Hard Enough - Chapter 362 - War with Dragons

 “I hate you,” growled Clair as she stared at the computer screen for what felt like the hundredth time today.

“Nah, you love me, it’s why I get away with so much stuff with you.”

“Only as a cousin, and not like those weirdos in Cianwood where it's legal to—” Clair started to clarify only for Lance to raise his hand. 

“Yes, I understood what I meant and so did you,” he stated. “Now, let’s see to your pokemon roster for the upcoming match with Brock.”

Clair sighed and rubbed her forehead. “So he didn’t have any concerns about the venue as long as it wasn’t a wetland, river, or ocean setting?” she asked again.

“No, we’re going to go with the rolling greenery of the battlezone near Lavender City,” Lance stated, flicking the screen to highlight the map of the area.

Clair nodded, noting that it would be much larger than the typical field used for battles. Which made sense with there being twelve pokemon on the field at once.

“You’ve been keeping up your training for this level of fighting, yes?” Lance prompted, and Clair whirled on him with a glare so strong he raised his hands. “Sorry! Sorry! Of course you have!” 

Clair exhaled slowly through her nose and turned back to the field, getting an idea of it. With the field memorised she turned to the next glaring issue that would determine almost everything.

Her pokemon team.

“I really wish that Brock wasn’t so used to facing Dragons,” she muttered.

Lance grimaced. “Nothing we can do about that now.”   

Clair stared at her pool of pokemon to draw from. “I think I’m approaching this backwards,” she stated. “Who do we know that Brock will bring?”

Lance pursed his lips but then turned and snapped his fingers. Instantly, the doors to Clair’s office opened and several Elders and cousins walked in with their own papers and computers in hand.

Clair shot Lance a look. “Really? We’re calling in everyone for this?”

One of the Elder sniffed. “We need you to do well. Preferably, you would win, but with how previous members of your generation have performed…” They cast a dismissive look at Lance before turning back to Clair. “The Blackthorn pride will allow no more stains.”

“Self-inflicted, or from others,” Lance replied, causing the Elder to turn and glare only for Lance to meet it imperiously. Clair bit her lip to stop from laughing at the byplay.

The Elder sniffed and laid out a tablet, not conceding defeat, but Clair had to give Lance the victory. Something he no doubt recognised as he smirked.

The Elder tapped the tablet and a hologram shot up showing Brock during the Golden Week Tournament.

“The most likely candidates that Brock will bring to this match have been assessed. His Variant Golem is his first threat due to the rock-electric typing. There is also the risk of having this pokemon get within the middle of your team and getting off an Explosion so be aware of that!”

Clair nodded, understanding that point, already having done her own homework.

“The second pokemon will, of course, be his starter, his Tyranitar. Easily his strongest pokemon.”

Clair glanced to Lance. “They don’t know?” 

The Elder frowned. “What don’t we know?”

Lance shook his head. “They do, but Brock confirmed with me that his capture of Regirock was him and his Tyranitar with no other help. His Tyrantiar has reached an extreme level of strength.”

“And what about his Regirock?” Clair asked.

“He won’t be using it… It’s too powerful,” Lance stated.

The various members of the Blackthorn bristled at that, and Clair felt her blood heating at the implied insult, only for Lance to raise his hand. “With one move, he had his Regirock blow through the shielding in his Gym. Shielding that was some of Indigo’s best, I might add. It would be too strong.”

That caused a series of murmurs to break out around the room.

Lance made sure to once more sweep everyone with a draconic glare that made it clear he would broke no argument on this point. “It is a Legendary Pokemon.”

Clair sighed. “Shame we haven’t been able to learn more about how Nurse Joy secured that Latios,” she murmured. “That would be a most welcome pokemon on my team.”

Lance made a noncommittal sound which had Clair smirking. She knew from talking with Lance that any pressure on the topic of the Latios, or indeed any rare pokemon the Nurses acquired for themselves, would cause massive protests with most if not all Nurse Joys walking off their jobs. And if there was one way to become everyone’s most hated group it was to antagonise the Nurse Joys.

Clair waved a hand at the elder.

“Alright so we know the state of three of Brock’s pokemon, continue,” she asked.

“His Rhyperior is another pokemon with a high chance due to her ability to cause widespread damage while enduring powerful blows.”

“For the possibility of megaevolution he will also most likely have his Steelix on the field to soak up attention and be a threat that you can’t ignore.”

Clair nodded. That was certainly true.

“Aerodactyl is another option for him, but we’re unsure if he would bring it out against you. Your roster is well known to have water-type and strong electric attacks within their options.”

“He might feel confident using it considering it performed well against my Dragonite a year ago,” Lance suggested.

Clair nodded thoughtfully with Brock’s Aerodactyl going into the maybe pile. 

“His Lunatone is the next pokemon that we think has the highest chance of being included,” stated the Elder. “With its psychic abilities it will be a threat. Its capacity to Teleport short range distances, as well as its Fairy-type moves, it will be a threat for much of your roster.”

Clair hummed in thought and glanced at the list. Tyranitar, Variant Golem, Rhyperior, Lunatone, and Steelix. That made for five pokemon.

“What of his Kleavor, Kabutops, Aggron, or his second Tyranitar?”

“We believe he will use his Kabutops, making this almost identical to the team he utilised against Lance. There would be a poetic symmetry to it that we think Brock will find appealing,” stated the Elder with a sniff.

“Very well, so I need a team that can handle this, or I need to work with what I have to make my own plan,” Clair said as her eyes drifted back to the map. There was only a small pond for a major water source which would mean that most water type moves would be delayed.

There would also need to be area denial as while it might have escaped the Elder’s notice, it hadn’t escaped Clair’s attention that if Brock’s Lunatone could teleport, there was no reason it couldn’t teleport another pokemon.

Once again, Brock’s Golem came into play as a serious threat for her pokemon.

With that said, her hand was rather forced with who should have as her first pokemon.

A picture of her Gyarados, beautiful with his signature red scales, was flicked onto the map.

Around the room people paused and the elder sucked in a long breath.

“Girl! Have you not been listening!?” he growled.

“I need Gyarados on the field for Dark Pulse,” Clair replied.

The Elder blinked for a moment, not comprehending what Clair meant. Then he finally let his gaze drop to the picture of Lunatone.

“Ah, of course.”

Clair nodded. “This would be a lot easier with some grass, or dark-typed dragons,” she murmured as she looked over the rest of her options.

But wishing for such pokemon to appear magically was as good as asking for Dialga to appear and fight their battles for them, it wasn’t going to happen.

Her next decisions were made quickly, but with a good deal of reluctance. “Kingdra, Dragonite, Salamance, Altaria, and Flygon will make up the rest of my team,” she announced.

“The rest of my pokemon either aren’t capable of fighting at the level of this battle, or would be too easy for Brock to take advantage of.” 

Clair rotated the map. “That being said I’m going to have to plot the team instead of having them unified. Flyers will take the sky while my water types claim the pond and begin flooding the field.”

“That’s… certainly a plan,” Lance stated. “What about going for an alpha strike?”

“Possible even with my pokemon split,” Clair argued, realising that her plan to split her team had other benefits, such as making it harder for Brock to get away with an alpha-strike of his own. She began toying with what she’d be able to reach from her starting podium, one of the only shielded points on the field.

Hmmm, this was going to take a little creative thinking.

Then she paused as she considered her starting position itself.

“Those shields…” she asked.

Lance nodded. “If it comes down to it, we will stop the match, but be aware that there is a risk of being hit yourself.”

“Oh,” Clair took a moment before deciding not to think about it too much. If anything, she’d pretend this was a policing action and that she needed to evade if she came into danger rather than rely on the shield.

She ran a hand over her face and continued war gaming.

“With there being multiple flying types, you’re going to need to set up some Twisters and also make sure to use Whirlwind to stop Brock from summoning a Sandstorm. His Tyranitar is particularly adept at using this move,” stated the Elder.

Clair nodded as she made a mental note of another command that she wanted to work into her ‘initial cycle’ alongside Dark Pulse and Tailwind if she could manage it.

“You’ll also be strongly advised to use Sunny Day so that moves like Solar Beam can be called forth quickly. At no point should Rain Dance be used, or allowed, as Brock’s Golem will blow you out of the air if it is still on the field!”

Clair sniffed. “I know this!” she growled, but the Elder ignored her and continued to throw out more and more scenarios to watch out for.

When she felt like she had a good initial and fallback plan Clair rose only for the Elder to cough. 

She met their gaze. “Clair, it is important that you demonstrate the power of the—”

“I understand!” she growled. “This is my fight! So stop breathing down my neck about this!”

“It is more than that girl! Have you not been paying attention? The pride of the Blackthorn clan is at stake! Brock is an emerging power in Indigo! He has a political bloc that follows his lead.”

“I think you mean Sabrina and Erika’s lead,” Lance muttered.

“They are the mind and voice! Brock is the heart that captures people’s attention! Sabrina is the strongest trainer in people’s minds, but more often than not, they cheer for Brock. He is active in his philanthropic activities and has an ocean of support! If he wanted to, he could depose Lance!”

“You’re being ridiculous and jumping at shadows,” Clair said with a scoff. “Please tell me you’re not listening to this Lance?” Clair asked. 

Lance made to open his mouth only for the Elder to slam his hand into the table, sending sheets of carefully laid out plans spinning through the air. 

“Don’t downplay it!” snarled the Elder. “Saffron, Celadon, Viridian, Vermilion, Fuchsia, Violet, Azalea, and not least of all Mahogany would all support him!” snapped the Elder.

The last echoed in the room causing most of the Blackthorns to shudder. Their history with the residents of the Ice pokemon around Mahogany was well known.

Clair sniffed. “You’re fearmongering,” she said. 

The Elder growled. “I can see when my wisdom is being sown before Spoink.” with that said he whirled away. 

Clair sighed and shot her cousin a look. “Don’t listen to him, please?”

Lance nodded with a longer sigh. “It’s tough some days… as he does have a point.”

Clair pinched the bridge of her nose. “Try not to get sucked in,” she advised, standing to head out herself. 

Only for one of her cousins, Olga Blackthorn, to step forward.

“And what are you going to wear for this battle?” she asked innocently.

Clair blinked and gestured at her normal attire which was basically her dragontamer outfit that she used for Gym matches.

Olga and several others sighed. “Clair, if Lance is one of the most eligible bachelors around, you’re easily one of the maidens that people look to.”

Clair snorted. “I think you’ll find that Erika rather holds that position,” Clair replied, only to shoot Lance a smirk. “Although perhaps she’s got some contest now that Queen Ilene has announced herself to the world, no?”

Lance coughed politely. “She’s a wonderful woman that I look forward to talking with more at Brock’s wedding.”

“Tch!” several Blackthorn tongues clicked at once, and Lance shot them mild glares. Then everyone’s attention turned back to Clair.

“I suppose… that I—”

“Excellent! We’ve been hoping to update your look for a while now, and this match will be the perfect platform to achieve it!” declared Olga with a bounce. Then several drawings of Clair were laid out on the table.

Clair stared at the top picture.

It features some sort of scaled bikini in her signature blue look with golden eyes on the bra, while suggestive lines ran across the panties.

Clair was about to throw it across the room only to glance up at Olga. “This one is bait. You’re using this to make future images look more responsible!” she growled as she stabbed a finger at her cousin’s face. 

Olga adopted an all too innocent smile. “I have no idea what you mean,” she replied as she shifted the top image out of the way 

What followed were more risque images with Clair quickly dismissing them as practical. When she reached some of the later images she found herself lingering on them only to grimace.

“Why is my bellybutton showing in so many of them?” she asked. “I prefer the full coverage of my current bodysuit!” 

“Sometimes it’s good to break out something new!” replied Olga. “Look, we also have new hairstyles lined up for you!” 

One of which had Clair wearing a tiara. “This one with the tri-prong tiara makes me look like a water-type trainer! We’re already getting mocked for having so many flying types in our roster! Let’s not add a new angle for people to attack us!”

That caused a flurry of murmurs as people reviewed the image with some agreeing and some arguing for it being a ‘draconic’ look.

“Or we lean into it and make you more draconic!” Olga refuted. “I have some great make-up ideas that will give you shimmering scales on the side of your eyes!”

Clair growled. She just knew that Brock was going to show up in his normal attire while she was being pestered over all of this.

Damn, Brock and Sabrina! They had no idea of the pressure they’d caused other young trainers like herself who had started to be prodded by adults to marry well!

Although, one truly couldn’t discount Sabrina in having a hand in that sort of thing… Clair mused as she began debating hair, poses, capes, and more with a fashion team she hadn’t known existed until all of a few minutes ago!

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Clair quietly cursed that the new outfit looked and felt amazing. 

Clair had adopted her most stoic expression with a slight sniff of derision, calling it ‘merely acceptable’ rather than crowing about it.

One good turn in some situations did not make another!

She could never admit that out loud however as Olga would preen more than she already was and become intolerable with seasonal outfits or other ideas. 

Not that Olga needed it as the woman had taken to preening like a Pidgeot in mating season, sadly with good reason with how good she’d made Clair look.

When Clair and her entourage, made up entirely of Blackthorn clan members, arrived at the Greenhills battlezone they found Brock there with Sabrina and Kaede.

Kaede, who Clair learned should have, in a better world, been standing with her as part of the Blackthorn Clan, if it wasn’t for the clan getting in its own way.

The Leader of the Viridian Gym gave the assembled Blackthorn group a stern look over only to smirk as her eyes flicked to Brock.

Brock approached and offered a hand to Clair. 

“Hello there!” he declared with his usual friendly manner. 

Clair clasped his hand and felt the strength within as he tightened his fist just enough to exert force but not too much. 

He was also wearing his normal gym apparel.

“Nice outfit, going for a fresh look for the next season huh?” Brock mused, giving her a slow up and down.

Clair might have called it creepy if it wasn’t so upfront, nor did he linger on certain parts of her anatomy. 

“You’re going to cause a stir with this, there are going to be people baying for me to update my wardrobe now!” he chuckled.

Behind him Sabrina stepped forward and gave Clair an almost identical inspection. “I’ll stick with my traditional look for my Gym Challenges,” she announced.

Clair nodded. “I’d have preferred that but,” she shrugged and tossed her head to indicate the clan behind her. Both Brock and Sabrina nodded in consideration.

Brock gave them a look. “Interesting how they’re using this fight to announce all the different things Blackthorn is doing,” he murmured.

Clair blinked. “You make it sound like there’s something else going on?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.

Brock blinked. “Huh? Oh I thought you knew? When I was talking with Lance the other day I was worried about the optics of us sticking with the six on six battle with Fiore’s announcement of war. I was worried it might be a bit provocative and he mentioned something about using it to announce the Blackthorn sending a cadre of Dragontamers to Orre for peacekeeping.”

Sabrina sniffed. “I think he’s just hoping to steal a march on getting access to different dragon type pokemon, something that might aggravate the Fiorians.”

Clair smiled placidly while internally felt like she needed to pin her cousin down and ask some very pointed questions.

He was seriously using her fight for politics? And without mentioning it to her first? 

Urgh! 

That was so… him!

“Arrrrrre you alright?” Brock asked, eying her nervously.

“I’m fine!” she bit out.

Brock rubbed the back of his head. “Riiiiight,” he replied doubtfully. “Listen sorry I mentioned it. Do you think you’re going to be able to focus on our fight because of this?” 

Clair took a solidifying breath and let it out slowly, like a dragon would when it was trying to avoid spewing fire. 

“Yes, yes, I can,” she stated firmly.

Brock nodded. “If you want, I could say something mean to get your anger focused on me?”

Clair stared at him. “What?”

“You know? Shift the target of your ire so you do better?” he offered.

Clair’s gaze flicked to Sabrina who stared back with an almost bored expression. “He’s considering calling you fat.”

Clair’s head snapped to Brock. “You!”

“Hey! Whoa I hadn’t even said anything yet!” he replied.

Clair narrowed her eyes even as she fought the urge to giggle at the absurdity of this situation. She stabbed a finger at him and huffed as she stepped back, signalling for the battle’s umpire to approach.

The man ran through the usual statements but added in several mentions of there being a need to stop when a pokemon went down hard, as no one wanted to televise a pokemon getting brutalised across the world.

Clair and Brock both nodded in agreement. 

“Of course,” Clair stated.

“Makes sense, we’re ready to stop at a moment’s notice,” Brock rumbled.  

From there things continued and both sides were asked to step onto their podiums which were much further apart than usual.

Overhead camera crews were watching from helicopters while flying types circled, prepared to intercept any stray attacks that might threaten the cameras.

Other, preinstalled cameras littered the field but it was estimated that a lot of those would be destroyed in the battle despite the ‘reinforced’ nature of the cameras and housings they rested in.

Both groups entourages moved to a distant observation booth. Olga made a show of puffing her chest and signalling Clair to ‘show the goods’, only for an Elder to drag her off.

Clair set her stance, ready for what would come next. This part she’d practised quite a bit, and then been forced to practise all over again with her new outfit, but she was confident she could pull it off.

She eyed the distance to the pond on her left. 

Roughly fifty metres, which would take a serious throw on her behalf. 

As the Umpire called for pokemon to be sent out Clair swiped her hands across her pokebelt, triggering pokeballs to enlarge even as others were juggled into the air.

Dragonite, Salamance, Altaria, and Flygon’s pokeballs shot forward with her initial toss only for her to twist and kick out, causing Gyarados and Kingdra’s pokeballs to go flying. 

She judged the angle and the power before grinning to herself as they sailed down only to release the occupants on the shore of the pond.

She’d done it, she’d gotten off an almost perfect release without any complications.

She pushed down the thought of all the ways this could have gone wrong, like sending her pokemon flying off at a poor angle.

Kicking a pokeball wasn’t done in general matches. It wasn’t done in hardly any at all. 

But in a six on six match to have any capability to get her pokemon out in one sweep of her pokebelt as the rules stated she must, she needed to toss up her balls and use her feet to make the move possible.

It had been a risky plan, but one she’d pulled off.

“Hold!” the umpire called as he raised his transceiver to peruse the rules. 

Clair let her gaze shift to Brock’s team.

Tyranitar, Rhyperior, Steelix, Golem, Aerodactyl, and… Cradilly? 

Clair frowned at the last pokemon. 

That… hadn’t been one of the pokemon that anyone had suspected Brock would use for this match. Why had he used it?

To the side, on a hovering platform, the umpire nodded and cleared his throat. “Apologies for the pause! Initially, I feared that Gym Leader Clair’s unorthodox method of releasing her pokemon was against the rules!” 

The man thumped a hand on his transceiver. “Having reviewed the rules, Gym Leader Clair’s method is deemed valid and within the current iteration of the rules! The match will resume in three seconds!”

Clair allowed herself a small grin. She’d known it was going to be contentious, but a straightforward release wouldn’t be best. 

It was good to have her theory supported like this. She’d be interested to see if it caught on as a trend.

“Begin!” called the umpire.

Clair slashed her hand to signal to her pokemon to begin their opening moves.

The pokemon that could fly took to the sky instantly, while Gyarados unleashed a potent Dark Pulse around herself. 

This proved to be the correct decision as Stone Edges from all of Brock’s pokemon fired straight at her flying types and the only thing that saved them was how they scattered.

Sadly the Stone Edges did send up a spray of dust at her however which caused her to become blinded to the field, something that instantly had her on edge.

Brock wasn’t a trainer who didn’t plan ahead, blinding her was very much in his favour.

“Twister and flood!” she shouted, giving her next command. 

Her Gyarados roared as it summoned up a powerful Surf, while Kingdra rode the wave next to it, acting as a spotter. 

In front of her the dust that had blinded her vanished as Twisters took shape, bracketing her while beginning to track forward.

She’d been blinded for barely a few seconds, but in that time much had changed. 

Her Gyarados and Kingdra were sweeping forward but before them stood a cackling Golem that began to spark. 

“Abort!” she called for Gyarados and her pokemon listened, causing the Surf to wash forward.

Rather than worry about the attack and being swept away, the golem dove into the ground.

Then, from the side, a shadow flashed as Brock’s Steelix rose above the heads of its teammates to shoot a Dragon Breath at her assembled pokemon.

“Ware the ground and front!” she ordered before casting her eyes up, looking for Brock’s Aerodactyl while checking her other pokemon.

She made a discreet chopping action with one hand and Flygon, with her wide eyes, caught the gesture and dove.

An Earthquake in the midst of Brock’s pokemon would be truly devastating.

Brock answered with a Blizzard sweeping the field and casting huge blocks of ice, which her flying pokemon had to evade.

Flygon powered on, outspeeding the falling shards of ice, determined to cause damage where she could.

Before she could connect with the ground however, the earth opened and Steelix shot up into the air only for a Protect to form, forcing Flygon’s attack to slam into it, nullifying the attack.

Another sweep of Dragon Breath roared across the field only for Kingdra to dart to the side evading the strike. Gyarados swayed, avoiding the attack, his eyes searching the area around them for any danger only for another shadow to appear behind Kingdra.

“King—” Clair started to call only for Brock’s Aerodactyl to close its fangs upon her pokemon and drag it out of the water. 

Kingdra wailed in pain and Clair cursed. “Dragon Pulse!” she roared, causing an eruption of energy from Kingdra that saw it knocking Aerodactyl’s maw open.

Kingdra bounced as she hit the ground, whirling around and ready to fight only for a huge fist to shoot out of the ground and snatch Kindgra up.

Clair stiffened. Shit! She’d lost sight of Brock’s Rhyperior!

Oddly enough on the Rhyperior’s shoulder was the Cradily.

As Bertha the Rhyperior surged out of the ground triumphantly, Clair hardened her heart. 

If she was going down she was going down swinging.

“Hydro Pump!” she roared, knowing Brock was about to destroy Kingdra.

Kingdra twisted around so it faced Bertha. Then it blasted a powerful Hydro Pump from near point blank range.

Clair saw the water splash out around Bertha only for Bertha to grin and slam Kingdra into the ground.

“Again!” Clair ordered.

Once more, Kingdra fired off a Hydro Pump.

Only this time Clair got a good view of the ball of water shifting target completely.

Instead of hitting Bertha it hit the Cradily on her shoulder.

“Eh?” she gasped in shock.

A roar of pain caused Clair to stiffen as she whipped her head around to find that Brock’s Golem had emerged and blasted Gyarados with thunder.

And just like that two of her pokemon were down with none of Brock’s worse for wear.

Clair grit her teeth and shot Brock a glare to show she wasn’t backing down only to notice he was standing with his arms crossed.

He wasn’t frantically twisting his head to keep track of everything. In fact one of his eyes was closed. 

The longer Clair stared the more she felt like something big was looming over her and looking down at her.

It was as this feeling settled over her that she made another realisation. He hadn’t said a word since the match began.

She knew he had a strong bond with all of his pokemon, able to command them without verbal orders even. But all of them at once?

Clair hardened her heart, resolving to make Brock fight for every scrap going forward, only to know in her mind that she was fighting more than an uphill battle.

She was facing an avalanche. 

She met it head on with a roar. 

Her Dragonite fell upon the field, shooting out of its Twister to hammer home a Superpower into Steelix, freeing up Flygon to go for another Earthquake only for Titan, Brock’s Tyranitar to catch it before it could land.

Titan flipped Flygon over and hurled it towards Bertha who twisted and used her tail to swat Flygon out of the air and into a falling icicle, causing Flygon to wail in pain as it fainted.

Clair returned her pokemon, knowing that leaving them out would be risking them.

Brock held up a hand, the first sign of an order, and despite several of his pokemon not looking at him they paused.

Even the Blizzard falling from above faded.

Dragonite, still standing on the ground where it had knocked back Steelix, turned slightly.

It locked eyes with Brock’s Tyranitar.

Both pokemon shifted slightly and Clair cursed, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to draw her pokemon out of that fight.

Brock tilted his head slightly and a faint twitch of his lips let Clair know he was also aware of the situation.

He nodded once and turned his attention to tracking Altaria and Salamence as two powerhouse pokemon surged towards each other.

Dragonite launched another Superpower only for Titan to duck low and rise, tackling Dragonite with a carrying strike that saw them launched across the field.

In seconds, Titan cleared the field before slamming Dragonite into the ground with what had to be a Giga Impact.

Dragonite tottered into a standing position only to buckle.

Clair cursed her proud pokemon but gave it the chance to fight on instead of withdrawing it.

Dragonite lunged. 

For just a moment Clair felt something spark between them as she screamed at her pokemon mentally to adjust its aim. 

Titan shifted to dodge the strike once more but unlike last time Dragonite adjusted mid throw, allowing itself to twist through its torso so the strike shifted slightly to the left.

It was just enough to send a bone rattling Superpower into Titan and blow the powerful starting pokemon away.

Dragonite roared its triumph at landing the hit only to stiffen as Clair screamed through the nascent bond to not get complacent.

It straightened up right in time for two Stone Edges to slam into it and send it falling to the ground.

From where he’d been sent flying, Titan strode out of the dust with a snort, his scales marred and a tremor running through him. The powerful pokemon turned and snorted at Bertha who had her arm raised towards where dragonite had been.

Ah, it seemed that Bertha was more than willing to ‘avenge’ her comrade, Clair thought to herself.

Seeing how Bertha and the Cradily were now sitting Farfetch’d she tried to have Salamence bomb them, only for Brock’s Golem to intercept it with yet another Thunder.

Salamence twitched as it was struck, causing Clair to see. 

She might have been willing to entertain Dragonite’s bravado, but she wasn’t about to allow a paralysed pokemon to attempt to face off against six pokemon.

She quickly returned Altaria for that same reason with a sad sigh.

She stared across the field, noting the mud, the craters, and even the holes where Brock’s pokemon had dug about.

Her gaze lingered at the points her pokemon had fallen.

Six of her best and all she could manage was damaging Brock’s starter… Clair grimaced. 

She had a lot of work to do if she wanted to close the gap.

Lance was right, facing Brock was naive of her, but despite herself, she felt a fire burning as she vowed to improve from this defeat.

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A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support!

It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!