669 CH49 (663), First Gym Challenge (4)

I had to admit that I was a bit surprised when the third Pokemon we had to face turned out to be a Sandslash. Well, the steel variant, or Alolan Sandslash as it was more commonly called, but for some reason I had not expected to face one here. It may have been because all gym Pokemon so far had been from the first 3 gens, which was a wrong assumption to make anyway since I intimately knew that none of the regions were actually limited to the Pokemon of their "generation" or their games, but somehow the Gym Challenge atmosphere had me ignore something I knew to be a fact.

Nonetheless, initial surprise aside, I still raised my hand and declared that I was forfeiting Seb/Nidoking since I was still supremely confident that we could win while essentially cutting off any retreat option, making the battle of each Pokemon vital for the continuation of the Gym Challenge. This may not have been the smartest decision on my part since I was essentially handicapping myself, which was why everyone was so surprised when I started doing it, but it showed the trust I had in my Pokemon.

I knew it fired them up, allowing them to go all out during the battle and even go beyond their usual performance. I was pretty much doing this to show them that even if they were not part of the Gym Team, they were still genuinely contributing to our victory over the Gym. I also knew that this would help motivate them quite a bit. So yeah, while it was not the smartest thing to do during a Gym Challenge, I had good reasons to do it, and if push came to shove, I could simply sign up for another challenge attempt, even if I would have to wait for some time before I could do my second attempt.

Not that I thought that we would need that, but it was a fact that this was not a do-or-die situation. Had this been a tournament or another one-time challenge, I would not have done it since the possible negative consequences would outweigh the positive factors, and I was not talking about losing the event when I mentioned negative consequences. No, while it might surprise some since I always seemed to strive for victory and avoid situations that could constitute a risk, I honestly did not care about losing all that much.

Sure, I would feel bad as well as dumb since the reason we would have lost would be due to a risky as well as dumb decision of mine, fully aware that we could have won if I simply let things play out normally, but honestly, I could live with that since it would be something I would have brought upon myself. The truly bad thing about such a hypothetical loss would be that I knew for sure that whoever lost in that scenario would feel extremely bad.

Honestly, just imagining having to deal with all the negative emotions that whoever lost would feel made me recoil. It was because I knew that they would react like that, that I would never take any unnecessary risks in situations where losing would mean an out, at least not when winning the battle/competition was important. Thankfully this was not such a situation, and I made sure everyone involved knew that before I came to the Gym just in case an accident happened.

Anyway, after recalling Seb, I called out Moka/Crobat and the crowd became the most excited they had been so far. I did not blame them since Moka as an Ancient Royal was unmistakably different than a regular Crobat, not only due to her bigger size, but also because she was midnight black. Not to mention the air she was projecting due to Primal Grace, which I could see had A.Sandslash feel a bit pressured.

I honestly did not think that it would take Moka all that long to beat the Sandslash. My confidence did not lay with Primal Grace or her impressive strength, though those were certainly important factors. No, the reason I thought the battle would not take long and would be somewhat of an easy victory was due to Corrosion. Crobat usually did not have Corrosion as an ability, so the opposing side would not expect Moka's poison moves to still be effective against them, which would inevitably lead to Sandslash getting heavily poisoned.

Once that happened, Sandslash's loss was inevitable, especially since Moka could fly while it was earthbound. Not that Moka would delay things when she could finish the battle early on. Regardless, after the referee overcame his surprise at Moka's exotic looks, he gave the signal to start the battle. Moka showed that she meant business by going for her deadliest/most dangerous move from the get-go. She practically rocketed at Sandslash and performed a Toxic Cross on it before it could react, not only interrupting its opening move but also heavily poisoning it in addition to causing some not-insignificant damage.

The other side was taken totally off guard seeing Moka's speed, which was actually the highest among all my Pokemon, and they were doubly surprised when they noticed that she used a poison move that actually affected Sandslash. I heard exclamations of awe and disbelief at Moka's feat, but I ignored them and told Moka to go for Venoshock while the other party was still shocked by her attack.

Moka did as asked and performed another dive, this time from behind Sandslash, before performing a Venoshock while passing right above Sandslash. The pain caused by Venoshock had Sandsladh flinch as well as stagger, and Moka naturally capitalized on that. She jumped onto the smaller Pokemon, bent down, and used Poisonous Leech on it, which had her pump more poison into Sandslash's body while absorbing its vitality/health.

Sandslash's hue turned visibly more purple under Moka's tender care, and it became weaker and weaker with every moment that passed. Honestly, I felt bad for the Gym Trainer and his Sandslash since there was nothing they could do to stop Moka. Sandslash was just in too bad of a position right now to retaliate, which was probably surprising for them as well since dark gold stage fights were usually not this one-sided.

Still, the Gym Trainer seemed to realize that this was a lost cause since he actually raised his hand and declared that he was forfeiting Sandslash mere moments before Moka was going to release another Venoshock, sparing his Pokemon some pain. The referee acknowledged his surrender and proclaimed Moka, who let go of Sandslash as soon as the referee did that, the winner.

When I saw the Gym Trainer raise his PokeBall, I intervened before he could recall his Sandslash by loudly offering to perform an emergency detoxification since it truly had too much poison in its body, so the faster the situation got addressed the better. Not to mention that the antidote I was planning to use was specifically concocted to treat Moka's poison. The trainer gave his approval and the referee allowed me to step onto the battlefield for the purpose of the treatment, so I swiftly rushed towards the panting Sandslash.

I gave Sandslash the tonic to drink that I took out while rushing to its side, and while it was drinking the detoxifying tonic, I applied a detoxifying paste on the puncture wounds left behind by Moka. After Sandslash had ingested the first tonic, which was specifically geared toward Moka's Toxic, I gave it another tonic which was developed for the poison of her Poisonous Leech.

While a more general antidote would have worked as well as long as it was strong enough, targeted antidotes like the ones I used worked much faster than the general variety which was in the best interest of the Pokemon. The effect of my potions became apparent pretty quickly and it took only 10ish seconds for Sandslash's purple hue to recede. Within less than a minute the poison was resolved and Sandslash looked much better, though it was still pretty drained from the effects of the ordeal/poison.

Once the last bit of the poison was gone, I declared that the poison treatment was complete, and the Gym Trainer thanked me for the help before quickly recalling his Pokemon. I had actually been planning to offer Sandslash an energy drink as a little pick-me-up until it could be brought to the PokeCenter for treatment since we still had a Pokemon battle to complete, but with how quickly the Gym Trainer recalled his Pokemon, Sandslash was gone before I could mention my offer.

I shook my head with a smile, stood up, and made my way back to my designated trainer zone under the applause as well as cheers of the crowd that seemed impressed by my helpful/generous action. I paused by Moka's side for a moment to praise her for her impeccable battle performance much to her joy before continuing my walk back to my spot on the battlefield.

Once I did that, the referee resumed the battle and asked the Gym Trainer to release his final Pokemon, which ended up being a Bronzong. It was a pretty good choice against Moka, but I was going to withdraw her anyway, so I was hoping for him that he had not called it out solely because of her. After Bronzong made its appearance, I raised my hand and declared that I was forfeiting Moka before I recalled her.

I then sent out Horus/Xatu, whose appearance caused just as much of a commotion as Moka's appearance had. Frankly, I was not surprised by that since Horus was quite obviously a variant as well given how different he looked compared to a regular Xatu, so some excitement among the spectators was pretty normal, especially when the difference was as apparent as it had been with Moka and was now with Horus.

Anyway, the referee gave the starting signal and both Pokemon began to do their thing. Bronzong started off with what I assumed was Future Sight, which was a decent move, even if it would not help it at all since we had telepathically agreed to go for a fast finish. To that end, Horus used Curse on Bronzong before using Rest to recover from the damage he inflicted on himself. Now, usually, that would not have been a smart move since Bronzong was not distracted or hurt enough to give Horus the time he would need to wake up, leaving him completely open to Bronzong's retaliation.

That was where Sleep Talk came in. Horus' Sleep Talk was a bit special since we had, through extensive training and some mental gymnastics, forced the move to become a one-trick pony that only selected a single move from Horus' many moves, namely Psycho Shift. Naturally, in the current situation, Horus did just that. He used Sleep Talk while Bronzong began to initiate a Gyro Spin, and the Psycho Shift that got triggered by Sleep Talk transferred his sleeping state to Bronzong, which resulted in Horus waking up and Bronzong falling asleep mid-spin.

With Bronzong now asleep, it was at Horus' mercy, and my boy was planning to end the battle before it had the chance to wake up, though he still chose to take some precautions just in case it managed to awaken before he beat it. He first used Spirit Sackle to temporarily take away its ability to Teleport. Horus then followed up with a Confuse Ray for obvious reasons before putting Bronzong in a Nightmare, which would cause continuous damage to Bronzong along with Curse.

Horus topped the whole thing off with a Thunder Wave, which was a slightly risky move on his part since there was a chance that the shock would wake Bronzong up prematurely. That was why he left it for last, but luckily Bronzong kept sleeping. Once he was done prepping Bronzong, he began to bombard it with Shadow Balls. Bronzong did wake up after the third Shadow Ball hit home, but it was unable to do anything aside from enduring Horus' assault due to Horus' prep work and the damage it already suffered.

It ended up caving to the damage it suffered less than a minute after waking up, and the referee declared Horus the winner, which made me the victor of the battle. The Gym Trainer recalled his beaten Bronzong and left while I recalled Horus after complimenting him on his clean victory. Once both Pokemon had been recalled, the referee announced another 5-minute break so that the field could be repaired/reset.

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