the roofing of his chamber opens as an automatic response to the dynamax band activating. despite the large interior of the room, the transformation requires open skies.

the skarmory dives for the ho-oh, but the ho-oh doesn't budge from its spot. it takes its position on the field as its roost, and as with the legend, the calamity befalls what was once was called the brass tower.

the first of the sequence of events involve the darkening of the skies. thunder growls from above before lightning threatens the pokemon already high above the clouds. the formation of static doesn't even leave the clouds as electricity reach the giant skarmory without needing to strike.

"there is no need for support," he tells the challenger. "you have waited for this opportunity. you are ready."

kyle smiles at the scene, hands on the hip as the fight gets more interesting.

"you pass or you don't."

"i'm sure you can do it."

he smiles.

"using mega evolution defensively? that's new for you."

innovations from his style was observed. hyper offense was josh's game, but it seems like his journey through the elite four brought something new to his repertoire of tricks as he had promised.

still, one can't discount the boost of moves it carried.

rocks barraged entei, pushing him to a corner. it remains on its last legs, until it feels a burst of energy. it turns and sees kyle finally do something that he doesn't usually do.

the ash that burns from entei's flames fly with the wind before turning into embers once again.

"let's see if this josh devlin can face the object of his admiration without being weighed down by the noise of his innermost turmoils."

entei has taken the backseat, giving way for its lord.

ho-oh appears from the ashes, flapping its wings to create a wave of sacred fire that washes over the pokemon on josh's side of the field.

"show me your resolution. this is a test at the end of the day."

"that's good to hear."

entei acts once more before kyle can finish his monologue. his legs carry him from one side of the arena to the other, zooming with josh's favorite move once more: extreme speed.

"that's always been the thing i try to do with these challenges, so it's nice to see that i'm getting the reaction i want."

the entei doesn't move this time. it takes its ground, readying itself for when the absol comes for it. the skarmory may be staying all the way at the back, but it, too, proves to be a hindrance despite its minimal time in the field.

it endures the hits as night slash eventually manages to push the entei back after having worn it down the entire fight. it roars, and becomes true to its identity as the volcano pokemon.

"i told you i'm not going to take it easy, so you're facing kyle lopez from this point on."

similar to the paradox pokemon's signature move, entei erupts with sacred fire in retaliation. it may be panting, but the inferno still blazes forth from his position, filling the arena with the same flames that burnt josh from their first meeting.

he has grown this time, both as a person and a trainer. he knows that accident won't happen again.

between the two, one proves to be much more difficult opponent. kyle had his own target in mind, but he trusts in entei to make a decision on his own.

"and how does it feel-"

entei acts once more before kyle can finish his monologue. his legs carry him from one side of the arena to the other, zooming with josh's favorite move once more: extreme speed.

"-to be on the other end of the equation-"

having seen it use a water-type move, the entei deems the dragonair to be the one to look out for and becomes the target of its attack. kyle would have chosen it for a chance of carrying debilitating moves instead, but the results were similar.

"-when you're not facing the problem alone."

the strike from the dragonair hits entei. it responds with a stare that gives off pressure before it brushes off the move and dashes past it.

"sha-"

before he can finish his command, the entei had already reached the pyroar, tackling it from behind with extreme speed while the marshadow follows through with its shadow sneak, getting through its legs instead.

the marshadow collapses with its burns, having powered through the flames of the pyroar for its last attack. it quickly gets recalled to its ball, while entei stands tall.

moves have worn it down, but the volcano pokemon's pride doesn't allow it to look weak.

"splitting the two of them was the right choice, then." of course josh knew the best way to keep the rider on the ground. "you still have to go through two more though."

he hasn't released his last pokemon to replace marshadow. not yet, at least.

the target disappears.

the lycanroc is surprised by the twist of events, but despite visibility returning back to normalcy, there still was nothing that can be seen in the midst of the smokescreen.

the charizard's tail was the exception.

with no other move that can hit the charizard from afar and fast, the lycanroc roars in a last resort attempt to drag the pokemon away from the fight.

the lucario, on the other hand, can still sense everything in a fight. sensing that it's losing its footing, it shoots out an aura sphere at the ceiling, cutting through the smoke as a signal flare of sorts.

kyle activates his key stone in time to defend against the hits.

the lucario mega evolves, using the enhanced bulk to endure both the z-move and the charizard's super effective hit. it barely hangs on against the hits, but to its surprise, kyle recalls it back to its ball.

"we'll count it as a knock out," he casually calls out as he replaces it on the field with a kommo-o. "i'm surprised you brought out your z-move this early. are you not saving it for a grand finale?"

the knife he twirls around his fingers that acts as his mega accessory loses its shine the moment the lucario chills in its ball.

"isn't that your weakness?"

cian doesn't find himself fitting with rocket for a reason. there's a few levels of straightforward that people do in a fight, but cian takes another angle for it with his honest approach on things.

"this is still a champion assessment. we're still trying to see how you deal with things you're not used to dealing with."

despite using similar team templates as cian on his gym, kyle spins it in different ways that utilizes its pokemon more than just their reliance on weather. cian's familiar with how battles with weather go, and kyle waits for his challenger to bring out that experience into play to adapt to the situation.

"one more time!"

the glaceon, knowing that using protect consecutively was going to affect into nothing, runs at the transformed ditto and fires its freeze-dry up close.

kyle staggers the timing and keeps the momentum on his side. the politoed encores the maurice into another thunder at the cost of its field time. the second strike of the psychic-type knocks the pokemon out.

a manectric replaces the pokemon, finding it in a nice position against the pokemon named maurice.

thunder hits the politoed hard, but it manages to take it. however, it leaves it on its last legs as quick as the battle starts.

"encore again!"

this time, the target changes. the politoed looks at its counterpart and encores its protect. it's one of the consequences of playing hero.

"glaceon, you target the other guy this time."

using the rain, the glaceon releases its water pulse at the oranguru. increased water volume from the precipitation bombards the ape with a bigger attack, splashing maurice with a rain boosted move.

cian's ditto chose the wrong pokemon to copy.

"why not?" he engages in the banter. "but if you don't do your best, i'll be forced to fail you. i can treat you to ice cream if that happens. i'm talking the fancy ice cream places around here."

it was a bait that he dangles in front of cian, but knowing his resolve, he probably won't take it. bummer.

as rain drips down, a barrier appears in front of the oranguru, getting ready to defend against all attacks. they'll need it, since kyle will set up the tempo if cian doesn't opt for it.

"encore, politoed!" he orders his frog before moving on to his fox, "and glaceon, freeze-dry!"

the politoed claps its hands in front of the oranguru, forcing cian to either stay in and waste precious turns doing basically nothing, or switch out.

if it doesn't, he'll have to fight it with just his ditto, who now faces a super effective freeze-dry from kyle's pokemon.

the two pokemon separate with josh's gambit. it was a risky move since it opens the challenger's pokemon up for a counter attack, but failure wasn't on the mauville gym leader's agenda today.

smoke fizzles from the sacred fire when it comes into contact with the aqua tail, giving the pyroar room to isolate the marshadow. with the way josh battles, fighting as separate 1v1s would be a more comfortable angle for him, he guesses.

"stone edge!"

the command wasn't for his entei, but for his marshadow.

the volcano pokemon roars and stomps his feet, summoning spikes of earth and throwing the dragonair up on him away.

the blow left an impact on the pokemon as the marshadow was brought to its knees. hearing the command, marshadow slams the ground with its fist and copycats its partner. with its own set of jagged rocks, it attempts to throw away the fire-type from it.

the screen on his chamber lights up as kyle turns it on. what it shows are cian's pokemon he chose for the battle, taking out the element of surprise.

"let's go ditto and oranguru," he tells cian. "i'm not sure why you're letting me choose though. just because you'll pass doesn't mean that i'll go easy."

despite his words, he chooses the pair of pokemon that can prove themselves difficult to maneuver around.

he releases his politoed and his glaceon to match cian's pokemon. together, they have no synergy. but it's the best choice if he were to face the two pokemon he had chosen.

cian still has the option not to pick the ones kyle chose though.

"ah, wait, were you trying to do something funny back there?" he guesses it would have been different if he didn't know what the pokemon inside each ball was.

the raboot dies. at least the ho-oh avatar is here in case cian wants to revive it.

he returns it to its ball, however, and kyle would never know its fate. maybe he'll know tomorrow, when they match once more.

"since you won, it should be your treat," kyle tells cian. "i did my part, so it's your turn to do yours."

taking on challenges was part of his work, and he was getting paid for it, but he knows cian will accept anyways for the sake of hospitality.

poor guy's so easy to guilt trip, and he knows cian would accept it even if he knows what kyle's intent was.

kyle watches the raboot prep himself for another attack, but seeing his pokemon in dire straits, he chooses to recall the pokemon.

it leaves the raboot crashing from a really high place to the flat, hard ground.

"well, the poison was the one thing that made it unwinnable for us. congrats!"

it was a short match, but it wouldn't change the outcome. prolonging the match only makes people prone to making mistakes, but at this level, there will be little that will show.

he might as well cut to the chase.

"if it makes u feel better, we can schedule your match right away," he tells cian. "does tomorrow sounds good?"