When she really thinks about it, the dice were exceedingly kind to her. Her block was mostly manageable. There were some bad matchups, such as Agatha, or Byron, the Steel gym leader, but in terms of prowess they were all at a similar level. She honestly felt rather bad for Janine, her fellow poison type Gym Leader, who got Byron in the very first round. The bracket was shaped in such a way that Brycen or herself would probably face Byron in the second round. Roxie decided she would cross that bridge once she got to it. The Champion assigned to Block 1 was probably the most manageable of the eight. Probably. In truth, she knew nothing about Champion Kukui. He might be the strongest of the bunch, or the weakest. A complete variable. The lack of a proper League system in Alola didn't help her to gauge how much of a threat he was. Was he really the best his region had to offer? Professors aren't usually that powerful trainers. Interestingly, despite hailing from the warm Alolan archipelago, the cold didn't seem to bother him. He showed a lot of skin for someone who's supposed to be out of his element.
Of course, before dealing with Kukui, she would have to overcome some more imminent obstacles.
Her first match would be against Brycen – her fellow countryman and a Gym Leader. He was the one who showed her the ropes when she first got the title herself, and he was the one who had her back whenever the League tried to devalue her. Despite his icy cool Pokémon, he himself has never been anything but kind to her. It was difficult to direct her mind into viewing Brycen as an actual opponent, to view their battle as anything more than a friendly sparring match.
She thought back to many such matches. Brycen was very adept at using the icy terrain of his Gym to his advantage and avoiding the many defensive pitfalls of his preferred type. Ice as a Type was frail but deadly in both prolonged combat and quick combat. She expected to see Cryogonal and Beartic were probably nailed down for him, which only left him the third choice. Vanilluxe was an option, but Dewgong or Walrein were also trusted and powerful partners.
He would certainly have a plan. He always knew how to navigate around opposing strategies and strengths, even if that was the first time facing them. He had a knack for adjusting his tactical approach.
The Type matchup would hold no relevance in this particular bout, as Brycen's Ice Pokemon hold no significant advantage over her own Poison partners. It will be a contest of skill and expression, in which her opponent was well versed.
As she was leaving the hall in which the draw was held, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and as she craned her neck she saw the familiar icy blue hair and a pleasant smile of her good friend
"Roxie! Long time no see! Been busy with the gym lately, have you?
"I could ask you the same thing, you know? I was starting to think one of your own critters turned you into an ice cube." And just like that, the building anxiety dispersed and cleared. At this moment, she wouldn't think about the match, or Byron, or Kukui. "You really ought to call more often, you know?"
"It is the duty of you children to care for your elder's wellbeing, Roxie! I see you still haven't been taught manners." His tone was chastising, but his eyes were smiling. "How about we sit down and catch up?"
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Roxie watched Brycen take a long sip of his tea
"So, my "foe", how have you been? It 's really been too long since we sat down like this. It's almost as if you've been avoiding me. Fallen under League influence, have we?"
Brycen chuckled and placed the cup back on the table
"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you? All the motivation you'd need handed to you on a silver platter! But, no, I haven't suddenly changed my entire worldview. We've both been busy, it seems. The accelerated league season this tournament created put some serious strain on us."
Roxie leaned back "Yeah, I had to limit myself to performing within my Gym. Usually I could find the time to travel a little within any season, but this was brutal! There were some vicious kids this year, weren't there?"
The accelerated season in essence meant the challengers had less time to collect all the badges. That was the only meaningful difference. All that meant was the poor kids had to trek across the countryside faster and think of creative means to overcome any obstacles they came across.
"Maybe it was just the sheer volume of challengers this year, but I think some of those might actually make a name for themselves. Like that kid with the Serperior? He took out Cryogonal and Vanilluxe despite the type disadvantage. His Gigalith made short work of Beartic, too."
Roxie did have to comb through her memories, but she did manage to remember a sixteen year old with a Servine and a rather large Roggenrola.
"Mhm, I believe I know the one. Though, when he fought me he still had a Servine. The Roggenrola seemed to me like it might grow into a monster. He did have some eagerness issues. He relied too much on the natural evasiveness of Servine, which did not fare well against Koffing's Poison Gas. It took him a couple tried before he concocted a strategy to properly avoid it."
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Brycen seemed impressed. "I assume you've handicapped yourself as usual. Well done. He earned himself the Freeze badge on his first try, in case you wondered. And yes, the Gigalith was well over 10 feet" She raised one of her eyebrows. "He must have improved significantly, then. With the poor matchup, too? That speaks volumes of his skill."
"Or maybe you're just a better trainer than me. It is possible, you know. There's a reason why you still hold the title of Gym Leader."
She had to roll her eyes at that
"Alder and kind people like you are the reason. If I didn't have the support I had, I would've been just a musician a while ago. Besides, I had the type advantage, plus he couldn't even use his Roggenrola from the off because Koffing levitates. I had It easy."
Now it was his turn to look exasperated "Good to see you're still as stubborn as ever. I had the type advantage too. I just couldn't land a hit on that Serperior."
Roxie waved him off
"Whatever, old man." She put her elbows on the table and placed her chin on her hands. "So, what do you have to say on the draw?" Brycen smiled and looked up as if in thought.
"I think I've been assigned a very difficult opponent as my first. I still intend to win, mind you, despite the praise I've been giving you."
Roxie had to smile "Don't get too confident! This isn't one of your movies, you know?"
"Oh, I harbour no delusions that this will be easy. I know It won't be, actually. When is our match, anyway?"
"The schedule isn't out yet, but I assume the matches will be played in some order. The bracket shown placed us as the eight match of the first round. I'd say that puts us at day two at least. So at least we can enjoy one day of competition relatively stress free."
Brycen looked rattled by that statement
"Stress free? The biggest tournament of our generation, the most elite competition we can fathom, my first opponent is a colleague and a friend who must handicap her team to let her Gym challengers have a shot, and I shouldn't stress out? I sometimes forget that you play in front of crowds of thousands, and you never fail to remind me."
Roxie laughed "Yeah, can't do that if you have stage fright! There are crowds in gyms, though. You've faced plenty of tough challengers in front of crowds."
Brycen looked at her in disbelief
"Roxie, that is NOT comparable! You really can be completely oblivious at times –"
Her laughter cut off further protests. "It really has been too long, Brycen. What do you have to say on the rest of the tournament? To be honest, I'm rather happy Champion Cynthia is on the far end of the draw."
Brycen thought back to the bracket presented to them. He and Roxie were in Block 1, with Cynthia being all the way in Block 8. That basically guaranteed they wouldn't meet at all. Not until the distant, distant final, at least.
"It certainly makes her a non-factor for you and me. I don't have any thoughts at all, honestly. I'm going to take it one match at a time, and I recommend you do the same. Just being here is a privilege, is it not? Nobody expects us to win, so we shouldn't think about winning at all. Just give it our all."
Their phones buzzed and they looked at each other as they both looked down at the notification on the screen. It was an announcement. They released the schedule. Day 1 of the tournament was going to start in three days. It also confirmed Roxie's theory – their match was scheduled for Day 2, as the eight match, the last of the day. That gave them…
"4 days." She took a deep breath. "We'll be meeting on the field in 4 days."
"It all seems so soon, doesn't it? Do you plan on attending any matches during Day 1?"
Agatha, Kukui, Acerola… All of those were attractive trainers, from which she could certainly learn a lot.
"Elesa's match should be on Day 1. I might go to express my support for our region. Be a patriot, you know?"
He gave her a look "Who is Alder up against?"
She raised her eyebrows and then let out a little chuckle
"You know, I didn't even think to check!"
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She and Brycen had shared a few more words and agreed not to meet until their match was imminent. They both agreed that it would be rather silly to prepare for the battle together. She had some strategies to set up. Brycen was a serious opponent. Everyone here was a serious opponent. She had the tools at her disposal to deal with him, though. She beat him before, in sparring matches and even some friendly tournaments between gym leaders. Her Garbodor would be crucial. She mustn't allow herself to stumble in and play his game.
She watched Garbodor launch a flurry of sharpened boulders at Scolipede, who dodged it using Dig. Garbodor looked around, trying to predict where Scolipede would surface. He prepared a few more Rock Blasts when Scolipede burst out from the ground, and immediately found itself in the way of speeding boulders, but he managed to avoid the impact by turning them to fine dust using Iron Tail. Both Pokémon stood stiff, facing each other, their breathing heavy.
"Alright, you two! That's enough for now. You did well."
She gestured to the bowls of food she prepared for the two of them. It still wasn't good enough. Garbodor still struggled with landing Rock Blast consistently. It would improve with training, she was sure of it, but with three days left time was running thin.
"You did really well, you guys! You should be proud. Scolipede, are you up to be a moving target a little bit more?"
Scolipede, to its credit, despite taking a couple hits chirped affirmatively.
"Excellent. Amoonguss, give him a little boost and we'll continue to work on Rock Blast. Garbodor, this time, try using Psychic to try and curve them a little. It'll be difficult to grasp at first, but even a few inches to any side will be unimaginably impactful. I'm willing to trade some damage for accuracy."
Garbodor seemed to understand what she wanted, but didn't find much success at first. Roxie had to sit him down and try and get him to visualise the Rock Blast curving. They started using only Psychic, then only Rock Blast, then Rock Blast and Psychic in quick succession, and then finally, they started seeing some results. Scolipede had no problem ducking and weaving around the launched rocks, until one just barely grazed its hide.
Scolipede touched down on the ground, wide eyed at first, and then started jumping and chirping happily around Garbodor.
Garbodor looked a little confused at first, but quickly started looking very pleased with himself. Roxie pieced it all together. Scolipede had dodged the stone, at least it thought it did. Despite the near perfect dodge, the rock still grazed Scolipede's armoured back. The stone changed its trajectory mid-air. It took a good four hours to get such an incremental change, but she knew very well how devastating an unexpected hit can be.
"That will do, guys. That will do."
This was a good start