As to be expected, the battle courts were busy. Not only did everyone with a new Pokemon want to see how they measured up in battle, they also wanted to see how their other friends performed. That led to big crowds, and the room was throwing around cheers and jeers that were bordering on deafening. God, I even saw some people exchanging fistfuls of money after each match.

Well, all of the battle courts were full at the moment, so I guess we were part of the audience too, at least for now. We didn’t mind much though, especially me and Jack, who were only here to spectate today anyway.

The battles going on right now were… interesting, to say the least. It was a hell of a lot of offense, and not a lot of tactics. Who am I to judge though? It’s not like I knew what I’d do when in a Pokemon battle.

However, there was one battle that was shaping up to be pretty intense. It definitely had the biggest crowd. Upon further inspection, the reason for that was because there was a fucking dragon on the field.

At least, I thought so. It certainly carried itself with the self importance of a dragon type. Though I don’t think I’ve ever seen this type of Pokemon before.

“What the hell is that?” I asked the whole group.

“Jangmo-o. From Alola. Very rare.”Jack supplied.

“Well, shit. That thing is cool as hell,” I mumbled.

And so was the trainer who owned them. At least, I think they’d count as cool. They sort of straddled the line between cool and goofy. Short spiky red hair was one thing, but the cape? You needed confidence to rock that look.

“Dragon-breath!” The boy shouted, while flourishing his cape.

Blue energy was swirling around the mouth of his Jangmo-o, and when it was done it opened its jaws and unleashed its attack at the enemy on the other side of the field. That enemy happened to be a little Pineco, who absolutely was not moving fast enough to get out of the way of the incoming move.

That's not very surprising though,considering the poor thing doesn’t have any legs.

“It’s no use dodging, Use Harden!” The girl with the Pineco shouted out. Her Pienco let out a little squeak of recognition, and decided to stay put. It covered itself in an almost metallic sheen, right before the dragon-breath smothered it.

Yikes, that did not look good. The attack died down pretty quickly, revealing that Pineco had actually been slightly burnt black at the edges of its body. Remarkably though, it was still standing.

“Hmph, Whatever. Jangmo-o, get in there and rip its head off,” the redheaded boy said. Not needing any encouragement, his dragon launched itself across the field towards Pineco. It closed the gap pretty quickly, and jumped towards them with a predatory gleam in its eye.

“Spin!” Shouted the girl, with desperation clear in her voice. Not a moment too late, her Pineco was spinning around at an incredibly fast speed. They both suddenly clashed, and Jangmo-o was actually thrown off with a pained yowl after colliding with the little spinning Pokemon.

The damage was done though, and Pineco slowly stopped spinning and fainted to the ground. The girl recalled them to their Pokeball, and was smothering them with compliments. She popped her Pokeball in her jacket pocket, and went over to shake her opponent's hand. However, the redhead actually turned his nose up at her, and refused to shake her hand. After an awkward couple of seconds, the girl took her hand away and left the battle courts. Probably to head to the Pokemon Center.

Well, that was bloody rude. Some people are just assholes for no reason.

No matter though, because at least his match was over and my friends could have their fun. Gwen and Leo strolled on over to where he was standing.

“Hiya, can we use this court for a battle now?” Gwen asked, with a bright smile on her face.

“Fuck off. This field is winner stays on.” He said, his voice dripping with disdain.

“Um, I don’t think it is, pal.” Leo deadpanned, while using his considerable height to tower over him. The redhead tried his best not to look threatened, but Leo was an intimidating guy, all full of muscle.

Suddenly, His Jangmo-o appeared next to him, and was rattling its scales in a way that was clearly telling us to back the hell off. That caused his trainer to quickly regain all his lost confidence, and his worried face was replaced with a cheesy smile.

“Well, I’m the winner and I’m choosing to stay on the field,” He spat. “And If you wanna use this court then you better try and take it from me. Good luck with that, by the way. I won't lose to Johtonian scum.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Leo actually laughed “I hate to scare you, mate. But you’re in the heart of Johto, and everyone here is Johtonian. You’re no better than us.”

That got a reaction out of him. “I am Taquin of House Watari! My family proved they were better than you in the war. My blood is the blood of Champions! Now get on that side of the field and release whatever trash you own so I can show you how beneath me you are!”

Leo was slightly taken back, before letting out a gruff of acknowledgement and moving towards the other side of the field. Before he could make it all the way however, Gwen raced over and took his spot in the opposition.

“That’s the second time today I’ve beaten you in a race, Leo. Sorry, but I really want to kick this freaky guys butt myself!” She teased. Leo, not knowing what else to do, took a few steps back to join me and Jack.

“God, I hope she knows what she’s doing,” he grumbled.

“Go, Shinx!” Gwen yelled, jumping up and down in enthusiasm when her starter was released onto the field.

“Pathetic. Jangmo-o, go get ‘em.” Tarquin said disappointedly.

Just like last time, Tarquins dragon launched itself towards its enemy, its scales rattling in the air as it advanced. When it got close to Shinx, it lowered its head, ready to deliver a devastating headbutt.

“Dodge it,” Gwen called. Almost instantly, Shinx jumped clearly out of the way of the incoming attack. With Jangmo-o having its head down to use headbutt, it actually didn’t notice its attack had missed, and just kept running. “Now is our chance, use thundershock!”

Shinx took about a second to charge up the electricity in its body, and when it was done, a thin bolt shot forward and connected with the Jangmo-o. It let out a small shriek of surprise, but didn’t look all that damaged by the attack.

“Ugh! Jangmo-o, stop! Turn around and use dragon-breath!” Tarquin said with a shrill voice. Eventually, Jangmo-o stopped charging, and prepared a dragon-breath in its mouth to shoot towards Shinx.

Surprisingly enough, Shinx dodged that one too. Gwen clearly had the advantage in speed in this fight, and she was using at any point possible to evade all these big attacks.

Tarquin was visibly angry that his attacks were missing. “Dragon-breaths, keep them up. Spread them wide, it can’t dodge forever,” He called out.

And so, the dance began.

Jangmo-o unleashed a barrage of ranged attacks, and Shinx was leaping back and forth to get the hell out of the way. Gwen clearly wanted to retaliate, but if Shinx took the time to charge up a thundershock, it would surely be nailed by a dragon-breath.

It went on for minutes, and eventually, Jangmo-o’s attacks started to slow down to the point where Shinx could maybe slip an attack in.

“Now!” Gwen called. Shinx charged a thundershock up right at the same time Jangmo-o was channeling another dragon-breath in its mouth. Both released their attacks at the same time, and both got hit.

Shinx hit the floor immediately and didn't get up. Jangmo-o was still standing.

Gwen recalled her Shinx and was bouncing up and down raving about how well he did. Even after a loss like that, she never lost her optimism.

“Ha! That’s right, bitch. All that dodging doesn’t mean anything if you hit like a Weedle!” Tarquin called out from the other side of the field. A kid in the crowd looked really offended, and actually released a Weedle. He proceeded to pick up the Weedle,and they both started booing Tarquin. Taking absolutely no notice of them, Tarquin then pointed at Leo who was standing next to me. “Come on then, meathead. You think you can do better than your girlfriend did?”

Leo actually growled and stomped on over to where Gwen had just been standing. It was strange seeing Leo angry. He’d always been a friendly giant type of guy.

Leo released his Litleo and Tarquin kept his Jangmo-o on the field.

“Litleo, run in there and tackle before he can charge up a dragon-breath!” Leo immediately shouted. His Litleo burst into a run to cut down the distance. Litleo was definitely not as fast as Shinx, but it managed to close the gap before Tarquin could order off a dragon-breath.

“You think that’ll go any better for you? Jangmo-o, use headbutt and flatten them!” he said.

Jangmo-o released a cry and charged forward to meet Litleo in a clash that would surely do more damage to Litleo than it would dish out. Beside me, Jack winced in preparation for the impact. Leo didn't look too worried though

Something was wrong. Before they hit each other, Jangmo-o convulsed and its muscles locked up, with sparks shooting around its body. It skidded head first along the ground and Litleo charged into its body, sending it tumbling away.

Ah, Shinx had paralyzed Jangmo-o with its final thundershock. How on earth had Leo caught that?

“Get up! Get up!” Tarquin was begging. And slowly, Jangmo-o was starting to rise.

But Leo didn’t give them any time to recover “Now Litleo, ember point blank!” The little feline rushed over to where the dragon was lying down, and shot out a cone of flames directly into its face.

Jangmo-o hit the floor, and stayed there.

Tarquin recalled his Pokemon, and stormed over to where Leo was congratulating his starter.

“You cheating fucker, I would’ve won if that bitch friend of yours hadn’t paralyzed my Pokemon!”

“Ah, but that was your fault, wasn’t it?” Leo said smugly. “You challenged me. You decided not to heal your Pokemon. You decided to be a dick this whole time. Blood of Champions my ass. I don’t care if you're a Watari. Until you’re Champion yourself like Lance is, you don’t have the right to look down on me. Now I think you should go heal your Pokemon, and maybe buy a paralyze heal or two from the PokeMart on your way”

Tarquin sputtered, trying to think of a response. He gave up eventually,and stormed out of the building while Gwen stuck her tongue out at him. As he was trying to leave, the kid with the Weedle stuck his foot out causing him to trip. Tarquin kept on running, as the room was filled with people laughing.

My God, Leo is such a badass.