We got there early and just waited under the section that we were supposed to be in D3 which was between the middle and the side of the pit. There were at least 10 different rows and columns that made up this system and everything began winding down as people and dark types started leaving. Then just before the time of our lesson all the fighting types left at once, leaving only those with private lessons remaining.

  A younger man, not much older than me was walking over with a group of 6 Pokémon that were about 2 feet tall.

  "So are you Falinks?" I asked the older teen.

  "Ha, not quite there champ, my name's Grant. That would be the name of this Pokémon here, all of them that I have been in charge of transting for this year" ohhhhhhh, yeah I should not have made that assumption that the instructor was human given the pce.

  The biggest Falinks with a rger spike spoke to him "Falinks wants you to prepare yourself for when the curtain falls, it wants to get started immediately."

  I set my bag off to the side and grab out my new knife which gets a curious look of respect "Not many trainers nowadays actually fight with their Pokémon, good on you."

  "Feels right since I'm going to be ordering them around, might as well while I can" I answer, getting some light stretching in.

  "I totally understand, that's just how the cn here rolls" Grant smiled wide. Thinking back it was the trainers questioning what I was doing and the cn members were calling me out for picking on the disabled. "Only a couple more seconds so finish up."

  He was right and slowly the curtain formed, much like a fog thickening until we were completely blocked in on the sides. The big Falinks started chattering to Grant again. "Alright, get into a defensive structure like you would on a route."

  "Sin and Ian to the front, make some wide guards and set up moves. Puff and Fly start prepping from behind" I order, taking up a position behind one of the wide guards. All 6 Falinks start walking around our little squad, pushing Sin to the left fnk and on the edge of a wide guard.

  Ian was told to move to the top of the right wide guard. I was good enough where I was but Fly was moved closer to me but in the gaps. Puff was let free to roam the skies.

  "Good but when you are defending you need to protect those who won't be attacking until the attackers get close. Since you have a flyer you need to take advantage of the fact that they can fly. The Honedge line isn't well equipped for range until the final evolution but look into some for the future. Finally, you need to have a good field of vision for your Electrike. It's fast enough to dodge most things but it can't hit what it can't see" Grant advised.

  Makes sense, but I was a little concerned that we were a bit too spread out "For one sided defenses you don't want ranged or area of effect attacks to hit all of you at once if possible, being together is good for supporting each other but some distance is needed. Now Falinks here will make some light attacks."

  It backed off, making a semi circle facing us, it then started running towards us at a moderate pace. Three of them hung back as the leader barked orders and started throwing rocks at us. The leader was among those that stayed back but they kept advancing in formation.

  "Disarming voice and spark, aim for the ones in front first" I ordered from behind my shield. The rocks they threw caused cracks to form on the wide guards and some even broke off the edges, more rocks were coming "Ian, focus on keeping the shields up until they get here, then let them go."

  A few sparks and fairy infused notes struck the front line but they kept trucking, only pausing as if acting injured for the sake of the exercise. Another order from the leader and the back row started targeting my shield and occasionally throwing rocks at Puff who was in the air to keep her honest.

  The first row got here and as I braced myself to stab at it as it came through the opening I felt the wide guard break and it just power through the damaged shield. It paused and stabbed me with its horn it was blunted with an unseen force but it hurt still. It hit my stomach at that height and I tried to punt it away but it was too heavy and hurt my foot instead. I scrambled away and called for help from Ian who snuck over to attack from behind, not even scratching the Pokémon.

  Fly had already retreated back farther and was safely keeping up her attacks. Sin was in a brawl with another Falinks and another was coming towards me and Ian from the side. Meanwhile rocks started smming into Ian who was now revealed before he sliced them up with a quick scratch.

  I went back in as the Falinks had turned towards Ian in hopes to double team him but I stabbed at it. My knife didn't do anything to it but it fell over before it ran away. Ian was getting overwhelmed by the rocks and the other attacks from up close and I couldn't get close without getting hit with the rocky debris. "Puff focus on the one next to Ian!"

  I started running to help Sin who was doing well only because Fly was focusing on helping protect his nondominant side with supporting sparks, it was hard on her because of how close they were together but she had fnked it to get a good angle.

  I dodged some rocks thrown my way before being noticed by the link attacking Sin, it retreated towards help while fighting off Sin and Fly. When I got there Ian was down for the count so I returned him and the rocks were now fully focused on this part of the fight. With so many of us in one spot I recognized Grant's earlier point but didn't see how I could change the situation.

  Puff was directly attacking the link that finished off Ian but we were still outnumbered and even though we finished off that one part, if you can even call it that, before the rocks stopped flying.

  Grant and the rest of the Falinks started coming near us, marching in a line behind the leader. "So how do you think you did?"

  "About as good as I could, those flying rocks were a big problem and without the shields we were too out in the open" I expined as I rested on the ground.

  "Well that's why we are here to teach you. See, from the start you focused on the front row right? Well think about it this way, if Swablu, which was in a very safe position in the air, circled and annoyed the ranged unit then how would you have faired?" he was transting what the Falinks said but it was very smooth that he barely looked at it.

  "Assuming they focused on her then it would have been a 4 on 3 and I think we could have won before she got hit" I answered, realizing what he was saying.

  "You were thinking like you needed to stay in your fortress, that's not the case. You could have run, you could have definitely done what Falinks advised, or even thought of something else. The important thing to remember is to take out key opponents from the situation, even temporarily. Falinks focused on your Honedge, why do you think that is?"

  Things were starting to make sense in my mind and I released Ian when the night shift Joy came by. We continued on into the night, performing various situations on different fields Falinks created and then talk about what happened and what I could have done better as a leader. My team got individual advice as well directly from Falinks. It was an eye-opening experience and I learned that Falinks was just a 5th badge Pokémon with each segment worth about a 4th badge one.

  When css finally ended I was really exhausted and so was Puff. The rest of my team was just built different though. Through one method or another they instead grew stronger after each recovery period. Absolute monsters I thought, smiling at them with a glint in my eye. I turned my eyes toward Puff, she shivered as I dreamed of various ways to make her just like them.

  I personally would be fine, I would keep up with my running and endurance but one day I would be dead weight anyways without a combat skill. Even so, with my connections I was able to jog longer and faster than I had before, able to cover a little under 40 miles each day at my pace. Now I was starting to understand how my grandmother rarely slept. She had made it quite far into the circuit and had 8 Pokémon at one point and had a fighting type skillset. Let's just hope that the random Pokémon I picked up to fill up my roster were going to be this endurance focused as the rest of them.

  As if I was using nasty plot I fell asleep on the ground there to have dreams of greatness, one where Ian was able to defeat a swarm of wild Pokemon and save the vilge. The next morning though...