Larvitar had no idea how his life turned out to be like...this.
He used to live a dangerous life on a mountain, with dangers lurking around every corner. He had never met his parents, they left him the moment he hatched from his egg and instinctively dug his way into the world from the deep underground where his parents left him. He was left to fend for himself in the unforgiving world. He witnessed how scarily strong the residents of the mountain were, no matter how stupid they looked. He also saw how the evolved members of his species fought them off, and saw how strong they were, even against the monsters living in the mountain. His evolved species were the apex predator of the mountain. Seeing that, he made up his mind.
He will attain the form of his final evolution, and then be the king of the mountain.
It is the only possible way for him to survive on the mountain. If he is the strongest on the mountain, no one can harm him, no one will dare to approach him. He can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. If he wanted to destroy the monsters living in his territory, he will do it. If he demanded food from them as tribute, they have to fork the food out whether they like it or not. Life on the mountain will not be dangerous anymore, not to him. That line of reasoning strengthened his initial beliefs, and he made a silent vow to himself, with the moon as his witness.
He will be the king of the mountain.
Despite the numerous fantasies he had about becoming king, larvitar isn't stupid. The road to kingship is long and arduous, and there is no way he can even attain his final form if he isn't prepared to put his life on the line. And so, he fought.
He trained and pushed himself, trying to master advanced techniques he saw members of his kind pulled off. He tried to mimic and internalise the moves the monsters of the mountain had used when he spied on them discreetly. He fought, and he lost count on how many times he nearly lost his life in his quest to become king. But he won. He won each and every battle he threw himself into, and he felt himself growing stronger.
It's not enough.
No matter what he did, no matter how many battles he had been through, it seems like it would never be enough for him to even feel like he can evolve. Why? What did he do wrong? All he wanted was a chance to be the king of the mountain, was it so difficult a wish to be granted to him?
Larvitar never stopped training himself even when doubts started to fester in his heart. He cannot stop now, unless he wishes to die in the mountain, eaten by monsters. He have to keep going, or he will die trying.
One day, he turned around a corner, and stopped and stared at that lone human that was sitting on his favourite boulder, eating a berry without a care in the world. The human didn't stop munching on his berry even as he stared at him like some interesting specimen. The defenseless human didn't even looked worried even when larvitar knew just how frail humans are. It was when larvitar looked at the human in the eye that he realised in anger why the human looked so unconcerned.
The human did not think that larvitar is a threat to him.
That realisation made larvitar's blood boil in rage. HOW DARE HE?! He is the future king of the mountain! He trained endlessly day and night for his dream! How dare this puny human belittle him!
He will make the human pay for his insolence.
Larvitar charged, with the horn at his head pointing at the human, intending to skewer him alive.
The human's shadow suddenly moved, and a purplish paw batted him away from the human, sending him crashing through the rocks of the mountain, laying in a messy heap gasping for air.
What in Arceus's name just happened?
He watched in horror as a new monster made its presence known. A ghost, one that he had never seen before, emerged from the human's shadow. Even from where he lay, larvitar could feel the strength the ghost is emitting. It is way stronger than any of the monsters on this mountain. If the ghost were to live on this mountain, it can easily be king.
The ghost cackled loudly, opening his gaping maws intending to eat him alive.
"Leave it, Macky."
The human spoke, and those three words were what saved larvitar's life. This human, larvitar realised, had to be a trainer. He had heard of humans like the one standing in front of him taming monsters to fight for their cause. They helped his kind grow stronger, and in return, they will use their strength to aid the humans. It is a mutually beneficial relationship. Most of their kind will return to their homelands once their trainer passed on. Humans have short lifespans compared to their species. He only have to serve the human a short while, attain his final form, and return to the mountain to continue on his quest to be king.
He can be the king of the mountain. The dream suddenly don't seem so faraway now.
The human trainer suddenly tossed a ball at him, and larvitar thought it was some sort of attack. The ghost just smacked him into the direction of the ball while larvitar closed his eyes and waited for his inevitable doom.
It turned out to be a contraption to contain him and register him as the human's companion. This strong human had acknowledged his strength and accepted him!
When he was next released into the world, he had left the rocks of his mountain. The human sat a short distance away from him, as if contemplating something.
"Hmm...Yea, this guy will do."
What does the human mean?
The human released more monsters around him from more of those contraptions, which he now knew is called a pokeball, and the suffocating presence of the monsters that followed the human nearly made larvitar fall onto his knees.
Strong. So strong.
Will he be like them in the future? Is there a chance?
He ate some sort of weird mix which the ghost told him is called "pokemon food", designed to feed creatures like them, which the humans called pokemon. It tasted a lot better than the mountain soil and occasional berries on the mountain, so he devoured it all.
He wanted to start training straight away, and expressed his desire to the human.
The human merely raised an eyebrow. "You are not ready yet. I am not going to be the one to train you."
What?!
"I am going to give you away to my little sister. If being strong is what you want, she can give you that. She isn't as strong as me now, but I believe she can be in the future if she so wished it. She just needs the determination to do so."
Larvitar shook with rage. This is the second time the human had dismissed him so casually. What is he to him? Some sort of toy? To be given away at his pleasure? He was so looking forward to train under this human and THIS is how the human treat HIM?! Give him away to the SECOND BEST?!
Larvitar seethed, and attacked the human once more.
The dragon standing beside the human gave a mighty swipe of his tail, and sent larvitar flying into the air. A black weasel pokemon leaped into the air and drop-kicked him like a stray pebble into the ground. A fire breathing duck pokemon blasted him with scorching flames while a walrus pokemon slapped him into the mud beneath him.
"Enough."
With that, those monsters slowly backed off, still wary of larvitar.
"Attack me one more time, and I will cut you up alive. Sceptile's blades are sharp enough to do so." On cue, the forest lizard gave a lazy swing of the blade attached to its skinny arms, and the boulder beside him, that was at least two times its size, split into two and fell onto the ground in pieces.
Larvitar is way out of his league, and he knew it.
"I told you. If you want to be strong, my sister can help you. You just need to work with her. You want to be a tyranitar, am I right? Then heed my advice and follow her teachings. It won't take long for you to be a tyranitar if you do so."
Tauros crap. Larvitar knew one when he hears one. No matter what the human says, there is no way his sister is better than him. The human said so himself.
That incident ended just like that without anymore fanfare. The human only let him out when it was time to eat or to let him stretch his legs after remaining in the pokeball for long periods of time. Larvitar grew dejected. What went wrong? Why won't the human see that having him on his team is a worthwhile investment for the both of them?
Larvitar don't know what he was expecting, but he did not expect that he will meet the human's little sister so soon.
She is small, that's all larvitar can say when he first met her. He had seen other humans while he was with the human that had shattered his worldview. This female human is small, very unassuming, very normal.
She doesn't look strong. In fact, she is weak. She cannot walk for half a day without feeling winded.
Larvitar felt very pissed.
After his new trainer introduced herself to him, which he didn't bother to listen and reply, they set off on their journey to Arceus-knows-where. He definitely is too far away from his mountain, nothing here is familiar to him. The other pokemons tried to talk to him, but he ignored them. None of them exudes the same power as the monsters that belonged to the human that initially captured him, they are beneath his notice. Larvitar just walked with the group, there was nothing better to do.
They soon arrived at a clearing where they had a quick meal. The trainer announced that they will be starting training, which got larvitar's brief attention.
Nah, he will skip it. What can this midget do to him anyway? Talk him to death? Can she even do it without needing to catch her breath?
He walked off on his own to the side of the clearing where he intend to do his own training. He was about to summon rocks when he felt a tentacle wrapped around him and forcefully pulled him away from where he was. He was hung upside down and saw the trainer looking at him in amusement.
He is not an object to be gawked at.
Larvitar attempted to throw rocks at his trainer, only for the tentacle to shift and slammed him violently onto the ground.
"We tried to be nice to you, you know? But if you want to do things the hard way, fine. Bigblue, Snap, and Rena can tell you about their horror stories on how I treated them when they misbehaved. They will be more than happy to reenact what they experienced on you. This is your first day here, so I will be understanding and forgive you for your attempted murder on me. Toothless, you will help to conduct his training for now. Remember what I told you earlier, start with the basics first. Don't want the new guy to die on his first day with us, eh?"
A round of laughter rose around larvitar, and he growled in anger.
"Stop that threatening act. It stopped being funny a while ago. You are weaker than a wurmple. Anyone on my team can easily beat you and bury you six feet under the ground, care to try?"
Larvitar roared, and attempted to impale her with his horn. HOW DARE SHE!
The tentacle wrapped around him tightened its hold on him, and larvitar turned back to see a rock-plant thing leering at him with those yellow eyes.
"Hmm... guess you are not convinced, huh? Well, how about you pick any member on my team here and try to beat them mano a mano? I like to see you try. Maybe you can show us something exciting?"
The tentacle around him loosened, and larvitar quickly stood up. He took a good look around, sizing up his opponents. She wanted something exciting? He will destroy every pokemon here before killing her. That will be exciting.
He pointed to a rodent perched on the trainer's shoulder.
"Picking the seemingly weakest one, I see. Oh well, it's your doom. Have fun, Fuzzy. Don't knock him silly."
The rodent jumped down and slowly sauntered in from of larvitar, and had the audacity to wave a hello at him with his tiny paw.
'Hi there! Name's Fuzzy, Vel over there gave me my name. Don't worry, you will only be getting a little beat up, I think.'
'Shut up, rodent. I will eat your innards when I'm done with you.'
'Rude.'
With their pre-battle banter done, they got into their battle stance.
Larvitar gave a roar as he charged, trying to impale the rodent or bite him.
The rodent simply side-stepped and tripped him with his tiny feet.
Larvitar got back up as he stared at the rodent in shock, what just happened?
'Are you even trying? I am the weakest here. I don't even battle for my trainer, although I do take part in some of her training sessions.'
Larvitar didn't bother to reply, and this time, he summoned rocks above the rodent and tried to bury him alive.
'Not impressive, Bigblue and Lily are a lot more better than you when it comes to rocks. You are a hundred years too early to try and kill me with that. Even they can't touch me with their rocks unless I want them to.'
The rodent simply stood there as the rocks came tumbling down on him, and the rocks kicked up a large cloud of dust when the rocks landed. Hah, so much for the big talk.
He felt a light tap on his shoulder as he brushed it off, can't he take a moment to savour his victory?
'Hey, what'cha looking at? Something nice around there?'
Larvitar spun around in shock as he quickly back-pedaled away from the voice, and saw the cocky rodent waving at him once more.
How had he got to his back unnoticed? Wasn't he over at the rocks just a moment ago?
'How?'
'How what? You have to be more specific than that, bad-boy wannabe.'
'How did you avoid my attacks.'
'Oh. That? I just left an after-image, that's all. Have you heard of Double Team?'
The rodent suddenly split into two copies, before multiplying himself across the area, and soon he saw at least a hundred copies of the rodent around the area. They are everywhere, on the ground, in the trees, waving at him again. It is a frightening sight.
'Don't look so shocked. I'm not even a master of this move, only learnt it a week ago for the fun of it. Kel and Rena are masters in it. KEL! RENA! Care for a demonstration?'
'I'm not going to lower myself to the standards of this brute. I don't even know why Mistress brought him with us. Ask Kel.'
The white void feline rolled her eyes as she stood up from her spot, and larvitar watched in amazement as the void feline multiplied until there was a sea of them, and she even multiplied beyond the horizons of what he could see.
'Happy now?'
The copies vanished, and the void feline remained standing as if she had never moved from her spot before.
'Tch, all you could do is to pull of parlor tricks. You can't even fight me in a contest of strength.' Larvitar taunted. While what the rodent just showed is an amazing display of skill, none of it had any strength.
'Seriously, that's what got you all riled up? Strength is not just about crushing the most number of rocks with a single move. But oh well, why not? HEY GUYS! HOW DO YOU WANT ME TO THRASH HIM?'
This stupid rodent. Larvitar will bury him alive the next time. That's a promise.
'Cook him alive, I want him medium-rare. That's what Vel told me when she taught me how to cook marshmallows. Same logic should apply to that guy.'
'You know I can't do that, my sparks have no effect on him, he's part ground, next.'
'I don't know, bury him alive? I've always enjoyed a sand bath back at the desert.'
'I don't have the claws for it, anything else that I can POSSIBLY do?'
'Wrap him up.'
'I don't have tentacles like you, Lily.'
'You have a long tail.'
'Don't want to dirty it. Do you know HOW LONG I took to groom it? Pass.'
'We can make a castle of rocks around him, trap him in there.'
'I said what I can POSSIBLY do, Bigblue.'
'Eh, just rip the ground up from under, Dolly knows what I'm talking about. It's possible to do it with huge sparks.'
'Now THAT's a good idea. Anything else?'
'Oooh, I know! I know! Kick him around like a ball! Vel introduced us to volleyball recently! Remember!'
'It's weird trying to play by myself, Dolly, Vel did say I have to face him alone. And isn't kicking the ball around soccer?'
'I can help you keep count!'
'I will try. Anything else.'
'Can we please just get on with it?'
'I agree.'
'I still think cooking him alive is possible. Vel did say rock types aren't immune to heat. Maybe you can heat the ground around him with sparks and barbecue him? I want my marshmallows. Vel just banned me from eating them. He looked so tasty too.'
'He IS part of our team now, Toothless.'
'Vel haven't give him a name yet, Flamel. Technically, he doesn't count. Not until he stops that attitude of his. Rena and I probably have the worst personalities on the team and even we can't stand him. He doesn't deserve Vel.'
'Fire-brain's right, this brute doesn't deserve Mistress. Just get on with it, Fuzzy. Mistress is looking bored.'
'Okie-dokie. GOOD AFTERNOON LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WELCOME TO THE MOST AWESOMEST DUEL OF THE CENTURY! ON THE CHALLENGER'S SIDE WE HAVE ROCKY-'
'Just. Get. On. With. It. Fuzzy. Before I slice you into two.'
'Geez, no need to kill the mood, I rarely have the chance to toy with wurmples like him, you know?'
'You will have the chance if you train more seriously and actually take part in battles.'
'You know I don't like them.'
'Same for me, but I still battle for Vel if she needs me. You are lucky that Vel doesn't care if you battle or not. Not all trainers are like her.'
'I know. Alright, let's get on with it.'
Larvitar seethed in rage as the conversation between these pokemons took place as if he wasn't there. He never felt so humiliated before in his entire life.
'Hey rocky. You can have the first move, or the second move, or the third move, or...'
Larvitar couldn't take it any longer, he charged and sent a blast of rocks at the Giratina-damned rodent.
The rodent did not multiply this time, he simply weaved, jumped, climbed and waltzed around his barrage of rocks looking totally relaxed. All of it is done through pure speed.
'I haven't finished my sentence, you know, that was rude. Tsktsk.'
Larvitar charged in with a Bite, attempting to crush the annoying rodent with its jaws.
'Whoa, have you smelt your own breath? What did you eat? Tauros dung?'
'Shut UP and fight back! You rodent!'
'Suuurrreeee.'
The rodent suddenly increased his speed, and approached larvitar in a blur of movement. His tail glowed a metallic sheen and he smacked larvitar painfully into the air.
'ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! C'MON DOLLY COUNT FOR ME! YOU SUGGESTED THIS!'
'FIVE! SIX! SEVEN!...'
The ghost began cackling and counted the number of times larvitar was smacked helplessly into the air by the rodent's tail, some of the other pokemons even joined in.
'NINETEEN! TWEN- Awww Fuzzy you missed! You almost hit twenty too.'
'Sorry Dolly, tail's getting a little sore right there.'
Larvitar gritted his teeth as he shakily got back onto his feet. How did this rodent managed to toy with him?
'Hey rocky, would appreciate if you could put in a little effort here. It's getting boring trying to put on a show by my lonesome.'
Larvitar howled and charged again, this time he tried to confuse the rodent by swerving left and right, trying to take him off guard.
'What are you doing? Dancing?'
Larvitar sent his powers through the ground, as a small pebble suddenly shot up from the ground near the rodent's feet and hit the rodent at its side. The rodent tripped from the unexpected move. Larvitar wasted no time in summoning rocks from all angles and sent them flying to the rodent, with the rodent as the epicenter. He watched in satisfaction as he finally buried the cocky rodent in a mountain of rocks. He can't get out of that with an after-image this time. He made sure of it.
'Not bad rocky, but not good enough.'
Larvitar watched in horror as the rodent blasted his rocks away with a powerful burst of electricity. The rodent is now sparking, looking at him mischievously.
'Bigblue reminded me, I've always wanted to try building a castle. You can be its first occupant.'
The rodent sparked even more as he sent waves of electricity down into the ground, and larvitar gaped as the electricity tore the ground from underneath as the rocks and electricity came rolling towards him like a wave, with the rodent riding it. How did he even ride a wave of rocks?
'SUPER DUPER OMEGA FUZZY WUZZY PUNCH!'
The stupid rodent jumped off the wave with a burst of speed and punched larvitar in the jaw with its puny paws before leaping away. The wave of rocks came tumbling down on him as he was buried under. Larvitar is too tired to move as he lay beneath the red-hot rocks heated by the sparks. He can't believe it. A brain-damaged rodent actually beat him. HOW? HE WAS THE FUTURE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN DAMN IT! HE TRAINED FOR MANY MOONS! AND HE CAN'T EVEN KICK THE ASS OF A DERANGED RODENT? WHAT HAS THE WORLD COME TO?!
'Did I go overboard? Did he die? Maybe he broke down from depression and his mind got wonkier than a skitty? Maybe my punch left a handsome scar on his face that he is now too busy admiring for him to come out? Or maybe-'
'Shut. Up. Fuzzy.'
'I think that was good, though your castle could look a lot better. Now it just looks like a graveyard.'
'Geez, cut me some slack, Bigblue. Vel told me the only rock technique I can possibly know is Rollout and you know how well that went.'
'True.'
'Did you think you managed to cook him medium-rare? You guys think he taste nice?'
'Is food all you think about, Toothless? Really? I just gave the biggest ass-kicking in my life and all you worry about is your stomach?'
'Hey, no food means no strength, which means no strength to fight. Food is very important, Fuzzy.'
'Damn, your logic sounds wrong, but then again it sounded so right.'
'Of course.'
'Seriously though, what happened to rocky? He's taking a little long even if he is preparing a counter-attack. Don'cha think?'
Larvitar really wished he could snap the rodent's neck right now, just for a moment of peace and quiet, but he is too tired to even move.
'Don't worry, the brute is still alive, I sense him.'
"Rena, can you give larvitar a hand and lift him out of there? I don't think he is able to move."
'Of course, Mistress.'
Larvitar felt the rocks levitate and moved away from him as a wave of psychic energy brought him closer to the trainer.
"Not sure what you guys are talking about for so long, but Fuzzy seemed so excited so I decided to let him continue. How do you feel? Fuzzy only joined us about a month ago, I believe you pokemons refer to it as a single moon cycle? That's what Rena told me. Fuzzy is not even a battler and he gotten you good. He's not even trying. Are we good enough for you now? Or do you want another go?"
Really? That little rodent only joined a moon cycle ago? No way.
'It's true, we have no need to lie to you, brute.'
'Don't read my damn mind.'
'I wasn't. You were broadcasting your thoughts out loud in the open.'
Larvitar continued to lie down on the ground, lost in thoughts.
'Can I...really grow stronger here?'
Larvitar asked aloud, not really knowing who or where to direct his question to.
'Are you dumb or dumb? Have you seen how Fuzzy kicked your ass? I'm the weakest in power here other than Fuzzy, and I don't need my flames to cook you. My claws, fangs and tail can do the job for me. Don't believe me? How about another round, just you and me this time.'
'Stop it fire-brain, your yelling makes my head hurt.'
'Don't stand so close to me then, stuck-up.'
'If,' The fire horse that has been mostly silent all this while, took a few steps forward towards larvitar. 'being stronger is all you care about. You can do it here. Vel's dream is to travel the world, and most of us here share the same dream as her. You can have your fair share of fights if you join us, she is more than capable of letting you achieve your full potential, even if Vel herself does not want to be the strongest. We can even give you some of our fights, if fighting is all you live for. None of us here are especially bloodthirsty for battle, other than Toothless and maybe Snap. But we are good at it, that I can assure you. Not many that we had met so far on our journey can wipe the floor with us, and even then they are accomplished trainers and pokemons who had seen battle even before most of us were born.'
'I probably could have evolve into my final form some time ago, to be honest. I just want to perfect a move first before my last evolution. Everyone here had already achieved their final form, and it didn't take us long. Most of us joined Vel about a full earth orbit ago, or less. I myself joined her when I was just a hatchling less than an orbit ago. You might take a bit longer, I know your species, your kind takes a little longer to grow.'
'Can't believe you actually said something intellectual for once, fire-brain. And didn't Vel told you that there was no point in mastering Overheat now? Just evolve first and perfect it later.'
'There's something called a warrior's pride, stuck-up, not that I expect you to understand.'
'Why you-'
'Enough.'
The big and blue monstrosity lumbered up, cutting off their argument. 'Rena, ask Vel what she wants us to do next.'
The psychic feline turned to the trainer, who seem to talk to the feline with her eyes, before the trainer spoke up.
"Right now, we break up for training. As discussed, Toothless will take larvitar. Just train him in the basics for now. Teach him how to dodge and defend himself, don't hurt him too badly. Fuzzy's done a wonderful job of that already. The rest of us will go over there-" She pointed to another clearing on her right side. "-and continue what we have been trying to practice before. I'm itching to fight Winona already, I heard Fortree had some really good berries too. We need to get larvitar up in shape for our next gym battle. He wants to fight strong opponents right? He can have a go with a gym leader's pokemon. But he will need to prove himself first. Come on, let's go." The trainer approached larvitar, who tried to back away instinctively in fear. The trainer ignored his actions, and proceeded to spray him with some sort of liquid from a bottle. He watched in amazement as his wounds healed up before his eyes.
"Potions don't heal everything, but it is good enough for your case. Toothless, I'm leaving him to you for now. If he shows good behaviour and improvement in his blocking and dodging skills, you can start him on learning Protect. You guys will rotate and teach him some tricks of your own everyday. Hopefully it's enough to prepare him before we reach Fortree. He will get creamed by the birds there at his current level."
The trainer turned and walked away to the adjacent clearing, the rest of her pokemon trailing after her. He turned to the fire lizard, who looked at him dryly.
'Don't think I've officially introduced myself. My name's Toothless, cause I didn't have any teeth yet when I first met Velda. If you laugh at my name even once I will cook you alive, you get what I'm saying?'
Larvitar could only nod dumbly, he's too tired to even laugh, but the trainer had promised him training, and maybe there are things he could learn from the pokemons here.
'Right. I'm not good at rock techniques, so I'm gonna leave the teaching part of that to Bigblue or Lily. Your body may have looked as if it healed, but that's not necessarily true. It takes some time for potions to have some effect, so learning how to block will have to come later unless you want to break your body. So now I'm gonna start on letting you learn how to dodge. See how Fuzzy dodged all your rocks? Nothing impressive like that for now, only he could pull it off like that without much effort and training. He's a natural at it. But dodging is a form of art that is not like the stupid jumps and feints that you did just now. None of us bigger ones are that good at it on the ground, but we are good enough. We excel at blocking instead. Listen carefully, rock-brain. I still don't like you. I am not going to repeat my teachings twice for you, unless you work on your behaviour. Nobody here likes you except for Vel, and we really don't know why she kept you around. She is a good trainer, and an even better friend to us. You dare diss, or Arceus forbid, harm her, in any way, shape, or form. I will roast you. Are we clear?'
Larvitar can only nod.
'Good. Now listen and watch very carefully, this is how you do it...'
"Come on, Larlar, you can do it!"
Larvitar gritted his teeth for the umpteenth time as he tried to summon rocks again. His trainer had wanted him to destroy a dummy target with Rock Slide but she just seemed unimpressed by whatever he conjured. Just what does she want? And can she stop trying to come up with stupid names for him? There were Larlar, Vivi, Tartar, Pebbles, Sandy, etc etc. It's not helping him with his focus!
At least now he knew where that annoying rodent get his personality from. Like trainer, like pokemon.
Excluding him, of course. He will not be like that rodent.
He tried to use Rock Slide to demolish his targets again. He was halfway in summoning his rocks when he got interrupted. Again.
"Noooo. Not like that. Your rocks lack power. They have no finesse and purpose. You just spam as many rocks as you can and hope it buries your enemies. You need to direct all your rocks purposefully with a target in mind. Tell you what, see that sapling of a tree there? Left side of the rock over there. You try sniping the only red leaf at the top of the tree with only one single rock from here. I don't care how, as long as you do it with rock techniques from where you are standing right now. Then maybe you can understand what I meant by with a target in mind."
Larvitar looked at the tree his trainer pointed. It is at least 50 feet away! How is he going to snipe a leaf of all things from here?!
He turned back to his trainer, who had already moved on to another pokemon on the team. Guess she won't be helping him further on this matter.
Larvitar tried a few more times on trying to hit the red leaf with rocks. He tried summoning them from above, the side, below, from his position but nothing worked. His rocks don't have the reach and power to hit the leaf from where he is.
'Need help?'
Larvitar glanced back and saw Bigblue lumbering up to him from behind, who watched on as larvitar continued to practice.
'Oh, the rock sniping practice? Those were fun times.'
Larvitar grunted. He knew that Bigblue is the resident expert on rock techniques despite not being a rock type, but he don't know how to start asking him without feeling awkward.
'You can always ask, you know? All you need to do is to open your mouth. Watch.'
Bigblue stood beside larvitar, and larvitar watched as Bigblue summoned a rock the size of a pebble that floated in front of his face.
'See this?'
'I can tell that it is a pebble, I am not blind.'
'You always see things as how they are on the surface. No wonder Rena doesn't like you. How many times have we told you? Strength is not always about power, even though power is an important component of it. How many leafs did you need to hit?'
'Can't you tell? Are you blind?'
'Humour me.'
'One. The red one.'
'I see. Answer me then, how many rocks do you need to snipe it?'
'As many as I can to take it down, of course.'
'Wrong. It's one, dummy. One rock for one leaf. Why would you need to use so many rocks against a single leaf?'
'No one can guarantee that they can hit the leaf in one shot. Of course I need as many as possible to ensure I take it down.'
'Not wrong, but that's assuming you don't have the accuracy for it. You need to have a purpose and target in mind, you need finesse. Once you achieve that, all you need is a single rock for a single leaf. Sometimes you can even take out more than one leafs using a single rock. See the leaf beside the red one? The one with two holes? Watch how I do it.'
The pebble floating in front of larvitar shot towards the aforementioned leaf and sniped it down with one clean hit, the tree didn't even shake from the impact.
'That's how you achieve accuracy. This is how you achieve power.'
Another pebble rose from larvitar's feet by Bigblue's powers, and shot towards a clearing of trees with trunks thicker than Bigblue's arms. Larvitar watched with amazement as the pebble shot through the first tree, before continuing its trajectory and went through another tree, the one behind that, and the one behind it, and it kept going until it resulted in a loud crash somewhere far away unseen by the both of them. A flock of taillows squawked angrily as they flew off into the skies, alarmed by the disturbance.
'Oops, tried to tone it down, guess it wasn't enough. SORRY TAILLOWS!' Bigblue shouted the last part at the taillows who were flying off away from their location, still squawking angrily.
'How? I've never seen anything like this before! How do you achieve it?'
'Lily taught you Rock Tomb already, am I right? You know Rock Slide even before joining us. Knowing how to perform these two moves should already provide the basics of what I just did. What I did is what our team call Focus Rock, a combination that anyone here who knows the two moves I mentioned just now is able to do, although it is a specialty of mine and Lily. The others don't really use it. Tell me, how many rocks do you usually use in a Rock Slide?'
'I don't know, I never counted. I only know that there is a lot of them.' Larvitar admitted.
'And that's your problem, you don't know what you are controlling. Now imagine this, what happens if all the focus, control and power you use in Rock Slide and Rock Tomb is contained in one single pebble? Can you imagine that?'
Larvitar opened his mouth in shock as he tried to process Bigblue's words. 'Was that what you did just now?'
'Only a very small application of it. Now try what I just did. Remember the feeling when you use both Rock Slide and Rock Tomb. Feel the energy, gather it and compress all the energy into a single pebble, don't let it leak out. Float it right before your eyes first. Try it.'
Larvitar did as what Bigblue suggested, and very slowly, levitated a single shaky pebble off the ground, his eyes narrowed in concentration.
'Good. Now try hitting your target.'
The pebble shot towards the red leaf. It missed, but it had a far longer reach than any of his prior attempts.
'See? That wasn't so hard. I just showed you accuracy and power. You haven't seen control. Vel asked me to hold off on showing you these techniques for now, but I think a little demonstration can help to incentivise you.'
Larvitar watched as a smooth rectangular platform of rock rose up and lifted Bigblue about a feet off the ground, and Bigblue proceeded to surf on the ground using the rock as a surfboard.
'Surprised? This is a way bigger application of Focus Rock. Needs a lot of practice and understanding of both Rock Slide and Rock Tomb. Not the letting the rocks rain on the enemy part, but how to even summon them properly in the first place. You will also need to learn Stone Edge first, but strictly speaking it is not exactly required, it just helps if you happen to know that technique. We can teach you Stone Edge if you want. Surfing on rocks helps me and Lily get around the mobility issue we both have on the ground. Lily loved it. Vel call it Rock Surf.'
'Is that what Fuzzy did when he rode the waves of rocks when we first battled?'
'Oh that? That's not even Focus Rock at all. He just achieved it through sheer nimbleness. No idea how he did it. No one really understood how he managed it either. He's a natural talent at these kind of things, no point in comparing yourself with him, you will just drive yourself crazy. He's a lazy genius when it comes to speed and agility. Continue to snipe, and I can start to slowly teach you how to use Focus Rocks on all kinds of things. I can tell you what to expect next though, after you managed to get one single leaf, what you need to achieve is this.'
Many small pebbles rose around the both of them, and they shot forward towards the sapling tree that had the red leaf at the top. The pebbles rained on the young tree as its leaves fell.
Only the single red leaf remained on the tree, the rest of the leaves had been shot down by Bigblue.
'What.'
'Yeah, I know, what. Try to get the red leaf first, then we can continue to get all the leaves on the other trees later. Then I can teach you how to make your Rock Slides more powerful and your Rock Tomb more compact. Then maybe you can learn how to build a castle made of rocks, it's pretty fun. Then maybe we can start teaching you how to Rock Surf. You will not want to walk on flat ground after that, walking is too ordinary.'
Bigblue turned away and lumbered off back to his corner. Larvitar watched him go as he called out to Bigblue.
'Yea? What do you need?'
'Uh...thanks.'
'No problem. Continue practicing, you have the potential to be stronger than any of us here. I can feel it.'
"Just a little more to go, Rockhorn!"
Larvitar's left eye twitched in annoyance as his trainer called him by another stupid name again. He had lost count on how long he had been stuck with her. One moon cycle? Or two? It seemed like a long time, but yet so short.
He put those thoughts away as he continued to drag the gigantic boulder that was tied to his torso by a thick piece of rope, trying very hard to keep up with Flamel at the front, with his trainer on Flamel's back. Stamina training, she said. Endurance training, she said. Can help him to evolve into a tyranitar, she said.
He really hope that it's all true, or he will really skewer her, getting roasted by Toothless or not.
"Almost there, Flowertail!"
The edge of larvitar's mouth twitched this time. Every single time when he thought he finally had some semblance of respect for his trainer, she would say something stupid like this and that previous budding feeling of respect will disappear. HE IS GOING TO BE THE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN DAMN IT! NO ONE WILL ACKNOWLEDGE HIM WITH A STUPID NAME LIKE FLOWERTAIL!
They took a short break as his trainer conversed with another trainer she met on the road. They are challenging each other to a battle, it seems. He had never participated in a battle for his trainer yet, although he had seen some of the other pokemons on the team battling. He had to admit, they are impressive. Fuzzy is right, excluding larvitar himself, anyone else on the team is way stronger than Fuzzy is. And Fuzzy was toying with him like a meowth with a ball of yarn.
'HEYA ROCKY!'
Talk about perfect timing.
'Hey what'cha dreaming about? Shoo! Go! Vel's calling you for a battle.'
Larvitar turned his gaze to his trainer, who is gesturing at him to come to her from her position on Flamel's back. He walked up to her a little unwillingly, although he is a little excited. This is the first trainer battle he is going to participate in.
"If you can win this battle, I'm going to see if you can start on how to learn Rock Surf, provided you are good with the basics. How about it?"
Larvitar nodded excitedly. His trainer can be annoying, but she knows what she is doing. She also always keeps her promise, and won't break it without any good reason, which is a plus for him.
He turned to his opponent on the other end, and his jaws dropped.
A big reptilian with red fins and blue scales at least five times his size stared back at him. Its jaws alone is bigger than him.
What in the flying Arceus fuck?
Even the other trainer seemed a little concerned. "Uh, are you sure about this? My feraligatr will eat him alive, you know? I got him from a friend as a croconaw only a few months ago. Even if he is new, he is over-qualified to take on your larvitar, and I am not even considering the type advantage here."
Larvitar nodded quickly to voice his approval. He loves to battle, but he is not an idiot. No way is he going on a suicide mission here.
"Oh, don't worry about it. Larvitar can win, I know it."
The other trainer just shrugged his shoulders.
Geez, there's confidence, then there's overconfidence, and then there's arrogance. Larvitar knew a losing battle when he sees one, he is not arrogant enough to claim that he can beat that blue thing.
'Oh quit your whining and just go.'
Flamel kicked him forward with one of his front legs towards the big reptile. Larvitar scowled as he turned back towards Flamel.
'Vel won't take on pointless battles. Either she believes that you can really win, or she knows that you can learn something from this battle even if you lose. You said that you love to fight challenging battles. There, now you have it. Show us that you had really improved and that you did not waste any of our time. If you want a place on our team, earn it.'
Flamel had a point.
Larvitar grumbled under his breath as he walked into a makeshift arena made of rocks that was raised by Bigblue. The moment both larvitar and the reptile were ready, the battle commenced.
The reptile fired off a jet of pressurised water, and larvitar ducked. This reptile is too slow, Toothless is way faster with his flames.
The reptile fired off a few more jets of water before taking a deep breath, summoning a massive wave of water from its mouth, flooding the entire arena.
Arceus save him.
"Larvitar, don't panic! Raise yourself off the ground with Stone Edge!"
'Stop ordering me around, human.'
Despite his grumbling, larvitar can't help but follow his trainer's orders. He can't think of a better option himself.
The water crashed onto the base of the pillar of rock he just raised, shaking it slightly, but the pillar held and he is safe from the raging waters.
"Rock Polish!"
Larvitar summoned rocks that wiped itself across its entire body, giving his body a new shine, he can already feel the difference in power.
Wait a minute, when did he start to listen to his trainer? That wasn't supposed to happen!
"What are you daydreaming for? Get out of there!"
Larvitar barely had time to jump off and run away to a safe spot as the reptile's tail crashed into his pillar, destroying it instantly. If its tail hit him even once...
"Dark Pulse!"
Larvitar shot off a black beam of dark energy at the reptile, hitting it at the area between his jaws and neck, all the target and sniping practice had paid off, it seems.
The reptile roared as he fired off blasts of water at larvitar again and again, which larvitar dodged easily. This guy has nothing on the deranged rodent's annoying shenanigans.
Seeing as how its water attacks didn't connect at all, the reptile decided to get close and personal. He rushed to larvitar with a burst of speed, jaws snapping.
"Stay there! Focus! Wait for my command!"
What?! Larvitar has no intention to be the reptile's lunch for today, thank you very much.
"Just trust me!"
Seeing as it is too late to do anything else other than to follow his trainer's instructions. He did as he was told. The reptile's jaws opened and began to close around him, its teeth brimming with dark energy.
"NOW! Protect! Sphere version!"
Larvitar wasted no time in bringing a greenish shield that surrounded him from all sides in a sphere with him as its center. He watched in satisfaction as the reptile's open jaws closed itself against the shield violently, before the reptile jumped back and roared in pain, a few of its teeth breaking and falling out.
His satisfaction was cut short as the teeth simply grew back out a second later.
"Larvitar! Sandstorm!"
Larvitar didn't have time to hesitate on whether he should follow his trainer's command, that reptile is a monster. Its water attacks may not be able to touch him, but nothing he did managed to faze it either. If his trainer had a way to allow them to get a win, he might as well try to follow her orders.
The sandstorm brewed and raged across the arena, blinding the reptile.
"Earth Power! Trap it!"
Larvitar quickly used that move to loosen the ground around the reptile. He knew what his trainer had planned. He saw Snap used it a few days ago.
The reptile fell into a sea of sand around it as it tried to swim out of it. Not a chance.
"Dark Pulse! Keep it in!"
Larvitar fired off beams upon beams of dark energy, trying to hit critical spots that he knew will cause pain to his foe. The reptile was forced to block the onslaught, but the momentary distraction only serves to let it sink deeper into the sands.
"Focus Rock! Snipe version! Full power!"
Recalling his training, larvitar lifted a single pebble off the ground, and shot it towards that blasted reptile. It hit it squarely on his bottom jaw, which was where he wanted his pebble to hit, and felt glee as he saw how the reptile's lower jaw got dislocated as a result.
"Rock Tomb! Trap it!"
Larvitar summoned rocks, bigger than anything he had managed to conjure before, before raining it down, this time with purpose, as the first rock hit the reptile exactly on the top of its head. The next rock landed in front of it, cutting off its immediate escape route, and three more rocks landed at his sides and back, boxing him in a square in the middle of the quicksand.
"Rock Coffin! Crush it!"
Remembering how Lily had executed that brutal move, larvitar willed the rocks just as how he imagined it to be. Lily had told him that the key to mastering rock techniques lies in the imagination. Doesn't matter how absurd it seems, if he can will it, it will happen. They managed to show him how to surf the ground, didn't they?
The individual rocks changed and merged into one single piece of rock by merging their point of contacts with each other. The now singular box-sized square piece of rock starts to compress inwards with the reptile at the center, attempting to squish it into paste.
The reptile broke roared and broke through the rocks in an impressive show of strength, probably used a physical move of some kind. It had also reset his previously dislocated jaw. Luckily, it's still trapped in the sands.
Not that it mattered to the reptile, it simply shot a beam of ice, created a platform out of it, and proceeded to make its way out of the sand trap.
Ah, tauros crap.
The reptile dashed at larvitar again, and swung its mighty tail packed with water energy.
"Brace yourself! Take the Aqua Tail, then counter with Payback!"
That tail attack of the reptile's hurts, but he had been through worse on the mountain. He gathered the dark energy within him, coated himself in it, the damage he taken from the reptile's attack giving it extra power, and slammed himself into the reptile.
The reptile flinched briefly, but took this chance to try and grabbed it with its claws.
"Double Team!"
Larvitar left an after-image at his previous location as he blurred away from his position, leaving copies of himself on the arena while he hid among them.
"Focus Rock! Then Assurance!"
Larvitar shot a rock from below the reptile upwards into his lower jaw again, which sent the reptile's head to be thrown upwards from the impact. He dashed in again, coating himself in a similar dark energy as before, but slightly different, as he rammed himself into the same spot that he had slammed into the reptile previously, aggravating the reptile's existing wounds.
The damage from the accumulated attacks is too much for the reptile to shrug it off, and he roared as he tried in vain to catch and crush larvitar. That possibility is slim to none, not after he used Rock Polish to increase his speed.
He slid himself underneath the reptile, and shot a wicked Stone Edge upwards at the reptile, shooting it up into the air before it fell back down again.
The reptile tried to flood the area again, but larvitar simply raised itself with rocks upwards and away from the water and returned fire with volleys of Focus Rocks. The reptile unleashed a Blizzard from its opened jaws, trying to stop the rocks in its tracks. The rocks just simply ignored the harsh and powerful winds of Blizzard and continued its trajectory, raining down on the reptile who screamed in pain.
Thank Arceus for Bigblue's teachings.
Larvitar did not need reminders from his trainer as he kept up the attack, whittling his foe down surely and slowly. Before he met his trainer, he would simply rain rocks as many as possible and as large as he could possibly summon. Now, he will rain rocks that are smaller, each packing a larger force behind it, while conserving his strength. Conjuring numerous large rocks will take up and waste a lot of his strength, strength that he does not possess yet, a lesson that Lily had drilled into him on their very first lesson. Big does not always equate to better.
The reptile summoned geysers of water from the ground as it created a shield around itself, halting larvitar's assault. Its entire body glowed blue, and larvitar can feel the reptile's power increasing.
Not good.
"Sandstorm again!"
Larvitar whipped up another sandstorm, a bigger one that what he last produced as the reptile shot a powerful blast of water which he promptly dodged.
The reptile got mad and summoned another huge wave of water, large enough to swallow and block out the sandstorm, and tried to drag larvitar under the waters and drown him.
The lessons on blocking and stalling quickly kicked in, as larvitar rose several large wall of rocks that acted as temporary dams as the waters crashed into the outermost wall. Larvitar created pathways made of rocks that directed the brunt of it away from him to somewhere else. He also opened holes on the ground to let the water drain deep into the ground. Water always flow through the path of least resistance. That was what his trainer had told him when she taught him on ways to fight large amounts of water. If you cannot face it head-on, redirect it.
The reptile didn't let up, and crashed through the first wall of rocks. The water had receded enough so that it would not be a huge threat to larvitar for now.
The reptile broke through his last line of defense just as larvitar drained the waters. The reptile had took a bit of damage trying to break through his defense, but is still able to fight.
"Focus Rock! Trap it in Coffin mode!"
The walls of rocks that the reptile destroyed had broken into many smaller pieces and they laid scattered across the arena. Larvitar narrowed his eyes and concentrated, linking his powers to every single rock he can feel lying on the ground. The reptile watched in trepidation as countless pieces of rocks that accumulated since the start of their battle floated into the air around the both of them, hovering dangerously.
With a mental command, larvitar send all these rocks shooting towards the reptile, dealing tons of damage and clumping around the reptile like a cocoon. He slowly compressed the area, making the rocks cave inwards towards the reptile as the center. The cocoon of rocks slowly compressed as he heard the pained screams that came from the reptile.
"I give! Release my feraligatr!"
"Larvitar, release it."
Unwillingly, larvitar let the cocoon of rocks fall loosely away from the reptile, who is now lying on the ground wheezing in pain. Getting pressed by rocks on all sides of its body, unable to move and do anything as they keep pressing inwards towards you, is not a pleasant experience. He was on the receiving end of it once when Lily had first demonstrated this attack.
He watched as the other trainer recalled the reptile back into its pokeball, congratulated him and his trainer for their win, and walked away.
The annoying rodent slapped him on his back, which almost sent him falling down on his face, he glared at him.
'What now?'
'HEYA ROCKY! Why so serious? You just won! You won your first trainer battle with Vel!'
'It was a good fight. Got to admit, that was a good performance. Wasn't expecting you to win.'
'Hey, do you see how he moved back there? I taught him that! I shot flames at him while he dodged all day!'
'See the rock techniques he used? That's the main he reason he won, me and Lily spent hours with him on that!'
'I concur.'
'As much as I hate to say it, maybe the brute isn't a waste of space after all.'
'Good job, newbie.'
'That was fun! Hey! Think you could fight me next time? We can even go on a prank spree later!'
'The sand pit still need some work, but it is good enough for your first try. Good job on that Earth Power. Loosening the ground with that move is not easy.'
"Good job larvitar." His trainer clapped her hands as she smiled down at him. "That wasn't as hard as it was supposed to be, was it? You can win if you play it smart. I can't promise you that we will always win, but all I need was for you to trust me. Was that fun? A little tiring, definitely, but it was fun, right? Fighting a foe like that is a real challenge for you right now, but it won't be in the future when you evolve. You will probably evolve soon, from what I can see, maybe give it another week, maybe lesser. You are growing really fast for a larvitar, so I can't be too sure. Take a break for today. You can start learning how to Rock Surf tomorrow, your performance just now showed me that you already had the basics down. You will master it in no time, that's for sure. You are a rock type pokemon after all."
Larvitar looked up at his trainer in awe, and never felt so much respect for another being in his life. Her pokemon were the main ones who were doing the teaching, but she was the one who invented and guided them on how to apply and used these techniques in the first place. She guided him and helped to bring victory to him on his first trainer battle, against a foe that had a type advantage against him no less. That was a foe that he would never dream of facing before as a larvitar, but not only did he faced him in a one on one battle, he won.
He suddenly felt that being the king of the mountain is no longer a pipedream anymore, not for long.
Larvitar did the only thing he never thought he would do to another being. He walked up to his trainer, who he now acknowledge her by her given name, Velda, and bowed.
The team was right, he didn't deserve her. But despite his shitty attitude, she taught him how to fight, and how to get stronger. She is a good human, not the strongest he'd seen, that honour goes to her brother, but she never treated him as a lesser being.
She saw him as an equal. Now that he thought about it, Rena had told Velda about his dream, but Velda had never laughed at it, but merely asked him whether being a king is truly a fun thing.
No, not anymore. Being a king is fun, and so are battles. He did not admit it to anyone else, but during his time with Velda that was spent travelling and training, he had a lot of fun seeing new places and taking in new sights. He saw things that he will never dream of, and did things that he could never achieve on the mountain. He still wants to be king, but there is more to be done before he goes back to the mountain and claim his rightful title of the king of the mountain.
He really wants to go and see the vast world together with Velda. He now have a desire to learn, to see every single possibility.
He actually wants to stay by Velda's side, to finally be a recognised member of her team.
"Raise your head, larvitar, you have nothing to thank me for. A lot of your achievements is done through your own hard work and the contributions from the other members of the team. You should thank them later." She got down from Flamel's back, walked up to him and knelt down to his level. "I don't think we had gotten off to a good start. So I will reintroduce myself again. Hello, larvitar, my name is Velda Vera, and my dream is to travel the world. I cannot promise that we will be the strongest team, but I promise to try and be the best trainer for you. We are currently competing in the Hoenn gym circuit. Will you like to join me on my journey?"
Velda held out a hand as the other members of the team crowd around them and watched.
Larvitar stared at Velda's outstretched hand, and extended one of his stubby arms to her.
"I have thought of a name for you ever since I saw you. How about Kratos? I had read a long, long time ago that it was a name that belongs to a man who is a divine personification of strength. You love to fight, and all you wanted was the strength to be king. So how about it? Can we call you Kratos?"
Larvitar, no, Kratos, grinned. He liked the meaning of that name.
"Welcome to the team, Kratos. Let's have an enjoyable journey, shall we?"