Keya's demonstrated just how powerful wild pokemon can be with his harmonia! Tristan fell rather fast, and Elise just barely managed to take the Fearow down! But Cynthia's no slouch, her brain is working a mile a minute to figure out new ways she can fight his pokemon, and if we're lucky, she'll come up with a strategy or two that'll completely knock Keya's socks off!

KedharS: He's N minus the pompousness, arrogance, self-righteousness, and annoying proselytizing.

Jjjdunk1: I think it's the first one. It's not a pokemon that's really on my radar though so I honestly couldn't say.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: 100% intentional.

Hyphenman: Yep! Cynthia does her best when she's just relaxed and having fun with her pokemon battles!

Tambry96bj: In another reality, he would have made a brilliant Pokemon Ranger. He and Sango would probably get along. Or maybe not, considering he uses wild pokemon to battle for fun which is like the opposite of what a Ranger should be doing.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1257

Cynthia watched the Lycanroc carefully. She wasn't used to Rock type pokemon being so fast. Usually they were bulky and slow, like Blake's Boldore. But it was fine. He wasn't faster than Elise, and now she had agility to pump up her speed even higher!

There was still one issue, though. Make that two issues.

The first issue was that accelerock attack. A priority move like quick attack but Rock type was trick for Elise to deal with. They'd have to rely on her own quick attack to counter it, and unfortunately quick attack wasn't very effective against the Lycanrock's rocky hide.

Which led to issue number two. The best move Elise had for dealing with the Lycanroc was her steel wing. But she hadn't mastered that move yet. It only worked about 70% of the time. And if she managed to get close enough to use it and it failed, well…

Those Rock type attacks would hurt, that was for sure.

Man, I remember when Blake and Tara were struggling with her iron tail. I should really ask him for some pointers when we're finished here, Cynthia thought with a laugh. "Okay, Elise! Nice speed! Now use air slash!"

"Swellow!" Elise flapped her wings and sent a blade of wind at the Lycanroc, who jumped out of the way.

"Air slash and not aerial ace or steel wing?" Keya raised his eyebrow curiously. "Interesting. Wary about getting in close?"

"My eyes aren't just holes in my head," Cynthia laughed. "I know a powerhouse when I see one! That Lycanroc has the physique to excel at close quarters combat, and Elise definitely can't boast the same. I'm not stupid enough to send my girl recklessly charging into danger!"

"Fair enough," Keya nodded. "Then we'll go in after you! Lycanroc, accelerock again!"

"Lycanroc!" The canine barked, lowering his head and charging at Elise. His fur hardened like a rock and the sharp stones on his collar jutted out as he leapt into the air, pouncing upon the bird.

"Nuh-uh! No more of that, thanks, the last one stung a bit!" Cynthia shook her head. "Elise, use quick guard!"

"Swellow!" Elise spread her wings wide to brake as the Lycanroc flew towards her, and a barrier of light appeared in front of her. The Lycanroc slammed into it and was knocked backwards, landing on his paws in the grass and snarling.

"Sure, your accelerock caught us off-guard the first time you used it," Cynthia admitted. "But don't think my girl is losing in a match of speed! With quick guard, your priority moves are worse than useless!" She laughed.

Keya laughed as well. "Then let's see what we can do about that speed of hers. Lycanroc, use stealth rock!"

"Lycanroc!" Lycanroc barked, flaring the stones on his collar. Rocks tore themselves out of the wall of the secret base, floating around Cynthia's side of the battlefield. The sharp stones formed a cage that threatened to cut into any pokemon that Cynthia sent out, while also hindering Elise's movements considerably.

"I'm curious to see if you can navigate your way through that," Keya said, and he wasn't even taunting her. The tone of his voice made it clear that he was genuinely curious and excited to see what Cynthia would pull out of her sleeve.

"Well, I don't want to be the one to disappoint!" Cynthia smiled, nodding to Elise. "Let's blow those stones away with a good old-fashioned defog!"

"Swellow!" Elise flapped her wings again and pushed the rocks aside with a powerful gust of air, clearing the way for her to move freely.

But she couldn't do anything about the rocks flying towards her.

"Thanks for doing exactly as I hoped," Keya said, his eyes flashing. "I just needed her to stay still for a little while! And the time she spent blowing away those stealth rocks was perfect! Have a taste of Lycanroc's stone edge!"

The Lycanroc's speed and power had received a significant boost from Keya's harmonia. By pumping up their power, the stones flew at Elise before she had a chance to dodge; she had been so focused on clearing that she couldn't do anything to avoid the incoming boulders, and they slammed into her at full power.

"Elise!" Cynthia cried as her Swellow plummeted out of the sky. The bird pokemon flapped her wings desperately, just barely managing to stay in the air.

She's so focused on remaining aloft that she won't have time to set up a quick guard! Now's our chance! Keya decided, silently giving the Lycanroc the order to attack with accelerock.

With a howl Lycanroc charged at his foe, increasing speed until he was just a blur. He intended to strike Elise before she even hit the ground.

He didn't get the chance. Cynthia lifted up her pokeball and called the Swellow back before she could crash land.

"Phew, that was a close one," she said as the Lycanroc pulled to a stop. "Elise is in rough shape, but she should be able to keep fighting."

She winked at the Lycanroc. "Lucky for us, my skills at calling back pokemon are even faster than your attacks!"

"Oh! That's right!" Keya said, blinking in surprise. "I totally forgot! Trainers can call back their pokemon in the middle of a battle! It completely slipped my mind since I don't use any pokeballs!"

Maddi resisted the urge to groan. Was this kid really a member of the Commander's inner circle? Then again, he looked like a child but he was older than her by a few years, so she didn't say anything about it.

"Yup, when things are getting difficult for one of my pokemon, then they can always take a break so one of their teammates can pick up the slack!" Cynthia explained. "Sadly, I don't think you guys can do the same, huh?"

"Oh, I can send my pokemon off to take breaks," Keya assured her. "I just find it easier to fight if they can keep the mindset of a predator, rather than asking them to fight, calling them off, and then sending them out to fight again."

Cynthia shrugged. It didn't quite make sense to her, but then she didn't have the magic communication powers. Didn't matter, though.

"Okay, Ruby! For real this time!" Cynthia shouted, sending out her Mawile. She'd had Ruka disguise herself as Ruby earlier in the match, but now the Mawile was out for real.

"Ah, now that's what I expected," Keya grinned. "Using a Steel type! Quite like you, I must say."

"Why, because I'm as sharp and pretty as a polished sword?" Cynthia asked, cracking a smile and batting her eyelashes.

"More like because you bang around everywhere and make loud noises like a piece of sheet metal being struck with a hammer."

"Not talking to you, Maddi!"

"That's a first. Can we do that always?"

Keya laughed. "I'm glad to see you're finally enjoying yourself again, Maddi!"

Maddi scowled. "Huh? Why do you think that?"

"You're finally cracking jokes," he replied.

"No, she's the joke. I'm just pointing it out."

"HEY!" Cynthia's cheeks puffed up in frustration.

But Keya was genuinely glad. "After Orre Region, you seemed a lot more frustrated than any of us," he said, taking a moment out of the fight to give Maddi some sincerity. She looked uncomfortable with that statement.

"Well that's…" Maddi's eyes hopped to Cynthia for a second. She had to be very careful with her words, since Cynthia didn't know about what had happened and she wasn't allowed to say anything about it to anyone, either. Cynthia just looked at her with an innocent, if confused, expression.

"I'm serious," Keya pressed. "I'm glad you tagged along with her, you're actually relaxed now."

Maddi scowled. That was just dumb. The idea that Cynthia had any effect on her mental state other than making it take a turn for the worse was laughable.

Cynthia, for her part, had no idea what he was talking about. But she looked at Maddi with hopeful stars in her eyes that made the other girl feel a little nauseous.

"Whatever, this isn't about me!" She spat. "Just keep going with your battle already!"

"Fine with me," Keya shrugged. "Go, Lycanroc, use sand attack!"

"Lycanroc!" Lycanroc ran towards Ruby and dodged around her, finding a patch of dirt. He dug his paws into the ground and began kicking it at the Mawile.

"What, you don't have any attacking moves that'll be effective so you're just throwing sand? Hah, joke's on you!" Cynthia chortled. "Ruby here is adept at fighting opponents without even looking at them, aren't you, Ruby?"

"Mawile!" Ruby nodded. Due to her nature as a Mawile, it was common practice for her to stand facing away from her opponents and bearing the sharp fangs of her horns. The makeshift mouth snarled and growled threateningly at the Lycanroc, but was completely untouched by the sand itself.

"Now then, Ruby, I think we should show him a little bit of what we can do!" Cynthia decided. "Iron head!"

"Mawile!" Ruby turned and ran towards the Lycanroc, swinging her large makeshift mouth at the canine pokemon.

"Quick attack," Keya ordered. Lycanroc quickly evaded the attack, putting some distance between himself and the Steel type. Cynthia frowned.

"See, you might have the type advantage, but we still have the advantage when it comes to speed," Keya pointed out. "And you might have lowered our attack with Intimidate, but if you still can't land a blow that won't be much help to you!"

"I'll keep that in mind," Cynthia nodded. "But for now, how about a taste of this? Ruby, use iron defense!"

"Mawile!" Ruby nodded, hardening her skin to be as strong as metal, increasing her defenses even more. Keya frowned. That actually was starting to look a little tricky to deal with. But he still had his trump card.

"Lycanroc, take her down! Go in for the attack!" Keya ordered. What that attack would be he made sure to keep secret from Cynthia, sending his orders via harmonia.

Cynthia smirked. "I don't think so! Trying to attack, are we? Well, that just makes you the perfect target for a sucker punch!"

"Mawile!" Ruby ran forward and lifted her tiny fist, striking Lycanroc in the cheek. But the dog pokemon didn't even flinch. He just growled, opened his mouth wide, and bit down on Ruby's hand.

It barely even hurt. With Ruby's hardened skin and Lycanroc's reduced attack, her defenses were tough enough to keep the attack from doing much damage.

But Lycanroc's attack wasn't just a normal bite. To Cynthia's horror, flames leapt up from the pokemon's mouth, setting Ruby ablaze.

"RUBY!" Cynthia screamed.

"That's fire fang!" Maddi gasped.

"Yes, it is," Keya nodded, his eyes flashing.

"MAWILE!" Ruby fell backwards, rolling around in the mud as she tried to extinguish the flames on her hand.

Cynthia's heart was racing. Why did it have to be a Fire type move?! Ruby hated Fire types! And while the Mawile was usually among her most obedient pokemon (if sometimes a little too aggressive) when it came to fire, all bets were off.

Ruby flung murder at the Lycanroc with her eyes, gnashing her horned fangs in a rage. She charged at the dog and swung her attack, but Lycanroc was still too quick for her to hit. His quick attack allowed him to dodge, and he was already circling around for another strike.

"She's got a burn, so her attack stat is reduced," Maddi winced, not liking the shape that Ruby was in at the moment. "But I don't get it, how did he do it? Lycanroc can't learn that move normally, the only way is by…"

She gasped.

"Figured it out, huh?" Keya grinned. "You're right, Cynthia, when it comes to special moves, I'm a little stuck. Wild pokemon can't learn things from TMs or move tutors, after all. But that's not the only way for a pokemon to wind up with special moves at their disposal."

"Egg moves!" Cynthia gasped.

"That's right," he nodded with a laugh. "Some pokemon naturally have different, special moves as a result of inherited traits from their parents. And this Lycanroc is one of those pokemon. Because of his fire fang, he's able to hunt prey that a lot of other Lycanroc would avoid, which makes him that much more powerful. So of course he knows how to use a move that's been his primary weapon for so many years!"

Cynthia scowled. She'd completely ignored that possibility, but it made sense. While a lot of people bred their pokemon with specific egg moves to help them win, most of the time they were just anomalies that occurred naturally because two pokemon happened to mate.

A Lycanroc having fire fang because his mother mated with an Arcanine or a Houndoom wasn't as farfetched as she'd have liked it to be.

"Now then, your Mawile looks like she's in pretty rough shape," Keya noted. "With that burn and her reduction in speed, she's going to have some trouble handling this Lycanroc. You sure you don't want to switch again?"

Cynthia blinked. "…Nope, we're good!" She chirped. "Ruby's tougher than you think, after all, and trickier, too!"

Keya felt a strange aroma tickling his nose. How odd, it smelled… sweet? But what could that be? It made him feel lethargic and relaxed, like he didn't have to try so hard. He felt himself slowly being drawn to the scent, like his body was moving whether he wanted it to or not. He was drawn… to the Mawile?

Then, searing pain shot through his leg.

"Aaargh!" He cried, his head snapping up to see that Ruby had clamped down hard on Lycanroc's leg with her horns.

"What's the matter?" Cynthia smirked. "Wild pokemon not moving fast enough for you?"

"That was… sweet scent!" Keya realized.

"Yuppers!" Cynthia nodded. "I thought about it when I remembered you were using wild pokemon. See, I knew there was no way slow little Ruby here with her base 50 speed would have any chance of catching such a quick little doggo! But then I remembered a move I almost never use! See, sweet scent's not usually very useful in pokemon battles. The tantalizing aroma may lull the enemies a little and reduce their evasion, but in the grand scheme of things it's not much."

A dark smile crossed her face.

"But that's because pokemon used by trainers are more disciplined than wild pokemon," she said. "When using sweet scent in the wild, the tangy aroma spreads through the air and draws in all manner of pokemon like Beedrills to honey! Because they aren't used to the odors of human society, this powerful aroma will draw them in right away! And that Lycanroc's no exception!"

Maddi was amazed by Cynthia's plan. Normally, one wouldn't think to use sweet scent in such a way. But Cynthia was far from normal. She'd taken advantage of the fact that Keya's pokemon were feral and thus easily drawn in by the aroma, to pin down a pokemon that should otherwise be able to easily outpace her Mawile.

But that was just Cynthia's first trick.

"This pain in my leg," Keya said, grabbing his thigh and wincing. "That's a lot of power from a burned pokemon. What's that about?"

"Oh?" Cynthia asked, batting her eyelashes innocently as a Liepardian smile spread across her face. "What burn would that be, again?"

Keya glanced at her Mawile, and saw that Ruby's hand was completely free of burns.

"Let me tell you a little something about my Ruby," Cynthia said. "She was one of the first pokemon I captured. Now, for most of my young life, I grew up in a little town called Lavaridge. Maybe you've heard of it? It's right by a volcano, hot springs galore, you should really check it out. I'm sure my grandparents can give you a good deal!"

Maddi had no clue where she was going with this, and Keya was pretty confused himself.

"You talk about wild pokemon, so I assume you know about their natural habitats, right?" Cynthia pressed Keya. "Well, Mawile tend to prefer caves. And there aren't that many caves in the Hoenn Region. There are a few, but not many. Granite Cave, Victory Road, those are the big ones. And Mawile just LOVE living in them. But then there are places like Shoal Cave. Floods every day, so no chance of living there," she said, sticking her tongue out.

"My favorite, though? A place called Fiery Path. It's so warm, since it's right at the heart of Mt. Chimney! Like taking a stroll in summer, even if it's winter outside! And Fire type pokemon just LOVE it. You can see 'em all over the place, Slugmas and Torkoals galore! But… not the best habitat for a Steel type pokemon, as I'm sure you can guess," she laughed.

Keya could see where she was going with this. "So your Mawile…"

"That's right," Cynthia nodded, her eyes moistening as she looked at Ruby. "I don't know how she got there. But when I was younger, I was going for a walk in Fiery Path with my sister, and there she was. Ruby. I named her that because of the red rocks where I found her, you know? But she was in rough shape. Badly burned from fending off attacks from wild Fire type pokemon. So we rushed her back to Lavaridge as fast as we could, and took her to the Pokemon Center. She made a full recovery thank god, but the real scars were internal. Ever since then, Ruby's HATED Fire types. She can't stand 'em. And burns? Forget about it."

A big, cheerful smile spread across Cynthia's face. "Lucky for us, the coolest girl I know is smart as a whip when it comes to berries! So I had her find me some Rawst Berries for Ruby to hold, so she'll never have to worry about getting burned again! So while she was biting that Lycanroc with one set of teeth, the real one was devouring those berries! What do you think?"

Maddi smiled. Cynthia really cared about her pokemon a lot. And it was the perfect play to take down that Lycanroc, too!

Keya smiled. "Brilliant, simply brilliant! Excellent work!" He could still feel the pain of Ruby's fangs grinding into Lycanroc's leg. The Rock type was trying to pull himself free, but her clenching jaw was insistent.

"Oh, you're not getting out," Cynthia said, shaking her head. A dark smile flashed across her face. "Ruby's got you trapped for good!"

Aww, yeah! Cynthia's turning it around! You can always count on her to come up with creative strategies for taking down her opponents on the fly! Keya might have the natural instincts of his pokemon on his side, but that can't compete with Cynthia's creative thinking and her own natural instincts! And yet she consistently fails all her book tests. She really needs to turn that genius towards her studies.