Chapter 37

With a bang, the spear of ice disappears into the water, causing a frozen tunnel to appear where the spear passed. A split second later, it slams into the side of Finizen and explodes into hundreds of icicles that pepper the pokemon, drawing some blood. The explosion under water causes a bubble to appear that causes Finizen to shoot out of the water from the pressure. Finizen crashes into the water a moment later and floats there unmoving. The battle pauses for a beat as I watch Finizen, fearing that Skadi might have over done it, but I let out a sigh of relief as I notice the pokemon still breathing, just passed out.

"Finizen is unable to battle! Leader Misty, send out your final pokemon." Misty quickly recalls her pokemon before staring at me for a moment before she speaks up.

"Trainer Frost, consider this a warning. That move of yours is too powerful for a gym battle of this level. This is only a warning as you stopped your pokemon from building it up, but if you did not I would have had to disqualify you."

I take a deep breath before bowing to her slightly as an apology. "Thank you Leader Misty for your warning. I will keep that in mind for future fights."

Misty nods as she hears me admit my fault and grabs her last pokemon. "Seeing as how you understand your mistake, I will not punish you but I will push you harder. Go, Vaporeon!" As the light from the pokeball fades, a beautiful blue pokemon with fins on its head and a white frill around its neck appears with a cheerful cry. With a cat-like flick of its mermaid tail Vaporeon looks around the arena and finds Skadi who is still looking like a pissed off wet cat. "Quick attack!"

"Powdered Snow the ground and dodge!" I order as Vaporeon glows white for a second before rushing towards Skadi at a speed I almost can't follow. Skadi follows my command and a burst of snow appears around her as she leaps to the side. Unfortunately, Skadi doesn't move quick enough and is sent tumbling across the ground. On the bright side, my move seems to have worked as Vaporeon skids across the now frozen ground, sliding away from Skadi and giving her a chance to recover.

Misty calls for another quick attack and this time as Vaporeon is closer to me, I notice that the pokemons mouth also glows in a black energy. I call for a Confuse Ray to try and buy time as Vaporeon is a tanky pokemon. Vaporeon darts at Skadi once again only this time she is able to dodge the attack and sends a bright purplish beam at nearly point blank range. She jumps away from the pokemon to give herself some space.

"Shower it with snow!" I call out while Vaporeon turns around and I can see the purple-pink hue in its eyes showing that it is affected by a status affect. Skadi starts to shoot off bursts of snow at Vaporeon as she slowly moves around it. Vaporeon on the other hand fires off a Water Pulse but the attack goes wide and misses Skadi when it stumbles slightly in its confusion. The match turns into a shooting game as Vaporeon starts to fire off Water Guns at Skadi while trying to hit her and Skadi sending back bursts of snow. Skadi unfortunately gets hit by one of the shots causing her to tumble across the floor again from the force of it but at the same time notice the status effect wear off only for Vaporeon to get blasted by a bunch of snow which causes it to freeze.

"Skadi, return!" I take the moment to use one of my switches to let Skadi rest. I grab Zephyr's pokeball and toss it into the arena. "Let's go Zephyr! Start it off with a Frost Breath!" 

My beautiful bird pokemon comes out and shoots into the air. Once she locks onto the frozen pokemon, she dives and disappears into a blur of white, red and black. A moment later, I can see Zephyr dive bombing the frozen pokemon, blasting it with a whitish blue mist that seems heavy as it hits, sliding Vaporeon back. After getting hit by two attacks, Vaporeon suddenly dashes to the side dodging the attack in the process. Seeing the attack fail, Zephyr soars back into the air and watches her prey. 

I furrow my brows as Vaporeon dives into the water and instantly disappears from my sight. Without warning a pillar of water bursts from the surface directly under Zephyr. She dodges the attack gracefully by tucking her wings and doing a barrel roll. I focus my attention on the water trying to find Vaporeon, but the pokemon has completely disappeared. This cycle repeats a few more times before I start getting frustrated by the stall tactic and decide to do a risky move.

"Zephyr, Desert Devil!"

She replies with a chirp before she takes off while spewing a red smoke that covers her wings, causing her to turn into a burl of red. The blur dives towards the ground and starts flying in tight circles and spewing more of the red mist. Misty seeing what is going on orders Vaporeon to attack with Water Pulse but the wind starts to pick up which forces the attack off course again. Soon the center of the arena starts to shimmer like during a hot day as the red mist turns into a column of spinning air that suddenly catches on fire as an ember lands in the rising red mist. Soon in the center of the arena a bright orange pillar of fire appears instantly raising the temperature within the barrier.

Even though the fire tornado is burning, Zephyr still does not appear as the dull red orange of the fire gradually starts to shift further into orange and then even brighter until it is a sand yellow color. The firenado starts to move towards the edge of the platform, leaving a trail of molten rock in its path. Misty keeps calling for different water attacks but as they get close to the tornado they turn into steam which then flashes and fuels the fire further as the flame keeps turning a brighter yellow. As it approaches the edge of the water more and more steam builds up as Misty calls for a Rain Dance. 

Vaporeon pops out of the water on the opposite side of the arena and starts to do a dance that looks like it is playing with waves on a beach. A few seconds pass until a dark cloud appears over the whole arena and starts a heavy downpour that causes even more steam to build up and quickly rise into the clouds which grow darker. It takes about thirty seconds for the rain to increase in intensity before the fire tornado disappears which causes me to smile as Zephyr appears again breathing heavily.

Seeing my bird not flying nearly as fast as she was, Vaporeon nails her with a Water Gun right in the chest. Startled, I grab Zephyr's pokeball ready to recall her if she hits the ground but my brave bird recovers just before she would have hit. I recall her and do my last switch by sending Skadi onto the field. Wanting to finish this off in style, I call out the beginning of the end.

"Snow Zone, full power!"

Skadi appears in the arena and then lets out a massive burst of icy blue energy that slams into the clouds and rain, turning the heavy rain into a faux blizzard. With the rain turning into snow Misty gives me a look of shock and nods in approval at my tactic. Misty calls for a quick attack as the poor visibility would cause ranged attacks to miss rather than hit. Trusting in Skadi I give her another command hoping to finish the fight as my pokemon could only take one or two more hits until I would lose. I don't see myself losing though.

"Frozen Moon!"

From within the blizzard, a beam of neon pink and icy blue energy shoots out and slams into Vaporeon causing it to stumble but not fall. Vaporeon takes advantage of the fact that Skadi had to reveil herself and attacks with a Water Pulse. I see the attack burst in the blizzard followed by a splash that makes my heart sink.

"Vulpix is unable to battle! Challenger, send out your last pokemon!" I recall Skadi using her pokeball and take a moment to take a deep breath trying to think of how to win this. My mind races with options as I fear that Zephyr might not win as I hear the referee call once more. "Challenger, send out your last pokemon or else you forfeit." Knowing I can't delay any further, I toss out Zephyr.

"You are the last one standing! Acrobatics and then Quick Attack! Don't get hit!"

Zephyr appears again looking worse for wear than I thought. That water gun earlier really did a number on her. I see her quickly take flight into the heavy snowfall before disappearing from sight as her speed picks up, causing the snow to swirl behind her. Misty has Vaporeon trying to hit her with Water Gun again but the snow is working to my advantage. I see a blur slam into Vaporeon before it flies back up into the snow. Vaporeon stumbles but doesn't fall and fires off a Water Gun at the retreating pokemon. My eyes widen as I watch the Water Gun clip her wing, sending her spiraling towards the floor.

"ZEPHYR!" 

I scream as she disappears from my sight as the snow fall suddenly intensifies into an actual blizzard this time. I completely lose sight of the two pokemon as I stare into a solid wall of white in front of me. Everything goes quiet as we watch the storm, waiting for it to disappear. I clench my hands tightly to the railing in front of me as hard as I can as I wait, hoping that everything is okay. A minute later, the storm starts to dissipate as two shadows can be seen, one standing tall and the other on the ground. The standing pokemon suddenly moves as it grows larger. As it's back is to me I can finally make out the shape of two enormous wings as the pokemon in the center of the ring lets out an ear bursting cry, letting the world know of its victory.

"FROSTALON!"

"Leader Misty's Vaporeon is down. Challenger Frost Oak wins!"