Rock Type

by TDR


Chapter 8

An ax is not a sword.

The literialists will see this as an obvious fact.

The philosophers would ponder this statement as if it was a profound truth.

The anti-violence people would disagree.

The metallurgists would compare notes.

Only those who have used both weapons would understand.

I spent a chunk of my former life between when my grandfathers sword broke and before I got the Waning Moon using an ax. I also spent a great deal of time when traveling with Luna using as many new weapons as I could, just for entertainment sake.

Spears, daggers, swords of various types polearms axes, I even learned how to use a meteor hammer, not well, but I kept at it because any time I got tangled up in the wire or smacked myself on the rump with it Luna smiled or laughed. That never happened often enough for my taste.

At any rate an ax is primarily a chopping weapon, it uses the weight of the head to add extra power to the swing. It started as a tool for wood gathering before it was adjusted into other more violent roles.

A sword began as a knife, a tool for eating or wood work, and it evolved to a tool for clearing brush to a weapon. A crossbow, bow, and now here a gun only had one purpose, to kill, useful, but they were never tools.

A sword in combat can be anything, chopping weapon, stabbing weapon, slashing or guarding, it's how they were designed, some can be thrown, some were designed to break other swords, or shoot out beams of every if the wielders life force was high enough. There is a finesse with a sword that one does not see with an ax.

I was by no means a master of the sword, Starfall regularly beat me in our spars, as did Luna, but by the end of my previous life I was more skilled with the sword than any other weapon. Since my rebirth I struggled to train myself back to that level and with my new body and how the weapon is handled I am no where near a master, or even what some would consider a journeyman.

This has more to do with the body I have than anything else. Despite my mind coming tot his form, muscle memory did not.

Learning to walk again was highly embarrassing.

I knew the drills, strikes, and shifts of a sword like the back of my hoof.

Which was a problem as I had hands now.

Nearly everything I knew about wielding a sword had to be thrown out and relearned.

Much of what I knew about axes however was still viable.

The reason for this is that axes were very much a Minotaur weapon, they more than any other race preferred the heavy weapon. And they had hands.

I needed to learn how a Minotaur used an ax before I could use one as a pony, and much of that training worked as well in this body.

As such between training my pokemon I reworked all the skills and training I could recall for using an ax.

Claymore was out there, and judging by the sword he had, he had tried to relearn his skill as well. He had several years on me here and was likely more skilled, if he had drawn his blade and we had fought, I was certain I would have lost. And that was before considering what pokemon he had, Rose was young and just starting to learn. Claymore had likely had better trained pokemon and it was only the approach of the guards that caused him to run.

I had gotten lucky, and I hated relying on luck.

We only spent two weeks out in the forest, I never encountered anything escaping from Victory road, though I met a few Rangers who patrolled the area pausing to check up on me. They thought my idea to catch something that escaped was a interesting one, though they pointed out part of their job was to make sure that didn't happen.

I had expected as much, but confirmation was annoying. Still Tank's training was going well, he still didn't have a grass type move yet but the three of us were at a point that nothing we encountered here was much of a challenge anymore. I wasn't confident that we could take the Pewter City gym, but Rose and Tank were willing to give it a shot. I wanted to deal with Gym Trainer Giovanni first since we were in the area, but no one had seen him in some time. According to Professor Oak the man was on the verge of being declared missing, and one of the smaller gyms would be raised up to Badge route status if he didn't return in the next few weeks. Oak left a few things unsaid about the man, but he warned me to be careful unless what he learned in the past held true here.

The change in Gyms was rather the same thing I had been hoping for when the previous water gym trainer was killed. Selfish, I know, but I was a little beyond worrying about that. Besides karma smacked me right back and one of his daughters took over near instantly and wound up being far more vicious and skilled than her father had ever been.

I did not look forward to facing Misty.

One day I would need to take on that gym, but it was not today, tomorrow wasn't looking to good either.


We broke camp and wandered back up the routes, taking it slow to try and get in more training. I was trying to get in as much training as I could simply for the fact our first attempt at a badge would be coming when we made it to Pewter.

The rock based gym was a first stop for quite a few aspiring trainers. After all it was rather easy to get a grass or water type to go after the place. That was why I headed to Pallet after all.

But from what Dad had told me, the current gym leader was a man named Brock who had inherited the gym from his father after some debacle with his mother. It was one of those open secrets it seemed.

Brock had taken the gym from some hole in the wall style gym and brought it back up to snuff fully, turning what was a borderline second tier gym into one of the required badges of the circuit. While known to use some kid gloves for those just coming in for their first badge, Brock was also known to have a team that could have put him in the Elite Four if he wanted. There were also rumors that he beat the current champion, Lance, in a private match, though no one had any real proof of that, fewer still believed that the Gym Leader could have anywhere near the power to be in the elite four.

Dad however had pointed out that Brock worked with the local Rangers and was often called upon by them when they had something they couldn't deal with themselves.

Forewarned I had no intention of underestimating him.

Particularly with the rumor that his father was found outside the city limits years ago, killed by a rock type pokemon. Brock was proven innocent, but rumors hardly cared.

Pewter City was a fair sized place. A little bigger than Ponytaville, but smaller than Pallet Town had become with the addition of the lab. The gym itself sat to the side of it pressed up against the foot of Mt. Moon, the front of it was a massive boulder that had been carved out in to the front lobby and facing of the gym, but the real structure was built behind that towering over the top of the front boulder and pushing back further on top of and into the foot of Mt. Moon.

The interior of the building was an odd design, there was a front desk and behind that was an arena.

After signing in to challenge the gym I was given a Gym Challenger Pamphlet that explained the gym so I could look around while I waited. There were a number of other trainers who were called up one at a time and taken into the back where the other fields were.

The battle arena behind the front desk was the old field for the Gym having been around for at least six generations before this one making it one of the oldest fields still in use in the League, at least until it was semi retired a few years ago after the arena was flooded when the old fire system was damaged during a pokemon battle by an electric type.

While the field was restored it was mostly kept around for the tourists, though there was something else here as well which drew my eye.

The field itself was smooth well maintained dirt with arena lines drawn out in white chalk lines. Various boulders dotted the field as scatter terrain and the place was just smaller than a current regulation fields for battles.

The layout and the design was a near work of art looking more like a zen garden with how the dirt was raked out than anything else. The scattered boulders seemed to have various ores and quartz veins that made them glitter as they caught the light.

The Gym Leader’s pitch was a six by six monolith of stone carved with various pokemon, all rock types of some sort of another and one human face. A memorial of those fallen under the Gym Leaders care either in battles gone wrong or old age. I was unsure of the human carved in it, but I suspected it might have been Brock’s father.

The challenger’s pitch was just as wide but it was a foot or so taller and twice as long away from the field. This pillar was carved with a number of pokemon as well, mostly water and grass types with some rock and ground, a scattering of fire types, one carving of a very smug looking pikachu and a few other scattered types.

The pamphlet stated this was a pillar of all those who had challenged the rock gym as their first badge and then made it the full distance in the circuit.

Any trainer who made it far enough to challenge and beat even one of the elite four had their starter carved here.

I didn't see any Bug or Fairy types.

Resting my hand on Rose's ball I smirked. That was going to change soon enough. I had no plans to stop until the world knew my name, and that would draw in my friends if they existed to meet back with me, and would either cause my enemies to run off and hide, or come to me so I could end them. I knew Claymore was here, how many others would be around? I doubted Scarlet, Avianna or any of the books would be here, that lot forfeited their souls when they became books, there would be nothing left to come to another life. At least if Grace had been correct.

“Jer'rahd Kaisur! Trainer Jer'rahd Kaisur.” a voice called and my attention shifted to the speaker. It was a young woman perhaps in her late teens with spiky brown hair and closed eyes. She was dressed in a uniform like some of the others he had seen running around and had a name tag that read 'Yolanda'.

“I'm here.” I called and climbed back out of the old field walking towards her. She nodded and waved a clipboard. Four other trainers stood around her. One I recognized form Ponytaville, the other three I had no idea who they were.

”Alright, you're the third match from this group of five, lot of new trainers this year Don’t get up set the order was randomly generated.” Yolanda offered.” Okay listen up. We're putting you all through the standard gauntlet of three trainers before you face Gym Leader Brock. Standard League rules, first trainer has one, second two, third has three, and Gym leader Brock will field three. You can use any items you have but you cannot leave the gauntlet to run to a pokemon center without forfeiting your challenge. You can swap Pokemon as need be , but trainers and Gym leaders are not allowed to swap without pulling their pokemon from the rest of battle. Due to how things are going Garrit you head in first. Just head through these doors behind me and face the first trainer.”

The boy nodded and swallowed hard striding forward and going through the doors.

“Alright Emily, once I get word we’ll be sending you in right after him then Jer’rahd , then Greg, and finally Alice.” she looked over the clipboard and frowned. “Jer’rahd, you didn’t check the difficulty you wanted. I expect as a first time challenger you want the basic difficulty or would you like one of the higher rankings?”

“I have no assumptions about my skill, so I will not be challenging at League or Elite level this time. But I want to be sure that no one will hold back in the basic challenge. I cannot get better as a trainer if I’m being handed the badge.” Jer'rahd offered.

“Noted, but you don't have to worry about that. Salvadore might be a bit soft touch at times, but Forest and Cindy will eat you alive if you let them. And if you get to Brock, well. He will make you earn your badge.” Yolonda smirked and gestured to a large monitor on the far wall. “Now then, who wants to watch Garrit’s run?”