The Dragon-type affinity gave you a more passive effect. A holder of its ability has a very strong and an authoritative aura. People around them would treat them automatically with respect. Their words had much weight and were often perceived in a positive light. I could easily tell that it was a good ability to have, for most at least, I didn't have a great need for it. I then looked up my other affinities and found out that Steel gave you stability in body and mind. It was a very arduous process to shake up someone with the Steel-type ability.

The most terrifying affinity that I possessed was certainly the Dark. It was also probably the most horrible of all affinities. This affinity lives on through the pain and negativity around it. The user would grow stronger the 'darker' his surroundings and I definitely didn't want to have that one.

It was already time for dinner when I had finished my research. After I was done eating I went back into my room and revised all the things I had learned today. I took extra care to burn any aspects of Battle Theory in my memories for I didn't want to repeat today's lesson. With all of that done I went to bed and thought of all the things I planned to try with my new found power.

I woke up too late the following morning but was for a chance well rested, even if every part of my body hurt. I had barely time to eat breakfast and rushed to make in time for school. My class had our daily dose of hell in the morning, followed by mind-numbing history lessons and equally horrifying subjects. I used most of the afternoon to train my new ability, with meagre success. This repeated itself for the following month. Day in day out it would be the same routine. The sergeant was quite happy with our progress and spurted us on with the promise of our first real pokemon battle the following week. By what she told us, we would get a temporary partner for the following month. We would have to care for it, look out for its well being and train with it. At the end of each week, our class would hold a little battle tourney.

What we would get was completely random but we were assured that they would only be pre-evolutions. I had to think back on the Bidoof I had to 'befriend' when I had my trial. //Surely not// I thought. How low were the chances for something like that to happen?

Surprisingly enough, my worries were justified. I was standing there with my class while looking into the similarly shocked eyes of the very same Bidoof. Its face was screaming Why are you here!? and mine was saying Not you again. Someone could easily tell that we didn't like each other very much and it seemed that my teacher was feasting on this very fact. She even innocently asked if something was wrong, at which I answered that everything was fine, completely fine. When she was gone I looked deeply into the eyes of my 'partner' and conveyed a promise of everlasting anguish if it doesn't play along. I could feel the fear pouring out of every part of its body and firm nod it confirmed its acceptance.

"I'm completely aware that you very likely hate me but let me make something clear. You don't have to like me, you don't even have to acknowledge me but at least work with me. As long as you do that I will get a good grade and you will find out what a nice guy I can be. If you want to make it hard on both of us, be my guest but I promise you, you will regret it." With my last sentence said, I gave the nice little fella a big and friendly smile. I conveyed happiness and acceptance. The Bidoof was flabbergasted at my antics and mentally disturbed. It thought the whole situation through and resigned itself to its fate. From then on, it gave me, at every possible moment, the stink eye and tried to be sassy as often as it could, which pressed me to respond in kind. Every time it tried to make the situation harder than it had to be, I took away a privilege it had before.

We soon found an equilibrium and worked from there. After the end of the first week, I was able to command it to perform an attack (2 out of 3 times). I was horrified when I saw the progress of the others. There were only 3 other classmates that were on the same level as me. The rest was randomly shouting names of attacks at which half of them, their pokemon couldn't even use. It made no difference because none of these pokemon were even trying to listen to their trainers. It was a complete disaster but it seemed that our teacher wasn't surprised by that.

She seemed happy that some of her students made some progress and commended us on it. The four of us then continued with battling each other and it was obvious that one of us was better than the rest. It was a boy with blue spiky hair and steel-grey eyes and from what I could tell, he had an ability unlocked. It was either Dragon- or Fairy-type, my guess would be on Dragon as he was a key figure in our class. I was still the second best and was proud of it. I was happy enough by knowing, that I had some talent as a trainer.

When I was back home, I treated the Bidoof for his success and for behaving while being in battle. When the day was over, I happily went to bed and soon enough fell asleep.