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Chp 34: Librarian

Seth gulped as the elevator came to a stop. "This is it." He whispered to himself. The doors opened a moment later. He stepped out into the room, looking around in surprise. It wasn't a simple arena. The place was gigantic, with book filled shelves lining the walls. The ceiling high above, about three stories if he had to guess, was made of some kind of crystal. Many chandeliers hung from it, casting light up into the ceiling and making it cast shimmers back down. Several columns were in the center of the room, eight in all. At the end of the two rows was a chair and in that chair was a man.

He had shoulder length purple hair and was wearing a red suit. He had one leg on top of the other and was leaning back with a book in hand. As Seth began to approach, he looked up. "Ah, I was expecting another challenger." He closed his book and set it aside. "Welcome. I am the first of the elite four, Lucian." He said as he rose and stepped forward. "Shall we begin? First off, my challenge is a 'best of' match. Whoever wins four out of the six battles may proceed. Each of your pokemon may only battle once. The pillars are the bounds of the ring."

"Seth. And I'm ready." Seth said as he took out a ball.

Lucian nodded and took out his own ball. "Go, Gallade!"

"Drew!" Seth shouted while tossing out his ball.

The leafeon and gallade appeared on their respective sides.

"This is it?" Drew asked as he looked around. "Not what I was expecting, but oh well. Hi there. I'm Drew." He said to the gallade.

A look of curiosity crossed his face. "Gallade. Excuse my rudeness... most pokemon don't have conversations before battle."

"It's my first time, so." Drew shrugged.

Gallade went wide eyed for a moment. "Okay. Don't expect me to hold back." He disappeared in a flash of purple light.

"Behind you!" Seth shouted. Instead of dodging forwards, Drew began to look behind him. He was too slow and Gallade swung his arm blade down. Drew was flung forward by the force of the attack, rolling a few times before he started to get up. He looked up, trying to find his opponent, but he was gone again. A blade of psychic energy crashed into his side. His head whipped over to find Gallade lowering his arm. Leaves sprouted from Drew and launched towards the other pokemon, who teleported away again.

"Ugh." Drew groaned in frustration. He grit his teeth as the next attack hit him. The damage was taking its toll, causing him to pant heavily. He had to end this now. Behind him, he heard air moving. Just in time, he sprouted a thick and thorny vine. When Gallade slammed his arm into it, he hissed in pain as the spikes stabbed at him. Drew didn't even bother looking back. This time, Gallade appeared in front of him, a ways away.

Drew dug his paws into the ground, while the vine on his back went limp and drooped down his side, the spines pricking his side

"You're pretty good." Gallade said. "Are you-" He vanished as a mass of thorny vines burst from the ground. "Was th-" He was cut off again as he had to teleport. "Frenzy plant!?" There was a series of flashes, with spiked patches being left behind at each location. Gallade finally appeared above Drew, ready to unleash a full-on assault as he held himself up with psychic energy. Small vines burst out from Drew, locking onto Gallade's limbs, before a cluster of tough vines shot up, smashing into Gallade's chest. He let out a pained grunt, before disappearing again. He reappeared lying flat on the ground. "I'll give you this one. I can tell how hard you're pushing yourself." He said. "For your sake, I hope the rest of your team is much stronger than you." He rose and simply walked off the field.

"Ha... ha..." Drew panted for a moment. "Never underestimate a wild pokemon!" He shouted, before rolling onto his side. Seth took out his ball and recalled him, before taking out the next one.

"You did good." Lucian pat his pokemon's head, before swapping him out. A sheen ran over the floor for an instant, and all the damage was repaired somehow. "That's one. Gardevoir, don't give him another."

"Dust, its your turn."

Both the gardevoir and the glaceon formed on the field, immediately glaring at each other. They knew what this was. Gardevoir started things off by raising her arms. A wall of glowing light formed in front of her. Dust saw the light screen and responded by launching a small spear of ice at blinding speed. In the blink of an eye, Gardevoir disappeared, reappearing only a few feet to the side, taking her barrier with her. She formed a second barrier, this time for physical attacks.

"Seth? This doesn't look good. Any help?" Dust asked.

"Uhh..." He muttered while quickly thinking over a glaceon's moves. "Swift!"

Dust responded like clockwork, her tassels waved as a wave of stars shot out. They went right for Gardevoir, who didn't even bother teleporting out of the way. She easily smacked the weak attack out of the way. She then clasped her hands in front of her chest before throwing a white ball at Dust. It moved too fast, the moonblast hitting her dead on. Dust grunted, gritting her teeth through the powerful attack. She didn't budge an inch though.

"Guess we need force..." Seth muttered. "Try blizzard!"

Dust took a deep breath as a large cloud of ice and snow began to build up behind her. The slow moving wave of cold launched forward. Gardevoir just teleported out of the way. She clasped her hands together again.

"Dust! Mirror coat!" Seth shouted. It was too late for Gardevoir to stop her attack. A glassy film covered her body, the attack absorbing into it, then blasting out back at the source, with her power added into it. Gardevoir didn't have time to dodge this one. The barriers did weaken it, but it still hit hard. "Yes!" Seth cheered. But his happiness quickly faded. "Damn... that's four."

"Four?" Dust asked.

"Four moves. That's the limit." Seth grimaced.

"Oh no..."

She dove to the side as Gardevoir's next attack shot past. Before she could focus back on Gardevoir, the much larger pokemon appeared right in front of her. She had a moonblast held in each hand and, one at a time, she slapped them point blank into Dust.

The glaceon cried out and collapsed in the aftermath. Seth recalled her shortly after. "You did good." He said, before tucking the ball away.

"Excellent work. We're tied." Lucian said as he sent out his next pokemon: a malamar.

"Alright Tiff. Fry this squid!" Seth called as he tossed out the typhlosion.

"Yeah!" She called out. "It's about time."

Malamar stretched his body, before his tentacles flailed, letting out a psycho cut. Tiff dodged it by stepped a bit to the side, causing the attack to almost shave off some of her fur. She then crossed her arms in front of her, almost clutching her own body, before she roared and a burst of fire flew off her body. The powerful flames crashed into Malamar, making him hiss out.

Malamar growled and raised his tentacle arms. A cluster of rocks formed above Tiff and rained down. She had time to raise her paws over her head but couldn't escape the rock slide.

"Gonna play that way?" She growled. She once again clutched herself, but did a different motion to release it, raising her head and howling. An ocean of fire spilled out of her body, filling the entire arena. It stopped just shy of Seth, close enough that he could feel the embers popping out of it burning his skin. The flames fell to the ground and quickly faded out, leaving Tiff where she was previously, with her back flames out. "Try it now." She taunted the charred enemy.

Malamar said nothing but did repeat the rock slide attack. This time, Tiff barely flinched. A dark glare crossed her face. "Get ready." She threatened. Malamar glared back, his fin shaped feet quickly shuffling forward as he raised a tentacle. With great power, he slapped it out, a sharp whip crack sounding out as it smacked Tiff.

Her head turned back to face him, flames coming out of her clenched teeth. Before he could get out of the way, she spat a ball of raging flames. Upon hitting him, it exploded into a massive fireball. Once it died down, Malamar was lying face down, unconscious. "Yeah!" Tiff cheered.

"Good job!" Seth called.

Her smile immediately vanished. "Uh, thanks." She looked away. "I forgot you were there." She mumbled as Seth recalled her.

Lucian clapped a couple times. "A good show." He drew his next ball, tossing it out at the same time as Seth.

Seth bit his lip. "Damn..." He could swear he saw Lucian give out a quiet laugh. His claydol did not hide it as well, causing Zip to scowl angrily.

"Is this your idea of a joke?" She asked, looking back at him with a glare.

"Sorry, I didn't know." Seth said.

"Hah..." She sighed. "I'll try, but no promises."

Claydol made a series of beeping noises. Seth's mind somehow interpreted these as speech. "Are you going to waste your effort on a fruitless fight? Just surrender." Despite his species being genderless, his voice was more on the masculine side, in a robotic way.

"Surrender?" She asked. Seth could practically feel the venom dripping from her voice. She leapt forward, gnashing her fangs and nearly taking a bite out of the floating pokemon. He floated back just enough to only be grazed.

In an immediate response, he raised his arms, glowing rocks forming around his body, before he swung his arms down, sending the rocks cascading down, alongside a burst of energy. A sheen ran over Claydol's body in the aftermath.

Zip slide back, but before she could retaliate, Claydol shot forward and repeated the attack, with the same sheen covering his body again. She bit forward, but Claydol didn't even react to the blow. For a third time, he used ancient power, and for the third time his power grew. Zip growled out as a massive amount of electricity shot off her body. The arching currents filling the air easily matched the fires of Tiff. However, the impressive display of power did nothing to her opponent.

The nearly solid wall of yellow faded, revealing Zip and Claydol where they were. However, Claydol's body was glowing brightly. A moment later, a massive explosion filled the arena. Zip cried out, but her voice was drowned out by the detonation. It stretched far enough to engulf even Seth.

He let out a pained grunt, falling to his knees. It felt like all the air had been ripped out of his body. Even this far away, the move had this much power. As the smoke cleared, he couldn't stand back up, as his legs refused to move and his entire body was shaking.

"Good job Cla- Seth? Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah." He forced out. "A chunk of rock hit me. I'm fine." Normally, pokemon moves didn't have an effect on humans. Water types would get them wet and fire would feel warm, but no real harm would come to them. If a pokemon attacked to inflict harm, it would have the same effects as on a pokemon, but otherwise humans did not receive any stamina damage. Of course, that only applied to humans.

"My apologies. Claydol must have been surprised by that outburst."

"Did... did we tie?" Both pokemon were unconscious.

"I'm afraid not. League rules state that if both pokemon faint due to explosion, the user wins. One more win for me, and you'll lose by default."

Seth took a few deep breaths and stood up. He struggled to not let his legs wobble as he took out his next ball. He gave the pink ball a kiss and whispered, "C'mon Sky. It's all on you now."

The espeon with a blue gem formed on the field. She looked around with a smile. "Ohh, this place is pretty."

"Sky! Focus!" Seth shouted, but not angrily. "You have to win!"

"No sweat." She said, looking back at him with a beaming smile. She had some idea what she was up against. Inside the poke ball, she got some images of the outside world. And surely she could sense his worry.

"Exeggutor, no more playing around!" Lucian said while sending out his next pokemon. The three headed tree pokemon appeared on his side, all three sets of eyes looking at Sky. The usually jolly pokemon looked dead serious.

"Hi~" Sky said cheerily. "Ready?"

The middle head simply nodded. Sky leapt back and her body seemingly vanished. It was no teleport, there was no energy, she was just gone. Even Seth couldn't feel her presence anymore. But it wasn't a clean feel. There was... something off, like a disturbance he could sense. And that odd sense was expanding, filling up the entire arena. Exeggutor looked equally confused, heads looking all over to find his opponent.

Sky appeared out of nowhere behind him. She was spotted instantly however, the left most head locking onto her while the rest of the body followed. Sky didn't attack yet though. Then Seth realized. It wasn't Sky. There was no life, no aura, in the clone. His mind quickly bridged all the gaps. Sky had explained all about her new ability. It couldn't fool aura sensors like him, but it reflected her mind, fooling psychic types. But every single one did that, meaning that she had to set up a disrupting field to avoid detection. And that field was powerful, strong enough to block her aura.

According to league rules, custom and unregistered moves were allowed, but they still counted to the four move limit. A pokemon's natural talents did not however. She could use basic psychic powers as much as she wanted, but the clones and the blocking field both counted. Seth shook his head to snap back into reality.

Exeggutor's eyes glowed and a shockwave of psychic energy shot along the ground, kicking up a trail of dust. It hit the clone, which acted like it was actually hit quite well. The field suddenly dropped and all of her clones revealed themselves. Nearly fifteen espeon now occupied the arena.

Without missing a beat, each head took aim at a clone, firing a green orb before moving to the next. They weren't double team images though. When hit, they didn't vanish. Instead, they got back up. Before Exeggutor could launch his next barrage, all the Sky's launched a wave of swift stars. The storm of damaging stars crashed into the pokemon from all directions. Once again, they were not fake. He essentially took fifteen attacks all at once.

The barrage was too much, as he fell to his knees. For a brief moment, he tried to stand again, but failed and fell unconscious. Seth looked at Lucian to find him wide eyed as he took out his ball. Even Seth hadn't expected just how powerful she had gotten.

"It would seem I am outclassed." Lucian said. "But I won't surrender! Just one victory is all I need! Bronzong!"

Seth smiled. "No way are we stopping now. Soul!"

Both Soul and the bell shaped pokemon appeared on their respective sides. Soul immediately raised her head and let out a howl as she mega evolved. The burst of energy that came flying off her body was strong enough to actually push Seth back a few inches. She then looked right at Bronzong, spreading her wings wide. Bronzong's eye rolled back into its head, and with a few shakes, it fell to the ground.

Both Seth's and Lucian's mouths were agape. "S-Soul? Did you... just..."

"Done." She said with a smile as she walked over to him while reverting her form. Seth recalled her a moment later. He hadn't even put the ball away.

Lucian cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up. "I was thoroughly beaten. An excellent battle. Now, go on. You'll find your reward, and a way back to the lobby."

"Thanks. You weren't so bad yourself."

As Seth walked past, he heard Lucian say one last thing. "Don't expect the rest of the league to be so easy. Each trainer is miles above the last."

Seth left the room and entered a much smaller one. There were two crates and a colored pad on the ground. Seth looked through the crates, quickly figuring it out. In one was a set of plaques, with five spaces. In the other crate was a gem that fit perfectly into one of the spaces. The gem was a dark pink, fitting the psychic type. He then stepped onto the pad, his surroundings changing to that of the entrance.