When Arthur had first come to the battlegrounds behind the Pokemon center, the trainers murmured amongst each other and wondered how strong Arthur could be.
The common consensus was that he was just a rookie trainer that had just started his journey. This was mainly because of his young age and the Charmander besides him.
As for him having a TM, many guessed that Arthur was either from a rich family or he had just come across one by a stroke of luck. But this quickly changed as he began battling one trainer after another.
"What is this? Is that Charmander a monster?"
"How could he defeat an Arbok so quickly?"
"Isn't that dragon tail?! That Charmander can use a dragon type move!"
"Look at the way he's commanding the Charmander. That trainer surely doesn't look like a rookie!"
Those types of murmurs grew more and more as gathered trainers started looking at Arthur in admiration.
Although Arthur was a rookie trainer who had only battled once before, the reason why he and Charmander were able to defeat all these trainers was simple.
'These trainers are even more rookie than me.'
As Pewter city was a gathering point of young trainers and most of these trainers were here to win their first gym battle, they were also rookie trainers and didn't stand a chance against Charmander.
Not only Charmander had a purple aptitude, he had also experienced a lot by battling wild Pokemon in the Viridian forest. Pokemon like the Beedrill queen and Scyther were great battle partners for Charmander and he was on a continuous winning streak.
That did a lot to boost his motivation and he was able to understand each battle more and more, making his own chances and easily winning against the opponents.
Moreover, the Pokemon that his opponents were using were mostly grass and bug type Pokemon, who Charmander had a natural advantage against.
Once in a while, a rock or ground type Pokemon like Geodude will appear, but it was still not a hard job for Charmander.
It was thanks to the inexperienced trainers.
The trainers battling Arthur weren't able to respond in time and often gave Arthur opportunities to strike, even when he was at a type disadvantage, and he didn't miss them.
This also meant that Arthur was swiftly filling up his pockets from the money he was receiving for winning each one of his battles.
Money was always something he liked and it was also one of his major concerns as of late and now, he would finally be able to ease up his worry about it.
Winning battles was nice and all, but his main focus was still on mastering dig and with each use, Charmander was getting more and more used to it.
At first, it was hard for him to dig underground despite knowing how to. It was because of the unfamiliarity with using his newly learned move.
Another problem was moving underground and it was hard enough to see underground as it was mostly dark.
Due to this, Charmander nearly lost some of his battles, but with time, Arthur noticed that he was getting faster and faster in using dig.
There was no doubt that Charmander was a genius and it was easily seen by the rate he was mastering dig.
The more he used it, the more familiar the move became to him.
Seeing the progression, Arthur was damn sure that they would be able to successfully use it against Brock. He still didn't know if he would be successful in winning his first gym badge at his first try.
But at least he was sure that he would be able to give a tough fight to Brock.
'I will surely defeat you, Brock!'
Arthur thought as he challenged another trainer to a battle.
* * *
In a bright lit place, a Pokemon battle was going on. An Onix was wrapping his stone cold tail on a Wartortle that already looked battered and on the verge of fainting.
The Wartrotle tried to hide in his shell to endure the attack, but it was of no use. Onix just tightened his grip on the poor war turtle Pokemon and soon, the battle was over.
'How boring!'
Brock thought as the battle was over.
Throughout the battle, there was not one second where the Wartortle was ahead of his Onix and it was only a matter of seconds before he had won.
Most of Brock's battles are always like this.
Trainers would use water Pokemon against him, thinking that they could easily defeat his rock Pokemon, but seldom a trainer would really be able to win.
Mostly, it would be an easy victory for Brock who would easily trash the rookies that come here to fight him, dreaming of their first gym badge.
It has been like this for almost 5 years now.
This was the duration that he had been a gym leader and although he had gained fame and prestige, it had also become condensing boring for him.
In the first place, he was never interested in Pokemon battles, so he never found them interesting. His interest was always something else, but that had just become a pipe dream for him.
He had no choice, but to be a gym leader thanks to that damned irresponsible father of his.
"Heal your Wartortle in the Pokemon center. Give him some berries and let him rest for two days. It would be all fine after that. You should work on his defenses. Although your Wartortle is a capable fighter, his defenses and endurance are just too weak."
Brock said and gave advice to the trainer that he had just defeated. The trainer looked at him gratefully and nodded his head.
"T-thank you, Brock. I will work hard to defeat you and fulfil my dream!"
With that, the trainer ran out of the gym and Brock was left standing alone. He frowned, pondering over the last words of the defeated trainer.
"Dream? I hope I can chase my dream too… one day..."
Standing alone, he shook his head and wondered when he would be able to finally do what he really wanted.