to continue his attack, scales clanging as he covered the ground.

“That ‘third gate’ of yours. Interesting name for a boring technique. You must feel so wise, stacking enhancement upon enhancement and watching your pokemon’s power skyrocket. However, the tactic is good but does not belong at this level. Every opponent you face has seen it or even tried it before. It fails for one simple reason. No pokemon can keep it up for any long period. Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘the candle that burns twice as bright dies twice as quick’?” He asked rhetorically, as Machamp began engaging in a series of hit and run exchanges with Gai. He’d retreat using teleport, which was a massive surprise on its own before waiting for Gai to catch up to him, exchange a few attacks and teleport away again. What he was doing was so obvious that I nearly facepalmed at the fact that I’d never even considered it.

I mean, when using the gates, Gai was too strong for 99% of the pokemon out there to try something like this, but Bruno’s Machamp? It was child’s play for it to bait him in and tire him out with continuous avoidance and minimal engagement. The worst part was that I couldn’t even ask Gai to retreat and hold off, because the gates had a time limit. Deactivating the move wouldn’t work either, because he’d crash, and badly. Dropping from that high was just something we hadn’t trained enough to be sustainable. Bruno had just seen the gates for a few minutes, broke it down and discovered the weaknesses and was then poking and prodding at those weaknesses near instantly. I guess the distance between elite four and elite trainer was just that massive.

Fuck. There’s only one possible solution. In for a penny, in for a pound, or so they say. “Fourth Gate; Gate of Pain” I proclaim and Gai adds agility and bulk up to the series of enhancement moves he was already using. The strain on his body and mind just quadrupled, and there was no chance of him keeping this up for even a minute, but it was a risk I had to take. 60 seconds to take down a fighting type master? More than enough time in my books. My smile was positively savage as Gai covered the space between him and Machamp so quickly that I couldn’t even perceive his movement. I only knew he’d done it because I could see the fighting type pokemon flying through the air uncontrollably. Gai appeared right behind him and knocked him back towards the ground. From there, I got to see actual evidence that Ino was sharing my memories with the rest of the team. Gai was there waiting before Machamp could land, and sent it airbourne again with another punch. He was pinballing the powerful fighting type across the sky.

Machamp was able to gain some clarity and teleport away from him, but Gai was relentless and was back on it just as quickly. This time, Machamp wasn’t even waiting to engage Gai for a few seconds, he was just teleporting any and everywhere he could within the field to get out of range of Gai’s fists. The only issue with this strategy was that he was no psychic pokemon. It was admirable that Bruno had been able to teach a fighting type to use the move so well, but Machamp was still just that. A fighting type.

Eventually, he slipped up, unable to keep up with the strain and Gai capitalised on it. He hit like a truck and just bowled over the four-armed pokemon with his sheer power and aggression. Punch after punch landed, sending his adversary flying into the ground. Gai prepared himself for a final knockout punch, but his muscles suddenly seized. Fuck. A look at the clock on the wall told me it had been just over a minute since Gai used the move. Fuck. Machamp isn’t done. No. Fuck it. Machamp stood up, slowly but surely. It was battered and bruised, but conscious. Gai was a different story. He’d fallen over, and all my mental shouts for him to get up were having precisely no effect.

I reached out with my aura. It had grown so large in all my time here. I had so much of it to use, and Gai’s body was a willing recipient. I pumped all the power I had into him and hoped on a prayer. Machamp walked forward. More a series of stumbles than a walk, to be honest. But as he moved in to land a finishing blow and knock Gai unconscious, my pokemon moved. He lashed out with an uppercut. When compared to what he’d been throwing around throughout the fight, the punch was pathetic. But, it proved to be the most important one of the battle. Machamp slumped to the floor unconscious and Gai followed him barely a second later. The display on the wall flashed the word ‘DRAW’ and I just nodded, not displeased with the result. I’d do better, next time.

A/N; Let's get on to the next chapter. I hope this looks good