CH44 (174), Final Round (3)

The Pokemon I chose for the final fight were Thor/Pikachu and Luna/Clefairy. I had actually been considering using Mothra/Butterfree instead of Luna since I was 100% sure she could wreck Erza's Rapidash, but then I decided that would be a teeny tiny bit too showy.

So, I went with Luna instead. However, that consideration turned out to be unnecessary, because what appeared on her field was not what I and probably everyone else had expected.

Instead of a Rapidash and Corviknight, what appeared on her side were her (mid) silver-stage Rapidash and a Doublade that was also at the (mid) silver stage. I should have known that something was up when she appeared on the field without a wooden weapon.

The first thing it did when it appeared was to levitate into Erza's hands. It seemed like those two took the fighting together theme quite literally. Moreover, Erza had apparently been holding back so far since Doublade was stronger than her Corviknight, at least stage-wise.

Still, I had to say Doublade actually perfectly complemented the knight-style. On Rapidash she was a landbound knight and on Corviknight she was an aerial knight. The stands were getting excited as well and I could hear some cheering Erza's name.

I actually looked over to the referee since we used wooden weapons to avoid cutting each other, and I was sure the Doublade were more than capable of cutting me into ribbons. My arm guard would be useless in front of her pseudo-twin sword.

"Is that allowed?" I couldn't stop myself from asking, and the guy nodded seriously.

"Yep, it's one of the intentional loopholes. She hasn't broken any rules since she didn't take out any "real" weapons and she is only using 2 Pokemon.

That one of those Pokemon can function as twin swords is a lucky coincidence." He said as if he was not admitting that the teachers had deliberately left loopholes in the rules.

"Can I change my wooden armguard into something sturdier? Since I doubt these will be more useful than paper in front of Doublade." I inquired without much hope and he surprisingly agreed.

"Yes, you can. Since Erza's Doublade is at the silver stage you can ask Mr. Koetsuji for a pair of D-class arm guards." He replied in a flat tone.

"Really? Why were we not told that as possible, or rather why was I not offered the chance after she took her Doublade into her hands?" I asked curiously.

"Another one of the loopholes. We only hand out the appropriate gear after you ask for it since being prepared for the battle is your job, so if you don't make sure you're ready for the challenge then that's your fault.

If you want to go into a fight without sufficient gear instead of inquiring for alternative gear then you have to suffer the consequences of your stupidity.

We would have informed you of the option after your loss. You know, to show everyone that they should go over all options when preparing for anything dangerous during their journey. It could save your life after all." He said without any mercy.

Wow, these guys are taking the whole preparing the students for the future stuff way too seriously, is what I would have said if I did not know the mortality rate of trainers.

The students in the stands who had quietened during the beginning of our conversation began to whisper between each other. I just went over to Mr. Koetsuji and changed my arm guard with the ones he gave me before I returned to my side of the field.

The referee gave the starting signal as soon as I was ready and I immediately gave out orders since our battle plan had to change.

"Luna, the horse is yours. Thor stays with me," I said as quickly as I could and Luna gave me a salute before bounding over to her target.

Meanwhile, Thor just nodded before climbing on my shoulder.

"I'll pat your shoulder before I jump off." He said in Pokespeech and I nodded while looking in Luna's direction.

I saw her use Gravity on Rapidash before engaging it. However, I also saw Erza moving there to join in as well. She most likely wanted to make use of my inaction to jointly take out Luna first before engaging us two.

I obviously couldn't allow to so I ran towards her while giving Thor an order.

"Thunderbolt. Don't let her reach Luna." Thor let out a "Roger" before releasing a Thunderbolt at Erza without getting off my shoulder.

My hair stood up because of the electricity that got released but thanks to Thor's mastery that was all that happened to me. It was Erza, or rather Doublade's reaction that surprised me.

Once Erza noticed the Thunderbolt moving towards her, she ignored it and kept running. All she did was to release one of the blades, which levitated between her as the Thunderbolt before it gained a metallic sheen.

It probably used Iron Defense or Iron Tail for that. Afterward, it stuck its now metallic cloth into the ground acting as a lightning rod, transferring the attack into the ground with minimal damage.

Seeing his first attack neutralized Thor began spamming Thunderbolts back-to-back as fast as he could. The amount was clearly too much for the one blade so Erza was forced to stop, and the second blade joined the first one. Between them, they managed to divert all of Thor's attacks.

Since he had managed to make Erza halt Thor stopped attacking since releasing Thunderbolts back-to-back like that was pretty draining. The Doublade returned to Erza's hand just as I arrived in front of her.

She threw a brief look at my shoulder as if questioning if I was going to fight with Thor on my shoulder, which I was. Still, she did not comment and directly began to attack instead. She slashed her right sword at me, which I dodged by taking a step back.

She followed her slash with a stab with her left sword that I had no choice but to divert with my arm guard since I had no time to dodge. Just to be safe I clad the arm guards in aura since I was not sure how well they would hold up otherwise and I did not plan to find out.

Right, when I thought I could counter I noticed a shadow coming from the right that would have hit me if not for Thor jumping in blocking the attack with an Iron Tail. He used the rebound to return to my shoulder.

I saw that with was the cloth part of Doublade, and swiftly readied myself for another attack since both swords had a cloth attached. Apparently, I reacted just in time since the second cloth came at me from the left.

Not wanting to find out right now if the story of them draining the life force of others through their cloth was real I boosted my speed and dodged.

"Thor, keep the clothes away from me," I said and used my increased speed to circle Erza a bit before moving towards her back.

She managed to get fast enough to turn around and block my fist with the flat side of her left sword. The force pushed her back two steps, but I couldn't deliver a follow-up attack because her right sword levitated forward and initiated a slash on its own to force me back.

The right Doublade used that time to send over a Shadow Ball, which Thor noticed and blocked with an Electro Ball after jumping up. He followed that up with a Thunder Wave aimed at Erza, forcing the right Doublade to ground itself to block his move.

Meanwhile, I did an aura-enforced side-kick at the left Doublade that attacked me on its own, sending it flying to the right, away from any of us. I used that moment to check out the situation on Luna's side and saw her using a Hydro Pump which was probably the result of her Metronome.

Before I focused back on my side I saw her flow up her attack with a Moonblast. Anyway, I saw the sword I sent flying returning.

"Thor, leave those two. Keep the one flying over from returning to Erza." He heard my instruction and used Quick Attack to intercept his new target.

Erza sprinted towards me as soon as Thor moved away. She swung her remaining Doublade at me, which used Night Slash to boost the might of her slash. I dodged to the side, but could only block the hit it delivered with its cloth.

The hit actually pushed me back, making me unable to dodge as she followed up her attack with a stab. I got ready to block her stab with my arm guards unsure if it would be enough despite coating them in as much aura as possible.

I braced myself for the impact and possibly a lot of pain, which surprisingly never came. Luna saved me at the last moment. Apparently, she was done with her own opponent. She stopped the sword with a Meteor Mash and managed to come out on top of their clash.

Erza and her Doublade were not ready for her intervention, so they were not prepared for her attack. Luna's Meteor Mash not only stopped Doublade from stabbing me, but it also yanked it out of Erza's grip and sent it flying.

Well, to be honest, I was surprised by Luna's sudden appearance as well. Still, I wasn't going to miss the chance she provided and ran at Erza to take her out while she was unharmed.

That nearly went down the drain when I saw the Doublade that Thor was supposed to keep busy flying at me. It was smoking and looked pretty banged up but was still going straight at me.

"Sorry! It rushed straight through. Didn't even bother blocking my Thunderbolt." Thor yelled out which explained why he failed to stop it.

Thankfully, Luna jumped between us and blocked its path. Thor came running as well, but I told him to block the other sword that had been sent flying by Luna.

"Leave her to me," I told him before engaging Erza in unarmed combat. Thankfully, she was not as good in that as she was with armed combat, and I managed to subdue her.

I may have fully boosted myself with aura during my exchange, but in the end, I managed to knock her down and immediately pinned her down to keep her from struggling.

Then I delivered a light chop at her neck just to signify that I could knock her out or worse and the referee declared me the winner. The stands exploded into cheers, but I ignored that and looked over to Thor and Luna.

I saw that they had taken down their respective Doublade sword, so they could have come to reinforce me if I had not beaten Erza when I did. After checking the situation I focused back on Erza who was still below me. I quickly let her go and helped her up.

"I was starting to think you were planning to keep me pinned down." She actually teased me with a smile after I helped her up.

I couldn't stop myself from blushing a bit at the innuendo due to the damn hormones that came with my current physical age. Her being really pretty did not help in that regard. She released a good-natured chuckle after she saw me blush.

"No worries, you would have noticed if I wanted to keep you pinned down." I teased back while wagging my eyebrows a bit, which made her laugh a bit. Still, her cheeks did turn a bit red, so I accepted that as a win.

After our little banter, we recalled our Pokemon after praising them for their performance. While we were doing that Mr. Koetsuji and Ms. Striker came onto the field and declared the end of the mixed combat tournament.

They declared me as the winner and Erza got second place. Yu was officially declared third and Eric got fourth place. After that, they gave us some time to celebrate and talk to each other.

Roughly 30 minutes later they announced that it was time to return to our respective camps since it was already 6:45 p.m, meaning it was time for dinner. So, after flattening the area once more, and tidying up the place we returned to our camp.

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