295. May’s Determination

After staying in there for a day, they decided to go off to continue on their journey again from Professor Birch Laboratory, the Pokémon around Ash also some change in them.

In addition to his Pikachu, Ralts, Togetic and Dratini, the four main Pokémon that are always around him now, there are also his Torkoal and Duskull, both of who have recently been caught by him by complete luck.

Next, the group headed towards the high Fortree City. The journey was quite far from where they were, essentially half away into the mainland Hoenn Region. The group re-planned their road again and chose a more interesting route, then being forced to be plunged into the deep forests of Hoenn again.

The main thing the group always had to go through in their journey was always these damn forest.

Now, May suddenly and unexpectedly proposed a practice match to Ash, using her Torchic.

This most likely stemmed from after she saw the newbie Torchic in Professor Birch Laboratory's being trained for their future Trainers, and thinking that the same newbie Torchic that Ash gotten much later than her had already evolved in its next form, she started to worry about the future of her own Torchic.

"Alright then, I will humor you, love. Stand by for battle, Torkoal!"

It was broad daylight now, and the more nocturnal and Ghost-type Duskull was seeming to have trouble moving around in all this light. He had always been used to the dark place of his home back in Littleroot Forest. And now since it was a special training for May's Torchic, it was more appropriate to use Torkoal, which was also a Fire-type Pokémon than the Ghost-type Duskull.

Ash likes to use the same type of Pokémon as his partner to practice their synergy with each other. Just like his Charizard who was now finishing his special training in the Charicific Valley, his other Pokémon's in the backyard of Professor Oak Laboratory are also continuing to make their moves adjustments and do one-on-one training under the notes and instructions he gives to his Slowking every time he makes a call to the Professor.

"Torrr..."

Hearing that he will be going to help Torchic with his special training, Torkoal was immediately moved to tears and spit up his very thick smokes again.

This guy was emotional in everything he did, which was cute in a sense.

"Torchic, we have to work hard!" May encouraged her confused looking Torchic, "Use Ember!"

However, when Torchic's Ember hit Torkoal she'll, Torkoal didn't react at all, it seemed that he hadn't even felt the attack. Truth be hold, Torkoals shell was a little hotter than Torchic's Ember. Instead of being disappointed, Torkoal spit up his smoke again, cheering loudly for Torchic, his good friendoo.

"Torchic, Torkoal is too powerful in his defense, Torchic, we have to use the skills that Ash taught us last time!" May's heart hardened in preparation, with Ash's power and all of his experience helping her out, of course she would make good use of what her boyfriend was providing her.

After hearing May's words, Torchic also showed a new more serious expression, one that even he didn't he quite possessed.

"Torchic, use your new Flame Charge attack!"

That's right, it was the move that Ash had originally taught to his Combusken to power up his speed, along with it being a decently powerful move. Ash made his Combusken learn this attack when he was still a Torchic, this move was used repeatedly to build up the speed and strength on its legs for his future evolution into a Combusken and then to a powerful Blazeiken, so May naturally wanted to learn this form Ash to improve her own Torchic and his future evolutions.

Of course, now that Ash's Combusken has completed his evolution, there are many new skills that are needed to be better practiced and improved more with time.

Flame Charge was also one of these moves that needed to be improved because of the ultimate form of this move, Flare Blitz!

However, May and Torchic are special, they can sometimes do it without any major issues happening while other times they can't even control where the flames appears to make the move stronger.

However, they are working very hard to improve on their current level.

This was also related to the fact that May had previously focused most of her energy on her Beautifly and Skitty to get them ready for their Pokémon Contests.

The training foundation of her Torchic was not as solid as her other two Pokémon's, even though Torchic was the very first Pokémon that she had ever owned.

It was the same this time, being very close to ding the move correctly. Torchic stomped hard on the ground and new hotter flames appeared to be burning on its body.

"That's right, come on, hold on and let your energy burn to increase the power of your flames!" Ash looked at the flames on Torchic's body, nodded slightly, and quickly gave more advice to let Torchic get a better hang on his new move.

Unexpectedly, the flames went out out of the blue, and Torchic stopped while breathing heavily. His physical strength was far inferior to Ash's Combusken when he was still a Torchic.

This was another of the reasons why Ash's Combusken didn't like May's Torchic much, as he sometimes too lazy to even try to train his body and the lives he knows. This was the complete opposite of Ash's, who always trains when he has the chance.

"Aww, dang it! We failed again, and we were so close too!" May felt let down again for a moment, but did not give up and continued to push on forward with her Torchic.

"Babe, let Torchic follow Torakoal during his training period. After all, he will evolve into a dual Fighting-type Pokémon in the future, and physical strength is very important. And Torkoal can be the perfect partner to improve Torchic's attack with his own defense. This can also improve my Torkoals defense in the long run." Ash gave her some suggestions with a few small peck to her lips.

"Torkoalllll..." Torkoal was moved again in pure happiness.

"You two are so in love over there!" Suddenly, a man and woman dressed in luxurious and glamour clothes came to Ash's and May's side. Brock was cooking up some food while Max was helping him out with the fire.

"My name is Oscar!"

"And my name is Andi!"

Seeing a beautiful blonde girl like Andi, Brock's eyes suddenly filled with love, "So beautiful!"

"We can see the deep love between the two of you. We have something to ask you. Please accept our challenge in a Pokémon Battls!" These two seem to have a good tactic understanding with each other, they even say the same things at the same times.

Ash will never refuse an invitation to have a battle, especially when it could help him and May figure something out.

"But what we are proposing is not an ordinary battle, it is a Pokémon two-player cooperative match to test the tacit understanding between two people, especially loving couples like you guys and us."

It's a two-on-two battle, but instead of one Trainer commanding two of their Pokémon's, it has been increased to two Trainers commanding one Pokémon each. Very similar things with some changes to the number of Trainers and Pokémon's, but these two things can bring emmense change to something like a Pokémon battle.

It sounded very interesting, so Asg and May looked at each other and decided to accept this new challenge as a couple.

"Miss Andi, please let me, a talented Pokémon Breeder and your new massive fan, be the referee!"

Boom!

The Poké Ball on Brock's waist exploded on its own, which was very reminiscent of something that will happen to Brock very commonly in the future.

Spinda actually jumped out and hugged

Brock's leg. His next words of how loyal he was going to be for her immediately stopped, and he honestly announced the start of the battle without anything else to add.

Spinda doesn't hurt him physically, she just makes sure that he is single, and for the foreseeable future.

Now that Pokémon are supposed to be released, Ash and May decided to use their Torkoal and Torchic to get a better understanding of their synergy.

The Pokémon used by Oscar and Andi turned out to be a Nidoking and Nidoqueen couple. And at a glance, one can tell that these two people have trained these two Pokémon's since they were in their Nidoran stage. It was very obvious that their Bond Value was very high, and the tacit understanding between them was also some of the best one can find in the wild.

The most important thing is that these two Pokémon's were Ground-types and could restrain Ash and May's two Fire-types.

"May, you can do whatever you want to them, and I'II make out a formation for you! This will test what I have taught you all this time." Ash didn't panic at all by seeing these two fully evolved Pokémon's that were also stronger in types, he planned to give May more opportunities to fight and get a broader sense of her strength and intelligence in a battle, especially in a battle like this where she had to consider what her and her partners Pokémon's can do.

The more intense a battle is for a Trainer, the more they are likely to gain some insight in their power from this.

"Okay!" With Ash being by her side, May was finally able to be at ease, well some what. Even if the two Pokémon in front of her are of a much higher levels, she was not afraid to going all out.

"Torchic, use your Ember attack!"

Torkoal didn't move to attack like Torchic was, and Torchic took the lead in attacking according to May's orders. This time it performed exceptionally well in fomg so, and Ember's temperature was even higher than the usual that they practiced with.

However, such flames were nothing to the likes of Nidoking and Nidoqueen, who were known for their very strong defensive powers.

"Nidoking/Nidoqueen, use your double Dynamic Punch!"

Oscar and Andi took action at the same time. The movements of these two Pokémon were unsurprisingly very consistent with each other, and they got ready to Torchic with their strong fists.

"Noo, Ash!" Seeing that her Torchic was in very much danger, May quickly called out to Ash.

However, Ash did not seem to be panicked by their thei combined attack, "Sun Smokescreen!"

Torkoal usually spit up a thick layer of Smokescreen from his nostrils whenever he moved. Now that he purposefully activated the move, the smoke immediately enveloped Nidoqueens and Nidokings bodies.

When everything went dark, they immediately stopped attacking and felt parts of their body was being slowly burned.

This was a newly created move by Ash, especially made for his Torkoal and maybe his other Fire-types when was has the chance.

The Heatwave move was combined with the hiding properties of Smokescreen to fully enclose the opponents and make sure they are unable to do much of anything while also getting damaged by the small burns happening on parts of their bodies.

"Shoot!" Oscar and Andi exclaimed together. Since now that they couldn't see or yell out to their Nidoking and Nidoqueen, how can they direct them to fight?

And even if they really hear it, whag if they launch an attack and accidentally hit their other companion?

"Torchic, use Ember!"

"Let me add some fire to yours, Torkoal, Flamethrower!"

Even though Ember's power was of a much lower level, Flamethrower's power had further increased its own. The newly combined fire pillar penetrated the thick smoke and hit Nidoking hard in one of its weekend spot from the previous burn damages.

"KING!"

Nidoking immediately cried out in pain. Not only that, he also fell into a more serious condition of burn than the previous ones.

"Noo, Nidoking!" Oscar suddenly became worried when he saw his Nidoking being so injured.

"May, focus on continuing to attack that injured Nidoking!" Ash made a quick decision on the spot. The two of them fought as if they were one single person, well more like Ash was the brain while was controlling the hands, so all they needed was a simple word to convey each others instructions to the other to understanding.

"Okay, Torchic, let's go for your Flame Charge!" May really gave the orders to her Torchic to use Flame Charge again at such a time.

She was going to fully trust in her Torchic's abilities to pull this off.

And Torchic didn't let May down. While at the beginning, he struggled to continue his spend on the ground, he gradually began to wrap himself into a fireball to increase both his power and speed stat.

"Nidoking/ Nidoqueen, use your destroyer Hyper Beams!" Oscar and Andi also used their ultimate move.

The two destructive Hyper Beams were perfectly integrated in terms of power and strength with each other, which also shows how much they had to train together to do something so amazing, especially with extremely powerful moves like Hyper Beam.

"Torchic, come on! You can do it!" At this moment, the flames on Torchic's body were burning like never before. Torchic gritted his teeth and ignored the destruction that the incoming Hyper Beams front of him was doing.

May also did g stop Torchic as she saw that Ash was watching all of this very calmly, and she had the highest trust in her lover.

Finally, Torchic successfully used Flame Charge and rushed towards Nidoking and Nidoqueen. Like May had thought, he completely ignored the destructive Hyper Beam that was about it hit him.

Ash smiled slightly, of course he would not disappoint May and her Torchic, "Torkoal, burn it out! Overheat!"

This was the decisive move that puts Torkoal's full strength on the line. At the expense of harshly lowering his Special Attack, the power of the Overheat had increased to its current limit.

Torchic's Flame Charge hit the already very seriously injured Nidoking hard in the weak point that Ash had told her about.

"Great, Torchic, we successfully used Flame Charge!"

And the terrifying pillar of fire of Torkoal under Sunny Day had also defeated the double destructive Hyper Beam and had also knocked Nidoqueen away.

"Both Nidoking and Nidoqueen lost their ability to fight, meaing Torkoal and Torchic won this battle, so the winner of this match is the team of May and Ash!"

"TOR..."

This was the victory roar of Torkoal.