CH53 (283), What’s The First Rule?

The third month started out pretty calmly. I went to the academy, trained my Pokemon, coached my classmates on Giratiday, and got trashed by Armani on Palkiday, though I could proudly say that I was lasting longer after each session.

Still, that was my modus operandi, and only on Palkiday of the third week after my routine trashing did it get disturbed. Well, disturbed was the wrong word, since it was a pleasant surprise.

Anyway, I was checking up on everyone after saying my goodbyes to Armani and Mr. Burns, when I saw that Osiris/Marowak had finally joined the limit-breaking club.

It had been more than a year since he had reached the (high) silver stage, and in that time Osiris had managed to raise all his parameters to A or above except for his Agility. At least that had been the case until today, seeing as how it finally rose to A as well.

'Name: Osiris

Species: Marowak

Gender: Male

Age: 9+ Years

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Type: Ground

Potential: Purple (64.83%) -> (69.69%)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Rock Head, Lighting Rod

Talents: Conduct Current

Affinities: Ground

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirks: None

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Parameters:

Stage: Silver Stage (high)

Vitality: A

Strength: S

Endurance: S

Agility: B -> A

Energy Capacity: A

Energy Density: A

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Immune: Electric

-

Resistance: Poison (Minor), Rock (Minor)

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Weaknesses: Grass (Minor), Ice (Minor)

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Standardized:

Water, Ice (in progress)

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Condition: Healthy, Happy

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Masteries:

Ground Energy Manipulation (Proficient) -> (Advanced)

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Techniques:

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Endeavor, Rage (new)

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Beginner:

Growl, Tail Whip, False Swipe, Leer, Thrash (+), Dig (new, +), Thunderbolt (new, +)

-

Proficient:

Mud-Slap, Headbutt, Retaliate, Fling, Endure, Focus Energy, Brick Break, Protect (+), Sword Dance (new, ++), Flamethrower (+)

-

Advanced:

Bonemerang, Stomping Tantrum, Double-Edge, Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Iron Defense (+), Iron Tail (+)

-

Mastered:

Bone Club (+), Bone Rush (+)

-

Combo/Custom:

Thunder Strike (Proficient), Club Rush (new, Novice)'

As it was common among those with high potential, Osiris's potential only rose by a paltry 5% in the last 2 plus years, which was actually not that bad at all, considering that his potential was already purple. Purple shades seemed to increase at snail rates, so his improvement was actually in "Turbo" mode.

Talking of improvements, despite only now joining the limit-breaking club in an official capacity, Osiris already had two parameters at S, thanks to his diligent training under Gravity.

Honestly, I long understood that some weaknesses were harder or easier to gain resistance to than others depending on the species, despite them being of the same grade.

However, seeing how Osiris's ice resistance training was still ongoing, and knowing that he would probably have already been done if he focused on the grass type instead, I did feel a bit reluctant.

Still, both Osiris and I were loath to switch the resistance focus after investing so much time, more than two years, into the ice one, so one could probably say that we were too stubborn for our own good.

His ground energy manipulation was at advanced mastery, but for it to reach the master grade Osiris had to "master" another three ground-type moves in addition to the two he already had at the master grade.

Well, even the advanced mastery made it easier for Osiris to learn new ground moves, and it improved the progress speed a bit as well. I was actually considering if I should have him focus on learning Earthquake for a bit.

Until now, I had him focus on other moves, but it might be time. To be honest I had chosen to postpone this until now because of its indiscriminate nature, at least until it has been sufficiently mastered.

Still, now that Osiris had finished learning the new combo move Club Rush, he would have to learn Earthquake next since it was a powerful move and one that was pretty useful in one-vs-many fights.

As for Club Rush, it used the two moves Osiris had mastered, Bone Club and Bone Rush as a basis. He was basically using them simultaneously, which gave Bone Rush the basic power of Bone Club, which was more than double the power of Bone Rush.

He had become proficient with his previous custom move, Thunder Strike, and had managed to use that one as a basis to learn Thunderbolt. While that might not sound impressive to some, one had to take into account that Thunderbolt was a move that Marowak were normally incapable of learning.

Osiris had his talent to thank for his success, and it, along with Thunder Strike were good trump cards to have against water-type Pokemon or any flying types that thought being in the air was enough to escape him.

Among his other moves, Double-Edge was probably the one that was unusual for my Pokemon, since I generally did not like self-harming moves, which was why we did not focus on them even if they knew one.

However, Osiris had Rock Head as his first ability, so he could use those moves without worrying about any recoil damage. I was considering applying what he learned from working on Thunder Strike and Thunder Punch, on Double-Edge for a combo move resulting in something like a Grand Wild Charge.

It wouldn't be a Volt Tackle even if it was just as powerful, simply because Volt Tackle, unlike Double-Edge or Wild Charge, relied in part on high speed which wasn't Osiris's forte. Besides the move I was aiming at used Double Edge as a basis, which was not a "fast" move anyway.

That was the same reason why Osiris would likely not end up learning Flare Blitz if he tried to incorporate a fire move into Double-Edge. The new move would be just as powerful, but not as fast as Flare Blitz.

Hmm, Flame Charge was already occupied, besides it gave a speed bonus which the new move wouldn't, so something like Grand Flame Charge would be misleading. Still, it was all in the theory phase, so I had a lot of time to think of a name.

Anyway, that was pretty much it as far as his status was concerned. As for his evolution to Skellibra, while I had found a way to guarantee his evolution until I managed to get myself a young Charmander, my current solution was pretty useless, so I was still looking for alternative solutions.

Osiris was meditating for an hour each day to see if we could go the whole Zen way in solving the problem, but so far that did not work. Nonetheless, Osiris actually took a liking to the whole mediation thing, so that was not a problem at all.

Anyway, Osiris's introduction to the limit-breaking club was pretty much the highlight of the third month. The fourth month began, and on Kyoday at the end of the first week, Bruce/Zubat lost the artificial part in his bond section on his status screen.

Roughly two months after he hatched our bond became a genuine one. Honestly, the only reason it actually took this long was that Bruce had to mature a bit before his body was ready to support a genuine bond. It had been like that with Eggy as well, and Nyx and co before him.

Honestly, if not for me shouldering part of the burden we would not be able to establish a genuine bond since they would have to reach 50-70% in their Stageless phase first. The percentage changed according to the species.

The first week ended with such happy news, but the second one was without any surprises. Still, on Grouday, after returning from Mt. Moon, I made a decision that was going to change up my schedule a bit.

I had been going to Mt. Moon for my regular training sessions, mostly so that Tyson/Machoke could fight against other fighting types since he needed a lot of them to fulfill his evolution condition. Still, while he had no doubt come a long way in this endeavor, I felt as if we had run out of easily accessible fighting types.

I did not believe that Tyson had fought all fighting types in Mt. Moon because that would be stupid. No, I thought that he had pretty much fought the ones we could find in the areas we had easy access to, and I was not planning to risk my life just to fulfill Tyson's evolution condition.

At least not when there were much easier alternatives available, and that was absolutely the case. So, after I came back home on Grouday, I decided to join the Fight Club in Saffron City.

That way Tyson would get to fight a lot of fighting-type Pokemon since the Fight Club, like the other clubs, allowed its members to only use Pokemon of its designated type, in this case, the fighting type.

The reason I did not do this from the beginning was that I thought the number of fighting types we would find on Mt. Moon would be enough to satisfy the condition.

Moreover, I did not want to bother rising through the ranks since that would take a few days, and I would have to face weak opponents in the meantime, which did not help Tyson in his undertaking. Now, I would have to do it anyway.

On Arcday, after leaving the Academy, I went to Saffron City and made my way to the Fight Club. I was not sure if there was a rule that prevented members from talking about the Fight Club or not, but I still went towards the reception.

Jokes aside, I signed up using my real identity since I saw no reason to use an alias for this one. The receptionist told me about the member ranks while completing the registration.

Everyone started as White Belts, which like always was equivalent to the Rookie Class. Those that manage 15 wins in a row or 100 wins in total were allowed to become Yellow Belts. With 20 wins in a row or 150 wins one could become an Orange Belt.

25 wins in a row or 200 wins were one of the necessary conditions to advance to Green Belt. On top of that, one had to participate in an advancement battle against a Green Belt. Each challenger was given 3 chances to win against a Green Belt, if they failed all 3, they would need to fulfill the first condition once more.

Green Belt was pretty much the rank I was aiming for, they were the equivalent to Expert-Class trainers with gold stage Pokemon. The Pokemon Tyson had to beat for his evolution had to be around his strength or above that, and (high) silver stage as well as (low) gold-stage Pokemon were the ones that fit that bill.

Anyway, the ranks after that were Blue Belt/ACE, Purple Belt/Elites, Brown Belt/Champion, Red Belt/Master, and Black Belt/Legend.

After my registration was complete I spent 3 hours participating in battles to raise my rank. Tyson obviously swept the competition since most of our opponents only had iron stage Pokemon, with the occasional bronze stage one.

However, despite his swift battle time I only managed to become a Yellow Belt. Within the 3 hours I stayed I only managed to gain 15 wins as a White Belt, along with 5 victories as a Yellow Belt. The wait between fights was the main reason I did not participate in more fights.

On Mewday I came back to the club and gathered the rest of the victories necessary to become an Orange Belt, even if I had to stay for an extra hour to do so.

On Giratiday and Palkiday I did not have the time to visit the Fight Club, but I went there on Dialday, but each fight took longer than before since the Orange Belts had silver stage Pokemon, on top of being 3-vs-3.

Also, I only used Tyson, the fights took a bit longer than they would have if I switched him out for a fresher Pokemon. Not that I had many options to choose from, Anubis/Riolu was currently the only other fighting type I had, since Ali/Kirlia had yet to evolve to Gallade.

All this meant that I only managed to participate in 7 battles. I managed to win them all, but I had to go back home afterward. During the next week, I went to the club on Arcday, Mewday, and Dialday.

By the time I returned home on DiaIday, I managed to bring up my victory total to 23, so on Arcday of the fourth week, I had the chance to fulfill the first condition to advance to a Green Belt, which would mean that I would get to participate in the advancement fights.

Unfortunately, before I got the chance to fight in an advancement fight, I lost the 24th fight after Tyson lost against the opponent's 3rd Pokemon due to being exhausted after beating the previous two Pokemon. Anubis lost as well, so my victory streak ended at that point, which meant I had to start another attempt.

I naturally did not let that loss discourage me and applied for the next one straight away after healing Tyson and Anubis. Still, by the end of the month, I had only brought my victory streak to 19, which meant I would have to leave the advancement to the next month.

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