Chapter 39

A large training field. Such a statement almost didn't do it justice, Caleb partially thought as he stood on the battle field.

With both pokemons staring at each other in attention. Magby was pretty excited to show his opponent what he got, but was also equally determined.

"Ready..." With both pokemons rearing to go. The referee finally brought down the remaining flag he had on his other hand. "Begin!"

"Bud, this is going to be our first mock battle against a trainer. Let's give it our all, but don't worry about fighting to win. Finding out how we compare and what we need from this battle is the point of this exercise." Caleb reminded Magby, who in turn chirped back.

Caleb felt that Magby wasn't wholely agreeing with him on the winning part, but mostly he got the gist of what Caleb conveyed.

Magby was now much more attentive and obedient per se to Caleb. Although, his inner fire is still hard to control, which Caleb could understand since Magby was a fire-type who were born to be pretty unruly.

Caleb didn't blame his starter, of course. After all the training that they did over the span of a few years, this was their chance to really show off their accumulated skills.

"Are you done with the prep talk, Caleb?" Nicolas, who was waiting patiently at the opposing side heard their little conversation, he put down the Pokedex he was holding, returning it on to the pocket of his blue hoodie. "If you don't mind, I want my second pokemon to watch our battle. Maybe he could learn a thing or two from this."

"Sure." Caleb nodded. He wasn't against it, besides it is normal for trainers to have their other pokemons spectate their teammate's battle.

With that, threw out another pokeball, with a flash of red light, a red and white bird was revealed which stood beside Nicolas's feet.

'A deliberd?' Caleb thought for a moment. 'Puns that have concepts of ice, and a deliberd and mime Jr. that could evolve into Mr. Rime... Both have ice-typing... Is Nicolas not a generalist? But a Type-specialist?'

The deliberd, seeing the event happening immediately realized the moment he saw his teammate on the battlefield. He took out two pompoms from Arceus knows where, before dancing and pumping his hands on the air in a rythm. Cheering for Mime Jr.

Seeing this, Caleb was stupified as he stared.

Having done all that is necessary. Nicolas didn't wasted no more time, as he swipe his hand in the air. "Let's get this snow on the road, Mime Jr. get close to Magby and use Confusion."

Mime Jr. sprinted towards Magby, not even a few seconds later he was already on the center of the field, with glowing translucent light within his eyes.

Caleb quickly reacted as he heard Nicolas's command, "Magby, use Flamethrower."

Nicolas smiled as if he was expecting that. "Step back, then block the Flamethrower with Light Screen."

Mime Jr. took a step back as he stopped from his sprint, then his eyes which were glowing white morphed to golden as a golden cube materialized around him. Boxed in, the little pokemon felt his hair and hat slightly heated up from the impact as the Flamethrower smashed on to the golden cube. The shimmering of the Light Screen intensified due to the pressure, but Mime Jr. remained unharmed.

"Fire punch!"

But Caleb had already threw another command out. He realized the moment he saw Mime Jr. that Magby's Low Kick and Rock Smash was not effective specially against their opponent's typing. So he quickly organized the moves they could use, Smog which was a poison technique was great against Mime Jr. Fire Punch wasn't that effective, but it was neutral and could pack a punch since he had already trained Magby's physical capabilities to the max in his current form.

Magby was now fastly closing in on the tiny psychic/fairy-type. With a fist slightly raised combusting with flames. Magby was now upon Mime Jr. His fist growing as he channeled the energy for Fire Punch.

The Light Screen was shattered with a bang! Mime Jr. gripped it's head as the wind pressure pushed against him fromthe sheer intensity of the blow, but he remained firmly standing on his place.

"Go for another one!"

By now Magby once again fired up another Fire Punch from his other hand, in a position that it could be ready to swing on the now wide open Mime Jr.

"Mime Jr. explode with a Confusion attack."

Caleb was already ready to throw another command on Magby when his attack would land, when Mime Jr.'s eyes suddenly glowed back a white translucent radiance, and from within him a pressure that couldn't compare to the feign Confusion at the start of the battle bore down on Magby. Then, when the Fire Punch was about to land on his body, Mime Jr. was encircled by the glowing radiance within his eyes, expanding outwards.

Directly hitting the dome of Confusion, Magby was propelled backwards as he let out a pained cry, the fire-type went flying a few feet away, his body almost landing on a protruding rock, which would have left his body bouncing painfully across the rocky terrain.

Caleb was stunned on his place.

Due to the smoke from the shattering of the Light Screen with Magby's Fire Punch, he thought that Nicolas wouldn't have known of the situation happening from within, even Caleb knew for a fact that he hadn't spotted Mime Jr. from his view. Besides, he had kept his voice low so that his opponent couldn't predict what they were up to.

"You know, Caleb. You're not bad considering you are still a student, but compared to trainers like me, you still have much to learn." All this time, Nicolas was as calm as ice, he haven't panic as Caleb had expected him to be. Although the deliberd by his side was hectically waving the pompoms on his hands since the battle proceded. "Your Magby is doing an excellent job at listening to your commands, not to mention your commands would have been effective if you had added a little detail that I think you might be missing."

"Huh? What's that?"

Still stunned, Caleb turned towards him, as Nicolas continued.

"You need to remember that in battle, he is going to be attacked constantly. You should have trained your Magby on his mobility, or else your Magby could only face attacks head on while the battle continues, wearing down your pokemon as it slowly gathered injuries."

"Dodging and evading while thinking of a counter attack after. That's the detail that I think you are missing." Nicolas's words brought Caleb frowning in deep thought.

"Now isn't the time for digesting this, Caleb." Nicolas chuckled as he saw Caleb's expression. "We're in a battle, you should really put your focus on the match, learning from this comes after."

"R-right..." Caleb sheepishly nodded.

To Caleb's delight, as he turned towards the field, he saw his Magby standing back up with the support of his hands.

Now his focus back on the field, he commanded. "Hang in there, Magby! Use Smoke Screen around Mime Jr."

Magby barked in response, then released a black fog from his mouth. Which slowly headed around their opponent, encircling it.

Nicolas didn't lose his composure seeing this, he somewhat anticipated this as soon as he saw the level of Caleb's Magby from his Pokedex. "Get rid of those smokes, my friend. Use Icy Wind."

Hearing his trainer's words, Mime Jr. took a deep intake of air, gathering it from his lungs. Then, channeling ice energy from within, he let loose a narrow, icy blue wind from his mouth, shooting around the smoke screen in different directions, dispersing the smokes through the air.

"His pokemon knew that move?" Although Icy Wind wasn't good to use against Magby. Seeing the smoke screen that Magby spewed out dispersing made Caleb thoughtful, even though the move wasn't good against Magby, if use in a situation that could provide them with cover and utility like this that made them avoid Caleb's plan, it was brilliant.

"That's Mime Jr.'s egg move." Nicolas was kind enough to explain.

"I see..." Caleb was speechless, since the beginning of the battle, they couldn't get the upper hand at all. Additionally, from Nicolas's expression he wasn't even doing his best or wasn't even trying to finish the fight as quick as possible like Caleb's plan.

Caleb was dejected, was there training not good enough? Was he even qualified to become a trainer at this point? They couldn't even put up a proper counter attack every time their opponent made their move. Caleb felt very downcast and dispirited. He trembled as he saw from the corner of his eye Magby looking back at him with a glare.

Caleb was startled, then smiled. 'That's right, I was too preoccupied by the match that I couldn't even focus much on our purpose. Even Magby is mentally much better than me, I shouldn't show him my weakness as his trainer. Nicolas is right, our tactics is correct but our way of battling is incomplete when considering a lot of things. That just signify how many things we should cover up in our training, with grandfather's training, we can slowly use the forest as a training for mobility and to further enchance the experience Magby should develop... Which means we could do that now... We have already trained his firepower since that is mostly what we trained. Hmm yes, that's right, now is the perfect time...'

Caleb clenched his fist as he made a decision.

"Magby, evolve..."