658 CH39 (653), Planting A Tree

With the Gym Team matter settled, we moved on to having lunch since it was already past 1 p.m. While everyone was eating and making small talk, I pondered about what to do for the rest of the day. Unlike my list of delicacies and restaurants/stalls which still had a lot of items on it, my list of must-visit places here in Lilycove City was only left with 3 items, namely the Water Club, Sea Ranger HQ, and the Psychic House.

While I had no plans to let my dark gold stage Pokemon fight tomorrow in preparation for the Gym Challenge the day after, I was not qualified to do so either way since my rank was that of a humble Diver, which was equal to a Senior Class trainer, so even if I ended up visiting the Water Club, the best I would be facing would be silver-stage Pokemon. I might come across a gold stage one if I was lucky, but until I ranked up the Pokemon I would face were primarily going to be at the silver stage.

Actually, even if I upgraded my rank to that of a Sea Noble, the predominant prowess of my opponents would only shift to gold-stage Pokemon. I would have to raise my rank to that of a Sea Lord if I wanted to battle against trainers with dark gold stage Pokemon, and as my experience at the Battle Club had shown, it would take me at least 2 days to do that.

Frankly, there was no way for me to finish that before my Gym Challenge unless I holed myself inside the club and did not leave until I managed to reach the Sea Lord rank. Not that it was important since I was not planning to let my dark golden Pokemon battle tomorrow anyway, so if I decided to head to the Water Club, it would be to let the others battle since they would be taking a back seat during the Gym Challenge.

Nonetheless, Water Club aside, I was curious about the Psychic House and the services they offered simply because I was a psychic myself. Compared to that, my interest in the Sea Ranger HQ was due to the information on the wild Pokemon population in the area they were bound to have. Specifically, on any Corphish, Clamperl, Remoraid, Wailmer, Tentacool, Qwilfish, Spheal, and Feebas population around Lilycove City.

These were all species that could be used for my Pinkan research along with the abundant number of Wooper I already had. Now, I knew that Tentacool were not all that hard to come by in the sea, but asking for gathering places was still much easier than trying to gather them one by one. In the same vein, searching for those places myself was also harder than simply asking for the information.

Unlike Tentacool, the other species were not as common, which was why I wanted to ask the rangers if they knew of gathering places. While I actually knew where to find a considerable amount of Feebas, they were in Kanto, so that information was useless right now. Speaking of which the Night Market was going to be open tonight and I was planning to pay it and the Harbor Market a visit to see if I could come a few decent Clamperl. If I got lucky, someone might be offering Tentacool and/or Corphish for a good price as well.

Ultimately, my decision was made for me when I heard my lower-stage Pokemon say that watching the battles had fired them up and that they would love the chance to battle right now as well. The Water Club, the Sea Ranger HQ, the Psychic House, and the markets all took a back seat once I heard them say that. I decided to head to the Battle Club instead to give my Pokemon the chance to fight since the Water Club was limited to water types.

I would stay there until around dinner time and head for the Night Market afterward. The reaction when I shared the news with my Pokemon was quite enthusiastic, and as soon as we were done eating, I left Utopia and made my way to the Battle Club. Since I had already become a Lord Class member, I normally would only be facing my fellow Lords and Ladies.

I specifically had to register for a low-rank challenge if I wanted to challenge trainers of a lower rank than mine. Additionally, I also had to register the Pokemon I was going to use during these low-rank challenges to ensure that the trainers I would get paired with had Pokemon that were as strong or stronger than mine, so if I registered a (high) silver stage Pokemon, then I would be paired with Knights that used (high) silver stage Pokemon. They might even have a gold stage Pokemon, but they would usually not use a (low) or even (mid) silver stage Pokemon for example.

Because the number of my gold-stage Pokemon was the highest, I decided to start from the bottom instead, so I registered Squirtle and Beldum for Page battles while signing up Vendrak/Salandit, along with Houndour for Squire battles. I had to add in Houndour from the reserve team because Squire battles were 2 vs 2, and Vendrak was the only bronze-stage Pokemon in the main team. Page battles on the other hand were 1 vs 1, so Squirtle and Beldum would be fighting solo.

Anyway, it only took 5 minutes before I got called over the speakers, and I noticed that they only used my alias during the announcement, not my title/rank. I suspected that was to not discourage/unnerve my opponent, and to a certain degree protect me from scorn, I guess. Not that I thought that there was anything wrong with what I was doing. I was using Pokemon of the same stage as my opponent's Pokemon after all.

Still, considering that I was facing a Page, I decided to leave the battle to my Pokemon since I felt like taking command was a bit too much. I chose to send out Squirtle for this fight and he ended up facing a Poochyena that was also at the (high) iron stage. I let Squirtle face Poochyena and its trainer on his own, and he did a great job. Squirtle used Water Gun as well as Bubble to box Poochyena in before using Aura Sphere to take it out.

After I won the battle I waited for the next one and 4 minutes later I got called out for a battle against a Squire. I decided to lead with Vendrak and he ended up facing a Corphish. Vendrak went for an explosive start, quite literally at that using Tinder, though Corphish blocked the exploding Poison Gas using Protect. While Protect did help Corphish against the explosion, Vendrak used the cover caused by the dust/smoke to release another Poison Gas, which led to Corphish being poisoned.

Following that he started to "kite" Corphish using Dragon Rage to attack and Protect to block whenever he could not dodge Corphish's retaliation. After exhausting Corphish for a few minutes Vendrak finished the battle with a Venoshock, though he did breathe heavier at that point due to the energy he expended and the two Water Guns that hit him.

Nonetheless, I decided to keep him out to see if he could take down the second Pokemon as well. That Pokemon turned out to be a Geodude, which was not ideal for Vendrak, but still better than a Wingull for example. Vendrak did his best to keep a distance between them and used Dragon Rage to attack Geodude from afar, while Geodude used Rollout to dodge and close in as well as attack. It also used Rock Throw whenever Rollout failed or got interrupted.

Anyway, Vendrak's strategy worked and he managed to hurt/slow down Geodude enough to go in for a finisher using Iron Tail. It was great to see him win the battle on his own without having to rely on Houndour, and I could not help but smile when I felt Vendrak's happiness. His happy laughter at his victory was music to my ears, though I made sure to tell his opponent that they did a good job.

I returned to the lobby after that and it took only 3 minutes minutes before I got called up again. I ended up facing another Page, and this time around I sent out Beldum. The boy across me was quite shocked when a Beldum appeared across his Lotad. Beldum used Iron Defense a few times before flying circles around Lotad. It used Tackle whenever it felt an opening and ended up finishing the battle using Zen Headbutt.

I fought another battle against a Squire after that along with two more battles against two Pages before I went to the counter and changed the Pokemon on my registered roster. I swapped the iron and bronze groups with the silver group. I initially only registered the 9 Pokemon of the main team, before I decided to add Hypno as well, raising the number to 10.

Battles between Knights were 3 vs 3, and I had decided that I was going to do only 10 battles. I chose to let the lead Pokemon battle until it was unable to continue, so if it did a good job, it would be able to battle against 3 Pokemon. If it ended up getting knocked out early, someone else would get the chance to battle more.

When I was called up for my first battle I chose to start off with my strongest silver Pokemon. Bruce/Crobat pretty much swept through all three of his opponents without even making use of his Blood Lord talent. The first Pokemon he fought was a Hariyama and Bruce actually went and faced it in close combat using Wing Attack with his four wings. Losing like that had to sting for that Hariyama, though it seemed like it had fun while they were exchanging blows.

When Bruce had to face a Minun as his second opponent he went all ninja on it and poisoned it to death. Well, not literally, but he kept his distance and obscured Minun as well as its trainer's vision with Haze before using Toxic to poison Minun. Then, instead of taking it down with Venoshock, Bruce ground Minun down from afar in a bat-and-mouse game, slinging poison at it while dodging any electric attacks Minun sent in retaliation. Minun eventually succumbed to the poison and was declared unable to battle.

Bruce's final fight ended up being against a Sudowoodo and he actually took it down using a single maneuver, granted it was a brutal and effective one, but it was still a rather quick end compared to his previous two battles. Bruce first used Screech to irritate and distract Sudowoodo. He then used Steel Wing and did a corkscrew dive at Sudowoodo before delivering a devastating blow at its head. Sudowoodo actually tried to block Bruce with its Hammer Arm-clad arms, but Bruce brushed/pushed through its defense and hit its head, literally planting Sudowoodo head-first into the ground.

Honestly, I was worried about Sudowoodo's condition for a moment since it hit it on the head with that combination, but then I noticed that its aura was still stable which indicated that Sudowoodo was not in a critical situation, so I let out a relieved breath. The Knight ignored me and hurriedly left when I told him that it was a good fight and I honestly could not blame him since he was likely rushing to Nurse Joy.

Still, that aside, I praised Bruce on his battle, but I asked him to keep the corkscrew of doom for Pokemon above his own stage. He actually nodded bashfully and agreed before saying that he had not expected it to cause so much damage since it was the first time he used it in a battle against a Pokemon outside our family.

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