Hard Enough - Chapter 233 - Round one rock rumble! (Patreon)

Knight glared at bruteroot. Corey smirked but I just hardened my stance. I wasn’t withdrawing Knight but instead committing to the fight.

Knight wasn’t a terrible choice out of all my pokemon to face Bruteroot. 

It seemed I’d gambled wrong for the first pokemon out from Corey. He was more amped up than I’d believed from Kaede’s match. 

I reached out for the bond I shared with Knight, knowing I was going to need all the advantages I could.

“Lash!” Corey called and I didn’t need to guess what was going to come out next as vines began to rise up from Venusaur’s body. 

With a flex of my will, I had Knight leaning to the side and falling into the earth in a fast Dip Dig move that saw him evading the attack only to pop up like a whack-a-diglett game. 

With our new position I decided to start claiming the field for ourselves. “SS,” I called, picturing the howling winds that could come with a Sandstorm. 

Knight tossed his head and caused a huge clattering of metal plates on metal as the wind around him was whipped up into a frenzy. 

With it, sand began to rise and vision dropped as a proper Sandstorm took over the field. 

In response to this Corey called his next move. “—rain!” he shouted. 

I narrowed my eyes. One downside of the Sandstorm was that sometimes trainers didn’t shout their moves loud enough for you to hear them. 

I suspected I knew what he was doing. 

Like me, he was committing his pokemon to the fight instead of withdrawing it. He was doing so by locking his pokemon down with Ingrain. 

I began to consider what moves I could use with Knight before pausing. No, Corey had just made a mistake with his move selection. 

By using ingrain he had locked his options in with Venusaur. He was expecting me to knuckle down as I had with others in the past but there were smarter options available to me. 

I lifted Knight’s pokeball and returned him. “Return!” I shouted over the winds and on the screen a buzz rang out indicating I was pulling my pokemon out. 

I quickly had another pokeball in hand, however. Within a moment I had Zephyr out and riding the winds. He did so with a grimace but I knew it wasn’t as bad for him as it might have been for another flying-type pokemon.

After spending years sparing against Titan and his Sandstorm, Zephyr was an adept wing at riding the turbulent air current. 

I could feel him drifting like a leaf on the winds through our bond and while stray flecks of sand still scoured his form his experience made it negligible. 

Not that I planned to let it continue. “Centre forward!” I called, picturing the last known position of Venusaur. 

With Ingrain it was locked in and there wasn’t anything it could do. 

As the sandstorm started to shift towards a purple colour instead of being merely sand whipped about, I knew that Corey had registered the shift and was adamant that he get some payout for locking in his starter pokemon. 

With Poison Powder being added to the mix I decided to flex my will once again and pull the trigger on Zephyr. 

He stopped drifting with the wind to get into position and instead plummeted into a hard corkscrew that caused the wind, sand, and poison powder to be blasted outward as a rotational force was applied with his mighty wings. 

A Hurricane took shape in the middle of the field with Zephyr in the middle. 

The Sandstorm was torn apart and suddenly the field was clearly visible if a bit more sand filled. 

Venusaur was revealed, glaring up at the approaching hurricane that would be super-effective. 

Corey lanced his hand out. “Blow it away! Hyper Beam!” he roared.

Venusaur’s front legs buckled outwards and the powerful starter pokemon angled its flower up before a build up of power began to coalesce at the centre.

I had an instant to relay a warning and order to Zephyr before the Hyper Beam tore through the Hurricane. 

I felt Zephyr’s bond shudder as power radiated through the arena. It caved through the winds and blew apart the Hurricane.

Only to slam into an orb formed from the various Protect hexagons around Zephyr. 

Zephyr stared down at Bruteroot and I felt through the bond his feeling of vindication. It almost felt like I was shouting ‘I have you now!’ at my foe with them incapable of doing anything to stop what would come next. 

I felt a vindictive smirk play out over my lips. 

Corey had been expecting me to be locked in with my selection. I’d done it before in the past but not this time. Not here. 

I chopped my hand down and ordered Zephyr to descend, the urge to commit to a final strike almost overpowering in intensity but then I smirked as I had another brainwave.

I flexed my will and gave Zephyr his next command through our bond.

Zephyr reacted instantaneously.  

The crowd gasped in shock as Zephyr closed with the defenceless Bruteroot only for him to stop just before the hapless Venusaur. 

Venusaur and Noctowl locked gazes.

The only difference was that Zephyr’s eyes were glowing.

A murmur broke out through the crowd. 

They’d obviously been expecting something like me going for the finish, and while a flying type move like Sky Attack would do a lot of damage I knew it wasn’t going to guarantee an end to the match. 

The murmuring cut off as Venusaur loosened a deep groan and toppled to the ground before a loud snore broke out from him. 

Corey growled. “Hypnosis? Really?” he said. 

I nodded, confirming what I’d done. For the follow up I pointed at the downed Venusaur. 

While Zephyr had taken negligible damage there was still a chance to have him firing on all cylinders. 

“Dream Eater,” I commanded.

Zephyr flapped once and then held the reverse sweep of his wings up high as a pink glow shot from his eyes into Venusaur. Venusaur groaned and twitched but then continued to snore. 

Corey growled and impotently hammered the railing in front of him. “Bruteroot! Get up!” he called. 

I was about to order another move, my mind quickly going through the idea of empowering Zephyr only for a small glint of purple to draw my attention to the edges of the field. 

Ah, he hadn’t been sitting idle when I’d brought out Zephyr, had he?

I could only surmise that I’d just beaten him in getting Zephyr out on the field before he’d snuck in those Toxic Spikes. He must have done it while the sandstorm was still in effect. 

Clever. He’d almost gotten away with a number of stratagems against me only for me to just scrape through by the skin of my teeth. 

If I was honest it was as exhilarating as it was worrying. 

“Defog,” I said and Zephyr hopped back before twisting once and causing a huge wind to sweep the field. 

The Toxic Spikes that had once been sitting innocently around the edges of the arena were suddenly hurled out of the field where they couldn’t cause any harm. 

I nodded in satisfaction and turned my attention to Bruteroot who… was still sleeping?

“Bruteroot! GET UP!” screamed Corey desperately. 

If I wasn’t facing him as an opponent, I might have felt for him with how unlucky he’d gotten. 

His starter was very much a sitting farfetch’d on the water before my pokemon.

As it was though, I could only feel glee at my own fortune. I chopped my hand forward and Zephyr once again drained his foe.

This still wasn’t enough and I could only whistle. Damn, but Corey’s starter was a brute!

Bruteroot opened its eyes and groaned before growling at Zephyr who merely flapped his wings and drifted from side to side. 

“Bruteroot, buddy! We need you to dig deep!” Corey implored reaching for his pokemon. I could almost feel the emotion spilling forth from Corey as his words reached his pokemon. 

In response, Bruteroot rose up fully and roared out his name as a vigour came over it.  

Damn, what was it that Oak had called it? A Surge State? Bruteroot was so injured that it was calling forth more energy, which made it a more powerful threat. 

I could objectively identify this as Overgrow, an ability that allowed Venusaur to hit harder by fifty percent when it used Grass Type moves. 

“Synthesis!” Corey shouted out quickly. 

“Like hell,” I said in reply, chopping my hand and having Zephyr drop with glowing wings straight into Bruteroot. 

Bruteroot began to glisten with green energy only for Zephyr to cut through him and sweep back around. I was prepared to go again with another sweep only for Bruteroot to finally collapse with a low moan. 

It hit the ground and dust wafted up. 

“Bruteroot is unable to battle! The score is now one nil in favour of Brock!” announced the referee. 

I pumped my fist and signalled Zephyr to return to our side of the field which he did quickly. 

Corey returned his pokemon and took a moment to say a few words to his starter’s pokeball. 

I decided to add my own two pokecents. “That was a powerfully strong pokemon,” I said. “It took a lot more than I’d thought it would to take him down.”

“Bruteroot is like that,” Corey said, as he looked at me, searching my expression for any hints of mockery. When he found nothing he nodded in thanks for the words before putting his pokeball away and selecting another. “Let’s see how you like this!” he shouted as he sent out his second pokemon.

The pokeball opened to reveal a pokemon I was extremely familiar with. 

“Golem!” shouted the pokemon. I quickly noted that it was a standard Kanto Golem, or in other words a Rock-Ground type pokemon. 

I narrowed my eyes. He had a lot of nerve thinking that he could bring out a pokemon like that against me.

“Rock Blast!” he shouted, getting things underway. 

Golem rolled forward and grabbed up a wave of rocks before hurling them into the air to create a barrage of something that was super effective against Zephyr.

“Confusion,” I replied with. 

Zephyr swept his wings and once more his eyes glowed, causing the rocks to shimmer with pink energy before they stopped dead in the air. Then, they returned to sender with extreme speed. 

“Dig plan!” called Corey and I narrowed my eyes at the addition to that move. He must have something extra up his sleeve. He shifted in an odd manner and I noted he was watching the hole very carefully. 

Definitely something planned. 

As the rocks Zephyr had shot back hammered into the ground around the hole that Gokem had left, I considered my options. 

I could return Zephyr and—

Before anything else could happen I had a microsecond to feel the earth buckle underneath me. 

And then the entire arena erupted upwards with a great upheaval. 

I was tossed back from the edge of the podium and slammed into the back podium. 

A ringing in my ears had me blinking furiously and I staggered to my feet with a shake of my head and a flex of my rock energy to shore me up. I staggered into a standing position and blinked away the lights in my vision. 

“What the?” I asked as I glanced around at what was left of the field.

Due to the hazard lights from the drained barriers that were around the entire field everything was cast in an orange-tinge.

Around me, rocks rained down on the field or bounced off the roof and walls that were glowing with barriers as the crowd around us screamed in adject terror at the sudden explosion. 

I batted a rock that had bounced off the roof and overcome the podium’s barrier with a swat of my arm, my eyes turning elsewhere as my brain caught up with what had happened.

I’d gotten Corey to evade with a Dig but didn’t have any great options for bringing Golem down with Zephyr, not while it was hiding underground. 

Instead of popping back up however… the field had exploded.

My mind latched onto that and I glanced over to Corey to find him kneeling behind his podium railing instead of on his backside. 

He’d been ready for this. 

I glanced down to find the midpoint of the arena was completely blown outward, like something gigantic had reached down and scooped out the earth. 

Or something had exploded just under the crust of the arena. 

Something like a Golem. 

I sighed and searched around for Zephyr. I didn’t bother looking in the sky, I instead looked for him on the ground. 

It took a moment to search around, the hazard lights shifting to a yellow making me blink and have to double over already searched areas, knowing that his colouration as a brown pokemon would actually make him tougher to find. 

I hoped against hope to find him with movement. It wouldn’t be much but it would indicate that he was still here with us.

I found him crumbled and beaten. 

His body sprawled out on the ground. 

I scowled my heart lurching at the stillness of his form. I reached out for our bond and felt it there, it was a tenuous link, but it was there.

Zephyr turned his neck to look at me and gave a feeble hoot. I could feel his apology to me and I shook my head, my eyes locked on him.

He was on his last legs, and there was no way he was going to be able to keep fighting. Not that I would have him anywhere near said fight. 

He obviously hadn’t been able to brace or resist any of the damage from the explosion. 

Corey had been rather clever about that.

I raised Zephyr’s pokeball and returned him, my gaze locked on Corey as he did the same for his golem which it turned out was hidden under a large pile of rubble. 

The crowd started to roar in annoyance and across from me Corey grimaced, obviously aware that this was not going to be a popular move on his part.

He’d still done it however.

“Zephyr was that much of a threat?” I said aloud, cutting through the heckles and jeers from the crowd. 

Corey looked up at me and bowed his head in apology. “He was a fully healed pokemon that was riding high,” he said cryptically. 

I stared at him and nodded slowly. He was, if anything, trying too hard to not give anything about his reasoning away. 

He must have Scyther and at least one other fighting type in his team. 

Zephyr was too much of a threat to leave on my team. He must have known I was going to try and return him. 

Golem, ostensibly was a good counter but again, Zephyr was perhaps the most experienced flying type against Rock types. 

Barring perhaps a pokemon from Walker’s stable, but only due to age. 

Corey had seen his chance and taken it.

I considered the field and nodded slowly. “I think…” I started to say, making sure my words boomed across the field before I looked up and locked eyes with him again, my next selection held up before me. 

“I think I am going to have to punish you for doing that,” I said with a touch of darkness entering my words. 

Corey swallowed and raised his own pokeball. “Give me your best shot,” he said, jutting his chin in defiance. 

Part of me wanted to send out Titan and smack him around for those words, but I knew thanks to his earlier slip just who to use to punish him.

I hurled my pokeball just as Corey did.

On my side of the field, Selene took shape.

On Corey’s side of the broken field, Hitmonlee appeared and I smirked. 

Ah yes, I’d been expecting that. 

“Psychic,” I said, making sure to convey to Selene through my bond just how livid I was with Corey. 

Selene responded beautifully, a glow appearing around her only for Corey to catch the recalling pokeball of Hitmonlee and trigger a fast recall. I glared at him and shot the referee a look. 

The man swallowed. “There was enough time,” said the man much to my annoyance. 

I glowered and signalled for Selene to ready a different move as Corey drew out another pokeball, his jaw set in a grim line. 

Ho? What’s the matter? Feeling the pinch? I thought. 

“Go! Scyther!” he called. 

I didn’t hesitate. As soon as the pokemon in it formed up, my hand snapped forward and Selene acted. 

“Power Gem!” I called and around us a barrage of loosened rocks, courtesy of Corey’s Golem were unleashed at Scyther. 

“Fury Steel!” called Corey revealing a move that hadn’t come up in any research I’d done. 

Scyther’s blades glowed with a metallic sheen and blurred about his form, deflecting and parrying the rocks as they got close. 

I narrowed my eyes and committed to the act, all the while knowing that Selene’s earlier break would allow the Future Sight move to come into effect. If we could keep Scyther locked down he’d be knocked back and create an opening for a super-effective move. 

“Get out of there with Agility!” Corey called, not liking that his pokemon was being held in place by my barrage. 

Scyther threw itself to the side and only a few rocks from the Power Gem clipped it on the way out, causing it to go skidding backwards before it kicked its feet and dug its blades in to stop its backwards slide.

Selene rotated and continued to unleash more and more Power Gems at Scyther and the bug-flying type threw itself out of the way before blurring away in a display of speed. 

“Close with X-Scissor!” Corey shouted throwing everything he had into closing out the match with a super effective move of his own. 

Scyther appeared in front of Selene in a blur of speed and another pokemon might have flinched in surprise, but not Selene. 

She merely raised up a huge rock in readiness to give back worse than she got. 

Thankfully, it never got to the stage of Scyther landing a hit as at that moment Future sight activated and a lash of psychic energy slammed into the pokemon making it buckle as one of its knees gave out. 

It skidded to the ground before Selene and had enough time to raise its head before Selene unleashed a full-power Stone Edge from point blank range. 

Scyther was skipped back like a rock on a lake before it hit the ground and rag-dolled into the far wall. There was no question of whether it could fight through. 

Corey raised his pokeball and returned it as the referee declared the match in my favour for three to one. 

I watched Corey. 

So, he had Hitmonlee, and two other pokemon left. What were they?

“Go Hitmonlee!” Corey shouted. 

I straight away went for another Psychic only this time Corey leaned forward as a glow built up around Selene and energy wrapped itself around Hitmonlee.

“Suckper Punch!” he called.

Hitmonlee, instead of being lifted and tossed aside, began to emit dark energy resulting in the Psychic failing. 

Instead it landed and kicked its feet forward resulting in a headlong charge at Selene. 

Selene glared at it and I whistled. If he was going to try and outspeed me again I could use other options. 

Selene built up more psychic energy and just as Hitmonlee closed in, she vanished in a flash. She reappeared with a Teleport to the side. 

“To your left!” called Corey. Hitmonlee whirled about, leg swinging and kicking a rock straight at Selene to keep her moving and unable to form up yet another psychic. 

The small residual dark energy on the rock had me sitting up. That Hitmonleee knew Fling. 

This was further proven as Hitmonlee began to lash kick after kick into the ground while emitting dark energy. The resultant rocks began to pepper Selene and force her to dip and duck out of the way. 

I narrowed my eyes and decided to flip the script again. 

Dark energy would negate any psychic moves Selene tried, but Hitmonlee, as a fighting type wasn’t just weak to flying or psychic-type moves. 

Selene formed up a large orb of bright pink energy that she then unleashed straight at the on coming rocks that were subjected to Fling. 

The rocks were blasted aside by the fairy-type move which then powered on and hammered Hitmonlee back a few steps. It staggered and shook itself off before standing and marching back with a dark look in its shaded eyes. 

Selene jutted her points up slightly in an aggressive manner and both pokemon glowered before unleashing their next moves with nothing but a flick of the hand from Corey and myself. 

Selene unleashed yet another Moonblast only for Hitmonlee to evade by darting to the side with Agility. 

It then came in from dodging back and forth as Selene was forced to twitch back and forth. I decided to try for the same trick that had worked for Scyther with a quick Future Sight.

This turned out to be a mistake as Hitmonlee accelerated in to close the distance.

Selene locked eyes with Hitmonlee and rather than back off she began to glow with Psychic energy. 

“High Jump Kick!” Corey shouted and Hitmonlee leapt straight into Selene with a rising kick that slammed into her. 

Selene was thrown off to the side and wobbled terribly before righting herself, the glow around her holding. 

Then she unleashed a close range Psychic that grabbed Hitmonlee and slammed it back and forth before it could do anything. 

Hitmonlee staggered back to its feet, surprising me only for it to stagger a step forward and faceplant. Two super effective moves proving to be too much for the pokemon. 

Even then I was surprised it had lasted as long as it did. 

“Hitmonlee is unable to battle! The score is Four to one!” called the referee. 

As Hitmonlee was returned I eyed Corey. He was working his jaw and rolling his shoulders. He looked like a man doing some mental arithmetic. He apparently didn’t like the result he was coming to. 

He locked eyes with me and I let him know with a look that I was going to close this match out against him. He’d very much chosen the wrong team against me.

This was going to be my step on the path forward with his progress running into a wall in comparison.

He wet his lips and reached for his next pokemon.

“Go! Primeape!” he called. The feral pokemon appeared and immediately began growling and grunting.

Corye pointed at Selene. “Get in close!” he ordered and Primeape raised its mitts and charged headlong at Selene. 

“Power up!” I called, making it sound like I was once again going to commit to a straight forward exchange of blows, but then right as Primeape reached Selene. She once more vanished in a flash of light. 

This time she appeared behind Primeape where it would have to turn and charge back over the ground it had already come over. 

“Primeape! Pursue it with dark energy!” Corey called, making me stiffen as Primeape whirled about and sprinted back the way it had come, if anything, faster than it had last time due to how pissed off it was. 

“MB!” I called, deciding to let things play out this time. 

Selene built up an orb and unleashed it straight at Primeape. 

Instead of dodging it, Primeape seemed to relish throwing itself headlong into the attack. 

It emerged out the other side with a powerful screech of rage and pain that were intermixed. 

Dark energy built up around it and it slammed into Selene, sending her tumbling. I glowered, knowing that if I tried for another Teleport Selene would only have Pursuit used again on her. 

“MB,” I said, committing to the next blow.

“Assurance again!” called Corey punching his fist forward. 

I blinked and felt a sudden realisation sweep over me. Primeape didn’t know Pursuit. The increased speed was just Primeape being that pissed off. 

I grit my teeth knowing that slip was my fault. Selene blasted Primeape once again only for Primeape to come back harder with the double-empowered Assurance slamming home and knocking Selene out of the match. 

I sighed and returned her. “Sorry girl, that was my mistake which you paid for. I should have played that differently,” I said. 

I shook my head in disgust as the referee called the match as four to two with Corey exhaling in relief. 

Across from me Primepae raised his fists in triumph and began to roar. It then stamped its feet as it prepared for the next match. I shook my head and sighed, still annoyed with myself. 

I pondered which pokemon I should send out. 

With Corey’s assembled team it was obvious that Don would have been another great choice with flying and psychic pokemon paying huge dividends against this team. 

I was just starting to toy with Shrek’s pokeball as the best option when Primeape stopped stomping and went still. 

Then, out of nowhere, it collapsed. 

I blinked in surprise and it felt like everyone in the crowd did a double take. 

Corey just sighed and raised his hand. “Damn, I was hoping you’d send your next pokemon out quicker and give him something to focus on. His wounds got to him and without an acceptable target…” He shook his head and indicated his passed out pokemon.

I blinked. 

That…. Hadn’t been why I’d delayed in sending out my pokemon… I’d been too busy self-castigating myself. 

But rather than it being a bad thing, it worked in my favour? Huh, weird. 

“Primeape is unable to battle, the match is now five to three!” 

Corey sighed explosively. “I can see the writing on the wall, but I’m not going to back off,” he said, lifting his last pokeball. 

I nodded and raised Shrek’s, deciding it was safe enough for any more fighting type or otherwise pokemon he might have. 

Shrek emerged with a ribbit. “You’re cleaning house bud!” I called and Shrek nodded seriously.

Across from him, a Muk appeared and I blinked in surprise before realisation set in. Most of the team that had been set up were to disrupt Bertha and stop her from getting her moves off. 

He’d assumed I’d send her in first and commit?

I chuckled. “I thought you were worried about Zephyr, but you were always angling to have an answer for Bertha, weren’t you?” I asked. 

He nodded confirming my suspicions and I smirked. “Shrek, Surf! Wash away that pokemon,” I said. 

From there it was all too easy to close out the match with Muk not being able to handle the more high pressure water attacks Shrek could deliver. 

As Muk collapsed on itself I nodded, feeling pleased to have progressed while also knowing that there were a lot of areas where I was going to have to do better. 

Not getting faked out by a phoney call of Pursuit stood out in my mind. The podiums lowered and I marched across the broken field to shake Corey’s hand. 

He looked straight into my eyes and grimaced as I latched onto his hand. “You fought well,” I said, keeping my grip merely firm and not crushing. 

He nodded. “I miscalculated against you, good luck for the rest of the tournament,” he said. He then glanced to the side. “It seems like you’re going to need it,” he said looking at where Kaede was sitting. 

I turned and locked eyes with my next opponent. She matched me for a few moments before awarding me a nod of recognition only to stand and march off herself. 

I huffed and did a victory lap with Shrek and Knight who was surprised at getting to come out again but I wanted him to bask in the victory. He’d done his part well, just as Selene and Zephyr had. 

I was mentally drawing up plans for how to reward them both when my Xtransciever chimed. 

I answered it after noting it was Yolanda calling. 

“Hey, run up the food bill much?” I said, knowing she and the others would have gotten a lot of room service for my match.

Instead of smiling, Yolanda looked back at me with a serious expression. “.... yeaaaaaaaaaah, so… Someone tried to break in and steal some stuff? We caught them, but now the police are here. What should I do?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Arceus damn it… I’ll be back soon,” I said. 

I should have known that things were going too well for me. I made a signal to Sabrina and she appeared next to me in a flash before vanishing with me to the outskirts of the city. 

Whatever we were going to find on the other side, I knew it wasn’t ready for Sabrina and I to come down on it like an empowered avalanche. 

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A.N. Thanks go to my paterons for your continued support!

It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!