"Human get up quickly"

With a start, Jared sits up, "Human, I went down and waited for your number to be called, you must go now!"

With widened eyes, the sleep is shaken off, and Jared limps out the door, while still wearing a patient's gown.

Some nurses try to talk to him, but he ignores them, "Gastly, why didn't you wake me up after two hours?"

"Because you were... ... shut up human, this is fine too"

With some time to spare, he arrives at the first floor.

Ignoring all the strange looks, he heads up to the counter, "Jared here, can you please take me to my match?"

Noticing the white patient's gown crusted with bloodied bandages underneath, the female attendant quickly confirms his number and nods uncomfortably.

A guard then leads him to the arena as usual, completely stone-faced. If the guard thought Jared's outfit was strange, he didn't show it.

A referee looks him up and down in the arena tunnel, "Is that your blood? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, It's not like I'll be the one fighting anyways, and as you can see I can walk just fine, can we commence the match now?"

"Yeah..."

"120 competitors remaining!"

Jared & Gastly!

VS

Milo & Pidgeotto!

"Begin"

With that, Jared limps into the arena.

In the audience, many of them seemed interested in his hospital gown.

A rumor had been circulating. The rumor stated that a guy with a rarely seen Gastly beat the crap out of himself. The rumor was gaining traction as there were even phone recordings of it.

.

Jared looks up through the glass, and into the stands, (hmm, despite it being the third round, nobody seems to be recording the matches, well, by my estimates there should still be six more rounds after this one, so... I guess it's to be expected.)

"Say, Gastly, you think you can win this time without me having to maim myself?"

Gastly replies in an unusually subdued tone, "That was one time."

Jared just smiles, "Heh, let's get this over with then, my wounds are opening up."

On the other end of the arena Milo mutters, "Gastly?... so he's the fool who mutilated himself? I wonder how that freak got himself a gastly..."

Shaking his head, he turns to his Pidgeotto, "The Gastly can appear out of nowhere, but from what I've heard he only knows hypnosis and lick, flying isn't going to give us an advantage here, tuck your head in your wings, when Gastly shows himself give him a gust if he comes in close... then give him a wing attack, " Milo glares.

.

Twenty yards into the arena, a Pidgeotto can be seen with his head tucked in his wing, perched on a boulder.

Gastly frowns from the shadows,

"Human, they know about us..."

"Yes, this is the same situation as our last opponent burying their head in the ground... at least your lick will work this time... But, Pidgetto should also have moves that will hit strongly, so this forces us into a direct confrontation..." Jared grimaces, "Pity, if you knew another ranged move, they wouldn't be able to pull this trick on us... Think you can fire a hypnosis mid-combat?"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Gastly mind shrugs, "No, it takes two seconds, and I have to concentrate, even moving will throw me off"

"Can you can take him head-on with lick?"

"..."

"I can't brutalize myself again," Jared said with a sigh, "What about fighting for a few minutes, then possessing me when you are tired?"

"We can try human," replies an unsure Gastly.

Jared's eyes widen, "Gastly, wait, maybe we can put on a play for them, I don't know how much Milo knows but if it's just public knowledge then we can use his ignorance to your advantage, I don't think they know you can separate your mass!"

Gastly gives a mental shake, "No if it were normal type attacks I am untouchable, but elemental energy like wind element will still shred my body if it touches me."

"I know that... so just listen, what about hollowing out your insides, like an empty eggshell, that way when he strikes you will take almost no damage? You won't be able to actually do anything until you fully reform, but we don't have to tell them that!"

Gastly smirks widely, "You aren't so stupid for a human after all!"

.

Gastly becomes corporeal then floats straight towards the bird with a fierce grin, as if intending to attack.

"Pidgeotto, he's approaching straight ahead, shred him with gust!"

Uncovering his face, Pidgeotto holds his ground, and flaps his wings hard, ten blades of transparent wind get unleashed from his wings and strike the Gastly accurately!

Gastly lets loose an audible ghostly shriek, before going invisible.

Jared looks worried outwardly, but grins inwardly, (I never knew you were such a good actor Gastly!)

.

"Good! you got a good hit in!" Milo smiles brightly, "Protect your head again, and wait for my orders."

Gastly begins appearing only three meters away this time, "Pidgeotto, above you! give em another gust!"

Ten more blades of wind shoot out, and like before, Gastly gives a bone-chilling scream of pain before vanishing.

The crowd can be heard cheering excitedly.

Pidgeotto begins to feel a bit sweaty from unleashing the two powerful gusts in quick succession, but this was nothing, he is still good to go.

Jared plays along too and makes sure Milo spots him visibly worrying, and for added effect, he shakily shouts, "GASTLY, HE JUST GOT LUCKY, GET IN CLOSE, IT'S NOT OVER YET!"

Gastly gives a thumbs up from the shadows, then appears right before the Pidgeotto,

Feeling confident, Milo shouts, "BEHIND YOU PIDGEOTTO, WING ATTACK GO!"

A white sheen of sharp air appears on the bird's wing, as it turns to slice and dice the Gastly several times, but it strangely feels no resistance, but the shrieks of pain give him confidence.

Gastly wails in visible pain and flees, "QUICK PIDGEOTTO, SHOOT HIM WITH GUST BEFORE HE ESCAPES!"

Rounds and rounds of sharp wind blades shred into Gastly, while he howls nonstop in agony, but somehow he doesn't seem to ever faint.

Seeing dozens and dozens of dazzling wind blades hit, the crowd thinks it was all but over, and they reupt into exhilarated cheers and claps.

After at least a hundred wind blades, Milo notices something wrong and orders his heavily panting Pidgeotto to stop.

Jared thinks the jig is up, and can't help letting out side-splitting laughter, (it was just too funny, Gastly had them hooked, his moans of pain were just too realistic!)

The crowd, hearing the laughter from the mic, slowly stop their cheering, as they can't understand why he's laughing about his pokemon's defeat.

Milo looks over to his opponent, who was laughing it up, and curses, "Damn maniac!"

Pulling in his mass, Gastly fully reforms, and can't help but chuckle inwardly along with his trainer's laughter, before rushing towards the large exhausted bird!

Milo orders Pidgeotto to engage with wing attack, This time Pidgeotto feels resistance, and Gastly feels real pain, but he doesn't let it show, as payback for the attack Pidgeottos wings get a few paralyzing licks.

The two keep trading blows, but despite Pidgeotto's much slower movements due to utter exhaustion, the wing attacks were still too strong.

Not able to take it anymore Gastly suddenly disperses.

Jared feels a chill in his body, then whispers, "Are you alright Gastly?"

"Yes human, just resting for a moment, both his wings are coated with saliva, in a few minutes he won't be able to move them."

"We only have six minutes left, you can't rest for long."

"Is it over? did the gastly faint and disperse?"

Milo looks to his opponent. Upon seeing his unbothered look, a bad premonition begins to creep in. He then looks over to his pidgeotto.

The paralyzing saliva had started to take effect, and the painful numbing feeling forces Pidgeotto to let out a shriek, his wings drooping low, "Oh no... there's still five minutes left, if the gastly returns he's a sitting duck."

After three minutes, the numbing had spread from Pidgeottos wings, and a little bit into his body, he could still stand, but the painful numbness made him writhe on the floor in agony.

With less than two minutes remaining, Gastly reforms over the writhing bird and looks into Milo's eyes with a sinister grin, as if asking him to surrender.

Milo just watches in shock, so with a shrug, the Gastly gets to work biting into the Pidgeotto without a fight.

After thirty seconds the large bird was limp, teeth marks and blood everywhere, Milo hadn't thrown in the towel, but a Referee called for the match to stop.

The crowd was utterly flabbergasted and didn't give much more than a few claps, watching a limp bird get bitten into by a ball of fanged gas was too large a contrast, at least to how they thought the match was going.

Jared nods to his opponent and moves in for a handshake, but Milo flinches back, "Don't get near me psycho"

With a shrug, Jared makes his way out of the arena. Wearing his bloody hospital gown, he hummed happily as he left the arena, "That was the last match for today, shall we head home Gastly?"

The referee keeps a far distance from Jared as he was escorted out.

The mumbling, the hysterical laughter out of nowhere, and the bloody gown, all in all, it had made him feel he had this trainer accurately pegged as a raving lunatic.