"WEEEEELCOME BACK TO CHAMPION HOLD'S BATTLE TOWER!" The speakers blared, the announcers deep voice booming across the stadium.
"To start our night I want to thank Devon Corps. for sponsoring tonight's event. There's nothing as dependable as steel! Be sure to check out the new line of custom pokeballs, featuring a new release and return animation of your choosing! ARE YOU READY?!"
The crowd roared.
Oak simply shifted in his seat. He knew the battle was still a ways away.
I glanced at the old geezer. "So what am I looking at here? How does all the simu-link shit fit in?" I asked.
Oak pointed towards the middle. The arena was empty, merely a concrete box. However, before my eyes, the box was filled in with incredible detail. The stage became a flush island setting, with palm trees and white sand. There was plenty of shrubbery, coconuts, a full island paradise.
"For all you Fives out there, here's a recap of last night's battle. On the left, STORM!"
A virtual thundercloud descended onto the battlefield, crackling with power. It dropped down onto the trainer platform, transforming into a surprisingly normal figure. The man was wearing a bright yellow safety vest, practically glowing with the reflection of the light.
"AND on the right, REAPERRRRR!"
This time the entire battlefield seemed to dim as a shadow covered the ground. A cold chill swept up into the stands.
I looked around, wondering how they did that. Maybe a Lapras or something doing a very weak icy wind?
The shadows grew deeper, darkening as they grasped out towards the other trainer platform. The platform shook as they took hold. Then, a dark scythe dripping with blood rose out of the shadows, spinning through the air dangerously as it swept across the battlefield like a shuriken. The scythe whipped through the air, tearing through palm trees with ease before circling back and being caught by a skeletal hand rising from the shadows.
Another hand grasped onto the trainer platform, pulling the rest of the skeletal figure out from the void below.
The Grim Reaper himself. Glowing red orbs behind a black cowl looked up into the crowd. The screens all zoomed in on the ghastly figure, showing intricate rotting flesh dangling from the skeleton. The black rags it wore waved in the wind, brushing to the sides to show the rotting figure.
The announcer took to the mic again. "Last night, Storm, the natural disaster, child of Hurricanes and Tsunamis, faced the bringer of death himself."
The stage reset. The paradise island rose back to its former glory, the trees shredded by the scythe repairing themselves as time reversed.
"Storm started with his typical strategy. His twin Raichu began boosting each other with their electric moves, setting the stage with rain dance, fulfilling the promise of their trainer's name."
The stage fast forwarded, showing a sped up version of a Raichu blasting the other with electricity as the other sent an orb of energy into the air, exploding out and creating a raincloud.
I prodded Oak in the side with my elbow.
Oak took the hint. "So the battle we're about to watch is all virtual. This is no different. Last night, Storm and Reaper had a virtual battle, in real time, completely disconnected from the audience here. Hell, if you have the right clearance, these battles are all available online. It takes a pretty hefty CPU to run, considering there's so much data involved in these battles, but since they do store each individual data bit, rather than just light exposure like cameras, you can fully recreate the virtual arena in a recording. Hence they can just have the Porygon teams create a hologram for the fans here, or transfer it to the 2d plane if you want to see it on your computer screen. They made it so that the virtual battles could enhance the spectacle, rather than take away from it."
Sure enough, it was a lot like a sports game. Except if the actual players and field were all made of holograms. There was even a giant jumbotron in the middle zooming in on exciting interactions.
Storm, it seemed, specialized in electric types. His team had the gimmick of boosting themselves up with lightning rod. If what Oak had explained to me was true, this was one of the gimmicks that would only work in the virtual environment. In the real world, the Raichu could only power the other up as much as they were willing to drain themselves. So the net power they could exude stayed consistent. However, in the virtual environment, they could keep boosting each other up without the accompanying exhaustion, and become absolute powerhouses. To be fair, there were still diminishing returns after two or three thunderbolts, but doubling your attack power to start the match was still very strong. They were ridiculously fast, and blitzed around their opponents, delivering absolutely blinding Thunder attacks. The constant rain helped improve their accuracy, since they could chart a path of ions better through water than air, and connect the start and end points far more efficiently.
It was a terrifying tactic. I had absolutely no idea how I could deal with something like that.
The rest of his team also seemed really powerful too. His Emolga would get hit by electric attacks from his Electivire, spurring up its motor drive, letting it fly through the air with frightening speed and precision. The Electivire was a tank, dishing out powerful attacks and weathering heavy blows with ease.
His Magnezone and Eelektross were nothing to scoff at either.
Apparently tier V battles are 6 v 6. I currently had three pokemon, who subsequently were nowhere near competing at this level. Well, Zuko could maybe give a couple of the pokemon here a run for their money. Myst could win too, but only if it were in a real battle rather than virtual. That accounted for maybe one and a half of six pokemon.
There were seven tiers. If this was a battle from two tiers below the top, I can't even imagine what kind of monsters those people train.
Monsters.
Right.
I was looking at one right now. And he was only in tier V.
Reaper.
The skeletal figure zipped around the playfield, using his grapples to try and find good positions to give commands to his pokemon. The tattered black rags he wore trailed behind him whenever he moved, showing the rotting flesh below.
I knew it was simply an avatar. "Reaper" was actually just a normal dude, and this was simply the form he had made to fit his trainer image better. This was a spectator sport after all. It still gave me the creeps.
His strategy was centered around life steal. Giga drain, draining kiss, all those moves that steal health from your opponents.
His starting lineup was a Shedinja and Whimsicott, which the announcer had noted was different from his usual starters. The Shedinja flitted through the shadows, draining the Raichu bit by bit. The Whimsicott tanked blinding thunderbolts with ease, applying the same strategy.
I didn't think that high level battles would be such battles of attrition.
I'm really glad I was seeing the sped up recap, rather than the thirty minute long stall battle between the blitzkrieg attackers and heal stall.
The peak of the battle was the final lineup.
Reaper had been down to two pokemon, compared to Storm's four. Storm was looking strong. His Electivire and Emolga pair seemed unbeatable.
They finished off Reaper's Comfey and Polteageist in a beautiful double knockout, with Electrivire utilizing ice in his punches to take down Comfey and Emolga swooping from the air with acrobatics to take down Poltergeist.
However, Reaper's final duo was simply unbeatable. Like it is actually so stupid.
Again, I was surprised to see that these high level trainers utilized gimmicks that would only work in the virtual setting, rather than training strategies that would actually work in the real world. But I guess that's how these things go. You set up rules, there will be people out there that find ways to exploit them.
Pain split is something that works differently in the real world than the games. It is really interesting that so many of the mechanics from the games are actually nearly identical to how they show up in the virtual battles.
I wonder if that's what the games are based off of.
Huh.
Or maybe there was somebody else like me, who was dropped here many decades ago, and came up with the simu-link battles based off of the pokemon games?
Anyway, Reaper's Galarian Weezing spammed pain split, which would take the HP of both pokemon involved and make them equal, sharing their total HP. Sure, it seemed that pain split was a difficult move to hit with how slow it was, but it meant that its ideal target, tanks, were also the most susceptible to it. With Gallade helping trap opponents into Weezing's pain split, Reaper's team ensured their victory.
Weezing could tank all the attacks it wanted for Gallade, and then make its opponent share the damage.
In the real world, according to Oak, pain split was more similar to destiny bond. However, rather than actually inducing shared damage, it simply made those same pain receptors fire. So the pain would be shared, even if you couldn't actually damage your opponent with it. Destiny bond actually could induce damage, due to some weird ghost voodoo or whatever.
Gallade was tasked with teleporting around, using drain punch to take down anything he could. Even Emolga, high in the air, was not safe. Gallade had teleported on top of it, taking it down with an ice punch.
Electivire had fallen to a dozen drain punches.
After those two had been taken out, the battle had been even, with both trainers down to two pokemon each. Weezing's HP was restored too, by Gallade using heal pulse. The final battle was fought on even ground.
Storm, despite his Magnezone finally taking down Galarian Weezing, simply could not find a way to deal with Gallade, and lost the battle.
All of this was shown in the twenty minute recap, while the battle from last night had actually lasted an hour and a half. It showed all the important moments, showcasing replays of knockouts and intense sequences.
The recap ended with Gallade and Reaper raising their hands in victory, waving to the roaring crowd.
I couldn't stop imagining how my team would fare in this sort of battle. I had very little experience with the simu-link battles, and it was a comfort that my team wouldn't actually get injured from it, but it was daunting how far I needed to go.
These two trainers hopelessly, helplessly, outclassed me. And they were only tier V. Apparently each tier is exponentially stronger than the tier before it.
"How great of a battle was that?!" The announcer boomed, inciting a roar of approval from the crowd.
"Now, let's get on to the real show for tonight. Our two contenders have fought tooth and nail to get to where they are."
A rumbling sound began as the crowd started something. People were grabbing each other's shoulders, stamping their feet on the ground.
The announcer picked up on it, letting the stadium feel the power as thousands of spectators began to let out a guttural sound. The deep monotone picked up as more and more people joined in.
The crowd looked like an ocean, shifting and moving with chaos. They stamped the ground, shaking the entire stadium. Their low growl made my hair stand on end. It sounded like the sound a dog would make when it was cornered. Baring its teeth, rumbling in warning.
"Do you feel that?" The announcer asked, almost in whisper. "The sky trembling."
The ground continued to shake as people began to stamp their feet louder and louder.
"The sky only fears one thing." The announcer continued, his voice turning from a whisper back to his steady deep baritone. "AND HERE SHE COMES, DRAGON OF BLACKTHORNE, CLAIRE WATARU!"
The crowd erupted, seeming like a dragon itself as their voices echoed across the stadium, roaring as Claire took to the stage.
The hologram field was a mock city. There were buildings, no more than three stories tall, jutting out all over. In the middle was a large town square, with a small fountain in the middle, spewing up water from a statue of Lugia.
From above, as the announcer had begun, came the titanic shadow of a dragon. The wingbeats were each accompanied by a blast of wind shooting over the crowd.
I really had to give it to whoever ran these battles. They sure knew how to bring the spectacle. To have pokemon on call to add effects to make the hologram feel more real was a nice touch.
Claire chose not to have a special avatar, but rather came in riding on her own massive Dragonite. As the Dragonite swooped next to her trainer podium, she hopped off and landed gracefully on the platform, waving to the crowd she couldn't even see.
The crowd erupted, waving giant sticks with Claire's face plastered on them. Many fans had painted their faces blue and black, Claire's signature colors.
Other fans had plastic wings attached to their back, the gold scales of a Dragonite or the soft down of Altaria. They all revered her.
However, despite more than half of the fans cheering her on, the remainder were starting to get louder. Some wore purple Yoroi's, as if they were ninjas from Koga's Clan in Fuschia City. Other's wore purple rags, almost looking like a Mismagius.
The announcer picked back up. "What could possibly stand to the might of a Dragon?"
Tatters of purple and black ribbons snaked their way out of the ground. The mock city darkened as the rags reached up to cover the lamp posts, shattering the light bulbs.
"I'll tell you what." The announcer boomed.
"They say that nobody has seen his face and lived to tell the tale."
The lights of the city snuffed out, the purple and black tattered linen rose into the air, collecting to make a figure. It started with its head, collecting around and wrapping to make a skull. The whole process was like unwrapping a mummy, but in reverse.
"His career in Unova's Black Hawks is highly classified, but it's said that he never failed a mission. All we know is a name. His moniker."
"Mask." The announcer boomed.
The purple and black ninja mummy or whatever floated over to his trainer stand, ready to battle. Mask supporters in the stands hissed, showing their support.
"Now with the pleasantries over, WHO'S READY TO BATTLE!"
The crowd roared, drowning out the music.
"TRAINERS, RELEASE!"
I sat forward in my chair, unable to contain my excitement. That was really her. Claire Wataru. Sister to Lance Wataru, previous Indigo Champion and powerful dragon master. She was supposed to be a Gym Leader, if I remember right.
I wonder how much this world was branched off from the anime and games. Maybe Starfall itself was the reason?
Claire released a Dragonair into the air, and a Kingra below. The Kingdra hovered a foot above the asphalt, head held high in regal elegance. The Dragonair slithered through the sky, its lithe form slipping through the air almost like a dance.
Mask, on the other side, released a Palossand and Toxtricity. The mound of sand with a mouth lurched forward, breaking through the asphalt to access the ground below. Toxtricity, a purple and yellow lizard like pokemon with sharp bouts of electricity bursting off of it, climbed up the wall of the nearest building to try and get a view from above.
Both trainer's immediately grappled forward, trying to get a lay of the land. Neither would be able to see the other, but would be able to see the other pokemon. They were also unable to affect with the environment, but would be able to relay commands to their pokemon from anywhere on the battlefield.
I turned over to Oak as the battle began. "So Claire seems like she's a dragon specialist. Mask, on the other hand, I'm not so sure."
Oak leaned over, keeping his eyes on the battle. "Mask is a pretty unique trainer. Some call him a Helix specialist. Basically, he specializes in four different types, but has a wide variety of pokemon that fit into different specialties within those types."
I blinked. It was a little bit hard to try and process Oak's bullshit while also trying to pay attention to the battle.
Toxtricity had began shooting off weak thunderbolts at the Dragonair, trying to make sure it couldn't get anywhere close. Kingra had begun closing the distance on Palossand, summoning a wave of water around itself with surf.
I was about to ask Oak about how water and mass conversion works in the virtual setting when he continued.
"Basically, Mask specializes in Poison, Earth, Scale, and Chaos. All of his pokemon fall under at least one of those specialties, but usually mix between."
Huh. Okay. So he's mastered four different types, essentially. That likely means that his Toxtricity is far better at utilizing its poison techniques than electric, while Palossand would be good at both.
I guess that maybe "generalist" was too broad, so they had more specific categories for different trainers that didn't just specialize in one or two types. Or maybe it was a military term, and since Mask had been in Unova's ACE equivalent, he had actually sought after those specialties on purpose to fit a role?
The crowd "oooooh"ed as Kingdra brought the water around it into large tentacles, lashing down onto the Pallosand. It simultaneously charged up an ice beam as the Pallosand was forced to create a barrier above it to block the large appendages of water.
The ice beam hit straight on, digging into the pale granular body of the ghostly sandcastle.
On the screen, I saw the HP bar of the Pallosand drop nearly halfway. Then, next to its name, a bright blue snowflake appeared.
Oak noticed my interest. "Frostbite. A status condition. If a pokemon get's hit hard enough by an ice move, it has a chance to incur frostbite."
The Palosand recollected itself, but a soft blue aura the same color as the snowflake coated its entire body for a brief second.
"That means the Palosand now will have restricted movement and receive frostbite damage."
Well shit. That's a different status condition than Frozen from the games. I guess it's kind of a cross between a burn and paralysis, with the damage ticks of burn and restricted movement of paralysis.
Sure enough, I saw another small bite being taken from the Palossand's HP as the frostbite dug in.
I saw Mask moving around the battlers. His lithe form could walk through attacks just fine, and all he could do was distract his own pokemon if he got close. However, it seemed like Palossand's incurred damage was not futile, as Toxtricity dropped in from above charged with electricity.
The Kingdra took the hit head on, distracted from the barrage of shadow balls being thrown from the Pallosand. Toxtricity's venoshock was laced with electricity, causing the Kingdra to spasm as a purple hue briefly lit up its form.
Looking back at the Jumbotron, I saw purple bubbles appear next to Kingdra's name, showcasing the status of poison.
Its health had only dropped a fourth from the blow, but it was now badly poisoned, and its HP was dropping at a steady pace.
It was unlike the damage ticks of frostbite, where the HP would drop by a bit every couple seconds. Instead, it was a steady trickle.
Oak grinned. "The Toxtricity must have incredibly potent poison if the Rotom evaluated it to be that powerful. I've hardly ever seen a poison status that bad." Oak said, referring to the Kingdra's quickly dropping HP.
The Jumbotron zoomed in on Claire's face. She was gritting her teeth from the roof above, staring down at the display on her wrist.
"It seems our resident Dragon Mastress has fallen for Mask's trap! That's a former ACE member for you. Just look at that poison! I've never seen a pokemon poisoned that badly!"
Not even a minute later, Kingdra's HP had dropped another quarter, stooping below half.
Dragonair tried to close the distance, but Pallosand had erected a wall of packed dirt in front of Toxtricity to block any attacks.
With the poison having taken hold, both of Mask's pokemon slipped into the buildings nearby.
Given that we couldn't see the pokemon from outside, the Jumbotron now showed split images of Toxtricity and Pallosand as they traversed through the mock city, trying to lose the tail of a very pissed Dragonair and Kingdra.
Claire's Kingdra summoned another surf, taking two buildings down in a titanic wave.
"AND MASK USES ONE OF HIS SUBSTITUTIONS, SAVING HIS PALLOSAND FROM A CERTAIN KNOCKOUT!" The announcer roared.
The jumbotron showed a quick replay, the powerful wave of water moving in slow motion, ripping through the supports of the buildings.
Mask grappled through a window as the wave crashed through the building, heading straight for a frightened Pallosand. In a heroic maneuver, Mask returned his Pallosand to its pokeball as he slid across the floor, heading straight into the wave.
However, since he couldn't actually get injured or moved by the attack, the water crashed over him harmlessly.
He immediately released a Dragalge into the water.
Oak butted in. "You get two substitutions total. Your substitution must be released within two seconds of the return, and must be released within one hundred feet of where the previous pokemon was returned from."
Interesting. So you could use substitutions to dodge massive AOE attacks like these, but you could only do it twice. And since you had to release your next pokemon in the same area, the opponent could then set a trap for the new pokemon. So substitution wasn't actually as broken as I thought it was, for that brief second, as Mask had saved Palossand from a death blow.
The Dragalge swam through the water with ease, shooting off a dragon pulse at the Kingdra.
The Kingdra swerved to the side to dodge it, the green ball of energy barely grazing its front crest. However, Mask proved his prowess again as his trap sprung again, Toxtricity springing out from the building behind Kingdra to finish it off.
Claire was gritting her teeth again. Her Dragonair was untouchable in the skies, but it meant her Kingdra was left more vulnerable. She was far more suited to fighting in open areas. The city setting had really screwed her over. Grabbing another pokeball, Claire decided that she would just level the entire city to make things easier.
In a flash of blue and white, a magnificent Dragonite, the one she had rode in on, burst into the sky. The Dragonair and Dragonite circled in the sky, staring down at the Dragalge and Toxtricity below.
"AND Claire releases her prized Dragonite! This is her starter folks. It's been with her for more than a decade. She now dominates the sky! How will Mask respond?!"
The crowd roared in support of Claire.
The two pokemon below fired off a couple weak attacks, but the two dragons above were too high in the air. Toxtricity climbed onto a building to try and get closer, but the dragons flew away.
The announcer continued. "And Claire's dragons start their dance by… running away? Just what is she planning?"
Then, the two dragons both began charging up orange orbs in front of their mouths.
The crowd brought their shoulders together again, stomping their feet. The gutteral roar began as the crowd realized the telltale signs of a dragon's signature move. The orange orbs got bigger and bigger, the Draco Meteors growing in size and power.
The Jumbotron cut to Mask, who glanced at the sky helplessly.
His pokemon couldn't hit them from this far. He could only sit and wait as Claire's dragons absolutely decimated his pokemon from a distance. One of Claire's signature strategies was to have her pokemon supercharge their draco meteors past their max stamina, incurring exhaustion knowingly to ensure a knockout. Since they could wait out the recovery time above in the sky, it usually went unpunished. Even if Mask switched in one of his fliers afterward, Claire could also use her switches and wait to release them back out once he couldn't hit them in the air. What could he do next?
Mask, despite his helpless situation, grinned.
The two orange orbs shot into the air, reaching the top of the stadium.
In a quick flash of red and white, his Toxtricity disappeared and a Haunter took its place. Without a second's delay Haunter shot through the air like a comet, a streaming ball of gas rocketing towards the flying dragons at incredible speeds. It balled up violet energy in its hands as it flew, shooting out dozens of purple chains. They had spikes on the end, and latched down onto Dragonite's form.
The Dragonite was powerful, and quite fast to boot. But the exhaustion status had kicked in the millisecond Dragonite released the move. Dragonair's fate was soon sealed, same as the Dragonite.
Haunter cackled as its chains dug into the scales of not just one dragon, but two, as other chains dug into the fleeing Dragonair.
The orange orbs shattered into dozens of tiny comets, blasting out towards the ground below. The Dragonite and Dragonair both tried to rip the spectral chains out, but failed to bring about the necessary strength and elemental power while the exhaustion status was active. Their dragon claws made sparks fly as they tried to cut the destiny bond away, but it was no use.
The Haunter was shredded apart as it swerved into an orange comet, making the chains glow with a cosmic crimson. The Dragonite and Dragonair both convulsed as their bodies were shredded apart, turning into pixelated dust.
The destiny bond had taken them both down.
Dragalge, hovering in the middle of the town square, hunkered down while different color energies swirled around it, creating a shield as the orange comets came raining down.
The explosions ripped apart the mock city, each having the blast radius of a small warhead.
The shield wavered as the explosions blasted in. It held, for one second… two…
Finally, the energies faltered and the explosions blasted the Dragalge apart.
In just the span of a couple seconds, four pokemon had been knocked out.
"WOW! And just like that, Claire's prize Dragonite goes down! Mask pulls out his Haunter in the last possible second, its very powerful destiny bond bringing down not one but both dragons with it! What an incredible play by the Helix Specialist! Raw power just can't compete with experience and tactics. How will Claire respond?!"
The crowd booed, angry at Mask's tactics. Not that Mask could hear such things. There were jeers, death threats, and the like. Mask fans simply sat smugly and laughed.
"In a terrific move, Mask has whittled Claire's team down to three pokemon. He currently sits at four, but remember that Pallosand is injured and frostbitten! A quadruple knockout! My, I've not sure I've ever seen such a thing. TRAINER'S, RELEASE YOUR POKEMON!"
In a flash of light, Pallosand appeared back on the ruined cityscape. The buildings had been blasted apart, leaving nothing but piles of rubble. There was only one building still standing, and even that building had massive chunks missing.
Next to the ghost appeared a large dragon, its arms sharp with scythes, its teeth blaring as it roared.
The Garchomp immediately brought piles of earth up from the ground, letting the Palossand integrate the new minerals into its composition.
I saw the Palossand's HP jump from less than half to over three quarter's full.
"And Mask's Palossand uses shore up to restore its HP! Mask has nearly an entire pokemon lead, but has no remaining substitutions! Will Claire be able to bring this back, or will she dig herself even deeper into her brother's shadow!"
Claire was in fact quite frustrated. She had been outside of the hundred foot range, so even though she could have reacted to Mask's play with his Haunter, she was too far to return her pokemon to save them from the Destiny Bond. She had been keeping them out of reach so that the Toxtricity's attacks wouldn't hit them, but it had bit her in the ass.
On the other side of the desolated cityscape appeared a large dinosaur. Its head stood at nearly two stories, with a large body built to reach for vegetation above. Small blue gems littered its sides, and fins reminiscent of an aurora borealis lined its lengthy neck.
"Claire releases her Aurorus and Altaria!"
The graceful dragon took to the air, its soft downy feathers gliding above the smoking piles of rubble with elegance.
"Aurorus could spell trouble for Mask here. His Garchomp is built for speed and power, but it simply won't be able to get close."
Sure enough, the Aurorus summoned a blizzard around itself, stalking forwards towards the two ground types.
Mask grit his teeth. Ideally, he would switch out Garchomp to face Claire's remaining dragons after Aurorus was defeated.
Luckily, Claire's Aurorus was a revived fossil. It was not a native Aurorus to Starfall. That is, an Aurorus from when it actually lived, and still had its full powers. Claire's Aurorus was revived, so the scientists had to fill in gaps in its DNA with similar pokemon. This meant it had been pieced together using some Mamoswine and Avalugg DNA, and only really kept its ice and earth prowess. It had no fairy affinity, like a real Aurorus.
That would have spelled even more trouble for Mask. With his Dragalge out and his Toxtricity injured, he would really have to count on his Salazzle to win this for him. Right now, Garchomp and Palossand would have to whittle down that Aurorus as much as they could.
The veritable tank of a pokemon kept inching closer to the Palossand. Claire's fans in the crowd began stomping in unison with the titanic Aurorus, making each step feel more significant.
Garchomp took to the air, making the whine of a jet engine as it shot out a raw burst of draconic energy to propel itself. The burst of purple energy turned into a steady stream as it chased after the Altaria.
Palossand faced the Aurorus alone, shooting stray shadow balls into the approaching ice storm. The blizzard was thick enough that Aurorus, despite its size, barely even had a silhouette.
Mask instructed his Palossand to simply aim for the middle of the storm.
A giant wave of frost rolled forward as the Aurorus finally used an attacking move. Its blizzard was the ultimate defense, especially against a Garchomp and Palossand, whose mineral and scale latices that made up their bodies would become brittle and shatter in the freezing cold.
The refrigerate rolled forward, a wave of snow and ice, and the Palossand could do nothing but hide behind a flimsy wall of dirt.
The refrigerate stopped, but the Aurorus continued to close the distance. Stray icicles shot forward like spears, threatening to pierce the Palossand.
More energy shields sprang up, made of colors and energies I didn't understand, but everyone knew this was the end for Palossand. Sure enough, after blocking a fourth attack, the exhaustion status appeared next to Palossand.
It seemed pokemon could have more than one status.
Its mobility crippled, its strength sapped, Palossand fell to the next refrigerate.
In the sky above, Altaria and Garchomp were in a fatal chase of cops and robbers. The Altaria had more maneuverability, but the Garchomp was faster. The Altaria had already taken heavy blows, dropping to below a third of its health, but Garchomp was burning through far too much energy. The constant stream of draconic energy was too taxing, and the additional moves to attack while flying would soon make the Garchomp exhausted.
It was a testament to its strength that the rotom had evaluated its aura to be powerful enough to have outputted this much energy already, and still managed to avoid exhaustion.
With Palossand out for the count, Mask relayed to Garchomp to return to the ground. In a flash of light, Salazzle appeared next to the grounded Garchomp.
For a brief second, the two pokemon stared down the approaching Aurorus. The Altaria circled around in the sky above it, eyeing down its new opponent.
Mask's two pokemon hunkered down.
Any ice attacks coming from afar were burnt to a crisp by precise fire attacks from the Salazzle. Rock spears and the like crumbled apart before hitting the Salazzle as Garchomp tore them to shreds.
Dragon pulses from the Altaria above were blocked by light brown domes of energy.
The battle was not at an impasse, however, as the Aurorus was still closing the distance on the two defending pokemon.
Mask, now unable to grapple onto buildings, merely watched from the top of a pile of rubble nearby. This was not ideal.
He had wanted to release his Toxricity, saving his Salazzle for Claire's last pokemon. That Duraludon could spell trouble. Salazzle could make quick work of it, or at least would stand the best chance besides Garchomp, but if he had released Toxtricity to help take down Altaria, Claire could simply use a substitution to swap out Altaria for Duraludon. Knowing Mask's last pokemon was a Salazzle, Claire could instruct Duraludon and Aurorus to ignore Toxtricity, focusing on taking down Garchomp.
After that, she could switch Duraludon back for Altaria, taking down Salazzle. Duraludon would shake off anything Toxtricity could throw at it.
Mask grit his teeth. Fighting against opponents with so much raw power was frustrating. In the field, he could utilize tactics enough to get around those disadvantages, and still had succeeded with that a bit here. However, with only two substitutions and no items, the playing field wasn't completely even. Of course, in the field, he usually could take out his targets before they even released their pokemon, but that was besides the point.
This was it.
His Garchomp or Salazzle had to make it through this. If just one of them survived long enough to fight Duraludon, Mask could win.
He just needed to take out that goddamn Aurorus.
With a sigh, Mask instructed his pokemon. They immediately followed suit.
Garchomp burst back into the air, chasing after Altaria. Salazzle continued to flit around Aurorus' attacks, shooting globs of poison into the blizzard.
"Mask has split up his pokemon once again. If his Garchomp can finish off Altaria, Duraludon will have to contend with both Salazzle and Garchomp. However, that still leaves Aurorus. Just how does he…." The announcer trailed off as Garchomp twisted in midair, changing its trajectory.
Blasting draconic energy behind it, Garchomp turned into a comet as it shot towards Aurorus below.
Claire, noticing the change, yelled at her Aurorus to make its blizzard more powerful.
The Garchomp, in a maneuver that would make any Hawlucha proud, crossed its arms, coating them with brown energy, and rocketed straight towards the Aurorus.
In a hasty panic, the Aurorus pulled a flimsy barrier of energy above itself. Dancing lights like an aurora borealis shimmered into existence, weaving layers of protection.
The aurora veil, weak from having to cover such a large area, as well as being pulled up so hastily, shattered apart instantly as the Garchomp barreled into it at faster than the speed of sound.
With a resounding boom, both pokemon exploded into pixels.
The announcer seemed a bit shaken up as he took up the mic again. "... And with another sacrificial move, Mask has brought both trainers to their last two pokemon." The announcer, regaining his traction, continued. "Duraludon makes its first appearance on the field! Toxtricity is back in play! How will these trainers finish the battle? Who will win?!"
"Toxtricity starts out strong, tagging Altaria with a thunder wave! That's a paralysis folks. This could spell disaster for Claire."
A yellow lightning bolt appeared next to Altaria's name. Its already low HP made for a poor display.
Some Claire fans looked distraught.
The steel dragon, roared as it took a hit from Salazzle's flamethrower. The sleek purple and black lizard quickly scurried around the piles of rubble, tagging the Duraludon with as many attacks as it could.
Toxtricity likewise tried to paralyze Duraludon, but its attacks simply fizzled against the cold steel harmlessly.
The Duraludon finally scored a hit on Salazzle with a green orb of dragon pulse, thanks to Claire's coordinating, but the Salazzle held on with barely a quarter of its health remaining.
"This one is down to the wire folks! Every single pokemon is down to less than half health. Will the sister of dragons prevail, or will Mask vanquish another one of his enemies?" The announcer boomed.
Duraludon opened its mouth as it charged up another dragon pulse. In a frightening show of accuracy, Toxtricty shot a glob of poison right down Duraludon's throat.
Claire, eyes wide as saucers, stared as a purple hue coated Duraludon briefly.
"And accomplishing the impossible once again, Mask has poisoned an alloy!"
Mask fans roared as Duraludon's health began to slip away, being drained by the poison.
In a metallic shriek of rage, Duraludon began sending out bursts of attacks. Toxtricity was quickly knocked out from the three flash cannons that consecutively crashed into it.
"Toxtricity is down for the count. Only Salazzle remains for Mask! What the hell is Claire feeding that thing? " The announcer mused.
I had seen in the recap that flash cannon needed some time to charge up, like a dragon pulse, as shown by Storm's Magnezone.
Claire's Duraludon was spitting them out like bullet seed.
Salazzle, however, despite its low HP, had kept all of its speed. This was a virtual battle. No matter how injured it was, as long as it wasn't paralyzed, frostbitten, or exhausted, it would be able to move as fast as it could when it was released from its pokeball.
"AND DURALUDON IS DOWN! One final fire blast to the side has ended its volley of attacks!"
The final two pokemon stared each other down.
Altaria, paralyzed, its speed halved, still flew through the air. It tossed out stray attacks from above, but Salazzle was quick enough to dodge them with plenty of room to spare.
If Altaria wanted to finish the job, it would have to close the distance.
Both Mask and Claire seemed unhappy with this outcome, as it was all down to one final attack. Altaria spun in the air, beak forward, readying a drill peck.
With its speed halved, this was the only move that might prove fast enough to hit it.
Salazzle, at the instruction of Mask, bathed the ground in fire. The flames rose up, making the Salazzle's naturally dark sleek form almost invisible among the bright flames as it clung low to the ground.
My hands were gripping the hand rests next to me. I couldn't tell if the entire stadium was completely quiet or if they were roaring in excitement. My attention was completely on the two pokemon.
The Altaria's wings barreled around as it gathered speed.
It closed the distance, approaching wicked speeds despite the paralysis. It must be quite fast normally.
However, people gasped as the tip of Altaria's beak began to glow orange.
As it got closer, the ball began to grow bigger.
The Altaria was going to release the Draco Meteor like a fucking shotgun blast.
Then, a dark shape flew out from within the flames. It wasn't poison. It was red. Rectangular.
The Altaria's attack fizzled out as the brick slammed into its forehead. Salazzle, waiting below, watched as the Altaria crashed into the ground, skidding to a stop right in front of its foot.
Planting its foot on the downed Altaria, Salazzle raised its head and let out a throaty gurgle.
Mask fans jumped to their feet and cheered as Altaria dissolved into pixels. Claire fans jeered again, yelling about foul play and game misconduct.
"And there we have it folks! Mask takes another win to his belt, giving him a two win streak. Will he be able to take it all the way?! Will the evaluators let him try a Tier VI battle?! Make sure to tune in tomorrow for the Tier IV battle between Brock the Rock and Auranos! And thanks again for our sponsor Devon Corps. There's nothing as dependable as Steeeeel!" The announcer boomed.
The pokemon faded away. Mask and Claire shook hands, and then the hologram zoomed back out to the whole city.
In seconds, all the damage was reversed as the city rebuilt itself.
Finally, the hologram winked out, leaving nothing but the concrete walls behind.