(RPJ)Chapter 159: Exhibition match (Patreon)

I got swarmed by people when I entered the gym and they recognized me. I got questions about if I was nervous, about what my secret was and so on and one of the assassins actually had the nerve to try and stab me before slipping into the crowd again. Sadly they made sure to stay out of my sight so I had no clue who it was exactly but it didn't exactly help my mood. I had a habit of flowing my aura under my skin in case an attack from a pokemon went rogue and hit me so the stab hit that wall and failed to do anything.-

It wasn't the sort with a lot of force behind it but more precise like a needle that was meant to slip in and then out nearly undetected. "Enough!" I said firmly while flaring my aura outwards to give me some distance. "I don't mind a bit of excitement but please respect my personal space." I said calmly before walking forward and the crowd parted in front of me. No one was harmed at all from my outburst of aura since it wasn't meant to cause harm but it got the idea across well enough.-

The gym employee didn't say anything when I walked over but merely opened the door to send me back. The gym was nice and neatly arranged with plenty of guides to point the way to the primary arena. The arena itself was unsurprisingly the same red stone like design as Mt. Chimney outside. Around the edges of the arena hot lava flowed and filled the air with heat and fire type energy. On the opposite side of the arena stood Flannery in her standard attire of wide bottom pants and a bikini top and her hair tied behind her head.-

"Went all out on the arena this time I see." I said with a smirk as I took my position. She smiled "I think I'll need as much of an advantage as I can get if your pokemon are as monstrous as their trainer." she said casually. I nodded "In that case I will endeavor not to disappoint with my performance." I said giving her a wink that showed the double meaning of my words. Or it would have if I didn't have an eyepatch on that made it look like I was just blinking.-

The lack of response showed that she hadn't gotten the message and I realized my eyepatch had ruined it and chuckled before taking it off and opening my right eye. Flannery stiffened as my gaze fell on her but quickly got over it. "Steven wasn't exaggerating , it really is unnerving to get caught in that eyes gaze." she said and I shrugged. "If it helps the thing is constantly draining my energy while I have it open like this so I keep it covered most of the time. In exchange it has the best attention to detail regardless of distance I could ask for as a trainer." I explained honestly.-

Even at this moment this entire exchange was being recorded and broadcast across the region so I knew that revealing my new eye came with pros and cons. The pros were that it would allow me to notice any tells that her pokemon had before they used a move and outside of this battle would help prevent issues when I was undoubtedly asked to remove my eyepatch in the future. The cons were just as simple as well as it would give others a gauge of how serious I was taking them and also gave out important information that the assassins would need to take into account.-

Any assassin worth a damn knew that details meant the difference between success and death and thus tried to take everything into account when they could. "Well then lets see if that eye can give you the edge you'll need to cool me off! Burn them away Sunny!" Flannery said fiercely as she sent out her first pokemon , the fire variant Staraptor. We had already gone through the rules for the match in private so technically we were bantering just for show and could start whenever we felt like.-

"Hades haunt the field!" I called as I sent out the Spiritomb in question to the field. I had already discussed the battle to Hades prior to coming to the gym and it agreed to participate on the grounds that it would be great training for it. I had a good reason for sending it out as well first thing compared to Gaia or Vulcan, type advantage. I had predicted that Flannery would learn from my previous matches that I always sent out the pokemon with the greatest type advantage first.-

Against most fire types Gaia would indeed have a heavy advantage with her rock typing but I remembered Sunny from before and knew Flannery would send it out to counter Gaia with it's flying type moves. Vulcan was also pure fire type so sending it out gave me no real advantage either which left my third "technically" elite level pokemon, Hades. Did I expect Hades to win? Not even remotely but I did expect it to give flannery a VERY tough time. Sending Hades out also had the unique bonus of showcasing it to the world and raising my fame considerably in the process.-

The audible gasps from the live audience as the keystone and malicious presence of Hades manifested on the field as the cheeky bastard ballooned his cloud size to it's max so it looked like a massive wicked demonic face on a black background. Hades ability clashed with the Sunnys own ability as they both sought dominance and Hades lost due to it's inexperience getting an attack drop right off the bat. I didn't even say anything before Hades hissed in outrage and sent out a wave of dark type energy using dark pulse.-

"Sunny day!" flannery called and the huge red bird pokemon tanked the hit as it began charging up it's own move. "Ominous wind." I spoke calmly and Hades howled and purple ghost type energy gathered around it before moving through the arena like a dark breeze that made Sunny shiver on contact. 'The ten percent chance didn't proc this time' I thought disappointed and commanded Hades to do it again. The sunny day got finished before the next ominous wind and a ball of fire type energy shot overhead increasing the fire type energy on the arena to very high levels.-

The second ominous wind came after that and I saw Hades cloud shiver slightly as the grin on it's face widened which told me the stat boost effect had hit this time. Ominous wind had a ten percent chance to raise every stat by a single level when it was used for a max possible amount of six levels up. Flannery seemed to have noticed the buff hitting as she immediately ordered a flamethrower to try and get rid of Hades before it could use these heightened stats.