From the Ashes

[LKWayvern]

Chapter 6

The Sparring Glade turned out to be a small hollow ringed by Oran trees. The moss inside it was soft, like a carpet, and would certainly cushion Eric’s fall if he hit the ground.
As the Scyther stood facing Raider, his feet sunk into the cool mossy pillow on the ground.
“First, let’s start by seeing just how good at battling you three are,” Raider said. “If you hit me once, I faint. If I hit you once, you faint. Moves are encouraged, but don’t go all out. Now, Gadzooks, hit me with whatever you--”
(RL) Before Raider had even finished speaking, Gadzooks raced recklessly towards Raider, his ribbons enlarging and hurling themselves around her, intending to grab and restrain her.
Raider leaped backwards, and the ribbons only grabbed themselves, getting tangled up. Gadzooks changed tactics and leaped towards Raider, baring his fangs. Raider didn’t even try to dodge, instead holding out her roses, and letting out a single round of Bullet Seed with a loud bang!
Gadzooks screeched and tried to dodge. His momentum made him hit the grass awkwardly, however, he had been too late. The Bullet Seed had grazed his tail.
“Now, Koray, attack,” Raider commanded.
The Umbreon crouched down in the moss, sizing the Roserade up. He readied a Confuse Ray in front of himself, and launched the orb out at Raider.
Raider closed her eyes, allowing the Confuse Ray to hit her. She then let aimed her roses in front of her, and stopped.
Koray froze, unsure of what to expect. He hesitantly formed a sphere of Toxic in front of him, and hurled the deadly venom at Raider. She didn’t even flinch, instead she calmly fired two Pin Missiles at Koray.
The Umbreon shrieked, and white energy sparked off his fur as he used Quick Attack to get away. He stared at Raider from his new position for several moments, unsure of what to do.
Raider opened her eyes again, having successfully waited out the confusion. She scanned the Glade for Koray, and then finding him, fired another Pin Missile right beside him.
Before it hit the Dark type, he was off like a rocket with his Quick Attack. Raider noted how he didn’t seem to be very good at steering and was going too fast to stop, and so fired a Pin Missile at the area right in front of him. Koray yelled as the Missile hit his paw, more out of surprise than pain.
Raider gave a gesture to Eric. Eric got into a battle stance, taking off his sheathes and raising his scythes before him.
Eric paused for a moment, wondering what would be the best way to proceed. He decided to test Raider with a U-Turn attack.
As Eric charged down the Roserade, his body dissolved into brilliant green energy. Raider quickly put up a Protect attack. The energy rebounded off of the barrier, and regrouped back into a Scyther on the other side of the Glade. Raider ran towards Eric right away, knowing the Scyther had to recover from the experience of being transformed into energy and back.
Eric readied an Aerial Ace, and shot towards Raider, moving slightly slower than she. While he ran he tried to identify what move she was going to use. His best guess was something with her roses, but that didn’t narrow it down very much.
Right when Eric was just about to hit Raider hard with his Aerial Ace, Raider let loose a massive cloud of yellow spores directly in front of Eric’s face. Before he realized what was happening, Eric inhaled the Stun Spore, and felt its numbing effects grip his limbs immediately.
Raider tapped Eric’s nose. “There. I defeated you all. Now, Aromatherapy.” Once the healing move had worked its’ magic, the three young Pokemon gathered in a line once more.
Raider first turned her attention to Gadzooks. “Where to begin. First of all, you charged me before you had even fully conceived a strategy. You didn’t even use any actual moves, you simply flailed about with your ribbons, and tried to tackle me into submission. Without moves, a Pokemon is just helpless, just like a trainer without their Pokemon. If you had tried to get me with one of your ranged attacks, like Fairy Wind, you could’ve hit me.”
Gadzooks looked down at his paws.
Raider turned towards her next victim. “Koray. You used Confuse Ray on me to keep me from hurting you, but you knew I was clever enough not to do damage to myself. You also used Toxic on me, when you know perfectly well that Toxic won’t hurt a Poison type like me. You also did not use your Quick Attack to hit me, but instead you used it to dodge my moves.” Raider paused a moment. “You’re clever. You know how to use your moves, and you’re loyal. Too loyal, in fact. You’d have no problem attacking a Team Reva member, I assume, but I believe that you don’t have full control over the strength of your more powerful moves, so you try to restrain yourself to just status moves while sparring. This won’t help your problem at all. You may hurt your allies if you hit them with a move, but you will also gain greater control with that move. If you gain greater control, you can avoid injuring your allies, and do more damage to your foes.”
Koray smiled up at Raider. He seemed quite pleased with her appraisal of his skills.
Raider shifted her attention to Eric. “Now, Eric… The first time we met, you were stuck in your head trying to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of a new enemy. Even if you had been evenly matched with the fossils, you knew too little about how to fight them, and would have been defeated because of that. You saw Gadzooks and Koray attack me, and yet you still took some time pondering what to do. Your U-Turn attack was to drop you far enough away to give you more time to think. You only attacked when pressed, and you spent far too much time wondering what I was doing to realize I was using Stun Spore. You need to rely on your thoughts less and your instincts more, or else a particularly bloodthirsty or fast opponent may hit you much harder than I did.”
Raider sighed. “Good work, everyone. Tomorrow I shall begin working with each of you individually. Koray, you need the least work, so you will go first. When I believe that you are ready, I will move on to Eric, and then to Gadzooks. When I believe you are each strong enough, we will try this exercise again. Now, it is getting late. Go find some food to eat.”