Pocket Monster University

When I woke up, my head was pounding. I didn’t know if it was from that knockout blow Helen had given me or from taxing my psychic abilities.

Probably both.

“Mrrmmm…”

“Master, you’re awake?” Opening my eyes, I saw that Helen was staring down at me. I realized that the soft pillows cradling my head were her plump thighs, and for a second, I wanted to just close my eyes and go back to sleep for the next ten hours.

“Gyahh!”

As soon as I heard Lina cry out in pain, I sat up immediately. The match was still going on!

“What’d I miss?” I mumbled as I forced myself back to unsteady feet.

Helen grabbed my arm and provided some much needed support. “Lina fight good. Not give up. But not strong enough to win.”

I confirmed as much with my own eyes. Both Terry and Lina looked exhausted. Terry had lost his shirt at some point in their battle, while Lina’s outfit was sliced up and revealing everything. Including all the red welts covering her body.

As I watched, Terry showed just how he’d given her those marks, swinging his arm forward and cracking a whip made of water that slashed and splashed, striking Lina in her leg as she jumped back, wings flapping to pull her out of range before dropping her back down on the ground. As she landed, her legs buckled, almost sending her prone, and she grabbed at the place he’d struck.

The sight of her in pain made my blood boil.

“Lina! I’m awake now! That’s enough! Surrender!” I called out as loudly as I could.

Terry and Lina both glanced at me, and the exhausted trainer scowled. “You heard him. Let’s end this already.”

“Fine, then toss yourself over the edge, because I’m not giving up,” Lina growled.

Terry responded with his water whip. The first swing was a feint that made Lina jump backwards, and just as she landed, the real blow struck, the tendril of water wrapping around her neck before he gave a hard pull, yanking her off her feet and dragging her prone body along the stone tiles.

Before she could get up, Terry was on top of her. Purple flames shot up on her back, only to be quenched with a cloud of steam as Terry unleashed a wave of water, then drew it back, submerging her body completely.

Lina was struggling, bubbles rising to the top, but she didn’t have the strength or leverage to push him off.

“It’s been a long, grueling round, but is this the end?” The female announcer cut in.

“It would certainly seem to be. With her current level of proficiency, the young Lina still needs oxygen for her flames. More urgently, I don’t believe she can breathe water,” her male co-host added.

“If it wasn’t for those stupid wings of yours, I could have gone for a ring out…” Terry muttered as he firmly kept his grip on the thrashing Lina.

My stomach clenched, and without even thinking about it, I had Lina’s pokeball out, pointed towards them. “Get off of her!”

Silent red lightning shot out and splashed into Lina, converting her body to pure energy, then sucked her back into the ball, the device growing warm in my hand.

“And it looks like that’s the end of round three, folks!”

I shook my head. “I appreciate you doing your best and all, but you really need to learn your limits. We’ll be fine, it’s still only…”

Hold on. Did that announcer say the end of round three?

I looked to Helen. “That was the end of round two, right?”

She shook her head, blushing. “No, Master. Helen fight first. Helen… not win.”

The pokeball in my hand started shaking, and with a POP, Lina burst out. Her clothing was still in tatters and she looked absolutely ragged, still panting to catch her breath. And furious. I’d never seen her so angry.

“Feral pokegirls like her need a trainer to tell them what to do. Otherwise they just go on pure instinct.”

“Helen did best she could!” Helen insisted.

“She charged right towards him like an idiot, tripped on the ice patch he laid down, and slid right off the arena in the first five seconds,” Lina said with clear disdain.

Helen slumped, looking down at her thighs from her kneeling position, ears drooping down.

I reached out and rubbed the top of her head. “Hey. It’s fine. You two both did your best. But maybe next time don’t knock me out?”

Lina gave me a punch in the shoulder. “If you try and do something dumb that you’ll regret, I’ll be the one to knock you out next time.”

“I didn’t…” Both of my pokegirls looked at me skeptically. “Okay, okay. Fair. I’ll try and rely on you two more in the future.”

That sent Helen’s tail wagging as I stood up. “Great job hanging in there, Lina. Terry looks like he’s in worse shape than I am. Even if he still has that squirrely pokegirl left, I don’t think she was much of a fighter.”

Both of them nodded, then at the same time, went back into their balls. I walked over to the corner of the arena, ready to start.

“After an impressive first round, our rookie hero is now on the ropes! He needs a clean sweep of these next two rounds, and the next mistake he makes is going to be his last!” The female announcer started drumming up the tension.

“But as they say, every crisis is also an opportunity. When pushed to the edge, the young are tested. They may crumble, or they may experience explosive growth. Let’s see what young Krimson shall do,” her male co-host added.

Maybe he had a point. Either way, I had to stay focused. Conserve my energy here and then go hard in the final round.

“And Terry sends out his final pokegirl…” The ball soared into the air, red lightning striking down on the corner opposite of me, a feminine form taking shape. “...Yang!”

“Yang?” Did he really think she’d fight me? Just because he had ownership of her right now, that didn’t mean she would be submissive to him. That was the whole point of trainers.

“Final round! In three… two… one!”

“Yang, are you okay?” I started walking over to her, and she started running towards me. Looking at her, she was definitely not okay.

Physically, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her. She had on her usual sports bra and spandex shorts, and even after being converted into a pokegirl, the only sign was the slight cat ears on her head, dark with red tips and a fluffy white interior.

But as she got close, I saw the pink glow in her eyes. Her face was blank, emotionless, and she didn’t seem to recognize me. She might as well have been sleepwalking. Girls under my control had a red glow. For Sabrina, it was purple. So who had given her these pink eyes?

Before I could give the matter any more thought, Yang had closed the distance and threw a punch. I threw up my hands to block and winced as her fist struck my forearm.

Then grunted as she immediately followed up with a body blow to my liver.

It didn’t end there either. Yang had her hands up like a boxer, and she was throwing out jab after jab with her left hand, each one hitting like a hammer. I tried to grab her arm, but she was too fast. I tried to grab her, and she danced back while giving me a punch right in the nose, rocking my head back and sending blood streaming out.

It was an overwhelming mix of aggression and skill that was nothing like our sparring matches. Since our last spar, I thought I’d gotten stronger, tougher, but the gap in our skill seemed as big as ever.

Had she been holding back? She had the martial artist skill at +1. Did that single point really make such a big difference? But either way, I just needed to…

{Stop!}

I sent the psychic command out and she ignored it, my psychic energy sliding right past that pink energy. Last time, I’d been able to keep control of her for two seconds before she shook my influence off. So how the hell had Terry done this to her?

I’d learned to deal with similar defenses training with Sabrina though. I just needed to keep trying. Keep probing.

{Stop! Hold it! Freeze!}

I winced, a sharp pain behind my eyes hitting me even harder than Yang’s punches. No good. I still hadn’t recovered from the fight against Mochi. Her rain of blows wasn’t stopping either. Already I could tell I was going to be covered in bruises after this fight.

I couldn’t fight her. I couldn’t control her. What options did that leave?

Fire?

No. She had that Feverish High ability. Using fire would only make things even worse.

“Krimson is on the ropes! He blocks high, she goes low. He retreats, she follows! The young trainer can’t shake this fighting machine!”

“Indeed. Miss Yang Xing seems so focused on defeating young Krimson that there are no other thoughts in her head.”

Tell me something I don’t already know!

“Yang, it’s me! Ben! You don’t want to do this!”

She didn’t even flinch. She was so deep in it that I doubted she could even hear me. I doubted she was even conscious. Just a fighting machine, programmed to keep hitting me until I fell. And nothing would stop her.

…wait.

I couldn’t keep defending. My body was durable, but I was still accumulating damage fast. Especially when she landed a punch in the same area… my ribs felt like they’d crack at any moment.

So let’s take a gamble.

I reached deep inside of myself. My mother wasn’t any normal pokegirl. She was legendary. A goddess of fire. However strong the psychic abilities I inherited from my father were, they were limited. But what about these flames?

I unleashed them. Everything at once. Fire engulfed me like a wide aura, like the wick of a candle, but Yang dove right in. And this time, her punch felt like it really had cracked my ribs. I staggered backwards, but kept the fire up. If I let her snuff it out for even a second, it was game over.

“Woah! And Krimson goes on the offensive with a fire attack! Lots of fire! Wow! I can feel the heat all the way from over here! He’s set himself on fire, those flames extending out in every direction! For just about anyone else, they’d want to get some distance, but Yang is ignoring it! No, if anything, she’s going even faster now!”

“Interesting. As a fire-type herself, Miss Yang possesses a natural resistance to heat and flames. But in her case in particular, she also has the Feverish High special ability. So not only are these flames leaving her unharmed, it’s giving her greater speed and power.”

“What even is Krimson thinking!?”

“Well, why she is resistant to the flames, she is not immune to it. All of that heat energy has to go somewhere, and if she doesn’t relent in her attack to cool off, she might soon start taking damage.”

“How long does she have!?”

“Hard to say. Everyone’s tolerance is different. But I imagine this plan will backfire on Young Krimson before Miss Yang gets a sunburn.”

I couldn’t resist smirking. That announcer was one hundred percent right. But who said I was trying to burn her? I just needed to survive that enhanced barrage of hers for a few more seconds and…

Yang’s punch came straight for me, and I stepped out of the way. She followed up, footwork coming in closer, and I stepped aside from the uppercut that followed. Her attack was just as relentless as before, but she couldn’t hit me any longer. I hadn’t gotten any faster. I was no better at fighting.

Yang was moving slower.

And she was still slowing down, each step wooden. She threw a punch at my face like she was pushing it through molasses, and I caught it. I pulled Yang against me, and I gave her a bear hug, the flames still engulfing us.

“Sorry.”

She struggled in my grip, kept trying to fight until her last breath, until finally her head rolled back on her shoulders, that pink light in her eyes extinguished as she lost consciousness.

I laid her down on the arena floor, then searched around for Flannary. The teacher dropped down from the sky, ignoring my flames as she kneeled next to Yang and lifted her arm, watched it drop.

“Yang Xing is no longer able to continue! Round four goes to the Red Corner!”

I finally let the flames surrounding my body snuff out and gasped, sucking in air by the lungful, panting as my legs turned to jelly and I ended up falling over backwards, lying on my back.

I hadn’t been trying to burn Yang. I was burning up the oxygen around us.

Whatever psychic had messed up her mind had given her complete focus on beating me, made her move around like a machine. Never thinking, never stopping. And that was the weakness. If it was the real Yang, she’d have realized what I was doing as soon as she tried to breathe and couldn’t. She’d back off and wait for me to tucker myself off, and enhanced by the flames, she’d effortlessly kick my ass.

“Master win!” Helen had hopped out of her ball and gave me a hug, her soft body lying on top of me. I groaned. I didn’t need that pressure on my ribs right now.

“Yeah… ‘Master’ looks like he’s got one foot in the grave.” Lina added, standing over me, not caring about the ridiculous upskirt she was providing. Honestly, at the moment, neither did I. She wasn’t wrong. Not that my adrenaline was wearing off, everything was starting to hurt. “You need to get to the infirmary.”

“Not… yet…”

There was still one more round to go.