[X] My Assistant

[Kamaitachi]

"Whew!"

Cesc wiped the sweat from his brow as he the fire subsided around him. Valentine, his Monferno, looked over to him, tossing a casual thumbs up as the remnants of the flames around him died down.

"You've gotten a lot stronger since you evolved." Francesco Rojas grinned at his Pokemon Partner. "Messes with my muscle memory a bit, my friend. But don't worry, that's on me. You keep doing what you do, and we'll figure out this appeal in no time."

He sat down, picking up his discarded shirt and using it to wipe his face and bare upper body from the sweat. Back when Valentine had been a Chimchar, it had been easy to keep up with his Pokemon's movements, but Monferno was so much faster, stronger, and sharper. It was a good thing that they were training together.

Cesc took a moment to survey his surroundings. They'd chosen a quiet plaza in Arasam, one of his favourite little haunts since so few people seemed to traipse through there. His Aunt and Uncle's tailor shop was only just around the corner, but still there wasn't a lot of foot traffic. There was very little to offer on that street, save for the tailor shop, which had gotten more business since Cesc's last contest win. However, he needed to boost that with a win here in his hometown.

Looking over to his side, he saw that the Ralts he had saved recently had not yet left his side. The small little...creature...had been watching in fascination as Cesc and Valentine trained, and had been reluctant for Cesc to take him back into the surrounding Arasam woods. He seemed interested enough in contests...perhaps Cesc would make him a partner. But with the Contest coming up, it seemed silly to throw him into the mix right off the bat.

"Keep observing, my little friend." Cesc reached into his pack and tossed over a Leppa Berry, which the Ralts fumbled on the catch. Smiling, he watched the little guy reach down and clumsily pick it back up, before biting into the berry with evident relish.

Turning back to the task at hand, he had one more pokemon whose moves he had to sharpen. Valentine, Oberon, and Tybalt were all ready...but his unruly Bardolph was still in need of some sharpening, and he wasn't going to be able to do that without presenting the Scyther a challenge.

"Bardolph. you're up."

In a flash, the Scyther appeared from the pokeball, standing and facing Valentine, who immediately took a stance.

"Bardolph...let's focus on making your moves as cool as they can be."

The Scyther, in turn, looked back at him, rolling his eyes. Cesc had never seen a bug type roll its eyes before, so this struck him as rather amusing. "Bardolph, my friend, you're going to be a contest star. You'll get to fight fantastic opponents, but we won't win unless you also make it look cool as hell. So let's start off with Vacuum Wave!"

[7eeveelutions]

Ruby was cautious for a couple seconds, waiting to see if her opponent would try something else. When they made no move, she decided it was her turn to try again.

While her offensive abilities were great, the strategies that she had the most pride in were the ones that simply screwed up her opponents. For this reason, she tried for a two-move combo.

The first move was Disable. Her nine tails raised up towards the sky, with all their tips congregating into one point and pouring an odd psychic power into it, creating a dark purple ball of psychic energy. While her foes had their eyes on the ball, she let it burst, sending a practically invisible wave of energy towards the Scyther. As far as she knew, there was no real effective way to avoid the move without hiding behind something, and since Barldorph was out in the open, she made the assumption that the move had impacted him. It would prevent him from using the same move twice by messing with the energies inside his body for a couple minutes.

While her foes wondered what had just happened (or at least, that's what she was hoping- that Cesc had no idea what she had just done), she quickly took another deep breath and let loose another torrent of fire. This wasn't Flamethrower, though- instead of flying straight towards her target, the flames began to swirl around him, creating a vortex of fire that was only a little bit wider than Barldorph was.

If he didn't move, he would be perfectly safe from the Fire Spin attack but an incredibly easy target for her other moves. But if he moved, he'd take fire damage. So what was his next move?
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"Is that...... a Chingling? Why is it flying over the battle? It could get hurt......" Amber muttered. But then, it wasn't the only observer that had popped up- there were a few girls watching the battle, along with that Minccino she was holding and what appeared to be a few various wild Pokemon.

In any case, Cesc seemed to be wrapped up in the battle enough that he hadn't recognized Ruby yet, and Scott seemed to have no intentions of showing himself until the battle was over, so Amber sighed. While the guys let their Pokemon beat each other up, she was probably going to have to be the one who helped them heal afterwards......

And she knew that Scott wasn't just going to stop with Ruby. Since he didn't often get to battle with someone as strong as Cesc, he most likely was going to throw Scarlet in as well at some point...... just to see how effective teleporting was against a good opponent.

The real question was, when would he send her in? The thin purple fox had already taken up a perch in a tree at the very edge of the clearing- within plain sight of Cesc, if he was only paying attention (she is also wearing the same vest as Ruby)- as she waited for the signal to go and have some fun.