"Star, use string shot!" she said releasing a Larvesta, distracting me from questioning her earlier behaviour.

'God damn it, rich people have it easy,' I thought admiring the rare Pokemon, the Larva which supposedly stole the sun.

The Larvesta was worshipped in ancient times and some people believed that its nest was the sun.

Multiple string shots soared towards the rock titan which tucked itself for a snooze after finishing its snack.

Most of the strings reached the tokens prompting Larvesta to retract the strings.

The Rainbow token and red tokens came off easy though the yellow ones didn't budge.

Amanda picked the tokens, making me nudge her.

"Nope," she said, guessing what I was about to say as her Larvesta fired the strings again, some got attached to the rocky shell of the Golem but most of them reached the target, the yellow tokens.

"I was here first," I said braving through the childish feeling the sentence evoked on uttering it.

"What would you have done without the help of Star here," she said gesturing towards the Larvesta who was getting ready to spew threads for the third time, the yellow tokens were not budging.

"50-50 then."

"Nope!" she said smiling, impishly.

Our negotiations were interrupted as the Larvesta cried out its name frightened at something.

The Golem was awake and was walking towards us.

"Run," I called out and started sprinting to the other opening of the crack, with Amanda a second late as she had to recall the firebug.

I leapt to my right, afraid of the Golem making me a shish kabab as I exited the crack.

A harsh grinding sound rang as Amanda jumped to the left, copying me, but she was a second late.

A small rock crashed into her shoulder, making her cry out in pain.

I stared at her in shock, as she yelled " I quit."

Amanda disappeared and I spurred into action.

I scaled the giant rock, putting distance between myself and the opening. I had no desire to test whether a Golem with seismic sense could track me if I remained on the ground.

As I was climbing, I was able to see the Golem lazily emerge from the crack we were hiding in. The walls of the crack didn't offer any resistance to the giant turtle as it rolled through it with pure power, the walls shattering whenever the Golem touched them.

The rocky giant departed down the mountain for another tumble, not even stopping for a second, leaving booming sounds in its wake.

'God! The Golem wasn't even targeting us. Amanda was just hit by a stray rock due to the Golem tunnelling through the crack like it was made of cardboard.'

I think our bodies would have turned into mush if the Golem had deigned to use a move like rock throw.

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A sudden screech made me turn to the sky.

Cet tackled a wild Pidgeotto using Quick Attack.

It seems I can't get a break.

The Zubat's fangs glowed purple as he bit the Pidgeotto's neck.

The wild Pokemon shook off Cet before fleeing. Leaving Cet to tackle me for his customary treats after the battle.

'The little hellraiser.' I couldn't even punish him as I honestly didn't think that the little bundle of energy could stay still, even if he wanted to.

Being stationary was the one thing Cet never did after all.

I coddled Cet, surrendering to his silly cuteness and enthusiasm.

After spoiling him and calming my thumping heart, I descended the mountain. Carefully selecting a path to avoid the happy bulldozers.

The sun disappeared as I climbed down the mountain in a foul mood, reminding me that the world always moves on regardless of whether a person just escaped from a monster that can shatter rocks with the slightest touch or had friends who got injured- Nia, Amanda.

The thought of them further lowered my mood.

I pitched my tent and settled on my bed, staring at the ceiling.

'I wasn't expecting angels to descend and sing holy hymns as my background music or something, but-,' My sad inner monologue about how apathetic the world was interrupted when Cet decided to lay down on my face.

Which he did for exactly 2 seconds before flying away.

Smothering my laughs at the silly Zubat, I drifted to sleep.

….

The next morning, I was greeted with a rage-filled cry echoing from afar.

'What now?' I thought exasperated, coming out of my tent.

As if responding to the rage-filled screech the wind picked up.

Trees weathered the forceful winds as bushes and grass got uprooted, and dust churned forming small cyclones of leaves everywhere.

'Well! That escalated quickly,' I thought still numb from the way Golem rolled through the solid rock to appreciate the power level being displayed here.

I packed my tent away as my clothes fluttered in the raging winds hindering me.

The piercing cry rang out again, this time the wind carried it making the cry echo all around me.

I clutched my head at a harsh sound before my surroundings fell apart.

I was standing in the air with a bird view of the island.

A dozen other trainers accompanied me, all looking around in confusion.

"The second round will end here." I heard Xatu's voice in my mind again.

"Now! Now! Don't grumble children, the second round was never about the number of tokens you collected," the Xatu explained tutting like a disappointed mother.

The expressions on the other trainer's faces upon hearing that news made me believe I was not only the one who waded into deadly situations to collect the tokens.

The Xatu suddenly appeared in front of us pointing her wing towards the centre of the island.

"You are going to witness something rare, something wonderful, something beyond your budding brains can grasp, something many searches for but don't chance upon," the Xatu punctuated her dialogue with a swirl of her wing, bringing us closer to the centre of the island.

"You all will bear witness as my fellow Skyfarer discards the chains binding its mind. You are going to witness the birth of a new Elite." The Xatu gestured grandly.

We arrived near the raging Pokemon after Xatu finished her speech.

A Skarmory was screeching defiantly against a Pidgeot, who was looking down on it from a great height.

'Hmm! A Skarmory, judging from the way it is challenging the Pidgoet an Apex at that,' I thought admiring the steel bird of death.

As not every Pokemon has 3 evolutions, most of the wild Alpha's will be considered as Apex after they survive enough dark months or when they challenge the area's Apex to stake their claim.

'And clearly this Skarmory is going to be the new elite, the Xatu was talking about.' I turned towards the drama-loving Psychic Pokemon only for her to wink at me.

"A fool wandered into the Skarmory's nest, ignoring the signs which indicated the territory belonged to an Apex Skarmory," the Xatu explained with mirth in her voice.

'Wow! Whoever that was, got balls made of steel or is an idiot. Escaping from an Apex that can see you entering into its territory even from the other edge of its territory is impossible and that guy even entered its nest, just wow.' The wink slid off me as I got info dumped with more interesting matters.

'Even the organisers agreed with my sentiment and arranged the signs. I mean you can escape from Pokemon like Golem if you hide from their sight, but with Pokemon like Skarmory hiding is never an option, if it takes interest in the weird bipedal thing entering her territory there is no stopping it,' I thought watching the Skarmory take to the sky, the wind it generated from taking off uprooting some trees.

"After I teleported the fool who didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth the Skarmory started its rage tantrum. But surprisingly the glinting Skyfarer showed signs of awakening in its rage. So here we are witnessing the glorious event."

The Xatu teleported us high into the sky as the Skarmory dashed towards the hovering Pidgeot like a bullet.