Chapter 4 – Battling on Thin Ice

Having found a nice bench to set up camp in the nearby park, where all the kids I'd seen before were still playing around, Philipp and I continued to chat while waiting for his friend Miriam to join us.

The main reason, we chose to take our coffees on-the-go, instead of sitting down at the warm café, much to Charlie's dismay, was because my new acquaintance wanted to introduce me to his partner. An absurdly fast furball who was now excitedly pushing my Espurr around and showing him all his favourite spots at the park.

This little ball of energy was a Swinub.

"How did I meet Nubby? It was actually fate; you wouldn't believe it!" My friend continued explaining. "We were out on a field trip to the woods, and the goal was to find the sweetest berry that grows around Snowpoint. As you can probably guess, Miriam and I are both very competitive and losing to her was never an option."

Philipp had mentioned that this Miriam and him were strictly rivals, having met when they both enrolled in the TS, what they called Candice's Trainer School, at the age of 11. Honestly, they just seemed like great friends to me, but they were more comfortable with the rival dynamic. It was simply the status-quo they had grown accustomed to over the years.

"So, basically I separated from the group at one point because I had caught a whiff of something outrageously sweet and, when I followed the trail, I ran into this crazy mystical-looking grotto that had a Pecha berry tree in the centre, you see?" He made some weird gestures, which I simply nodded along to, prompting him to go on.

"Yeah, so basically, I managed to climb that huge tree, and I picked up the juiciest looking berry I'd ever seen in my life. It was so mouth-watering looking, I remember thinking it was magic. But when I got back to the group, Miriam was flaunting her puny Oran berry, claiming that she had clearly won! And, worst of all, of course Candice refused to pick one of us as the winner, with her 'we all win as long as we had fun' kind of talk!"

I smiled, it sounded just like what mom would say to Paige and me when we fought over the smallest things, even if it never managed to resolve a single argument between us, we were way too competitive to accept a draw. "Is this where Nubby comes in?"

"Yup!" He laughed, looking at his starter dashing around everywhere. "He came out of nowhere at the speed of light, and nabbed the Pecha berry off my hand, swallowing it in one go. I was going to be so upset, but then Candice laughed and said that Nubby had chosen me as the winner."

"He was clearly a biased judge."

A small voice behind us nearly made me jump out of my skin.

"Yo Miriam, took you long enough."

"It took me exactly enough."

Miriam elegantly swirled around the bench and took a seat next to Philipp, on the opposite edge of where I was sitting. Her looks were mesmerizing. She had very long and straight dark hair and was dressed up in a gothic style frilly dress, with some high heeled dark boots, that still didn't seem to make her very tall. To finish up the ensemble, she was neatly wrapped up in a comfy looking scarf, that hid the lower half of her face.

She looked like a beautiful, enchanted little doll.

If Philipp was the sun, Miriam was the moon.

"Olivia, Miriam. Miriam, Olivia." The boy in the middle stood up and introduced us, not wanting to get in the way.

"I apologize for him in advance." She neatly bowed her head, and surprisingly there was no hint of playfulness behind her very serious tone. Maybe they weren't such great friends after all.

"Nah, don't worry he's fine, I was the one who bothered him for help."

"Well, technically I asked you if you needed help first, remember? You were punching a gate and looked like you were about to-"

I threw a snowball at his face, which made him fall, in a cartoonish manner, in the snow-covered pavement. Could he not embarrass me, right now? First impressions, Philipp! I don't want to mess them up twice in a row.

"Good shot."

I got a thumbs-up from the girl beside me, who was now holding… a vanilla ice cream? In this weather? I guess she really likes icy treats. "I'm sorry, we didn't get you a coffee, but I can pay for your ice cream if you want!"

I didn't really have a lot of money on-hand, but I didn't want to always be on the receiving hand today, so I figured I should offer.

"Pffffft." I heard Philipp, who was still sitting on the floor, literally spit his drink.

"You were right, she is funny." Miriam's mouth was hidden behind her scarf, but I could clearly tell she was smiling from her eyes. "This isn't an ice cream, it's a Vanillite. My partner, Khione."

She gently poked the ice cream who shook and turned to me, introducing herself with a big smile on her face. I was so nervous; I hadn't even really looked carefully to notice Vanillite's clear features.

"Ah, I'm so sorry, Khione!" I shook my hands in front of me, very embarrassed. There goes my potential positive first impression, again. I'm now forever known as the dumb and clumsy, gate-hating girl.

The ice type made sure to reassure me that she took it as a compliment, twirling around me, just like her trainer had done before.

"Now that we're all introduced, I have a proposal!" Philipp jumped up from the floor enthusiastically and directed the attention towards me. "Olivia here, needs help signing up for the Diamond Dust Sponsorship exam tomorrow, and she thinks she's going to be one of the trainers selected." He paused for dramatic effect.

Miriam looked me up and down, which made me flinch. "Impressive proclamation to make in front of two other prospects."

"But she has no license or ID or a registered Pokémon." He put the nail in my situation's metaphorical coffin. I guess, in hindsight, I probably looked very stupid trying to get an extra perk for something I wasn't even technically allowed to do yet.

"You're very confident in your skills, Olivia?" Miriam threw me a branch to dig myself out of this hole that Philipp had, quiet eloquently, described me to be in.

I wasn't confident though.

"Maybe she is." The boy just immediately continued, not offering me a chance to give any input. "Therefore, I think it's only fair that we get to test you, to see if you're worthy of the hassle that it would be to help you out. Let's battle, 1 on 1, Charlie versus Nubby. If you win, we'll help you out." He smirked.

"And if you lose, you're on your own with this one."

Eh? He could've worded that in much nicer way, surely. I guess, maybe he might just be too excited for the chance to have fight Charlie and me? No, this was probably his intention from the start.

I glanced towards Miriam, who got up, looking extremely apologetic. Is this what she meant when she said she was apologizing for him in advance? "I'll be your referee."

Damn, I got caught completely off guard here, thinking this was just some friendly helpful meeting with no strings attached. This is what actual trainers were like, one's worth revolved mostly around their battling prowess.

Noted.

Anyways, I didn't really have a choice here. "Charlie!" I called out to the cat, who looked exhausted from trying to keep up with the energetic Swinub around the park, this whole time.

"We're going to be fighting Philipp and Nubby, okay? Let's do our best, I believe in you and our training." The Espurr looked fidgety, but he nodded regardless.

"Don't worry too much about the Psychic powers at the start buddy, we'll just do as we trained. You got this, picture him as that tree. Even better, Paige." That got the Espurr to relax his tense shoulders and take a deep breath.

"No hard feelings either way Olivia! Let's just have fun!" The boy, who had already positioned himself around 20 meters away from me, shouted at me with a wave and a genuine smile etched on his face.

Perhaps I misjudged him too quickly and he didn't actually have any bad intentions with this battle, simply wanting to play around. But for me, the stakes were quite high, after all, this was my dream on the line, so I was going to need to take this seriously.

"This will be a 1 on 1 battle. The match will be decided when either Pokémon is unable to continue. There will be no use of moves that can cause severe damage to each other and I hold the right to end the battle whenever I please. You two ready?" Miriam did the classic referee pre-match routine and Philipp immediately responded affirmatively. Woah, this had all happened so fast, it barely had time to register in my brain.

"Yeah!" I shouted back, excitement building up within me.

This is my first Pokémon battle!

"Release your Pokémon. Let the battle begin."

"Nubby rush him with a Tackle, we're testing them." The Swinub immediately got into his groove, dashing all over the place. He was incredibly proficient at traversing the snowy pavement, which put us at a major disadvantage in this field.

I ordered Charlie to wait. As far as I could tell, we had nothing to gain from trying to clumsy more around the perilous terrain, it'd be better to focus all our attention on our target and dodge his incoming attack.

However, we were just simply not nimble enough and our reflexes were completely lacking. By the time I noticed the ball of fur jumping out of the snow behind Charlie, it had already been too late to call it out. The Tackle landed right on target, sending my Espurr rolling through the snow with a whimper.

Charlie got back up on his feet, shaking the snow off his fur and I noticed his claws shine brightly, preparing a Scratch. But the pig was way too fast on his feet and could easily dodge all our effortless attempts at getting in range to strike.

Well, Charlie's Scratch was had been surprisingly strong against trees who didn't try to dodge it, but in actual fights it wasn't worth much if we couldn't connect whatsoever.

"Keep moving Nubby, and hit him where it hurts, Mud-Slap!"

And hurt it did, as the tackling ball of fur collided with Charlie again, however this time it covered his face with a splash of mud, making the cat hiss. He hated getting dirty.

Ugh, this was looking very rough. We simply had no way to get close and Scratch him if he kept moving around in the snow and we were way too slow to dodge his attacks if we were waiting all the time, being a sitting target. We had to stop the Swinub somehow.

"Come on Olivia, this is barely a test if you don't do anything." Philipp sounded kind of disappointed. Maybe we had hoped this would be a clash of wills with sparks flying everywhere. We had no choice but to battle slowly though, we couldn't keep up physically with him and Nubby.

All that sleeping and being lazy had finally caught up with us.

Wait. That's it!

"Stand strong Charlie, here he comes again!"

Nubby was an athletic freak. But he was still just a Pokémon, and his moves were getting slower over the course of the fight, if only slightly. And. whilst his movement was very erratic most of the times, it did have some patterns to it, which Charlie had already figured out.

He always came out from behind us.

All this knowledge only gave us a slight edge, a tiny chance to predict our enemy's next move, but that small opening was a chance to create a bigger one.

And that was all we needed.

As the snow behind Charlie shifted ever slightly, I immediately called the Swinub's position out to my partner. "Now! Leer behind you before he can get close!"

Charlie was a resentful cat, and he hated being dragged around out of his comfort zone, especially by strangers. He had put up with the excited young piglet, but only for Olivia's sake as she had befriended the twerp's trainer.

The over-energetic pushing around, he could forgive. The ruthless tackling, he could also understand, esoecially in the context of battling. But throwing mud at his face? That had crossed the line.

And it was at that moment that all the rage he had built up towards the ever-friendly Swinub escaped at once. As the Espurr turned around, he faced the oncoming pig with the biggest scowl I had ever seen on his face. It was a face that was screaming 'How dare you throw mud at my face, you annoying ball of energy!"

It was more successful than I could've ever hoped for, making the Swinub stumble and lose his footing in the snow, beginning to slide at high speeds towards Charlie.

"Don't fall for it, Nubby! Get up and push through!" Was that some panic in Philipp's voice? He hadn't even seen my plan yet!

My Espurr already had his claws out waiting for his prey to fall into his reach, but I had another thing in mind.

"Don't hit him away! Let's calm down the little guy, Yawn!"

Charlie hesitated for a second, and I thought we would be too late, but he followed through and yawned, stretching himself in his usual overdramatic fashion, just like he did this morning, before we had breakfast.

And it worked like a charm.

The sliding Swinub, who had already zoomed past my Espurr at this point, immediately became drowsy and started yawning as well.

"Shit, that's such a lame move!" I found myself feeding from my opponent's panicked voice. This was our chance.

"Now, let's get him with a good Scratch to the face!" I called out to my partner who was already running, as fast as his little legs could, towards the Swinub whose movements were now lethargic at best.

Finish him off!

"Nah nah nah, not having this! Nubby use Powder Snow! Just throw it everywhere and freeze him."

In his drowsiness, the pig started blowing snow everywhere. It wasn't the strongest gust of wind I'd seen, not even today, but the snow was still piling up fast and slowing us down.

How did he still have so much energy left in him?! The sheer difference in the amount of training was absurd.

The cold winds were going wild all over the park and many of the children playing in the area had gathered around us to see where the commotion had originated from. My hands were shaking but it was probably more from the excitement than from the cold.

And amidst all of that, Charlie pushed on.

Taking it slow, step after step, my partner navigated the winds with his extended claws protecting his eyes. As he got closer and closer to the Swinub who was clearly slowing down now, everyone who was observing the battle held their breath.

This was it, the climax of the entire fight.

"You can do it buddy!" I screamed, straining my freezing throat.

He had trained for hours for this very moment.

The adventurer made his way through the raging blizzard towards the beast that had created it, hoping to finally put an end to it all and, in the process, saving all the villagers that were being affected by the ever-growing cold.

It was all up to him. He reached the beast with his sword in hand, struggling to breathe within the thickness of that cold air. It was now or never, he knew he only had one chance to swing at it, either ending the battle forever, or perishing with his attempt.

And, drawing a sharp breath, he swung. But he couldn't manage to successfully land a hit on anything but air with his blade.

Tch, he hated mud.

That was all that Charlie could think as he collapsed on the fields of snow.

"Espurr is unable to battle. Philipp Kross wins."

And the crowd around us suddenly erupted in cheers. Even though the hero had sadly been unable to be victorious, they still cheered. Were they rooting for the beast? Just because they were more accustomed to ice types?

What are you thinking, they're just kids.

I snapped out of it and rushed through the, now much thicker, layers of snow and picked up Charlie in my arms, wiping the mud off his face. "I'm so proud of you, you looked so cool out there. Like a real hero from a fantasy story."

He purred softly at me, an apology he didn't need to make, and I hugged him tightly against my chest.

"We'll find a way to make it work, i promise. Now rest up a bit." I snuggled the Espurr inside my jacket, feeling his cold body slowly warm up against mine.

The world around us suddenly came back into view, as I heard footsteps approaching me in the snow. Philipp, who was carrying his Pokémon in his head, had come up to me with an extended arm.

"Great fight! Even if your style is kind of cowardly. You had me on the ropes, just a bit!" He laughed, nervously rubbing the back of his head.

I accepted the handshake, which prompted the crowd to cheer again. I also reached for my wallet, as it was customary to give some money to the winner of a battle, but he stopped me.

"No need to pay me this time. But a deal is a deal though, I have to take Nubby to Nurse Joy and then I'm going home, to take a warm bath. I'm completely drenched from all the snow." He pointed at himself, still evidently pleased with his victory.

"Thanks for being the referee, Miriam. Oh, and Olivia, I hope you still find a way to take on the Circuit so we can fight again one day!" He screamed, already booking it home.

Ugh, he sure was friendly for someone who was, just now, trying to trample all over my dream.

I'd undoubtedly find another way to go. I promised Charlie that I would, after all.

And then, next time I meet Philipp Kross, I'll have my rematch, and I will definitely beat him.

Even after the crowd dispersed and Philipp ran off, I stayed silently on the battlefield holding my best friend in my arms, replaying the battle over and over in my head.

So many little mistakes, so many moments of hesitation, so many windows of opportunity missed. All of that, flashing away in the blink of an eye that was the fight.

And we didn't even get to try anything with Charlie's Psychic powers. I had been too much of a coward to attempt to use them. I need to trust him more, he did amazingly.

"Are you going to be fine? Apologies about the entrapment."

Oh, Miriam was still here. She walked up to me with Khione floating beside her. The Vanillite looked pretty distraught that I'd lost and came over to pat me on the shoulder.

"Yeah. It's my fault that I couldn't win anyway, and I still had fun."

"You could've won if he was realistically testing you and not just trying to inflate his ego."

"Well, he was kind of mean at times. He isn't like secretly evil or something, is he?"

"No, he's simply an idiot."

I smiled remembering that Philip also had Miriam labelled as 'Idiot' on his phone.

"You really are like the sun and the moon."

She smiled, with a pained expression. "Just, be careful about getting too close to the sun, like today. You'll get a nasty burn eventually." She paused, grabbing my arm.

"Come, let's get your Espurr checked out at a Pokémon Centre and then I'll help you with the registration." She finished, already leading me away.