Chapter 9: Hungry for more

Chapter 9: Hungry for more

"Melody, show your beauty to this poor fool with a water pulse!" Said a flamboyant boy wearing a marine shirt with the lower end being white, and some purple trousers. On his head was a white hat that had the same design as a sailor, it was used to hide his cyan hair. Anyone here would have no problem saying that this man was beautiful, almost comparable to to one of his pokemon.

It was a giant snake with cream skin and a tail shaped like four razors that were also covered by blue and red scales. On his head were sharp eyes and two eyebrows cascaded until its torso formed a ball made out of condensed water He threw it to a hulking behemoth of metal that put one of his colossal hands to block the attack.

"Oy! This is barely enough to dent Duraludon!" A boy with dark skin said in boredorm. He was wearing the same outfit as all the Galar candidates, a white shirt with the only originality being the number 241 on his back. His smile had two fangs to its side. Finally, his spiked black hair was held by orange headwear, but his spiked hair still flowed in the air.

"My apologies, it's just your ugly outfit distracted me!" The opposing boy tries to provoke him, but he offers no reaction.

"Yeah, I know, they forced me to ditch my hoodie for this rag, I swear I don't lack this much style usually." He petted his pokemon on the side as he fixed his eyes on the sailor boy. "But I'm sure it could never be as ugly as your outfit filled with dust and the tears of your near defeat! Duraludon! Use metal claw!"

"Disgraceful, Melody teach him his place!"

The Duraludon moved toward Melody with slow, but powerful steps, while she was slithering on the ground before raising to face the Duraludon.

Neither of them waited for before unlashing their attack as the Duraludon attacked with his metallic arm and tried to scratch the face of the snake. But it simply raised its tail to block the assault."Now, use water pulse once again on its repulsive face!"

The pokemon didn't hesitate and threw his attack on short-range directly at the face of the metal colossus, but it didn't care even bother dodging and threw his other claw at her torso. Both attacks hit, but none were affected, as the ball caused damage to the face of the Duraludon, and the claw slipped off the scale of Melody.

"It seems your war beast has at least the quality of being resistant! Then let's use this instead, Melody, show the might of those beneath you with your dragon breath!"

The snake opened her mouth and a blue fire hit the Duraludon right in the face. The beam immediately started to transform into mist as the duraludon started to back down from the assault.

"Oy oy! You take yourself for what you dingus? You think ya can just do that unpunished? Duraludon! Use your big old fist on his pretty face!"

The Duraludon immediately took back his footing before punching the pokemon right in the face, making her beam deviate from Duraludon face, but it also revealed that the only effect that its attack had was to heat up the metal coating of the Duraludon.

"Let go out of your steam with a good old metal claw!"

All the heat on his body diverged onto his claw as he swiped them on the face of Melody and dragged her down to the ground and all the heat in his body immediately expulsed in the form of a heat wave on the face of the beautiful pokemon.

"And down! You may praise me when you cry now!"

The flashy man started to frown before raising his hand. "He thinks this is enough to bring you down Melody, prove him wrong with your supreme grace! Use dragon breath!"

To the surprise of the Duraludon, Melody wasn't unconscious and immediately spit another dragon breath right on his arm, which forced him to remove his it before he took more damage.

The pokemon immediately used this opportunity to slide back to its trainer while looking warily at the Duraludon.

"Tch, let me guess, a water type? And with its ability to use dragon breath, this girl must also be a dragon type. Weird that I never heard of ya." The Galarian said in a calmer deeper tone than before.

"Of course, you never heard of it, your uncultured brain must never have heard of the pearl of beauty that is Miliotic! An extremely rare pokemon that one only has the grace to see once in a millenary." He said in a tone that betrayed his pride.

"Let me guess, gift from yo popa?" Raihan said in mockery, but he didn't expect Wallace to immediatly look at him with disgust.

"The only thing my father gave me was spite." The boy said in a icy tone.

The galarian stopped his relaxed posture to look at him in shock. "My bad man, didn't expect that response."

"If you have something to apologize for, then at least do it for existing in the same direction I look toward."

"Oi, mate, what's yer problem? You jealous of me handsome mug or what? 'Cause you been takin' digs at me looks since the start, an' I don't reckon I done anythin' t'deserve that!"

"The pokemon reflects the soul of its possessor, that's why I said you're ugly."

The boy furrowed his brown for the first time since the start of the conversation. "Listen, mate, ya can slag me off all ya like, but don't you go insultin' me partner like that."

"Partner? Don't you mean weapon?"

"Durrr..."

Duraludon groaned at the comment but calmed as it was patted by its trainer.

"Ya know, I reckon we got off on the wrong foot. Name's Raihan, what's yours?"

"It's Wallace you simpleton."

"Now, Wallace, I know exactly what you're gettin' at, but this one 'ere? He's done nothin' wrong, alright? Just a good lad, not lookin' to wipe out a whole city, just eat rice cracker."

"Rice cracker?"

"Yeah, he's proper mad about this little snack."

"He does have good taste then...my apologies, I think I misjudged you and him, maybe you aren't as ugly as I thought...no you still are, but not for the same reason."

"Glad that this was ma...

*Crash*

Both Raihan and Wallace turned to look at the spot where a huge cloud of smoke formed.

They all perceived a strong presence inside of it and both of their pokemon put themselves in front of their master to protect them from the impact.

Soon, a giant red wing revealed itself inside the smoke wall, then a giant blue tail left the cover of dirtiness as a long neck started to emerge from the cloud. Two percing black eyte under the protection of two red horn fixed the two boy with fury. 

"RAAAAAA!!!" With a deep swing of his wing, the creature created a gigantic gust of wind that removed the dust covering him, Wallace almost flew in the air if Raihan hadn't grabbed his hand at the last moment. He himself was grabbing his Duraludon arm as if he was grabbing his dear life.

"Well, coal be cursed! That's a bloody Drattak!" He screamed to find a way to find the courage, but it was hard while this dragon was towering over him with his 5-meter tall.

"Wait, it looks hurt," Wallace responded in screaming, this made Raihan focus on the rest of its cyan body and he indeed noticed that his majestic body was reduced to disgrace with burn marks and craters that filled its body. "This Drattak was probably attacked and defeated by another wild pokemon! I have no idea what type of absolute monster could have made this behemoth flee in fear, but she must have fled from it!'"

"And it just appears we are irriting her!" Raihan said in slight fear as the Drattak looked at them with disgust, but also worry.

"We better flee and let the supervisor take care of this pokemon, we obviously cannot defeat it!" Wallace proposed as he was already ready to run away, but this sent a signal to Raihan's brain as he started to regain his grin.

"Wot're ya on about? Running away? Might as well ask me to give up my dream! I, the great Raihan, don't turn tail from any challenge, not even if it's a bloomin' Pokémon once thought to be a legendary!" Raihan said with confidence, and his pokemon responded the same as it put him in a position ready for battle.

"You bloody fool!" Wallace screamed as he looked at Raihan in confusion.

"Duraludon! Use breaking swipe!" Duraludon obeyed as his tail started to glow in a green hue and jumped right to the face of the Drattak, but it was able to see it and easily counterattaked with a powerful tail strike from its own.

Both tails confronted each other, but it barely lasted a second as the Drattak was easily able to overpower the pokemon and slammed it to the ground.

It didn't wait for it to stand up and took the air with its powerful wing, only to come down in speed and slam the Duraludon even deeper into the ground, creating cracks all over its body.

"Raaaah!" But the Drattak didn't seem unaffected by its own attack, as her old wound started to make her scream out of pain.

"Duraludon!" Raihan ran toward the crater to inspect his pokemon, but the Drattak already subdued the pain, and prepared a deep breath, before launching the beam toward him.

Raihan barely had the time to cover his eyes before the beam of red steam hit him."Protect him Melody!" The Meliotic suddenly enrolled herself on Raihan and took the whole blow.

The impact was enough to send both of them flying in the air, yet, the Meliotic didn't seem affected by the attack itself.

"This is a bloody fairy type!"

"Yes, such a majestic creature can only be from these beautiful fairies!" Wallace said with assurance, even if his face showed indignation.

"Thanks for the aid!"

"Take it as my apologies for being rude!"

"Dully taken! Now let me show my thanks! Use Metal Claw!"

The Drattak was already preparing another beam as suddenly the Duraludon left his crater right under the dragon's belly and delivered a powerful strike on one of it wound.

"Grah!" The Drattak didn't expect the attack, so the pain was enough to close its mouth and the beam exposed right inside it. Making it fall over.

"Yush! We have a chance!"

"Indeed!" Wallace celebrated as he was ready to make another order to it Melody.

"Leon's probably at the top already. If I'm gonna keep me spot as his rival, I've gotta pull off somethin' even grander. Takin' down this Drattak'll do the trick!"Raihan thought as he looked at the pokemon with a challenging air.

But right before they could continue, someone screamed behind them. "What are you doing!?"

Someone screamed right behind them and looked at it in surprise toward the army of pokemon that were right behind them.

A little girl wearing yellow clothes approached her with a furious look, but even with that expression she still looked cute.

"Did we do something wrong?" Wallace asked cautiously as Yellow approached them.

But instead of answering them, Yellow passed right through them and approached the Drattak.It also looked at her with fear and immediately tried to hit her with her powerful tail.

"Wait!" Wallace screamed, but Yellow simply raised her arm to her side, and a yellow dome appeared around her, protecting her from the strike.

"Ghuh." Blood dripped down Yellow mouth, as even if the shield protected her, the strike was too strong and almost broke down the shield.

"It's alright...I don't want to harm you." She still smiled at the Drattak despite being in pain.

The pokemon still looked at her with doubt, as she raised her fang to scare away Yellow.

"You don't have to worry, I will just heal you okay."

'Wot's she on?' Raihan looked at her in confusion, he wanted to run toward her to protect her, but when he saw the Drattak actually calm down a little, he made the decision to stay there to not agitate it more.

Yellow also noticed it and smiled calmly while dismissing her shield and slowly raising her hand. "See, I'm not armed, I just want to help you."

"Grrrr." The Drattak showed his fang, but after seeing that she really had no plan to harm her, she slowly stopped and just fixed quietly Yellow.

Yellow took this as a signal and slowly approached the Drattak's chest where a nastsy wound was present.

Even after doing this, the Drattak didn't attack Yellow and simply looked at the sky to distract himself.

Wallace and Raihan looked at the scene in surprise.

But Klara didn't have the same expression as she nudged the shoulder of one of the pokemon surrounding her. "Prepare to save her."

The pokemon looked at her in confusion.

"Oh right, you don't understand me, welp, try everything I could."

She simply hunched her shoulder before putting her hand in her pocket and discretly left the army of pokemon.

But Yellow didn't notice the strange reaction of her friend as she used her power on the multiple wounds it suffered.

'What could have done such a horrible wound? It is almost as if it was resisting my power!' 

Despite the difficulty, the wound slowly started to regenerate, until the dragon became healthy again.

Yellow looked at her work with satisfaction while slowly backing away. Then, she turned to look at the two boys who looked at the scene with wonder. 

"As you see, pokemon aren't violent, they only feel in danger and want to protect themselves. This one was only attacking because it was hurt. But with enough understanding, we can heal them and become friends. Their no need for us to fight!" Yellow said proudly to the two boys, but when she looked at them, the only thing she saw was their faces filled with fear as they tried to run toward her the fastest she could.

Yellow didn't understand why, and from the corner of her eye, she also saw that her army of friends also looked the same.

"PIE!"

Kitty screamed from her shoulder, which prompted Yellow to look right behind her, just to see the Drattak with her maw wide open.

"What?"

That was all she could say before being blasted away with a draconic beam.

***

'I would give him 4 out of 10 for its acting, the only reason why it worked was because the girl is a fool.' Klara thought as she climbed the stairs alone. 'I mean, her eye betrayed her real plan from the start.'

With the appearance of an apex predator, all of the wild pokemon started to run away, so none of them bothered Klara's ascension.

*Boom*

Klara looked behind her, just to see a smoke screen on the lower stairs.

'Welp, I did warn her to not trust others so easily, so really it's her fault now.'

'Anyways, what did she even think, healing a wild Drattak? These are extremely prideful pokemon, it must have seen being healed more as a humiliation more than an act of kindness.'

'Still, I should be grateful of her to let me ascend to the top, I wouldn't be able to have reached this far without her stupidity...I almost feel...grateful?'

Klara paused once more, before snickering to herself. 'No, I don't feel any gratitude to those blessed by life, I have nothing to do for them. And it is not like I forced her in this situation, she chose it herself. I suppose I could have helped her...but what the point, she already cleared all the danger for me...'

Klara looked behind her once more. 'I guess she did help me, and without any expectation behind it...she even considered me a friend...'

Klara almost turned completely but stopped herself. '...no...it must be a lie, no one is truly kind here, she probably just kept me around to feel herself prettier, and her helping other pokemon was simply to grow an army for herself, no one can truly be that kind!'

'The only reason why she got herself in this situation was because she was too greedy! I can control my greed! So this makes me better than her!'

Klara finally ignored her weird thought and finally climbed the stairs.

'Never trust anybody, because they don't trust you either

During the last stair, some of Luciel's aura of despair was still present, but it was so dilute that Klara was still able to access the last stair.

"Congratulations candidate Klara, you were able to succeed in the test! Welcome to the Zenith Academy!"

A normal employee said in a fake tone of excitement, so Klara looked at him and analyzed his posture before smiling at him.

"Oh, I can't believe lowly me was able to succeed! How wonderful!"

"You are no longer lowly now, you are among the future titans of our world!" The employee responded, but Klara as long since stopped listening to him and looked at the other candidate, or more her future classmate.

'As expected, all privileged asshole, the only way for a street kid like me to succeed was really to leech off another.' Klara thought as she saw all the candidates dressed in expensive outfits, promptly ignoring those that wore poorer outfits.

"So, you can wait for the exam to finish by sitting on one of the tables. If you have any friends still in the competition, you can watch behind the screen, but it will end in ten minute, so except if they are near, I don't think they will make it. Or if you want to fight more, you can join this area." The employee said while pointing at a little match field where Leon and Neoma were currently fighting each other in a pokemon battle, Leon clearly dominated this match, but Neoma still seemed happy. "Also, if you're hurt in any way, please go toward Nurse Joy, she would be able to help you."

This time he pointed toward an improvised stand where she was patiently waiting for any kid needing her help.

Klara barely resisted her, instead placing her focus on a man currently getting hanged upside down.

The employee followed her gaze before sighing in exasperation. "The reason why he's like this is because he made something bad, but I don't know all the details."

"Oh thank you, but I can't help but be curious, Is there no problem that I talk to him?" She said in a sweet tone.

"Well...I guess not..."

"Thanks!" She waved at the employee before walking toward Volo with a smile.

'He looks like an important employee, way more important than this loser.' She thought while looking at the one who had to wait for other candidates. 'Maybe I can gain his favor by liberating him, or I can gain the fury of others. Let's see what he can offer me first.'

Volo only noticed her when she was only one foot near him.

He scrutinized her face and looked at it in interrogation.

"Hello, mister. I saw that you were quiet in a pitch. Would you need help?" Klara said in an enthusiastic voice. But Volo stayed silent, slowly analyzing her until he made an expression of finally knowing his answer.

"Ah! Now I know why I recognize this expression! That's the expression of someone who just betrayed someone and plans to do it again."

Klara frowned for a short moment, but she immediately regained her smile. "I'm sorry sir, I'm not sure I understand...

"I saw you frown."

Klara stopped talking and fixed Volo who had a smug smile on his face.

"Don't worry, I don't care."

Klara looked at her side and noticed that no one was looking at her, so she changed her expression once more with a very slim smile.

"Ah, that's one is true. Are you sure you want to show me this façade of yours?"

"What the point of hiding it, clearly no one will believe you." She sent a gaze toward the dark tendril.

Volo was only more smug despite her comment. "You guessed right, now, why don't you liberate me, we must help ourselves among backstabbers, it is written in the book How to be a Backstabber."

"The one who wrote it must have been a fool."

"Of course, it was me who wrote it after all."

Klara tried to guess what he was thinking, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't guess a single thing.'

He's good.'

"Let me guess, you think I'm a good actor? Well, let me give you a compliment in return."

'How?'

"I wasn't thinking about that at all."

"Then I will just waste my time, but I just wanted to say that among all the liars I met, you're worth three points out of ten."

Klara frowned at his 'compliment', which Volo easily noticed.

"Coming from me is a huge compliment. But you don't care about that, your pride is probably very angry against me, isn't it?"

"...no..."

"Really, what a good person you are then, willing to listen to little poor me."

Klara frowned even more.

"What? Don't act like that, you make me look for a mind reader."

'Is he? Does he read my mind? Probably, he wouldn't be able to guess so much about me otherwise, he might be a good liar, but I'm at least confident in my poker face. Then if he can read my mind, there is no need to play any game.'

Klara slowly started to distance herself from Volo who looked at her with the same smirk as earlier.

"Are you scared of me? Why would you? Don't you see I'm incapacitated?" Volo asked in a teasing tone.

"Of course, I'm scared of a huge weirdo like yourself."

"Oh oh, wanna play it like that? This is not the worst thing I was treated at, but said from someone as ugly as you, it sure his depleasing. 

Klara instantly became angry after Volo's comment and approached him.

But without noticing, a pokeball started to roll her way, and in her angry step, she accidentally kicked the ball in Volo's direction.

The immediately enlarged itself to create a new small arm that instantly tried to grab the ball.

But before it could, Volo reached toward the ball and was able to catch it first.Without wasting a second, he pressed the button before Pandora could take it from him, and his 

Togekiss was instantly released and he looked at the tendril holding its wielder and threw a razor wind blade at it direction, cutting it in two.

Pandora woke up the moment he felt his tendril getting cut, but the moment he looked toward Volo, he was already on the back of Togekiss while Klara was shocked.

Volo smiled at her. "Thank you for your help, this little pest didn't let Togekiss roll toward me, so I had to ask for assistance. Good thing that a foolish girl like you was there."

"Whut!? What? How...you tricked me!"

"Of course I did, I'm the Betrayer after all, and contrary to you, I don't feel any shame doing it."

"...You bastard!"

Klara reached for her pokeball, but Volo had already flown over her.As for Pandora, he silently observed him, but Luciel started to snuggle him even more, so he decided to stay with him instead.

The only other person that could stop him also just watched, before sighing in exasperation. "Couldn't he have just stayed there? He even broke the confidence of a new student."

She looked at Luciel before sighing.

'I have no right to complain I guess, it's Luciel's choice. And it better for him to deal with his mistake by himself...this damn psychopath...'

She then looked calmly at the screen before standing up in fright!

"I knew it would happen!"

***

"Just let me pass, I've heard some nice scream over there!" Spiritomb said in a mocking tone as one of his shadow balls was redirected toward him, but he simply tanked the blow without any problem.

His opponent didn't respond to his provocation, and simply ordered her Meowstick to create another psychic wave to repel Spiritomb once more.

But as before, it barely had any effect on him, as he was way bigger than usual, going beyond 10 meters.

"Come on Olympia, I'm not asking for too much, I just want to hear their scream, and maybe causing them to scream a little more."

Olympia, the overseer of the test was the one who was currently fighting Spiritomb. She had caramel skin that was completely covered with a black bodysuit. She had a cap behind her that seemed to reflect the cosmos. Olympia also had purple eyes, which were the same as her eyes which were shaped like a star.

"Raaagh!" Suddenly, a being screamed inside Spiritomb's mouth, as a Drattak had tried to escape Spiritomb's mouth.

It wasn't the same Drattak that attacked Yellow, this one was the alpha of the pack, an old pokemon that lived for centuries. A pokemon, that was now at the mercy of a more terrifying 

monster.

"Oh, my apologies, I forgot I should finish my meal before talking."

Spiritomb's mouth was suddenly filled with a green fire that burned the alpha Drattak alive and rendered him into ash. The once proud monster wasn't even able to scream more as his soul was absorbed by Spiritomb.

Olympia simply frowned at this showcase, she knew very well that he was the one who let the Drattak attempt to escape just so he could intimidate her. But she still remained calm and was ready to order her pokemon to attack once more, when she suddenly looked behind in fright. Spiritomb immediately caught that and started to laugh. "Hahaha! Any problem madam the esper?! Maybe some innocent soul in peril?!"

Olympia looked at him one time before attempting to teleport to the stairs, but her connection suddenly broke.

"Where are you going? I thought you wanted to make me stay here, do your job!"Olympia looked at the enormous Spiritomb who had only a look of sadism on his 2-dimensional face.

'...I already called Volo...he should be able to come soon...I hope he arrives before one candidate dies.'