Chapter 91 - Battling a Friend

It was night around seven and the cafeteria of the Kanto League Intermediate level were crowded with Trainers as it was dinner time. Those who have been eliminated and those who are still ongoing with the challenge are both eating together there. The foods all are supplied and participating Trainers can take as much as they want. The gang of three were sitting down together as they eat their dinner. Reinz have ate three plates of meals and it is now his 4th plate while Ryussei have finished eating as he ate very fast. If he were to join an eating competition of who can eat the fastest he would pretty much win.

Reinz saw that Rize have just been staring at his food in front of him and have not been eating at all. "Hey what's wrong with you? Don't wanna eat? Can I have them then?"

"He probably still could not take it about his victory for today's match." Said Ryussei.

"Hey come on, a win is a win. Haha" While saying that he chopped one of the meat in Rize's plate and ate it for himself.

Rize answered in a low spirit tone. "Yeah, I guess so. But still.."

Across their tables, another gang of three were eating and have been watching and eavesdropping Rize and co's conversations. They were the three losers of Darren, Kagayakashi and Tamagoroshi.

"Look at that loser. He won his match today by luck! He should have been eliminated!" Darren talked quite loudly that the table across them could heard him. He was so envy of Rize and the others and talked bad and cursed them.

Rize may not have heard it as he was still thinking of his defeat but his friends heard what Darren said and stared at the three of them with sharp eyes. Reinz then confronted them again just by words and said to them, "Hey loser gang, you wanna fight?! Get lost!"

Darren and his gang coward back and ran off from the cafeteria even tough they have not finished their meals yet. While they ran, they bumped onto other Trainers that have just got his meals and was walking back to his place to eat. They bumped on him and the food he was holding fell off to Darren and he screamed loudly in pain and dashed off in a rush as the food was hot and he probably ran to find water to cool off and clean himself. "Hey wait for us, Darren." The other two ran following their leader. The people at the cafeteria was all watching at them as they were too loud and attracted too much attention. Some annoyed, some laughed, some confused and some just did not care and ignored.

Reinz laughed out loud at them and created a nickname for their gang. "Hahaha! What pathetic jokers, that served him right. Hey I know, from now on let's call them Trio Jokers. How does that sound?"

Rize laughed and thanks to those three jokers that he was enlightened and was back to his usual self. "Yeah that's a good one! Alright then, I've decided to move on. I'm going to be very careful from now onwards."

"That's the spirit that any Trainer who are participating on this tournament should have."

Master Chuck just entered the cafeteria and sat with them. This area was suppose to be off limit to people who are not participants of the League but it was a different case for Master Chuck because he's a Gym Leader and a Gym Leader are also a part of the League organization's staffs.

"Rize do you plan to use Hitmonchan again at the remaining upcoming rounds?"
"Huh? I don't think so as I plan to use my best from now and it's their turn now."
"That's good, I plan to leave tomorrow after your match. I can't wait to train him again and this time, it's going to be much much tougher. I can't stand that he lost while being a Pokemon trained under me. Where can I put my face if people knew about this?!"
"Ahaha now calm down.. okay then. Thanks for taking care of Hitmonchan all these times."
"Hey you the one who have long messy spiked hair, you got a Machamp right? I can see that it have much potential when it was about to strike its Cross Chop attack. Wanna lend it to me? I will train it to be hundred times stronger!"

Reinz declined the offer as he wanted to train his Pokemon by himself especially his Machamp. It is one of his favourite Pokemon. Meanwhile the opponent pairing for next round have been announced and revealed at the stadium as usual so they all went to take a look of who is going to be Rize and Ryussei's opponent at the 5th round. The result of the pairings are surprising for them as Rize and Ryussei have to go face each other. Finally they met.

"Whoa, this is going to be a must watch match! I don't know which side should I be on, I want Rize to avenge my revenge but on the other hand I don't want Ryussei to lose to because if he who have defeated me lost then that means I lost as well, right?"
"Rize, remember your promise?"
"Ofcourse! Let's do our best tomorrow!"

The long dark cold night have passed as the sun rises and its light gave warm to the face of the earth and all its inhabitants. Wild Pokemon that were wandering around at night such as Gastly and Haunters started to go to sleep and Pokemon like Pidgeys and Pidgeottos started chirping welcoming the morning and flew around gathering food for their groups. The remaining 16 Trainers are preparing for their matches and the first match of the 5th round is Rize and Ryussei's match. This time the battle will be a six on six full battle instead of three on three.

People from around the region and even the world have gathered and sat at the spectator's seats to watch the battle. Rize and Ryussei both have entered the stadium and the battle sign board have been turned on showing their respective faces and six slots of squares for each of them indicating their Pokemon. Reinz and Master Chuck sat together to watch the battle.

"Alright Trainers. On the count of three. 3,2,1! Go!"

"Aron let's go!"
"Ninetales!"

Both their first slot were filled with Aron's and Ninetales' face. Ryussei have seen Aron's battle and have been studying it via his Pokedex.

"Steel and Rock type. Ninetales is at disadvantage here but.. Ninetales use Flamethrower."
"Even tough Fire are not so effective thanks to Aron's Rock type we still have to be careful. Aron block the fire by piling up rocks using Rock Slide!"

Ninetales then breathed scorching fire from its mouth but the flames were blocked by the rocks from Aron's Rock Slide and thus it can't reach Aron.

"Pretty smart. Ninetales charge and use Confuse Ray on a close distance."

Ninetales ran and jumped passing through the pile of rocks to use Confuse Ray on Aron but when it have arrived and landed on Aron's previous spot, Aron was no where to be found but instead there is a hole.

"It used Dig underground! Careful Ninetales!"
"Bingo! Aron attack now!"

Aron came out from the ground and hit Ninetales with a super effective Dig attack but Ninetales quickly snapped out from its injury and used Disable on Aron as was ordered by Ryussei. "Now Aron can't use Dig and hide underground anymore. Flamethrower!"

"Tch. Rock Slide!"

Aron was hit by the scorching flame but Ninetales was stoned by the Rock Slide attack and both received quite a damange but Ninetales received the greater damage.

"Alright then, another Rock Slide!"
"Ninetales quick use Confuse Ray!"

Aron was about to release its Rock Slide attack again but Ninetales' crimson ray of light was faster and struck on Aron's eyes. The moment Aron was affected by it, it became restless and gone wild and crazy with no self-control at all. It went berserk and kept hurting itself and could not hear anything of Rize's words.

"Aron, snap out!"
"You're done now. Flamethrower!"

While Aron kept on bashing its own head and body to the ground hurting itself, Ninetales burn it alive with its Flamethrower attack.

"Aron is unable to battle and Ninetales is the winner."

Aron's face on the battle board was immediately eliminated by a red cross and its picture became black and white with the light turned off. Rize praised Ryussei for his first victory but warned his second Pokemon will be tougher and sent out Swellow.

"Wow! Today we gotta see more of rare Pokemon from Trainer Rize. Makes me wondering what are his other team members for today and this is a full battle! We have to wait patiently, dear Pokemon fans!"

Swellow is a Pokemon that can only be found in the Hoenn region and therefore people from Kanto like Ryussei have no idea about it except for those who have traveled or learned from books and webs. Ryussei scanned Swellow and gathered as much information it can using his white Pokedex.

"Just an ordinary Normal and Flying type Pokemon. Nothing to be worried about. Ninetales, roast it with Flamethrower!"

Ninetales blew another scorching fire from its mouth but Swellow was too swift and agile. It's even faster than it was before and avoided all of Ninetales' Flamethrower attack by gliding through the air.

"Keep firing before it can strike you."

Ninetales shot its Flamethrower more intense and much faster and even Swellow was having quite a hard time avoiding all the dangerous burning flame.

"Double Team!"

Swellow heard the command and made a hologram illusionary images of itself using Double Team and this made Ninetales and Ryussei even harder to aim their attacks as all their attacks were just hitting fake images.

"Aerial Ace!"

The real Swellow from up above the sky dive down and strike Ninetales with a high speed Aerial Ace attack and Ninetales was knocked out. However, after knocking out Ninetales, Swellow felt a little bit weird for a moment and Rize was not aware of it.

"He did not realized what happened to his Swellow. Alright then Venusaur, your turn!"


"What?! He sent out Venusaur already? Is't Venusaur suppose to be his number one? But Venusaur is weak against Flying type and moreover it is very slow. It can't match with Swellow no matter how strong it is. Does that means that he have no other Pokemon strong enough to handle Swellow's power and speed?"

Even tough Rize have the advantage over type, Rize was shaken and became curious and cautious of what Ryussei was going to do. He became delusive by his own worries. While he was still thinking and being too cautious, Ryussei have made the move earlier and Venusaur released a lot of its vines that is going to strike Swellow.

"I see, so that's his plan. He intended to deal with Swellow's speed and aerial advantage by making it immobilize by tying it up with all its vines. Swellow Double Team!"

Swellow created another set of fake hologram images of itself and therefore Venusaur's vines were just striking nothing on the air. Just illusion.

"Now Swellow use Aerial Ace!"

Swellow again using the same trick as before dived down from the sky above but this time, something is odd and it was not diving down as fast as it should be. It was just flying like normal.

"What?! What's wrong with your Aerial Ace?!"

Swellow itself did not know what happened to it but it just could not perform its Aerial Ace attack like. It felt it have no energy left to do it and it stopped in midair wondering what was going on.

"Gotcha! Vine Whip and wrap it up nicely!"
"Oh no!"

Swellow and Rize was caught off guard and Swellow was then caught by Venusaur's vines and tied up. It was binded extremely hard that it could not fly and get free. Ryussei followed it up with Giga Drain attack that drained all of Swellow's energy after a long draining of power.

"Swellow is unable to battle! Venusaur wins!"

Rize was shocked and did not expect his Swellow to be defeated and asked Ryussei what actually happened as he have a feeling that Ryussei was behind this.

"When you knocked out Ninetales, my Ninetales have been trained to whenever it received any attack, in case it was knocked out it must always use Grudge before receiving the damage. Therefore your Swellow have been cursed by our Grudge attack and lost all its energy to use Aerial Ace."

"Oh right! Grudge attack! I remember now. I used to have a Vulpix and I even use that strategy too. My bad, you got me careless but this time you're going down. Glalie go!"

"Another Pokemon from Hoenn and this time it's a Glalie an Ice type."

Ryussei again checked information about Glalie with its Pokedex. "So it's a pure Ice type just like the commentator said." However, while he was busy with his Pokedex, Rize strike and did not wait for Ryussei at all and Venusaur was shot by Glalie's super effective Ice Beam attack.

"Hey you have to focus on the battle not idolizing my Pokemon alright. Hehe."

Ryussei immediately returned back Venusaur into its ball. He does not want to take the risk to fight an Ice type and sent forth his Snorlax.

"His Snorlax's ability is Thick Skin and reduced Ice type attack to half. But so what about it? We're going to beat that big fatso down right Glalie!"
"Glay!" Glalie confidently responded and replied Rize and it is determined to defeat Snorlax.