Chương 14: Fight Me, I Dare You.
(You all are only 11 power stones away from 10th place. So I thought I might as well post this now since you guys have almost crushed the goal in just an hour. This is today's bonus chap)
Veilstone City was a nice place. It was somewhat isolated from the rest of Sinnoh due to its location. And, it also was where Team Galactic's Headquarters were located. Which was a bit worrisome if I was being honest.
As I made my way through the city with my mother I could see random groups of people running around the city in workout clothing. A good indication of the training I would probably be subjected to.
My mother dropped me off at the doors of the gym before heading to meet with one of her friends who was quite good at working with pokemon that participated in contests.
As I walked in I saw a group of younger people on the ground grunting in pain on the floor, in the middle of the gym was a young girl with pink hair that appeared to be around my age with her fist raised up.
The moment she noticed me she said with excitement.
"You! You are also in this class, right? Fight me!"
Blinking a few times in shock I said.
"I don't know how. That's why I am here."
She frowned at my response before redying a fighting stance.
"What better way to learn than first-hand experience? We are all waiting for the teacher to get here. So fight me, I dare you!"
Dropping my bags at the door I shook my head. Judging by the bodies on the floor I could tell I was about to get my ass kicked, but she was right. It was worth it to experience my first real fight.
"Good thing these hands are rated E for everyone."
If I was going to get my ass kicked I might as well get a good punch in.
I ran in her direction causing her to smile and just as my punch was about to land I felt her grab my arm and use my own momentum to flip me over, causing me to slam against the ground. She then quickly maneuvered herself on top of my body before starting to deliver a series of rapid punches.
I braced for the pain. But it never really came. I felt her punches striking me repeatedly, but the pain wasn't really there.
I felt her punches stop before she asked.
"Do you give up?" She asked as she raised her fist once more.
I looked at her in slight confusion.
"No?"
I tried to raise my fist to punch before she grabbed it and twisted it.
"..."
"...."
We both stared at each other in confusion before I said.
"Ouch?" I said, not really sure what else to say.
Even with her relatively skinny frame, I knew she was quite strong by how easily she had flipped me onto the ground. When it came to skills I wasn't a match without the use of my psychic powers, I probably wouldn't be able to land a punch without it getting blocked or parried. It just made the whole situation weirder.
The fact that I was apparently unaffected by her attacks seemed to annoy the pink-haired girl before she tried to continue her barrage of punches.
I started to think before realizing the answer. I was both psychic and fairy type, both types which resist the fighting type. I never really thought that the innate resistances of each type would also apply to humans but here I was experiencing it. I was technically taking what amounted to a quarter of the damage I usually would from each of her punches.
It suddenly made so much sense why I felt so uncomfortable around ghost and poison type pokemon. It also brought new worries to my possible poison and steel-type weaknesses. If I ever accidentally consumed something poisonous I would be in for a very bad time. I wondered why I felt fine around steel-type pokemon, but I just assumed it was due to some form of exposure therapy since I had been hanging out with Bronzor since before I fully "awakened" to my fairy typing. Certainly, something to consider.
"Stop getting distracted! We are supposed to be fighting!" The pink-haired girl said in annoyance as she stopped her attacks.
I wonder… does the same thing apply in reverse?
Looking at her annoyed expression I decided to use my strongest attack. My own knockoff combination of the moves Baby-Doll Eyes and Charm.
I saw her flinch before blushing a little and standing up.
"This is stupid." she said while looking away and going to sit at a bench.
'Must have been super effective' I thought to myself before sitting up from the ground. Looking around I saw some of the other students looking at me with awe as I had somehow managed to survive the barrage mostly unharmed.
Chuckling to myself I couldn't help but think.
'It seems my title of Lord of the Flies will have to come out of retirement.'
A few minutes later the teacher arrived. A man around the age of 40 with short hair and a small beard. He was the current gym leader and the one running the fighting school.
He gave a nod of approval before speaking.
"I apologize, my training with the older students ran a bit longer than I expected. Though I see you all kept yourselves busy. Good. I am gym leader Georges, and though you all got started without me I still need to see you all fight to know your strengths and weaknesses to plan my lessons appropriately. So everyone, gather up."
Out of all of the kids in class, I was the only one who truly had never practiced fighting in my life. Though I didn't really take much damage from their punches and kicks I was still getting wrecked. Once I got grappled to the floor I wasn't able to fight back. I was only able to beat a few of the other kids, and that was by simply tanking their attacks. I could see the strange glances the teacher gave me during my fights, a mix of both disappointment and approval.
The pink-haired girl was the future gym leader Maylene. Seeing her fight was impressive, and she was the only one who truly got a full nod of approval from the gym leader.
Once the battles were over he brought us for a one-on-one talk to discuss the plans for our lessons. And once it was my turn he directly asked.
"Kid, are you a psychic?"
His question caught me off guard, but I nodded my head.
"I thought so. Psychics tend to subconsciously protect their bodies from fighting moves with their powers. It's not something that can really be stopped unless you directly focus on it, so I don't expect you to try to disable your innate protection… I could also tell that you have never fought in your life before."
He closed his eyes for a few seconds while thinking before he continued.
"You experienced firsthand that fighting skill was able to overcome your innate damage resistance. So don't use it as a crutch to make up for lack of skill, otherwise, you will develop some bad habits that could result in you getting hurt badly in the future.
You are also behind the rest of the class when it comes to fighting experience and knowledge. If you don't mind the extra lessons I have some pokemon I can assign to give you some lessons to catch up with the rest. I have trained them since they were first born, so they are very knowledgeable."
I could see in his eyes that he was quite a wise person. As we spoke he was thinking of different plans to help me improve. So with determination, I said the words that I would come to heavily regret.
"Sir, no matter how hard the training is, I want to improve. The harder the training the better. I used to be a student at Olympia's school, and I always made sure to study non-stop."
Georges let out a loud laugh before a dangerous expression crossed his face.
"If you are truly ready to live up to your word, I will make sure to break you down before rebuilding you back up to be stronger than ever. Though if you back down I will be greatly disappointed in you. If a man doesn't keep his word then he is not a man. Are you really sure you are willing to commit to this?"
And so, I sealed my miserable fate with my next words.
"Yes sir!"
— — –
It hurt.
It hurt a lot.
Georges' pokemon had been taking turns beating me up- I mean, teaching me. I didn't realize just how many fighting-type pokemon he had raised, but now I was getting first-hand experience on how it felt to get beat up by them. I might only take one-quarter of the damage, but that just meant they had to punch four times as hard.
I had cruised through life so far thanks to my talent. An innate talent when it came to healing pokemon, when it came to being a psychic, when it came to researching pokemon. For the first time in my life, I felt what it was like to be talentless.
Maylene would absorb knowledge as if she was a sponge, in just a few hours her punches would become better and stronger. Whereas I on the other hand could barely catch up to the rest of my classmates, even when my lessons were 5-10 times more intensive.
I honestly could not tell you how many days had passed. They all blended together thanks to the repeated punches and exhaustion. If it wasn't for the Chansey the local Joy had assigned to me I probably wouldn't have been able to get out of bed many days.
This could almost be considered child abuse if it wasn't for the multiple times Georges gave me the option to stop with a concerned expression. Trust me, I wanted to quit, I wanted to give up more than anything else. But if I stopped now I would have gotten beat up for nothing. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as I lay on the floor. When I had first arrived here I was expecting to earn respect throughout the gym by helping my classmates tend to their wounds. But I was the most injured of them all.
"Lucas, you really are a beast." Darren, one of my classmates said as he looked at me.
Jeffery, Rafael, and Colby all nodded in unison.
"Honestly, we are all scared of fighting you during the first tournament. But we aren't going to give you an easy fight." Colby said, getting another round of nods.
"Mylene is way more skilled than all of us, but you are barbaric." Rafael added.
Letting out a weak laugh I said.
"I'm not going to hold back either… so you better be ready…"
I had befriended the group of martial artists. Though most of the time I was too tired to join in on the practice spars that they held.
"Do you need us to take you to your room? Or do you wanna stay on the ground?" Jeffery asked as he got ready to pick me up.
"Thanks, but the floor is the most comfortable place I can think of right now."
They all nodded and said their goodbyes as they went to their rooms. Leaving me alone to meditate. I had to keep reminding myself why I was doing this. To make sure I would be physically capable of surviving if I was ever to take a strong physical hit. To make sure I would be strong enough to fight back if I ever got cornered and couldn't teleport away. To make sure I wouldn't be a sitting goose if my psionics ever failed me.
I felt my body being picked off from the ground before I opened my eyes, only to be greeted with the pink hair of the future gym leader. Ever since our first fight since my arrival at the gym, she had been slightly distant with me. I didn't mind it too much, but she did have her times when she approached me. Mostly when my limbs had been turned to wet noodles from exhaustion.
"Prince charming has come to my rescue." I said in a joking manner as I felt my muscles yearning to return to the stillness of the floor.
Mylene scoffed before saying.
"This damsel in distress needs to learn to take care of themselves."
She dropped me off in my bed before turning the light off. Before leaving she said.
"I'll go call Chansey."
~Author's note~
Turns out my lawyer was great. They got all charges dropped. However, it seems attempting to bribe a judge is also a crime. So I am now in jail. Send me your power stones so that I can buy something to escape with.
Also, asking for a friend, what is the best tool to use to escape from Webnovel's jail?
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