Chapter 20
*Tock* *Tock* *Tock*
The sound of my heels on the tile floor is frighteningly loud to my ears. I take slow and steady breaths, similar to my cultivation technique, keeping my mind calm as the sounds of the crowd grow louder as I approach the end of the hallway. I fail to notice the faint trail of diamond dust in my wake as I step into the light of the arena. There is a slight hush of the crowd when they notice my arrival, which quickly turns into loud cheers and whistles. I can't hear anything being called from the sea of people as it just turns into a cacophony of noise.
My eyes lock onto Brock as I make my way to the challengers side of the arena. I see him give me a look over, but now that none of my skin is showing I don't feel any revulsion to his glance, and gives me a nod in appreciation. I take a moment as I step onto the challengers platform to look it over as this is my first time on one. Now that I can see it from up close, I notice that it is actually made of metal that looks like a platform of rock. I suppose there is a microphone hidden in the box to capture anything I say.
"It seems like we have a challenger that knows how to make an entrance! Challenger, do you need to hear the rules?" I shake my head slightly, keeping my eyes on Brock. The sounds of the crowd start to fade as I concentrate on Brock. The arena in front of me becomes even clearer to see, I can see every crevice and rock on field in utmost clarity.
"The battle will be a two on two, with two switches allowed. Challenger, are you ready?" I hear Brock say and I nod in acknowledgement. Brock grabs a pokeball and tosses it into the arena. "Sudowoodo, go!"
What appears in the field is an odd looking pokemon. It is dirt brown in color and vaguely tree shaped. I remember seeing the pokemon before in the games I had played on earth, but I never did anything with it beyond catching it. I slide the skirt of my dress back slightly and grab Zephyr's pokeball. It is better to have Zephyr deal with a pokemon I don't know as she is quick enough to dodge most attacks.
"Rule the skies Zephyr!" I toss Zephyrs pokeball out and my pretty bird appears in the arena and quickly takes flight with a cheerful call. Trying to get an early advantage, I quickly call out my first attack. "Quick attack!"
Zephyr takes off towards Sudowoodo as she begins to glow white and disappears into a blur. As she closes in on Sudowoodo, Brock calls for a Sucker Punch at the last moment. I see the dark color spread along one of the pokemons branches as it swings towards Zephyr.
"Acrobatics!" I call out cooly as Zephyr suddenly closes her wings as she adjusts her aim and just misses getting hit by the move. She wasn't able to get a hit on the tree either as she was moving too quickly to change up her attack.
"Mimic, Thunder Punch!" Brock calls out in return. In what seems like slow motion, I see Sudowoodo spin around, like in a dance, and throw its other branch that is crackling with electric energy towards Zephyr's back. I watch as the fist slams into her back and sends her tumbling through the air. Luckily she wasn't moving in a direction that would have put her on the ground from the attack but I could tell that the attack hurt and my pretty bird was not happy about that.
She spins around in the air and lets out a sound that makes me grit my teeth from its pitch. I watch as a wave of white energy washes over Sudowoodo and its bark-like skin doesn't seem quite as sturdy anymore.
Seeing the wrath burning in Zephyr's eyes I call out one of her moves we have been working on. "Phenex Wings"{AN: The Phenex is the demon bird of fire not the immortal Phoenix} Zephyr glows red for a second before bursting into flames as she dives towards Sudowoodo again. My eyes can see the silvery sheen of Steel Wing under her flames as her speed increases the closer she gets to the rotten tree.
"Stone Edge" Brock calls, looking to exchange hits with my pretty bird. Sudowoodo stops on the ground, sending a multitude of spikes flying up towards Zephyr but she suddenly disappears from sight as a loud bang is heard. Looking towards the source of the sound, Sudowoodo is slammed against the psychic wall surrounding the arena and currently has a large flaming gash along almost the entirety of its body. I see Brock furrow his brow as he grabs a pokeball and calls back Sudowoodo before switching in a different pokemon. What appears from the light of the pokeball is an orange wolf-like creature with a white mane and tail. The pokemon looks like a Lycanroc but it is not one of the forms I am used to.
"Double accel, Thunder Fang!" The Lycanroc disappears from my view, similar to how Zephyr did a moment ago, only to appear directly above Zephyr with its mouth sparking as it moves to catch Zephyr.
"Quick Dodge!" Zephyr attempts to move out of the way of attack by tucking her wings and diving towards the arena, but Lycanroc slams into her back sending her hurtling towards the floor quicker than was intended. Luckily she flares her wings and catches herself before slamming into the arena. I breathe a small sigh of relief seeing her safe as Lycanroc lands not too far away. I pull out Zephyrs pokeball and recall her. I take a moment to recenter myself and think about what to do as I pull out Skadis pokeball. I close my eyes for a moment and then I snap them open as I toss out the pokeball.
"Skadi, freeze the world!"
Skadi lands about two meters in front of me and lets out a happy call, looking ready to battle. I focus on Lycanroc and then coldly call out, "[Powdered Snow]." I feel something quickly drain from my body as Skadi glows a brilliant ice blue and a veritable snow storm sweeps across the arena. Brock calls for Lycanroc to dodge and use Protect but it is useless as the move covers the entire field and brushes past it, causing it to slow down drastically but it is not frozen. Seeing the slow moving pokemon, I decide to use Skadi's big setup move as it takes a while to cast.
"Niflheim" Skadi glances back at me and when she sees me nod she starts to glow in an icy blue color that slowly intensifies. Niflheim was a risky move as it sets up the field to do lots of damage over time but it was draining for a newly trained pokemon to pull off. The light on her body seems to pulse from her tail to her mouth and every pulse makes the glow in her mouth grow until she lets out a massive burst of ice type energy that I am able to feel even through the psychic shields. The temperature in the entire stadium plummets as the entire arena is covered in a layer of ice and a hailstorm starts from my side of the arena growing in size until everything is ice. The ground, the sky, the very air they are breathing in the arena was filled with ice type energy. Through the snow and hail, I can clearly see Skadi panting heavily but her eyes are focused on Lycanroc.
I look towards Lycanroc myself and see it moving towards Skadi slowly. I hear Brock call for an attack, but I can't make it out over the silence caused by the snow and ice. I see Lycanrock dash towards Skadi once it sees her. I can tell my sweetheart is tired and likely won't be able to dodge the attack. As Lycanrock gets closer, I notice that it has taken heavy damage from the cold and hail for our two moves, but it doesn't seem like it is going to go down easily.
"Frozen Moon" I call, hoping Skadi has enough energy to pull it off. She lowers her stance a little as a pinkish blue colored orb slowly appears in front of her mouth. The move that would normally be fired off in moments is taking a while to charge as Lycanroc gets in range and attacks her, trying to interrupt the move and take her down at the same time. My heart clenches as I see the attack score across Skadis back, drawing a bloody line through her fur, but I clench my teeth and trust my little fox.
She doesn't disappoint me as she whips her head at her attacker and from point blank range, attacks it with a beam of light that flings the pokemon away and into the psychic shield with a loud crash. As soon as the beam is fired I see Skadi stumble and fall to the floor.
"Lycanroc is unable to battle. Vulpix is unable to battle. Please send out your remaining pokemon."
As I grab Skadis pokeball and make her return and make sure to tell her she did a fantastic job even though my heart was heavy because of her nasty back injury. I put away her pokeball and pull Zephyr back out and toss it into the field again.
"Skadi took out that wolf! It's up to you Zephyr!"
Zephyr appears and seems surprised by how the field changed but she expertly flies in the ongoing storm. On the other side of the snowscape, Sudowoodo appears again, the gash across its front telling that it is on its last legs. I order Zephyr to build speed in the storm as Sudowoodo starts tossing rocks at her, trying to knock her down. Once Zephyr has built up enough speed, I give her the order that should win the match for us.
"Cold Steel! Watch for the counter!"
She angles towards the other pokemon and opens her beak slightly, letting an icy blue mist flow towards her body as her wings glow in the silver of Steel Wing. Zephyr turns into a silver blue comet as she plunges towards Sudowoodo. Through the snow and ice, I see Sudowoodo suddenly start to gleam brightly as it shoots a beam of light at her which she narrowly dodges, but her wing still gets hit causing her to be slightly off course. She corrects by using Acrobatics and slams her uninjured wing against the fake tree and crashes into the pilling snow as she is unable to control herself. I hold my breath as I feel my heart racing until I see Sudowoodo fall backwards and hear Zephyr call out in triumph.
"Sudowoodo is unable to battle! Challenger Frost wins!"
Upon hearing those words I let out my breath and slightly relax my taut muscles. I recall Zephyr and suddenly feel a massive wave of exhaustion wash over me. Now that my concentration is broken, I hear the crowd roaring with enthusiasm at the fight they just witnessed. I force myself not to break my persona as I walk towards Brock who is approaching me while walking around the arena instead of through it like normal. I take a look at the arena and I can see a number of league trainers with fire and ground type pokemon working at clearing the ice I created. I feel a little bad about it, but battlefield modification is all part of battle.
"Congratulations Frost. That was quite a battle strategy you had. I would hate to have to face it later when your pokemon are stronger." Brock says to me as we meet and hands me a small badge. "Here is the Boulder Badge for you, you have earned it with your display."
"Thank you." I reply quietly, as everything seems to ache, including my head, at the moment.
"One thing you should work on is don't try to use big moves all the time. Big moves cost a lot of energy and if they are unsuccessful it might cost you a win. This time it worked out well for you, but be wary in the future."
"I will keep that in mind. I don't think I could have beaten Lycanroc any other way, it was much faster than either of my pokemon currently."
"As long as you don't stop improving, a fight like this will be nothing for you. Once again, congratulations." With that he turns around and walks back to his side of the gym. I stare after him for a moment before I sharply turn around and walk out of the stadium trailed by the sounds of cheers.