Pokemon Sword and Shield: To Be the Strongest[SLOW UPDATES]

Chapter 16: Hop's Heated Battle

Gloria's POV

Altyrei, was, amazing!

She managed to beat Milo's Gigantamax Appletun without dynamaxing her pokemon

Well, it wasn't like she could if she wanted, but it was still an amazing feat!

The crowd cheered loudly at her victory, and even everyone inside the locker room as well cheered for her

"That was amazing Altyrei!" Hop praised even if she couldn't hear us

"I was worried since she didn't have a dynamax band like us, but her Butterfree was really strong"

Hibiki commented

I feel like she was more excited to have seen Altyrei's Butterfree in battle

Regardless, after Milo returned his fallen pokemon to its ball he approached Altyrei and said something to her

The flying cameras couldn't pick up what he said but I think he was praising her for beating him amd then awarded her with the Grass Badge

After that the screen switched to a couple of panelists talking and explaining Altyrei's battle

I paid no attention to what they were saying though, since I was too proud for Altyrei winning

After a few minutes passed Dan came back in to take the next challenger to the pitch and then we waited until it was one of us next, and since it was based on our jersey number I certainly wouldn't be called anytime soon

To pass the time Hop switched from watching the battles on the screen to talking to me

Hibiki on the other hand focused on a ritual of writing something on her hand and eating it

I guess she's only confident when it comes to bug types

"Aw man! That guy just lost the battle!"

I looked up to look at the screen and indeed a trainer had fallen to his knees in defeat after his pokemon layed on the ground fainted with Milo's Gigantamaxed Appletun looming over them

Ofcourse I expected some people to fail, so I wasn't too surprised, but it seems like people forgot that Milo switches up his team depending on how strong your team was

What struck me the most though was his pokemon, it was a orange bird pokemon with a flaming design, I haven't seen that pokemon at all before so for the first time I took out my Rotom phone's Pokedex

Before the screen could change I managed to align my phone camera to the pokemon and my pokedex analyzed it but it showed no results

I thought it was a glitch at first but the screen had finally changed so I couldn't try again

"What were you trying to do mate?" Hop asked me

"I was trying to see what his pokemon was" I replied "But the pokedex couldn't tell what it was"

Hop was surprised to learn about the pokedex so he began questioning me about it

I swear I almost punched him but luckily he backed down

After what seemed like hours it was finally Hop's turn to battle, so Dan came and took him to the pitch

Hibiki seemed even more nervous than before since her jersey number was close to Hop's so it was most likely her turn next

Anyways I decided that this time, I would keep my eyes glued to the screen

Hop was my rival after all, its only right for me to see how he battles against others sometimes

Hop sent out his Wooloo first against Milo's Gossifleur

Seems like Milo is using the same team he used against Altyrei

Hop began by making his Wooloo use Tackle on the Gossifleur and just like Altyrei's fight, cotton started to fly around the air

Milo retaliated by using Razor Leaf but it was almost ineffective since it just bounced on Wooloo's wool

Hop commanded his Wooloo to use Double Kick causing more cotton to fly off Gossifleur and started to struggle to keep standing, it tried to sing causing the Wooloo to feel drowzy but because Hop shouted Wooloo didn't fall asleep and managed to knock it out with one more Tackle

Milo seemed to be proud of Hop's bond with his Wooloo as he returned his Gossifleur and released his final pokemon which was the Appletun

Unlike Altyrei, Hop returned his Wooloo and sent out his next pokemon which was the Owl Pokemon, Hoothoot

When he caught one, I will ask next time, since he and Milo both returned them to their pokeballs temporarily in order to Dynamax/Gigantamax them respectively

After both pokemon became larger both of them let out a loud deafening cry which could be heard even inside the locker room

Hop's Pokemon was faster so it managed to fire off the flying type max move Max Airstream towards the grass dragon pokemon

The Appletun took it quite well seeing as how it was almost unfazed by the attack and retaliated with its signature G-max move G-Max Sweetness

It was obviously not very effective but it did manage to make Hop's Hoothoot less mobile because of the move's effect

But that didn't stop Hop from using another Max Airstream and this time Appletun didn't seem like it could take another so it use another G-max Sweetness but it was the same as before so the next turn it tried block the next attack with Max Guard which Hop didn't expect and his attack was nullified

Then both Hop's and Milo's pokemon could no longer maintain their power and shrunk back to normal

Because of the two Max Airstreams Hop's Hoothoot was faster and managed to land a single peck to finish off Appletun

The crowd cheered as another challenger had defeated Milo as well as a few who were still in the locker room

"Ofcourse the champion's brother would win"

"I bet Milo purposely lost just so the champion wouldn't get mad at him"

"He's just lucky that Milo wasn't using his full team, otherwise he wouldn't be easily been defeated"

Various comments started to fly around the locker room, mostly bad ones and almost none of them were because of his actual skill but because of his status as Leon's younger brother

Hibiki seemed confused as to why I was keeping silent rather than defend Hop

The reason for that was I didn't want to gain heat for defending him because I too am being endorsed by the champion so they'll probably just use that to insult him further or something, and also probably because Hop wouldn't care what others think of him since he just wants to be like his brother more than anything

Ofcourse after a while everyone forgot about it and the challenge continued with Hibiki being next to battle and surprisingly she did alright because of her bug types and being very careful to set up some defenses with her Dottler's Light Screen and Reflect

Then there was a couple more trainers who were called before it was finally my turn

"Are you ready to head into the pitch?" Dan asked me

I nodded and was led to where my first Gym Battle was to take place

Gloria's battle will be on the next chapter so stay tuned