To be a Gym Leader of one of the top 8 gyms in Kanto, or any region, the minimum requirement was being an Elite Trainer.
To become an Elite level trainer, one needed a bare minimum of 3 King Level Pokémon. Meaning, every single one of them was an absolute monster, and stood at the top of the Pokemon World.
In the gym challenge, the leader used strength corresponding to the amount of badges a challenger had. And if a trainer had 7 badges, for the last badge, they had to face a leader who used Elite level strength!
This ensured that anyone participating in the Pokémon league was, at the bare minimum, an elite level trainer.
And this is the reason why most people never completed it in their lifetimes.
The elite level seperated the weak from the truly strong. They were the true powerhouses and backbone of their region.
Thus, even though every trainer needs to register for the Pokemon League before starting the challenge, no one expects them to participate in that same year.
Lance, who is Kanto's current top genius for example, took 2 years to clear the gym challenge. He was the fastest to do it in the past decade.
But there was someone else who held the record for the fastest time to complete the gym challenge...
Giovanni! Who took only 11 months and 15 days to complete it.
This was an unprecedented feat that had sent shockwaves throughout all the regions controlled by the league.
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The Pewter City Pokémon Gym was massive. There were a total of 10 battlefields inside the gym, and almost all of them were occupied when Eric went there.
In order to challenge the Gym Leader, you had to go through 3 Gym trainers first. This was to thin the herd and make sure only qualified people could challenge the Gym Leader, who Eric found out was Flint, Brock's dad.
Otherwise, there would be too many challengers and the leader would have to work to death in order to get through all of them.
There is an exception though. If you were a pseudo elite or elite trainer, you could skip the gym trainers and challenge the leader directly.
On average, about 100 trainers challenge the Gym everyday. Out of those, only about 4-5 make it all the way to the Flint, or the substitute Gym Leader, if Flint was not around.
"Trainer ID please."
The gym receptionist asked Eric robotically, as if he'd done this 1000 times already.
After handing it over to him and registering, Eric was given the number 43. The Gym took on 10 challengers at a time, so Eric would have to wait around 4 rounds till it's his turn.
Eric took this time to observe the battles. The trainers ranged from Beginner to all the way up to the Advanced Level. The gym trainers used Pokémon corresponding to the challenger's level and number of gym badges.
Then, on one of the fields, Eric noticed a gym trainer who looked very familiar to him.
'Is that Brock?'
Standing on the field with his arms by his side and eyes that appeared to be closed was Brock. In front of him was an Onix, facing off against a Nidorino.
'He looks young. Looks like he has just started as a trainer and is not the gym leader yet.'
Eric thought as he watched in fascination. The Onix was completely dominating its opponent, grabbing the NIdorino by its tail and slamming it into the ground.
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Pokémon: Onix
Gender: Male
Level: 21
Type: Rock/Ground
Ability: Sturdy
Held Item: None
Potential: Deep Blue
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Deep Blue Potential! Well, that should be expected from the son of one of Kanto's top 8 gym leaders. That Onix looked well-raised as well; Brock truly had talent as a trainer. But the current him wasn't Eric's match.
About an hour and a half later, it was finally Eric's turn. His opponent was a young boy who looked to be about the same age as him. The boy sent out a level 23 Geodude, which honestly just wasn't good enough for the current Eric.
Eric sent out Fearow to face the Geodude. The moment Fearow appeared, both the gym trainer and the many spectators were surprised. Many even laughed at Eric's choice, thinking he was an idiot who didn't even understand the basics of type matchups.
The gym trainer was confident in his victory as he commanded Geodude in battle. Geudude used Rock Throw and hurled a massive chunk of rock at Fearow, but she dodged easily. Then she flew up and dove down with incredible force, using Aerial Ace.
Despite Geodude's good defense and resistance to flying-type attacks, it was still slammed into the ground, almost losing consciousness. Fearow then hit it with peck, knocking it out completely.
The gym trainer looked in shock at his Geodude, which was defeated in 2 hits by a flying-type Pokémon. Even the spectators who thought Eric was an idiot took back their words.
The next Pokémon the gym trainer sent out...was another Geodude. Well, that went just about the same way it did in the first fight. Thus, Eric easily advanced to the next round.
Eric's next fight was scheduled with almost no delay. This time, he faced off against a woman who seemed to be slightly older than him. She sent out a Graveler at level 26. Now this was a true challenge for Fearow. Or, it should've been.
After learning about Pokemon maneuvers from Maverick, and applying the knowledge he gained from Alka's book, Eric devised a training schedule to improve his Pokémon's maneuvers with the help of his system.
As a result, the mobility of his Pokémon also increased significantly over the past week. Fearow's aerial mobility had improved by leaps and bounds.
All of this meant that Graveler could simply not hit her. Even though it could take her hits much better than the Geodude from before, eventually, it succumbed to Fearow's relentless attacks.
All the spectators in the gym were now focused on Eric's battle. Because his was clearly the most interesting one. Beating his opponents with a severe type disadvantage, that too so dominantly, now that was something to watch. Many people even started looking up Eric on their phones.
This was part of Eric's plan to stand out. If it helped, he wouldn't mind showing off a bit.
'Looks like there is an interesting challenger today.' On the side, the gym leader Flint had also taken notice of Eric's battle today. His experienced eyes could tell that Eric was quite talented, a diamond in the rough.
In the end, Eric used nothing but Fearow to beat all the gym trainers. His third opponent had proved to be somewhat difficult, managing to hit Fearow once, but that was it.
Now, he stood in front of Flint, his final challenge.
"That was quite the show you put on there, kid," Flint said as he shook Eric's hand.
"Do you plan on beating me with just the Fearow too?"
"Maybe. We'll see how it goes."
"Hahaha! Cheeky. I like it."
Flint then turned around. "Hey, Brock, do you want to act as the referee for this one?"
"Sure," Brock replied casually as he walked up and stood on the referee's spot.
Eric glanced at him for a second before shifting his attention to Flint.
"This is your first gym battle, ya?"
Eric nodded.
"Well then, guess I'll use these 2." Flint replied as he unfastened 2 Poke balls from his belt.
"It will be a 2 s 2 battle. Only the challenger is allowed to switch out Pokémon. The battle ends when one side can no longer continue."
Brock announced from the side. He tried to be professional, but you could still tell that he wasn't used to it yet.
Flint sent out his first Pokémon.
It was an Onix!
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Pokémon: Onix
Gender: Male
Level: 29
Type: Rock/Ground
Ability: Sturdy
Held Item: None
Potential: Deep Blue
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Eric could immediately tell this won't go as it had been. But he still sent out Fearow.
He wanted to see how well they could do against a gym leader's Pokémon.
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