Metang’s claws twitched. His arms moved imperceptibly. His red eyes never left the forms of the Pokémon before him, but he wasn’t involved in this battle.

  An electric, gliding rodent—an Emolga—flew circles around a Gothitelle standing stock-still. The Psychic type almost seemed as though it was a model trying to show off its tiered dress, but that was just because it was locked in intense focus, constantly attempting to pin down its highly mobile foe.

  Though nothing was visibly happening in this battle, it was an intense show of agility and skill. It was exactly the kind of fight that Metang would have jumped in on within the Giant Chasm, but fighting a certain Iron Valiant had all but beaten patience into him.

  However, I could tell Metang wasn’t truly impressed. Not really. Not with this. These two Pokémon might have been battling at a level above his own, but they didn’t hold a candle to that Metagross—nor did that Metagross hold a candle to Kyurem.

  We needed that battle, I thought to myself, watching Metang on the ground floor from where I sat in a short set of stands that rose up behind him. Kyurem set an expectation. We now know the power needed to be at that level. And now, Metang has a better goal to chase after, too.

  This Battle Club’s main battlefield had been built within an old plaza set between buildings. Trainers fought on a compacted dirt field in its middle, and casual observers as well as people waiting for their turn watched from the stands built at the battlefield’s sides.

  Even though I wanted to head out toward Humilau City at some point today, Dianne had dragged me out here as soon as Marlon’s acceptance of my promotion battle had been confirmed. With her job, she wasn't able to come here that often, and it didn’t make sense to go all the way to a Battle Club and not at least watch at least some battles between trainers.

  But right now, from where Dianne sat next to me in those stands, she turned from the battlefield to send me a brief look.

  “You ever fight a Gym Leader before?” she asked, clearly thinking of Marlon.

  “I’ve battled a few. Not to earn any badges, but just for some... casual matches,” I answered, resting my head on my hand as I turned from Metang to properly watch the ongoing exchange. “Some of them, I wasn’t too interested in facing, but they challenged me, and you can’t really turn a Gym Leader down. Honestly, I’ll never forget the first trainer battle I ever had—Valiant and I faced a team of Ghost types while a Gym Leader rapped lyrics at their back.”

  It was the strangest form of psychoanalysis I’d ever seen.

  Dianne was now watching me, but I was more focused on the battle taking place. The pair of trainers below us were skilled—more skilled than most of the trainers I’d battled so far—but they weren’t active trainers. They were a pair of old men who had retired long ago, having come to the Battle Club to have a friendly match during a break.

  They weren’t anyone I could challenge as part of the World Coronation Series, but I could at least appreciate what they were showing off in their match. No moves were being exchanged, but this fight was pushing the Emolga’s agility to its limits, and while the Gothitelle was unable to secure a telekinetic grip, it never once dropped its focus.

  “So... did you win?” Dianne asked.

  “Only against about half the Gym Leaders I faced,” I replied, grumbling slightly. “A lot of those battles were more about teaching me a lesson. The second Gym Leader I ever faced had us fight in a double battle, and she focused down Farigiraf to have her team fight Valiant two-on-one. And then, even though Valiant was stronger than all of her Pokémon individually, we still lost.”

  “Let me guess,” Dianne mused, leaning back in her seat, “you were so focused on training Valiant that you weren’t spending enough time with Farigiraf.”

  That lesson had been beaten into my head so harshly that I didn’t even wince.

  “Yeah,” I answered softly. “I changed how I was treating my team after that. Farigiraf got a lot more of the attention she deserved. And that battle—would you believe me that it was against the Gym Leader considered to be the weakest in all of Paldea?”

  Dianne laughed, but I didn’t. I just smiled at the memory, even though it had been a tough lesson to learn. Ever since that experience, I’d made sure all of my Pokémon received time for focused practice. While directing my efforts toward a single team member might have resulted in Valiant getting even stronger than they were initially, it wasn’t fair to Farigiraf, and even then, a strong, single Pokémon could be overwhelmed with the right strategy.

  Unless, of course, that single Pokémon was an inordinately powerful Pokémon like Kyurem.

  “And that’s the strength we need to reach,” I ended up mumbling under my breath.

  “The Gym Leader’s?” Dianne asked, overhearing my whisper.

  “Uh, sure,” I said quickly, forcing myself back into a casual lean as I sent another glance to Metang.

  I knew we needed to head out to reach our promotion battle sooner rather than later, but it wasn’t even lunch yet, and I could tell that Metang would resent my choice if we didn’t get into at least one fight here.

  “Anyway, I think that battle is why I like Bug-type moves a bit more than other trainers,” I said, somewhat changing the topic. “Someone else might have ignored Fury Cutter, but Valiant and I both know the power that can be found in that attack.”

  Below us, Metang’s twitches started to grow—he was picturing himself using his attacks more and more in his head. Even though we needed to leave, I hadn’t gone against Dianne when she brought us out here because I knew Metang needed to witness more trainer battles. As much as I appreciate the fury behind his attacks, he needed more thought behind his move choices if we wanted him to reach his maximum level of strength.

  Metang’s default strategy wasn’t something that always worked, so we needed to improve how he fought before we got ourselves caught up in a more difficult fight. He had developed the bad habit of constantly throwing himself forward with wild abandon, and while being able to exchange hits and come out victorious was good, he needed to learn how not to take unnecessary hits.

  But his impatience was growing, both here right now and in general. At times, it almost felt as though he was only just tolerating me; Metang wanted to get stronger, and my team was his current best path to reach that.

  Still. That just means both of our goals align. I’ll make Metang as strong as he wants if it means he’ll help me win.

  “Gym Leaders sure can be helpful, huh?” Dianne said, and I realized that I had totally lost track of our conversation. “But hearing all of that does make me wonder why Marlon accepted your challenge.”

  I shrugged.

  “Gym Leaders are still trainers,” I answered. “They want to battle and get stronger, too.”

  “But at the Great Rank?” Dianne asked.

  I didn’t have an answer. Gym Leaders generally served as a challenge for trainers to overcome. They purposefully raised a variety of teams so they could support battles at every level, but they also tended to have a core group of strong, personal Pokémon.

  Those tough Pokémon were the Pokémon that a Gym Leader would bring to their toughest fights. In a tournament like the World Coronation Series, it was practically unheard of for a Gym Leader’s core team to only bring them to the Great Rank.

  “I don’t want to lose to Marlon,” I mumbled. “We need more experience.”

  “Well, there’s always one option...” Dianne said, and when I looked over, she was wearing a cheeky grin.

  “So, I might have signed up for a go on the battlefield while you were distracted with Don George,” she said, kicking her legs where she sat. “I’ve never been that good with goodbyes, so I figured we could part ways like only trainers could.”

  I looked her in the eyes, and Dianne’s stare locked with mine.

  Her statement was clear.

  “A challenge,” I said.

  “We’ve been around each other for long enough,” she said, her smile turning into a full-blown grin. “Nick, don’t you think it’s about time we figure out who’s the strongest between us?”

  As it turned out, she had brought me out here for more than just to watch a match.

  Just like with the previous battles, people were watching from the stands when Dianne and I took the field. They were almost all trainers waiting for their turn, but really, they were here to watch a few battles as a way to pass the time.

  When it came to battling in public areas, some trainers were always paranoid about revealing too much of their strategy. According to them, giving someone the chance to figure out a counter could be a tournament-losing move.

  But those people were crazy.

  If one counter-strategy meant your team would lose, then you never had a good strategy in the first place. In my understanding, it was better to give it your all, no matter what might be revealed.

  “Metang,” I said, looking over to the floating Pokémon that had moved with me to the field. His entire body was twitching as if he wanted to jump into the fight right now, but he also knew that doing something like that would just see Valiant release themself to unleash a far-too-powerful strike against him.

  He wanted to make sure he could still get into more fights later.

  “You want to battle, right?” I asked, and Metang's gaze bore down on me. “We're going to have one, but I need you to listen to me. Dianne is tough. She’s not just any trainer—she’s a trainer that earned seven badges, and she only didn’t earn her eighth because she ran out of time in her season.”

  There was an archaic way of estimating a trainer’s strength that had fallen out of use in recent years. Trainers used to be rated by “stars,” with each star representing the approximate strength needed to earn that many Gym Badges. However, with so many people taking on the Gym Challenge nowadays, that system was hardly used. The number of Gym Badges earned could just be stated instead. After all, theoretical power was not equivalent to actual power.

  But that system was still decent for estimation, and in Dianne’s case, she would have been rated at just under eight stars.

  My team, however? Our level of strength was a bit more unclear due to the variability of my Pokémon’s power, but even just being able to last through one attack from Kyurem meant we were rated higher than that.

  Still, Dianne was an experienced trainer, and even if she was no longer an “active” trainer, she still carried the instincts of one.

  Across from me, she stood inside a marked box that designated the safe space for a trainer to stand, and she cupped a hand around her mouth to better let her shout carry.

  “If you haven’t forgotten, I took today off!” she called out to me from across the field. “That means my Pokémon can fight as hard as they want! Any injuries we take, we’ll just sleep it off, so don’t even think about holding back, Nick!”

  “Don’t worry,” I said, matching her grin. “We never do.”

  I nodded to Metang to grant him permission, and he practically shot onto the field. I had to shout to tell him to stop on my half since he looked as though he was about to rush Dianne herself. When it came to these battles, the field was divided into two. Pokémon could only start on the half closest to their participating trainer, and trainers could only release Pokémon onto that half when sending out new team members via Pokéball.

  “Alright! The rules!” Dianne called out. Even with Metang looking so aggressive, she didn’t even blink at him, and she confidently planted her hands on her hips. “I have four Pokémon, but one’s still growing, so we’ll just use three for this match! Single battle, no switching. And that works out pretty well—whoever gets the most knock-outs wins!”

  “Oh?” I said, gaining a purposeful smirk. “So you’re telling me that this match will end as soon as I knock out two of your Pokémon?”

  “C’mon, Nick!” Dianne shouted, briefly sticking her tongue out. “We both know how this is going to go—we each get a single knock-out before I seal it all in a dramatic, third battle finish!”

  “Sure, sure.” I waved a hand. “Just keep in mind that plan means you’d need to get at least one knock-out, first.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Dianne grinned at me again, struggling to hold back her laughter. It was basically tradition for every Pokémon battle to first involve an exchange of taunts. You couldn’t go into a battle expecting to lose, after all. Taunts were a way to make sure both trainers had the appropriate fighting spirit.

  Also, coming up with clever ways to taunt your opponent was pretty fun, too.

  On her side of the field, Dianne drew a Pokéball from her belt, and she kissed it before flinging it into the air. There, an insectoid Pokémon came out, except this Pokémon was no insect. Vibrava might have resembled a large dragonfly, but it was a true dragon—just a dragon in its mid-stage form.

  “Before we begin,” Dianne started, “how about a bet?”

  “You wanna pay me cash?” I teased.

  “Nah, this is more out of concern for you. I know you can’t afford much of a payment if you lose, so... How about the loser buys the winner lunch?”

  I nodded.

  “I can do that.”

  The Battle Club owned this central plaza, and it didn’t exist just to serve as a mere public battlefield. This place employed a technician-slash-referee, and he had a small electric table off to the side. I had already been forced to chide Rotom to not approach it—he always wanted to possess new technology.

  But with that technician there, Dianne sent him a thumbs up, and on a large screen attached to the wall above his head, images of our faces appeared. Beneath those, pictures of our current Pokémon were set up to face each other, as well. Those pictures would grey out as our Pokémon fainted, serving as an easy way to track wins.

  “Almost like being part of an official tournament,” I mumbled to myself. “With the audience and that screen... I can see why Battle Clubs are so popular.”

  The technician hit a button, and a trio of beeps played for a countdown.

  When a horn blared out to denote the start of the battle, I was so impressed by the setup that I almost didn’t realize that the battle had begun.

  “Vibrava, Dig strats!” Dianne yelled. “Avoid everything, and strike with Earth Power!”

  Metang rushed forward immediately; he was not one to hold back and wait. Though I had told him to listen to me, I hadn’t told him that he couldn’t act on his own.

  My other Pokémon tended to make quick choices in battle because we had fought together for long enough that we knew how we preferred to fight. In the case of Metang, he didn’t have that experience, but he had also only ever seen tough trainers fighting like that. He likely assumed that having that level of independence was just how battles worked.

  But that kind of free-rein fighting only worked when a Pokémon was skilled enough to know what to do.

  As a result, I didn’t get the chance to give Metang any proper commands before he had already thrown himself forward. An arm glowed with the silvery grey of a Metal Claw, but Dianne’s Vibrava shoved its head into the ground opposite him, and it dug into the smooth dirt floor of this pseudo-official battlefield to perfectly avoid his attack.

  “Metang!” I called out quickly. “Get ready to defend yourself! Earth Power is an explosion!”

  Arm still glowing, Metang looked around in search of Vibrava, only barely listening to what I said. However, he couldn’t find it; the antlion-dragonfly had already disappeared deep underground.

  Metang had no way to predict his opponent's actions, so he was forced to quickly cross his arms in some rough form of defense. Seeing that, I couldn't help but wince. For all of our effort to catch him up with everyone else, he was still fighting as he had fought in the crater:

  He had only ever practiced his offense.

  Due to that, he wasn’t ready for the ground to begin to glow a bright orange beneath him, and he reacted far too late when I shouted in warning.

  The dirt exploded. Earth Power erupted with burning rubble. Metang might have been able to float in the air, but he carried no immunity to this earth-based move.

  “I’m telling you, Nick,” Dianne called out. “We’re going to go one-to-one and then settle this in our third matchup.”

  “What,” I countered, “you’re expecting to lose your next match, then?”

  “Not really,” Dianne said with a shrug, “but it’s a funnier taunt this way.”

  She laughed again, and I didn’t bother to hold back my snort.

  When Vibrava reappeared, emerging from the ground a distance away, Metang immediately tried to rush it for another Metal Claw, but he failed. His opponent just dug straight back down underground.

  Even from where it was buried, Vibrava’s amused chittering was pretty obvious. Likely, it was enjoying this battle as a form of punishment for all the times Metang’s practice had disturbed its nest.

  “Alright,” I said, piecing together a plan as Dianne shouted for another Earth Power. “You aren’t going to catch it, but you do need to defend yourself. So, new strategy, Metang! Wait for an Earth Power, and then smash an Iron Head right into it! Turn your offense into your defense!”

  Metang could take a hit, but he rarely defended himself—and often poorly, at that. I also knew that Metang had been capable of reaching great speeds in the crater, but that was due to how he relied on the location’s magnetic fields. He was much slower out here, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t picked up on another way to fight.

  Other than through pure damage and agility, this was my favorite way to have my team members battle. People always thought that defensive moves had to be limited to something like Protect or Iron Defense, but why couldn’t attacks themselves be used to counteract and even deflect?

  Valiant had used this idea with their Fury Cutter defense against Jack’s Reuniclus. Rotom had managed to reduce the strength of Kyurem’s Ice-type blast by sending out his Overheat.

  Here, as the earth beneath him began to turn orange, Metang rotated his body to face straight down. That same, silvery sheen that would coat his arms now coated the entirety of his metal form.

  Right as the ground began to bulge, he rushed straight into the attack.

  Vibrava’s Earth Power did hit. However, it hit Metang while he charged. The Steel-type energy of Iron Head enhanced his defense just enough to allow him to tear right through. A Ground-type move like Earth Power might have been super effective against a Steel type, but Metang was able to minimize the damage he took just by breaking through with this one attack.

  Compared to how he had fought in the Giant Chasm, it was obvious that Metang was already learning.

  “Yes! Just like that! Now, get ready for Vibrava to come back up!” I shouted.

  We were poised to win.

  However, upon witnessing what Metang had done, Dianne let out a sigh.

  “Nick...” she said sadly.

  I blinked and took another look at Metang.

  Despite how good his Iron Head had been, the sheer power of his move and the way the Earth Power had exploded the ground meant that Metang had somehow managed to lodge himself in the floor.

  “Vibrava, just... use Earthquake,” Dianne mumbled.

  No matter what I shouted or what he did, Metang was unable to get free. His impressive defense backfired, as Vibrava pulled itself out of a hole just to jump up and slam back down onto the earth. An Earthquake’s shockwave rushed toward Metang, and it hit with the increased effectiveness of damaging an opponent stuck underground.

  “Told ya I’d get a knock-out,” Dianne said as Metang went completely still.

  “...He just needs more practice,” I grumbled.

  Metang was the weakest member of my team, after all.

  Still, it wasn’t like he wasn’t strong. One solid hit would have been enough to catch Vibrava off guard. From there, I knew Metang possessed enough of a ferocity to follow up and take Dianne’s Pokémon out.

  He might have had a chance if he hadn’t gotten stuck after blocking that Earth Power. Currently, mobility was his biggest weakness.

  Metang might be able to both deal and take physical hits, but I’ll need to keep in mind that he’s not great at being pestered at range.

  Above the field, the screen tinted Metang’s picture grey, and a buzzer rang out to signal that a Pokémon had fainted in the match.

  That was one point in Dianne’s favor. Now, I needed two to win while she only needed a single point more.

  “Quick question,” she called out as we both returned our Pokémon. “You using Valiant?”

  “Not planning on it.”

  “So you’re going easy on me?” she then asked.

  “What? No, why would I?” I replied, blinking at her question. “Dianne, I already told you—I want all of my Pokémon to battle. Besides, Valiant wouldn’t fit well for our fight. I think both of us are waiting for a certain match-up at the end.”

  I didn’t send my next Pokémon out right away. Instead, with Metang fainted, I recalled him just to release him right next to me, where I crouched and reached into a side pocket on my backpack to retrieve a Potion.

  The Potion wouldn’t give him the same level of healing as the rush of energy that came from a Revive, but it was just enough to return him to consciousness and give him a base amount of energy to stay awake. His natural recovery would be enough to heal him in the long term.

  “I know you’ve watched Valiant fight a lot, but right now, I need you to pay close attention to how my next two Pokémon battle," I said, crouching before Metang and looking him straight in the eye. “Watch how we battle together. Think about our choices. This is something we’ve developed over the course of an entire year, and we are strong when we fight together. Just because Valiant might be stronger doesn’t mean everyone else deserves to be ignored.”

  Metang didn’t have the energy to hover, but he could sit on the ground and open his eyes. Sometimes, it was hard to tell exactly how he was feeling with how his stare often became just a red glow, but right now, with how motionless he was, I could tell that I at least had his entire focus.

  As I stood back up to face Dianne, my watch crackled, and something slipped into my backpack just to slip back out, now possessing a much larger form.

  “Flareon!”

  “Rotom!”

  This was an interesting matchup, especially with Rotom’s choice of device. He had left the additional pieces of his fan behind in my backpack, and he now hovered over the field in his Electric-Flying type form.

  “Alright, Flareon! Let’s wake up and do this!” Dianne called out.

  Ahead of her, her red-furred Flareon just yawned and arched its back. For all the time I had stayed with her, this was the Pokémon I’d seen the least, but not because she tried to hide it or because it had hidden from me.

  No, Dianne’s Flareon was just lazy.

  It preferred to spend its time sleeping inside its Pokéball more often than not.

  “Air Slash!” I shouted, wanting to take advantage of her Flareon’s drowsiness before she could call for anything smart.

  Rotom forced the blades of his fan to accelerate to an incredible rate, and with an audible buzz, they churned the air to launch out a visible blade of wind.

  “Detect!” Dianne ordered, throwing an arm to the side. “Into Flame Charge! Run around it to build up your speed!”

  Despite how it lazily smacked its lips, Flareon’s eyes suddenly flashed. It jumped to roll, perfectly moving out of the way thanks to the foresight provided by Detect, and flames sparked up around its body as it immediately returned to wakefulness, using the momentum of Flame Charge to begin increasing its speed.

  “Keep it up,” I said to Rotom.

  Flareon started to circle him, and for some reason, I started to get flashbacks to one of my more recent battles.

  Much like how Liepard would fight, Dianne’s Flareon circled around to dodge. Rotom didn’t move, staying in place to unleash his blades of wind, and Flareon ran faster and faster and faster, a building fire consuming it thanks to its ever-growing Flame Charge.

  “I can see where Liepard got this strategy,” I mused.

  Dianne replied with a grin.

  “You should know he helped me train Flareon, and Flareon’s that much stronger for it!”

  Rotom turned ever so slightly to face me. Specifically, still aiming his attacks at his opponent, his face shifted around on the surface of his fan to send me a look.

  I nodded once.

  “Go ahead and prepare,” I said quietly. “We’re using your special.”

  Flareon continued to build more and more speed as Rotom unleashed Air Slash after Air Slash. However, his attacks started to slow as electricity crackled around him. Sparks would appear, but those sparks would just get sucked into his body.

  As a result, he would pause between his moves, and those pauses gave Flareon plenty of time to accelerate. Eventually, it was almost moving faster than Valiant on an Electric Terrain. Flame Charge had all but maximized its speed at this point, and Dianne planned to translate all of that momentum into pure offense.

  With an incredible grin, she pointed right at Rotom.

  “Flare Blitz!” she yelled.

  The fire that had already consumed Flareon now erupted into a blistering inferno.

  This attack threatened to take Rotom out in one move; there was no way he’d last through a slam that was this strong.

  However, Dianne’s strategy had been flawed since the beginning:

  We had already seen Liepard use this combination countless times before.

  “...Wait,” Dianne said, noticing the sparks crackle around Rotom once more. “Oh, shoot.”

  The very second Flareon got within range, Rotom exploded with electricity, releasing every bit of voltage he had built with the Charge he’d used between his Air Slash attacks. He basically squeezed himself dry for this one attack—his Discharge came out with such force that the electricity threatened to put out all of Flareon’s flames.

  In fact, it did.

  As Rotom slipped under the falling Pokémon to avoid being touched by its rapidly fading fire, I looked over to Dianne and then sent a glance to Metang.

  “Dianne, I’m going to say something. Please don’t take it as an insult.”

  “...Sure, but you didn’t need to preface it like that?” she said.

  “Dianne is retired,” I said, speaking directly to Metang. “But we aren’t. We train as much as we can, but Dianne has to spend most of her time patrolling routes. She still gets into battles sometimes, but I imagine a lot of her free time is spent resting—right?”

  “Basically, yeah,” she replied, understanding my point. “We might do a few exercises every so often, but really all of our training is done whenever we get into the occasional fight.”

  “Rotom took out Flareon in a single hit because we’ve trained,” I said to Metang. “We’ve put all of his focus into developing his special attack, and that maximized power was why he was able to win in one move.”

  Dianne had been trying the same strategy by calling for repeated uses of Flame Charge; building up a Pokémon’s capabilities through self-buffing moves was a great way to overcome a gap.

  Flareon was returned; the Pokémon was unconscious. Rotom, meanwhile, was only lightly singed due to proximity more than anything else.

  Within his fan, he zipped back over me with a proud smile. However, that smile turned into a smirk as he looked over to Metang.

  It was cocky, and he was bragging.

  Metang looked incensed.

  But as the blue, metal Pokémon entered the air in an attempt to make himself look big, Rotom disappeared to purposefully ignore him. The tiny Pokémon turned to electricity, snapping back into my watch, and I had to lunge forward to catch his fan before it hit the floor.

  “Really?” I asked.

  Snickering came from my wrist. I ignored Rotom in return. Metang sent him a glare before returning to where he was at rest on the floor.

  The battle was temporarily put on hold to let me shove the fan into my backpack.

  “One Pokémon left, Nick,” Dianne called out. “You ready for this?”

  She held a familiar Pokéball.

  “When you first challenged me to a battle, I kind of expected this match-up to occur,” I answered.

  In return, I held out the Pokéball that I knew would be familiar to her.

  We didn’t need to say anything else; we were both in agreement.

  This would be a match between traded Pokémon.

  Farigiraf versus Liepard.

  Liepard fought differently than every other Pokémon on my team, and I wanted Metang to see that. Meanwhile, a similar fact was almost true for Dianne—Farigiraf fought differently, as the giraffe had once trained under me.

  Quickly, the two Pokémon appeared on the field, both of them being released from their Pokéballs. We were supposed to wait until the technician gave a signal, but neither Dianne nor I let any time pass before we started shouting commands.

  “Trick Room!”

  “Taunt.”

  “Signal Beam.”

  “Night Slash!”

  “Use Reflect!”

  “That's a bluff—charge right through!”

  Farigiraf wasn't a fast Pokémon. Trick Room was a field effect that would invert a Pokémon's speed. In other words, setting it up would make Farigiraf faster, and Liepard would find himself drastically slowing down.

  But Trick Room was not an attack; it was vulnerable to the effects of Taunt, and Liepard’s species meant he had this little ability called Prankster. He could use status moves in almost an instant, and before Farigiraf could pull off anything at all, a sharp, taunting growl goaded the giraffe into not bothering with anything but direct, attacking moves.

  So, instead, both sets of Farigiraf's eyes glowed, and a dual Signal Beam shot out, combining and spiraling and shaking the air. The move hummed like a raging swarm of insects, and its Bug-type damage threatened to be twice as effective against a Dark-type like Liepard.

  But just like Flareon before him, Liepard ran in a circle to avoid this move, and a line was carved into the earth behind him. Farigiraf dragged her move after him, with Liepard practically turning into a blur.

  Soon, the Signal Beam stopped due to a shout for “Reflect,” and Liepard changed directions. However, Farigiraf's eyes never stopped glowing, and as Liepard got close, it almost seemed as though Dianne’s bluff was about to work.

  When the second use of Signal Beam tore out of Farigiraf, I almost thought my Pokémon had been consumed by the blast. Instead, with incredible grace, Liepard slid under the beam to reach the space beneath Farigiraf's legs.

  There, he had room to attack.

  He unleashed his Night Slash.

  Against a Psychic-type, the darkened swipe dealt super effective damage, and he had slashed into such a vulnerable part of Farigiraf’s body that he landed a critical hit.

  “Stomp!” Dianne shouted.

  “Get back. Encore,” I said.

  Liepard got clipped, but Farigiraf was left swaying. And now, due to that hasty shout for Stomp, Encore meant Farigiraf would be unable to use anything but that melee strike.

  A melee strike that Liepard could easily outpace.

  So, Liepard had free rein to finish this match, listening to my call for “Assist.” He conjured a paw-shaped glow in front of his head, drawing in light from where my team was at rest.

  Assist “borrowed” a random move from the user’s allies, and in this case, Liepard began to crackle with electricity.

  Not wanting another finish like what happened to Flareon, Dianne returned Farigiraf before Liepard’s final move could be unleashed.

  “...That was fast,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a battle quite like that.”

  “Well, you’ve never had a Pokémon quite like Liepard, have you?”

  She laughed, and smugly, Liepard lifted a paw off the field just to give it a casual lick.

  With the battle concluded in our favor, I looked to Metang, and I could see that his gaze was burning once more. This time, however, it was not out of anger or frustration, but it was out of a need to be able to take part in a battle that utilized that same, sheer level of skill.

  “We’ll get you there. I promise,” I said quietly.

  I could tell that Metang was properly listening to me—now, in more ways than one.

  Unfortunately, it was only after that exchange that I realized Dianne’s true plan.

  By winning this battle, we would be forced to stay in Lacunosa Town for a bit longer.

  After all, before we left, she had to buy us lunch.

  I think it’s really funny that in this fiction, “retirement” means working a full-time job.

  Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:

  Nick’s Team:

  Iron Valiant

  enormous thank you to everyone reading! Your support keeps this story going.