That Grass-type killing move, launched second but arriving first, perfectly demonstrated what it meant to counter motion with stillness.
And yet...
Slash!
A blinding white flash suddenly streaked through the Solar Beam.
Heracross split the Solar Beam apart with ease and burst through the light!
Its whole body was glowing red from the intense heat, and blue smoke rose from its shell, but the speed of its swing only seemed to increase.
Its forelimb, wrapped in white light, became a cleaving blade and crashed down on Victreebel's midsection with enough force to split a mountain.
Crack!
The sickening sound of something breaking echoed across the entire field.
Victreebel was still frozen in the posture of releasing its attack, but its body had already begun to tilt slowly to one side.
Erika: ?
A base-60 Aerial Ace had split open Solar Beam just like that?
Erika couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Looking at the smoking figure on the field, her emotions became incredibly complicated.
"To think... it did that with just Aerial Ace..."
As a Gym Leader, she knew perfectly well how terrifying the Guts Ability became once it activated.
But what she was seeing still exceeded her understanding.
A non-STAB Flying-type move, boosted by that massive increase in Attack, had actually torn through Solar Beam!
The aftermath of that slash had even left a trench nearly ten feet long in the ground.
Guts really was terrifying...
The bright sunlight shone down on Heracross's blackened shell.
Its burn damage triggered again.
"Hera..."
"Tch. That sudden burn sting is a little annoying..."
Heracross let out a low grunt, but it wasn't anything serious.
At this point, Heracross still had well over half its stamina left.
That last Solar Beam had indeed dealt some damage, but it was still far too little.
It had barely felt like more than a scratch.
"Alright, Heracross, finish it."
Seeing that Victreebel looked beyond saving, Grey decided to send it off for good.
"Use Megahorn!"
Blue light exploded outward again.
Heracross lunged forward in a single burst, instantly closing in on Victreebel.
And in that exact moment—
Erika smiled.
Then she suddenly flicked her sleeve and shouted, "Victreebel, Worry Seed!"
Victreebel's blossom split open, spraying out countless seeds wrapped in dark purple energy like a shotgun blast across half the field.
Those bizarre seeds, capable of changing Abilities, traced deadly arcs through the air, and just looking at them was unsettling.
For Heracross, this really was poison.
Right now, it was in a burned state, and the only reason it could ignore burn's negative effects was because of Guts.
If Guts disappeared, wouldn't that be the same as crippling itself?
At that thought, Grey frowned.
"Pin Missile, intercept them!"
Heracross, still in the middle of its charge, forcefully halted its steps. Its horn vibrated at high speed, and dozens of steel-like needles shot through the air.
The needle tips collided with the seeds midair, exploding into clouds of purple smoke!
"Beautiful! We finally stopped Gym Leader Grey's offense!"
A sharp gleam flared in Erika's eyes as she raised her sleeve and shouted, "Victreebel, Sludge Wave!"
Victreebel slammed the leaf blades on both sides of its body against the ground.
A purple-black tide of poison burst outward from around it.
Sticky toxic sludge surged and spread, turning the entire battlefield into a poisonous swamp!
The hem of Erika's kimono whipped wildly in the pressure wave. At last, she had found a rhythm for her counterattack.
Today, forcing out Grey's second Pokémon would be victory enough!
"Stone Edge."
Grey's command was extremely brief.
Heracross stepped forward and stomped heavily on the ground.
Where the shockwave passed, countless sharp stone blades burst from the earth!
The rocks were jagged like saw teeth as they tore toward Victreebel.
Thwack!
Though Victreebel tried desperately to dodge, its body was still cut by the suddenly rising stone blades.
At the same time, Heracross was swallowed by the roiling wave of poison, and hissing bubbles immediately began to eat into its shell.
The entire crowd held its breath at the sight of both sides taking damage.
But the corner of Grey's mouth curved into a smile of absolute confidence.
Because Heracross's horn was already glowing with that familiar light...
Tap tap tap tap!
Heracross fired another barrage of Pin Missiles from its horn!
Even with Chlorophyll, Victreebel had taken too much damage in succession to evade properly.
It was forced to take the full hit.
After that exchange, Victreebel was practically finished.
The earlier Aerial Ace had already dealt heavy damage, and after taking Stone Edge and then Pin Missile head-on, even if it hadn't dropped yet, it was basically no different from being down.
Heracross saw that Victreebel still refused to fall, so it habitually added one follow-up Pin Missile barrage after another.
In the end, it successfully knocked Victreebel out.
[Victreebel: Heracross, stop already! Why are you being so serious about this?]
[Wow, it's still hitting after the knockout.]
[Poor Victreebel, seriously. It was already unable to battle and still got smacked around. That's brutal.]
The viewers in Grey's stream couldn't help feeling sorry for Victreebel.
There was nothing particularly wrong with Erika's commands. The problem was simply that, in raw strength, she was far too far behind Grey.
Victreebel's Worry Seed, Meganium's Sunny Day... they had all been useful moves.
But because of the Pokémon's overall strength gap, Heracross had dealt with most of them anyway.
"Victreebel is unable to continue battling. Gym Leader Erika, please send out your final Pokémon."
The referee's voice was merciless.
For a moment, Erika had thought the advantage was hers.
But before she could even start celebrating that her tactic had worked, the battle had turned sharply against her.
That last sequence from Heracross had been suffocatingly fast.
The aftershock from Stone Edge hadn't even faded before the sky was already filled with Pin Missiles!
Erika slowly loosened her grip on her kimono sleeve. The fabric was wrinkled from being soaked with cold sweat.
That kind of fluid, seamless offensive rhythm was almost like...
Grey had predicted every single response she would make in advance.
How many battles had Grey fought to reach this level of control in combat?
"Wait... could it have been a damage trade on purpose?"
Erika recalled that over the past few days, she had been watching Grey's streams too.
Whenever he faced challengers, he always traded damage directly, never dragging things out.
So...
Had he decided on that exchange because he knew Victreebel's Sludge Wave wouldn't be enough to finish Heracross off...?
Just how well did he understand his own Pokémon to dare fight like that?
Erika's mind spiraled into increasingly wild speculation, and in the end, all it did was make her admire Grey more and more.
Grey had no idea what Erika was thinking, but from the look on her face alone, he knew she was definitely praising him.
And honestly, it felt pretty nice.
"Gym Leader Erika, it's time to send out your last Pokémon."
The referee reminded her.
"Alright."
Erika nodded.
Then the Poké Ball landed on the field.
An old familiar face appeared—
Vileplume.
[Pokémon: Vileplume]
[Type: Grass/Poison]
[Level: 56]
[Ability: Chlorophyll]
[Moves: Omitted.]
A level 56 Vileplume. It was obvious this was Erika's ace.
"Gym Leader Grey, this is my last Pokémon. Please show me what you can do!"
//Check out my P@tre0n for 30 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810