Lunch with Aster and Falkner was incredibly tense.

It became immediately obvious to everyone involved that they were all shamelessly studying each other using second sight. Although the pidgey sandwich was indeed excellent, it didn't distract Erika from scoping the competition out, nor did it distract Aster or Falkner.

So much grass aura was concentrated into Erika's eyes that she was sure they had turned radiant green, and a quick glance at her reflection in her spoon confirmed that. Her second sight was fully activated to peer into Aster and Falkner's second pokeballs, letting her see the aura types emanating from the ball. The contents of the ball were a black box to Erika, but even the aura types gave her a good hint as to what could be inside.

Erika chewed thoughtfully on her sandwich while making small talk with Aster and Falkner, enjoying the cool air of the Celadon morning. The staggered architecture and tall buildings in the city helped break up the wind, minimizing wind chill and letting her enjoy a gentler breeze. Their little impromptu lunch group broke up swiftly afterwards, and they promised to meet up again during a later round.

Although Erika was confident she would win, seeing that Skarmory still made her feel slightly nervous. It's a monster of a bird, she mused, finishing up her leftover pidgey wings. Fully armored in steel, and almost twice my size. That dual steel/flying typing is going to be a pain in the arse as well since it elementally resists grass.

The actual tournament rounds were tomorrow, so Erika ordered a cab back to the Grand Verdant for an extra round of training. Before she could board however, she was intercepted midway by Fulton, who teleported over and appeared suddenly next to her.

"She doesn't need the cab," Fulton informed the driver. "Here's a tip for your wasted time."

His jynx wrapped Erika in its psychic grasp and pulled them both through the void, shuttling them to Fulton's house. By now, Erika had already gotten used to the jarring sensation of space being stretched and compressed, so she didn't take long to recover from the journey.

Fulton sat down and pulled out a plush chair for Erika to sit. She obliged, and he poured her some tea from an old iron kettle. "Before you get into anything, I'm going to break some of your bad habits."

"First off, ignore levels."

"What do you mean by ignore levels?"

Instead of answering, Fulton pulled out his trainer card and offered it to Erika. It looked fairly standard to Erika, outside of the three golden stars emblazoned on the side which signified his status as a three-star ace. Erika didn't understand what Fulton wanted until she saw the section listing his pokemon.

Nanook - Beartic ♂
Shelldon - Cloyster ♂
Carzi - Jynx ♀
Janus - Cryogonal
Bathory - Weavile ♀
Manfred - Mamoswine ♂

"You've removed your system evaluated levels," Erika observed. "You want me to do the same thing? What's the point of doing that anyways?"

Fulton shook his head and made a tsk tsk noise at her words. "That just shows your inexperience. All seasoned trainers remove them from their trainer cards, because it builds bad habits. When you see these levels everyday, you start assuming that they're measurements for strength, rather than just another statistic, and it messes with your perception of strength. When you're unable to accurately judge your own strength, you overestimate yourself - and that's how trainers end up dying."

"Why?" Erika asked curiously. "Isn't a system evaluated level a good measure of strength? You see it all the time in popular adventure manga."

Having said that, Erika immediately realized how stupid she sounded. Adventure manga? Her face burned. Out of all the examples I could have chosen, I went with manga?

"That's where you're wrong," Fulton said, disabusing her. "Levels are a measure of growth, relative to the average estimated growth rate for your pokemon species. It's just another statistic that you can use to gauge strength and progress, similar to measuring your pokemon's change weight or height."

He called out to Carzi and had her teleport a bathroom scale to him, and stepped on it. The arrow on the scale tilted to the side, and settled on around 90kg. "See that? What does it make you think?"

"That you're 90kg heavy?" Erika tried. However, seeing Fulton's frown, she quickly backtracked before he could decide to implant more mental suggestions in her mind. "Err, it tells me you've worked hard to build muscles?"

"Sort of," Fulton explained, stepping off the scale and collapsing back into his chair. "You were right the first time as well, by the way. That 90kg you saw was a measurement of my weight, and it does tell you a lot of things - like the fact that I'm heavier than the average person and that I have a good physical foundation."

He paused, turning to stare meaningfully at Erika. "However, there's one thing it can't tell you."

"Skill in combat," Erika realized suddenly. "Your weight is one of the considerations I should make when thinking about your skill in combat, but it doesn't actually tell me how you'll perform. It tells me you might be able to take a punch better, or throw a heavier punch, but it doesn't tell me if you're going to throw a good punch, or whether you'll know martial arts or not. It's just a statistic!"

"That's right," Fulton agreed. "And there's nothing more to it than that. If you fall into the trap of thinking of levels as strength, you'll swiftly be defeated."

Erika sipped some tea and sunk into thought. "Why do we even have levels then?"

"Because it helps provide a frame of reference that's easy to understand," Fulton informed her. "Don't get me wrong – it is useful, but it is in no way representative of your pokemon's capabilities. Let's use a relevant example: your snivy. If it were at the same level as another trainer's snivy, do you think he would be stronger? Would his aura be denser? His affinity to grass greater?"

"Of course!" Erika responded hotly. "Why do you think I went to the effort of breaking him out of captivity?"

Fulton nodded in agreement. "Since you've acknowledged that your snivy would be stronger and better at the same level as another snivy, that should tell you that levels are useless as a metric of strength, and that you should just treat them as another statistic like weight or height. If you understand that, then I have no need to elaborate any further on this topic."

After that, Erika pulled out her own trainer card and imbued it with some of her aura, willing it to change. The wood transformed before her eyes, warping slightly and modifying the contents of the card. When she next observed its contents, the level evaluations next to her pokemon were gone. Fulton nodded approvingly.

"They really gave you the good stuff from the start," he sighed. "A modifiable card made from livingwood is quite convenient. I had to get my card reprinted, you know?"

Fulton pulled a lever on his couch which made it recline backward, stretching the leather taut and bringing up a footrest. He leaned back and adjusted his pillow to make himself comfortable. "How's your progress with basic meditation? It was explained on the first chapter of the aura booklet I gave you."

"I'm having trouble getting into the meditative state," Erika admitted. "It takes around an hour to properly sink deeply into meditation, and I slip out of that state quickly too. Do you have any advice?"

"Sit down," he instructed her. "I'll show you right now."

Erika got off her own chair and made herself comfortable cross legged on the floor rug, and closed her eyes. Fulton put his hand on her back, and Erika flinched instinctively from the deep chill that emerged from his palm. "Although there are many benefits to meditation, the only one we trainers care about is its ability to enhance your sensitivity to aura. Stop focusing on what you feel with your eyes, ears, nose, skin, and tongue. Open your mind and concentrate on sensing the aura around you."

Erika did as instructed, trying her best to ignore her five senses to fully focus on feeling aura. Apart from her own aura, she could sense Fulton's glacial chill overpowering and crowding out all the other types of aura in the room. She sensed a handprint shaped mass of aura on her back, which she knew came from Fulton.

"I'm sensing the aura around me right now," Erika informed her mentor. "What next?"

"You're done," Fulton said bluntly. "The meditative state is bullshit. There is no meditative state. All you need to do every night is close your eyes and sense aura. If you do this every night, your sensitivity to aura will increase over time naturally. The only thing that matters is consistency."

Erika's jet eyes shot open in astonishment. "That's it?"

"Yup," Fulton replied, popping the p. "Although, this is only basic meditative training. Most people have trouble sensing aura if their natural five senses are active, since the brain doesn't have the capacity to process a sixth sense. They need to blindfold themselves, plug their ears and nose, soak their skin in a solution that reduces their sense of touch, or consume special medications that eliminate their sense of taste in order to free up processing power in the brain so they can begin sensing aura properly."

He gave her a deep look. "You on the other hand seem to have been able to sense aura even after immediately bonding with your starter, so you can skip that first step. Your meditative training now will focus on sensory overload."

Fulton rummaged around his pocket and strained the fabric, eventually pulling out a piece of wrapped candy branded in red and green. "Eat this."

Upon popping the candy into her mouth, Erika's face viciously contorted and she spat it out. "What the fuck? What was that?"

"Extremely sour candy," Fulton responded. "Pick up the candy from the floor and put it back into your mouth - I don't have any more on me currently. Now try feeling the aura around you."

Although it was disgusting, Erika picked the candy and put it on her tongue again. It was horribly sour, and her cheeks wrinkled up and her face scrunched. When she tried to sense Fulton's aura, Erika surprisingly realized that it was much fainter, to the point that the chill wasn't noticeable. I can't feel it!

Her mentor nodded. "What you've just done is called sensory overload meditation. By massively activating your taste receptors and forcing your brain to dedicate more resources to your sense of taste, your ability to sense aura will be weakened. Your job from today onwards is to meditate with a piece of sour candy in your mouth every night until you can clearly perceive aura again. This training will allow your brain to expand its capacity, and you'll find that your sensitivity to aura will be drastically increased afterwards."

As if reading her mind - which he was, Erika reminded herself, Fulton spoke up. "I'll teleport a batch of extremely sour candies to your room tonight. You can begin straight away. Once you're done with that, I'll introduce more extreme flavors like bitterness and spice into your nightly routine. If you can master all of that quickly, we can proceed to honing your aura sensing under touch, sight, sound, and smell. Then, we'll do all five at once."

"And then my training will be done?"

"Yes," Fulton agreed. "If you can do all of that, your sensitivity to aura will be raised to its natural peak, and you'll be qualified to break through to the External, provided that you've grown your aura to a sufficient degree. The latter, you'll only be able to accomplish by battling constantly, and receiving auric feedback from the bond. I estimate that it'll take you at least a year to achieve the External. Any other questions?"

That's plenty to work on already, Erika thought.

"Then go back." Fulton called his Jynx over. "Carzi, send her to the hotel."

Erika went straight to the training room after being teleported.

There wasn't much more training that Erika could realistically do for her pokemon, given that the first tournament round was the next day, but she still figured some technique practice couldn't hurt. Heavy physical conditioning was left out of the practice plan, since her pokemon needed to rest up to ensure that they were in peak physical condition for the tournament.

Erika assigned Gwen to razor leaf throwing and had her hone her accuracy, and practice spraying stun spores and sleep powder. Incorporating them into the payload of the Fume Hood was fairly easy, since the framework was already there.

Fume hood didn't change anything fundamental about it's payload - whether it was a poison powder, stun spore, or sleep powder. The core of fume hood was the delivery system.

That's right. Fume hood was a move which Erika designed with Gwen to more efficiently deliver and spread poison through the air. Instead of spraying it directly upwards, it was more efficient to send it into the air as one giant mass, and then have it burst and scatter at a high elevation, where it would more easily spread around the room.

The beautiful thing about fume hood was that it was highly modular. Since the move itself was just a way to efficiently spread poison, the actual payload being delivered could be adjusted as needed. Fume hood = delivery system, payload = whatever Erika asked Gwen to fire. For example, if Erika wanted to paralyze the entire room, Gwen could just switch the payload for stun spore. If she wanted to put the whole room to sleep, then sleep powder it was, and so on. This method would work on variant poisons that she cooked up with Gwen as well, like a particularly nasty Toxic based poison they had been experimenting with.

For Mordred, five days definitely wasn't enough to come up with anything original like Gwen's Fume Hood, which Erika had been helping her design ever since she picked her up. However, Mordred's physique was devastatingly powerful, and it was also bolstered by his bond with Erika. She was sure that he would be able to sweep the competition just on the basis of his body. After he stopped sandbagging and revealed his full capabilities to Erika, she realized that his fight with the Claw raticate was a complete and total sham.

Furthermore, while there wasn't enough time to design a meaningful original move and practice it until it became combat worthy, modifying and slightly adjusting preexisting moves that Mordred had practiced with wasn't as hard.

"You're going to need to forcefully stop your leaf tornado from moving away," Erika told Mordred seriously. "We've already practiced this a lot the past few days, so I won't explain any more. This is going to be your only method of active defense, so you better make it count!. Raise a tornado and show me your progress."

He complied, condensing and hardening leaves made from his grass aura, and began animating them to whirl around in a circle. Erika smiled, seeing his proficiency with the move.

When it came to moves which involved controlling or firing natural objects/things, like leaf tornado and water gun, there were generally two paths you could choose.

The first was actually having the source on hand - like a water pokemon drinking from a lake and maintaining their water reserves internally to shoot out, or a grass pokemon having fallen leaves from a tree nearby to control and use in the leaf tornado. Another alternative was growing the leaves from your body like Gwen did, and then detaching and regrowing more.

The second, less common path, required more mastery, since it involved converting and transforming your aura into the thing which you wanted to shoot or control. For example, a water pokemon low on water reserves without a nearby water source could transmute their aura into real water, and then use it in their attacks. Mordred could do the same, transmuting his grass aura into actual leaves, and then hardening them to be used.

Despite the convenience the second path offered, it was still disadvantageous due to the increased aura consumption. If you already had a preexisting water source on hand, why bother transmuting your aura? The same went for Mordred's leaves. It cost far less aura to manipulate something that already existed compared to transmuting it. Furthermore, even after Mordred transmuted leaves from his aura, he still needed to expand more aura to harden the leaves until they were suitable to be used in combat. The end result was that he expanded far more aura, compared to if he just used leaves that had fallen from a tree.

The only reason why this method was good was due to the versatility it offered. If you lacked a natural source, like water pokemon having to fight on land, then this could help you make up for it. The same went for Mordred. If the arena they fought in didn't have any trees at all, he would be able to condense his own leaves and use them and wouldn't be caught off guard. Knowing how to transmute aura was an invaluable skill, and one which Erika was glad Mordred had already mastered.

Regardless though, having a natural source on hand was always superior, since you could save on aura. After all, that was the reason why water specialists were so heavily suppressed in competitive tournaments - almost all water moves involved controlling a natural source. The only way to get around the need to transmute water was to condense water out of air moisture, which required a high degree of skill, and could quickly turn the air dry and ripe for fire type pokemon to take advantage of.

Grass specialists fared a lot better in this regard, since they had a wide variety of moves which either didn't require natural sources, or methods which could be used to circumvent the need for one. Growing what you needed was both conservative motto, and a literal technique for grass pokemon. If pressed, it was aurically cheaper to just grow the leaves you needed in an attack from your body, like what Gwen always did with her head leaves. Snivy could do the same thing, but he was showing off for Erika.

Erika watched Mordred swirl the leaves around himself and grow quickly more proficient with the leaf tornado. "Now, I want you to run around and have the leaf tornado follow your position. Let me see how far you've gotten."

"Snivy!"

Mordred ran around the room left and right, jumping and sliding and spinning in the air to show Erika that he had truly become proficient with moving the leaf tornado. He zigzagged and made sudden halts and stops, and kept running until Erika finally stopped him, satisfied.

"Great job!" Erika said excitedly. "You're definitely ready to go. When your opponents try to harass you from range, you can raise a leaf tornado to block their line of sight a little and interfere with their attacks. Projectiles will have to make it through your swirling leaves if they want to hit you, and close range enemies will suffer from the constant impact of leaves biting and cutting their flesh. Great job Mordred!"

He preened, clearly pleased by his progress. "Just make sure to transmute more leaves or pick up more leaves from the ground if your leaf tornado defense ever gets pared or worn down!"

"Now, let's see your progress for the other things we've been practicing."

Erika pulled out her notebook that she often scribbled and made plans in, and flipped through it towards the section she had on Mordred.

"If everything goes right, we should have three trump cards that we can play," Erika told Mordred mysteriously. "Now, here's what you're going to do…"

---

RISING STARS GAUNTLET DAY 1

The first round passed by in a flash.

According to the combat doctrine which Erika had created for this tournament, Mordred was to be kept secret until the last moment. Although it seemed obvious, information asymmetry was a huge advantage in warfare, and something that Fulton heavily emphasized over the phone. Mordred was Erika's true ace, and his capabilities needed to be concealed.

On the other hand, Gwen was already a known factor, so Erika would keep using her to battle in order to keep her enemies in the dark about her other pokemon.

Gwen easily dodged the telegraphed attacks of the enemy trainer's rattata and sprayed it with mild acid, leaving it stinging in pain and forcing the trainer to immediately recall it.

The second pokemon fared little better despite being a flying type. Gwen was too nimble for the bird to properly peck, and after dodging a few more attacks, she downed the unlucky bird with a single acid attack that struck true on its wings, leaving it semi-crippled on the arena floor to be recalled by its trainer. Gwen's accuracy training clearly was put to great use, as she was able to easily track a small flying bird and hit it with her acid while in motion.

She was almost baffled at how easy it was. There's no way this is the standard of trainers being admitted into Rising Stars. Right?

As it turned out, it was. Erika was so confused that she had to see for herself in person, and showed up to watch another in progress round one match. She was given the benefit of watching a pidgey try its best and fail to maul a metapod, and almost had to turn away from the second hand embarrassment.

It's just round one, she chanted silently. This can't be real.

Erika's second round was a little more interesting.

"Doduo?" It was an interesting choice, Erika could admit. Doduo were one of the few landbound flying types native to Kanto, and possessed startling agility and running speed. While their physical strength left a lot to be desired, Gwen wouldn't be able to easily dodge its attacks like in the previous round.

However, Erika had already calculated a path to victory. The doduo's fate was sealed. When the referee blew his whistle, she threw her pokeball up into the air in a stylish manner and released Gwen onto the arena, seeing no need to take the fight seriously.

"Stun spore!" Erika commanded instantly. "Blanket the area around you!"

As the doduo charged at Gwen, she inhaled deeply and puffed upwards, scattering a mass of paralyzing spores that suffused through the air around her. The opposing trainer obviously didn't predict that Erika would have her pokemon douse the area around her, but his doduo luckily stopped itself before entering the yellowish spore cloud.

It looked at its trainer helplessly, unable to do anything. Checkmate, Erika thought. You don't have any ranged attacks.

Gwen began to spray acid at the doduo, and his trainer had the sense to order it to run away towards the other end of the arena, outside of Gwen's effective acid spraying range. He was smart enough to realize that his pokemon couldn't attack Gwen while she hid in the spore cloud, so he was trying to bait Gwen out.

"You've got good judgement," Erika remarked to her opponent from the other side. "However, what made you think that the spore cloud can't be moved?"

His eyes widened and he tried to call out to his pokemon, but Erika was faster again. "Fan the cloud towards the bird Gwen! Expand and fan!"

Gwen's head leaves tripled in size and spread out wide, increasing their surface area to the maximum as she whirled her head and sent a gust of wind through her spore cloud. The wind pushed the spores forwards towards the Doduo, and this time, it had nowhere to run.

"Charge through the spores!" Doduo's trainer shouted desperately. "Hold your breath and power through it!"

Sadly, the doduo couldn't hold on. After charging through the spore cloud, its muscles seized up mid run and its face planted into the ground, tumbling in a heap of feathers.

"How!? Dodi held his breath!"

Erika wasn't bothered to answer him. Transdermal poison, she thought silently. There was a book in the Belding Family's collection that detailed methods to concoct skin-permeable poisons, and how to teach your pokemon to produce them.

"You've lost," Erika said calmly.

The trainer returned his doduo with an unresigned look, replacing it with a stern looking meowth with spotted fur.

Gwen just puffed out more stun spores in response, and the trainer admitted defeat straight away after he realized that he didn't have any method to attack Gwen without running through the spore cloud.

No ranged attacks again, Erika shook her head. I feel like this is going to be a recurring theme with a lot of the tournament members.

By now, she was beginning to realize that her preliminary group was just abnormal in comparison to the others. The people who make it into the actual tournament rounds should be the top three contestants from each preliminary group. If the top three of preliminary groups can bear rattatas and metapods, then I've truly got nothing to fear. How on earth did I end up with Falkner and Aster in the same group? Shouldn't they be seeded contestants?

The irony of this logic was that Erika herself should have been seeded, so she didn't really have much room to talk.

Her third and final round for the day took place on a variant arena this time - Factory Field. The room was covered in rusted metal implements and ruined machines, with sparks of crackling electricity arcing from point to point every now and then. There was a central generator in the middle of the arena obscuring Erika's vision of her third opponent, although it thankfully seemed to be defunct. Second sight informed her that the entire place was teeming with steel and electric energy, which would drastically enhance the performance of pokemon of those types. It also informed her that this time her opponent had second sight of her own, and was close to attaining first-badge level strength.

Since she's Sighted, I should be able to cut loose a little bit more, Erika figured. Official tournaments like the RSG forbid purposeful killing and maiming, but in a fast paced and intense battle, it was generally understood that severe injuries were inevitable. So long as you gave your opponent an out to surrender and didn't purposefully go out of your way to cripple their pokemon, the organizers would be fine with almost anything that happened.

After all, that's what waivers are for. I signed one too, saying that I wouldn't pursue legal damages for anything that happened in this tournament.

The referee had been replaced with an older and sterner looking man in his fifties who wore a smart blazer and pair of slacks. He gave Erika and her opponent a charming smile, and raised his flag to signal them into position. "On mark, get set, begin!"

Both trainers threw their pokeballs up at the same time, and Erika's lip curled. A confident enemy. I look forward to crushing her spirit.

Erika started smiling when she saw her opponent release a plusle onto the field, having finally found someone interesting to fight.

Gwen leapt into action immediately, having squatted down to coil her legs like a spring, and releasing all that pent up force the moment the referee announced the start of the match. She rocketed forwards at a speed which you wouldn't expect from a round, ball looking plant pokemon and raised her head, bringing down sharp leaves that would rend the plusle into mincemeat.

The plusle expertly dodged what would have been a disabling slash, utilizing its even lesser frame compared to Gwen to curl up and roll underneath Gwen's bladed head leaves. The friction generated from the rolling of the plusle helped it build up a static charge, and it immediately released it all upon Gwen - who tanked the hit without flinching and retaliated instantly by slashing at the plusle's arm.

However, the expected blood spray didn't happen, and Gwen's head leaf instead met a shining swift star composed of electrical energy. "Rebound it Gwen! You know what to do!"

Electricity from the swift star was discharged into Gwen's body, but she stoicly tanked the blow again, and didn't let it distracrt her from her retaliation.

Gwen spun around, using the rebound force from impacting the swift star to aid in her spin, and this time, she brought to bear an even greater force upon the plusle. When her head leaf cleaved down, it shattered the swift star protecting the plusle and tore out its knee, making it crumple onto the floor.

Erika's opponent withdrew her plusle with an angry look, sending out a minun to replace its fallen comrade. "You'll pay for hurting Misha!" She cried. "Take out the lights!"

Through second sight, Erika witnessed the telltale signs of a massive electrical buildup in the minun's body, and she ordered Gwen to fall back.

That's way too fast, Erika observed. For such a high level move, it's gathering electricity quite quickly.

Previously, the plusle was unable to take advantage of the Factory Field due to Gwen's lethal attack, and was forced to defend itself with swift. The minun in front of Gwen had no such compunctions, releasing a textbook discharge in record time and knocking out all the lights in the arena-field.

The few onlookers spectating their match let out a few shouts of surprise at the lost visual, before a low-light camera restored their view.

With uncharacteristic grace, the minun tore through the air towards Gwen and tried to punch her in the face, having realized that direct electrical attacks didn't affect Gwen badly. However, Gwen read the attack easily and hopped out the way. The minun continued its rampage and tried to batter Gwen with electricity-covered fists, briefly lighting up the dark every time it made an attempt, but its attacks never connected.

Gwen danced through the arcs of lightning like a leaf fluttering through wind, gracefully twisting and twirling her way through every attack, much to the frustration of her beleaguered enemy.

"It's just as blind as you are," Erika suggested. "Fill the arena with razor leaves."

Her pokemon obliged and began throwing razor leaves, scattering them like frisbees towards the unfortunate minun. The leaves sailed through the darkness and ricocheted off the walls, turning the entire arena into a death trap for the minun. It was instantly forced onto the defensive, now panicking and giving its commands to back up and focus on defense.

Erika sniffed when she saw the minun summon electricity from the apparently not so defunct generator, bringing up a veritable torrent to shield itself from all the flying leaves.

Her earlier comment about the minun being just as blind as Gwen was a joke, and both she and her opponent knew it. How else were both parties moving about and attacking and dodging in pitch darkness? Erika suspected that the minun was doing something fancy with sensing electrical current, and using the natural current in her pokemon's body to track its movements.

As for Gwen, well…

Turns out living as a slum rat in the Underbelly of Celadon has its benefits, Erika sneered. Over half a year of living with me and exploring the underground slums has honed Gwen's low light vision to a tee. Imagine trying to challenge me on my home ground!

Gwen leapt for the minun again, weaving through the storm of bouncing leaves with ease and rapidly approaching the minun. Amidst the panicked glares of the minun and its trainer, Gwen spat out a mass of acid through the electrical barrier, watching it sizzle and boil and ultimately make it through to scorch the minun's skin.

"I surrender!" Erika's opponent shouted as she recalled her pokemon. She only had time to glare at Erika briefly before rushing out to get her pokemon to the EMT. In comparison, Erika found the time to do a little curtsy and bow, and elegantly returned Gwen to her ball. I sure hope the VODs of my battles will be interesting.

As Erika walked off the stadium to go grab a drink, she heard the sound of clapping from the bleachers, and turned her head to see none other than Keta.

"Well well well," Keta said, smiling at her. "To the victor, the spoils. That was an excellent fight Erika."

Erika preened, playing at false modesty. "Well, it was a hard won battle. I had to try very hard… not."

Both she and Keta had a laugh at that. "So, why were you here to spectate anyways? Did your matches finish early?"

"I'm still waiting for my third actually," he admitted. "I came over since I heard you were fighting in your third, and surprise surprise, I found you battling my cousin."

"That's your cousin?"

Keta spread his hands. "You got me. That's my cousin Andraste from Vermillion. We're from the same clan technically, but I never liked her anyways."

"Is she just here for fun?" Erika wondered. "Doesn't Vermillion have youth tournaments of their own?"

"Well, we do, but they take place at different dates. Andraste probably wanted to get some experience before competing for real, and doing her first gym challenge," Keta told her. "On a sadder note, it seems that I will not get to fight against you unless we both make it to the finals, since we're on the opposite ends of the bracket. That's looking less and less likely, considering I got paired up against that freak Aster who has a graveller, and that this tournament is single elimination format."

By now, the arena had been cleaned out and the next round's competitors were walking in, so she and Keta had to exit. Keta escorted Erika out before bidding her farewell, having to rush off to fight in his third match.

Rising Stars stipulated that only three rounds would take place each day, in order to provide enough time for trainers to recover in between matches, so Erika didn't have any reason to stay any longer. She took a hotel cab back to the Grand Verdant and resumed her training with Mordred and Gwen, giving her second some extra chocolate for her efforts in the first three matches.

After getting a complete physical and treatment for her electrical burns, Gwen was all good to join Mordred in practicing techniques with Erika, and soaking in healing spring after hours. Erika avoided sleep altogether and instead meditated the whole night, something that the ranger corps booklet claimed to be a superior replacement compared to regular sleep, since it kept you aware of your surroundings, functioned as training, and let you recover all at the same time.

---

RISING STARS GAUNTLET DAY 2

Erika showed up to the tournament venue in a crisp jacket and snug boots, both of which had been acquired from her shopping adventure in the Glass Helix. She was pleasantly surprised to discover that her fourth round opponent was a man named Carter Kane, a bug specialist belonging to Celadon's progressive faction.

The two of them glared at each other and butted heads, but it was only for show to Erika. Carter seemed to take it to heart.

Truthfully speaking, she frankly didn't care about the petty conflict between the Celadon Conservatives and Progressives.

The hogwash which she spouted to Fulton about the progressives destroying the wilderness for city expansion and industrialization was very much true, but the conservatives weren't much better in actuality. They were very elitist and detached from the populace, and their policies reflected that.

The heavy pushes for industrialization by the progressives would eventually lead to greater prosperity for the middle and lower classes, but that was far down the line, and the people living in the present had to suffer the effects of choking smog and seeing their beloved wilderness be destroyed. On the other hand, the conservatives stood staunchly against change, and enforced a strict system of social hierarchy which had persisted for centuries. As of recent years, they were beginning to become more meritocratic as they lost more of their voter base to the youth-appealing progressives, but change was slow to happen.

However, none of that really mattered for Erika, who only cared about her own personal benefit. Even if I didn't manage to draw Milly's attention, my skill in battle and monstrous affinity eventually would have garnered respect. Coupled with my grass specialization, becoming part of the conservative inner circle was already a done deal.

Even though they were meant to be factional enemies, Erika needed to keep up her image for the cameras, so she stuck out her hand and offered it to Carter. "Let's have a good match."

Instead of shaking her hand, Carter ignored it and turned his nose. "No match with a highborn daughter like you could ever be good. You grass specialists enjoy so much privilege in this city that us commoners can barely keep up, and you still come to try take our spots in tournaments that you don't need to attend."

While Erika couldn't exactly refute the statement that she had been privileged, the privilege that she was able to enjoy had only lasted roughly a week. Prior to that, she had spent over a decade wallowing in the mud and silt of Celadon's Underbelly.

"I wasn't born to money," Erika told Carter politely. "But regardless of whether I was born to money or not, the end result of this match is still going to be me utterly destroying you."

Since you're refusing my toast, then I'll force you to drink a forfeit! Never let it be said that Erika was a magnanimous person. For his insult, Erika was going to thrash him.

She too turned her head away and walked up to her podium, settling in and palming Gwen's pokeball to ready herself.

Erika counted down the timer on the tv screen and studied Carter patiently. He's Unsighted. No wonder he's so bitter.

Not everyone could awaken their second sight. For some like Erika, the process was easy and took a scant few seconds. For others, they might need to meditate for years and practice controlling their auras before finally being able to peer through the veil of reality. Carter was obviously in the latter group. Furthermore, type specialists typically found it much easier to awaken second sight due to their purer auric compositions, so the fact that Carter remained Unsighted was a testament either to his incompetence, or his laziness. Erika didn't care enough to figure out which.

The seconds on the timer ticked down, and Erika tensed as the referee blew his whistle and sharply cracked the air with his flag.

Both trainers launched their pokeballs at the same time, and Gwen appeared on the field along with a combee. A good counter to grass types - but not Gwen!

The arena was set to Rocky Field, which yielded no elemental nor environmental advantages to either side, so Erika commanded Gwen to spit acid immediately at the combee.

Thanks to its small frame and agile wings, it easily dodged the mass of acid, zipping and zooming this way and that in an attempt to confound Erika. When flying energy began gathering in its wings, Erika capitalized on the combee's momentary pause to have Gwen spew acid at it. Although it tried to dodge, the acid still clipped its fragile wings and downed it.

Carter recalled his pokemon quickly and threw out his second with an angry look. "Pineco, use Pin Missile!"

"Leaf up!" Erika roared at Gwen. "Then punish it!"

Gwen grew her head leaves and then slammed her head to the ground to detach them, erecting a large wall like leaf in front of her just as the pineco exploded outward, ejecting its frontal spikes and shuttling them toward Gwen. Many of the spikes and pins which would have put holes through Gwen were intercepted by the triple layered leaf barrier in front of her, and what little got through posed minimal risk to her.

She coiled her legs and pounced, getting as close to the pineco as she possibly could. Carter's eyes widened as he recognized the attack Gwen prepared to use, and he screamed at his pokemon. "Light Screen! Block it!"

"Too late!" Erika shouted. "Acid, maximum potency!"

This time, Gwen didn't hold back. She concentrated the poisons in her body to their absolute limits, to the point that she started withering again, and spewed the same steel melting, bone dissolving concoction that utterly thrashed the Claw grunts from the week prior. Despite the light screen being raised in time, the acid still managed to reach the pineco.

Angry purple drops of liquid hissed and steamed through the psychic shield, corroding the barrier and paring down its integrity until it finally collapsed, and the acid began to drip down onto the pineco which had shed its frontal pins. The pineco began rattling and screeching, which Erika took as screams of pain, and encouraged Gwen to spray even more acid down.

Carter didn't hesitate to order his pokemon to run away. "Get out of there and regrow your pins!"

The pineco bounced away using the tip of its cone like body, and started secreting a sticky fluid that instantly hardened upon contact with the air. Erika watched in fascination as it formed a facsimile of its former shell and spikes with the crystallized fluid, and it made to shoot them at Gwen once more.

However, Erika was having none of that. "Go for the kill Gwen! Target the regrown parts of its body!"

Carter began panicking after hearing her say that, and Erika smirked. She had studied the local pokemon species extensively, and knew that the fluid which the pineco secreted was a form of sticky proto-resin. Wild pineco utilized it to attach tree bark onto themselves, and used internal pressures to compress the bark into their bodies to form their signature shells. The fluid itself hardened quickly and could be used as a substitute shell, but it was weak and would collapse upon encountering a strong enough force.

With a high pitched war cry, Gwen homed in on the pineco and twisted, levering her body around to add momentum to her descending blow. Thanks to her accuracy training with Erika, she accurately struck the newly hardened resin covering the pineco's internals and cleaved through, her head leaves' bladed edges slicing it like a hot knife through butter. Her blow sent up an arterial spray of green blood but halted midway instead of cleaving through, thanks to the extraordinary density of the pineco's internals. Carter recalled his pokemon quickly.

"I admit defeat!" Carter shouted as he ran. "Stop the match!"

"Victory in round four goes to Erika Caldwell!" The referee announced.

Carter gave Erika a look which promised something along the lines of 'this isn't over,' and stormed away, off to the EMT like all her previous opponents.

Erika flashed the victory sign at the camera. "That's four for four!"

Having dominated the previous four fights, Erika was beginning to rapidly build up her confidence and momentum. There was an unstoppable air about her as she moved, as if demanding people to part for her, and knowing that they would do so.

Erika's walk to the round five arena was the best walk of her life, because she did it with unashamed and unabashed confidence. Even though Erika knew that each proceeding round meant harder and tougher trainers, she still didn't care, because she had absolute certainty in herself and the surety that she would triumph.

Now that she had made it to round five, the number of in person spectators sky rocketed. Since the RSG had eight rounds, each proceeding round meant that the number of participants sharply dropped, and the concentration of spectators per match would increase.

As Erika waited for her fifth round opponent to appear and the arena bleachers to fill up, she grabbed an apple and a bottle of soda from a nearby vendor and sat down to think.

Gwen is still holding strong, but there are still more than four rounds left. Sooner or later, I'm going to encounter someone who will force Mordred out.

Erika wasn't looking forward to that. She wanted to hold him up her sleeve until the very last moment, but there was a high likelihood that she would be forced to utilize Mordred to win in this round or the next. Obviously, the best case scenario is Mordred being able to hide until the eighth round, but that's not going to happen, given that I saw multiple fire specialists, and Falkner's skarmory.

The matchups displayed on the overhead tv screen informed Erika that she would meet with Falkner in round seven if he continued his winning streak - which she was confident he would, and either a bug or a fire specialist for her eighth round.

Her seventh round would be the hardest, possibly even more than the last, since Falkner's skarmory countered her team in every single aspect. Its dual steel and flying type provided twice the elemental resistance to her team's grass, and long range movies like leaf tornado and razor leaf would be practically ineffective. Acid - Gwen's staple long range attack, could very slowly char away at the metal on the skarmory's body, but the steel typing of the bird would resist the poison.

Acid, like all moves, had two components - a physical component, and an auric component. In the case of acid, the physical component was the literal acid being sprayed, while the auric component was the poison aura within.

Erika had the pH of Gwen's maximum strength acid tested once - it came out as something around 2, which definitely wasn't enough to quickly dissolve metal, even though it would happen with time. However, as evidenced by her attack on the Claw base, Gwen was able to easily corrode a meter-thick metal wall in under a minute. Why was the acid stronger in actual practice than its pH suggested?

This phenomenon could be attributed entirely to the poison aura inside the acid. Under the magnification of poison aura, the acid gained in strength and potency hundredfold that of what its actual qualities might enable it to do.

The unfortunate part of this situation was that when dealing with steel type pokemon like Falkner's skarmory which were innately filled with steel aura, the poison aura inside Gwen's acid would be elementally resisted and unable to magnify the acid attack. The auric component of the attack would be taken out, leaving only the physical part - the actual acid itself, which could only slowly eat away at the metal. In a similar vein, if you ever ran out of aura, your moves would lose the auric empowerment behind them and just behave as they would normally.

Even if Gwen accurately hit the skarmory with acid often, it would take hours to even strip off a few layers of its dense metal armor, let alone disable and down the bird. That wasn't accounting for the fact that the skarmory could fly and soar through the air, and easily dodge all of Gwen's attacks.

Gwen wouldn't be able to seriously hurt the skarmory, of that Erika was sure. She would need Mordred's help for that. A glare boosted mean look might be enough to down the skarmory, Erika considered. Mordred could seed the bird with life draining leech vines and pin it on the ground to eliminate its aerial advantage... But that would require being able to hit the bird first from the ground.

Erika was certain Falkner would just have his skarmory bombard her pokemon with air cutters and obscene wind attacks from the sky. She already had a few countermeasures in mind to try out, but that would have to wait for after she got home.

Her fifth round opponent finally arrived as well.

This time, Erika's opponent was a normal type specialist. The boy was practically brimming with normal aura, which manifested as a sort of pale white under her second sight. He wore sandals with a casual tee, but the thing that threw Erika off was the fact that he only had one pokeball clipped to his waist - a great ball, just like she did for Mordred.

Great balls were expensive proprietary technology developed to increase overall capture rate for all types of pokemon, unlike the other pokeball variants already in existence which targeted specific groups of pokemon. Erika was lucky to find a great ball among the Claw grunt's possessions when she was raiding the base, and she figured that it was probably being prepared for one of the pokemon in the cargo.

Having a great ball was usually a good sign that you had influence or money, and Erika had received many envious looks at the ball clipped to her waist. On a few forum sites, her mysterious great ball was apparently already being discussed since she never revealed its contents despite her winning streak.

The question now was: what was inside her opponent's sole great ball?

Erika critically examined the name of her opponent on the tv-screen, committing it to memory as someone to take note of. Hayato Nikos. An odd name, combining both Old Kantonian and Sinnohoan influences. His last name rang a bell in Erika's memory, but she struggled to place it initially, until she remembered his normal type specialization.

A member of the Nikos Family - an old clan based in Goldenrod, Johto. Erika's eyes narrowed. Clan trainers tended to be much better battlers on average. Her third round opponent was also a clan trainer from Vermillion's White Family, and she put up a good fight - better than Erika's fourth round opponent.

Making it to the fifth round proved that Hayato was competent and definitely powerful. He's someone worth befriending.

"I hope we have a good match," Erika told Hayato politely, taking the initiative to reach out and shake his hand. "I'm looking forward to having an exciting match with a fellow specialist."

She took note of his relaxed posture and casual attire, thinking about how greatly it contrasted with her own garb. He had flip flops and a blue tee on in comparison to Erika's kimono and wooden sandals, and his face practically screamed laid back and lazy. It's almost as if he's unbothered by everything. Is he just confident in himself, or is it something else?

Hayato scratched his head bashfully at Erika's words. "I hope so too, but I fear that it won't be as exciting as you want. My pokemon is… special."

Is he saying he's going to crush me easily? With his one pokemon?

Erika narrowed her eyes. "We'll see about that."

The referee called them both up to the podium to stand, and the opaque psychic barrier shielding the arena was turned transparent, revealing a rocky expanse with a small hill and some trees. Mountain Field. I can work with that.

Erika readied her herself, grasping at Gwen's pokeball and palming it. She rested her index onto the pointer, preparing to toss the ball into the sky the moment the cameras started rolling.

There was a brief motion from the referee and a whistle blow, and the match had begun. "Start!"

With practiced grace, Erika hit the release button on her ball and threw it sky high, letting the pokeball send Gwen down onto the arena in a dazzling line of red. What came next shocked Erika. A second mountain… had appeared. No - it was a snorlax!

The hairs on her body started rising involuntarily as adrenaline flooded Erika's system, and her brain started running at full speed. Snorlax?! Already? That thing is a monster! It's larger than the arena's miniature mountain, and it's probably still prebuscent!

"Fume Hood!" Erika shouted immediately. "Douse it with maximum strength amnestics and run around until the snorlax falls asleep!"

Gwen's body enlarged like a deflated football having air pumped in, swelling up multiple times until she finally belched out a greenish mass up into the air. It sailed upwards as high as it could possibly go and then detonated, scattering sleep powder particles absolutely everywhere within the arena.

The audience immediately began laughing.

"You didn't have to do that girlie!"

"That damn thing was going to sleep anyways!"

Huh? Erika looked at the snorlax more closely. Its eyes were tightly shut, and its mouth was curled into a goofy smile, as if it were having a nice dream. That damn thing is already asleep! Were Gwen's amnestics that effective? The snorlax is so large though! It should take way longer for the sleep powder to work its way through its system!

"Was your pokemon asleep even before the match began?" Erika asked in disbelief. "This is an official tournament! What are you doing?"

Hayato shrugged helplessly. "That's just how Larry is. He sleeps almost 23 out of 24 hours a day. Don't worry though, he can still fight. Let me show you right now! Larry, sleep talk!"

Erika tensed up as she saw a buildup of psychic aura in the snorlax and immediately called out to Gwen. "Evasive maneuvers, like we practiced!"

Gwen shot towards the mountain and dove behind, using the artificial rock formation as cover from the snorlax's inevitable attack. Erika braced herself… and braced herself some more. Very quickly, she realized that nothing had happened - again.

Did it use rest?

Many of the audience members were visibly in tears and laughing at the comical sight. Erika suddenly understood that they had already been witness to this scene multiple times. They're probably fans from Hayato's previous rounds. But that means he must have been able to attack his enemies somehow, since he's here now. The snorlax must have other moves!

"Sleep talk again!" Hayato shouted. "Get up, you lazy oaf!"

This time, the snorlax moved. Its huge, lumbering frame shook the ground as it shifted position, leaning back to lie down on the ground more comfortably. Erika was about to cuss Hayato out from messing with her again when the snorlax lifted one of its arms and dug it into the soil, clawing out a massive chunk of rocky earth.

Her eyes widened when she saw the snorlax draw its arm backwards. "Evade Gwen! Go into the ground!"

With a mighty grunt, the snorlax flung the chunk of rock towards Gwen's position. As it sailed through the air, part of the soil and rock fragmented and broke off, spilling downwards in a shower of dirt particles and loose sediments. Gwen had disappeared underground long ago, so when the rock finally came down and exploded into pieces, she remained uninjured.

"Fume Hood, stun loadout!" Erika ordered. "Target its nose and mouth, and then cover with acid!"

Gwen obliged, inhaling and enlarging, and belched out a yellow blob towards the snorlax. It came in on an arc and burst into fine particles upon making contact with the snorlax's face, covering it completely in yellow. That should inhibit its movements somewhat.

She ran up to the artificial mountain peak and started spraying down acid onto the snorlax below, watching its fur sizzle. However, the acid didn't seem to make any progress other than burning away at the snorlax's fur.

Hayato remained unperturbed. "Sleep talk again! Cmon Larry, stop sleeping! I know you can fight!"

The snorlax was fully unresponsive. It raised an arm weakly, then slumped back to the ground.

"Ugh, fine!" Hayato pulled out a credit card from his pocket and started tapping it. The tap tap noises from the card made the snorlax suddenly pay attention, turning its head towards the sound even though its eyes remained closed. "I'll spend this month's entire allowance on any food you want! All you can eat! Just lift your arms a few more times, please!"

Finally, it clambered into a sitting position, and uprooted an entire tree to throw at Gwen.

"Dodge and counterattack with acid!" Erika shouted to her companion. "Aim for the eyes!"

Gwen dodged the flying tree and accurately spat acid onto the snorlax's eyelids, and Erika watched with satisfaction as the acid began eating away at the thin piece of skin, until she noticed that it was rapidly regrowing. Even the fur which Gwen's acid had previously scorched away was now pristine once more.

"Is it using rest constantly?" Erika said disbelievingly. "That's disgusting!"

Hayato burst out laughing, now joining the audience. "Yes! With Larry's size and constant healing, he's invincible as long as you don't take him out instantly! How's that?"

Erika scowled, trying to think of a counter play.

The snorlax remained completely immobile, even as it grasped for more nearby trees to hurl at Gwen. It physically won't move. It's too lazy. In that case…

"Seed the snorlax with leech seeds!" Erika called out. "Cover it's entire body and hide yourself away!"

From behind the mountain, Gwen inhaled once more and spat, sending leech seeds flying across on an arc to hit the snorlax. The seeds buried themselves in its dense fur and began absorbing its life force, transmitting it back to empower Gwen. In response, the snorlax shut its eyes tighter, and uprooted another tree to throw.

The fight had become a long range artillery war, with Gwen sending out ocassional globules of acid and leech seeds, whilst the snorlax threw tree after tree and rock after rock from its fixed position.

Gwen had been trained to accurately spit acid and seeds, and the snorlax was so unbelievably large that even if her attacks normally would have been off the mark, they still landed anyways and took root in its fur. On the other hand, due to the mountain blocking the snorlax, it was forced to throw all its rocks and trees on an arc, and most of its projectiles missed Gwen, even if she didn't dodge.

At the same time however, Gwen's leech seeds didn't have much of an effect on the great beast due to how fast the snorlax healed. Even after the seeds sprouted into strangling vines and drained its energy and life force, the snorlax simply slept it off, snoozing soundly and recovering without care.

Neither Erika nor Hayato could do anything to break the stalemate.

Oh right, Erika nearly smacked herself in the head. I could just substitute in Mordred and have him use worry seed to give the snorlax insomnia. That would neatly solve the problem and stop it from healing. However, that means I have to expose his existence. Aargh! This sucks.

The snorlax didn't seem to be slowing down either, showing no signs at all that Gwen's stun spores had affected it. Given how massive it was, even a lethal dose of paralyzing spores probably didn't faze it all. It still seemed to be sleeping soundly and its breathing was regular, and Erika couldn't see it suffering from constricted lungs or airways at all.

Before Erika could do anything though, the snorlax slumped back to the ground from its sitting position and completely gave up and throwing. Hayato's head hung in shame, and he sighed, withdrawing his pokemon. "I surrender!"

"What?"

"You heard me right," Hayato answered her. "Larry is too lazy to keep fighting. He probably realized that the reward I promised him wasn't worth the extra effort, and no matter what I do, he's not going to attack anymore. If we continue the match, he's just going to lie there and do nothing."

"Aren't you a clan trainer?" Erika asked him suspiciously. "You should have more money than that. Just offer your pokemon more!"

"I'm afraid I don't have the money," Hayato laughed. "The Nikos Family is big, and there are many poorer sub branches, like the one I hail from. My monthly allowance is already mostly being spent on feeding this big oaf, and I can't afford to spend any more on convincing Larry to fight."

The referee brought his flag down and whistled, signalling the end of the match. "Victory to Erika Caldwell!"

Even though she had won, Erika felt cheated. It wasn't a true victory which she earned by her own efforts, even though it was relieving to have won. She was sure that with enough pressure, she would have been able to devise a winning strategy against the snorlax's seemingly unassailable healing factor, but Hayato resigned before she could do that.

She exchanged numbers with Hayato before exiting the tournament venue, feeling very mixed about her victory.

AN: Rising stars has begun! Make sure to hit the watch button and drop a like and comment, I love seeing them. As always, there's a server link to my discord for Twisted Garden, if you want to discuss the fic with other fans.

https://discord.gg/J6ygNC8VhQ