CH69 (299), Regional Champion Twice Over, Kinda (2)

The cheers went on for a minute or two before they stopped. I chose to remain in my position since my next final fight was going to start in less than 5 minutes. In fact, I could see my opponent Stephanie Dola move to her position.

She gave me a cheery wave in greeting, which I returned, before watching her wave to the crowd. Her actions elicited cheers from them, and part of the crowd began cheering her name.

Stephanie thanked the crowd for their zeal before turning her focus back to me and the referee. I had to admit that she had the qualifications to become a performer if she wanted to.

She had the looks, kinda. At least it was clear that she would be beautiful once she hit her peak look at the start of her journey. Where was I? The looks, the confidence, the aura, in this case, not aura as in aura the energy but aura as in air or atmosphere.

Actually, she had the energy aura as well, but that was not what I meant here. Anyway, Stephanie had everything she would need to become successful and a crowd favorite, so I was not surprised by the crowd's reaction. Most Humans tended to prefer cute or beautiful things after all.

The crowd only began to quiet down when the referee began going over the rules, and by the time he gave the starting signal they were quietly watching us release our first Pokemon.

On Stephanie's side, her (high) silver stage Sylveon appeared, while on my side Luna/Clefable materialized. Both Pokemon began to use one of their moves as soon as they appeared on the field.

Sylveon used Misty Terrain, which meant Luna would be unable to Sing her to sleep. Meanwhile, Luna used Gravity as her opening move, and the effect was immediate. Sylveon flinched due to the suddenly increased gravity, which Luna capitalize on to use Encore, limiting Sylveon's energy usage to Misty Terrain.

With Sylveon's strength, and Luna's mastery over Encore, the effect should last for roughly a minute, which in a fight such as this was not a short period.

Seeing the situation Stephanie told her Sylveon to run away and keep her distance until the effect of Encore wore off, and hopefully Gravity as well. However, speed was not Sylveon's forte, in fact, its species was as fast as Clefable's.

Yet, unlike her Sylveon, Luna has been training under the effects of Gravity for years, so her speed was not affected much despite her using the move on the whole battlefield to avoid letting Sylveon leave its sphere of influence.

Anyway, while Sylveon was struggling to open the distance between them, Luna was leisurely using Work Up to boost her strength. Stephanie noticed her blunder, but there was not much she could do, since Sylveon could not use any long-range attacks to stop Luna, and under the effects of Gravity, Sylveon would be unable to stop Luna.

Stephanie hesitated a bit before turning resolute, telling her Pokemon to stop everything, and focus on circulating its energy instead to cut down the time of Encore.

That was in fact the best she could have done in that situation. It cut down the duration of Encore to 30 seconds, but by this point, Luna had used Work Up three times, and she was in the middle of performing the fourth one.

Sylveon immediately attacked her using Swift, but the homing stars were pink instead of golden yellow, which meant Sylveon definitely had Pixilate as an ability.

Luna chose to tank the moves in hopes of finishing her latest boost and managed to do so just before the stars crashed into her, causing a mini explosion upon impact.

Still, the damage done was minimal, and Luna, the cute badass that she was did not even flinch. No, she ignored the damage and ran towards Sylveon instead. I was confident that she was planning to use Meteor Mash or Iron Tail on Sylveon now that she had boosted her Strength considerably.

Stephanie also knew that it meant nothing good for them if Luna reached them, so she did something really smart. She had Sylveon use Psych Up, copying Luna's 4 Work Up boosts before she used Quick Attack to run away.

Quick Attack's speed relied not only on the Agility parameter but also on the Strength parameter, so Sylveon managed to reach an impressive speed especially since Quick Attack received an extra boost thanks to Pixilate.

While her idea was great since it gave Sylveon a genuine chance to run away, Luna did not let go of the chance provided to her and used Copycat to copy Quick Attack.

What followed was a game of cat and mouse, with Luna steadily catching up simply because Gravity had less of an effect on her and her superior parameters.

Sylveon fired Swifts at Luna while changing directions, but she simply dodged or blocked those stars with Disarming Voice. At one point Sylveon even resorted to blinding Luna with Sand Attack, but she blocked it with Fairy Wind.

Still, after nearly 5 minutes of back and forth, Gravity dissipated, or rather Luna allowed it to dissipate since Sylveon had somewhat gotten used to the effects.

The sudden increase in their speeds that followed caused Sylveon slight control problems, which Luna who had known that it would happen capitalized on to finally close the leftover distance between them.

Her right fist gained a metallic shine, and she delivered a Meteor Mash straight to Sylveon's side. Luna did not plan to let it be at that and rushed after Sylveon who had been sent flying by the impact of her fist.

Still, Stephanie and Sylveon did not plan to idle wait for Luna to follow up on her Meteor Mash, and Sylveon used a Pixilated Hyper Beam while still being midair.

The Pixie Beam forced Luna to stop and block it with a Protect, but she did not insist on completely blocking the beam. No, she used the time Protect gave her to dodge the beam instead, before resuming her rush towards Sylveon who had crashed into the ground and was trying to stop its slide.

Luna reapplied Gravity helping it stop even if Sylveon would have preferred she didn't do that. Nevertheless, it happened, and Luna made it in front of Sylveon with another Meteor Mash at ready.

Seeing the situation and knowing that they would most likely be unable to turn it around, Stephanie gave an order, and Sylveon used Misty Explosion. The explosion got boosted by the ongoing Misty Terrain, and Sylveon literally went out with a bang.

Once the dust settled, Sylveon's knocked-out body became visible, and Luna could be seen as well. She was still standing but had suffered considerable damage due to experiencing the explosion at point blank.

Still, Luna had not lost any time and was already in the process of healing herself with Life Dew. Seeing the situation the referee declared Sylveon unable to battle and Luna the winner. After the declaration, the crowd broke out in cheering due to the great fight they had witnessed.

Stephanie recalled her Sylveon, and I did the same with Luna, which surprised a lot of people that had been following my battles so far. This was actually the first time I made use of the option of switching out one's Pokemon after winning a fight.

Switching mid-fight was forbidden for both contestants, but one could switch after winning a round. So far I had not made use of it because I had one Pokemon fight for as long as it could. However, I was planning to give others a chance to make an appearance as well.

Stephanie's next Pokemon was her Hitmonform, while Tyson/Machoke appeared on mine. I had actually been hoping that it would have been this matchup, and I lucked out. I was hopeful that this fight would help Tyson with his goal.

Both Pokemon were physical fighters and it became apparent from the get-go when both began using boosting moves while moving towards each other instead of trying to attack the other from afar or trying to set the stage.

Tyson used Bulk Up to raise his Strength and Endurance, the most important parameters for him in this confrontation. Meanwhile, Hitmonform used Agility instead, raising its, well, Agility. They soon clashed and the fight turned into an all-out martial arts fight that incorporated moves of all kinds.

Hitmonform began with a Feint that got deflected by Tyson who saw through it. He actually tried to use the chance to deliver a Poison Jab, but Hitmonform blocked it with a Meteor Mash.

It then used Gyro Ball and spun at Tyson, who did a Low Sweep in hopes of unbalancing Hitmonform who was spinning on one foot. However, Hitmonform dodged his sweep by slightly jumping in the air and using the chance to perform a Triple Kick.

Yet, Tyson was not helpless either, he tilted backward dodging the first kick, before blocking the other two with Dual Chop. In fact, his Dual Chop propelled Hitmonform, who was still mid-air, away.

Still, being what it was, Hitmonform spun in the air thrice before perfectly landing on his feet. Yet, it got face to face with Tyson who had followed after it. He hit it with a Thunder Punch right at the temple, which Hitmonform was forced to block with its arms.

Its arms became slightly numb due to the move, and Tyson used the opening its forceful block had caused to deliver a Mach Punch at its unprotected midriff However, Hitmonform managed to block his move through Quick Guard.

It actually followed up on its block with a Counter, which Tyson decided to tank only to deliver a perfectly timed counter-attack using Revenge. Both Pokemon were forced to retreat a few steps due to the force of the hits they suffered, but both stepped forward after they took a deep breath.

Hitmonform attacked with a Blaze Kick, but Tyson blocked it with Stomping Tantrum. In fact, he managed to empower Hitmonform, who went along with the force to spin around and deliver a Mega Kick.

Tyson did his best to block the Mega Kick with Mega Punch but still suffered some damage. However, he managed to stop the kick and grabbed onto the outstretched leg, before he used Vital Throw to slam Hitmonform into the ground.

He directly followed after it and tried to hit his downed opponent with a Stomping Tantrum, but Hitmonform dodged it by using Dig to briefly go underground before resurfacing a bit away, without giving Tyson the chance to use Earthquake.

The audience who had been spellbound so far, watching the fast-paced, flowing exchange, broke out into cheers during that momentary lull. The two fighters ignored them, fully focused on their respective opponent.

As if they received a signal, both simultaneously used Bullet Punch to close the distance between each other, before breaking out into a bout of Close Combat.

Not only that, but they added Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, and Ice Punch into the mix, and I saw Tyson adding his Poison Punch and Stomping Tantrum into the mix, while Hitmonform added Blaze Kick and Meteor Mash.

The exchange went on for a while until Hitmonform used a greatly timed Detect to dodge Tyson's Brick Break to deliver a Focus Punch, which actually forced him to block it using Protect. The shield shattered due to the might of the punch but it managed to block it while doing that.

Using the opening Focus Punch caused, Tyson delivered a Dynamic Punch on Hitmonform's head, crashing it to the ground due to the force of the move. He directly followed that up with Stomping Tantrum, but Hitmonform managed to hold on through Endure. Not only that, it counter-attacked using Reversal.

Tyson tried to block the move with Protect, but the shield broke after absorbing most of the damage. He tanked the rest, before knocking out Hitmonform with a Revenge. As soon as it was unconscious, the referee declared it unable to battle and Tyson the winner.

Stephanie recalled her Hitmonform, and I followed suit since I was planning to give another Pokemon the chance to battle as well.

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