The following couple of battles were not nearly as quick or entertaining, Lillipup chasing a clearly faster Rattata and being unable to hit the smaller pokemon with its very limited movepool, by the end Lillipup ended up tiring itself out giving Rattata a chance to finish the battle. After that, Yungoos faced against Buneary, the rabbit used its speed to evade Yungoos and finished it off with a combination of Baby-Doll Eyes followed by a series of Pounds.
Jerry gave a quick analysis of each battle, pointing out things the students missed or different ways they could have handled their opponents. Truth be told, I was very excited to learn the level expected of us by the time we graduate the academy, Jerry wasn’t in the top of his generation and yet his level of knowledge and experience are proof of the quality of trainers expected from our graduates.
“Gabriel Santos and Ruben DuPont, get into the arena”, it was finally my turn, I consider myself slightly taller than average, but this Ruben fellow is a beast, with at least a head taller than me, he is probably the tallest within our grade.
Once we are on the field standing in front of each other, while he is bringing out his pokeball I notice burn scars on his hands, there must be some story there. As most kids our generation, his gaze holds some disdain as he looks at me, by this point I don’t really care that much, but from what I’ve heard so far, the third exam was brutal and having people like me skip ahead without participating feels like an insult to many of my classmates. I will have to prove them wrong.
“This battle is a 1v1, students send out your pokemon”.
Zigzagoon excitedly comes out of his pokeball, he looks at me expecting me to pat his head, he is just adorable, so I crouch slightly and pat him in the head while whispering, “it’s time for battle buddy, are you ready?”, Zigzagoon just nods with his tongue out, looking somewhat goofy.
On the other side of the field, Ruben brings out Sentret, much like the Patrat from the first battle, it carefully looks around while standing on its tail, not looking at all intimidated by being the center of attention. I’m familiar with Sentret as their kind often appear near the village, Teddy and me have fought some of them before, but in my limited experience Sentret tend to be very timid, they get scared easily, so seeing this one so composed in front of me makes me wary.
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“Same as the previous matches, whoever makes the opponent’s pokemon faint first will be considered the winner, begin!”, signaling with his hand for us to battle.
“Use Sand Attack”, Sentrets are slow but can bring a lot of power, trying Sand Attack might help us avoid some of its attacks.
“Quick Attack to dodge, follow up with Scratch”, I notice my opponent being very precise with his commands, just by looking at his appearance I think he might be a very serious person.
The battle moves quickly, Zigzagoon uses his legs to hurl some dust towards Sentret, who efficiently avoids the move by using Quick Attack, getting closer to my pokemon and hitting him with Scratch, making Zigzagoon step backwards in pain.
What can I do? We have a very limited quantity of moves to choose from, Tackle, Growl, Sand Attack, Tail Whip and Covet. We might have to turn this into a melee battle, but thinking about how hard Sentret can hit makes me question that choice. As I notice Sentret moving forward for another Scratch I make my decision, “Covet!”.
Covet is a strange move, when Teddy used it, he brought his paw towards his face and with a cute expression approached the opponent, making them hesitate for a moment, with Teddy moving forward and using his other paw to punish them for their hesitation, sometimes even getting a berry out of them.
For Zigzagoon the moves work in a similar way, he slightly lowers his body while endearingly looking upwards towards his adversary, Sentret stop slows its attack for a moment, long enough for Zigzagoon to jump forward and hit the opponent with his entire body, having it fall back with a cry of pain.
“Stand up and Quick Attack”, Ruben orders his pokemon, who recovers faster than expected, using its tail to quickly stand up and jump forward trying to hit Zigzagoon, not giving me enough time to respond. Seeing his opponent approach, Zigzagoon goes back into his previous move, Covet, trying to make Sentret hesitate again, this time the enemy can’t stop itself and both pokemon crash against each other, with Zigzagoon rolling backwards while Sentret falls back.
It's clear they both have taken some damage and will probably pass out on the next exchange, “Quick Attack again!”, this time Ruben shouts his orders, Sentret is slower than last time to get back on its feet.
“Buddy, go from Covet to Sand Attack!”, I hope this works, we haven’t exactly trained how to combine moves.
As Sentret jumps with its tail throwing itself towards Zigzagoon, the raccon pokemon takes the same approach as before, lowering himself and looking very much like a puppy, making its opponent hesitate for a second, enough for Zigzagoon to go from his Covet pose to kicking the dust on the field straight into Sentret’s face, making the pokemon miss its attack and stumble forward leaving its back exposed.
At the same time both Ruben and me shout, “Defense Curl!”, “Now buddy, finish with tackle!”.
Zigzagoon pushes himself forward, throwing his entire body upon Sentret, who curls itself into a ball and receives the attack, rolling away upon being hit. When Sentret stops, the pokemon has fainted.