Desolate [Pokémon Arven x Protagonist]

What's Strong Against Steel?

Steel-type Pokémon are weak to fire, fighting, and ground-type moves. It's immune to poison, and no types resist it. As I walked in the opposite direction Arven had planned to go, I continued to ponder what Pokémon would be best for fighting the orthworm titan. The first two titans had been easy, but I noticed bombirdier was stronger than klawf, and I predicted orthworm would follow the trend. Arven seemed to know how to tackle everything.

My stomach fluttered. It was such a lovely feeling to see someone so broken so happy after all this time. We barely knew each other, and I surely never knew him before Mabosstiff was injured. I could tell he was a sweet guy. He was just dealing with a lot....

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"I wish you were strong enough to fight," I told Koraidon as I walked beside him. "Did that herba mystica do anything to you?"

Koraidon purred and shook his behind before leaping into the air with a loud thump from his feet. I looked up into the sky in awe as he seemed to be flying for mere moments before landing on all fours ahead of me, shaking the ground beneath my feet. He whipped around to face me, appearing surprised at his own new strength.

I ran up to hug his chest. "Wow! Look at you! You could've touched the clouds with that kind of leap." I put my hands on my hips and gestured seriously with a finger. "But you better not do that while I'm riding you. I'm not trying to fall from that kind of height." Koraidon nodded with a musical noise in his throat.

We began to walk again. "Now, I'm thinking about a duel-type Pokémon like a fire-fighting type so we could use them in the future," I said aloud to Koraidon. "Any ideas?" Koraidon just stared at me blankly. "Yeah, you wouldn't know, would you?" After a minute of silence only riddled by our footsteps and the rustling of wild Pokémon in the grass, I remembered: "Nemona would know!"

I took out my phone and found her in my contacts. The phone rang only twice.

"Lugosi! What's going on, amiga?" Nemona greeted.

"Hi! I hope I'm not disturbing you."

"No! Not at all! Tell me anything!"

"Alright, so Arven and I are going to fight this really strong pure steel-type Pokémon tomorrow—"

"Woah. Since when do you and Arven hang out outside the academy?" I blushed. I couldn't let her in on the problem. Arven had already made a huge fuss opening up to me. Especially after seeing his aggressive relationship with Nemona, I was sure I had to keep the two apart.

"He needed help with some research thing, and I offered to help," I lied. "Might as well go on a small quest to train my team."

"Ooh!" Nemona awed. "Sounds fun! Let me know how it goes after."

"Deal. But about the steel-type Pokémon, what's a good suggestion on who to use to battle against it?"

Nemona audibly hummed as she thought for a moment. "Gallade is a fire-fighting type, but they're a little harder to catch. Even if you wanted to evolve a ralts, you'd have to train a male one until it evolves then use a dawn stone which you know are a bit expensive." I ahemed acknowledgement. "Hawlucha are a fighting-flying type, but they're really fast. They're quite hard to find, too.... I got it! A camerupt!"

"A camerupt?"

"They're a fire-ground type Pokémon, both strong against steel. You could find one around the Asado Desert."

"Thank you so much, Nemona."

"But if you are only using one Pokémon for this one thing," she warned. "I'd recommend any pure fire-type. Steel-types are weak to fire and not very effective against them in return."