Kun/Azuraid's party went on until midnight before I called for a stop and sent everyone to bed. The next morning, as I handed out everyone's breakfast, I made sure to leave a limited opening to the outside world since I needed the signal to ensure that I could receive the ssage from the Battle Club. I didn't have to wait at all and the mont after I opened that hole, my phone vibrated to tell I had received a ssage. I knew it could not have been from our group chat since I had muted/disabled those alerts for this.
Anyway, I finished handing out everyone's food before I took out my phone to see if the alert was from the Battle Club and it was. It seed that my first battle had been set to 11 a.m., which left with more than 1.5 hours. Not wanting to simply wait until then, I left Utopia for the Battle Club once breakfast was over and we had cleaned up. There was still slightly more than an hour until 11 a.m., and I chose to use that ti to register for so targeted battles for Squirtle, Larvitar, and Beldum.
I also registered the two Houndour and Mankey from the reserve team, so that they could jump in whenever Beldum was unable to take down all its opponents. Funnily enough, I got a call from none other than Professor Oak half an hour after I showed up at the Battle Club. He called right after Larvitar beat his opponent, concluding the battle, so I quickly tied things up by recalling him and thanking my opponent for the battle. I also gave the referee a nod before I turned around and picked up the call as I made my way out of the battlefield.
It appeared that Professor Oak had called to congratulate on becoming a Duke, which I had not shared with anyone else yet, but we were talking about THE Professor mf Oak here, so that should not have been a surprise I guess. During the call Professor Oak inquired into my plans after my Hoenn journey, or more specifically after the Senior League Tournant. I told him that I was not too sure, and he gave so recomndations, which included registering for and working on the global Elite Ranking while traveling across the regions.
While he was not blatant about it, I could discern that he did not want to participate in any Grand Tournants, which was why he skipped those and directly recomnded the Global Elite Rankings. Stuff like the fact that I would not be stuck to a single region and that I could travel across all regions instead while I worked on rising through the rankings by challenging the Elites above from all around the regions seed more like lures to make sure I would lose interest in the Grand Tournant.
Granted, he did not directly ntion anything in that direction at all, so this was just my own assumption/inference. It was also possible that I was reading this much into it because the battles against Stephanie and Ryujin had made realize that participating in a Grand Tournant would most likely be a waste of my ti since I could face the stronger Gym Leaders at their best during my Elite Ranking challenges anyway. Well, at least the ones that were part of the Elite List.
I was pretty sure that Stephanie and Ryujin had to be on the Champion List instead since their true teams were way too strong for the Elite List. Heck, I had a feeling that my current team was already at the limit of the Elite List, so my subconsciousness might have wanted to use Professor Oak as a reason to push to change my initial plans; Or I was not reading too much into that and that was truly what the professor was hinting at.
Either way, I told Professor Oak that the idea of climbing through the Elite List while roaming the regions sounded interesting, which it truly did, but I did not confirm that I would do that since I wanted to finish my Hoenn journey before I made any further decisions. All I told him was that I would pay him a visit once I was done in Hoenn since I had to co back to Kanto, specifically Hope Town to follow up on my orphanage and the sanctuary I made.
In fact, I would have to visit the latter sooner rather than later since it had been more than 7 months since I left Toedscruel along with the others to supervise the place, and I should probably check in on them within the next few months. The professor left things at that after I shared my sentint, and following that, we pretty much tied up the conversation. Shortly after I hung up, I heard my na get called up again, so I headed to battlefield no.5 to let Squirtle whoop the ass of Squire Thomas' two Pokemon.
My Pokemon got to fight three more battles after that before I had to head to the reception to ask for a stop since there were only a few minutes left until 11 a.m. I directly headed to battlefield no.1 for my battle against Duke Neo, and I saw that he was already there. Seeing enter he gave a friendly greeting, which I naturally returned. While the "You don't hit a smiling face" proverb did not apply here since my Pokemon were going to beat his up, that did not an that one had to be rude if the other party was being polite.
Still, polite or not, I had already promised Mothra/Butterfree to let her have the first battle, so all I could do was give Neo an encouraging look when the clock struck 11 and the referee gave the signal to release our Pokemon after he had done his usual spiel. The battle concluded within less than half an hour and there were so very constarting emotions across the board. I was not surprised that Mothra had soloed all 5 of Duke Neo's Pokemon considering that all of them were "only" at the (high) dark gold stage.
We were talking about the Queen here after all, so even when the Porygon 2 Neo sent out as his final fighter got pushed beyond its limits and broke through to the (low) platinum stage, that did not help them turn the tables. Mothra even waited for Porygon 2 to not only complete its breakthrough but also regain its bearing before she resud fighting. Yet, all that second did was allow Porygon 2 to fight Mothra for another 6 or so minutes.
Anyway, Neo and the referee managed to reign in their surprise pretty quickly. Neo even thanked and Mothra for helping push his Porygon 2 to the next level/stage after the referee declared the victor. Mothra thrilled a "You're welco" but I just gave him a nod before recalling Mothra and leaving since I was not sure what to say to that. I went back to the reception and reapplied for so more targeted Squire and Knight battles.
After the second one, I got another ssage with the ti of my next ducal battle, which happened to be at 1 p.m. I could not help but wonder if they had to set it up around lunchti. I had been planning to let Hashirama/Venusaur have a go next, but I decided to leave the third battle to him instead since I wanted to use soone who would be able to finish the battle a bit quicker than Hashirama could, so when the ti for my second ducal battle ca, Duchess Lulu and her Pokemon got to battle Moka/Crobat.
Lulu tried to use a Mawile as her second Pokemon when her first one swiftly fell to Moka and her poison, but unfortunately for them that was not a good decision since Corrosion let Moka ignore Mawile's steel immunity and Mawile's fairy typing ant that the poison did even more damage than it would have done otherwise, so Mawile fell even faster than the Swellow did. I had to respect her next choice since it showed that she knew how to try to make the most of sothing if she could not avoid it. Yet, Toxic Boost was not enough for Zangoose to pose a real risk or challenge to Moka.
Its inability to fly and Moka's speed ant that Zangoose pretty much beca a walking target since I made sure that Moka switched to long-range attacks as soon as I saw Lulu call out a Zangoose. Nonetheless, Zangoose showed grit and held out for nearly as long as Swellow and Mawile did together. However, after enduring the poison and Moka's attacks for around 5 minutes, it still ended up falling.
Lulu's following three Pokemon also managed to fight Moka for roughly that long and to be fair, Moka did breathe quite a bit heavier after she had gone through Lulu's whole line-up. Considering that Moka was an ancient royal Crobat with light aurora potential and Corrosion, who had already started on her limit-breaking, Lulu's team could be considered to have done a decent job already.
Anyway, I felt my pocket, or rather my phone vibrating during the battle, but it was only after Moka was done and I left the battlefield that I was able to check what that was about. It appeared that I had received the ti for both my third and fourth ducal battle at once. The third one, which I had reserved for Hashirama was slotted for 3:30 p.m., and the fourth one was set at 5:15 p.m. I was not sure who I was going to go with for that one. It mostly depended on whether Hashirama was going to be able to solo Duke Josh's team or not.
Regardless, after confirming that my next battle would be in a bit less than 2 hours, I left the Battle Club and found myself an empty place to enter Utopia. I had lunch with everyone and was back in the Battle Club shortly after 2 p.m., leaving a bit less than 1.5 hours. Since Squirtle, Larvitar, Beldum, and the three reservists had battled more than enough for the day, I decided to let the silver ones have a go until my battle against Duke Josh.
I signed up for targeted silver stage battles against Knights, and we managed to participate in 5 of them, though the fifth one had sweating since there was only a minute or so until 3:30 p.m. by the ti Jean/Espeon won. I was strapped for ti so after letting out a quick thanks for the fight, I began running towards battlefield no.1. It was still 3:30 by the ti I showed up, so I was technically not late even if it turned 3:31 shortly after my arrival.
The referee gave a look but Josh just laughed and greeted asking if I needed a mont to catch a breath since he had seen barrel/run onto the field. I thanked him for the offer but declined since a bit of running was nothing to , and the referee began his spiel as soon as I refused. Once the signal was given I released Hashirama onto the field and even though the (high) dark gold stage Lickilicky he was facing was a substage above him, he still managed to take it down with only a few scuffs since his talent and moves kept healing him even as he tanked so damage to deliver so powerful blows.
It was only after Josh sent out four successive fire types that Hashirama ended up falling to Josh's final Pokemon. That Houndoom was then easily cleared by Anubis/Lucario, earning my third ducal victory. His appearance also cented that he would be the one who would take the lead for the fourth battle at 5:15 p.m. There were still 50ish minutes until then, which was enough ti for 2 or maybe even 3 Knight(ly) battles, so I directly went to the reception and renewed my application for so targeted battles.
Funnily enough, my phone ended up ringing once more while I waited to be called upon for my second knightly battle. I was naturally curious about who was calling and I felt my eyebrows rise (in surprise) when I saw the words Mr.Caron displayed on the screen.
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