This was decidedly not fun.

I had expected to see some hard fought battles and to maybe learn a trick or two. But most of the trainers were mediocre and the few good trainers were holding back so their techniques wouldn’t be discovered. Now I know why people mostly show up for the top 32.

Two hours had passed and I was growing bored. I was about to leave to get ready for my own match when I saw a huge bolt of electricity released on the second stage.

When I looked closer I saw a proud and grinning electabuzz opposite a smoking crater. The opponent quickly recalled his pokemon and released a graveler which instantly used earthquake, knocking out the still grinning electabuzz.

The electabuzz’s trainer released a machoke which engaged the graveler in a brawl. It was a one sided beatdown with the machoke being victorious.

I’d have to keep an eye on that trainer. But first, it was time to get to my own match.

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I arrived at the trainer box and slotted in my pokeballs. Professor X would be going first so that he can get more battle experience. He hasn’t fought any trainer battles yet, only sparring with Drako and Hellen. Nonetheless, he is a menace with his teleport and psychic abilities.

My opponent arrives and slots in his pokeballs, giving me a nod. He is around the same age as me, with sandy hair.

I look to see what pokemon he registered for the battle. The expected machoke and houndour are there, with the addition of a cubone.

We both wait for the match to start and finally the referee simultaneously releases our first pokemon. Cubone takes the field opposite my kadabra, Prof.

For this tournament, there is only a countdown for the start of the battle after the first pokemon are released. After that, the pokemon can attack right when they are switched in.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The referee starts the count. “3…2…1…Begin!”

Prof lets out a barrage of low powered psybeams that hinders cubone as it rushes toward him. Cubone seems to be having trouble evading and is slowed down considerably. Right when cubone reaches Prof and is about to land a headbutt, Prof vanishes in a teleport to the other side of the arena. Cubone is thrown off by missing his target and before he can reorient itself is slammed into the ground by a powerful psychic blast that rips up the ground into chunks.

Professor X had set up a future sight on his own position. When the dust cleared, cubone was revealed to be knocked out in the small crater.

The opponent grit his teeth, returning cubone and sending out his houndour who looked to be close to evolution. This could be a tough match for Prof since we didn’t have many answers to dark types yet.

Prof had teleported back to my side when cubone was returned and began levitating rocks in an orbit around himself. When houndour appeared, Prof started to hurl the rocks at it. But this houndour was nimble and was able to dodge the projectiles.

I sent a plan to Prof through our bond and felt his agreement. Prof started to slow his rate of fire as if he was becoming tired and gave the houndour an opportunity to counterattack with a dark pulse. But the pause in its movements caused by its attack was its downfall.

Prof neatly dodged the dark pulse by teleporting behind houndour. The orbit of rocks around Prof sped up and he intersected the orbit with houndour’s head. In rapid succession, all the rocks Prof had control of hammered into the canine pokemon’s skull. By the sixth rock, it was knocked out and Prof stopped his assault.

At this point the opposing trainer was stunned and had to be reminded by the referee to recall his pokemon and release the last member of his team.

The battle against machoke was lacklustre due to the type advantage that Professor X had. He won with some well placed psybeams.

After the match, I congratulated Professor X for his deft control of psychic energy. He remained stoic, but I could feel his pleasure through our bond.

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I fought two more matches that day that weren’t anything special. Hellenbore was able to sweep one and Prof the other. Though they received minor injuries. The following day I had another 3 matches. This time Hellen was knocked out in one match by a feisty growlithe, but Prof finished the match. The other two were similar to the first day.

I chose not to use Drako in the preliminaries unless needed, so that the opposing trainers couldn’t plan around him. They could plan for a charizard, but Drako wasn’t just any charizard.

Finally, I was done with the preliminaries. In two hours the top 32 would be announced. They were chosen by using a point system that took into account your wins and losses along with how many pokemon you had remaining. I was guaranteed a spot with my record.

I hung out in my room with my team, where they were enjoying some treats for their great performance. Even Drako, since it wasn’t his fault he didn’t get to battle and he was being a good sport about not being able to fight yet.

“Char. Char?” “Saur. Ivysaur”

“Kadabra.”

As I lay in bed surrounded by my team who were discussing their battles so far, I felt extremely peaceful and at ease. Without noticing, I nodded off to sleep.