CH76 (306), Continental Quarterfinals (2)

Well, first of all, how does that Persian know Ice Beam, because as far as I knew the species could not learn that move. They could learn Water Pulse or Rain Dance, but no ice moves.

That had to be an egg move that came about due to there being variants in this universe, or it was some kind of genius, who knew? My Pokemon had also managed to learn moves they should not have been able to learn, so I decided to leave it be.

Still, Persian really should not have done that. Triggering Tiamat/Milotic was not the brightest idea, and Persian was going to learn that firsthand. I could see the metaphorical tick on Tiamat's forehead. She let the wave finish its course on its own and started a Blizzard instead.

Persian on its ice shoal tried to stop her with a Thunderbolt, but the first one got blocked by the Blizzard that had already started centered around Tiamat, and she escaped the second Thunderbolt aimed at the water by jumping on the ice shoal that had formed around her due to the Blizzard.

Tiamat's target was not Persian but the soaked ground left behind after Surf finished passing through the whole field. The water got absorbed into the ground and Persian was able to get down from its "ice boat", but it along with everyone else noticed that the ground had been frozen solid by Tiamat's Blizzard.

Yes, Tiamat was using Manami/Lapras's strategy. She threw Persian a taunting smirk before using another Surf forcing it to repeat its previous response of creating an "ice boat" to avoid being submerged inside the water.

However, this time around the water did not drain, and a pool formed on top of the battlefield. Seeing this Samson and Persian did the next best thing and kept using Ice Beam to create a lot of ice shoals for Persian to move around.

It was not as if they did not try to completely freeze the surface, but Tiamat stopped that notion by thawing parts of the ice using Scald. She could not use the move too much to avoid melting the ice layer at the bottom.

Besides, she could make use of the shoals to avoid electric moves aimed at the water, so she let them go through with part of their plan. She was generous like that.

Still, once Persian had created enough ice foot holds it threw Tiamat another taunting look, while simultaneously using another Taunt to keep Tiamat from using any other moves aside from offensive ones.

It did not stop at that, but shot another Thunderbolt in Tiamat's general direction, not caring if she dodged or not. Tiamat was forced to jump onto one of the ice shoals as well to dodge the electric move that spread across the water.

My girl obviously did not let that slide and fired back with a Dragon Pulse forcing Persian to stop its attack and jump away from the shoal it stood on instead. The shoal got destroyed but Tiamat was not satisfied and swerved her head, pointing the Dragon Pulse towards the shoal Persian jumped on.

This kept repeating for a while, Tiamat aiming Dragon Pulse at Persian forcing it to jump onto another ice shoal while the previous one got destroyed. Persian was actually forced to use Ice Beam not to attack Tiamat, but to create more foot holds.

It did try to counterattack with the occasional Power Gem and Thunderbolt, but Tiamat either blocked or dodged them. Nonetheless, it did buy Persian some much-needed breathing room whenever Tiamat did that, which was what allowed Persian to keep up this cat and dog chase in the first place.

Their fight had actually been going on for nearly 10 minutes, and while it was great to watch, the crowd loved it, I could feel Tiamat's frustration over our bond. Especially since Persian kept taunting Tiamat, preventing her from using anything besides offensive moves.

Moreover, it was obvious that both Pokemon were tired due to the many moves that were exchanged, Persian more than Tiamat due to being the one that was forced to run.

Still, Tiamat decided that enough was enough, and changed tactics. She used Twister towards the water, creating a giant whirlpool laden with draconic energy. Due to the spinning direction of the Twister, the shoals got swept towards the center.

This destroyed the smaller shoals and destabilized the Persian's foothold. It also stopped Persian from escaping Tiamat, who moved towards it and went up to personally slap it into sleep.

Persian tried to use a desperate Hyper Beam to take Tiamat with it if it was going down. Tiamat flipped over the Hyper Beam and made use of the momentum to slam an Aqua Tail on its head. The power of the blow made the ice shoal below Persian crack and it fell into the water.

Tiamat went after it and blew it out of the water with an Iron Tail. That finally proved to be enough to knock it out. Samson reacted even before the referee and recalled it before it could fall back into the water. The referee declared Tiamat the winner and told Samson to call out his next Pokemon.

Unsurprisingly, he called out his Noctowl to avoid the water since his other Pokemon would be disadvantaged before they somehow dealt with the pool.

As soon as the referee gave the starting signal, Noctowl used Hypnosis but Tiamat, who was finally free from the effects of Taunt, used a Safeguard that made Hypnosis useless.

She immediately followed up with an Aqua Ring, finally executing the opening combination she had been stopped from performing. Noctowl did not waste any time, seeing that its move failed it directly switched to Extrasensory.

Tiamat simply went underwater and escaped the move. However, that did not stop Noctowl's offense, it simply switched from Extrasensory to Echoed Voice.

Sound traveled truly well through water, so it was a great idea on their part. Still, Tiamat had a counter for that and used Disarming Voice to block the Echoed Voice.

Tiamat followed that up with Hydro Pump, but Noctowl easily dodged it. It moved a bit higher up before it actually fired a Hyper Beam in the direction where it seemed to think Milotic was. The beam parted the water in its way, but Milotic easily dodged the move.

Yet, Noctowl did not stop the move and it crashed to the ground. Afterward, Noctowl swerved the Hyper Beam toward Milotic who kept swimming away from the beam. Surprisingly, Noctowl managed to keep up the Hyper Beam for more than 20 seconds, but in the end, it still sputtered out.

It visibly sagged a bit once that happened, but it managed to stay up, using its wings to glide in the air. It became obvious that it had this in mind when it rose higher before attacking.

Tiamat who had managed to escape the Hyper Beam unscathed did not plan to simply let Noctowl recover, even if it was high up in the air. She used Surf and mobilized the present water to raise a wave that halved the distance between them.

Then she rode the wave and jumped out of the water shortening the distance even further. Once she came as close as possible, she fired an Ice Beam at Noctowl, who was unable to dodge the move. Tiamat kept up the Ice Beam even while she was falling back into the water, which had started to recede at a visible rate.

Noctowl's previous Hyper Beam had destroyed the frozen ground which made it possible for the water to drain. I did not believe that to be a coincidence, and I had to admit that it was a good plan. They made sure to set the field in advance for Samson's next Pokemon.

Anyway, Milotic had to cut off the Ice Beam when she fell back into the water, but she managed to hurt Noctowl quite a bit until then. It was lucky enough to not get frozen and had regained its mobility as well. It directly began firing Shadow Balls at Tiamat, who either dodged them or blocked them with Water Pulses.

While the two were trading attacks, the water level kept falling until only a meter so were left, and it kept falling. Still, once it reached that stage, Noctowl who was hurt and tired, realized that its chances of victory were slim, so it went for mutual destruction as well.

As soon as it got the opportunity it paused its attacks, rose a bit, and went into a nosedive while performing a Sky Attack. It adjusted its plunge path and Tiamat saw no way to dodge, so she simply did not even try to do so.

Instead of doing something she saw as futile, she simply used Protect at the very last moment, causing Noctowl to crash headfirst into the barrier. The impact forced it to stop for a second before it destroyed the barrier before carrying on with diminished power, and Tiamat made use of that second to clash with Noctowl using Iron Tail.

Their clash caused the energy between both moves to explode and flung both Pokemon in opposite directions. The referee declared Noctowl unable to battle and only after he did that did I see a knocked-out Noctowl half-floating on the water that had nearly completely drained by now.

Milotic was still vicious, but I saw that she was running on fumes now. She could certainly heal herself up but she would be out of energy and stamina, so I decided that we would be a bit "underhanded" during the next fight.

As expected Samson chose his (high) silver-stage Kangaskhan as his final Pokemon. As soon as the referee gave the starting signal, I gave the first command of the battle.

"Suffocating Charm," I ordered Tiamat, who executed Order 66 without any hesitation.

She immediately used Attract on Kangaskhan and due to Tiamat's talent, it stood no chance against the move. It fell in "love" with Tiamat before it had the chance to do anything. Samson tried to call out to it, but it did not react being too captivated by Tiamat.

My girl did not plan to give Kangaskhan any chance to do anything and used Wrap as well as Coil to bind Kangaskhan's upper body along with its throat. Normally no Pokemon would allow another to do this, but Kangaskhan did not resist until it began suffocating.

Only at that point did it snap out of the attracted state enough to struggle, but by that point, it was already too late since Tiamat had it in the perfect stranglehold, and it was virtually impossible to get rid of her since she had coiled herself multiple times around Kangaskhan's neck.

It seemed that Samson agreed as well since he forfeited before Kangaskhan lost consciousness, showing that he cared for his Pokemon. Tiamat instantly released it from her grip and retreated to my side, leaving Kangaskhan on the ground heaving for fresh air.

I praised Tiamat for her hard work while the referee declared her the winner, making me the victor of the Pokemon battle. I recalled her after that happened and I saw Samson doing the same after rubbing Kangaskhan's back for a bit, helping her regain her breath.

Samson actually went up to me to thank me for the fight and I did the same. After the courtesy was out of the way he asked me how Tiamat managed to Attract his female Kangaskhan. Not only was it female, but the species generally preferred members of their own species so using moves like Attract and Captivate were less effective on them.

I shrugged and decided to tell him the reason since I knew that it was not that hard to deduce it even if I kept mum.

"It's Tiamat's talent. It allows her to Attract anyone," I divulged with a shrug of my shoulders.

"Thank you for clearing my doubts," he said with a nod. "I had suspected something along those lines since nothing else made sense," he finished before reaching out for a handshake which I reciprocated.

The cheers of the crowd became even louder at our show of sportsmanship, and we both left the battlefield after that. With this victory, I had now made it to the semifinals in the Pokemon battle category. However, I still had to win my personal fight to advance to the semifinals in that category as well.

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