A challenge, a show of force, or an imminent threat, it does not matter. Each would be responded to with the same svelte glance and movement. Ribbons would whisper against the ground as the fighter prepares themselves for the inevitable.

What would happen first? What scrapes along the ground would be dug by claws or landscape discombobulated by their actions?

I like to imagine I can take care of myself reasonably in real life, but I know that would pale in comparison to a Mienshao's sheer ability. Their movements would be grace and their blows would be devastating and at the end of the day, even if I lost, the opponent would know that I was there.

That's why I enjoy this form so much. It is ability qualified as a statement.

I am here.

Yet, it does not do so in a brash way. Or in a manner that is immense and loud.

It simply is, and it is beautiful in its existence.

---

There's a certain kind of sublimity inherent to the moments before a fight. The energies of the fighters as they ready for what could be their last moments, the still cacophony drawn about the air, and the whispers of many hours spent preparing for this very moment. While I'm not one to advocate for bloodshed, I can still appreciate that singular and beautiful time frame that exists before a battle. Like a flag frozen in mid-whip, the sinking of an immense warship, or the different glances between a veteran and a fresh recruit, there is no real glory to be found in anything but that one moment. The spring getting ready to pounce.

I respect it and although Pokemon may not exist in our reality, much the same as transforming into one, there would still exist that same moment before battle if they did. The draw of fighters as they manifest themselves into the forms that they find most suitable, each beautiful and deadly in their own right. While I would choose Mienshao as the form I would take before a fight, I wonder what else might be chosen by others?

Ah well... perhaps it's a good thing we'll never quite know.

Art by  astropheltfs

Rygone belongs to  Umbreon07