Ch 68. Giovanni vs Ares (2/?)

(Unedited)

Lapras and Rydon stared at each other, not moving an inch. Their eyes held contact for about a few seconds before one of them finaly collapsed.

Sagging through his knees, Rhydon tried to get up again only to fail and fall down.

Rhydon was out for the count.

Seeing his first pokemon fall in defeat, Giovanni clicked his tongue, returning Rhydon to its pokeball and called out another pokemon.

Appearing on the battlefield in a flash of white light, a Nidoking appeared on the field. It was a bit larger than normal, its imposing figure looking down on Lapras from above.

Lapras looked up, unleashing a Hydro pump as soon as Nidoking took a step forward.

"Break it apart."

At the command of Giovanni, Nidoking slammed his tail into the attack, a purple energy radiating from its tail. A strong Poison tail collided with the Hydro Pump, directing it sideways with just the strenght behind the attack.

Seeing Lapras's attack fail, Ares changed their strategy.

"Lapras, use ice beam on the ground."

Doing just that, ice began to spread over the battlefield, still wet from the previous water attacks. With a dense layer of ice covering the ground, Lapras jumped on it, increasing her mobility by a large margin.

While moving in circles around Nidoking, a blizzard suddenly began to spring up, replacing the already petering-out sandstorm.

With the stage set-up, Lapras had free reign on how to proceed, as they had already come up with multiple strategies before they entered the gym.

With the hail buffing her ice attacks, Lapras didn't hold back, sending multiple ice shards towards Nidoking. She could have used Ice beam or Blizzard, but the preparation for those moves took longer. Using Ice shard, she could cancel her attack quickly when Nidoking countered, which he would surely do.

Being buffeted by not only the hail but also the ice attacks, Nidoking grunted yet waited for Giovanni to make his call.

"Destroy their footing"

Those words were enough for Nidoking to make his move, slamming his fist on the ground.

The ground began to rumble, but not like the earthquake attacks.

Massive tears appeared below the ice, as the Earth power broke the ice apart and collided with Lapras, who had quickly cancelled her attack to avoid he move.

The force hit her on her abdomed, making her sideways movement faster than expected, bringing her closer to the wall.

With nowhere to dodge, Lapras was caught in a multitude of strikes from both fists and tail as Nidoking beat down on her. While her shell protected her from a lot of damage, Lapras couldn't dodge everything. With a few unlucky punches to the head, a few counters from Lapras in return and a nasty Poison tail, Lapras managed to inflict some more damage on Nidoking before she eventually fainted form the built up damage.

Returning Lapras to her pokeball, Ares was couldn't be more satisfied by her results. She had defeated one of Giovanni's pokemon, as well as injuring another one with some major damage. Not an easy feat.

Now he had to plan carefully. His only pokemon with a major advantage had fainted, leaving the battle for him at a disadvantage. While his pokemon were strong enough to now fight champion level pokemon, Giovanni was still a difficult opponent to beat, not only because of his pokemon, but also because of his own intellect. It was seen from the first exchange that Giovanni had more cards up his sleeve than expected.

Getting out another one of his pokeballs, Ares chose his next pokemon.

On the battlefield appeared a massive silver giant.

A big golden cross covered part of its face, but not the ferocious red eyes that peered from beneath it.

A big shiny Metagross appeared on the battlefield.

Its four feet dug deep into the ground, attesting to the weight they carried due to its large body.

Giovanni's eyes glinstened in interest at spotting the unusual pokemon in front of him. It was quite rare to see one in this region after all. Especially the coloring in front of him. He had only seen one other person with a Metagross of this size and color. The one that belonged to the Hoenn champion.

"Nidoking, close in on it and use earthquake."

While Nidoking closed in, Ares had a plan in his mind as well on how to counter Nidoking. He didn't even need to speak his mind, as he could feel a mental link connect with his own mind. One of the perks of having Mew as his teacher. Now that Metagross was in his final evolution, it was easy to converse using psychic energy, even if the range was rather short.

For now that is.

With more training he would surely expand that range.

With their minds linked together, Metagross had already begun to execute whatever strategy Ares had in mind. When Nidoking was close enough, ready to use Earthquake, Metagross had finished using his move as well. Rising above the ground through, Magnet Rise, Metagross had effectively made Nidokings attack useless.

With Nidoking just a few meters away from him, Metagross sped forward, faster than Nidoking expected. Now that he was right in front of Nidoking, Metagross lifted Nidokings body from the ground using Psychic and slammed it on the ground. Again and again and again, up to the point Nidoking had passed out.

From a once weak Beldum to and overpowering Metagross, the differences were astronomic.

Giovanni grimaced, returning Nidoking to its pokeball.

Yet when he called out his next pokemon, a Nidoqueen, the results were much the same, as most of the ground type moves were still ineffective against Metagross due to the Magnet Rise. This caused him to lose his Nidoqueen in battle as well, the next battles not really giving him much prospect to look forward to.

With only three pokemon left, Giovanni began to think about how to get out of the predicament called Metagross. He needed a plan to take it out. And for that he had the perfect pokemon in his arsenal.