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The New Normal - 2-17
🕑 Added 2023-04-14 14:31:28 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 2-17 – Vordt’s Finale
Unfortunately, I had to wait for Drake to send out his Salamence before I was allowed to switch Pokémon. I patiently stared at Drake as he withdraws his Flygon. For once, Drake’s expression was one of genuine surprise, and he seemed to not be able to comprehend what had just happened.
He gazed intensely at Flygon’s Pokéball before he shook his head and put it away, before looking up and giving me calculating look while fiddling with a Pokéball on his waist. We both knew what it was, the crowd knew what it was, the announcer knew what it was, and you could feel the excitement that was now radiating throughout the arena.
No matter the outcome of the next round, both of our hearts were pumping in excitement at what was about to happen. I held a significant advantage at the moment, leading 5-3, and I once again vowed to myself that I was going to win. Drake would not snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I was so close now; I could almost taste the victory.
And then none would look down on me anymore.
“So, this is it, lad, eh?” Drake spoke out, “I admit, you took me surprise there with your Slaking. Never thought that my Flygon would ever be defeated so quickly.”
I grinned, just enough to show confidence but not enough to seem arrogant, “Yeah, well, we did practice for it. We were ready and waiting for you to send out your Flygon.”
“Ah, and do you have another trick up your sleeve for my next Pokémon?” Drake asked.
“No tricks, just power.” I responded as my grin became far more challenging.
Drake smirked back before the announcer finally decided that we had bantered enough and started the next round, “AND WITH THAT, DRAKE IS GOING TO BE SENDING OUT HIS FINAL POKEMON! AND WE ALL KNOW WHO IT IS!…BEGIN!”
Drake finally threw out his Pokéball, revealing his ace, his tamed monster, his greatest dragon, his Salamence. It emerged with a mighty roar, as it extended its wings that were stretched so wide that it nearly casted a shadow over Drake’s half of the arena. As it brought itself to its full height, Salamence towered over Drake and matched my Slaking in height.
As it roared out, its sheer presence almost caused me to stumble as a wave of Intimidation washed over Tyrant and I, causing the hairs on my arms to stand and nearly causing me to shudder in fear. However, seeing that Tyrant merely grunted dismissively at Salamence reassured me and I was able to stabilize myself.
Yet, its draconic rage was still palpable, endlessly radiating out of it like a beacon. Its rage was distinct from the primal rage of Drake’s Gyarados, as there was a sense of discipline and control that Gyarados lacked, which only served to emphasize its power and strength. This was not some mindless raging beast, good only for destruction and vengeance. No, this was a tamed, proud, and dominating Dragon that had been carefully trained and raised to become the powerhouse that it is now.
A powerhouse meant to overpower and crush everything in its way with contemptuous ease.
Despite all this, and my tendency to fall into bouts of nervousness when I spoke to important figures like Giovanni or my colleagues in the Elite Four, I only felt a sense of anticipation and excitement as I stared down Drake. When it came to Pokémon battles, I knew that I deserved to be here, that my Pokémon deserved to fight, and win. My pre-battle jitters were long gone now; the only feeling I felt right now was pure determination as I focused myself and gazed upon Salamence’s menacing visage with a trance-like calm.
There was no use for other thoughts now. It was only time for action. It was time to show them all.
Tyrant undoubtedly shared my thoughts, as he continued to glare tauntingly at the newly revealed Salamence, just like he did back at the photoshoot. I mentally praised Tyrant for sticking to the plan and to be prepared to be switched out. It was likely that every instinct of Tyrant was for him to immediately charge towards Salamence and begin to brawl with it, so I was thankful for his discipline.
I put my plan into action as I suddenly withdrew Tyrant into his Premier Ball.
“I’m using my first switch!” I announced, and I saw that Drake raised an eyebrow, surprised at Tyrant’s sudden withdrawal, but he instantly snapped out of his shock and started ordering his Salamence to make use of this free turn.
“Dragon Dance, Salamence!” Salamence roared out and deep blue energy started to swirl around it as it spun around several times.
“IT LOOKS LIKE ELITE JOHN IS USING HIS FIRST SWITCH, DOES HE HAVE A PLAN FOR DEALING WITH DRAKE’S SALAMENCE?!”
Unsurprisingly, Drake chose to buff up his Salamence, boosting itself for whatever I’ll be sending out. That was fine, one Dragon Dance was within acceptable limits, but it would be problematic if he managed to buff itself up any further and I sent out my next Pokémon before it could do so.
“Come Vordt!”
Vordt’s bulky frame emerged from his Premier Ball and landed on the ground with a solid thud, his protective figure easily matching Salamence’s weight and size. His figure was wrapped within a thick layer of fur, forming a defensive layer of armour around him. He looked like quite the beast, a fitting analogy for one about to take on a Dragon.
“Stone Edge, Vordt!”
“URSAAAA!” Vordt began his assault as he stood up on all fours and roared out powerfully towards the sky as he immediately started tearing up the ground into chunks of rocks before they rose to the air and shot off like a storm of bullets toward the Salamence.
“Fly up and Stone Edge, Salamence!” Salamence immediately shot up into the air at speeds that didn’t seem to be possible for a creature of such size and strength before it started firing off rocks to block against the oncoming storm of rocks from Vordt.
Rocks began to smash and shatter against each other as the two Pokémon vied for dominance, though Vordt seemed to be winning with contemptuous ease. However, Salamence had sufficiently managed to shatter or block enough of the incoming rocks that he could easily dodge past the few remaining ones.
The arena, already destroyed and torn apart by our previous battles, continued to be broken apart as Vordt endlessly tore up the arena as the rocks continued flying. Yet Salamence still was able to avoid being hit.
“Dragon Dance in the air!” Drake commanded, hoping that Salamence would be able to continually avoid being hit by Vordt’s onslaught of rocks for long enough that it could continue setting up.
“DON’T LET IT SET UP! SHOOT IT DOWN!” However, the arena’s rapid deterioration by both Pokemon’s use of Stone Edge also created more loose rocks for Vordt to fire off, causing the barrage of rocks that were being fired at Salamence to gradually increase in intensity, forcing Salamence to dedicate more time and focus into dodging the artillery of rocks coming its way. It even suffered from a few near misses despite its’ surprising aerial manoeuvrability, an unfortunate disadvantage of its inherent large size.
Salamence swerved repeatedly to the side, almost flying in a nearly random manner, in order to try to make enough space for it to complete its Dragon Dance, to no avail. The unrelenting cannon fire of rocks homed into Salamence like tiny micro-missiles that denied every and all opportunity for it to setup.
It was a matter of time before Salamence would get unlucky just the once and be struck by an incoming rock. If it faltered even just for a brief moment, then Salamence was going to be forced down by the veritable avalanche of rocks being fired its way.
I could see the realisation slowly settle into Drake’s eyes as he recognized the situation he was in and was forced to begin his counterattack.
Drake clearly saw the same, as he decided to begin his counterattack.
“Draco Meteor, Salamence!” Draco barked out, and Salamence bellowed into the air as an orange sphere started to quickly form around its chest, growing rapidly into a giant sun that Salamence fired it into the sky. The sphere shoots up into the sky and explodes with a loud bang, filling the sky with enormous meteors of energy, making it look like the apocalypse had come early as they began their destructive descent from above.
“Target them down and protect!” Despite the sense of impending doom, I kept my cool and ordered Vordt to switch to the defensive, knowing that this was likely the beginning of a long battle of attrition. Vordt bellowed out and started to target down the raining meteors with a concentrated fire of rocks while he formed a Protect shield around himself.
Explosions rocked the sky as the meteors rammed into the rocks in mid-air, detonating the orbs of energy early, and causing a hail of rock debris to rain down from the sky like they were large grains of sand.
I braced myself alongside Vordt as the remaining Draco Meteors crashed themselves into Vordt’s Protect shield like they were hammers of a vengeful god. Each meteor that collided caused shockwaves that exploded outwards from the impact area and blanketed everything with a thick cloud of dust and rocks that concealed Vordt’s figure.
The immediate area surrounding Vordt after the Draco Meteors fell was completely obliterated, with nothing remaining aside from crater-sized holes and cracks that were filled with translucent wisps of energy, remnants of the devastating attack before. A quick look around the arena revealed the true scale of the attack’s destruction, as the arena was littered with craters and cracks that nearly managed to break through the foundations of the arena. As weak as they were, I was very surprised to see that the psychic barriers were still operational; I thought that they would have been destroyed from the resulting outward force of the impact alone.
And yet, despite the sheer destruction of the attack, I remained confident in Vordt, and in our training. Vordt was unbreakable and unyielding against all adversaries, and this should prove no different. Even an unboosted Draco Meteor from Drake’s ace would not be enough to break through Vordt’s Protect shield.
“Dragon Rush!” Drake ordered without waiting for the dust to settle. Salamence roared out once more as its body becomes outlined in blue, before it sharply dived down towards Vordt; its blue outline glowing brighter as it rapidly built-up speed. Salamence’s figure blurred as the energy that surrounded it quickly grew so intense that it was igniting the air around it as it continued its descent.
Vordt’s figure was still concealed by the kicked-up dust, but I renewed my trust towards him juat as Drake’s Salamence descended like a blue missile towards him. Just before he collided with Vordt, I gave my order.
“Counter, Vordt!” Rewarding my faith in him, a faint light of an orange glow revealed itself from within the dust clouds, literally just before Salamence slammed powerfully into Vordt, their impact causing yet another explosion of force that dispersed all of the dust clouds, revealing a growling Vordt that was gripping tightly onto Salamence’s body and refusing to be pushed back.
Then he responded with a devastating counterattack, using the energy that he had absorbed from Salamence’s powerful Dragon Rush and paid it all back in a crushing reversal, delivering all of that stored energy back towards the Salamence.
Vordt’s reversal generated a huge blast of wind that forced Salamence backwards with a pained grunt. However, Salamence held strong and immediately went back on the assault.
“Dragon Claw!”
“Ice Punch!”
With both Pokémon now so close together, the fight inevitably turned into yet another brawl. Salamence raked a claw across Vordt’s shoulder, easily cutting through Vordt’s thick fur. But Vordt countered by bashing his Ice-infused claw into Salamence’s face, knocking Salamence’s head to the side. My gravity training was paying off in spades right now as it allowed Vordt to go toe-to-toe against a monster like Drake’s Salamence.
However, even from that one exchange, Salamence’s attacks were seemingly landing considerably harder than Vordt’s, likely from the boost that it received from its earlier Dragon Dance. If this continued, Vordt was going to be pushed back from that difference in strength.
Fortunately, I had a trick of my own to even the field.
“IGNITE YOURSELF AND PLAY ROUGH, VORDT!” Vordt thundered out with a roar before flames started to emerge and wrap around Vordt’s body, spreading rapidly across its fur and igniting every inch of himself. Before Drake could react, a pink aura enveloped Vordt as he lunged forwards, slamming supereffectively into Salamence, and continuing to grapple it with his heavy body in a bear hug.
Salamence let out a groan and retaliated by trying to knock him away by surrounding its head with Psychic energy and bashing a Zen Headbutt into Vordt’s chest, but Vordt endured it with a pained grunt and held strong, trying to position himself for another Play Rough.
Drake was quick to understand the consequences of Vordt’s self-immolation and hurriedly tried to detach and separate Salamence from continuing to brawl with a soon-to-be Guts boosted Ursaluna.
“Dragon Tail and Earthquake, Salemence!” Salamence brought his tail around and slammed into Vordt’s side with a savage blow from his Dragon Tail. His tail collided into Vordt like a giant hammer, causing Vordt to stumble and swatting him away. Then, using the momentum from the attack, Salamence slammed its tail repeatedly into the ground, its tail managing to smash a hole into the ground and starting an Earthquake.
However, Vordt quickly steadied himself by dropping to all fours, as he easily tanked through the Earthquake while only giving off a small grunt of pain. As soon as the attack ended, Vordt went back on the offensive.
“Ice Rush, Vordt!” Combining both of the moves Headlong Rush and Ice Punch, Vordt quickly recovered from Salamence’s attacks and straightened his hind legs while engulfing the front of his body with a layer of ice that remained frozen despite the flames dancing across his body and fur.
Vordt suddenly shot forward like a speeding bullet. It was an intimidating sight to see a flaming huge bear charging at you menacingly at full speed, his eyes filled with determination and rage. Vordt’s charge tore up a huge gash in the arena in the wake of his assault, before eventually slamming into Drake’s Salamence with the full force of a freight train.
Salamence withstood the attack badly and was sent careening backwards with an audible thump, though it extended its wings like a parachute to halt its backwards momentum so that it could stabilize itself. I tried to capitalize on that successful attack.
“AGAIN!”
“Dragon Rush!”
Recovering quickly, Salamence charged to meet Vordt’s assault head on, with both Pokémon locking onto each other and created two huge gouges that were formed in the ground as the two rushed at each other. They became little more than blue and brown blurs as they rammed into each other, creating a deafening BANG that exploded outwards with a cascading wave of force throughout the arena as the two collided into each other.
The impact caused the ground around the immediate collision area to shatter and break apart until a huge circular pit formed around the collapsed impact area. Scattered bits of exposed wires that sparked occasionally and warped steel frames used for the arena’s foundations could be found amongst the loose rocks within the gigantic pit.
That single charge from the both of them caused more devastation than the previous Draco Meteor.
I could only take a brief glance at the destruction before I was forced to shield my eyes from the storm of dust and debris that was whipped up by the impact was blasted my way. I gripped tightly on the rail to steady myself so that I wouldn’t get knocked over by the impromptu dust storm.
Behind me, I heard the sound of glass shattering as I felt the psychic shields go down, unable to resist the veritable tide of force generated from the impact of our Pokémon’s collision. Over the howling winds of the dust storm, I was barely able to make out the faint shouts of people getting knocked over as the force dampeners around the arena failed.
It seemed like utter chaos in the audience stands, but I ignored it for now as I tried to struggle through the dust storm so that I could see what happened with our Pokémon, but the visibility was so poor that I was eventually forced to just wait it out.
One anxious moment later, the dust had finally settled enough that I could actually look around and view the damage. Quickly glancing around, I saw that most of the audience were in various states of disarray as people had fallen off the chairs or over each other. Fortunately, the audience stands were sufficiently reinforced and sturdy enough so that they didn’t collapse, which would have caused many injuries.
Seeing that the audience was mostly ok, I focused back on the battlefield and our two Pokémon.
Aside from the collapsed circle in the centre where our Pokémon had collided, there was a huge gash that ran in a straight line throughout the centre of the arena, almost like a ravine had formed and divided the arena into two separate halves. Spiderweb like cracks spread out randomly throughout the arena, and at this point the once pristine arena was unrecognizable and looked like the remains of a warzone.
As chunks of the arena continued to fall and break apart, I grew concerned about the stability of the arena. It was certainly unsuitable to continue fighting on, but since the announcer didn’t make a statement about fixing the arena, I kept my silence.
I tore my gaze away from the arena and focused on the state of Vordt. Flames continued to dance across his figure, wearing him down gradually as he traded his life for power. He was breathing heavily, and seemed less steady than usual, but there was only pure strength and determination to be found in his eyes. He would continue to fight.
In the distance, Drake’s Salamence was much the same, its own eyes alight with resolve and as intimidating as ever. Thus, as battered as our Pokémon were, neither were going to concede the fight just yet. This was going to the end.
However, with the arena in such a dilapidated state, I knew that any attempt to charge across the arena would be a precarious and foolhardy decision. The arena was just not stable enough at the moment to support another charge from Vordt. On the other hand, the destroyed arena would make it very easy for Vordt to fire off another barrage of rocks at Salamence.
Coupled with its own injuries, I highly doubted that Salamence would be able to dodge the bombardment of rocks from Vordt even if it took flight. Likewise, it also wouldn’t be able to use Rest and heal up because both trainers likely knew that any healing attempt by Salamence would be instantly disrupted by a brutal volley of rocks.
Yet, I held the advantage as Vordt’s actions weren’t as limited. I had the option to choose between using Rest myself to heal up Vordt or I could maintain the offensive and hope to knock out Salamence. I decided to play it safe and order for Vordt to Rest-
“Draco Beam, Salamence! Finish it off!” Drake cut off my thoughts and made the decision for me, as I watched Salamence charge up a bright blue orb in its draconic maw. My gut screamed to me that there was nothing I could do to block such a move; it would overwhelm and annihilate anything and everything in its path. This was Drake’s final gambit, a symbol of challenge to prove myself worthy to be his rival. To be the victor.
And thus, I knew that there was only one course of action available to me. I was not about to switch out in an act of cowardice. I ignored the traitorous thought in my head that reminded me I had two more Pokémon as backups even if Vordt was knocked out, but I still had my pride. And I knew Vordt had his.
No, I would match offense with offense.
I wanted Vordt to win by his own merits. I wanted his strength to be recognized. I wanted to leave no doubts about the fact that my Pokémon were capable of beating Drake’s ace one on one. And, with that, I solidified my decision.
“Stone Edge, Vordt! TO THE END! FOR VICTORY!” Vordt roared out with determination and stood on its hind legs as huge chunks of rocks around the arena were torn up and hurled forwards towards Salamence. In almost perfect synchronicity, Salamence released his draconic Hyper Beam that ripped through and disintegrated anything in its path before the beam slammed into the center of Vordt.
Vordt roared out in pain as the beam struck him. He gritted his teeth and painfully pushed through the power of the Dragon-type Hyper Beam and continued bombarding Salamence with a continuous avalanche of rocks. As the battle raged on, the beam only continued to get stronger and brighter, and if Vordt hadn’t already previously set himself on fire, then I was certain that the Draco Beam would have set him alight.
Yet Vordt was able to bravely withstand the pain as rocks endlessly continued hammering down onto Salamence, with each powerful impact almost causing Salamence to flinch slightly. However, it too was also able to persevere and continue channelling every inch of its own determination into that beam.
There was nothing more that either trainer could do at this point. We had both given out our final orders, and now we it was a pure test of endurance between our Pokémon. Both completely and fully resolved to win the match by putting their all into their attacks. Rocks were hurled and disintegrated in equal measure as both Pokémon vied for dominance. For glory. For victory.
Then Vordt suddenly gave off a triumphant roar of determination and blasted a particularly large chunk of rock from the arena that slammed into Salamence, critically colliding into it, and successfully caused Salamence’s head to be knocked to the side and causing his Hyper Beam to veer off and away from Vordt.
Capitalizing on the sudden relief from enduring Salamence’s Hyper Beam, Vordt gave out one more roar as he could now devote his full effort into his assault and fired off a huge tomb of rocks that rained like falling meteors onto Salamence, eliciting a screech of pain from the dragon, and burying it within.
There was a moment of silence as all eyes were locked onto the pile of rocks that Drake’s Salamence was buried under, everyone watching carefully to see if there were any signs of movement from under the pile of rocks.
I don’t even know how much time had passed, and I could barely register the relief I was feeling when I heard the announcer’s statement.
“AND DRAKE’S SALAMENCE IS NO LONGER ABLE TO BATTLE! ELITE JOHN IS THE VICTOR!”
The excited and frantic cheers of the audience seem muted in my ears, I almost fell over in relief when the announcer’s words finally registered themselves in my head.
My eyes were only on Vordt. He was so tired and injured that he couldn’t even raise himself onto his hind legs to celebrate his victory. He was always overshadowed by Tyrant, as unfair as that may have been, and he had finally proven to the world that he was an equal. And, as Vordt turned around with an expression of pride and satisfaction, I gave him a wide smile in return.
We had won.
A.N I hope you enjoyed the finale of the battle against Drake, I had gone over it a lot to make sure it was as best as it could be. This also marks the penultimate chapter (not including the Interlude) for the Hoenn Arc before we move back to Indigo and start the next Arc.
Thank you for sticking with me thus far, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the story. As always, I am sincerely appreciative of your support.
To explain a few things, John’s 6-4 (since Vordt would be too tired to continue fighting) victory against Drake came from a few factors, and one of them is luck.
Drake was one of the better opponents for John to face, despite being known as the ‘strongest’ of the Hoenn Elite 4. Drake’s strength lies in his Pokémon’s inherent bulk and strength, which is exactly what John specializes in (as people previously pointed out). Drake also loves brawling, which is what John’s Pokémon are best at.
Also, John got lucky with the confusion from the Hurricane, and Flygon’s complacency. Most importantly, if Flygon hadn’t gotten knocked out so quickly, it would have been one of the hardest Pokémon for John to knock out because it wouldn’t be susceptible to being knocked down by Stone Edge and could harass John’s Pokémon from the skies. Probably requiring John to bring out Luna to Gravity into Moonblast.
John also kept Clefable (Luna) in reserve because it really isn’t as strong as John’s other pokemon, and the only advantage it has is its supereffective and immune typing (and against Drake’s non-Dragon water types, not even that!). Thus, it was a powerful trump card, but I (and thus John) didn’t feel like this was the time to reveal the Fairy type, which using Clefable certainly would’ve led to. It kind of just broke what I wanted to write for the next arc.
Basically, John IS deserving of his victory against Drake, but that doesn’t mean he’s strong enough to beat all the other Elite 4 members. In fact, against someone like Agatha, he would have a much more difficult time since her Pokémon are all super nimble and evasive.
I’m sorry to those who wanted to see more of Blissey/Clefable, but as I was writing I couldn’t justify their inclusion in the fight since I thought that rationally Drake could just set up on them and sweep. Blissey and Clefable are more suited for taking on less bulky pokemon, like possibly against Agatha’s team. The Fairy reveal will be saved for later!
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The Tallest Tree
Subverted my expectations
