The ceremony soon ended and Julian headed home, like every other day he has nothing to do now, so he decided to go and see if the gym leader of the city has come back from her little training exploration.

He got out of the hotel room and headed towards the gym and he got lucky because it seems like the leader has come back to the gym. ​​

But he wanted to do one last training session with his pokemon before he challenges the gym since its a Ghost-type gym Julian decides to use Manaphy and Crystal for this time because they need some battle experience.

He walks away to call it a day, the next morning Julian wakes up early and goes to the nearest forest to train Crystal and Manaphy for their upcoming battle.

Crystal now has four typings with it, Normal, Electric, Poison, and Ground, it learned Mimic suddenly surprising Julian but the move will be very helpful in the battle, it also learned Thunderbolt, Dig, and Poison Jab after going through lots of training with Julian and increasing its arsenal.

What's even better is Crystal is immune to Ghost-type attacks if it stays in its normal form but it still can use other moves, making Crystal the versatile pokemon second to Arceus.

Julian has already planned to start training Crystal to learn other types of moves, the most he is focused now is Fire and with Infernape by his side it won't be hard, next will be Ghost, Dark, Psychic, and Rock.

Manaphy has also grown a lot stronger as it has learned more moves such as Super Sonic, Whirlpool, Ice Beam, Protect, and Blizzard.

These two will be enough to challenge the gym, well Crystal will be enough to take down all the gyms in Sinnoh but that would be too easy for Julian so he won't make Crystal use Pur too much or it would be Crystal just hitting an open target.

Another day goes by and Julian is finally ready to challenge the gym.

He soon walks into the gym and sees the man, the gym keeper who he met a few days ago who informed him about the gym leader not being here.

Gym Keeper "Oh, you are back again, you can go to the battlefield and wait there, I will inform the Gym leader about you"

Julian nods and walks towards the battlefield when he reaches there he looks around to see the whole battlefield is dark with some lighted candles around it, a perfect place for a Ghost pokemon to thrive, the shadows around the area can be used to hide and travel around without being noticed.

Julian is now more serious as battling in this battlefield will be harder than anything, Ghost type pokemon are annoying to battle as they don't have a physical existence unless they want to physically touch something.

And with all these shadows they can easily go from one place to another without being noticed.

"So you must be the challenger"

Julian heard and voice and turned around to see a tall woman with weird purple hair and wearing a long purple dress, she is the gym leader of this gym, Fantina.

Fantina walked into the battlefield and Julian felt another presence beside her, soon a pokemon appeared next to her, it is a Mismagius, it is her partner.

Fantina "Welcome trainer, to my gym, I accept your challenge"

Julian "That's good to know, so are we staring or not?"

Julian asked.

Fantina "I see you are in a hurry but don't worry, the battle will be over in minutes, then you can go and come back to challenge me whenever you want"

Julian "That won't be necessary, I think I can defeat you"

Fantina "Sure, let's get started then"

Fantina laughed and walked towards the battlefield and took her stance.

The gym keeper walked in as he will be the referee of this match.

Fantina looked at her challenger who is wearing a cloth mask.

Fantina 'Why do I feel like I know him very well, its that mask, he is hiding his face to cover his identity, who could it be?'

Fantina thought and suddenly realization hit her.

Fantina 'Wait, the Champion Julian is here in the city, and it is more like him to challenge the gyms while traveling around, wait this can't be the Julian right?'

Fantina tensed up and looked at Julian once again.

Fantina 'Oh my god, it is him, those red eyes, that is clearly him, the Julian is here in my gym and challenging me, I have to give it my all'

Fantina realized that the person she is facing is Julian so she tensed up a little but she also got excited as she will be able to battle Julian.

Referee "This will be a three on three pokemon battle, both the challenger and the gym leader cannot use more than three pokemons, the challenger is allowed to switch his pokemon during the battle while the gym leader can't.

The person at the end of the battle with no pokemon in their team loses this battle"

The referee paused and started to speak again.

Referee "Are the rules clear?"

Julian "Yes"

Referee "Then you may choose your pokemon"

Fantina went first and tossed her Pokeball up in the air.

Fantina "Duskull, I choose you"

She sent out her Duskull.

Julian "Manaphy let's go"

Julian sent out his Manaphy.