Chapter Text
Veles was in his tent, looking over some of the food a couple of his pokemon just brought in. While it was common for the other pokemon to just snag and eat whatever food they could find on their own, he specifically assigned a few pokemon to go out and forage for food. There were times it was harder to snatch food from the shops in the different towns and villages, so having some food stored away was important.
He stepped over to a barrel, tipping a bag over and a bunch of oran berries fell into it. He looked over the berries for a moment, reaching over and poking one with a claw, bringing it up to his face and eating it. No one could say he wasn't allowed to snack on one if he felt like it.
The garchomp moved the lid over to close the barrel and then he heard shouting outside. He stood there and listened for a moment, not recognizing one of the voices. Who just came into camp? And it sounded like his pokemon were yelling at them to go away or laughing at them.
A cinderace came into the tent, panting and catching his breath. "There's a guild pokemon here, she's demanding to see you." He pointed back to the outside. "She's refusing to leave and some of the others are willing to kick her out."
Veles snorted. A guild pokemon? Just walked into camp and made demands? This he just had to see for himself. "No, I'm going out there."
"But," Tyson stepped over to block him before the garchomp took a step. "That might be dangerous."
"Obviously," Veles mumbled, stepping forward and gently nudging the cinderace out of the way to go outside. He heard the pokemon sigh before following him out.
He blinked in the bright sunlight as his eyes adjusted, seeing his pokemon circling around someone in the center. There was a lot of talking and laughing going on and he could see a couple of them were prepared to start a fight.
"Get their attention." Veles mumbled.
Tyson stood next to him and nodded, raising his two hands to his mouth and whistling loudly. Everyone went quiet and looked over, all of his pokemon then quickly backed away from the one they were surrounding. It was a lycanroc. Sure enough, she had one of those cloth pieces on her, almost hidden in her neck fur and there was a glint of a badge on it. She wasn't new, she was of a high rank. How interesting.
The lycanroc looked around at the other pokemon and then over at him. Her eyes widened and then quickly narrowed as she collected herself. How cute.
"You're Veles, aren't you?" She asked, taking a few steps forward.
He looked over her curiously. "Who's asking?"
"My name is Lucia, and I come from Wynn's guild." She raised her head higher, as if proud of that fact. "And I'm here to finally stop you and take you in!"
"Excuse me?" She can't be serious.
Lucia lowered her head, glaring at him. "You and your thieves here have caused enough trouble for all of the villages and towns around here! I'm sick of it, and so is everyone else! So I'm here to challenge you directly. If I beat you in a fight, then you're coming back with me to the guild and your group will disband!"
It was quiet for a few seconds after she was done, and then all of the pokemon around them began to laugh uproariously. She barely flinched at the sound of all of them laughing, some of them pointing at her and mocking her.
"You're crazy lady!"
"You think you can really do that?"
"Go home!"
"Thanks for the laughs, oh Arceus, that's just too funny!"
Veles didn't laugh. He stared down at the guild pokemon, looking at her carefully. She was very serious about this. While she was stupid for coming up with this plan and actually coming here, he could tell. She has plenty of experience, having fought plenty of times. That badge showed him, and everyone else, just how serious she was. Not to mention, full of pride. Thinking back on it, there have been a few of his pokemon that were caught and when it was reported back to him, the arresting pokemon was a lycanroc. Must be the same one.
"You're not actually considering it, are you?" The cinderace next to him mumbled, just barely heard over the laughter.
The garchomp smirked, taking a couple steps forward and straightening himself. The other pokemon quickly stopped laughing at the sight, curious on how their leader would respond. "Those are your terms, huh? And what if you lose?"
Lucia growled, the fur along her neck raising and looking sharper. "That won't happen."
Confident. Too confident.
"Alright," Veles chuckled, gesturing with an arm in a welcoming manner. "Let's fight then."
The other pokemon murmured among themselves and quickly moved to give the two pokemon plenty of space. Other pokemon in his group were coming over to watch. Tyson stayed standing in front of his tent, crossing his arms and looking disappointed. Thankfully, he's smart enough to know there's no stopping Veles once he decides on something.
The two pokemon stared at each other, waiting for the other one to act first. The area was silent, and a faint breeze went by gently. Clearly agitated and impatient, the lycanroc then quickly moved, rushing towards him. That's what he was counting on. Veles turned at the last moment, swinging his tail around and smacking it into her, knocking her away. Lucia collided with a box nearby, breaking it. There were berries inside it, now all of them flattened and ruined, some of the juice sticking to her fur.
She growled and stood up, shaking her body to get rid as much juice as possible. She glared over at him, nothing but contempt in those eyes. A few of the pokemon nearby were snickering, a couple of them groaning at the loss of those berries.
Veles watched her carefully. She took a deep breath, calming herself down. That first bit there was a mistake, and she needed to focus. Now she was going to be serious.
Lucia ran towards him again, this time several parts of the ground glowed as rocks were pulled up and hurled themselves towards him. Veles moved his arm up, blocking most of the rocks with the fin on his arm, one of them hitting his side. He spotted movement just next to him, and he quickly moved his arm down, his claw glowing as it came down onto her and scrapped along her side as she passed by in front of him. She winced in pain but didn't stop or retreat, running to circle around him and jump on his back.
Did she really think she was doing something here?
The garchomp turned, spinning around, feeling her claws dig into his back as she tried to hold on but eventually slipped off and landed on the ground nearby. Not giving a second for her to recover, he stomped hard on the ground, the area of their battle shaking violently as parts of the ground shot up, hitting her. She yelped, doing her best to get up quickly but her legs were stumbling.
Veles stood there, wondering if she already had enough, but she recovered much quicker than he thought. She got her footing, and rushed towards him extremely fast, he almost missed it. But he couldn't hope to move fast enough. She collided with his chest, and he stumbled backwards, just barely catching himself before falling over onto the ground. He put one arm down on the ground to keep himself up, his other arm up against his chest as he breathed heavily and painfully. That was a good hit, he had to admit.
Lucia landed on the ground a few feet away, watching him as she panted. They were just about on equal ground at this point. Both took damage. The pokemon watching them watched with wide eyes and there were whispers among the group. They were clearly entertained and interested in the outcome.
The garchomp huffed, forcing himself to stand up straight. He took a couple steps toward the lycanroc as she took a couple steps back. She glared at him, her body ready to move at any moment.
"Haven't had enough just yet?" He mumbled, looking down at her.
"Have you?" She snapped back at him.
Veles then quickly lunged at her, his mouth open and teeth glowing faintly black. But she also moved just as quickly. Lucia jumped back, a large piece of the ground rising up, the point of the rock hitting Veles right on the chin. The garchomp's head swung back and he stumbled back a couple steps. He could hear the pokemon watching gasp. As the pain from the impact overcame his mind and he almost felt faint, he couldn't help but feel amused. That wasn't a move he was expecting. How interesting.
He wasn't done just yet though.
Veles urged his body to move, turning and swinging his tail around. It glowed faintly purple as it collided with the rock that just hit him, breaking it into pieces. Since Lucia was standing just on the other side of it, his tail hit her as well, smacking her aside and she was littered with pieces of the rock that she had just used against him.
Lucia lay on the ground, her fur dirty all over with a large cut on her side and scrapes all over. She tried her best to stand up again but her legs refused to do so. Her own stubbornness wasn't enough. Her teeth clenched and her body shook as she kept trying and failing, finally giving in and collapsing on the ground, panting heavily.
Veles could barely stand himself anymore, but he forced his body to do so. He panted, his chest heaving as he caught his breath and it was still painful to be breathing so heavily. He raised an arm up, rubbing over the spot on his chin and looking over his claw, seeing a bit of blood.
He chuckled. He was a little surprised his jaw didn't dislocate from that hit. But it was still very painful. "I should've known you'd know a move like that," he spoke, looking over at Lucia.
The lycanroc glared at him and her body shook more. Both from pain and anger.
"That was pretty good," he continued, sighing. "But I think we're done now. You can't get up anymore and I have no intention of killing you. So you can just go back home once you're able to."
Lucia growled, her claws digging into the ground as she tried to stand up again, only getting as far as her front legs holding her up. "Don't you dare...talk to me that way!" Her voice shook along with her body. "I'm not done here!"
Now this was something. She was being way too stubborn. "You're only going to kill yourself if you keep trying to push yourself that far." Veles stepped over, looking down at her seriously. "Put that pride of yours away for a couple seconds and think. Do you really want to die right here and now? You're too young and capable for that."
The lycanroc flinched, her body curling up a little, clearly expecting him to do something. She stared up at him, confused. Then she looked away at the ground nearby. "What do you know about what I want?" She mumbled with a growl.
"Nothing, but I've seen too many pokemon being stupid and stubborn to realize the amount of danger they put themselves in." Veles snorted.
She didn't say anything, staring at the ground nearby and refusing to look at him. The other pokemon nearby began whispering to each other. The tension in the air slowly subsided a little, the battle now officially over.
The garchomp was about to talk more when the cinderace suddenly shouted.
"Veles!"
He looked over, seeing Tyson point towards the sky and followed his gaze to see a pokemon in the air flying down quickly towards them. Veles backed away as fast as he could, a purple beam hitting the ground where he was just standing, causing a dust cloud to rise up. The pokemon came down and hovered in the air over Lucia, flapping his wings to clear the dust away and he glared at Veles.
A noivern. Another one from the guild by the looks of that cloth on his neck and a badge on it. Another high rank.
His pokemon all began yelling, some of them getting ready to start a fight. The noivern looked prepared to fight as well, his mouth glowing faintly purple as he glared over at Veles.
"STOP!"
All pokemon in the area immediately froze and went quiet, looking over at Lucia who just yelled as loud as possible. She slowly stood up completely, looking up at the noivern. "Don't fight him! I told you to keep your distance!"
The noivern's mouth stopped glowing, and he looked confused and frustrated. "Seriously? Look at you! I wasn't going to stay back and do nothing!"
Lucia growled, her legs were shaking a little but she was doing her best to stand firm. "I came in here on my own. I'm the one that challenged him to a fight. I walked in here by myself, didn't I? And..." she snarled, her jaw clenched tightly for a moment. "And I lost."
Ah, they're teammates. And she just had a hard time admitting that she lost the fight. Veles snorted, catching their attention. "She's the one that came in here demanding a fight. She lost the fight, are you going to come in here and start one on your own?"
The large bat pokemon glared at him and seemed to be considering it. But then he looked over the lycanroc and sighed. "No," he mumbled, clearly unhappy about it. "I'm taking Lucia back with me though. Any of you try to stop us, I won't hesitate to defend the both of us." He looked over the group of thieves, silently challenging them.
Veles looked around to his group as well, making sure they knew to back off and let the guild pokemon go. The thieves grumbled, but slowly backed off, most of them going back to doing their own business.
The noivern watched them for a minute before landing next to Lucia and dropping a bag down next to her that he was holding in one of his claws. Veles stood there and watched as the bat pokemon gave his teammate a couple berries to eat and he carefully patched her up enough to get her walking again. As the noivern took the air again and stayed close to the lycanroc, she looked back at Veles.
She seemed conflicted by everything that happened. It clearly didn't go the way she expected. But she was able to walk away and go back home, even with a few scratches. Lucia huffed, glaring at him before turning away and walking out of the camp. She was still a bit slow and shaky on her legs, but at least she was able to walk.
Veles waited until they were both gone, and then he headed back to his tent and went inside, the cinderace following him. The garchomp walked over to his makeshift bed and collapsed on it, laying on his side. The soreness from his wounds and overall exhaustion from the fight catching up to him. Tyson quietly tended to his wounds, a frown on his face.
"Go ahead," the garchomp mumbled, wincing as cloth was placed on his chin.
"It was stupid of you to accept that," Tyson didn't waste a moment. "I almost thought you lost there. But you really stayed standing. It was impressive. And impressed the others, so they'll respect you even more now. I doubt that's why you accepted her challenge though."
"Of course it wasn't," Veles sighed. "That fight could've gone either way. She's a high rank in that guild. I knew what I was getting into. And she came all the way in here to challenge me. Would've looked like a coward, well, more of a coward in her eyes if I didn't accept. You know how those pokemon feel about us, constantly saying we're nothing but cowards. I don't care about what they think, but I felt like we all needed a little excitement."
The cinderace scoffed. "Let's not try to keep that up. Don't need you getting into fights constantly to just entertain us."
Veles chuckled and slowly closed his eyes. "No promises."