Reiji recalled Forretress without waiting to see the result and immediately reached for another Poké Ball. Counter had landed cleanly, but one reflected attack was not going to bring an Elite Four-tier Kingdra down by itself.
Shingo's Scizor had already demonstrated how hard it was for a Pokémon below that tier to finish an Elite Four-tier opponent. Rhydon's earlier victory over Electivire did not really count either; Poliwrath had already done most of the work, and Rhydon had walked into a favorable matchup.
"Go, Gyarados!"
Reiji sent Gyarados back out before Kingdra had a chance to recover or deal with the poison. This was still an attrition battle, and he had no intention of giving Aya's Kingdra even a minute to breathe.
"Gyarados, Twister!"
Gyarados slammed its tail against the frozen ground and sent a Twister racing across the field, clearing away the smoke from Counter along the way.
"There's Kingdra!" the commentator shouted as the haze disappeared. "It survived Counter!"
Kingdra answered with a Twister of its own, but another pulse of poison ran through its body as soon as it attacked. Its eyes looked tired, and the polished blue scales that had seemed almost flawless when it entered the field were now marked with scorched patches and grime.
The two Twisters met in the middle of the battlefield. Instead of one overpowering the other, the funnels twisted together and gradually merged into a huge vortex that slammed against the protective barrier.
That alone told Reiji how much weaker Kingdra had become. At full strength, its Elite Four-tier attack should have overwhelmed Gyarados's rather than settling into an even clash.
"Gyarados, Ice Beam on the ground!"
Gyarados ignored the vortex and fired Ice Beam across the shattered battlefield. Water from the recent rain froze immediately, rebuilding the sheet of ice that the previous exchanges had broken apart.
Across the field, his opponent noticed something troubling.
"Gyarados isn't poisoned?"
The Toxic Spikes were still out there, yet Gyarados had entered without touching them. Kingdra itself had created the answer earlier by freezing the battlefield, sealing the hazards beneath the ice.
Now Gyarados had added another layer on top.
His attempt to hinder Forretress had ended up protecting every Pokémon Reiji sent out afterward.
Kingdra still had one possible way to deal with its own poison: Rest. The problem was finding enough time to use it. Falling asleep in the middle of this fight would leave it completely exposed to Gyarados.
Its Trainer chose to risk it anyway.
"Kingdra, get inside the Twister and use Rest!"
Kingdra sprang into the enormous vortex and closed its eyes as Rest took hold. The swirling winds gave it a moving wall of protection while its body began recovering.
Reiji had already considered that possibility.
"Gyarados, Outrage! Go in after it!"
Red flooded Gyarados's eyes as draconic energy surged through its body. It charged straight into the vortex and began tearing through the spinning winds in pursuit of Kingdra.
The commentator could barely follow them. "Kingdra is using the Twister to protect itself while Rest takes effect, but Gyarados has gone straight in with Outrage! Reiji isn't giving it any time to recover!"
Inside the vortex, Gyarados found the sleeping Kingdra and sank its teeth into the blue scales. Sparks flew as its fangs scraped across armor too tough to bite through, so Gyarados changed tactics without slowing down.
Energy gathered in its mouth at point-blank range.
Hyper Beam blasted Kingdra out of the Twister and sent it crashing into the protective barrier.
Gyarados remained inside, still deep in Outrage and furious that its target was gone. It turned toward the center of the vortex and fired another Hyper Beam into the ground, blowing the entire Twister apart.
Kingdra was still asleep against the barrier.
Gyarados charged over and began hammering it with its tail, smashing it repeatedly into the frozen ground until the ice cracked beneath them. After several blows, it opened its mouth again and fired another Hyper Beam straight into the crater it had created.
A second Hyper Beam suddenly erupted from inside the hole.
The blast caught Gyarados head-on and hurled it across the field.
Kingdra climbed out behind it, awake at last and looking thoroughly miserable. Rest had helped, but it could not erase everything that had happened before it fell asleep. Its body still ached from Counter, the close-range Hyper Beam, and the repeated tail strikes it had endured while unconscious.
Gyarados was not in good shape either.
Outrage had ended, leaving it confused. It thrashed near the protective barrier with its eyes still red, too worked up for Reiji to control normally.
His opponent seized on that immediately.
"Referee! Gyarados is out of control. Doesn't that mean it has to be removed from the battle?"
The referee looked toward Reiji. Loss of control was covered by tournament rules, and if Reiji truly could no longer direct his Pokémon, there was only so much leeway the officials could give him.
Reiji called out at once.
"Gyarados, Hyper Beam!"
Gyarados had no idea what he had said.
It was angry, something had just blasted it across the field, and Hyper Beam happened to be one of its favorite ways to express that anger.
So it fired Hyper Beam.
Kingdra vanished out of the beam's path just in time, its Elite Four-tier speed carrying it clear before the attack swept across the field.
The referee lowered his flag. "Gyarados is still responding to commands. The match continues."
Then he showed Reiji's opponent a yellow card for interfering with the officiating. It was his second warning of the match.
The man looked ready to explode.
From his perspective, every ruling seemed to favor Reiji. He had already received one warning after losing his temper earlier, and now Gyarados was clearly rampaging around the battlefield while the referee insisted everything was fine.
What he did not know was that Reiji had seen plenty of Gyarados lose control before.
When they went berserk, they tended to throw out their biggest attacks without much discrimination, and Hyper Beam was a particular favorite. Reiji had simply called the move Gyarados was likely to use anyway.
It was shameless, but it worked.
Anything Gyarados chose to do after that was a different matter. Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Ice Beam—Reiji had no intention of pretending he knew exactly what would come next.
He raised his voice one more time.
"Gyarados, I'll leave it to you!"
His opponent's face twitched, but there was nothing useful he could say to that.
Several experienced Trainers in the stands understood exactly what Reiji was doing and could only watch in silence as Gyarados rampaged around the enclosed battlefield. Some attacks went toward Kingdra, others hit nothing but empty ground or the barrier, yet the constant pressure forced Kingdra to keep dodging and fighting back.
Kingdra endured several more minutes before it finally managed to put Gyarados down.
"Gyarados is unable to battle! Reiji, please recall it and send out your next Pokémon!"
The commentator immediately turned toward Reiji's remaining options. "Will he use his final unused Pokémon, or bring Poliwrath back and resume this Elite Four-tier battle?"
Reiji recalled Gyarados and glanced at the scoreboard.
He had two options left: Poliwrath, whose right arm was dislocated, and the Pokémon that had spent almost the entire tournament riding on his shoulder.
Reiji reached up and scratched Umbreon beneath the chin.
"Umbreon, you're up."
Umbreon blinked at him.
After watching match after match from his shoulder, it was finally getting a turn.
With an excited cry, Umbreon leaped from the platform and landed on the battered field. Gyarados's rampage had demolished what remained of the earlier terrain, leaving little more than broken rock and scattered craters.
"Umbreon!" the commentator exclaimed. "Reiji has sent out the Umbreon we usually see riding on his shoulder! Most people assumed it was simply his companion Pokémon, but he's bringing it out at the most important point of the match!"
Kingdra was exhausted, but it was still Elite Four tier. Reiji had not sent Umbreon out to beat it directly.
"Umbreon, Synchronize."
Across the field, his opponent frowned. "Synchronize? What move is that?"
Umbreon's red-ringed eyes took on a faint blue glow as it focused on Kingdra.
Its Trainer decided not to wait for an explanation.
"Kingdra, Draco Meteor! Wipe the field!"
"Umbreon, use Toxic on yourself."
Umbreon trusted Reiji enough not to hesitate. Toxic poison spread through its body, and almost immediately, Synchronize carried the abnormal status across to Kingdra.
A purple haze returned around the Dragon type just as it launched Draco Meteor into the sky.
The effect passed across imperfectly; Kingdra ended up poisoned rather than badly poisoned, but that was enough for what Reiji needed.
The commentator caught the change before most of the audience understood what had happened.
"Kingdra is poisoned again! But Umbreon never attacked it!"
Up in the commentary area, Lance already knew the answer. Umbreon was still a relatively newly discovered evolution, and research into its Abilities had only recently become widely available.
He passed the information over.
"It's Synchronize!" the commentator announced after a quick glance. "When Umbreon is poisoned, paralyzed, or burned, Synchronize can pass that status condition to its opponent! Reiji poisoned his own Umbreon just to put Kingdra back under a status condition!"
Across the field, Reiji's opponent looked completely lost. He had never even heard of the Ability.
Reiji was already moving to the next part.
"Umbreon, Rest."
Umbreon curled down and fell asleep, clearing the poison while Draco Meteor began crashing toward the battlefield.
Reiji raised its Poké Ball.
The recall beam reached Umbreon before the first meteor hit.
Explosions tore through the spot where it had been standing, throwing dust and broken rock across the field, but Umbreon was already safely back inside its ball.
"Get some sleep," Reiji murmured.
The exchange could hardly have gone better. Umbreon had baited out one of Kingdra's strongest attacks, reapplied poison through Synchronize, cured itself with Rest, and escaped without taking the hit.
Reiji still had plenty of recalls available too. Poliwrath, Gyarados, and Umbreon had each been recalled only once during the match.
The commentator had already realized what came next.
"Reiji has withdrawn Umbreon! That leaves the poisoned and heavily exhausted Kingdra waiting for his next Pokémon. Is this finally Poliwrath?"
Reiji took the Poké Ball from his belt.
"Go, Poliwrath."
The stadium erupted the moment the familiar blue Pokémon returned to the field.
Its right arm still hung uselessly at its side, and one eye remained swollen from the battle with Tyranitar. Even after resting inside its Poké Ball, there was no hiding the damage it had taken earlier.
Kingdra looked little better.
It had survived Forretress's Counter, fought through Gyarados's Outrage, been poisoned again, and now had to face another Elite Four-tier opponent.
"The final Elite Four-tier battle is here!" the commentator shouted. "Poliwrath has only one good arm, while Kingdra is poisoned and exhausted! Which one still has enough left to finish this match?"
Poliwrath planted its feet and gave a strong cry.
It had rested long enough.
Now it was here to finish the job.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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