Thor/Raichu had already gotten the chance to battle, even if the fights themselves were a bit disappointing, so I decided to leave the 12th and final battle before the Duke Challenge to Luna/Celfable. I had no (low) dark gold stage Pokemon that I could use instead, and among the (mid) dark gold stage Pokemon I had, I felt that Luna was the most deserving of the honor.
Honestly, I was not sure what to expect after Thor's experience, but even if it turned out to be another sowhat disappointing Lord or Lady, I would simply let Luna take on one of the Dukes or Duchesses we would face during or after the challenge. That was what I planned on doing with Thor after I felt the letdown he experienced and I did not mind doing so for Luna as well if it ca down to it.
Just a few minutes after my return to the waiting area I was on my way to yet another battlefield to face the last Lady before my ascension to Dukedom. Lady Lu opened our battle with a (low) dark gold stage Wigglytuff and I nearly had to laugh at the developnt. A Clefable facing a Wigglytuff as an opener felt a bit funny to since they could be considered the cutey duo of Kanto and their fighting styles tended to be a bit similar.
Not that I thought that comparing Luna to her fellow Clefable was fair,…, for her fellows. Still, at least Wigglytuff was at the dark gold stage which ant that Luna would get to exert herself a bit. As for the battle, I just told Luna to have fun and let her do what she wanted, fully confident that she could take on Wigglytuff and Lady Lu on her own, though I did feel a bit bad for them as I let Luna have free reign since I was sure that she would not finish things as quickly as she would have with in command.
The battle developed pretty much as I expected it to with Luna going for moves/strategies that would allow her to beat up, …, face Wigglytuff for longer. Still, I kept quiet as I said I would, and Luna did finally knock Wigglytuff out after the 10th minute had passed. She gave a refreshed smile as well as a happy wave after planting Wigglytuff's head into the ground, and I could tell that she felt quite a bit more relaxed than before, having let out so stress on poor Wigglytuff.
anwhile, Lady Lu appeared rather tense as she recalled her Wigglytuff, which was understandable since she must have noticed that Luna had been too relaxed/happy while facing and eventually taking down her Wigglytuff. I could feel her consider her options for a few monts before she made a choice. Her second Pokemon ended up being a (high) gold-stage Vileplu, and while I understood why she might have gone with that one, I could feel that Luna was a tad bit disappointed at Vileplu's strength.
Hell, my feeling mirrored hers to an extent, but when I noticed that Luna did not even bother to use Safeguard, which was usually our go-to move against powder and poison users, I felt the need to interfere after all. I asked her to use the move and to not take foolish risks just because she thought things were too easy. Not going all out was one thing, but deliberately risking being poisoned, paralyzed, or forced to sleep was a whole other thing.
Luna apologized over the telepathic channel after that and directly used Safeguard. I could feel that she was about to get very serious, so I told her that she could continue to battle at her pace now that Safeguard was in place. Luna deflated at that; Well, not in a literal sense, but her montum, which had been on the rise, subsided by quite a bit. Still, with Vileplu unable to cause any status condition, the battle with it did not take anywhere as long as the one against Wigglypuff. Luna sent it sleeping after working on it for close to 5 minutes.
Lady Lu's next Pokemon, a (high) gold stage Minun held out a bit longer than that, which only left her with her last Pokemon. That turned out to be a (low) dark gold stage Gardevoir, who made ample use of Teleport and Safeguard to drag things out considerably. Things would have been a lot easier if Luna could have used Taunt, but she couldn't so she had to rely on Gravity and Teleport to match Gardevoir, who was admittedly the better Teleporter between the two.
Be that as it may, Luna was the stronger one between them, so even though Gardevoir managed to force her into a ga of cat and mouse, she still managed to knock Gardevoir out eventually. With Gardevoir beat, I was declared the winner, earning my 12th victory of the day. More importantly, it also happened to be my 30th registered Lord-level victory in a row, so I was entitled to initiate the Duke Challenge. I naturally directly headed to the reception area to do just that.
The receptionist was happy to do so and after she congratulated on reaching this point, she worked on her PC for a few monts before informing that she had registered for the Duke Challenge. She also added that there were currently only 2 Dukes present at the Battle Club, so if I did not manage to qualify for my advancent after battling them, I would have to wait and see if any other Dukes or Duchesses would show up to fill up my 5 opportunity allowance/quota.
I was surprised to hear that at first, but then again, we were talking about Elite-Class trainers after all, so I shouldn't have been surprised that only 2 were around. I was sure that there were more Elites than that in/around Fallabor City, but it made sense that they would not all be hanging around the Battle Club. In fact, I probably had been lucky to stumble on the two that were present.
The receptionist confird as much when she revealed that one of them was a stationed Duke hired by the Club to face other Dukes who felt like battling and ca without making any prior arrangents; The second one was a Duke that ca to do just that. She also added that they would contact so of the registered Duke and Duchesses to inquire if they would be interested in facing in case I needed further battle opportunities to et the advancent condition.
She assured that they should be able to organize 3 more Dukes/Duchesses today if it ca down to it, even if I had to wait for a few hours for all of them to show up. Well, all that just ant that I would simply have to win the first two battles, and I was obviously confident that I could do that. Still, the apparent rarity of available Dukes/Duchesses had wonder how long it would take to fulfill my promise to let everyone battle, so I had to ask how I would go about the battles once I had advanced.
The receptionist lady gave a smile and comnded my confidence before explaining that challenges at the Duke level usually happened through the purposeful arrangent of the Battle Club after receiving a submission by a mber. Otherwise, one would have to rely on luck and see if any other Dukes or Duchesses happened to be present since endlessly facing the on-duty Duke/Duchess was not an option.
Considering that I would likely have to fight at least 12 or 13 battles to give everyone a chance to battle until they lost or soloed the opposing Duke/Duchess' team that was not good. I had been hoping to complete my promise to the dark gold group tomorrow and leave for the teor Falls on Palkiday right after breakfast. Yet, it appeared like that was wishful thinking on my part. Hopefully, there was no limit to the number of match-ups one could request, but after giving the receptionist a look, I decided that that question could wait until I had officially beco a Duke.
Anyway, I was told that the two Dukes were still battling right now, so I would need to wait for them to finish and heal up their Pokemon before I could start my challenge. She gave an estimated wait ti of 40 to 60 minutes and recomnded I apply for one of the private rooms to use the ti to ensure my Pokemon were ready/in optimal condition. I knew that it was good advice, but my Pokemon honestly did not need it, so I simply thanked her for her help before heading back to the waiting area to wait there until I got called up.
Since I could not just twiddle my thumbs and do nothing for the next 40 to 60 minutes I began to ditate as I sat there waiting. I got roused by my title resounding from the speakers, and a look at the ti told that it had been ditating for nearly 66 minutes. Just like every ti I ditated lately, it felt like I was just a hair's breadth away from advancing to first class. Yet, it did not happen. Still, I had other stuff to do, so as always, I pushed the matter aside and stood up to head to battlefield no.1 for the first battle of my Duke Challenge.
As luck would have it, Duke Cooper recognized even though I went with my alias instead of my na. I guess it wasn't too surprising since I did not bother wearing a mask, and Duke Cooper admitted that he had seen my battle against Ryujin. Still, since Cooper recognized and knew how strong my Pokemon were, he declared that he would not be holding back like he would have if I was any other prospective Duke or Duchess. I saw the referee's left eye twitch at that, and I had an inkling that Cooper should not have ntioned the latter bit.
After suppressing the laughter that ca up at that I told Cooper that I didn't mind. Honestly, considering that he was an Elite-Class trainer, this Cooper was probably over a hundred years old, maybe even in the high hundreds, unless of course, he was so extraordinary genius that was below a hundred. Yet, he still behaved like a young man, and I had to wonder how he, as well as many others I had seen who were like him, could keep that up.
Heck, I was not even close to 16 yet and I felt like I was facing people around my age group, which felt weird since I was much younger than them even if we added my last life into the mix. Self and public doubt aside, I took out Tyson/Machamp's AuraBall and waited for the referee to give the signal to release our Pokemon. Once he did, my (mid) dark gold stage Machamp appeared on my side of the battlefield, while a (high) dark gold stage Hariyama appeared on the other side.
I felt Tyson's fighting spirit spike at the appearance of a fellow fighting type, even as he Bulked Up. I knew what he wanted, and I did not mind giving him just that, especially since it matched what we would have done anyway, so what followed was a frontal confrontation between two fighters with differing fighting styles. The battle was like a no-limit MMA fight; Well, one with special effects since Pokemon moves were in play.
Still, being able to watch them duke it out like this would have been any fighting enthusiast's dream. It was a sha they couldn't see it, but at least I got to enjoy the show. Regardless, as it was with every battle, there had to be an end, and in this case, Tyson prevailed over Hariyama. My guy raised his arms into the air to celebrate his victory once the referee declared him the winner before flashing a Guy Pose, which had chuckle.
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