631 CH12 (626), Battles Galore (3)

My semifinal battle was scheduled for 4:30 p.m., and it was 3:40 p.m. by the time I learned who my opponent was going to be, which still left me more than enough time to look up what kind of Pokemon Kiara used so far since I was going to choose my 3 picks depending on her Pokemon.

There was honestly no way to say this in a polite way, actually, there was, but my first thought when I saw it, was that Kiara had a pretty "grunty" lineup, though one could probably call it a grass-root line up as well, even if I was not sure if grass root was appropriate since some of the Pokemon were kinda uncommon if not rare.

Anyway, Kiara had actually revealed all 6 of her registered Pokemon, and surprisingly all of them were at the (high) silver stage. She had a Vileplume, Weezing, Fearow, Manectric, Cacturne, and a Banette. According to this, my safest choice would have probably been Igneel/Charizard, Gaara/Gabite, and Bruce/Crobat, but that was not what I ended up choosing.

Out of that trio, I only picked Bruce for the semifinals, and instead of Igneel and Gaara, I went with Freyja/Lopunny and Fortuna/Togekiss. Gaara just got to fight, and Igneel had his turn before that. I was confident in my victory even if I did not go with the safest option, hence my choice.

Regardless, before long I found myself listening to the referee across from Kiara. I already had a PokeBall in my hand, and I saw Kiara similarly waiting for the referee to finish the countdown, at which point we both released our first Pokemon. "WOW them, Banette," Kiara said as she released her Banette on the field. "Charm them, Baby Doll," I once again went with our go-to proven opening tactic, and as soon as she appeared on the field, Freyja used Baby-Doll Eyes on the Banette across her.

"Protect," I had to yell out before she could chain Charm, due to Banette sending a wave of Will-O-Wisp towards Freya as soon as it made its appearance. I had to tip my hat at Kiara, that had been a clever use of the word WOW. Thankfully Freyja managed to put up her shield quickly enough, causing the ghastly flames to crash into them instead of landing on her.

There was a lot of excited chatter coming from the spectators around us, but I was not sure if it was because of the exciting opening exchange or because Freya was an unusual Lopunny, with her looking closer to the mega form rather than a regular Lopunny due to her being an aura-variant and all that.

I could see Kiara's disappointment when the Will-O-Wisp failed, before she began to look at the two Pokemon rather intensively, no doubt wondering how to deal with my Lopunny considering that it was a normal type and hence immune to ghost-type moves, which I did not doubt most of Banette's moves were.

What she likely did not know was that Freyja did not have that problem thanks to her Scrappy ability, and even if she did somehow know that there was nothing she could do about it since we were not allowed to switch out our Pokemon during an ongoing battle unless it was forced by a move.

"Screech," Kiara ordered, and Banette's mouth began to split open unnaturally wide before an unholy Screech got released. "QA, and then PR, shut it up for me," I ordered Freyja, whose face had scrunched up in discomfort while her ears were twitching. She swiftly moved into a Quick Attack, appearing at the side of the screeching Banette. Once she had closed in, Freyja began to Play Rough, delivering fairy energy-filled hits at the ghost, finally shutting it up.

"Knock Off," Kiara shouted and Banette used the move to send Freyja stumbling back a few steps. "WOW, while it's unbalanced,' she ordered, and Banette used Will-O-Wisp once more. "Bounce, then CC," I countered, and Freyja jumped up a bit, dodging the ghastly flames. Her jump flowed into a corkscrew flip and she landed pretty close to Banette's back facing it.

As soon as Feyja landed on her feet, she closed in and began pummeling Banette using Close Combat. Kiara seemed surprised that Freyja was able to hit her ghost but schooled her expression after a few moments to give an order. "SP, then PS," she shouted which had Banette wait a moment to release a Sucker Punch that briefly interrupted Freyja's onslaught. Banette used that moment to release energy tendrils that latched onto Freyja in what had to be Pain Split.

The use of Pain Split made me wonder if Kiara had truly not known about Scrappy, or if she had simply decided to make use of it after seeing that Frayja could hit hard after all. Pain Split was a rather interesting move that, at its best, could perfectly balance out the stamina and "protective energy" between both parties. However, that required one to master the move.

Depending on one's mastery, Pain Split took stamina and energy from the target and used it to recover one's own, and while Banette seemed to have a decent mastery over her move, it was nowhere near the point where it would equalize their situations. I saw Freyja trying to restart Close Combat as the energy tendrils fell away, but she actually failed, which told me that Banette had Cursed Body as her ability and that one of Frayja's hits must have triggered it.

"DP, then MP to get away," I reacted quickly and Lopunny recovered some of her stamina and p.e-shield using Drain Punch. "WOW, make it pay," Kiara ordered as Freyja used Drain Punch. Thankfully, Frayja utilized Mach Punch to retreat in time to dodge another wave of Will-O-Wisp that was released by Banette.

"Sneak and Punch/Aura Sphere," we ordered simultaneously. Banette vanished only to reappear behind Freyja and tried to Sucker Punch her. Banette's vanishing act, no doubt using Shadow Sneak, allowed it to dodge the Aura Sphere Freyja released, but as soon as it vanished I gave a follow-up instruction.

"Sweep and Jump," I quickly said, which had Frayja crouch down in a Low Sweep that might have missed since Banette was floating but allowed her to dodge the Sucker Punch heading her way. While on the ground, Freyja pressed her arms on the ground and pushed herself off, delivering a Jump Kick at the Banette right above her.

She followed that up with an Aura Sphere without me having to say anything, and after the ensuing crash settled, Banette's knocked-out form was revealed. The referee declared Banette unable to battle and hence Lopunny the victor. Kiara proceeded to recall her beaten Pokemon and I did the same with Freyja after telling her that she had done a good job.

We then stood ready with our second balls at hand, and upon receiving the signal from the referee, we released our second Pokemon. "Go," Kiara simply said as she released her Pokemon, which ended up being her Weezing. Concurrently, I released my own Pokemon with a proper if not a bit overused opening line. "Charm them, Baby Doll," I repeated. I mean, if it works, it works.

The excitement shown by the crowd when Fortuna/Togekiss appeared was even bigger than during her first appearance. At that time, the people were just delighted to see a Togekiss, and I was pretty sure that most did not even notice that she was a Shiny, much less a Royal, but by now they some had time to notice the difference, though I was not sure how many had noticed that she differed even from the normal shiny Togekiss.

Anyway, word on my Togekiss most likely spread through the power of gossip, which was why they were cheering so much when she took the field. Disregarding the noise, Fortuna directly started her opening combo, but she was not the only one since a purple gas, which I was pretty sure was Poison Gas, began to spread from Weezing as soon as it appeared on the field.

Furthermore, Kiara showed an immediate reaction when she saw a Togekiss appear on my side. "Neutralize the field," she shouted and the effect was immediate with Weezing releasing an additional (white-ish) gas. It was not hard to deduce that this was the Neutralizing Gas that Weezing could produce due to its ability with the same name, which annulled the abilities of all Pokemon in the area.

Well, at least the ones that were not part of one's intrinsic biology such as the Keen Eye belonging to a bird Pokemon or "Levitate" belonging to the Weezing line, which in Weezing's case was due to the gas inside their bodies. She obviously did that because either of Togekiss' 3 abilities were useful, not to mention that Fortuna had all 3 of them. Not that Kiara could have known that bit.

Still, I was not sure if Neutralizing Gas worked on talents as well, though I doubted that it could do something against Heaven's Favorite. Either way, I was confident that Fortuna could take on the Weezing without any problems. That did not mean that we would not take the battle seriously.

"Safeguard," I ordered and Fortuna became immune to the poison Weezing was spreading, and I saw Kiara tsk at that. "Light it up," she ordered, and Weezing released a Flamethrower. My eyes went wide when I saw that. "PROTECT," I hurriedly yelled out moments before the whole place lit up. The Flamethrower reacted with the Poison Gas that Weezing had spread generously resulting in a giant explosion.

I had honestly not expected such a self-damaging move from them, and I hoped that Fortuna had managed to put up her shield in time. Still, I had no plans to wait for the dust to clear. "Widespread Ancient Power," I ordered not caring if she could hit Weezing or not. If she hit it, great, but even if she didn't, I was okay with that as well since we were aiming for the extensive stat boost. When I saw movements coming from where Fortuna had been before the explosion, I knew that she was still good to go, and seeing the movements coming from the other side, it was clear that Weezing was still in the game as well.

Anyway, the dust settled after a few moments and everyone got to see the two Pokemon. Fortuna, who was sending rocks at Weezing looked slightly singed, indicating that she had taken some damage during the explosion. I suspected that her hastily erected shield had broken after taking the brunt of the explosion, but I was okay with that since Weezing looked worse off than Fortuna did.

"Clear Smog, then close in," Kiara ordered, getting rid of any boosts Fortuna might have accrued so far. "Yawn," I countered, and Weezing directly flew into it so to say, though Kiara and Weezing ignored it, which gave me a bad feeling. "Psychic, freeze it in place and retreat," I ordered though it had gotten within 3 meters of Fortuna by then. "Assurance, then Bang," Kiara ordered confirming my bad feeling.

My eyes went wide as Weezing used Assurance to break out of Fortuna's psychic hold and moved a bit closer while lighting up. "PROTECT," I once more yelled moments before Weezing used Explosion. I thought I saw a shimmer around Fortuna before everything got obscured by the smoke and dust. Still, even if I could not properly see the field, I heard two thuds and saw some dust swirling where the Pokemon had been.

I was sure that Weezing was out for the count since there was no way it was still conscious after that Explosion, but the important question was if it had managed to take Fortuna down with it or not, and I did not plan to wait for the dust to settle to find out. "Use Tailwind to clear the dust," I ordered before waiting to see if she would follow it. It took a moment, but I heaved a sigh of relief when the air began to move and the field became visible once more.

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