Red didn't hesitate.
The moment Mega Blastoise was thrown backward, he was already ready with his next move.
"Blastoise! Stabilize! Water Pulse, now!"
The training showed. Even while tumbling through the air, the massive turtle twisted his body, using the momentum of the fall to spin.
The twin cannons on his arms and the behemoth launcher on his shell locked onto their target.
Boom!
Three pressurized spheres of water blasted out, cutting off Darkrai's pursuit and buying precious distance.
"Good instincts," Sam murmured, his eyes narrowing.
"He used the recoil to right himself."
But Sam wasn't interested in a brawl. Not yet.
"Darkrai," he whispered.
"Into the shadows."
With a chilling hiss, Darkrai's form dissolved like ink in water.
He slipped seamlessly into the ground, vanishing from sight to prowl the netherworld beneath the arena floor.
"Watch your back!" Red yelled, his voice tight.
"Watch your shadow!"
Blastoise landed with a ground-shaking thud, claws digging deep into the dirt to arrest his slide.
He was panting, his eyes darting frantically, checking the dark shape cast by his own shell for any movement.
Sam stood with his arms crossed, perfectly still.
He understood the brutal math of this stalemate.
Darkrai, resting in the void, was burning nothing.
But Blastoise? Holding that Mega Evolution was a constant, draining hemorrhage on Red's focus and the Pokémon's stamina.
Sam was winning simply by waiting.
Red felt the pressure immediately.
The silence was suffocating. He couldn't wait.
"Strike the ground!" Red ordered.
"Flush him out!"
Blastoise roared, firing a barrage of pulsing water directly into the arena floor.
The earth erupted into mud and slurry, the shockwaves churning the soil so violently that the shadow realm became uninhabitable.
A flicker of black mist, and Darkrai was forced to rise, hissing in annoyance.
Red seized the opening.
"Rain Dance! Set the stage!"
Blastoise fired a blue sphere into the sky. It burst, and heavy, dark clouds instantly choked the sunlight.
A torrential downpour began, soaking the battlefield and amplifying the humidity.
Sam watched the rain slick his hair back, unbothered.
He watched Red stacking the deck, the rain, the positioning, the desperation.
He knows he's on a clock, Sam thought. He's going for the one-hit knockout.
It's the smart play.
But sometimes, doing the smart thing makes you predictable.
"Blastoise!" Red screamed, sensing victory.
"Full power! Hydro Pump!"
The three cannons glowed with a blinding, accumulated light.
The sound of rushing water drowned out the rain.
BOOM!
The beams merged into a single, terrifying torrent, a dragon of water tearing across the field with enough force to level a building.
"Dark Pulse," Sam said softly.
Darkrai gathered pitch-black energy and fired a beam of malice to meet the water.
Crash!
The two attacks collided, but it wasn't a contest.
Empowered by the rain and Blastoise's raw power, the water tore through the darkness, smashing into Darkrai.
Splash!
The Nightmare Pokémon was engulfed.
The hit was devastating.
But as the spray settled, Red's stomach dropped.
Something's wrong, he thought.
That was too easy. Why did Darkrai take a attack struggle he knew he'd lose?
Through the mist, he saw Sam smiling.
Darkrai was standing.
He was soaked, battered, and breathing hard, but his claws were already weaving a hypnotic, rhythmic pattern.
"Blastoise!!" Red screamed, realizing the trap too late.
Above the exhausted turtle, the air tore open.
A void of swirling darkness appeared, and spectral, shadowy hands reached down.
Dark Void.
Sam had sacrificed Darkrai's health to bait the heavy attack.
Now, while Blastoise was sluggish and recovering from the massive exertion of the Hydro Pump, he was defenseless.
"Dodge it! Move!"
Blastoise tried. But his heavy limbs wouldn't obey fast enough.
He could only watch as the shadows dragged his consciousness down into the abyss.
His eyelids drooped, and he slumped forward, crashing into the mud, fast asleep.
A purple, sickly aura flared around him immediately, Bad Dreams.
The nightmare was already eating away at him.
Sam didn't hesitate.
"Finish it. Dream Eater."
Darkrai extended a claw.
A ghostly projection rose from the sleeping turtle, a manifestation of his terrors.
Darkrai inhaled deeply, and streams of golden light flowed from Blastoise into the Nightmare Pokémon, knitting Darkrai's wounds back together.
Red stood silent in the rain, watching the vitality drain from his ace while his opponent returned to full strength.
He knew it was over.
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