Mike

Meditite smacked the Bird Pokemon with its fists sparkling with electricity before the dual-type bird Pokemon could close the opening it presented by swinging its leek widely.

The Farfetch'd cried out its name and stumbled back.

The Meditite fists sparkled again, but this time the Farfetch'd was ready with its leek.

But it was a futile attempt.

The Meditite sidestepped the leek with laughable ease before punching the bird, knocking it down.

Mike tossed a potion to the Meditite, before turning to me.

"Can you release your Pokemon? I want you to stop the Farfetch'd if it's going to cause me some serious harm," he said before taking a wooden sword from his duffle bag.

"What?" I asked perplexed.

"There is a reason the league doesn't provide fighting types as starters. They won't listen to you even if you defeat them with your Pokemon," he said tossing his duffle bag to the side. 

"You have to show that you understand the martial way and are better at it than them. Then only they will listen to you, otherwise, they would just keep practising their basic stances irrespective of what you order them to do," he said and nodded towards the Meditite.

"They are very headstrong, even if you are the one feeding them from their birth, they will like you, protect you. But they won't listen to you," he said doing some stretches.

"I was lucky with both of my Pokemon as I had my family's dojo to help me and my Meditite being cleverer than most fighting Pokemon helped," he said with an excited grin on his face as he walked towards the still form of Farfetch'd.

On seeing him nod, the Meditite sprayed the potion on the duck Pokemon and jumped back.

I released both Cet and Nia.

"Cet, patrol high" I said making him soar into the sky and circle the battlefield.

"Nia, battle-ready" I spoke, corralling Nia into a place with great vantage for shooting.

"Let your Pokemon use their fastest moves when my Meditite claps his hands," he said, pointing his sword at the Farfetch'd and it mimicked him.

'Cet knows Quick Attack. So, Mike will be fine,' I thought mostly reassuring myself from the madness I was witnessing.

They both stared at each other, the duck Pokemon broke their stare off and moved towards Mike.

Mike dodged around the Farfetch'ds attacks and hit the Farfetch'd whenever he saw an opening.

Which is every time the bird Pokemon swings, the Farfetch'd always overcommits to its swings which Mike took advantage of before it adapted and stopped doing that.

The battle between them looked like a chimp was swinging its sword at an expert human swordsman.

The Farfetch has better strength and reflexes but it doesn't have technique- rendering its strength useless.

It seems the Farfetch'd got frustrated at the agile human as its leek took a vibrant shine.

I turned towards Meditite to see its eyes glowing with Psychic energy with an intense expression on its face.

'Detect, Huh!' I thought applauding Mike's ingenuity.

The match didn't change much even after the duck Pokemon used Cut, only Mike's Sword chipped away revealing the metal underneath.

Time passed as the Duck slipped between overcommitting, taking a bruise for it, and defending.

The Bird Pokemon sported bruises all over its body.

'Maybe I should learn martial arts,' I thought before shaking my head.

'Nah! That isn't my path, but learning parkour and basic evading techniques will help, I guess,' I thought deciding to ask Mike to suggest some for beginners.

I was bought out of my thoughts by the clap of Meditite making me shout.

"Quick Attack."

Cet came barreling towards the Farfetch'd, as the duck glowed with flying energy, and sent it skidding, ending the aerial ace move.

Mike gave me a thumbs up before spraying the Farfetch'd with a potion.

Before Cet could violate the Pokemon with his saliva, I called him back.

The Farfetch'd stared at Mike with intense eyes, making him smirk.

He jumped back and executed a marvellous sword technique, which took about 7 seconds. 

I softly whistled at that.

The Duck tried to imitate him and failed spectacularly.

Seeing this he did the first part of the technique multiple times and looked at the Farfetch'd.

The Farfetch'd imitated him with little success. Mike corrected its form with his sword and walked up to me.

"Awesome, he is intense. Thank you again," he said.

 I waved my hand at him.

 It's not like I gave him the Farfetch'd for free. The amount I got will set me up for a quite long time.

'Huh! I am rich,' I thought my situation suddenly registering in my mind.

'Maybe I should buy a bike, like Amanda,' I thought excitedly.

Shaking the thought of how I would spend my money, I spoke to Mike.

"You are very good with a sword," I said observing the Farfecth'd practice its stances.

"I loved sword arts from a young age if I couldn't even do this much. I would have quit being a fighting type specialist," he said shaking his head.

"So, what's the plan for the Farfetch'd?" I asked.

"He has basic techniques like thrust and swing down to the pat, but I will teach him how to switch between them and to maintain a flow, along with basic footwork. From that I will help him create a sword art that utilises his advantages and negates his disadvantages," he said, guessing what I was asking about.

"Don't worry I know what I am doing, I won't let the Farfetch'd or go back on my word. He is a miracle, rarely a Farfetch'd with egg move gets spotted after all."

I nodded at that.

"Should I learn some basic martial arts?" I asked.

"They aren't useful to you as it takes time to master them enough to be able to teach anyone. You should start learning some running and evading techniques, they will always help you in a pinch," he said and took his Dex and messaged me.

'Videos and books,' I thought looking at his message.

"These are our family techniques, take them as my thanks for the Farfetch'd. You ask me any doubts you have, just don't teach or share them with someone else," he said pocketing his dex.

"Is it alright for you to share these?" I asked doubtfully.

"Don't sweat it," he said waving his hand and observing the battlefield as his Meditite also started its training.

"What does your father do?" I asked curious about his background, as everything about him indicated he was quite rich.

"My father is the chief commander of the seaport city, but my grandfather owns a dojo. He taught me everything I know," he said his tone changing from pride to a slight grimace at the mention of his grandfather.

"He runs everyone in the dojo ragged, no mercy at all," he said grimacing at the mention of his grandfather.

I practised the techniques he gave me until dinner time as Mike helped me correct my forms.

The manuals he shared have things like How to land perfectly, how to perform a roll etc. 

"I don't think running is supposed to be complicated," I shouted at my Mike doing an exercise from the technique manual.

"Running on even ground is not complicated, but you will spend most of your journey on uneven rounds with tree roots to rocks obstructing you," he said making me curse at his sound reasoning.

With Pokemon present that can throw rocks, dig into the ground and influence tree growth with zero effort, the league doesn't maintain any routes other than making sure you can navigate, by building landmarks.

The exercise made me nauseous, but I gritted my teeth and completed it.

I left Mike after that and went to my cabin.

After freshening up, I made my way to the dining area well into the night.

As I sat on a bench to eat, Celia joined me, making me message Amanda and Madlyn as I promised to introduce them.

Amanda and Madlyn joined us, making me introduce them to each other.

Amanda was her normal cheerful self and Celia and Madlyn just nodded at each other.

'Huh! This was why I noticed some incongruency in Celia's expression when I met her. I was comparing her faceless expressions to Madlyn's. From what Amanda told me Madlyn was like this from her childhood. Celia's acting doesn't stand a chance against the real deal,' I thought happy that I had some logical reasons for pulling the prank on Celia, other than just a feeling. 

"So, you are the one who defeated him, Huh! I would have challenged you if I had met you in the day," Amanda said pouting as the battlefields don't have any lights and the floodlights only illuminated the entrance of the camp. 

 Celia just nodded at that.

We parted after that, but not before I heard Amanda mutter.

"There is something off about Celia's expression."

I laughed at that and waved her off when she asked why I laughed.

I went to bed excited about tomorrow's competitions.