The battlefield was a standard, regulation-size dirt arena, illuminated by bright, artificial stadium lights. The air was cool and crisp, entirely unaffected by the heat of the battles taking place across the facility.
Eric stood in the challenger's box, looking at his first opponent.
"Prepare yourself!" the boy across the field declared loudly. He was dressed in a pristine, brand-new safari outfit, complete with a wide-brimmed pith helmet. "I am Rupert, the future greatest paleontologist of Sinnoh! You are about to be crushed by millions of years of primal, prehistoric power!"
Eric sighed, his face entirely deadpan. "Right. The prehistoric power. Let's just get this over with."
"Hmph! Go, Cranidos!"
With a flash of red light, a small, bipedal dinosaur with a thick, blue dome on its head materialized, screeching aggressively.
Eric's system quickly analyzed the opponent.
```
Pokémon: Cranidos
Level: 15
Type: Rock
Potential: Deep Yellow
```
"Growlithe, you're up," Eric said, tossing the Poké Ball.
The fire pup landed on the dirt, shaking his fur and barking enthusiastically. He didn't look intimidated by the rock-type's type advantage in the slightest.
"A fire-type against my Cranidos? How foolish!" Rupert laughed, adjusting his pith helmet. "Cranidos, show him true power! Headbutt!"
Cranidos lowered its thick, bony skull and charged forward like a runaway boulder. The attack was completely straightforward, relying entirely on raw, unadulterated momentum.
"Growlithe, maneuver three. Slip and strike," Eric commanded calmly.
Growlithe didn't try to meet the attack head-on. He waited until the Cranidos was just two meters away, then dug his front paws into the dirt, executing a flawless, explosive lateral slide. The Cranidos barreled past him, hitting nothing but empty air.
Before Cranidos could even process the miss, Growlithe pivoted on his hind legs.
"Ember on the joints, then Bite."
Growlithe opened his jaws, spitting a hyper-condensed spiral of flame not at the thick, protective dome, but directly at the back of Cranidos's knees. The prehistoric Pokémon shrieked as its legs gave out, causing it to stumble violently into the dirt.
Instantly closing the distance, Growlithe lunged, sinking his fangs infused with dark-type energy into the Cranidos's exposed neck.
Bite!
Cranidos thrashed for a second before its eyes rolled back, knocked completely unconscious by the precise, surgical strike.
"Cranidos is unable to battle! Growlithe wins!" the referee announced.
Rupert's jaw dropped. "B-But... my prehistoric power...?"
"Power means nothing if it hits empty air," Eric said flatly, tossing a Pokéblock to Growlithe as he trotted happily back to his side. "Next."
The Pavilion allowed up to three consecutive challenges until Eric was defeated, so he didn't leave the box. Within five minutes, his second opponent stepped up.
This one was a tall, energetic teenager wearing a bright orange swimsuit, despite the freezing Sinnoh weather outside.
"The water in Sinnoh is freezing, but my passion is boiling!" the swimmer shouted, flexing his biceps. "Go, Buizel!"
A two-tailed, orange sea weasel appeared, spinning the twin tails like a propeller to hover slightly above the ground.
```
Pokémon: Buizel
Level: 14
Type: Water
Potential: Green
```
Eric recalled Growlithe and reached for another Poké Ball.
"Shinx, let's go."
The moment the electric-type feline materialized, the atmosphere on Eric's side of the field changed. The playful, eager energy of Growlithe was gone, replaced by a tense, deadly silence.
Shinx stood rigid, his golden eyes locked onto the Buizel. Sparks of electricity violently crackled off his fur. The trauma of the Arbok Gang was still deeply ingrained in his instincts. To Shinx, this wasn't a regulated sparring match. It was a fight for his life.
"Buizel, Aqua Jet!" the swimmer commanded.
Buizel cloaked itself in a high-pressure torpedo of water, launching forward at a blinding speed.
Eric opened his mouth to issue a command. "Shinx, dodge to the right and—"
But Shinx didn't listen.
Driven by sheer, blind aggression, Shinx let out a feral hiss and lunged directly into the Aqua Jet. His body was enveloped in a chaotic, unrefined Spark attack.
*BOOM!*
The two attacks collided head-on. Because of Shinx's type advantage, he pierced through the water, but he took the full, blunt-force trauma of the physical impact in the process. Shinx tumbled backward, rolling across the dirt, his fur soaked and bruised.
He immediately scrambled to his feet, ignoring the pain, his eyes wide and bloodshot as he prepared to blindly launch himself at the Buizel again.
"Shinx. Stop."
The voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the electric-type's frantic instincts like an icy blade.
Shinx froze, his paws digging into the dirt as he looked back over his shoulder.
Eric stood perfectly still, his eyes entirely calm, radiating a cold, unwavering authority. He wasn't holding a whip. He wasn't holding a shock collar. He was just standing there, looking at Shinx not as a disposable tool, but as a partner.
"You don't need to throw your life away anymore," Eric said, his voice steady. "You aren't in a cage. You have me. Breathe. And listen to my voice."
Shinx's golden eyes flickered. The chaotic, frantic sparks jumping off his tail slowly began to stabilize into a rhythmic, steady hum. He took a slow breath, the feral tension leaving his shoulders.
He turned back to the Buizel, waiting.
"Good," Eric said. "Now. Wait for it to move. Focus the electricity into your front paws."
"Buizel, use Water Gun! Don't let him recover!"
Buizel opened its mouth, firing a pressurized stream of water.
"Pivot left," Eric commanded instantly.
Shinx didn't overcommit. He stepped lightly to the left, letting the Water Gun splash harmlessly past his flank.
"Now. Spark. Strike the blind spot."
Shinx lunged. This time, there was no blind, raging charge. It was an explosive, hyper-focused burst of movement. He closed the distance in a fraction of a second, appearing directly beneath Buizel's chin. The condensed electrical energy in his paws discharged violently upon impact.
CRACKLE!
Buizel shrieked as the electricity coursed through its body, sending it flying backward. It crashed into the arena wall, unconscious.
"Buizel is unable to battle! Shinx wins!"
Shinx stood over the fainted Water-type, panting softly. He looked down at his paws, realizing he had just won an entire engagement without taking a single unnecessary hit. He turned back to Eric, his golden eyes filled with a new, profound sense of clarity and absolute trust.
"Shinx!" he barked proudly.
Eric smiled faintly. "Well done. You're learning."
There was still a lot of progress to be made, but this was a start.
Next up, a girl wearing oversized, thick-rimmed glasses and obsessively tapping on a Pokétch stepped up to the opponent's box.
"According to my calculations, the probability of an electric-type attempting a consecutive sweep is 87.4%," she muttered rapidly, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Therefore, I select you, Croagunk!"
A blue, toxic frog Pokémon dropped onto the field, its orange cheeks inflating with a strange, unnerving croak.
```
Pokémon: Croagunk
Level: 13
Type: Poison/Fighting
Potential: Yellow
```
Eric didn't say a word. He casually recalled Shinx and threw his third Poké Ball.
"Ralts, your turn."
The tiny, white-and-green Psychic/Fairy-type appeared on the field. She looked incredibly fragile compared to the menacing, venomous frog, but she didn't cower. She knew Gardevoir was watching from the sidelines, and she could feel Eric's calm, steady belief in her capabilities.
The girl with the glasses blinked, furiously tapping her Pokétch. "A Psychic-type? B-But the algorithm predicted a sweeping maneuver! This disrupts my entire combat matrix!"
"Algorithms don't win battles, especially when you shout out your plan," Eric said bluntly. "Ralts, Confusion on the ground beneath it."
"Croagunk, Mud-Slap! Blind it!" the girl panicked.
Croagunk scooped up a handful of dirt and hurled it at Ralts.
"Don't move," Eric instructed.
Ralts stood her ground. Her eyes glowed with a soft blue light. Instead of attacking the frog directly, she targeted the earth directly beneath Croagunk's feet, violently shifting the dirt upward.
The sudden upheaval caused Croagunk to lose its balance entirely. The Mud-Slap went completely wide, splashing harmlessly onto the referee's shoes.
"Now, Confusion!"
While Croagunk was stumbling, he was directly hit with a wave of psychic energy.
Croagunk groaned, its cheeks deflating as it collapsed backward into the dirt.
"Croagunk is unable to battle! Ralts wins! Challenger Eric sweeps his rotation!"
The crowd roared in excitement.
Eric recalled Ralts, offering her a warm smile as she returned to the ball.
He walked out of the challenger's box, completely ignoring the stunned expressions of the girl.