CH202 (816), There Be Dragons

"Are both combatants ready?" The referee asked after concluding his usual opening spiel, which was pretty standard, though the fact that I had no substitution quota was a bit unexpected. I was not sure if this was due to Ryujin raising the difficulty or standard, but I was leaning toward the former since I had been granted a substitution quota during the challenge phase. Either way, it was her Gym so her rules, so I just nodded and saw Ryujin do the same.

"Good," the referee acknowledged. "In that case, please release your Pokemon on my signal," he followed up before he began to count down. I briefly tightened my grip on Nyx/Umbreon's NightBall before relaxing it again. As soon as the signal came, I released her onto the field, and my girl swiftly noted that her opponent was a Flygon before initiating her opening. The moment the (high) dark gold Flygon saw Nyx it got affected by the Fake Baby-Doll Tears, which was then smoothly chained with Charm.

Had Flygon not had a ground typing she would have followed up with Thunder Wave instead of Charm, but since it was immune to electric moves she followed up with Charm, which she had mastered to a similarly high degree, ensuring its quick execution. Nyx had trained her opening move and its variations extensively, ensuring that she could perform them smoothly and more importantly swiftly, which was why she had already finished her two-move chain and activated her stealth talent before skipping to her left by the time the bewildered Flygon initiated its first move.

Flygon had already released its Dragonbreath before it noted that Nyx was not where it was aiming at. A moment later a Dark Pulse passed by the right side of its Dragonbreath. Flygon tried to intercept it by tilting its head, but even though it took just a second to do so, the Dark Pulse was less than two meters from its body by the time its Dragonbreath finally met the Dark Pulse, and that was not a good distance to initiate a beam clash. Not to mention that Nyx's Dark Pulse was stronger than Flygon's Dragonbreath.

Hence, it was no surprise that the beam-off was rather short-lived before the black energy overpowered the blue one and proceeded to hit Flygon. While Flygon was forced to retreat a few meters due to the force of the attack, Nyx lost no time and made use of the opportunity to Taunt Flygon. She followed up with Screech nearly completing her Malicious Opening Strategy. She still had to use Confuse Ray before it could be considered complete, and had it not been for the no substitution part of the Gym Battle, Mean Look would have been needed as well.

Honestly, Karen could have taken care of that all at once, which was actually how the optimal MOS should be performed. However, Nyx's mastery of Karen was not high enough yet; It took too long to execute it, making it a risk, which was why Nyx was performing the moves separately. Well, at least that was what I thought until Flygon used Boomburst to not only neutralize Nyx's Screech but also counterattack relying on Boomburst's wide coverage/indiscriminate nature. Nyx was forced to cut off her Screech to dodge the explosive soundwave heading her way.

She could not Dig down due to the fear of Earthquake and jumping up would not help either, so she was forced to use Protect instead. Flygon released a Dragon Pulse at Nyx as Boomburst crashed into Protect, and it hit Nyx's Protect just as Boomburst died down. Dragon energy flared up at the point where Dragon Pulse impacted Protect, but the shield held strong. Nonetheless, Flygon kept its attack going, so it did not fizzle out but kept going strong, causing the Protect to strain. Cracks began to quickly grow and spread from the impact point.

Within just 5 seconds the shield broke, but that was more than enough time for Nyx to first use Copycat before (over)charging a Dark Pulse, which she released the moment Protect shattered. Nyx's Dark Pulse and Flygon's Dragon Pulse met, but the usual beam clash in such a situation did not follow. Nyx's charged Dark Pulse was too strong and tore through the Dragon Pulse, literally cutting its way toward Flygon. Ryujin realizing the futility moment Dark Pulse emerged, ordered Flygon to dodge, but Flygon was too slow to evade Nyx's dark energy beam.

Still, following the order, Flygon immediately cut off its attack and tried to swerve to its right, but at that point, Dark Pulse had already torn through Dragon Pulse. It continued on unimpeded and clipped Flygon despite its effort. The impact on one side of Flygon's body caused it to spiral out of control and Nyx lost no time to follow up with another Dark Pulse. Flygon actually blocked that one following Ryujin's order to just spiral along and use Bug Buzz instead. That worked and Bug Buzz blocked Dark Pulse, but that was all it could do, so the Confuse Ray that followed behind Dark Pulse hit Flygon unimpeded causing it to fall into confusion.

Everyone got to see why drunk driving or flying was a bad/stupid idea. With Flygon confused, Ryujin's earlier command to spiral along/go with the flow backfired. Flygon's flight went entirely out of control and it slammed head-first into the ground before sliding along it with its head half-buried, which probably caused more damage than anything Nyx had done so far. A cacophony of winces as well as exclamations came from the audience, and even I felt a bit bad for Flygon, though that did not stop Nyx from acting.

While everyone's attention was drawn to the dragon sliding across the ground, she utilized her stealth to obscure her presence, vanishing from everyone's sight/attention, aside from mine obviously. Nyx silently ran ahead of the sliding dragon and took position before charging her attack. The moment Flygon slid to her position, she ruthlessly used Throat Chop to hit Flygon, specifically its head, burying it deeper into the ground. Her action forced an abrupt stop of its head, and the momentum of its body caused Flygon to flip which forced its head out of the hole Nyx had planted it in. There were gasps and cheers since everyone could see that Flygon was knocked out.

"Flygon is unable to battle, Umbreon wins," the referee declared once Flygon's body flopped onto the ground and it did not react to Ryujin as it remained unmoving for more than 3 seconds confirming that it was indeed knocked out. "Gym Leader Ryujin, please recall your Flygon and send out your next combatant," he followed up and Ryujin did as asked before giving me a look that nearly had me groan since it told me that the usual Gym Leader showmanship was coming.

"You've done a good job. This was not your fault," I heard Ryujin whisper to the PokeBall after recalling her Flygon before she put the ball away. I probably would not have heard her if not for my heightened senses, but I did not listen in on purpose, so I acted as if I had not heard anything. "That one's quite a bit stronger than she looks, and she looks pretty strong," Ryujin finally said as she fastened Flygon's ball onto her belt, and I saw Nyx proudly raise her head at the compliment, so I chuckled.

"Yes, she is," I confidently confirmed her statement/praise, which had her chuckle. "Yes, she is, and I know just the right dragon to take her on," Ryujin followed up with a smile before pulling a (shrunken) PokeBall from her cape instead of plucking one off her belt. "I hope you don't mind me changing things up a bit further," she said with a smirk; "Your Umbreon certainly deserves it," she praised sincerely, which had Nyx preen again. "Though I hope she knows more than the tricks she has shown because they won't help her this time," Ryujin followed up provokingly, causing Nyx to shift into glaring at her, while the crowd chanted Ryujin's name, or at least a variant of it.

Ryujin just smiled at Nyx before nodding at the referee, likely to signal that she was done, though it probably looked like she was acknowledging the cheering crowd since they/the stands were behind him. Their cheering rose a level as a result before it began to die down after the referee prompted Ryujin to release her Pokemon, completely ignoring the cheering crowd. Ryujin released her second dragon following his demand/request, revealing a Haxorus that was just as special as Nyx. The crowd went wild at the sight of the dark grey Haxorus, and I understood why Ryujin chose to go with it even though Haxorus was also at the (high) dark gold stage like the Flygon before it.

Anyway, the referee did not bother waiting for the crowd to calm down and signaled the start of the battle. The moment that happened, Nyx went and used Fake Baby-Doll Tears, which coincidentally looked really fitting since Hoxarus made a Scary Face. Nyx swiftly followed up with Thunder Wave since Haxorus was not immune to it, but it actually bent under the electric surge before Glaring at Nyx as it flowed into a Sword Dance. That Glare forced Nyx to briefly seize up, interrupting the Taunt she was about to release.

She still went through with it shortly after, but at that point, Haxorus had already completed at least one round. It could have been two since its mastery was high enough that the Sword Dance flowed incredibly well, making one second-guess the pace it was being executed at. Moreover, even though Taunt prevented Haxorus from truly using the move, Haxorus did not stop the actual dance but utilized it to dodge the Dark Pulse Nyx fired intending to take advantage of the interrupted Sword Dance.

Haxorus then released a Dragon Pulse at Nyx, forcing her to stop her own pulse beam to dodge, and while she did that Haxorus Dragon Rushed toward Nyx. Nyx kept her calm and released a Confuse Ray at the approaching axe dragon, forcing it to veer its body to dodge out of the ghostly light's way. Nyx used that moment to use Faint Attack to move to Haxorus' left before releasing the Dragon Pulse she copied from Flygon. The Dragon Pulse crashed into the draconic energy of the Dragon Rush and caused an explosion that sent Haxorus skidding, though it impressively enough managed to remain on its feet despite that.

Nonetheless, the force still managed to break Haxorus' momentum along with the Dragon Rush, leaving it open for Nyx, who went for another Confuse Ray. Just as it looks like her move was going to hit, Ryujin just said shadow, and Haxorus swiped the Confuse Ray away with a freaking Shadow Claw without even attempting to dodge it, which would most likely have failed. Haxorus kept the Shadow Claw up and used it to block the Dark Pulse for a moment before it rolled out of its way. I could not help but be somewhat impressed that it pulled that block off due to the relation between the two energies/types, but that did not stop me from ordering Nyx to use Thunder Wave while Haxorus was limited to rolling.

Sadly Ryujin reacted promptly and ordered Haxorus to use Iron Tail and stick it into the ground, which neutralized the already weak if special electric move. She then had Haxorus break its tail out of the ground and send the rock/earth pieces flying at Nyx, who easily dodged most of them before releasing a Dark Pulse that destroyed the last one in her way as it headed for Haxorus, who blocked it with Dragon Claw before side-stepping it, following which it, or more like she because Haxorus had to be a female with Rivalry with how strong her moves were, fired off a Dragon Pulse in retaliation.

Nyx having already halted her Dark Pulse, easily dodged the Dragon Pulse, before releasing another Taunt since it appeared that the last one ran out on us seeing how Haxorus attempted another Dance.

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