Chapter 26 : A Gritty Pokemon

Cedric said, "Meditite is Psychic and Fighting type Pokemon. I'll help you learn how to teach her Psychic moves. But you will have to join the Dojo next to the Gym to help her with the Fighting type. You should also be working on your body. It will be beneficial once you start your journey."

One of the main reasons why Cedric chose a Meditite for Emma was because of its Fighting typing. Unlike Orion, Emma never trained her body beyond the minimum exercises Cedric made everyone do.

In the wild, stamina was essential. The human cities were quite far from each other. If the Trainers couldn't make their way from one city to the other without getting exhausted, then their chances of survival would be very low.

Having a Fighting type Pokemon would be the perfect reason to make Emma go to the Dojo and focus on her body as well.

Emma was surprised once again and said, "Orion told me to work on my body as well…"

Cedric wasn't surprised. He said, "That is good advice. Focusing on the body is very important as well. I'll guide you for a week until you understand how to take care of Meditite. And, I'll also introduce you to one of the Masters in Dojo."

Emma nodded and thanked him. For the following week, Cedric guided Emma the same way he guided Orion when he had caught Rhyhorn. As for Orion, he continued visiting the Hard Stone daily for Rhyhorn to take a few bites and fight the wild Pokemons they would encounter on their route.

On the third day after finding the Hard Stone, Orion and Rhyhorn were returning when they ran into another Pokemon. It was a level 8 Machop! The Machop looked carefully at Rhyhorn and Orion. It became slightly nervous but didn't back down and took a fighting posture.

Orion looked at the Pokedex and thought, 'Hmm, a level 8 Machop that isn't trying to run away on sight… Interesting. Is it suicidal or did it figure out that it won't be able to escape? Oh well, whatever. Though fighting a low level Pokemon isn't much helpful for levelling up, I'd rather fight a thousand low level Pokemons than enter places where higher level Pokemons live!'

Though Machop had a type advantage, the level difference was too high. While the levels in the real world weren't as rigid as in games and a low level Pokemon could still kill a Pokemon that was a few dozen levels higher, that was extremely rare and only happened when the higher level Pokemon was too careless and had a severe weak spot.

Unlike the games, where Pokemons gained stats every time they level up, things didn't work in that manner in the real world. The increase in Pokemon's strength was gradual and even happened when the Pokemon hadn't levelled up. It was only after the Pokemon had gained sufficient strength, that the Pokedex would consider it as the Pokemon levelling up.

And even this was an arbitrary system that humans had come up with. A few centuries ago, there was no such thing as Pokemon level. Pokemons were just considered strong or weak relative to one another. However, after a lot of study and research, the humans came up with a system to assign levels to each Pokemon based on several factors.

An important change occurred in Pokemons at a certain stage of their growth. Humans decided to label this stage as Level 50! The other levels were assigned after a lot of research with every level signifying a sufficient change in power. It was a difficult task as every Pokemon had a different talent, trained in unique ways and with varying intensities. It took several decades of research to create a system that considered all these factors and assigned the levels extremely accurately.

Later on, when the research on Talent developed further, more categories were formed within the levels, such as the Pseudo Champion tier, Champion tier and Guardian tier. Orion was still not very clear on this theory as all the information wasn't available in public libraries. He would need to become much stronger to get access to such information.

Facing the Machop, Orion jumped down from Rhyhorn and commanded, "Bulldoze!"

Rhyhorn raised his feet and immediately slammed them on the ground, sending an energy wave towards Machop. Machop immediately sensed it and jumped at a high speed towards Rhyhorn. Machop's right fist began glowing blue as it moved rapidly through the air.

Orion noticed the Bullet Punch and immediately commanded, "Use Horn Attack."

Rhyhorn immediately thrust his horn towards the incoming Machop. Machops Bullet Punch landed squarely on Rhyhorn's cheeks. But Rhyhorn wasn't phased and immediately attacked Machop with his horn. To his surprise, Machop applied more force to its fist and jumped away from Rhyhorn, just going out of the range of his horn.

Orion was impressed. He said, "Use Smack Down. Follow it up with Bulldoze."

Rhyhorn prepared the move and fired it at Machop while it was in the air. Machop's right fist glowed again as it punched the golden orb, but the difference in power was too high. It slammed down into the ground. Moments later, the Bulldoze hit it, injuring it even further.

Orion observed the Machop and thought, 'Not bad. Its Bullet Punch seems to be at the Expert level. It would have been a tough fi…'

To Orion's surprise, the Machop got up immediately and attacked Rhyhorn while its body glowed orange. Since the distance between them was very small, it attacked Rhyhorn even before Orion could give a command.

Fortunately, Orion had trained Rhyhorn to act independently if he couldn't give a command in time. As a result, Rhyhorn stabbed his horn towards Machop. Machop landed several hits on Rhyhorn while it was covered in the orange aura until Rhyhorn's horn hit it in the abdomen and sent it flying backwards.

Orion thought, 'Bullet Punch and Revenge… Too bad Revenge isn't at the Expert level. Still, he is good. He might be worth catching.'

A smile appeared on Orion's face as Machop didn't stay down. It used its arms to push itself off the ground and stand up again. It shouted, "MACCHHHOOOP!" and ran at Rhyhorn once again. Unfortunately, it was still heavily outmatched and was knocked down once again.

Yet, the Machop still managed to get up. Orion was impressed and thought, 'Gritty as I wanted. This Machop will do.'

Orion immediately commanded Rhyhorn to attack again. He knocked Machop down thrice more but Machop managed to get up every time. Orion's eyebrows furrowed as he thought, 'Does it wish to fight till death? Or is it afraid that I might kill it if it stays down? Hmm, that might be the case. Oh well, such grit and willingness to live is very good. Letting it die will be a waste.'

Orion threw a Pokeball. The Machop was long passed the point of being seriously injured and low on energy. The Pokeball hit the Machop and engulfed it in a red light before sucking it inside the Pokeball. The Pokeball fell to the ground and moved for a bit. Orion and Rhyhorn observed carefully. After a few seconds, the Pokeball stopped moving, surprising Orion.

He thought, 'That's strange… I thought that it would resist more. Maybe not as much as Rhyhorn but I still expected it to break out 3 to 4 times. I guess it wants to follow me as it sees a better future in this path…'

Orion felt that it was indeed the case. While humans viewed wild Pokemons as Pokemons that were very aggressive towards them, in truth, they were aggressive towards everyone who wasn't of the same species. If a Pokemon wasn't part of a larger hive or colony, then it would have a really hard time surviving by itself. Several Pokemons would choose to impress Pokemon Trainers they found acceptable and try to be caught by them.

Of course, such wild Pokemons were in a very small minority. Most preferred killing the Pokemon Trainers and eating them and their Pokemons. Regardless, Orion was glad to have found one.

He picked up the Pokeball and thought, 'Now, only if its talent is also high, then it'll be optimal! Oh well, it doesn't matter. Even if its talent is low, I'll raise it just like Rhyhorn.'

Orion jumped back on Rhyhorn's back and said, "Good work buddy. Starting today, you will have a partner. Let's run back to the city!"

Rhyhorn exclaimed, "Rhyhorn Rhy"

He quickly brought Orion to the city. Orion immediately went to the Pokemon center and handed the Machop in. He also got Rhyhorn treated as he took some beating.