Chapter 11:

Eradicated

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The moon shone down on the alley where Destiny and I had a date; this would be the battle of minds, the legendary confrontation, the duel of fates, the battle against...a Raticate.

It felt pretty lame to be nervous about a battle against a Raticate.

In the games I wouldn’t even give it a second thought and just kill it with 3 hits or less, now it was a battle that could end my life if I lost and couldn’t run away fast enough.

“Ralts, full force Confusion!!”

Ralts waited for 2 seconds and then fired the Confusion.

The place where we held our battle was less than preferable. Buildings trapped us on both sides. There was not a lot of space to move in the alley except away and towards the enemy.

Sure it meant that a full force Confusion would guarantee a direct hit if it could travel far enough to grow in size but I wasn’t convinced that Raticate would go down this easily.

The Raticate indeed got hit but did not even flinch nor did it get the Confused status effect. Raticate ran straight through the purple ray, tanked it and then shrugged it off like it didn’t even hit and was now on a collision course with Ralts.

“Ralts Disarming Voice now!” I yelled but it was too late.

Ralts was too slow, due to the long cool down of a full force Confusion she only managed to do the move when the Raticate was already in her face.

Raticate slammed into Ralts and she was flung backwards towards me and landed face first on the stone ground with a thud.

I had to resist the urge to draw my knife and engage in battle myself. One glare from Umbreon told me that the moment I would join the fight Umbreon would join too.

“Ralts,” I said, “Shake it off, I know you can!”

I had no idea if she could get up but things like trust, encouragement and friendship seemed to push a Pokémons limit, or at least in the anime it worked that way.

Ralts let out a whimper and her small body began to move, Raticate was patiently watching it from a distance which was really considerate of it.

“RAAALLTTS!” Ralts cried out and pushed herself up, she stood straight and glared venomously at the Raticate.

“RAAAtttiicccaaatee!” Raticate let out an elongated cry and made another dash towards Ralts, this time instead of just charging forward it lowered its head while running, was it going to do a Headbutt?

Doesn’t really matter, if a normal Tackle got Ralts in such a bad state I did not want Ralts to be hit again because that might be the end of us.

Okay, don’t try to meet Ralts head on and try to avoid melee combat as much as possible. Try to outzone him and keep stacking up damage.

“Ralts, fire a slow Confusion to the left, side step to the right and use Disarming Voice.”

Ralts did as commanded and a purple ray was created and traveled towards the edge of the alley, a second later Raticate was about to slam into her but she managed to hop to the right just in time.

She almost stumbled but managed to keep her balance and opened her mouth.

Sound waves hit Raticate right in the chest and it was thrown across the width of the alley and smashed into the wall. And to make its day worse, the Confusion fired seconds ago arrived just in time to bulldoze Raticate with its effect.

A hit by Disarming Voice in the face, a low power Confusion and a full force Confusion plus the damage of hitting the wall. Was it enough?

Raticate jumped to its feet and let out a triumphant cry.

Seriously? What does it take to put that thing under?

Ralts clenched her tiny fist in frustration but she was still standing.

The Raticate opened its mouth and a high-pitched screech followed.

The sound tore through my ears and I had to cover them to prevent myself from going deaf.

Ralts did the same thing and almost dropped to the floor but after a second the sound stopped.

Screech, Raticate just used Screech!

What does that mean? Has Ralts’ defense been lowered like it did in the games?

Doesn’t matter, the next serious attack would take her out anyway.

Okay retreat time!

“Ralts, run away to Umbreon’s side of the battlefield and go with your back to the wall. Fire Confusion to cover your retreat.”

Ralts fired three Confusions parallel to each other and began to run to the other side of the alley, firing a couple of purple rays every 3 seconds to cover her retreat.

The Confusions sped towards Raticate like some kind of flappy bird game in which the overgrown rat had to jump every few seconds to dodge the rays.

It managed to jump over the first one with ease and the second one too but he landed into the third one and was thrown into the wall, though not that hard.

I hoped for it to fall under the Confusion effect but it just shook its head a few times and he was ready for battle again.

He opened his mouth and a light yellow orb of energy appeared in front of it.

Oh fuck! A Hyper Beam!

“Ralts dodge!”

The ball of energy turned into a beam and shot towards Ralts. She had already moved out of the way and the beam hit the brick wall behind her.

Ralts was safe but the wall wasn’t, bricks and small pieces of stone were thrown around by the impact and one of the smaller bricks hit Ralts in the back of her head.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She stumbled forward and let out a cry, she fell on her knees (assuming she has knees) and was breathing heavily.

“Ralts get up!” I yelled. “You can still move, don’t let a fucking rat get the better of you! You’re too awesome to die this way!”

I really need to work on my speeches, however it still worked.

“Ralts!” Ralts cursed as she got back up and sent another glare at Raticate.

“Perfect!” I complimented her, “Now show him why you are the best! Hit him with full force Confusion!”

Ralts started charging the Confusion but Raticate was on the move and charged across the alley towards her, its back glowing with white energy.

Double Edge?! He knows Double Edge too?

“Cancel the Attack and wait,” I ordered Ralts. Sweat pearled down my face.

Ralts nodded.

If the Confusion wasn’t a one hit KO for Raticate then Ralts would be the one to get knocked out, not only that but the move would also slam her into the wall and might as well do even permanent damage.

Double Edge does massive damage at the cost of receiving ¼ of the done damage but I was pretty sure that Ralts would go down first.

Or this was an opportunity to turn the tables.

“Ralts wait until Raticate is close, then jump up and use Disarming Voice aimed down.” I cried out. Raticate had already crossed half the alley.

Ralts nodded and narrowed her eyes, trying to time it perfectly. When Raticate was about to hit her Ralts jumped up and dodged it by only a hair. The rat passed underneath her.

Raticate for his part had it worse, he crashed into the wall full force and...ouch that's gotta hurt.

What did Newton’s third law say again? When a moving object hits another object with force the same magnitude of force will be sent back in the opposite direction?

Now that’s a lot of damage.

However we were about to do even more damage because Ralts opened her mouth while still flying in the air and a high-pitched scream followed.

Sound waves crashed down on Raticate. It couldn’t even dodge because she was directly above it but that was not even the best part of it, the sound waves bounced back up towards Ralts and launched her even higher.

Being fired so close to a flat surface, the Disarming Voice’s sound waves weren’t absorbed, but instead directly sent back, and with Ralts so close, it had turned into a repulsive force that launched her even higher.

Having seen this actually work, I began to consider all the new techniques we could create; we could use it to move across the battlefield faster and possibly catch airborne enemies by surprise.

I watched Ralts being launched higher by her own attack. She was twirling her arms in panic, trying to regain a sense of balance, and that moment I realized I made a small mistake.

Huh, I never explained the laws of physics to her?

Okay, that was not fair towards her. To be sent flying without a clear idea of how, that would be confusing as hell.

Ralts was launched more than 10 meters (40 feet) up into the sky up before gravity decided to pull her back and she fell down.

I glanced at the Raticate, hoping he was knocked out by the barrage of attacks.

Raticate was slowly getting back to his feet.

This thing was a fucking tank.

If Ralts would hit the ground and get knocked out then we would be out of the fight.

Ralts fell down, no longer twirling aimlessly but clear determination and...what the hell?

She was diving down, her body in a straight line and her left arm held back like she was about to...O shit, she was about to punch the Raticate while falling down.

Her fist was clenched and glowing with energy, rays of light came from her fist as she opened her mouth and yelled:

“RRAAAALLLLTTSSS!!!!!”

Her expression was locked into a combination of anger and despair as her momentum increased while she dove down.

Raticate looked up only to see a falling star crash down on him.

A second later Ralts landed with a bang and I couldn’t see a thing, dust and debris were thrown around by the impact and blocked my vision and the uncertainty that followed made my heart stop for a short second.

The scene that unfolded before me made me almost gasp; Raticate was lying in a small crater, completely knocked out by the crash/punch.

Next to the crater stood Ralts, breathing heavily and looking worn out, but she was still alive.

I ran towards her and knelt down, cursing myself for not having a potion ready.

“Ralts, are you alright?” I immediately realized how stupid the question was. Of course she was not okay.

“RaRalts, Ralts Ralts.” Ralts smiled and tried to hug my face, only to stumble forward. I caught her and took her in my arms and stood straight. “Now, that was the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen.”

Ralts smiled proudly at me and muttered something I couldn’t understand.

Umbreon moved from its spot and walked towards me, I thought it might attack me but instead it walked straight past us and towards the two Pokéballs which I had dropped when I ran towards Ralts.

Umbreon placed its front paw on the Pokéball and said: “Umbri.”

Upon hearing its voice I decided it was a female.

“You want me to crush the Pokéballs right?”

She nodded and I smiled, relieved things worked out like they did. I was apparently worthy.

I walked towards the two Pokéballs, carrying Ralts in my arm and Umbreon moved out of the way.

I placed my foot on the Pokéball and put all my weight on it.

It broke underneath my weight and electricity sparkled around the remains before even those sparks faded away.

Umbreon pointed towards the second Pokéball and I broke that one too.

When the final Pokéball was crushed I grabbed Ralts’ Pokéball which was still lying on the ground, I shrunk it down again and put it away; this time for real.

I picked up the throwing knife and tried to find a place to put it but I didn’t find a suitable one that wouldn’t risk me cutting myself when reaching for it. I really missed my pocket knife but that one was still stuck in the guy’s back and shit...it's easy to forget someone when he’s lying next to you with a knife stuck in his back.

“Ralts…” Ralts said and she was right, I really had to get back to the hospital. I considered looting the guy for useful stuff but I was really getting impatient.

Umbreon nudged her head against my leg and pointed to the exit of the alley.

“Are you sure?” I asked, suddenly feeling like I should stay and do something. “Your ex-boss is still here, shouldn’t I...I dunno get help?”

Umbreon shook her head and stepped on top of the guy, glaring at him and making it clear she had some words for him when he would wake up - assuming he would wake up.

“Okay, so if you kill him it's not considered my fault right?” I joked, feeling slightly unnerved.

Umbreon nodded and nudged me to leave again.

“Okay,” I said hastily, “Welp, goodbye was nice meeting you, sayonara and all that shit.”

With those wise words I turned around and ran back to the hospital, leaving behind an unconscious Team Rocket member with a knife in his back, a knocked out Raticate, a vengeful Umbreon and a lot of property damage which was definitely not my fault.

This world is truly amazing.

Still high on adrenaline, I managed to reach the hospital in 3 minutes and stormed into the lobby where I found Hylla sitting behind the desk and Chelsea sitting on the desk, they were playing a card game together I didn’t recognize.

They looked up in surprise when I entered the lobby.

I realized that moment I looked pretty bad. I was sweating, panting and my shirt had blood on it, some of that blood had gotten on Ralts while I was carrying her.

“So, who’d you kill this time?” Chelsea asked cheerfully, she was wearing a black dress that seemed to be a combination of a nightgown and a regular dress.

Hylla however was wearing her normal clothes despite it being dark outside, a white shirt and black jeans.

She immediately narrowed her eyes when she saw me.

“Explain now,” she said with a cold tone.

“Got attacked,” I said while trying to catch my breath, “Some kind of ninja-assassin attacked me. He was from Team Rocket. I had a battle with him and his Pokémon and now he’s knocked out.”

I pointed at Ralts. “She’s in a pretty bad state.”

An explosion came from outside and shook the entire building.

Seriously Fate? Can’t you just give one second of rest?

I sighed. “They apparently followed me.”