A move that hasn't been fully mastered will suffer in both accuracy and execution speed when used in an actual battle — which is why a Pokémon's natural talent matters so much. A gifted battler might have six or seven moves polished to a reliable standard and carry one or two rarely-used techniques as surprises. A less talented one might struggle to properly master even the four essential moves you'd see in a standard battle format, putting it at a real disadvantage from the moment a fight begins.
Nidoking fell comfortably in the middle. Not exceptional, but far from slow. A freshly learned TM move would not be battle-ready overnight, but Nidoking could execute it well enough to build from. The rest would come with daily training and real battle experience.
Nova still had unfinished business waiting for him — a loose end that needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later. He was planning to make his way to the abandoned settlement of Loulan as soon as he could manage it.
But the day was still early. Nova flagged down a cab and headed straight for Aresdra's vocational school. The plan was to meet her at noon for lunch, then stop by the Pokémon Mart afterward to see if there was a Move Tutor with anything suitable for Corvisquire.
He arrived with time to spare and settled into a milk tea shop near the school entrance, nursing his drink and waiting until it was close enough to noon to call. When he did, Aresdra picked up quickly. After a brief back-and-forth about where to eat, they settled on a plan — Nova would head inside and meet her.
Aresdra immediately vetoed that.
"Don't come in. I'll come out to you."
Nova frowned. "What's going on?"
"There are some people at school who want to start something with you... so I'd rather..."
Nova stared at his phone for a moment. He had never even attended this school. How had he already managed to make enemies of an entire student body?
Aresdra's next words answered that without him having to ask.
"It's because of me..."
Right. That made complete sense.
A girl like Aresdra was the kind of person half the campus had strong feelings about, and she had never been secretive about having a boyfriend. The boyfriend who never showed his face had, apparently, become something of a target.
It explained the looks he had gotten the last time he visited. Aresdra must have heard something recently and was trying to keep him out of it before it turned into a proper scene.
"Give me half an hour — I'll get my things and come out."
She said it like it was a crisis. Nova just laughed.
"Five minutes. I'm coming to get you right now."
"Don't — please — let's not make this worse than it needs to be..."
Nova was already pulling his jacket on. "I'm supposed to avoid them? If they want a problem, I'll give them one."
He ended the call, stepped out of the shop, and jogged toward the school gate at a pace that drew a few looks from passersby.
Aresdra, still holding her phone, dropped her bag and ran in the opposite direction — toward the gate — hoping to intercept him before he walked straight into whatever was waiting. The last thing she wanted was to drag him into her problems.
Most people fell into one of two camps when their partner became a target: either they escalated things, or they smoothed them over quietly and moved on. Aresdra was firmly the second type.
Nova, on the other hand, had no intention of backing down from anything.
If someone wanted to start something, he would meet them head-on. Otherwise, what were Nidoking and Corvisquire eating three meals a day for?
He pushed through the front doors into the midday quiet — and found Aresdra already there, breathing hard from running, wearing an expression that was equal parts exasperated and relieved. She grabbed his arm without a word and reached over to pinch the soft skin just above his hip.
"Do you have to be like this every time? How am I supposed to stop worrying when you just charge in like this?"
Nova tilted his chin up, completely unapologetic.
He barely had time to catch his breath before the group that had been waiting for him closed in. They had noticed Aresdra's sudden sprint and converged quickly, forming a loose circle around the two of them. The crowd was a mix — some of the more popular students from campus, and a fair number of others who were clearly just there for the spectacle.
Nova glanced at Aresdra with a grin. "Wait — girls are in the group too? I thought you were joking about that. Being this popular is genuinely unfair."
Aresdra's face went red. She stepped firmly on his foot. "This is not the time."
He winced but held his ground. A crowd of fifteen-year-olds was not something that particularly worried him.
He turned to face the group. "All right, so you're the ones looking to start something. What's the plan — one-on-one or are we all going at once? Someone step up and say it clearly."
After a bit of shuffling, a blond-haired boy pushed his way to the front with the kind of swagger that suggested he had rehearsed this.
"You Nova? The name's Koga — top first-year at Harmony City's Pokémon academy. I'm calling you out for a battle. Loser agrees to stay away from Aresdra. She's not someone a school dropout who couldn't even pass the vocational entrance test deserves to be around."
So it was going to be a Pokémon battle.
That made sense. At a specialist academy, battling was the one thing every student staked their pride on. And it just happened to be the one field Nova was most at home in.
He accepted without hesitation.
Behind him, Aresdra went quiet for a moment. She stepped a little closer and lowered her voice.
"I'm sorry... I got you dragged into this."
"You didn't drag me into anything," Nova said. "I always knew how many people had their eye on you. Dealing with this kind of thing is part of the job."
He reached over and ruffled her silver hair. Today, with guilt written all over her face, she let it slide without a word.
Nova turned back to Koga and rolled his shoulders. "Whatever format you want — I'll take it."
Koga's expression shifted into something that looked rather too pleased with itself. "Perfect. Full League format then — six-on-six, everything on the table."
Before Nova could respond, Aresdra cut in sharply. "No."
Koga smiled like he had been waiting for exactly that. "Why not? If he's really a professional Trainer, six Pokémon should be nothing. Unless he can't actually field six? Then maybe he shouldn't be calling himself a professional."
They had done their research — or thought they had. Their information still had Nova owning only a single Nidorino. Even a powerful Nidorino alone against a full team of six was a losing situation by any measure, and they were not above using that to force an unwinnable fight. The taunt was calculated, and it landed exactly where they had aimed it.