Raziel stood there, dumbfounded. The Pokémon in front of him was a sight he had not expected to see any time soon, as their natural habitat was far away. The Duskull's red eye shone brightly, keeping his gaze on the other Ghost.
"A Duskull? Those aren't from around here."
Allen, his opponent, smiled "Of course, my family has been around. Even before starting my journey, I already owned four Pokémon from Johto and Hoenn. I figured it was only fair that I'd challenge a Dexholder and a specialist of Ghost-types with one of those." He said, with an overexaggerated bow. "I pray you prove better than my previous experience with one of you."
Raziel nodded "I hope I'll prove a good challenge." He commented, wondering who Allen had fought before for a moment, before focusing back on the fight.
"So after a Ghost I run into another." Gastly noted with a large smile.
Duskull did not speak immediately, instead studying his opponent with a thoughtful expression. "You are not a natural born, right? You have a mother and a father of the ghostly variety, yes?"
"I… Well, yes, why do you ask?"
Duskull kept studying him thoughtfully "Peculiar, absolutely peculiar. Very well, show me your ability young spirit."
"How old are you? You can't have been a Ghost for more than a year or two judging by your size." Gastly asked, surprised by the way of talking of the Duskull.
"Well, I passed away at ninety-five in my mountain lair as an elderly Pokémon before returning in this humble form. You will forgive me if I cannot take you as a peer of main in terms of age."
'Fantastic, he's one of those…' Gastly thought with a sigh. Most Ghosts that derived from a spirit only maintained a few memories of their past self. It was usually a memory of the cause of their bond to the world of the living, more than any other. Age became hardly a part of those memory, and the young Ghosts were effectively young. However, sometimes someone's bond to the world was strong enough to preserve their entire life, which meant they could prove quite tricky to handle.
Once the referee gave the order, Gastly darted ahead on Raziel's order. He hit with Lick and saw the Duskull gasp as the damage and the paralyzer hit. Then the Pokémon did something very unexpected, a shadow of a mandible forming under his skull and biting Gastly's tongue. The Pokémon screeched as the Bite damaged him, before managing to free himself right before a Night Shade could hit him.
"Ok, that doesn't sound like a move a Duskull should know." Gastly replied, trying to build some distance between them.
"No." The Ghost replied, floating after him before going for a second Bite "An Exploud would though."
"Oh, give me a break!" Gastly replied, avoiding narrowly the attack and going for a Lick again. He noticed the enemy's movement growing a bit more sluggish. 'So, they do work on Ghosts. How does that even…' He dodged at the last second another Bite, yelping as he turned to gain more distance. He kept an eye on the edge of the arena, dangerously close, but he had to think of a biting Duskull now.
He looked at Raziel, clearly divided between being worried for Gastly and absolutely gushing for Duskull, and the Trainer smiled "Show him what you learned from Pewter!" He shouted. Gastly smiled.
"Tell me..." He begun, carefully moving to the left and keeping the distance from the Biting Duskull "Shouldn't an Exploud know better moves than just Bite?"
"Yes, unfortunately, the others would not work on you, and I am not strong enough to use those that would. Apologize, if it seems like I am going easy on you."
Gastly grumbled. The Pokémon was far too polite for his tastes.
Duskull studied his young opponent. He was far too old to be defeated by any trick he could come up with, but he supposed it would be amusing to allow him to try himself a bit. Unfortunate, but he was going to be his steppingstone to prove himself to Allen. His young trainer seemed to have mostly accepted Duskull's eccentricity, and he was going to return the favor with glee.
The Gastly darted forward, moving left and right, up and down to try and confuse him. The Duskull smiled – or tried to – and jumped ahead, preparing to Bite his opponent once more as he moved down to the ground.
And then the Gastly chuckled and phased underground. The Bite left him eating dirt and nothing else.
When he turned to see where the other had gone, he felt a ringing sensation, like someone had screeched in his face for a moment, but a second later his 'sight' came back. 'What was that?" He wondered, looking around. He felt… weird.
"You thought you were strong?" The voice of the Gastly asked, now warped. He searched around, finally feeling him on the other side of the arena. The Duskull ran forward, aiming a bite, but the Gastly chuckled "You are just a dead mon with no tricks." And saying so, he begun to grow, until Gastly was looking at a mountain. He savagely bit, bit and bit, as Gastly laughed and laughed. And at each bite, he felt pain on his own body, until the world went silent.
Raziel sighed in relief, as the Duskull fell to the ground, having Bitten his own body into unconsciousness while Gastly hit with Night Shade.
He smiled at the Pokémon "Good Confuse Ray Gastly!" He exclaimed, and the Pokémon smiled back. Raziel could not help but feel proud. Figuring out how to use Confuse Ray fast enough had taken them days, but now he believed Gastly to truly be unstoppable. Especially because the move combined well with Night Shade.
Allen, on the other side of the field, recalled the Duskull and murmured something. Then he turned to Raziel "Thank you sir. I see at least some of you deserve the Pokédex."
Raziel smiled back "Thank you for the fight." He said, walking ahead himself "Your Duskull is very peculiar. Where did he learn those moves?"
"No idea. He just knew them from the moment I caught him."
"Them? There is more?! Show me, please!"
Allen laughed "Sorry sir, I can't show all my aces here, don't you think? Though I'll just say, one of them can cause quite the Uproar."
Raziel could not help but feel disappointed, but then shook his head and shook his hand "Well, I suppose, until next time then."
"Of course." Allen said, then he moved closer "In confidence, I have to ask how you and Giuls are in the same group. I clearly see you are a far better trainer."
Raziel recoiled at that, feeling some anger grow. "I am sorry, but I'd prefer you didn't speak about a friend of mine like that. I would suggest taking it back now."
Allen immediately pulled back "Of course, pardon me for my manners." He replied, with a grin "Simple curiosity. Well, good luck with your journey." The tuxedo-wearing blonde turned, leaving.
Raziel moved back to the chair, but on the way was stopped by Giuls, that grasped his hand and stared at him "What did he say?"
The Ghost Trainer looked at her, noticing she seemed worried "Nothing much." He lied "He is rather blunt about not liking you, but I bet is just that he doesn't know you well."
Giuls grumbled. Whatever she was thinking, she did not share it with Raziel.
Frant nodded as his Ekans easily dispatched the enemy's Nidoran. The male purple Pokémon was clearly on the backfoot, with no way to use his strategies and no moves besides Peck to break the Ekans' defenses. For the Lieutenant, it was a trivial thing, that left him with all the time in the world to think of the fight between the Gastly and the Duskull.
'He knows well how to use his tactics, and Gastly and him understand each other with little need of pure orders.' Of course, there had been hole in his tactic. Most important, he had picked up on why the Gastly had hidden underground before using Confuse Ray.
"Winner: Jak Dexon!" The referee shouted, and Frant nodded seeing Ekans had finished the Nidoran. He gave a polite handshake to his opponent, a young girl clearly saddened by the defeat, and returned to his seat. He looked around. Only Giuls, Raziel and him were sitting there right now. Draconix was taking the field, for the last fight of the second round. Overall, he was more impressed, but could still see flaws. The Charmeleon left himself open with large swipes every time he used those famous Breaking Claws. And if Raziel over relied on a single move at a time, but at least switched which, the Fire-type was not even trying to fire Ember or any other move, just slashing wildly. He won, but the fight was rather uninteresting.
He looked at the remaining bracket. 'So, the girl called Giuls versus Raziel and me versus Draconix. Then, a finale between me and him hopefully."
Giuls bit her lip, facing Raziel. She knew what was troubling her. Raziel had defeated Allen, and quite easily all things considered. 'Could I have done the same? Could I have won against Allen?' She wondered in her mind, almost lost in her thought.
When Raziel sent out Gastly, she pondered who to send. After a moment, she chose Clefairy. The Normal-type looked puzzled at her, then turned to face the Ghost-type. The trainer waited, and then the referee gave the signal.
Gastly was the first to move, launching an assault with Lick. She called for her to dodge the attack, despite her surprise on Gastly choosing to use the move, and the Pokémon gracefully jumped forward, above the Ghost-type. The tongue only grazed her – which surprised Giuls - as the star-shaped Pokémon turned around with a quick finger movement. Metronome turned into a high pitch screech like metal grinding on metal. Gastly shivered notably, before he turned only to get blinded by a second wiggle of the finger turned into a Sand Attack. The Pokémon's eye closed, and Clefairy wiggled again the finger. 'Come on…' Giuls thought. She had chosen Clefairy because of her variety of moves thanks to Metronome. It was an hard bet, but she trusted the Pokémon to pull out the right move.
The Ice Punch impacted on Gastly, who flew back, almost over the age, but managed to stop himself right on time. Gastly turned and responded with a Confuse Ray. The beam begun to charge, but Clefairy jumped forward before it could complete. Wiggling the finger, she forced Gastly to move and dodge an incoming blow… even though said blow turned out to be Strength, the Clefairy's muscle tensing as she produced an impact on the ground strong enough to shake it. Gastly gulped loudly, but at Raziel's order moved to attack again.
The Ghost Pokémon dove underground, and Giuls realized what he was doing. She called for Clefairy to hit with Metronome, and she obeyed, firing a weird attack, the mysterious power of the move generating a loud sound like that of a hundred different frying pans hitting each other. But Gastly wasn't there.
That was when Giuls realized he had popped up on the other side, and saw it cough. Before she could realize why the Pokémon had made himself noticed, she saw Raziel's smile as Clefairy turned. "Close your…" She begun, but the Hypnosis hit, and Clefairy fell, asleep. Gastly immediately hit with a series of Lick and Night Shade. To her horror, Giuls saw them hit. 'Why? She is a Normal-type…'
Raziel grinned noticing her expression "Clefairy is a weird one, you can actually hit it with Ghost-type moves even though she is Normal. We figured it out by chance, while training with Leaf on Mount Moon." He said, as the referee raised his hand to announce him as the winner. With a sigh, Giuls recalled her Pokémon and shook Raziel's hand. She walked off the stage and joined Leaf on the side.
"Why?" Leaf asked.
"Uh?"
"Why Clefairy?"
"I thought I could use her Normal-type to avoid hits and then fire with Metronome until I got a good move." She said, looking away.
"Don't lie. That's not your kind of fighting. You know Self-destruct and Explosion are both risks with every Metronome, not to mention wasted moves like that Strength. Why didn't you use Ivysaur."
Giuls sighed "Because back when she was a Bulbasaur, Ivysaur lost against the Trainer Raziel beat before. Because I lost against him. And so, when I knew Raziel was going to send out Gastly, I couldn't help but wonder if she could have won. If I could have won against him."
Leaf shook her head "Giuls, that's absurd! You know that's not how fighting works! You know…"
"I know!" She shouted, before lowering her voice again when a few people glanced at her "I know, but… But I couldn't shake it. Rationally I know I should have gone for Ivysaur. Sure, she could be hit, but she had far more reliable moves. I… Made a mistake. I didn't trust my Starter because we are only getting better now at understanding each other, and seeing Allen brought back everything."
Leaf was thoughtful for a while, as Draconix and his challenger walked on the ring, then shook her head "Then figth him and beat him. That will solve the problem. We are Trainers, that's what we do. We lose and win. When we lose, we plan a rematch." She patted her on the back, and Giuls could see a fire build in her eyes "Now let's focus on the rest of the tournament. After that, we will work on your strategy to take him on. What did he use?"
"A Doduo." Giuls replied, and Leaf's grin grew wider.
"Nice, I will think of something." She commented "Get ready to train, we will show him what you have."
Giuls sighed, and finally smiled a bit. 'I don't know how much that will help, but…' "Thank you, Leaf." She concluded out loud "I really need that."
The girl blushed a bit, and then chuckled taking her by the shoulder in a hug "What are friends for, after all?"