681 CH61 (675), First Gym Battle (8)

"X Speed Impact/Steam Eruption," Stephanie and I ordered virtually at the same time. Ignis directly released his attack, while Lucario instantly moved into action, seemingly turning into a blur. That was literally what he looked like, at Lucario's initial location only a blur remained and Lucario himself burst through the steam that Ignis had started to release. Lucario did not stop at all, ignoring any pain he must have felt, and crashed into Ignis, not only interrupting his attack but also sending him flying.

Yes, the power behind Lucario's attack was so big that it not only threw back Ignis' upper body but sent his whole body flying. Well, that was to be expected from an Exterme Speed-boosted Giga Impact I guess. Unfortunately, Ignis' speedy involuntary flight meant that he was unable to take advantage of Lucario's vulnerable phase following Giga Impact since Lucario had already recovered by the time Ignis managed to regain his bearing.

"V Wave, Psychic Edge," Stephanie followed up moments before her Lucario regained mobility, and as soon as he could act, Lucario released a Vacuum Wave that once again cleared the Steaming Mist around him, and this time around the size of the mist-free area was more than double the one before Lucario's mega evolution and subsequent breakthrough. In fact, that one Vacuum Wave cleared out more than a third of the battlefield, and I doubted that the Steaming Mist would be able to persist for more than a minute or two after recovering from Lucario's attack.

Regardless, my reaction when I heard Stephanie say Psychic was immediate. "Dark Pulse," I ordered out loud. 'Channel it but don't release it yet. If you reach your limit before I give you the signal to release it, then you're free to fire it early,' I added telepathically and Ignis directly began charging Dark Pulse.

Just in time as well since Lucario attempted to trap Ignis with Psychic, but the dark energy Ignis was channeling interfered with the psionic energy Lucario was trying to trap him with, so his Psychic failed. Still, Lucario did not let that stop him and followed up with Stone Edge, firing more than half a dozen rock lances at Ignis. 'Fire,' I ordered and Ignis released the charged Dark Pulse at the approaching rocks, stopping the ones that were poised to hit him if he did not move.

Ignis' Dark Pulse managed to disintegrate the rocks in its way and continued toward Lucario, but his attack ended up clashing with the Focus Blast that Lucario followed up with. Sadly for us, Focus Blast swiftly overwhelmed Dark Pulse and slammed into Ignis. Ignis released a roar of pain and his head got thrown backward by the power of Lucario's move. At least this time he was not sent flying and he managed to restore his posture nearly immediately.

Nonetheless, Ignis did not like the result of that clash at all and glared at Lucario, who smiled provocatively. Lucario then actually used the come here/on hand gesture I used to see in fighting movies all the time, obviously provoking Ignis, who released a threatening growl in return. Still, despite being obviously pissed at Lucario, Ignis did not mindlessly charge at him, which put a proud smile on my face.

'Flamethrower,' I told him and he immediately released a gout of fire at Lucario, who blurred out of the way, using what I was assuming to be Bullet Punch. "Focus B," Stephanie followed directly when she saw Ignis release a Flamethrower, so after dodging to Ignis' left, Lucario fired off a Focus Blast that hit Ignis in the side, forcing him to release a cough/gasp of pain, which interrupted his Flamethrower.

'Steam Eruption,' I responded and Ignis released a wall of superheated steam in all directions. The steam managed to hit Lucario but he endured it and closed in on Ignis before wailing on him. I recognized Force Palm, Drain Punch, and Mega Kick before another Force Palm hit Ignis' belly. As luck would have it, that Force Palm caused Ignis to seize up, which Lucario immediately capitalized on by releasing a point-blank Focus Blast.

Lucario kept using that move, but I couldn't really blame him since all of his fighting moves, which Focus Blast belonged to as well, got a considerable power boost after Lucario's Mega Evolution thanks to the Adaptability he gained during the process. Anyway, Lucario's Focus Blast sent Ignis flying and since he kept supplying the Focus Blast with energy, it kept propelling Ignis until he crashed into the wall. The Focus Blast then continued to impact Ignis, pressing him against the wall before an energy explosion got triggered and Lucario ceased his attack.

A Steam Jet came out of the smoke and impacted Lucario moments after he stopped his attack, forcing him back a few steps before he pivoted out of the way and threw an Aura Sphere toward the origin of the Steam Jet. The Aura Sphere exploded after impacting something, presumably Ignis since the Steam Jet cut off at the same time, and the force it generated dispersed the dust/smoke, revealing Ignis to everyone. Ignis looked worse for wear but was defiantly glaring at Lucario. He then released a Fire Blast at Lucario, which Lucario dodged while simultaneously closing in on Ignis.

The Fire Blast exploded behind Lucario, but he did not look back. No, without wasting any time, Lucario managed to close in on Ignis in record time, and delivered an uppercut, maybe a Sky Uppercut, on Ignis' chin. The force behind the attack propelled Ignis into the air, and I was not talking about his head/neck, but his whole body, which was rather impressive. Things did not stop there, before Ignis' tail could rise more than a meter and a half, Lucario grabbed onto it and used it to slam Ignis from one side of the ground to the other and vice versa.

I told Ignis to resist, to either try to wrap around Lucario, or to release another Steam Eruption to force Lucario to interrupt its onslaught, but Lucario gave Ignis no breathing room to do so, leaving him no time to retaliate. Still, after the fourth round of slamming Lucarion finally paused long enough for Ignis to muster up the energy to struggle out of its grip. The point-blank Steam Eruption he released forced Lucario to let go of Ignis, and also forced him back a few steps.

Still, at this point Ignis was hurt pretty badly so I doubted that he would be able to hold out for much longer. Hence I decided to let him do as much damage he could to Lucario as he could before going down. Who knew, maybe if he got lucky he would be able to take Lucario down with him. 'Wrap Lucario up and use Lava Plume followed by another Steam Eruption. Finally, try to cook him with Heat Wave,' I instructed Ignis telepathically, and he lunged toward Lucario as soon as I gave the order.

Lucario who had just been forced back by the sudden Steam Eruption, barely managed to hold out his arms in time to stop Ignis' body from squeezing its body. Yet, that left Lucario open to the Lava Plume Ignis released, which ended up submerging Lucario in scarlet flames. Despite that, Lucario's arms did not give out and still prevented Igni's body from squeezing him and I actually saw energy gathering in Lucario's mouth. However, before Lucario could release whatever attack he was initiating, the fire he was being bathed in got replaced by steam from Steam Eruption. The pain Lucario felt seemed to interrupt whatever he was charging, and even his arms seemed to lose their strength.

Moments later it became obvious that Lucario's arms had not lost their strength, but that he decided to switch his approach. Before Ignis could close the gap between them and squeeze the life out of Lucario, he jumped up, kicked off of Ignis' body, and put some distance between them. Ignis sent a Flamethrower after him and he actually managed to bathe Lucario in fire for a few moments, but Lucario dodged out of the way as soon as his feet touched the ground.

Lucario reappeared a few meters to the right and directly released a Focus Blast at Ignis in retaliation. Ignis tried to counter the sudden attack with a Steam Jet and actually succeeded for a moment before Lucario suddenly cut off his attack. It took two steps to his left, dodging the Steam Jet that passed by his previous position, and stomped the ground following which big rock spikes grew out of the ground around Ignis with all of them pointing at him, obviously trying to shishkabob Ignis.

While Ignis tried to deal with the spikes that threatened to gore him, Lucario rushed up, jumped, and delivered a dropkick on Igni's head, which forced his head toward one of the rock spikes. Ignis reacted swiftly and used Iron Head to minimize the damage, which stopped his head from getting pierced, but the impact from both sides still hurt him and had him release a growl of pain. Lucario followed up with a Focus Blast and the impact drove Ignis' head, which had broken the stone and crashed onto the ground, further into the ground.

As if that was not enough, Lucario triggered an Earthquake as soon as he landed back on the ground, which unfortunately hit Ignis pretty badly since his head was partly underground right now. Ignis' body slackened a few moments after the Earthquake got triggered, and Lucario stopped attacking when that happened. The referee announced that he would declare Ignis unable to battle if he did not continue the fight within 5 seconds. The reason he did not directly issue a verdict was that he could not determine with absolute certainty if Ignis was knocked out or not since his head was not visible. A mere slackening of the body was not enough for him to give an immediate verdict.

"Gyarados is unable to battle, so Lucario is the victor," the referee announced after he finished his countdown without a reaction from Ignis. "Please recall your Pokemon and release your next fighter," he addressed me, and I nodded before taking out Ignis' SteamBall. I put away the SteamBall after recalling Ignis and whispering that he had put up a good fight.

Following that I briefly considered whom to send out next. Initially, I had been planning to use Ryujin for the next fight, but that was before Lucario Mega Evolved and broke through to the platinum stage. I had expected Ignis to beat Lucario, which would have had Ryujin face Stephanie's next/fifth Pokemon. Now that we still had to face Lucario I had to wonder if I should still send out Ryujin, or if I should use Stan/Gyarados or Enji/Arcanine instead. I was not considering Mothra since I did not think that using her was necessary just yet. I wanted to keep her back just in case for the third platinum-stage Pokemon I knew I would have to face.

Speaking of that one, I had actually been planning to use Stan against it, and I still wanted to do that, so he was out of the running I guess. That still left Ryujin as well as Enji, and I eventually decided to go with Enji to allow Ryujin to face Stephanie's fifth Pokemon in fresh condition just like I had planned to at the beginning. Besides, Enji should have no problem keeping up with Mega Lucario's (move-augmented) speed unlike Ryujin, so he was simply the better choice anyway.

Decision made, I pulled out Enji's ball and released him onto the field. His royal presence made itself known as soon as he appeared and Enji gave Lucario an imperious look while waiting for the referee to give the starting signal. Lucario met Enji's gaze and returned the favor. While the two Pokemon were staring at each other, the referee gave the starting signal, and as soon as he did that, both Pokemon sprang into action.

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