677 CH57 (671), First Gym Battle (4)

"0!" The referee finished counting down, and we released our Pokemon on his mark. "Show them, Corvi," Stephanie announced as she released her Pokemon, which happened to be her (low) platinum-stage Corviknight. "Go all out Mothra," I declared as I released Mothra/Butterfree on my side.

The crowd went wild when they saw the two Pokemon that appeared on the field. They were obviously thrilled to see Stephanie use one of her main Pokemon, and even though Mothra was currently only 50% larger than a regular Butterfree, she obviously stood out from the norm, looking much more impressive than a normal Butterfree could ever look. Nonetheless, while the crowd was cheering and being all hyped, the two Pokemon ignored them and began to make their moves as soon as they appeared.

Mothra released a Tailwind while performing a Quiver Dance. Meanwhile, Corviknight actually used Taunt, which stopped Quiver Dance's effect from manifesting. Thankfully Tailwind was already set, so it was not affected, but Quiver Dance's energy-rousing effect vanished, which had Mothra glare at Corviknight. It was lucky that Taunt was in effect or that could have been a real Glare, or one of the many many other nonoffensive moves Mothra knew that could have been used against Corviknight, including Taunt.

Still, considering this situation, I could not help but think back to Bronzong using Imprison against Enji/Arcanine, and I kinda regretted not thinking of that move before since it had the potential to become a super unholy move under Mothra considering the sheer number of moves Mothra knew as of this moment, not to mention the ones she would probably still learn in the future. As for whether she could learn the move or not, there was no shred of doubt in my heart that Mothra would be able the move, so I made a mental note to have her learn it before focusing back on the matter at hand.

After glaring at Corviknight for a moment, Mothra did something that took everyone off guard and set off a cacophony of disbelief in the audience. She seemingly vanished from her place using what I knew was Extreme Speed, before, in the vision of the others, appearing behind Corviknight with Corviknight being caught in an Electroweb that was still connected to Mothra. Mothra then went ahead and released a Thunderbolt, making the crowd cry out not just because of her unbelievable speed but also the fact that she used a freaking Thunderbolt.

Under everyone's eyes, the Thunderbolt got channeled through the string connected to the Electroweb that was entangling Corviknight, giving Corviknight a proper electrical frying, making it release a screech of pain, granting first blood to Mothra, though there was no blood for now. However, it looked like there was some smoke coming off Corviknight, so that was a good enough substitute I suppose. Still, unlike the audience, Stephanie was cool as a cucumber.

"Cut, then Slash," she cooly instructed. "Then speed up," she relaxedly added. Her Corvikninght endured the ongoing Thunderbolt and released an Air Cutter that easily shredded the Electroweb to shreds freeing Corvikinght who flapped his wings and released an Air Slash at Mothra before setting up a Tailwind of its own.

Mothra stopped releasing Thunderbolt the moment her web got shredded and smoothly dodged out of the way of the Air Slash. 'Use Flamethrower to cover its sight, then close in with Extreme Speed to Nuzzle it,' I instructed over our telepathic link, which Mothra immediately did. She released an expansive Flamethrower, that was more show than potent, which covered the area in front of and around Corviknight in red flames, momentarily robbing it of its sight of Mothra just like planned.

Corviknight flapped its wings, releasing a wind/Air Cutter that blew the flames away, restoring its sight, though the move had already done its job. While Corviknight did that, Mothra used Extreme Speed, once again seemingly vanishing in the eyes of the audience, before appearing behind Corviknight, practically sticking to its back, and that was what she literally did a moment later. Mothra stuck to Corviknight's back and Nuzzled it, causing minimal damage, but more importantly, leaving a current running through its body.

"Shredder," Stephanie immediately ordered, and Corviknight ignored the current causing some of its muscles to twitch, angled its wings, and began to spin, triggering a Hurricane in the process. It was clear that the goal was to throw off Mothra, and hit her with its metal wings before shredding/cutting her through the Hurricane. Unfortunately for them, Mothra had a way to get out of there unharmed.

'Fly out, use Steel Wing to block Corviknight's wings, and Air Slash to cut an opening into their Hurricane, and once you're out, ignite the whole thing using Heat Wave,' I instructed her, which she happily did. Mothra pushed herself off of Corviknight's back, her wings glinting, and clashing with with Corviknight's wings thrice before she was out of the range of Corviknight's wing. Once that was the case, she released a large Air Slash that momentarily cut a wide slit into the Hurricane before slipping through the slit using Quick Attack just to be safe.

Once outside, she turned around, now facing the Hurricane/Corvikninght before releasing a Heat Wave that clashed with the Hurricane, causing it to light up in the process, confining Corviknight in a fire tornado. The audience released exclamation of awe and worry at the sight of the fire tornado, but the Pokemon caught in it and its trainer were not showing any signs of panic.

"Break out and counter," Stephanie ordered, and her Corviknight first released a Flash Cannon, forcing an opening in the flaming wall it was facing, before diving head-first through that gap, successfully leaving the fire prison. Immediately after that it flapped its wings and reestablished control over the Hurricane it set off before redirecting it towards Mothra. Directly after that, Corviknight began to boost itself using moves like Agility, Iron Defense, bulk-up, and Hone Claws.

Meanwhile, Mothra who had been preparing a Fire Blast after she lit up the Hurricane, came face to face with the same Hurricane she fired up. Since she had already readied the Fire Blast, she fired it at the Hurricane, and her attack not only destroyed it but also made its way toward Corviknight afterward, though with diminished power.

Corviknight evaded the Fire Blast with ease, and directly Taunted Mothra afterward, reinforcing the effect, probably aware that the previous charge was about to run out. Mothra huffed in annoyance when that happened, before firing a Signal Beam at Corviknight. It was here that Stephanie and her Corviknight had their first blunder during our battle. Corviknight did not bother dodging Signal Beam, probably due to its very high natural resistance towards bug energy.

However, they neglected the fact that Butterfree could have the ability Tinted Lens, which Mothra naturally possessed as well, and this ability allowed all of Mothra's moves that would have usually been not very effective to cause regular damage instead. This naturally applied to Signal Beam as well, so when it tried to ignore/tank Signal Beam in favor of preparing its next big offensive, the impact of Signal Beam threw it off course.

Mothra capitalized on that and slammed into Corviknight using a Flare Blitz, and as usual, there were gaps and outcries when Mothra performed another move she shouldn't be able to use. Anyway, their collision sent Corviknight falling/flying away, and while it was trying to regain control, Mothra followed after it and used Horn Leech to heal the damage she caused herself by using Flare Blitz. Her Horn Leech manifested in the form of energy vines that clung to Corviknight and began to drain it of its energy.

"Enough playing around," Stephanie suddenly said. "Destroy those suckers, and then get in close and bash that bug," she ordered sounding much less nice compared to the calm and cool attitude she had before. As soon as he said that, Corviknight spread its wings, killing off its momentum, while also destroying the energy vines clinging to its body in the process. It then did one big flap and hurled itself towards Mothra, its wings, claws, head, and beak gleaming.

"Keep your distance," I ordered, deciding that not giving Stephanie what she wanted was probably the best decision for now, and it was obvious that she wanted her Corviknight to get close to my sweet Mothra. Mothra first used Extreme Speed to open up the distance between them some more before firing a Thunderbolt at Corviknight, which it actually dodged through a tight evasive maneuver.

Seeing her failed attack, Mothra had to fly away to maintain the distance between them, but she quickly noticed that Corviknight was gaining on her, so she began to utilize the many speed burst moves she had learned to widen the distance between them whenever it shrunk down below a certain level. She first used Quick Attack since her body was not ready yet for another Extreme Speed.

Afterward, she chained an Aqua Jet following which she switched to normal flight for a moment, to give Corviknight the impression that it could still catch up if it gave its all. As long as they were focused on catching Mothra, they were not minding the Taunt that was about to lose its effect, freeing many of Mothra's moves, quite a few of which I was planning to have her use as soon as possible.

As we had hoped, Stephanie's focus was drawn to catching up to Mothra, so Taunt ran out after Mothra performed a Bullet Punch, and Mach Punch dodge maneuver. As soon as that happened, I had Mothra use Taunt herself to block Corviknight from using it against her once again. She followed that by suddenly releasing a Sleep Powder cloud in Croviknight's Flight path which it barely managed to avoid.

The Sing she followed up with got blocked by Corviknight using Round, and the same happened to Grass Whistle, though I had Mothra use this one as bait for Round, so Corviknight blocking Grass Whistle was part of our plan. While Corviknight was finishing up Round, Mothra appeared above it using Teleport and used Encore, forcing it to keep using Round if it wanted to attack. She then chained Disable on top of that, preventing it from using the sole move it could use to attack, effectively taking away its ability to actively utilize energy against Mothra.

Yet even in such a situation, Stephanie did not lose her cool. "Switch to random maneuvers to stay away from that Butterfree until you can mount a retaliation," she instructed coldly. Her Corviknight performed a nose dive before doing a flip that positioned it behind Mothra. It was forced to abruptly swerve to the right when Mothra once again released a Sleep Powder cloud, and while it managed to avoid flying straight through the middle of the cloud, it did not manage to avoid the fate of being submerged for a brief moment even as it dodged.

Still, that brief moment was not enough to affect Corviknight, so it did not fall asleep. Well, that was fine since we were not done by a long shot. I was not planning to let up the pressure. 'Use Future Sight, then catch Corviknight in an Electroweb before Cursing it. Once it is Cursed, send it to sleep before recovering using Dream Eater, and Giga Drain,' I ordered and Mothra directly began to work on it.

She started with Future Sight before flying towards Corviknight using Extreme Speed, easily catching it in an Electroweb. While Corviknight was struggling against the web, actually using only its physical force/strength to cause tears in it, Mothra used Curse, and unlike the non-ghost version that non-ghost types usually performed, Mothra actually performed a proper Curse despite not being a ghost type, which made even Stephanie break her calm facade for a moment, momentarily replacing it with a look of disbelief before she regained her neutral facade.

If even Stephanie broke character for a moment, the reaction of the audience was easy to imagine. No one was able to believe what just happened, and I heard more than one person yelling "Just how?" and "It doesn't make any sense" in frustration.

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