676 CH56 (670), First Gym Battle (3)

The fire got drawn into the electrically charged spinning top called Bronzong, but due to its spinning speed and the electric energy along with its Heatproof ability, I doubted that it did much damage. Still, some damage was better than none, and at least it kept Bronzong spinning for a bit longer rather than doing something else. Unfortunately, things did not stay like that for long since Enji/Arcanine had to switch his focus on not rolling along the ground after finally coming into contact with the ground.

While Enji stopped his Flamethrower to focus on skidding along the ground, Stephanie used the opportunity to switch things up again. "Room, again," she ordered, causing her Bronzong to stop spinning which dispersed the accumulated energy outward. Enji was too far away, so that was pretty harmless since it was unable to reach him, but I noted that it could have been a decent wide-area maneuver if any Pokemon had been close by.

Either way, Bronzong once again performed Trick Room, and this time I decided teleporting around until the effect wore off was not enough since it could always reapply Trick Room once more. It was quite unfortunate that Enji knew no move-blocking moves. Still, it was not impossible for Enji to overcome the difference in speed between them, it would just take some time to set up, but they left us with no choice, so we had to do it whether we wanted or not. Besides, it seemed like it would take some time to cause enough damage to take Bronzong down anyway.

'I'll act as your eyes for the moment, so ignore Bronzong for now and start using Agility. I'll tell you when to teleport away. Once that happens just teleport to the other end of the battlefield if I don't give any concrete instructions,' I telepathically instructed Enji who had just managed to stop his rolling and was experiencing some "sluggishness". Enji nodded, closed his eyes, and began to use Agility ignoring everything else. Cutting oneself off like that was normally extremely risky, but it allowed Enji to execute Agility at a much higher speed than he would have been able to do if he was forced to divert his focus on other things.

"W Ball," Stephanie followed up after Trick Room was complete, and Bronzong dutifully executed her order, charging the Weather Ball turned Magma Ball thanks to the presence of Sunny Day and Sandstorm. It then fired the Magma Ball at Enji who remained unmoving while this happened, still focused on executing Agility until told otherwise.

'Teleport a few meters to the right or left,' I finally ordered when the Magma Ball came within 25-ish meters of Enji. Enji immediately stopped his latest use of Agility and switched to Teleport, vanishing from his place within the second I gave the mental order, reappearing 5 meters to the right. A second later the Magma Ball passed through his previous position, and I heard exclamations coming from the audience, both in favor or against us, when that happened.

"Continue," I ordered out loud. 'We need 4 more Agility charges so keep going until then. I'll keep you informed whenever you have to Teleport out,' I added mentally, and he returned a 'Got it, Dad' over the channel. While we were doing that Stephanie was doing her own follow-up. "Two can play that game. Bron, Safety Net," she ordered, and her Bronzong began to use a few moves. The first one appeared to be Safeguard, which was followed by Reflect, and then Light Screen.

I did not bother trying to interrupt them since three of them had a time limit, and the more it focused on using those moves the more time Enji had to finish his Agility streak without worry. By the time Bronzong set up Light Screen, Enji finished his final Agility, reaching the maximum charge he could support. That maximum was 8 charges, which was enough to raise his speed a slight bit ahead of Bronzong even with the presence of Trick Room.

'Xtreme Charge,' I ordered as soon as that happened, and Enji figuratively vanished, leaving sparks behind. He slammed into Bronzong, interrupting it as it was using Iron Defence. "Snarl," I ordered as the force of impact sent Bronzong away. "Metal Sound," Stephanie swiftly followed up, and the two moves canceled each other out. "Cannon," she ordered directly after, and her Bronzong fired off a Flash Cannon as it stopped its involuntary flight.

'Dodge, then' I began telepathically, "D Pulse," I finished out loud. 'Interrupt D Pulse and follow up with Fire Blast if it manages to intercept D Pulse', I added mentally as Enji began to execute my order. He skipped to the side, dodging the beam that passed through his previous position, and released a Dragon Pulse at Bronzong. Bronzong managed to shift its Flash Cannon to Dragon Pulse's path moments before the move hit it, leading to a beam clash a few meters in front of Bronzong.

When that happened, Enji stopped sustaining Dragon Pusle as previously ordered and used Extreme Speed to shift towards Bronzong's back, making use of the few moments that the beam clash persisted before Flash Cannon overwhelmed the remaining Dragon Pulse. Enji directly followed up by releasing a Fire Blast, sending the fire attack at Bronzong's back while it was still busy.

"Protect!" Stephanie ordered as soon as Enji appeared at the back of her Pokemon, but by the time she gave her command, Enji had already fired off his Fire Blast. Bronzong certainly tried to follow Stepahnie's order. It stopped Flash Cannon immediately and tried to put up Protect, but it was a pretty flimsy shield that greeted Enji's Fire Blast. The Protect held out mere moments before breaking, allowing Fire Blast to hit Bronzong barely weaker than before.

'Crunch,' I had Enji follow up while Bronzong was being impacted by Fire Blast, and Enji swiftly leaped at Bronzong who was being rocketed back. He once again bit into Bronzong's hoop, causing Bronzong to cry out in pain, much more than it did when Fire Blast impacted it. "Spin, Charge," Stephanie ordered once again, trying to repeat what happened the last time, but this time I decided to see if we could stop Enji from getting shocked.

'Try to release Heat Wave while keeping Crunch up,' I silently instructed Enji trying to see if he'd manage to do so given the circumstances. Using two moves simultaneously was already extremely hard unless it was a combination move that had been trained beforehand, but Enji's current situation, with him trying to not get thrown off and maintaining Crunch, made the whole thing even harder. The reason I chose Heat Wave, aside from the fact that it would make it easier for it to get drawn into the momentum of Gyro Ball, which was the goal of him using a fire move, was because Enji had mastered it.

Performing a mastered move under the given circumstances was easier than using something else. Not to mention that Heat Wave did not get released from Enji/Arcanine's mouth like many of his other fire moves, so there was less of a chance that it would interfere with Crunch. Luckily, it worked, somewhat. Enji did not manage a proper Heat Wave, but he managed to release fire energy which got drawn into the current caused by Bronzong's spinning, igniting in the process.

"Keep it up," I instructed, and the fire kept getting hotter, and I saw the sand grains around Bronzong and Enji heat up, which was great news since this way they would at least hurt Bronzong as well instead of just affecting Enji. I continued watching the situation, seeing no reason to interfere since it was to our advantage right now.

"Impact Head," Stephanie said, showing that she was not willing to let things pan out as they were. Still, I was not sure what she meant by Impact Head since the few moves that fit the term that I could think of would be of no use in the current situation. I got my answer moments later when Bronzong raised its arms, trying to wrap them around Enji, before it flipped around, and began to fly/spin head/hoop first towards the ground.

Apparently, Stephanie had meant that command quite literally, and it without a doubt was a self-damaging act on their part. 'Push off of Bronzong using Extreme Speed,' I immediately ordered hoping Enji would be able to do so fast enough since he only had 2-3 seconds before the impact due to the low distance between Bronzong and the ground.

Unfortunately, just letting go of Bronzong and leaving things to the centrifugal force was not an option because of Bronzong's "arms". Similarly, simply trying to Teleport away would not work as well since he could not immediately switch to Teleport after keeping up Crunch for as long as he did.

Everyone was watching as Bronzong slammed head-first into the ground, throwing up a lot of dust/smoke. I had the urge to release a sigh of relief when I saw Enji successfully jump away from Bronzong mere moments before it crashed into the ground. 'Fire Blast, followed by Flare Blitz,' I ordered, and Enji first fired a Fire Blast towards the impact ground, before rushing after the Fire Blast while being on fire.

Enji's running speed was so fast that he managed to catch up with the Fire Blast moments before it landed on Bronzong, resulting in the two moves hitting home at nearly the same moment, causing the fire energy of the Fire Blast and Flare Blitz to synergize. Before the previous dust/smoke could settle, Enji's attack, which triggered an energy explosion upon impact, created more smoke. Smoke, that once again covered everyone's sight. Still, unlike everyone else, I had an easy way to get answers.

'Enji how's the situation?' I asked him over the telepathic link I set up. 'I'm hurting, Dad, and a bit tired, but that's still better than the tin can. It finally got knocked out,' Enji responded, sharing with me the result of the battle before the others could know. 'That's great,' I commended before adding 'I'll address your injuries in a moment'. Knowing that Bronzong was out, I gave my next order to take advantage of the lack of visibility and the fact that the battle was still going on because of it.

"Enji, Rest," I ordered out loud, before waiting for the dust to settle. "Bron, Dream Eater," Stephanie followed up, though futilely. Not that she could have known that. Anyway, a few seconds later, visibility was restored, and everyone was able to see Enji snoozing beside a knocked-out/unmoving Bronzong.

"Bronzong is unable to Battle, Arcanine is the winner," the referee swiftly declared. "I'm switching Enji out," I declared before he could say anything else since I was pretty certain he had been about to issue a warning concerning Enji's state. I also followed through immediately, recalling my sleeping boy. He would be able to finish his sleep inside his ball, and if I ended up needing him, he should be well-rested for his next fight. Stephanie withdrew her beaten Bronzong as well, and she gave me a nod of approval, obviously agreeing with my tactical decision, at least that was what I was feeling.

Anyway, I put Enji's ball away and proceeded to pull out the next one, while Stephanie across from me did the same. I did briefly hesitate about whom to go with since I was pretty sure that I would be facing one of Stephanie's main Pokemon next. I would naturally have to go big as well to match her Pokemon, meaning it would have to be Mothra/Butterfree, or Ignis/Gyarados who was objectively the better choice to face a low platinum stage Scizor or Stan/Gyarados, whom I preferred to use against Corviknight.

Ultimately, I decided to go with Mothra first since I did not mind facing either Scizor or Corviknight with her. This also made the choice of whom to choose to face the next one easier since I would simply go with my preferred choice depending on whether Scizor or Corviknight came second.

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