"Blaziken, punch through the wave!"
Blaziken launched itself from the platform and drove straight into the wall of water. The instant its fist made contact, frost raced through the wave and locked around its arm, turning the surging water into a massive frozen crest with Blaziken caught against it.
Reiji had been waiting for exactly that.
"Swinub, now! Earthquake the ice!"
Swinub appeared on top of the frozen wave and slammed its front feet down. Cracks tore through the ice from the crest to the base, and the entire structure collapsed toward Blaziken.
"Protect!"
Blaziken pulled its trapped arm free and raised Protect just before the wave came apart. Huge chunks of ice hammered against the barrier from every direction, burying the platform beneath a cascade of broken slabs.
Swinub rode the shifting ice down instead of retreating.
"Stay on it! Earthquake again!"
It planted its feet against one of the larger chunks and raised its front legs, ready to strike.
Blaziken reached it first.
A blur shot out from between the falling ice, and a Fighting-type kick caught Swinub cleanly in the side. The little Pokémon went tumbling across the frozen wreckage while Blaziken landed where it had been standing.
Reiji had barely seen the attack happen.
"Swinub, Dig!"
Swinub immediately started burrowing through the ice, but Blaziken raised one foot before it could get far.
Reiji recognized the setup. "Forget Dig! Get out!"
Swinub scrambled back toward the surface just as Blaziken stomped down with Earthquake. The entire water field shook, broken ice bouncing across the pool while the platforms rattled under the impact.
Swinub managed to emerge before the shockwave caught it underground, but that only solved half the problem. It could barely keep its footing on the shifting ice, and by the time it found Blaziken again, the Fire type had already vanished from where it had been standing.
Another kick slammed into Swinub and sent it flying.
Speed Boost had almost certainly stacked as far as it could go by now. Blaziken was already fast to begin with; after spending this long on the field, Swinub had no chance of following its movements.
The second Fighting-type hit was enough. Swinub landed among the ice and did not get back up.
"Swinub is unable to battle! Reiji, please recall your Pokémon and send out your next one!"
Reiji brought Swinub back and gave the Poké Ball a reassuring pat before putting it away. For its first real tournament battle, taking down Sceptile and forcing Blaziken to work this hard was more than enough.
Against a Pokémon whose entire advantage now came from overwhelming speed, Reiji already knew what he wanted next.
"Go, Slowking! Trick Room!"
Slowking appeared on one of the remaining platforms and immediately twisted the battlefield around itself. The strange space spread across the pool, turning Blaziken's accumulated Speed Boosts from an advantage into a liability.
The commentator caught on immediately. "Trick Room! Reiji is attacking Shingo's specialty directly! Inside this space, the slower Pokémon gets to move first!"
Shingo knew the move well enough that he did not bother testing Blaziken against it.
"Come back! Go, Carracosta!"
A bulky blue turtle replaced Blaziken.
Reiji recognized the species immediately. Carracosta was a Water/Rock type from Unova, and unlike nearly everything else Shingo had shown so far, it was naturally slow.
That was a clever answer to Trick Room.
It was also an unexpected Pokémon for Shingo to own. From what Reiji remembered of his visit to the dojo, Shingo had hardly traveled outside Johto. Then again, his family lived near the coast. With every ocean connected, a Pokémon from another region finding its way there was hardly impossible.
More importantly, Carracosta was slow enough that Trick Room no longer gave Slowking an overwhelming advantage. Slowking was still marginally slower, but with the difference that small, Reiji saw no reason to leave the entire battle dependent on the field effect.
"Slowking, drop Trick Room! Drain Punch!"
"Carracosta, get into the water!"
Carracosta paddled off the platform before Slowking could reach it and disappeared into the pool.
That worked for Reiji too.
"Thunder Wave into the water! Get Thunder Punch ready!"
Slowking waddled to the edge of its platform. Electricity gathered around one fist while an orange pulse spread from the Shellder on its head and washed through the pool below.
"Carracosta, pull into your shell! Hydro Pump to launch yourself out, then Crunch!"
A burst of water erupted beneath Slowking. Carracosta shot out of the pool like a cannonball, withdrew into its shell to protect itself during the launch, then thrust its head back out as dark energy gathered around its jaws.
Slowking simply disappeared.
Carracosta sailed through empty air and splashed back into the pool.
After seeing how quickly it could launch itself from the water, Slowking wisely stayed away from the edge. Instead, it kept sending Thunder Wave through the pool, forcing Carracosta to either surface or risk taking the status condition underwater.
Carracosta tried to come up.
This time, the paralysis caught it.
Its body seized before it could climb onto a platform, leaving it struggling just beneath the surface.
"Slowking, Drain Punch!"
"Carracosta, dive!"
Carracosta immediately sank again, denying Slowking the close-range hit.
Reiji changed the command without hesitation. "Thunder Punch into the water!"
Slowking drove its electrified fist into the pool. Current spread outward beneath the surface, racing through the water until Carracosta was forced to start swimming upward.
"Carracosta, get out of there!"
"Slowking, both hands! Thunder Punch!"
Slowking crouched at the edge and plunged both charged fists into the water.
Carracosta fought toward the surface, but paralysis kept interrupting its movements while the electricity in the pool punished every second it remained submerged. It came close once, slipped back, tried again, and finally went limp before it could haul itself onto a platform.
The referee waited for it to float high enough to confirm the result.
"Carracosta is unable to battle! Shingo, send out your next Pokémon!"
Shingo recalled it and immediately brought back his opening choice.
"Go, Jolteon!"
An Electric type against Slowking on a water field was an obvious answer.
Reiji had an equally obvious response.
"Slowking, Trick Room."
The pale blue space spread over the battlefield again, and Jolteon's greatest advantage disappeared before the fight had properly begun.
Shingo had already committed, so switching yet again would only hand Reiji more control.
"Jolteon, Thunderbolt!"
Electricity tore across the field, but Slowking vanished from its platform before the attack arrived. It reappeared high above the pool and fired Ice Beam downward, freezing the platform Jolteon had been standing on.
Jolteon escaped with a quick leap to another platform.
Slowking teleported again before it had even settled.
This time it appeared beside Jolteon and drove a fist into its side, knocking the Electric type straight into the water. Electricity immediately flashed across the surface as Jolteon struggled to climb back out.
Shingo shouted for it to move, but Slowking was already overhead.
Ice Beam swept across the pool.
The water froze from one side to the other, trapping Jolteon before it could escape. Only its head and part of its upper body remained above the ice.
Slowking vanished once more and appeared directly over the trapped Pokémon.
"Earthquake!"
It came down hard beside Jolteon, breaking the ice and driving the Electric type beneath the surface as a jagged hole opened around it. Before Jolteon could fight its way back through, Slowking stomped down with a second Earthquake.
The fractured ice around the opening collapsed inward.
By the time the officials dug Jolteon free, it had already lost consciousness.
"Jolteon is unable to battle! Shingo has now lost three Pokémon. The match will enter a five-minute intermission!"
The scoreboard updated above the stadium.
Reiji — Shingo
Whiscash [WITHDRAWN] — Jolteon [OUT]
Swinub [OUT] — Sceptile [OUT]
Slowking — Blaziken [WITHDRAWN]
————— Carracosta [OUT]
Reiji returned to his shelter and looked over the first half of the match.
Shingo still had not shown Scizor.
That was the Pokémon Reiji actually cared about.
If Scizor had reached Elite Four tier, he would probably have to bring out Electivire. Poliwrath needed rest after yesterday's match, and Reiji was not going to drag it back onto the field unless there was no other choice.
If Scizor was still below that level, he had more options. Rhydon and Magmar both had ways to pressure it with Fire, and Reiji could even answer speed with speed by sending out his own quasi–Elite Four-tier Scizor. He refused to believe the one he had raised would simply be run over by Shingo's.
Three Pokémon devoted to removing one ace was expensive, but acceptable. Shingo only had three left. If Reiji could bring down Scizor, the rest of the match should fall apart with it.
Speed did not make a Pokémon tireless. It only let that Pokémon attack more often before the opponent could respond, and every burst still cost energy.
If Shingo wanted to win with speed, Reiji would make him pay for every step.
...
Back in Johto, the atmosphere inside Muramasa's dojo was almost more tense than the stadium.
The students had spent the entire first half sitting beside their instructor, barely willing to breathe whenever Shingo was in danger. The moment the intermission began, several finally escaped for water or the bathroom while the others stretched and tried to relax.
One student eventually worked up the courage to ask the question everyone had been thinking.
"Muramasa, can Shingo turn this around in the second half?"
"That depends on him."
Muramasa calmly blew across his tea before taking another sip.
His students could not understand how he looked so relaxed with his son three Pokémon behind.
They had misunderstood what he wanted from this tournament.
Muramasa cared about Shingo winning, of course, but somewhere along the way he had already gotten something more important. His son was commanding his Pokémon himself instead of burying his head in statistics and trying to make every decision from a screen.
The habit Muramasa had spent years trying to break was finally gone.
Shingo was battling again.
Really battling.
Win or lose, that alone made the tournament worthwhile. Once Shingo learned to trust his own judgment, Muramasa had little doubt that he could eventually become an Elite Four-tier Trainer. Scizor, at least, had never lacked the potential to reach that level; Muramasa's own partner had already shown what the species could become.
Whatever happened in the second half, his son was finally moving forward again.
...
The bell rang through Pummelo Stadium five minutes later.
Both Trainers returned to their platforms while the field selector began cycling through the available battlefields.
"The intermission is over! The battlefield for the second half is now being selected!"
The cursor stopped on the grass field.
Once the pool descended and the new terrain locked into place, the referee raised his flag.
"The second half of this full six-on-six match will take place on the grass field. Reiji, please return Slowking to the battlefield."
"Go, Slowking!"
Slowking reappeared as Reiji's active Pokémon from the end of the first half.
Shingo answered with a Pokémon Reiji had not been expecting.
"Go, Metagross!"
The massive Steel/Psychic type landed across the field.
The commentator's voice immediately rose. "Metagross! Another pseudo-Legendary has entered the tournament! This is the third pseudo-Legendary we've seen so far. Will Reiji answer with something equally powerful?"
Metagross?
Reiji had spent the entire break preparing for Scizor. Instead, Shingo had opened the second half with a pseudo-Legendary.
Having a successful dojo and a famous Trainer for a father certainly came with advantages.
More importantly, if Metagross was only Shingo's fifth Pokémon, then Scizor was almost certainly still waiting in reserve. Reiji would have to get through this first before he could even see the opponent he had built his plan around.
"Slowking, Trick Room!"
Slowking distorted the field again, but the moment the strange space formed, Shingo countered.
"Metagross, Gravity!"
Both Psychic types were dragged toward the ground.
Slowking normally floated with psychic power, while Metagross could levitate its enormous body as well. Under Gravity, neither could stay comfortably airborne.
The commentator sounded intrigued. "Gravity against Trick Room! Shingo is changing the battlefield again—how will Reiji use this?"
Reiji looked at both Pokémon pinned closer to the ground and saw one immediate advantage.
"Slowking, Earthquake!"
Gravity made even lifting a foot difficult, but Slowking forced one leg up and stomped down. The resulting shockwave rolled across the grass with extra force, heading straight for Metagross.
"Metagross, Shadow Ball!"
"Slowking, Teleport!"
Dark energy gathered in front of Metagross and shot across the field. Moving normally under Gravity was miserable, but Teleport still gave Slowking a way out.
Shingo had already prepared for that.
"Grass Knot! Stop it from leaving!"
Metagross's eyes flashed green. The grass around Slowking surged upward and twisted around its legs and body before the teleport could complete, dragging it down and wrapping it tight.
Shadow Ball followed immediately.
Slowking could not escape, so it threw up a psychic barrier instead. The attack exploded against the shield just as Earthquake reached Metagross from the other direction.
Both Pokémon took a super-effective hit.
Slowking had at least managed to blunt Shadow Ball with its barrier. If Shingo had chosen Dark Pulse instead, relying on psychic power for defense would have been much less comfortable.
"Slowking, Fire Punch!"
Flames burst around Slowking's hands. It burned through the grass binding its body, slapped away the last tangled strands, and finally freed itself.
Reiji immediately turned Shingo's own choice back on him.
"Now Shadow Ball!"
Ghost-type energy gathered in front of Slowking.
Metagross was a Psychic type too.
If Shingo wanted to trade super-effective attacks, Reiji was more than happy to oblige.
[End of chapter]
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