Sobek scowled at the grey skies as he walked up a set of stairs taking him near the top of the cliff.
This was the day that he, the one who would be the best tamer that ever came out of the Asra, started on the path toward that lofty goal. The taming had gone entirely as planned, and while a venipede was not something he'd anticipated choosing, he was certain he would be able to train her into one hell of a warrior, given the natural toughness and power of the species.
The sky should be bright and shining, or at the very least a ceiling of grey speared through by the sun's golden light. Something glorious, to fit his mood and the momentous occasion.
But no.
It was as bleak and cold as could be. All dark grey and darker grey, without even having the decency to darken to ominous, and therefore interesting, shades.
It was stupid, he knew, to expect the weather to do as he willed it. He didn't care.
At least it wasn't raining. It rarely did, outside of storms, and Laera regularly redirected those(though if those poor sods up in Olivine asked, she dissipated them, and any weather they got was completely coincidental). But it would fit in perfectly with the dank atmosphere.
He had no intention of letting the weather ruin his day, though. Already, strategies were running through his head as he though on what was to come. He'd have to see how good her Harden was personally, there was nothing in the file about it, but every venipede could do it to some extent and a strategy based around that wouldn't be a bad one.
He would have to match a pre-made strategy up to the situation however. There would be no time to train his new pokegirl, by design.
The battle trial was built to assess three aspects of a Tamer. Firstly, their intelligence and planning, by having them choose a pokegirl they had little or no previous interaction with, and needing to not only choose wisely but form plans quickly.
Secondly, their competency at Taming, by having them tame their pokegirl for the first time shortly before the event began. If they were unable to form an Alpha Bond properly, and secure the obedience of the pokegirl, this would cripple their ability to do well in the battle trial.
And finally, their ability to command a pokegirl in battle. This beyond anything else, was the role of a Tamer, that made them more than glorified pet owners. The semi-telepathic effect of the Alpha Bond, and the strategic mind every Tamer had to cultivate, were the things that allowed a bonded pokegirl to surpass their already lofty natural limits.
Naturally, a Tamer with no skill in battle would not be able to fill the role in society that he, or she, should. The battle trial was made to assess new Tamers as a result.
You would hardly lose your license if you lost, and in fact losing was almost universally expected. But even so, it was a demonstration of skill that would always be important for new Tamers.
And Sobek Asra planned to absolutely rock it.
With a quick double-step onto a thin staircase covered in peeling red paint, he stepped downward onto the pathway leading directly to the compound his family lived in, and broke into a run.
The building was barely two meters tall, and seemed constituted of a series of rectangles and squares. Sobek knew the layout inside was much more complicated, the apparent simplicity being to display the 'efficient and effective nature' of the Asra, but even then he almost could believe his family lived in a series of massive metal blocks.
He grabbed the handle, and swung the door open in a single movement before striding into the room. Where the outside was cold and dreary, the inside of the house was bright and comfortable. Carpets with swirling patterns of cyan, dark blue and black lined the floors, the inside of the walls were well-maintained wood rather than the cold metal outside, and the blue-tinted windows made even the clouded sky look like some magical ocean.
He didn't stop there, kicking off his shoes and rushing through the nearest door. His pokegirl would likely be delivered within half an hour, so he'd need to get the library's book on Unovan bug types quickly.
He found it within five minutes, tucked away on a high shelf in the corner between a book on Unovan steel types and a thesis on expanding the 'iron defence' move, and turned about-face to run back to the lobby.
though, it wouldn't do for him to be seen to be so excited. Therefore Sobek slowed back to a walk as he came back into the lobby, closing the door behind him.
No one was there.
Dammit, wasted effort.
Sobek wiped the scowl from his face, took a self-important pose in the required 'asshole nobility' manner, and waited.
Three minutes of holding the pose later, the door opened to admit another lab assistant, Kenya trailing behind him, mostly hidden under a cloak. This man had close-cut brown hair, glasses and a white lab coat, just like so many others. Sobek idly wondered if they just grew these men on a farm somewhere, before dismissing it.
Kenya was naked under the cloak, save for a simple black ball gag and the armbinder he'd left her in. Generally, a human needed clothing to keep out the elements, but pokegirls were, as a rule, tough enough to ignore that.
If he lived near Blackthorn, near the Ice Caves, then a bug type like Kenya might need warming clothing. But down here on the south-west coast no-one would bother with that.
The cloak wasn't meant to keep Kenya warm, but to hide important buisness from outsiders. The Asra heir's new pokegirl would be revealed in his battle trial, not three hours before by gossipmongers.
Though, watching Kenya's antennae twitch, visible despite the cloak, Sobek knew this would have been less than helpful. And it didn't account for her purple skin giving it away either.
But tradition was tradition, he supposed.
As they entered, he launched into his personal performance.
"Greetings, filthy peasant, good day, how do you find yourself, yadda yadda, leave my servant here on the way out, goodbye!" he said while placing his hands on the man's shoulders and turning him to the door.
This, wasn't tradition. But Sobek had no plans to waste half an hour of the five he had. It was scheduled for five PM, and every half hour he didn't spend preparing was a lost chance to kick more ass.
"With me." he stated simply, snapping his fingers and walking away. He smiled as the footsteps he heard behind him matched perfectly with the pace he'd visualised her taking. The Alpha Bond had formed well, it seemed.
It was a simple thing, really. When the Tamer gave an order, the pokegirl would follow. But when the bond was fully formed, intent would be transmitted with that order, and the pokegirl would obey in the exact manner, moment for moment, muscle for muscle, that the Tamer intended.
Assuming she was physically able to, of course.
It was only a short walk to a training bay, a few floors down. One wall was missing, only a row of metal poles between them and the ocean. The bars were there to get rid of the junk left behind after training; both Adrax and Larion were water pokegirl specialists, and water-type attacks had a tendency to create water. In large amounts.
Kenya wasn't a water pokegirl, but this was the most convenient training ground regardless. It was mostly flat, there were targets(made of ice), and there were plenty of platforms and false buildings(made of ice) to vary the terrain.
Sobek picked up a tennis-ball sized chunk of ice from the ground, and turned to Kenya.
"Use harden."
"Mh!?"
A thrown chunk of ice bounced off Kenya's cloaked head. She let out a muffled squeak, and staggered in place.
Sobek rolled his eyes, walked up to her, and whipped the cloak off in one motion, revealing her body completely. Her purple cheeks were tinged slightly redder in embarrasment. Or perhaps something else?
Sobek's finger hooked under Kenya's chin, and he calmly lifted her head to examine her. The pokegirl squirmed on the spot, bound arms straining, and looked down, trying to avoid eye contact.
"Look at me, pet." Sobek commanded, and Kenya obeyed, looking up into his eyes with a quiet whine.
"Mrr..."
"Good girl." Sobek reached behind Kenya's head, and undid the latch holding her gag in, before lifting it out of her mouth. As he did, she stuck her tongue out and let out a quiet sigh.
"Ah~ thanks..."
"Thanks... what?" Sobek demanded.
"Thanks, master?" Kenya responded uncertainly.
"Very good." he gave her a quick pat on the head, and spun around, walking to just within throwing distance. He snatched up another piece of ice from the ground, and hefted it in his hand, measuring the distance.
"Harden."
This time Kenya was ready for it, and her body glowed subtly just before the impact. The ice shattered on the side of her face, and she flinched back. She blinked in confusion when she realised there was no sense of pain, and instinctively tried to bring her hand up to her face, but her arm was still trapped in the binder.
"Can you let me out of this, please? I promise I'll do as I'm told, I promise!" Kenya asked, shaking her shoulders as much as she could and looking almost ready to cry.
"You will address me properly, Kenya, or you will receive nothing at all." Sobek responded firmly.
"I-I'm sorry, master." she responded, frowning. "Please let me out of this, master? Please?"
Sobek walked over to a nearby platform(made of ice), and sat down, patting off his clothes. "Now, I'm not sure you fully understand your situation here, Kenya. So, let's have a little test. Come lay across my lap."
The pokegirl walked over to her owner obediently, but hesitated for a moment as she stood at his side.
"Do I..."
"Down, girl."
Kenya shivered for a moment, and knelt down, before carefully laying herself across Sobek's legs. She looked back over her shoulder at him with wide eyes, almost as if she could barely believe her own actions.
"Now, we both know you need to learn your place. You may have expected to be on the other side of this sort of thing some day when you were little, but you're a pokegirl now."
His fingers drew across her pussy lips for a moment, drawing slight panting from the girl as Sobek kept speaking. "I. Own. You. I am your master, and the sooner you learn that, really take it in, the better, yes?"
"Yes, master?" Kenya whispered.
Sobek broke out into a wide smile, and patted her bottom approvingly. "That's better. Good girl."
Then he thrust his finger in. "EEP!" Kenya's eyes widened as her body tensed and her legs twitched outwards. Her arms strained against the binder again, but it held firm.
She glared as Sobek and almost growled out "What was that? why did you stick it- up- there?!"
He responded with a smirk. "Why shouldn't I?" His finger slid out, and back in again as the rest of his hand firmly gripped her cheek. "I own this ass, after all. And a nice one it is."
The anger on Kenya's face faded into indignation, and her glare lost a lot of force coming from such a heavily blushing face.
"I own this ass." Sobek elaborated. His other hand drifted under her, and squeezed her breast. "I own these tits." Then his hand came up to her face, firmly gripping her chin to immobilise her. "I own this pokegirl. You don't get to deny me. You were raised to be a Tamer, yes? You know that pokegirls are slaves. You know that you are a pokegirl. You know you are a slave, my slave, and the sooner you admit it the better."
Kenya stopped straining, and looked down at his hand, still holding her lower jaw. She muttered a slurred "Yesh mashter" through the hold, and Sobek released her.
"There we go. Let's try again." He slapped her ass, the implicit order to stand followed in short order. "For the rest of the day, you shall address me as 'master' every time you speak. Do you understand?"
"Yes, master." Kenya responded, shuffling in place. "Please can you remove my armbinder, master?" she asked, in a subdued voice.
"Yes, Kenya, I can." Sobek twirled his finger, signalling for her to turn around, and unclipped the straps from the armbinder, slipping the glove from her arms and leaving it to the side.
Kenya stretched her arms out high, moaning slightly as the pressure she'd been under for days was relieved, and slipped the straps still laying across her chest off, leaving them next to the glove. She turned to Sobek, watching him wander over to another chunk of ice, and spoke.
"More Harden, master?"
"Yes indeed. Now." Sobek responded, and Kenya activated the normal-type move just in time to shatter a chunk of ice on her face. A few smaller pieces of ice were left on her brow, but she simply intensified the technique for a moment, becoming too hard for the loose objects to attach themselves to her skin, and shook for a moment. The little ice shards went flying.
"How far can you push it, Kenya? Sobek asked, picking up several small objects from nearby. "Enough to survive a fifty-meter drop? Enough to block arrows?"
"I don't know, master." Kenya admitted, shaking her head.
"Let's find out then. Charge the Harden technique as much as you can, and we'll test some things out." Sobek stated, hefting a pebble.
It bounced off Kenya's shoulder as expected. The follow-up fist-sized rock shattered harmlessly, and the head-sized chunk of ice Sobek had to work to heft didn't harm her either.
Then he pulled out a crossbow, and her eyes widened. "What?... Master, are you sure?"
"Use Harden."
The arrow splintered on her hair, which she'd swung into the way. Hair every bit as hard as the rest of her body. Just as Sobek had envisioned over the Alpha Bond.
He chuckled to himself, and walked up to Kenya, brushing a finger over the undamaged hair. "If a crossbow bolt won't cut even a few hairs, it won't cut your skin. This way, if I was wrong, you'd just lose a few individual hairs. But, well." He shrugged. "I wasn't."
Sobek turned around, his longcoat swishing behind him, and waved an arm at a series of ice targets. "We have hours left before the trial, so let's move on to something else. Use Poison Sting."
Kenya pointed her hand, and it glowed purple for a moment.
*fwip* *thunk*
A foot-long faintly-glowing purple spine was lodged in one of the ice targets. It was about halfway between the center and the edge, and was a far more actual-purple colour than the red-purple of Kenya's skin and hair.
The area around the impact site had turned purple. This basic poison attack was quick to fire, and it was relatively easy to train to the point that many darts could be fired rapidly.
But it seemed his starter was not nearly as proficient in it's use as she was in using Harden.
There was one move yet to try, however, that almost every venipede could use. Easier, even, than poison sting.
Sobek looked around for a moment, seeking out a suitable target, before giving the command.
"Rollout."
Kenya curled up, and in a flash of brown rock-typed energy she was encased in a boulder which instantly started rolling.
And moments later the thin wall of ice was shattered. Directing the deadly attack as it gained in power, building up more material from the ground, Sobek gestured to a car-sized block of ice, which was promptly crashed into with a loud crack.
The ice was cracked in two, but the boulder was broken open also, and Kenya lay there in it's wreckage for a moment before standing.
Rollout, as a rule, would just get stronger and stronger the longer the technique was used. The limit wasn't in how much damage it could do, but how long the user could hold the rocky shell together, since the larger it grew the harder it was to do this.
Kenya wasn't great at holding it however, it seemed.
However, Sobek had a strategy. One he was certain in.
He walked over to his pokegirl as she kicked away the shards of rock and ice, and started his explanation.
"Tell me, Kenya. What do you know about gravitational forces?"
-
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-
The arena was roaring with excitement. Hundreds of colourfully dressed spectators sat in the stands, chatting and joking. Here and there, stall-workers called out, advertising their products to all in earshot.
"Seared fish! Come get your seared fish! Caught just this morning!"
"Get your popped oran! Popped oran over here! Health benefits are great!"
"Vanillice! Brought from far-off Unova, get it here today!"
Banners of bright blue and green adorned the stands, themselves artistic constructs of white ice; crafted for this day only by a work of many powerful ice- and water-typed pokegirls. Every spectator had an ostentatious throne, layered with mats and cushions, and almost half of them had some kind of pokegirl accompanying them.
Two of the greatest were the seats of the lord Asra and his brother, the rulers of the port.
Adrax's was larger, scattered with glittering gemstones and a great tapestry made just for this event depicting a battle between three figures. Elementals, human forms made of yellow, red and blue light, representing the Three Legendary Hounds. At his side sat an imperious-looking woman with blue skin and great clouds of white hair on her head and laid across her lap. A wartortle.
The man himself was in blue robes patterned with hundreds of tiny gems sewn into wave patterns, a severe but impartial look on his face.
But, like was so commonly the case, Larion's looked greater. Not because his throne was built larger, or had richer or more numerous decorations, for he was not sat upon one. Rather, because of one thing.
Laera.
The gyarados was a centaur-type, one of those pokegirls with extensive enough mutations that they had a human body atop that of a beast. And given what that beast was, Laera was one of the most physically imposing pokegirls there were. Almost forty feet of thick, muscled blue tail, covered in hard scales. And the body on top was intimidating enough as well, half again as tall as a human with a meter-spanning frill and a tri-pronged crest of regal horns. Where most pokegirls nearby wore only accessories, if that, Laera was in a dress of frothing water, constantly swirling and raging soundlessly around her, kept in check by the official 'most powerful water-type in Johto'.
And there Larion sat, in the giant snake-woman's lap, in his usual 'shirtless vest' look, munching on a plate of high-quality sushi. Even if he looked out of place, though, no one would dare mention it, for he was the brother of this land's king.
The incredibly powerful pokegirl on whom he was seated probably helped too.
In the arena they sat around, a young woman with a long ponytail was dramatically pointing as she ordered her pokegirl, a machop, in battle against a graveler. In the other tamer's booth was an old man, with a white beard and a shiny bald head.
The machop was taking advantage of it's superior manuverability, dodging around thrown rocks and taking cover behind those that had already fallen, but her opponent had no shortage of rocks, conjuring them from the ground with an expenditure of earth-typed energy.
Just standing there and summoning rocks, the young Asra heir thought as he watched from the sidelines, was a perfect example of what to not do in a pokegirl battle.
The stamina expenditure from continually creating large rocks from pure energy would be nightmarish, and using them as projectiles against a faster, more agile opponent rather than, say, fortifications, or melee weapons, or traps, was even more of a waste.
Not even getting in to how graveler was practically gifting her opponent cover, and using only ranged attacks.
Another truck-sized rock broke on the ground, no-where near having hit the machop.
However, the graveler's Tamer wasn't trying to win right now. He was an examiner for the battle trial, and was focusing more on assessing the younger Tamer's skills in face of a superior opponent.
Sobek noticed the exact moment the examiner decided the girl had passed, and moved to end the battle.
Though, it wasn't hard to notice.
Where she'd been stood still and throwing rocks for over a minute now, the four-armed rock-girl suddenly kicked the floor, throwing up a cloud of dust.
When it was gone, so was she, a hole in the ground the only hint of what had happened. The machop looked around nervously, before leaping left, only just avoiding a spear of rock that thrust up from underneath her.
An excellent dodge, if it hadn't carried her into a patch of ground that was seeded with stealth rocks.
She managed to avoid the first sharp rock that burst from the ground, and the second, but the third took her in the gut, and she doubled over.
And that was all the opportunity the graveler needed to land a knockout blow.
The crowds burst into cheering, yelling and screaming, a wave of noise washing over the arena as graveler picked machop up and after a few huge bounds, jumped up to the challenger's podium and dropped in the defeated pokegirl.
Sobek joined in with the clapping for a few moments, before setting off for the competitor's area. A moment later Kenya returned with a plate piled with seared fish, offering it up as she matched his pace.
Normally, an entire platter of overpriced celebration food would go for over 2000 poke. However, this was a celebration of the new Tamers of Port Kineya, and a sentient pokegirl that can ask for food, by necessity, is the servant of one of those Tamers. As a result, for one day only, Sobek could just send Kenya to get free snacks from any stall in the arena.
He picks up a single strip of fish, and pops it in his mouth.
Warm and crispy, and soft inside, with a little salt on top. Very nice indeed.
He considered offering Kenya one for a moment, but he was pretty sure bugs couldn't eat fish, and he didn't know exactly how extensive her mutations were. Not right now, at least. And he certainly wouldn't screw up his chances like that.
It was just another short staircase when he heard a shout. "Oy! You another Tamer?"
Sobek turned slightly, looking for the speaker, and found them quickly. The girl with the machop, swishing her ponytail behind her in wide arcs, approached a boy with blue hair hidden mostly under a hood. A boy with not only blue hair, but one yellow eye and one blue one.
Behind him was another figure, in an almost entirely concealing cloak. She had a tail, he could see that much despite the cloak, and her chin was blue, but no other details were forthcoming. Oh well. If he wanted to be secretive with his pokegirl, that was his business.
Sobek stopped to watch with amusement.
"U-uh, yeah?"
"Well, my name's Carla Denton, and you betcha I'm going to crush everyone else's performance here today! You got that!?" she demanded aggressively, getting in his face.
"Hey, I don't think it'll be that easy!" weird kid responded, waving his hands and taking a step back.
Foolish really.
Carla stepped forwards again, shoving her finger into weird kid's face. "Of course not! You'd better do as well as you can! It'll never be as awesome as me, of course, but I'll look better in comparison if you are too, Bluey! What's your name, anyway, huh?"
"Brent Manners." He responded, seeming to still be nervous, but at least no longer be stuttering.
"Brent? What, ya fuckin' Unovan or something?"
"What even is that, Unovan, everyone's acting like I'm one, but I'm not!"
"Well it sure seems like it, Bluey!" Carla sniggered, poking at his nose. "You here to mess with the system, huh?"
"Well I'm really not sure about this stuff that pokegirls don't have any rights at all, even though people can turn into them-"
Sobek finally spoke up. "You don't mean to suggest of course, that taming pokegirls is wrong? I would hope not, at least, that would be foolish in the extreme."
Carla clearly knew he was there, but Brent jumped and stared at him with wide eyes. Less than perceptive, it seemed. That didn't speak well of his abilities.
Sobek chose to elaborate, seeing Brent's look of incomprehension. "After all, without the work of Tamers, humankind would be extinct, and all pokegirls would be mindless animals." he gestured to the blue-skinned girl just behind Brent. "You're a Tamer too. These are the kinds of things you should know."
"I can still think it's wrong, that things are this way! Why should I listen to you?"
"Ah. I see you don't recognise me. My name is Sobek Asra, and I'm the one who will demonstrate the greatest competence on this day." With his piece finished, Sobek continued on his way, leaving one shocked Tamer and one utterly confused Bluey in his wake.
Perhaps that boy truly held the strange opinions he spoke of. However, Sobek had no intention of listening to a ignorant commoner like him.
So it was that he utterly ignored Brent's audible mumbling. "Unovan? is that like American or something?"
A moment later he was at the door to the prep room, and entered to find a row of benches down either side of a small room with a square-tiled floor.
He sat at a bench, and patted next to him. His pokegirl flopped into the seat at his side, removing her cloak to leave it on the bench, and laying the tray of fish strips on top.
The clock across the room was something quite special. Powered by a simple infusement of metal-typed energy, it displayed the time down to the second.
4:49 and 50 seconds.
Ten minutes until his battle. Excellent. He lay back against the wall, and snuck a hand over Kenya's lap to grab another piece of fish.
-
-
-
Nine minutes later, the most average looking kid in a yellow shirt and a blue baseball cap came down the stairs, an uncloaked rattata following him. Certainly, that assumption could have been wrong. Purple skin and whiskers weren't overly rare traits.
But it was obvious to Sobek that this kid was, if not incompetent, at least untrained. A rat was a perfectly suited pokegirl for someone like him.
He got up, and his much-superior bug followed. No, wait. That sounded wrong. His much-superior high-durability pokegirl with combat skill estimated to surpass 90% of starters. There, much better.
The two of them ascended the claustrophobic stone staircase, walking quickly in spirals around the center pole, and soon came to the top.
One of the seven sheltered podiums around the main battle arena of Port Kineya, the orange platform was positioned on the challenger's side, between the red and yellow platforms. The roofing was vertical striped of orange and white, and the platform had several crates lined up along one side, tucked in under the waist-high wall. It was to one of these nine crates, the one with his name on it, that Sobek went, opening it to reveal a crate of potions.
Created from various berries(but mostly orans), potions were items that could be poured onto an injured pokegirl, providing a sudden burst of elemental energy that would override the damaged state of her body and restore it to health.
The stronger the pokegirl in question was, the more potion would be needed to provide that healing spike of energy. As such, particularly skilled tamers sometimes used super or hyper potions, two types of compressed potion that contained more energy in less liquid. But this was an event for brand new tamers, so only the basic potions were provided.
Five of them. Good, he would have extra supplies at home, but having enough potions to practically resurrect a starter pokegirl on hand would be helpful indeed.
Sobek looked over the stands, quickly spotting his uncle, who he continued to watch instead of standing up.
"Master? What are you doing?"
Sobek glanced to where Kenya was ducked next to him.
"Waiting for the signal, of course."
"What signaaaaaaa-..."
Kenya trailed off at the sight in front of her. She'd managed to spot where her... her master had been looking, and found the man seated on a terrifying looking gyarados. While her family's dragonites and tyranitars were certainly stronger, she couldn't deny that pokegirl had an intimidating presence that was noticeable from hundreds of meters away.
But that wasn't what had stunned her. A moment after she found him, the man patted his pokegirl's thigh, and a small smile crossed her face before she glared at the sky, as if daring it to remain cloudy.
The sky chose not to call her bluff.
The clouds separated, leaving Sobek stood in a pillar of gold, surrounded by a prismatic veil of all the rainbow's colour, face tilted back to allow the sun to shine down on him.
He looked back for a moment, looking to her like an archangel had come down from heaven, and smiled for her personally.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Then Sobek snapped his fingers, and Kenya's mind caught back up to the situation at hand.
She ran past him and jumped down into the arena, ignoring the steps completely. In the sun her Harden technique seemed to glow gold rather than white, and she hit the ground in a crouch, completely unharmed.
The clouds split again, shining light down on Sobek's father, who stood in the fourth podium on the opposing side. The indigo platform, reserved for only truly elite tamers. Adrax Asra gestured, and the wartortle next to him leapt into the arena.
Where Kenya had needed Harden to avoid damage, this pokegirl simply landed, without even a misstep, as if she'd jumped two feet down rather than fifty.
Sobek cut out the crowd's cheering from his attention, focusing only on the battle at hand. The opponent wasn't someone he recognised, but that just meant he had to be more careful. Wartortle could often use Water Gun attacks, and weren't unknown to focus them enough to access the top-tier Hydro Pump attack long before evolving into blastoise. They could produce energy-charged bubbles in huge amounts, for area denial and attack, or they could break out one claw attack or another, or even a fang attack, and rip apart their enemy in melee.
Really, there was no way to be certain of victory. But chances would be raised by gathering more information.
"Poison sting." he ordered. There was no way Kenya would be able to hear him down there, but that was what the bond was for.
The launched poison spine, and the two that followed it, splashed into the wave of water that had materialised in front of the wartortle. The poison within was diluted by the water, and quickly became useless.
Then the wave started moving, hundreds of gallons of water rushing across the ground. Kenya glanced at one of the boulders left over from a previous fight, but Sobek shook his head and gestured to an open space. Kenya looked doubtful for a moment before nodding resolutely, and bracing for impact while activating Harden.
The water hit, and Kenya was forced back a step but remained unharmed. Sobek waited, unsure if this tactic would work, but a moment later he saw what he'd been waiting for.
"Now!"
Kenya spun in place and landed a roundhouse kick on the onrushing wartortle, but dropped the Harden at the last second, sending both girls flying out of the wave in opposite directions.
Harden was a move with several effects. Firstly, it made the user more durable. Secondly, it made it much harder for outside forces to act on them.
This wouldn't save the user from a thunderbolt or a flamethrower, but it was enough to keep them in place in face of physical force.
Conversely, deactivating the Harden technique reversed the effect that prevented outside forces from working properly. Done fast enough, this could amplify such forces.
So it was that while the wartortle was propelled face-first into the floor, Kenya ended up thirty feet in the air.
And while there were many forces Harden reduced the effect of, gravity wasn't one of them.
Of course, by the time Kenya came back down, the wartortle had disappeared into the water, and the attack didn't even remotely hit.
But the splash was damn impressive.
Water flying in all directions, shining in the rainbow light refracted from the clouds above. Even as the water covered more and more of the arena, showing off impressive energy reserves for a wartortle, a small lake's worth was thrown into the air.
"Rollout." Sobek commanded, pointing to the left. Kenya quickly formed a shell of rock, and a moment later was rolling up and over the rocks, bouncing into the air just long enough to avoid landing in the water.
On the fifth bounce, Kenya missed a rock and landed with another huge splash. To the spectators it likely looked like very impressive tactics. Building up an attack from a relatively safe position before launching it when the opportunity arose.
The spectators that weren't elite tamers like Adrax that is. The wartortle was clearly no-where near the impact site, and the attack was wasted.
Though, Sobek knew, he didn't have a chance anyway. As was exemplified when a burst of pressurized water shot out from cloudy waters and cut through the rock, leaving Kenya stood there unprotected and surrounded by water that, in the absence of the boulder, quickly rushed in.
This time there was no convenient angle that wartortle was guaranteed to come in on, so there really wasn't much to be done.
Rollout would be impossible to get going without access to the ground.
Poison sting was useless in that much water.
And Harden was only good for defence, and the occasional stunt.
Wartortle was faster, tougher, and probably stronger than Kenya, and much more skilled as well.
But in the end, this was about putting on a show.
"Harden."
Almost a minute later of Kenya floating there on the surface, waiting for attack with Harden charged up as far as she could make it, the wartortle burst from the water with a shout and tried to punch her in the face.
Perhaps the worst possible strategic decision. Thanks, dad.
Kenya failed to react in time, but that just resulted in the wartortle who was clearly not a specialist in close-range fighting hurting her fist on her opponent's face.
Before wartortle could react again, Kenya shoved both palms out and with a quick *Thd thd whss tik* four poisonous spines were fired at wartortle.
One bounced off her shell, and another missed, but the two remaining ones thudded into her stomach and chest, triggering the poison effect.
Wartortle responded by snapping her head forward unnaturally fast, and biting down on Kenya's shoulder, releasing trails of black smoke that indicated a dark-typed Bite attack. Then throwing her.
Thirty feet away, Kenya hit a boulder and flopped to the ground, throwing up a splash from the shallow water, before getting back up just in time to get punched in the face again.
To just as much effect as the last time it happened.
As the two pokegirls engaged in melee combat, Sobek glanced up to his father in the platform across the arena. The man was smiling proudly, and he felt himself smiling as well in response. His father would most likely have been proud of him even if he failed completely, but having actually done something to earn it was so much better.
The people in the stands were screaming and jumping in their seats, even more so the commoners who didn't understand the flow of the battle and thought he might win.
In the arena, Kenya landed a Harden-enhanced punch on the wartortle's face, throwing her back a step, and stepped forward to keep on the attack.
Across the arena, Adrax nodded.
Wartortle casually slid under the strike, opened her mouth, and fired a deadly stream of hyper-pressurised water.
Right through Kenya's chest.
The taller pokegirl flopped to the side, unable to stand.
Sobek heard some fearful gasps from the crowd, and dismissed them. A simple small hole and an organ failure were well within the power of a potion to fix.
The wartortle hefted his pokegirl over her shoulder, and started hopping across boulders to gain height, before jumping onto the wall of the platform and dropping Kenya on the ground.
She looked him in the eyes, and spoke. "Lord Asra wishes to convey his approval, heir Asra. He wishes to speak to you after the event in the west atrium."
Sobek nodded happily, and the wartortle fell backwards over the balcony wall.
A second later the unharmed pokegirl was running back across the arena towards her tamer, and Sobek turned back to his pokegirl.
He held one container of potion above her chest wound, and pulled the lid off. The colourless liquid poured out, and the injury visibly regenerated before his eyes.
Kenya's eyes opened, and she climbed to her feet shakily.
"Did I do well enough, master?" she asked.
"Yes you did." he patted her on the head. "You did excellently, Kenya. I was right to choose you."
Her smile was blinding.
Oh, wait, that was the sunlight. He turned his head to the side, and chopped his hand in Larion's direction.
Either his uncle got the message, or was about to do it anyway, because the clouds floated slowly back into place, leaving the two of them only metaphorically glowing.
She looked almost shy for a moment, before speaking again.
"May I ask for a reward, master?"
Sobek smirked, and moved his hand from her head to her breast, kneading it gently.
"You certainly may."