"Magmortar is unable to battle! Trainer Alab has no more Pokemon. Trainer Dante has won the ranking battle and has risen to rank 23!"
With the Rotom Referee's announcement, the crowd of students cheered.
Opposite Dante, his opponent had a dull look on his face. He stared at the mildly singed Ursaring who was walking back to its Trainer; the Ursaring who single-handedly defeated both his Charizard and Magmortar.
Alab had heard of Dante, even watched his matches against the Gym Leaders several times. He knew he was no match against him. When he challenged him, he just wanted to see the gap between his own strength and the one hailed as the next hope of their country.
In his mind, although he was no match for Dante now, that cannot be said to be the same in the future. After all, the top-level Pokemon battle is 6 vs 6.
Even though he was only in the upper tier of strength among the third-year students, Alab had the ambition to one day become the Champion. It was why, even though he had obtained his 2nd Gym Badge two months ago, he still hadn't captured his third Pokemon. He wanted to make sure his team was the strongest it can be.
In this battle, he had been prepared to lose, even bracing himself to get crushed by either Pikachu or Azumarill.
But then his opponent sent out Ursaring, a Pokemon the whole school knew hatched just a month ago. And it wiped the floor against his two Pokemon that had been trained for more than a year. Seeing that scene, something inside him broke.
"Ha. Haha. Hahahaahaha!"
At this time, Dante was praising Ursaring for his performance. Although he didn't win unscathed, defeating two fully trained Pokemon was still a great achievement. He was about to return to Shinobu and the others when a hoarse laugh attracted his attention.
Looking back, his opponent Alab is laughing hysterically on the opposite side of the arena. His face was red and tears dripped down the corner of his eyes.
"Ursa?" (Dad, what's wrong? Is he okay?)
Ursaring scratched his head, his eyes looking in concern at his previous opponent's trainer.
"...I don't know. Hey dude! Are you alright?"
Alab didn't seem to hear Dante's question. Or even if he did, he didn't care. He took Magmortar back in its Pokeball and then walked down the arena while muttering something like 'This world is a joke.'
"...don't worry about him, Ursaring. He's probably just shocked from losing against you."
Ursaring slowly nodded and the two returned to Shinobu and the others who were seated near the guardrail of the stadium.
"You should have used Pikachu, Dan. That way, you can deter more of your opponents!"
Candice took said Pikachu which had just been released from his Pokeball. She waved around the yellow rat who flatly stared at her.
"If the goal is to discourage future opponents, then I say Ursaring did a great job. After all, no one wants to be defeated by a Pokemon who is only a month old."
Focalors interjected, her arms crossed in front of her chest.
"Alab's a little pitiful, though. I saw him crying when leaving earlier."
Kachina said while staring at the arena with a concerned expression.
"That's part of being a Trainer. Losing and accepting defeat is necessary to become truly strong."
Shinobu, with Mawile in her arms and Riolu at her feet, said while sighing. Hearing their conversation, Dante awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
When he used Ursaring against Alab, he had no plans of completing a 1 vs 2. After all, Ursaring's current stats are only comparable to a fully trained normal Pokemon.
Who knew his opponent's Pokemon was a bad match-up against his. Not only was their Defense weak, but they also had no super-effective move against his Pokemon.
Charizard could only hurt Ursaring with a Flamethrower before being defeated by Smack Down and Rock Tomb. Meanwhile, Magmortar didn't even have time to attack and was knocked out by an Earthquake.
Dante can only lament that his opponent was unlucky.
He sat beside Shinobu and opened his phone to continue issuing a challenge. But even before he had time to do so, he received another challenge from the rank 16 and 11 Trainers, who then forfeited shortly after.
"Huh, I guess I can challenge Mualani now."
—
When the students in the Trainer course, and even those from other departments saw Dante finally rise to 11th position, they quickly rushed towards the battle stadium.
And not just the students. Even the professors and other school administrators tuned in, watching the battle through the stadium's live camera or personally heading to the match venue.
And just as they anticipated, the next match posted on the school website's Ranking Battle page was: Dante versus Mualani.
…
"Hahaha, it looks like I'm just in time."
"Dean!"
In the battle stadium seats reserved for the professors, a commotion arose when they saw Dean Ronaldo walking over from the entrance.
"Good morning, everyone. Come now, no need to be so stiff."
The Dean greeted the Professors amicably. He walked to the front of the aisle and sat beside the head coach, Jomar.
"So Jomar. Who do you think will win between the two?"
Dean Ronaldo adjusted his chair, getting comfortable while asking the stern-faced professor beside him.
"...unless Dante makes some kind of major tactical error, I don't see Mualani winning this one."
Jomar replied analytically, his eyes falling on the current captain of his team.
In her 1st year, Mualani led the school team to reach 2nd place in the freshmen division by completing a feat of 1 vs 3 in the semi-finals. If it weren't for being restrained by the ace player of the last school team, they may have even won the championship.
And in her 2nd year, she quickly rose to become the school team's vice-captain, becoming indispensable for the school to achieve 8th place. At that point, her team was still Sharpedo, Ludicolo, and Poliwhirl.
At the graduation of the 4th year students, when her Poliwhirl finally evolved into Politoed, she achieved a tie with the former captain in their farewell match.
Even though it was a tie, Jomar knew Mualani had been holding back due to the occasion. And now, in her third year, when her Politoed has reached its racial limit, Jomar had expected her to serve as the team's ace until she graduated.
But then the anomaly appeared.
His gaze shifted to the opposite side of the arena, where a student with white hair streaked with red confidently stood while casually chatting with Mualani.
Dante Zulueta. The most abnormal student he had ever come across in his 20 years of teaching career.
He subverted his common sense on almost everything he knew about Pokemon battles. Pikachu, a Pokemon commonly seen as a household pet has become a monster in his hand. And Teddiursa, a Pokemon that had undergone a stage of hatching, infancy, and evolving in just one month.
And it seems to not even suffer any drawbacks from such fast growth. In its battle against Charizard and Magmortar earlier, he carefully studied said Pokemon and even concluded that it should be slightly stronger than a fully trained adult Ursaring.
"Dean, do you think this Dante possessed one of those superpowers?"
Dean Ronaldo had just taken out the popcorn from his bag, watching the match's countdown along with the other students. Hearing Jomar's question, he ate a piece of popcorn and pondered.
"Based on his accomplishments, it would seem logical to assume so. However, there is currently no documented superpower that can boost the strength of so many variety of Pokemon."
In this world, after the advent of the Pokemon Era, the human body has begun to evolve due to the presence of Elemental energy. In addition to improved physique, some lucky humans also gained powers like being able to move objects with their thoughts, heal Pokemon and humans with their energy, and use moves like a Pokemon.
Humans with this power are called different names depending on their superpowers: Psychics, Aura Users, Dragon Tamers, etc.
Not only are they more attuned to Pokemon of the same type as their superpowers, they can also use it to boost the strength of their Pokemon during battle.
Among the current Champions in the world, Lance and Iris were confirmed to have the power of Dragons, Shenhe the power of Ice, and Jean the power of Flying. Others, such as Giovanni, were also suspected of having a superpower.
"Maybe it's a new type of superpower. One that can accelerate the growth of his Pokemon."
Jomar proposed, looking intently at the arena as Dante and Mualani released their Pokemon.
"Whether he has a superpower or not, you can investigate yourself later. After all, he will be part of your team for the next four years."
"Hmm."
With that, the conversation between the two ended, and the match finally began.
A/N: Get early access to up to 30 chapters and vote for Dante's next Pokemon in my Patreon: patreon.com/Ked2002.