A few days after the catching contest, Ares had trained with his pokemon and gotten to know them a lot better. Even Lapras has gotten better, being able to be aorund at least three people now. While not as good as it could be, as it was still afraid in crowds, he was happy with the progress. They were prepared to try on the gym leader, no matter what the results may be.
Arriving early in the morning, Ares waited in front of the gym. He made sure to make an appointment yesterday and the gym staff had scheduled him for today. He was te first challenger of today, as all the other challengers had been arranged for later on the day. Seems like Noah had been looking forward to it as well, with how quick they shoved him into the schedule. One of the staff, having just unlocked the door, led him in and asked him to wait, as the gym leader was on his way to the gym. While he waited, the gym trainer handed him some coffee while he waited.
What a nice guy.
It didn't take long before Noah arrived, smiling brightly when he saw Ares as the new challenger.
"Ares! I was wondering when you would challenge me and here you are. I couldn't wait to battle you as soon as I heard you made an appointment. Let's get started shall we."
Noah walked further into the gym until they arrived at a battle field made specifically for water types. To be honest, it looked a lot like a big pool with floating platforms in it. It wasn't purely for water type pokemon only, as the platforms gave other pokemon a shot at battling as well, though they were at an disadvantage.
They each took their designated spot as Noah began to explain the rules while the referee was getting ready.
"This will be a two on two battle. Only the challenger may substitute pokemon. The battle ends when all pokemon of one side have been defeated. Any questions?"
Ares kept quiet as he took out his pokeball. He knew how it worked and was ready to battle. At this point the referee had taken his spot on the side, the flags in his hands raised as he waited for Noah to begin.
"No? Then let's begin. Time to battle, come on out Seel!"
The first pokemon Noah revealed was his Seel. It happily dove into the water, staring at Ares in wait to see who its opponent might be.
"Go, Eevee."
Ares took out Eevee. Eevee jumped forward, standing on the floating platform as he stared at Seel. This was the first time he would battle on the water and he really wanted to test himself. This was also the reason he had convinced Ares to let him battle. Eevee looked at Ares and nodded to show it was ready.
"Eevee, start with Agility."
"Seel, use Aqua jet."
Running around, Eevee executed agility as he ran around while keeping his eyes on Seel, raising his speed rapidly by three stages when Seel rushed towards him with Aqua jet. Seel had his eyes locked on Eevee as it continued to follow Eevee. Eevee continuously dodged the water covered Seel, but began to get annoyed by the pestering opponent following him around.
"Eevee, stop."
Eevee stopped on one of the farther platforms as it faced off against Seel, who was coming towards him at a quick pace.
"Wait for it."
Seel came closer and closer, as Eevee patiently waited for Seel to come within a certain reach. When Seel was right in front of Eevee, Eevee made his move.
"Now, Swift!"
Eevee jumped up, blasting multiple stars at Seels unprotected back.
"Dodge it! Go underwater."
Noah yelled, as Seel did his best to dodge the attack. Unfortunately, the attack was too close and Seel took a lot of damage before it could get into the safe confines of the pool. It dove underwater, grunting painfully as it moved less agile than before.
"Use Hail."
Noah ordered.
Seel stuck out its head, a white blue orb of energy formed in front of it, shooting it towards the sky. The orb blasted apart as clouds formed, making small pieces of snow and ice fall down from the sky, as a snowstorm formed inside of the gym. With every piece of ice falling down, the damage on Seels body began to slowly heal. Unlike with Eevee, as Eevee began to take damage from the sharp pieces of ice grazing against him.
"It has the Ice body ability. This will be annoying."
Ares muttered as he watched Eevee, who was silently enduring the freezing cold. Snow piled up around him, making the platforms slippery and treacherous to move on.
"Seel, use Ice shard."
"Eevee, you use Shadow ball."
Both of the pokemon began to attack from long range, the attacks colliding in mid air, cancelling each other out. A small screen of smoke was formed by the explosion, giving Eevee a little cover.
"Eevee get up close and use Shadow ball. Keep a firm look on the water."
Eevee rushed towards where Seel was previously, but didn't see it. Like what Ares had said, he looked closely for movement in the water. When he saw Seel move around at the edge of his platform, Eevee blasted multipile Shadow Ball towards Seel.
Seel wasn't lucky, being hit time and time again. No matter how fast it swam to dodge the attacks, it still managed to hit it anyway. It didn't matter how much its wounds healed, only more damaged was being received.
Before long, Seel floated to the surface, fainted from all the attacks it had incased.
Noah sighed as he returned Seel to its pokeball.
"You did a good job Seel. Have a nice rest."
Noah tucked away Seels pokeball and released his last pokemon, a Seaking.
This Seaking was a lot smaller than normal Seaking, but it was also a lot faster than the normal ones. A tough challenge for sure.
Eevee looked at Ares, as he still wanted to battle a little longer. Eevee hadn't battled for a while now and he wanted to keep going, trying to gouge how strong he was against this new opponent. Even now, as he still received damage from the hail.
"You know the others want to fight too, right?"
Eevee nodded, smiling brightly to show he didn't care. He didn't have enough of the battle yet. If he was having a difficult time, then it just meant he wasn't strong enough.
"Haah, fine. But the next battles are for the others first."
Ares refrained from returning Eevee, letting him battle a little longer. This was a good opportunity to see how far he had progressed.
"Eevee, use Charm."
Eevee looked at Seaking, calling out cutely while his eyes became a bit larger. Seaking couldn't stop it and began to feel a little weaker when the attack reached him. Who could truly attack such a cute creature?
Seaking unconsciously began to hold back on its attacks, even though he knew what was happening. The feeling was hard to shake off, annoying Seaking to no end.
Seaking shook its head and glared at Eevee.
"Calm down Seaking, it's distracting you. Now use Supersonic."
Seaking listened to his trainer, putting aside his emotions as it released a high pitched sound. Eevee tried to cover his ears, but he failed as the world began to spin a bit from the odd piercing sound. When he looked at where Seaking was supposed to be, he could see multiple Seaking swimming around.
Ares was still calm, despite Eevee's situation. He couldn't do anything about it and had to wait for Eevee to snap out of it himself. Hopefully it was before Eevee received too much damage from the ongoing hail. Luckily the Hail stopped right at that time. Noah didn't seem to really care for it though, as he let Seaking use another move, Rain dance. The hail was soon replaced by rain. The already fast Seaking became even faster. It was obvious that Seaking had the ability Swift swim, which let it get faster during the rain.
Eevee walked around a bit wobbly, affected by confusion, as he started to send multiple Swift attacks into the water where he thought Seaking would be. Sometimes he would be close, but most of the attacks were not even close at all.
"Seaking, Horn attack."
Noah took advantage of Eevee's confusion, as Seaking rushed forward, its horn glowing faintly. Eevee saw multiple Seaking coming towards him and dodged towards a side he thought was safe. Seaking smirked, seeing Eevee dodge towards it. Eevee had doged the wrong way, jumping straight in Seakings path.
"Eevee, snap out of it!"
Eevee could hear Ares yelling at him and knew he was in danger. He could still see multiple Seaking coming towards him, but he didn't know which one was real.
Not wanting to get hit, Eevee did what he thought was the right move. He used Swift on all his targets. Swift burst out all around the battlefield, destroying a lot of platforms. Seaking could also see a Swift coming towards him, but destroyed it with his Horn Attack, blasting through it and hitting Eevee on the side.
Eevee landed hard on the platform. Eevee yelped in pain at the hard landing, the snow and ice that had piled up biting in his skin as he skidded across the frozen platform. He tried to stand up, but couldn't, his legs giving out on him. Seaking looked at Eevee, waiting for it to stand up, knowing it had taken a lot of damage. Even if Seakings attack was lowered, it still was a big damage dealer.
Eevee tried once more, but eventually sagged down grunting in pain. It was clear that Eevee had enough for today. Any more and he wouldn't be getting up any time soon. The results right now were as good as Eevee fainting, as he couldn't battle any further in that condition.
"You did your best, Eevee. Know when to retreat. We'll train a bit harder the next time."
Eevee looked a bit dissapointed but nodded, the sight of Ares multiplying in his vision. He didn't even know at which Ares he was looking.
Shaking his head, Ares retrieved Eevee to his pokeball. Even at the end, the confusion still lingered.
At his side, Lucario looked up at Ares with sparkly eyes, tugging at his sleeves in the hope he could battle next. If it was him, he could easily deal with the situation in an instant.
"Maybe next time, partner."
Ares said as he patted the dejected Lucario on the head.
Taking out his pokeball, Ares called out his newest pokemon.
In a burst of light, Lapras slashed into the water, stiring small ripples on the surface.
Lapras looked around in curiosity, not familiar with the sight around her. When she saw the small Seaking swimming around, Lapras called out jovially at the fellow water pokemon, who responded in kind. Both of them communicated for a bit and eventually readied themselves for the battle. Lapras knew Seaking was her opponent, but she really liked to talk with it for a bit. Noah didn't seem to mind it either, waiting for Ares to make his move.
Seeing Lapras was ready, Ares called out his the first move.
"Lapras, use Hail and follow it up with Confuse ray."
Doing just that, Lapras made whipped up a snowstorm in turn, the storm even fiercer than before as it took the place of the pouring rain. Now that it was hailing again, it cut down the speed of Seaking while also damaging it. What followed was a payback for Eevee.
Lapras blasted multiple glowing orbs towards Seaking, who managed to dodge a lot of them, evading them, blocking their path with a platform or even destroying the orbs with Water Gun, but it could not evade all of them. One of the orbs finally broke through, stricking Seaking on the side and burst apart. Seaking was this time the victim of confusion, which was a fitting revenge in Ares's little book.
"Lapras, Ice beam."
While Seaking was moving around in random directions, Lapras blasted a beam of cold air towards Seaking, hitting it mutiple times. Seaking eventually became partially frozen, its fins stuck to its body as it failed to move about, the confusion remaining strong as well.
"Seaking, break free of the ice! Use Flail."
It was unknown if it was because of the confusion or something else, but Seaking didn't seem to hear it. Instead, it tried to use Horn attack and Peck, which didn't do much. Its fins were impossible to reach with the frantic movements of Seaking in its confusion.
Lapras noticed and took advantage of the situation. It fired a strong Water pulse at Seaking, who was unable to dodge.
"Seaking!"
Seaking at the last moment before the attack hit, regained its clarity, but couldn't do anything. The attack hit it in full force, sending Seaking backwards and making it slam against the edge of the pool. There they could see Seaking, imbeded at the side with swirls in its eyes. Water spilled slowly from the pool, as the cracks widened in turn, leaving the gym floor soaking wet. The hail and Ice beam were heavy hits, but the confusion seemed to work against Seaking the most leading to this end result.
Seaking had fainted.
"Seaking, return."
Noah returned Seaking to its pokeball. He wasn't disappointed by this battle. He was satisfied with how his pokemon had fought and was more than happy to see how strong a trainer Ares was.
"You fought hard and you have definitely earned this."
Noah handed Ares a blue droplet like badge.
"This is the Cascade badge, the proof you have beaten me. And here is another thing. It is the TM Waterfall. It allows a pokemon to climb waterfalls, while also having a chance to make the opponent flinch. I am sure it will be useful on your journey. Now Ares, do you already know where to go to next?"
Ares shook his head. He didn't know and he was just going to certain places on a whim.
"Then I suppose you go to Vermillion city. If you go South from here towards route 5, you will arrive in Saffron city. The gym leader there is Sabrina, but she is currently on a trip. That's why the Vermillion gym would be a better stop. It is past Saffron city, beyond route 4. There are a lot of interesting pokemon to be caught there, as well as a lot of strong trainers en route. Better prepare before you go. The other way you can reach Vermillion City is through Diglett Cave, but they get easily agitated when they are disturbed, so if you choose to go that way, you should watch your surroundings carefully. Don't mess with Diglett and Dugtrio in their own territory."
Having given his advice, Noah went towards the pokemon center to heal his pokemon. He did have other challengers today after all.