The next few exchanges were almost painful to watch.
Nidoking moved through Koga's remaining team like a force of nature. None of his Pokémon could last a single round.
"I'm counting on you, Pidgeotto!"
"Nidoking, Thunderbolt!"
A crack of electricity, and Pidgeotto crumpled.
"Finish this, Primeape!"
"Nidoking, Confusion!"
Primeape didn't even make it across the field.
Koga stood frozen at the edge of the arena, staring. He couldn't make sense of what he was seeing. How was this Nidoking so enormous? How was it this powerful? And no matter what type he sent out, no matter what he tried, the thing across the field always seemed to have the perfect counter — a move that hit for super effective damage and ended the fight before it even began.
He didn't want to think about how deep Nidoking's move pool actually ran. He'd already given up on that. His last Pokémon — his starter — wasn't going to win this. He knew that. He'd known it for a while now.
Still, almost without thinking, he reached for the final Poké Ball on his belt and tossed it onto the field.
His starter was one of the Norlandia Alliance's official Starter Pokémon — a Grass-type. It had long since evolved past its first stage, and at level 32 it stood as a Grovyle, sleek and sharp, the leaf-blades on its arms gleaming under the arena lights. At the Specialized Vocational School, a Pokémon at that level was more than strong enough to be considered a top-tier battler in the battle department.
Nidoking, for its part, had always held a soft spot for the Grovyle line. Back at the Luma Gym, it had faced Thelma's ace Sceptile in several grueling battles — easily one of the toughest opponents it had ever encountered. Those fights had left an impression.
Watching the Grovyle step onto the field now, Nidoking felt something stir in its chest. It found itself quietly hoping this one might show the same fire as that Sceptile it remembered so well.
Grovyle didn't disappoint — at least not at first. The moment it landed on the field, it let out a sharp cry, bristling the leaf-blades on both arms, eyes locked onto the towering Nidoking in front of it with fierce, unbroken focus.
It was ready to fight.
But Koga wasn't.
He stood at the sideline with his head lowered, silent. Grovyle glanced back at its Trainer, waiting for a command. None came.
Nova, meanwhile, had long since grown bored. He just wanted to wrap this up and grab lunch with Aresdra. The blond was clearly falling apart, and there was no reason to drag this out any further.
"Nidoking, Sludge Bomb. Let's end this."
But Nidoking didn't move.
Instead, it looked back over its shoulder at Nova, tail swaying slowly back and forth, eyes carrying a quiet, uncertain look — almost a question.
Just a moment longer?
Nidoking had noticed the spirit in that Grovyle. Maybe it was simply the fondness it had built up for Thelma Tucker's Sceptile spilling over, but it couldn't help feeling that a Pokémon with that kind of fire deserved better than going down without ever getting to throw a single move. That wasn't a real battle. It wasn't fair to either of them.
As a Pokémon that gave everything it had in every fight, Nidoking felt Grovyle deserved at least one chance to attack.
Of course, Nova had the final say. Nidoking understood that clearly. If its partner decided the answer was no, then it would follow orders without complaint and end things with Flamethrower. That was how things worked between them.
Nova stared at his partner — the massive, intimidating Nidoking — doing its best impression of a Pokémon making a puppy-dog face, tail thumping the ground hard enough to send small tremors across the field.
Nova pinched the bridge of his nose.
You like that Sceptile so much that you're getting sentimental over a Grovyle you just met? You're both male, by the way. I'm seriously starting to question your priorities.
He watched Nidoking wag its enormous tail toward him again, completely earnest, and almost laughed despite himself.
"Do you even realize what you look like right now?" Nova muttered. "That tail is practically generating a wind current. You're shaking the entire field. There's nothing cute about a Pokémon your size acting like this."
Still, he had to admit — when the outcome of the battle wasn't in any real danger, there wasn't much reason to refuse his partner's occasional whim. Nidoking had never once let him down when it mattered. Letting the blond pull himself together for a few more seconds wasn't going to cost anything.
Besides, if he was being honest with himself, Nidoking had learned a new move that very morning. It wouldn't hurt to give it a chance to practice.
"Fine, Arno. Ten seconds. After that, we're done."
The moment Nova stopped speaking, a heavy silence settled over the arena. It wasn't the quiet of anticipation — it was the suffocating pressure that radiated off Nidoking like heat from a furnace. The students watching from the stands held their breath. Grovyle stood rigid on the field. And Koga, the person who needed to act most, stood completely still, eyes on the ground.
Grovyle turned and called out to its Trainer — once, then again. Desperate, urgent cries. Give me something. Anything. Just tell me what to do.
Koga didn't respond.
Grovyle's eyes were beginning to glisten when a voice cut through the silence from somewhere in the stands.
It was the girl who had grabbed Aresdra's phone alongside Koga earlier.
"Don't just stand there, Koga! Are you really going to lose like this?!"
For a beat, nothing happened. Then, as if that one shout had cracked something open, a dozen more voices followed — classmates, spectators, people Koga probably didn't even know well, all of them calling out from the home-side stands.
Slowly, Koga raised his head.
There were tears at the corners of his eyes. He blinked them back.
"...I hear you," he said quietly. Then louder: "I'm not done yet. Grovyle — Magical Leaf!"
Grovyle answered with a roar, the leaf-blades on its arms flaring as it launched into motion, looking every bit like a protagonist in the final chapter of a battle manga, charging the last boss with everything it had left.
And Nidoking — the last boss in question — responded by driving both fists into the ground, lowering its stance, daring Grovyle to come at it.
Nova stared at the scene unfolding in front of him. "What are you two getting so worked up about?"
He shook his head.
"Enough, Nidoking. Flamethrower."
A torrent of superheated flame erupted from Nidoking's mouth. Grovyle's Magical Leaf disintegrated the instant the fire touched it, and the blaze kept coming, barreling forward like a wall of heat.
"Dodge it!" Koga shouted.
Grovyle twisted hard to the side and cleared the edge of the flames by a narrow margin.
Nova watched it land cleanly and exhaled through his nose. A dodge like that actually worked. Of course it did.
But having a moment of fortune didn't change anything. This wasn't an anime where narrowly surviving a single attack meant the tide had turned. Nova didn't give opponents room to breathe.
"Nidoking — Psybeam."