The first round breezed by for Florian his opponent Swablu and Hypno's singing theme was countered by Crocalor a singing expert with the help of Doliv.
The second round also went by even easier with Doliv and Naclstack.
So now was Florian's biggest and most important match against Jessalina who had also won both of her matches.
So sure Florian was too overconfident going into the match when he decided to use Tauros and Crocalor against her.
But what could go wrong after all that one song says, "What's wrong with being confident?"
After all, he was wearing a crop top something normally seen as not manly in front of a giant crowd in a match against one of the strongest coordinators in the league for a chance to move up into the second-highest rank.
So that was Florian's team going into his match against Jessalina.
It's not like he could back out of this team now since they were already out of their Pokeballs Tauros gave him a death stair instead of facing down Jessalinas Morpeko and Wobbuffet.
Tauros shot forward with Flame Charge at Morpeko, Florian could capitalize on this.
"Crocalor use Incinerate!"
"Morpeko dear use Aura Wheel on Wobbuffet!" Morepeko spun around with electricity like a hampster on a wheel towards Wobbuffet.
"Now, Wobbeffet use Counter!" Morpeko ricochet off of Wobbuffet shooting through the Incinerate.
"El Macho get the fuck out of the way or Miguel is yawning you to sleep!"
Begrudgingly Tauros douched out of the way along with Crocalor avoiding the counter-boosted Aura Wheel. It was more points for Jessalina but it could have been worse.
If there was one thing El Macho hated more the listening to him it was losing so his competitive side triumphed over personal feelings.
Tauros stamped his feet with Stone Edge Crocalor went for Fire Pledge sending a burning cascade pillar of Stones to be sent his opponent's way.
"Morpeko use a Stomping Tantrum!" Morpeko furiously stomped the ground uprooting the stones and creating a dazzling display of burning stones floating on the battlefield.
"Now Morpeko use Aura Wheel!" Morpeko spun around with Aura Wheel on the stones zipping around above Tauros and Crocalor.
"Now Wobbuffet use Encore!" Wobbuffet fired a white orb at Morpeko forcing him to use Aura Wheel over and over again boosting his speed as he rolled around the stones in bursts of yellow, brown, and red.
Why was she not attacking Florian's team? She seemed to only be going for herself.
Clearly angered by the widening gap in point totals Tauros charged forward with a Double Kick knocking Wobbeffet off his feet into the air.
"Use Snarl!"
"Use Mirror Coat!" Wobbeffet was struck down by the Snarl but countered with Mirror Coat sending a reflective blue-outlined Snarl into the sky.
"Now use Seed Bomb!" Morpeko fired the green explosive seeds at the countered move creating a burst of greens, blues, purples, and black.
Now it made sense why Wobbeffet worked so well for Jessalina.
Well, its move set off just counterattacks seemed limited just being on the battlefield made it a pain to try and attack her side, and she could easily work the counterattacks with Wobbeffet's partner.
And Jessalina clearly knew how to use Wobbeffet's unique battle style to her advantage.
Tauros went for Flame Charge well, and Crocalor added onto the heat with Fire Pledge. With this Wobbeffet couldn't counter both moves.
"Morpeko get behind Wobbeffet"
Tauros slammed into Wobbeffet who went for Mirror Coat sending Crocalor's Fire Pledge back at them.
"Now Morpeko use Flatter!" Morpeko released red waves from his paws sending them flying into the countered move.
Tauros and Crocalor were then struck by the countered flames getting up dazed from the flames and confusion of Flatter.
By now the points were going heavily in Jessalina's favor and the timer was beginning to run down.
Now Florian couldn't focus on style points anymore he needed to knock his opponents out before the timer ran out.
Tauros was going to go for Stone Edge so Florian needed to work fast.
"Crocalor use Yawn!"
The white bubbles obscured the opponent's vision of the coming Stone Edge the jagged stones smashing into Morpeko and Wobbeffet.
"Now Crocalor use Round!" Crocalor went for Round on Wobbeffet well Tauros went for Headbutt on Morpeko. If he could keep hammering away like this then he could win.
"Morpeko use Aura Wheel!" recovering from the Headbutt Morpeko bounced off the wall with Aura Wheel and then bounced off Wobbeffet's head.
"Now use Seed Bomb!" Morpeko launched a Seed Bomb off Wobbeffet who sent the explosive seeds flying with Counter hitting Florian's team.
30 seconds left on the timer.
Florian probably had one chance to take down his opponents.
Tauros was going for Flame Charge. This was his last chance.
"Crocalor jump onto Tauros!" Crocalor lept onto Tauros's back as he charged at Wobbeffet.
"Crocalor use Snarl!"
"Use Aura Wheel again!" Morpeko bounced off Wobbeffet once more launching him towards the raging bull.
Unfortunately, well they did overpower the Aura Wheel it wasn't enough to knock out either of Jessalina's Pokémon.
So Florian had lost his match and a chance to move up a tier.
Fan fucking tatstic.
Looking back on it at dinner after it shouldn't have hurt that much.
He still got second place ahead of stupid Trinity who got 4th Julianna's friend Cherry who got 3rd and Oort and Kuiper who got 5th and 6th.
Plus he scored so high that he was top of his division and would advance in his next contest short of coming in the bottom three.
"But it's the principal of her winning" Florian explained to his friends well he took a bite of his food.
"I mean I had the chance to go into the next rank up and I blow it like that?" the image of the end ceremonies when Jessalina got a Tera Orb and Terastlized Wobbeffet came back to mind the stupid fist of the Fighting Tera Crystal looked like it was giving him the finger.
Okay maybe that was an exaggeration but that's what he felt like at the moment.
"Well, unless you completely bomb your next contest you still gonna advance like the rest of us" Oort responded.
"Bold of you to assume you're gonna make it to the next rank"
What Florian didn't want to tell them that was the problem. He had his big breakout chance, to put himself ahead of the pack and he blew it.
It didn't really hurt that much to lose to someone obviously better than him (okay it did hurt a lot but that was manageable) but it was the fact that it left him average not above everybody else. Still put in the same league as Trinity and the rest of the junk coordinators who didn't stand a chance in the big leagues.
Anyway, he didn't have to worry about Jessalina in the next contest at Hammerlock since she would be competing against other stronger opponents.
He was pretty much guaranteed to rank up in the next contest so he would get another chance to stand out from the crowd.
Pear Guy: Just making sure you going to get enough sleep it's pretty late.
Jewels: Thanks for worrying about me but yes I'm going to sleep soon have a good night
Pear Guy: You too :)
That made Julianna's stomach turn. It was almost 11 pm but more importantly, she was lying straight to her friend's face.
Because she was in fact not in her dorm getting ready for bed she was outside the Navi squad base.
So after more training with the wild Pokémon including the same Tinkatuff, Falinks, and Girafarig from before she felt ready to take on.
"Okay so we have a good match-up against Poison types none of us are weak to it, I quad resist it and three of us can hit them for super-effective damage" Clodsire explained.
"So when we go in look your best and stop the opponent"
"Yes Salvador!" the other three nodded in unison.
"Alright, Don send me over the wall!"
"Grrarh!" Koraidon bear-hugged Julianna and her team and slung them over the wall.
Julianna landed on the ground with a thump clearing the mud from her eyes Julianna scanned the camp.
Thankfully with how late it was most of the Team were inside the tents.
"Hey stop right-" a grunt caught her off guard but was shut up with a chop to the back from Quaxwell.
Sneaking around the base Julianna could see light coming from inside. Pulling the flaps back Julianna was met with clothes strung around and a desk filled with clothing designs of various designs.
The breeze of wind behind Julianna was all that gave away someone was approaching her.
Before the assailant could knock her off her feet Amarouge got in the way of the assailant's kick bouncing off his armor.
"So this is the Julianna that I have heard so much about tiz a shame that we have to meet under such circumstances" the assailant spoke.
"So you must be Atticus then" Julianna could guess from the unique attire and way of speech.
Behind Julianna a Muk, Skuntank, and Revavroom attacked Poison Jab Clodsire threw herself in the way taking little damage from three quad-resisted moves.
Clodsire beat them back with a Mud Shot well Armarouge and Toedscool double-targeted Muk with Psyshock and Mud Shot.
Quaxwell kept in the way of Atticus wings glowing with Aqua Cutter to keep him away from Julianna.
"So you are the one who wants to foil the plans of Team Star how dreadful looks like I need to get my hands dirty to stop you" although Atticus said this at a bad time as Armarouge douched a Knock Off from Muk knocking it out with Psyshock.
Revavroom spun around stomping its wheels to use Bulldoze slowing everyone down and allowing Skunktank to slash at Toedscool and Armarouge with Dark Pulse.
Behind Julianna was the very distinct sound of one of the Starmobiles.
Atticus landed a kick in Julianna's stomach knocking her to the ground.
The headlights of the Starmobile came into view.
Quaxwell snatched her with Aqua Jet getting her safely out of the way of the Starmobile.
"Gracias Tulio"
"Quax!" Quaxwell gave a thumbs up with his wing feather.
Skunktank lunge with X-Scissor but was shut down by Toedscool's Spore.
With the skunk fast asleep Skunktank was easy to knock out with Acrobatics and Mud Shot.
Revavroom attacked Amarouge with an Assurance but it wasn't near enough to knock him out being knocked out with a Lava Plum to the head.
That just left the Starmobile to deal with.
The Starmobile released a Noxious Torque from its tires poisoning everyone except for Clodsire.
Even Julianna could feel her legs getting shaky from the toxins.
But she remembered from Mela's battle that the Starmobile had a weakness.
They were very easy to knock over.
"Everyone attack the ground" Julianna's team attacked the ground with Mud Shock Psyshock and Aqua Cutter.
The Starmobile attacked with Spin Out knocking out Toedscool but further launching the Toxic Spikes upward.
"Now Will-O-Wisp!" using Will-O-Wisp Armarouge was able to ignite most of the Toxic Spikes sending purple smoke into the sky.
Julianna stepped in front of the Starmobile baiting it to attack her with Flame Charge.
"Ahora Tulio Low Sweep on the Toxic Spikes" Quaxwell kicked the burning poisoned spikes onto the ground.
They exploded as the Starmobile ran over them causing the vehicle to spin out.
Clodsire knocked on the tires with Poison Tail causing the Starmobile to crash onto it's side.
"Oh dear it appears as though I have been defeated," Atticus remarked sweeping the mask off his face and revealing the blond hair underneath.
"At least my creations were sparred the carnage" The way Clodsire knocked it over meant Atticus's tent was left unharmed.
"Of course, I'm not that much of an asshole I'm taking down Team Star not destroying your clothes"
"That is quite kind of you I've met many offer students at the academy who wouldn't give such kindness" Even if he was very formal Julianna could hear the hurt behind those words.
Florian and Nashi weren't the super masculine type either or interested in typically masculine things and that had earned them scorn from others in the past she could feel why that so hurt Atticus.
And the implications of what happened to his previous designs.
"As a gift of honor for you defeating me I would like you to have this" Atticus gave her a small pin purple and gray pin that looked like a badge and a Purple CD with the number 102 written on it.
With that Julianna had concluded her 3rd Team Star boss.
Even if it took until midnight to finally drag herself back to her dorm.
"Oh I can't wait to go to bed" Julianna moaned as she opened her door.
"Syllveee!" Julianna was startled when a Sylveon and Dunsparce circled around her feet.
"Julianna you've got some explaining to do!"
Nashi and Penny were sitting at her table Nashi holding his phone out visibly angry.
Penny was just sitting very twiddling with her hoodie strings like she didn't want to be there.
"What's going on Nashi why are you in my dorm?"
"I…I…I… I can get in here you remember the key you gave me" Penny stammered.
"I wanted to ask what the fuck is this about" Nashi held out his phone and on it was a video of her battle with Atticus.
End Credit Song-Do I Wanna Know by Arctic Monkeys.
Sorry that this chapter took forever to write I started my senior year of High School and was just lacking motivation.
The next Chapter will come out fast I promise.