I Sting (Pokemon Poison Type Specialist)

'He has that?!' Virah was genuinely caught off guard by the fact that Warley uses a Girafarig for his first badge challenge, this particular match is harder than what's normally shown sure, but that doesn't really excuse anything.

'How do psychic types even fight?' Virah asked herself.

She eyed her starter as well as the Girafarig before him, most Pokemon, including her own Beedrill, had requirements in order to use their moves, physical moves require contact and movement and standard special moves also required movement to be used.

The only exception were most psychic moves, which thanks to them being mostly mental, never needed some type of "movement" to be used.

'But the Pokemon still needs to do something,' Virah thought, she knew that they needed to, that was a given, 'but what?'

Having no other choice but to actually test it out on the spot in order to see for herself, Virah commanded her Beedrill to attack, "Nitro, use Bug Bite,"

Psychic Types hate close combat, especially against those they are weak against, so Virah wondered how a distressed Girafarig would do to counter Nitro's charge.

She waited for the command to come from Warley audibly while keeping her eyes on the Girafarig to spot any visual tells of it using a move.

"Use Psybeam, predict the movement," As expected, Warley used a psychic move.

"Close the gap Nitro, fly high!" Virah doubled down.

She had a hypothesis, but to confirm it, Nitro would have to constantly be under threat while being in close proximity to their opponent.

From its body language, a brief moment of hesitation came to the Girafarig when she told Nitro to fly high, still, it didn't look up and did what it was told, it used Psybeam on the ground which had little to no effect other than it dissipating into nothing.

Nitro was about to get close when Warley ordered the Girafarig to counter him, "Reflect,"

A simple command, this time for protection, Virah caught that, "so you want to teach me the complexity of commands right?" Virah looked at Warley, who nodded, "can you tell me why your orders to attack are more complex than your defense?"

"Figure it out yourself," Warley smiled.

In the middle of their banter, Nitro and his opponent clashed, the Beedrill slammed his head against a glass-like square that suddenly appeared in front of the Girafarig, stopping his attack.

"Confusion, point blank," Warley ordered.

"Nitro, swerve to the side! Then Bug Bite!" Virah countered.

Nitro moved as his opponent's eyes glowed purple, he flew until he was directly to the left of the Girafarig, who's eyes went entirely purple, a moment later, Nitro was sent to the ground with a screech.

"Great!" Virah cheered as her starter recovered and flew back up, "now Bug Bite!"

Her theories weren't confirmed yet, given that the Girafarig's pupils were covered by a purple glow and Nitro was stopped before he could confirm if there was a barrier to the side but the progress she made in learning how to fight her specialty's counter was good.

Nitro moved, and as she expected, there was no barrier before Warley commanded the Girafarig to use Reflect again, "Good, now Psybeam, push that Beedrill back,"

The Girafarig moved its head backward while its horns turned a bright pink, Faaaaaa-"

"Nitro! Bug Bite! Attack the Barrier!" Virah raised her hand in panic, emphasizing the priority of her command.

Warley had given her a hint earlier with his wording when using Confusion.

Him saying "point blank" implied that the move was supposed to be strong but Nitro had recovered almost instantly.

She didn't think Warley would make that sort of mistake so if her guess was right then her order should prevent Nitro from fainting from the Girafarig's high roll Psybeam.

Both Pokemon executed their moves, with Nitro striking the barrier first followed by the Girafarig hitting him with a Psybeam strong enough to send him flying to the edge of the arena.

But instead of fainting, her starter got back up.

'I knew it!' Virah couldn't hide her happiness and she grinned, "Nitro, Roost,"

So the Girafarig still got damaged even though Nitro struck the barrier? So why didn't it show on the status screen?

"Psybeam again,"

Virah didn't have time to think as the Girafarig charged up another high roll Psybeam, the Psychic Type reared its head back, mouth and horns aglow, the tail on its back grinned and cackled as the ground beneath it turned pink, then, with a screech, it let out a powerful blast aimed at Nitro.

"Dodge it!" Virah swiftly ordered.

Nitro flew to the side and the psychic laser heading for him shortly followed, a brief chase that lasted for a few seconds occured before the Psybeam petered out and Nitro moved forward under his trainer's orders.

He blitz across the arena as the opposing trainer ordered his Pokemon to use Psybeam again, the Girafarig screech and shot out a miniature laser out of its mouth.

This one was weaker and slower than before, allowing Nitro to easily dodge it.

When he reached the Girafarig, another Reflect was used, though this time, instead of Bug Bite, he was told to use Fury Attack.

He struck the barrier once, twice, thrice, four times before he stopped.

Taking the iniative, Warley ordered his Girafarig to use Confusion and a repeat of the exchange earlier occured; Nitro swerved left, but again, instead of Bug Bite, he used Fury Attack.

The faster move struck the Girafarig, stopping it from using confusion as it screech in pain.

Nitro hit it three times, bringing down the Girafarig to almost half its health.

"Confusion," Warley commanded.

"Aren't you going to defend yourself?" Virah asked, "Nitro, Fury Attack."

"No," Warley shook his head.

Nitro raised his drill and struck, but only once as the Girafarig retaliated by hitting him with a Confusion point blank, he fell, though this time he didn't recover quickly.

"Psybeam,"

A pink glow erupted from the Girafarig's throat, moments later, a medium roll Psybeam shot out, hitting the downed Nitro.

To the side, the bar below the Beedrill's icon dropped until there was no more.

Virah inhaled and recalled her Pokemon, "you did good," she whispered to the Pokeball before replacing it with Jet's, "Jet! He's low! Let's finish this!"

A beam of curved light shot out from the tossed Pokeball's bud, and Jet materialized.

"Circle the skies!" Virah commanded before the sphere could return to her hand, "use Leech Life,"

Jet dived for his opponent, but moments away from it, Virah ordered him to stop, he spread his wings and straightenex his posture, killing all momentum he had moments prior.

"Supersonic!" Virah said at the same time as Warley telling his Pokemon to use Reflect.

A loud screech attacked the Girafarig as it erected the transparent barrier, its head tilted downward and it stomped on the ground while breathing heavily.

"Good! Now fly up and use Leech Life from above!"

Jet did as told and landed square on the Girafarig's back, he opened his mouth and raised his head, he slammed it back down mouth first and as his fangs buried themselves on the Girafarig's leathery skin, Jet's purple body went green.

More stomping was the Girafarig's response and Virah didn't let the opportunity go to waste, she told her Zubat to use Leech Life again, draining the Psychic Type's health to less than half.

"One more," Virah whispered, "Leech Life again!"

Despite the loud beating in her ears, an anticlimactic finish was the end of the fight and Jet managed to beat his opponent seconds after he was released.

He got off the Girafarig's back and started circling Virah, who grabbed him from the air and hugged him, "you did well!" She rubbed the Zubat's head, "good job!"

"Zu- Zubat!" Jet replied happily.

Their celebrations soon died down as Virah had to go down from the podium and to the arena to meet with Warley.

They both walked to the center where Virah received her first ever badge followed by getting a congratulations from the Gym Leader.

"Whitney is in good hands," Warley smiled as he shook Virah's hand, "I'm sure all three of you will become Elite Trainers after you finish your first year journey, I'm looking forward to seeing that,"

He knew? Virah shook her head, well, obviously he knew, he was there back at the start of the ranger's exam and it's not like Whitney is the type of person to hide her friendships with her parents.

"We'll do our best," Virah replied.