Jess didn’t come back.

  Dendra asked about her to the Battle Hall’s employee stationed in the room to supervise us, and he said that she was escorted to wherever she chose, the stands or the exit.

  Katy soon left for her match against a trainer from Kanto.

  It was a quick match, the trainer had an Ekans, a Mankey, and a Poliwag. Katy only had to release two of her pokemon, her speedy Wimpod, Blaine, who literally smashed through his first two opponents, and then she exchanged him for her Ducklett, Asha, who dived the Poliwag until it fainted.

  Next was Dendra, who fought a ground type trainer with a Sandshrew, Geodude and Rhyhorn. Her Tyrogue won the first fight and lost the second. Ress, her Krokorok, finished the other two. She still hasn't shown her Hariyama or the pokemon that according to her most grew in strength, Hawlucha.

  Dendra and Katy won, which means that they’ll meet each other in the quarters. I smiled at the chance of seeing those two battle. Palpitoed versus Hariyama alone would make it worth.

  I turned to look at the monitor who had the tournament brackets.

  To one side of the tournament, Jess had just fought Yael in the first stage, and Katy and Dendra would fight each other in the quarters. To my side, the only trainers worth paying attention to were George and Aiden—now that he had an eager and experienced Gyarados—who would fight in the quarters. The trainers I would fight in the first stage and the quarters were on the weaker side so, in theory, I had the easiest path to the semifinal.

  Another quick match between two trainers later, one who would fight me later in the quarters, and then it was my match.

  An employee walked us the same path as yesterday but now instead of eight trainers there were just us two.

  There was a low cheer as we walked into the battlefield, and as we took our positions, I heard my name come from the audio system in the stadium.

  “What do you guys think about the older trainer, Scott?” William asked.

  “He battled well in the group stage, and had a strong Baltoy,” Camille said. “The pokemon he showed yesterday would be enough to win this fight.”

  “I’ve never met him but he doesn’t look like much to me. I wouldn’t bet on him, he probably just got lucky in the group stage,” Akashi said, an amusing tone in his voice.

  Jerk.

  “Trainers, please release your pokemon.”

  I took a pokeball and clicked on it.

  “Ugh, look at him. Trying to look cool by using the click function of the pokeball instead of throwing,” Akashi ‘commented’. “That’s not as cool as he thinks it is.”

  Motherfucker.

  Jungle appeared in the battlefield and glared at his opponent, a Zubat.

  The arbiter let the battle begin and the Zubat made a beeline to the Bulbasaur. As the bat pokemon approached a flicker of lavender shined through the Zubat’s small body, indicating the use of Astonish.

  Jungle didn’t flinch since Astonish was a move that worked on leveling a pokemon’s strength against its opponent. The pokemon approached regardless, not noticing the lack of the effect on Jungle.

  That’s when a quick Vine Whip smashed into the Zubat. The pokemon screeched in pain as he was thrown back. The pokemon tried to right itself but a seed the size of a fist hit him and this time he went down.

  I briefly thought about chiding Jungle for holding back so much with the Vine Whip, but then decided that it didn’t matter. It might even be good to future opponents to underestimate his vines’ strength.

  My opponent quickly exchanged his unconscious pokemon to another, a Mareep. Not that good of a match against Jungle, but what could he do? His belt only had three pokeballs.

  “Ready… fight.”

  “Thunder Shock”

  “Razor Leaf.”

  The faster bolt of electricity came, and was dodged by a jump to the side, leaving the electricity to splash harmlessly against the ground. As soon as his feet hit the ground he shook his bulb, which spilled a rain of sharp leaves towards the Mareep.

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  “Dodge!” screamed my opponent, and the Mareep zipped away, dodging the barrage of leaves. As expected of an electric type, a little training and they’re already that fast.

  “Advance on her Jungle,” I said, we had to limit the Mareep’s dodging area to win. “Harass with Bullet Seed.”

  Jungle cautiously moved forward. He would’ve run, but running at a pokemon this fast might give her an opening to run around him and to our side.

  Jungle crossed the halfway mark, and inch by inch we’re shrinking her field. The Mareep instinctually seemed to realise that and turned her head around to warn her trainer who still seemed oblivious to the tactic.

  “Swipe her legs.”

  A glowing vine whipped forward and slapped her legs. The panicked Mareep fell to the ground, and quickly tried to rise amidst the shouting of its trainer, but it was too late. Jungle wouldn’t miss a stationary target from this distance. A Bullet Seed to the head made the rising pokemon slump to the ground.

  Jungle ran back to our side with a smile and turned around, ready for another battle.

  “Why did you turn around?” the trainer murmured as he retrieved his fainted pokemon. I just sighed. Some people unfortunately put the blame on their pokemon.

  At the arbiter command, the trainer released his last pokemon, his starter. A… Damn it.

  Jungle’s glare wilted into a frown. The grass type sat down and waited. He knew what would happen next.

  “Sorry Jungle.”

  The pokemon huffed and waved a vine at me, asking to go faster.

  “Arbiter, I’m retiring my Bulbasaur.”

  “What?” the astonished arbiter asked.

  An expected reaction really. Jungle’s been dominating the match since the beginning, and it looks like it would be a clean sweep. Unfortunately, neither I nor Jungle would hear the end of it if he finished this match.

  “I mean, of course trainer,” he coughed. “Trainer Scott is retiring his Bulbasaur.”

  I recovered my grumping grass type—who I’d have to bribe later—and exchanged his pokeball with the one that held my starter. A click later, and a puzzled Cape was standing in the battlefield, looking around with an raised eyebrow.

  My strongest didn’t expect to be called so soon today.

  The curiosity on his face vanished when his eyes registered who’s across from him. The two natural enemies’s eyes met, and for the two of them all the stadium and the crowd vanished.

  The Heracross grinned, and his grin was mirrored by the opposing Pinsir.

  For now, at least.

  “Trainers, ready?” the Arbiter asked and we nodded. “Ready… fight!”

  The Pinsir pushed against the ground and rushed towards Cape, his body leaned forward, pincers ready to thrust into its natural enemy.

  Cape didn’t move until the last moment and as the pincers came closer, I could see my opponent’s face opening a smile, just to freeze when Cape’s arms shot up and his hands grabbed the tips of the two pincers.

  The bug type stopped in the air as if his velocity changed suddenly to zero.

  It took a moment to register but when it did, Pinsir’s face flicked to shock and then to panic as he realised the difference between the two. Too late though. Cape released the pincers and, quickly than I could see, put his hands together and double hammered the Pinsir in its back.

  The pokemon’s body flayed wildly as it shot downward, slamming into the battlefield ground and cracking it. His brown exoskeleton also cracked, the fissures running across and around his body from a ball sized dent into the bug type’s back.

  The pokemon fainted.

  -

  The same employee that escorted us to the battlefield took me back to the lounge room. This time only me as the other trainer had been escorted to the exit.

  My guide was reaching for the door when it opened, another employee pulled the door, he was leaving with the next two trainers. There was a nervous-looking girl, and the other was the ghost type trainer.

  We’ve moved aside for them, and as they’re passing I feel a gaze. George Reed was looking at me, and I decided to not look back. They passed us and the employee motioned for me with a hand. I entered and he closed the door.

  I sat down at my usual seat near Katy, and looked around at the others. Aiden was looking at the screen that showed the matches, his next opponent was going to be fighting now after all. Katy also seemed to be focusing on the screen, but she was probably just trying to ignore Dendra who was staring at her from another couch.

  I decided to ignore this scene and think about the last match, and my quarters match.

  There was a good chance that Jungle would evolve soon. Not only his bulb was very green and large, but his body was bigger than the normal range on the Pokedex. If I let him fight in the next battle, he would probably evolve. My gaze went towards the screen with the tournament brackets. My next opponent was a generalist with a Nidoran, Diglett and a Staryu. It was good to know, but I wasn’t worried.

  “Can you please stop?” Katy said, her eyes not leaving the screen where George’s Marowak was hammering another team of pokemon to the ground.

  Dendra blinked, probably not noticing what she was doing, “Sorry, I was just thinking about our match.”

  “That’s okay, but I’m a starting to get a little uncomfortable.”

  Dendra apologized and decided to glare at the floor instead.

  George Reed’s match ended quickly, and soon after the last match of the first elimination stage began, Aiden’s match.

  Unfortunately, there was not a lot to see. Aiden’s Gyarados, while as “intense” as any Gyarados, was also an obedient pokemon with more moves. As usual for a Gyarados, he was able to sweep the entire enemy team with light injuries.

  Aiden returned, and the brackets were updated.

  The four semifinal matches were set.

  The next match would be Dendra against Katy. Yael and I would get a pass to the semis by fighting against what I’d consider two lucky trainers—in fact, Yael’s young opponent was going to surrender if his trembling was any indication—and finally, Reed against Aiden.

  -

  After a half hour break, Dendra and Katy left.

  In the screen, the three hosts began to talk.

  “This next match is very well balanced,” William said, “so who do you think will win this next match, Trainer Katy or Trainer Dendra?”

  “Depends.” Akashi answered.

  “On what?” William came again, with no curiosity on his voice. He already knew the answer.

  “We know this song and dance. We’ve seen it many times in our journeys,” Camille said. “This one will come down to will.”