Pokémon Sword and Shield: Road to the Unbeatable Champion

Chapter 2: Pokemon Training 101

"Then it's decided, let's have James and Abby go first." Leon had the biggest smile on his face as both James and Abby got into position and Leon stood in the middle to referee the match. "Alright you two, let's begin the battle!"

"Alright Scorbunny, let's show them what we got!" James shouts as his partner dashes onto his side of the field.

"Um...let's do our best Grookey" Abby says nervously as Grookey does the same and stands ready to battle. As it stood ready, the area around them began to glow a greenish color. "What is this!?"

"That's your buddy's ability, grassy surge. When a pokemon with this ability enters the battle, it sets up a grassy terrain. Use this to your advantage." Leon explains to her as she nods.

"We're gonna strike first, use quick attack!" James shouts with confidence as his partner takes two big steps before dashing with an incredible amount of speed towards Grookey and uses the momentum to slam into Grookey, sending it back a little with the impact. James had a large smirk on his face. "Perfect"

"Grookey!" Abby shouted toward her partner as he stood up and gave Abby a reassuring wave. "Oh thank Arceus. Um...what to do...use branch poke!"

Abby's Grookey begins to charge towards Scorbunny with its twig in hand as he extends his arm out to hit its opponent with the twig. As Grookey was just a foot away from Scorbunny, it dodged the attack, jumping on top of Grookey's head as it fell to the ground.

"Now use ember." James says as his partner shoots out a weak flame from its mouth and it hits the now stunned Grookey. "Nice, a super effective hit"

Right...fire is very effective against grass types isn't it? Abby thought. I need to be more careful against fire types.

"Let's keep it up Scorbunny! Charge in with another quick attack!"

"Quickly Grookey! Use growl!" Abby quickly shouts as Grookey lets out a loud growl which disorients Scorbunny in its tracks. "Now, razor leaf while he is recovering!"

Grookey then uses its twig to send out several sharp leaves that all manage to hit Scorbunny as the grassy terrain had powered up the moves strength. James could tell that Scorbunny could feel that hit as the grassy terrain sent a rejuvenating blast towards both pokemon.

So the grassy terrain is able to give both pokemon some of their energy back...I need to keep that in mind as the battle drags on. Abby thought as Scorbunny made another run at Grookey and was charging up a kick attack. "Dodge it Grookey!"

Grookey jumps up as Scorbunny's attack hits the ground but then he glances over at Grookey before launching a second kick which connects with Grookey and sends him flying towards a tree. Grookey then slides down the tree and passes out.

"Grookey is unable to battle! So the winner is James!" Leon shouts as Abby runs over to her partner and picks him up.

"Are you okay Grookey?" She asks worriedly as Grookey looks up at her tiredly and gives her a reassuring cry. Abby let out a sigh of relief as James came over.

"That was a bloody good battle, Abby." He extends his hand out to hers.

"I mean...I didn't really do much. I was honestly nervous the whole time. It was my fault that we lost the battle." She just looked down in shame as her partner began to poke her face to cheer her up.

"It was your first time battling, so I wouldn't be so hard on yourself Abby." Leon says calmly walking over to her. "You aren't going to win every battle and I see it as an opportunity to reflect back and see what you could've done better. It's a good way to help yourself grow as a trainer."