Dante vs. Kachina

"AAAAMAZING!!! Trainer Shinobu and her Shelmet have successfully won against what should have been an insurmountable foe!"

"Certainly. This was a great battle."

"What a great battle indeed! And with this, Trainer Shinobu has reserved her place as one of the 8 for tomorrow's match!"

Shinobu returned to the waiting area amidst the loud applause of the audience. She waved at Dante and made a cheering gesture before she headed for the door heading to a Medic Center.

In this battle, Shelmet suffered many damages. Even if Recover can heal some of the injuries, it would still be better to have a medical professional check her.

The next few battles were also a bit more intense than before. After getting a basic idea about their opponents, everyone was able to establish a strategy for winning. Cases like Shinobu where they were restrained in terms of typing but still won happened a couple more times.

Among the Trainers, Dante paid particular attention to one girl.

She had brown hair that was tied into braids, wearing large-rimmed glasses, and wearing a high school uniform. She wasn't really remarkable in terms of appearance, and the stat of her Pokemon was also in the 30-40 range.

However, what was unique about her was that she had the only Psychic-type Pokemon remaining among the remaining Trainers. Her Pokemon was Natu, a Psychic/Flying-type.

With the use of Teleport and Confuse Ray, she was able to play around with her opponent's Venipede that has Speed Boost. In the end, the opponent tired itself out from chasing after Natu and fainted.

Other than that though, the remaining battle didn't pose much interest to Dante. 

He talked with Pikachu while waiting to stave off boredom. Finally, after almost an hour, it was his turn.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! We are finally at the last match of the day! From all the previous battles, the new generation of Trainers have shown us how bright the future of our country will be!"

"Now, let us welcome Trainers Dante and Kachina! I'm sure the both of them will give us a match worthy of today's final battle!"

Kachina has a very cute and lovely appearance, with cream colored hair that is tied into a long ponytail, clear blue eyes, and straight eyebrows that makes her cute face look a bit more determined. (Picture in comment)

Before the battle began, she enthusiastically greeted Dante, to which he responded back with a smile.

"Are both players ready? Release your Pokemon!"

"I choose you, Pikachu!"

"Let's go, Twirly!"

Just like Shinobu, Kachina also gave a nickname to her Pokemon. The 'Twirly' is a Drilbur, a Ground-type Pokemon that looks like a mole with claws that looks like a drill when put together. 

As soon as the battle started, Drilbur dug underground without the command from his Trainer. Clearly, they already formulated a battle plan before the match. 

On the opposite side, Kachina was looking at the battlefield with intense concentration. She also watched Pikachu's battle against Onix, and knew that Pikachu knew the move Grass Knot.

Although Drilbur is much lighter than Onix and only has 2x weakness to Grass, she still had to be careful. Her Drilbur has lower stats than that Onix. 

Kachina's father works in a construction company. Sometimes, she would come and deliver his lunchbox made by her mother. And because of this, she got to interact and mingle with her father's colleagues over time. With her cute appearance and optimistic personality, all of them treated her very nicely.

After the boss learned that she passed the Trainer Examination, he generously allowed her to choose a Pokemon among the workforce as her starter. After the boss' repeated insistence, Kachina finally chose Drilbur. 

When Drilbur was still in his infancy stage, Kachina helped take care of him while its mother was out doing construction work. She fed and played with him, becoming the Pokemon she formed the deepest bond with.

At the time she chose Drilbur as her starter, he was already out of the infancy period and starting to help in the construction for 6 months. Although his stats didn't experience much increase due to only eating ordinary Pokemon food and having no targeted training, he still had a headstart compared to the Pokemon of other civilian trainers.

After training for more than a month with Kachina, Drilbur's stats grew at a rapid speed. However, due to their family conditions, Kachina had to work part-time to earn money for Drilbur's food. 

She didn't want to work in her father's company, as it feels like she would be taking advantage of the boss. With the boss' personality, he would definitely let her do little work compared to others while receiving the same amount of wage. 

Luckily, Drilbur has experience in the construction industry. Although the wage was a bit small, they were able to apply in other construction work. The two made the best use of their time and trained Drilbur's moves during work. 

The reason she joined this competition was for the year's supply of Pokemon food. As long as she can train Twirly for a year, Kachina is confident that they will grow strong enough to get a Gym Badge!…probably, hopefully.

"Pikachu, use Nasty Plot!"

Seeing Drilbur drill into the ground, Dante commanded Pikachu to use Nasty Plot and boost his special attack, instead of Double Team to dodge the attack like last time with Onix. 

Drilbur is not as large as Onix. Pikachu only had to move a little bit sideways to dodge him. Therefore, Dante prioritized being able to take him out in one attack.

After the boost, Pikachu's Special Attack became 99. 

The midnight before this competition, Dante and Pikachu chose to do a job at Beach Cave in the PMD world. They scoured each and every floor of the dungeon for Gummies, further increasing their stats by a little.

Now, none of Pikachu's stats were below 60.

The moment Pikachu felt a tremor under his feet, he instantly used Quick Attack and disappeared in place. At almost the exact same time, Drilbur's head appeared from the ground.

"Now Twirly! Earthquake!"

"Oh no you don't! Pikachu, use Grass Knot!"

Kachina was a bit surprised why Pikachu used Nasty Plot instead of Double Team in the beginning. However, it made no difference. She had been hiding this move after she saw Pikachu's battle with Onix, hoping to serve as the trump card for this battle.

Earthquake is a move with a large range of effect. Therefore, even if Pikachu used Double Team, he would still be hit by it. She was lucky Twirly didn't need to use it against her previous round of opponents and was able to keep it hidden until now. 

Just as Drilbur gathered enough Earth-type elemental energy to use Earthquake, tendrils of grass snaked around his body. Grass-type energy came out of them, constantly causing damage to Drilbur.

Drilbur let out a huge cry of pain.

With the boost in power caused by Nasty Plot, and Drilbur's Special Defense of 30 and weakness to Grass-type, after being hit by this attack, he should have no chance of surviving.

Hearing Twirly's cry of pain, Kachina felt a feeling of heartache. She knew they lost this battle. Just as she was going to signal to the referee to give up, she met Twirly's eyes. 

Although it was almost closed due to pain, from his fierce expression, she can feel how determined he was to win. 

Gradually, Kachina fell into a trance. 

Memories began swirling in her mind; about when she first met Twirly, when they played hide-and-seek in the construction area, the moment when Twirly accepted her as his Trainer, the pain of being rejected in their job application, their celebration when they got their first salary, their short but harsh training period.

Most particularly, Kachina remembered the promise they made the night before the start of this competition. How the both of them will try their absolute hardest even against an impossible foe. To reach their dream of becoming a strong Trainer and help the family.

"YOU CAN DO IT, TWIRLY!"

Dante was a little surprised at the raw emotion he felt contained in that voice. Looking at the Trainer in front of him, Dante seemed to feel some sort of energy forming between her and the Drilbur.