Sting

-- Day 1 | Cragspur Wilderness --

It would take Deimos around half a month to arrive at the new location of the southeastern battlefield. Since he had been in the hospital, another battle had been fought, resulting in Cragspur pushing Viperia back to the halfway point between the Kingdoms.

The war between Cragspur and Viperia had become a vital deadlock, with neither side having the advantage. With that being said, it could be said that the next battle would be the deadliest yet, with neither side wanting to get pushed back into their territory.

Deciding to stop after traveling for the past few hours, Deimos found a spot by a creek to set up camp to rest up and meet his newest Pokemon. Deimos honestly had no idea how he felt about Ekans death.

On the one hand, he had trained Ekans for a month and a half after being given it by Cragspur's academy. On the other hand, he had barely known Ekans and only fought with them in a single battle. It was a strange feeling but one he couldn't afford to continue to think about. It would only slow him down in the long run.

After setting up camp, Deimos took out the pokeball and, after a moment of hesitation, tossed it on the ground and released Roggenrola.

The spherical rock-like Pokemon appeared in a glowing white light as it came out of the pokeball. It was around half a meter in height, slightly above average for its species. Looking over the Roggenrola with a critical eye, Deimos was happy not to find any glaring issues with the health of his newest Pokemon.

Crouching down to better look at Roggenrola, Deimos said, "Hey bud, I'm your new trainer. I have orders to report to a battlefield, so can I trust you to watch my back on it? I won't force you to fight, but having some backup would be nice."

The Roggenrola surveyed Deimos; the rock type couldn't make facial expressions, so Deimos had no idea what was going through its mind. After what felt like an eternity to Deimos, the Roggenrola bobbed its head once and said, "Rola."

Breaking into a grin, Deimos happily said, "Great, we'll rest tonight and start training and continuing to move towards the battlefield tomorrow. How about you show me the moves you know tonight so I can make a training plan for you?"

"Rola," came the classic reply from the Roggenrola. After Roggenrola agreed, Deimos pulled out a notebook and prepared to take notes.

The Roggenrola spun around until it faced a tree before it and proceeded to use its first move. A little bit of normal-type energy surrounded Roggenrola. After six seconds of charging it, it burst forward and slammed into the tree, rocking it.

"Tackle. We must improve it as it's the foundation for more moves. Next move, Roggenrola," Deimos said as he jotted down a few notes about Tackle in his notebook.

Roggenrola, after returning to its starting position, slid one foot back and then, after two seconds, slid it back forward, causing dirt to be thrown at the tree.

"Sand Attack, if we can build on that, we might be able to have you learn Sandstorm eventually. There also might be a more efficient way to use Sand Attack Roggenrola," Deimos said while taking more notes.

Looking up, he saw Roggenrola look slightly at the ground. Realizing that he may have hurt its feelings, Deimos quickly corrected himself, "Don't worry about it, Roggenrola, you'll get better eventually. Can you show me your next move?"

Cheerfully lifting its head, Roggenrola gave the nod before showcasing its next move. It was an effortless move. After three seconds, the rock body of Roggenrola seemed to darken very slightly. Confused as to what happened, Deimos quickly asked Roggenrola to showcase the move again.

And again.

And again.

Finally, on the fourth attempt, Roggenrola's body darkened enough for Deimos to see a visible difference. "Ohh, Harden, sorry, Roggenrola, I wasn't sure what was happening there. We'll speed up your attempts in the future," Deimos apologized.

"Alright, any more moves to show?" Deimos asked, unsure if Roggenrola knew any more moves. He doubted that Cragspur would give him an older Roggenrola; those were most likely reserved for Squire+ soldiers who lost their partner.

Roggenrola was motionless for twenty-seven seconds. Deimos's jaw dropped as rocks rose around the area and hovered mid-air.

"Stealth Rock??" Deimos exclaimed in surprise, not expecting Roggenrola to know it yet.

"Holy fuck!" Deimos yelled when one rock came flying at his head, and then another as Stealth Rock activated as he moved.

"Turn it off, turn it off!!" Deimos cried as he sprinted around the area, desperately trying to avoid the flying head-sized rocks. Almost twenty-seven seconds later, a couple of close calls, and a lot more swearing, the remaining floating rocks dropped to the ground motionless.

"..." Speechless, Deimos just stared at Roggenrola. Slowly, his face morphed into an excited grin as he thought about all the possibilities Stealth Rock could give Roggenrola if it ever learned to control it.

Roggenrola felt terrible for almost killing its new trainer. It had been under half an hour, and it had already seriously fucked up. Roggenrola then shuddered as the expression on its trainer's face changed from shock to an evil grin. At that moment, Roggenrola realized it should have never shown Deimos Stealth Rock.

"Roggenrola, we are going to abuse the fuck out of Stealth Rock, oh the possibilities," Deimos cackled, sending even more shivers down Roggenrola's rock body.

-- Day 4 | Cragspur Wilderness --

The past few days had been pretty uneventful for Deimos and Roggenrola. They spent most of their days traveling towards the southeastern battlefield and training. For the past three days, Deimos has been training Roggenrola in a single move, Harden.

Deimos was thinking about the move and then started wondering what would happen if a Pokemon could keep Harden activated permanently. Would its defense always be boosted? Would it eventually adapt to the Pokemon's physiology without using its energy? What if you could permanently activate two, three, or even more stacks of Harden?

Theoretically, Deimos believed, the Pokemon could eventually be turned into the equivalent of Juggernaut from Marvel. It would be a Pokemon capable of shrugging off all but the most lethal attacks. Even then, the damage that the deadly attacks caused would be far less.

That is why Deimos decided to train his Roggenrola to become a tank. He would make it virtually unbeatable on the battlefield, an immovable rock. If he teaches Roggenrola more long-ranged moves in the future, it would make it similar to a tank back from Earth, heavily armored with the firepower to back it up.

Roggenrola managed to decrease the time it took to use Harden by .2 seconds each day. The fastest speed it had used Harden was in 2.4 seconds. Deimos was pretty happy about the progress Roggenrola had made. Hopefully, by the time they got deployed to battle, they would've "mastered" the speed to charge Harden up to under half a second.

Once they dropped the speed of Harden to the lowest it could get, they would modify the move to always be active, even when out of battle. This would be significantly more challenging, and Deimos had no idea how he and Roggenrola would achieve it.

Those are issues for future Deimos, though, nothing to concern himself with now. All he could do now was stay patient while training Roggenrola and continue traveling toward the southeastern battlefield.

-- Day 7 | Cragspur Wilderness --

With narrow eyes, Deimos watched the Ekans sunbathing in the field. He had been looking for a Pokemon to test Roggenrola against, and Ekans was the first one he found. In the past three days, Roggenrola had managed to drop the time it took to use Harden to two seconds and charge up Tackle fully to five and a half seconds.

It was only yesterday that Deimos realized they would lose if Roggenrola didn't have the offensive capabilities to win a battle. While a good defense can increase the survivability of a Pokemon, it still cannot succeed without a good offense.

Deimose decided Roggenrola would first master Tackle to become familiar with channeling energy. This would set a foundation for it to learn more physical moves eventually. It would continue to train Harden; however, its primary focus would now be Tackle.

Deimos luckily caught this oversight before it mattered. Palming Roggenrola's Pokeball in his hand, he tossed it in front of him, releasing Roggenrola in a flash of light. The Ekans, sensing vibrations through the ground, was stirred from its rest and quickly got into a defensive position. Its tail began shaking, creating a rattling noise, a close imitation of a rattlesnake from Earth.

"Roggenrola, Harden!" Deimos called out his first order to his Pokemon. Adrenaline began coursing through his veins as his first actual Pokemon battle started.

Roggenrola immediately complied and Hardened its defenses before the Ekans could react. The Ekans, with its sharp senses, realized something was happening and used Leer. Roggenrola's defense dropped, but the Hardness it had gained remained.

Calmly, Deimos called out, "Once more, and then Tackle!"

The Ekans would not give Roggenrola time to get off a second move. It quickly used Poison Sting, shooting tiny poison-filled needles at Roggenrola. Right before the needles impacted Roggenrola, it was able to use Harden once more. The needles impacted the rock body, leaving tiny scratches on Roggenrola.

Ekans, seeing the minimal amount of damage created by Poison Sting, started slithering toward Roggenrola to engage it in close combat.

"Roggenrola, continue to charge Tackle until the Ekans is about to strike, then hit it!" Deimos called out, seeing an opportunity to end the battle in a single strike.

The Ekans, unaware of what was happening, continued to gain momentum as they moved toward Roggenrola. Right before it lunged forward to attempt to use Wrap, Roggenrola exploded forward in a supercharged Tackle and slammed into Ekans, causing it to fly across the clearing into a tree.

The Ekans limply hit the tree before sliding to the ground unconscious.

"Great work Roggenrola!" Deimos cheered and pumped his fist, excited for his first win.

"Rola!" Cried Roggenrola, just as enthused for its first win.

Taking a standard pokeball from his bag, Deimos tossed it towards the unconscious Ekans and caught it. While he didn't particularly need an Ekans for his future team, it would still be helpful in different ways.

Back in Cragspur, people often traded in caught Pokemon for either pokedollars or merit points. Pokedollars are the currency of the world and are used in every region. Merit points, however, are specific to the Kingdom of Cragspur. In Cragspur, if you gathered enough merit points, you could use them to get rarer Pokemon breeds, or you could use them to enter certain closed-off private areas.

Deimos intended to use Ekans to gain some merit points, and hopefully, after this next assignment, he would have enough for something good. Glancing down at his wrist, Deimos watched as the clock hand on his watch hit 5:37 p.m. and realized that the clearing they were in would be an excellent location to stop, train, and rest for the night.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: I'm sure this question will come up: Why is he traveling by himself to the front lines?

1. His team was killed, and the squad he is a part of is at the front lines, the same as his company.

2. Plot. Story. Action. Also my choice.

3. More importantly, no one else is traveling to the front line at that time.