43 CH20 (43), Exhibition Match (2)

Mikail's father called over his Nidorino and Thorn used his Ursaring.

Both Pokemon were informed of the rules and his mother gave the starting signal.

Mikail was wondering how the two Pokemon had been trained because both species were generally close-range fighters.

'If they had focused solely on that aspect this was going to turn into a close-combat battle.

I hope father has helped Nidorino learn some long-range moves.

While watching two individuals in a slugfest is entertaining as well, I would rather see a diversity of fighting styles.'

During Mikail's idle thoughts on the fight between Ursaring and Nidorino began.

Ursaring began using Scary Face while moving towards Nidorino, who was ignoring Ursaring and using Focus Energy instead.

While Scary Face made the target a bit more sluggish for some time, Focus Energy allowed the next move to gain a penetration property that made it easier to cause greater harm, which could be seen as equal to a critical hit.

Critical hits did not really exist in reality, here they were simply attacks that caused higher than normal damage due to one reason or the other.

Anyway, back to the fight.

After using Focus Energy, Nidorino used Toxic Spikes to fill the surrounding area with poisonous spikes that Ursaring had to go through if she wanted to reach him.

Due to Focus Energy, the spikes were more dangerous than normal and the probability of getting poisoned was higher.

Ursaring showed a resolute face and continued her approach anyway, trying to dodge the spikes as much as she could but having accepted the possibility of getting poisoned.

Nidorino seeing her still approaching used a Shock Wave to attack her before she reached him but Ursaring's reaction was lightning fast, as soon as she saw the sparks she crouched down and plunged her paws into the ground.

Mikail saw how her Paws gained a metallic hue before they were plunged into the ground and was excited.

'She used what was most likely Metal Claw to ground the electricity and negate the Shock Wave.

That's awesome and it seems my father did teach him some long-range moves.

It seems like I can expect such tactics regularly at their level if she used it without any input from her trainer.'

Nidorino used the delay of Ursaring negating his Shock Wave to fire a few rounds of Poison Sting at her, which Ursaring blocked by using Protect.

She used the time Protect was active to stand up again and continued to move forward.

When the distance between the two was reduced to less than 4 meters she just blurred for a bit before appearing behind Nidorino ready to attack him.

Mikail, who saw that move thought to himself.

'That has to be Feint Attack.

I think I saw some small black sparks when Ursaring got blurry and appeared behind Nidorino.

I am not sure if it is short-range teleportation, or a high-speed movement but what I know is that it is really fast.

I am surprised that Nidorino managed to react to it.'

Surprisingly, Nidorino managed to block the surprise attack with a Protect of his own.

He used it as soon as Ursaring's silhouette started to blur, not only that but he used the small pause his protection earned him to hit the Ursaring behind him with a Double Kick, hurling her a bit away.

The move was executed rather smartly because Nidorino used enough strength to make Ursaring roll away instead of flying away.

This was important because she was stabbed by the previously released Toxic Spikes while rolling away.

While Ursaring was forced to roll by Nidorino, he did not stop there.

Nidorino immediately started to use Earth Power to attack her, but Ursaring made use of her involuntary roll to dodge the attack by slightly changing her rolling path as soon as she felt the ground underneath her vibrate.

While she was still hit by small pieces of the ground sent flying by the eruption of Earth Power, she did manage to escape most of the move.

Only after dodging the attack, she managed to stand up but one could see that she had a slight purple hue.

It seems at least the first part of Nidorino's plan had worked out and Ursaring got poisoned, which meant that she was on a timer now.

Ursaring started running towards Nidorino once more this time completely disregarding the spikes on the ground.

Nidorino wanted to deliver her a major blow, and tried to use Venoshock on her but that failed when she used Protect to block it.

Ursaring managed to use the protection granted by Protect to reach Nidorino and crouched down slightly to deliver a Low Kick.

Nidorino got hit and was unbalanced because of it, which Ursaring used to deliver a Hammer Arm.

Fortunately for Nidorino, he used Protect once he got unbalanced which allowed him to block the strong attack from Ursaring, but the confrontation between Protect and Hammer Arm caused a small explosion, which stirred up some dust.

Once the dust settled Nidorino was nowhere to be seen.

He had apparently used the occasion to use Dig and went underground.

It looked like he was planning to stay there for as long as he could because even 30 seconds later he did not surface or attack Ursaring.

Nidorino seemed to plan to delay the fight until she got done in by the poison, but noticing the situation Ursaring smartly made use of it.

She used Rest to recover from the damage she had suffered until now.

While this would not cure her poisoning, it would allow her to fight longer.

'If this had been a regular trainer battle, father could have warned Nidorino that Ursaring was making use of his plan and to directly attack her while she is resting but he can't, so Nidorino has to notice that something is off on his own.'

Mikail thought while observing the situation on the field.

20 seconds later Nidorino who noticed a lack of vibration coming from above, resurfaced and saw Ursaring sleeping.

He instantly used Toxic to worsen her poisoning and instead of continuing his attack on her, he started stacking Focus Energy.

Ursaring flinched after being doused by Toxic and instinctively used a Snore that interrupted Nidorino's 3rd Focus Energy as well as damaged him slightly.

Ursaring did start to awaken after that but Nidorino seeing her waking up used a two times Focus Energy boosted Venoshock to attack her while she was defenseless.

As soon as Ursaring got hit by the boosted Venoshock she woke up by the great pain the move as well as the erupting poison in her body caused and screamed.

Had she not recovered greatly thanks to Rest this move would have knocked her out but even then she was left in a worse state than before.

Ursaring decided to make a last gamble because she knew that she would lose if she didn't.

She used Sweet Scent, which caused Nidorino to relax and loosen up a bit, reducing its vigilance and focus.

Then she used Protect once more to protect herself in case he attacked her and closed the distance between the two.

Her use of Protect showed to be a smart choice because Nidorino instinctively used a Shock Wave after being affected by Sweet Scent.

'This shows that training counters for certain situations until they become instinct is a smart decision.

I already planned to do that before this fight but now I am even surer of my decision.'

Ursaring was now before Nidorino and acted as if she was aiming a Hammer Arm at his head.

Nidorino used Protect to block the attack, but it turned out Ursaring was just faking it and used Feint Attack instead.

She appeared behind Nidorino and used a combination of Fury Swipes and Slash to break his Protect as fast as she could and once she had succeeded she aimed a real Hammer Arm at his unguarded back while hoping that Nidorino wouldn't react fast enough.

Unfortunately for her Nidorino did manage to respond somewhat.

While he had no time to dodge and couldn't use another Protect he briefly shone a bit before he was hit by Hammer Arm.

It turned out he had used Endure to weather the attack and while he did receive quite some damage it was not enough to beat him.

Since he was hit on the back, he was not forcefully moved from his position and after enduring the Hammer Arm he turned around and delivered a Headbutt and Horn Attack combo at Ursaring, which successfully made her flinch.

Using this opportunity Nidorino used another Venoshock causing Ursaring to get knocked out.

As soon as his mother declared the winner, both his father and Thorn rushed onto the field.

His father took out an Antidote and Thorn seeing this took out some pliers.

While he used the pliers to remove the Toxic Spikes from Ursaring, Edward would spray the Antidote onto those places once they were cleared.

After they had removed all spikes and sprayed all affected areas, they fed Ursaring two Pecha berries before relaxing for a bit.

Then they used a Super Potion on both Ursaring as well as Nidorino and started talking.

"I guess with this we can consider the overall fight a draw.

Congratulations, Edward."

Came from Thorn.

"Yes, it can be considered a draw.

Thank you, Thorn."

Answered his father.

"Edward, I can see that you have made some progress since our last battle, and I am happy that you have progressed even after retiring instead of only maintaining your strength or even regressing."

Said Thorn to his father, who responded.

"You're right.

Arya and I have kept up our training.

Well more like I kept training regularly and Arya did the same sometimes."

Edward paused because Arya swatted his arm at his joke before he continued.

"That, my current job has to do with security helped as well.

No matter how rare the probability of something happening is I have to be prepared either way, so our training had to be kept up."

Thorn nodded at Edward's reply.

"Yes, you told me about your job before.

It is great that you managed to find one that allows you to keep getting stronger despite pausing your career as an active trainer."

Edward nodded his head at that.

They talked some more and the women also participated in their talk.

While the adults were talking Mikail observed Rose.

The little girl seemed quite excited by the fight they had just witnessed as she was visibly glowing.

Her eyes were glistening due to how enthusiastic she was and he even saw an illusion of little stars shining in her eyes because of it.

He decided to talk to her since he thought it would be good to talk to people his physical age.

"Rose.

Wasn't the fight suuuper exciting!"

Rose who had turned towards him, when she heard him addressing her, nodded repeatedly.

"Un, un!

Suuuper exciting!

It was awesome!

Ursa was like 'hmmm' and Nido was like 'aa an'.

Then Ursaring made 'pow' and Nido went 'poof'."

Rose started to animatedly describe the fight from her perspective while moving her hands when making fighting noises and Mikail found himself amused by her enthusiasm.

Once she paused in her description, he asked her a question.

"Was that the first time you saw a fight too?"

"Un.

I have seen them train.

BUT! This is the first fight I see."

Was her answer.

"It was my first time too.

I want to be like that when I grow up."

Mikail told her and she started to giggle.

"Hehehehehe.

We can't become Pokemon when we grow up silly."

Said Rose while giggling.

Mikail whose cheeks turned slightly red answered her.

"I meant becoming a trainer!"

Rose laughed a bit more before she answered him with an obviously fake serious look.

"Yes, I believe you."

Before giggling once more.

The parents who heard Rose laughing all had happy faces and started listening to them.

Once she stopped giggling Rose admitted something.

"I really like Vulpix.

But I think I like Teddy too.

Just like Vulpix."

While extending her arms to show how much she liked them.

"Yep!

Now I think Nidoran is great too.

I am going to get one someday."

Mikail said, showing that he was just as impressed with the fight as her, just with the Pokemon of his own father.

Since he couldn't sell out his father for her.

The adults laughed a bit when they heard the children talk and they all decided to return back home.

When Mikail asked in his words if it was okay to just leave the poisonous spikes lying around.

His father said that they had already lost their toxicity and that they would degrade with time, so it was okay to leave them alone.

After they were back home, they watched some TV together, and once it was time for him to sleep he asked where Rose and her parents were going to sleep.

His parents said that the sofa could be turned into a big bed and that their guests would sleep there.

Once he had his answer, he went upstairs and was surprised when all of them followed him.

When he asked what was going on, they said that his bed was big enough for 2 children and that Rose would sleep there until the parents decided to sleep.

Mikail, who had no choice but to agree since he could bring no logical counter-argument besides them being boy and girl, to which the parents said they were so young that it was okay.

The women had a glint in their eyes while saying this, which Mikail decided to ignore right away.

Seeing no other option he agreed and both children lay down on his bed after changing into their pajamas.

Once they were inside his bed Rose asked him a question that he had been expecting much earlier.

"Why are a Natu and Caterpie following you?"

To which Mikail answered while feeling a teeny tiny bit smug.

"They are my Pokemon!"

Rose gained a shocked look at that.

"You already have Pokemon?

But we are small."

Mikail nodded at her question.

"Yep, they are mine.

They followed me.

My parents agreed."

Rose was impressed by this.

"Woah!

That is so cool.

I wish I had Pokemon too."

He promised that he would introduce them to her tomorrow and to let her play with them, to which she happily agreed.

Both of them fell asleep shortly afterward.

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