Tympole was evolving. King shielded his eyes against the bright glow, grinning. It was about time that one of them evolved; he'd been waiting since Vertress City. He thought it ironic, though, that the last Pokemon he'd gotten was the first to evolve.
The glow began to recede; the gray darkness of the cave seeping back in to take its place, as tympole absorbed the light into itself. A palpitoad croaked and grinned at King. To the side, rufflet cawed happily over the fallen body of a boldore - which were common enough in Twist Mountain - and zorua's head drooped. At least it'd decided to stop being immature and work with the other two Pokemon.
King squatted, nodding to palpitoad. The thing was both powerful and quick to grow. "Nice. Looks like all the training I've done has paid off."
Palpitoad danced in a circle. King grunted and stood, moving past the three Pokemon, plus the fallen boldore.
"Let's go," he said, starting down the narrow tunnel. They follow behind him; rufflet perched on his shoulder. "We're not done training. Not yet."
He rubbed his hands together, blowing on them to try and warm them a little. The passes leading to the mountain had been cold enough as they gained altitude, but now that they were inside, there wasn't any sun to stave off their shivers. The faint light of the torches along the walls, flakes of ash gathering under them, didn't help much, either. Still, he dealt with the cold and the darkness both. Twist Mountain was home to a good number of powerful Pokemon, which meant it was the ideal place for training.
And he was going to train his Pokemon until they dropped. He had lost against that man.
He clenched a fist, fingernails biting into his palm. The pain felt good. He needed to scorn himself for letting his emotions control him while he battled that man. If King had thought about beating conkeldurr rationally, had devised a plan, or had been smarter, to begin with… he could have won.
But there was no changing what happened. All he could do was make sure that next time, that man never thought of looking down on him again.
He progressed further into the heart of the mountain, his Pokemon trailing along beside him. As they went, they fought boldores and gurdurrs, woobats, and cubchoos, and when he came across trainers, he fought as he would for any gym. He would not lose again. Not ever, to anyone.
Rufflet provided a supporting role in their battles against wild Pokemon since he was at a typing disadvantage against most of the things they encountered. At the same time, palpitoad or zorua took the lead. Zorua talked less than it ever had before, which was perfectly fine with King - usually, it distracted him - and worked like there was no tomorrow. Whatever King had done to encourage that level of dedication, it'd worked. Zorua followed each one of its commands, let palpitoad take the lead when needed, and never seemed to get exhausted from training, which King particularly enjoyed. It meant that they could on for a longer period, meaning more experience that would make the third gym that much easier.
He only decided to stop when rufflet got hit with a rock tomb, and King fumbled through his pack, realizing that he was out of potions, even though he bought close to thirty.
He cursed. The boldore they were fighting rumbled toward them. Zorua transformed into conkeldurr and took the force of the blow as boldore crashed into it. A stream of bubbles from palpitoad smashed into boldore, causing the rock-type to topple over on its side with a thump. Zorua morphed back to its original form when boldore didn't move.
King zipped his pack, slung it over his shoulders, and picked rufflet up, who had fainted. The bird was limp in his hand.
He looked around. There were boulders scattered from when boldore had used rock tomb.
"Listen, zorua," he said. It turned to look at him. "Transform back into conkeldurr and pick up some of these rocks. Put them on either side of us. That'll block off the tunnel so that Pokemon don't disturb us. We're taking a break for the night, which, by now, it probably is."
Zorua transformed without a word and started to do as King asked. Once zorua finished, King set out some food for it and palpitoad, and placed a bowl in front of rufflet, as well, for when it woke, then leaned his back against the rock wall.
He closed his eyes, crossing his arms and listening to the sound of his Pokemon munching on what he'd given them.
His breathing slowed, the cold air rushing through his nostrils. On their way to Twist Mountain, King had come across a couple fighting over a Pokeball. The girl had declared that using Pokemon was wrong and proceeded to chuck the device into the forest.
King found his thoughts going back to that. People were starting to believe the ideals of that N. Riots were breaking out in some of the major cities like Nimbasa and Castelia, where King used to live, led by some nobodies called Team Plasma. How could people believe such rubbish? Once N got caught, though, it would all end, and King could continue his gym challenge in peace. Not that N's little uprising had affected him in any meaningful way yet. If King had been a day later in challenging Drayden's gym, though, maybe he could have been there to save the older man. Or, more likely, he would be dead, too.
That didn't matter; his focus was on completing the gym challenge. Once he acquired the eight gym badges, he would move on to the Pokemon league and become Champion. That man would have an ulcer when the Elite Four gave King the title.
When he eventually fell asleep, he dreamed of walking up a vast set of marble stairs. At the top, they put a crown on his head and declared him Champion, and when he turned around, that man stood at the foot of the stairs with his mouth open, aghast that King had become better than he ever was.