Kubfu looked like an overly serious child. If that child were a bear. It stood at attention with an adorable frown on its face, arms held in a ready position as he faced off against Omanyte. The arena had been cleaned off in between matches, but the burns of the previous fight were still etched into the stage’s surface. It made the small pokemon look like a seasoned warrior standing against a bitter rival on a torn battlefield.
It was easy to understand how Kubfu had become the crowd’s favorite. The small, gray, humanoid bear was the size of a child, but it fought like a monster. Every match felt like Kubfu was the underdog, even if that were not the case. His trainer being young only helped the matter, making both Ashley and Kubfu easy to support.
Lindon frowned at the pokemon as they faced off against each other, rubbing his chin like an old man contemplating the universe, “Why did Emilia lead with Omanyte, isn’t that a bad matchup into Kubfu?” He had to lean close to Cashe in order to be heard over the cheering crowd.
“It was a calculated risk we decided to take,” Cashe explained, “Both of Ashely’s pokemon are strong against Omanyte, but Snivy is really good against Omanyte, but really bad against Charmeleon. We guessed Ashely would make the least risky decision and lead with Kubfu, instead of risking Snivy into a terrible matchup. We wanted to match Omanyte into Kubfu in order to weaken it enough so that Charmeleon could easily defeat it and then take on Snivy afterwards without worrying too much about his condition.”
Lindon wrinkled his nose, “Isn’t that really risky? What if Ashley used Snivy instead?”
“I did say it was a calculated risk,” Cashe said, “But both Emilia and I felt confident that Ashley wouldn’t want to take the risk of leading Snivy, and if she did, Emilia was confident that she could still get a good outcome either way. Kubfu is very strong, so we wanted to adjust our strategy to deal with it in the best way possible.”
“I don’t like it,” Lindon said, “Doesn’t that mean you are planning on Omanyte losing to Kubfu?”
“There is only so much you can do against strong trainers,” Cashe said.
Lindon nodded as the crowd roared again. Official Borek was standing in the middle of the battlefield, hand raised into the air. The battle was about to get underway.
“And they’re off,” the announcer boomed as Borek brought down his arm. On the battlefield, Kubfu immediately began closing the distance to Omanyte. Cashe saw Emilia shout an order at her pokemon and Omanyte fired off a stream of water towards her opponent, strafing as she did so.
“Looks like Emilia is trying to keep her distance, a solid strategy against such a fearsome melee attacker like Kubfu.” The announcer's voice boomed through the stadium.
Kubfu dodged the stream of water and burst forward in an explosion of motion as soon as the stream flew past. He easily closed the distance on the much slower Omanyte, cutting off her strafing attempt before she could get away. Ashley shouted a command and Kubfu’s fist glowed with power.
Emilia shouted as soon as Kubfu made his move and Omanyte ended her attack, instead spaying a torrent of dark mud at her opponent. Kubfu was too close to dodge, but was able to block the attack by countering with his own. Mud flew everywhere, but Omanyte never stopped moving, taking advantage of the momentary distraction to slip past Kubfu and rest in the middle of the battlefield.
“Oh! A clever move there!” The announcer shouted, “Emilia Oak was able to counter Rock Smash with a Mud Shot and gain positional advantage all in one move! It’s what we can expect from the best, folks!”
“She’s not doing bad,” Lindon said as the crowd cheered.
Cashe nodded but said nothing. It was a good move, but he could already see the issue. Even with positional advantage, Omanyte was simply too slow when compared to Kubfu.
Emilia shouted an order and another Mud Shot flew from Omanyte. Kubfu again dodged it, closing the distance as he pumped his little bear legs and sprinted across the battlefield. Ashley shouted a series of orders, and Kubfu was on Omanyte in an instant, moving in a complex zigzag pattern, his fist against glowing with power. Omanyte tried to dodge the incoming attack, but she simply wasn’t fast enough. Kubfu’s fist crashed into her, tossing her out of the center of the battlefield and into a corner.
Cashe winced and the crowd gasped. He could feel the impact from where he sat.
“A solid hit! Omanyte looks like she’s in trouble! Ashley Werner is on fire! What will Emilia do to get out of this situation?”
Omanyte righted itself at Emilia’s commands and began gathering a power, a rock forming above its head. Ashley shouted an order and Kubfu closed to the distance again, taking advantage of Omanyte’s trapped position in the corner of the stage.
“Does Omanyte know Rock Slide?” Lindon said, squinting at the incoming attack from Omanyte. The rock was growing to enormous proportions as she gathered power, hovering right above her head. It was almost the size of a quarter of the stage, growing out from Omanyte like a cliff emerging from the ground after an earthquake.
“No,” Cashe said. The rock lurched, the massive boulder shifting slowly in the air. Kubfu dodged to the side and moved to duck under it, closing the distance to Omanyte further. His fist glowed again and the little bear hunched over, preparing to strike with a fight-ending blow. But just as he started his attack, Emilia’s move was revealed to be a feint. Instead of the boulder flying over Kubfu’s head and crashing into the ground, it dropped straight down on top of both Kubfu and Omanyte.
Kubfu noticed at the last second, stopping his attack and searching for an avenue of escape, but caught in the corner of the stage with Omanyte, there was no way to retreat. Ashley shouted a command and Kubfu punched upwards at the descending boulder, attempting to redirect the incoming rock with his attack at the last second. There was only so much he could do against the massive stone however, and it thundered to the floor of the arena, catching both Omanyte and Kubfu under the massive stone.
The stone cracked and crumbled away as the stage shuddered under the impact, rock and dust flying everywhere. The dust cleared and the crowd roared. Lindon was on his feet, leaning over the railing in order to get a closer look. Omanyte and Kubfu were both still standing, though barely. Kubfu looked the better of the two, but was nursing his arm where he had attacked the massive stone, clutching it close to his body and holding it away from Omanyte.
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Omanyte, on the other hand, was exhausted from the sheer amount of energy put into the attack and rocked in place from taking the impact directly.
“Unbelievable! That was a Rock Tomb folks! I don’t think I’ve seen one that big from anything but a Tyranitar! It looks like Emilia Oak is taking some inspiration from her training partner with that move, sacrificing her own pokemon in order to get solid hits on her opponent!”
Emilia shouted something and Official Borek jumped into the arena, his hand held high in the air. The battle, which had already paused for the dust to clear, came to a halt.
“Oh, and it looks like it is over for Omanyte! Emilia Oak is taking her out and bringing in her newly evolved Charmeleon! How will Trainer Ashley deal with him when she is stuck with an injured Kubfu?”
Emilia returned Omanyte to her pokeball, tossing out Charmeleon a moment later. Charmeleon took the field, his dark orange skin glowing in the light of his tail. He was twice the height of Kubfu, who had retreated back to his side of the battlefield. The smaller pokemon looked determined, but Cashe couldn’t see a way for it to win the battle, or even do much of anything.
Much of the crowd seemed to share his sentiment, growing restless as the pokemon squared off against each other. Official Borek restarted the battle and Charmeleon instantly fired a blast of flame across the battlefield at the bear pokemon. The arena flickered with the light of the flame, the bright orange glow of the attack lighting up the stadium momentarily. Cashe was taken aback. Charmander’s attacks were nowhere near strong enough to do that before his evolution.
Kubfu dodged the bolt of fire, but it was sloppy, and Charmeleon followed it up with another and another. Kubfu pranced around the battlefield, as he dodged, but Charmeleon was moving too, cutting off routes of egress and forcing him back into a corner with flame after flame. Kubfu’s speed advantage was gone as well, Charmeleon was faster and leveraged his speed to the maximum advantage under Emilia’s terse instructions.
The pressure mounted on Kubfu and Ashley’s commands became short and infrequent. The first flame finally hit the little pokemon and it was over. Kubfu took a glancing blow from the torrent of flame being fired from Charmeleon’s mouth and stumbled to the ground. The flames licked his back and legs, burning him and reducing his movement further. Charmeleon didn’t miss the opportunity, following up on his attacks with several more, until Official Borek was forced to call the battle.
“That didn’t take too long, did it?” The announcer opined as Ashley returned Kubfu to his ball and Snivey was called out. Snivy was another small pokemon, a green snake on a pair of small legs. It stood about two feet tall, with a large head and a fanned tail, looking almost like a tail fin made of leaves. “Snivy is up next and Charmeleon still looks full of energy. This is a tough spot for Trainer Ashley. Can she produce a miracle and take the victory?”
From the announcer’s tone, Cashe assumed he thought not, and he was soon proven correct. Ashley and Snivy fought valiantly, but the gap between the pokemon was too wide, even before type advantages came into play.
As soon as the battle started Emilia ordered Charmeleon forward to attack. Snivy was faster than the injured Kubfu had been, but Charmeleon was faster still. Emilia employed the same strategy, cutting off Snivy’s avenues of escape with quick movements from Charmeleon and blasts of fire from his mouth.
Despite being healthier at the beginning of the battle, Snivy fared worse than Kubfu did, the heat of the attacks affecting the little grass snake pokemon in ways that did not bother Kubfu. Snivy flagged quickly, its endurance hurt precipitously by the heat of Charmeleon’s flames. Before long, Sinvy took a blast of fire directly to its body and Ashley returned it to its pokeball before Official Borek had a chance to call the battle.
The battle ended without much fanfare. The crowd sensed the impending victory for Emilia as soon as Kubfu went down and the battle ended with a polite cheer rather than a roar of approval. The atmosphere was more disappointed than anything, with little in the way of excitement happening after Omanyte was knocked out by its own massive Rock Tomb. Even the announcer was subdued, prattling about the efforts of both trainers rather than focusing on the victory itself.
Lindon, however, had a different reaction, “Wow. Emilia is really strong, isn’t she?” He was staring wide eyed at Emilia as she waved politely to the crowd, crossing the battlefield to comfort her distraught opponent. Cashe nodded in agreement. The battle was against one of the top trainers in the tournament, but it never looked particularly close.
The barriers on the battlefield went down, heat washed out from the stadium, bathing the crowd in an uncomfortable bloom of hot air. On the stage, the lone cameraman turned reporter rushed to meet up with the girls in the middle of the stadium. He set up the camera and Emilia’s blurry face blinked onto the large screens above the battlefield. The camera focused and pulled back, bringing Ashley into the frame as well.
The cameraman stepped in front of the camera to stand beside the girls, pressing an earpiece in his ear, waiting for the signal to start the interview. He nodded a few times and moved the microphone under his mouth.
“I’m here with Emilia Oak and Ashley Werner who have just finished the battle for a place in the top eight of the True Rookie Tournament,” the cameraman was much more professional than with previous interviews. Cashe guessed based on his interview with the man just prior to the battle that the studio he worked for finally found someone to give him instructions through the earpiece. He was still a far cry from what Mary had been, but at least he looked more comfortable in front of the camera. “First of all, congratulations to you, Trainer Emilia. That was a hard fought battle but you managed to come away with victory in the end.”
Emilia nodded, speaking into the mic, “I was fortunate that my strategies worked out. There’s always an element of chance to these things, and it happened to go my way today.”
On the screen, Ashley glanced at Emilia with her response. The young teenager looked doubtful at Emilia’s words, clutching her hands together nervously in front of her chest.
The cameraman paused, pressing his hand to his ear as someone recited to him his next question. Cashe could see the man’s lips moving as he attempted to memorize it on the fly.
“Your strategy was similar to Trainer Apollo’s in the previous fight,” the reporter finally said, stumbling somewhat over the words, “There are reports that you are trainer partners - er, training partners. Is it safe to say you help each other prepare for this battle?”
“We are training partners, so we are around each other more often than not,” Emilia said, “We consult with each other for our battles, which is why we had similar strategies today. I was very worried about facing Kubfu, so I’m glad I had Cashe’s help.”
“Really?” Ashley’s voice reached the mic surprisingly well, considering how far away she was from it. The cameraman shoved the mic under her face so he could better pick up on her question. Ashley looked surprised to find that she spoke, and even more surprised that there was now a mic in her face. She cleared her throat and blushed, “Um, were you really worried about facing me?”
“I was,” Emilia said, smiling down at Ashley like a proud older sister, “Both Cashe and I spent a lot of time reviewing your previous matches to find a way to beat you.”
Ashley nodded, looking unsure about what to say next, glancing up at Emilia and back at the camera multiple times in quick succession. Finally, she found a thread, “I saw him in the tunnels. He’s not as scary as people say.”
“He’s a bit rough around the edges, but he had a good heart,” Emilia chuckled and tried to get the interview back on topic, “We both were very impressed with Kubfu and we were stressed about the battle. I think you did a really good job training him and your battling style was excellent. You made things very tricky for me.”
Ashley blinked rapidly, looking like she was about to cry, eyes swimming with mixed emotion, “Can I hug you?” She squeaked. She didn’t wait for a response and jumped into Emilia’s arms.
Emilia laughed and hugged her back. The cameraman didn’t need any instructions from there, stepping away from the pair and laughing quietly with the rest of the watching stadium.
“It’s not all bitter, I guess,” the cameraman said, sounding much more genuine than when he asked his questions, “It makes my heart full to see trainers like this. Makes lugging that damn camera everywhere worth it.”
*****