Chapter 39 - Rock Tunnel Exploration Part-5 Final!

The group of Golbat were very excited about the Machop buffet, but they had to do away with this particular Machop first. It was like the Pokemon in this cave were starting to adapt to their terrible predicament; hints—Machop's ThunderPunch move.

Everyone knew what they needed to do, well, Gan and Warren were the only useful people here. Arlo didn't want this type of Fighting Pokemon, he stated that he wanted a different Fighting Pokemon. He described it as having red boxing gloves on, but he didn't know the name of the Pokemon.

Venomoth was fully healed this time, it came out and attacked the group of Golbat with Psybeam. The Group of Golbat had long noticed Gan and his group. Unfortunately, they weren't as fast as Venomoth, who blasted them all with Psybeam.

The Group of Machop was surprised, but they upped their guard even more. To them, anything with wings wasn't a good thing. Venomoth looked like it could be a threat to them as well; Gan tossed 4 Pokeballs at the defeated group of Golbat and caught them.

The group of Machop reverted their attention to the area they saw the Pokeballs come from. Gan didn't try to hide, he came out from his place of hiding and arrived in front of the group of Machop.

"I challenge you to a fight, a 1v1, if you win, I'll give you this!" Gan pulled out the [Black Belt] and displayed it for the Machop to see. They were instantly mesmerized by the item, they felt a sort of connection with it.

"But if I win, you have to join me in my adventures across the region, what do you think?" Gan grinned at the Machop in the front.

The Machop looked between Gan and the Black Belt, then it turned toward its buddies behind it. They looked back and him and nodded in return.

"Chop~!" Machop's eyes turned stern and he stepped forward. He got into a fighting pose and readied himself.

"Tsk! You aren't fighting me directly, forget that, I'll be friggin killed." Gan took a step back and called forth his Koffing. Koffing was a Physical wall and it could burn Machop to half its attacking power.

"Koffing~!" Koffing came forth, its gaze slowly drifted over towards Machop. Machop looked at Koffing strangely, from its perspective; Koffing looked like a weak puff ball it could fold with ease.

"You may want to tell your buddies to clear out, it's about to be a fight and you wouldn't want anyone to get hurt." Gan was already moving away to give the 2 their fighting space. Machop quickly instructed its friends to clear out.

"Why is he challenging it to a 1v1, why don't we just team up on it and take it down?"Arlo was confused about Gan's decision to fight it in a 1v1.

"You gain more respect in that way, besides, these fighting type Pokemon like to be challenged in a fair fight to earn their true respect." Warren Kept his eyes on the coming battle without looking at Arlo.

Arlo squinted but didn't comment, he just contiuned to watch with Warren.

The battle had already started, Koffing floated towards Machop to attack. Even though Machop wasn't the speedy type, it was still a small and agile Pokemon. Gan realized this without having to test it out, it was fighting type Pokemon; they had to have some sort of fighting style they went by in their early stages.

Koffing darted over but as it did, Machop jumped over Koffing. Afterward, Electricity appeared around its fist. Machop lunged through the air right as Koffing turned around, but it didn't try to dodge.

Koffing was hit directly with a Thunderpunch to the body, its facial expression remained unchanged; even under attack.

"Will-O-Wisp!" Gan order soon after.

A blue wisp of fire emerged from Koffing's mouth and quickly entered Machop's body. Machop looked on in surprise, it flipped away after punching Koffing. Suddenly, an electric current jolted through Koffing's body, it didn't do any damage but it was slowed even further from this; it was paralyzed.

Koffing used Sludge as instructed; a Pokemon couldn't have 2 or more status effects at once, so it wouldn't get poisoned. Machop was having a hard time dealing with the burning and painful feeling coursing through its body.

Machop was hit by the attack, it yelled in pain before falling to the ground. However, it stood back up, then it brought up its arms and clenched its fist. Strange Aura began to fluctuate around Machop as if it had awakened some strange power.

The energy wrapped around its body, as its eyes turned bright orange-red. Small rocks started to float and pop like fireworks because of the strange energy. Afterward, Machop charged towards Koffing, ready to release this energy in one fell swoop!

Gan knew what this was because the move was blinking on Machop's status page, it was SuperPower!

"Quickly, move out of the way!" Gan wasn't worried about Koffing being knocked out from this attack, but if it could dodge it; that would be better. Too bad, though. Koffing was paralyzed, so its speed was cut in half; it was already a slow Pokemon, so how could it escape?

The attack landed clean on Koffing smiling face; this attack created powerful shockwaves. Gan had to get further away from the radius of the shockwaves, he was stunned by the power. Koffing was knocked flying like a balloon from the attack.

Koffing would suffer worse damage if it was sent flying through rocks or boulders. Fortunately, this wasn't the case, as Koffing seemed to have caught itself after being sent flying further. A blue light formed around Machop for a brief moment, its Speed and Attack had dropped by 1 stage.

Machop started panting after using such a powerful move, but once it saw Koffing bounce back, displaying that same smile and looking perfectly fine; Machop showed a great change in its expression!

Koffing was smiling but it wasn't happy about being hit with such an attack, it started to bombard Machop with sludge until it was defeated.

Gan didn't have to say much, Koffing had gained a lot of battle experience in the short time it was with him. Machop lied on the ground defeated, it didn't move since it was knocked out. With the toss of a Luxury ball, it was encapsulated and caught!

"This catch is big!" Gan whispered and smiled.

The other Machop looked on with surprise, but their expressions turn into that of sadness. Their powerful leader had been defeated and caught, it was a sad day today for them. Gan didn't pay any attention to the other Machop, he simply turned and walked away.

"Are you guys ready to go? I think it's time for us to head to the next floor, I saw a ladder leading down to the 2nd floor not too long ago." Gan was ready to go, Koffing floated by but it was still paralyzed.

"Goodness, I can't believe your Koffing is still floating around after taking such a powerful attack." Arlo was amazed that Koffing was still doing well for itself, it was floating around casually as if nothing had happened.

"Koffing is a highly defensive Pokemon, it can take physical hits from most fighting type Pokemon with ease." Most fighting Pokemon would have a hard time dealing with the likes of Koffing, but there were a few that could take it down.

Lucario happened to be one of these Pokemon since it had a good special attack stat. It could be good at either or, but if Gan ever got a Lucario he would prefer it to be a special attacker.

"Oh, it was like that." Arlo knew he lacked knowledge on Pokemon, so he felt he needed to educate himself more to make progress.

"Well, well, you learn something new every day. I also need to learn more about Pokemon, it'll surely help in my progress." Warren was also thinking the same thing, he thought of getting tips from Gan since he seemed to know a lot.

"Hey, I'll help you with that, no problem. But for now, we need to continue our little exploration." At this point, it was no telling how long they've been in this cave. They hadn't encountered any humans as they did with Mt. Moon; this could be because of the lack of trainers in Lavender Town.

"Right, let's go." Warren nodded and the groups walked off. Gan took out a Para-heal and sprayed Koffing, then sprayed it with a Super Potion. He noticed that he was running out of Potions, but he still had 4 Super Potions left.

Gan knew the way, so he was the leading this time; in a matter of minutes, they arrived at a descending ladder. "This is the way, keep watch it might dangerous going to this floor, I can't be sure." Gan gave a quick warning because when he looked down, he saw that it was completely dark.

Everyone's expressions grew serious as they descended. Once they were on this floor, it was indeed dark to the point where they couldn't see their hands. Warren and Arlo both pulled out flashlights, he even summoned his Charmeleon to give them more light.

Gan also summoned his Charmander for some light, he had healed it when they were eating Magikarp.

"So no one has bothered to secure any lights down here?" Warren shook his head, how could any travel through all of this?

"Let's go. Keep awareness, there should be plenty of Zubat and Golbat hiding around here." Gan had no problem catching Zubat since it was a highly sought after Pokemon to give recruits of Team Rocket.

Suddenly, they felt some trembling, then something came charging towards them!