Erika didn't want to fight her first badge challenge half-baked, so she scheduled the fight for the end of June, giving her nearly two months worth of preparation time.
Perhaps it was overkill, but Erika had seen the usual cocktail the bug gym leader whipped up for first-badge grass specialists, and it did not look easy in the slightest. Looking back through the VODs of previous challengers, it seemed that illumise and skorupi were common picks, to the point that they were used in over 80% of the matches Erika watched. The remaining 20% involved kakuna, spinarak, surskit, and a few other exotic bug types.
Erika didn't see any reason why the gym leader would diverge from the established trend and throw a curve ball into her match. As of the current, no grass specialists had been able to beat the Celadon gym for their first badge - at least on the first try anyways. It was probably quite possible to go back for a second and third time and on and on until you won, but most of the young grass specialists were much too proud for that.
The mark of a truly legendary trainer was a flawless gym circuit of eight wins and zero losses - something every aspiring youth dreamed of attaining. To these proud young scions of great family clans, losing on their first badge challenge would be a slap on the face of epic proportions. Once they lost, they simply wouldn't have the face to reattempt the challenge at Celadon again, especially given that they were likely to lose if they tried again.
Thus, having lost, they would travel to different cities to get their first badge. Over time, this phenomenon eventually led all but the most stubborn grass specialists to avoid the Celadon gym entirely and get their badges from foreign cities. People like Milly who were forced to undergo their challenge in Celadon or insisted on doing so were quite rare nowadays, so Erika's upcoming challenge was destined to be a spectacle.
That was why Erika was training so furiously, as if her upcoming battle was a matter of life and death.
It very may well be, considering that my nascent fame will crumble if I lose. Erika's face was scrunched into a terrifying, vicious sneer at this thought. I will never lose, and I must NEVER lose! I would rather endure the pain of a thousand cuts before I ever consider the possibility of a loss in any way, shape, or form!
Erika allowed her team exactly one day to rest after the end of the Rising Stars Gauntlet. While they relaxed in the hot springs, Erika was busying herself with going over a massive list of notebooks and hastily scrawled upon papers containing information about the bug type gym leader's previous challenges.
Cesare - the bug gym leader - was one of the more famous proponents of the swarm style of combat among bug specialists, a fighting style which revolved around controlling a colony queen pokemon that could command tens of thousands of subordinates to overwhelmingly crush enemies with numbers. Cesare was also known for wearing a half mask that covered the left side of his face everywhere he went, and it was often speculated that he had a disfiguring scar hidden beneath.
According to his profile, his starter was a durant queen which had birthed at least two thousand durant workers - which sounded terrifying, but then you also had to consider the problem of consumption. Sure, getting swarmed by two thousand durant workers was probably a death sentence, but feeding the durant workers outside of combat was a separate issue of its own. Erika had heard that the bug-type Celadon gym was built over an iron mine, so perhaps that explained how Cesare was able to feed his durant army without becoming financially bankrupt. It's more likely that he keeps them all in hibernation and only brings them out when it's time to fight, or when he wants to show them off.
Erika privately felt a little sorry for Cesare. Even champions like Samuel Oak would struggle to feed their pokemon without the support of an industrialized meat production industry, let alone a mere gym leader who had an extra two thousand mouths to concern himself with. While it was true that each individual durant worker needed to eat much less compared to a giant 100ft (30m) tall Titled dragonite, the sheer scale and number of the durant workers meant that their food consumption was maybe on par with what Champion Oak's dragonite ate on a daily basis. Cesare must be bankrupt from the expenditure, Erika thought with schadenfreude. That, or he keeps them all in hibernation.
While interesting though, none of this really concerned Erika, because it wasn't relevant to her first badge challenge. Cesare's ace team was interesting, but it was his first badge teams that Erika was more interested in. After laying out all the known first badge teams and drawing up some speculations about potential tactics that Cesare hadn't used before, Erika recorded and tabled all the known moves used by each team combination into an extensive spreadsheet and started planning out the training schedule for her pokemon for the next two months.
The first and most important order of business… was Mordred's tail.
"Show me your family sword style," Erika ordered. "You've been reluctant to show it to me for a while now, and there's no more excuses."
'Not reluctant,' Mordred explained slowly. 'Can't use in public.'
Mordred saw her frowning and continued explaining. 'I will describe and demonstrate.'
Erika's starter walked up to one of the dummies in the training room, steadying his body, and then he suddenly lashed out with his tail.
What was interesting to Erika was that his tail seemed to become boneless and malleable like it had lost all structure as it traveled towards the dummy. Then, she heard something terrifying. The tail curled and coiled like a whip, and then it cracked across the dummy with a booming sound.
However, the dummy didn't explode like Erika expected. While it was sent flying backward, only a shallow groove was carved into the dummy. The resulting damage was miniscule compared to the devastating noise she just heard and the way the dummy was flung away.
"That's your family sword style?" Erika's face was one of curiosity.
'The whip sword,' Mordred explained sagely. 'Family are serpents, can't use human swords. Sword style uses the tail. Tails become rope-like, whip out at high speed, creates a loud cracking noise.'
"How come the dummy didn't break then?"
'Two reasons. poor at this style. Didn't have much training, kidnapped before I could learn fully - need to harden tail before striking, maximises power, couldn't do that. Reason two, can't use leaf blade yet. Need to sharpen the tail so it cuts. If whipping only, attack painful, not lethal. Exploding cracking noise from whip is signature to my family.'
Erika could see the lethality of such a technique just by listening to Mordred.
You could instantly decapitate or bisect any pokemon or thing, Erika thought with fascination. The speed and crack of the whip combined with the weight, hardness, and sharpness would absolutely slice through even the toughness of defenses. It would be like shearing a hot knife through butter - nothing would stand up to it!
However, like he said, it wasn't feasible for them to use this technique in public, since it would most definitely expose Mordred's affiliation to his family back in Unova. Furthermore, Mordred couldn't really execute the sword style properly since he wasn't taught for very long before he was kidnapped.
It took Erika another day before she came up with her own substitute technique to use during their first gym challenge.
Doesn't the leaf on Mordred's tail look awfully like an axe?
If you squint hard enough, it resembled a sort of lopsided great axe. And that, Erika concluded, is exactly what we're going to do.
Following that day, Erika had Mordred grow out the leaf on his tail more, curving it inwards more like an axe and increasing its thickness to add weight. The edges were kept fairly thin.
Now, having a weird-shaped tail wouldn't be of much use ordinarily… unless you decided to harden it a ton - and by a ton, Erika meant a lot.
Using the whip motion Mordred learned from his family would expose his identity, but Erika didn't need that. Just by swinging his tail normally, Mordred could already inflict devastating damage onto enemies. If his tail featured a great-axe shaped implement on the end as well… Erika suspected that he might actually be able to cleave his enemies into two pieces.
The smart thing about this was that the tail didn't need to be supernaturally sharp, unlike what would happen when you applied leaf blade to the tail. Erika just needed the general structure of Mordred's tail to feature an edge on the leaf, and then harden it as much as possible. Even a dull edge could chop an enemy in two if there was enough force behind it.
From that day on, Mordred started practicing hardening the leaf on his tail with grass aura. Erika had him do this every single day, and she didn't relent until the leaf on his tail had reached the same level of toughness as his actual tail. For added effect, he could also use iron tail to add steel aura and an extra level of toughness. The leaf on Mordred's tail was more receptive to his innate grass aura, but given enough work, he slowly started getting used to applying steel aura to it as well.
Erika ended up naming this newly patented technique the Axe-Tail, a dreadfully unimaginative name but one that suited her purposes well. Following some testing on tougher dummies made from solid steel, it was revealed that Mordred could easily cleave them in twain without even needing to spin - just jumping up and slashing down was already enough to utterly annihilate them. Had he rotated to gather force as well, Erika was sure he could cause an even more terrible scene.
After experimenting a little more, she was able to help Mordred adjust the move a little by using the flat of the leaf instead of the edge to strike, and named the variation Hammer-Tail, since it relied on blunt force instead of cutting force. For enemies whom Mordred couldn't effectively chop up - which Erika thought would be rare - he could just increase the surface area of his tail and smash the shit out of them as usual.
It was a very brutal and very simple method of fighting with no elegance to it at all, but Erika wasn't particularly concerned about that in the first place. Victory above all costs.
Mordred also dabbled in the practice of a few other inherited egg moves, namely the ones that Erika felt would be relevant or possibly useful in their upcoming fight.
For example, Twister.
Through the use of dragon aura, Mordred could whip up a vicious twister that would interfere with ranged projectiles and passively damage his foes. It was costlier than leaf tornado because Mordred needed to convert his grass aura into dragon aura first, but Erika thought it was worth it because twister wouldn't be affected by any elemental interactions with the gym leader's bug type pokemon.
Mordred's training in this move usually consisted of having him try to whip up the water in the Icefall into a cyclone. At first, he was entirely incapable of doing so because the water in the Icefall was heavier than normal and thick like mercury, but after a month of non stop training, he was slowly beginning to get the hang of the technique, and it's power was growing. Erika felt that this move had great potential for synergy with aqua tail, and it indirectly helped accelerate Mordred's progress in learning how to adeptly control water.
For his aqua tail training, Mordred used his fan shaped tail like a propeller to swim quickly against the current within the Icefall. He was able to dive somewhat deeper now than before, and Erika noted that even at these depths Mordred was still able to swim at a decent pace. Following the principle of progressive overload training, every time Erika felt that Mordred was having too easy of a time, she would have him swim a meter deeper than before.
He eventually stalled out at around 10 meters deep, and no matter how hard he tried to go deeper, Mordred would always be squeezed by the water pressure until he was forced to the surface. At 10 meters, Mordred couldn't even properly swim, so Erika had him train at the 8-meter depth. Although it was tough, this training helped Mordred hone both the strength of his tail, the resistance and toughness of his body, and also his proficiency with aqua tail.
While above the surface of the Icefall's basin, Mordred would practice using aqua tail to manipulate and carry water, and he sometimes would try to use it to shield himself from the downpour of the Icefall's waterfall. He was nowhere near the level of manipulating water moisture in the air or condensing it into liquid, so if he ever needed to fight without a prepared source of water, Mordred would need to rely on converting his aura into water aura, and then transmuting it into water which he could control.
Erika made sure he at least got a few hours of training for his other inherited egg moves, although she didn't prioritize any of them in particular. It was enough that he had some minor proficiency in their usage should the need occur.
Gwen's training mostly consisted of the same routine as before.
Erika had her do a combination of accuracy training for her acid spitting, as well as training to increase the upper limit for the amount of acid she could spew at any one time. The former was done by having Gwen run around and spit acid at targets while on the fly, with Erika gradually making the targets smaller and further away each time Gwen's accuracy steadily improved. For the latter, Erika just had Gwen spew acid at the wall until she grew faint and exhausted herself. When she recovered a little, she would repeat the same process all over again. A similar process happened for her razor leaf training too.
There was no need to do the same for her powder-based moves, because she would use fume hood to blast it into the air anyway, disregarding the need for accuracy. Erika just helped Gwen refine the execution a little and didn't focus any more attention onto the move.
Other than that, Erika also tracked down a low-grade bullet seed technical machine for Gwen. The power of each individual seed she spat would be fairly weak, but it was a good long range option for Gwen to use in prolonged fights due to its low auric consumption. As long as she kept her distance, she would be able to keep up a continuous assault of non-stop bullet seeds that would gradually wear away at her enemy. The training for this was exactly the same as it was for acid and razor leaf, and Gwen just practiced for accuracy.
Erika also had Gwen train her ability to absorb life force until she managed to master absorb completely, before she finally moved on to training mega drain. The reason she didn't let Gwen use mega drain earlier was because she wanted Gwen to fully master the fundamentals with absorb. Although Gwen could indeed drain more energy with mega drain, the move was more aurically taxing and demanded more focus. If Gwen wasn't proficient in the basics, she would only be able to keep it up for a short time - which was totally against Erika's plans.
What Erika truly wanted Gwen to master was constant draining - being able to continually sap and leech away energy without disruption. Even if it was slow, this sort of constant draining would definitely wear away enemies in prolonged fights. Combined with leech seed, the rate of passive energy loss for enemies would become even larger. If Gwen kept her distance, she also had plenty of ranged options with minimal aura consumption that could be used for a long time to batter down enemies. Powder based moves could be used to weaken enemies further too; the current Gwen was built for attrition matches.
After so much physical conditioning in the Icefall, Gwen's ability to use growth for extended periods of time drastically increased as well. Even a double growth wasn't as destructive to her body as before, and she could even hold it for a short period of time with minimal side effects.
Nimue wasn't given much priority during this period, since Erika decided against using her in the gym challenge. Bug pokemon had access to a large variety of poison type moves, all of which could easily cripple her due to her fairy/grass typing. Against a double elemental disadvantage like that, there was no way Erika would risk her newly acquired support. Erika mainly had Nimue use helping hand and flower veil to reinforce Mordred and Gwen during their training so that they could train even more crazily without being worried about collapsing.
Throughout this entire training process, Erika didn't give herself or her pokemon any breaks beyond the bare minimum needed to prevent their bodies from collapsing. She organized their training sessions into 'blocks' of 2 hours each, and allocated her team 15 minutes of rest time between each training block.
For example, the first block was at 5AM sharp - this was usually resistance training under the Icefall. At the end of this block, Mordred and Gwen would quickly eat a breakfast of carefully optimized superfoods and vitamin supplements and have a soak in the healing springs. When their allocated rest time ended, the second block of training would begin - typically move training or technique training.
This would repeat all the way up until around 11PM, where Erika would retire for the night. As for her team, they obviously slept in the healing spring, since it would accelerate their recovery and stimulate muscle growth. Each day contained exactly eight training blocks. Combined, Erika calculated she and her team trained for roughly 16 hours every day, and had around 2 hours of rest time, not counting the remaining 6 hours spent sleeping.
During her preparation process for the gym challenge, Erika took the time to teach Milly how to get her pokemon to execute a double growth. It took many attempts, with a decent number of them ending in her pokemon fainting from the exertion, but Milly eventually got it down, enough for her pokemon to use it once at a critical moment before collapsing.
Erika also found the time to learn Kyudo with Milly during some training blocks where her pokemon didn't need supervision. Milly took the time to educate Erika on the history of kyudo before teaching her as well, which she greatly appreciated.
Unlike other forms of archery, kyudo didn't emphasize technique so much as spirit. According to Milly, the practice of kyudo aimed to refine the state of one's own heart, of Zen, rather than the body, and it was believed that only when an archer shot with truth, good spirit, and honest attitude would the arrow fly straight and true. If you could master kyudo, you would be able to fire arrows charged with aura that would fly with supernatural speed and accuracy.
Milly imparted Erika with a sentence that her own ancestor - Amadeus Belding - had once told her. "When we face the target, it is like a mirror which reflects our own heart. We must confront ourselves in this mirror."
This statement shook Erika to her core, for it contained shocking profundities that Milly confirmed were related to the secrets of aura and Inheritance. Milly warned Erika to be especially tight-lipped about this set of words, because it was something her ancestor only imparted to a select few people. If Erika could understand the truths behind Sovereign Belding's words early, she would find that her journey to the Inherited would become far smoother and faster compared to other people.
Whenever Erika didn't need to supervise her pokemon's training, she avoided rest and instead headed to the archery hall to practice kyudo, and thus refined her state of mind. It was almost like a sort of meditation more than sport, because all Erika would do during her archery practice would be to ruminate over the meanings of the sentence Milly imparted.
How does the target reflect my heart?
Erika shot a few arrows in frustration, staring angrily at the broken target before her.
My heart is already clear. I know myself well. I know what I want. Why should I need to confront myself?
None of these questions could be easily answered, so Erika continued pondering them as the weeks went by every day.
Around a month into her practice of kyudo, Milly took Erika out to one of her family's specialty weapon stores to purchase a proper bow - a bamboo yumi.
One of her uncles ran the store, and he helped Erika pick out a yumi appropriate for her size as a good starter weapon that would hopefully stick with her as she grew older, at least until she got tall enough that she would need a replacement.
Eton Belding had Erika grip the yumi and draw its bowstring out to its fullest length each time she tried a new bow, assuming various kyudo stances and showing him how she fired the arrows to determine whether or not the yumi was suitable for her. It took them nearly half an hour to go through the entire inventory of the shop, but Eton eventually pronounced that he had found a yumi that was perfectly suited for Erika.
Erika found herself admiring a beautiful bow which Eton told her was called a Higoyumi, an ancient yumi design which featured a three-piece bamboo laminate core, wooden sides, and a bamboo front and back. It had a draw length of 83cm, a draw strength of 12 kilograms, and a sansun-tsumari type vertical length of 212cm. When Erika pulled on the string and drew it back, she thought it almost seemed alive from the way the yumi responded to her grip and twanged as she fired.
Before she was allowed to leave however, Eton forced Erika to sit down and proceeded to give her a lecture on how to care for her new weapon.
"A good yumi will seem almost like a living creature," Eton told Erika slowly. "When new, it is strong and full of energy, and must be watched over carefully and gently corrected to keep it in proper shape. To correct its shape, you will use one of these special shaping blocks I will give to you."
Eton pulled out a strange wooden implement and handed it over to Erika. "This is what we call a yumigata-kyoseiki in Old Kantonian. It is a shaping block that you can use to straighten your bow, and you will make sure to use it at least once every week - is that understood?"
Erika nodded quickly.
"Good." Eton went into the back of the shop to grab more items again, this time returning with a huge box. "We're not done yet."
Firstly, he handed Erika a coil of string.
"Tsurumaki," Eton pronounced slowly for Erika to hear. Given that Erika wasn't familiar with Old Kantonia, she was quite glad for that. "This is your spare bowstring. A tsurumaki is a woven rattan holder containing your only spare bowstring, so keep it in good quality."
The next item was a sort of abrasive plant based tool of some kind. It looked like it could be used to scrub.
"This is a Waraji," Eton told Erika. "It is a hemp pad coated with kusune - softened pine resin - that you will rub over your string during maintenance days. The friction from the rubbing will melt the pine resin onto the bowstring, rebinding any loosened fibers."
"These next two items go together as well."
"Yugake and kakebukuro." Eton handed Erika a glove, and what she presumed was a bag to hold it. "As you might have already guessed, this is a type of archer's glove that you will wear when shooting the bow, at least until you develop resistance to the abrasiveness of the bow, and an accompanying bag to hold your gloves."
Two small satchels were also given to Erika along with the gloves and glove bag. "Giriko and fudeko - glove powder and grip powder. You can apply giriko to the thumb of the glove to keep the fingers from slipping until you master kyudo, and fudeko can be applied evenly to reduce moisture within the glove as it is a type of moisture absorbing ash."
The next item was an odd, sort of circular shaped pad.
"Muneate - A chest protector," Eton explained. "This is only used by women. It is made from fine leather and dyed white using bone ash."
The final two items - thank the legendaries for that, because Erika's eyes were beginning to twitch at how many items she had to carry for her yumi's maintenance - were an arrow case and a rectangular cloth bag.
"Here are your yazutsu and yumibukuro," Eton told Erika. "The yazutsu, if you couldn't already tell, is an arrow case of top quality made from woven rattan, which are secured by decorative tassels. When not in use, you will holster the yazutsu arrow case to a special slot on the yumi bow, and while in use, you will simply sling the yazutsu across your back to draw arrows from. As for the cloth bag, this is the yumibukuro - it is simply a bag for your yumi bow itself, and you will keep it safe within during your travels."
"I understand that it isn't possible to keep weapons in perfect maintenance while exploring the wilds," Eton explained. "It is often the case that you will need to keep your yumi out in the open, since it is difficult to retrieve quickly when properly stored. However, I still expect you to maintain the longevity of your bow to the best degree possible."
"You must protect your yumi from the extremes of heat, cold, moisture, and dryness!" Eton thundered, hurting Erika's ears a little. Milly was patiently sitting to the side, her eyes showing some mirth, having clearly been through this before. "Treat the yumi as you would yourself - warm it with a soft cloth when cold, dry it when wet, and moisten it periodically with a damp cloth if the air is extremely dry. You must never neglect your yumi, and you must care for it as you do your own pokemon - is this clear?"
"Yes sir!"
"Excellent." Eton nodded. "Remember this - the more you care for your yumi, the more in touch and in tune with it that you will become. Should you give and breathe life into your yumi, you may find that one day it shall do the same for you."
He looked at Milly, who nodded, and Eton smiled, clearly appreciative of his niece's decision.
"Know this," Eton whispered. "Your heart must be like a lake, reflective and bright. When you nourish the yumi with your virtue and are nourished in return, you will find that it is easier for you to achieve the state of heart necessary for Inheritance. The target may be a mirror that reflects your heart - but so does your yumi, for it is a vital part of yourself from this day onward."
Erika was shaken at his words, all her boredom completely swept away. She truly decided to commit his words to heart and care for yumi like her own pokemon from then onwards. If it's related to the secrets of inheritance - how could I not give it my all?
Eton spent the next hour going over some more technical details on how Erika should treat her bow, and then ended his lecture.
"Give your new yumi a name," Eton urged her. "Every good masterwork weapon deserves its own unique name. Remember - your yumi reflects your heart, so the name should be meaningful."
Erika didn't hesitate to answer, having already prepared a name in advance.
"Moon Orchid," Erika stated. "That's the new name for my yumi."
"That's a good name," Milly approved. So did Eton. "They're good flowers which bloom under the light of the moon and represent virtue and filial piety."
That's not the only reason I chose the name, Erika thought to herself. This reason was one that no one other than her would ever know. The only types of flowers able to bloom underground in the Underbelly from which I originated are these same moon orchids. They need very little light to survive, and even the dim radiance of glowing cave mushrooms is able to sustain their existence.
Of course, without the gentle light of the moon and only the murky radiance of cave mushrooms to survive on, the moon orchids that grow underground became twisted and warped… yet somehow, they still survived and continued to persist on. Just like me.
During Erika's darkest moments, it was these moon orchids that had given her the hope necessary to struggle onward and claw her way through the gloom surrounding her life. They were reminders of her declaration to struggle upward through society, to achieve greatness and glory eternal.
Let me never forget the moon orchids, Erika declared silently. From today onward, I carry one of them with me in spirit.
At the end of the two months of spartan training, Erika's team grew quantitatively and qualitatively in strength. She had polished every possible aspect of their fundamentals until they were flawless, such that Erika might even say that they had built a flawless foundation.
Reaching this state so early on was as rare as moltres feathers and dragonite horns, and it was a sign of magnificent accomplishment for a trainer such as Erika. She felt an inordinate sense of pride, and for the first time, not all of this pride was directed towards herself. Erika was secretly very impressed with Mordred and Gwen for keeping up with the hellish training routine she designed, even if she didn't outwardly show it to them.
During this two month training process, Mordred also hit a sort of growth spurt and started growing a ton, becoming so large that he was closing in on Erika's height. However, he didn't become thin or wiry due to the expensive superfoods Erika was stuffing him with and all the crazy physical training she made him do. Mordred's serpentine body grew packed with dense muscle and explosive vitality, and his tail lengthened and thickened, allowing him to build more momentum and force while spinning.
Gwen didn't change too much, but she did grow somewhat larger. The leaves on her head toughened up and her circular frame seemed to become studier, although it wasn't obvious just by looking at her.
A day before her first gym challenge was scheduled to happen, Erika took her pokemon out to the Glass Helix for a day of relaxation, giving them their first-ever true break from the nightmarish training routine they had been doing for the past two months. She wanted to bring them to a water park initially, but Mordred and Gwen expressed vehemently that they were sick of swimming, so Erika brought them to eat some nice food at the Glass Helix instead.
Erika thought she was completely and totally prepared for her first badge challenge. However, that didn't stop her heart from beating uncomfortably fast as she descended into the gym to fight her first badge challenge, going down the challenger's entrance as tradition demanded.
Her heart pounded and reverberated like an ancient bell, thumping in tune with the pulse of her blood and sending goosebumps flaring across her skin. Erika closed her eyes and sat down briefly to calm her heart, before rising once more and continuing the descent.
Unlike the Celadon Gym of old during the era of the grass specialists, the modern one was actually situated underground - within a massive chasm that had been excavated by the current bug-type gym leader.
As she descended the staircase, Erika found herself observing the design and decoration of the tunnel she was in. The stairs themselves were made from an unassuming gray stone, but the ceiling was covered in various stalactites; they dripped water intermittently, and the constant sound eventually led Erika to start counting them to pass the time.
Her pokeballs rattled, easing her nerves a little bit as Erika was assured of her pokemon's presence.
The bonds with her pokemon had been steadily deepening over the past two months of training, and Erika could now understand Mordred much more clearly compared to the past. Gwen was also making good progress, but the strength of her bond still couldn't hold a candle to Mordred's. Nimue was a fresh acquisition, but she was also doing well.
When Erika finally got to the end of the stairs, she was shocked to see that the ceiling was a bright silver, and not a dark gray or brown of rock like she had expected since the gym was located within a chasm.
Erika was about to keep walking when she gasped, realizing with some horror as to exactly why the ceiling was silver.
The chasm's ceiling was much too tall for Erika to properly see clearly initially, but now that her eyes had once again adjusted to the level of darkness she was once familiar with during her days living in the Underbelly of Celadon, Erika could now see exactly why the ceiling - or in actually, what was covering the ceiling.
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Durant.
There were thousands. They all swarmed the ceiling in one giant mass, crawling over one another until their limbs became an unrecognizable mass of silver and steel, all carapace and mandible and antennae. Holy shit! That's gym leader Cesare's durant colony.
"It's marvelous, isn't it?" Erika heard someone say from behind her. "Not many people get the chance to appreciate this scene. During the mating season, the durant workers will come out of their burrows to swarm the ceiling and mate freely, producing the spawn that will continue to protect and raise up the colony in the future. When the current generation inevitably dies and passes away, the cycle of life will continue. Isn't it just grand?"
Erika didn't even need to see who was talking to figure out who it was.
"You're Cesare, the gym leader, aren't you?"
Cesare didn't step forward out of the corner of the room he leaned on, preventing Erika from seeing his face.
"Yes," he confirmed. "I am indeed the current gym leader of Celadon."
"What are you doing here then?" Erika asked suspiciously. "I'm walking the path right now, and our prematch conversation isn't due until I actually get to the arena."
As she said that, Erika took a step back. When Cesare saw that, he burst out laughing.
"If I wanted to sabotage you, I wouldn't need to be here in person," he informed Erika. With a wave of his hands, three durant dropped from their ceiling perches to surround Erika, their menacing jaws closing and crashing shut like iron ursaring traps.
"Just tell me why you're here," Erika snapped, her patience fraying. "I don't care about your pathetic display of intimidation."
"It's not a threat," Cesare corrected her. "It's a warning to be more careful. Not everyone will be as nice as I am, see?"
He waved his hands and sent the durant away, easing Erika's nerves a little.
"I'm here to tell you that your next fight is rigged," Cesare said, much to Erika's surprise. "I will be using a sizzlipede and a pinsir during our match, and you will most likely lose."
HUH? Erika rubbed her eyes, sure that she was mishearing. "Come again?"
"My faction does not want any grass specialist winning their first badge in Celadon," Cesare explained to her patiently. "Given your recent victory at the Rising Stars Gauntlet, and the revelation that you are connected to the Beldings, I was ordered to include a sizzlipede within my team composition to guarantee your loss."
Erika could only stare at him, dumbfounded. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Is it wrong to want to have a fair fight?" Cesare countered, avoiding Erika's question. "My job as a gym leader is to test and nurture the next generation. Yet, each year, I am forced to suppress the many young talents that come out of Celadon just because they happen to be grass specialists, regardless of whether they are associated with the conservatives or not. Do you really think this is right?"
"No, but that doesn't explain why you would help me out either."
Erika thought for a moment, and said, "If you truly cared about the spirit of the rules as much as you claimed, you could have done the same thing for other grass specialists far earlier. How come you're going against your faction just for me?"
"That's a good question," Cesare replied. Erika's face twitched a little at the back-and-forth happening, but she held in her annoyance. "Can't you think of anything in particular that might be of interest to me?"
Hearing that, Erika finally sighed, because she had guessed his intentions.
"It's my connection to Millicent Belding, isn't it?"
Cesare's eyes gleamed.
"You're close, but not quite there," Cesare told her. "Think again. Perhaps seeing my face will help you jog some memories."
He stepped out into the dim cave light and exposed his face for the first time, causing Erika to gasp involuntarily.
The entire left side of his face was ruined. While his right was handsome, the left was riddled with scars and shallow depressions that made Cesare's face look like melted wax.
However, the scars themselves didn't bother Erika.
It was the implication they carried that truly disturbed her.
Aren't those… the same scars that the factory workers in the Underbelly had?
Although Erika had never worked in the factories within the Underbelly, she had seen hundreds of workers going in and out, and was deeply familiar with what they looked like.
Underbelly factory workers typically sported numerous chemical scars - which usually turned their skin waxy and gave it a melted-looking composition. The workers had no safety equipment and often paid the price with their lives while refining potions and handling chemicals in the factories, but it was the only stable job people living in the Underbelly could find, so most stuck it out despite the hazards.
Cesare's solemn face looked just like those workers she used to see going in and out every day.
"Don't tell me…" Erika breathed.
"Rats always recognise one another," Cesare said in a low voice. "I will admit, it was difficult for me to identify you given how pristine you look, but your mannerisms gave you away eventually. How did you do it, Erika? How did you stay so untainted and pristine?"
Erika hesitated, wanting to back out, but she quickly realized it was futile given the durant hanging above her on the ceiling. She would need to talk her way out. Erika already had the workings of a plan in mind - after all, Cesare was talking to her for a reason. This is likely the only time he can approach me privately as well, without having our conversation overheard by other people. He has no plausible reason to approach me any other time.
The conversation they were having represented a possible danger to Erika - but it was also an immense opportunity if she played her cards right - turning danger into opportunity was her speciality after all.
"I never worked in the factories," Erika admitted. "I lived in the true slums underground, the cesspit where the homeless, the infirm, and the young stayed in who were unable to find work in the factories. I was briefly a member of one of the bigger street rat gangs, helping them steal and pickpocket others before I left for the surface city. I lived in a hole in the wall for a while after that, and then found my destined opportunity to awaken my aura."
"You want me to be your agent within the conservatives right?" Erika guessed.
Cesare shrugged. "Was I that obvious?"
"Yes."
"Well, regardless of that, I'd like us to work together."
"The Underbelly is a tumor," Cesare said directly. "Tens of thousands of people live in squalor there, and many more are forced into miserable lives refining potions involving dangerous chemicals with no safety equipment of any kind. Life as a factory worker has an incredibly low life expectancy, yet somehow, living in the True Slums surpasses even that. The average age rats live doesn't even surpass fourteen."
"During my youth, I was forced to scavenge for food scraps to survive, and eventually managed to obtain a spot working in the factories for rations. However, it was a miserable life, and I wanted more."
"So you left?" Erika asked.
"I did," Cesare confirmed. "But I didn't leave just once. Oh no. I left dozens of times, but each time, I was turned away and was forced back into the Underbelly, because no one would ever offer me work. I was lesser than even the meanest creature, and people looked at me much like a savage - dirty and soiled, unworthy of empathy or compassion. It wasn't until I awakened my aura that someone from the progressive faction thought I had potential and took me under his wing."
"Knowing all of that, can you really stand by indifferently and do nothing?" Cesare questioned. "Although I ultimately managed to leave and awaken my aura, rising to prominence on the surface, I am tormented every day by my inaction."
I can definitely stand by indifferently, Erika thought. But I probably shouldn't say that out loud.
"I want to destroy the Underbelly!" Cesare said suddenly, shocking Erika. "It's a cancer! The only thing it serves to do is fill the greedy bellies of the great factions who live on the surface - and that includes both the conservatives and the progressives, have no doubt about that. Perhaps it is not the intention of the factions as a whole, but there are too many blood-sucking parasites embedded within our society who have a vested interest in continuing the existence of the Underbelly for us to ever wipe it out."
"I can't risk going public with my goals," Cesare kept explaining. "I would surely be censured and suppressed by the higher-ups in my faction if that happened, and I would lose all that I've managed to build up so far. Furthermore, even if I could get the full support of the progressives thrown behind me, the conservatives will always oppose the progressive faction's goals, no matter what they are. That's why…"
"...you need me, to push the agenda from the conservative end," Erika finished for him. "So that's the story?"
"Work with me!" Cesare opened his arms and spread them out. "Don't you want to see a better future for the city? The current Celadon is like a rotting plant - the surface is magnificent and beautiful, but its insides are decaying and withering. Work with me, Erika!"
"The only people I can truly trust to not betray me are those who have lived through the same things as I have - who have experienced the darkness of the Underbelly, and wish for the same change as I do. Other than you, I've only managed to find three other rats with the potential for aura in the last decade - and you're the only grass specialist among them, and the only person who managed to join the highly elitist conservatives."
I can work with that. Although I don't fancy going against the agendas of BOTH great factions, I'll leave it to Cesare to take the heat. Besides, given his demeanor, he definitely needs me more than I do him.
"What's in it for me then?" Erika asked eventually. "What do I get in return for doing all of this? I'd be taking a massive risk in working with you."
"You're still trying to talk benefits?" Cesare said, astonished. "Even after I gave you my whole spiel about reforming the city and improving the lives of millions of slum rats, you still have the nerve to ask me about what you'd get in return?"
Erika just rolled her eyes. "Benefits. Cough them up."
"You're the most shameless person I've ever met," Cesare told her. "But that's fine. As long as you're willing to work with me, I can tolerate anything."
Erika raised a finger. "So, let's go over the benefits I'll be getting. I admit that I'm interested in your proposal, but there's no reason for me to go through with it without an incentive. You need me more than I need you."
Cesare thought about it for a moment. "The first thing I can offer to you is a fair fight."
"How so?" Erika said, interested now.
"I'll replace the sizzlipede on my team with a dwebble," Cesare informed her. "Against a dwebble and pinsir, you'll have a significantly easier fight, but it should still pose a decent challenge. My job is still to test trainers after all - I can't just give you a free match."
"I'm liking what I hear so far." Erika fanned herself. "I want Millicent Belding to win as well. She's challenging right after me."
Cesare shook his head at that. "That's impossible for me to do. Letting you win will already cause me a ton of problems. Letting the well-known heiress of the Beldings win the first badge challenge will definitely destabilize my position within the progressives."
Erika hesitated for a moment. "Forget about giving me an easier fight then."
"Oh?"
"I want you to give Millicent Belding the easier fight," Erika said confidently. "I don't need it!"
"That's still not possible," Cesare refused. "Politically speaking, having a grass specialist win their first badge is bad, but it's still manageable. Having the descendant of the Conservative Faction sovereign win is far worse."
"What if we make a bet?"
Cesare looked intrigued now.
"If I can win against the rigged team fair and square, you'll have to give Millicent Belding an easier match," Erika challenged. "How about that?"
"You're going to have to fight a sizzlipede and a pinsir," Cesare said slowly. "The first has a double elemental resistance to your grass types, and it can set your pokemon on fire. Your team will die a gruesome death. The pinsir is massive and its carapace is hard enough to withstand an average second-badge pokemon's full power strike. Are you sure you want to face that?"
"...yes," Erika confirmed. "That is my intention."
Truth be told, there was no reason for Erika to do that, but she had already promised to help Milly win, and she didn't mind making things a little harder for herself to accomplish that. Although she had done her best to teach Milly's team the double growth, Erika wasn't yet fully assured that Milly would win. This was a good opportunity to accomplish that. Milly winning puts her in a better position to help me as well, and it can serve as proof of my importance.
Furthermore, Erika didn't want to win her first badge just because the gym leader made it easier - Erika wanted to be able to proudly declare that she had won through her own ingenuity, and announce her greatness without shame in her heart.
"I'll think about it," Cesare allowed. "If you can actually beat the rigged team that's been arranged, I'll give your friend a fair match."
"You better keep your word though," he threatened. "When I need your help to push policies related to the slums and the Underbelly, you're going to be helping me."
"Don't worry about that," Erika said dismissively. "I'll help you out when the time comes."
"Okay." Cesare turned to leave, but Erika suddenly interrupted him.
"Wait!" Erika said. "I have another request."
It doesn't hurt to ask right?
"Miracle seed," Erika stated boldly. "I want a miracle seed!"
Erika didn't have much of an expectation when she said that because miracle seeds were extraordinarily rare treasures that couldn't be found, and only sought after.
When Cesare didn't say anything and hesitated though, Erika's eyes bulged. "You really have a miracle seed in your inventory? No fucking way!"
The many books and ancient classics which Erika had read all described the miracle seed as a destined opportunity meant for chosen trainers, as within it contained the profundities of grass aura and the very nature of the grass type itself. Anybody who managed to find and consume a miracle seed would experience shocking changes to their grass affinity, and it was said that this change was enough to turn a regular person into a grass specialist prodigy.
Erika had always fantasized about eating one, and she only asked Cesare that question on impulse. She didn't expect him to actually have one!
A regular person who consumes a miracle seed develops enough grass affinity to become a genius! Then… What happens if I consume it?
Erika was so frightened by her own thoughts that goosebumps began forming. I would surely become a shocking, never before seen existence! I must have that miracle seed!
Sadly, Cesare's next words burst her bubble.
"Give up on it," he told her. "I've only heard rumors that the top leaders of the progressive faction have possession of a miracle seed. I've never actually seen it. Even if I did know where it was kept, there's no way I would have the authority to go retrieve it."
Cesare gave Erika a deep look. "If you truly want that miracle seed, you should start by winning this match! Once you become an ace trainer, you can try your luck and attempt to steal it - because there's no way the progressives will ever surrender an item like that to a grass specialist."
"Go and prepare for the match," Cesare said seriously. "Show me your best - I'm looking forward to it."
Erika wasn't even listening to him at this point, because she was lost in her fantasy of finding and consuming the miracle seed.
Her eyes blazed with incredible ferocity. That miracle seed belongs to me!
----------------------------------------
"Now, please step up to the stage!"
Erika sauntered up the stairs leading to Cesare's underground arena, flashing a V with her fingers for victory as she did so. The cameras flashed, heralding the arrival of the first grass specialist first-badge challenger in the past three years. Erika waived and smiled cheerfully as she walked by, making sure to impose herself fully onto the camera.
Her aura was flared as greatly as she possibly could, suffusing the aura with a brilliant hue of green that only those with second sight could see. However, even for the spectators lacking this crucial ability, they could still feel the immense pressure exerted by Erika's presence.
Erika had been hesitant to showboat this much, but now that she knew she would be working with Cesare, she was much more assured of her own safety, and her narcissistic instincts started kicking back in.
She knew that she was supposed to portray herself as an elegant and demure girl, but Erika really couldn't resist the urge to grandstand.
It'll be fine, Erika told herself. I'm just confident… that's right! Confident!
From the stands, Erika could see Fulton groaning and putting his hands onto his temples, and Erika smiled in spite of herself.
When she ascended the podium and was met face to face with Cesare, this time clad in his half mask, Erika let out a booming shout.
"I'm here to challenge you for my first gym badge!" Erika proclaimed, thrusting her finger toward Cesare almost accusingly. "As per ancient tradition, I seek to tread the path of mastery within my home city, and attain… the Cicada Badge!"
Cesare nodded, raising his pokeball. "I accept your challenge!"
The durant on the ceiling flew into a frenzy at his words, chittering and screeching and crawling all over one another and turning the ceiling a fuzzy silver mess. Erika wasn't unnerved at all, having seen the display once already.
The crowd roared.
"Are you familiar with the rules of this challenge?" Cesare questioned.
"Please repeat them for me again," Erika replied.
Cesare nodded. "This gym challenge follows the Standardized Indigo Format! You are allowed two switches, and the ability to field a maximum of two pokemon! Whoever's pokemon both faint or are rendered unable to continue fighting first loses! Do you understand the rules?"
"Yes!" Erika shouted back.
"Then let the match begin!" Cesare announced grandly. "Take your position, and let us fight on the count of three!"
The crowd started chanting following Cesare's words.
"Three!"
"Two!"
"One!"
Erika's eyes flashed, catching a brief glimpse of Milly in the crowd cheering for her, and Fulton standing a little further away, before the match began.
"Start!"
Mordred's appearance was like that of a rocket stove. His aura, much like Erika, was flared as greatly as it could be, illuminating the murky green bug aura suffusing the arena with his own brilliant grass aura. His tail hung behind him like a mighty weapon, the fan shaped leaf attached to it having been molded and reshaped until it resembled a great axe. Plumes of grass aura rose off his body like smoke clouds, shining and crackling with unadulterated power, and when he stepped forward, the pressure his aura exerted on the ground made it tremble and faintly crack.
Opposite to him appeared a mighty pinsir, its towering frame dwarfing Mordred by almost a meter despite the growth in size Mordred had achieved within the past two months. The pinsir had two gigantic, menacing pincers that snapped together threateningly, and where its abdomen might have been was a horrifying mouth filled with razor teeth.
"Smash it down!" Erika ordered, sweeping her hand out to point at the pinsir.
Mordred squatted down and coiled his legs like a spring before launching up, propelling himself upward and overhead towards the pinsir like a rocket.
The pinsir immediately dodged backwards to evade the blow, far faster than Erika had anticipated that it would be able to move, so when Mordred landed and brought his tail slamming down, he hit nothing but the arena's limestone floor.
When his tail made contact with the floor the limestone crumpled in on itself and completely deformed, shattering and leaving behind a meter wide crater of splintered stone. The crowd seemed to love what had just happened because they started cheering wildly, but Erika was no longer paying them any attention.
Erika glared at the pinsir as it charged Mordred, leaning down and opening its jaws to crush him into two, and issued another command.
"Axe Tail!"
"Vice Grip!" Cesare shouted over the crowd. "Meet her head to head!"
Mordred was already mid leap, bearing down upon the pinsir with his tail, the axe-leaf now hardened to the limit with the help of steel aura until it became like an unstoppable mountain. He swung his tail down viciously, sending the axe crashing into the waiting pincers of the great beast before him.
When they made contact, there was a mighty cracking noise, and the impact sent both of them spinning out of control away from each other.
Erika saw that Mordred was fine through her second sight, but shockingly, the pinsir also seemed to be totally okay.
The only identifiable damage she could see on it were a few minor cracks on the material composing its pincers. This thing is tougher than it looks.
Erika wasn't the only one surprised though. Many in the crowd clearly hadn't expected Mordred to survive that clash, let alone come out so unharmed. Even Cesare looked a little impressed at how well Mordred had drawn with his pinsir.
Erika had Mordred circle the pinsir and go for several more attacks, sending his axe slicing towards the pinsir's lower regions which were less well armored, but Cesare always remained wary and had his pinsir retreat in time.
Its center of gravity is stable, but that's only within certain positions.
Erika did her best to recall all the analysis she did on pinsir before the match during her two months of training with her team.
Pinsir tend to have trouble attacking enemies lower to the ground with its pincers because they sprout upwards from its head almost like horns. When it lowers its head to swipe at enemies, it exposes a weakness.
"Go on the attack Mordred!" Erika commanded. "Pressure the pinsir until it exposes a flaw!"
Mordred lunged for the pinsir again, sweeping his axe-tail in on an arc to attempt to cleave the pinsir into two, but Cesare had already seen through what Erika was doing and had his pinsir deflect his tail to the right.
With a speed Erika didn't realize it possessed, the pinsir turned around and latched onto the leaf on Mordred's tail. It strained its pincers as hard as it could to crush Mordred's tail but nothing happened. Shit!
"Launch it into the arena barrier with vital throw!" Cesare called.
"Release vines!" Erika shouted back immediately.
The pinsir began rotating its body violently and spinning with Mordred still in its grasp, and then it released its grip, launching Mordred up and out - but not before he had managed to slip a few of his vines around the pinsir's leg.
Upon being violently launched away, Mordred's vines that were still attached to the pinsir's left leg went taut abruptly and tugged fiercely, arresting his flight toward the barrier and at the same time completely destabilizing the pinsir's balance by pulling its left leg out of position.
The pinsir tumbled to the floor in the same direction that it had thrown Mordred, his vines quite literally dragging the pinsir down.
"Crush its carapace while it's down!" Erika ordered instantly. "Target the leg!"
Mordred landed and bolted for the pinsir, leaping again at the last moment and executing a spin to gather force onto the tip of his tail as he descended and brutally smashed down onto the pinsir's left leg.
"Harden!" Cesare called out, now slightly alarmed.
The pinsir only had time to briefly harden before Mordred's axe-tail made direct contact and savagely clove through, sinking a few inches downward but ultimately failing to sever the pinsir's leg. Still, the damage was done.
The carapace armor protecting its left leg had been completely crushed through and exposed, and Mordred had ruined the pinsir's ability to effectively move around.
Erika briefly thought she had won until the pinsir leapt back up to its feet and swung for Mordred, blindsiding him and smashing him away like a ragdoll.
"Shit!" Erika couldn't believe what had just happened. "Don't tell me…"
"Your grass types have healing and longevity, and my bug types have survivability!" Cesare lectured from across the arena. "Do you really think grass types can run wild here?"
"Bugs are pests," Cesare said coldly. "They're vermin, creatures on the lowest rung of the food chain in nearly every ecosystem. Once injured, a bug will find it difficult to recover its fullest capacity. However, nature has blessed them with two saving graces - redundant biology and an incredible innate hardiness!"
"The leg that you crushed is already filling up with resinous goo and is hardening rapidly, restoring limited function that will allow pinsir to continue fighting. Standing on this leg results in extreme pain, but pinsir can shrug all of that off to keep fighting! So long as you don't fully cut off pinsir's leg or crush it fully, any damage you do will be meaningless!"
"I don't believe that you'll be able to take another strike and still stand!" Erika snorted. "Smash it again until its leg becomes paste!"
Mordred had recovered from his impromptu roll on the ground and shook off his dizziness, going in for another strike against the pinsir.
He whipped up a barrage of leaves from his tail, growing offshoots from the main leaf and sending them flying at the pinsir to blind it before sliding under and sending his tail careening towards its injured leg once more, but the pinsir shifted its footing and pivoted its left leg away, stopping Mordred from hitting his intended target.
Instead, Mordred's tail met the pinsir's prepared right leg, which stomped down and arrested his movement instantly. The pincers on its head began charging up with an eerie green light, and Erika paled.
"Twister!" She roared.
The pinsir swept its pincers downwards to rend Mordred's stomach open, and just before it made contact, Mordred released a chaotic blast of dragon-aura charged winds that sent him cartwheeling him away from the pinsir's terrifying attack. It clipped his shoulder briefly, sending out spurts of blood, but Mordred was able to evade the fatal strike. He got up heavily and stared at the pinsir, watching its moves.
Erika glared harshly at Cesare. X-Scissor?
She raised her hand and returned Mordred instantly, switching him out for her loyal second.
Gwen was already prepared and started running away the moment she appeared, resisting the urge to dig because Erika knew and had told her beforehand that the arena was made from limestone which she couldn't swiftly break.
This was the first time Erika had felt such a sense of crisis in her life. That won't stop me from winning though!
The pinsir charged at Gwen immediately to strike her down, but Gwen wasn't having any of it and just ran circles around the great bug. She was constantly absorbing energy from the pinsir every single second, utilizing the constant absorption to slowly wear it down and her small frame to evade its larger pincers. Her small size was actually working to her benefit here, making it impossible for the much larger bug to effectively strike at her.
Cesare seemed to have realized that Gwen would be a problem as well the moment she started puffing out stun spore and poison powder and sleep powder, so he reached for his belt to switch.
Erika's eyes widened the moment he did that, and she knew her chance had come.
"Double growth Gwen! Pump out as much stun spore as you can!"
Cesare noticed what Erika was doing but couldn't switch in time to stop it, and Gwen ballooned up in size and blasted out of her mouth a torrent of thick yellow dust that rapidly diffused through the entire contained arena.
She continued pouring more and more out of her enlarged mouth, filling up the limited space with thick yellow stun spore clouds that blinded the newly summoned sizzilipede's vision, until she managed to clog the entire arena.
Erika grinned. "Sizzlipede have poor vision, and they rely heavily on touch and smell to find their way around. What happens if you chuck it into a room full of thick stun spore dust that reeks?"
"Clever." Cesare spat out, his words containing some admiration. "You've researched sizzlipede well it seems."
The sizzlipede started moving, slithering its way towards Gwen despite being numbed by the paralyzing spores, and it spat out a tongue of flame towards Gwen's position, despite her being concealed by the fog of stun spore.
"However, you forget that sizzlipede can sense heat signatures!" Cesare shouted. "And now, you're going to be punished for that!"
"Not today!" Erika retorted, and she prepared for Gwen to use a move that she had been concealing up until now. "Nature power!"
Gwen took advantage of her newly mastered knowledge of drawing power from nature to execute this move, channeling all the ambient bug aura within the atmosphere into her body despite her discomfort. Then, impossibly, the level of heat within her body started declining until it began to match the air of the arena, causing her to totally disappear from the sizzlipede and Cesare's sight.
Cesare looked at Erika with true respect for the first time. "You matched your oddish's body temperature to its surroundings so my sizzlipede wouldn't be able to sense it, and then used nature power to camouflage your oddish against my second sight! When it's covered with bug aura, even my second sight can't see through it!"
Left unsaid was that Cesare could directly perceive aura without his eyes, much like Erika had done to distinguish the Comfey from the other false positives back in the Game Corner, but that was an ability which first-badge trainers were most definitely not expected to know. Despite his association to a political faction, Cesare took pride in his status as the bug gym leader, and he valued fairness, so Erika trusted that he wouldn't rely on his aura perception to win against her.
Now, left blind and unable to smell anything nor perceive with heat, the sizzlipede was well and truly lost. Since its master was unable to guide it, the sizzlipede was forced to wander amidst the fog as Gwen pelted it with bullet seeds and occasional splashes of acid.
Whenever Cesare spotted Gwen's figure, he would have his sizzlipede blast out a tongue of flame at her position, and despite Erika's canniness and Gwen's nimbleness, she was nearly burned alive a couple of times.
However, as the fight continued, more and more stun spores were burned up by the sizzlipede, clearing up the room and gradually returning some of its ability to sense via smell. Cesare looked quite confident, and Erika was forced to admit that Gwen wouldn't be able to wear it down just via constant absorption and bullet seeds, both of which were doubly elementally resisted.
"Pump out more spores!" Erika ordered ruthlessly. "Double growth again!"
This time, Gwen was really feeling the strain as she swelled up and pumped out more stun spore to fog up the arena again. Her skin cracked like a porcelain glass china set and dark lines started spreading through her leaves, heralding an imminent withering if Erika wasn't careful with her second pokemon. Still, Erika pushed her pokemon to flood the room again with stun spore, depriving the sizzlipede of its smell once more.
Cesare's face darkened. "Stop stalling!"
Erika's only response was to have Gwen resume her passive drain to recover some energy and wear down the sizzlipede more.
Neither of them were willing to switch out, because they only had one legal switch remaining each.
The two of the continued their stall battle, with Gwen running around and hiding in the stun spore fog and draining the sizzlipede and pelting it with bullet seeds, and the sizzlipede spitting fire whenever it thought it sensed her, continuing to burn up the stun spores in the air to clear up the arena.
It took nearly twenty more minutes before the thing which Erika desired finally happened.
The sizzlipede… was slowing down.
Cesare couldn't understand what was happening as well, because its fire/bug typing allowed it to resist Gwen's energy drain extremely well. There was no way Gwen should have been able to wear it down that much, and yet, it was obvious that his sizzlipede was slowing down and beginning to come to a halt.
Erika raised her finger arrogantly at Cesare, saying only one word. "Hypoxia!"
Cesare's eyes widened. "So that's what you did!"
Erika grinned like a madman. "All that stun spore wasn't just to blind your sizzlipede, old man!"
There was no greater sensation than the one which Erika was feeling right now - the feeling of a plan having been executed perfectly. Erika was giddy with battle fervor. Cesare normally wouldn't be led around the nose like this, but Erika tricked him by getting him to fixate on the thought that Erika was using stun spore to blind his sizzlipede's senses, preventing him from considering the real trap that was hidden beneath.
"Each time you burned the spores away, you've been steadily consuming the oxygen within the contained arena field. And after two rounds of that, you've depleted nearly all the available oxygen within the arena! Bug pokemon can survive in hypoxic environments with low oxygen, but their bodies will shut themselves down and send themselves into hibernation to ensure their survival! Although some species of bug pokemon can undergo anaerobic respiration to temporarily survive hypoxic environments, your sizzlipede isn't one of them! You lose this one Cesare!"
At her words, the sizzlipede fully came to halt, its legs no longer skittering and crumpling in place until it came to a rest. It began curling up, winding itself tightly into a ball.
Cesare sighed and returned his sizzlipede.
"Sacrifice eight hundred to kill a thousand…" Cesare raised the pokeball containing his pinsir. "Such a mutually destructive strategy will no doubt have consequences for your own pokemon too."
Pinsir was summoned onto the field, and immediately charged towards Gwen.
Gwen tried her best to dodge, but the hypoxic environment was similarly toxic to her, and she was struggling to hold on. She couldn't dodge as nimbly compared to her previous performance against the pinsir, but Gwen held on as long as she could, annoying the pinsir with bullet seeds and running circles around it until the stress from abusing double-growth and her oxygen deprivation finally set in.
Before the pinsir could snap Gwen in half, Erika recalled her.
Good job, Erika thought with determination. Rest well. We've won.
Erika tossed her pokeball upwards, uncaring of everything else, and summoned Mordred back onto the arena to continue to fight.
"Don't bother running Mordred!" Erika instructed. "Stay on it and keep up the pressure! Don't let it get any rest and beat it down!"
It seemed counterintuitive, but Mordred didn't hesitate to obey Erika.
He charged loyally towards the pinsir and brought his tail to bear, smacking into its pincers and rebounding off, landing on the ground before doing a repeat of what had just happened.
Both Erika and Cesare were aware that they were fighting on borrowed time, given the hypoxic environment they were in, so the victor would be the pokemon that could endure the oxygen deprivation the longest, or the one who could knock out the other first.
Cesare tried to order his pinsir to retreat and conserve energy, slowing down its respiration so that it could endure longer, but Erika wasn't having any of that and had Mordred hound the pinsir like an annoying bug endlessly.
Again and again, they clashed, and although Cesare tried to control the flow of the battle by having his pinsir retreat and go for a feint, Erika always saw through what was happening. She always had Mordred trade blows with the pinsir, forcing it to remain active and respiring, and before long, the fight came to an end.
The pinsir crashed to the ground, having finally succumbed to the hypoxic environment Erika had manipulated Cesare into creating.
The siren blared, and then the crowd erupted, cheering crazily at the unexpected upset that Erika had caused.
Erika's smile was radiant, yet fiendish at the same time, and her adrenaline surged like a tidal wave, drowning out her thoughts with victory. This fight was one of the most exhilarating fights which she had ever fought in her life. It was a fight that she could truly be proud of, one which she felt truly represented the full extent of her tactical genius, unlike in the RSG where she mostly rolled over people with brute force.
She turned to Cesare and raised a V for victory, doing the same for the cameras.
"You lost because you underestimated grass types!" Erika shouted, catching the attention of the cameras. "Mordred's smaller size relative to the pinsir meant that he consumed less oxygen, allowing him to endure longer! But that's not all!"
Erika stomped her way up to the camera, and summoned Mordred and Gwen out beside her. "By photosynthesizing using the ambient light in the arena and the carbon dioxide left over, all of my pokemon were able to produce their own oxygen! This is the greatness of grass!"
"I win!" Erika declared loudly. "This gym badge… is mine!"