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The New Normal - 5-10
🕑 Added 2023-09-18 06:27:41 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 5-10 – A Practice Duel
I continued working on training my Pokémon for my upcoming battle the next day. Naturally, I had also texted everyone to not look for me unless my presence was absolutely necessary, as I was going to be devoting all of my time to train up.
Of course, Karen was the one exception to my ‘not meeting anyone’ rule, since she was here to spar with me. This was where I found myself now, idly walking to the training fields with Karen after a shared late breakfast. We had to walk extra far today, because of the potential property damage we might accidentally inflict through our moves.
“So, how are we doing this?” She asked as we were walking, “I assume you had an idea of which of my Pokémon you wanted to practice against.”
“I did.” I confirmed, “Obviously, I want to simulate conditions that would be similar to battling against Bruno, so I’ve already chosen the matchups. They’re going to be your Weavile vs my Snorlax, your Houndoom vs my Wyrdeer, and your Pupitar vs my Ursaluna.”
“Okay…I can see the logic behind that.” She said after thinking through my proposed matchups.
“Also, I don’t want you overly relying on your tricks against me today.” I told her as she looked at me curiously, “Bruno isn’t one for it. I’ve studied his previous battles, so it won’t be an accurate practice fight if you rely too much on it.”
“Plus, weren’t you trying to focus slightly more on making use of your Pokémon’s raw strength?” I asked rhetorically, “This would be a good opportunity. Remember, don’t hold anything back. Treat this as a proper 3v3 fight.”
“True, and I have been training a lot.” She nodded, “The old hag has been running me dry. You’re lucky you’re not related to her.”
“My condolences for your suffering.” I deadpanned. “Anyways, we’re here. Let’s get into positions.”
The two of us stand opposite each other as we stared each other down. We had done a few practice duels during our time training together, but those were mostly just one on one spars between partnered Pokémon to train a specific move or aspect. But this was going to be the first time we would have a proper spar without holding anything back.
I could see Karen’s eyes narrowing in determination, and I braced myself for the onslaught to come. I knew she would be taking this opportunity to push me as far as she could.
“On the count of three.” I said, “Three. Two. One. GO!” We both threw out our Pokémon.
“Weavile! Show off your training!”
“Smough, time for another beatdown!”
Weavile emerged from his Pokéball with a running start, immediately trying to circle around the newly emerged Smough and hit him in the flanks. I knew that the speed difference was too much for Smough; Weavile was just too fast for him to hit without him slipping up.
Thus, I had to go wide.
“Seismic Eruption, Smough! Shatter the ground!”
“UP AND ROLL, WEAVILE!”
Weavile leapt up into the air just before the ground shook and shattered as Smough’s Earthquake ripped through the ground. Weavile quickly transitioned into a roll as huge pillars of rocks erupted from the ground soon afterwards, impaling the spot that Weavile was in moments ago.
“Brick Break, NOW!”
“COUNTER, SMOUGH!”
Smough’s outline rapidly turned orange, which flashed brightly just as Weavile landed a powerful chop to the head. Quickly retaliating, Smough converted the damage into energy and threw one of its arms forwards in a devastating counterattack.
However, Weavile’s agility proved its use once again as he nimbly dived under Smough’s arms and hopped backwards out of his range. But my counterattack wasn’t over yet.
“Heavy Slam! Forwards!”
“Ice Spinner and fall back!”
With an agile twirl, Weavile flung himself backwards while firing off small chunks of Ice that embedded themselves in my charging Smough, who barely missed the Weavile with his Heavy Slam. I grimaced at Weavile’s dodges, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see Karen shooting me a smug smirk at Smough’s inability to just LAND A HIT.
I knew that if I could just land one good hit on her Weavile, then the round would be over. Her Weavile was extremely fragile, but I had just been reminded that he compensated for that by being so nimble that he was near impossible to hit.
It was likely going to be the same with Bruno’s Pokémon as well. I was certain that his Pokémon would be able to outmanoeuvre Smough, and so I needed a way to force them to overextend themselves and provide an opportunity for Smough.
However, Karen obviously wasn’t going to just give me an opportunity to think.
“Step back and Swords Dance, Weavile! Set up!”
But then, as I watched Weavile begin setting up, an idea popped into my head.
“Belly Drum, Smough! ALL OR NOTHING!”
Karen’s eyes widened with surprise as Smough started beating his belly like a drum. Anyone familiar with setup moves would know that Belly Drum was the ultimate high-risk-high-reward move. With Smough now at maxed attack, I was confident that even a glancing blow from Smough would be enough to end the fight.
However, Smough was also now at half health, and so could be taken out with a powerful enough hit from Weavile, especially with his Swords Dance boost. And I was banking on Karen to know this.
I had chosen to go this route to bait Karen into attacking. I couldn’t do anything to her if she continued slowly whittling down Smough with short bursts of attacks before retreating. However, now that Smough’s attack was maxed, even such attempts would be extremely high risk. Just a single glancing blow from Smough might be enough to take Weavile out.
And yet, I knew that she would be tempted to go for the decisive blow against Smough. One supereffective hit was likely enough to finish off the wounded Smough. And if Weavile really committed into his attack, then he might be able to achieve it.
Which was what Karen did.
“GET IN CLOSE AND BRICK BREAK, WEAVILE! YOU CAN FINISH THIS!”
“COUNTER, SMOUGH! BRACE AND GET READY!”
Karen’s eyes grew sharp and she narrowed them at me as she heard my command. We both knew what this meant. I was betting on the fact that Smough could tank through her Brick Break and land a decisive counterattack, and she was betting on the opposite.
But I had faith in Smough. After all, he frequently had to take hits against Tyrant.
Both of our eyes locked onto the charging Weavile, who was blazing forwards with ruthless determination as he approached my waiting Smough. Weavile let out a sharp cry as he got close, before he shot forwards in a blur of colour and crashed into Smough with a devastating Brick Break, chopping down powerfully onto Smough’s center.
Smough let out a long painful groan as the attack landed and stumbled backwards from the sheer power of the attack, leaving trails in the ground. A lesser Snorlax would have crumpled immediately, but I knew Smough was made of stronger stuff.
He wobbled uncertainly on his feet, clearly woozy and disorientated from the pain, but his eyes suddenly flashed with rage and resolve as he let out a vengeful roar. A roar to declare to the skies above that he would not fall.
Weavile immediately tried to backpedal and get out of Smough’s range, but he had committed too much into the attack and wasn’t able to react in time. Using all of the accumulated energy from the Counter, Smough brought one of his arms down in a powerful Hammer Arm that just barely glanced off of the fleeing Weavile, but that was enough to cause Weavile to stumble over in pain.
Seeing Weavile trip over himself, Smough let out another roar as he charged forwards without needing me to say anything and smashed into the exposed Weavile with a Body Slam, sending the Weavile tumbling through the air as it was blasted backwards from the force of the attack. His body skidded across the ground, unconscious.
But not a moment later, Smough collapsed onto his knees as the fatigue and damage caught up with him, panting heavily with exhaustion. Understanding that he had pushed himself to his limits, I withdrew Smough and patted his Premier Ball gently. He had done well.
“Feh, I knew that was a bait.” Karen sighed as she withdrew her fallen Weavile. “Still had to go for it though.”
“Why?” I asked curiously.
“This is just a practice match, after all.” She explained with a shrug, “Might as well test out the limits of my Weavile’s strength. Seems like it still isn’t enough though.”
“It was still very impressive.” I reassured, “Just a little bit more and the outcome would’ve been reversed.”
But instead of feeling disappointed, she only shot me a mischievous grin, “Well it’s a good thing I have just the thing up my sleeve for if we ever got into a real battle.”
I looked at her curiously, “What do you mean? And why didn’t you just use it?”
“Well…you’re practicing for Bruno after all. So I thought I’d stick to Fighting type moves since those would be more helpful.” She explained, “But…I do have a much more powerful move that I’ve recently come up with that would have likely brought down your Snorlax. It’s a Dark type move that reverses the enemy’s buffs to do more damage.”
…That sounded very familiar, but I couldn’t quite place my finger on it yet. Still, I didn’t let my smirk drop, “Sure…whatever you say. We both know that my Snorlax is on a different level. Perhaps it would’ve managed to tank it as well.”
She rolled her eyes, “Okay, show-off. Why don’t you send out your next Pokémon so that we can actually continue.”
I shot Karen another smirk before I wiped it away as I grabbed hold of Luna’s Premier Ball. Honestly, despite what I said to Karen, the battle was far closer than I’d like. But it did reaffirm the fact that I needed to continue training with Smough so that he could become even more resistant against Fighting attacks.
Right, enough of that. It was time for the next fight. I signalled to Karen with a nod that I was ready.
“Houndoom! Blast them away!”
“Klaus! As we practiced!
Her Houndoom emerged with a menacing howl, letting out a stream of flames that scorched the air around her. She quickly locked eyes with Klaus, looking every bit like a predator about to pounce on its prey.
In return, Klaus just let out a snort as he regally raised himself to his full height, easily towering over Houndoom. And yet, despite his appearance of arrogance, his eyes were wary as he recognized his old rival. But he was not intimidated. He would never be.
I decided to end this stare down before it could go on for any longer, making the first move.
“Earth Power, Klaus! Shatter the ground!”
“Circle round and Dark Pulse!”
Klaus raised his two front legs and stomped the ground, creating a large crack in the ground that snaked its way to Houndoom. However, just before she was caught in the eruption of power, Houndoom leapt to the side as she fired off a pulsating stream of Dark energy towards Klaus.
But Klaus showed off his own mobility by easily dodging to the side while stomping on the ground once more, firing off yet another Earth Power to where Houndoom was. I was hoping to catch Houndoom with a supereffective attack to injure her so that she would be less mobile, but Karen wasn’t giving me that opportunity.
“Dark Snarl, Houndoom! Weaken it!”
“Swift, Klaus! Hit it fast!”
Houndoom let out a terrifying howl into the air, which seemingly transformed into visible dark sonic waves that launched towards Klaus. Evidently, Karen was trying to make use of her new custom move, combining both Snarl and Dark Pulse, to hopefully weaken Klaus’ Special Attack so that her Earth Power’s wouldn’t hit as hard.
Klaus tried to cut her off by firing a quick burst of starry rays that shot towards Houndoom. Houndoom tried to dodge out of the way, leaping off the ground as she tried to put distance between herself and the attack, but the starry rays still found their way and struck at the Houndoom.
Houndoom let out a grunt of pain, but the attack was not enough to disrupt her concentration. With another roar, she let out a vortex of Dark sonic energy that seemed to corrupt the air that it travelled through.
Klaus instinctively formed a Light Screen to block against the attack, but the attack still slammed painfully into him as the malignant energy forced its way into him.
I frowned. I needed a way to stop this.
“Disable, Klaus! Shut it down!”
“TAUNT! NOW!”
Almost as if she was waiting for me to do so, Karen quickly moved to prevent me from disabling her attack as Houndoom fired off a near instantaneous shroud of Dark energy that enveloped Klaus. His eyes narrowed, and I could tell that, while he was making an attempt to fight off the sudden surge of impulses with his mental training, the Taunt had still taken hold.
But I had expected that too.
“EARTHQUAKE, KLAUS! PUNISH IT!”
“RUSH HIM DOWN, HOUNDOOM! CRUNCH!”
I tried to take advantage of Klaus’ sudden anger to fire off a quick Earthquake to catch Houndoom off-guard, thinking Karen wouldn’t be ready for it. But even as the earth shook and tremors shattered the ground, Houndoom had the presence of mind and the reaction speeds to dash forwards, narrowly avoiding the main focal point of impact, and rushed towards Klaus.
Damn, and I knew that with Taunt in effect, I had no way to just back away. There was only one option.
“Double Edge, Klaus! Slam it hard!”
Klaus let out a roar as his antlers started shining a brilliant white, before slamming them into the charging Houndoom. Both Pokémon collided together, with Houndoom managing to land a vicious crunch into Wyrdeer’s neck while Klaus’ horns found purchase into Houndoom.
Both Pokémon’s faces contorted in pain as they exchanged blows, breaking apart from each other to recover. But it wasn’t over yet. I knew this was going to be the best opportunity I had to bring down Houndoom. Klaus was very likely outclassed everywhere else.
“AGAIN, KLAUS! BRING IT DOWN!”
With a determined snort, Klaus channelled his anger into more power as he went on the offensive, galloping towards the Houndoom with horns bared threateningly.
But then I saw the smirk on Karen’s face, and I knew I had gotten myself into a trap.
“Torment.”
“Megahorn instead, Klaus! Quickly!”
Another shroud of Dark energy emerged from her Houndoom before it wrapped around my approaching Klaus. Instantly, the charge broke as the effects of Torment took hold, Klaus letting out a confused cry as he was suddenly unable to attack with Double Edge.
Despite my instructions, the second that it took for Klaus to reorient himself was all the time that Karen needed.
“Fire Blast. Full power! INCINERATE IT!”
A scorching swirl of flames exploded out of Houndoom’s mouth, surging forwards and detonating on Klaus. Klaus whined out in pain as the flames danced across his body. I winced; Klaus had taken the full impact from that Fire Blast. He couldn’t have been doing well.
And I knew a follow-up attack was coming, and my mind raced for options. Unfortunately, being unable to make use of Klaus’ Psychic moves offensively against Houndoom was really limiting my options here.
Not having enough time to think things through, I settled with the first available path that I thought of.
“Take Down, Klaus! Bring it to the ground!”
“Sucker Punch and finish it off!”
Klaus let out a defiant roar and was about to charge forwards once more before Houndoom suddenly burst forwards in a flash of speed and used her front leg as a fist and jabbed a paw into his side, turning that defiant roar into one of pain.
“THRASH, NOW!”
“CRUNCH AND BRING IT DOWN!”
I had expected the Sucker Punch – it was one of Karen’s favourite tactics to employ in situations like these. And now with Houndoom and Klaus so close to each other again, I had hoped to bring her down with a Thrash, making use of Klaus’ superior strength to smash down Houndoom before she could take Klaus out.
It was a risky move. And one that didn’t pay off this time.
Despite Klaus’ maddened thrashing, where he tore up the ground with wild and brutal swings of his antlers and hooves, Houndoom nimbly ducked down under a savage swipe of Klaus’ horns and struck at his exposed neck with a precise Crunch.
Klaus let out one final howl of pain before going down. Unable to get back up. I let out a sigh and moved to return Klaus to his Premier Ball
“You did well.” I whispered to Klaus’s Premier Ball, “You’ll beat your rival one day. It might not be today or tomorrow, but I believe you will be able to defeat Karen’s ace. You had a wonderful showing, so don’t feel bad.”
I turned back to Karen, “I know I’ve seen her in action a bunch of times, but your Houndoom’s strength still managed to catch me off guard with both how agile and powerful she is.” I admitted, “And it’s not even a well-known ‘powerful’ Pokémon either.”
This time it was Karen’s turn to be smug as she gave off a shrug that was filled with false humility, “To put it in your own words, my Houndoom is just on a different level. Try harder next time.” She shot me a grin full of teeth.
“Haha, very funny.” I deadpanned, “Anyways, its not over yet. Mind withdrawing your Houndoom? I want our final battle to be a 1v1.”
She nodded at me and withdrew her Houndoom, before switching her Pokéball out for a different one as I did the same. Then, almost in sync, we sent out our last Pokémon.
“Come, Vordt!”
“Pupitar, you can do it!”
Once again, Vordt thundered onto the training field with an intimidating roar. The first time Pupitar had encountered him, he almost flinched back in fear. But now, they had trained together so much that Pupitar stared blankly at Vordt’s display of power, utterly unaffected.
Instead, Pupitar’s eyes narrowed with determination towards his training partner. He must have known that Vordt was stronger than him, but Pupitar was determined to prove himself and his power today. Vordt must have liked what he saw, since he responded with an amused huff at Pupitar’s determined glare.
I played right into that determination with my opening move. I wanted to see just how far Vordt could go with his geokinesis.
“Stone Edge, Vordt!”
“Do the same, Pupitar!”
The arena instantly crumbled like a cookie as the ground was ripped apart by both Pokémon. Rocks hovered briefly in the air from both sides before launching themselves against each other. Rocks crashing against rocks as both Pokémon vied for dominance, and both Pokémon rapidly escalated as more and more rocks were torn up from the ground.
Both Pokémon were rapidly pushing their geokinesis to the very limit, and the arena quickly looked like a warzone as both sides endlessly fired off volley after volley of rocks at the other.
But it was obvious that Vordt was winning handily. His rocks were larger, thrown faster, and managed to smash through more of Pupitar’s without much difficulty. Even while Pupitar strained himself to his limits, making use of every single bit of training that he tried to muster up at this very moment, he still couldn’t match the sheer firepower from Vordt.
He was gradually being pushed back, and there was little he could do about it. It’s face morphed into one of sheer frustration as his efforts were betrayed by its relative lack of power. Vordt was just so much more powerful than him on a baseline level, and Pupitar’s body was just too weak to fight at such a high level.
Pupitar had hoped that all of his time training and practicing with Stone Edge would have granted him some level of parity with Vordt. Vordt had always dominated their training sessions together, and he had hoped that he could prove himself to his training partner today. Pupitar had hoped to prove to his trainer that the time and investment that she put into him wasn’t wasted.
But even then, it seemed like his training proved fruitless because of his inherently weaker body. It was never enough. Pupitar was always going to be limited by his comparative weakness, compared to the raw power of Vordt. If only he could push himself further. If only he could gain the strength to match up against Vordt. If only he just had a LITTLE! MORE! POWER!
And then, all of that frustration and determination unleashed the inner energy from deep within Pupitar, which began coursing endlessly throughout his body. Power that had always been yearning to be manifested, to be used. And now, the time had finally come.
I stepped back almost involuntarily as Pupitar began shining with a blindingly white light, my eyes widening with surprise even as I was blinded by what was about to come. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Karen grinning wildly as she stared excitedly at her evolving Pupitar.
Within that bright white light, Pupitar’s form shifted and grew, transforming himself from a once small grey cocoon to a towering monstrous beast of green that lumbered onto the field with an audible thump each time it took a step.
The newly evolved Tyranitar bellowed to the skies, showing off its newfound frightening power and might, before he locked eyes with his opponent. Vordt met his eyes with a challenging glare, as if demanding Tyranitar to prove his strength.
Tyranitar smirked at the non-verbal challenge before he roared once again, only too happy to oblige, as a sandstorm immediately forming around the arena. Vordt met Tyranitar’s roar with one of his own, and both Pokémon resumed their previous duel as they tore up more of the field for ammunition.
Vordt actually grunted in concentration as he fought to match up against Tyanitar’s newfound power. Though Tyranitar lacked training with his new body, the Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB) that he had helped balance the scales against Vordt’s more refined barrage.
Before long, it was obvious that the two were evenly matched. The training fields were going to be completely destroyed before either one of them could overpower the other. Thus, I knew I had to change tactics.
“Headlong Rush, Vordt! Get close to it!”
“PROTECT NOW!”
Vordt immediately became nothing more than a blur as he tore through the field, charging forwards straight towards Tyranitar. Tyranitar managed to form a Protect shield just in time as Vordt slammed into it. The shield flickered rapidly as cracks quickly formed and spread across it, but it managed to hold and block the attack.
Still, I knew that I had the advantage here. Tyranitar was undoubtedly very strong, but it was still unused to its body and had no training with physical attacks since it was previously reliant on long ranged attacks as a Pupitar.
Thus, I took advantage of this weakness mercilessly.
“Hammer Arm, Vordt! Stay close and pressure it!”
“Crunch, Tyranitar! Fight Back!”
Tyranitar tried to grab hold of the incoming Vordt with its arms, but it proved futile. The more experienced Vordt smashed his arm supereffectively into Tyranitar’s center, causing him to roar out in pain as stumbled backwards. Without letting up, Vordt followed up the attack with yet another Hammer Arm, this time striking downwards directly onto Tyranitar’s head.
“Dark Pulse, Tyranitar! Drive it away and make some distance!”
To his credit, Tyranitar proved his determination once again as he endured past the pain and unleashed a burst of Dark energy that blasted into Vordt. But Vordt hardly even flinched from the attack.
He had Tyranitar on the ropes, and we both knew it.
“Finish it off Vordt!”
With one last thunderous roar, Vordt’s arm descended like an executioner’s blade onto the fallen Tyranitar, striking it one last time straight in the neck. Tyranitar couldn’t even emit a roar of pain as he instantly collapsed into unconsciousness, his injuries proving too much to handle.
Vordt bellowed triumphantly to the skies as he stood victoriously over Tyranitar, and I smiled despite myself.
“Damn, I was hoping that it would be like on TV.” Karen said with a small smile as she withdrew her fallen Tyranitar, “You know, where the protagonist gets a power up at just the right moment so that they win the battle? Normally, an evolution is that powerup.”
“I guess you’re just not the main character.” I quipped, “Maybe you’re just one of the supporting cast.”
“Please, as if someone like me would be side-lined.” She fired back with a chuckle, before her eyes turned to Tyranitar’s Pokémon with a soft smile, “He did very well. I always knew he was close to evolving, but he must have really wanted to push himself today.”
“He did.” I nodded, “I can’t imagine what he’d be like when he finally gets used to his body and when you start properly training him to be a Tyranitar rather than a Pupitar. He’d be a true monster.” Inwardly, I wondered if Tyranitar would ever become stronger than Vordt to beat him in a 1v1. That would be a day to see.
Karen smiled brilliantly, “Yes, he would be. And I couldn’t be prouder of him for it.”
After that, we had to spend quite a bit of time repairing the destroyed training field. Luckily, we hadn’t exhausted all of our Pokémon, so the ones that didn’t participate in the match were drafted as labourers to help repair the damage.
I was sure that Agatha would be very pleased to hear about the evolution. Both her and I had nagged Karen incessantly to train up a proper frontliner, and now she finally had one. And a Tyranitar at that.
It was really looking like Karen’s goal of joining the Elite Four were actually going to be achieved.
A.N. AND KAREN GAINS A TYRANITAR!! This was a long time coming, and I hoped that you were satisfied with how things went. Just to clarify myself, both Karen and John weren’t fighting as optimally as they should because this match was supposed to be practice for Bruno.
This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Cheers!
Comments
Bored Peasant
Speed is always going to be an issue for big pokemon like Snorlax, and Wyrdeer. I imagine that you have the fight already mapped out. I just hope that you don't have him fighting like Lance (always going for close in to show off his power), but have him fight smarter to show off his all-round talent instead of just his brawler abilities.
