> **Name:** Aerodactyl (male)
> **Type:** Flying, Rock
> **Ability:** Rock Head
> **Aptitude:** Elite-Four-class
> **Level:** 41
> **Moves:** Fly, Wing Attack, Bite, Supersonic, Thunder Fang, Fire Fang, Ice Fang, Roar, Agility, Ancient Power, Double Team, Flamethrower, Rock Slide, Aerial Ace, Stone Edge, Rock Tomb, Giga Impact, Steel Wing, Hyper Beam, Dragon Breath, Dragon Claw
The Aerodactyl's details, now that he had broken through, showed on the system's interface in front of Vance.
At the start the Aerodactyl's aptitude had only been Gym-class, but after so long in Vance's care, and after taking in the power spilling off the giant Moon Stone on Mt. Moon, his aptitude had risen to Elite-Four-class; and with all the resources being poured into him, it was still climbing, slowly.
"Rooaar—"
"Roar, roar—"
The Gyarados and the rest offered the Aerodactyl their congratulations too.
The Aerodactyl had stepped into the Elite bracket as well, and the fighting strength he now had was close to Gym-class.
"Clunk—"
A Poké Ball was thrown and drew in the Fearow where it lay. The level 49 Fearow had no strength left to resist and was caught outright.
For the Aerodactyl's defeat of the Fearow the system gave him 50 Battle Points.
Vance checked: his points now stood at 6,800, still 1,200 short of the 8,000 for a Key Stone. He would have to keep at it a while longer.
Yes — Vance was saving Battle Points to exchange for a Key Stone, so that the Mega Stone in his hands could be put to use.
What sort of figure the Gyarados would cut after Mega Evolution he had no idea, nor how much strength it would add.
Still, Vance reckoned that with the Gyarados at roughly Gym-class fighting strength now, Mega Evolution ought to put him on a level with the late Gym-class range — Pokémon at energy levels of 58 or 59, say.
At present, apart from the Deino, who still had to settle himself and counted only as Elite fighting strength, the Aerodactyl, the Slaking, the Gyarados and Vance himself could all be reckoned Gym-class.
In the wild or in society, that made him a powerful Trainer.
With connections behind him and a little manoeuvring, taking over a city's Gym would not be hard either.
That was where the name "Gym-class" came from in the first place: to have that strength was also to be qualified to hold a Gym and guard the country around it.
Even in Team Rocket it would be enough to serve as a Division Commander at a base in a major city, or as a Branch Chief in one of the smaller cities; and even at headquarters he would be somebody.
"Heh. Time really does go quickly. I have the strength of a long-established Gym Trainer now." Looking over his Pokémon, Vance felt a swell of pride rise in him.
At this rate of progress he had left most Trainers behind.
He did not let it go to his head, of course. The system deserved a great deal of the credit for how fast his strength had grown; without it, on his own gifts, he would be an Advanced Trainer at the very most — not bad, but nothing like where he stood now.
"Come on, then. It's getting late. We need to find somewhere to rest first."
After that Vance took his Pokémon and found a place to rest.
He had been out in the wild for days now.
The main purpose was to sharpen the Pokémon, to raise their strength through fighting.
It was easy enough for the Combusken, but opponents for the Gyarados and the others were harder to come by; there was nothing for it but to take it slowly, searching through the jungle and among the hills.
And so the time went flying by, and five days were gone before they knew it.
Vance and his Pokémon were still ranging the wild, going on with the hunt.
Just now, at the edge of a lake, the Slaking was in a fight with a Golduck.
This Golduck was a Gym-class Pokémon they had come across only after a long search deep inside the forest: an energy level of 52, an Elite-Four-class aptitude, and no small number of moves at its command.
At the moment, though, it was locked in a hard fight with the Slaking and steadily losing ground.
With his Ability turned over to Huge Power, the Slaking was bright-eyed and sharp, without a trace of weariness on him, as though his energy had no end to it.
Just now the Slaking hung above the surface of the water, facing the Golduck.
Vance and the Gyarados and the others watched from the bank some way off.
"In surroundings like these it ought to be me out there."
the Gyarados grumbled. They had gone to such trouble to find a Gym-class Pokémon, and it had been handed to the Slaking.
Vance had promised him, though, that the next one they met would be his.
Elite-class opponents lasted only a few exchanges against the Slaking; they had met one at level 48, and the Slaking had hammered it to pieces in three moves.
Out in the wild, only a Gym-class opponent could sharpen him at all now.
On the field, blue light broke from the Golduck's eyes and it struck out with a Confusion, trying to pin the Slaking down.
The Slaking gave a small snort and flicked the Confusion aside.
"Confusion, is it. I can do that too."
The Slaking used Confusion himself, with no less force behind it than the Golduck's, breaking free of the hold and turning it back to take hold of the Golduck instead.
Then one Teleport, and he was gone from where he had stood.
At that the Golduck's face showed alarm; it knew the move — Teleport, which it had laboured at for years without mastering, and here it was coming from a Slaking, of all things.
From the moment the Slaking vanished the Golduck felt danger; it let out the whole of its psychic power, threw off the hold, and looked carefully about it.
The Slaking appeared out of nowhere and drove a fist out. The Golduck crossed its arms to block, could not hold, and was hammered into the water by a vast force.
A Hydro Pump broke through the surface and went straight for the Slaking.
The Slaking twisted aside, but the Hydro Pump, held in a psychic grip, bent round in a curve and came at him from behind.
The Slaking raised a hand and met it head-on with a Brick Break, splitting the Hydro Pump apart, and carried through to come up in front of the Golduck; he looked at it coldly and chopped down with the same motion, but it got out of the way.
In the water the Golduck was very quick, and did not meet the Slaking straight on; as it broke away it turned the water over and raised wave after wild wave.
The Golduck appeared on the crest of a wave, riding into the wind, sweeping across and down, the red gem on its brow shining as it put out psychic power to seal off the space and interfere with the Slaking's Teleport.
"A cheap trick. That one isn't even up to the Gyarados's."
the Slaking said flatly. He made no attempt to dodge; lightning spread over his body and Thunderbolt came out.
A golden bolt appeared above the lake, and a ball of golden light appeared within the water and swept outward with a roar.
The scouring of the lightning brought layer upon layer of vapour up off the lake.
Out of the drifting vapour the Slaking came up in front of the Golduck once more, a Focus Punch cracking the air with a sonic boom and landing a little way in front of the Golduck.
That was the Golduck's Protect.
The Slaking's eyes narrowed, and both fists came out and hammered at it one after the other.
Some force within his body came out and raised the power of the Slaking's moves enormously.
"Bang—"
The Golduck could not hold against the Slaking's assault either, and was blasted away again.
The Slaking had the upper hand once more. With no Truant Ability to hold him back and Huge Power adding to him instead, the Slaking was formidable indeed; he had blown through the Golduck's defence head-on.
Blasted away, the Golduck had no more heart for the fight; it dived into the water, meaning to flee.
Seeing it about to run, the Slaking, hanging in the air, made one Teleport and was above it.
Lightning wound about him, and bolt after bolt came down, splitting straight through.
The lightning tore open the surface of the water and struck the Golduck squarely.
"Golduuuck—"
Under the Thunderbolt the fleeing Golduck went down where it was, and lost the power to fight.
A moment later it floated to the surface along with the churned-up water weed.
This round of Slaking versus Golduck ended, as before, with the Slaking taking the win by an absolute margin.