"Aster, Growth, keep your distance," one simple sentence, sharp, concise, and to the point, a far cry from his attitude from earlier. The little looked back, taken a bit aback by the shift in attitude, but nevertheless let out a brave
"Fwee," as he hopped off to the side where there was more sunlight, shaking its little bulb as it began to glow a little.
As that happened, Cyril observed the battlefield, his vision becoming sharper as he swiftly studied his surroundings, taking note of every little thing, ranging from the bucket that was still in the midst of it all to the puddle of water; he even spent a couple of seconds looking at the roof, then the trainer and her Sentret.
"Now then, what's my strategy."‘Sentret! Get closer, and Defense Curl!’ Chloe commanded, because the move sounds like it’d defend against things. Sentret skipped forward on four legs, getting closer… way slower than one would have assumed a Sentret should, before her tail wrapped around as she curled into a defensive ball closer to Aster, prepared to take damage.
‘That should do! Now Scratch!’… And Sentret would slowly roll towards Aster, not arriving yet because she can’t do two moves at once.
Cyril furrowed his brows, frowning slightly as he watched the Sentret close the gap between the two, though it was fairly slow. Raising a hand to his chin, he bit his lip a little as he rapped his chin, switching between the Pokémon and the trainer. All the while the little Budew had stopped glowing, at least for the moment, staring stalwartly at the 'menacing' ball of fluff rolling towards him. Didn't help that she called out her next attack early before the Sentret had even arrived.
"Wait Aster..."The little Pokémon looked behind him, then back at the ball of fur, the little Budew squinting at it as it rustled itself, pouting at it. Cyril waited until the sphere began to unravel, that's when he gave his next command,
"Now Aster, dodge, then go to Chloe and use growth!"Thankfully, due to the pace of her Pokémon, he should of been able to dodge the strike and possibly outdistance himself due to the Budews superior speed
because who knew that plants were faster than animals. His little stubs for legs flew, following the scratch as he skittered to the other side of the battlefield, looking up at Chloe before turning around to face his opponent before glowing once again.
However, in the midst of the battle, Kalmia called out to Cyril, describing the situation to him as he gave her a side-long glance and smiled and gave her a thumbs up to her before returning his attention to the battle.
‘Er…’ Chloe looked on the battlefield with a considerable bit of “and what am I supposed to do now” as Aster just walked away from the incoming ball of scratches, able to safely escape it. She looked down on Aster with a befuddled expression, before turning to Sentret and-
‘Okay, new plan! Just dash full speed at him and Scratch!’ she commanded, and Sentret had to uncurl from the ball and start dashing on four limbs at Aster to attack. While still slow, we can assume at least a decent amount of speed here for a species that’s actually been able to survive in the wild.
Finished glowing, the little Budew peeked over at his partner, only to see the Sentret making a mad dash in his direction, causing him to flinch slightly. Granted, it was going at a decent speed, it was just unprecedented to the little plant due to how it moved a few seconds earlier. He didn't know what to think of it all, instead doing his best to focus on Cyril, despite a little sweat droplet forming on its side
(can plants even sweat).
The stylish young man, however, had stopped making a worried face like he did earlier,
"No use in putting up a facade that early I suppose." He weakly smiled, shaking his head as he stared at the ground, before his eyes drifted to the Sentret, then his Budew.
"Aster, move in front of the water puddle."The tone was calm and confident, making light of this whole situation now as the little Budew wriggled its bud, hustling on over to the puddle, standing in front of it, waiting for his next orders as the Sentret closed on in. Once at a sufficient distance, Cyril proudly announced
"Time for your first lesson Chloe! Aster, jump into the puddle and splash water into the Sentrets eyes!"Following that, the Budew did a short hop and slammed down into the puddle, causing some water to burst upward at the encroaching Pokémons face.
Aster splashed down into the trace amounts of water that had spread from the bucket, forming at least a small puddle in some place that had an indent downwards for indiscernible reasons but let’s have someone stumble on it in the future, and because of cartoon logic this perfectly splashed the water up and into Sentret’s eyes.
‘Seeeeeeeent…!’ Sentret called out in mild distress! … And then went ahead and scratched in front of her anyway! Be it beginner’s luck or who knows, Scratch still hit! Still, that’s one distressed Sentret right about now.
‘Sentret! Calm down!’ Chloe tried, not actually able to give much more commands than that right now.
"FWEE?!" Aster hopped an inch back, wincing from the pain a bit as it nibbled at its lower lip. While it wasn't enough to knock him out, the small Pokémon still sniffled, looking over to Cyril with puppy dog eyes. The trainer could only grimace, frowning slightly as he clicked the roof of his mouth,
"Sorry Aster, thought that might work." He sighed as he apologized, looking over to the distressed Sentret, who seemed to be wriggling and flopping around more than a Magikarp.
"Regardless, good work! Aster, come back over to me and use Growth!" The Aster bobbed its bulb up and down, running back to Cyril, making tiny splashes with its little legs through whatever remained of the puddle. Upon arriving, he did a little jig and gave a weary smile to Cyril before turning around and glowing once again.
"Now, Chloe, I don't know how long it'll take before your Sentret recovers from that little surprise, but let me tell you my next moves," he gave her a soft, award-winning smile as he raised a finger and pointed it directly at her.
"I'm going to keep having Aster use Growth, until your Sentret decides to approach. The moment she does, I'll begin having Aster spam Absorb on her," his finger moved over to the Sentret, though his eyes remained completely locked on the newbie trainer. The tone of his voice wasn't at all condescending or coquettish, but rather sharp and earnest, with a bit of playfulness sprinkled in-between.
"Most trainers focus blindly on those assets and fail to see any other, even though there's so much more that can be done," he chuckled wistfully and shrugged, briefly glancing over to Jacques and winking before looking back to the bucket and then Chloe, all while the little Budew looking mildly confused at this all.
"After all, what you both can perform in a battle is only limited by not only the trainers creativity, but the Pokémon’s as well." Cyril mused over a couple of seconds, keeping his focus directly on his opponent, standing there, analyzing her body language, her inflections, the way her Sentret scrambled to regain her posture, and so many other factors.
Chloe blinked a bit as Cyril proceeded with making this a lesson for her instead of a straight-on battle. Now, Chloe was intelligent enough to know that after that many Growths, Aster’s level of power would likely vasly eclipse Sentret’s, no matter how many scratches she got in. She took a moment to follow Cyril’s gaze as he looked at Jacques, who was looking decently amused, and then to the bucket and then back to Chloe. Her focused but somewhat hesitating expression was indicative that she HAD thought of something, but could she really do that? Was that entirely allowed? Then there was a grin and a shrug and a “well, let’s do it!”
‘Sentret, Foresight!’ Chloe first commanded, and Sentret rubbed off the water and gave a determined stare at Aster. With a glint in her eyes, Sentret had Aster identified and targeted, unlikely to be missed by an actual attack! Here’s then a moment when Aster’s probably able to get another Growth in. And with that, Chloe then pointed at the bucket…
‘Sentret, grab that bucket, and… THROW IT AT HIM!’And with that command, Sentret ran over to the bucket, got her tail under the handle of the bucket and then pulled to fling the bucket over her head… and thanks to Foresight it was somehow perfectly calculated to fly straight at Aster!
‘And now dash in and Scratch while he’s off guard, and win this thing! Go, Sentret…!’ Chloe commanded, and immediately after throwing the bucket Sentret took off after it, heading for Aster, intending to take advantage of the confusion of a thrown bucket…!
With those words, he keenly watched her next movements, even once Aster had stopped growing and began waiting on the next command, which he followed up with
"Aster, continue using Growth." The Pokémon began to go again, as well as puffed his chest out bravely,
"Fweeeeee," holding this noise as if he was charging up some grand attack.
After his instructions, he witnessed their next move, his eyes widening as much as his smile, holding with bated breath about her approach to this scenario. That anticipation he had came to the climax once he heard her next order. Cyril was to keep his eyes glued to the battlefield, but he couldn't help but give a slight nod and a content smile to Jacques before returning his attention.
The bucket flew, headed on a direct collision course with Aster, who had finished growing once more, only to be startled by the large projectile flying towards him.
"Aster, dodge to the side, quickly," he issued sharply, the little Budew deftly jumped to the side, panting before witnessing the encroaching shadow of another being closing in.
Cyril also had to side step it, as it tumbled by, but that’s not as important."FWEE?!" Aster cried out, not being able to react in time to the continued pressure the Sentret now had, enduring another Scratch as he bounced back, sniffling once more causing Cyril to wince once again, as if Aster's throbbing pain was his own.
"Sorry little buddy, but I wanted to teach you three something important."His following smile could not be more paradoxical; a mixture of regret and heartache, yet it was bright and proud.
"Heh, Aster, Absorb! Lets close this battle out!" He announced the move with such gravitas and bravado, knocking the funk out of him as he wriggled and puffed his bulb out, looking a tad bit worn out.
"Fweeeeeeeeee...!" Instead of the little Bud Pokémon glowing, the Sentret was now bathed in a soft light, similar to the Budew when he was using Growth. However, not a second later, green orbs of different shapes and sizes began to form on the Sentret. They were like little boils, save instead of popping, they flew off towards Aster, who sparkled a bit every time an orb touched and was absorbed into his body.
"You three, hee, hee," he chuckled heartily, as more and more flew off the Sentret, most likely dealing a hefty amount of damage to their current opponent.
‘SENTRET…!’ Sentret called out, having hit that Scratch but then taking an excessively powered-up Absorb in turn. The Absorb did far too much damage for Sentret to endure more than a single one without fainting and the health it returned to Aster was way more than Sentret did to him with a single Scratch, but…!
‘Keep… Scratching…!’ Chloe commanded, a bit of hesitation in her voice as she was realizing this may not have been enough, but there wasn’t a lot she could do about it now…
‘Actually, TURN IT AROUND! Maybe it needs to see you-!’Though, the somewhat panicking Sentret only really managed to deliver another Scratch onto Aster, and with all that Growth-ing that Aster had done, turning him around was easier said than done. He could finish the battle now.
"Huh, thought that would be enough," he mused, tilted his head quizzically, still displaying that same cordial yet proud smile he held before, thought he tilted his head as he continued to lightly chuckle.
"Either I miscalculated the damage done or your Sentret has a lot more willpower than I anticipated. Regardless, this battle is over."He spoke with conviction, less sounding like a bluster and more like a fact as the Budew finished draining the Sentrets health, almost positively looking healthy himself! Aster sighed dreamily, almost ready to plop back and relax, a lax large smile forming on his face,
"Fweeeeee~..."Of course, that Scratch the Sentret performed only really brought him out of his reverie, recoiling back as his bulb jolted. Aster cried out in shock as he hopped back a bit from the attack and shook his head.
"Even with the odds stacked, heh... Aster, finish him with another Absorb!"The Budew aimed its bulb at the Sentret as it lunged forward once more, attempting to carry out the prior command his trainer issued. However, in the end, the same process a couple of seconds prior followed as the Sentret became engulfed in a soft, yet prickly and harmful light, with multiple spheres being dragged out of the Sentret's body.
As Absorb is a very weak move, and Sentret actually has decent Special Defense (for its class) it took two of them to faint Sentret, despite all the Growths. Still, after the second Absorb Sentret gave a slight cry of distress before falling over, fainting.
Cyril was victorious! Cyril gained 1000 P for winning!
Aster grew to Level 6!
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