19 Chapter 19: Battle Between Masters
The 4 Pokemon observed one another for a few moments before Blaziken and Machamp charged forward. Blaziken was much faster and closed the gap on Machamp, ready to kick it with a leg covered in flames.
Before the move connected, Hariyama slammed its massive hands together, sending a shockwave that caused Blaziken to flinch. This only lasted a moment but a moment was all that Machamp needed to counterattack.
Both of Machamp's right fists began to orange before striking Blaziken in the head and the arm, knocking it aside before charging toward Dusknoir in the background who was charging a ball of black and purple energy.
Dusknoir saw the Machamp approaching him and fired its ball, striking the Pokemon before it was able to close the gap.
The attack hit it but Machamp did not slow down in the slightest. Moving toward its target, Machamp's fists were covered in a black light with red outlines. The rest of his body was covered by a slightly red aura, signifying that he was burned somehow.
'A Dark Type move,' Xander thought when he saw the color of the energy around his hands but he couldn't understand how Machamp got burned until he focused on the belt.
'A Flame Orb,' Xander quickly put together and understood Kent's strategy. Machamp most likely had Guts which was an ability that powered up a Pokemon's physical attacks when it was under conditions like burn or paralysis. This was a common strategy with Pokemon who had this ability since there were no downsides to getting burned besides a small amount of damage to the Pokemon.
Dusknoir was able to dodge 3 of the blows but was struck by the last one, getting knocked back by a couple of meters.
Blaziken was about to rush back to support Dusknoir when Hariyama raised one of his hands and wagged a finger toward Blaziken. Losing itself in some type of mind control, Blaziken no longer looked back and went to attack the Hariyama with another [Blaze Kick]. The foot made contact with the Hariyama's palm and Blaziken was pushed back without dealing much damage.
"Blaziken, no more Fire Moves," Dahlia told Blaziken, already having guessed that Kent's Hariyama had Thick Fat. It was an ability that reduced the effectiveness of Fire and Ice Type moves by half.
'Got it!' Blaziken replied kicking at its lower body. The kick caused Hariyama to recoil as Blaziken jumped away with the force behind it.
Hariyama soon recovered and smashed forward with a glowing orange palm. Blaziken was still in the air when the attack came toward it so he was unable to dodge. With no other choice, his body began to glow white before sending dozens of feathers in front of the palm, weakening the blow but still sending it flying.
When Blaziken landed, his body began to glow white before rushing toward Hariyama once more and kicking it in the side of its head. Blaziken had the ability Speed Boost that would regularly increase its speed every 30 seconds when it was in battle.
"Hairyama, focus on defense!" Kent knew that Hariyama would be at a disadvantage if the duo got into a slugfest. Blaziken was just too fast. "Machamp, you need to finish your opponent fast."
On the other side of the field, Durknoir's eye began to glow red before it unleashed a wave of invisible energy. When the wave came across Machamp, it felt as if its body had gotten much heavier. Dusknoir then raised its hands above his head while his eyes began to glow again. This time, a blue ball of energy appeared above him before suddenly disappearing.
Machamp got used to the increased gravity and struck toward Dusknoir once more, this time hitting the other Pokemon with all 4 strikes. The Ghost Pokemon held strong and returned a punch, its giant fist covered in blue energy that released freezing energy from it.
When the fist struck Machamp, its entire body turned blue as freezing energy ran through his body, unable to move.
"Go! Don't let him recover!" Dahlia saw her opening and was going to take it. The winner of the match would be determined by whether Dusknoir or Machamp was the first to be knocked out so when she saw that Machamp was Frozen, she knew it was her time to strike.
'Let's go!' Dusknoir shouted as she covered one fist with the same blue energy and another with yellow electricity. Dusknoir then began to pummel Machamp, taking time to wind up each fist before punching one at a time, back to back.
Unable to move, Machamp took each blow, trying his best to get feeling back in his body. After 3 strikes from each fist, Machamp was finally able to recover and immediately threw up a green barrier around itself. When Dusknoir struck the barrier, she was knocked back by the strength of her own attack.
Machamp rushed forward to strike Dusknoir and finish the battle with one more [Assurance] but before it could, blue lightning struck from the sky out of nowhere. The [Future Sight] that Dusknoir had used earlier had arrived and struck Machamp down.
Already weakened from the other blows that it took and being super-effective against him, Machamp was unable to withstand the psychic lightning that had hit him. The powerful Pokemon fell to the ground and lost consciousness.
Once that battle was over, Dusknoir raised its hand to the sky to use [Future Sight] once more before firing a [Shadow Ball] again, this time at Hariyama.
Being busy dealing with Blaziken, Hariyama was not prepared to be struck by the [Shadow Ball] and lost its tempo while purple electricity appeared on its body.
Blaziken saw this chance and knew that he needed to take it. A ball of red and orange energy appeared in front of Blaziken's beak before being fired at Hariyama and sending the large Pokemon flying several meters.
Before Hariyama even landed, the blue lightning appeared once again and struck it. When the Pokemon finally touched the ground, it was no longer conscious.
The referee looked at both of Kent's Pokemon before looking at Blaziken who was bent over and looking exhausted while Dusknoir seemed fine but that was the issue with Ghost Types. It was hard to tell anything was wrong with them until they were unconscious.
"Machamp and Hariyama are unable to battle. The winner is Dahlia with her Blaziken and Dusknoir!"
