When Nova stepped into the challenger's position, the girl gave a small, polite bow. "My name is Fay. Please take care of me."
Nova returned the gesture. "Nova. Please take care of me." He straightened up and continued in a measured tone. "This will be a three-on-three battle. The challenger may switch Pokémon freely, but the Gym side may not until all Pokémon on one side are unable to battle, ending the match. Any objections?"
A proper Gym match called for a referee, but the Withered Gym had never gotten around to hiring one. That left Nova to play the part as well.
Under standard Gym challenge rules, the defending side sent out first.
To Nova's right, a sleek pillar rose slowly from the floor, carrying a rack of Poké Balls. It was one of the more modern-looking pieces of equipment in the building — an automated Poké Ball dispenser, polished and neatly loaded. For a Gym as barebones as this one, it stood out.
Nova reached in without much thought and pulled out a Heavy Ball.
A Heavy Ball. Right. That narrowed things down considerably.
Sure enough, when the Pokémon appeared on the field, it was a Golem. Nova's expression said exactly what he was thinking: of course.
The Megaton Pokémon. A true heavyweight in every sense of the word.
Across the field, Fay tossed her own Poké Ball. Her lead Pokémon was a Blastoise.
Nova took a quiet breath.
The Withered Gym's roster was almost entirely Ground- and Rock-types. Anyone coming here specifically for the badge knew that going in, and nobody aiming to complete a full set of Norlandia Alliance badges was a beginner. Trainers like that didn't make rookie mistakes — they came prepared with the right type matchups.
The real question was this Blastoise's level.
A Blastoise at level 50 could anchor the team of a solid Elite Trainer. This one had clearly been raised with care. Its size, its stance, the calm steadiness in its eyes — this was a Pokémon that had been through many battles and remembered every one of them.
Fay moved first.
"Blastoise, use Water Spout!"
Twin columns of high-pressure water erupted from the cannons on Blastoise's back, slamming into the arena's energy barrier and crashing back down across the field. In seconds, the entire arena floor was flooded. The Golem had nowhere to go and no way to react in time.
A move with 150 base power against a Pokémon that was four times weak to Water. The result wasn't a battle — it was arithmetic. Golem's HP dropped to zero before it could even take a step. It slumped to the ground and didn't get up.
The other challengers watching from the sidelines were already smiling.
The reason they'd all quietly encouraged Fay to go first hadn't been out of politeness. It was because this quiet, easy-to-overlook girl was, without question, the most battle-hungry person in the group. The others collected badges out of a mix of habit and the satisfaction of a completed set. Fay was different. She genuinely loved every single battle — win or lose.
Nova recalled Golem and acknowledged the situation plainly. His odds weren't good. A Blastoise running Water Spout was faster and hit harder than anything in the Withered Gym's current lineup. This kind of gap wasn't something you overcame with clever strategy — even a top-ranked trainer from the Alliance would take one look at the matchup and call it a loss.
And the Gym Pokémon weren't helping. Mort had caught them himself, back whenever, and left them largely to train on their own since. The gap between them and their wild counterparts was small in a direction Nova would rather not think about.
Still — a Gym battle wasn't decided by whether the Gym won. It was an evaluation. The purpose was to judge whether a challenging trainer had reached the standard to enter the Alliance Conference. By that measure, the moment Fay sent out her Blastoise, the answer was already yes. That Pokémon alone cleared the bar for this year's Norlandia Conference. If the rest of her team was anywhere near the same level, she wasn't just clearing the preliminaries — she was placing.
Nova just needed to finish the match properly. The League kept recordings of Gym challenges for audit review. As long as the battle followed procedure, there would be no issues.
He reached into the rack and pulled another Poké Ball.
This time, luck was slightly on his side. The Pokémon that appeared was a Steelix — built like a fortress, with defensive stats to match.
Unfortunately, Steelix's strengths didn't line up well here. Its Steel typing gave it strong resistances and outstanding physical bulk, but Water-type moves weren't resisted by Steel, and Water Spout was a special attack. Steelix's base Special Defense of 65 wasn't going to soften that blow by much.
The Water Spout struck hard. Steelix didn't faint immediately, but the damage was severe. Nova called for Dig straight away — Steelix burrowed underground, narrowly ducking Fay's follow-up shot.
A jet of water from Hydro Pump struck empty air and splashed against the energy barrier.
Fay didn't flinch. Her voice stayed calm.
"Blastoise, Iron Defense."
She'd anticipated the second stage of Dig. With the move unavoidable, she covered for it instead.
Steelix burst up from beneath Blastoise's feet — a powerful strike that would have done real damage under normal conditions. But Iron Defense had stacked Blastoise's physical Defense sharply, and the hit barely left a mark. Worse, Steelix had surfaced right at point-blank range.
"Blastoise, Hydro Pump."
At that distance, even Hydro Pump's imperfect accuracy didn't matter. The blast hit flush. The already-battered Steelix had nothing left to absorb it.
2-0.
Nova had expected that. During his part-time days, getting swept 3-0 by a strong challenger wasn't unusual. He was here to run the match properly, not to win it.
He reached toward the rack for the third Poké Ball — and Fay's voice came from across the field.
"Could you wait a moment?"
"Under match rules, there are no pauses," Nova said.
"I know, I know." Fay waved her hands quickly. "It's just — Nova, could I ask you to use Nidorino for the last one? Please?"
The quiet, reserved girl from a few minutes ago was gone. In her place stood someone with bright, almost unsettling intensity in her eyes — the look of a trainer who had spotted exactly the battle she'd been waiting for.