CHAPTER 130

Denzel had figured it out a while ago.

He wanted to be like Craig Goodwill.

According to the man himself, in the many stories he told about the start of his journey whenever he went on interviews, he had never really been the best at anything. He wasn't great at improvising, planning, deceiving the opponent, training his Pokemon, and he hadn't been born rich. He certainly was no genius— plenty of people with less experience than him had won the Conference before, although none of them got far enough to even challenge Cynthia. Lucian's psychics proved to always be an impossible roadblock. Hell, it had taken Craig two runs through the League Circuit to get to the point where Denzel was, so it wasn't like he was lacking something. He was being called a prodigy by both the adults in the corporations sponsoring him and leagues of trainers in the forums. So how the hell had he arguably become one of Sinnoh's best trainers and the top contender to win this year's Conference?

Pure, unabashed hard work and dedication. It was the love of Pokemon battling that kept him going all these years, and today, Craig was the most well-known trainer in all of Sinnoh, and he was a jack of all trades. He could do anything because of how hard he had worked towards all facets of being a Pokemon trainer.

Denzel felt his lips twitch as he sent out his Sylveon, whose body blurred for a few seconds before returning to normal. Something about that amount of dedication made him want to follow in Craig's footsteps. When someone thought of a Pokemon trainer in Sinnoh, people thought of Craig.

Denzel wanted people to think of him instead.

His eyes snapped to Fantina's Gourgeist, who stood at around five feet tall. A lot taller than Sylveon, but his body shape looked awkward to move around. With two stubby legs like that? It was probably a long-distance fighter, as many ghosts were—

"Seed Bomb," Fantina ordered.

"Quick Attack toward him and Play Rough," Denzel calmly countered.

—but it was possible that he had mobility moves? Shadow Sneak, maybe? Damn it, now not studying was biting him in the ass, but between sponsorships, training Louis and helping Emilia, he'd been so busy. Sylveon blurred forward, leaving a trail of pink dust behind him as Gourgeist sent out huge seeds from the mouth on its torso. Denzel squinted and quickly noticed that these were a lot bigger than Roselia's.

"You need to dodge! Slide to the right!" He yelled.

Sylveon barked in agreement and took a sharp turn to the right as an explosion grazed his glamour shield, sending sharp rocks and a shockwave flying all the way toward him and Kadabra's barrier. That'd been powerful, but this was a ghost gym, so Denzel knew it wasn't the biggest threat.

Sylveon finally reached Gourgeist, who turned away to run with Shadow Sneak right as fairy energy surrounded his paw. The grass type reappeared twenty feet away, this time gathering a huge Shadow Ball in its mouth.

"Quickly, Swift!" Denzel yelled.

Denzel had borrowed the Shadow Ball TM from Emilia and listened to the commentator during her contest, so thanks to his quick thinking, he knew that the move was unstable. Not wasting any time, Sylveon summoned a single pink star above him and sent it flying toward Gourgeist, who hastily sent out a half-completed Shadow Ball that exploded in front of it.

"Now get in there!"

"Scary Face and Leech Seed," Fantina said.

Denzel clicked his tongue. "Detect!"

Sylveon ran, but a look from Gourgeist's lower face made even Denzel feel like his stomach was tying itself up into a knot. The face twisted, and widened, and somehow, a blood-like liquid leaked from both the eyes and the mouth. Sylveon stopped in his tracks, and his usual, neutral smile turned to an uncomfortable stare.

"Snap out of it, it's not real!" Denzel said. "Detect!"

Too late. A seed as large as his fist landed on Sylveon's shield, and thorny vines wrapped around him. They wouldn't deal direct damage, at the very least.

For now.

"Seed Bomb and keep your distance," Fantina ordered.

What was Sylveon the best at? The fairy type grunted, and more of his glamour evaporated as an series of explosions rocked the field. The answer was physical combat. What was Gourgeist weak to? Physical combat, which was why the ghost type kept his distance with Shadow Sneak. Scary Face was just another way the ghost type had to buy itself time and stay far away from threats.

Simple questions with simple answers, but he needed to keep thinking. A steady stream of thoughts would eventually lead him to the answer that he sought.

"Swift, just get some damage off!" He said.

Sylveon gathered a dozen pink stars that orbited above him, and then sent them toward Gourgeist, who this time, didn't bother dodging. He ordered Sylveon to use Disarming Voice, but it only slowed the grass type down. He couldn't get Sylveon to actually reach him.

Oh well, sometimes the answer was just the simplest option. He grabbed Sylveon's Pokeball and recalled him, immediately sending out Lopunny instead, using his one switch of the battle. He couldn't afford to slow down for even a second, or he'd fall out of his groove. All he needed was one breakthrough, and he'd break this battle wide open.

First, Lopunny was faster than Sylvi was. A lot faster.

"Get close," Denzel said. "It has Shadow Sneak to avoid fighting in close quarters, and you've got to watch out for Scary Face, Leech Seed, and Seed Bomb," he quickly continued as Lopunny's legs flexed, and she jumped.

"Bullet Seed," the gym leader said.

Denzel nodded. Bullet Seed was a lot better at hitting targets in the air, but they had created a rudimentary counter against Lopunny's vulnerability in the sky in the few days they had to train. Well, more like they had figured out the obvious.

"Defense Curl," he smoothly said.

Lopunny bunched up as tightly as she could, and her body shimmered. The seeds bounced off of her ears, and the normal type landed right next to Gourgeist with her fists already lit ablaze. Fantina ordered the grass type to run away with Shadow Sneak.

"Follow up!" Denzel yelled.

Shadow Sneak always left a trail of shadows on the ground, but Sylveon had been too slow to follow it.

Lopunny was not. She blurred, and each of her steps left a small hole on the floor as she closely followed Gourgeist. The grass type reappeared, only to screech as it took a Fire Punch to the face.

Denzel smiled. That was the breakthrough.

His Pokemon did not relent for even a second, and kept punching away at the grass type, not leaving it a single moment to escape or interrupt her with Scary Face. After a twenty-second beatdown, Gourgeist fell to the ground, and its lower face had completely turned off. There was only a dark, gaping grin now.

"Gourgeist is unable to battle. Leader Fantina, send out your second Pokemon."

Lopunny sure was good with her legs. Maybe there was a way to transform the Fire Punch into a Fire Kick, somehow? That'd take a lot of work, but it would certainly deal a lot more damage. Maybe the other elemental punches would work that way too, and maybe even Power-Up Punch. Or would it be Power-Up Kick—

Denzel breathed a sigh of relief as Fantina sent out an Alolan Marowak. Arceus, keeping his brain thinking about anything was hard, but he couldn't break the flow of the battle, or he'd be completely out of his depth, which was a painful lesson he had learned in the double battle against Chase and Cecilia.

The extremities of Marowak's bone lit with pale, turquoise flames that Denzel couldn't stare at for too long without tearing up and being overwhelmed with a deep feeling of sadness that he couldn't explain. He rubbed his eyes and quickly sprung to action.

"Stay sharp and start building up Power-Up Punches!" He yelled.

Fantina still wasn't using real ghosts against them, so they could still use the situation to their advantage. Marowak spun its bone around as Lopunny approached with Quick Attack.

"Fight it off with Bone Club," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes. So it was affecting her too? He would have thought that after so much time together, the effect would be lowered, but maybe it was only when Marowak fought, otherwise, he couldn't imagine ever owning one.

Marowak stopped spinning its bone, and hit Lopunny's waist right as she got in range. The rabbit would have been sent flying, but she latched on to the bone's extremities, burning her hands in the process, and punched the fire type's skull. Marowak roared in indignation, and flames enveloped its entire body before it rammed against Lopunny with all of its strength. The normal type flew off toward Denzel's side of the field, but Marowak was sprinting toward her with a glare that could kill.

"Wait for it…" Denzel muttered.

"Flame Wheel," Fantina commanded.

Fire enveloped Marowak once more as it kept running toward Lopunny. As it stood, she was physically weaker than he was, especially with that bone of his, and even though she was faster, she had not taken well to the Shadow Ball TM. She had no way to attack from a distance, so she had to fight it in close quarters. Still, they could use Marowak's momentum to their advantage.

"Circle Throw!" Denzel yelled.

Lopunny cried out as the flames spread to her, and she tightly gripped Marowak by the skull and the arm, using his momentum to throw it headfirst into the ground behind her. A loud crack was heard throughout the arena, but they couldn't stop now.

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"Power-Up Punch!" He said.

Before Marowak could even get back to his feet, another Punch hit it in the back of the head. Marowak stumbled around, looking for his bone, and it screamed when it realized that it wasn't in its hands. Lopunny's ears twitched and she screeched from the pain. The fire type called out with desperation, and the bone flew back into its hand as if it had a mind of its own, and Marowak hit the normal type's head repeatedly until she had fallen, her face burned and bloody.

"L—Lopunny is unable to battle. Challenger, send out your second Pokemon."

Denzel's hands were still trembling as he sent out his Sylveon again. That scream would stick with him for a good while… maybe years. He had never heard such a harrowing sound in his entire life. Even the referee seemed to be affected, and the audience had gone completely silent.

"S—Sylvi, Quick Attack and Play Rough," Denzel said after sniffling. The damned tears were making it hard to see, too.

Arceus, fuck, it had taken him out of his groove. What kind of experience made a Pokemon scream like that? It felt too real to be fake, and even Fantina sported a pained expression. Sylveon ran forward in a blur of motion.

"Shadow Bone," Fantina said.

The pale flames spread throughout Marowak's entire bone, and the fire type readied itself for Sylveon's onslaught. The fairy type stopped in his tracks just as Marowak swung, and the bone only narrowly grazed his shield, then, he pounced, relentlessly beating Marowak, targeting the already-formed crack in his skull with pinpoint precision. The ghost type fought back as best he could, retaliating with Shadow Bone and burning away Sylveon's glamour, who occasionally dodged with Detect, but he couldn't use the move too many times.

He was taking too much damage, but Sylveon's ribbon or Disarming Voice didn't seem to be enough to stop Marowak. It was like it had turned into a completely different Pokemon ever since it had lost its bone. It was just ignoring all the pain from Sylveon's Play Rough while tearing through his armor more and more.

One thing was for sure, Denzel needed to take this thing down with Sylveon. Snorunt and Roselia would easily lose to its fire type attacks.

Wait. Denzel took a deep breath. All he needed to do was take a step back and calm down.

"Sylvi, run away with Quick Attack and keep hitting it with Swift!"

The fairy type protested, and he seemed like he was having the time of his life, but he quickly listened and created as much distance as he could from Marowak before creating Swift barrage after Swift barrage. Denzel nervously clenched his fist, hoping that Fantina wouldn't use her switch here. That would be a catastrophic development.

"Ancient Power," Fantina ordered.

Marowak flicked its bone up, and its eyes shone as it raised huge chunks of earth. The stars simply went around the barrier, but it wasn't meant to be one. Marowak screamed, sending all of the rocks barrelling toward Sylveon. As far as control went, it was nowhere near Togetic's level, and Marowak quickly lost his hold on the rocks. Sylveon narrowly dodged, but he was starting to get tired.

And he was bleeding.

Another set of Swift cut Marowak across the chest, and the Pokemon finally fell.

"Marowak is unable to battle. Fantina, send out your third Pokemon."

Fantina lazily and casually sent out a Cursola.

It started out as a simple, white pot made out of dead coral.

And then it grew, as white ectoplasm and coral intertwined with one another and formed into a plant-like structure with a dozen branches. The head was built like a skull, with fake hollow eyes that hid the Pokemon's true face in its mouth. Thin, red eyes opened, and the ghost type let out an eerie cry that reverberated through the arena as the legs on its pot started to move.

Pitifully slow movement. It might as well have been immobile.

"Keep using Swift," Denzel told his tired Sylveon.

The fairy type responded with a tight nod as another set of pink stars flew off toward Cursola.

"Mirror Coat," Fantina countered.

Denzel swore as the ghost type shone, and the stars bounced back toward them twice as quickly. There was no dodging that.

"Just push through and fight up close!" Denzel yelled.

Was this thing a true ghost or not? Denzel racked his brain for the answer as Sylveon ran toward his opponent.

"Power Gem."

Multiple balls of light appeared all around the ghost type, which then turned into rays that were too fast for Sylveon to dodge from this close. He grunted as six of them tore through his skin, leaving nasty burn marks. With his fur still smoking, Sylveon pounced onto Cursola as he readied himself to use Play Rough.

And simply jumped through his body.

Had they even dealt any damage? Denzel squinted and noticed that a small chunk of its body had disappeared, so the answer must have been yes. Cursola's face traveled to the back of its head through the ectoplasm and stared directly at Sylveon, who had fallen to the floor. His eyes glinted with a sinister glow as smoke emanated from Sylveon's body. Hex, Denzel thought.

The fairy type did not get up.

"Sylveon is unable to battle. Challenger, send out your third Pokemon."

So they had a slow-moving, long-distance fighter that looked to be a true ghost, or close to it. Power Gem meant that Snorunt wasn't an option. She wasn't quick enough to dodge those rays of light, and a few of those would easily take her down. Denzel grabbed Roselia's Pokeball and released her on his side of the field.

"Roselia, Toxic," he immediately said.

Cursola was so slow that even from this distance, it wouldn't be able to dodge—

"Protect yourself with Ancient Power," Fantina said.

Or not. Of course, Fantina would have some way to protect a Pokemon that slow. Cursola raised an earthen barrier, and the rocks hissed as the poison slowly disintegrated and melted through them. From this far, Roselia was safe enough, but so was their opponent.

"Seed Bomb!" Denzel yelled.

"Another barrier."

The ghost type raised another Ancient Power, but even though the explosions weren't as powerful as Gourgeist's had been, it was still enough to deal quite a bit of damage, from the way Cursola panicked inside of its protective ectoplasm. Long term, they'd win here, and it was Fantina who had to do something. Denzel unclenched his fist and straightened his back as he slowly regained some of his confidence. Cursola sent out another Power Gem, one of which grazed Roselia and burned her plant-like skin, but that meant that it was taking more damage from Seed Bomb due being unable to use Ancient Power at the same time.

Was she willing to gamble and play at who would fall first? Denzel was, and it's not like he had much of a choice anyway, he was out of switches. Fantina hummed, then grabbed her Pokeball, opting to switch.

Denzel whimpered when he saw what came next.

He had—

How—

What was—

Terror.

A shadowy figure lurked below the lichen-covered bark that acted like its armor. Six, bug-like legs all wriggled independently from each other as the tree-like Pokemon scuttled forward, leaving trails of shadow whenever it walked. Branches creaked, and leaves rustled as it moved. A single, red eye traveled through the shadow, sometimes appearing where the head should be, but sometimes on its arms, torso, or even legs. Denzel blinked, and he struggled to look at the Trevenant as he clenched and unclenched his fists repeatedly. His breaths were short and ragged, and his throat felt dry.

"Phantom Force," Fantina said.

Roselia screeched, snapping Denzel out of his terror-induced daze. He stopped clenching his fists, and his fingertips uncontrollably trembled as shadows washed over Trevenant like a wave, and it phased out of existence.

Right. He… he still had a battle to win. Denzel had never been the type to scare easily, but something about Trevenant just made him feel like he was about to fucking die, just like he had felt when fighting that Lunatone in Mount Coronet. He wasn't sure why Trevenant of all Pokemon reminded him of that day. He certainly wasn't getting visions, but maybe it was capable of them? He didn't know. Something was lurking at the back of his mind.

"I—it's going to appear somewhere close," Denzel said, his voice still shaky.

And it did. Denzel flinched when Trevenant appeared behind Roselia, and in front of him. His fingertips felt cold.

The grass type let out an annoyed screech as it turned and sprayed the Trevenant with a Venoshock, but the grass type disintegrated, and leaves and sticks fell to the ground as another Trevenant appeared next to Roselia and swiped her with its massive, clawed hands. The grass type flew off toward Fantina, and Trevenant disappeared again.

It seemed like Fantina had decided on her illusion.

This was bad. Now that Trevenant was gone again, Denzel realized that he was losing. A weakened Cursola, he assumed Snorunt could handle, but this? What the hell? Roselia got back on her feet.

Stay calm, stay optimistic, don't spiral, Denzel thought to himself. Trevenant reappeared again, and again, Roselia was ready. She sprayed the first one, who was just an illusion, but nimbly aimed her second flower behind her and used Venoshock again.

Denzel's face fell when he realized that it wasn't even the real one. How many could Trevenant make in a row? Arceus damn it, it was at times like these that he wished that he could just ask Grace for the answer. Trevenant's hand tore through the floor, and it clawed Roselia once more, tearing across her chest.

"Trevenant. It can reappear and disappear at will with Phantom force and create fake instances of itself," Denzel mumbled to himself so quickly that half the words didn't even make sense. The grass type sunk into the shadows once more. "I could possibly get lucky and hope to poison the real one, but I don't even know if the— if the— holy shit."

It all began with an idea. An idea so simple that Denzel couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

"Keep it simple, stupid," he whispered after exhaling. "Make spores all around you!"

Roselia nodded as both Stun Spore and Poison Powder emanated from her flowers. With all of the fear and the worries about losing, Denzel had almost tunnel visioned and lost Roselia the battle.

She probably never would have forgiven him.

With a distinct creak, Trevenant reappeared and stumbled behind Roselia as its true body absorbed the spores.

"Venoshock! Give it everything you've got!" Denzel yelled.

Roselia screeched, aiming both flowers toward the convulsing Trevenant and sprayed him with her poison. The attack was so powerful that half of Trevenant's bark just evaporated with an obnoxious hiss, but Roselia kept attacking, aiming toward the true, shadowy thing that was Trevenant's real body. The ghost type silently raged, and it finally managed to swipe Roselia away before it fell.

Roselia stumbled to her feet, but fainted after clicking her tongue.

"Trevenant and Roselia are unable to battle. Send out your last Pokemon."

That had been… close to unraveling very badly, but Denzel had managed to salvage the situation as best he could. He sent out his Snorunt, who smiled wildly at the audience, and Fantina sent out her Cursola, who angrily swam in its ectoplasm.

He could not rest on his laurels yet.

"Shadow Ball! It's slow!" Denzel yelled.

After Fantina's order, Cursola immediately raised another barrier with Ancient Power, but that was okay, because he had expected this. It was Cursola's pattern, and the only way it had of defending itself. The Shadow Ball crashed into the bulky wall.

And Snorunt was already silently gathering her Blizzard without his order. See, Denzel had figured that announcing Snorunt's trump card to his opponent wasn't exactly the smartest move. Sometimes, it was wiser to just let his Pokemon do their thing, as Fantina seemed to enjoy doing so much.

Or maybe she just couldn't be bothered. That possibility kind of stung Denzel's pride, but he struggled this much when she was barely even trying, so he wouldn't complain.

Thirty seconds was what they needed, but as the air grew colder and wind started to gather, Fantina seemingly picked up on what they were doing.

"Power Gem," she said.

Snorunt shut her eyes tightly as she took the hit, but it didn't break her concentration. All of the training he had her do with Louis had paid off. Her focus had improved leaps and bounds. Now, she would just need to work on using the move faster.

"Send it!" Denzel screamed.

A Blizzard covered the entire front half of the battlefield, drowning Cursola's angry screeches. Ideally, Denzel would have ordered Snorunt to start charging up another one, but she was too tired to do them back to back without at least a short break.

Denzel smiled when Cursola had returned to its plant pot-like state when the Blizzard dissolved. Ectoplasm trickled to the ground all around it, and Cursola's face was nowhere to be seen.

"Cursola is unable to battle. Victory goes to the challenger!" The referee said.

Denzel sighed as he recalled his Snorunt, congratulating her. He had won by the skin of his teeth.

He had a lot to work on before he could hope to be like Craig, but a part of him was just glad he was fucking done with the ghost gym.

It'd be even worse next year.

—

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding as Denzel clutched his victory. That Trevenant had nearly cost him the entire fight, but he'd always been quick on his feet. With all the companies he represented now, a loss so early would have left a sour taste in their mouths. I bid Cecilia good luck as she made her way out of the stands. Pauline was celebrating like a madwoman even after the cheers had stopped, and Justin and Emi were trying to keep her voice down.

Fantina was an odd fighter. To me, it seemed like we were fighting her Pokemon, not her. She seemed content enough to just give them a general strategy and then let them do whatever they wanted. Still, they were so well trained that it didn't exactly matter. I supposed that when there were fewer Pokemon to worry about, it was easier to train them, so she could afford to fight this way.

But it also meant I'd need to improvise a lot more. I felt nervous, but I also felt ready. She wouldn't use any of the Pokemon she'd used here against me. Even ghosts needed time to heal, and Marowak certainly needed a trip to the Pokemon gym's Center.

"Well, one more battle," I smiled.