Virah straightened her posture and met Whitney's resolute gaze head on.

Between them was a field of grass and on it stood Nitro- Virah's Beedrill, - and Kitten- Whitney's Meowth; two combatants awaiting orders.

Much like their trainers, the two Pokemon stood proud and tall, their stances steady.

Both knew that the Pokemon in front of them were competent combatants and they relished the thought of a tough fight.

On the middle of the field, directly outside of the agreed boundary stood Grene, the martial artist acted as their referee.

Grene's eyes went back and forth between her friends, an easy calmness was present within her gaze.

Grene stopped inspecting her friends and raised her hand as a call for attention, Virah and Whitney looked away from each other and focused on her.

"Are you both ready?" She calmly asked and when she got a nod from both girls, she swung her arm downward, "START!"

It was Virah who had taken initiative, "Nitro! String Shot, aim it at the ground!"

"Fake out!" Whitney called out in response.

"Fury Attack! Counter it!" Virah quickly reinstated, causing her Pokemon to cancel his prior move.

Both of their Pokemons moved, with Kitten exploding in a sudden burst of momentum that sent him darting through the battlefield, it only took the feline a second before he reached his opponent.

Kitten raised both his arms and slammed them towards Nitro's head.

Two drills three times the size of the Meowth's paws blocked his attack.

Kitten backpedaled as the white glow illuminating Nitro's drill suddenly grew fierce. It quickly enveloped the Beedrill's natural weapons, causing their dull chrome color to shift into a blinding white.

With a cry of his name, Nitro started bombarding Kitten with Fury Attack, his drills moved with precision, striking at vital areas.

Kitten did his best to block and dodge but one managed to hit his chest and the Meowth keeled over, wheezing the air out of his lungs before flipping backward and growling at the Beedrill.

"Sand Attack!" Kitten heard his trainer command.

"Fury Attack again!" Virah followed up.

The Meowth did his trainer's command with a frown. Whitney already knew that using Sand Attack on Nitro was ineffective at best and it will only slow him down at worst. She knew and even then she still asked him to use Sand Attack.

Regardless, he did as told and bent down.

Kitten grabbed a fistful of dirt while expertly dodging Nitro's Fury Attack, thanks to the momentum of the exchange being on his side, all he had to do in order to dodge was to take a step back and there would be more than enough distance for him to not get hit.

Kitten infused the dirt in his hand with Normal Type Energy and proceeded to throw it at Nitro's face, who simply raised his drills to block the dirt-

"FAKE OUT!"

Kitten's body moved on its own and he closed the 2 meter gap between him and Nitro in a single second.

He raised his arms, placing them on either side of Nitro's head. He spread his paws in preparation for the slap-

Nitro grunted when Kitten's paws struck either side of his head, a ringing sound assaulted his mind and caused his flight to sway and destabilize-

"Harden!"

The muffled voice of his trainer broke through the haze and he gathered as much of his energy to execute the move. Light washed over his body and he felt his caparace tighten around him, he growled and shook his head.

He focused his gaze on what was in front of him and saw that his opponent had moved away while he recovered.

"Kitten! Quick Attack into Sand Attack! Blind it!" Whitney reinitiated the fight with her command.

"Nitro, String Shot! Aim it at the ground!" Virah repeated her orders at the start of the battle.

Kitten and Nitro moved immediately, with the Meowth circling his enemy while tossing fistfuls of dirt at his face in order to hinder his line of sight with Sand Attack while the Beedrill started spitting out webbing after webbing from his mouth to start controlling the terrain.

The result was that both Pokemon ignored each other and focused on their tasks.

No attack came from the Meowth as Kitten blinded Nitro with Sand Attack and the Beedrill was too busy putting web on the ground to truly retaliate.

When they both stopped, the ground had turned white from all the webbing while Nitro's face was caked in dust.

"Remove the dust from your eyes Nitro!" Virah ordered.

"Screech!" Whitney commanded.

Another exchange came about and Kitten had managed to let out two Screeches that, to Nitro's already ringing ears, sounded like a fork being scratched against the surface of a chalkboard and the Normal Type Energy washing over his body and reducing its defenses every time he heard it only made things worse.

"Nitro! Fly high and use Poison Sting!" Virah glared at the Meowth, who, despite walking on webbed up ground, didn't seem to slow down thanks to Quick Attack.

"Pay Day!" Whitney counteract.

Kitten stopped running and the white glow suffusing his body died down as he stared at his trainer in shock and barely hidden betrayal, "Meowth?"

"I'll give you more coins tomorrow! Today is the last day of the exams anyways!" Whitney stomped her foot, "now use Pay Day!"

With a tear stricken expression, Kitten reluctantly grabbed a fistful of coins from somewhere in his fur.

He shakily held his coins as his hand glowed white the same way Nitro's drills turned into an ominous purple.

They shot out their attacks at the same time and the projectiles exploded when they collided in the air.

A shower of toxic coins rained down, some struck the speedy Kitten while a few of the shrapnel went upward to hit Nitro.

Both Pokemon physically recoiled from the hits with Nitro even teetering in his flight for a split second before the Beedrill stabilized himself.

"Poison Sting!"

"Pay out!"

An exchange between both Pokemon happened as Nitro shot toxic drills towards Kitten and the Meowth responded in kind (and in tears) by grabbing the coins he hid in his fur and tossing them at Nitro.

When the Meowth's coins ran out, he used pure Normal Type Energy to manifest fake coins to toss at Nitro.

It went on for a while, with the two going as far as to trade shots with each other, but eventually, one of them broke the stalemate and as Virah called for Nitro to use Roost, Whitney didn't waste time and pushed for an attack.

"Slash!" The pinkette yelled energetically and Kitten instantly moved-

The Meowth's arms glowed white as he neared the spot where Nitro would land, bit by bit, the white glow grew into a shape remiscent to that of a blade.

Nitro managed to use Roost moments before Kitten neared him and with a battle cry and a vicious grin, the Meowth raised his arms to the sky and slashed downward.

Nitro moved his head to the side to dodge before flying backwards but he couldn't do it in time and the glowing blade the length of Kitten's forearm slashed at his chest, it cut down to the top part of his abdomen before the Beedrill managed to stop it.

"Fury Attack Nitro!"

"Kitten! Fury Swipes! Meet it head on!"

The two Pokemon clashed, exchanging blows as one repeatedly stabbed at his opponent with his drill and the other used his claws to drive away the barrage of stabs.

Both Pokemon stopped attacking and the two trainers called out the same moves, pushing them to continue pummeling each other in an equal brawl.

A stalemate once again came about but the more Nitro and Kitten attacked, the more the two of them landed a hit on each other.

In the end, one of them fell- first.

... and the other one immediately followed.

Virah wiped the sweat off her brow, she inhaled, held it in, and exhaled, revealing her exhausted state. She recalled Nitro back to his Pokeball.

"Thank you," she whispered to the unconscious Beedrill.

She turned back to Whitney and saw the pinkette approach, her friend looked no better than Virah and she greeted the poison specialist with a shaky wave, "so... how much Aura were you able to provide?"

"I'm not sure..." Virah replied.

The two of them walked under a tree to cool off and Virah leaned her back against the trunk as she tried to catch her breath, "... I don't even know if my Aura made any real difference,"

"It protected Nitro from fatal injuries," Grene chimed as she approached, "his chest wasn't damaged by Meowth's Slash, it was unscathed,"

"Yeah... I noticed that." Virah replied, "that's... good. Very good."

Keeping her Pokemon alive is one of her priorities, Virah put up a smile, "I think I can go for another battle after a break,"

"M-me too," Whitney chorused in a tired voice, "but before that, how about we actually rest first?"

"Yeah, let's do that," Virah pushed herself off the tree and let out a sigh, she stretched out her hand and met Whitney's eyes, the pinkette shot her a grateful smile before giving her Kitten's Pokeball.