"You've got a fantastic Houndoom! He's incredible. You'll have to let me take a good look at him after the battle!" Candice called out, gripping a fresh Poké Ball with excitement.
"No problem at all, you're welcome anytime," Luther replied with a genuine smile.
Abomasnow returned to the field, and Luther sent Espurr back out to face him.
This was Abomasnow's third appearance, and just like before, Candice immediately moved to seize control of the weather. But this time, Abomasnow had a secondary mission.
"Blizzard!"
Espurr had already braced herself to dodge, but the massive burst of freezing wind wasn't aimed at her.
Instead, it struck the ground.
The ice that had melted under Houndoom's fierce Overheat was refreezing rapidly, sealing the battlefield once more in thick, fresh frost. Even floating in the air, Espurr could feel the deep chill biting into her fur.
To keep Abomasnow from completely dictating the field, Espurr quickly fired off a Shadow Ball to try and disrupt his rhythm.
Candice's command, however, was blunt and forceful; she insisted Abomasnow keep the Blizzard going until the battlefield was completely frozen, then instantly triggered his Snow Warning Ability to reclaim the Hail weather.
With both the terrain and the weather back in her favor, Candice had the upper hand again, though it had come at a heavy cost. Abomasnow had already taken two clean hits from Espurr and was visibly suffering.
When Espurr's third Shadow Ball smashed into him, Abomasnow finally retaliated.
A sickly green glow suddenly lashed out and wrapped around Espurr. The abrupt Giga Drain caught her completely off guard, perfectly concealed by the howling snowstorm.
Having absorbed so much damage, Abomasnow greedily siphoned Espurr's life force to recover his own strength.
Espurr, suddenly weakened and panting, fought to steady herself in midair, her body trembling as the stolen energy left her shaking.
Ignoring everything else, Abomasnow immediately unleashed another powerful Blizzard, using the active hail to amplify its force.
The freezing wind howled straight toward Espurr. Already slowed by an earlier Icy Wind, she was struggling to dodge the wide, sweeping blast.
But Luther's command was clear and unrelenting:
"Push through it! Charge forward!"
He could see it, Abomasnow was running on fumes. Even after the tiny recovery from Giga Drain, his stamina was utterly spent. If Espurr just maintained the pressure, Abomasnow would fall.
Espurr clenched her teeth, shielding her eyes from the blizzard as she dove headfirst into the whiteout. Trusting her innate Perception, she pinpointed Abomasnow, hunched over, desperately trying to recover energy.
Without hesitation, Espurr fully obeyed her trainer's faith. If Luther said Abomasnow was about to go down, then he would.
Pouring all her remaining strength into one final, desperate strike, Espurr hurled a Shadow Ball straight into Abomasnow's face.
Candice wanted to call for a counterattack, but Espurr had already flipped gracefully away, leaving no window for retaliation.
Controlling the weather had simply demanded too much from Abomasnow. The damage from earlier matches, combined with this last attack, triggered a chain reaction of exhaustion. Dizzy and reeling, Abomasnow swayed, then finally collapsed.
The arena erupted into gasps.
No one had expected this outcome. Candice had held the weather and the field firmly in her grasp, yet it was her third Pokémon to fall.
The crowd's shock contrasted sharply with Luther's own expression, which was grim and serious.
He'd beaten three of Candice's Pokémon, yes, but his own team had taken brutal punishment in the process.
Espurr was gasping for breath, her stamina utterly spent.
Chansey was tough, but after her brutal exchanges with Absol, Abomasnow, and Mamoswine, her overwhelming fatigue hadn't faded.
Houndoom would need a long, long recovery. If Luther sent Chansey back out now, could she even hold the line? It was impossible to say.
His advantage was razor-thin. If Candice seized even a single chance to counterattack, the entire balance could collapse. He couldn't afford to relax, not for a second.
Candice, meanwhile, looked calm. The weather and the battlefield control were still firmly on her side.
She drew another Poké Ball, running her fingers across its surface, this one was blue, covered in distinctive markings.
"Now," she said calmly, a challenge in her voice, "let's begin our real counterattack."
When the Pokémon emerged, Luther blinked in genuine surprise.
"Spheal, the Clap Pokémon," his Pokédex announced. "It rolls around faster than it walks, and sometimes drifts happily on floating ice."
Just as the Pokédex described, Candice's Spheal immediately began clapping its fins joyfully, rolling around the field with utterly adorable energy. The round, chubby little body was almost too cute to take seriously in a gym match.
Luther instinctively thought of the idiom, Appearances can be deceiving, then quickly shook the frivolous thought away.
Refocusing, he studied the Spheal carefully, and noticed a small, gray stone tied around its neck.
"An Everstone?" Luther said instinctively, surprise in his tone.
"Correct," Candice replied with a small, proud smile. "My Spheal thinks that if he evolves, he won't get to enjoy being held in my arms anymore. So he's been resisting evolution all this time."
"To keep him happy, I went out of my way to find him an Everstone."
Luther couldn't deny it, Spheal really wouldn't be this adorable if he evolved. And for Candice to bring him out in a serious gym match like this… this Spheal had to have something truly special about him.
Luther straightened up, fully alert. A Water and Ice type, Spheal wouldn't likely survive a Thunderbolt if it connected cleanly.
Espurr received the order and fired, but suddenly, Spheal was gone from sight.
Then Luther saw him. On the freshly refrozen ice, Spheal was rolling happily in tight circles, leaving bright, sharp trails behind him.
"That rolling speed, are you sure you're not a tire in disguise?" Luther mused inwardly.
Espurr felt dizzy just watching Spheal spin. She couldn't imagine how Spheal wasn't motion sick himself.
Unable to keep up with Spheal's terrifying pace, Espurr could only watch helplessly as he bounced and rolled back and forth across the battlefield, her Thunderbolt attacks repeatedly missing their mark.
Just as Luther was about to tell Espurr to stop attacking, Spheal suddenly bounced into the air. Using the momentum from his rolling, he appeared right in front of Espurr in the blink of an eye, and from that point-blank range, Spheal unleashed a ferocious Blizzard.
Too fast! Could something this round and chubby really move with that level of terrifying speed?
All Luther could see was a blurry afterimage trailing Spheal's path.
Espurr didn't even have time to react. The Blizzard hit her squarely, frozen stiff, she tried to sneak in one last Shadow Ball as the storm faded, but Spheal had already closed the distance again and fired off another Blizzard.
"He can fire off two Blizzards back-to-back?" Luther muttered, stunned.
Espurr was completely overwhelmed. The unrelenting snowstorm swallowed her whole, her body temperature dropping rapidly until her vision blurred and she collapsed onto the icy floor.
Still trying to get up, Espurr saw Spheal hop over cheerfully and clap his flippers right in front of her face. The rapid, playful slapping echoed through the cold air, and Espurr finally lost consciousness.
Luther sadly recalled Espurr, glanced back at his still-recovering Houndoom and exhausted Chansey, gritted his teeth, and sent out Jumpluff.
Another type-disadvantage matchup.
But this wasn't the same Jumpluff as before. After several rounds of strategic refinement, she was no longer just a "three-powder spammer." As Chansey's tactical partner, Jumpluff now carried the responsibility of dragging out the rhythm of a match when needed.
The moment she appeared, though, Jumpluff froze, Spheal was still bouncing gleefully across the ice, completely ignoring the fact that a new opponent had entered the field.
Candice sighed, shaking her head. Her Spheal had always been this playful. Luckily, two sharp calls were enough to snap him back to attention, and the battle resumed.
"Bullet Seed!"
Having just witnessed Spheal's terrifying speed, Luther knew the usual powder tactics wouldn't work here. Spheal was far too nimble for Sleep Powder or Stun Spore to reliably land. Their only hope was to use precision and adaptability to find an opening.
Jumpluff fired a spread of Bullet Seeds, intending to cut off Spheal's erratic paths, but Spheal twisted and rolled with unnerving unpredictability, changing direction mid-spin as though he were merely toying with her.
Not a single seed connected.
And that gave Candice her opening.
Spheal sprang up again, spinning forward to close the distance in a blur. Jumpluff felt the air instantly grow frigid and instinctively floated backward, barely grazing the Blizzard that followed. It nicked her, but not enough to do any serious damage.
Luther wanted to repeat the feint, pretend to show a critical opening, bait Spheal into staying close, and then strike with Stun Spore or Toxic Powder.
But Candice was too cautious, too sharp. She refused to let Spheal stay close for more than an instant. Each approach was a fake-out; Spheal would dart in, threaten an attack, then roll away before Luther could even hope to counter.
A few more Bullet Seeds finally hit, but Luther noticed something alarming.
Spheal's Ability was Ice Body. Under the active Hail weather, the chubby Pokémon was passively healing itself with every passing moment.
Jumpluff was trapped in a grueling battle of attrition. Spheal kept wearing her down, his unnatural speed and passive recovery leaving her with less and less stamina to fight back.
Watching his partner's energy drain away bit by bit, Luther clenched his fists. He was already thinking about switching out, but before that, he had to try one last move.
"Watch Spheal's movement pattern carefully, then use Leech Seed!"
Jumpluff took a deep breath, trying to see through the chaos of Spheal's continuous, looping motion.
In her mind, she traced every twist and curve of his path. Among the dense, tangled trails, she found it, one perfect spot where his paths converged, a point of almost certain intersection.
She glanced at a slightly raised patch of ice in front of her and began to charge the attack. Based on her calculations, Spheal would reach that exact spot in just a few seconds.
Silently counting down in her heart, Three… two… one, Leech Seed!
The seed shot out, but what happened next stunned everyone.
As if Spheal had somehow foreseen the attack, he slammed the ice hard with his flippers, braking sharply to a sudden stop less than half a meter before the seed would have struck.
The plan failed completely.
Luther opened his mouth to call for a retreat, , but Candice's voice rang out first.
"Encore!"
Oh, no!
Jumpluff was caught. As Spheal's Encore took effect, her body was forced to move against her will, repeating Leech Seed over and over into the empty air.
Delighted to see his trick succeed, Spheal rolled quickly, positioning himself directly behind Jumpluff, perfectly blocking the necessary line of sight Luther needed to recall her.
"Well done," Candice smiled, a chilling edge to her tone. "Now… Sheer Cold."
The words sent a physical chill down Luther's spine.
Spheal climbed onto Jumpluff's back, gathering all his energy as a bone-deep cold radiated across the entire battlefield.
Even the spectators felt the icy air sweep through the stands, cold enough to steal the breath from their lungs.
Jumpluff, struggling desperately to move, managed to land one last, futile Leech Seed on Spheal, but it was far too late.
She knew her role in this match had ended. There was no escaping the inevitable.
The devastating Ice-type move silently took effect.
Centered on Spheal, the battlefield bloomed instantly into layers of ice, spreading out like ripples in a frozen pond. The shockwave of cold raised crystalline hills of frost, transforming the arena into a miniature snow-covered mountain range.
The referee had to climb around the newly formed ice mounds just to check on Jumpluff's condition.
It took a painfully long time before the referee finally confirmed the result. Jumpluff slowly thawed out, shivering uncontrollably. She fluttered weakly into Luther's arms; he flinched. Holding her felt like hugging a solid block of ice, and within seconds, his hands went numb with the cold.
Only after Houndoom gently emerged from his Poké Ball and warmed her with a low-intensity blast of his fire did Jumpluff begin to recover.
Meanwhile, Spheal was still happily rolling around the treacherous ice, smacking bits of frozen debris and giggling to himself.
(End of Chapter)