Chapter Four: First Battle and Sapphire

Looking at the Raticate, Alex was contemplating his strategy. "Ralts, what moves do you have?" he asked. "Check the battle system, it gives you the summary of a bonded Pokémon's information, including their moves" the Ralts replied. For a second, Alex wondered how he knew all of this. Was he bonded with a Fuser, then abandoned? He would ask later, if there was a later. Right now he had to focus on the battle.

When he fell off the tree, it meant that the Raticate initiated a battle with him, so the [Battle System] activated. It didn't activate before when the Raticate used [Leer], because he wasn't a Fuser then. Now that he Bonded with the Ralts and became a Fuser, it activated once a Pokémon/Fuser used a move against him or made him take damage.

Anyways, he pressed the [Summary] button and saw the summary of the Ralts. It was... kinda sad. "Level 6? Did you not battle for your entire life? Most Pokémon are around level 10-15 around here" Alex said. "Stop making fun of my level and battle!" The Ralts replied, obviously agitated. Hearing this, Alex looked at the Ralts moveset. "[Growl] and [Confusion], what am I going to do with this?" Alex said. All he could do was lower the Raticate's damage and slowly chip away damage. Meanwhile, the Raticate is much stronger and could defeat him if he lands a few blows.

Alex noticed the Raticate step forward while looking at him. Facing the opponent, Alex involuntarily gulped. "Don't worry, you have two advantages, which is being a Fuser and being human. Being a Fuser means that you can use the [Battle System] and being human means you can adapt and are naturally smarter. If you plan correctly, you can win" said the Ralts. "Ok, I guess..." Alex replied. He didn't have much confidence, but Alex was determined to give it his all.

The Raticate then charged at him with it's teeth ready to bite. Alex expertly dodged to the side and avoided the attack. Realizing it's attack missed, the Raticate stopped and turned ready to charge again, but was met with a smack to it's face.

When Alex dodged the Raticate, he immediately turned and hit the Raticate's face, then swiftly backed up. "Wow, how did you do that!" exclaimed the Ralts. "I thought you were weak, but never knew you were an experienced fighter". "Well..." Alex began to say. He was a bit surprised as well.

His grandpa taught him a bit of martial arts when he was young because he was worried that he might get bullied. He picked up all the skills easily and was praised by his grandpa for being a natural martial artist. But eventually, he stopped practicing because he never got picked on and Alex became obsessed with becoming a Fuser, so Alex eventually stopped practicing. His grandpa was a national champion of martial arts back on earth, so Alex's training during that time was top notch. Combined with being a natural, some could say he was genius when it came to martial arts. Alex still had the muscle memory of practicing, so Alex's close combat fighting skill was amazing.

Sadly, there's a reason why martial arts isn't valued that much. It's because it doesn't make you that strong. Some people thought that learning martial arts gives you the strength to easily break boulders or kill in one hit, but the truth is that it only helps you take down opponents easier with techniques and knowledge, not overwhelming strength. The truth is that if you want to become stronger, being a Fuser is the only way. You level up your Bonded Pokémon to grow stronger yourself. That's why Alex quit being a martial artist when he became obsessed with becoming a Fuser; he thought it wouldn't help him that much

He now realized that he was very wrong. Learning martial arts just saved him. Sadly, it still isn't that useful.

[Used {Struggle}, dealing {3} damage. Avoided recoil, Hp {20}. Enemy HP {50}]

"Wow, I never knew that would work. Sadly, it's power isn't enough to deal a lot of damage to make up for the fact that they're stronger than me" Alex said. "Well, all you have to do is chip away their health" The Ralts added. It was the only thing they could do.

The Raticate stared at him for a second, before making a extremely quick dash. "What?!" Alex exclaimed, before he barely dodged out of the way.

[Dodged {Quick Attack}]

"Dang, it knows [Quick Attack]!" exclaimed the Ralts. He didn't realize that the Raticate knew that move. It put them in a dangerous position. Even though [Quick Attack] is a weak move, it doesn't matter if you're facing a weak opponent. Luckily, Alex was quicker than the Raticate, so the Ralts believed that they had a chance.

"As long as you pay attention, you can win!" The Ralts said. "I know" Alex replied. He was concentrating very hard. Any distraction could be the death of him. "Remember to use [Confusion] using the [Battle System]" The Ralts said. 'Oh yeah, almost forgot about that' Alex realized. He looked at the [Battle System] and noticed that beside both [Confusion] and [Growl] was a button that said [Use]. He clicked on the button next to [Confusion] and felt that an invisible wave of power was sent out from his brain. A couple seconds later, he saw the Raticate grimace from pain.

[Used {Confusion}, dealing {4} damage. Enemy HP {46}]

"This is going to take forever" Alex thought. If he continued to deal this much damage, the battle could take up to 20 minutes. "There's no other way, just continue to chip away. It's the only thing you can do" said the Ralts. Facing reality, Alex realized that slowly chippng away was his only possible strategy.

The Raticate charged at him again, gnawing it's sharp teeth in preparation of it's [Bite]. Once again, Alex dodged and hit the Raticate, before going into a repeated cycle of hitting the Raticate over and over.

[Used {Struggle}, dealing {2} damage. Avoided recoil, Hp {20}. Enemy HP {48}]

[Used {Confusion}, dealing {3} damage. Enemy HP {45}]

[Used {Struggle}, dealing {3} damage. Avoided recoil, Hp {20}. Enemy HP {42}]

...

[Used {Struggle}, dealing {3} damage. Avoided recoil, Hp {20}. Enemy HP {4}]

[Used {Confusion}, dealing {4} damage. Enemy HP {0}]

[Enemy {Raticate} has been defeated. Gained {331} Experience Points. Level 6 {331/216}]

[Level Up! Stats: 23, 11, 10, 11, 12, 12. Level 7 {115/343}]

The Raticate was on it's last breath. Alex managed to chip away at the Raticate's health slowly after a long and fierce battle with Alex chipping away the Raticate's health and constantly dodging. After a long time, he finally beat the Raticate. As soon as he did that, a bunch of pop-ups appeared showing him his [Experience Points] gained from the battle. Seeing that he leveled up, he was happy. After all, he just fought a difficult battle that could've costed him his life. But he immediately sat down after, gasping for air

"You OK?" The Ralts asked. "Yeah, just really exhausted" Alex replied. He really just wanted to rest. But, looking around, he realized that it might be a little bit more difficult than he expected. "Dang, we pretty much destroyed my campsite" Alex said. Including the fact that before everything was scattered everywhere, there was now quite a few dirty footprints over everything, multiple marks in the trees and a fallen tree that the Raticate toppled over from before. Alex didn't bother to clear up the campsite and decided to leave it for tomorrow and just set up his tent so he could sleep immediately.

The next day, after setting up his tent and going to sleep last night, Alex had to clean up his campsite. The Ralts was still sleeping inside of him, so Alex didn't bother to wake him up. He first scavenged for a few berries before cleaning up his tent. It was noon when he finally finished and the Ralts finally woke up.

"Oh, you cleaned up the campsite and got some breakfast. Nice!" The Ralts said. Alex looked at the Ralts, wondering if he should give some berries to the little freeloader, but before he could decide, the Ralts already ate his share. Sighing, Alex quickly ate his share before the Ralts could steal it. He didn't know if the Ralts would, but he wasn't taking chances.

"Oh yeah, by the way, do you have a name? Because I don't want to keep on calling you 'Ralts'" Alex asked. He was getting tired of saying "The Ralts", so he asked if he had a name. "Uh, no. I don't have a name. But yeah, 'Ralts' is getting a bit repetitive" The Ralts said. "Well, if you don't have a name, can I name you 'Sapphire'? It's a good name, because you're a Shiny, so you're rare and shiny like a gemstone. Also, you're blue, like a sapphire. So it's a good name and logical, what do you think?" Alex said. He was thinking of a name all morning and "Sapphire was his favourite.

"Sounds good, from now on my name is 'Sapphire'" said Sapphire. He was happy with the name. It sounded cool and wasn't too lame.

[Name changed to "Sapphire"]

'Oh, I guess the [Pokédex] can recognize a Pokémon's name, that's cool' Alex thought.