Alesia stood in the section of the stadium designated for her and her opponent. She looked to her right to see Riolu in the middle of the stadium, and on the remaining third of the stadium's ground was Popplio.

Riolu was currently looking to his right at Popplio, then turned around and saw Alesia from afar and gave her a thumbs up. Alesia tried to look as far to the other end of the stadium as she could for Popplio, and she thought she saw him waving.

Alesia was surrounded from every direction by the sound of Pokémon cheering and shouting, thirsty for the oncoming battles. Several wide pillars around the outside of the stadium, higher than the walls, each had a Pokémon standing on top. Girafarig, Metagross, Gardevoir… soon into her counting, it occurred to Alesia that all of these Pokémon were Psychic-types. They all seemed to close their eyes together, as if they were all concentrating hard on something.

Caught off-guard, she stumbled a little to her left when next to her, a panel of glowing blue energy slowly began to rise up out of the ground. She briefly saw the same thing happening between Riolu and Popplio, and the one next to her stopped rising when it was at the same height as the wall beneath the seats. Alesia was now isolated in her third of the stadium, away from her companions, which served to hammer home the message that she had to be strong, that she couldn't rely on anyone else to win her battle for her.

The seating area around the battle area was unusually tall, with a considerable vertical slope from the top row of seats to the bottom. The higher up one was, the better they would be able to see all three battles simultaneously. How the stadium walls seemed to trap her intimidated Alesia a little, but she forced herself to stand up tall on her four paws, determined not to let down her teammates, and especially herself. If she was to make anything of herself in this world, she needed to mean business. There was no guarantee she'd ever make it home, and though the thought troubled her, learning to be a Pokémon would serve her well.

On the side of the stadium she was facing, a door opened. The crowd cheered seeing the entrance of the three opponents of Team Everlasting. For Alesia, that was a Honedge, who slowly observed her while getting closer before stopping when there was the right amount of space between them.

"3!"

At the announcer's booming voice, it clicked with Alesia that she was likely about to get her rear handed to her.

"2!"

But she could not afford to turn back now.

"1!"

If she were to face a beatdown, it would be better than not trying at all.

"Fight!"

Being given the first turn in preparation for the match assisted with Alesia's confidence. Focusing directly on the Honedge while she did her best not to let her opponent's stoic stature and near-emotionless stare intimidate her, Alesia fired a straight line of radiant stars of energy. They hit Honedge one after the other rapidly… or rather, they passed straight through Honedge's form. Alesia opened her mouth to protest, but then her face fell in realization of her blunder.

'...Oh. That's right. No Normal-type moves against Ghost-types.'

Not only had Alesia wasted a turn, but now Honedge was able to unleash something.

Honedge drew too close for comfort and raised up high before swooping back down with a slash. Alesia felt a sharp swipe through her flesh as purple energy flashed, and she fell down in pain, crying out.

"10!"

She realized something most peculiar. There wasn't a drop of blood. The side of her body that should by all accounts have been gushing out from the cut was still perfectly intact.

"7!"

Alesia realized she had to get up soon if she didn't want to be considered the loser. The pain quickly subsided, owing to the lack of any actual injury, and she leapt back onto her feet. The announcer stopped counting, then Alesia took several paces back as she cursed the forces of the universe for making a good portion of her attacks useless against her opponent's type when she was the one who didn't have battling figured out quite as well as this world's average citizen.

...Wait. Wasn't Bite a Dark-type move?

Only one way to find out.

She sped across the field, then, when she was just the right distance from Honedge, she lunged with her mouth wide open. Finally, she clasped her teeth tightly around Honedge's hilt, causing a wave of energy to spread across the sword Pokémon's form, outward starting from where Alesia had bitten. The sensation of biting down onto something with such a hard surface was deeply uncomfortable to her, but at least she'd managed to avoid the sharp part.

Alesia finally let go and saw that Honedge was barely moving, tilted toward the floor, looking as if threatening to fall at any moment. Of course, this turned out to be wishful thinking on Alesia's part, because in spite of her power move, Honedge returned to an upright, assertive position, before rotating, hilt facing Alesia. Without warning, Honedge zipped through the air, the shape of a sword being quite suited for it thanks to aerodynamics, and hit Alesia. She was launched back several feet before she fell back to the ground.

She clenched her head in pain, dizzy from the blunt trauma. The world around her was warped and twisted beyond recognition, with distorted sounds and saturated colors… she wasn't sure how much sensory abuse she could take.

A deep voice seemed to call out to her. "Who… who is it?"

"3!"

"Wh-what? No! You don't need to call off the match, I'm still in it!" She used every last ounce of willpower to force herself to get back up, and reoriented herself.

She evaluated the situation. As good as that Bite had worked, the Iron Head had been even better. She couldn't win if they kept doing that over and over. She needed something drastic.

She scratched at the ground with her front paws. "Come on, come on…" Desperately, she increased the effort. Her face lit up with delight as she felt her paws sinking into the ground. The hole she'd made in the ground became ever larger, much more so than she'd ever imagined possible for someone so untrained.

Gradually, she submerged her body further into the ground. The fact that digging was working so unbelievably well—indicating that she had, in fact, managed to unlock the elemental move known as Dig—instilled faith in her, and besides, this was a controlled environment. She'd be able to get help if stuck, even if that meant losing.

Further under the ground, she estimated where Honedge would be relative to her. She didn't know what, but something told her Honedge was directly above her. She changed direction until this mysterious signal in her brain registered as 'warm', and she leapt above the ground at top speed, making a new hole.

Honedge was launched a few feet into the air before landing. Alesia watched, pleased with herself for her haphazard idea working.

The announcer counted down, and reached only eight seconds before Honedge rose up once again, but this time, higher into the air.

Alesia looked up and gulped. She dashed a little to the side, but Honedge followed her. This was allowed to go on for a few seconds before Honedge slammed down to the earth. Alesia didn't have the speed to react in time and received the full force of the blow.

She did manage to get back up yet again before the announcer could end the match, but she was running low. She wobbled and staggered as she slowly approached Honedge. She attempted to run, but reached a much lower speed than her previous attempt to use this move. She honestly did put her all into it, but the Bite was more of a brief inconvenience to Honedge. Again, Alesia winced in pain from clamping her teeth down onto Honedge, and her weary condition didn't help.

There was a familiar flash of purple energy, and she felt that familiar slash down her body.

Alesia collapsed in a heap. She wanted to think she'd done a good job so far of withstanding the beatdowns, but too much was too much. It was clear she was fighting a losing battle, so she opted to just be kind to herself and shut her eyes. Feeling the pain, both of the sharp and blunt varieties, fade away was so much more pleasurable than going back up for more.

Her conviction, her pride, her determination, all forgotten, she allowed herself to drift away.