Flood was the perfect word to describe what was happening on the screen. Yes. A flood was leaving the Atrocious pokemon’s maw. Twisting and turning as it crossed the field just like opening a dam to a rough river.
Madness but worse. This madness had an target. In its genesis, it was separated as a common flood. At the end, it was reunited by desire. The desire of the Whirlpool to drown Marowak.
The ghost type raised his shielded head, looked at the incoming tsunami, and hit his bone into the ground. Under his feet soil turned into rock and he ascended, stone rising from under him.
The water hit his rock and turned, surrounding the ghost in a vortex that tried to reach him. Repeatedly slamming against a boulder that didn’t nudge.
“The choice to release an starter was interesting,” William commented. “Although we know that this Gyarados isn’t his starter.”
The commentators had previously discussed the situation.
“I’m more curious about this enormous expenditure of energy right off the bat,” Camille turned towards Akashi with an raised eyebrow.
Akashi just smiled, choosing not to comment.
At the battlefield, Gyarados swam through his water and brought his tail down into the Marowak and the stone. The ghost jumped to the side and threw his glowing bone at the giant head. It seemed as if he was going to land on the running water, but a small use of Aerial Ace pushed him towards dry land.
“Really?” Akashi asked with exasperation. “Everyone know how to use Aerial Ace now?”
“There’s certainly an high number of participants who learned that move.” William agreed.
Camille shrugged.
After ducking the flying weapon, Gyarados followed his opponent. As he slithered forward, the water type also gathered dragon type energy.
Marowak lands and immediately turns, collecting his bone and staring at the giant snake.
Gyarados stops and pulls himself up, standing like a building in the middle of the field. Looking down at the ghost type, the pokemon roars and a tornado with dangerous-looking purple winds spins into existence, slowly moving forward.
Not yet done, Gyarados glows with blue energy. The gallons and gallons of water from the Whirlpool behind him were grabbed and thrown to the sky, condensed and turned into clouds. These loads of suspended water flew by Gyarados and his Twister, and were now circulating above Marowak.
George shouted his pokemon a warning—probably about the Waterfall about to break.
Just as I finished the thought the clouds exploded and water fell like the move’s name. Heavy rain fell into the ground and rose in a high wave ready to break against the smaller pokemon.
Marowak was surrounded, but wasn’t worried. The ghost jumped straight up towards the Twister and entered it with zero hesitation. For a second, it seemed as if the draconic winds were going to shred the pokemon into pieces, until the Marowak began to bat them away like baseballs with his glowing stick. The slashes came from the left to the right by the dozens, only to be batted or parried away as the ghost traversed through its airspace.
Aiden said something and pointed at his opponent’s pokemon.
Gyarados’s face darkened as normal type energy twisted it into a horrific visage that the psychic barriers somehow blocked. Marowak flinched for a second before starting to defend himself again. That was enough time though.
Five gashes were scattered across his body—despite its ghostly origins—as he left the tornado and landed just to the side of the Gyarados. The Twister was vanishing, but the water was coming fast. A couple minutes and Marowak could be swept away.
I could see the ghost type thinking that it had more than enough time. It was undefeated in the tournament after all.
Orders seemed to fly out from both trainers.
Gyarados swiped Marowak with a grey glowing tail. Marowak jumped over the attack and threw his bone at the Gyarados in the air.
The screen changed to show them fighting and the water coming in the background.
Gyarados dodged by going low and tried to bite the weaponless ghost with frozen fangs. Marowak landed, dodged to the side without looking back and turned around as the giant head passed by. Skull glowing, the ghost head-butted the Gyarados’s torso.
The giant wave kept creeping closer.
Gyarados came back and tried to smash the pesky ghost with furious intent, using Tackle with various body parts and Ice Fang. Marowak was methodical. As soon as he retrieved his bone every action had a counter, every attack was blocked, parried or dodged with a burst of Aerial Ace. Every once in a while it landed a Rock Smash at the massive body, causing purple bruises in an otherwise blue and beige body.
The water rose one last time and broke into them. Gyarados braced himself while Marowak jumped over the deluge of water and towards its enemy.
The ghost grabbed his bone with two hands and slammed the giant blue head under its chin, lifting the snake from the ground. Marowak uses the backlash to land where the water still hasn’t reached, and then raises another platform of rock under him just in time for the water to submerge the ground.
At the middle of the field, Gyarados was not looking good. The blue snake was stumbling through the flooded floor, bruises littering his body, and eyes closed in pain.
A resigned Aiden screams something and Gyarados eyes fly open.
The Atrocious pokemon rises, surprising Marowak and George. He opens his giant mouth and lets out another Whirlpool.
Water once again explodes from the giant maw as the losing pokemon pours everything he has left—which was still a lot—into the move. Marowak crouches and puts a hand on his stone, raising and reinforcing it even more. The pokemon firmly grabs the rock as the torrent rams into the four psychic battle that held the battlefield. The collision sends water flying to sky and then falling like rain throughout the whole battlefield.
In the middle of the rain there’s a flash of red, and the falling Gyarados is gone.
The camera that showed the battlefield panned out.
It was no longer a field made of earth. Water consumed the whole space. The pink lights of the barriers are now always glowing as they had to contain one meter and a half body of water. The artificial lake was not as clear as a normal lake would be. It was an murky from the soil on the bottom and the violent way in which it was created.
This is now the stage where the match will continue.
Flames briefly blazed around Marowak, drying the irritated pokemon.
A clever strategy really, specially considering that Gyarados wasn’t his most powerful pokemon. After all, his first Gyarados didn’t train and the second was newly inducted into the team, even if he knew more moves. They were weak, weaker than they should be at least, which was scary considering the widespread damage that was inflicted just now.
Their line, however, boasted a high level of stamina. High enough that Gyarados was able to use Whirlpool—a very costly move—two times in a single battle.
Regardless, Aiden had two pokemon left, Swablu and Horsea. Swablu was arguably his strongest, if the fight wasn’t in a lake. But if it was in a lake however, Horsea would be undeniably his strongest pokemon.
This new Gyarados wasn’t Aiden’s most powerful pokemon, but he made a field for the one who could be, and this time—unlike all the other times she fought—she had home advantage.
Aiden released his next pokemon inside the small lake.
A little head peeked above the water.
A cute pokemon like Horsea should never look that intimidated.
The arbiter said something, probably starting the battle, but my attention was on the glaring Horsea. I gulped when she disappeared into the water like a monster from the deep sea.
Marowak jumped as a empowered ball of water exploded the boulder he was standing in. He landed on a pink barrier, and stayed there until gravity recognized him, and then he jumped to the barrier on the other side.
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A water pulse left the lake’s surface and slammed the ghost type upwards, and just a quick reaction and an Aerial Ace made it possible for him to dodge the next one. He landed on the barrier and was immediately attacked by dozens of water projectiles, coming at him like a shot from a shotgun.
He jumped again to the other barrier, dodging the bullets with small bursts of Aerial Ace. The ghost bounced back and forth from barrier to barrier until he was near his trainer. It didn’t dodge all the attacks though, some smashed him into the barrier and some almost made him fall, just desperate uses of Aerial Ace saved him.
The pokemon was huffing when it finally neared his trainer after a hell of pain and effort. But his eyes never stopped tracing the shadowy form of the buzzing Horsea.
As he flew to another barrier, George gave him a quick command. Marowak immediately stomped the barrier and plunged into the water in a diving position.
Somehow, the screen changed to show the bottom of the lake with perfect clarity. Horsea and Marowak were framed. The water type had paused for a second before dashing straight at the invader with pulses of water leaving her mouth, drumming the lake towards the ghost.
The race between the move and the pokemon was tight but Marowak won. His hand touched the bottom of the lake and from there an immense quantity of ground type energy was released.
Water Pulse slammed into Marowak’s body. The pokemon was flung backwards with force, but was retrieved by George.
The screen changed to the arbiter as he was about to announce the victor of the battle when the sound of an earthquake echoed from the field.
The screen changed again to show the whole battlefield, just in time to catch broad pillars of earth ascending to the sky from the lake’s bottom.
At least ten such pillars were spread around the battlefield in a uneven formation. Marowak probably created them to give something to the next pokemon to stand and to disrupt Horsea’s movement as much as possible.
Looking at the screen with the trainers, I saw that George was conflicted. He was staring at the pokeball on his hand with a look that said that he didn’t like this decision. Nevertheless, he released the pokemon inside it on the brand new platform.
The red form twisted into a pokemon of green and white colors with a tinge of pink.
The white draped itself around the green like cloth as two blades of pure pink crowned its head, matching its eyes. The pokemon twirled like a ballerina, and then looked around with wide eyes, very curious at the lake around it.
There were many sound echoing the lounge as people acknowledged the pokemon on the screen. Nobody was really surprised as it was common for singular type trainers to have a transport pokemon. Some don’t train them, but most made sure that they can fight. It seemed to be the case with Brian and Wigglytuff, and seems it was the case here with Kirlia.
“It is an interesting choice from trainer George.” Camilla commented with a raised eyebrow.
“it wasn’t a mistake of course,” Michael said, “it was a gamble, and now we have to see if it will pay off.”
“I differ, only a… unwise person,” Akashi corrected himself when he noticed William’s glare, “gambles unless necessary.”
A Water Pulse broke the water to slam into the Kirlia and the stone both. The boulder took damage but didn’t break—showing the mastery of Marowak’s last move—while the Emotion pokemon was gone already.
Suddenly, ten images of the same pokemon stood on top of ten pillars of rock.
Horsea swam around them. She unleash a barrage of Water Gun at any illusion of its opponent. The flicker of an image as the psychic substituted itself for an illusion showed that she came close sometimes.
An offensive teleport put Kirlia just behind the water type and she unleashed her psychokinetic powers. A Psybeam collided with the lake and exploded the water, flinging the water type high into the air.
The ‘flying’ Dragon pokemon was confused for a second, but quickly showed why she had that name. Her eyes narrowed as a torrent of purple flames torched the lake’s surface, burning four of the ten pillars and sending Kirlia scrambling away.
As Horsea fell towards the lake, a shadow crossed the surface of the lake and deeply cut the pokemon just before it landed.
Of course a psychic pokemon on a ghost team would learn Shadow Sneak.
There was a small flash of light on one of the pillars. A confused glance came across Aiden’s face, but he directed his pokemon to use Smokescreen on the water, hiding Horsea further.
I frowned. Ignoring a move always came back to bite you.
Now that Horsea knew that Dragon Breath was effective she dashed around the lake putting fires on every pillar she came across. The problem is that to use Dragon Breath she had to leave most of her body outside the water, leaving her vulnerable.
It was in one of those attacks that a bunch of cutting leafs cut into her from above. Aiden shouted something that made George glare at the battlefield, which was expected. Aiden and I had sparred sometimes during the trip from Goldenrod to Violet City, and Aiden sometimes used code to call a strategy.
There was another flash.
The Horsea continued to circle around the pillars, using Dragon Breath to set fire to the rock, Water Gun to try to catch the teleporting pokemon, and the occasional Smokescreen to hide where she was going next.
That went on for a couple minutes until finally Kirlia teleported above the lake, above a large dark spot in the water where Horsea should be. Benefiting from the fact that the water pokemon also couldn’t see her from inside the Smokescreen. The psychic glowed for a last time and unleashed a wide and powerful lightning bolt that struck the water. The bolt penetrated the water and lighting tendrils spread inside the smoke, searching for the water type. Gravity was reasserting itself when Kirlia teleported to a boulder. The screen focused on her just as a pulse of water energy struck her back.
The move racked the psychic inside out, but the psychic teleported away instinctively before a second pulse hit the rock.
Kirlia, her face twisted with anger and pain, appeared above where the attack came from and let out a recklessly powerful Psybeam under its feet. The concentrated wave of telekinetic energy slam into the water and pushed down a big area of water, creating giant waves in the extremities of the field.
Another teleport left Kirlia kneeled on a rock huffing and puffing after that high expenditure of power. Her back wounded from the water move. Horsea, meanwhile, appeared above water and floated there, fainted. Her right side a giant bruise from where the Psybeam caught her.
Surprised with the fact that Kirlia and George were caught with that trick, I decided to use something similar later. Normally, I would discard that trick the next time I fought that team team, but our battle would in at least an hour. There wouldn’t be a lot of time to internalize and fix that mistake.
After this battle, Aiden was left with only one pokemon, Swablu. The pokemon that had kept Aiden afloat ever since his journey started was once again called to provide for him. The small flying pokemon with fluffy cotton wings appeared high in the sky, far away from the exhausted Kirlia.
The arbiter started the battle, and Aiden and George didn’t waste time giving out commands.
Swablu dived Kirlia. The psychic raised a hand and a cold and frigid wind blasted up towards Swablu. Stopping slightly to dodge the Icy Wind, the bird encircled the ragged pokemon and released Dragon Breath.
Seeing a giant storm of purple fire leaving the beak of the small bird was always funny. This time, it decided to use so much flame that it engulfed half of the field.
“Wasn’t that a waste of energy?” Katy asked, not taking her eyes from the screen.
“If he wanted to win yes,” I answered.
“What do you mean?” She said. I saw from the corner of my eyes that she was frowning.
“He said ‘You better pay attention to this match’” I reminded her. “He knows he’s not going to win, so he is trying to get as much information from him as he can.”
Her mouth hit the ground in surprise, “That’s… nice of him.”
Yes. It was.
While we were talking, Kirlia, now with only half of the space to teleport around was flagging before Swablu strikes. Each teleport made her more and more tired. After a minute of running, the bird finally cornered her. The two pokemon face each other. Swablu with a smirk. Kirlia with a glare.
Glowing pink, the flying type dives. Kirlia waits for the last second and raises her hands. Confusion attacks Swablu, but the pokemon easily breaks the telekinetic hold and collides into the Kirlia.
They fly up from the boulder that Kirlia was standing, and with a high whistle, Swablu dives and smashes the psychic into another platform before leaving to do a victory lap.
The arbiter announces Swablu’s victory. The screen showed George retrieving his pokemon. He seemed calm, but I grew up in a orphanage with many kids. I knew how to spot the details that showed when a kid was angry but trying to hide it. He was angry.
He was angry because he was losing. For a guy accustomed to win easily with one pokemon, having to use three right away was humiliating. It broke the reputation that he was building in the tournament. The ghost trainer released his last pokemon for the match. His second, if the placement of the pokeballs on his belt were accurate.
A small blue flame appeared first. Followed by a transparent glass globe around it with yellow eyes. Finally, from the globe black metal grew, shaping itself into a hat and limbs. The second evolution of the Chandelure line, Lampent, appeared above water.
Now I understood his dilemma. He didn’t want to show his starter, obviously, but putting a fire type against a Horsea on a lake wasn’t going to end well, even if that Lampent looked dangerous. The hassles of having two equal types on a team. Two water types and you had to disclose three pokemon.
Not that I could say anything. My next opponent had two fire types and I don’t have a single water pokemon.
A Dragon Pulse left Swablu’s mouth towards Lampent, taking me out of my head. The ghost used Flame Charge and moved to the left. The fire expelled from his blue flame and through the glass globe, combined with its ability to levitate, greatly increased the pokemon’s speed, making it look like a rocket.
I was expecting the fire to die down after the dodge but that didn’t happen. Instead, the pokemon twisted around and shot towards Swablu like a comet.
Swablu, like the future dragon that it was, screech at the blue fireball. He used Agility to enhance his speed and then used Aerial Ace. The flying type reappeared under the Lampent, having used Aerial Ace to get above the pokemon and to dive at it.
The bird took a second to understand that it had missed. Confused, Swablu looked up, and was promptly smashed down by Lampent’s fire body.
The two plummet towards the ground.
Swablu had two problems. First, she was burning blue. Second, she was about to be smashed by Lampent onto hard rock. She ignored the flames and tried to push off with her wings and feet, but two black metal arms grabbed its flying limbs. At the last second it howled a Dragon Pulse point blank at the pokemon grabbing him. It didn’t matter unfortunately.
The collision between the boulder and the two flaming pokemon ended with the boulder’s destruction. Lampent rose from the cratered rock and burned brightly, riding itself from the water that had entered the artificial basin.
Swablu laid in the middle of it. The bird’s body sprawled as water pooled around it, cooling his body. His trainer retrieved him.
Aiden lost, says the arbiter.
Ironically, it was Aiden who was smiling. He had done incredibly well in this fight. Used the very environment to force a superior trainer and team to use three pokemon. An incredible performance. George Reed, an empty expression on his face, collected his damaged ghost—for he had still taken a point blank Dragon Pulse—and quietly left the battlefield of the tournament.
That image briefly reminded me of when Blue lost to Red. This time, however, it was the winner who was silently leaving.
I looked at the floor and thought about my incoming battle with George. I wanted to win of course, but this match reinforce what I already knew in my mind. That winning wasn’t always about victories. It was about seeing that you achieved more today than you did yesterday.
Aiden certainly understood that.
Schedule: New chapters will be released Wedsneday and Friday from now on.
Chapter 34 Fixed: As you know, there are no switching in this tournament, in chapter 34 it's commented that each trainer has one. Change: There's one switch → no switches.
