Chapter 032

"Charr!"

"Scythe!!"

Both the Pokemon glared at each other as they eyed their opponent's strengths. They were able to feel each other's determination and that just made them more excited for a battle.

"Charmander, be careful of Scyther's claws and don't let him come near you." Arthur said, glancing at the sharp claws of Scyther.

His mind moved at a rapid rate as he thought about the attack pattern that Scythers usually use.

'3 seconds.'

That was the time needed for Scyther to close the distance between him and Charmander. Arthur knew that well as he had studied a lot about Scythers, in order to catch one for him.

Scythers were heavily reliant on speed and their claws were too sharp for an opponent to get out unscathed from their reach.

To win this fight, Charmander needed to maintain a distance and take advantage of his type.

But that was also the hard part.

Still, Arthur had belief in Charmander and he had already gone through some tough fights and was fully capable of taking down Scyther.

"Scythe!"

With a sharp cry, Scyther extended his wings and started flapping them. Then he leaped at Charmander like a wild beast.

His claws shined with a white light as dense energy condensed around them. Just one hit was enough to snap Charmander in half.

"Charmander, dodge. Don't let those claws touch you." Arthur shouted.

With great precision, Charmander moved, jumping up, rolling to the side and doing everything to dodge Scyther's attacks.

Before the fight, Arthur had told him to keep an eye on the wing movement of Scyther and he was able to dodge those speedy strikes because of that.

Scyther was surprised that Charmander was able to dodge his attacks, but that just motivated him to attack more fiercely.

'Face.'

'Body.'

'Thigh.'

'Arm.'

There was not one place that Scyther didn't aim for, but Charmander always managed to keep the distance between them.

It was thanks to the experience that he had gotten while fighting with the Beedrill queen and handling other wild Pokemon in the Viridian forest.

All these battles have sharpened his battle senses a lot and as Charmander has one of the best possible aptitudes from the start, he has managed to improve by leaps and bounds.

It was not wrong to say that Charmander has completely changed in a short while.

But it was still not enough against Scyther.

Although he managed to dodge most of the strikes, Charmander still got some scratches here and there as the claws of Scyther were just too quick for him to dodge without getting hurt.

He was also bleeding a little from his arm.

'Charmander won't be able to last long like this.'

Arthur thought as he looked at the depleting stamina of Charmander.

He decided that it was time to stop dodging and gave out a command, "Use smokescreen and blind him!"

A thick, black smoke emerged from Charmander's mouth as soon as he heard the command. The smoke obscured Scyther's vision, making him stop in his tracks.

"Scythe?"

Scyther cried out with a confused voice as smoke engulfed him. He tried to find a way out of the darkness, but before he could do anything, he heard Arthur's voice.

"Now use Flame burst!"

A stream of orange fire suddenly came in contact with the smoke that had engulfed Scyther.

Boom!

A loud explosion suddenly happened after that.

With a loud painful scream, Scyther was thrown back and he directly smashed into the tree he was leaning on at the beginning. Parts of his body were charred black and he looked to be in a lot of pain.

'This is my chance.'

Arthur thought as he quickly threw out a pokeball, hoping that it would be enough to catch the Scyther.

The pokeball hit Scyther on the head and sucked him in. Then, it started shaking on the ground. Charmander and Arthur peered at the pokeball with intense gazes, wishing for Scyther to stop resisting.

But they were severely wrong.

Crack!

A crack suddenly appeared on the pokeball and with a bang, the pokeball broke and Scyther came out, his gaze even more intense than before — like he was saying that he had a lot more left in him.

'Sigh, this Scyther is way more stronger than I thought.'

Arthur frowned seeing that Scyther had managed to destroy the pokeball. It also meant that the battle wasn't over and he quickly reacted.

"Charmander, use flame burst again!" He commanded.

A stream of fire released out of Charmander's mouth and moved towards Scyther, but this time, Scyther was prepared.

He knew that fire was his biggest weakness and he wasn't going to let it harm him again.

"Scythe!!"

He let out a sharp cry and suddenly, his body glowed white as he created multiple illusions of his body. At that moment, the stream of fire hit Scyther, but instead of doing any damage, it just passed through his body.

'Double team!'

Arthur thought bitterly.

It was the move that was really hard to deal with, and was perfect to confuse Charmander. At the same time, it suited Scyther well as the whole move was very ninja-like.

It was even rumoured that Double team had come into existence when a trainer had gotten inspiration from the ancient ninjas and decided to teach his Pokemon the same type of moves that ninjas can use.

"Charmander, don't get confused from the illusions. Try to destroy them with Flame burst!"

Although Arthur told Charmander to not get confused by double team, he was already quite dumbfounded. It was the first time he was seeing this move and he felt that the illusions were just growing.

He tried to use flame burst to destroy the illusions, but two more copies of Scyther would sprang up when he would destroy one.

"Charr?!"

Soon, he was surrounded by more than 30 copies of Scyther and there was no way to tell which one was real.

Scyther also took advantage of Charmander's confusion and used slash. The claws of all the Scythers glowed as they rushed towards the helpless fire lizard.

Charmander tried to dodge, but there was no way to tell which one was real and which one was an illusion. In the end, multiple sharp cut marks appeared on his body in a short span of time and he looked to be on the verge of getting defeated.