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The New Normal - 7-14
🕑 Added 2024-01-08 07:20:00 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 7-14 – Darker yet Darker
The two didn’t wait long until they sent out their next round of Pokémon.
“Weavile! Speed up!”
“Shiftry! Fan out!”
Two figures silently appeared on the battlefield before their figures blurred as they quickly dashed against each other. Without any preamble, a battle of speed rapidly commenced as both Pokémon sought to out-speed and out-position the other.
“Razor Leaf, Shiftry!”
“Ice Shard, Weavile!”
Razor sharp blades of leaves shot forwards from Shiftry, only to be slashed apart by the incoming piercing shards of ice, cutting through them effortlessly. Shiftry, showing off its impressive mobility, darted away just as the shards of ice sliced through its previous location.
But Weavile was not done yet, and a black blur rocketed forwards towards Shiftry. Shiftry did its best to keep up, but it was quickly obvious that there was no comparison. Weavile simply was faster.
And then Weavile’s figure suddenly flickered into existence right in front of Shiftry. A devastating Ice Punch came crashing down, and Shiftry, surprised and caught flat-footed at Weavile’s sheer agility, was barely able to deflect the would-be supereffective attack with a Leaf Blade.
But the parry was far from perfect, and small patches of frost slowly began to spread across its arm. And before Shiftry could throw out a counterattack, Weavile snaked its other arm past Shiftry’s defenses and smashed an Ice Punch straight into its face.
The impact caused Shiftry to stagger backwards, but it retained enough discipline to slash downwards with a powerful Leaf Blade that would have punished any attempted follow-up attack. But Weavile had not gone for one, cautiously choosing to hang back and scout things out.
And now, with a better idea of Shiftry’s abilities, Karen shot Sidney a feral smile as she went on the offense.
“Weavile, full offense! You have this!”
“Shiftry! Prepare yourself!”
Understanding that it couldn’t hope to match Weavile’s agility, Shiftry instead stood its ground as it prepared itself for Weavile’s incoming onslaught. Clearly, Sidney had been hoping to use Shiftry’s inherent training to weather the storm of Weavile’s assault before being able to punish it for its overextension.
But if that was what Sidney had been thinking, then he had seriously underestimated Weavile’s abilities.
The two Pokémon crashed against each other, a fist of ice meeting a blade of leaves. The wielder of the leaf tried to retaliate with a wide slash, but its opponent had already dashed backwards and out of range. Now exposed, a quick barrage of Ice Shards slashed through the vulnerable Shiftry, leaving a litany of cuts across its body.
Not wanting to be left purely on the defensive, Shiftry attempted to catch Weavile by surprise with a surprise Vacuum Wave, but it was barely even able to start gathering up Fighting energy before it felt its legs were kicked out from under him as Weavile performed a Low Sweep.
Completely losing its balance, it was unable to defend itself as Weavile followed up with a brutal Ice Punch that critically smashed into its face. A cry of pain came from Shiftry, and even a desperate attempt at a Sucker Punch was dexterously deflected as it was pummelled by another vicious Ice Punch came slamming into its stomach.
Shiftry was being completely overwhelmed by Weavile. It was just outmatched. But then, Sidney made a surprising decision.
“Shiftry, return. Sableye, come!”
A red light shot out from Sidney’s Pokéball before it engulfed the pinned Shiftry, quickly returning it to its Pokéball. Karen, taken by surprise at the sudden switch, was quick to recover and ordered Weavile to start setting up.
“Swords Dance, Weavile!”
Taking advantage of the time needed to switch, Weavile calmly boosted itself up even further as its already high Attack was now doubled, turning Weavile’s already punishing strikes to hit even harder.
As soon as he had finished boosting himself up, he instantly took off with a dash at the newly switched Sableye; his eyes locked onto his opponent as he got ready to smash it apart.
“Night Slash, Weavile! Punish it!”
“Fake out and Taunt, Sableye!”
But Sableye was ready for that. Remaining completely unfazed by the incoming Weavile, Sableye smashed its hands together just before Weavile could reach it, causing a shockwave that flinched the charging Weavile and interrupted its charge. Instantly, before Weavile could recover, a maddening shroud of darkness enveloped it, causing Weavile to narrow his eyes as rage began to cloud them.
“Thunder Wave now, Sableye! Disable it!”
“Back off and Ice Shard, Weavile!”
But Weavile showed off its incredible mental training as he held back his anger and dashed backwards just as a burst of electricity narrowly missed it. Weavile tried to fire off a few Ice Shards at Sableye, but it suddenly sank into its own shadow and avoided the attack. Sableye re-emerged seconds later with a barrage of flaming wisps by its side that it instantly shot towards Weavile.
But Weavile was no easy target. With a feat of exemplary dexterity, he ducked, dived, and dodged past the incoming Will-O-Wisp with seeming ease.
Then, thinking that the attack was over, Weavile burst forwards towards the exposed Sableye.
“Mud Slap.”
Completely unphased at the buffed Weavile charging towards it, Sableye punished Weavile’s recklessness by suddenly throwing a surprise globule of mud straight into Weavile’s eyes.
Weavile stumbled, nearly tripping over as it became blinded by the mud. I could see a flash of uncertainty appear on Karen’s face, and she instantly ordered for a retreat.
Weavile instantly fell backwards, relying purely on his trust in his trainer as he remained blinded by the Mud Slap. Sidney immediately moved to punish this by having Sableye continue firing of another volley of Will-O-Wisps, trying to catch and burn the Weavile now that it was blinded.
And then Karen made yet another surprising choice.
“Return, Weavile! It’s your turn, Honchkrow!”
Her Honchkrow emerged onto the field, her magnificent coat of fur shining in the sun. It looked majestic and noble, which only seemed to add to the power that it unconsciously radiated out of it. Its powerful wings looked like they could knock the frail and far smaller Sableye out with a single strike.
“TAUNT!”
But Sidney was ready for it. As soon as Honchkrow fully emerged from her Pokéball, she was instantly encased in a cage of dark energy, instantly cutting off any opportunities for Honchkrow to make use of non-attacking moves.
Karen frowned. With Honchkrow affected by the Taunt, she was no longer able to stop Sableye from its spam of status moves with her own Taunt.
But Honchkrow still had plenty of options.
“Hurricane!”
With a powerful flap of her wings, Honchkrow unleashed an enormous tornado that was completely infused with Dark energy, forming a pillar of wind where light failed to shine through. The Dark Hurricane ripped through the battlefield, completely shredding the arena as loose rocks were violently thrown around, but it failed to catch the evasive Sableye as it fell into its shadow and dodged out of the way.
But the Hurricane was merely a cover for Honchkrow’s real attack, and she shot through her own Hurricane as she dove rapidly out of the sky, her wings glowing a menacing midnight black as Dark energy coalesced threateningly with them.
“Power Gem, Sableye!”
However, despite the threat of Honchkrow’s meteoric descent, Sableye remained unfazed as it fired off a small barrage of rocks towards Honchkrow, with Sableye’s blank gemstone eyes remaining locked onto Honchkrow.
With dismissive ease, Honchkrow easily dodged past the incoming barrage of rocks and channelled even more energy into her wings, ready to unleash a devastating slash across Sableye’s small frame.
But Sableye, instead of trying to dodge, merely continued staring idly at Honchkrow. Waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
Until Honchkrow was mere feet away from it, and Sableye’s eyes flashed.
“Thunder Wave!”
A small shock of electricity shot out of Sableye’s eyes, and with Honchkrow so close, she was completely unable to dodge the attack. The wave of electricity coursed through Honchkrow, paralyzing it.
But the paralysis was not enough to stop the momentum of Honchkrow’s attack as its heavily infused wing collided like a meteor into the small frame of Sableye, sending it flying through the air and into one of the psychic barriers from the impact alone.
Sableye’s body slumped on to the floor, its arms twitching slightly from the pain; that one attack had nearly knocked it out. But it wasn’t out just yet, and Sidney knew it. Thus, with the confidence of an experienced trainer that knew EXACTLY how far he could push his Pokémon, Sidney stayed utterly calm as he continued to give directions.
“Recover, Sableye! And get ready!”
With significant effort, Sableye managed to pull itself off the floor as it began to channel its inner energies, its wounds visibly healing as it did so. In the meanwhile, Honchkrow was not so fortunate. The Thunder Wave was clearly no ordinary one, as Honchkrow struggled to even flap her wings as the paralysis locked her muscles up in an iron grip of electricity. Honchkrow could hardly even move, let alone fly.
This was looking really bad for Karen. And Sidney was about to make things even worse.
“Sableye, Mean Look! Don’t let it escape!”
Temporarily cutting off its use of Recover, Sableye’s eyes flashed a haunting blue as it stared straight at Honchkrow. A shudder seemed to course through the big bird as the Mean Look took its hold, preventing it from escaping. And now Karen was locked into this situation for good.
But Karen was not one to give up either as she began shouting encouragement.
“You have to struggle through this, Honchkrow! This is nothing you’ve not dealt with before!”
With her entire face warped into one of intense struggle, Honchkrow forced its mouth open as she let out an affirmative squawk and forced Dark energy to gather in her wings before it finally began to break through the paralysis to unleash a Dark Pulse at Sableye.
Unfortunately, her hard-fought Dark Pulse was for naught as Sableye quicky burrowed into the ground to avoid it with a Dig.
“Confuse Ray, Sableye. Cripple it entirely.”
And then, as if to add salt on the wound, Sableye emerged from its tunnel and fired off a ray of light toward Honchkrow. The confusion quickly took hold as Honchkrow’s eyes lost all of its focus, immediately destroying any chance of Honchkrow ever breaking free from the paralysis – undoing all her effort.
She already needed to exert immense amounts of effort to break through even the once, so with the confusion furthering hindering her, it was a lost cause.
Unable to move, unable to react, unable to retreat. Honchkrow was little more than a sitting Psyduck. And both trainers knew it.
“Power Gem, Sableye. Time to bring it down.”
But even with Honchkrow practically completely disabled, Sidney took no chances, choosing to wear Honchkrow down instead patiently at a safe distance with a steady barrage of supereffective rocks. Some within the crowd started to boo as what they saw was un-sportsmanship like behaviour. But Sidney ignored it, as would I.
But, without any opportunity to fight back, Karen’s starter fell. Completely and utterly neutralized by the crippling status conditions that she was afflicted with and eventually falling to a final barrage of rocks.
The seemingly weak-looking Sableye had just brought her down.
“…WHAT A FIGHT!” The announcer said after a short pause, “ELITE SIDNEY SHOWING OFF HIS EXPERIENCE AS HIS SABLEYE BRINGS DOWN KAREN’S POWERFUL STARTER! BUT ONLY AFTER COMPLETELY CRIPPLING IT SO THAT IT WAS COMPLETELY UNABLE TO FIGHT BACK! WOW! HAVE YOU SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT BEFORE?! I CERTIANLY HAVEN’T!”
“THIS PUTS THE SCORE AT 3:2! ELITE SIDNEY TAKES BACK THE LEAD WITH THAT STELLAR PERFORMANCE!”
The crowd cheered as they usually did, but I zoned them out as I instead focused on Karen’s expression. She was frowning hard, and I could see that she was biting down on her lips. Her face was one of bitterness, and I could relate. That was not a fun way to see your starter go down.
But I had to give Sidney credit. This was a well-deserved victory. Sidney had completely outplayed Karen. From the moment that Sableye landed that Taunt on Honchkrow, Sidney had been able to dictate the fight. That was a very impressive feat.
“…So, any thoughts about that?” Steven spoke up, hoping to clear the awkward air that had settled in the VIP booth. Agatha just shot Steven an angry glare.
“Oh, don’t try to be nice. That was quite the beatdown. I would have laughed if it wasn’t my apprentice getting the shit kicked out of her.” Agatha fumed in annoyance, “I KNEW it was a bad idea to switch out her Weavile the moment I saw it. She should have just brought down Sableye with her Weavile! Never let the opponent dictate how you want to fight!”
“Sidney IS the far more experienced trainer, so mistakes like that are understandable.” Steven placated, “But it’s no wonder such a normally weak Pokémon is on Sidney’s Elite team.”
“It would lose to overwhelming strength though.” I pointed out, “If Honchkrow’s first attack managed to fully knock it out, then it would’ve been a fairly easy victory, if still a little hollow due to that paralysis. Still, that would still be a better outcome than this one.” Or perhaps Karen didn’t train up her paralysis resistance enough in her Flying type Honchkrow. But considering Agatha’s already bad mood, I didn’t voice that out.
“And now Karen has no choice but to sacrifice another Pokémon against it.” Agatha let out a defeated sigh, “I fear for her chances.”
And true to Agatha’s words, with visible frustration growing on her face, Karen was beginning to lose her calm as she sent out Weavile back into the fight.
“Bring it down, Weavile! Enough games!”
Not wasting a single second, Weavile quickly took off into a sprint as he rushed to avenge his fallen teammate.
“Taunt it and Thunder Wave, Sableye. Don’t let it setup!”
“Fake out, Weavile! Interrupt it!”
Thinking that Weavile wanted to set up on Sableye like he did previously, Sableye quickly positioned itself to fire off another Taunt at Weavile and paralyze it like it did with Honchkrow. However, with his incredible speed, Weavile blinked into existence in front of Sableye, clapping his hands together in a Fake Out that flinched and just barely interrupted Sableye’s attempts to Thunder Wave him. However, Sableye still managed to successfully land a Taunt against Weavile.
But that didn’t matter at the moment. Taking advantage of Sableye’s momentarily flinch, Weavile followed up by slashing through Sableye with a razor-sharp Night Slash.
“Drain Punch, Sableye! Fight back!”
Sableye tried to retaliate against by throwing out a would-be supereffective Drain Punch against Weavile, but compared to Weavile’s nimble and agile attacks, Sableye’s attempts only looked clumsy in comparison.
Weavile easily deflected the attack with a well-positioned parry before eviscerating Sableye with an onslaught of Night Slashes, turning into a hurricane of violence as he tore through Sableye’s health.
Clearly, Karen was giving no opportunity for Sableye to get up to any of its shenanigans and intended to use Weavile’s vastly superior speed to utterly overwhelm Sableye before it could fight back.
Even a hastily formed Protect shield by Sableye was quickly and ruthlessly smashed apart by Weavile. And with Sableye not being a particularly tanky Pokémon, everyone knew that there was no way that it could stand up to this onslaught of attacks for much longer. Even now, its once immaculately polished gemstone eyes were now ruined by cuts and scars.
It almost seemed like Karen had full control of the situation, and that Sableye was about to be knocked out. But then Sidney revealed that he had one last trick up his sleeve.
“ENDURE AND THUNDER WAVE, SABLEYE!”
“FALL BACK-! No, ignore that, COMMIT AND KNOCK IT OUT, WEAVILE!”
Despite its litany of cuts and injuries, Sableye’s eyes suddenly regained their focus and lustre as it mustered up every last inch of determination that it could, granting it the mental discipline needed to just tank through another devastating Night Slash that ripped across its side. Sableye stumbled to the side in pain, but quickly righted itself and fired off a small pulsating spark of electricity that flowed into Weavile.
I could see Karen gritting her teeth as her Weavile became paralyzed. While the effects of this paralysis wasn’t nearly as debilitating on her Weavile then it was on her Honchkrow, this was the one situation she wanted to avoid. It was why she was unwilling to use her Weavile against Sableye initially, but it looks like the final results were the same.
But this time, it seemed like she had shook of her earlier hesitation.
“ICE PUNCH AND FINISH IT, WEAVILE!”
Forcing itself to not be crippled by the paralysis, Weavile shot forwards, slower than it used to but just fast enough to reach Sableye before it could do any more harm, and slammed a final Ice Punch right into the centre of its face. A critical hit.
The impact caused Sableye to tumble through the air, putting up no resistance as it had finally succumbed to the extent of its injuries. It was finally out of the fight. Sidney only nodded with calm acceptance as he returned Sableye into its Pokéball.
“ANNND KAREN TAKES REVENGE WITH A POWERFUL BARRAGE OF ATTACKS FROM HER WEAVILE, FINALLY TAKING OUT SIDNEY’S SABLEYE AND EVENING OUT THE SCORE ONCE AGAIN! IT’S NOW BACK TO 3:3! BUT WILL ELITE SIDNEY MANAGE TO GAIN BACK THE ADVANTAGE?!”
The crowd cheered wildly at Karen’s quick victory, but to a more astute observer, the victory rang hollow. And from how Karen’s lip curled into a deep frown, it was obvious that she was greatly dissatisfied with how that went.
I could understand. Her earlier mistake of returning Weavile instead of committing ended up costing her starter, and now she had a paralyzed Weavile as well. I would be pretty frustrated too in her position.
However, instead of lingering on it, I watched as she deliberately uncrossed her arms and unclenched her fists as she took deep breaths to calm herself down.
“Good.” Agatha spoke up as she watched Karen forcefully relax herself, “She can’t allow Sidney to get into her head like that.”
“At least Sidney’s Sableye is down though.” I commented, “That thing was a real pain in the ass.”
“If that wasn’t my apprentice in that fight, I would be cheering for the Sableye.” Agatha lamented, “That was an excellent display of the power of a Ghost type. I do it better, obviously, but I’ll admit that Sidney is no amateur.” I rolled my eyes at her boasting.
Steven elected to stay silent, instead staring intently on the battlefield as he fell into deep thought. I knew he was trying to analyse something specific about the fight – maybe he was trying to think of how he would beat Sidney’s Sableye in his own fight? I wished him luck on that.
But before I could try to further decipher Steven’s inner thoughts, Sidney sent out his next Pokémon.
“Finish it off, Shiftry.”
And as I expected, he sent out his Shiftry again. And this time, with Weavile crippled and slowed by the paralysis, it should have no problems out-speeding it.
And that was exactly what happened. With its leaf blades gleaming in the afternoon sun, Shiftry rushed menacingly towards Weavile. In a complete reversal of its earlier fight, Shiftry now had the speed advantage and was able to dance around the once-speedier Pokémon.
Leaf blades and claws smashed against each other, each one trying to parry the other’s attacks. The fight rapidly devolved into a whirlwind of attacks, with Shiftry trying its best to use its now superior speed to slash at Weavile using favourable angles.
The two Pokémon did whatever they could to gain an advantage. There was the occasional sweep of the leg, the sudden Sucker Punch when one Pokémon had slightly overextended themselves, and they even tried to mix up a few Special Attacks in there to hopefully throw the other off balance.
They didn’t even need their trainers to command them. At this point, they were both fighting on pure instinct and technique.
But even with Weavile being paralyzed, he was still putting up a good fight. He was used to bringing down opponents much stronger than him, so he actually had the strength advantage over Shiftry, even if he was now slower than the Grass type. They both had the technique, and were both masters at what they did best.
And yet it was that paralysis that made up all the difference.
With Weavile’s movements no longer being as fluid as they would normally be, Shiftry was slowly but surely able to gain an advantage. A swipe from Weavile that would normally land successfully was instead parried, giving Shiftry the opportunity to step forwards and strike at Weavile with a quick slash of his Leaf Blade before stepping aside and dodging past an attempted retaliatory Ice Punch that came an inch too late.
And it was at this moment that Weavile’s muscles tensed ever so minutely as the effects of paralysis once again showed itself. It was almost unnoticeable, but Shiftry’s eyes had been locked onto its target ever since the start of the fight. It wouldn’t miss a moment of weakness like this.
With Weavile’s arm momentarily locked in place, Shiftry slipped past Weavile’s failed attack while its arms began to gleam white. Seeing what was coming, Weavile’s eyes widened, and he forcefully pushed through the paralysis as he swung his arms around in a desperate attempt to parry the incoming attack.
But it was too late. Weavile’s arm was barely inches away from landing an Ice Punch into Shiftry’s face before Shiftry brutally smashed into him with a critical Brick Break. Letting out a shrieking cry of pain, Weavile tumbled backwards, clutching its chest in pain as it was struck by the 4x supereffective attack.
Weavile was sent skidding across the floor of the arena. But there was no need for any follow-up attack from Sidney. It was clear to everyone that Weavile wasn’t getting up.
Karen accepted Weavile’s defeat with a stoic nod, returning it with a blank expression on her face. I watched as she let out a breath, and I even tuned out the announcer as she seemed to fiddle with a new Pokéball that appeared in her hand.
I knew what was coming.
“TYRANITAR! SHOW THEM YOUR MIGHT!”
Tyranitar landed onto the arena with an audible thud, cracking the ground from its sheer weight alone. Dust and sand slowly began circling around his figure, gradually forming a sandstorm that centred around itself.
“TYRAN! TYRANITAR!!” He shouted out, letting out a magnificent roar that managed to scatter the flowing sands even further across the arena. Pulling himself to his full height, Tyranitar absolutely towered over the far smaller Shiftry. Strength radiated out of him in waves; there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this was a pure beast of destruction.
Even Sidney was taken aback by the appearance of such a monster. He might not have expected Karen to have managed to evolve her Pupitar. But Sidney quickly pulled himself together, not letting himself be intimidated by the presence of such a towering creature, and the battle began in earnest.
“Razor Leaf, Shiftry. Keep your distance and scout it out.”
“Flamethrower, Tyranitar! TORCH THEM!”
Shiftry took off with a sprint as it began circling around the stationary Tyranitar, all the while firing off a barrage of Razor Leaves to test Tyranitar’s defences and slowly wear him down. But with a dismissive scoff, Tyranitar responded by exhaling a blazing column of fire from its maw, instantly incinerating Shiftry’s attacks.
The column of fire swept across the battlefield, pursuing after the now fleeing Shiftry, scorching the howling winds of sand as it did. Gradually, the sandstorm itself was ignited, making the whole thing look more like a firestorm than a sandstorm.
Shiftry was doing its utmost to avoid the column of flames. It made full use of its superior speed to just stay one step ahead of the incoming stream of fire, narrowly avoiding being completely incinerated by it. But the scorching sands were slowly starting to take its toll, and while it avoided being hit directly, the residual damage from the searing sandstorm was starting to bite into Shiftry’s health.
But Tyranitar could not sustain its Flamethrower indefinitely. It only had a limited amount of Fire energy to make use of. And seeing that Shiftry proved a little too agile to be torched by Tyranitar’s Flamethrower, Karen swapped tactics.
“Stone Edge, Tyranitar! Smash it!”
“Grass Knot, Shiftry! Trip it!”
Cutting off the column of flames, Tyranitar let out another roar as huge pillars of rocks suddenly erupted from the ground all around Shiftry, each one threatening to impale through the smaller Pokémon. But, showing off its signature mobility once again, Shiftry was a whirlwind of spins, jumps and dashes as it narrowly avoided each and every pillar that shot out of the ground.
And it was so good at this that it even had a moment to create a small, yet sturdy, tendril of grass that latched onto one of Tyranitar’s legs. Not realizing the attack, the tendril suddenly pulled hard on Tyranitar’s legs, completely destroying his sense of balance and causing him to fall over.
Seeing the lumbering titan tumble down onto the ground, Sidney took this moment to finally push onto the offensive.
“CHARGE IN! LEAF BLADE!”
Shiftry exploded forwards, both arms gleaming a brilliant green as it charged up to land a devastating Leaf Blade on what appeared to be a vulnerable Tyranitar. And why wouldn’t it be? The Grass Knot had caused Tyranitar to trip over and fall onto his face.
And it was too enticing of a target for Shiftry to ignore. Quickly closing the distance, Shiftry fully committed to the attack and sliced into Tyranitar’s exposed back with a fierce double Leaf Blade that gouged deeply into Tyranitar.
Tyranitar let out a groan of pain, as he seemed to collapse on to the ground. Thinking that he had scored a lucky hit, Sidney ordered Shiftry to move in and finish off Tyranitar.
But the calculating gleam in Karen’s eyes and the bloodthirsty smile on her face said it all. I knew that Sidney had just sprung Karen’s trap.
Tyranitar was no weakling to be brought down by a single move. Tyranitar were meant to be kings of the mountain. Titans that required a whole group of trained Pokémon to be brought down. And this Tyranitar had endured far more than this in his training sessions against his rival, Vordt. And Shiftry hit nowhere near as hard as his rival. He would not be brought down by a single move like that. Critical hit or not.
Tyranitar still had way more left in the tank. And Sidney was in for a rude awakening.
“STONE EDGE NOW! AND GRAB IT!” Karen shouted, her voice almost turning hoarse for a moment from how much energy she put into that.
“GET OUT OF THERE!” Sidney tried to order, but it was too late.
Before Shiftry could react, a pillar of stone suddenly shot out from the ground and crashed into Shiftry, tripping it up and breaking its charge. Before it could regain its balance, Tyranitar’s arm suddenly shot out and grabbed the stumbling Shiftry in his grasp.
Shiftry immediately unleashed a wide slash from another Leaf Blade as it tried to break free from Tyranitar’s iron grip. But Tyranitar only snarled menacingly at the trapped Shiftry, not even reacting at the cut that he had just received.
The tables had turned. Deprived of its mobility, Shiftry was left at the mercy of Tyranitar. And it had little to give.
Tyrnitar let out a roar and ferociously SMASHED Shiftry into the ground with such force that it shattered the ground beneath them. At the same time, an enormous pillar of stone came crashing down onto Shiftry, pinning him down into the ground and trapping him underneath the prison of rock.
“LEAF BLADE AND CUT YOURSELF OUT!” Sidney tried, worry evident in his voice.
Despite the punishment it had just taken, Shiftry still had some fight in it as it showed off the sharpness of its Leaf Blades by slicing cleanly through the avalanche of stone that had kept it pinned with a flurry of slashes, barely managing to make enough room to scramble free.
But Tyranitar was not just idling about.
“FLAMETHROWER, TYRANITAR! TORCH IT!”
Shiftry immediately tried to bury itself underground just as searing torrent of flames came spewing out of Tyranitar’s mouth. But choosing to Dig underground to avoid the flames ended up sealing Shiftry’s fate.
“EARTHQUAKE, NOW!”
Tyranitar instantly retracted his stream of flames before stomping on the ground, splitting the arena as the ground began to shake heavily. Powerful tremors spread across the arena, and a huge spiderweb of cracks began to form on the surface of the arena as the ground crumbled and split around him.
Then, as the Earthquake ended, all you could see amidst the carnage was the lone figure of an unconscious Shiftry, who had been spat out by the vicious tremors ripping through the ground.
As the announcer called out Karen’s victory, I couldn’t help but shoot Agatha a smug smirk – I trained that beast! But she just rolled her eyes at me.
“Yes yes, you helped train her well. But what kind of Tyranitar can’t take a hit anyways?” Agatha replied dismissively. I simply grinned at her.
“I never even knew she had a Tyranitar. That’s not something I really expected from a Dark type trainer.” Steven commented with a frown, “Normally Dark type trainers have Pokémon that are more…squishy.”
I shrugged, “Just like everything else, Dark type Pokémon come in all sorts. Tyranitar is far from the only exception.”
Steven shook his head, “That’s not what I meant. Even though I knew Tyranitar was a Dark type, it’s just not a Pokémon that you expect to see with Dark specialists. You expect tricks and status moves, not raw power like that. It’s just a little unusual.”
“Which was why having something on her team that could fight like that was something Agatha and I both emphasized for her.” I explained, “Sometimes, you get opponents you can’t beat with one strategy, so you have to make use of another.”
“Yes…that is a good reminder.” Steven said, thinking deeply once again. “That might be something for me to work on…”
“Though, isn’t it ironic that in this battle between Dark specialists, they have hardly used any Dark type moves over this entire battle?” Steven pointed out amusedly, “It seems incongruous that they are competing for the title of being the unofficial ‘best’ Dark type trainer, and yet they are mostly using moves outside of their specialty.”
“Huh. Never thought of it like that.” I said curiously, “But I get it – if they’re trying to win, using moves that their opponents are resistant to is not going to be smart.”
“Bah. Any good type specialist knows that you need to have moves outside your own type. Unless your name ends with ‘Blackthorn’.” Agatha scoffed, “Being able to master a multitude of types and fighting styles that compliment your own is a mark of any good type specialist. Just being able to fight with your own type means you’re a shit trainer.”
I nodded, agreeing with Agatha. Any good Normal type specialist would know better than to just focus on Normal type moves. One of the main advantages of the Normal types was their access to a huge range of moves, and not taking advantage of that was idiotic.
But that was enough wool-gathering from us, because Sidney had finally made his decision about who he would use to bring down Karen’s dominating Tyranitar.
And it certainly wasn’t what I expected.
“Sharpedo! Bring it down!”
A large shark ripped free from its Pokémon ball. Its mouth snapped open, the most prominent feature of its entire body, revealed its menacingly sharp teeth that glistened in the afternoon sun. Its serrated teeth looked sharp and deadly enough to puncture anything they latched onto.
Despite there being no water for it to swim in, it seemed perfectly at home on land, its mobility not even being affected.
In response, Tyranitar let out a challenging roar that shook the ground as if he was daring Sharpedo to fight him.
And the Sharpedo was eager to obey.
“Aqua Jet, Sharpedo! Focus up!”
“Stone Edge, Tyranitar! Shatter it!”
Huge spears of rocks began circling around Tyranitar once again before they shot out like heavy javelins that flew towards Sharpedo. But if Tyranitar thought that Shiftry was a hard target to hit, then Sharpedo was even faster. Sure, it didn’t have Shiftry’s agility and technique, but it made up with that with pure speed.
And boosted by its Aqua Jet, Sharpedo was almost invisible as it blurred around the battlefield. And its Speed Boost was only causing it to go even faster. It didn’t matter how many chunks of rocks that Tyranitar was blasting its way, he had no hope of hitting the Sharpedo.
Realizing this, Karen tried something else.
“Earthquake, Tyranitar! Go wide!”
“NOW! LIQUIDATION!”
The ground, which had already been heavily damaged from the fight before, was shattered once again as Tyranitar unleashed another destructive Earthquake that transformed the already broken arena into something consisting of barely held together pieces of rubble.
And yet, Sharpedo cleverly avoided the attack by shooting itself upwards with a plume of water, before blasting forwards and smashing into Tyranitar with the speed of a rocket. Tyranitar stumbled backwards, groaning as it took the supereffective blow, but Sharpedo had already rocketed away before Tyranitar could try to retaliate with an attack of his own.
“Liquidation AGAIN! DON’T LET UP!”
Shooting around the battlefield, Sharpedo unleashed another geyser of water to quickly pivot around in the air and crashed full speed into Tyranitar once again, this time following up the attack with a powerful Crunch to the shoulder. And once again, Tyranitar was barely unable to respond in time as Sharpedo quickly retreated out of range.
After all, how could you hit a target that you could barely even see?
And Sharpedo was making clever use of its ever-increasing speed to amplify the damage of its Liquidation by colliding with Tyranitar with that much more force, smashing Tyranitar repeatedly with an onslaught of devastating supereffective Liquidations over and over again. There was hardly a second in-between attacks.
It was a blur of devastation, Sharpedo having fully streamlined every little aspect of itself so that it could hit as hard and as fast as possible. Tyranitar’s attempts to catch Sharpedo merely looked like confused flailing – that was how much faster Sharpedo was in comparison.
Large rocks were shot forwards, Dark Pulses were fired, but none could hit the jet-like Sharpedo.
And the brutal Liquidations were taking its toll. No matter how bulky Tyranitar was, or how good it was at taking attacks, no Pokémon could tank through such a powerful blitz of attacks for too long.
Karen grimaced. Her mind likely awhirl with thoughts as she tried to figure out how she would catch the speeding Sharpedo. But Sidney was giving her no time to think, his Sharpedo was an unceasing and uncaring threat that constantly pummelled Tyranitar as each attack ripped through more and more of Tyranitar’s health.
The great Tyranitar, the supposedly unstoppable pinnacle of the Dark type, was being brought low by a ‘mere’ Sharpedo. In seconds, Tyranitar had transformed from this sturdy titan into a hobbling beast that was cradling his wounds. His breathing came heavily, and his once gleaming scales were now battered and bruised. He could not hold out for much longer.
The king of the mountain was being beaten down by a land-locked shark. It was a humbling testament to what you could achieve with enough raw speed.
But when I turned to Karen, instead of seeing a look of panic that I was expecting, her expression was one of pure focus, like a hunter waiting to catch its prey. Her Tyranitar might already be on his last legs, but he still wasn’t out of the fight just yet. Just like Sidney had done previously with his Sableye, Karen looked like she was waiting for the right moment to strike.
And in the brief moment where Sharpedo pivoted around in preparation for another attack, in that single second where Sharpedo would not be able to make use of its speed to dodge out of the way, Karen struck.
“CRIPPLE!”
An eerie wave of pulsating Dark energy exploded from Tyranitar, instantly enveloping the Sharpedo. Sharpedo stumbled in its attack, recoiling back as if it had flinched. It tried to recover, but then its eyes rapidly grew enraged, then confused, then enraged again as its mind was assaulted by a bombardment of different status effects.
And crucially, during this moment of mental affliction, Sharpedo was not moving.
“AQUA JET BACKWARDS, SHARPEDO! GET OUT OF THERE!” Sidney shouted out, alarmed by what was happening.
“Thunderbolt, Tyranitar!”
To Sharpedo’s credit, the voice of its trainer was enough to momentarily snap it out its mental ailments, but just as a veil of water formed around Sharpedo, a spear of Lightning came crashing down and shot through it, causing Sharpedo to collapse to the ground as its muscles started freezing up with paralysis.
And now the tables were turned.
“Stone Edge! Keep it pinned!”
“Protect, Sharpedo!”
But Sharpedo did not respond to its trainer’s order. Its eyes were still too locked with rage for it to use the move. And before Sharpedo could pull itself up, it let out a painful cry as an avalanche of sharp rocks smashed down on it, keeping it pinned painfully to the ground – almost as if Sharpedo had been speared through.
“FINISH IT!”
“DESTINY BOND!”
“TYRANITARRR!!” Tyranitar let out a roar that and unleashed all of his built-up frustrations with a singularly punishing Brick Break that struck with such force that it shattered and cracked the ground below the enraged Sharpedo. Not satisfied with that one attack, Tyranitar followed up with another vicious Brick Break that finally ended the threat that was Sharpedo.
Sharpedo never even got the opportunity to fire off a Destiny Bond. Not that it could have, not if my guess about the effects of Karen’s Cripple was correct. I had seen her train with it – it was supposed to be a combination of Taunt, Torment, and the flinching effect from Dark Pulse all in one. I supposed this was the final product.
Tyranitar let out a victorious roar to the sky above as he finally conquered his opponent, only to wobble heavily as the adrenaline quickly fled his body and its spread of injuries made themselves known once again. Tyranitar’s eyes suddenly dimmed slightly, and then he fell onto his knees as his legs failed to support him.
Karen quickly withdrew Tyranitar before it fell over, not wanting to tarnish the image of his victory, and declared that she was withdrawing him from the battle. After that, I watched as she whispered something to Tyranitar’s Pokéball with a pleased smile on her face, likely praising him for a good job.
Tyranitar had seriously pulled his weight, and he had done an incredible job for its first big battle after his evolution.
But now – it was all down to their final Pokémon. Their respective aces.
Even the VIP room was silent as we were all engrossed in the tension of the battle. None of us wanting to speak up and ruin the mood that we were all feeling. Right now, it was anyone’s battle.
Karen and Sidney stared each other down. A silent message being communicated across the two of them before they both nodded and released their last Pokémon together.
“Houndoom.”
“Absol.”
And just like it was at the very beginning of this fight, two quadruped Pokémon emerged from their Pokéballs. One was snarling, possessing a face of restrained aggression and fury. Small embers of flames flickered menacingly in her mouth, as Houndoom locked eyes with her opponent. Her eyes glared with the vicious ferocity of a beast in the dark.
In the meanwhile, Absol was silent at the night. Its gaze was wise, yet sharp. It had not adopted a threatening posture, but its crescent horn gleamed dangerously, ready to cut down any foe that dare approached it like a deadly blade in the dark.
This was it. The final showdown. The deciding match. And it kicked off with a bang.
“Flamethrower, Houndoom! Keep your distance.”
“Quick Attack to the side and get close, Absol!”
Houndoom instantly released a huge funnel of black flames that scorched the ground into a burning black as she tried to incinerate Absol. But Absol dashed to the side with a Quick Attack before leaping across the previously destroyed arena while rapidly closing the distance against Houndoom.
“Heat Wave, Houndoom! Torch it!”
“Protect and keep rushing forwards, Absol!”
With a furious howl, Houndoom unleashed a searing wave of heat that spread across the arena, turning the battlefield into a furious sea of black flames that seemed to linger dangerously on the ground. But Absol did remained unconcerned, casually forming a Protect shield to block the attack while continuing to rush forwards as it danced over the flames with practiced grace.
Then, as it continued to get closer, Absol suddenly split into a huge swarm of afterimages, completely concealing its true position. The afterimages were practically perfect copies of the original, making it impossible to tell which was the original.
Houndoom had to disperse them.
“ROAR, HOUNDOOM!”
“QUICK ATTACK NOW, ABSOL! CLOSE COMBAT!”
Houndoom unleashed a deafening Roar that quickly dispersed the afterimages, leaving all but one. But that single remaining figure suddenly blurred forwards, catching Houndoom off-guard and crashing into her with a critical slash with its crescent horn that cut deep into the ground.
A single slash, and a grim reminder of Houndoom’s frailty.
Houndoom slid backwards, and Absol was a whirlwind of disciplined aggression as it swiftly followed up with unrelenting flurry of powerful strikes from its claws and horns. Each hit was aimed with deadly accuracy to target all of Houndoom’s weak points, savagely shredding through Houndoom’s health with each respective critical hit.
But the Fire type did not sit helplessly, instead she let out a defiant growl and released a huge explosion of dark flames that scorched everything around her, leaving only a lingering aura of malice and flames.
Unlike Absol, there was no precision. Only sheer, raw, and all-consuming destruction.
Absol valiantly tried to slice through the flames, but it was a useless effort. The explosion of fire and darkness overwhelmed Absol, causing it to flinch and forcing it away. Its once pristine fur now singed and scorched as black flames danced across it. And to make matters worse, no matter how much Absol tried to extinguish the flames by patting at it with its paws, the flames would not go away. The burn was here to stay.
The flames even lingered on the ground, forming a small puddle of dark embers that seemed to burn with malefic energies - as if they were fuelled by the very Dark type energy they were combined with.
However, Houndoom was no better from that exchange either. In that short clash, Houndoom had found herself severely injured by the devastating critical hits from Absol. Each fierce cleave of Absol’s had rended a large chunk of Houndoom’s health.
Their respective advantages was clear. Absol possessed a devastating offence, with the precision to critically strike with each powerful slash of its horn that shredded through Houndoom’s health. On the other hand, Houndoom had access to searing flames that covered a wide area and didn’t seem to be easily extinguishable. The former wanted to get close, the latter wanted to wear her opponent down overtime and take control of the battlefield before rushing in for the finishing blow.
But now the former was burnt, and the latter was badly injured. And neither had the opportunity to heal up. My gut was telling me that this was not going to be a long battle. Neither Pokémon were suitable for it.
And then, almost in sync, both trainers made their move.
“Double Team, Absol. And setup.”
“Taunt it, Houndoom!”
As Absol moved to begin setting up, Houndoom quickly shut down those plans as she released a shroud of Dark energy that rapidly enraged the Absol.
Taking advantage of the sudden hesitation, Houndoom moved to setup.
“Sunny Day, Houndoom!”
“Air Slash and rush in, Absol!”
But Absol was quick to punish Houndoom’s own setup by firing off a series of cutting blades of wind that slashed through Houndoom just as she unleashed a beam of light into the air. The Air Slashes cut deep into Houndoom, causing her to flinch.
Absol burst forwards, becoming an almost invisible blur of darkness as it moved faster than it did before and leaped towards Houndoom, its crescent horn glowing a dangerously blinding white as Fighting energy began stored within. Houndoom instantly fired off a column of flames at the approaching Absol, but it simply cut through it with a single slash of its horn, before slashing down hard once again with a powerful strike that left a deep gouge into the ground.
Houndoom fell onto all fours as her legs collapsed from under her as she let out a whimper of pain. Absol immediately tried to pounce on top of Houndoom’s fallen figure, another slash poised to strike.
But then Houndoom’s eyes suddenly shot open. Her head lifted slightly so that she was staring straight at Absol’s face, a huge orb of fire barely being restrained in her mouth. The previous attack had only been a glancing strike - she had faked her injuries!
“FIRE BLAST, NOW!”
A torrent of fire exploded from Houndoom’s mouth as it enveloped Absol in a sea of searing flames. Boosted by the sun, the heat of the flames was so intense that it managed to scorch the ground even without touching it. Unable to retreat in time, Absol was blasted face-first and was badly burned by the violent torrent of flames.
Yet, with incredible discipline, Absol still had the presence of mind to react with a sweep of its horns that cut right through the flames as it retaliated with a critical Slash that sliced painfully through Houndoom.
The flames were instantly cut off as Houndoom staggered backwards in pain with a howl of pain, falling onto her knees once again as the injuries took a toll on her. This time she didn’t seem like she was faking it.
But no follow up attack came, as Absol was busy trying to put itself out as the flames scorched its body. Absol almost looked like a Fire type with how its entire body was wreathed in fire, and both of its eyes were sealed shut as they had been terribly scorched by the attack.
Despite being so close together, and both looking like they were on their last legs, neither of them were in any state to counterattack at the moment. It had been a ferocious and violent battle, but both trainers knew that this was the end.
Whoever landed the next attack was going to win. And they both believed it was going to be them. Therefore, they moved to fire off the fastest attack that their Pokémon both knew.
““DARK PULSE!””
Weakly, both Pokémon pulled themselves up and fired off their respective Dark Pulses, unleashing two streams of Dark energy out of their mouths. Crippled by their injuries, neither Dark Pulses were particularly noteworthy or powerful, and were a mere fraction of their true capabilities.
But that was enough. All they needed was one final blow to knock the other Pokémon out.
The two pulsating torrents of darkness met each other in the middle. The two streams of energy pushed against each other, moving back and forth as both Pokémon devoted the last of their energy and determination into this final attack. Straining themselves to the utmost limit as they channelled whatever vestige of energy they could into their attack, looking to finally overwhelm the other.
They both let out a growl of exertion as they taxed their bodies over their limits, using energy and strength that they shouldn’t have, pushing everything they could into their most proficient move.
Both Pokémon were determined to do their trainer proud. They were their trainers most trusted Ace, their most loyal companion. They had achieved everything alongside their trainer. They would not fall. They would not disappoint. They would not LOSE!
And yet, there could only be one.
One beam of Dark energy finally overwhelmed the other and struck the other Pokémon head on. That Pokémon wobbled. That Pokémon stumbled. That Pokémon collapsed.
In one of the tightest margins ever seen, with the other Pokémon seconds away from collapsing, the battle was finally over.
The crowd erupted into huge cheers as many stood in their seats, applauding, and screaming their support. The three of us in the VIP room stood as well, clapping hard at this well-deserved victory. Even if it was closer than many of us had expected.
“ANNNNNNND WE HAVE A WINNER! THEIR FINAL POKEMON GOES DOWN IN WHAT WAS AN INCREDIBLE FINAL ATTACK FROM THE BOTH OF THEM! BUT NOW, THE BATTLE IS OVER, WITH THE FINAL SCORE AT 6:5!! AN EXTREMELY CLOSE BATTLE THAT REALLY COULD HAVE GONE EITHER WAY!!”
“NONETHELESS, PLEASE GIVE A HUGE CHEER AND APPLAUSE FOR OUR WINNER, KAREN!”
A.N. KAREN WINS! Barely. But she won anyways! These chapters were extremely difficult to write, I really hoped you enjoyed this combined chapter. The fight was supposed to be done over the course of 3 chapters, but I condescend it into 2 because a) it was supposed to be the new year’s gift, but I mistimed it, and b) I thought it would flow better this way.
For my own thoughts on the battle, I figured that this fight really could have gone either way. Sidney was more experienced in making use of the Dark type and its speciality, but he had been stagnating recently. In comparison, Karen is used to fighting difficult opponents by practicing against Agatha and John, so she’s actually had more recent practice.
I hope I demonstrated that this fight really could have gone either way. Once again, I sincerely hope you enjoyed it – and I hope it didn’t drag on for too long.
This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Big thanks!
Comments
Galen Tanner
Man this was a really good fight keep up the good work
SailorOfHouseThunderBird
Fantastic fight 👏
Thomas Hendrix
Good read. A slight criticism if I may. The word but was used a lot this chapter. To the point it felt like you were channeling Billy May
