Spotlight#30: Skill Tree Part 4

Last time we left, our rival, Trixie, had gotten a taste of the almighty power that is Gardenia's Torterra. However, even with two teammates down, it seems that the young warrior still is as determined as ever. A fact that has our heroes utterly entranced.

Taylor Pov

Even though I've only been a Pokemon trainer for such a short time, I've already discovered far more than I ever thought possible. From secret societies to the world's strongest Ditto, my Speleology curiosity has led me through many amazing sights. Yet what I was seeing now was something on an entirely different level.

Before we had our battle again, I knew about Trixie's achievements. I couldn't go so much as five steps without hearing some crazy feat she managed to pull off. But now that I'm seeing it all play out right in front of me, I see that as much as I hated to admit, Trixie deserved every bit of praise she got.

Gardenia mopped the floor with me. I got as far as I did purely on luck and desperation. Yet here Trixie was, battling an even stronger foe that I had, and she's still as composed as she was when she started. No matter how hard I wanted to try and fight against it, I couldn't change the fact that I was doing precisely what Trixie said before she started this fight.

"We'll talk later. But, for now, watch me," Gardenia said resolutely.

So, with me feeling more powerless than I've ever been, I joined the almost hypnotized yet agitated Mr.Kopi and kept watching the performance while wondering a simple question. What does she have that I don't?

Trixie Pov

Beneath all my fighting, planning, and quarreling, I never understood why I loved battling so much. Even back when I was still friends with Taylor, even when she inspired me on this path, I never could come up with a solid reason why I chose this path. So over time I nonchalantly amounted to it being the most direct rebellion I could find.

After all, trainers were pretty much on the opposite side of the spectrum in terms of entertainment. However, my Kiralia's touching sacrifice has made that answer all the clearer. It wasn't the fact that my path was an act of rebellion. It's more so that it was rebellion itself.

For it didn't matter how much you prepared. In the heat of battle, almost anything was possible. And nothing was more fun than taking that unpredictability and turning it into my favor, which is why even with my emotions running higher than ever, my mind remained plenty sharp. Swablu's and Kiralia's defeats, brutal as they did teach me a lot.

Like how Torterra has only removed three of its four moves so far and that in terms of speed, my total Pokemon and reaction speeds were just a tiny bit faster, which means that I had to follow the same protocol I did with the other giants I've faced and cut off the tendons.

"Mothim, win it all!"

In trademark stoicism, Mothim fluttered along the skyline. His appearance alone was enough to ramp up the momentum again as he dished out an iconic move. A little flap of the wing was all he needed to entrap Torterra in a purple field of energy. Said energy quickly caused the Torterra to stumble, clearly showing the symptoms of Toxic.

Unfortunately, the rules of our arrangement stated that the fateful blow couldn't come from a pure status inflicting move. It didn't matter, though; I still had my ways of causing damage. So, though those would have to wait as almost instinctively, Torterra unleashed yet another Stone Edge. This time the pillars were morse projectiles, striking Monthim like a Gatling gun.

Said shots shattered on contact, creating a small cloud of dust. However, we both remained completely unfazed as Monthim's energetic barrier, birthed from his protection, dispersed said cloud to reveal it was unharmed, thus leading me into my twofold counterattack.

At once, Monthim's eyes glowed an ethereal purple, ramping up a telekinetic force that tensed up the surrounding air. Once the energy reached its peak, Monthim's psychic took effect, grabbing ahold of the dust in the air and surrounding field and morphing it with the ease of clay. Then like a snapped rubber band, the sand slapped itself onto Torterra, tying itself around Torterra's legs.

Already I could feel Monthim's steady hover start to falter. On a good day, this move would require complex parallel processing, but for this to work, all of its power had to get used for keeping him in place long enough for this.

"Mothim, Hyper beam," I said coldly.

From there, Monthim's steady breath started to fade as its concentration grew. White electricity then started to crackle off the Moth Pokemon, ionizing the atmosphere while collecting itself together in a hot ball of energy. The sight alone was capable of having Gardenia change strategies as she finally revealed her final move.

"Torterra use Curse," she said with certainty.

Similar to Outrage, a vengeful aura started to envelop Torterra in a purplish hue. Said aura started to get bigger by the second until it grew to 3 times its size. Even without my knowledge of the move, I knew what Gardenia was trying to accomplish. With the rules of our engagement, the defense wasn't a real option at that point, which means that offense was the best defense. So I decided to answer her call and pulled the trigger.

Once the energy was collected, Mothim didn't even hesitate, firing a violent beam dead center at Torterra! Meeting the blast head-on, Torterra answered back with Outrage. The two attacks then met each other head-on, consuming the entire battlefield in a surging bright light. Intense wind forced my eyes shut, but I already knew the outcome as I almost instinctively returned my fallen flyer.

The action weighed on my heart, realizing that now my Pokemon would have to do all they could to stall anywhere from one or two more frantic assaults. Still, I decided to keep up the pressure and switch to my next Pokemon.

"Trapnich, use Dig to win it all!"

Without hesitation, my young and eager Trapnich tunneled through the battlefield as fast as it could. Thus the biggest gamble of the entire battle took place as nature itself would have to serve as the ultimate shield to answer Gardenia's ultimate spear. Red eyes soon turned into a bloody crimson as muscles stronger than a continent bored into the earth with a heavenly slam.

Mounds of dirt and grass started to erupt like a volcano, caking up the surrounding area. Through the gusts of heavy dust, my eyes still braved through, scanning the destroyed arena to see if Trapnich had survived when I heard his usual innocent cry though my heart gave a big sigh of relief.

Because up in the sky, Trapinch is still hanging on by a thread! So I commanded him to turn any of his fear and panic into strength as I ordered him to use Scorching Sands at his target! In seconds the giant geyser worth of dust started to converge on Torterra. Once there, Trapnich sucked in the biggest breath of his life before lighting the sand on fire. On any lesser foe, this move alone would annihilate them. But I didn't have a more inferior opponent.

For the third time, offense proved to be an impregnable defense since as soon as the flame tornado formed, it exploded in a shockwave that sent even me back! As soon as I got down, though, I got back up, ready to continue the fight. But, unfortunately, Trapinch couldn't share the same sentiment, as he got already laid out on the burnt-up wasteland of a battlefield.

Torterra looked like an eldritch horror in the waves of heat as those crimson eyes seemed to glow along with the flames. However, I remained strong despite that haunting image, instead deciding to take advantage of the confusion with the fastest fighter I got on file.

"Lopunny, win it all!"

After watching Ziggy's dreadful speed, I put my Lopunny through the wringer to obtain such speed. And I would say that the results were more than I bargained for. The minute she touched the ground, my Lopunny was nothing more than a barely recognizable blur, darting across the battlefield at lightning speeds. However, I knew that this wouldn't be enough, so I cranked it up even further.

Using the broken pieces of various trees, Lopunnny gracefully leaped through the air, each jump accelerating her all the more. So much so that eventually, it felt like she was everywhere once, almost dizzying me out of sheer velocity. However, when that reached its peak, I hit him with the most potent attack I've got yet.

From above the glass ceiling, Lopunny landed on it with enough force to crack it. And upon leaving, said part of the ceiling shattered promptly, as she sped up even further from a combination of a mega kick and Quick attack! I swear a cone of air surrounded her as she descended with the mother of all axe kicks!

Against all odds, the attack managed to hit, burying Torterra into the already deep crater so hard clumps of dirt levitated. I didn't dare let relief claim me, knowing all too well now that my victory was still inches away from me. Upon the closer exception, I realized my tension was still more than earned as I didn't even let go of a hint of disbelief over what I'd seen before me.

At the very last second, Torterra managed to stand up just enough to gain a tiny bit of leverage. A tiny detail that gave him just enough space for him to extend the wood hammer on his front left leg at an angle that would protect his head. So instead of finishing this battle, my Lopunny is now trapped, her foot already several inches deep in the ethereal wood hammer.

Which meant she could do absolutely nothing as Torterra launched Lopunny so hard she went through a tree before promptly crashing into the sidewall. Knowing the outcome already, I returned Lopunny to my Pokeball while Gardenia said the obvious.

"And then there was one," she said playfully.

The taunt alone was almost enough to send me into another emotional uproar until I saw what Gardenia didn't want me to. Just because I haven't laid a single hit doesn't make everything I've done pointless till now. Beneath that Herculean strength of his, it was clear that Torterra, like it or not, was starting to lose steam.

My poison was still in effect, and so was the recoil and confusion of prior attacks. However, in this massive wall, my Pokemon have left their crack, and I'll make sure to see this through with this last choice. So without hesitation, without fear, I called out my most trusted ally.

"Prinplup, let's win it all!"

Will Trixie's final Pokemon be a requiem for her fallen team or the last headstone to mark the death of her dream? Find out next time in the thrilling conclusion of this battle as the journey continues ever forward.