CH63 (193), Struggle

Today was the last day of the tournament. Today a winner, a champion, would be determined, and everyone was hoping to become that champion.

Prize money, merit points, and fame aside, the chance to enter the tutelage of a genuine champion-class trainer for at least a year was what really attracted all of them. I had no idea how the mentor would be chosen, could be randomly assigned, one could be allowed to choose from a list, or any other method really.

No matter which one it was, the fact remained that it was an invaluable chance for all contestants. If I did not have a plan of my own on how to get myself a mentor above the champion class after finishing my secondary education, I might have been a tad jealous.

Anyway, once more dad had the first fight of the day. Mom's fight was second and after that, the other two semifinal battles would be held. Afterward, there would be an hour break before the semifinals and the final would be held.

Mom and dad along with their opponents were staying in the waiting room, so I was sitting in the stands by my lonesome. Dad would join me after his fight and mom would do the same after hers. They would stay with me until the end of the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinals and semifinals were 5-vs-5 battles with 2 permitted substitutions, while the finals were 6-vs-6 with 2 permitted substitutions as well. Honestly, from what had been exposed so far, dad's quarterfinal opponent seemed to be around the level of Natalia from yesterday, if not a tad lower.

An excited buzz came from the crowd as dad and his competitor came onto the field. The commentator did his job and the referee went over the rules, before giving the signal to start the fight.

Well, as I had expected the guy's team was around the same as Natalia's, and just like yesterday, dad won this one as well. I would even go as far as to say that he had an easier time today than yesterday, since the Pokemon were not as challenging.

Mom's opponent on the other hand was her strongest one so far, and I was a bit worried for her sake. Her opponent was a woman called Valentina Valencia.

She was one of the remaining 3 foreigners that made it to the Top 8, and she had revealed some pretty strong Pokemon during her previous battles.

She had so far used an Excadrill and Liepard at the (high) gold stage, as well as, Seismitoad, and Zebstrika at the (mid) gold stage. Since she had only exposed those 4 we had no idea what her 5th Pokemon was going to be.

Well, we did not know if she had other Pokemon to replace those she had exposed as well, but either way, it promised to be a hard fight for mom. There was also the fact that whoever won would face dad in the semifinals.

I heard the excited chatter die down for a moment and saw mom as well as Valentina stepping onto the field. The host started doing his job, introducing and hyping up both contestants. The referee took over, did his obligatory speech, and gave the signal to start the battle.

Both mom and Valentina released their Pokemon. Rivers/Poliwrath appeared on mom's side while Liepard appeared on the other side. Rivers lost no time and spun around, spraying bubbles everywhere using Bubblebeam, creating a shield around himself.

It came in pretty timely because Liepard vanished and appeared behind Rivers right among the bubbles. It looked like it tried to perform a Fake Out and ran straight into Rivers' defensive Bubblebeam.

The bubbles around Liepard all burst, stopping its attack and causing a bit of damage. Furthermore, it alerted Rivers who promptly turned around and delivered a Dynamic Punch, making use of its proximity courtesy of its own move.

At that distance missing was pretty hard, so the powerful blow sent Liepard flying. Not wanting to let go of the chance Rivers quickly shot a Hydro Pump after it.

While the Hydro Pump did hit, it also hurled Liepard further away from Rivers which stopped him from following up his offense any further before Liepard could recover.

Liepard, in feline fashion, landed perfectly on its feet, despite the attacks it suffered, but slid a bit further due to its momentum. It began swaying slightly after it tried to move due to the confusion caused by Dynamic Punch.

Still, it seemed Valentina and Liepard were prepared for confusion since Liepard stopped all movement, remaining on the spot it landed and began to glow in a dark light.

The speed at which it performed one status-boosting move after the other told me it definitely had the Prankster ability which boosted the speed of status moves.

By the time Rivers used Earth Power on it, Liepard had boosted itself multiple times. Still, the earth below Liepard erupted, not only causing damage but also flinging it into the air.

Instead of using another attack Rivers was told to approach Liepard which he did. Meanwhile, Valentina tried to snap Liepard out of its confusion.

Each ascent had to have a decent, so Liepard inevitably landed back on its 4 feet. Moreover, it was no longer swaying on its feet, which showed it had snapped out of its confusion. Still, by that point, Rivers was already upon it and delivers a Brick Break.

Surprisingly, instead of trying to dodge, it retaliated using Play Rough which boosted by the multiple stat boosts cause great damage. Noting the damage Liepard was causing close range mom had Rivers use Circle Throw to get some distance between them.

Rivers managed to grab ahold of Liepard and used a shoulder throw to hurl it away. Liepard once more managed to land on its feet and then began concentrating a huge amount of energy in front of its mouth.

Everyone noticed what was following next including mom who swiftly yelled Protect. Rivers managed to throw up a Protect just as the Hyper Beam arrived in front of him.

The two moves clashed and Protect managed to briefly stop the boosted Hyper Beam before it was broken through allowing the weakened Hyper Beam to slam into Rivers. An explosion ensued that flung Rivers away, and his momentum had him skip along the ground a few times.

Nonetheless, Rivers managed to stop himself by grabbing onto the earth creating a trough along the ground. One could see that he had taken some serious damage, but Rivers ignored his own condition and focused on the cause of his pain.

Due to Hyper Beam Liepard was momentarily unable to move. Rivers ignored everything else and ran towards Liepard, as soon as he arrived there, he aimed a Dynamic Punch straight at its head.

While Liepard was unable to dodge it recovered enough to retaliate using Sucker Punch while eating Dynamic Punch. Rivers flinched at the blow he received but Liepard got flung away, and this time around it got knocked out.

Valentina lost no time to recall her Liepard, she swiftly released her Zebstrika to give Rivers as little time to recover as possible. The referee gave the signal to resume the fight once Zebstrika was on the field and they lost no time to fire a Discharge at Rivers.

Rivers managed to barely hang on, he was trembling to stay on his feet, but the opposition was ice cold. Valentine order a Shock Wave which was promptly executed, and Rivers fell on his knees unable to stay standing, before falling on his belly, due to losing consciousness.

The crowd gets all fired up by the situation and everyone waits with bated breath for what Pokemon mom was going to send out next. Knowing mom's roster, I knew that her only real options against Zebstrika were Titania/Nidoqueen and Epona/Rapidash, since the others were either much weaker, at a type disadvantage, or both.

She, ultimately, made the right choice and sent out Titania on the field. Before the referee could give the signal to resume the fight, Valentina recalled her Zebstrika using one of her two chances, which was a smart move on her part but pissed me off since it was bad for my mother.

She switched in her Seismitoad, which while weaker than Titania had a type advantage. This was an unfortunate match-up for mom because Seismitoad's only weakness was towards grass-type moves which Titania did not have.

Mom's only grass type, Roselia, was too weak to be used and the others would not fare that well either. The referee gave the signal to resume the fight, and Seismitoad lost no time to set off a Rain Dance.

Titania quickly spread out Toxic Spikes across the field focusing on Seismitoad's direction. However, the rain passively diluted/weakened Titania's long-range poison moves, and it also reduced the duration of her Toxic Spikes.

Moreover, electric moves were useless due to Seismitoad's ground typing. Titania had to get close and mom noticed that as well, so she gave that instruction. Valentina's side did not wait for them and used Muddy Water to keep Titania away while also attacking her.

Nonetheless, the approaching wave of muddied water got frozen by Titania, who proceeded to break it apart using Brick Break before resuming her run straight at Seismitoad.

Once she was close she jumped into the air and used her landing to cause a strong Earthquake that not only hurt Seismitoad but also unbalanced it enough that it could not dodge the Toxic she fired at it.

It got hit, putting Seismitoad on a timer it couldn't escape from. Well, seeing the inevitable outcome Valentina and Seismitoad switch to an "I'll drag you down with me mentality", forgoing any defense to cause as much damage to Titania as possible, hoping to knock it out if possible.

For the next few minutes, Titania attacked Seismitoad using moves, like Ice Beam, Earth Power, whenever it could get enough distance, and Brick Break, Poison Jab, and Fury Swipes whenever she was forced to attack close range.

She obviously dodged whenever she could, which was easier at long range. However, the other side knew that as well, which was why Seismitoad tried to stay as close as possible despite having a great long-range arsenal.

Its devil-may-care attitude allowed Seismitoad to cause quite some damage to Titania before it got knocked out by a final Brick Break at the face by an irate Titania.

When Valentina recalled her knocked-out Seismitoad, mom followed suit, using one of her two swapping opportunities, to let Titania rest for a bit. The score was 2:1 for my mom, with Zebstrika being on standby for Valentina and Titania being on standby for mom.

They released their exchange Pokemon. Excadrill appeared on Valentina's side, while Aomi/Lapras appeared on mom's side. Valentina chose not to use her last swapping right, probably counting on Excadrill's steel moves, as well as it being a bit stronger (by a sub-stage).

Lapras was the first Pokemon during this battle to make use of the stream, which neutralized some of Excadrill's useful moves like Dig and Earthquake. Lapras attacked Excadrill using long-range moves like Hydro Pump, and Ice Beam, while Excadrill's long-range moves were limited and promptly dodged by Aomi.

The water/stream made it hard for Excadrill to attack Aomi from close range, which all its steel-type moves were since it could only use the occasional stone platforms which Aomi tried to avoid.

After more than five minutes of being hit by Aomi and only managing to inflict some minor damage, Valentina decided to switch out Excadrill after all. She called in Zebstrika, using up her last swapping chance.

Mom once more followed suit and used her last swapping right to switch in Titania. Titania looked less fatigued than before, but her injuries were still the same.

Nonetheless, exploiting her electric immunity along with the small non-electric move pool of Zebstrika, Titania managed to beat it using Earth Power and Earthquake while receiving minimal new damage.

Despite this being her third knocked-out Pokemon Valentina did not seem too nervous and just called out her Excadrill once more. Due to its steel typing, Titania's poison moves were useless against it, so she was forced to focus on her ground, fighting, and other moves instead.

Both Pokemon began attacking each other from long range at first before Excadrill forced the battle into a close-ranged one due to Titania having a larger long-range move pool.

A few minutes, roughly two I think, after both had gotten into their close-range battle, Excadrill used Fissure from practically beside Titania to make sure she had no way to dodge. However, due to its extremely close proximity to the super-powerful move, it received some damage as well.

Still, they seemed to be ready to pay that price and it seemingly paid off as well, since Titania got knocked out by his surprise finisher. This meant the score was 3:2 with mom having Aomi on standby, whom she promptly called out next.

The battle that followed was a pretty drawn-out one, due to Lapras doing her best to keep Excadrill away. She succeeded, not only that, but she even managed to knock it out after more than fifteen minutes of dodging and firing long-range attacks.

Well, part of her success in keeping Excadrill away was due to it keeping a slight distance to make sure it could dodge most of Aomi's attacks. This meant she had to pay the price for her victory, which was her being completely out of energy.

Yet, despite being at her last Pokemon Valentina still did not seem to be worried, which honestly worried me a bit. Full of confidence she released her final Pokemon after calling her downed Excadrill. When everyone saw her final Pokemon the crowd went wild in excitement.

An Emboar appeared on her side, probably her starter and trump card, that she had kept a secret up to this point. While I would normally say that Aomi could have a pretty good chance against it, despite the Emboar probably being stronger than her, she was fresh out of juice, so I was not expecting anything from her.

I was proved right when she could not even manage to muster the energy to dodge the Flamethrower after the starting signal from the referee. Just as it seemed like the referee was going to declare Aomi unfit to battle mom recalled her on her own initiative.

This turned the score to 4:3. Unfortunately, all of mom's remaining Pokemon were not that strong. The strongest one was Emerald/Butterfree at the (mid) gold stage, while the others were weaker than that.

Her best bet was to use Epona and hope that her fire immunity would be enough to either beat Emboar or weaken it enough for her last Pokemon to beat it.

Mom seemed to have come to the same conclusion as me since Epona was her next Pokemon. Unfortunately, the plan fell through when it became apparent that Emboar was at the (low) dark gold stage. It had no problem beating Epona using non-fire moves, especially fighting ones.

The best Epona could do was try to tire it a bit more by dodging as many attacks as possible forcing it to expend more energy to take her out. Epona ultimately fell, and mom was forced to her last Pokemon as well.

It was now obvious to everyone that mom had no way to win if she did not pull out a secret superweapon as Valentina had done, but I knew that she had no such weapon. Still, mom did not give up and actually called out Emerald.

The two really tried their best, hoping against everything to take down Emboar by using powder moves to inflict status conditions. Though that did not work since Emboar burned down the powder clouds before they could affect it.

In the end, it took Emboar less than 5 minutes to kick out Emerald, and the only reason she held out even that long was that she kept flying around dodging Emboar and keeping her distance from it.

Once Emerald was down, the referee declared Valentina the winner, which confirmed that mom's tournament journey ended in the quarterfinals.

She recalled Emerald and put away her ball after saying a few encouraging words. Then she congratulated her opponent showing great sports(wo)manship before leaving the field under the applause from the spectators.

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