Leuko - Blind to the Sunlight

Chapter 7: The drum stands for victory

"Here you go, all good" Yellow healed a pokemon with a broken paw before putting him back on the ground. 

At this point, the chaos had already ended, as all the troublemakers were either eliminated or pursued their folly on a higher floor.

In fact, there were only two people still on the starting stairs, Klara, who looked at Yellow with a conflicted expression, and Yellow, who was currently surrounded by a horde of pokemon of varying powers ready to throw away their lives for her.

"Good job Yellow, you were able to help another pokemon from their mild injury." Klara congratulated Yellow with a dry tone, a tone that Yellow easily picked up.

"Ah! I'm sorry Klara! It just...I heard him cry and I couldn't help myself..."

"No, don't apologize, I'm the one who decided to join you, I should've expected that your kindness would slow me down."

"I...I promise this time we will really go."

"You already said this this forty-seven times."

Yellow decided to stay silent. "...so what about we go up now..."

She stood up and started to climb the stairs, the hoard of pokemon following behind her, all trying to be the nearest Yellow to maybe receive some pat from her.

Klara looked at the sight with exasperation but also followed behind.

The good thing is this time, every pokemon that was previously there was already treated by Yellow, so they faced no interruption until the 30 steps where they encountered more candidates.

"You absolute snitzle! Don't you see I was walking there!?"

"Oyh you pie face, how dare you speak to me like this!?"

Yellow only looked at the confrontation with concern. 'Are they alright? Is one of them hurt?'

But Klara saw the confrontation from a different perspective and approached Yellow. "My dear friend, don't you think we should take advantage of this situation?"

Yellow looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean? OH! I get it, I should heal them so they can join our team!"

"No, we can't become friends with them."

"What? Why?"

"Look at their clothes."

Yellow analyzed what they were wearing, except that they looked quite flashy.

"I don't see it?"

"They are rich."

"Eh?"

"They don't consider poor people like us as equal, we have absolutely no chance to become friends with them."

"But...maybe they aren't so bad? I'm sure if we show them we only want to help"

"Your kindness is your force Yellow, but as your best friend, I'm worried that others might use you, or worse, hurt you because of it. If we ever join the academy, we will be surrounded by strangers with a lot of power, and you might not realize it, but you are among these people."

"But...but I'm only a farmer girl, how can I be as dangerous as them?"

"Look around you, look at all the pokemon who follow you after interacting with them for less than a minute."

"That's...that a skill anyone can have...you just need to be kind to them..."

"Tell me Yellow, if this was a skill so simple, why did so many of these so-called talents get eliminated by their own pokemon? Those who were selected especially for their talent weren't even able to do what you consider as normal."

"...but..."

"It means you're special Yellow. And let not forget your special power, it is almost as if you were specially chosen just for this."

"Klara!"

"Yes, my friend."

"...I'm not that special..."

Yellow looked away from Klara, she didn't want to look at the disappointment on her face.

But it also made her unable to see the smirk on Klara's face,

"Pie!" But a certain caterpie did.

"Eh, what do you mean Kitty?"

Yellow looked at Klara, but she only showed a face of pity.

"Oh, you probably saw the wrong Kitty."

"Cat...

"What are you talking about with your pokemon Yellow?"

"Oh, she said you looked happy."

"Ah, I must simply be so happy to see that you're truly kind."

"...How kind can I be if I made my friend wait so much...I was scared that I wouldn't be able to make any friends here, so I'm happy you decided to become mine."

Kalra smiled and then put her arm around Yellow's shoulder, hitting Kitty by 'accident'. "The pleasure is all mine, so, what do you say we eliminate competition."

Yellow looked at the other candidate that had already sent their pokemon to battle each other.

'I...if they are going to be mean to us...maybe I should...'

"No, we are already late, we shouldn't waste time."

Klara raised an eyebrow before removing her arm. "Very well, they will probably eliminate each other anyway!"

"Why are you sc..."

'"WHAT DID YOU SAY!!?"'

"What did she say?"

One of the candidates looked at Yellow in fury, and the other in confusion, but he decided to copy his rival.

But the grew wary of her after noticing the army of pokemon that were looking at them too.

"She said you would probably need help!" Klara replied, which made Yellow look at her with a horrified expression.

The fear of those rich kids immediately changed into fury. "How absolutely dare you think we are weak!?"

"What did she say?"

"You may have an army, but we are...

Before they could finish, a plethora of elements surged toward them, blasting them off the stairs, courtesy of Yellow pokemon.

"Ah, there was no need guys..."

"Of course, there was a need, they wanted to beat y...Ah!"

Klara got sent string right into her face, blinding her.

"Ah, why did you do that Kitty?"

"Kitty!"

"You can't just...ah, let me help you, Klara!"

***

'This is too easy! I was expecting a bigger challenge!'

Cynthia easily climbed the stairs one by one, not even stopping when a wild pokemon attacked her.

"Inkay!"

Rock started to float around Cynthia, but before they could hit her, a sand tornado enveloped all of them and was thrown directly at the pokemon that dared attack her.

"Good job Gible!" Cynthia congratulated her pokemon.

The pokemon looked like the head of a shark with two tiny legs and an arm, however, it had blue scales and a red belly. A gigantic dorsal fin raised from its back.

"Stop right there Cynthia!."

'Hmm, did I miss one?'

Cynthia looked back to see exactly what she expected.

'A loser.'

"What are you doing here!? You should've long been eliminated! So how dare you stand higher than me!?"

"You're completely right, I should stand even higher!"

Cynthia jumped back, just to climb one more stair, which completely irritated the young boy.

"As a member of the Silvervale, I order you, member of the Dusborn, to stand down!"

"Oh right, let me just...oh right, I forgot, I'm a Goldwin, you can't order me."

"You have no right to this title! You named yourself this title, despite having none of the qualifications!"

"I don't care, if I'm stronger than them, it should be normal that I'm standing higher than them."

"You lowly Dusborn! The only thing bigger than me is your stupidity!"

"As of now, the only lowly one here is you. If you wish to stand higher than me, then make me." Her Gible stood right beside her, ready to bounce

The Silvervale had an expression of fear from this declaration. "...you're not worth my time."

"Really, are you sure it's not because you're scared, I mean, the right decision would have been to fight me with the other kid from our clan, yet you didn't." A look of derision plastered on her face. "Not like you would have made much of a change, maybe at best, you would have postponed my victory for 20 seconds more."

"...what? No, you must be lying! You must simply have fleed them! Or worst, you asked for The Shame to help you!"

"There no need for me to explain that all 61 people you bring just to stop me in my tract, were only good to make me third place in this competition!"

"You liar!!! Cryogonal! Bring her down!"

He threw a pokeball right in front of him, making a pokemon shaped like an immense metallic snowflake appear, levitating off the ground.

"Use icy wind!" The pokemon didn't have a mouth, yet he took a deep inspiration before throwing a cold blast at Cynthia.

She smirked at the attack before making a sign at her own pokemon. "Gibble, use Sand Tomb."

The gible started to invoke sand from under his scale and controlled it to turn until it formed a tornado.

The cold blast hit the tornado directly, but it wasn't even able to affect the tornado.

"What!?"

"Did you really think bringing an ice type would be enough to beat me? Loser."

"Shut up you lowly Dusborn!"

"I'm going to make you scream instead, Gible, throw the sand tomb at him!"

"Blow it away Cryogonal!"

The tornado of sand moved fast and was already in front of the Silvervale, but his pokemon was able to throw another cold blast, making him mostly unharmed. But the shock was still enough to make him fall.

But despite being on the ground, he was happy. "Hahaha! Is that all you got!?"

But he immediately regrated his word as he saw Cynthia having her hand high in the air while holding her gible. She took one step back and threw one look at the boy who started to tremble in fear.

"Gible Cannon!" She threw her pokemon directly at the Cryogonal so fast that it didn't have the time to react and got smashed in the head of the shark dragon.

"Gilbe!" The Cryogonal started to fall on the ground, but it wasn't enough for Gible as it used its body to jump once more toward the trainer this time!

"Wh...

He wasn't able to move before being smashed directly on the head and falling over. After some moment, his body disappeared, with his pokemon too.

"Victory! Good job Gible!" Cynthia said in joy, after all, defeating one of these arrogant pricks is always funny.

"Gible!"

"Alright, we lost enough time! We can't let these other candidates overtake us! So let...

Cynthia didn't finish her sentence and immediately turned back to face the new visitor.

She simply stood there, looking at Cynthia with a wide smile, her hand on her pokeball.

She wore a white shirt with a blue tie, and orange shorts with a pinstriped design. She had caramel skin similar to the one of Geeta, eyes of the color orange, and black hair arranged in a ponytail, with the exception of a green bang covering her face.

'She's not wearing the insignia of our clan, so she can't be from them...well if she was, I would've noticed someone as strong as that in our clan!'

Cynthia looked seriously at the girl, as did her Gible, waiting for any movement from her.

Finally, the girl talked. "Do you want to battle?"

Cynthia looked at her in surprise before grinning. "I have a better question, are you ready to lose?"

The girl threw her pokemon right in front of her, not waiting a single second to start the battle. "If I get to battle with an opponent as strong as you, then the result doesn't matter!"

***

"Stay with me Sonia!"

A boy with dark skin and very long purple hair that floated against the pressure. It was not the only thing that floated, his red cape also flew in the air, this cloak was a gift from Leon's little brother, so he wore it valiantly. The same could not be said about his white uniform that looked exactly like the one of Klara, only difference being the number 1 on his back.

The little boy was currently while he climbed the stairs with difficulty, as a red aura constantly hit him, but still pushed through it. Even when he had the impression his heart stopped beating, or that his head got cut, or that he instantly grew old and died as dust, he still climbed, no matter what.

'It's just an illusion, I've believed in the worst!'

But he would have probably climbed it even faster if he hadn't held the hand of someone else.

"I...I can't...I'm going to faint...leave me Leon..."

A ginger girl said with great difficulty while holding the hand of Leon, contrary to her friend, she had a very pale skin. Her eyes were green, which contrasted with the orange from Leon. She wore the same white uniform as Leon, except for the number 192 on her back.

"No! I refuse to leave you! So you better refuse to faint right now!"

"...it...too strong...we still have...so much...to do..."

"We only have five stairs to climb! You can do it!"

The girl looked at the back of her friend, despite being in the same position as her, he still stood straight, so she took one deep inspiration and took another step. This caused her to be affected by another illusion of dying while drowning, but as she was able to breathe, she remembered she was still alive.

'What are those! How can someone possess such a scary aura? He is without any doubt a level 10 esper!' Sonia tried to think about anything that could help her distract herself from the feeling of falling...until she was hit with another illusion of her falling to her death. Something she was able to get out by feeling the warmth of the hand of Leon.

"We're almost there! Only four stairs left!" Leon screamed as he tried to walk even faster.

With each step they took, the illusion felt more realistic. But Leon was still able to persevere, and Sonia was at least able to keep herself conscious, but she had to be forcibly trained by Leon because her leg refused to listen to her.

"I'm...I'm sorry..." Sonia could only say weakly.

"Do not lose consciousness! Or else you will be disqualified!"

Leon climbed another stair, making the illusion even worse.

At the 98 stairs, Sonia wasn't even able to keep her eye open, only taking deep breaths to keep her mind awake...until Leon put his feet at the 99 stairs.

Everything became white, he stopped feeling anything...until a loud beep reasoned just beside him.

He was inside a white room, on a white bed, with a white door, everything was white. And no one was there.

The alarm rang once again.

It was coming from a heart monitor that stood right beside Leon, but he wasn't even hearing it, the only thing he looked at, were white chairs...with no one sitting on them...no one...

No one...

"AAAAH!"

Leon was barely able to open his eyes and saw that the aura had become completely white, devoid of any warmth.

'...what...was that? No matter what it is...Sonia wouldn't be able to resist it...she might even die from it...'

Leon looked behind him and saw Sonia barely able to keep herself awake, at least she was still standing on the 99 stairs.

He looked ahead of him and saw the academy in all of its splendor.

"You can't fail now Sonia! Were there!"

But she wasn't listening, she couldn't.

'I...I refuse to stand without at the zenith! I don't her to be blinded once I'm up there!"

Leon took one of his pokeball at his belt, and threw it at the end of the 98 stairs, revealing his Charmeleon who immediately stood on his knee toward the aura.

"Charmeleon! I need you to throw Sonia at the last floor!"

The Charmelon looked at the last step with difficulty, before nodding to its master. Despite the stairs being ten meters wide, and being under such an oppressive aura, he still agreed to the task.

'I hope that she will be able to keep herself conscious long enough to arrive.'

Charmelon started to take Sonia's waste, slowly raising her in the air, before throwing her with all of the force he could muster.

She flew directly over the 99 stairs, not even screaming, as she long lost this ability.

And in a work of fate, she ended up on the extremity of the last stair and rolled like a rag doll.

Leon looked at it with nervosity, but after a short moment, she still didn't disappear.

'It...it worked...she passed...now it's my turn to win!'

The joy that Leon felt right now was enough to ignore all the fear he felt until now, and was able to complete the last stair without any problem. Not a single hallucination even comes his way.

Finally, he stood on the last stair.

Once he arrived there, he felt like all the aura on his body immediately disappeared, which made him relaxed for Sonia.

'There must be a barrier that heal us once we arrive.'

Leon looked straight ahead of him and looked at the academy with a resolute expression.

'I hope it is ready for me! The future strongest trainer of all time!'

Leon made a pose. "And once again! The great master Leon arrived on top!" He took a hat from his pocket, it was a black cap that it bordure was raised in the hair, making it look like a crown.

*Clap clap clap*

Leon looked toward the clappement, only to see Volo approach him with his usual fake smile.

"Well congratulations mister Leon, you succeeded in the exam, It is with great joy I welcome you to the Zenith Academy."

However, deep down he was truly impressed.

'Here I was thinking he barely made it here, but if it wasn't for him worrying for the ginger girl, he would have probably been as fast as the little king, and without any aura to defend himself.'

He looked at Sonia with disgust, but he didn't show it to Leon who looked extremely excited and couldn't help but pose again. "And I suppose, I also welcome her to this prestigious academy, as she was indeed able to keep her conscience until the very end."

'Do they really have to bring a useless member each time? Well, whatever, I'm not the teacher anyway.' He then proceeded to ignore Sonia who finally lost consciousness after this test. 'She's lucky Joy forced me to deploy a barrier to let the winner rest without getting affected by the aura of the Bringer of Eclipse.'

"Ah Sonia!" Leon finally looked at Sonia which had foam leaving her mouth.

"Bring her to nurse Joy, she right over there." Volo pointed at the middle of the stair where he left Luciel.

"Ah, thanks yo..." Leon's expression of joy soon changed into shock as he saw Luciel completely covered in a bandage. Nurse Joy tried her best to calm his injury.

'This...this is the one who made even me scared...how scared is he then?'

***

A purple flame incinerated the surrounding flora, the impact was so immense that a gigantic tree started to fall. Multiple pokemon that used this tree as a home were forced to flee, but before all of them could, a dark hand grabbed the trunk of the pin and hurled it toward another pokemon.

But before it could even touch him, the opposing pokemon created a smaller clone and made it throw a shadow ball at the side of the tree, deviating it from its course.

"Why are you so weak? You used to be able to beat me back without any problem before, now you can barely fight me to a stalemate!" Spiritomb said in a mocking voice.

"G̸̋͜e̴̡͚͗t̷̗̂̈́ ̴͉͈̈́͐ö̵̤̩͓ú̸̠͆̈t̷̢̀͜!̸͎͑̀ ̶͍̟̈̃D̴͎̭̋i̵͇͇͓̇̈́͘e̸̡͓̍!̸̡̣̔̉̋ ̷͚̋Ď̵̜̓̿i̵̙̩̋͛e̵͕͓̐̑!̸̛̰̈́̾"

"Die? You know very well I can't die Forgotten Sin!"

"I̴̯͖͌T̸̝̭͍̆'̷̠̀̿͐S̵̨̧̺̏͐ ̸̞̕P̴̡̻̄A̶̱̖͆͝N̴̈͊͆͜D̶͔̳̋Ọ̸̡͝R̵̯͂͛̐A̸̗̎!"

"A name? What makes you think an abomination like you deserves a...

Spritomb wasn't lucky enough to finish his sentence as a tendril shot so fast in his direction that he had no other choice but to create a portal right in front of him to redirect the attack behind him.

The attack hit another giant tree instead, but only a very small hole was formed. However, after some instants, the wound started to darken and corrupted the rest of the tree, the giant tree of at least 20 meters withered in a second, losing all the vitality it previously had.

Spritomb looked at the tree dying and immediately teleported away to dodge the tendril that was already headed in his direction.

Without missing a second, Spiritomb teleported right behind Pandora and launched a shadow ball at its costume. But a dark hand appeared right behind Pandora and exposed at the contact of the ball before immediately retailing, but only managed to hit the ground as he teleported away.

"I finally get it! The reason why you're so weak is because you protect this stupid costume!"

"¡̴̗͖͇̺̹̹̰̦̝͙̘̬̦̠͕̠͒̀̀̂̈́̄͐ͅ¡̷̡̡̧̠̤̦̘̯̫̜̳͔͍̬̄́͛̃̌̌¡̶̧̧̡̳͍̯̳̭͈̝̙̮͈̠̩̀̌̆͌͘̕͜͝ͅʅ̸̡̡̢̡̤̩͚͉͎͎̭̹̙̰͕̻́͊̒̊͑̂̓͜ǝ̴̛̛̙̰̾̔̀̓͊̈́̀̍̐̋̅͝͠ᴉ̸̛̼̗͌̽̐̈́̊̒̈͛͛̾̓ɔ̴̜͌̈́̇̑̓̔̂n̸̜̫̋̽͗͋̈̑̏̂̂͑͐̀̏͌̋̕͝ꓶ̶̡͈͔͚̪̫͖̟̦̣̞̳̹̒͝ ̷͕̞̒̌̈́̀̓̎̀̕͝ʎ̶̨̨̪̙̥̼͚͇̳̹̠͖̱̄̿͆̀̒̉̈͗̚q̴̢̬̱̩͙̲̯̞̝̻͝ ̴̛̫͙̪̙̰̰͊̓͆̀̋̉͊̍̋̏̔͊̂̂̾̽ǝ̴̤̯̗̖̜̤̠̤̄͊̓̄̄͗͜͜p̶̫̞̪̮̬̠̦͈̪̊̓̽́̌̓͒̔̇̽͌́̉͂̇̎ͅɐ̴̡̭͉̬̦͉̼̯͉͓̼͂̄̀̓̾̉͝ɯ̴̯̠̦̪̱̺̠̩̯̗̼̰͓̰̑͆̈́́̿ͅ ̶̡̡̻̰̗̳̙̜͉̝̤̬̳̺̓̎̋̂͆̋̐̇̄͗̍ͅş̵̧̢̜̭͍̣͚͈̣̻̬̰̩͐͌̆ɐ̴̢̙̪̊̆͑̄̇͋̀̓̆̈͋̄̀ʍ̴̧̝̰̜̺̲̗͈̟͘ͅ ̸̢̰͇̻̪̖̲̝̜̩̤͎̦̫̠̔̂̃͘͜ʇ̵̧͉͙̰̗̣̦͈̒̽̀̚͜͝I̴̛͕̍̐̓͊̾̈́͌̿̋͆̒͒̓̔̈́̂"

Pandora screamed an unrecognizable sound, putting Spiritomb in deep shock before he screamed out of pain.

"Awh! You did more damage with your ugly voice than you did during the entire fight!"

Pandora didn't bother listening to him and instead retracted all of his claw and started to run toward where the academy stairs were.

Spiritomb did push him back a lot from it, but it stayed a small distance from Pandora.

Well, only if no one stopped him in his tracks.

"Can you stop doing that? It's getting boring, you did the same when you had your master with you."

Spiritomb said nonchalantly while throwing an immense ball of purple fire directly at Pandora who had to raise a wall with his tendril to protect himself.

*Boom*

All of his tendrils were instantly destroyed, but at least the fire was stopped.

"KY!!!" Pandora hurled in pain after receiving the attack.

"Oh! Your screams of pain are so pleasurable! I can hear so many different traces of anguish in them! I want to hear more of them!"

Spiritomb threw more shadow ball at Pandora who had to jump back to dodge them.

"Don't dodge! Don't you want to save your fri...hahaha...sorry, I can't say it..it's just sound so stupid." He mocked Spiritomb while launching another shadow ball toward the claw that was moving in his way. "Say, do you think his screams are as pleasant as yours!"

"̸̧̢̛̪̀̚Y̷͔̳̲͍̗̓͌̂ö̵̡̪̹̇̂u̶̠̒̉͊̇ ̸̨̮͎̞̿̽̈̏̍d̸̥̲̗͗͛͘͘͜o̶̡̜̥̩͌̀̓̈́ǹ̴̜͉̥̐̈́͗͝'̸̧̲͙̀͐̊̒t̵͎̱̮̘͈̿̎̄ ̷̜̳̓̂h̵̗͕͕̲̟̉̊̈́͐a̷̢̝̠͂̎͜v̷̠̞̪͂̀̍̋̃ě̷̦͗̈́ ̵͎͐t̷̨͚̫͘͜ḩ̷͇̰͒͐e̴͕̤̲̤̩͑̌͛ ̸͚̬̺̘͎̎r̵͉͙̗̳̀ͅí̸̧͠g̴̳̤̯̠̞̍͋͝͠h̷̡̯͉͑t̸̘̝̣̟͎̓̎̀̄̿ ̷̜̹̜̥͈͆̓t̶͕̬͈̯͋̃̌̕o̸̙͈̼̥̍̏ ̶͉̫̒ȩ̸̀͆̾̍͠ň̷̼͜j̶̡͎̽͝ö̶̞̪̭͈́̇ỳ̶̨̛̛͕̯͚͂͆ ̵̛̼͇͎̺̋͒̌̿ã̸̧̹̱̦̤̓͒̏n̵̨̲̟̦͉̿͒͘y̶̖̩̙̓̔̓t̵̥̰̳̍͑̇̀h̴̢̫̼̦̓̋̽͌̕i̴̠̋̉͛n̵͕̩̲̑̀͜͜ĝ̵̩̯͛ ̵̛̣̼̫͈͔̐̃o̵̮̍̉̋̈́̾ụ̵̥̀͆́t̷̤͗ ̵̺̎̿̍o̶̤͛̉̂̌f̸̪̟͖̅͐̀ ̵̥̅͐́̑͌h̷͔̫͂̐̿̌į̵͛͘m̸̪͉̙̀̒̀̂!̷̛̜̪̒͑͋͘"̴̱͚͛"

Really, because I was thinking that maybe I would agree to let you go if I could listen to his scream of pain, I mean, Volo wanted to put him in a state of utmost panic and terror! So his cry must be delightful! I'm sure they are even worth betraying his order, so, what do you think?" Spiritomb asked full of malice.

*Ba-dum*

"Eh?!" Spiritomb looked in confusion as the sound of a drum reasoned from Pandora. "You...you can't be serious...for this child?"

*Thud thud*

Spiritomb immediately threw 15 shadow balls he had prepared beforehand to betray Pandora if he agreed to his proposition, but he didn't regret it, as the situation stopped being lighthearted now.

But the moment the energy ball approached Pandora, they suddenly disappeared as if they lost all of their vitality.

"YOU BASTARD!"

*Doom thud doom thud doom thud*

"FINE! JUST GO SEE YOU CORPSE! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!" Spiritomb screamed as the drum stopped playing.

Pandora didn't waste any more time and launched himself toward the stairs climbing them at extreme speed.

'Tch, there was no need to go that far, it was only a game.'

Suddenly, Spiritomb felt a gaze on him, which made him even more annoyed.

"Buzz of! It's his fault that he overreacted!'

The gaze stayed on him for a few moments before moving away.

'Anyways, it will be Volo that will collect the consequence for this...I don't care anymore...'

Spiritomb looked at the side and saw that multiple pokemon were looking at him with fear, not even daring to approach him despite the fight having ended.

Spiritomb suddenly recovered his grin. "Welp, there's only one way to raise my mood!"

Second after, the scream of the wild pokemon reasoned once more on the island.