Viridian City Gym Battle Pt. 3

Giovanni sent out a Rhydon that roared as it appeared on the field. Its horn spun and crackled with electricity as it glared at Elrond who floated in front of Vali. She grimaced a bit noting that it was larger than the Rhydon she'd seen at Professor Oak's lab. Elrond let out a slightly shaky breath as he began floating around the field and she murmured down the connection, 'It weighs a lot, Elrond. Use Grass Knot and Iron Tail as much as possible. I'll figure out who to send out next."

It would likely be Arwen since there was a Nidoking/Nidoqueen waiting in the wings that would require more strength than the Ponyta currently had. Vali took a deep breath to calm herself as the Rhydon heaved a heavy rock from the ground and threw it towards Elrond at a rather impressive speed. Elrond dodged the Rock Blast aimed at him and the second stone that followed the first. He got close enough that Rhydon rushed forward with its entire body rotating in a drill like motion. Levitating upwards, he avoided the attack before activating Grass Knot once Rhydon slowed down looking confusion. Rhydon crashed onto the ground with a roar of surprise as green vines wrapped around its body and grunted in not quite pain as the vines began to squeeze down. Elrond slammed an Iron Tail into Rhydon's thick skull wanting to knock it out before the drill pokemon became an actual problem. He managed to strike in the same spot twice earning a grunt of actual pain, but that only seemed to piss Rhydon off. With a loud ripping sound, Rhydon freed one of its arms from the Grass Knot vines and slammed its paw down.

A large spire of rock shot out of the ground right by Elrond and he barely managed to avoid being impaled by it. A long jagged scratch sat on Elrond's side and began to bleed as he floated away from Rhydon. Vali felt his pain though thankfully it wasn't too bad and did her best to help numb it as Elrond mutter, "Ouch."

'Can you keep going or do you want to tag out?' Vali asked as Rhydon ripped at the rest of the vines and created more rock spires around itself.

Elrond hesitated before nodding, "Yes, but call me out if..."

'I will,' Vali returned Elrond and called out Arwen who looked at the battlefield curiously, "Arwen, don't get hit and make sure to hit as hard as possible when attacking,"

Arwen nodded and took off at a swift canter toward Rhydon who'd managed to free itself from a majority of the Grass Knot vines. Rhydon paused and snorted as it caught sight of Arwen. Arwen stamped a hoof onto the ground when she stopped in front of Rhydon and reared her head back before spitting out a large amount of Toxic that splattered across Rhydon's chest and neck. Rhydon jerked back a bit before grunting and lashing out with Hammer Arm. Arwen danced out of the way and sent more Toxic at Rhydon which surprised Vali since her pokemon rarely used the move more than once a battle. Though this meant Arwen would need a rather heavy mixture of berries and vitamins to make up for what she was using for Toxic, she was confused about why Arwen was using so much of it though.

Arwen revealed why when she slammed into Rhydon using Flame Wheel burning the Toxic coating Rhydon's body. Given that most of it was on Rhydon's front, the poison filled smoke entered his lungs during the startled grunt that left him and would continue to do so until the smoke stopped. For all that fire was fairly ineffective against the Rhyhorn-line, the poison laded smoke made up for it since the Rhyhorn-line didn't have much of a defense against air-born poisons as they did ingested ones. It would also begin circulating the drill pokemon's system faster. Smiling a bit, Vali shouted, "Keep it up, Arwen. You can do it!"

If Arwen kept on doing that strategy and increasing the poison filling Rhydon's body, she might just be able to win this battle without needing to bring Elrond out again. Arwen used High Horsepower actually managing to off balance Rhydon a bit before she began to race around the battlefield. Rhydon began to attack her with Rock Blast and Arwen dodged it letting out mocking neighs. Vali's lips twitched at the fact Arwen was doing her best to piss of Rhydon and get it moving to help circulate the poison it had inhaled. Rhydon let out a roar of frustration and launched into Drill Run when Arwen got close. Arwen spat out Toxic again as she dodged the attack making Rhydon falter and roar in pain as the gooey mess hit its eyes. Well that was one way to severely piss off Rhydon, she mused as Rhydon scraped at its eyes to wipe away the poison.

Arwen kept up annoying the hell out of Rhydon and abusing her natural speed as much as possible. Rhydon made it a bit more difficult when it began use Stone Edge more frequently eating up the clear ground around the battlefield. Arwen's body became scratched up as she worked on poisoning and annoying Rhydon into moving around. Had it not been for the fact Solar Beam drained Arwen to the point she could only use it once during a battle, she would probably be using that as well. Only Balto had been able to use it more than once during a battle without being drained, it was probably due to him being a fully evolved pokemon.

Rhydon suddenly let out a roar and stamped his foot down causing the ground to shake. Vali swore under her breath as the Earthquake tore up the field. Arwen ended up slamming into one of the many spires of Stone Edge Rhydon created over the course of battle. Arwen let out a loud shriek of pain as she hit the spire harshly and the fire-type master-in-trainer knew her side was probably badly bruised. Arwen shakily stood up as the tremors ceased and Rhydon began making its way across the battlefield towards her. Arwen's body pulsed red hot for a moment before a miniature sun exploded from her body towards the ceiling sending scorching heat down towards the field. Arwen began charging up for Solar Beam as Rhydon rushed towards her. As Rhydon reached Arwen, she used Solar Beam at point blank range causing a minor explosion that sent dust everywhere as Rhydon released a loud roar of pain.

Arwen flew out of the dust cloud before it could dissipate and hit the wall beside Vali's trainer box. Arwen landed on the ground with a thump. Arwen stayed still breathing heavily for a few moments before attempting to get up. Vali grabbed Arwen's pokeball calling out, "Arwen," Arwen looked towards her trembling as her legs gave out, "You've done enough. It's time to rest, okay?" Arwen nodded and passed out, "Thank you for your help, My Friend," She returned Arwen before releasing Elrond, "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Elrond glared at Rhydon as the cloud of dust settled.

'Grass Knot as strong as possible,' Vali ordered as Rhydon lightly touched the heavy burns and cracks on its chest plates where the Solar Beam had hit it, 'Hit its chest plate with Iron Tail hard. Double Team and Psychic, use the broken rocks against it. Annoy it, the poison Arwen managed to dose it with is whittling away its health,'

"Noted," Elrond nodded to her before taking off to put her plan into action.

Even at less than a full charge, Solar Beam was still powerful enough to cause deep gouges in Rhydon's hard chest. They'd definitely be working on it as much as possible for the Conference, but that was for later. Elrond activated Grass Knot and there was a tell-tale difference in the vines. They glowed a deeper more vibrant green and forced Rhydon to be still even as it struggled against them. Based on the underlining fury flowing from Elrond, the anger at Arwen's defeat was pushing him to new heights. Vali could just barely make out the psychic energy that Elrond was using to help bolster the vines currently pinning Rhydon down. Smiling a bit, she sent her approval to Elrond, but said nothing as he didn't need to be distracted.

Rhydon roared in surprised pain as Elrond's Iron Tail slammed into its chest with more force than before. Elrond continued to batter Rhydon with Iron Tail until the drill pokemon finally managed to free itself from the vines. Elrond created copies of himself as the loose stones around the field rose into the air. They slammed into Rhydon's chest as the copies of Elrond raced around the field. Rhydon batted away the stones turning to avoid the onslaught and summoning more Stone Edge spires. Elrond slammed another Iron Tail into Rhydon this time right across the drill pokemon's horn earning a loud roar of surprise as it stumbled backward. When it raised a paw to its horn, Elrond slammed an Iron Tail into its chest.

Elrond kept up his battering of Rhydon until the drill pokemon fell unconscious when a particularly hard Iron Tail cracked and broke off a piece of its drill causing a stream of blood to splatter out. Giovanni returned Rhydon as Elrond panted roughly glaring at the gym leader. Giovanni spoke for the first as he fingered a black and gold ultra ball, "This is a surprise, it's rare that first year trainers come up against me much less force me down to a single pokemon. Even more surprising is your use of fire-types and pokemon without any true advantage, you're an interesting child, Miss Potter-Black."