The semi-finals have begun! We've got some fast-paced rounds to see now that we've made some progress in the personal aspects of the contest! What will our next battles look like, which girls will see their efforts rewarded?

ZenoZen: That's the idea. I want to keep you on your toes.

KedharS: Definitely, she's made a lot of progress, she's getting confident in her battling ability!

Rus0804: There are certainly a lot of feelings involved.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 753

"Come out, Vivy, and let everyone see your adorable self!" Lila chirped, throwing her pokeball into the air. Her Ribombee emerged with a flutter of her gossamer wings, pollen dancing around her as she danced through the sky.

Sango sent out her pokemon with less fanfare, but with the same amount of passion. "Sammy, um, go!" She called, throwing out Kanone's Samurott.

"A chance to fight against Kanone's legendary Samurott," Lila swooned. "Just what I always wanted! I know! Vivy, let's start things off strong! Use your stun spore to paralyze her!"

"Riiiii!" Vivy buzzed, nodding. She flapped her wings and sent a cloud of pollen spiraling through the air towards Sammy.

Sango had expected that, and prepared a contingency just in case. But she counted on the fact that she wouldn't need it. She had watched Kanone's matches a lot since she learned he was Blake's brother and how Blake felt about their relationship. She had done it out of concern, wanting to encourage him by finding differences between their fighting styles so she could reassure him that he wasn't just a copy of his brother, and was his own person.

She hadn't had the chance to use what she'd learned until now, and it wasn't the kind of situation she had expected her experience to come in handy in, but it was certainly a situation that she would take full advantage of.

In the battle against Ayame, she had been a little flustered. It had been shocking, having the chance to use Kanone's Samurott, she had gotten caught up in her own head. But right now, her head was clear, and she wasn't overthinking things. She had the opportunity to make full use of what she'd learned, and she was going to take it.

"Sammy, use swords dance," she ordered, which surprised Lila. She had expected Sango to order the Samurott to dodge, or use safeguard, or heck, she'd used protect before, that would be the perfect move for this situation. What was swords dance going to do?

"Oh, no!" Cynthia groaned, slapping her forehead in frustration. "Sango, that's not the right move, what are you doing?!"

"What's wrong with it?" Claire asked, confused.

"You can't be serious!" Cynthia said, her jaw dropping. "These are continuous fights! So if Samurott gets paralyzed here, then even if she wins she's going to go into battle in the finals still paralyzed! And that's not good, because she might be fighting against Alcea!"

"Alcea's strong," Blake agreed. If it was Kanone, then even with a type disadvantage Blake would fully expect the older trainer to overcome Alcea even with a paralyzed Sammy at his side, he was more than capable of it. But as strong as Sammy was, he didn't think Sango had even close to the same amount of skill. She needed Sammy to be as healthy as possible for the finals.

"I get that she wants to build up her strength and finish that Ribombee out in one shot, but this is ridiculous!" Cynthia sighed. "She's throwing her chance away!" After Serefina's elimination, Cynthia was fully rooting for Sango to win, and now that looked unlikely.

"…Maybe she's planning something," Maddi said quietly. She didn't know what it could be, but she knew Sango moderately well, and was the one here with the most experience with Sango as a battler. And true, Sango didn't have a lot of experience. But she wasn't a fool. She was just inexperienced. There had to be something, right?

Indeed, it looked like Sammy was going to be pushed into a bad situation as the cloud of pollen drew closer.

But Sango knew.

Sammy drew her shell swords and swung the blades. They flashed and danced, light dancing around her as the blades were barely able to be seen. And to Lila's shock, along with the utter confusion of the audience, it was like the cloud of spores disappeared before they could land on Sammy. And a few seconds further, and the stun spore attack seemed to have vanished into the aether.

Sammy stood on her hind legs, swords raised. She was totally fine, not paralyzed at all by the attack, not a single strand of fur.

"What the hell?!" Lila exclaimed, completely dropping her façade. "Why isn't your Samurott paralyzed at all, huh?!"

"Samurott," Sammy snorted, tilting her blades. Golden powder rolled off the shiny blades into a tiny little pile on the ground.

Sammy had completely sliced the stun spores away, catching every single spore on her shell blades, protecting her body.

"They say that the finest sword masters can catch a snowflake on the side of their blades," Kanone explained to everyone, a proud smile on his face that almost looked like a smirk. "And with that in mind, Sammy's blades can capture an entire blizzard."

Lila gasped in shock. That was fucking unbelievable.

"Liquidation!" Sango shouted.

"SAMUROTT!" Sammy roared, water swirling around her. She lunged forward at high speed, raising her swords. Water swirled around them and formed massive liquid blades, and she brought them down on the stunned Ribombee.

"Riiii!" Vivy wailed in pain. Sammy smashed her into the ground, and she bounced, badly injured.

"Vi-Vivy!" Lila gasped, snapping out of her shock. "Quickly, quiver dance!"

"Ribombee!" Vivy nodded. Wind and pollen fluttered around her as she danced through the sky to pick up speed, but she wasn't doing well. She had been badly hurt by the attack, and was already on her last legs.

"Not a chance!" Sango snapped. "Sammy, aqua jet!"

Sammy landed on the ground and water swirled around her. She shot forward at high speed, lowering her horn, and jammed it right into Vivy's chest, knocking her backwards. Vivy tumbled through the sky, crying, and hit the ground again. This time, she wasn't getting up.

"And finish her off with razor shell," Sango said. Sammy landed on the ground hard, coming to a stop, towering over the twitching Ribombee. She raised her blade in preparation to bring it down on the poor pokemon, when Lila finally came to her senses.

"Wait!" She cried. "Wait, wait! Don't! We surrender! Stop!" She was practically in tears as she ran to her Ribombee, scooping up the poor pokemon.

"Stop, Sammy!" Sango cried. Sammy nodded and drew back, retracting her sword and standing at attention in wait of her next order.

Sango recalled Sammy to her pokeball and jogged over to Lila, just as stunned as the other girl. "Li-Lila, I'm sorry, I guess I kind of got carried away…" Sango apologized. She hadn't considered the overwhelming difference of power between Kanone's Samurott and the Ribombee of a girl who wasn't even trying to be a battler.

Lila smiled a little and shook her head, wiping the tears from her eyes. She was really scared and sad, but she had to regain her positive atmosphere. "N-No, it's fine," Lila assured the girl. She didn't carry a grudge, it was part of the contest after all. She recalled Vivy to her pokeball, and sighed. "It's just the rules, you know. Don't beat yourself up about it too much, okay?" She asked, not wanting to seem petty or spiteful. She didn't want Sango to feel bad about what had happened.

Sango swallowed and nodded. Whatever Lila's intentions, she couldn't help but feel a little bad about what had happened, given the situation. She needed to be more careful. "Yeah, um… still, I'm sorry," she apologized again, helping Lila off the stage.

"…What a nice display of heartwarming camaraderie building between our two competitors," Lukas said after an awkward pause. "Even after that show of force, Sango is still willing to extend a kind hand to her opponent, and Lila gratefully accepted it! Isn't that sweet of the two of them? Let's give them a round of applause!"

Lukas tried to work up the crowd, but his words of celebration and congratulations failed to stoke any passion. The crowd was still stunned by the blitz assault Kanone's Samurott had unleashed upon the small Ribombee, especially after Lila's impressive showing against Darla, trouncing her thoroughly and with sweet style.

But then, Lila wasn't a battler, and Kanone's pokemon were notorious for their skill. Sango had pushed herself up into the finals and stunned the audience in the process, and now the question became who would be facing against her.

"That… that was just… what the hell?" Cynthia's eyes bulged out of her skull. Her jaw was dropped so low it practically hit the floor. She was having difficulty processing what she had just seen. Sango, the Sango who didn't like pokemon battles and hated pokemon getting hurt had just performed an astonishing display of ferocity and won the match with hardly any effort. She actually shivered a little in her seat, watching that.

Cynthia knew that Sango had talent. A LOT of talent, considering the girl had barely ever fought in any pokemon battles. But it was a sobering reminder of just how much damage a competent mind could do with a powerful pokemon. Kanone had really created a lethal combination by mixing together Sango's brain with his Samurott's power.

Cynthia doubted even she would have a chance, and that shook her a lot. She took a quick glance at Blake to see what he thought of that fight, and was surprised to see that the expression on his face wasn't one of shock or disbelief. He wasn't exactly overflowing with an abundance of happiness for Sango's victory, either.

The look on his face was cold. Tense. Like he was staring at something that upset him. Cynthia didn't even want to think about what that could mean, but she felt that it was probably some lingering resentment of his grudge towards his brother.

She wasn't far off. Blake was feeling a different kind of irritated, and it wasn't aimed towards his brother, but rather it was about Sango. He knew that it was kind of silly to be upset over what had happened, it was just a pokemon battle, after all! But he couldn't help himself. For all he learned about Sango over the months he'd gotten to know her, she didn't seem to be the type of person who would be happy about a pokemon getting injured.

She must have been feeling pretty miserable herself. He hoped that she would be okay, and not let it get to her. It was the most he could hope for right now, as the crowd began to come back to their senses and the contest resumed.

As the crowd settled down and regained some interest in the match, the shock of Sango's win shaking off as they began to murmur, Lukas sensed that things were starting to return to normal and he sighed in relief.

"Okay, great! I'm glad we're all getting excited for the next fight!" Lukas cheered. "This has been a great series of battles, and it's time for the next amazing one! We're going to move into our second semi-final match, and it's a matchup that all of you have been waiting for! Olivia Himeko vs. Alcea Vermeil! The two most famed women in the Pokemon Academy, our Empress and the Queen of Roses, whose rivalry is known throughout campus, are going head to head in this match that will certainly captivate your hearts with excitement!"

He was certainly doing a great job of working up the crowd. The past tension had already started to wear off, and they were getting excited for the upcoming battle. Even though Olivia wasn't anywhere close to being a skilled pokemon fighter, the tension that existed between her and Alcea was notorious enough that the match was still being hyped up.

It got to the point where everyone was cheering when the two girls walked onto the stage. Neither said a word to the other. While this was nothing unusual for Alcea, who more than made it a point not to taunt her opponents, the fact that Olivia, of all people, remained silent was a serious shock; she didn't even spare a word or glance to the audience, and she was someone who loved the spotlight! For people who knew Olivia Himeko, it was a shocking sight.

Had she been possessed by a Ghost pokemon?

Did she get hit in the head and lose her memory?

Or was she struck deaf, dumb, and blind by some foreign illness?

The answer was a lot simpler than that. Olivia loved to show off because she enjoyed the feeling of everyone's eyes on her, noticing her and celebrating her.

But right now, the praise of a faceless audience wasn't worth spit to her. There was only one opinion that mattered to her, an audience of one that she wanted to capture the attention of, someone who deserved all of her focus.

That fucking Alcea Vermeil. Olivia was sick and tired of that girl's pompous arrogance, thinking she was so much better than Olivia. All because of her fucking noble bloodline! She had been like that since the night they met, always so smug, looking down on Olivia like she was nothing, all because she was a bastard…

"Shall I teach you how to dance?"

Pleasant memories of Olivia's past with Alcea seeped into her memories and she clenched her jaw, clutching her pokeball tightly as she banished those thoughts from her mind. That night had once been her greatest treasure; a girl of the standing of Alcea Vermeil, reaching out to her and treating her as an equal? Sharing a dance with her?

Olivia had been honestly touched.

But the girl's real feelings had eventually risen to the surface. Olivia was nothing to her. Well she'd show her. Alcea was the one who wasn't even fit to hold Olivia's handbag, not the other way around! She was going to show Alcea that she didn't even deserve to breathe the same air as Olivia Himeko, she was the Empress! A woman of impeccable beauty and taste, who directors were lining up and down the street for the chance to sign a deal with her! And Alcea thought she was a queen?

Olivia would win this contest for the fourth time in a row. That would really impress the professional world when she made her debut. But first, she had to smash Alcea into the ground, and keep stomping on her until the redhead licked the dirt from her shoes.

"Now, ladies, let's have a nice and enjoyable fight!" Lukas said, smiling innocently. He could sense tension in the atmosphere, but he had no idea the extent of Olivia's grudge against her opponent, if he was expecting an amicable fight like the one that had come before.

He was just lucky that Olivia had enough decorum to not be an overtly petty, spiteful bitch, and could maintain politeness.

Which didn't mean she lacked savagery. "Cynthia, tear her apart!" Olivia called. She had enough professionalism to keep the ire out of her voice, sounding more like a bold statement than an angry snarl. She threw her pokeball into the air, and with a swirl of sand from the ball capsule her Garchomp emerged with a roar, raising her fins angrily.

Alcea nodded respectfully to the irate pokemon, holding up a pokeball of her own. "Venus," she declared, "laissez-nous danser!" With a flourish, Alcea flung her pokeball out, and her Venusaur emerged from a swirl of petals, landing on the battlefield with a bellow.

Both pokemon had taken some serious hits in their preliminary matches, and were looking much the worse for wear. But Olivia was entirely ready to take on the odds and send Cynthia out swinging at full force.

"Cynthia!" She called. "Use aerial ace!" Olivia wasn't even going to boost Cynthia's strength with a swords dance attack. She was going to his the Venusaur with a powerful move either way, and the Grass type pokemon was weakened as it was.

"Garchomp!" Cynthia roared. She lowered her head and raised her fins, charging forward. She disappeared in a flash and reappeared behind Venus, slicing into her from behind with a powerful slashing move.

"VENUSAUR!" Venus roared in pain. But she didn't back down. Her vines shot out and grabbed Cynthia by the leg, and with a powerful yank she was pulled off of her feet.

"Gar-!" Cynthia gasped in pain, stumbling backwards and losing her balance. As skilled and agile as she was, she wasn't a pokemon that was used to fighting and so she didn't have much knowledge of counterattacks. That was one of the things that drastically lowered Olivia's chances of winning, but she didn't mind. She had her own ideas in mind.

"Venus, sleep powder!" Alcea ordered. She was going to end this decisively, and not give the Garchomp a chance to inflict even more damage. Then, while the pokemon was sleeping, she could take her time and recover some of Venus's health with synthesis, it was the best plan for winning not just the semi-finals, but the final round as well.

"Venusaur!" Venus said, spreading the petals of her flower out wide, sending a spray of pollen out across the battlefield, the green spores forming a cloud that drifted quickly towards Cynthia, and unlike Sammy the Garchomp didn't have nearly the skill to counter it with her fins.

But that didn't mean that the fight was over then and there! Alcea thought it would really be as simple as a sleep powder attack?!

"Ridiculous!" Olivia was incensed. "You think you can take us down that easily?!" She exclaimed. "Cynthia, use sandstorm!"

As the sleep powder flew towards Cynthia, the Garchomp threw her head back and let out a roar, and a massive tornado of sand swirled up around her, shielding her from view. The cloud of spores struck the dust cloud and was beaten back, failing to get close to Cynthia.

"My, quite a bold strategy, is it?" Alcea complimented Olivia. She had actually been surprised by Olivia's skillful use of sandstorm to evade the powder move. "But do not think such a trick will be enough to protect you! Venus, sunny day!"

"Venusaur!" Light gathered in the center of Venus's flower, and she released it up into the air as a compressed orb of light. The miniature sun illuminated the battlefield, burning brighter than any of the stage lights and clearing away the swirling sands, forcing Cynthia to reveal herself. Cynthia shielded her eyes and growled.

"Now, Venus, we can fight to our fullest potential!" Alcea declared proudly, flinging her hand out in front of her like she was slicing down the Garchomp herself. "Solarbeam!"

With the power of her Chlorophyll ability, Venus received an immense boost to her speed from the intense sunlight. Combined with the increased energy absorption rate of solarbeam, she was able to fire off a massive blast of light at point-blank range in a matter of moments.

But before the attack could collide with the dragon, just as it was getting so bright Cynthia was impossible to make out, the pokemon completely disappeared, the solarbeam attack flying harmlessly off into the air and hitting the protective barrier set up around the battlefield.

"What?" Alcea gasped in surprise. She hadn't expected that. The Garchomp had disappeared completely, she couldn't see her anywhere. Where could she have gone, except…

Alcea realized it.

"Dig!" Olivia ordered. Cynthia burst out from under the stage, raising her fin and slashing up into Venus's chest from below, knocking her into the air.

Olivia smiled. It was going just as she planned.

Who was it who said that Olivia couldn't do well at pokemon battles?

So somehow, Olivia has gone from a total failure at pokemon battles to being able to grapple with Alcea and give her a run for her money?! What's going on here?