The next Pokemon sent out by Gym Leader Chari ended up being a (high) gold Shiftry, and its battle with Prime/Beedrill resembled a high-stake chase which concluded with Prime's victory due to the mounting damage Shiftry suffered from the bug moves Prime managed to land. Even though their battle took a while, I was confident that Prime would be able to tie things off on his own; At least that was what I thought before I saw what Chari sent out as his final Pokemon. A (low) dark gold stage Sceptile was a bit more than I expected, but it was what we were going to face.
I had honestly not expected the Gym Leader to use a 2nd dark gold stage Pokemon since Gym Leader Toprak from Drafthill City had used a full (high) gold team. Not that I truly minded it since it provided a better challenge for my Pokemon. As for the chance of Prime losing, that was possible, but losing was okay since I was sure he would make it costly allowing me to tie things up with Gwen/Gardevoir. More importantly, Prime getting pushed like that was likely to help speed up his limit breaking, which was preferable compared to him having a relaxed battle.
Just as I thought, the battle against Sceptile was quite a bit harder than the one against Shirfty. Sceptile was faster, stronger, and tougher than Shirfty. Additionally, Prime's attacks were causing less damage to Sceptile while it had the means to pay back as much damage as it took using the surprising amount of strong dragon and normal moves Sceptile knew. Nonetheless, even though Prime was barely hanging in there in the air, and I meant that quite literally, he did manage to take Sceptile down after battling it for more than 15 minutes. It honestly only took that long because both Pokemon were extremely stubborn and refused to stay down, dragging their bodies up again and again even after they had reached the point where they should have gotten knocked out.
Hence, I was not surprised when Prime began to fall out of the air as soon as the referee declared Prime the victor. I had expected as much, which was why I stopped his fall using telekinesis, moving him toward my side under the cheers and claps of the audience. I let him enjoy the adulations of the crowd for a moment more before I praised him for beating Sceptile before scolding him a little for pushing his body as much as he did since he had pushed it too far. Had it not been for Utopia and its incredible healing/recovery capabilities, I would have recalled him even if it meant that he would have forfeited/lost the battle.
Thankfully we had Utopia so my Pokemon were able to fight recklessly like this without worrying about suffering any permanent or long-lasting damage. While Sceptile had pushed itself quite a bit as well, its situation was not as serious as Prime's since it was objectively stronger due to its stage even though it lost, which was more due to it being less stubborn than Prime than it being weaker. Anyway, the referee declared that I had won the battle against Gym Leader Chari Narkul as I recalled Prime, and the audience cheered for me while Chari clapped politely as well before approaching me. He stretched out his hand and we shook hands as he congratulated me on besting him.
The Badge I got from him had the standard B-rank Badge design, just colored green to denote that it came from a grass-type Gym. Either way, it joined the other 2 Minor Gym Badges once I confirmed that the 3-stars were branded on it. A few minutes later I left the Gym, and I settled down on a bench not far from the Gym to consider my next step. I was inclined to leave Oplain City since I have been here for a few days already, but I chose to take another look at my travel plans. The next big stop I was really looking forward to was the Hoenn Desert, and If I went at my usual travel speed, we would reach it within a month or so.
However, there were a few stops I had to make on the road since there were 2 more Minor Gyms and a Standard Gym on the way there. Now, I did not mind stopping for those Gym Challenges since they allowed my Pokemon to have good/decent battles, but I was not happy with the amount of time I had to "waste" waiting for the Gym Challenge after registering for a Gym Battle. The waiting time of just these three Gyms would likely raise my travel time to the Hoenn Desert to nearly 2 months, effectively doubling it. If only the registration for the Gym Challenges did not have to be done on-site, I would have been able to save quite a bit of time by signing up for a battle before I made it to the city.
I could Teleport or fly to the city with the next Gym and sign up for the battle before returning to my previous spot and then travel towards the city, but that honestly took the fun out of the whole travel thing for me, which was why I was not doing that. Still, I knew that there were valid reasons why one had to do the registration in person on-site instead of being able to do so online, on the phone, or through a proxy. Avoiding any mishaps, whether that be time-related or to prevent possible online fraud was only one of those.
I understood that those were valid reasons, but unfortunately, they were getting in my way right now, so I decided to see if there was a way for me to sign up for Gym Challenges/Battles remotely regardless of those valid concerns. Frankly, I did not mind staying in a city for a day or two, but everything above that was too much, especially when the only thing that interested me in most of those cities was the Gym. My search turned out positive, and I actually found out that there was a possibility for me to remotely sign up for Gym Challenges thanks to alliance-granted privileges that I earned through my contributions to the alliance so far, though there was a note that warned me that I could lose those Gym privileges if I ended up missing an appointment without a valid excuse such as being delayed due to a horde or something along those lines.
Nonetheless, I was not worried about that since I could just fly or Teleport to the city if things got tight time-wise, and in case I did come across a real emergency, I did not have to worry either since it was a valid excuse. That said, I decided to sign up for the Gym Challenge each time I earned one, starting now. The first stop on my way to the Hoenn Desert was Selia City, so I accessed the Gym's official site. However, because they did not offer a remote sign-up option, I was unable to sign up online. They did however have the Gym's public phone number listed there, so I just called them instead.
I told the receptionist who took my call that I wanted to sign up for a Gym Battle, and she told me that I had to come to the Gym for that. I told her that I was invoking alliance regulation 469_B2 to do so anyway, and she actually had to look it up since it was the first time she came across this situation. However, after she confirmed that I was not just spouting nonsense, we went through the usual process. We just did the usual process over the phone instead of face-to-face. Ultimately, I ended up registering for a battle/challenge for Palkiday next week.
That gave me a week to travel to Selia City, which I was confident in managing even at our usual traveling speed. As long as I made it there at any point on Giratiday, I could show up on time for my Gym Battle at 9:30 a.m. on Palkiday. As for the Gym challenge itself, I naturally registered for a 3-star one, and the receptionist informed me that I would be facing 2 Gym Trainers before I would be allowed to face Gym Leader Numan Zehir. The Gym itself was a poison-based one, so I would be fighting poison specialists. That was pretty much all I knew about this Gym Challenge, and just like I had previously decided, I had no plans to look up anything else either.
Anyway, once the registration was done, I left Oplain City and resumed my journey after bringing out my posse. Chibi Mothra/Butterfree, who insisted on accompanying me on my head, was one of them, as were Nyx/Umbreon and Hades/Gengar, who chilled inside my shadow. Thor/Raichu would have loved to come along as well, but he was still stuck inside Utopia, while the others either had to train or were too attention-grabbing, so it was just those three that accompanied me. After we stepped out of the city the days blurred by without anything outstanding happening, and just like I wanted to, I managed to make it to Selia City long before lunch on Giratiday.
I strolled around the city for two hours before entering Utopia for lunch, and I resumed my exploration of the city right after we had eaten. I had to say that Selia City truly honored the origin of their city's name. The number of flower stores/parks as well as perfume stores was very high, and from what I could see none of those places lacked visitors. Selia City was named as such because of the Roselia tribe that allowed the first settlers to settle at this place and even cooperated with the people to protect the city, which at that time was still a town.
The Roselia tribe had stuck to Selia City ever since then, living in harmony with the people, and the city's biggest rose garden was where the tribe and its descendants were living nowadays. That rose garden was the most beautiful flower garden in the city thanks to the care of the local government as well as the Roselia tribe, and it was open to the public so everyone got to enjoy it. There was just a single rule that visitors had to respect, which was that trying to capture or challenge any of the Roselia line members was forbidden, though there was a monthly event where visitors could legally try their luck with any of the Roselia that were willing to humor them.
The Budew and Roserade were not included in the monthly event since the tribe deemed the Budew as too young to leave and the Roserade were the protectors/leaders of their tribe. Because the alliance/local government was supporting them no one dared to go against the regulations. Well, no one who was not a criminal, but those had to first pass the guardians, both Pokemon and human, so mishaps in that direction were pretty rare. Either way, I definitely enjoyed strolling around Selia City, and I made sure to post a few pictures in our group chat to recommend/advertise the city a bit to the others since it was a nice tourist spot.
The next morning I headed straight for the Selia City Gym after a slightly early breakfast. I made it to the Gym with 10 minutes to spare, and after waiting for only 5 minutes, I was called up to the battlefield. My first opponent sent out a (low) gold Dustox that got dusted pretty easily by Ali/Gallade. Ali also made quick work of the (low) gold Seviper that got sent out next. He had a slightly harder time against the (mid) gold Roselia that got sent out at the end, and I had to say that I found it nice of the guy to field what practically counted as the specialty of their city. Gym Trainer no 2 also used a Roselia, though hers was the first Pokemon she sent out.
Still, Po took Roselia down, along with the Nidoqueen that got sent out after Roselia. He only began to struggle against the (mid) gold Gengar she sent out as her final battler and its assassin-like fighting style. Nonetheless, Po eventually took Gengar down, but he ended up falling directly after to the Destiny Bond Gengar used moments before due to the damage that had accumulated until then.
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