After we received our Badges, we spent two more days in town, preparing for the next part of our journey. Given just how difficult the crossing of the Coronal Mountains was supposed to be, that left little time for other pursuits, though I managed to get some time reading and planning the continued training for my partners. They all had their weaknesses, though Vio had the least pronounced ones and I wanted my partners to have at least some way to defend themselves and me, regardless of what was attacking us.

Finally, just around the dawn of the third day, we left town, our packs heavy with supplies but at least my feet felt lighter than they had in a while. There was something about Eterna City that sent bad shivers down my spine, their attitude towards Pokémon uncomfortable.

As before, when we had been travelling to our task, we first had to hike around the lake, until we reached one of the smaller streams that fed it. That stream, creatively named Narrow Brook, marked Route 2-11 and had carved the valley the route followed. The first day consisted of a comfortable mix of climbing and battling, with only a couple of wild Pokémon seeking to challenge us. To keep things fair, we decided on a rotating format, battling in turn and applying that same logic to potential chances to catch a Pokémon. Having such an agreement in place beforehand meant that if we happened upon a rare or particularly powerful Pokémon, there wouldn’t be any conflict about who would get to try catching it.

On our trip up the valley, we encountered a few new species of Pokémon, though sadly, none of them managed to rouse my interest. Aside from the ubiquitous Geodudes, we had been encountering constantly, there were a couple more new types.

The first time I heard a soft, tinkling noise, I was briefly confused, the metallic sound clearly artificial in a way that didn’t make sense. At first, I thought it was some other group, handling some metal objects, but when I noticed movement in the distance, I realised it was actually a Chingling. Given I was in the lead, I carefully looked around and managed to spot a glint of metal, coming from between the rocks. Looking closer, I could see the round, yellow body, glinting almost like gold, with the two twine-like appendages sticking up on top.

Raising an arm to stop the others, I sent out Charm, ready to battle.

After appearing in a flash of red, he gave a glance at me, before following my line of sight and spotting the Chingling. The Chingling, realising that it had been spotted, started to hop forward, causing a ringing to echo in the valley, loud enough to keep ringing n my ears.

“Charm, don’t play, Embers to burn,” I ordered, not even trying to use the annoyingly loud Pokémon to train a new move.

Charm and the Chingling moved at the same time, the Chingling’s ringing becoming much more insistent and annoying, as it started to glow with a familiar purple glow, one that I knew quite well from Vio’s attacks. At the same time, Charm spat out a stream of embers at it, most of them hitting the body between the rocks. Sadly, none of them stuck to torment it further, scattering on the rocks. I could see the purple glow shroud Charm’s head, as he tried to fight against the psychic attack, pushing through the pain, even as he charged forward.

The Chingling tried to hop away, realising that the large, red lizard was coming right at it but it had been moving forward and needed time to shift its momentum. Time it simply didn’t have.

With my encouragement, Charm didn’t even try to dodge or delay, he directly used his claws to unbalance the Chingling and send it flying, before managing to chomp down on it, trapping it in his jaws. Once trapped, he could calmly set his flames to roast the Chingling, even as it was desperately ringing its bell. The ringing bell, along the rumbling sounds coming from Charm’s throat as he poured out more and more power, created the most interesting contrast, almost something akin to a song.

Finally, the ringing stopped and the Chingling stopped moving. Charm shook his head once as if trying to get rid of the ringing in his ears, before spitting it out, alongside a few sparks.

“Well done, Charm,” I complimented him, walking over to check the Chingling didn’t need additional help. It looked reasonably well and would recover in a couple of hours, so there was no need to do anything, other than calling Charm back.

A little later in the day, as we were walking around one of the higher mountains on a ledge with Lucas in the lead, it was his turn to stop us by raising his hand. It took me a moment to find what he had focused on but after looking around carefully, the glint of metal was quite obvious. Different from the Chingling I had fought earlier, this time, the metallic glint came from a dull-grey disc, that was only now rising from the ground, hovering as if supported by unseen threads. All of a sudden, the disc flipped around, revealing a pair of yellow eyes that seemed to stare at us.

While i wasn’t terribly interested in catching a Bronzor, I did quickly pull out my Pokédex, checking its potential, while Lucas called out his Monferno, Champ. One of my eyebrows rose at the choice, the match-up giving both sides an advantage, making it quite even. But then, his other options would be similarly problematic, unless he managed to ground the Bronzor, allowing Ground-type attacks to connect. Otherwise, even a Ground-type projectile would lose a great deal of power, turning into little more than a minor nuisance.

Champ looked around for a moment, seemingly excited before Lucas directed him to focus on the Bronzor. The Bronzor didn’t wait for Champ to actually attack, the small nubs all around the round disc started to glow with an eerie, deep purple light, indicating a Ghost-type attack. There was an odd flash and a ghostly beam of energy flashed over Champ, leaving him reeling a little.

“Shake it off and go, Flame Wheel!” Lucas could only try giving him some encouragement, Champ hadn’t seemed too focused before and now, after getting struck with a Confuse Ray, that was even worse.

Nonetheless, Champ tried to follow his trainer’s command, flames starting to ignite on his arms, as he leapt forward, trying to strike the Bronzor. Sadly, it seemed that Champ had been convinced that his target was further to the left, his attack missing without the Bronzor dodging a whole lot, avoiding almost all of the attack. Unable to stop himself, Champ crashed into the rocks, the attack dissipating on the unforgiving stone. I could see that there was some backlash and Champ still looked groggy.

The Bronzor floated up a little, the glow around it changing to the familiar, but oh-so-much more dangerous, purple of psychic attacks, enveloping Champ’s head and I could feel myself wince in sympathy pain. Champ let out a loud growl of pain, while Lucas egged him on, trying to get him to push through the pain. And yet, even as Lucas cheered, he had Champ’s Pokéball in hand, ready to call his partner back if things went completely south.

For a moment, neither Pokémon moved, as Champ was struggling against pain and confusion, while the Bronzor simply floated there, keeping Champ suppressed. Suddenly, Champ moved with surprising speed, the flames on his body flaring higher than they had before and with a swift kick, he managed to catch the Bronzor right in the middle of its face, smashing it back. Without giving it any time to get its focus back, Champ leapt after it, attacking in a frenzied rage, sparing no moment for defence or anything like that, purely focusing on beating his foe into the rocky mountainside.

The Bronzor tried to focus once again, the purple light shrouding its metallic body, but under Champ’s continued assault, the glow never fully materialised and the light in the Bronzor’s yellow eyes faded as it fell unconscious.

“Champ, you all right buddy?” Lucas quickly dashed over, as Champ started to totter around, completely spent and exhausted. Lucas barely managed to get there in time to steady his partner, helping him sit down. While he applied some Potion to Champ, the rest of us moved over, making sure that the Bronzor wasn’t hurt. Luckily, while it looked beaten to hell and back, there didn’t appear to be any lasting damage that we’d have to take care of.

“Cliff, can you take the lead for now? Champ’s tapped out,” Lucas asked, passing the baton to the next in line.