A Cliff

As my Dex rang, I jumped out of my bed ready to face whatever challenges the elites were going to test us with.

I ate a very light breakfast even though the delicious food kept on calling me.

"Trainers should be present at the main gate in 1 hr. I repeat every trainer should be present at the main gate in 1hr."

A loud announcement rang through the camp, making me hurry to an empty battlefield for the morning training.

We completed our morning training in the nick of time and ran to the camp's entrance.

'Wow, so many trainers,' I exclaimed.

Nearly 200 trainers were present, taking up the whole camp's entrance.

I ran through the crowd searching for my friends.

I flinched as someone pinched my neck.

"Hey! Are you searching for us?" Amanda asked as I turned to glare at her.

Deciding not to encourage her behaviour, I exchanged pleasantries with Madlyn, ignoring Amanda, which made her sputter in indignation.

"Do you know what the challenge is going to be?" I asked still ignoring Amanda as she tried to interrupt me. 

"I have an idea, but nothing concrete," Madlyn said, following my charade.

"You guys!" Amanda fumed bringing a small smile to Madlyn's face.

More instructions were delivered to us, making me and my fellow 200 trainers walk for more than three hours.

Amanda and Madlyn conversed softly throughout the walk. I also saw Ken and Mike, they too looked bored at the long walk.

Generally, I jog most of my journey and after nearly a month of jogging, I found an acceptable pace and stuck to it, walking now and then to take breaks. So, this long walk was getting on my nerves, making me fidget with excess energy.

Most of the path we walked on was a narrow dirt path, just enough for a single person, making us form a line to travel. 

Due to this, I was not able to properly talk with anyone to fight my boredom. 

Just when I was about to battle the treacherous roots and bushes surrounding the dirt path to hear the conversation of the girls, we broke from the thick forest into an opening.

A gigantic cliff was present before us, nearly taking away my breath due to its size. 

It was huge, covering a radius bringer than our camp with small cave-like openings in it.

An Exeggutor appeared in front of us, as I was gawking at it, towering over every trainer. 

It bought a table full of food along with it. The aroma wafted into the group of trainers making more than one's stomach rumble.

The Exeggutor teleported giving us time to eat our lunch. 

I began piling the food on my plate, hell-bent on not repeating the same mistake as today's morning. 

'Should I release Cet and Nia?' I wondered after I finished my lunch.

Just when I touched my Pokeball to release them, the Exeggutor appeared again.

The trainers formed a crowd around it as the Pokemon waited for everyone to get ready.

"You will have to reach the other side of this cliff by climbing it. Only one Pokemon is allowed in this round, choose wisely." 

I grunted not liking how every Psychic Pokemon can speak into my mind.

"How are you to help us if we fall?" A girl asked raising her hand.

"Don't worry about that."

The Exeggutor's voice rang again in my mind, the Pokemon had a deep and serene voice.

"Here comes your protectors for his round. And you will be disqualified from this gathering if you are required to be rescued," The Exeggutor continued speaking into our minds, its eyes locked onto mine and moved on, surveying the crowd.

Thinking of how the Exeggutor would be an excellent Legilimens because of its three heads, I was late in looking above as cries rang in the crowd.

 2 Fearows and a Pidgeots landed in front of us toppling most of us to the ground as the wind followed their lead, sweeping onto us.

'Scary,' I thought looking at the shining beaks and claws of the Elite Pokemon. 

As I turned towards the Exeggutor one more Psychic tree was standing beside it.

As murmurs from the crowd settled down at the appearance of elites, I raised my hand prompting the Exeggutor to nod its head at me.

"Is climbing gear allowed?" I asked, causing murmurs again.

"You can use it If you have one. But only the safety equipment is allowed. Any devices that will replace your effort to climb are not allowed." The Exeggutor announced.

Cursing my luck, I decided to wear my backpack even though the cliff looked at least 800M.

'Welp the sun will set while I am climbing this thing,' I thought taking out a flashlight and attaching it to my bag for easier access.

We made our way to the cliff and started climbing, the cliff was long enough for 200 members to climb it without getting into each other's way.

Amanda gave me a challenging look, before unfurling her climbing gear.

She wore a safety harness and started climbing the cliff like a lizard, making me gape at her speed.

More Trainers exhibited the same speed as Amanda, dropping my already hanging jaw to the ground.

"That's why you shouldn't skip classes, Leon" she taunted me, looking at my gobsmacked expression before going back to her climb.

Madlyn clapped my shoulder and copied Amanda.

Cursing at the unfair world, I started my climb.

This was going to be my first climb, so I fumbled around a lot before finding a steady rhythm.

I looked above to see how Amanda doing, only to see her bashing some nails into the cliff attaching a stick clip and taking a rest by hanging to it.

She looked down at me and gave a peace sign, before taking a sip from her bottle.

I gritted my teeth at that.

'The Elites are supposed to support normal trainers, No normal trainers ever buy climbing equipment,' I thought feeling betrayed, unless you are thinking of going off route, which is very risky considering you will be climbing a rock in the middle of a monster-infested jungle along with whatever monsters made the cliff or rock their home.

Only the starter kits the rich buy have something as useless as climbing equipment.

'At least, the Exeggutor didn't announce that this is a race,' I thought taking deep breaths at my perceived injustice.

Three hours went by but I only covered half the distance of Amanda and a dozen other trainers.

Madlyn was one of the fastest climbers too. She was using Amanda's rest spots to cut down on the setting up time.

I on the other hand must climb slowly as I don't have a safety harness to fall back on like some of the trainers here.

If I fall, I will get eliminated, unlike people with harnesses who can restart from their last sticky clip.

I thought that my lack of harness and experience would make me the slowest, but I steadily climbed the cliff not taking any breaks.

'All the jogging I did helped, I guess,' I thought looking below me.

I left behind nearly 100 trainers, some of them were out of shape, but the healthy trainers also didn't have my stamina making them stop to rest, wasting time. And it was even more time-consuming for trainers without harnesses as they had to seek out ledges to rest.

I continued climbing the cliff, deciding to take a rest after I reached the tunnel-like structure above me with a small ledge.

Heaving, but not reducing my speed I reached the hole in the cliff and sprawled onto its ledge, releasing Cet for my protection.

After catching my breath, I observed the cavity in front of me.

The sun's light illuminated the hole's floor, making me venture into it to get a better look.

The cavity ended 4 meters into the cliff.

I was disappointed, I was hoping for a shortcut to the other side of the cliff.

Just when was about to curse at my wishful thinking, I heard something rustle above my head.

I slowly raised my head to look at the cave ceiling and was greeted by darkness, the sunlight only illuminated the cave's floor, leaving thick darkness near its ceiling.

I carefully made my way out of the hole and resumed my climb and after covering some distance I shouted at Cet.

"You were supposed to alert me to their presence Cet."

The Zubat just tilted his head at me and went back to sniffing and licking strange rocks. 

I clicked my tongue and continued climbing.

Not even five minutes passed after my rest before I halted my climb, due to a scream.

A horde of Zubats was screaming in unison as a trainer was flailing his hands at the horde in panic standing on a ledge, the same ledge I was on before.

He fell from the ledge, screaming, unable to maintain balance after getting a load of Pokemon to his face.

'Damn! That could have been me,' I thought looking at Zubats calming down before retreating into their cave.