As always, there was no external signal given. Claire and Sylva exchanged a brief nod and the battle was on.

“Twiggy, settle in,” Claire ordered and Twiggy rooted himself in the loose soil of the training room, his body slowly taking in external power and nutrients to rapidly fuel the Growth of his strength. Opposite of him, Sylva gave her Fluffy the order to stun Twiggy and with a shake of its fluffy seedpods, a brown, somewhat spore-like powder was spread across the field, completely covering Twiggy in the process.

I couldn’t quite see what changed, but I was pretty sure Twiggy wasn’t having the best time of it, twitching in irritation. The Jumpluff’s Stun Spore had to be incredibly itchy to affect a stoic and solid Pokémon like Twiggy that way, to the point that the amount of power he drew in with his roots visibly dropped, the speed of his Growth slowing down a little.

But slowing down didn’t mean he stopped and while the Jumpluff started to dart back and forth, trying to use more spores from its seedpod-like arms to inundate and irritate Twiggy, he used the time to finish setting up and, when the Jumpluff darted in once again, Twiggy started the counter-attack, streams of sharp Razorleaves cutting through the air and sealing its path of escape.

The attack, strengthed by the earlier absorption of energy, struck the Jumpluff head-on, making the light Pokémon tumble through the air in an uncontrolled spin, shedding seed and spores everywhere. Across the field, I could see Sylva nod in approval, even as she ordered her Fluffy to seed Twiggy and her partner added larger spores into the mix, the Leech Seeds instantly taking root on Twiggy’s body and starting to drain the power Twiggy was absorbing from the ground.

It was a quite smart move, sealing Claire’s favourite tactic of using Twiggy’s endurance to outlast the enemy, while he was slowly building up power by constantly absorbing it from the earth to fuel his Growth until he was able to end the battle with decisive attacks. The suitable counter made me wonder if it was planned or if Sylva simply used the most suitable tactic to break the most intuitive tactic Twiggy could employ. Well, other than simply breaking him with overwhelming strength, but brute force wasn’t really what a Pokémon like Jumpluff was truly good at. With enough levels, it certainly could do so, but that would only show how we dealt with getting crushed.

As I was watching, Claire obviously realised that simply trying to outlast wouldn’t work this time. The combination of itchy Stun Spores and slowly draining Leech Seed meant that the longer things went, the more Twiggy would fall behind, especially as Fluffy was able to dodge most of the Razorleaves Twiggy shot out. In the meantime, Twiggy was utterly unable to even try avoiding the hefty Bullet Seeds shot at him by the slippery fluffball.

“Get ready,” Claire ordered and I wondered what the two had in mind. I had occasionally watched her train, but most of the time, I kept an eye on the surroundings or trained my own partners, making me unable to keep up with her progress. I noticed the glow of power around Twiggy fade a little and realised that the roots he had used to draw power from the ground had withdrawn, just before Fluffy was coming in for yet another attack.

Right when Fluffy was in striking range, his annoying spores adding to Twiggy’s irritation, Twiggy snapped forward, moving with speed I had yet to see from him. His maw was shrouded in a dark, purple glow and he just managed to snap his jaws shut around the Jumpluff and Bite into it, the massive difference in weight enough to bring the agile flyer to the ground.

“Keep at it, keep it down!” Claire ordered and Twiggy did just that, rampaging with a combination of Tackles and Bites, trying to keep the Jumpluff from taking to the air again and getting back into the endurance battle.

“Enough,” Sylva called out, “Aerobatics and escape,” The moment she commanded, her Fluffy was surrounded by the azure glow of a flying-type attack and, with impossible speed, slipped from Twiggy’s grasp, giving him a hefty blow in the process, totally belying the physical differences between the two.

Back in the air, I thought the attrition would continue, but Sylva took out her Pokéball, calling back her partner.

“I’ve seen enough, well done,” she complimented Claire, who looked a little conflicted at the resolution, but happy that Twiggy was still standing.

“Who’s next?” she asked, looking at the three of us who had been spectating. After yet another exchange of looks, I stepped forward, still considering the purpose of this fight and the best battle plan.

If the idea was only to show our strength, I was pretty sure Prince Charming was the way to go. Sylva was reputedly a grass specialist, so sending out a Fire-type would be a perfectly valid strategy and one so obvious that I would be utterly shocked if she hadn’t at least a couple of counter-strategies planned for the obvious ploy. On the other hand, Grass was often paired with Poison, giving Vio a spicy match-up, advantageous on both sides, making things highly volatile.

Walking forward, I realised that the room around us might be another hint, namely a test to see how we fought in a semi-natural environment. Were we willing to tear down the forest to gain victory, or start a massive fire? Or even push our opponent into starting one? I had been rebuked for potentially endangering the audience during the tournament, it had been my opponent’s move, and I had only defended and yet, I had been the one getting scolded. Though, I didn’t know what repercussions had ben levied on my opponent and likely would never find out.

Putting my game-face on, I stood behind the clear frame and made a decision, taking out Prince Charming’s Pokéball. If there was a trap, I would just have to be smart about it and break through.

“Charm, do me proud,” I cheered him on, while on the opposite side of the field, our opponent was released in a flash of red light. Just like the visual comparison had been unbalanced between Grotle and Jumpluff, the comparison between Charm and his foe was equally unbalanced and in the same way. A tall, quite buff, crimson lizard with a burning flame on his tail against a small, petal-like being, barely coming up to my thigh, with a wide, inviting smile on its face, it made you think Sylva’s Cherrim would be torn apart in short order.

But the world being what it was, I knew better to rely on purely visual aspects, as I had no doubt this cute Cherrim would be a powerhouse of similar strength to the Jumpluff Claire had just faced.

Looking over to Sylva, we exchanged a nod and I gave my first command in a departure from my usual style.

“Smoke it, Charm,” I ordered and a moment later, the battle area was filled with dark smoke, smelling a little like burned wood.

On the other side of the field, I could barely see the Cherrim through the smoke but was able to hear Sylva commanding her Cher to put her guard up. The hot-pink light emanating from it, as it used the Flower Guard ability to shield itself brought a grim smile to my face, as I realised the Fairy shield would be highly effective against my favourite non-fire attack, the primal Dragonbreath.

But there was more than one way to pluck this flower and the combination of dark smoke and glittering shield was just what I needed.

“Charm, dodge and bite,” I ordered, trying to pitch my voice in a way that made it difficult for Sylva to hear me while hoping that Charm would understand my oblique command.

Watching how the flickering flame of his tail flittered through the smoke, moving in an unpredictable way that made me realise that he was using it as a distraction gave me hope that my idea was working. Just before the flame closed in on the glittering shield, Sylva broke the situation with her next move, “Blow it away with your Magic Leaves,” she calmly ordered and more glitter appeared in the smoke, this time green leaves, trailing rainbow-coloured sparkles.

The leaves started to orbit the Cherrim and their movement started to move the air and thus the smokescreen, while some of them impacted the sneakily approaching Charm, making me grimace just a little. But before the leaves could introduce enough movement, Charm was in position and the flame on his tail suddenly moved rapidly, flames flickering in his maw as he chomped the Cherrim, biting down as he channelled fire through his mouth and bite.

The direct hit made the Cherrm squeal in pain and even though the dense smoke, I could see more of the Magic Leaves impact Charm, causing him to stagger in pain, carrying the struggling Cherrim with him.

“You can do it, Endure,” Sylva ordered, white light shrouding the Cherrim, helping take some of the punishment the small Pokémon was suffering.

Finally, after a few moments of struggle, the Cherrim managed to break free of Charm’s jaws and tumble away. The smoke had mostly cleared, letting everyone see the two combatants and neither looked good. Charm had suffered countless cuts and bruises from the sharp leaves while the Cherrim had been caught and roasted, burns and soot covering its whole body.

“Light it up,” I ordered, not planning to let the Cherrim get back into the battle.

“Turn it up a notch,” Sylva ordered on the other side of the field and more and more petals emerged, a veritable blizzard of them. In the meantime, Charm started to spit burning Embers at the Cherrim, neither of them willing to dodge.

Their attacks crossed paths in the middle, some of the embers striking petals and burning them, the rest continuing on, striking true on the two contestants, both of them being sent flying by their foe’s attack.

My heart was beating in my throat as I saw Charm lying there and couldn’t bring myself to look at the Cherrim, not caring if we had won or not.

As if hearing the shouts and cheers in my heart, Charm twitched and managed to push himself up to his knees, not willing to just fall here.

“Come on, you can do it,” I whispered under my breath, a smile slowly forming when Charm was back on his feet. It gave me time to look across the field, only to see the last glint of Sylva’s Pokéball, as she called back her Cherrim.

We had won?