"Rose, how was the feeling of flying in the sky just now?"
Back on the ground, Winona first took the little girl Rose down from the Skarmory, then squatted down to ask her about her experience just now.
"Sister Winona, I want to become a trainer proficient in Flying-type Pokémon like you in the future, and train Pokémon that can carry me around to fly everywhere."
Rose answered without hesitation after hearing Winona's question.
Although she had only flown in the sky for a short time, the experience had deeply imprinted in her mind, filling her with endless fantasies about the sky.
And this was exactly Winona's original intention of often taking the children of Fallarbor City to play in the sky. She wanted more children to fall in love with the feeling of soaring in the sky and cultivate more successors for the Fortree Gym's future.
"Rex, let's go!"
After chatting with the little girl Rose for a while, Winona and the girl Rose decided to return to the Fortree Gym with Rex.
"Miss Winona, I'm not in a hurry. You can continue to take the children to play in the sky."
Rex didn't want to dampen the children's enthusiasm because of himself, so he suggested.
"It's okay, I already told them. Rose is the last passenger today. As for the other children, they can wait until I have time next time to take them flying in the sky."
Winona waved goodbye to the children while explaining to Rex.
After saying goodbye to the children, Rex followed Winona to a huge building resembling a pyramid. Of course, the top of the building was flat, with a road paved with stone steps in the middle, leading all the way up.
After walking for a long time, Rex finally arrived at a gate under Winona's guidance. This place wasn't even the top of the gym, but the height was enough to see the entire Fortree City.
"Miss Winona, it must be hard for you to climb these long stairs every day"
Rex said to Winona with some breathlessness.
"It's okay, it's because it's your first time at our Fortree Gym, so I specifically brought you to experience the features of our gym. Normally, I let Swellow carry me back and forth."
Winona, like Rex, had climbed the stairs for a long time and was a bit breathless as she spoke.
"Well, this is really unnecessary!"
After hearing Winona's words, Rex couldn't help but sweat, and said unkindly.
He obediently followed Winona up the stairs for so long, thinking that this was the rule of their Fortree Gym, and challengers could only walk up on foot!
"Well, it's quite silly, but since we're here, let's not dwell on it"
After hearing Rex's words, Winona stuck out her tongue and playfully brushed off the matter.
"Winona Gym Leader, you're back."
At this time, a young man in a gray suit walked up to them and greeted Winona.
During the subsequent conversation, Rex also learned the name of the young man in front of him, Zachary. He was Winona's assistant, who helped Winona with the affairs of the Fortree Gym on weekdays and also served as the referee for the gym battles.
"Today is a bit late, and Rex, your Swellow has flown with you for such a long distance, I'm sure it's very tired. Let's schedule our gym battle for tomorrow morning. What do you think?"
At this point, Winona also knew that Swellow had flown a long distance with Rex today, so she didn't want to start the gym battle with Rex right away. She felt that testing Swellow's true strength in this way wouldn't be meaningful, so she suggested.
"No problem, let's go with Miss Winona's arrangement. I promise Swellow will be in the best condition for the gym battle tomorrow."
Rex naturally had no objections and readily agreed.
"Oh, by the way, Rex, your Swellow should have learned the Tailwind skill by now!"
Winona had witnessed Swellow's splendid performance. At that time, Swellowwas about to comprehend the essence of the Tailwind skill by observing the flight of Swellow.
"It has already learned. I have to thank Miss Winona for your guidance, otherwise, we might not even have a clue about the essence of the Tailwind skill."
Rex expressed his gratitude solemnly to Winona.
---
The next morning, after breakfast, Rex followed Winona to the top floor of the Fortree Gym, where the gym battles took place.
After standing in their respective positions on a type of elevator platform, the platform began to rise, stopping only when it reached halfway up the height of the entire elevator platform.
Seeing that both had stabilized, Zachary, acting as the referee, began to announce the rules of the battle.
"The challenge of the Fortree Gym Challenge by Rex from Fallarbor Town is now underway. The competition adopts a 3v3 battle mode. Leaders in the gym battle are not allowed to switch Pokémon during the battle, but challengers can switch at any time."
With Zachary's whistle blowing, both sides of the battle simultaneously sent out their first Pokémon.
Winona sent out Pelipper, and Rex immediately recognized it as the same Pelipper that had competed with Swellow in the sky last time. It could be said that Swellow learned the Tailwind skill from it.
As for the Pokémon Rex sent out, it was a Haunter. Among his Pokémon, only Swellow could compete with Winona's Pokémon in speed. However, Haunter could use its elusive body to counter the opponent's speed advantage.
"Pelipper, use Hydro Pump!"
Winona commanded Pelipper to launch an attack first. Upon hearing the command, Pelipper swiftly approached Haunter and then spewed out a large amount of Water-type energy mixed with its breath, quickly surging towards Haunter.
Having battled Rush, Haunter was already used to dealing with opponents moving at high speeds. It simply shifted slightly to the side, avoiding the attack.
"Haunter, use Confuse Ray!"
As soon as Haunter dodged the attack, Rex immediately issued a command.
Haunter's mastery of Confuse Ray was already quite high. Upon receiving the command, it immediately condensed a beam of ghostly light from its eyes and shot it towards Pelipper's eyes, which was the easiest way to confuse the opponent.
As Confuse Ray hit its target, Pelipper's vision began to blur, and the surrounding environment started to appear blurry. This made its flight trajectory become erratic, as if it were drunk.
"Haunter, use Shadow Ball!"
Taking advantage of Pelipper's temporary confusion, Rex let Haunter seize the opportunity to attack.
Haunter naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity. It sent Shadow Balls one after another towards Pelipper. Unfortunately, Pelipper's physical defense was too high. Even after being hit by several Shadow Balls, it did not lose its fighting ability. Instead, it used the pain from the attacks to recover from its confusion.
"Pelipper, use Safeguard!"
Winona saw Pelipper recover from its confusion and immediately issued another command.
With the release of Safeguard, Pelipper seemed to be covered with a thin veil. As long as this veil was present, Pelipper would be protected from abnormal status conditions, effectively blocking Haunter's status moves.
Winona ordered directly after seeing that Pelipper recovered.
"Pelipper, use tailwind, and then peck attack!"
With the blessing of tailwind, the speed of Pelipper has been greatly improved compared to before. Haunter could not predict the direction of Pelipper's attack, and was directly hit by the peck attack. This is very fatal for it with weak defense.
"Haunter has lost the ability to fight, and the challenger can release the next pokemon!"
Referee Zachary made a direct decision after checking Haunter's condition.
"Go, Flaffy!"
Rex took back Haunter, who had lost the ability to fight. After some comfort, he released his second participating pokemon, Flaffy.
(End of chapter)
Note: My new translation of Pokemon Fan-fic is out, go check it out. It's called "Pokemon: Food Adventure"