CHAPTER 94

Candice’s battlefield was hilly and covered in snow. It was like a fusion between Roark’s mountainous arena and Gardenia’s flat one, with rolling hills and some trees spread out throughout the battlefield. There was, of course, the customary small lake on the challenger’s side, although Cecilia wouldn’t need it.

A small Cubchoo appeared in a flash of red, and it sniffled loudly. I frowned at Candice’s choice of Pokemon. At first glance, the ice type appeared ridiculously weak. Would it be like Gardenia’s Skiddo and actually pose a threat, or was Candice underestimating us?

“Get over there and Slash!” Candice yelled out excitedly, pointing at Slowpoke.

Cubchoo offered a small nod and slowly ran toward the water type.

Cecilia waited until it made it about halfway through the arena, then extended her hand in one graceful, smooth motion. “Psychic, Zen Headbutt,” she ordered.

My eyes widened. Psychic already? When Slowpoke hadn’t even evolved? The water type’s eyes shone brighter than I had ever seen them, and a thick layer of psychic energy surrounded his opponent. Cubchoo winced, clearly already in pain. Unlike Confusion, Psychic not only allowed a Pokemon to lift things with their mind, but it also assaulted a Pokemon’s brain with psychic energy. Slowpoke dragged Cubchoo toward him at a terrifying speed just as his forehead glowed blue, and using all of Psychic’s momentum, he rammed the ice type with Zen Headbutt. I winced, hearing a loud crack reverberate through the arena. The lack of an audience made it so we could hear the Pokemon getting hurt very easily.

Cubchoo stood back up, clearly on its last legs.

“Ice Beam!” Candice yelled.

The ice type shook its entire body, reared its head back, and blew icy energy toward Slowpoke.

“Divert it back,” Cece cooly ordered.

The Ice Beam curved almost one hundred and eighty degrees right before hitting Slowpoke and barrelled toward the Cubchoo, who intercepted it with another Ice Beam, creating a small, frosty explosion in the middle of the arena.

“Crap, you’re better than I thought,” Candice said with her hands on her hips. “Cubchoo, Yawn!”

The ice type opened its mouth, letting out a huge, exaggerated yawn. Just looking at it made me feel drowsy, and the attack wasn’t even aimed at me.

Cece smiled— a competitive smile that let me know instantly that she was about to ruin Candice’s day.

“Darling, Disable, then Water Pulse,” Cecilia said. “Speed it up.”

Slowpoke’s eyes gleamed bright blue, then he spat out a huge Water Pulse, which suddenly quickened midway through the arena thanks to the water type’s Psychic. Cubchoo was already slow to begin with, so dodging it was impossible.

“Freeze it!” Candice yelled.

Cubchoo inhaled sharply, and a frosty breath escaped from its mouth, freezing the water type attack midair. The Water Pulse fell to the ground and shattered.

“Hehe, gotcha!” She smiled. Candice was obviously buying time for her Yawn to take effect, and Slowpoke was out of range for his Psychic.

Cece recalled Slowpoke, meaning that she was using her only switch in. It was for a good reason, though. Yawn would never take effect again, and Cubchoo could no longer use it. Cecilia grabbed her next Pokeball, and I frowned when she sent out her Deino. It was a choice I disagreed with. I knew she wanted him to evolve and that he was strong enough to easily finish Cubchoo off, but if it were me, I would have saved my strongest team members for last to bait Candice into using weaker Pokemon.

Although I supposed that Cece didn’t really have weaker Pokemon.

Deino roared threateningly, and blue draconic energy danced in his mouth.

Candice let out a surprised gasp. “You have a dragon? So cool! Cubchoo, Ice Beam!”

“Hold back, sixty percent. Dragon Pulse,” Cecilia ordered.

Whereas Dragon Breath could be described as flames like Incinerate was, just of the dragon variety, Dragon Pulse was a continuous beam of draconic energy that was so big it made the previous move look like a joke. In fact, the move was so powerful that Deino could barely control his head and aim toward the Cubchoo. Still, the little bit of the attack that was aimed properly completely consumed and blew past the Ice Beam and blew Cubchoo toward Kadabra’s barrier, tearing one of the trees apart. The ice type was down— and I didn’t think anything could possibly stand up to that. And that had just been sixty percent. Cece was back to making Deino hold back again, and this time, I honestly believed it was because Dragon Pulse would have killed Cubchoo at full strength if the dragon type could actually aim it properly.

“Holy fuck,” I whispered to myself.

“Cubchoo is unable to battle! Leader Candice, send out your second Pokemon,” the referee said.

“Damn…” Candice muttered as she recalled her Cubchoo. “That attack was no joke.”

Cece still wasn’t responding to her attempts at dialogue and simply waited for Candice to send out another Pokemon. The ice type gym leader obliged her and released a Sneasel. I had been right. Candice was using Pokemon that were offensively minded for this battle.

“Again, sixty percent,” Cece simply said.

“It can’t aim! Dodge and get close!”

Deino reared his head back, and another Dragon Pulse blew across the arena. Sneasel nimbly ducked and slid across the ice to dodge the first pass, then jumped over the attack to dodge the next.

“Avalanche!” Candice said.

Huge quantities of snow flew upward like a wave behind Sneasel and collapsed all around Deino, who had to stop his attack. Cece clicked her tongue.

“Incinerate it away.”

Flames completely melted the snow covering Deino, and the dragon continued the attack, aiming at Sneasel. The ice type hadn’t expected Deino to get out of its Avalanche so easily, and it failed to dodge the Incinerate in time. It screeched as flames engulfed its body and fainted right away.

“Sneasel is unable to battle. Leader Candice, send out your third Pokemon,” the referee awkwardly said.

I heard Denzel whistle to my side, and I was inclined to agree. Whereas Gardenia had pushed Cece to her limit, Candice looked to be a repeat of Roark, and could we even blame her? It was starting to sink in that even though Cece was in a tier of her own, all of us were too powerful to just have two badges. Maybe she was fighting at the level we were supposed to be at. Even though she was technically allowed to use Pokemon above that level like Gardenia had done with Sunflora against me or Breloom against Cecilia, nothing was forcing her to.

“Man, I’m rusty at these low-level battles,” she sighed. “I keep making my Pokemon go in, thinking that they’ll just brush off attacks or counter them on their own. I guess that means an easy gym battle for you—”

“Is this a joke to you?” Cece interrupted, finally engaging in conversation.

“What?”

“Is this a joke to you?” She repeated. “I came here looking to be challenged. I want to push my Deino to the next level, and if you keep taking it easy on me, this will be a waste of time. I’m not just looking for a badge, I want to get as powerful as I can to fulfill my promise at the end of the year. Use better Pokemon. You’re on autopilot right now. You aren’t trying. Wake up.”

I understood Cece’s frustration perfectly. We all did. It was one thing to win a badge, but the win had to be satisfying. A gym battle was supposed to push us to the brink. Challenge us like never before and push us past our limits. This was… this was as if Candice was playing house. Pretending. I didn’t want to win like that.

The gym leader sighed. “I’m sorry, I guess you’re right,” she said, scratching the back of her head. “I am rusty, but I wasn’t really trying. It’s been so long since I’ve been a trainer that I forgot how annoying it was not to get taken seriously. Um, I’ll be right back!”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I could see the referee’s soul leave her body as Candice hurriedly ran back to her waiting room. I stared at Denzel, and he just shrugged. Apparently, that was… allowed? The rules must have been stretched really thin. She exited around a minute later with new Pokeballs on her belt.

“Sorry for the wait, I wasn’t expecting to use any of these,” Candice said, pointing at her Pokeballs. “Now, prepare yourself! The real gym battle starts—”

“Just send out your Pokemon!” The referee fumed. “Do you have any idea of how unprofessional this makes Snowpoint look?”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry!” Candice laughed as she sent out a Piloswine. It was just as big as the one we had seen in the wild. The ground type snorted threateningly and kicked up snow.

“Good,” Cecilia smiled. “Dragon Pulse—”

“Trip it up with Bulldoze!” Candice interrupted.

During Denzel’s battle against Gardenia, Bulldoze had just affected a large area around her Grotle, but Piloswine’s Bulldoze was laser focused on the ground under Deino. The dragon type’s Dragon Pulse flew off to the side and hit Kadabra’s barrier, making the referee flinch.

“Ice Shard! Ice Shard! Ice Shard!” Candice laughed.

Wave after wave of small shards of ice flew off toward Deino.

“Dragon Pulse! Don’t hold back!” Cecilia yelled.

“Scratch that, Bulldoze again!” Candice said, canceling her last order.

The ground shook, and Deino missed again, but this time he roared out in frustration. He hadn’t mastered the move enough to properly aim it while being attacked, and Candice took immediate notice.

“Incinerate,” she said. This time, Piloswine tried the Bulldoze tactic again, but Deino’s attack was steady. The flames enveloped the ground type, who cried out in pain as its body caught fire.

“Icicle Crash!” Candice ordered.

An icicle large and sharp enough to penetrate even Deino’s scales appeared above the dragon.

“Melt it!” Cece hurriedly ordered.

Deino lifted his head up, but the attack was quicker than what Cece had expected. The icicle didn’t just drop, it was propelled by an invisible force and penetrated deep into Deino’s scaly hide. The dragon type bellowed out in pain, but he was nowhere near done. Cecilia ordered him to quickly use another Incinerate at Piloswine. The ground type ignored the flames and just ran through them, tanking the damage like it was nothing. When it got close enough, Candice sprung to action.

“Freeze-Dry!” She said, her tongue sticking out in excitement.

First, Deino’s stream of flames stopped, and then slowed. I quickly realized that it was his entire body that was slowing down, not just his attack. Frost grew on his scales, and his breath grew icy, but Cecilia was smiling for some reason.

“Finally,” she exhaled as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

It took a few seconds for me to understand what she meant. Light completely envelopped Deino’s body, and he doubled in size. Then, a second head grew out of its body. Deino had evolved into a Zweilous, just as Cecilia predicted. The dragon type’s body was cleared of frost, but the two heads stared at themselves in confusion for a few seconds, and then they fought.

One head gathered dark energy in its mouth and Crunched at the other’s neck, while the other roared out in anger and screamed out a few flames. They weren’t really dealing any real damage, but Cece sighed and snapped her fingers so loudly that it reverberated throughout the arena.

“Bad! Bad Zweilous!” She screamed, reminding me of her in Floaroma. “Incinerate at the Piloswine!”

Candice was doubled over, too busy giggling at the civil war going on to order her Piloswine. After around ten seconds, she wiped tears away from her eyes. “Oh, man, you’re too good,” she said. “Piloswine, finish it off. Freeze-Dry again.”

The two heads kept fighting among themselves, one of them even having used Dragon Breath against itself, actually damaging its own body. They slowed as their body froze over, however, but I was surprised to see that the heads snapped disturbingly quickly toward Piloswine. It was like watching a hive mind at work. Cece didn’t even give out an order. One of the heads let out a huge Dragon Pulse that completely enveloped Piloswine while the other used Incinerate, warming their body and burning their opponent in the process. I watched in awe as Piloswine fell to the ground, its body smoking and unconscious.

“Piloswine is unable to battle! Leader Candice, please send out your last Pokemon,” the referee said.

“Okay, that was more powerful than I thought,” Candice said as she grabbed her last Pokemon. A blue Sandslash with sharp icicles growing out of its back hissed and sharpened its claws. It was an Alolan variant. The gym must have paid a fortune to have it sent here, since they were rare in the tropical region to boot, only living on a single mountain.

“Incinerate,” Cece said, snapping her fingers to snap Zweilous out of their now-resumed fight. One of them turned back to roar and protest at her while the other listened and quickly spat out a stream of white-hot flames.

I frowned when I saw that Candice didn’t order Sandslash to dodge, and the Pokemon just stayed there and took the attack. I understood immediately when she grinned and ordered it to use Metal Burst, an attack that was more powerful the more damage a Pokemon had sustained. Alolan Sandslash were steel and ice type, meaning that—

Sandslash swept his arms, and sharp shards of metal flew out of its scaly skin like shrapnel. Metal Burst. The attack wasn’t accurate at this distance, but the shards that hit, hit hard. Zweilous roared, and one of the heads, somehow blaming the other for what had happened hit it with Dragon Breath.

“It’s distracted! Icicle Crash!” Candice said.

Just like before, a sharp icicle materialized out of thin air above Zweilous and penetrated their hide. This, combined with the fact that the heads were fighting nonstop meant that the dragon type finally went down. Still, it was a testament to its strength that even while fighting themselves, Zweilous was so strong it was almost unfair, and Cece seemed to understand that, since she recalled her Pokemon with a child-like smile. The heads seemed to both be aggressive, but one seemed to be much more irate than the other, while the second seemed to still at least listen to Cece’s orders. It was something she was going to have to figure out after the battle.

Cecilia released Fletchinder, who stretched her wings and announced her presence with an ear-piecing cry.

“This is our last opponent, darling. Steady yourself,” Cecilia warned.

“Knock it out of the sky with Icicle Crash!” Candice yelled.

Cece simply smirked and started the battle. “Tailwind.”

Fletchinder easily dodged the singular icicle and started beating her wings. Wind started blowing across the arena toward Sandslash, slowing it down and speeding the flying type up. But Cecilia wasn’t done. She was just starting.

“Agility, Quick Attack, Flame Charge,” she said in one continuous order.

Fletchinder’s body loosened as she dodged a series of Icicle Spears Candice had ordered. She was already ridiculously fast, but—

I blinked twice, and Fletchinder was already across the arena, flying toward Sandslash with her body wreathed in flames. She crashed into the steel type so quickly that even she had gotten hurt. Fletchinder shook herself off and tried taking flight again, but she barely managed to hobble away before Sandslash could hit her with its claws. My eyes widened when I saw that the ice type was panting loudly, its movements slowed and sluggish. After a few moments, it collapsed on the ground. The damage had taken seconds to actually register in its body. It was done. Fletchinder had taken it out in one combination of moves. She wasn’t that powerful, but Cece had made sure that her lack of power would be compensated by making her so fast that it didn’t even matter. Arceus, her Pokemon’s power, and her skill at battling were ridiculous. She recalled Fletchinder, who was now incapable of fighting due to the recoil from her attack, and strode confidently toward Candice to receive her badge.

“A fuck ton of trainers just watched that battle live,” Denzel said with a grin as he turned on his phone. “Her thread’s blowing up again, too. This is the fastest I’ve ever seen a megathread go. Every time I refresh the page, there are at least five new messages, sometimes ten.”

“She’s excellent,” Craig said. “Way better than I was at her age. Looks like Lauren has some competition after all.”

I nodded. With this battle, Cece had again cemented herself as one of the most powerful first years in the Circuit, shutting every naysayer and hater dead in their tracks. I wasn’t worried about keeping up. I was motivated to train harder. I needed to catch up before our battle in Hearthome, and so did Denzel.

“Pfft, your sister’s going to get crushed by me in the Conference either way,” Chase said with a smug smile. “My turn next,” he said as he left us.

“Any advice you could give her?” I asked Craig, even though I knew he’d probably refuse to answer. Still, it didn’t hurt to try.

“I gotta send Lauren a message to tell her to start getting involved. She’s got to start looking you guys up. You can only go so far just staying in the wild like a caveman,” Craig sighed. He looked genuinely worried for his sister’s prospects now, which made my heart swell with pride for Cece. “I’ll give you one thing, that strategy with her Fletchinder? Nearly flawless, although she overestimated her Pokemon’s ability to take that amount of recoil. She’s good for her age, but because she’s good, she takes too many risks. That comes back to bite you in the a— in the butt if you don’t nip it in the bud early. Tell her that.”

“Thank you so much!” I smiled. “Can you give all of us advice like this?”

“Well, it depends on how good you are. We’ll see.”

My eyes followed Cece, who was slowly walking back into the waiting room. “I’ll be right back!” I said as I ran off. I passed a bewildered Chase and waited for Cece in the lobby, but he just shrugged and went on to the waiting room. My girlfriend grinned when she saw me. Even after the battle, she looked perfectly unaffected.

“Oh man, you were so good!” I exclaimed with a wide smile. “You’re— you’re amazing.”

She just approached me silently and— and lifted me up, spinning me around as she laughed. Apparently, that evolution and that win had made her happier than I expected.

“Zweilous was perfect. There are obviously things to iron out, but he’s— they’re just as powerful as I expected and more,” she said, dropping me.

“I can tell,” I laughed. “Let’s head back. Chase’s battle is going to start.”

I still needed to study Candice some more, and she would only get better as time went on and she got used to lower leveled battles again.