672 CH52(666), First Step Complete

Shino/Yanmega released Super Screech as soon as the referee gave the starting signal, aiming to weaken Corviknight's endurance/defense while also forcing it into a confused state. Unfortunately, Corviknight chose to open the battle with a move that interrupted our opening move and limited us to "purely" offensive moves. Corviknight's Taunt figuratively took Shino's breath away, forcing him to stop his Super Screech. Frankly, this saved Corviknight from a lot of headaches and forced us to adjust our strategy since quite a few moves we had been planning to use were no longer available.

Still, Shino had more than enough moves to overcome this handicap and his Speed Boost ability along with his Danger Sensing talent were more than enough for support. Not to mention that Shino did not have to worry about his attacks causing reduced damage thanks to his Tinted Lens ability, which was very important for this battle since it pretty much invalidated Corviknight's major bug energy resistance along with its minor normal, steel, and flying energy resistance, which made up pretty much the entire type spectrum of Shino's moves.

Looking at it like this, Tinted Lens was pretty OP since it allowed Shino to deliver regular damage to Corviknight even using bug-type moves. It was also why I had no qualms about using Shino against Corviknight. If not for Tinted Lens, choosing Shino would have been pure masochism and while I believed that Shino could have still won relying on his superior speed and dodging ability, it would have taken really long to do so.

Anyway, aside from using Taunt, Corviknight also employed its Pressure as well as Unnerve abilities, and while they did work to a certain degree, their effects were reduced by roughly half thanks to Shino's ancient gene, which allowed Shino to ignore them and focus on the battle without getting distracted. That was why Shino had no problem with smoothly switching to Air Slash when his opening move failed.

Shino's Air Slash forced Corviknight to dodge, interrupting the Metal Sound that it just started to release. It actually glared at Shino for his attack, which seamlessly turned into a Scary Face. Shino ignored that, accepting the momentary speed loss, in favor of throwing out Ancient Power. Corviknight tried to dodge but still got clipped by one of the rocks, which made it harder for it to dodge the second batch of rocks Shino sent over.

The other party actually chose to abandon evasion and used Steel Wing to block Shino's Ancient Power instead. Still, while Corviknight did that, Shino underwent his third Speed Boost, not only neutralizing Scary Face's effect but also having an additional speed boost to increase his speed. Nonetheless, Speed Boost happened passively, so Shino was free to release another attack at Corviknight while it was busy blocking his previous one. He fired off a Signal Beam, hoping that its secondary effect would trigger since those were not affected by Taunt.

Unfortunately, while Signal Beam did successfully hit Corviknight, it showed no signs of being confused. Well, the chance of it happening was not all that high anyway, so all we could hope was to use numbers in hopes of triggering it at some point. To that end, Shino fired off another Signal Beam, but this time Corviknight swerved out of the way, successfully dodging the beam. It released a Screech in return which Shino seamlessly dodged. He then noticed a warning from his Danger Sensing talent and veered out of Corviknight's way when it tried to hit him with a Drill Peck.

Not only that but while dodging Corviknight's attack, Shino, who underwent his fifth Speed Boost, used his speed to deliver a Steel Wing to its side in retaliation, causing Corviknight to plummet to the right before it managed to stop its fall. While Corviknight was busy regaining control of its flight, Shino fired another Signal Beam at it, which hit it just as it arrested its fall, and just when I was starting to think that the other side had chosen to only focus on Corviknight's inclination for physical attacks, it released a Flash Cannon.

Still, Shino's danger senses started to tingle the moment Corviknight released his attack, and he smoothly barreled out of the way. Shino then threw down an Ancient Power, forcing Corviknight to do some air acrobatics to dodge the rock rain, and while Corviknight did that, Shino underwent his sixth Speed Boost. Shino used Corviknight's distraction to release a move that took a bit of time to charge due to his less-than-great mastery over it.

Nonetheless, Silvercane was his strongest move right now, so we had to accept the current charging time of around 5 to 6 seconds, along with the 4 seconds it took for the Silver Wind-fused Hurricane to really get going. Thankfully, Corviknight was not able to make use of that period. It was first busy dodging rocks and then it had to regain some height since it had been forced down even more while dodging Ancient Power, bringing it dangerously close to the ground. Just when it managed to once again reach the height it had been at before Shino had forced it down, the Silvercane formed beside it and sucked it in, forcing it to struggle against the Silvercane's suction.

To make matters worse for Corviknight, Shino put one on top and sent a batch of Ancient Power into the Silvercane, forcing Corviknight to not only resist the Silvercane but also block or dodge the Ancient Power rocks that whirled around inside the Silvercane. Corviknight struggled inside the Silvercane for a good 30 or so seconds, taking quite a bit of damage in the process, before it released a frustrated cry and blazed with energy, indicating that it was using Brave Bird. Using Brave Bird Corviknight forced itself out of the Silvercane, bursting through any rocks that were in its way during its escape.

While that happened Shino underwent his seventh Speed Boost, and the effect of Taunt finally got lifted. As soon as that happened, Shino stopped feeding energy into the Silvercane, knowing that it would be able to persist for close to a minute more even if he stopped, before releasing a load of String Shot into the Silvercane following which he set up Sunny Day. The plan was for the strings to get dragged around the Silvercane and entangle Corviknight, making its situation even more perilous since it would be unable to dodge/resist if that happened.

Unfortunately by the time the strings arrived in front of Corviknight, it had already used Brave Bird and broken through all obstacles to leave the Silvercane. Still, at this point, Sunny Day was already up and as soon as Corviknight managed to make it out of the Silvercane, it got hit by Shino's Solar Beam. Luckily for Corviknight, it was still using Brave Bird when that happened, so it came down to a confrontation between Brave Bird and Solar Beam, which ended in an explosion that sent it tumbling downward. Nonetheless, it was lucky that it did not get pushed back into the Silvercane as Shino had been hoping to do.

However, it did fall out of its Brave Bird state while suffering quite a few injuries from both Shino's attacks as well as its own. While it was free falling, Shino utilized his extreme speed to blitz towards Corviknight. He made it to its side in mere moments, and first released a Super Screech at Corviknight which hit without any problems before nailing it with a Steel Wing, accelerating its fall even more, making Corviknight slam into the ground at high speed, creating a crater where it landed and throwing up quite a bit of dust in the process.

Shino swiftly dispersed the dust cloud, restoring visibility, and we all saw Corviknight struggling back on its feet, showing that it had not been taken out yet. It managed to stand up and gave Shino a defiant stare before releasing a Flash Cannon at him, which Shino countered with a Solar Beam. Shino's beam was slowly but surely overwhelming Croviknight's beam, but all it could do was try to keep the beam clash going since its current situation did not allow it to dodge.

Still, what is meant to happen will eventually happen, and roughly 10 seconds into their beam struggle, Corviknight's Flash Cannon could no longer keep up with Solar Beam. Solar Beam managed to overwhelm Flash Cannon, and landed on Corviknight, forcing it back onto the ground. Luckily for Corviknight, Shino was not able to keep the Solar Beam up for much longer due to the previous beam struggle so the Solar Beam stopped after covering Corviknight for a few seconds.

Once the beam stopped, Corviknight's smoking figure became visible, but even though it was smoking, it was still conscious, showing its tenaciousness. Still, impressive perseverance or not, Shino was still going to knock it out, but before he could release his next attack, the Gym Trainer raised her arm and declared that she was forfeiting her Corviknight. Her actions forced Shino to cancel the Hyper Beam he was going to release, though he still kept up his vigilance until the referee declared him the winner, which made me the victor of the battle, marking the end of my Gym Challenge. Well, at least the Gym Trainer phase of the Gym Challenge since I still had to battle against the Gym Leader.

Anyway, once I was declared the victor, I praised Shino on his performance before I recalled him. The referee then announced that I had completed the Gym Trainer Challenges and that I would be facing Gym Leader Stephanie next, making the audience break out in cheers. Some of them began to chant Stephanie's name, which I could understand since she had home-field advantage so to speak. Surprisingly, moments after the Stephanie chants started, Mikail chants began to rise from a section of the stands as well, and even more surprising was that I recognized quite a few of the voices that were chanting my name.

I was honestly stunned when I recognized the voices of Mom, Dad, Jessie, Rose, Kinji, and the others since I had not told them about my Gym Challenge. I did not want them to have to travel all the way to Lilycove City just to be there for my Gym Battle since I knew that many of them would do that if I told them the date of my Gym Battle. I had been planning to tell them the news after earning the Gym Badge, but it seemed that they had found out about my Gym Challenge even without me telling them the details. The only thing I could think of was that some of them had to have seen my upcoming battle on the web page of the Lilycove Gym and then shared the news with the others without my knowledge.

Anyway, I focused on the area of the stands where I heard the familiar voices, and as expected I saw my parents and friends standing there and shouting my name. They waved their arms when they saw me looking in their direction, and I heard Ace shout "Didn't expect us to be here, did you?", which made me chuckle. Still, I had to turn my focus back to the referee when he began to speak up again. He informed me that I was given a 10-minute break to rest a bit and mentally prepare myself for my battle against the Gym Leader, while they repaired/restored the battlefield.

Usually, this particular break was a bit longer to give the challenger the chance to go out and restore their Pokemon to top shape after beating the Gym Trainers, but that privilege was not given during S-rank challenges. Having to go through the whole Gym Challenge with only the regular breaks to catch one's breath, without being able to fully heal one's Pokemon was part of the challenge. Well, at least usually it added another element of difficulty to the challenge, though that did not apply to me since I had not used any of my Gym Team members so far, which meant that they were all in top condition.

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