The Red Ascendant 6 (Patreon)

The Red Ascendant 6 - or ‘It is now my duty to protect' (Pokémon, Zirca 2036 OC-I)

It took two days to Suzuen to be free for our planned fight.

While he managed to recover from the encounter with ‘The Devil’ within a day, he still had to clear up the other Trainers that had decided to challenge him. Turns out that he was a swift cleaner, especially when most of the challengers were not ready for that fight yet.

They were just expecting him to ‘suck’ since he was young, something that Emille told me was a common occurrence and prejudice among rookies. In truth, Suzuen was competent even with his low-level team.

His real team was mostly kept away from the rest, used only in case of emergency, and it hardly fought within the Gym beside their Trainer. So, I decided to be super-careful about the training and get as much as I could get out of it.

My attention was on both my new ‘starting Pokémon’, with my old team mostly doing basic things such as talking, eating or just stretching out a bit while Emille was out for other businesses in town. The guy literally had me stay at the flat he owned in the city- it was cheap, so he could afford to have a few small places around.

I had to sleep on the couch, but it was a good couch- anyway, Dreepy and Riolu weren’t given the same focus training. The former was refined in his Speed, while Riolu was given the means to start a foundation of understanding for basic combat.

Pokémon could go ‘auto-pilot’ if needed, so I decided to teach a Fighting-Type like Riolu the means to stand up on her own without having to heavily rely on her Trainer’s orders.

It took a while, but I could say she was close to ready to go autonomous in some battles. I still decided to keep her bound to some basic orders in regard to the Moves she could use, especially with her repertoire expanding a little bit with a new one that was quite powerful but rather ‘slow’ in execution.

Likewise, Dreepy didn’t get the chance to really improve his speed by much. It was too early for him to get faster, but he did get better at being flexible at his highest pace, thus making him able to handle his best mobility without troubling himself with slowing down to dodge some attacks.

It wasn’t perfect, but it would do. I didn’t expect any trouble from Fighting-Type, but I heard that Suzuen had a Zircan Variant for Unfezant. Instead of being a Flying-Normal, it had Fighting moves. Hawlucha all over again, I suppose, but this one was quite a heavy hitter. Then again, the Unfezant may not be part of the First Gym Battle Team. So… Everything was up in the air in that regard.

After getting my little team as much ready as it could get, I ventured into the Gym and went through the signing of all forms needed for the process. Since it was my first time doing a Gym Battle in Zirca, I had to get these formal documents handled early on or I may face some legal issues.

The man behind the counter looked surprised by a few apt choices I selected and looked intrigued by the fact I was going in with just two Pokémon. Once I was through with this, I was instructed on where to go to get the battle started.

I didn’t expect for the arena to have a modest audience for this match. I thought those were rare occurrences, but maybe it had to do with the fact that someone had slipped out that I had helped a lot against Zephiel.

This felt a bit more stressful than I had expected…

“Evan, I hope you are ready for this fight, for I will not pull my punches with you.”

Suzuen’s announcement drew a smile. But I would dare to say the most amusing thing was that I spotted Emille somewhere in the crowd with some popcorn.

It’s fucking 7 and the bastard is eating popcorn for breakfast. The nerve~!

“I think I am ready, so… please don’t hold back.”

He grinned and produced a Pokeball.

“I will start with… Medicham!”

As I stared at the source of trouble within my main strategy, I couldn’t help but feel my smile… falling apart. Medicham was not necessarily a too-strong Pokémon, but it was one that could learn three troublesome moves early on: Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, and Fire Punch.

These three moves were… good ways to fuck up a Anti-Fighting Ghost-Type strategy. And Dreepy had to be the first one to go in. Because, as far as I could tell, Medicham could actually body Riolu if I let her out.

I had to trust my instinct, and hope that Dreepy was faster than that menace.

“Go, Dreepy!”

The flying noodle was out, determined as I had given him a nice pep-talk before this fight. He was ready for it to be a big one, and for his main priority being to dodge and counter any attacks coming his way.

“If you think that your Ghost-type will have it easy… you’re sorely mistaken!”

I snorted. “To be fair, this was the plan, but I think this is no longer viable. I guess I will just… improvise.”

Suzuen looked a bit surprised at the honesty, but decided to go for the kill right from the first order.

“Medicham, close the gap and pressure Dreepy with Thunder Punches.”

“Dreepy, rapid-dodging, I will tell you when to strike back.”

“Dre!”

Medicham rushed to comply with Suzuen’s demand, fists glowing yellow as electricity came close to zap Dreepy while the Dragon Noodle bolted left and right, twirling around the fists of thunderous fury while Medicham used what I had expected from a Fighting-type: A pattern.

One thing that Dreepy had been educated about was that all disciplined Fighting-Type, like Riolu, used a specific stance to handle combat. It was within their learning curve to master a precise style which can be telegraphed after spending some time seeing their attacks.

Suzuen was not aware of my knowledge on the topic, after all I wasn’t using any Fighting-type and felt odd for someone that wasn’t a specialist to be made aware of this. But I had trained myself to be aware of how to react to opponents, and this was something that many can be taught to do, especially Pokémon since combat was clearly in their blood.

Which is why, I think, I ended up outmatching Suzuen out of the ‘element of surprise’ rather than a genuine advantage like he may have expected. My original team worked on Type-advantage, so he had expected me to falter before this kind of match-up, but my lack of flexibility was, in truth, tied to the game’s limitations.

Without that kind of restriction, I could go off and apply new battle plans on the spot. The more I knew my Pokémon’s abilities, the more I could allow them to show more of their true colors without worrying of being beaten with ease.

And that’s when I struck back. Right as Medicham’s umpteenth punch came soaring, I had a plan in mind and I swiftly moved to execute it.

“Bite Medicham’s extended arm.”

Instantly, the Medicham found its arm flexed unconsciously, losing focus of its elemental enhancement and remaining stuck for just a second- it was enough for a prolonged rebuttal.

“Now circle Medicham with Quick Attack,” I continued the counter-offensive as Dreepy bolted earnestly around his opponent. “Use Bite on Medicham’s left foot and lift it up.”

“Medicham, turn around-”

Too little, too late. Dreepy’s teeth got hold of his foe’s foot and proceeded to lift it up from the ground, causing Medicham to be hanging upside down and with moves to reach and attack Dreepy.

“Drop it but push it faster on the ground with Quick Attack.”

Suzuen was silent as he saw his Medicham fainting at the end of it all. The impact wasn’t deadly, but it was an instant-defeat move considering all circumstances.

“Medicham has fainted!” The referee for the fight announced.

Dreepy moved back to me and I patted his head for the good job, while the young Gym Leader retired his Pokémon.

“Evan?”

I blinked, surprised by the banter. “Yes, Suzuen?”

“Do you practice combat?”

“I used to do Boxing,” I remarked and Suzuen blinked.

“That’s… I should have known that,” The shorter guy hummed. “Well, I doubt you are ready for this one.”

He sounded a bit depressed, but confident nonetheless. I didn’t want to feel bad- and I soon didn’t because his ‘Ace’ turned out to be a Falinks. I wouldn’t mind this choice if it had been for the fact that this Pokémon had two tactics: swarming (it was called the Formation Pokémon, composed by a brass/leader and four subordinates) and… Disc-related moves.

And I forgot about that second issue. After all, I didn’t expect the First Gym Leader to have thought that deeply about it, and the first problem was as dreadful as it could get.

“Dreepy, keep your distance, don’t let them swarm you!”

Suzuen smirked as his Falinks managed to put poor Dreepy on the edge. Splitting and rushing it, the Noodle didn’t have the chance to properly move as freely as before, and it was clearly getting to him.

After just a few seconds of trying to outpace the numerous opponents, I could tell I had to pull him out of there somehow.

“Dreepy, fly up and away from Falinks’ reach.”

Suzuen’s smile widened as he giddily delivered an order that stunned me.

“Falinks, use Zen Headbutt!”

Psychic-Type move. It wasn’t super-effective in the usual environment, but the situation pretty much worked against Dreepy. It was the Brass that delivered the move, a powerful blow that hit Dreepy straight on his head and caused him to fall back down and be swarmed.

A concussion was definitely a thing for him to be facing beyond the ensuing scuffle, but it could have been worse so-

“Dreepy, return!”

“Dreepy has fainted! Both contenders are to their last Pokémon!” The referee spoke up again.

1 on 1. This was going to be interesting.

At this point, had this been a game-related fight, I would have called quits. Riolu’s current move hardly gave me a leeway against the current disadvantage Fralinks created.

But this wasn’t the game. And I didn’t necessarily need to use ‘moves’ known if those were not deadly. Hence why the boxing training I provided to Riolu was going to come clutch in this cornered situation.

As I released the small fighter, she gave a look on the situation, and then glanced at me.

“One opponent that can split in five, one is the main target- double shield.”

A nod, then her gaze was aimed at the Fralinks as it had rallied back into a single line.

Suzuen was… curious, but merely nodded at my decision to continue.

“Riolu, use Work Up.”

Huffing, Riolu’s body was coated with a faint yellow aura that signaled her Attack being improved. Such a move may not sound much, but it was going to be relevant to what I had in mind to do.

“Fralinks, use Body Slam followed by Brick Break!”

The Formation split again to try and encircle Riolu, but the next order prevented that from happening.

“Riolu, push forward and… Use Dempsey’s Roll!”

Suzuen’s eyes widened in confusion at the familiar but ‘wrong’ move, then that stare turned into one of shock as Riolu started to punch her way through the Formation Pokémon, smacking all the subordinates and then-

“Uppercut!”

Uppercutting the Brass a few feet off the ground.

“Use Metal Claw before it can hit the ground.”

Two hits, and the Brass was out of commission. The other members of the formation hurried back to their fainted leader and… kind of sat down.

“Fralinks is beaten. The winner of this battle is Evan Morris!” The referee proclaimed, the crowd erupting in cheers much to my delight.

Riolu jumped in surprise at hearing this, stunned at having won like this and… proceeded to bolt towards me.

“Rio-Rio-Rio!”

She jumped once she was close enough and I caught her mid-air. She looked so happy and I gave her a big hug. “You did wonderfully, Riolu.”

I saw Suzuen gesturing us to approach as he walked up to the middle spot of the arena. I complied, still holding close to the good girl while she nuzzled her nose on my shoulder.

“It was a good fight- and man, I can tell you will go far in the circuit. I will make sure the LoreKeep Badge is registered on your online Trainer Card.”

Oh? It’s not a material exchange? I guess stuff is quite different in this element too.

I smiled and nodded. “Thank you. You were quite tough despite not using your full team.”

After that brief exchange, we both came close to be tackled down by Emille as he came careening for a hug.

“That was awesome!” He exclaimed, suddenly squeezing us in the ensuing embrace. “You both were so great!”

“Emille, you idiot! Stop trying to crush us!” Suzuen screeched back, clearly upset by the might put behind his arms.

And right as he was busy hugging us… the Paparazzi descended upon us, wanting to know more about me as the ‘new Champion-in-the-making’.

This was just going to be awkward.

—-----d-d-d-d—-------

Different POV…

“That’s so cool! Don’t you think, Yor?”

It was too early in the morning for Jules to be such a loud thing, that much ‘Yor’ was willing to think. One moment she was sipping on some bitter coffee, then Jules came through with her phone out and showed her a gym fight where Suzuen got beaten.

Truth be told, the way it all unfolded was creative, but still too early on to say if this guy was a potential challenger for her Gym or not. ‘Yor’ knew too many idiots got stuck with those before her and, due to how ruthless Jules’ brother was, they mostly failed by his challenge.

A groan later, Yor was giving the screen some more attention as she could relate a bit with this ‘Evan’ guy. They both had two dumb blonde friends that were a bit too intense with their hugging and chatting.

“Whaaaat? He has a full team from Kanto but he is using a new one entirely?”

“It’s not that rare,” ‘Yor’ hummed, giving Jules a blink. “I mean, it’s a power-move but-”

But ‘Yor’ paused when his Trainer Card was shown and, while the Pokémon were hidden, Evan had clearly scored… all badges. And that was a stamp for completing the E4 and becoming the Circuit Champion.

…That was interesting.

“See! He is so cool! You know what? I may as well check on Emille since he seems to be moving with him for the circuit.”

“...Crushing on this guy, aren’t you?”

Jules paused, then snorted. “I-I am not.”

…

“Maybe a little- but can you blame me?”

“No. I just don’t care.”

“Ouch,” The blonde huffed. “Well, shouldn’t you be getting ready for work.”

‘Yor’ blinked, then tensed up as her eyes showed an alarmed look. “Fuck, you’re right!”

The short girl bolted to the bathroom- much had to be done there and then there was-

“Buttons, stop tearing the wallpaper!”

Life is truly difficult for the Gym Leader of Aurolux City.

—--------d-d-d-d—-------

AN

Next time, Evan moves around with Emille’s ‘hot wheels’ and may end up meeting an interesting individual. A fangirl? Nope, she is the one that cheers people left and right!