Ch. 51
Force of Will
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Catherine roared and punched Ursaring in the gut causing the grizzly bear to wheeze and stagger back a bit while the former heiress capitalized on her advantage and grabbed the sides of Ursaring's face. With a grunt of exertion, Catherine simultaneously pulled the grizzly bear's head down and jumped into the air with her knee rapidly rising into the air towards her sparring partner's chin and not a moment later a sickening crack could be heard by the two combatants.
However, Ursaring merely hissed in pain as her head snapped back and as quick as lightning, grasped the side of her much smaller trainer's head. Gnashing her teeth together, the grizzly bear squeezed Catherine's head like a grape while pushing the blunt edges of her claws into the former heiress's eye causing the brown haired girl to let out a brief, pained scream. Ursaring didn't apply enough pressure to actually crush her trainer's head or poke out her eyes, but it was enough to make Catherine aware of the strength difference between them.
Taking advantage of the fact that her trainer was temporarily blinded at the moment, Ursaring roughly lifted the former heiress into the air like a rag doll causing Catherine to hiss as she felt as if the grizzly bear was trying to tear her head off of her shoulders. Ursaring then slowly opened her maw and began gathering energy that took the form of a small, orange orb in her mouth while the former heiress heard the tell tale sound of energy being gathered and flailed her legs wildly in order to break free to no avail.
Preparing the blow that would end this sparring session, Ursaring roared and fired her large, beam of destruction at her trainer who was at point blank range...only for Catherine at the last moment to smash her feet into the grizzly bear's chin. The force of the blow snapped the grizzly bear's jaw shut causing the wave she intended to fire upon her trainer to violently detonate in her mouth causing a terrible, splitting pain to erupt in Ursaring's head and throat. Gagging, the grizzly bear put a paw on her cheek and let out a ragged cough as black smoke wafted from her mouth while inhaling and exhaling in order to regain her bearings.
Shaking her head, Ursaring gritted her teeth and shut her eyes tightly to fight off the immense pain that her own carelessness caused as she heard footsteps rapidly approaching her from the side. Turning her head that ached in protest of the movement, the grizzly bear saw through her blurry vision Catherine thrusting her elbow towards her sparring partner's nose. Ursaring widened her eyes in shock before it turned into intense agony as she felt as if she had been struck by one of Sparkplug's paw swipes and for the first time in their bout, one of Catherine's physical blows had actually managed to hurt the grizzly bear.
The grizzly bear struggled to shake the cobwebs in her head as she felt Catherine tightly wrap her arms around her neck and with a war cry, dead lifted Ursaring up into the air. Ursaring growled in surprise as Catherine put one foot forward and the other one back for stabilization before she let out a scream of effort and slammed the grizzly bear onto the ground belly first with all her might. Ursaring hissed as the blow sent small tremors throughout the ground, but managed to finally force down all the pain she was feeling as she heard the former heiress breathing heavily and sluggishly leaning her belly on Ursa's back while maintaining her grip around her sparring partner's neck.
Allowing a small smirk to come to her face, Ursaring quickly poked her head out of Catherine's hold who fell down onto all fours and already too tired to do anything, Catherine was helpless as the grizzly bear firmly wrapped her arms around the exhausted girl's waist which pinned her arms to the side. Ursaring picked her trainer up who was left dangling upside down and braced the brown haired girl's back against her belly like she was going for a variation of a piledriver. In the split-second on considering what she could do in this position, Ursaring opted to jump up into the air and crushed the former heiress between the ground and the entirety of her bulk. Catherine let out a muffled scream as she felt like she was being put through a car compacter only to feel Ursaring hoist her back up and repeat the process eliciting another cry from the former heiress.
Knowing she had to break free, Catherine managed to worm one of her arms out and grasp a clod of dirt into her hands as she was sandwiched between the ground her sparring partner once more causing her to briefly black out. Letting out a raspy groan as her eyes fluttered open, she felt the grizzly bear pick her up once again and with careful aim, threw the clump of dirt into Ursaring's eyes causing the grizzly bear to snarl and stumble back erratically, but not let go of the former heiress like Catherine wanted. Sucking in a deep breathe, Catherine clenched her teeth and grasped another pile of dirt into her hands and just like before, the former heiress aimed precisely and flung the dirt into Ursa's face just as she was blinking away the remains of the first patch of dirt.
Letting out a growl, Ursaring was forced to let go of her trainer who hit the ground with a harsh thud causing the brown haired girl to moan miserably as she took the reprieve in battle to get some of her strength back. Just as the brown haired girl managed to get back on her shaky feet, she saw Ursaring glaring at her angrily with some remnants of dirt still around her eyes causing the former heiress to nervously laugh. Not amused in the slightest, the grizzly bear grabbed a clump of wet dirt the size of her claw and in a surprising display of speed, instantly appeared in front of her trainer and smashed the clump of dirt into Catherine's face like it was a cake.
Catherine let out a muffled yelp of surprise that turned into a hiss as she harshly hit the ground back first and immediately her hands tried to get the dirt off, but she felt something big grip both of her wrists and roughly slam them to the ground causing the former heiress to wince. Gritting her teeth and turning her face to the side to allow some of the dirt to slide off her face, Catherine looked up at Ursaring who looked back down at her before pressing her knee into Catherine's gut at a downward angle in order to force more of her weight down onto her smaller sparring partner. Gagging and gnashing her teeth, the former heiress twisted and turned in order to alleviate some of the weight on her small frame until Ursa suddenly shoot her paw out in an attempt to grip Catherine's head. The pinned girl gasp and barely managed to move her head to the side to avoid the first strike, but cried out as the grizzly bear's razor sharp claws slashed her face below the eyes.
The cuts were superficial, but they still made Catherine's eyes water and made her cry out until her eyes widened as she felt Ursa shove her claws into the former heiress's mouth and forcefully twist her cheek to the side while making sure her claws didn't pierce through her trainer's cheek. Catherine let out a gagged wail as tears freely streamed down her face as she flailed her trapped wrists and kicked her legs wildly in an attempt to break free, but Ursa's grip was like iron and the grizzly bear refused to let go. Despite the pain she was in, the former heiress refused to give up as she managed to turn her head and glare at her sparring partner before her head was forcefully twisted to the side once more.
While Catherine squirmed to break free, Ursa reached her head down and chomped down onto the former heiress's shoulder with her fangs that broke the skin and drew little streams of blood. Catherine shut her eyes and tightly balled her trapped hands into fists to cope with the pain and when that didn't work she bit down onto Ursa's paw only for the grizzly bear to raise a brow at this. Seeing that Catherine wasn't going to give up any time soon, Ursa dug her fangs a little bit deeper into her trainer's shoulder and used as much force she could allow for the hold to be unbearable, but not enough to cause permanent harm to her friend.
Catherine's body trembled and she let out a howl as she felt her wrists go numb and her cheek becoming sore to the point that it felt like it a fire poker was being pressed against it as the agony she was in suddenly stopped as Ursa relaxed and simply sat on top of her trainer. She maintained her restraints on Catherine, but she didn't apply any pressure as she looked down at the girl who was breathing heavily and had beads of sweat pouring down her forehead as the former heiress let out a weak grin.
"You win, sweetie," Catherine conceded tiredly as best she could in spite of having a part of Ursa's giant paw in her mouth causing the grizzly bear to nod and retract her paw from her friend's mouth and release her grip on Catherine's wrist.
In sheer exhaustion, Catherine lay on her back and sucked in copious amounts of air back into her system until she felt Ursa scoop her up in her arms and carry her over to a tree trunk where they could overlook Luka, Floatzel, and Kricketune helping Graveler train. Deciding to test Ursa's patience, Catherine blew a puff of air in the grizzly bear's face only for Ursa to quickly adjust her grip so the former heiress's face was shoved into Ursa's sweaty armpit.
"Eww, pleh, pleh! It was joke, Ursa!" Catherine exclaimed frantically as she weakly tried to move her face while the grizzly bear smirked and tightly wrapped her arm around Catherine's head so the brown haired girl's face was being pressed against her armpit.
Ignoring Catherine's muffled cries, Ursaring sat down near the tree that would allow her to watch her teammate's spar and then released her grip on Catherine who sucked in a large amount of air and let out an exhausted chuckle.
"Okay, point taken Ursa," Catherine told the grizzly bear who grinned in triumph as she gently set the former heiress against the tree and set off into the forest for some unknown reason leaving Catherine alone to watch the rest of her team help Graveler train.
"Damn, fighting against Ursa is a real workout. I'll make sparring against her a regular thing during training sessions from now on," Catherine mentally noted as she sucked in a breathe and let it back out as she continued to survey the sparring session the rest of her team was having against her second strongest friend.
Though she was exhausted beyond belief, Catherine smiled as she watched Graveler doing as she instructed and weaved between his teammate's attacks so they nearly hit each other instead of him. Seeing Graveler strike back whenever the opportunity arose against Luka, Floatzel, or Kricketune made Catherine glad that she Ursaring had a practice match against each other. Ursa may be powerful, but she wasn't on her teammate's, let alone Dmitri's team's level yet, regardless of her skin of the teeth victory against Sparkplug. Hearing the bush rustle behind her, Catherine weakly turned her head and found Ursa carrying a large amount of oran berries and herbs in her arms before tiredly turning her head back to Graveler's training session and saw the animate boulder conjure a giant stone the size of a minivan.
With a grunt, Graveler flung the gigantic stone at his sparring partner who remained cool as his sword like arms began to glow a vibrant yellow and in the span it took Catherine to blink, Graveler's projectile was slashed into dust causing Ursa to jolt and widen her eyes. Letting out a soft laugh, Catherine and Ursa watched as the insect leaped through the dust cloud high into the air with his blade like appendages raised above his head while Luka brought her arms to the side and quickly conjured a sphere of spiritual energy.
"You're doing good; keep it up," Luka complimented her brother as she fired her restrained orb of aura at her sibling who had to quickly decide on whether to block Kricketune's overhead strike or stop the aura pokemon's sphere of destruction in its path.
Graveler's indecision cost him as a powerful, condensed wave of water crashed into him from behind causing the living boulder to grumble under his breathe and stumble forward uncontrollably before Luka's aura sphere smashed into his frame like a runaway train. The living boulder let out a hiss as he struggled to maintain his balance only for Kricketune to suddenly chop its sword like appendages downwards forcefully like an ax that sent the animate stone crashing to the ground with a thud.
Letting out a groan, Graveler grasped the side of his body with his hands and shook it a little causing a bit of dust to cascade off of him as Luka, Floatzel, and Kricketune helped him to his feet. Smiling warmly at the display, Catherine suddenly heard something being squished and found Ursa grinding the herbs and berries into juice in the bowls she made out of nearby rocks causing the former heiress to raise a brow as the grizzly bear repeated this process several more times before grasping a banana leaf and tearing it into little strips. Lightly running some of the goop from the bowls onto the strips, Ursa placed it against one of the cuts Catherine had on her face like it was a bandage strip and immediately Catherine tightly shut her eyes and gnashed her teeth.
Ursa repeated this process two more times as Catherine grasped a patch of fur on the grizzly bear's thigh as Ursa comfortingly put a paw on her trainer's shoulder and lay a banana leaf flat on the ground. Ursa then dipped her paw into one of the bowls and slathered more of the mush across the leaf before picking it up causing Catherine to look up at the grizzly bear worriedly causing Ursa to give her trainer an assuring grin.
Slowly, Ursa placed the makeshift bandage onto Catherine's bite wound causing the former heiress to bite down on her lip as the grizzly bear finished tying the makeshift bandage around her shoulder. Feeling as if hot coals were being pressed against her cut and bite wounds, Catherine gripped the patch of fur tighter as Ursa proceeded to bandage up the bruised areas of Catherine's arms, legs, and chest while covering the areas that couldn't be bandaged with the medicinal mush.
"Ursa, could you help me with my back?" the former heiress requested in a soft tone of voice causing the grizzly bear to nod and sit Catherine up before letting her trainer rest against her belly while she prepared a banana leaf bandage.
Lifting Catherine's shirt up, Ursa winced when she saw three large, nasty bruises the size of her paw across her friend's back. Shaking her head, the grizzly bear picked up the bandage and stuck it on one of the bruises causing Catherine to grimace as Ursa repeated this process two more times in which Catherine accidentally dug her nails into Ursa's leg which the grizzly bear easily ignored. Finishing up tending to the former heiress's bruises, Ursa slathered more of the mush onto a banana leaf causing Catherine to tiredly glance at her friend who pretended to put a bare leaf in her mouth causing the former heiress to wince, but nod.
Ursa slowly brought the leaf up and placed it inside of the former heiress's mouth who gagged and nearly spat out the leaf, but after a moment put up with the bitter taste and pressed the leaf against her sore cheek. Laying her head against Ursa's chest, Catherine closed her eyes and let herself rest after the exhausting battle against the grizzly bear who wrapped an arm around the girl's waist and watched Luka, Floatzel, and Kricketune gang up on Graveler for preparation for the uphill battle tomorrow.
"(Try and keep moving, but don't use more energy than you need to,)" Luka advised Graveler as she fired an orb of silver energy that resembled a comet at the living boulder who rolled to the side just as Kricketune chopped at where the top of his body was like a pair of scissors.
The bug type, unfortunately, was then sucked in by a vicious whirlpool that spun him around violently like an out of control carousel causing Floatzel to balk and sheepishly laugh while rubbing the back of his head.
"(Sorry!)" Floatzel yelled as Kricketune angrily yipped at him while Graveler coated his hands with electricity and took a page from Lopunny's book by jabbing and sending the arcs of electricity around his hand towards the weasel.
Narrowing his eyes, Floatzel concentrated the energy that would convert his tails into steel into his forearm fins which began to glow white, but not turn into a durable iron like he wanted. Deciding not to focus on that problem for now, Floatzel crossed his arms into an x and slashed outward with his forearm fins that cut through the electrical arcs with some effort and caused them to ebb away.
Luka, seeing Kricketune still stuck in the whirlpool, shot off a burst of aura from her feet at Graveler while spinning around and firing off another blast of aura towards the whirlpool with her other foot. Graveler dug his feet into the ground and extended his hands as the energy blast neared him and with tensed muscles, the living boulder caught the burst of energy in his hands. Although he knew Luka was holding back, the force behind the spiritual energy blast nearly knocked Graveler over as his feet dragged across the dirt until he came to a stop.
The aura pokemon allowed her other projectile to be sucked into the whirlpool and when it spun underneath Kricketune, Luka tilted her head upwards causing the extension of her will to gently collide with the bug type like a bumper car and push him out of the whirlpool. Seeing Kricketune sitting down and shaking his head to regain his bearings, Luka nodded and refocused on the living boulder as Floatzel jumped into the maelstrom of water and condensed it around his body like armor and rocketed towards his sparring partner like a torpedo. Graveler, still holding one of Luka's aura spheres in two of his hands, stood his ground and at the last possible second, simultaneously grabbed one of his cohort's arms and tugged forward while the other two chucked the orb of spiritual energy into the water weasel's face.
"(Ow...man!)" Floatzel wailed as he clutched his face and rolled around on the ground as Luka engaged her brother in close combat while making sure to reserve her strength, but kept her blows as skillful as she would when facing stronger opponents.
"(Sorry, but I'm just doing what Catherine's strategy needs,)" Graveler told his friend with a soft laugh as ducked underneath one of Luka's punches and quickly rose all four of his hands up with his palm facing up causing a flurry of rocks to fly at the aura pokemon with frightening speed.
Remaining calm, Luka jumped backwards to avoid the the initial wave of projectiles and then gracefully ducked, sidestepped, and spun around the rest before holding her paw up causing Kricketune to land on Graveler's head and dissipate the energy around his thin arms just as he was going for another overhead chop.
"(Alright, I think that this is enough training for Catherine's strategy,)" Luka said aloud to her friends as she walked over to Floatzel and helped him to his feet while the water weasel kept a paw on his nose and congregated with his friends to the center of the field they chose as their training area.
"(I don't know Luka; shouldn't we train some more so we know for certain that I can execute Catherine's plan without a hitch?)" Graveler inquired thoughtfully which was a sentiment Floatzel shared as he bounced on his toes and prepared to go at it once more before Luka shook her head causing the water weasel to slump his shoulders.
"(We've been at this for eight hours so I know for a fact that you're more than prepared for the battle to come tomorrow. Besides, Catherine would rather us get a good night's sleep and be fully rested than taking time to train some more and have less energy when we most need it,)" Luka responded coolly causing the animate rock to nod and fold his arms while Kricketune leaped off of Graveler and landed next to the jackal.
Walking towards her girlfriend and her most recent teammate with her friends in tow, Luka eye's widened and jogged towards them causing Graveler, Floatzel, and Kricketune to exchange glances with one another. Upon catching up with Luka, they too recoiled a bit when they saw the extent of the damage Catherine suffered during her sparring matches against Ursa while the grizzly bear carefully placed the sleeping girl against the tree trunk and stood up on her feet. Despite being taller than most of her teammate's save for Luka who was of equal height, Ursa looked away and rubbed one of her arm while the aura pokemon folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at her teammate like a parent would be doing to a naughty child.
"(Ursa, the mock battles we have are called sparring sessions for a reason. They allow us to see what we still need to work on and giving us the opportunity to build on what we're already good at,)" Luka scolded Ursa who winced and nodded slowly as she continued to rub her arm while Catherine suddenly spoke up.
"Luka, it's fine. I gave her permission to be rough with me so please don't get mad at her," the former heiress defended her teammate while taking the banana leaf out of her mouth causing Luka's eyes to flash a shade of bright gray causing both Catherine and Ursa to look down at the ground as the aura pokemon stepped closer to the duo.
"(Catherine, it's good that you want to get stronger in order to fight against pokemon with malicious intent, but you should have taken it slow! If this is the shape you're going to be in after every mock battle you have, then whatever gains you get will be offset by the many disadvantages training like that will bring!)" Luka admonished her girlfriend while raising her voice just enough to make it forceful, but not to the point that she was yelling while Catherine remained defiant and sat up a little bit.
"Luka, if I do this I will get stronger-"
"(NO! Look at Sparkplug; the only benefit she got from going through the exact same training your sister utilized was incredible pain tolerance, but that's it! She never got the chance to develop creativity, her own unique battling style, or combat skill until she trained with Dmitri!)" Luka interrupted sharply causing the former heiress's eyes widen before she snarled and glared at the grass while all her friends could see her hands trembling violently.
"I'm. Nothing. Like. Her," Catherine seethed just loud enough so her girlfriend and friends could hear her as she clenched one hand so tightly that blood began to drip down onto the grass below like raindrops causing Luka to gently grasp her girlfriend's wrist and slowly open her bloodied hand up.
"(And you don't know how grateful I am for that, but please for your sake and for the sake of those who care about you, don't torture your body like this again,)" Luka pleaded as she slowly transferred some of her aura over to her girlfriend's wound on her hand that began to seal up causing Catherine to give a soft sigh and bow her head.
"I'm sorry, I'll be more careful from now on," Catherine replied in a tone barely above a whisper as she and Luka embraced one another causing Floatzel, Graveler, Kricketune, and Ursa to smile as the two eventually broke off their hug before the aura pokemon suddenly sprang up and rounded on the grizzly bear.
"(Don't think you're getting off easy; you should have known better than to be that rough with Catherine even if she gave you permission,)" Luka chewed out her teammate who rubbed her arm and nodded slowly at what the aura pokemon said as the jackal took a deep breathe in and let it back out before putting a paw on Ursa's shoulder.
"(I know you want to make sure that Catherine doesn't get hurt like she did back when that army of pokemon attacked Hearthome, but this isn't the way to go about it. How would you feel if I was in your place and you were in Catherine's place?)" Luka inquired causing the grizzly bear to sigh softly and gaze into the jackal's eyes while still clutching one of her arms.
"(Not good,)" Ursa replied causing Luka to nod and hug her friend who went stiff at the contact before slowly returning it with a blush on her face as Kricketune joined in on the hug.
"(C'mon Ursa; I thought you were big, cuddly, teddy bear,)" Floatzel teased his teammate causing the grizzly bear's brow to twitch and thinking she could catch the weasel off guard, fired a quick, low powered wave from her mouth that was only meant to knock him off his feet.
Floatzel, however, simply held his hand out like a baseball player and effortlessly caught the energy blast in his paws with a smirk while Luka, Ursa, and Kricketune broke off their hug as the weasel tossed the energy wave from paw to paw.
"(Did you want this back?)" Floatzel asked his teammate with the same arrogant grin on his face before Kricketune suddenly swung one of his appendages up into the weasel's paw causing Ursa's projectile to nearly hit his face had Floatzel not leaned his head back in time.
"(Not cool,)" Floatzel snarled at his teammate who innocently shrugged and began to hum absentmindedly while Graveler put a hand on Floatzel's shoulder while Catherine suddenly cleared her throat to get her team's attention.
"As amusing as seeing Floatzel get his just deserts would be, we should all get some rest. The battle tomorrow is going to be tough and despite all our training, I don't know if we'll be able to win, but we're sure as hell going to try," Catherine stated with a burning fire in her eyes while looking up at the black, starry sky as Graveler, Kricketune, Floatzel, and Ursa grabbed their pokeballs from Catherine's belt and prepared to dematerialize into them before Luka held up her paw causing her friends to raise their brows.
"(Actually...can one of you guys stay out with her tonight? I...I need to overcome my fear of being in a pokeball,)" Luka told her teammate's in a tone that was trying to sound calm, but everyone could hear her voice falter causing Catherine to wrap her arms around Luka's waist and kiss her on the forehead.
"If this is what you want to do, than that's fine, but if you start feeling scared I want you to get out immediately," Catherine doted on her girlfriend who smiled gratefully at the former heiress and for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Luka grasped her pokeball in her paws and examined it meticulously.
Breathing heavily despite her attempts to calm herself, Luka hesitantly reached her other paw towards the device and gave it a gentle flick causing the aura pokemon to dematerialize and go into the spherical device.
"(I'll stay out with Catherine, you guys get some sleep,)" Graveler ordered his friends who shook their heads as Floatzel picked up Luka's pokeball and summoned a large whirlpool of water that he quickly tilted upside down and froze with a bone chilling beam of ice which the grizzly bear and the bug approached.
Working in tandem, the bear and the bug simultaneously struck at the bottom part of the ice formation that created an entrance to the makeshift tent and gestured for Graveler and Catherine to follow them. Nodding, the living boulder gently lifted the ground underneath the injured girl and levitated her towards the entrance before setting the uplifted earth down as he carried his friend into the makeshift tent and set her down in between Ursa and Floatzel so she could keep warm. Seeing Catherine give him a grateful nod and use Ursa as a makeshift pillow, the animate stone situated himself between Kricketune who laid his head down on his rocky body which he didn't object to and Floatzel who grumbled and scooted over a bit to make some room.
Just as the team was about to doze away, everyone saw Luka's pokeball violently trembling in the middle causing Kricketune to immediately give the center of the device a light thwack which released the aura pokemon. To their dismay, they saw Luka trembling violently with tears running down her face and copious amounts of sweat running down her brow as Catherine, ignoring the pain in her shoulder, reached out towards Luka and pulled her in for a hug.
"(C-Catherine!)" Luka blubbered in sheer terror and tightly embraced her girlfriend who wrapped her arms around the aura pokemon and rested her chin on the jackal's head while Ursa and Floatzel put their arms around the duo in order to comfort their distraught sister.
"It's okay...it's okay," Catherine assured her girlfriend in a soft, quite tone while Luka continued to cry before she managed calm her breath down to the point that she was only stuttering a bit in between breathes.
Feeling Luka rest her head against her shoulder and then relax a bit, Catherine leaned her head into Ursa's stomach before hearing her pokegear ring. Scowling a bit, Catherine wiggled around a bit to get some room before finally managing to fish the device out of her pocket and recoiled a bit when she saw who it was.
"Paul?" Catherine quietly spoke into the device in disbelief as she heard her tag team partner sigh on the other line before he responded.
"Yeah...it's me. Look, for tomorrow...my strategy is to just single out one of Ketchum's pokemon while you take care of Delia's pokemon. Obviously, the battle could go either way if we did this so if you have a better strategy, I'm...willing to hear it," Paul said slowly as if he wasn't believing what he said either and just to be sure, the former heiress pinched herself to see if she was dreaming.
When she winced a little at the little sting, she accepted what she was hearing was indeed real and sat up a bit while hugging Luka closer to her before speaking into the pokegear.
"Okay, here's what I think we should do..."