Chapter 46: Two Battles (II)

"Just like the last round, this battle will also be one on one. The first Trainer to knock out their opposing Pokemon will be declared the winner.", Serena said, announcing the start of the next battle.

"Come on out, Scyther.", Ken said, reaching toward his belt that had his six Pokeballs around it, hidden within his black kimono. He also momentarily paused over his bag, and stayed silent for a moment, before tossing his Pokeball out. Scyther appeared from it, raring to go after it slashed around a couple times, with it's scythe-like hands.

"Scyther!", Scyther yelled out.

Seeing his Scyther in front of me again, I couldn't help but smile.

"Let's do this, Amber!", I responded in anticipation. I grabbed her love ball, and tossed it into the air. My Ninetales came out, appearing not to far away from Scyther, letting out a graceful howl.

Not even a second later, before Serena could even signal the start, the atmosphere started to turn cold. Ken raised his eyebrows, only to see gray storm clouds swiftly come in.

"A storm at a time like this...? Wait...", Ken uttered to himself, only for him to see snow start falling from the clouds. He could even see his own breath.

"I see, I always knew some Pokemon could cause abnormal changes in weather in battle. Yours initiated Hail. Are you fine, Scyther?"

"Scyther!", Scyther yelled out acknowledging him.

"That's just the start Ken.", I replied to him. I then look at Serena who got together with Lillie to keep warm, and nodded back at me. Serena sounded off, starting the battle.

"Amber, open it up with Aurora Veil!"

Ninetales proceeded to howl, catching Ken off guard. He saw energy converge around Ninetales, only for a colorful aurora to appear around her. Not only that it also appeared over Ninetales, creating a barrier of sorts, which Ken saw.

'I see, another move I'm unfamiliar with. This looks like a barrier of sorts. Scyther, test it out with Psycho Cut.", Ken said.

As he did, purple energy suddenly enveloped over Scyther's two blades. Taking aim at Ninetales, he slashed out, letting two arcs of psychic energy rush at her. The moment it collided with the Aurora Veil's barrier, it created two slash marks, only for it to slowly dissipate and the two slashes couldn't even reach her. The barrier was able to reduce this damage enough to where Ninetales came out uninjured.

The Aurora Veil remained active.

"Keep it up Amber, make sure Scyther doesn't run, use Dazzling Gleam.", I said to Amber.

Ninetales let another graceful growl. Scyther saw Ninetales' body light up in a bright light, only for it to converge into fairy energy. This fairy energy flashed around her, and broke free, creating sparks in front. These spark flashes quickly headed to Scyther.

"Scyther, quick use Double Team and dodge that Dazzling Gleam!"

"Scy!", Scyther yelled out. Scyther then starting splitting itself into multiple different bodies one after another. Each one was in a constant after-image phase, they weren't actual ttue clones. Scyther acted quickly and started to go around both sides of Ninetales. As it did, its after-images got struck by Dazzling Gleam, and went poof.

But Scyther was fast and quickly approached Ninetales on her left side.

"That's it, use X-Scissor to try and shatter that barrier!", Ken yelled out.

As Ninetales finished her Dazzling Gleam, I quickly issued her next move.

"It won't be that easy Ken. Amber, jump back and lift Scyther up with Psyshock.", I said.

Seeing Scyther close within reach, the purple energy vanished, only to be replaced by green energy, becoming two X-Scissor blades. Yet his Scyther was suddenly halted, and started to struggle to move. It slowly found itself raising into the air as weird swirls of psychic energy appeared around Ninetales

Once Scyther was hovering high enough, many small psychic spheres bended into view around it.

Seeing this Ken quickly spoke.

"Looks like we are playing defense now. Scyther change your target to those psyshock orbs!", Ken reacted.

'Good.', I smiled inwardly, seeing Ken react to different situations. I let Ninetales continue her attack, pelting Scyther with psychic energy.

The cool thing about Psyshock was that it targeted a Pokemon's defense stat, rather than its special defense, at least in the games. Scyther has a bit lower defense compared to the other, and as a resutt it took some damage from this attack no matter many of the orbs Scyther cut through, a couple still hit him in the end.

Scyther got blasted back a bit as a result, showing some minor damage.

At this time, the Aurora Veil disappeared, as this move was sadly only temporary. The snow was still going strong though.

"I see, so it was temporary too. We can play it similarly Scyther, use Light Screen.", Ken revealed his next move, which caused me to raise my eyebrows.

As I did, energy came from from its two scythes, and created a barrier of sorts which soon vanished before our eyes.

"If it's like that, Amber get in close!",

"Nine!", Ninetales acknowledged, suddenly started to dash forward Scyther at a fast pace.

This seemed to catch Ken off guard a bit but Ken smiled.

"Scyther, you go in close too and use X-Scissor!"

I decided to reveal one of Ninetales' trump moves to counter Scyther coming in, seeing green energy wrap around its scythes.

"Amber, use Triple Axel!", I shouted.

"Ninetales!", Ninetales yelled out as well, suddenly jumping into the air above Scyther. As she did, her paws became sharp while surrounding them with ice energy. She came down and kicked fiercely at Scyther.

First hit, the two clashed. Second hit, created sparks as Scyther clashed against her with its scythes. Ninetales then did a full swing of her body, and kicked out a third time, creating a loud boom. It was then its scythes started to freeze over, and got blasted back away, shaking Scyther up a bit. Ninetales also got pushed back from the recoil she created.

"That was a mice move.", Ken said, only to see his Scyther take in more damage at the end of Triple Axel. "Can you shake off that ice, Scyther?", he asked.

"Scyther.", Scyther responded, brandishing its scythes, successfully breaking off the ice that was formed.

"It's time to go deep, Scyther use Giga Impact!", Ken said next, revealing one of the most powerful moves known to us. Sure enough this Scyther is his main partner. No doubt it would be powerful after training for who knows how long.

I got excited seeing Giga Impact and revealed my next move.

"Amber, use Ice Beam and aim at Scyther's feet first."

Ninetales opened her mouth, and a bundle of blue ice energy quickly formed. She shot out an Ice Beam and it quickly headed toward Scyther as a normal yellow energy fiercely wrapped around its body. Scyther's two scythes became increasingly sharp, and it dashed fast.

Along the way, Scyther saw its feet get struck by Ice Beam, slowing down. But to our surprise, Scyther slashed down, breaking free from the Ice Beam, swerving around it. Ninetales tried to react in time but Scyther rammed her, creating a loud impact as Giga Impact collided against her. Ninetales yelled out and got blasted back hard, taking several amounts of damage crashing into the grass further away.

"Nice hit, Scyther.", Ken complimented. The powerful energy that wrapped around it dispersed, only to receive a paralyzing effect. Moves like that were very powerful but had cooldown, causing the Pokemon unable to move.

That didn't matter in this case, as Ninetales was now quite a bit away from Scyther, currently down in the ground. I could see she was quite damaged now.

"Amber, are you good to continue?"

"Nine!", replied, answering me. She struggled a bit but still stood back up and started walking toward me.

"Good. I'd show off some more moves you know but I think we should use that. You up for it, Amber?", I asked her, causing Ken to look at me in interest.

"By 'That', are you referring to....", Ken began to say.

"You said you wanted to see it, didn't you Ken? I'll show you the bond I developed with Amber during these last ten years living over there!", I yelled back at him, reaching my hand out toward my Z Ring.

"Ninetales!", Ninetales also yelled out in response to me.

"Haha, good. Let's see your bond. Scyther, be ready.", Ken replied back.

Touching the Ninetalium Z Crystal on my ring, I soon felt my bond with Amber grow ever so close. We started to incite a certain movement together, as if we have linked together. (A/N: As Ninetales received a custom Z Move from Tapu Koko, I'm changing the crystal's name to Ninetalium Z)

Ninetales yelled out again with a graceful howl, following my moves. This was the same pattern taught to us by Tapu Koko.

As I performed it, Amber felt a large amount of ice energy swell inside, ready to burst forth. Finishing the move, I yelled it out.

"Be ready, Ken. Amber, use Zero Ice Prison.", I revealed my Z Move to Ken.

All of q sudden ice energy released everywhere and converged beneath her feet. A platform started to rise up several feet into the air, bringing Ninetales along with it. Ken was surprised by this ice pillar but watched on, and Scyther brandished his blades, revealing another X-Scissor.

As the ice pillar finished, Ninetales launched a massive amount of ice energy from her mouth, shooting it out like a cannon. But compared to the normal Icium Z, this ice energy swerved around Scyther on all sides, soon forming a giant cage of ice around Scyther.

As it did, Scyther started to get pummeled with icicles and snow from the inside.

"Scyther, try to break free with a continuous use of X-Scissor!", Ken said.

Scyther did as such, trying to slash away everything that was hurled at it. Unfortunately it started to take more damage over time, and as Scyther did, the cage of ice started to shrink. This only sped up the the attacks from inside. Scyther could react to most at first, but once the speed increased, it increased to a point where Scyther was unable to keep up.

Scyther soon took an insane amount of damage, causing a loud boom and a dust cloud to stir. As it did Scyther yelled out in pain, and the Z Move ended. The intense ice energy dispersed and the hail created by her Snow Warning ended.

After everything dispersed and the dust settled, Scyther laid on its back with several injuries. Faint circles appeared in its eyes.

"Ken's Scyther is unable to battle. Itsuki's Amber is the winner!", Serena replied, announcing the result of the battle between Ken and I. As she did, Lillie stood next to her, with a complete dumbfounded look in her eyes.

*

Maybe Amber is more powerful than we think? A lot can happen in 10 years.

I don't have her planned for many gym battles for now and will instead partake in battles like this until the league, unless there is a Gym good for her. We shall see.

Think we can get to over 500 power stones this week?