Peaked Interest

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Finally the duo had emerged from the tunnels that formed the Black Spiral Staircase again, the sunlight shining on them once more. Or rather it would have, would they not be standing on the Dark Void Peak now, the sky completely black for no discernible reason.
At least there weren't any feral Pokémon to be expected anymore, as William wasn't sure for how long Sova would be able to hold on. He certainly didn't look all that well. And still the Ghost type had no idea what it may be that was causing this in the Normal type.
But now that they were here maybe he would quickly realize that nothing of interest was to be found here and finally get on the way back home again. This had been quite the boring and disconcerting intermission thus far.

Having his goal set, Sova relaxed for a moment. There was no need to try to prove he wasn't weak now, especially since he knew he was, so he decided not to worry about it for the moment. He'd have to focus every bit of his time and energy on catching up to William for quite some time....so he felt a moment to just relax was in order. He probably wouldn't be getting many in the near future after all.

But what if he lost? What if they did the fight multiple times and he lost every time? Then he wouldn't be able to relax for a very long time.... But right now wasn't the time for thinking about that. He wanted to think and talk about something pleasant for a change. "Once the mission completion is official, I'm white rank. What rank's your team?" He wondered how his "team" looked now in comparison to William's.

"White rank as well.", William explained.
"160 points as of now. We haven't really done that much mission-wise. I usually end up accompanying friends on their travels or somehow bumping into another Pokémon while wandering around and then winding up traveling with them."
Why hadn't they been on more missions actually? William had never really thought about that before. Maybe it was time to get out and do something again. They were living at the guild, so it could be expected of them to actually do something for their stay there.

Sova's smirk returned. "Well then, I bet I can get to the next rank before your team." He challenged the gengar yet again. He was so filled with an urge to win, it was getting to him. If he could hold up to his challenges and win them, surely eventually he had to be recognized as strong. Or at least he could hope so. That was all that really mattered to him at that moment. It was better than breaking down and crying, to him at least. Though perhaps he was getting a bit carried away. After all, William was definitely at least ONE OF the strongest pokemon he knew, so making these challenges was pretty much setting himself up for failure. But for some reason, he had confidence he could win.

The Eevee was definitely biting off more than he could chew. So much actually that the Gengar actually considered letting him win one of those challenges. But then again the Normal type's self-confidence and recklessness were high enough already. Would it be better to soundly defeat him maybe? After thinking about it for a bit the Gengar decided to simply continue with his life.
Maybe he would reach the next rank sooner than Sova. Maybe not. That would be something only time would show.
"Good luck again I guess. But maybe you should focus on one goal first. Trying to defeat me in both categories seems to be a bit much for you. And let me give you some advice. There is only one being you should aim to be stronger than. And that is you from yesterday. There is no need to compare yourself to others.

Sova shook his head. "I'll compare my self to everyone." He took a pause and considered not continuing. "And I'll win every time." He said with a smile. Now he was certainly getting carried away, but at least he felt happy for the moment. He was doing his best not to think about how absurd his goals were and instead tried to focus on how good it would feel to accomplish them. The gravity of the situation he'd put himself in would certainly hit him later, but for now he was enjoying it.

"Well, we'll see how well your winning streak holds up. Every streak has its end. And I am pretty sure yours is fast approaching. You will rue the day you challenged the forces of darkness!"
The Gengar let loose a cackling, manical laughter that echoed from the mountains around them.
After the echo had dissipated he chuckled:
"Hehe, just kidding. I wish you the best of luck. Let's see how well you'll do."
The Ghost type knew that he probably scared the nonexistant pants off of the Eevee, but the opportunity just had been too good to ignore. Hopefully Sova wouldn't be too mad or frightened.

Sova's grin stayed on his face the entire time. The gengar clearly wasn't taking him seriously enough. What could he do to prove he was dead serious? He thought about what specific words to say for a moment. "You'd better take the fight more seriously when it comes, or you're gonna get hurt." Despite just saying "hurt", which was fairly obvious already, his tone of voice implied injuries a bit worse than just a few scrapes. He hoped he got the message across that he planned to go all out when he was ready to fight.

"Don't worry about me, Sova.", the Gengar replied.
"Just make sure you are prepared when the time comes. I know what I am doing."
Just what was the Eevee thinking? Did he honestly think that he would be capable of seriously injuring the Ghost type just because of one evolution? And more importantly - would he actually be trying to cause serious injuries while fighting? It should be expected of any Pokémon to back down from an opponent if further attacking could lead to serious injuries. But then again the many outlaws in this world proved that this assumption wasn't infallible. Hopefully Sova wouldn't fall victim to pride.

"Alright.  I'm just saying it won't be practice, don't go easy.  It'd suck if one of us hurt the other because they weren't trying."  Sova said, realizing he may have come off the wrong way.  He didn't intend to do serious injury, but he didn't intend to hold back either and since he planned to learn some counter moves, that could end badly if William held back.  He just wanted to win, not seriously hurt his friend.  Though perhaps even causing minor injury was too much to hope for.  What if he managed to evolve too soon, before he was ready?  What if he'd never be ready?

"Very well then. Let's see how long it will take for you to evolve."
Even though the Eevee had explicitely told him not to do so, the Gengar was planning on holding back at first, then scaling the power he would be to use with the Eevee's fighting skill.
Secretly he hoped that it would take a while for Sova to evolve, as that would allow for more training - something the Normal type seemed to be in dire need of. Maybe Sova would even forget about this challenge alltogether, which would allow for less needless violence and the sparing of his self-confidence. But that was a thing of the future. Right now the thing the duo should be focussing on was their descent down this mountain. They had been here for far too long already.

"Well, that might be a while. Not that I've got any problems with waiting a while. So, for now, lets focus on picking up the Scraggy and getting out of here!" Sova said, remembering that completing this mission made his "team" rank up. He was eager to make that official. Then he could get the next rank and pass William. After all, even if he was weaker than the gengar, he could still complete more missions than the ghost if he focused more time on it.

Though at least William's team had members. No matter how far Sova managed to get, that wouldn't make his "team" less lonely. But perhaps that was for the best. That way no one could say someone else did all the work for him.

"Good point. We better get going.", the Gengar replied, returning to the place they had left the Scraggy before they ascended to the peak. And right in the nick of time at that - it was just about to wake up again. Another application of Hypnosis ruined those efforts however.
And so, with the Dark type over his shoulder, the Ghost type floated back down the mountain. This mission had been going on for long enough and William was eagerly awaiting his bed and the guild in general. And to think that all of this had been caused by Sova just giving in to his curiosity and having to venture up the mountain for no good reason at all.
It certainly hadn't been a good idea as it had become clearly evident over the course of this journey.