[attr="class","queen"]

“I’ve been to a previous incarnation of the gym around here. Last time, it was some sort of ruined castle carved out of the white rock,” he said in greeting once he’d gone down the long, dark hallway and exited out on the other side.

“Please, call me Lars. Simpler for everyone present,” he added with a wave of his hand. He could only guess and wonder what the hell ‘bullet hell’ meant. Hopefully it wouldn’t have him resorting to cheesy, cheap tactics.

As for how many Pokémon were needed, he’d better ask now—

“Oh, right, I think you forgot to specify. For this particular challenge, how many ‘mons do you want the challenger to bring? May want to specify it just in case someone else comes after me and wants to try this very interestingly named ‘bullet hell’ for themselves. Just to set their expectations right,” he added with a chuckle.

He had a feeling today was going to be one for the ages.

At the mention of the castle that was carved out of the rock, he fished out his phone.

“Lucky I decided to take a few pictures before… here, look for yourself,” he said as he walked over to where she was and showed her the photos he had taken dated a few years back.

“There were like… two, three Gym Leaders who had their arena set up here before you came. To be honest I like what you did with the place,” he added with a chuckle.

As for switching out his Pokémon team… He’d already come armed with his companions, so.

“Oh, another thing… is, you know, mega evolving allowed for this challenge? Or no?” he inquired.

Clearly there were things he forgot to clarify as well. As it stood, two of his six companions were capable of doing it; however he wasn’t sure if it was going to be allowed considering what he was going up again.

As for changing his team, he chuckled.

“I’ve already brought my companions with me. I think, you’ll see—that some people are capable enough to let their Pokémon companions do what they want, at least with me.”

At least there was someone who appreciated the previous landscaping that had been done prior to their time. That was a good thing, at least.

“I can do that now. Give me a few minutes,” he said as he made his way over to the opposite side of the arena, and fished out the Pokéballs that he was going to use.

“I’m sure you’ll find all of them entertaining,” he continued as he popped all of their containment units in succession and began tossing them skyward.

First to hit the ground was his Metagross, Ro. The landing shook his side of the arena for a few moments before the silver beast turned to face him and made the usual ‘white noise’ inquiry sound. The next to appear was his Lucario, Alpha.

Right next to his partner in crime.

The other two, Gareth the Gallade and Lynette the Gardevoir, appeared as expected—with the Gallade knelt down on the ground offering his blade-arm to the Gardevoir to take before standing up.

The last two—one of them scored a hilarious three-point landing on her belly. Whoops.

“Nice way to ruin the entrance, Ryu,” he said to his Swampert as she turned around to make a face in his direction, before he chuckled softly. The very last one, an Altaria, flew overhead, cloudy, cottony body flapping ever so slightly.

The Swampert barely had enough time to get up before the lady across them called out her assortment of Pokémon—maybe it was a good thing he’d brought in the main team as it is and didn’t change.

Because just as Lars was about to ask how long this was going to take, every single Pokémon on the other side of the field literally opened fire!

“Nami! Safeguard!” was the only command he dropped, because the sight of the Mismagius set off alarm bells—he couldn’t afford a single member of his team getting beaned by status changes!

As the veil snapped into place, the attacks started coming.

“Whatever you all do, avoid being hit! Do not hit the opponents!” he said to his main team, and everyone then flew into action.

A blast of lightning and a beam of draconic energy—the Swampert punched her fists together and immediately summoned a defensive Rock Slide, spreading the avalanche of rocks as wide and as far as she could.

Seeing as the attacks were headed her way, the next thing the Altaria did would be to use Cotton Guard as she flew higher, hoping to avoid the incoming Dragon Pulse.

Quick on the uptake, the Metagross then released a Telekinetic field to help hold the first layer of Rock Slide defense in place. Over where Gareth and Lynette stood, the Gardevoir merely stared at the Gallade, before they got to work.

The Boomburst was easily evaded with a Teleporting maneuver from the Gardevoir; while the Gallade saw a one-two attack headed his way. As he was well-aware one of his defensive moves could only block against one of the two incoming attacks, the Gallade quickly threw up a Protective barrier, before it shattered—and then he, too, winked out of existence once the shield collapsed with a Teleport as well.

A few moments later, the Gardevoir reappeared—astride the Altaria! The incoming attack was too close for comfort, so a quickly-applied variation of Psychic energy then attempted to divert the attack as best as she could.

Ro saw the incoming fire, and then quickly split its attention; while one portion remained concentrated on holding the Rock Slide defensive line, a burst of Psychic then attempted to funnel away the incoming Mystical Fire as well. However it was only one shot, as there were two more coming—

A sudden sphere of auric energy (Aura Sphere) then met the rest of the incoming flames; but instead of shooting towards the source, the sphere then attempted to take the flames off to one side.

The look of utmost concentration was on the Lucario’s face as they had to avoid getting hit.

The Gallade then rematerialized close to where the Swampert was, and added a Protective layer atop the Rock Slide and the Telekinesis holding the shifting rock together.

---

• Altaria drops a Safeguard (1 / 5) just in case status moves get thrown
• Swampert summons a defensive-formation Rock Slide to block the Overdrive
• Metagross reinforces the Rock Slide with Telekinesis (1 / 3) to make it easier to shift the ‘barricade’ around
• Gardevoir Teleported away from the Boomburst
• Gallade threw out a Protect to meet the attacks headed his way; before it shatters and even he Teleports away as well
• Gardevoir reappears riding Altaria; who then uses Psychic to deflect the Dragon Pulse away from the Altaria
• Metagross then throws out a deflecting version of Psychic to block the Mystical Fire from reaching him
• Lucario then jumps into the fray and used Aura Sphere, attempting to funnel away the remaining Mystical Fire attacks from the Metagross
• Gallade reappears near Swampert and adds a Protective layer atop the Rock Slide / Telekinesis ‘barrier’

The good thing was that the Safeguard had been thrown up, now all he had to do was to keep track of how long he had before it fell and he would have to refresh it.

A loud grating noise from the Metagross came about as several things all happened at once—

“Move!” was all he could say, bracing himself as the ground began to shake. The Lucario jumped into action, seeing as how everyone was attempting to gang up on the Swampert and try to break its hold.

To counter the incoming Sparkling Aria bombs, the Lucario made up its mind to fire off multiple, smaller-sized Aura Spheres—something that required exact and precise control. While Alpha had only used this strategy exactly once before, it was time to practice it more now!

“Don’t hit ‘em!” he warned, as the Lucario then began charging up multiple Aura Sphere ‘bullets’ to meet all of the incoming Sparkling Aria water bombs and detonate them before they all crashed into the Swampert.

Ro, on the other hand, split its attention once more and then used a last-second Psychic in an attempt to divert the Freeze-Dry attack away from Suijin, and instead having the attack crash onto toe Rock Slide-reinforced barrier.

Letting out a cry of alarm, the Swampert herself quickly threw up a Protective screen mere seconds before the Mismagius could hit her before rolling out of the way, and then summoning up another Rock Slide defensive wall around herself to deflect the incoming Boomburst from the Toxtricity.

“Shift!” he called out, realizing that they had to scramble. The Gardevoir then took up the task of holding out the first few defensive Rock Slide walls by supplementing the Metagross’s initial support with a Psychic of her own, reinforcing the barrier further.

On the Gallade’s end, he saw the Noivern heading towards where the Altaria was—and made a split-second decision. Taking a leap up as best as he could, he then touched the blade-arm towards the closest part of the Altaria he could reach, before warping them out with Teleport which left the Gardevoir floating for a few brief seconds.

He knew how many brains his Metagross had, and how efficiently he could split up the tasks—however the Gardevoir gave them all a warning glare before momentarily winking out of existence as well with her own Teleport.

Where would the vanished Pokémon all end up, one would only wonder.

---

• Safeguard (2 / 5) active
• chaos reigns, everyone tries to protect the Swampert in their own ways!
• Gallade, Gardevoir and Altaria will return on the next post.