Pokemon: Bond Evolutions of Pokémon

"Kelly, we are meeting here as we agreed before. This time I will battle you with all of my strength!"

Being able to meet Kelly in the semi-finals of the Lilycove City Pokémon Contest, May's fighting spirit has been burning like crazy. At this time, she was still not thinking about the fact that after winning here, she will have to face the final BOSS, Ash, who was also her lover.

At this moment, she was only thinking about having the perfect contest battle with Kelley, who had already become a very good friend of her despite the very short time they spent with each other, without leaving any regrets and continuing on her journey towards greatness.

Kelly also had such a mentality when she found out that she was going to face up against her new friend, May, so soon, "May, you just wait and see, I will show you the power of me and my perfect IV Grumpig!"

Grumpig's Pokédex species was known as the Manipulate Pokémon. Although May was fairly familiar with Psychic-thpe Pokemon as she had been close to Ash's Psychic-type Ralts day and night and also with some of his other Psychic-type Pokémon's when he brings them over to train them. Especially that Slowking that is able to straight up talk to her and his two extremely powerful Legendary Psychic-types, Latias and Latios.

And then finally was all the Unowns he sometimes summons out of nowhere and disappears without telling her anything for a few hours.

And the last reason she was that familiar with that type was that Ash himself has very powerful Psychic Abilities.

But when it comes to battle, she still faces trouble facing Psychic-type Pokémon's as she had little to no experience in fighting them, only watching them fight from the side at max.

But now May has the necessary psychological elements to stay calm and collected.

"She has really improved so much from when we first met her, right buddy?" Ash showed a look of reminiscent.

"Pi pika." Pikachu nodded in response while enjoying being in his hands. Ralts and Togetic were temporarily with Brock and Max, cheering him on.

"Combusken, come on stage!" May threw out her Poké Ball with such enthusiasm that her her Ace Pokémon for this Pokémon Contest, Combusken, had almost landed on the wrong foot, but barely managing to make up at the last second.

May and her Combusken both showed a sheepish smile when the audience began to laugh outloud.

Regardless of their bonds with their Pokémons or how the degree of compatibility was with each other, both May and Kelly showed a very high level of preparedness and confidence in their ability.

"Go, Grumpig, use Iron Tail!" Kelly took the lead in launching the attack. Grumpig was the evolved form of Spoink. So it's tail still had the spring-shaped form it previously had. After using Iron Tail, the ability of these springs is further utilized by increasing their power and range by a noticeably higher rate.

Something to be noted was that different tail shapes will of course have different level of power when using Iron Tail, even if one of them is of a higher level in terms of overall power.

One prime example of this is Ash's Annihilape, who knew how to use this attack despite not even having a tail because he learned this when he was still a Primeape. It's a very strong Pokémon but him not having a tail to help his use it practically made it useless.

After all, was the real Pokémon world, not the game that had the same thing for every single Pokémon that was able to learn it would be able to perfectly use it.

And Grumpig's tail was even more special as it was practically a living spring, and when he uses Iron Tail, it becomes a hard but also quite flexible metal spring. Pikachu's tail one the other tail was flat on one side and very thin on the other side. With continuous training under Ash, and talking and gaining experience from all of his other friends, Pikachu can now perfectly use this attack on a split second, not only that, but he was also able to turn the edges into a blunt force or the more aggressive blade side.

The Grumpig's tail flicked on the ground and rushed over at an astonishing speed for its look. The tail suddenly straightened out and turned into a long metal whip that was moving towards Combusken.

"Now!"

May's fighting style was increasingly becoming more and more similar to Ash's one, though with her own flair to it as it is practically impossible to copy Ash's tactics because only his Pokémon's and some very few others could follow through with the whole thing.

May actually decided to let Combusken use a much more bare-handed approach to move closer Grumpig's Iron Tail and try to catch it.

And now this was the opportunity May was looking for.

"Combusken, use Fire Spin!" May indeed knew and used her Combusken's strongest weapon against her opponent, that being the close range Fire-type Special and Physical Attack skills he knew.

This strategy could have indeed worked very well with someone of a little less experienced Pokémon Trainer level, but May failed to realize that her opponent was a Psychic-type Pokémon and also one that had a decently experienced Pokémon Coordinator. Kelly did not seem panic at all by this surprising attack, and decisively ordered her Grumpig to use the signature attack of a Psychic-type Pokémon, Psychic. Grumpig was now actually quite literally twisting and controlling the flame vortex around him, turned around and turned those flames into a big fire dragon, and then immediately used Psychic again to make it head towards May's Combusken.

"What?!"

May was shocked, and that was still a conservative view. She had never thought that the Psychic attack could be used in such a way.

Moreover, the shape of the fire dragon was one of a very good description. It has obviously been carefully crafted by Grumping, meaning that they had definitely trained in this way before to be able to react so quickly and in such a orderly manner. It should not only be flames that this Grumpig may be able to control, most likely other such elements, and most of oppositions Combusken's Special Attacks can be turned into power and added to the fire-psychic dragon to counterattack it's original creator.

Using the opponents skills to counterattack against them, and with such a prominent appearance, this move can very easily able to deduct a large portion of the opponent's points. This was definitely one of Kelly's trump card for her Pokémon Coordinator career.

And sure enough, May's point was deducted by a little more than half.

"Combusken, use Sky Uppercut!" May still tried her best to not panic here. Under her instructions, Combusken punched the fire dragon multiple times to blow in into multiple smaller pieces until it was completely dissipated, but now she had lost the opportunity to continue on with her attacks with flare.

Kelly very quickly launched an attack at this moment with a very decisive move. Grumpig used its Psychic attack to directly restrain Combusken body and its secondary Fighting-type and took it into the air. No matter how hard Combusken was struggling, there was no way to break through Grumpig's Psychic hold.

There was still a slight difference between the two Pokémon's, whether it was their levels or types.

"This time, Kelly and switched to using her Grumpig's Psychic on Combusken to hold it up and unable to move! Can May and her dear Combusken escape from this massive crisis? Their points are ticking away from them every single second they aren't doing anything!" Vivian's words immediately brought tension to the scene and added even more to the atmosphere.

"This situation really is not good. If this continues, then May will most definitely lose!" Brock couldn't help but worry. But Ash, who was walking towards his direction to pat his Ralts and Togetic, did not seem that concerned about May's current situation, "May, she hasn't given up yet, and it also does look like she won't give up so soon."

She was taught by him step by step, so her fighting style was also very closely related to Ash's own—meaning that there is still luck involved in this. And May, as part of the main group, has that one covered in spades.

Now she will not let Ash down after all the trust he had given her; all the time he spent training her; everything he did for her.

And sure enough, May looked at her Combusken and suddenly felt a flash of inspiration creeping into her heart, and suddenly yelled out a order, "Combusken, use Fire Spin again!"

This order made both Brock and Max confused. The long ranged attacks from Combusken would all be quickly counterattacked by Grumpig's powers.

But May was still very confident in her herself and her partner, with a burning gaze in her eyes, staring at Kelly's, awaiting her response.

Just as May had hoped, Kelly asked her Grumpig to strengthen Psychic's power further, and was not actively controlling Combusken's head to face upwards. The Fire Spin could not deal an effective blow to Grumpig at all like this.

However, Combusken at this moment is very close to the ceiling of the venue.

The Fire Spin hit the ceiling directly, and the scattered embers fell randomly in all directions. How could Grumpig's Psychic powers be able to control so many small flames all at the same time? Instead of being controlled by it, many of the hot embers instead directly fell on top of Grumpig.

The Psychic energy that Grumping was using to levitate Combusken was interrupted.

This was the best chance for Combusken to counterattack against the busy Grumpig.

This was also one of the usual tactics Ash uses to force out of such situations and also to destroy hidden targets. This not only was a very unexpected tactic to turn defeat into victory, but also one very stylish and effective. This perfectly encapsulates the way of Ash's fighting style.

A mix of power, uncertainty, strategy, style, and the hidden ingredient—luck!

In fact, to do this, other than all of the things mentioned above, what was truly needed was that there should be a great and balanced bond between the Trainer and their Pokémon. They needed to understand and trust other one to execute the things they understand without any hesitations.

"Combusken, use Double Kick!"

May's fighting spirit had reached its limit. She still remembers the words that Ash said to her about giving her the special talk about how to maximize Combusken's leg power and how to properly use it in Pokémon Contests, which had left a very deep impression on her.

The Fighting-type was a type created for fighting! And that included all the acrobatic movements Combusken could do with its strong leg power.

At this moment, she finally understood the full potential behind what he said, and her bond with her Combusken increased to an unprecedented level because of this simple understanding into the others advantage against most of her possible opponents. Then she saw her Combusken suddenly falling from the sky, but he was able to kick Grumpig hard with a very beautiful looking flame kick from the air.

She now understood what Ash said about maximizing her Pokémon's competitive and body edge over her opponents.

Boom!

The purple psychic pig hit the ground hard and immediately lost his ability to fight.

There were still 28 seconds left on the clock, but the timer froze at this moment.

May won this Pokémon Contest battle!

May walked up to the disappointed Kelly and hugged her.

Naturally, Ash also very easily defeated Jessie and "her" Chimecho, though Ash made sure to encourage Jessie and tell her how much potential she truly had for this.

Next, May had to face Ash in the finals.

———

"Babe, let's have fight a battle without leaving any regrets!" At this moment, May no longer cared about whether she can get her Ribbon, which was a no, or that she had to face her much more dominant boyfriend here on the stage. She just wanted to have a good fight with the one who she always knew as her perfect partner, to show just much progress she had made during this time under all of his hard tutorage during their journeys

"Combusken, use Double Kick!" May's fighting spirit was still burning high from her last fight against Kelly, but she was still able to keep that calm facade up. Facing Ash's stronger Water-type Milotic, the Fire-type skill her Combusken knew were all quite very ineffective. The only thing she can rely on now was the Fighting-type skill he it knew.

"Water Pulse!"

On Ash's side, the situation was exactly the opposite. Water-type skills have an outstanding effect on the Fire-type Combusken.

The azure water ball was smashed to the ground, and immediately set off a wave more than two meters high, blocking Combusken's attack and turning it into a drowning chicken.

"The level difference is simply too big. I never thought Milotic could grow so much stronger after just evolving. I still remember when it was still such a feeble little Feebas." Brock couldn't help but smile bitterly while watching the battle between his two traveling companions.

In fact, even if the levels of the two Pokémon were set to the same level as each other, and Ash was using May's Combusken and May was using Ash's Miltotic, the result will still be the same—with Ash winning the battle. The level gap being Ash and May was simply too high.

"Combusken, use Fire Spin! Then Flame Charge!"

Unable to get close, May gritted her teeth and used a fire-based combo skill to get closer. Combusken transformed into a fireball, spitting swirling flames from his mouth and hitting Milotic at a rapid speed.

The momentum of this combination of skills was very good. Just using this move had already deducted what looked to be about ten of Ash's hundred points.

But such skills were nothing to Ash and his Milotic, "Aqua Ring!"

Those three same Aqua Rings formed a perfect defense, and was able to successfully blocked all the flames form coming into contact with Milotic, but instead was giving it ample time to allow it to recover the nonexistent amount of health that she lost.

"Ash's Milotic is so powerful! It's just been only 32 seconds and has already almost beaten May and her Combusken to exhaustion without even moving a single step or attempting to attack!" Vivian explained in a timely manner, describing Ash's performance so excitedly that it was like she was the one battling out there .

"ASH!"

But at this moment, May shouted, "Combusken, Flame Charge! Then Sky Uppercut!"

As May's momentum exploded, her Combusken had already increased its speed to a very fast degree because of all of it's previous Flame Charge. In just a blink of an eye, he came to Milotic and tried to hit her and knock Milotic back, but it didn't go as well as Combusken and May had wanted it to be.

"Twister!"

However, Ash looked at May with a smile that showed how proud he was of her but he slowly spit out a devastating command.

Milotic, who had jumped high into the air, on the left, stretched out her beautiful body.

With a slight swing of her extremely beautiful tail, a devastating Twister fell from the sky and landed on Combusken hard.

Combusken lost his ability to fight, meaning Milotic won this battle.

———

This was Ash's fourth official Pokémon Contest Ribbon out of his five needed—he only has only left before he collects them all.