Chapter 17 - 19-20

"-da! Velda! Wake up!"

I woke up in cold sweat as I tried to catch my breath. I sat up trying to clear my fogged mind and felt a hand trying to rub soothing circles on my back as I tried to get my mind back in working order.

"Are you ok? You were screaming and just wouldn't wake up! Your pachirisu had to give you a small shock to break you out of your nightmare! What happened?!"

I tried to muster a small smile to reassure Liza that everything was alright. Rena and Kel were already beside me, looking at me in concern.

"It's fine, Liz. Just some images that I saw when I was in Lilycove. It will disappear given time. Sorry if I woke you up."

Liza's eyes widened momentarily and I guessed that she managed to fill in the blanks which I purposely left out in my sentences. She gave me a tight hug, which I returned.

"What happened?! Is everything alright?"

Liza and I turned towards the door of our room where we were sleeping for the night. Steven and Tate were there with several of their pokemons and looking very worried. I gave a small shake of my head as I wiped off the sweat that has collected on my forehead. Liza caught on that I do not wish to speak any further on this issue and spoke on my behalf.

"It's just a nightmare that Vel had. Don't worry about it. I'm here with her, remember?"

I caught Tate's surprised expression that was only visible on his face for about a second before it went back to normal. Liza must have told him what happened through telepathy. Steven don't look convinced, but he didn't press any further.

"Alright, but if you guys need anything, we are just next door."

With that, Steven closed the door of our room as he went back to sleep with Tate. I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding in.

"If you want, I can ask one of my pokemons to use a Hypnosis on you, Vel. It can put you in a deep sleep without dreams, including nightmares."

Liza's offer was a tempting one, but I don't want any foreign psychics to go probing into my mind no matter how low the chance is. Hypnosis does not probe into the mind of its targets but accidents do happen.

"It's ok, Liz. It's not the first time this has happened. I'm really sorry I woke everyone up."

"It's fine. But Vel, this isn't healthy. You need-"

"I'm fine, Liz, I really am. I just need time to recover."

Liza didn't say anything else as we both laid back down onto the large bed that we shared in the room. Liza fell asleep moments later while I remained awake. Kel lay down on the floor beside the bed as she curled up to get back to sleep. Rena and Fuzzy snuggled up next to me on my other side as I absentmindedly stroked them.

Liza and Tate had invited me back to the gym after our lunch to continue our chit-chat session. Steven had excused himself to fulfill other duties he had as a future Champion but had offered to let me stay in his house for as long as I need during my time at Mossdeep. The reason he gave for the offer was because he was good friends with my brother, much to my surprise, and he was the one who actually gave my brother his metagross when it was only a beldum. They had met when Vance was in Rustboro, Steven's hometown, when Vance was competing in the Rustboro gym challenge.

I spent the rest of the day after my gym battle chatting with Tate and Liza while they waited for any other challengers to turn up at their gym. We also re-watched the video of my gym battle since I had no idea what went on and the three of us throw in our opinions of the battle. No other challengers turned up that day. Liza had told me that there were fewer challengers attempting gym challenges throughout the entire region ever since the attack on Lilycove. People were still wary of travelling for fear of such things happening again even if most of Team Aqua and Team Magma were put down. The Hoenn League is doing all they can to encourage people to continue on with their lives as if the attack on Lilycove did not happen, but the people of Hoenn viewed such actions as sweeping the entire incident under the rug, which infuriated them. After the news of Team Aqua's and Team Magma's downfall had started to settle in, there were many people who were angry with the Hoenn League for not putting the two terrorist groups down sooner when they were obviously capable in doing so, as evident when those two groups were crushed a mere ten days after the attack on Lilycove. They felt that the attack on Lilycove could have been prevented if the Hoenn League had took on a more proactive approach when dealing with them. There were some who were more sympathetic towards the Hoenn League and congratulated them on a job well done for taking out both Team Aqua and Team Magma at the same time. Still, the damage has been done, and it doesn't change the fact that the majority of the people of Hoenn are starting to doubt the leadership of the current officials that make up the Hoenn League. Wallace may be the Champion, but he does not have a say in everything. He is more of a figurehead and the general of the entire military force of Hoenn, which is the extent of his influence. The people's negative sentiments were not aimed at Wallace or any of the other thirteen pillars, but were directed to the rest of the officials that made up the Hoenn League since they were the ones who led Hoenn. Tate had told me that these officials are trying very hard to keep their positions in the Hoenn League by trying to appease members of the public. I have a feeling that the twins don't have a very good opinion of the league for whatever reasons, but I don't want to pry.

When Tate and Liza eventually closed the gym for the day, Liza had dragged Tate along with her in bringing me to Steven's house where he was waiting for us. Liza had proclaimed that they will be joining me in spending the night at Steven's house together for a sleepover, something which she rarely had a chance to do. Liza and I slept in the guest room with a large king size bed while Tate and Steven shared a bed in Steven's own room.

And thus bringing me to my current situation.

I closed my eyes as I tried to let sleep washed over me once more. I shouldn't have anymore nightmares after the previous one I just had, at least for tonight. I need to rest so that I can fully recover from my fever and continue on my journey. Liza had promised to bring me to Mossdeep Space Center tomorrow during her lunch break.

'Rena, can you help me to fall asleep?'

'Every repeated use will diminish its effect, Mistress. It's not a true Hypnosis.'

'I know. But just for tonight.'

'Understood. Sleep well, Mistress.'

The next one week was mostly spent exploring Mossdeep with Tate and Liza as my guides or to train with them as they waited for challengers to appear at the gym.

Mossdeep is a small island, and sadly, the only place of interest that grabbed my attention is the Mossdeep Space Center. Even then, we were only allowed to explore the first and second floor of the center that was opened to the public. Anywhere else is out of bounds. It still was an eye-opener. I'm not sure if I have ever visited a space exhibit or sorts back in my previous world. If I did, I certainly didn't remember what it looked like. The one I visited in Mossdeep was a lot different due to the fact that the main aim of space exploration done by Mossdeep Space Center was to find new and unknown pokemons in space, or to find out more about existing pokemons that we knew that came from space, like solrock and lunatone, for example. I don't see any news about the discovery of a new planet, so either these are things that the pokemon world doesn't care about, or there is a lack of other planets in this world.

The other place of interest that briefly caught my attention was the marketplace. It's a lot like the one in Slateport, just a lot smaller in scale. There were a few rare items up for sale and some of them were sold at a good price. I bought some of them to send them to Vance later since he might need it for his ACE missions. Steven admitted that he is in ACE as well and reassured me that Vance is well and alive, just buried neck-deep with all the missions he had been assigned to.

Liza had convinced me to stay for a week at Mossdeep on my second day there, saying that she doesn't want to let me go after she finally found someone that can be her friend. It was then I realised that both Tate and her could have been lonely due to how abnormal they are for their age, not like I have any right to say that. I am the epitome of abnormal. On average, there were only one or two challengers that challenged the gym everyday and that leaves a very bored Tate and Liza. Tate is doing well in staving off the boredom but the same cannot be said for the energetic Liza. Liza will just drag me along for pokemon battles and training whenever she's free and I quickly learnt to not be deceived by her bubbly exterior. She is a monster when it comes to training. She also challenged me to a battle a few times without Tate's help, which I accepted, and I got soundly beaten every single time. The twins were right, their solrock and lunatone weren't the strongest pokemons on her team. They were far from it. My pokemons enjoyed the battles with Liza even if they got beaten black and blue every single time. Tate also battled me a few times, but he looked uneasy about it for reasons unknown. Tate and Liza were also of great help in helping me to train Rena on how to further hone her psychic powers. The TM they gave me was Calm Mind, and the twins also helped me in aiding members of my team that were capable of learning it to master that move.

Steven popped by a few times whenever he was free and he would share stories of his travels as well. He has a deep fascination with various stones and rocks, which can be seen from the entire collection of these he displayed in his display cabinet back at his house. He tried to get me to share the same appreciation but it didn't work out, much to his disappointment. Steven also showed me his cradily and Lily was overjoyed to finally see another member of her kind as they both swayed in the sun together. They make quite a funny sight when they do so. Steven had also trained his cradily to be a defensive battler although his cradily is a lot more aggressive in battle and thus more prone to initiate attacks of his own. Steven had theorised that it is probably due to the fact that his cradily is a male, which may explain his aggression shown in its battle, but nobody knows for sure due to the limited amount of information humans have on their species.

When the day finally came when I have to leave Mossdeep for Sootopolis, Liza threw a tantrum as she held onto my leg and just would not let me go. It was only after a lot coaxing, talking, and promises of many future visits that she reluctantly let go of her grip on my leg and waved me goodbye. Tate, being a man of few words as usual, just said his farewells with a small smile, which earned him a jab from Liza's elbows to his ribs. Tate had been a little skittish around me throughout my stay in Mossdeep, much to my bafflement, and it made me wonder if I had done anything to upset him. Steven just said that I am welcomed to visit anytime and handed me a spare key to his house. I wanted to return it to him, but he just pushed the key back into my hand and said that Vance had one as well so that he can come and crash with him when he's off duty but had too little time to return home. He wanted to extend the same treatment to me. Like Wallace, he tried to find out if I would be interested in joining any of the Hoenn League's forces and was a little downtrodden when I said that it would unlikely be the case. His mood lifted immediately when I said I would keep an eye out for any rare rocks and steel type pokemon on my journey. The short time that I had spent with Steven made me realise that he has a tendency to hoard things he liked and keep a large collection of them much like a dragon, and he guards them zealously even if he didn't need most of the items in his collection. I nearly laughed out loud when I had the realisation since I didn't expect such behaviour from the future Champion of Hoenn.

After bidding my farewells to the three new friends I made at Mossdeep, I rode on Toothless's back to fly to Sootopolis with Snap soaring beside us. Toothless had been eager to ferry me on his back ever since he evolved and the flight from Lilycove to Mossdeep proved that he is capable of long distance flight, so I indulged him. I had fully recovered from my fever by now and the nightmares are getting less frequent. I still had them, but they don't leave me a screaming mess when I woke up so I counted that as an improvement. I spent the time flying on Toothless's back trying to take in the breathtaking sights below us. The view was very different from what I saw from Snap's back when I flew back to Petalburg from Lavaridge where I could see the grassy plains, lush forests, or tall rocky mountains. Looking at the sea from the sky made me truly realised just how vast the ocean is, and how small we are when compared to it. For that one short moment, I can appreciate a little on why Archie was so adamant on expanding the sea. It can be very beautiful. I didn't have the mood to appreciate the scenery when I was flying to Mossdeep so I didn't remember much of it, but I certainly would not tire of seeing such beautiful sights every single day. It's possible for me to do so since I have Snap and Toothless, they would be elated to fly me around everyday to take in these sights. I took a few pictures during our flight to add to my photo collection. I had built up a collection of pictures that I took while I was on my travels to the various places that we had been to and I am intending to keep it up. These thoughts also reminded me that I would need to take a group picture with my entire team since I haven't done so, much to my surprise.

That would be the first thing I do when we touched down at Sootopolis.

Sootopolis is by far the most beautiful city that I had ever laid my eyes on.

It's not like the other cities aren't beautiful, they all are in their own way. Rustboro had ancient architectures that whispered about its history, Dewford has that lazy, vacation feel to it. Slateport and Mauville were always buzzing with activities while Verdanturf is just the quiet peaceful town that hardly anyone knew about. Lavaridge and Fallarbor gave a warm feeling, but Lavaridge had a more touristy feel to it due to its popularity with travellers. Fallarbor feels like a place that you would choose for a quiet retirement, but not so quiet as if it felt like you were cut off from the rest of the world. Petalburg feels like home to me. Fortree city is a place where you can meld with nature; even the houses were built within the huge trees that grow there. Concrete were rarely used to built anything at Fortree, the locals had chose to work with nature to coexist together. Lilycove is a place where the stars shine brightly at night and attracted tourists from all around the world to admire the alluring performances performed by Hoenn's coordinators. Mossdeep is much like Dewford but it does not have the lazy feel. I haven't visited Oldale Town and Littleroot Town, but they are only a short distance away from Petalburg so I can visit them anytime I want.

Sootopolis is just way different from any other places that I had seen.

Everything is just stunningly beautiful, there are no other words to describe it. From the buildings, to the pavements, even the street lamps. Everything is built, positioned, and carved down to the finest detail. There was obviously a lot of thought put in when Sootopolis's founders first designed this city. There is already a mysterious allure to the place due to the fact that it was built within a extinct underwater volcano that somehow found its way to the surface. The architecture in Sootopolis added to the beauty. The combination of nature and civilisation did not look out of place, but rather, they complement each other well. Sootopolis is a place where the rich gather. Rich ladies will often have their afternoon tea in the numerous cafes found on the rock ledges on the interior of the volcano. Wealthy gentlemen will often choose to settle down and built their homes here due to how beautiful and isolated Sootopolis is from the unforgiving corporate world. It's not hard to see why after spending my first hour in Sootopolis exploring the city. Sootopolis is truly a paradise.

I also had a passerby helped us to take a group picture with me and my team. I chose the huge lake in the center of the city as the background. This is our final stop for our gym circuit and I wanted our time here to be a memorable one. The gobsmacked expression of the passerby was priceless when I released my entire team out for the picture. All of my pokemon were either uncommon or rare in the Hoenn region. Bigblue and Toothless were regional starters, Lily's species was supposed to be extinct, Kel's species was not favoured by humans due to their outdated superstition, Dolly is a ghost, Snap's species is hard to encounter unless you went into the harsh deserts of Route 111, Rena's species are almost as rare as regional starters, Kratos is a pseudo-legendary, and Flamel and Fuzzy are foreign species to Hoenn.

Our team drew stares from members of the public as we took our pictures with the passerby's help. The locals here are probably no strangers to fully evolved and powerful pokemons as their city houses the last gym in the Hoenn's gym circuit, but not many of the trainers that passed by here possess so many rare and uncommon pokemon.

I spent the rest of my first day in Sootopolis exploring with my pokemon. I had to recall some of the bigger ones when they couldn't fit into certain places but that didn't stop us from having our fun. I spent the night after dinner to lie down on a clean grassy patch at the bank of the lake to watch the stars twinkle in the night sky through the large hole above. There is an indescribable beauty to see the night sky through the mouth of a volcano. Toothless and Snap had took to flying in the night sky which attracted some stares from the local populace. Toothless was especially obvious due to the light from his tail-flame that shone brightly in the night.

I felt especially touristy at that moment and took many pictures of my pokemons in their "natural habitat", from how Kel and Rena lazed around to how Bigblue enjoyed swimming in the cold waters of the lake. I also took pictures of Snap and Toothless flying in the dark of the night and how the usually aggressive Kratos snored peacefully beside me on the soft grass.

"These are very elegant pokemons you have there, milady."

I turned my head slightly to the direction of the baritone voice from where I was lying down. I was too comfortable to get up from my spot. The voice that spoke to me was soft, but loud enough to be heard clearly from where I was. From her sleeping position on the ground, Rena merely cracked open an eye towards the black silhouette where the voice originated from and closed it a few seconds later. If Rena doesn't deem this guy to be a threat, then he most probably isn't.

"Thank you, but may I know who you are?"

"Ah, where are my manners?" The figure walked up to my location as I squinted my eyes to get a look at the figure which was unmistakably male. He looked vaguely familiar.

The figure got close enough that I finally recognised him under the moonlight. He put a hand to his chest and gave a short, courteous bow. "My name is Juan, the gym leader of Sootopolis gym. I have been awaiting your challenge, Ms Vera. My fellow colleagues had the highest of praises for you, as do Wallace. I am eager to dance with you in a battle of both strength and beauty."

I quickly stood up and cheekily performed a curtsy in response to his bow. "It's nice to meet you, Juan. Please call me Velda. I have been waiting for a long time to have my dance with you as well." It was not a lie. I am eager to battle Juan, who was said to be the strongest among the gym leaders before the major change in their ranks. He is also Wallace's mentor who introduced him to both pokemon battles and contests, a fact well-known to the rest of the world.

Juan laughed good-naturedly as his luvdisc floated to his side from where it was hidden behind the tree. Toothless and Snap had flown down to land by my side after spotting a stranger near me. My ever loyal Flamel had trotted up to stand by my side the moment I stood up to greet Juan. I could feel my shadows shifting slightly as I felt Dolly's presence in it. The rest of my team remained where they were, lying comfortably on the ground but I knew that they were keeping a wary eye on Juan despite their relaxed posture. I subtly gestured for them to stand down. Juan had greeted me politely and it is only right for me to respond in kind.

Juan gave an appraising look at my team while stroking his carefully trimmed right mustache with his right thumb and index finger. "I was initially curious as to who owns that magnificent charizard and flygon that were flying in our sparkling night sky. I see now that they belongs to you. Your pokemon radiates glitz and glamour, Velda, more than what I initially expected. Splendid!" He snapped his fingers once in excitement before declaring dramatically. "I have decided! I will be using him when you finally face me in an artistic battle!" He put his fingers into his mouth and blew out a loud whistle and raised his other hand towards the lake to strike a pose.

The waters in the lake swirled visibly as a whirlpool formed. A humongous kingdra emerged from the waters as its scales glittered under the pale moonlight. I haven't seen a pokemon shining with both beauty and power ever since I faced Wallace's milotic.

The kingdra floated next to Juan as Juan petted it with a single hand on its side. "This is Theo, my starter. You will need to thoroughly prepare yourself to face him in battle. Seeing that you will be facing Theo, he will be the only pokemon of the Elite level that you will face, that I promise you. Our battle will be a 6 vs 6 battle."

Juan's kingdra greeted me with a trill as I nodded back politely in acknowledgement. What's with gym leaders trying to test me with members of their main team?

"I'm afraid I have to end our conversation here, Velda. My wife is waiting for me to get back home. Theo and I will await eagerly for your challenge."

"My team and I won't disappoint."

Juan gave a suave smile at me as he turned around and walked back to where he came from with his kingdra and luvdisc following him and they disappeared into the night moments later. I turned to the rest of my team, who were now very awake and had stood up in response when Juan's kingdra first emerged from the lake.

"You guys saw how powerful that kingdra is. We will need to train like crazy to even think of fighting it on even ground." Toothless roared as he got fired up from thinking of facing such a strong opponent. He's eager to start training straight away. I smiled as I plopped down back onto the grass patch which I was lying on earlier. "The training can come later. Let's just enjoy the night and relax for now."

I watched in hidden delight as my words threw Toothless off guard as he looked at me in a 'Are you kidding me?' expression. Toothless's lust for battle had grown ever since he reached his final evolution although he kept it well under control. Any thoughts of facing a strong opponent will still get him riled up although he understands that he cannot fight them all. He have to leave some for the rest of the team.

"I'm serious, Toothless. Look how beautiful Sootopolis is." I gestured to our surroundings with one of my hands while the other is supporting the back of my head as I laid on the ground. "The Ever Grande Conference won't start in many months anyway. We have a lot of time to prepare for the Sootopolis gym challenge and the conference. Just relax and enjoy the view for now, ok?"

Toothless grunted a reply as he took to the skies once more with Snap. The rest of my team resumed what they were doing before Juan appeared and we relaxed in peace once more. Juan will be a tough nut to crack, especially with his kingdra, and I've never felt so unsure in a gym challenge other than when I first faced Winona's altaria and dragonite. There's no point in training just to beat his kingdra, I have to set my goals higher than that. Kingdras won't be the only species of pokemon I will face when I finally do take part in the Ever Grande Conference. Juan probably wanted me to lose the gym battle I have against him seeing that Winona was the only one who defeated me in an official gym battle before. I know that I will probably lose as well. I was lucky that I could bring down Winona's dragonite and Liza's lunatone with Dolly's Destiny Bond, but the same tactic probably won't work of Juan. He would have known by now of Dolly's capabilities and would prevent her from using Destiny Bond in the first place.

I cannot help but let a small savage grin appear on my face. There's a very high chance of us losing this battle, but that doesn't mean that we will go down easily.

We will give him the dance he asked for.

AN: It's kind of funny that I wrote the shortest chapter I have ever written right after writing the longest chapter. I wanted to write more for this chapter, but no matter how I think about it, it just feels right to cut the chapter off right here.

On a side note, I'm planning to add another pokemon to Velda's team after the Ever Grande Conference. I have a few ideas of my own but I wanted some suggestions from you guys. Try not to suggest anymore regional starters or overused pokemons. I think it would be more interesting to use pokemons that are uncommon, but yet have the potential to be truly strong. I was thinking of letting the new member have a typing that isn't present in Velda's team yet, like ice or steel.

The next chapter will be about the Sootopolis gym battle, and probably the very last chapter I'm going to write and publish until my hiatus is over. Thank you for your unwavering support thus far and I will try to write out a memorable gym battle as soon as possible.

Hoped you enjoyed this chapter!

Character and pokemon list:

Velda Vera, Age: 12, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Reincarnated Soul (to be kept a secret until the day she dies again)

Pokemon on hand:

1) Rapidash (Flamel), male

2) Swampert (Bigblue), male

3) Banette (Dolly), female

4) Flygon (Snap), male

5) Absol (Kelsa), female

6) Charizard (Toothless), male

7) Cradily (Lily), female

8) Espeon (Rena), female

9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male

10) Pupitar (Kratos), male

20

In my opinion, every gym challenge has a value or ideology that the gym leader wanted to test the challenger in. For Rustboro, it is the depth of your knowledge and how you apply it. Dewford tested whether you have the spirit to keep going in the face of adversity. The Mauville gym challenge needed challengers to be able to surprise their opponents to secure a win. The Lavaridge gym challenge can only be completed if you are able to continue to keep your cool even when you are under heat. Petalburg's gym challenge is to test whether you are able to achieve balance between the different aspects of battling. Fortree's gym challenge rewards challengers who have the ability to react on the fly without the fear of falling. Mossdeep gym challenge places emphasis on teamwork and the strength of your mind.

Sootopolis gym challenge tested only one thing. The one thing that challengers will need to grasp if they wanted to enter the Ever Grande Conference.

Power.

Juan's ideology was painfully obvious the moment I stepped into the gym. Unlike the other gym challenges where there are several options to reach the gym leader, there was only one path to take if you want to face Juan. A single road made of ice with ten gym trainers along the way, each of them have six pokemons which were at least advanced level in strength. You will need to squeeze out every single thing you've learnt from the previous gym challenges when facing them, and even then you will need more if you want to come out unscathed at the end of it.

You need power, for if you don't possess it, none of the lessons you learnt from the previous gym challenges will be of enough help to get you through the Sootopolis gym trainers.

I have to face sixty different advanced level pokemons to reach Juan.

My team have a glaring weakness to water type pokemons with members like Kratos, Flamel, and Toothless on my team. We were far from helpless when facing Water Specialists, but it is still a weakness that any Water Specialist worth their salt can take advantage of. None of my pokemon have an advantage over water types save Fuzzy and Lily. However, Fuzzy's species isn't suited for battle while Lily is still a part rock type. There are members on my team that I was forced to not use against Juan due to their huge weakness to water type pokemons, and by extension, ice type moves as well, which are common among water type pokemons.

I had decided to not use Kratos, Flamel, Kel, and Snap against Juan. I chose Kratos and Flamel for obvious reasons, none of them are well-equipped to face water type pokemons. Kratos is still in the growing phase and his defensive techniques against water type attacks will not be enough against someone of Juan's calibre. Flamel's species have a very narrow movelist and only a few were able to do some damage against water type pokemons, so I have to count him out. Kel does not like to battle, and while she does not have a distinct weakness to water types, she does not have a solid advantage against them as well. Snap is very weak against ice type moves although he have ways to defend himself from it, but I don't think it will be enough for him to beat Juan's pokemons.

Fuzzy gave me the biggest surprise. He had been participating in every single training session ever since I woke up in Ever Grande Hospital and he trained diligently. My hospitalisation and the war we experienced back at Lilycove must have affected him even more than I thought. He wanted to try to go against a gym leader's pokemon and practically begged me to send him out to battle against Juan the moment we started training in Sootopolis. Fuzzy's species, by my estimation, could only ever reach the power of an advanced level at the maximum. I had never saw, or read about a pachirisu that reached a higher level than that. We can try, but the success rate will be very low and we will probably never succeed in making him strong enough to reach Elite level. I don't have the heart to reject his plea to battle and promised him that he will get to fight at least one of Juan's pokemon. Fuzzy is an electric type and could possibly do something that the other members of the team couldn't do. With that in mind, I trained him even harder than the rest of my team since he had a lot to catch up on.

We spent two weeks preparing for our battle against Juan. He would have probably watched all seven videos of my previous gym challenges given how interested the gym leaders were in my progress. He would know what to use and expect against me. I need more surprises, more tactics, and I need more power.

I need power. I need something strong enough to bring him down in a single blow, and that was the main thing I trained my team in during our two weeks of training.

I don't think we will ever be fully ready against Juan's kingdra no matter how much we prepare, but I am confident that we can bring down the other five pokemons that he will use against me. He did say that his kingdra will be the only Elite level pokemon he will use against me, and that alone spoke how confident he is in his kingdra's ability to bring my entire team down.

I didn't doubt his confidence, not even for a single moment.

Nevertheless, I only wanted to spend two weeks in Sootopolis before I left the city. I stopped all training by the end of the twelfth day of training and declared a break for all of us the next day before attempting the gym challenge on the fourteenth day. Our break was spent wandering around the unexplored parts of the city and lazing around. I wanted everyone to relax and have fun before we go in for the most grueling gym challenge we ever faced.

We have amassed power, now it's time to use it.

The Sootopolis gym trainers were crazily strong. I know my gym challenge was going to be harder than most simply because I was stubborn on only using four pokemons to face the gym trainers who uses only water type pokemons, and three of the pokemons I used have a weakness to either water or ice type attacks. Each of the four pokemons I sent out have to defeat an average of fifteen pokemon individually and that is a demanding task for them both physically and mentally. I lost count on how many potions I have to use to keep them in fighting condition.

The rewards were worth it. Kel, Snap, Toothless, and Kratos may be tired and worn out by the time we defeated the tenth gym trainer, but the rest of our team were fully rested and ready to battle Juan.

Juan was waiting for me with a smile on his face when I reached the end of the ice road. He silently gestured for me to follow him into a huge room where an arena waited for us. The arena was specially made. The arena was filled with both water and earth with lush green grass growing on it. It looked as if it was a scenery taken from a meandering river which can often be found near Fortree. The artificial river cut across the arena in an 'S' shape and is very wide, with the earth piled on both sides of the river that looked like river banks. I don't know how deep the river was but it has to be deep enough for Juan's pokemon to unleash their full potential while fighting. I hoped that Juan's arena won't change just as how Winona's did. I don't think my poor brain can take anymore surprises for today after defeating ten of his gym trainers.

"Beautiful, isn't it? I put in a lot of thought into designing this arena. I wanted to battle my challengers in an arena that can not only display the full strength of my pokemons, but also the elegance they hold."

"It is beautiful." I admitted. "Won't it be a pain to repair the damages after the battles? Growing the grass back must be really troublesome."

"By all rights, it should be. However, my ludicolo's skill in repairing the greenery has been mastered down to an art form. He can regrow all the grass back beautifully in the same time you take to make your tea. He is my wife's favourite pokemon when it comes to tending to her garden."

I blinked. Now that's something I want to see.

"You absolutely have to show me how your ludicolo does that after our battle. I never saw anything like that before."

Juan laughed at my remark. The registration process was completed just at that exact moment and we prepared ourselves for our battle.

"Let us begin our match, shall we?" Juan said as he produced a pokeball from his pocket in a stylish manner. "Please, you shall bear witness to our artistry. A grand illusion of water sculpted by Pokémon and myself!"

Juan released a luvdisc onto the arena which levitated a few meters above ground. I gave a smile as I palmed a pokeball in my hand.

It's time to begin our dance.

"Fuzzy, dodge it!"

Fuzzy dodged a Water Pulse that would have knocked him out of battle if it had connected. Juan's luvdisc had started off with a Rain Dance that activated its Swift Swim ability. It increased its speed to insane levels right off the bat. Fuzzy won't lose in the speed department but it was harder for him to get an advantage over luvdisc when it simply sped around in the rain. Fuzzy's Shock Wave was the only attack Fuzzy have that can guarantee a hit on the pink fish and even then it was usually cancelled out with a huge blast of water from its Water Pulse. Fuzzy's electric attacks was also weakened from luvdisc's Mud Sport.

We need to stop the damn rain, or turn it into our advantage. If only Fuzzy could fly like he used to on Snap's back...

Wait. Could he...? Maybe? Does it even work that way for Fuzzy? Vance's metagross did managed to use it to fly, didn't it?

"Fuzzy! Magnet Rise! Fly into the rain clouds!"

Fuzzy gave a squeak as he charged his entire body with electricity to induce magnetism. Little by little, he started to levitate off the ground and then launched himself vertically into the air with a burst of speed as he disappeared into the clouds.

It's a bird...It's a plane...It's Superman!

Shutting down that nonsensical thought in my head, I gave Fuzzy my next command.

"Thunder! Charge all the water in the clouds with electricity!"

The rain clouds suddenly flashed before it rained lightning down on luvdisc and the entire arena. It was only for a short moment as the rain clouds were dispersed after Fuzzy's Thunder ended, but it was the most damage we had dealt to luvdisc in our battle so far. Luvdisc had somehow managed to partially block the attack with a huge blast of Water Pulse. Together with the Mud Sport it used earlier, luvdisc was only singed, but not out of the count yet.

Fuzzy had landed back onto the ground, he is not yet good enough with Magnet Rise. Even from Fuzzy's amateur use in this move, I can start to see the beauty of this technique, especially if Fuzzy managed to master it one day. It will be invaluable for him to be able to achieve flight through magnetism in battles. We need to train more in this technique after this gym battle.

"Ion Deluge! Then Quick Attack!"

Fuzzy sparked once more as he dispersed electrically charged particles that changes normal type moves to electric type moves. He disappeared in a blur as he rammed himself into luvdisc with a Quick Attack and sent it reeling back for a short distance. To my delight, Fuzzy had also managed to paralyse luvdisc. He probably added in a Nuzzle during the short physical contact he had with luvdisc after the Quick Attack.

Atta Boy.

"Luvdisc, dive into the water! Then Aqua Ring!"

I stared with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation as luvdisc dove into the artificial river. Juan has to know that the potency of electric type attacks increases when used underwater. The fact that he allowed luvdisc to get in there means luvdisc had a way to defend itself from electric type attacks while underwater. Forcing it out of the water with direct electricity probably won't work, I have to force it out without the use of electric type attacks.

"Fuzzy, direct Echoed Voice into the water. Force luvdisc out!"

Thank you, Norman, for showing me the wonders of sound-based techniques when used underwater.

Fuzzy shouted into the waters in an echoing voice, the power of Echoed Voice increasing the longer it was being used. The fact that the normal type attack had been converted to electric type attack via Ion Deluge was just another bonus if the move actually managed to damage luvdisc directly. It took a while, but luvdisc was finally forced out of the water when the Echoed Voice got too loud and painful for it to bear.

"Nail it with Electro Ball and Charge Beam!"

Fuzzy wasted no time in throwing crackling orbs of electricity at the disoriented fish while trying to snipe it with Charge Beams. He got a few hits in thanks to the paralysis from Nuzzle, it had slowed luvdisc's speed significantly. Fuzzy tried to get closer to luvdisc while not letting up on his attacks as luvdisc tried to avoid him while returning fire. It was a lost cause for luvdisc, Fuzzy was simply too nimble for its attacks to hit him.

Fuzzy used an unexpected Grass Knot, a move he learnt from Lily, when luvdisc got too close to dry land. The grass caught her and Fuzzy used a Quick Attack to reach luvdisc quickly and pinned it down.

"Hyper Fang! Then Thunderbolt! Don't let up!"

Fuzzy bit into luvdisc with his sharp front teeth as electricity surged through luvdisc, causing it to cry out in pain. Its cries got louder when Fuzzy unleashed a continuous stream of Thunderbolt into his victim, intending to keep it going until luvdisc is out of battle. Juan was forced to recall luvdisc after a while when it became obvious that luvdisc would not be getting out of there.

"Good job, Fuzzy!"

Fuzzy squeaked in delight as he relished in his first ever victory in a gym battle. Fuzzy may never be able to become the strongest pokemon in existence, but we can strive to make him the strongest pachirisu in existence. Judging from our performance, we were doing things right.

Juan sent out a massive crawdaunt that snapped its pincers viciously the moment it appeared. I hesitated for a while as I pondered on whether I should let Fuzzy continue battling. I decided to let him carry on. Fuzzy can still hold his own for a while and help to scout out crawdaunt's abilities.

"Thunder Wave! Then use Charge followed by a Thunderbolt!"

Fuzzy sent out a paralysing wave of electricity just as he dodged a Bubble Beam from crawdaunt. The Thunder Wave struck and I watched in satisfaction as crawdaunt's movement was hindered a little by the electricity. Fuzzy used Charge to double his powers for electric type moves before he produced a massive Thunderbolt to strike crawdaunt.

"Metal Claw!"

I watched in shock as Fuzzy's Thunderbolt was cut into two by a single powerful swipe of crawdaunt's pincers. Crawdaunt used Hone Claws before dashing towards Fuzzy with an Aqua Jet, intending to grab Fuzzy with its pincers. Fuzzy dodged each snap of crawdaunt's pincers with grace and used Double Team to confuse crawdaunt whenever the attacks got a little too much for him to handle. The moment crawdaunt's pincer got too close to the ground with a missed Crabhammer, Fuzzy used his pincer as a springboard and jumped onto crawdaunt's back.

"Fuzzy, Discharge!"

Fuzzy squeaked in acknowledgement as he let loose a flare of electricity to strike at everything around the immediate area. To crawdaunt's credit, it only grunted once in pain before standing upright again, not letting the electricity bother it.

"Use Surf! Get pachirisu off you!"

My fists tightened around the handrails which I was holding onto throughout the battle as a massive wave of water rose from the artificial river. Crawdaunt is planning to use Surf on itself to wash Fuzzy off its back!

"Fuzzy! Get back here with Volt Switch! Hurry!"

Fuzzy let loose another blast of electricity that sent himself flying towards me and to the safety of his pokeball as I sent out Lily to take his place. Lily gave an uninterested look at the wave of water that was about to crash into her and calmly rose a dome of rock walls that surrounded her on all sides, taking refuge within a shelter of rocks. I smiled, this was the same tactic that she used in the Mossdeep gym battle while I was asleep. It was her own invention. Lily can be damn inventive if she puts her mind into it.

Tentacles rose up from all around crawdaunt even before the waters had receded and it wrapped itself tightly around crawdaunt as Lily tried to restrict its movements. Crawdaunt forcefully pushed itself towards the waters with brute strength and Lily was forced to let go to prevent crawdaunt from dragging her into the waters with it.

"Sludge Wave, poison the waters."

Lily's tentacles poised like a bunch of snakes before a huge amount of poison sludge shot out of her tentacles and sprayed into the waters. The water will no longer be usable to Juan's water pokemons unless they wanted to be poisoned. It wouldn't be comfortable for crawdaunt either to be swimming in poisoned waters, it have to come out soon.

Lily narrowly dodged a Dark Pulse that shot out of the water without any prior warning as crawdaunt took the opportunity to make a comeback. It slashed at Lily with Night Slashes and X-Scissors, trying to cut off her tentacles. Lily swayed out of its attacks while moving around the arena with Rock Surf, dancing around crawdaunt while waiting for my next orders.

"Grass Knot! Tangle its legs!"

The grass around crawdaunt lengthened as soon as the words left my mouth as the grass wrapped itself around crawdaunt's legs, tripping it momentarily. Crawdaunt broke through its restraints with brute strength once again and fired Ice Beams at Lily which she blocked by raising walls of stone. Taking crawdaunt down isn't hard, I just need a short moment where I can catch it off guard. Were there any previous instances or examples that I can emulate or mimic during my journey? Who was the epitome of surprises?

My mind was suddenly filled with the sound of an unmistakable 'WAHAHA' laughter.

"Flash! Blind it!"

Lily emerged from behind her rock shields as she released a bright flash of light from her body, blinding everyone in the room. Lily took the opportunity to ensnare crawdaunt with her tentacles as she sapped away its strength quickly with Giga Drain. Crawdaunt tried to break free with brute strength once more, but the loss of its strength thanks to Giga Drain prevented it from doing so. It then tried to throw Lily into the waters, but Lily had anchored herself to the ground with Ingrain and won't budge an inch. Its pincers were shut tight as Lily's tentacles wrapped around it tightly. Lily had cut off all of its options.

Except for one.

"Crawdaunt! Hyper Beam!"

A large orange beam of condensed energy gathered at the front of crawdaunt's opened mouth. It was a good attempt to try to break free from Lily's grasp, but it won't be good enough. I don't need to tell Lily what to do next, she understands better than me what needs to be done. This scenario was almost the same as the one she faced in the Mossdeep gym battle when I was asleep.

Crawdaunt's Hyper Beam hit Lily's Protect as the beam of energy was fired only a few feet away from each other. Crawdaunt was damaged by its own attack thanks to the backblast from the collision of Hyper Beam against Protect at such a close distance. Lily's tentacles were singed, but it was nothing she couldn't heal from Giga Drain, and if need be, Recover. Crawdaunt was still conscious and kicking, and tried to use a Guillotine to cut itself free and defeat Lily with a one-hit-KO move. Lily interrupted crawdaunt with a Confuse Ray, which made it dizzy and lose its balance.

"Solar Beam, finish it!"

Crawdaunt was helpless in its confused state as Lily charged up a Solar Beam and fired at crawdaunt, taking it out.

Lily's injuries from her battle with crawdaunt had all healed by now. There are very few that can stand up to Lily's healing abilities and win. The easiest way to get around her recovery moves is to freeze her with ice type attacks, since it is the only way to physically get around Lily's tentacles and prevent it from moving. Even now, we had never managed to overcome this obstacle yet.

And of course, an ice type pokemon was what Juan have to send out next. He really has a good eye for weaknesses.

"Walrein, Blizzard!"

"Rock Armour!"

Walrein unleashed a raging storm of ice and snow at Lily as she coated herself with rocks as her armour. It will protect her from the brunt of the Blizzard but it won't stop her body temperature from getting low, which can be very dangerous for her species. We need to stop the Blizzard quickly.

"Spit Up!"

Lily's typical battle habits is to keep Stockpiling non-stop the moment she appears for battle. You never know when you need an immediate recovery move that can be used within a second to bring you back to full health or to release a sudden burst of power that can bring down your foes in a single hit. In this case, a sudden huge burst of power is what we needed.

Lily released all of her stored powers as she slammed her tentacles on the unsuspecting walrein. Walrein was hit with so much force that it was sent flying to the other end of the arena. I took the opportunity to recall Lily. Dolly would be better suited to take down this behemoth.

Dolly appeared onto the battlefield with a cackle as she dove into the shadows to try and reach walrein. Walrein had recovered by now and tried to hit Dolly with concentrated blasts of Powder Snow and Water Gun to no avail. Dolly finally closed the distance between the both of them with Shadow Sneak as Juan gave out his next command to walrein.

"Crunch!"

Dolly would have been mincemeat if she hadn't managed to pull off a Protect at the last second to save herself. She immediately hid herself with Phantom Force after that and reappeared far away from walrein, chattering in anger. Juan must have known from the videos of my previous gym challenges that Dolly loves to sneak up to her opponents and poison them with Toxic when she got close enough. He is preventing that from happening to his pokemons. I clicked my tongue in annoyance. Luckily, I had planned for scenarios like these. It would be the first time we are testing it in a real battle but the results should not disappoint.

"Dolly, Shadow Wisp barrage."

Dolly cackled in delight as numerous Shadow Balls formed around her. However, what's different about these Shadow Balls is that they are burning with a sinister, bluish-white flame. Dolly and I have managed to combine the effects of Shadow Ball together with Will-O-Wisp, giving us a long range alternative to inflict status ailment on our foes while dealing damage at the same time.

The flaming Shadow Balls shot towards walrein as it tried to block it with a huge wall of water from Surf. The Shadow Balls pierced the wall of water and impacted against walrein as it was pushed back. Walrein had been inflicted with a burn as well.

"Night Shade!"

Shadow Wisp took a fair bit of energy to use and Dolly cannot keep it up forever. She usually needs to take a short break from using Shadow Balls after Shadow Wisp and Night Shade is a very good alternative to Shadow Balls during times like these. Walrein was inflicted with a frightening mirage from Night Shade as the ghostly energy from Night Shade damaged it, causing it to tremble with agony.

"Walrein, use Blizzard to freeze the waters! Steamroll the banette with Rollout!"

The waters in the artificial river was quickly frozen as walrein curled up in a ball and started to roll towards Dolly at high speeds across the frozen waters. Dolly tried to stop its charge with Charge Beams and Hex but the attack just bounced off walrein without a scratch. Dolly was immediately forced to run away from walrein, trying not to get flatten by walrein's Rollout as it continued to gain momentum from the roll.

"Dolly, stop the Rollout with Disable! Follow it up with Foul Play!"

Walrein came to an abrupt stop with Dolly's Disable and it was smacked painfully by Dolly's Foul Play. Dolly also blasted a few Hexs at walrein while she was at it and walrein tried to pin it down with several uses of Water Pulse.

"Walrein, put banette to sleep with Yawn!"

"Dolly, Magic Coat!"

My heart soared as I watched walrein's Yawn being reflected back against it. Now is our chance.

"Dolly, use Calm Mind then Dream Eater!"

"Walrein, Sleep Talk!"

Dolly avoided walrein's Aurora Beams as she quietly focused her mind and spirit. She then unleashed a wave of psychic energy that seeped into walrein and ate its dreams, causing it to spasm violently on the ground and woke it up.

"Dolly, Thunderbolt!"

"Double Team! Avoid it!"

Dolly's Thunderbolt missed as walrein created after-images of itself around the arena. This is going to be such a pain.

"Dolly, use Feint Attack to seek it out, be careful of a counter-attack!"

Dolly disappeared into the shadows once again as she punched the real walrein, disrupting its focus to maintain Double Team. As I expected, walrein tried to grab Dolly once again with Crunch, but Dolly simply sent a Shadow Ball that forced it to abort its attack and Dolly used the opportunity to pull herself away from walrein.

"Walrein, Swallow."

Oh shit, the walrein line knows the Stockpile, Spit Up, and Swallow combo?

"Dolly, quick! Use Snatch!"

To my relief, Dolly managed to steal the effects of walrein's Swallow just in time to prevent it from healing back up. Walrein was enraged as it tried to destroy Dolly with Water Pulses but Dolly simply hid in the shadows once more. This battle had gone on long enough. Walrein should have been worn down from the burnt status ailment and all the combined damage being inflicted onto it by Lily and Dolly. Dolly is still at perfect health thanks to Dream Eater and Snatch. We should be able to end this soon.

"Dolly, use Confuse Ray, then use Calm Mind followed by Thunder!"

A beam of ghostly energy hit walrein from one of the shadows. Walrein tried to shake off the confusion it felt and Dolly fell unnaturally silent as she remained hidden in the shadows. A few seconds later, a large column of electricity burst from the shadow below walrein as it gave a loud scream. Walrein lay paralysed on the ground, convulsing from the electricity running through its body. Juan recalled walrein a few seconds later as he stroked his mustache with a smile on his face.

"Well done, Velda. Pokemons on the advanced level are obviously no match for you. Still, there are two more to go before you finally face Theo." Juan released another pokemon for battle. "Whiscash, dazzle them!"

An enormous whiscash appeared for battle as it landed on the ground, not bothered at the slightest that it isn't being released into the waters. The whiscash gave a low rumble, and immediately started off with... a Dragon Dance?

What?!

"Whiscash, Waterfall!"

Whiscash coated itself with water type energy before launching itself at Dolly who managed to hide in the shadows just in time. This did not stop Whiscash as it proceeded to force Dolly out with a Magnitude, causing her to take substantial damage.

"Dolly, return! Toothless, Sunny Day!"

I recalled Dolly before she got hurt any further and Toothless immediately took to the skies upon his arrival. Light shone onto the arena as he bathed the arena in flames, trapping whiscash in a Fire Spin who does not seemed worried at all.

"Whiscash, Water Pulse."

A large pulsing blast of water shot out from whiscash's mouth as it extinguished the Fire Spin and it tried to bury Toothless with a Rock Slide. Toothless glided across the air effortlessly as whiscash continued its futile attempts to hit him with Rock Slide.

"Toothless, Solar Beam!"

Thanks to Sunny Day, Toothless was able to fire beams upon beams of Solar Beam at whiscash as it was forced to flop around on the ground and run away from Toothless's onslaught of attacks. I couldn't help but admire Juan's ability to train whiscash's ability to dodge attacks on the ground since whiscash hasn't been hit yet by a Solar Beam. To add on, the way whiscash dodged Toothless's attacks was really elegant despite the fact that it was flopping around.

Whiscash finally made it to the frozen artificial river and immediately broke the ice on the surface to swim beneath the waters. The waters were poisoned by Lily earlier but whiscash probably had a high tolerance to hazardous environments. Their species were known to thrive in the dirtiest of waters. That doesn't matter, there is more than one way to use the poison from Sludge Wave.

"Toothless, boil it alive!"

Toothless gave a delighted roar as he unleashed a massive Inferno onto the waters. The ice on the surface melted. However, our goal wasn't the ice, it was the sludge from the Sludge Wave that Lily released into the waters earlier. Unknown to most, the sludge produced from attacks such as Sludge Bomb and Sludge Wave often have thick layers of oil on them, something which many people don't know or realised.

They also make very good fuel.

The water on the surface burned as the entire artificial river caught fire as black, putrid smoke rose into the air. Toothless flew high into the sky, ready to fire his attacks on whiscash the moment it came out.

To my surprise, whiscash used a Whirlpool. The waters swirled as the oil on the water surface was temporarily pushed under and extinguished the flames. Toothless unleashed another Inferno to reignite the oil floating on the waters but was stopped once again by the same tactic.

"Toothless, use Work Up. Wait for whiscash to come out."

Toothless heeded my commands as he raised his offensive powers in his wait for his foe to show up. A huge wall of Muddy Water rose from the river a few seconds later and Toothless blasted a hole through the waters with a Dragon Pulse before flying through it to safety. I bit my lower lips and tried to think of ways to force whiscash out of the water but my mind came to a blank. Maybe it's time to be a little bit reckless, Toothless definitely had the power to pull off a certain maneuver. It was a last resort that I really don't want to use since it can be very taxing on Toothless, but the results should be worth it.

"Toothless, dive into the waters! Evaporate it with Flare Blitz!"

Toothless gave another roar as he cloaked himself with flames and dove into the waters eagerly. I could see the bright red flames underneath the waters as it grew bigger and bigger. The heat in the entire arena grew hotter and the water from the river visibly turned into steam at a rapid rate. Whiscash couldn't get too close to Toothless unless it wanted to suffer a severe burn and any water attacks it unleashed on Toothless will simply turn into steam as well when Toothless had increased the intensity of his flames to this extent. Toothless is now coated with a burning armour of fire.

About a minute or two later, the waters had fully evaporated from the artificial river and Toothless gave a savage grin at whiscash, who was unable to do anything to stop Toothless from ridding the waters. Whiscash sent a barrage of Water Pulses at him but Toothless simply sent waves of Air Slashes that prevented the Water Pulses from reaching him. Whiscash had ran out of options.

Toothless charged up a massive Solar Beam and fired it at whiscash, who tried to raise walls of stones to block the attack. To my relief, its proficiency in rock type techniques is still not good enough for that purpose. Toothless's Solar Beam punctured a huge hole in that pile of rocks and blasted whiscash all the way to the other end of the arena, snagging another win for us.

Toothless gave another roar of victory as he relished in his moment of glory and I gave a sigh of fond exasperation. Toothless's battle lust had reared its head again.

Juan sent out a politoed next, who immediately started on a Rain Dance that blocked out the sunlight. Toothless fired a few Air Slashes at it only for politoed to leap away. Politoed used a Water Sport to weaken the effects of fire type attacks when Toothless unleashed a Flamethrower at it, allowing politoed to suffer close to no damage thanks to both the rain and Water Sport.

I recalled Toothless and sent out Rena. She would be the best candidate to handle politoed.

Rena appeared gracefully for battle and she started off with a Calm Mind before firing Psybeams at Politoed. Politoed shot a jet of water with Scald but Rena dodged it effortlessly and they continued to clash with each other with water and psychic type attacks. Rena managed to use a Grass Knot to trip politoed and followed up with a huge wave of Psychic, pressing politoed into the ground. Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the ground where politoed was pressed on and it gave way to form a crater on the ground where politoed lay. Politoed cut off the Psychic attack by shooting a Hydro Pump at Rena which she managed to defend herself from with a Protect. The momentum of the blast still sent her skidding back and politoed took the chance to leap at her and punched her with a Mega Punch. Seeing that there were no time to dodge or use another Protect, Rena fought back using a Zen Headbutt, and the collision of attacks produced a shockwave that shook the arena. Both of them leapt back after the attacks, sizing each other up.

Playtime's over.

"Politoed, Ice Rain."

With a croak, politoed jumped up high into the sky and let out a huge blast of Icy Wind onto the falling rain produced from Rain Dance. The rain turned into needles of ice as it rained down on Rena. Rena remained standing on her spot motionlessly as she stopped the icicles with her psychic powers. She turned the sharp end of the needles back towards politoed and fired the needles back at it with speeds so fast that it left a sonic boom in its wake. Politoed shot down the needles with another blast of water from Hydro Pump before landing on the ground. It was preparing to use another attack when it was suddenly caught by a Future Sight that Rena had prepared since the start of the battle. Rena took the opportunity to fire a few Shadow Balls that knocked politoed back, but it quickly recovered its bearings and croaked out a loud Hyper Voice. Rena tried to shut it up by using a Yawn, a move she just learnt, only for politoed to coincidentally use a Hypnosis at the same moment. Both pokemon fell asleep at the same time on the battlefield as my eyes met Juan's on the other end of the arena.

"Sleep Talk!"

Both Juan and I commanded our pokemons at the same time and both politoed and Rena got back on their feet and began to battle in their sleep. I would have laughed out loud at this hilarious scene if it wasn't for the fact that this is our final gym battle in the Hoenn circuit and I have to be serious about it. Both politoed and Rena used a wide variety of moves in their sleep-induced combat. Sleep Talk allows the user to randomly use a move they knew in their sleep. Both pokemons engaged each other in close combat as they clawed, punched, and swiped at each other with any moves they knew. There were some occasional ranged attacks being fired. Both Rena and politoed were starting to wear each other down and it became a race to see who will wake up from their slumber first. We were in luck when Rena used a Heal Bell by accident thanks to Sleep Talk, allowing her to wake up earlier than politoed.

Upon my command, Rena unleashed Stored Power, a move that increases in power the more the user uses power boosting moves. Rena had been continuously using Calm Mind to increase the damage of her ranged attacks. The increase has been slowed down due to the fact that she was using it while battling instead of sitting still to use it properly like what Dolly did, but the increase had still built up to a substantial amount, enough for Stored Power to deal massive amount of damage to politoed and knocked it out.

We did not stop there. There's still one more pokemon that we have to face. A foe that could possibly take down all six members of the team that I had chosen to battle Juan.

The presence of Juan's kingdra on the battlefield changed things. For one, there is a stark contrast to the difference in power as compared to the previous five pokemons we faced. With a single trill, the rain from politoed's Rain Dance turned into a downpour that filled the empty riverbed with water within seconds. Politoed's Rain Dance barely filled a quarter of the empty riverbed when Toothless evaporated the waters of the artificial river.

Rena would have been taken out of the battle if it she didn't managed to use a Detect to dodge a Water Pulse that kingdra shot at her. Kingdra is fast, and its ability was definitely Swift Swim as well given how fast it moved in the rain even when it levitates itself above the waters. Rena quickly used a Morning Sun to heal her injuries, but the effect is not as effective due to the lack of sunlight which was blocked by the rain clouds from Rain Dance. Rena sent Psybeams at kingdra since it was the only attack that she can fire fast enough to keep up with kingdra's speed. Kingdra looked like it was barely trying as it dodged Rena's attacks, and actually looked bored while doing so.

"Theo, Waterfall."

With a sudden burst of speed, kingdra blurred from my vision as it slammed into Rena at high speeds and sent her crashing towards the psychic barrier at my end of the arena. Rena lay unconscious on the ground below. Juan's kingdra had taken her out with a single hit.

I recalled Rena and sent out Dolly. The rain clouds provided enough shadows for Dolly to hide in and hopefully this would be enough to even the playing field a little.

"Dolly, Pain Split!"

With a howl, Dolly managed to slam herself into kingdra to split their health equally and Dolly healed herself from the damage she sustained from Juan's whiscash. We cannot allow ourselves to get hit by kingdra. One attack is all it needs to take us out.

"Evasive and anti-tank maneuvers! Don't let it hit you!"

Dolly dashed in and out of the shadows as she fired her attacks. Most of them didn't connect and the few which did were blocked off with a Water Pulse. Water Pulse seemed to be the bread and butter move for every single one of Juan's pokemon due to how proficient they are in it. I'm not sure what kind of difference it will make if I prevented kingdra from using that move, but it's something we can try.

"Dolly, Disable and Taunt!"

Dolly disabled kingdra's Water Pulse and used Taunt to force kingdra to use only attacking moves. The attacks from kingdra got more faster and more furious as it now shot Scalds at Dolly. Dolly hid in the shadows once again and with another ghostly screech, she planted a Curse onto kingdra.

It's not a move that I allowed Dolly to use often, but facing Juan's kingdra warranted such a course of action.

The effect was instantaneous as Juan's kingdra winced a little in pain when Curse was first planted. The pain it felt was enough to disrupt its focus to maintain Rain Dance and the rain stopped. Kingdra gave up on using Rain Dance due to Taunt and tried to shoot Dolly with Scald and Dragon Pulse. Dolly played a game of hide-and-seek as she fired attacks of her own and dodged back to the shadows immediately after to prevent kingdra from hitting her with its attacks. What Dolly needs to do now is to slowly wear kingdra down, and she was doing a good job at it so far.

"Theo, flood the arena with Surf!"

My mouth widened in disbelief as a huge wall of water rose to the height of the ceiling from the ground and fell onto the arena, flooding the entire arena in an instant as the psychic barriers on the edge of the arena barely held the waters in. Kingdra dove into the waters, intent on finding and finishing Dolly off in its own domain.

"Dolly, Thunder!"

The arena-turned-lake lighted up in a lightshow of sparks and electricity. Just when I thought that Dolly had managed to deal a significant blow to kingdra, she was forced out of the water with kingdra hot on her heels. Dolly managed to dodge a Dragon Pulse with a Double Team before attacking with a Sucker Punch. Kingdra withstood her attacks and fired off a Scald but Dolly was faster and disappeared with Phantom Force. I gave a shout of delight when I saw that Dolly had managed to land a Toxic on kingdra in the brief moment of contact that they had. We have a chance now that kingdra is being inflicted with both Curse and Toxic.

"Theo, finish it."

Kingdra yawned as a massive Whirlpool formed from the waters of the lake and trapped Dolly in it before she could dive back into the shadows. She tried to use a Protect to defend herself but the speeds which she was spun around disrupted her focus. I commanded Dolly to hide with Phantom Force, but we were too late as a Flash Cannon from kingdra caught Dolly and knocked Dolly out for the count as well.

I gritted my teeth, I knew that it was an almost impossible mission to take Juan's kingdra down. It has seen battle longer than I had been born in this world, but I never expected for it to be this ridiculously strong.

I sent Toothless out next, who roared his challenge at kingdra as he flew up into the air.

"Be careful, Toothless! Kingdra had only used a single hit to take down Rena and Dolly!"

Toothless visibly stiffened, he knew how hard it was to take the both of them down even if they were not the strongest members of the team.

"Get rid of the waters!"

Toothless cloaked himself in flames using Flare Blitz once again as kingdra used a Whirlpool to trap Toothless. Toothless struggled a little, but managed to disperse the Whirlpool with a powerful flap of his wings and used an Air Slash to sent the waters crashing back down onto the ground. He bathed the arena with flames using Inferno and quickly evaporated the waters causing the arena to revert back to its original self. Toothless shot Dragon Pulses at kingdra, while kingdra floated into the air and shot back blasts of water at Toothless as the both of them engaged in an aerial battle. Toothless doesn't really need to hit kingdra, Dolly's Toxic and Curse will do the job for us, all we have to do is to wait it out.

"Theo, heal up with Rest, then Sleep Talk"

Crap. Dolly's Taunt ended, didn't it?

Kingdra fell asleep in midair as it continued to dodge Toothless attacks while firing random attacks of its own in its sleep. Somehow, it seemed more adept in aerial battles while sleeping. Toothless tried to grab it and damage kingdra with physical moves while firing Dragon Pulses but kingdra always moved itself out of his reach. It soon woke up, and tried to summon the rain once more but the rain clouds were dispersed with a huge wind from Toothless's Defog. Toothless managed to slam into kingdra with a Dragon Rush and moved out of the way quickly when kingdra used a Water Pulse, the effect from Dolly's Disable had since disappeared a while ago.

"Theo, Surf!"

Kingdra summoned a huge wave of water that obscured our vision. Toothless snorted as he blasted a hole through the wave with a Solar Beam and flew through it. He was about to fire off another attack when he suddenly dropped out of the sky, snoring along the way.

Toothless was put to sleep?! Since when?! How?!

I didn't have the chance to command Toothless to use Sleep Talk. Juan commanded his kingdra to use Water Pulse and it took Toothless out of the battle too.

That's three members of my team that kingdra had defeated so far. I clenched my teeth as I recalled Toothless. Kingdra must have used a Yawn back when it summoned a huge wave of water that blocked our vision of it. That wave of water had no other purpose than blocking our vision since both Juan and I knew that Toothless is capable of dealing with huge amount of water without getting hurt.

I need to watch out for such a trick happening to the rest of my team later.

I sent out Bigblue next, who hasn't battled since the start of my battle with Juan. If he lost, I'm giving up on this gym battle. Fuzzy definitely won't be able to do anything against kingdra and Lily's recovery abilities will not be enough to defend herself from the ice type attacks that I'm sure kingdra knew. Sending them out against kingdra is akin to suicide.

"Bigblue, swamp the area!"

Bigblue obeyed my commands as he immediately liquefied the ground and turned the entire arena into a swamp with a gigantic Whirlpool. Kingdra shot an Ice Beam at Bigblue but Bigblue retaliated with a Scald. The steaming jet of hot water vaporised the Ice Beam and a white mist blanketed the arena. Bigblue took this opportunity to rain down a huge amount of pebbles onto kingdra, forcing it to back off. We can still play the waiting game. Kingdra may have removed the poison from Toxic, but it doesn't have any moves that is capable of removing the Curse Dolly planted on it.

Kingdra created a shield of water that prevented most of the pebbles from penetrating through it. With a loud bellow, Bigblue quickly summoned a huge rock the size of a curled up steelix and slammed it down onto kingdra from above, creating a huge crater onto the ground below. Kingdra burst out of the rubble with a blast of water and shot more Water Pulses at Bigblue. Bigblue didn't panic, but calmly raised wall of rocks that blocked the attacks although each wall of rocks were blasted into pieces the moment kingdra's Water Pulse hit it. Bigblue charged in with a Battering Ram and knocked kingdra back before he used his own body weight to pin it down. Bigblue was about to punch it in its face with a Mega Punch but kingdra blasted him off with a Hydro Pump. Bigblue wasn't deterred, and used an Earth Power to blindside it before charging in again with another Battering Ram. Kingdra tried to dodge this time, but found itself unable to do so as it was stuck in the swamp Bigblue had created.

I grinned. Kingdra may be able to swim at high speeds underwater, but that doesn't necessarily apply to swamps.

Bigblue's Mega Punch connected this time as each punch sent kingdra deeper and deeper into the swamp. Kingdra tried to blast Bigblue off again, but Bigblue squeezed its snout shut with one of its flipper-hands and continued punching kingdra with the other.

"Theo, Bounce!"

I watched in surprise as kingdra bounced up into the air with a powerful jump by slamming its tail onto the ground. Bigblue was brought along for the ride as he was still squeezing its snout tightly. A Headbutt from kingdra forced Bigblue to let go as they both fell onto the ground. Bigblue liquefied the ground upon contact and it mitigated any damage he would felt if he hadn't done so, kingdra merely floated in the air as things went back to square one once again.

Kingdra shot an Aurora Beam this time as Bigblue dodged the attack with Rock Surf, trying to force kingdra to engage him in close combat once more. Kingdra wisely kept its distance as it floated high into the air and rained attacks down from above. Bigblue responded in kind by summoning pebbles above where kingdra was floating and rained his own attacks down on it. The entire arena was pelted with rocks and blasts of water and the exchange of attacks destroyed the beautifully designed arena.

I kind of feel bad for Juan's ludicolo already. There's a lot of work to be done to restore the arena back to its former state.

"Theo, end the battle! Absolute Zero!"

Kingdra sprayed a huge curtain of water around the arena as it destroyed all of the falling rocks in one fell swoop. Its eyes glowed briefly and I recognised it as a Laser Focus. Kingdra is planning something big, and probably something to do with ice as well given the name of the combo.

"Careful, Bigblue! Kingdra is using Laser Focus! Watch out for its ice type attacks!"

Another huge wave of water rose from the ground with Surf, this time even bigger than any other Surfs I had seen in our battles, and it dragged Bigblue down under as the wave created a huge lake of water that was about thirty feet in depth. Juan and I were safe outside the arena where the psychic barriers prevented the waters from leaking out, but Bigblue wasn't spared from kingdra's attacks. Bigblue tried to defend himself with Protect, but the wave of water was a force of nature that cannot be stopped with Protects or rocks, it was way too big in scale.

Kingdra reared its head back and unleashed a massive Blizzard onto the lake. I watched in horror as the entire lake was frozen like a gigantic ice cube, with Bigblue trapped inside it.

Bigblue was trapped within thirty feet of solid ice that was as large as the arena within ten seconds.

The ice shook and cracked as Bigblue managed to make his way out of his icy prison with an Earthquake. The tremors from Earthquake allowed him to break the ice enough for him to dig his way out. He was exhausted and he took a lot of damage from the cold. Bigblue was barely standing as his Torrent ability kicked in, giving him a boost of power that he hoped will be able to take kingdra down. I watched in pride as Bigblue stood tall against Juan's kingdra despite the difference in powers. For a moment, I had a vision and saw the outline of the same mudkip that faced Roxanne's nosepass and had placed absolute trust in me to use a Counter to help earn us a Stone Badge, our very first gym badge. The vision faded as quickly as it had came and I saw Bigblue glancing back at me while trying to catch his breath in the cold. Juan's kingdra had turned the arena into a frozen tundra and it was freezing in there.

I know Bigblue wanted to carry on battling, but the outcome was obvious the moment Juan's kingdra unleashed that Blizzard. It was playing with us all along, we never stood a chance. I still smiled, we had came far enough in our journey ever since I first started it with Flamel and Bigblue. The fact that Juan used his kingdra against us meant that we were powerful in our own right, and that's enough for me.

I gave Bigblue a shake of my head as I pressed the forfeit button. I don't want to see him get himself unnecessarily hurt. We wanted to test our strength, and we got our results. It's enough.

I quickly made my way down onto the arena and slid myself on the ice towards Bigblue. Bigblue caught me gently as I checked him over for any serious injuries. I sprayed some potions over his wounds to ease the pain he felt and gave him a hug as I whispered to him.

"Good job, Bigblue. But that's enough for now. That kingdra is way out of our league. You had the best chance out of everyone in defeating kingdra. If even you cannot defeat it, then no one else on our team can. It's enough, I don't want to see you get hurt anymore."

Bigblue gave me a hug as well as he tried to shield me from the cold with his big arms. He knew my body cannot adapt well to sudden changes in temperature. I smiled softly at his gesture.

"That was a truly artistic battle, Velda!" I turned around and saw Juan walking up to me while clapping with kingdra floating by his side. How is he walking on the ice without slipping on it?

"It was fun." I admitted. "But if Bigblue cannot beat your kingdra, then no one else on my team can. Fuzzy isn't trained enough to take it on and Lily's biggest weakness is the cold. Sending them out will be for naught. The rest of my team that stood a chance against your kingdra had been taken out as well. It's your win. It truly was a splendid battle, thank you." I bowed in respect as I finished my speech. The battle I had with Juan was the most exciting one I had in a while (excluding Mossdeep, since I was asleep), and it opened my eyes to the many possibilities I can do with water type moves. I need to start brushing up on Bigblue's water type techniques as well so that we can get a decent standing in the upcoming Ever Grande Conference. He will be a force to be reckoned with if he can combine his water techniques together with his rock and ground type techniques. No, not just a force to be reckoned with. Bigblue will be a force of nature.

Juan smiled as he handed me the Rain Badge together with a TM.

"Usually TMs are only awarded as a reward by gym leaders to challengers that managed to beat them. However, considering it is Theo you went up against, your performance in our battle earned you the gift of this Water Pulse TM from me. You can call me if you have further questions about how to properly use this technique anytime in the future. I see why Wallace had such high praises of you now, Velda. You truly are a wonderful trainer for one so young." He stopped to take a short pause, before continuing. "It was the right decision to forfeit when you did. Your swampert is in no condition to battle any longer and your cradily and pachirisu would not have stood a chance against Theo. Part of being a trainer is to know when to give up and when to press on. You excelled in this regard."

"Wattson taught me that in our gym battle. I guess he was a good teacher." I took a look at Juan's kingdra, who looked a little tired but still fit for fighting. "Is your kingdra ok? I mean, Dolly did use a Curse on it. I don't think the effect has stopped yet. Won't it be better to return it to its pokeball?"

Juan laughed as he ushered me and Bigblue out of the frozen arena. "It's fine, your banette is strong, but that Curse isn't the strongest I have seen. It still needs further training if you wish for its Curse to show visible effects on pokemons of Theo's strength. You are on the right track, so keep it up. Your banette is probably the strongest trained banette I have seen so far, but then again maybe it's because it's rare for banettes to be raised in human captivity. They are not a popular choice among humans. But you are right, I should return Theo back to his pokeball just in case." Juan recalled his kingdra back to its pokeball and released a huge ludiculo, who danced on the spot the moment it was released.

"Now, I believe I owe you a demonstration on how my ludicolo can grow the grass back within the same time you take to make your tea. But first, we need to get rid of the ice, and get us some tea as well. How about some Earl Grey tea? I'm craving for some myself."

I nodded in agreement as we walked over to a tea table by the side of the arena. Vance had mentioned that Juan had made tea for him as well when he first challenged the gym circuit and it was the nicest tea he had ever drank.

I wonder if I can convince Juan to give me some of the tea leaves from his collection?