Day 5 (2)

"Golduck is unable to continue, Kadabra won." 

*cheer* 

In the end, unable to come up with a solution, Lily had Golduck completely ignore Kadabra's attack in order to engage in close combat. 

While it was closing in on Kadabra however, one of the Thunder Waves it got hit by paralyzed it. This resulted in Golduck's speed falling. 

After which, Kadabra switched to using Thunderbolt, since her opponent wasn't fast enough to reliably dodge that move. Although Golduck managed to land one Shadow Claw before going down, the result didn't change. 

Lukas was glad about this relatively easy victory yet after asking Kadabra how long it will take until she can save a move with Spell Slot again he couldn't help but wish the match had taken a bit longer. 

He also played with the idea of recalling Kadabra until Spell Slot's cooldown was up but dismissed this plan after thinking about the two Nasty Plots he'll lose this way. 

Back to the present. Lily called out her second Pokemon and unsurprisingly to Lukas it turned out to be Haunter. 

Lukas, "Use Psychic." 

He started off the match with Kadabra's strongest psychic-type move, at least as long as you don't count Future Sight. 

Lily, "Dark Pulse." 

'Damn' 

Although he expected Haunter to know dark-type moves, he hoped it would be limited to weaker ones like Thief or Payback. 

Lukas, "Dodge!" 

*boom* 

Like he thought, Dark Pulse eliminated Kadabra's Psychic as soon as they came into contact and then continued on its way to Kadabra. Luckily since this outcome was very predictable Kadabra was able to dodge early evading the attack. 

Lukas once again pondered whether to recall Kadabra or not. He doesn't want her to take too much damage now. Although Kadabra could theoretically heal herself since she knows the move Rest even an idiot knows that going to sleep in front of the Gengar-line is basically suicide. 

But even if he switches her out, neither Lucario nor Charmeleon have effective moves against Haunter. Of course Lucario knows Bone Rush with is technically effective against a Poison-type like Haunter, unfortunately its power leaves much to be desired. 

'Let's see how things go' 

He decided to keep her in again. 

Lukas, "Use Shadow Ball." 

Since psychic-type moves are ineffective, Kadabra's ghost-type move will have to do. 

Lily, "Counter with a Shadow Ball of your own." 

*Boom* 

Both attacks met in midair, seemingly on equal footing. Yet Kadabra's attack triumphed in the end despite Haunter's affinity for ghost-type moves. 

But Haunter's attack bought it enough time to effortlessly evade Kadabra's move. 

Lukas, "Come back Kadabra" 

Just with those two exchanges, Lukas already realized in with direction this fight would go. Kadabra and Haunter would be evenly matched, and the one to tire first would lose in the end. 

While Kadabra's base power is definitely higher than Haunter's thanks in large part to the Full Buff trait, her problem is that none of the moves she knows that are effective against Haunter get boosted by her affinity. 

Normally, Psychic-type attacks would be effective against haunter, but it already showed that it can easily negate those attacks using dark-type moves. 

Her only chance would be if she manages to use Miracle Eye, which would turn the dark-type from a weakness to a neutral type. 

Unfortunately, because of the move's high learning difficulty Kadabra has only been able to learn it up to Novice-mastery so it would take some time to use, time that Kadabra doesn't have against a Ghost-type Pokemon. 

Lukas decided not to gamble on it. Instead, he pondered for a second what Pokemon to send in next. 

"It's your turn, Charmeleon." 

"Char!" 

He went with Charmeleon in the end. After he entered the arena, the battle quickly resumed. 

Lily, "Haunter, use Shadow Ball." 

Lukas, "Charmeleon, Flamethrower." 

*Boom* 

Both moves met in midair. It was Charmeleon's Flamethrower that came out on top in the end, however. Despite that, tho Haunter was able to evade the attack. 

Lily, "Sludge Bomb." 

Lukas, "Use Flamethrower again." 

*Boom* 

Although Haunter used a different move, the end result following the clash of both moves was the same. 

Lily didn't seem to mind seeing both confrontations ending in Haunter's loss. She just calmly gave her next order. 

Lily, "Now use Shadow Punch." 

Following her order, Haunter let his right hand seemingly melt into the ground until a fist ascended out of Charmeleon's shadow. 

Lukas, "Use Dragon Claw to block." 

*Boom* 

This time it ended in Charmeleon's loss. Still, the actual damage taken was minimal. 

Lily, "Continue with Shadow Punch." 

Lukas, "Block it with Dragon Claw again." 

*Boom* 

'I can't let it continue like this.' 

This repeated itself two more times before Lukas finally came up with a feasible countermeasure. 

Lukas, "Charmeleon use Overheat!" 

"Char!" 

Lily was about to give haunter the order to continue but stopped herself. Overheat is a move much too strong to ignore, after all. 

Lily, "Use Protect." 

'Good' 

Lukas knew the chances of Overheat doing any significant damage were small. He just wanted to bait out Haunter's Protect, if it had one. Now that they succeeded, it was time to bring the battle to the next level. 

*Boom* 

Lukas, "Charmeleon attack using Flare Blitz." 

"Char!" 

Without waiting for the results of his previous attack, Charmeleon immediately lit on fire before shooting in Haunter's direction. 

As expected, Haunter was unharmed following Charlemeon's move, yet it seemed unable to react to its fast approaching opponent. 

Charmeleon was just about to hit Haunter until- 

Lily, "Use Phantom Force, quick!" 

*swish* 

"Char?" 

He shot straight through his opponent without causing any damage. 

Before he could regain his wits about the situation, he was greeted by Haunter, who lunged at him. 

*Boom* 

For the first time in their fight, a move managed to hit its opponent unobstructed. 

Lukas, "Charmeleon are you fine." 

"huff..Char!" 

Despite just taking a powerful blow, Charmeleon did not let it show on his face. 

Lukas, "You're close to it now, so use Dragon Claw." 

Lily, "Block it with Shadow Punch." 

*Boom* 

Once again, Charmeleon and Haunter began launching attack after attack at each other. 

During their close combat brawl, it became increasingly obvious that Haunter was at a disadvantage. Lily tried to get Haunter out of this situation by having it use Phantom Force, but Charmeleon did not let it go and continued to press on. 

Their fight raged on until Lily had enough. 

Lukas, "Use another Dragon Claw." 

Lily, "Ignore defense and use Hypnosis instead." 

At such a close distance, it was basically impossible for Charmeleon to evade Haunter's Hypnosis. In exchange, however, he managed to land his Dragon Claw without any problem. 

*Boom* 

A visibly hurt Haunter distanced itself a bit from the sleeping Charmeleon before its next order came. 

Lily, "Now use Dream Eater." 

Now it was Lukas turn to have this move being used on his Pokemon. 

"Char!" 

The shock and pain from Haunter's attack woke Charmeleon up immediately. Alas, he did not even have time to return to his senses before Lily's next order came in. 

Lily, "End it with Sludge Bomb." 

*Boom* 

"Charmeleon is unable to continue, Haunter won." 

*cheer* 

*sigh* 

Lukas sighed before recalling his fainted Pokemon. He whispered some words of encouragement to Charmeleon before he pulled out Kadabra's Poke Ball. By now, the cooldown for her Spell slot trait finished, meaning she could save another move again. 

Lukas quietly told Kadabra which move to save while she was still inside her Poke Ball. 

"Go Kadabra" 

Shortly after Kadabra re-entered the field, the referee gave the signal for both trainers to continue. 

Lukas, "Use Nasty Plot." 

Lily, "Use Dark Pulse." 

*Boom* 

Kadabra ignored the effective attack heading her way in favor of finishing her Nasty Plot. Haunter successful attack dealt a good amount of damage to her, yet Lukas was fine with that. 

Lukas, "Now use Spell Slot, then follow up with Psychic." 

Lily, "Repeat Dark Pulse again." 

She was slightly confused what Lukas was doing because before, even after having her sp atk boosted by four stages, Kadabra's psychic-type attacks were still negated by Haunter's Dark Pulse. 

*Boom* 

At least that was until she saw Kadabra's Psychic overwhelm the Dark Pulse before continuing in Haunter's direction. 

While she was trying to figure out how this happened, Lukas once again marveled at his Pokemon's awesome trait. 

The reason Kadabra's psychic type attack fared better against Haunter this time was simple, the move she saved using Spell Slot was Miracle Eye, allowing her to cast this move that would otherwise take some time in an instant. 

Just like that, the round of 16 continued.