Chapter 156 (Part 1)

Author Note:

I didn't want to unfairly delay this chapter since the second part is fighting me, but I wanted to post at least something.

Expect to see Part 2 come out within the next hour or two!

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Faced with Nidorino’s lunge, Gengar stabbed his feet into the ground and slid back to avoid it as if using roller skates. His opponent landed with a heavy thud, and it gave chase with its horn pointed at him, aimed to impale.

“Nidorino, herd with Poison Sting!” Edgar shouted. “Finish with Peck!”

He’s calling for weak moves. Is that intentional? Or is he just bluffing and plans to call for something stronger once Gengar is close?

Honestly, Sam had almost missed his chance to register for the Conference. When the season ended, potential competitors had a week to sign up, and he had waited until the very last minute to acquire a teleport here, attempting to maximize the time he had to train. He would have had only two weeks to practice if he had left right at the end of the season, but delaying his arrival had given him almost a full extra week to prepare.

Thus, he and his team had plenty of time to correct gaps in their movesets and strategies while growing leaps and bounds.

But the downside was that they hadn’t arrived until late last night.

Sam’s lateness meant his preliminary fight was first, with the placement intended as a disadvantage that’d give other trainers a chance to see his team and have time to prepare. However, Sam had already shown off some of his Pokémon once before, in the Violet City Tournament. Due to that, out of all possible opponents, Edgar was probably the best result.

It wasn’t because Edgar would be easy to defeat—Edgar was likely one of the stronger newcomers here—but facing Edgar meant Sam wouldn’t need to worry about the “information” game. He’d already greatly shown off Haunter, so as long as he only used Gengar, he wouldn’t give much away.

It was slightly cocky of Sam to think that he could win with only one Pokémon, but he truly believed in that possibility. The weeks he spent in training let him learn just how strong Gengar truly was, and then they had spent all of that time consolidating and building.

Edgar wasn’t aware of that growth.

Sam genuinely believed Edgar didn’t have a chance.

“Counter with Shadow Ball,” Sam ordered as a barrage of needles chased Gengar across the field. “Shut it down for Hypnosis.”

“That’s not going to work!” Edgar shouted. “We’ve already seen that trick!”

A further shout from Edgar saw his Nidorino stop its Poison Stings, and it didn’t follow up with Peck as previously called. So far, the strategy he applied had been very Chuck-like in that it was an attempt to force Gengar to get close. But, as Gengar lifted an arm to conjure a sphere of shadows, the Nidorino jumped up and back, and then it let its horn stab into the ground.

The Nidorino was able to quickly burrow into the battlefield floor with a Dig to avoid any further moves from Gengar.

“Like I told you before, we’ve been preparing for this! Our streak had been perfect until you came along!” Edgar shouted. “And you know what? We haven’t lost any other battle since! So for all this time, we’ve been preparing counters for your team, and now we’re in the perfect place to take you out of the tournament before it’s even begun!”

Edgar’s grin was so past cocky that it wasn’t even funny, but Sam just blinked neutrally at the other boy.

“Huh,” he said.

One of Edgar’s eyes twitched.

“...What?” Edgar asked suspiciously.

“To be honest,” Sam said. “I haven’t thought about you since the last tournament.”

A mix of boos and jeers came from the audience—but also a sparse bit of laughter. People liked a good heel. Sam hadn’t even been trying to garner a reaction; he had only been focusing on the battle.

But for Edgar, Sam’s words were like a dagger pushed into his gut. His face went bright red, and he actually stomped on the ground just to try to burn off some of that rage.

“Get ready to blast out, Nidorino! Prepare your Thunderbolt!”

“Gengar,” Sam said calmly, “it’s in your domain.”

Gengar had been idly sliding around on the ground. He could still float, but he had lost his innate levitation upon evolution. Levitate would have made it trivial for him to avoid the effects of Ground Type moves. Doing the same required more effort, but Sam’s words had revealed to him a certain truth.

As a Ghost Type, Gengar could phase through solid objects, and as far as he or Sam were concerned, the ground was a solid object. And even more than that, light would fail to pierce into the earth.

By using Dig, the Nidorino had surrounded itself by darkness on all sides, giving Gengar free range to attack.

“Panic it,” Sam ordered.

Gengar dove into the floor, and Edgar stuttered.

“A-attack! Dig! Get it!”

Nothing moved for several long seconds.

But then, something in the ground began to shift, and part of the field broke open. Nidorino, having been hit by an incredibly close-range Confuse Ray, scrambled to escape. Tearing itself out of its hole, it panted out of pure fright with its eyes rapidly darting around.

A shadow rose up behind it.

The Nidorino turned around far too late.

Gengar’s Shadow Ball smashed into its face, and the sheer power of his move meant Nidorino was sent flying back.

“Nidorino is unable to battle! Trainer Edgar, please send out your next Pokémon,” the referee said.

The audience applauded even as Edgar grit his teeth. Sam took a moment to check on the three other battles.

Gengar had been the first Pokémon to score a faint.

“F-fine! If you’re giving me no choice, then I’ll pull out one of my best early!”

At first, Sam had been a bit confused about why Edgar had used an unevolved Nidorino. Edgar seemed to be someone who liked to make use of evolution. However, the answer came when Edgar’s second Pokémon made an appearance; he did have a Moon Stone, but likely only a weak one that had been used on something else.

The earth shook when a Nidoqueen’s armored body hit the battlefield floor. It was twice the size of Gengar, and seeing that, the regal blue Pokémon gained an almost mocking grin.

“Body Slam! Ice Punch!”

Edgar’s called-for combination of attacks seemed nonsensical at first—why use Body Slam when a Normal Type move wouldn’t affect Gengar? But the answer came obviously enough; Body Slam helped the Nidoqueen build momentum. And, with that momentum, Ice Punch would land with that much more force.

But Sam just sighed yet again.

It was cheesy, but he had the perfect line for this.

“The bigger they are, the harder they fall,” he said, much to the groans of the audience. “Gengar. Disrupt.”

Gengar’s smile became so wide that half of his body became teeth. Rather than stay on the ground, he bounced into the air, and he leaned to the side so that Nidoqueen’s Body Slam passed right through him.

Credit to it, Nidoqueen was part of a team that had earned eight badges, and it had the reaction time to spin on a foot and snap right around.

A fist sealed with ice hurtled toward Gengar, but it was only hurtling toward where Gengar had once been.

For all the skill it had in melee combat, Nidoqueen lacked the speed to even approach Gengar’s own. With ease, he rotated behind it, staying behind its back, and an echoing giggle saw his Spite cause the Ice Punch to sputter out.

Half-melted frost sloughed off of the Nidoqueen’s fist.

“Thunder Punch!” Edgar yelled.

Really stocked up on the TMs, huh?

While Spite had affected the Ice Punch, a Thunder Punch could still come out in full force.

Except, again, Gengar just stuck behind the Nidoqueen. It wasn’t even something hard for him to do. Ever since his evolution, Gengar was by far the fastest Pokémon on Sam’s team.

(At least, when no one else had an Agility up.)

“Just attack it,” Sam said tiredly.

Spheres forming in his hands, Gengar didn’t bother growing his Shadow Balls to that large. He simply formed a palm-sized sphere, tossed it at his opponent, and it would crush the Nidoqueen’s blue armor, and then he’d rapidly change positions when it tried to turn around.

The ease at which he outmaneuvered it was practically comical, as no matter what the Nidoqueen did, it simply could not match him. Of course, its power meant it was a threat, but Gengar was simply too fast for that power to ever be of use.

The only thing Sam could guess the Nidoqueen could potentially use was Earthquake, but he doubted Edgar would fall for that. A wide-ranged, area attack was its best chance of hitting Gengar, but Gengar could float, and even though Sam knew Gengar didn’t have Levitate, Edgar probably thought Gengar was immune.

“Fine!” Edgar shouted. “Just use Thunderbolt!”

The same TM move as Nidorino. Edgar definitely splurged.

Sam waited until the spark formed, and a lightning bolt shot straight up only to spike back down.  Nidoqueen clearly intended to have its own move hit itself and explode off of its body, but there was a flaw with that plan:

It would be only one strike, and Gengar hadn’t been hit yet.

“Night Shade,” Sam said.

Immediately, the area around Gengar turned pitch-black. Even the Nidoqueen was consumed. When the Thunderbolt fell, some static crackled past the Night Shade’s sides, but Gengar’s innate strength and control had grown so much that his move didn’t even shake.

Eventually, as he sucked his darkness back in, he revealed the unmoving body of the Nidoqueen.

Edgar gritted his teeth. Gengar had been struck. But while Gengar’s species didn’t have much stamina, he was much better at taking a special attack than a physical one, especially when that special attack was sourced from a more physical Pokémon in the first place.

“...Return,” Edgar grumbled.

“Trainer Edgar, send out your next Pokémon!” the referee shouted.

“I know. I know! I’m just... thinking.”

He frowned, staring at the field. Gengar remained mostly untouched, and Sam still had two Pokémon left. Soon, though, Edgar came to a decision, and he plucked a somewhat worn Pokéball from his belt.

“Arbok,” he named.

With these matches being a three-on-three battle, Arbok was the final member left on Edgar’s team. Sam remembered seeing an Ekans in the Beginner’s Tournament; Edgar likely had this Arbok with him for his entire journey.

And, that experience was shown when the Arbok reared back, and it bared a frightening design on its chest, making Gengar shudder. The effect brought on by its Intimidate ability would make him wary about getting close, but that didn’t matter when Sam heard what Edgar called out for his first move.

“Arbok! Use Glare!”

Sam wanted to laugh.

A move with eye contact? Really?

Edgar was so focused on just trying to take out Gengar that he had completely forgotten about the strategy Sam had used to win the Violet City Tournament in the first place.

“Hypnosis,” Sam said.

Sure, Arbok had its Shed Skin ability trained, giving it a way to quickly remove its forced sleep, but Gengar was still faster than it. He could move to simply use Hypnosis to ensure it fell asleep again.

Then, given that Dream Eater was a Psychic Type move, it dealt super effective damage.

That meant even with Arbok likely being one of Edgar’s strongest, it never once got a chance to attack back.

Just like that, Edgar’s final Pokémon fell.

“Arbok is no longer able to battle!” the referee called out. “Trainer Edgar has no more usable Pokémon. Trainer Samuel wins!”

The audience’s cheers were uproarious. Looking around, since Sam had won the match with only a single member of his team, he was the first one to finish his battle—the first one to finish his battle in the entirety of the Conference, at that.

And, with how the preliminary matches were working, challengers were given the chance to move on based on their performance. Edgar would likely be placed in another preliminary battle, but unless he won that flawlessly, he was unlikely to obtain the rating to compete.

Dazed, the truth of the matter seemed to sink into Edgar; he was unlikely to continue past the preliminaries.

He returned his Arbok, the Pokémon vanishing from the field. Meanwhile, Sam didn’t return Gengar, but Gengar very purposefully slipped into his shadow like a flat piece of paper entering the envelope.

Sam left the field without even sending a second glance to his opponent. With the preliminaries being so rushed, there wasn’t even time for a handshake as two more trainers had already been sent out to take their place. With the current schedule, the preliminary battles were set to be a continuous event that’d last all day in an attempt to save time.

But though Sam didn’t send another glance to Edgar, the audience was certainly looking at him. And, a small number of trainers sent him serious yet considering looks.

By doing so well so early on, he might not have revealed much, but he had established himself as a potential threat.

Sam had established himself as a threat. No further opponent would underestimate him, and he could likely expect each and every battle to involve some sort of counter-plan.

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Author Note:

The usual links / team summary are posted alongside Part 2!

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