Pokémon: Leah's Journey {Rewrite}

Chapter 12: Bike Races and Rock Climbing

Leah smiled, "Thank you, I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but I'd rather climb that wall."

Grant laughed, "I admire your determination, but if it's too much for you, just say so and I'll send the elevator down to you."

Leah nodded in understanding and put on a climbing harness to help her climb the wall safely. One of the things she will never admit to is that she is afraid of heights or rather falling from said heights. While her hatred for the heat is much stronger than her fear of heights, it is still on her top five things that make her uncomfortable. Leah took a deep breath and started climbing the wall. It reassured her that if she didn't feel comfortable, she could always call the elevator. One foot in front of the other and both hands holding on to rocks, Leah hoisted herself up. "Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look-" was the mantra she was currently mentally repeating to herself, but her anxiety only seemed to be rising despite obeying her own words.

It was only when Leah reached the top where everyone was waiting for her that she looked down and immediately regretted it. She felt a wave of anxiety, but still she stood up and walked to the arena. Grant sent out his Amaura and Leah decided to start with Mrs. Cuddletails. It was not the smartest decision she had made. Amaura may be an Ice type, but its Rock typing made it so Fire type moves did regular damage. She may have bitten off more than she can chew. She doesn't have any counter for Rock Types. That's fine, she'll be fine. There's more to battles than type advantages.

Grant started off with Rock Tomb. Amaura's body was surrounded in white aura and with a whinny it summoned many gray rocks and threw them Mrs. Cuddletails' way. Leah took note of this, "Mrs. Cuddletails use Flame Charge! Use the rocks as leverage!"

With a howl, Mrs. Cuddletails' body was engulfed in flames and leapt upwards. The Vulpix nimbly jumped from gray rock to gray rock. Grant smiled, this was seemingly what he wanted to see from Leah, "Amaura use Aurora Beam!"

Amaura neighed and summoned a beam of the colours of an aurora borealis. Leah had other plans, "Dodge it and use Flamethrower!"

Mrs. Cuddletails leapt on the next rock, evading Amaura's Aurora Beam. Her fur bristled, sparks of flames escaping her fur and with a bark, the Vulpix summoned a streak of fire towards Amaura. It did not miss the target. Grant seemed to have noticed Leah uses speed to get more attacks in so he opted to slow down Mrs. Cuddletails, "Amaura use Thunder Wave!"

Amaura let out a shrill whinny and just as Mrs. Cuddletails landed on firm ground, the fossil Pokémon's aurora-like appendages on its head turned an electric orange hue as it released multiple rings of yellow electricity at Mrs. Cuddletails. The Vulpix let out a pained whine in response to being paralyzed. Leah will have to go on the defensive now that Mrs. Cuddletails' movements have been severely limited. Amaura tried for another Aurora Beam, Leah simply grinned in response, "Counter it with Fire Spin!"

With a howl, Mrs. Cuddletails summoned a blazing vortex of flames around the Aurora Beam, causing it to implode in many colourful sparkles. It only took a singular Rock Tomb to defeat the Vulpix since all she knew were Fire Type moves and she had been paralyzed. Leah withdrew her partner and sent out Skalli. Despite Skalli's rather timid disposition, Amaura seemed to have faltered a little, it was as though it was intimidated by her. Grant's team's attack power was lowered. Leah had no idea how the Growlithe battled so she'll just have to improvise, "Alright Skalli use Rock Tomb and marinate it with Ember!"

With a howl as loud as a young puppy's first attempts at barking, multiple gray rocks surrounded by a white aura were summoned and circled around Skalli's smoky, white tail. Grant opted to counter it with Aurora Beam, but Skalli leapt out of the way and unleashed the gray rocks. Nearly around the same time, the Growlithe released a blanket of flames on her Rock Tomb. The rocks now looked like small meteorites and they were about to crash straight towards Amaura. The move hit. Skalli turned to Leah, her tail wagging wildly. Leah chuckled softly, "That was great Skalli! Now use Stealth Rock!"

Skalli began spinning, almost like she was chasing her tail. The movement was kicking up dirt and jagged rocks that were swirling around her small body. The moment she stopped spinning, Skalli let out a bark and the rocks were hurled on the battlefield and soon disappeared from view. Grant smiled, "Clever technique, Leah. Now Amaura use Take Down!"

With a neigh, Amaura charged towards Skalli and just as it was about to slam into Skalli, the Growlithe used Fire Fang on Leah's command and grabbed the fossil Pokemon's neck with fangs blazing like an inferno. What neither of them calculated was that Amaura could still move its lower body and thus it used it to slam into Skalli, forcing her to release her flaming grip on the ice type. With the recoil of Take Down, Amaura lay defeated. Grant withdrew Amaura and sent out Tyrunt.

Tyrunt winced upon entering the battlefield. It has stepped into Skalli's Stealth Rock. Leah had quickly come to the realization that while Skalli can resist Tyrunt to a certain degree, Tyrunt is fully resistant to all of Skalli's attacks. Not wanting the Growlithe to feel discouraged, Leah withdrew Skalli and sent in Actias Luna. This was, by far, her dumbest decision in the history of dumb decisions. Actias Luna began chipping away at the Tyrunt with multiple Psybeams and Gusts. She narrowly and deftly avoided Tyrunt's Rock Tomb, using Gust to hurl it towards the little Royal Heir Pokemon. It may not have done much, but it managed to push Tyrunt into another one of Skalli's rocky traps. Actias Luna did her best to avoid Tyrunt's Rock Tombs, but eventually, she was hit and thus fell rather quickly.

Leah withdrew her fallen Vivillon and sent in Primadonna. On Leah's command, the Shiny Furfrou used Echoed Voice to push back Tyrunt's attacks. She was going on the defensive, Grant could see that, "Tyrunt use Crunch!"

Tyrunt's fangs glowed a white colour and lunged to give Primadonna a hard munch, but Leah had other ideas, "Primadonna use Iron Tail!"

Primadonna leapt out of the way as her dyed, blue tail glowed a white colour and turned as hard as iron. She then landed on Tyrunt's body and enthusiastically wagged her tail. Despite the super effective move, Tyrunt was still standing and had managed to escape being Primadonna's personal seat. The dragon type didn't seem to appreciate being used as such and on Grant's command responded in kind with Dragon Tail. Due to their proximity, Primadonna couldn't evade the attack. She did, however, allow Tyrunt to chomp down her Iron Tail. With one Draco Meteor and Primadonna was down. Leah only had two Pokemon left, Skalli and Omen.

With a shrill howl, the Absol was sent into battle. Leah had sent out Skalli to observe the rest of the battle. Tyrunt used Draco Meteor again, but Leah wasn't going down that easily. As a species, Absol was more than capable of climbing the steepest of cliffs. With that in mind, Leah made a decision, "Omen use Slash to climb the meteors!"

The moment Omen leapt, his claws glowed a white colour as he latched onto the meteors. The Absol leapt from meteor to meteor, but what Leah hadn't expected was for Tyrunt to do the same. On her command, Omen let out a shrill screech which released multiple purple rings of energy towards Tyrunt. The sheer force of Omen's Snarl made the fossil Pokemon plummet towards the ground. Omen deftly leapt off the remains of Draco Meteor and used Slash to make its descent faster. Tyrunt now laid defeated before Omen.

Grant withdrew Tyrunt and watched Leah embrace Omen and Skalli in a hug before approaching the girl. The man stood in front of her with an impressed expression on his face, "Even in the face of adversity, you managed to keep standing and as such, you are deserving of the Cliff Badge."

Grant handed Leah the badge and Leah smiled softly, "That battle was fun, but now I'm afraid I must return to the road."

"Of course, your next gym battle is in Shalour City. You'll be battling Korrina."

Leah chuckled, "I'm sure the gym battle with Korrina will be the tie breaker."

"Oh you're from Shalour City, then I wish you luck with your relatives and in your upcoming gym battle."

Leah laughed, "Thank you, Grant."

With that Leah and her friends walked into the elevator and walked out of the gym. They beelined for the Pokemon Center to heal up Leah's team and spend the night celebrating her victory.