As soon as I entered Opal's gym, Marnie came over to me and saw my four badges, and, after finding out Morpeko likes us, gave us her league card, promised to meet me in the finals, and left. I then go over and get a love ball from Ball Guy, before starting my 5th gym challenge. Opal immedaly greets me, and, despite her dislike for my white uniform, tells me what's going on. She's looking for a replacement gym leader, and the gym challenge is an audition to find that new gym leader. She warns us of the stat lowering and increasing from getting questions wrong or right, respectfully. The challenge then starts, and I move onto the stage.
The very first trainer is Gym Trainer Annette, who sends out her Spritzee to fight Slit & Slice. Our first move, Iron Head, goes off without a hitch, and Spritzee is down. And then both Slit & Slice and Haircut level up. Double nuts. Keeping Slit & Slice in, the battle goes from fighting Spritzee to fighting Slurpuff. Then comes the first question: what are fairy types weak to? Obviously, Steel is the correct answer, or else Slit & Slice likely wouldn't be the one fighting, so I answer that. As a result, Slit & Slice's attack and special attack rise a stage each. With this new power boost, Slit & Slice loafs around instead of using Iron Head again. The next turn, however, he puts the extra power to good use, and Slurpuff goes down. One trainer down.
Annette walks off the stage, and is quickly replaced by Gym Trainer Teresa. Her Swirlix takes the stage, along with Slit & Slice. A single Metal Claw is all it takes, and Aromatisse takes Swirlix's place. The second question comes up, and of course, I get a one-stage stat boost for my speed by answering Annette. I go for Iron Head to finish the job, but Slit & Slice ignores the order the first time. The second time on the other hand, we land the hit and Aromatisse goes down. Another victory.
As Teresa leaves, the third battle against Thedora starts. Morgrem is her first Pokemon, and, once again, Slit & Slice is mine. We get struck with Fake Out, but with Slit & Slice's ability of Inner Focus, a Metal Claw attack is still pulled off. Morgrem is out, and Gardevoir comes into battle as the third question is asked. The answer omelets gets Slit & Slice a defense and special defense boost, which comes in handy when Gardevoir starts up with a super effective Mystical Fire. Noticing the risk, Slit & Slice follows my directions and uses Iron Head to one shot Gardevoir. Third battle over, but Diana Prince levels up. Nuts.
With the gym challenge completed, I'm able to head off of the stage and heal up Slit & Slice before entering the turf to fight Opal herself. When I get out there, she formally introduces herself, and says that the last part of the test is to fight her. Piece of cake.
Once again, I start off with Slit & Slice, while a Galarian Weezing takes her side of the field. Slit & Slice hits an Iron Head first round, and Weezing is defeated. Next comes Mawile, who, being part steel type, has me pondering on whether or not to switch out. In the end, I decided to keep Slit & Slice in, a choice which, in the end, resulted in . The first question follows Mawile's entrance, and I get it right, upping my speed stat by two stages. After seeing Inner Focus protect Slit & Slice from Intimidate, I then do a smart thing, which ends in failure as he disobeys. I try again, and this time, I get an Iron Defense off. Next turn, Slit & Slice ignores my orders, and Mawile too sets up an Iron Defense of her own. Question two raises my defense and special defense by two each, as I answer Purple. Slit & Slice still is disobedient for another two turns, but turn three, we get Mawile not only to the red with iron head, but we get her to flinch as well. Not taking any chances, I go for another Iron Head, and once again, Slit & Slice follows my directions. Mawile is out, and Togekiss takes her place. Question three is a correct answer, so Slit & Slice gets both his attack and special attack bumped up by two. Feeling more confident, Slit & Slice and I go for Metal Claw, one shotting Togekiss. Finally is Alcremie, and Slit & Slice stays in the field. He and Alcremie dynamax and gigantamax, respectfully, but unlike Alcremie, Slit & Slice refuses to fight the first turn. The second turn, however, a Max Steelspike takes out Opal's Alcremie, and the Fairy Badge is ours! We also get TM87 Draining Kiss, and a fairy uniform, both from Opal herself.
With the fifth gym completed, I get advice from the lady in the front to head to Circhester. Before leaving, however, I pick up ten super potions from the gym's Pokemart. And upon leaving, Opal showed up and asked me to accompany her to Hammerlocke. I accept, of course, because I know what comes next.
After reaching the city, I begin to head East towards Circhester, but, on the way, run into Bede. He immediately asks me if I can afford to waste my time to gawk at him, to which I answer "Of course!" Unphased, he tells me that he doesn't plan on going down so easily, and that he plans to ask the chairman for his status back. And then Opal shows up. And. Freaks. Out. Because Bede is decked head-to-toe in PINK. She drops her umbrella and runs up to him, declaring that It was time to start her gym challenge. She inspects him entirely, rather creepily, but even more so hilariously, as she shouts "Pink!" over and over and over, before leaning over his shoulder and congratulating him. After a small chat, Opal tells Bede to come with her. Bede accepts, and Opal says good-bye.
We continue towards route seven, and, though we get cut off by Sonia, and soon after an explosion, Leon. The two of them go off to warn Chairman Rose of dynamaxing Pokemon, and let me go. Unfortunately, Hop isn't so generous. As soon as they leave, I end up going over to him and listening to him ramble on about how lost he was, and that he wants to fight on Route 7. But before I do, I swap a few places in my party, and then I open up my league card and notice something. Turns out that Pokemon of up to 70 will listen to me, which just so happens to be everyone on my team. The rest of the walkthrough should be a breeze!
Anyway, I bike over to route seven, and, after crossing the bridge, I run into Hop and we battle. First round is Octoling VS Trevenant, which we crush easily with a single Night Slash. The second Pokemon is Heatmor, who I decide will go up against Diana Prince. Again, it's a walk in the park, with Diana Prince using Counter to Bug Bite, and then following up with Night Slash. Snorlax comes next, so Slit & Slice takes Diana Prince's place. One Night Slash from him is all it takes, Snorlax is gone! Boltund follows, and I decide to let Haircut out for a match. Power-Up Punch does a lot of damage, but not enough to beat Boltund, so we follow up with Play Rough. Last but not least is Rillaboom, so Killer Frost takes the field. Icy Wind gets Rillaboom to yellow, and slows him down, but so does Drum Beating. Night Slash would have finished him, IF Hop hadn't used a Hyper Potion. Nonetheless, Metal Claw wins it. The battle, the ENTIRE battle, had absolutely ZERO hiccups. WOO-HOO! Not to mention that Slit & Slice and Octoling both reached level 62. Double NOT nuts!
With Hop defeated once again, he healed up our team, and we got to move onwards to route eight (after getting hit by a Liepard's Assurance attack, that is). We also nabbed three quick balls along the way.
Our first fight on route 8 was against Doctor Joanna and her two Pokemon. The first was Roselia, who went down to a single Psycho Cut from Octoling. Hattrem followed up, and Glumbreon got a chance to fight. It was a one-shot with a critical hit bite, and we were back on the road.
The next fight was against Musician Charles and his Togedemaru. Foul play takes it out in a single shot, but not before Iron Barbs deals some damage to Octoling.
Steamdrift Way went by without a problem, as we managed to avoid the only trainer there. So we were in Circhester, and I… was tired. That was the day for me, I ran into the Pokemon Center, healed up, and saved the game before turning the switch off.
