Wyndon Stadium, Galar Region, Pokemon World
Blaine POV
"Oh!! And Gigantimax Machamp lands a devastating super effective G-Max Chi Strike on the Gigantimax Coalossal!!" The announcer on the large tv monitor exclaimed with an excessive amount of enthusiasm.
He was watching the battle between the young gym leaders of the Galar region from inside one of the waiting rooms assigned to him.
It was a large room that would usually be taken up by many prospective trainers waiting for their names to be called to fight their opponent in the Champion Cup. Due to the high profile person that he was, and the fact that his match was an exhibition match, he was all by his lonesome today.
The room had two TVs hooked up to different things at once. One was connected to the pokemon battle taking place on the stadium field, while the other was connected directly to Gudao's stream.
Chat was hidden while the stream was on display to the public, although he didn't mind it at all, because social media was rotting people's brains and Twitch was the quintessential example of that fact.
He still perused it from time to time, but he rarely engaged nowadays, but the moment he opened chat during this battle had been a serious mistake. A significant portion of chatters were praising gym leader Bea's feet while also spamming Lickylicky emotes.
Kids are crazy these days.
As for the battle itself, he honestly liked the spunk of that chubby boy.
Gordie may not be a fire type specialist but he definitely carried the spirit of one and has the power to back it up. Even up against a fighting type specialist, his Colossal never buckled under the punches and hit back twice as hard.
Machamp groaned when the giant slab of stone hit him square in the chest and sent him tumbling to the ground… in the exact area where his trainer had chosen to stand.
Tragic.
"Oh no!! Bea!!"
"Watch out!! Bea!!"
Hearing the concerned cries from Chaldea made him chuckle. Poor bastards have no idea that trainers rarely to almost never get hurt during official matches like these.
He was proven right when the Machamp lost its energy and shrunk back into its normal size.
The fighting type groaned as his body fell near Bea's feet. The girl had not flinched, nor had she tried to move away. She just closed her eyes in resignation and stood tall even in the face of defeat.
Gordie was declared the winner and the stadium went wild.
When he first saw these dynamax battles, he was amazed at the grand scale and flashiness of the format. He utterly fell in love with the excessive fire attacks and the new forms for pokemon, like Charizard, being showcased for all to see.
The magic quickly wore off after he noticed that the gigantimax/dynamax battle format heavily restricted the giant pokemon to simple movements and attacks.
A battle between two trainers is meant to be strategic and dynamic, but ironically, even in a stadium this size, pokemon battles often devolved into a fight between slow giants who relied on brute force to beat their opponents into submission or until one of them ran out of infinity energy first and started to play a game of cat and mouse.
With the cat almost always winning.
Kanto was all about brute strength but brute strength alone does not make an entertaining battle.
That was why the event organizers had purposefully placed a lot of battles before his own.
These people clearly don't think a type specialist Gym Leader would stand a chance against three generalist champions at once, so they filled time slots with filler battles to show off "fair" pokemon battles to Gudao and Chaldea. The world desperately didn't want them to be disappointed and bored seeing an old man getting curbstomped by two women and a little girl.
Smart, but as a professional trainer, it burns his pride to see him being dismissed so easily.
The insolence was infuriating.
Honestly, he cannot believe that an innocent suggestion from him caused such a massive uproar to the point where he now has to fight three champions at once.
A mess which only got larger the moment Gudao's powers decided to give Gudao and Chaldea access to a live broadcast of this event.
One of his pokeballs sensed his distress and started to rumble in anger. He quickly brought out the luxury ball containing his Princess and panicked when he saw the sparks of failure coming from the ball.
He gently patted the ball to soothe her anger, "It's alright Princess, it's all going to be fine. Please, be calm and hang in there a bit longer. It's much too soon for you to come out, you'll get your chance… I promise."
The ball's aggressive shaking and sparking stopped and a sigh of relief escaped his lips.
He couldn't have his trump card come out too early.
Deciding it was better to not get upset with his circumstances, he continued to observe the next few battles.
The next match was between a Paldean girl being pitted against a boy from Hoenn. He was a bit optimistic about the battle at first,but he was left disappointed the moment he saw two water types enter the field.
The battle that ensued was just two water type specialists splashing each other with water to see who could turn the dirt into mud the fastest.
Thankfully, they still used many attacks that weren't water based, so it was at least somewhat entertaining… or at least it was until the girl made the mistake of having her Lanturn use Thunder on the Hoenn boy's johtonian Quagsire.
She even had the gall to be confused as to how her thunder attack had no effect. When it was explained to her why thatbwas, her response had actually left him speechless.
"Eh? Are you sure? Clodsire is the ground type right? That's why he's brown. Quagsire is blue, so shouldn't he be a pure water type?" The idiot girl with a blonde ponytail asked, the Morpeko inside her head already given up on trying to run on the rusty wheel.
His face met his palm with a loud slap.
How did this moron, an eight badge trainer, make it past the first gym?!! Gudao was right, perhaps pokemon training has been getting way too easy nowadays.
After that embarrassing display, he barely paid attention to the battles, and instead focused more on going over the strategies in his head again.
He had reached his battle flowstate and nothing could take him out of it once he dove into its depths!
"Uhwah!! Look Father, the mouse turned into a giant!" The starry eyed little girl said as she pointed excitedly at the gigantimaxed pikachu.
"Yeah, I know!! Isn't it awesome?!"
Altera nodded, "It's very good civilization!!"
Okay, he lied, there were times when the stream took away his attention for a bit.
That kid was just too adorable and innocent to ignore. Such feelings perplexed him, because he was aware that this girl was a former warlord of the past who violently conquered a continent. He saw her destroy the landscape with her sword, yet she was still an adorable child that slowly counted with her fingers.
His brain could not reconcile the image and reputation of the bloodthirsty conqueror with the little girl sitting on Gudao's lap.
He was brought out of his thoughts when the intercom came to life and a woman's voice reached his ears, "Gym leader Blaine, your match will begin shortly. Please take a moment to get ready and head towards the southern entrance. Thank you."
He got up from his seat and cracked the tension off his neck.
Well, it was time to put belt to ass.
✦✧✦
Newbark Town, Johto Province, Indigo Region
Ethan Gold POV
A yawn escaped his lips, reminding him of how late it was. He looked over his shoulder and winced when he saw the clock read 12 AM.
Honestly, he may have gone a bit too carried away and stayed up longer just to watch tonight's stream. This is way past his usual bedtime, but it has been worth it so far.
Getting to see Gudao's reaction to their world beyond his world's media has been a treat and he for sure knows he isn't the only one who thinks so. Gudao's audience has actually swelled back into pre-Medusa levels at this point.
It's honestly very hard to keep up with chat again, so he has been limiting his responses. That and also because he's a bit more weary of making lewd comments now that Biscione is a mod.
He's not too hung up about it, and he's actually happy to see chat behave for once. Still, old habits die hard, and he would hate to get kicked off of chat and have his mind scrubbed of many wonderful years worth of memories.
It would be especially tragic if he didn't get to see or remember these beautiful women's faces ever again.
"Oh, I've been meaning to ask something of you Master,"
He perked up when the polite, yet strong voice of Hippolyta spoke up. He turned to his leftmost monitor to observe the conversation. A warmth spread to his cheeks when he saw the petite and cute redhead with golden eyes make a befuddled expression.
"What did you need clarification on?" Gudao asked.
"I understand two people confronting each other in a duel to settle a dispute, but three champions fighting against one elder is cowardly and dishonorable, no? What did this man do to deserve such a punishment?"
Before Gudao could answer, the announcer interrupted him.
"The time has finally come folks, the moment you've all been waiting for! The triple battle between gym leader Blaine against the three champions!
Now, I know Gudao's stream is a long experience that many people cannot keep up with due to having jobs and also because of the trauma that Medusa inflicted on us by nearly turned us all to stone-"
Hippolyta and Chiron both cringed at the news, which told him that they were actually aware of the aftermath of that battle.
Stheno meanwhile, raised her brows at the screen in surprise. Unlike her fellow geeks, she was fully unaware of the trauma her sister had done to their world. Mostly because she had been sticking close to Gudao instead of researching.
"-So we will give you a brief recap of what led to this exhibition match taking place. During the first singularity, Chaldea had rescued Jeanne D'Arc's mother, Madame Isabelle Romee, from a town that mistook her for the twisted, evil version of her daughter who had committed genocide against the French peoples."
Jalter rolled her eyes at the announcer's words, clearly annoyed by the man's truthful recounting of her evil deeds.
"Eventually, they met up with the nice version of Jeanne D'Arc and made it their mission to take Madame Romee to safety. Unfortunately, she was still easily recognizable as Jeanne's lookalike with her blonde hair and face. So the group was brainstorming ways to disguise her… that was when Blaine abruptly jumped into the conversation and gave the group his unsolicited advice."
The screens inside the stadium switched to showing a clip of the moment when Blaine made the blunder of jovially telling Madame Romee to shave her head. A choice which led him to accidentally pissing off every woman within hearing distance, which included everyone in chat… and to make matters worse, he also accidentally stepped on Jeanne's traumatic past at the same time. Though, personally, that one wasn't his fault. How was he supposed to know that Jeanne had her head shaved before she was burned at the stake for being a witch?
It was actually impressive and hilarious that Blaine managed to deeply offend the 'genki girl' Queen Marie even more than the people destroying her country.
The screen also showed the chat replay where Cynthia challenged Blaine.
The crowd started to boo at the screen, though the pitch was much higher than normal, because nearly every woman in the stadium was booing at Blaine.
"A disgrace!!! To desecrate such beautiful, golden locks is a crime worth a thousand lashes before a slow, and painful death!!" Nero said while glaring and pointing her thumb down in disapproval.
A serious and disapproving expression came across Hippolyta's features, "Hm, from a practical standpoint, I can understand why such a method would be effective… At the same time, as a woman, I stand with the champions. Elderly man or no, this is a duel for the sake of Lady Romee and Jeanne D'Arc's honor. So I retract my previous concern and may the gods decide his fate."
"Shaving off a lady's hair is bad civilization!!!" Altera huffed while pointing an accusing finger at the screen.
Oof.
"Now then, here comes the man of the hour, a respected veteran of the Unification War of Indigo who dedicated his life to researching genetics and actively funds the geology and ecological research around Cinnabar Island. The self proclaimed Hot Headed Quizmaster himself, please give a warm welcome to Gym Leader Blaine!"
The crowd did not give Blaine a warm welcome at all, as the women started to boo louder. Yet, despite all this feminine hostility, Blaine still walked into the stadium like it was just a normal Tuesday. He looked at the hissing disapproval and adjusted his red novelty tie that looked like an upside down flame before he continued on his walk.
He still wore his old, slightly soot stained unbuttoned labcoat. Unlike his labcoat, his light blue dress shirt, brown khakis, and brown shoes were clean and spotless.
He arrived at his starting position and pushed up his sunglasses. At the same time, the light from the stadium reflected from his bald head at the perfect angle, which created a bright glare that blinded the camera for a brief moment.
In that short window, his face went from stoic, to a wide, pleased smirk, an action which elicited more boos from the crowd.
Carmilla scrunched her face in disgust, clearly not appreciating Blaine's intro pose.
"Man, I am so excited to finally see a character… I mean a person I recognize… but I also feel bad he's being hated on so much." Romani nervously said as he scratched his cheek.
"Yeah, I said it once, and I'll say it again. Poor Blaine." Gudao said before sipping the straw from his soda, completely chill like he wasn't about to watch a man about to get murdered.
"And now,here come the challengers!! First is the famous and renowned actress and icon who has starred in many blockbuster films, and will even have a major voice role in the upcoming 'Mr. Trubbs and Friends form a Rescue Team!!' Movie!"
The crowd's foul mood brightened considerably at the mention of Mr. Trubbs and Friends' upcoming movie, which still doesn't have a confirmed release date.
The announcer continued,"Yet despite so much on her plate, she is also a passionate pokemon trainer who dutifully serves Kalos as its Champion, give it up for Grand Duchess Diantha!!"
Calm instrumental music played in the background as Diantha walked into the field. He recognized the music as a classy remix of her theme in the pokemon games.
The crowd went wild when the graceful, dark gray haired woman elegantly strode to her side of the field like a model walking down the runway. She was wearing her usual champion's attire, with the trims of gold on her blazer being the only color to break the monotonous pristine white color of 99 percent of her outfit.
She also occasionally smiled and waved at the crowd, but her eyes remained focused, and determined.
"Uwoh!! The announcer sold this woman short, she is a beauty beyond what I could have imagined!! As a fellow actress and lover of the fine arts, I approve!! Umu!!" Nero gushed at Diantha, clearly captivated by her appearance.
"Up next is known as the Queen of Dragons and is one of the key players that helped take down Team Plasma and Neo Team Plasma many years ago, here comes the Unova League Champion, Iris!!"
The moment Team Plasma was brought up, the world around him narrowed.
His good mood shrivelled into a husk, leaving him with an empty void.
Memories of those days replayed in his mind. The devastation and the frigid death caused by a lunatic wielding power he should have never possessed.
'I should have been there that day.'
Before his mind could spiral further, Iris's loud and peppy theme song from the pokemon games brought him out of his funk.
He took a deep breath and shook his head to clear his mind from those thoughts. The late night was getting to him.
Focus on the present Gold.
Iris was a young, dark skinned girl who had stepped onto the field. She was dressed like a princess that had stepped out from some fairy tale. Her gold tiara sparkled under the stage lights, and gave her a more regal appearance.
She was the youngest and most energetic of the champions and walked while waving at the crowd with both arms. She even occasionally did some hops to emphasize her excitement, and the crowd ate it up.
He took a look at Gudao's stream and a few of the royals and nobles were looking at her under a new light. Before, Dragon's-Iris was just letters on a screen, but after today, they will know she is a real person with actual power and status and he had a feeling they will start treating her as such.
With the exception of Cu Chulainn, who was pointing at Iris while laughing his butt off.
"That tiny, baby-faced princess is Dragon's-Iris? Ha! I knew it, she really IS just a kid!! Though I am ashamed of myself that I didn't expect her to be royalty. The attitude and innocence screams royal brat." Cu then took a swig of his beer, uncaring for the annoyed and disapproving looks the other servants were giving him.
Iris suddenly stopped, and her eyes narrowed at the muted screen over her head, which had zoomed in on Cu Chulainn pointing and laughing at her.
She pouted and made a 'I'm watching you' gesture with her hand.
Cu just waved her off with a dismissive 'get on with it' gesture, which only served to piss her off more.
She huffed, and flipped her hair in the monitor's direction, like she was slapping Cu's face with her hair, then stood to Diantha's left.
Diantha offered her some words to cheer her up but Iris just told her not to worry about it.
"And finally, the woman who initially made the challenge against Blaine. A renowned archeologist, a respected historian, and best selling author, here's the Sinnoh League Champion Cynthia!!"
A rapid and suspenseful piano solo echoed across the arena, silencing the crowd. The song made both Gudao and Romani involuntarily flinch in fear, an action which did not go unnoticed by the servants.
Blaine heard the song and was unimpressed. He even went as far as making an exaggerated gesture with his head that conveyed a roll of the eyes, which would have been impossible to see normally due to how dark his shades were.
A tall, beautiful young woman stepped onto the field. Her long and creamy, blonde fringe hair flowing gracefully behind her. In complete contrast to Diantha, Cynthia wore a stylish black coat with black fur trimmings.
Her hair was also adorned with teardrop shaped hairclips that resembled an umbreon's color scheme. One of her bangs covered her gray eyes, but the uncovered eye was coolly facing forward.
She did not acknowledge the crowd, as her eyes was locked solely on Blaine.
The man just flashed a cocky smirk at the woman, not at all intimidated by her or the women at her side.
Cynthia stepped between Diantha and Iris, who greeted her like they were old friends, which they were. The trio do regularly meet on many occasions, and they even have private battles with each other from time to time from what he's heard.
Which spells trouble for Blaine since their synergy for team battles is high; however, that's mostly true for double battles.
Triple battles are a different beast altogether.
They are significantly more difficult to adjust to, as they come with their own rules and limitations.
Out of all of them, the only one who should have the most experience with triple battles was Iris. That could be a weakness Blaine could exploit, but he was still at a major numbers and power disadvantage. One of the biggest flaws of triple battles is just keeping track of the chaos and keeping attention evenly spread while also making sure it's not spread too thin.
"Wow, so you actually showed up. I'm surprised you didn't run away the first chance you got." Iris taunted, which was not very effective.
Blaine scoffed, "Please, I am not a coward. I would have shown up even if six champions stood against me."
Iris shrugged, "Your funeral, but don't worry, we're not inconsiderate idiots like you. We made sure to buy you some flowers before we got here."
Blaine huffed at the jab and brandished his miniaturized pokeballs, which were lodged between his fingers.
"I already apologized and was forgiven by the two women I wronged, yet you three still painted me as the bad guy for giving a suggestion. Now you backed me into a corner, so you better brace yourselves, because by the time I am done with you, no burn heal on the market will be enough to soothe the burns I will inflict on you!"
"Blaine isn't wrong you know, he was just trying to help Madame Romee be safe and that just led to him being thrown into the lion's den " Mash showed a surprising amount of sympathy for the old man, and she wasn't alone as Da Vinci shared her opinion.
"True, but these pokemon battles are not duels to the death. So it's still a much safer way of settling disputes… even ones that might seem unfair."
The three champions responded by enlarging their three respective pokeballs in quick succession.
The referee jogged between the trainers and spoke up, "This will be a three versus one triple battle. The champions get two pokemon each, while Blaine gets a full team of six. Trainers cannot switch pokemon mid-battle unless it is triggered by a pokemon move. If they do, the withdrawn pokemon is out of the match!! The use of items is strictly forbidden, with the exception of mega stones, Dynamax Bands, Z-Crystals, and Tera Orbs. Do you understand the rules?"
The trainers nodded, and the referee lifted his hand, "Let the match begin!!"
The whistle blew and the three champions threw out their pokeballs.
"Time to take the stage, Tyrantrum!!"
"Come on out, Milotic!"
"Hydreigon, Time to RIP AND TEAR!!!"
Three pops harmonized in the air, unleashing three blobs of blue light that coalesced into three distinct pokemon.
Cu Chullainn, who had been cracking jokes earlier, suddenly paused and stared at the creatures with surprise. He wasn't the only one, as the sheer power that radiated from these pokemon commanded the attention of the onlookers.
Such is the nature of elite tier battles.
A massive dinosaur stood by Diantha's side, its size imposing and intimidating to anything smaller than him, which applied to mostly all pokemon it encountered. It had a regal, spiky white mane that resembled a collar worn by a king. It let out a guttural roar that shook the very air and earth itself.
Next, a beautiful serpentine pokemon manifested in front of Cynthia. Its beautiful cream colored scales glistened under the sun. Its hair-like fins flowed in the air as if they were underwater. Its mesmerizing tail had diamond-shaped scales of red and blue that ended in a tip that resembled a fan. Despite being a pure water type pokemon, it still somehow floated in the air.
Lastly, a vicious looking dark and blue dragon emerged from Iris's pokeball. It floated menacingly in the air, its six spindly fingers that it called wings lacked the webbing that allowed other dragons to fly. Instead, the dragon relied on the levitate ability to do most of its floating and flying.
The main head and the hands growled at Blaine. It seemed like it was feeding off the emotions of its trainer and using them against the object of her ire.
He jumped in his seat and almost threw his headphones at his wall when an ear bursting squeal punched his eardrums.
He turned to Gudao's stream and saw Da Vinci was the culprit of his suffering. The woman was genuinely happy to see the Tyrantrum that appeared onscreen, "It's a real, living, breathing dinosaur!!!!"
Suddenly the woman realized where she was and looked around to see everyone had turned to look at her. Da Vinci cleared her throat into a closed fist. The childish wonder vanished, and was replaced by the more composed but still fascinated and elegant researcher she was before.
"Apologies, I got carried away."
Gudao smiled at her reaction, "It's alright Da Vinci, there's no shame in loving dinosaurs. Besides, I had a similar reaction to when I saw Tyrantrum the first time."
"Thank you Gudao-kun, you're so sweet to comfort little old me." Da Vinci playfully winked at Gudao, which caused the guy to blush.
Lucky bastard.
"What is this creature?!! The graceful way it flows in the air, its majestic scales, and the sleek beauty it possesses… it beckons me to obtain a blank canvas and immortalize what I am seeing." Nero was standing from her seat and reaching out to the screen, like she wanted to reach out and touch Milotic.
The screen then showed Carmilla looking at Milotic and, for once, she wasn't frowning. She wasn't smiling either, more like she was watching Cynthia's Milotic with a sense of awe and appreciation.
As for the reactions to Hydreigon, they were much more mixed than the previous two.
Biscione was absolutely hyped by the hyper aggressive dragon and the giant rock type dinosaur on the field. She was looking at both of them with stars in her eyes.
The same could not be said for the others.
Chiyome had taken one look at the dark dragon and her stoicism had fractured into shock, which quickly turned into a purse of the lips and an involuntary rubbing of her arm.
Chiron's smile had flattened into a stoic expression when he saw Hydreigon. Hippolyta noticed and sent him a concerned look, "Are you alright Chiron?"
"Hm? Ah, I am alright. I was just surprised to see that young lady had managed to tame a hydra of all things."
"That was a lie!!" Kiyohime abruptly butted in, but Hippolyta paid the girl no mind and chose not to push the topic further and just focused back on the screen.
The small pokeballs expanded between Blaine's fingers and his grin turned into a frown, "Alright everyone, we're out of the frying pan, so it's time for us to bring in the heat!!"
Blaine threw his own pokeballs into the air, and the same pops and flashes of blue light happened on his side of the field.
The lights coalesced into a red tortoise with a black, rock-like shell.
A Torkoal.
Next was one of his favorites, an aggressive fire type with a cream colored underbelly and a blue-green back. A spiky fire mane erupted from the back of its neck as it readied itself for battle.
A Typhlosion.
Finally, a horse with cream colored hair with a mane and tail of fire appeared before the screen.
A Rapidash.
All three pokemon let out their own battle cries, which the opposing pokemon dismissively looked down on.
"Woah!! What a magnificent steed!! It's muscles, its long flowing mane of fire… well, it looks tricky to ride, but it looks like a very powerful warhorse!!" Hyppolita said while looking at Rapidash in awe.
"Well, the trick to riding Rapidash is that you have to befriend one first. Once you do, its flames will not burn you and you can ride it normally." Gudao explained, which only made Hippolita hopeful…but that hope was quickly snuffed out as soon as it came alight.
"Ah… It truly is a shame I will not have a chance to befriend it." Hippolyta said with a sad look on her face.
The urge to capture a Ponyta and present it to the gorgeous redhead as a dowry is strong.
The screen panned to the sun, much to the confusion of the Chaldeans. It became apparent why the camera chose to show this when the sun overhead brightened by a significant degree.
When the camera panned back down to show Torkoal, the sun's yellow rays had turned the grass under its feet a lighter shade of green. Visible ripples of heat danced in the distance, which indicated the increase in heat.
"Oh? A drought Torkoal? It seems like Blaine is taking this fight very seriously if he is using a sun team."
Jalter gave a side eye at Stheno, "What are you even talking about?"
"A competitive pokemon strategy. Blaine is setting up sun so his fire pokemon can land a stronger hit. He also has a Typhlosion in his party, so it's rather obvious what he plans to do next," Stheno explained, which just caused the other servants to look at her like she grew a second head.
Sure enough, she was proven right when Blaine called out his next move.
"Eruption!!!" Blaine did not call out the pokemon's name, but Typhlosion got the gist and aggressively ignited his spiky mane so intensely that a thick pillar of fire literally erupted from the spikes and climbed into the sky.
The fire pillar spewed condensed heavy clumps of fire type energy, which fell back towards the ground.
"Intercept with Hydropump!!" Cynthia called out and a huge spray of pressurized water rushed out of Milotic's mouth.
The water move crashed with the dense rocks of fire type energy, and after some struggle, broke them into pieces before snuffing them out.
Diantha tried to do the same as Cynthia, but with a Rock Blast. The sun boosted eruption disintegrated the rocks on contact, but their speed was significantly reduced as a result, which allowed the Tyrantrum to jump away from the attack in time.
Iris on the other hand, chose not to risk it and called for a Protect.
A translucent barrier of hexagons appeared around Hydreigon and stopped the attacks cold, leaving the brutal dragon unharmed.
A few boulders had missed their intended targets and were headed straight for the trainers. Before the powerful attack could smoosh them like hamburgers over a hot grill, a protective barrier shone around their bodies, preventing a tragedy that would have resulted in serious injuries or death.
"Those portable forcefield trinkets those trainers wear are very handy. I wish I could get my hands on one so I can open it up and see how it ticks." Da Vinci pondered with a hungry look in her eyes.
"I'm just glad we finally have a valid explanation as to how trainers can stand so close to their pokemon without having to worry about getting hurt by their pokemon's moves." Romani said, still traumatized from the scare trainers from the previous battles gave them.
The eruption began to settle down, and the women all took notice and were about to call out their next move; unfortunately for them, the champions made the mistake of thinking typhlosion was the only pokemon Blaine had on the field that could use Eruption.
A second pillar of fire, which was smaller, but still potent, erupted from the top of Torkoal's shell. Unlike the last one, this Eruption actually managed to catch them off guard.
Milotic cried out in pain when the fire boulder slammed into her.
"No!! Milotic!! Her beautiful scales, they have been cooked!!"
'Couldn't have said it better myself Emperor Nero.'
Tyrantrum suffered a similar fate, but to a lesser degree. Its 4x resistance to fire helped it withstand the attack much easier than Milotic. Though resistances don't equal painless. The pokemon was clearly aggravated by the pain the attack inflicted on it.
Hydreigon, meanwhile, kept up its protect, but it had reached its limit as visible cracks began to show where the eruption boulders hit.
As for Blaine's team? A burst of red energy engulfed both Typhlosion and Rapidash, the flames coming out of their bodies glowing brighter and hotter.
Ah, so that was your plan Blaine, not bad.
"See? I was right, Blaine is using a competitive sun team. He's even using Flash Fire mons to boost his power to take advantage of the AOE attacks his pokemon are spamming." Stheno's explanation only created more confusion amongst the crowd.
He didn't think it was because of the strategy, they were all smart people, so simple strategies like this should be easy for them to understand.
What really seemed to be confusing them, and him by extension, was how the heck she knew all this. Wasn't she a goddess from ancient Greece who died thousands of years before pokemon was even an idea in someone's head?!
"How do you even know this?" Jalter asked his thoughts out loud, and she received a shrug from the goddess as a response.
"I saw Darling play against someone using this team in an online match during one of our shared dreams. He lost really badly to that guy."
"It's not my fault, I didn't have time to train up pokemon without cheating." Gudao grumbled, clearly having overheard the conversation.
Cynthia narrowed her visible eye and called out her next move.
"Milotic, get rid of that sun with Rain Dance."
Milotic shook off the blow from the eruption and began to dance in a mesmerizing pattern. The harsh sun was swallowed by dark clouds.
Drops of water began to fall onto the ground, slow at first, but it quickly turned into a downpour.
Blaine looked at the overcast sky before he levelled his gaze at the champions and their pokemon.
"Rapidash, use Agility, then Play Rough on the edgy dragon. Torkoal, make it shine again, Typhlosion, thunder punch the pool noodle!"
All three pokemon received their order and went to carry out their orders.
Rapidash had the easiest time and managed to increase its speed enough to close the distance despite Iris's attempts to keep it away by spamming dragon pulses.
Hydreigon let out a cry of pain as its body fell into a pink cloud of fairy type energy and was beaten up by the move.
"Oh!! And Rapidash lands an Extremely effective Play Rough on Hydreigon!! Tough luck for Champion Iris!!" The announcer said.
Rapidash finished off her attack by kicking the dragon away. Hydreigon tumbled in the air before it righted itself. Its body was now covered in bruises and its black fur was stained with filth and dirt.
It was also panting like it was out of breath.
"Why did that silly attack have such a strong effect against the dragon?" Nero asked, the woman was still clearly ignorant of the type chart.
"Dragons in the pokemon world are weak to fairies, and so are dark types. Hydreigon is both, so when it was hit by a fairy type, it took four times the damage than it normally would if it was hit by a normal attack."
"Umu… well, I suppose that makes sense."
She didn't get it at all.
Unfortunately for Blaine, he spent too much time focused on fighting Iris, which meant he couldn't give out orders fast enough to his other pokemon.
His Torkoal had managed to bring back the sun, but it was short-lived when Milotic used rain dance again.
Typhlosion was also unable to land the thunderpunch.
"Thunder Fang!!" A massive jaw bit down on the typhlosion's fist, snuffing out the attack with a painful crackle.
His heart ached seeing Blaine's Typhlosion let out a loud yelp.
"Earthquake its face!!" The trooper of a Typhlosion fought through the pain and landed a kick to the side of Tyrantrum's head.
Earth-type energy rippled across the dinosaur's jaw, causing the dragon to let out a roar of pain, freeing the Typhlosion.
Iris saw the lapse in attention and took advantage of it, "Fly out of the way and use Tailwind!!"
Hydreigon zips away and was ready to whip up the winds that would double the entire team's speed.
Blaine snapped his attention back to Hydreigon.
"Typhlosion, Roar, now!!" Typhlosion, despite having been beaten up so much, managed to bellow out a roar that rattled the bones of every person watching the battle.
The roar was so impactful, he even caught some of the servants reflexively grabbing their weapons. As for Hydreigon, the dragon flinched before it could set up a tailwind and was forcibly recalled into its pokeball.
Iris growled when her massive, olive green Haxorus appeared on the field against her wishes. The intensity of the dragon type was even more potent than last time, and Biscione was equally as excited to see it appear on the field.
Jalter looked at the dragon and grinned, "I want one."
She looked to Biscione, and the dragon girl turned sheepish, "okay… after the battle."
"Hydro pump!!!"
Typhlosion's roar against Hydreigon had left him open to a rain boosted hydropump to the face.
The pokemon garbled as the spray of water pushed it back like it was a ragdoll.
"Typhlosion!!" Blaine called out in concern, and to the man's relief (and his) the Typhlosion had somehow managed to survive.
Although it was coughing up the water that got into its lungs.
"Finish it with Rock blast!" Diantha called out to her Tyrantrum who gleefully followed her trainer's orders and shot a high speed boulder at the fire type.
This was it, it was the end of the line for typhlosion now. He wouldn't be able to run away in time.
"Thunder Punch the ground!!" His eyes widened in disbelief at the command, and Typhlosion did as he was commanded.
The pokemon's fist crackled with electricity as it punched the soggy ground.
Tyrantrum let out a cry of pain as the electricity spread out and electrocuted it
"No way!" Diantha cried out in shock, completely caught off guard by the attack.
Unfortunately, Torkoal was also close by and was hit by the attack too, but the chaos of the battle made that friendly fire an afterthought.
Typhlosion smirked when he saw his attack hit the dragon; but he could not relish in it as the rock hit him in the face, knocking him out.
"Typhlosion is unable to battle, Leader Blaine, bring out your next pokemon!!"
Blaine recalled his Typhlosion, thanked it for a job well done, then put away the ball.
He reached for another pokeball in his belt and expanded it.
"Ceruledge, it's time to slay some dragons."
The pokemon that popped out next was admittedly, one of the few pokemon he wasn't really familiar with, but he could appreciate the cool factor it gave off.
It's a bipedal humanoid that had the color scheme that made him suspect it was a dark/ghost type like Chandelure. The blue flame that came out of its helmet-like head reminded him of a plume that knights of old wore, which was fitting given how he also had the aesthetic of a black knight who wielded its two flaming long swords for its arms.
The raindrops hissed as they evaporated on contact with the blades.
"Woah!! That pokemon looks a lot like Lancelot! What a coincidence huh?!" Romani had a point, they did share a resemblance appearancewise… though Lancelot had far darker armor.
"Yes… he does… a bit too much if you ask me." Gareth said, the comparison and resemblance to her Lord clearly bothering her a bit, but was unable to deny it.
"Begin!!"
"Dragon Claw."
Ceruledge's flaming swords ignited with a familiar purple, dragon type energy. It set its sight on the looming dragon and sprinted as fast as it could toward its prey.
"Tyrantrum, use Crunch." Tyrantrum roared and sprinted towards the black and blue knight.
The surface of the puddles around the battlefield rippled with every step the dinosaur took.
Dark type energy coalesced on the dragon's maw and was about to take a bite into the knight.
Crackle.
Suddenly it stopped in place, arcs of electricity danced around its body.
Huh, what do you know, Typhlosion's thunderpunch actually managed to induce paralysis.
Diantha noticed the hesitation far too late as Ceruledge did not let the opportunity go to waste and slashed the dinosaur across the chest with both swords.
The dragon stumbled back in pain, and it collapsed into the ground, its eyes swirling in defeat.
"Tyrantrum is unable to battle, Ceruledge is the winner! Champion Diantha, bring out your next pokemon!!"
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AN: This chapter really got out of hand and undid most of my initial plans, oh well. Such is the nature of the muse. The triple battle is finally here, and it's starting to heat up…. It's also very chaotic af and I am trying my best to convey that.
Don't forget to leave a like and/or comment if you please and I'll see you next week.