Bab 177: Semifinalists

"Cinderace, use Blaze Kick!"

"Toxicroak, use Poison Jab!"

*DOGOOOOOON!*

"Now use Pyro Ball!"

"Give it a Sludge Bomb!"

"Croak!"

"Cinderace!"

*KABOOM!*

Fire exploded outwards as the Pyroball and Sludge Bomb collided, setting wide swaths of the arena ablaze as the toxic sludge continued to burn. This made the arena significantly hotter, which was negatively impacting Toxicroak, while the burning poisons filled the air with toxic vapors that were steadily poisoning Cinderace.

"AND NEITHER CINDERACE OR TOXICROAK ARE BACKING DOWN!"

"Cinderace, use Flame Charge!"

"Toxicroak, use Drain Punch!"

"Cinderace!" The bunny-like pokemon cried as it shot forward, using it's powerful legs to propel itself at high speed as flames began to appear on it's body.

"Croooooa." Toxicroak meanwhile stood it's ground as the flaming bunny shot at it, bracing itself against the oncoming attack.

"Now!"

"Toxicroak!"

At it's trainer's cue, Toxicroak thrust it's hand forward with it's poisoned talon on top, striking Cinderace at the same time that Cinderace tackled it with it's flaming body. As a result, Toxicroak was covered in severe burns on top of the increasingly hot atmosphere around them, while Cinderace was stuck by a toxic talon, not only worsening it's poisoning, but also draining the energy from it.

"Cinder...ace?" The fire type exclaimed, before slumping over unconscious.

Toxicroak meanwhile, despite also being on the verge of collapsing, remained standing due to the energy it had stolen from Cinderace.

"CINDERACE IS UNABLE TO BATTLE!" The referee announced, before both pokemon were returned to their pokeballs. Even if it had won, it would still be too much to ask Toxicroak to continue battling.

"Well this is it professor." Steven said as he watched the battle unfold from above.

"Indeed Steven. Victor only has one pokemon left, while Lucas has two left. If young Victor wants to win, then he and his pokemon will need to rally."

"That's true, but there's a problem with that that miss Marnie also faced in her battle with Ace. Victor can't use G-max on the SS. Anne."

As the two of them were talking the same exact thoughts were going through Victor's head as he palmed his final pokeball, and glanced at the band on his wrist. The same band that was completely useless here.

"It's all on you, so do your best Drakloak!" Victor cried out, at the exact same time that Lucas threw out his next pokemon as well.

"Go Gabite!"

"DRAAAAAAAAK!"

"BI-BITE!"

"Well this interesting! A dragon matchup!" Professor Oak said as he leaned forward with interest, as both were pokemon he hadn't gotten a chance to truly study very much. Not at all in the case of Drakloak.

"Indeed! A match between dragons is always an interesting event!" Steven said in agreement.

"Gabite, use Slash!"

"Drakloak, use Dragon Dance!"

***

"Oh! That'll hurt Lucas!" Gloria stated with a smirk as we watched Gabite's Slash attack phase right through Drakloak, before the latter retaliated by using Dragon Rush on it's opponent.

"Wait... Is Drakloak a ghost type?" May asked curiously, to which Gloria nodded smugly.

"Yep~! They have the trickiness of ghost type pokemon, and the power of a dragon! The perfect combo!" She declared with pride, even as Dawn pulled out her pokedex to check them.

"Sounds like an effective combination." I commented.

"They are! Even Hop's brother, Leon, uses it's evolved form on his team! The only pokemon he has that's stronger than Dragapult is his Charizard, which is undefeated in battle!" Gloria stated while looking at me pointedly.

"While it IS quite the feat to be considered undefeated, one learns from failure more than they do success." I said in a sagely voice, though I doubted I looked the part considering my current position.

Right now I was seated on the bench with Serena and Marnie sitting on either side of me, and Lillie in my lap with my cock up her ass.

After watching me pound Dawn's butt, Lillie had surprisingly asked about it herself, which I was more than happy to comply. Little did she know how intense such an experience could be, and now be was sitting limply in my lap while trying to catch her breath.

It probably didn't help that one of my hands was actively massaging one of her breasts, while the other was busy fingering her rose petals. As such, despite her trying to recover from the rough anal fucking, I was still making her cum every couple minutes.

"Who do YOU think will win, Ace?" Serena asked beside me, even as she reached under Lillie to fondle and massage my balls.

"Hmm... I don't know enough of what Drakloak is capable of, so my money is on Lucas since he still has Gabite and Toxicroak left, along with what I'm assuming will be his starter. He chose Turtwig, right?"

I looked to Dawn for confirmation of my question, which seemed only natural since she got Piplup while Barry used Infernape during our battle.

"Yeah, that's right." Dawn said from the other side of Serena, where she was laying on her front while kicking her feet in the air. Her ass was, understandably, a little sore right now.

"The day I got to choose Piplup professor Rowen took me to go see Lake Verity, and I MAY have accidentally forgotten to bring the briefcase back with us. By complete accident Barry and Lucas found it when they were attacked by a couple Stary, so they took the pokemon inside to defend themselves with."

I blinked as Dawn recounted the starting events of the gen 4 games, with the only detail wrong being that in the games ALL three of the starter pokemon were present, with Dawn in the game having whichever one you and your rival didn't choose.

"That's pretty crazy! It reminds me of how Brendan got his starter!" May said, drawing all of our attention towards her as she recounted how professor Birch had been doing field work, without his pokemon, when a pack of Poochyena appeared and ran him up a tree.

Thankfully it had also been right after May had chose Torchic for her starter, so Birch still had the remaining two starter pokemon in his bag when Brendan happened upon the scene. Of course he ended up picking Mudkip, which left Treeko for me when May came to kanto.

"We're getting sidetracked." I told them, directing my attention back to the tv right as Gabite used Dragon Breath, which did significant damage to Drakloak.

"Gah!" Gloria reacted as her brother's pokemon took the hit, which did a LOT of damage to it since dragon type pokemon were weak to dragon type attacks.

"Even if Drakloak manages to beat Gabite, it would then have to fight Toxicroak and what I would presume is a Torterra afterwards, which would also most likely be Lucas' strongest pokemon." I pointed out to her, making Gloria pout even before the rest of the battle unfolded.

Possibly knowing that they would have to fight another battle after this one, Victor tried to have Drakloak fly up into the air to stay out of Gabite's range of attacks. But that didn't work when Gabite, seemingly pissed that they used this tactic, began to glow.

"Oh my." I said in awe as Gabite grew in size before the light faded, revealing a fully evolved Garchomp.

Garchomp then proceeded to launch itself skyward like a jet, and deliver a series of powerful Dragon Claws to Drakloak at Lucas' behest. Needless to say that Drakloak was soon knocked to the ground.

"AND DRAKLOAK IS UNABLE TO BATTLE! GARCHOMP AND LUCAS ARE OUR WINNERS!" The referee announced, signalling the end of the first round of battles.

"AND NOW LET'S SEE OUR FOUR SEMIFINALISTS!" The other referee declared, before my picture appeared on the jumbo screen above the arena, followed by Calem's, Brendan's, and Lucas'.

"Interesting!" I stated as I looked upon the other three trainers, wondering which amongst them would be my next opponent.

"I thought for sure Gary would make it..." Dasiy said in what sounded like a sad voice.

"I'm kinda glad he didn't." I admitted, earning me a look from her.

"Really?" She asked incredulously.

"Well yeah. I've already battled Gary twice, and beat him both times. When I have this chance to battle top trainers from other regions, why would I want to battle the guy who already lost to me twice, and who I can challenge whenever I want anyways?" I pointed out.

"Hm... I suppose that's true." Daisy admitted, before the four pictures on the screen began to shuffled themselves at high speed.

I paid close attention to them as they shuffled, knowing I was about to learn who my next opponent was going to be. And when they began to slow before finally coming to a stop in two pairs, I arched a brow.

"OUR FIRST SEMIFINAL BATTLE WILL BE BETWEEN CALEM AND LUCAAAAAAAAS!"

"AND THEN FOLLOWING THEM WILL BE BRENDAN AND AAAAAAAAAAACE!"

"Interesting." I said as they announced the next battles, which would take place in an hour. This would give us time to get our pokemon looked at, rested and treated. Of course if they were seriously injured then they wouldn't be ready in time, but that was up to the trainers to deal with.

Instead of being worried about my pokemon though, of which the only one to actually take a hit was Nidoqueen and some Combee, my attention was on Brendan and the team he had used until now.

In the previous battle he had used Aggron, Manectric, Shiftry, Hariyama, and Armaldo, while I was pretty sure his final unused pokemon was his Swampert. But I was entirely sure he had more pokemon that were at least equally powerful in reserve, if not more so.

"I'm looking forward to it!" I stated, even as I rose to my feet suddenly.

"Eh?!" Lillie uttered, shocked at the sudden movement as I forced her to stand, even with my cock still in her ass.

I then guided her to the shower while Serena and Marnie, who was being dragged along by Serena, followed.

"Why do I need to come as well?" Marnie asked as we all squeezed into the standing shower.

"Because you're Ace's sex slave for a year, aren't you?" Serena asked, to which Marnie reluctantly nodded. "Then you should learn how to 'properly' wash his body then~!"

As she said that, Serena lathered her tits up with soap before pressing them to my back as they rubbed them up and down my skin. I could especially feel her hardened nipples as she moved, which seemed as if they were trying to pierce my skin as she 'washed' me.

"That..." Marnie said as she cupped her own breasts, which were fairly smaller than Serena's.

"That's ok. I'm not picky when it comes to breasts size." I told her, pulling Marnie even closer so she was pressed up against my side while Serena serviced me from behind, and I started slowly thrusting up into Lillie in front.

"Just remember we need a turn!" Misty shouted to us, as the rest of them literally grouped outside the shower as they waited for their turn to clean up.

***

After the announcement of the semifinal matches, this entire section of the ship came alive as the audience scrambled to go and get refreshments, use the bathroom, and otherwise stretch their legs while they could. After all, no one wanted to miss the next two rounds, or the finale battle.

As they all moved though, a certain woman remained sitting in her private booth as she only partially watched the arena. Instead, she was listening to the various discussions taking place over the radio she had in her ear.

"Alpha team is making great time. We should be there before the final ceremony commences." Said one of the voices in her ear, which was gruff-sounding to match the man it belonged to.

"Delta team here. All of our undercover agents are steadily moving into position to get ready for operation. No one suspects a thing.

"Excellent. If we all do our jobs right, then everything should go smoothly tonight. Just remember to keep out of sight and inconspicuous until it is time to move. We want everyone on the ship gathered in one spot when we make our move, and the last thing we need is something unexpected happening." The woman said to them in a commanding tone.

""Ma'am!""

"And remember there is an opening among the executives, which may find itself filled after this operation."

""!!!""

Though there was no answer, the woman knew she had both of their undivided attention, and that they would do EVERYTHING they could to make sure nothing happened when they began moving.

She couldn't help but to smirk at this, since she herself intended to make sure things didn't go well for them.

"Is everything proceeding as planned?" Asked a voice, making her look up to see Giana approaching her.

"Indeed, on both fronts." The woman, Ariana, said with a smirk.

She then pulled out a laptop and opened it up to show Giana what she had on it.

"Using the information we got from Sabrina, I've already began transferring ownership of all of Giovanni's assets. This time tomorrow, he'll practically be broke." Ariana said as she went down the list.

"Good. And the other things?"

"Already prepared." Ariana answered, holding a bag out to Giana. "And we've already turned several Rockets to our side for when we make our move. When they realize that resisting is futile, I suspect that several more will turn to our side as well."

"Excellent. When the sun rises tomorrow, Team Rocket will be all but destroyed. And in their wake will rise the Aegis of Arceus."