Chapter 37

Before they entered their respective command towers, both teams exchanged greetings and took out the pokemon they were going to use. Both teams inspected their opponents' pokemon. Leon checked their levels and telepathically informed Woody and Mark. They were once again glad to have a teammate that was both an aura user and a psychic user that could "feel" a pokemon's strength.

Hariyama (B rank low stage)

Seviper (C rank high stage)

Bayleef (C rank peak stage)

Ninjask (C rank peak stage)

Donphan (C rank peak stage)

Luxray (C rank high stage)

"Pokemon trainers! Enter your respective command towers," the principal said. "The match will start in one minute," he added then a countdown appeared.

Prinplup and Espeon will take top lane, Sylveon and Pangoro will take the bottom, Toshi will take our jungle while Jin will infiltrate their jungle, kill steal some of their points as well as harassing the enemy pokemon. The team decided to be aggressive in this match.

"Ready… Go!" the announcement rang.

Jin immediately disappeared and headed towards the enemy's jungle. Toshi took form of Espeon and dashed towards their own jungle while the rest headed straight to their respective lanes. There were some spawns near the goal, so the pokemon in lane could still farm for points while defending.

Team Checkmate saw Hariyama and Seviper on the top lane, Donphan and Luxray was at the bottom. Jin later saw Bayleef and Ninjask jungling, so Toshi was safe to farm points.

Jin was using the shadows to travel and hide with the help of his Shadow Monarch talent. When the enemy Bayleef and Ninjask were about to last hit the spawned pokemon, Jin would immediately send out a Shadow Ball to secure the last hit and get the points. When Bayleef and Ninjask noticed this, they tried to find the enemy pokemon but Jin was just too elusive.

Team Infernal Groudon decided to split them up, so at least one could farm points and this was what Team Checkmate wanted. Leon tasked Jin to tire out Bayleef by constantly harassing her, since Bayleef had better support skills than Ninjask. Taking her out would cripple the enemies' strength in team clashes.

When both teams met at the bottom, Donphan immediately used Bulldoze to charge at Sylveon but Pangoro intercepted it with a Bulldoze of his own and the impact sent both a few meters back. Luxray used Electric Terrain to gain the field advantage while Sylveon used Calm Mind to boost itself.

Pangoro and Sylveon's plan was the typical sword and shield formation. Donphan used Earthquake to try to disrupt their formation while Luxray was charging-up a powerful Thunder.

Pangoro used his own Earthquake to cancel out Donphan's attack. Sylveon used Charm to disrupt Luxray's charging. Luxray was infatuated and it's thunder got canceled. Sylveon immediately set-up Misty Terrain to prevent them from being paralyzed by any of Luxray's electric attacks.

Luxray snapped out from Charm and was pissed off. It immediately used Wild Charge at Sylveon. Pangoro defended Sylveon by standing in the path of the charge and he took the hit. He grabbed Luxray then used Seismic Toss and threw him towards the jungle. Luxray used Discharge to soften his landing but was still slightly injured. Donphan tried to help Luxray but Sylveon sent out a volley of Magical Leaf forcing Donphan to defend with Rapid Spin. The bottom lane was at a stalemate. Pangoro tanked the attacks from Donphan and Luxray while Sylveon returned fire.

The top lane was a bit worse off, since the Hariyama and Seviper combo overpowered Prinplup and Espeon. It took the combined efforts of both Prinplup and Espeon to stop the B rank low stage Hariyama while Seviper was free to farm the points on the side.

Prinplup used Rain Dance to gain the field advantage while Espeon used Reflect to help fend off Hariyama's physical attacks. Hariyama didn't care about the Reflect and used Close Combat, it shattered the Reflect and was still going at Prinplup. Prinplup couldn't dodge, so he immediately used Hydro Pump to stop it. Hariyama's Close Combat didn't show any signs of weakening, so Espeon used Helping Hand to strengthen Prinplup. This was enough to stop Hariyama's Close Combat. Seviper continued farming points on the side upon seeing his partner that didn't even break a sweat in dealing with the two.

Hariyama smirked when he saw the two pokemon desperately defending his attacks. He used Earthquake to hit both of them at the same time. Espeon used his psychic powers to levitate itself and Prinplup above ground to render earthquake useless. Prinplup was frustrated because he could not match Hariyama's power. He used Aqua Ring to prepare for a drawn out battle.