Chapter 74

With his other hand, Surge clicked his fingers and suddenly, a massive blue barrier popped up and surrounded the battlefield.

It was so sudden it made Hilda yelp in surprise, and she even saw Jord give a startled little jump.

"Heh, sorry, did I scare ya?" Surge taunted with a booming laugh, "Dat was just one of ma Raichu setting up a barrier cuz I tend to cause a lot of destruction in my battles, it's for yer own safety and all that jazz."

A raichu capable of using barriers? It must have been one from Alola then.

"The rules are simple shrimp, since you're the challenger, you're the only one who can substitute, and I'll have to reveal my first pokemon first, give ya' a handicap an' all that, yeah?" Surge chortled, "Come on out, Golem!"

Wait, Gole-

In a burst of light, a familiar large, reptilian rock shelled pokemon appeared in front of Surge. But unlike Jord's Golem, this one was noticeably bigger, with what looked like a giant black beard, and a massive pair of prongs on its back.

'Ah, an Alolan Golem.' Hilda's eyes widened in realisation. Surge sure had some pretty exotic pokemon.

The huge rock and electric type stood stoically and projected quite an intimidating aura.

"Not impressed," Jord scoffed, apparently not intimidated in the least, "We'll see how that failed spark plug lives up to a real GOLEM!"

Like Surge, Jord in a burst of light released his own Golem. Unlike Surge's Golem that was silent and stoic, Jord's practically vibrated on the spot as it appeared, bouncing on its feet almost like a boxer.

It was kind of ironic that the part electric type was the one that was stoic and silent.

"A ground type huh, well, least you know your type match ups, impressive considerin' I was sure you hadn't even graduated from diapers," Surge laughed, "Though, it sure is a puny lil thing ain't it? Like pokemon, like trainer, huh?"

"Big things come in small packages," Jord growled, "Not that you'd know anything about having a big package, huh juicy?"

"…I'm gonna enjoy this," Surge closed his eyes, before opening them and glaring savagely at his opponent, "Begin."

"Rock Polish!" Jord snapped out the instant Surge declared the beginning of the battle.

"Go!Go!Go!" Golem chanted so fast it sounded almost like gibberish to Hilda as the dual ground and rock types body erupted into bright white light before fading away a moment later, except for a faint little white aura that surrounded his shelled form.

"Now Rollout!" Jord followed up and Golem immediately retreated into his shell that began to rapidly rotate like a race care tire, so fast she could even hear the sheer velocity on it.

Then Golem shot forward, a blur to the eyes.

"Give em da Railgun." Surge simply uttered in response.

As Golem shot towards its Alolan counterpart, something bright and silver appeared between the two prongs on Alolan Golem's back, before the entire silver glow spread to its entire body and then began to crackle with electricity.

"Go around!" Jord quickly countered.

It was a testament to how used to going fast Golem was, that Jord's pokemon immediately did just that, swerving and changing direction in an instant and zooming right by Alolan Golem to get behind it.

In response though, Surge snorted.

An instant later, a massive boom resounded in Hilda's ears and some kind of beam shot out of Alolan Golem, then the area shook like an earthquake went off.

And the barrier around the battlefield shimmered and rippled as if something powerful slammed into it and a massive plume of smoke was kicked up inside.

'What the hell just happened!?' Hilda gaped, she hadn't been able to really follow what went on there for a split moment at all.

She had to wait to see. But when the smoke cleared a few moments later, her eyes went so wide they felt like they would pop out of their sockets and her mouth dropped agape.

…Because laying limp and unconscious against the barrier, was Jord's Golem.

It had been taken down in an instant.

Utter silence dominated the battlefield.

It was only broken through by Surge chortling, "Well, so much for showing me a real Golem, huh shrimpy?" the huge blonde behemoth Jord who just stared wide eyed at his Golem.

What…

How?

What?!

Hilda was completely at a loss. 'Railgun he called it?' she thought, stunned. An original move of some kind? A lot of trainers made them up by like combining attacks, but she'd never seen one so powerful in person!

And…and.

One hit!?

He took out one of Jord's pokemon in one hit? That literal bevy of monsters he toted around?

Her eyes drifted to the Aolan Golem, and she was interested to note, that it had lost the stoic expression and was panting deeply now, looking quite exhausted, feeble little jolts of electricity sparking out across its body.

The power behind that Railgun was immense, but it seemed to take a massive amount out of Alolan Golem to be used. And Surge had surprised Jord with that, he would be ready for a second attack like that, for sure.

Still, she could see the disbelief in Jord's eyes. He just stared at his downed Golem, before woodenly raising the pokeball and returning Golem.

"So what else ya got kid?" Surge gave another mocking laugh.

Jord was silent at his taunting and closed his eyes. Before, they suddenly snapped open and he directed the most livid glare she'd ever seen him have at the huge blonde man, casually switching the pokeball in his hand for another, "Pidgeotto, wreck their shit!" he roared.

In a burst of light, a keening ear piercing cry heralded the arrival of Pidgeotto on the battlefield, Jord's strongest pokemon, "GEOTOOOO!" the flying type spread his wings apart far and proud and glared down at Alolan Golem from the air.

And surprisingly, despite being put up against a pokemon his own had a massive advantage against, Surge's expression sobered in an instant.

Surge then uttered three words.

"Golem, go boom." the electric type gym leader ordered simply.

Hilda's eyes widened as Alolan Golem began to glow with bright light instantly and then before Jord could even utter a word himself to counter, exploded in a wave of pure force and flame that deafened her for a moment and blotted the entirety of the battlefield within the barrier out of view.

'How ruthless!' Hilda gasped.

She couldn't really hear or see anything within the battlefield for a good thirty seconds, and even then as the smoke began to part, her ears were ringing and she could feel a splitting headache coming on.

Finally, the battlefield came into view and she could see steam literally rising from the ground.

The first to come into view, was Alolan Golem, body blackened, charred and limp.

And then her eyes swung frantically on instinct to the other side of the battlefield to where Pidgeotto was.

…And she was shocked.

Because Pidgeotto, was grounded. Even from where she was, she could make out the mass amount of injuries on the large bird pokemon, and both wings of Pidgeotto lay limp at the birds side.

She'd never seen Pidgeotto in such a state before, not even close!

"Hmph," Surge's voice rang out through the massive room and she could see him with his arms crossed and still staring seriously at Pidgeotto, "As expected, no way anyone not a fool would send out a freakin' Pidgeotto of all things against me, this things a beast."

"Pidgeotto!" Jord ignored the behemoth of a man and cried out in worry, "Are you okay?"

Mechnically, Pidgetto turned his head to look at Jord, and Hilda could see how much effort it took just to do that, "G-goto!" the bird smirked through his beak at his trainer, trying to assure Jord he was fine.

Even though he wasn't.

"It ain't fine, it's done," Surge scoffed, returning Alolan Golem to its pokeball, "Better return that little bird boy, it ain't got nothing left."

"Don't tell me what to do!" Jord snapped at him, but Hilda saw his hand tremble around the pokeball in his hand.

He was actually thinking of throwing in the towel. And she couldn't blame him.

"What a foolish little brat," Surge rolled his eyes before glaring at Pidgeotto, "Maybe you should look into finding a better trainer than this little waste of-"

He was cut off.

By Pidgeotto.

"PIDGEOTTO!" What left Pidgeotto's beak, was not at all like an avian screech, but more that of a howl of defiance and rage.

And then Pidgeotto erupted into bright silvery white light and before all of their eyes, began to massively grow in size. He doubled in size, then continued growing and growing, and when he reached the apex of his new height, he had to tower above even Surge.

And when the light died down, not only had Pidgeotto increased massively in size, the pink streak on his head had flourished into a massive golden mane that stretched the length of his entire body.

"Pidgeooot!" the newly evolved Pidgeot continued to glare defiantly right at Surge, as if daring the man to insult his trainer again or even insinuate he should give up.

"Testy little birdy huh?" Surge merely chorted, before bringing out another pokeball, "Well, don' say I didn't warn ya, come out, Electivire and give it a taste of ya' Tundapunch!!"

What appeared from the pokeball in Surge's hand was a bipedal yellow behemoth that made even him seem small in comparison. The massive, muscular grinning evolved form of Electabuzz punched two gargantuan fists bigger than Hilda's head together eagerly.