CH215 (829), Always Ready To Go

Following his victory over Hariyama, Tyson/Machamp also took down the (high) dark gold stage Swellow that Cooper sent out next. Still, hitting and beating a nimble and swift flyer like Swellow was easier said than done, so Tyson ended up exhausting himself quite a bit in the process. It honestly boiled down to the fact that my boy's moves were exclusively close-range ones, so he had to run and jump around a lot whenever he tried to hit Swellow.

Tyson would have frankly lost out of a sheer inability to hit Swellow if the battlefield had not been an enclosed one which allowed him to aim for/reach Swellow by jumping and utilizing the walls. Still, be that as it may, Tyson expended an excessive amount of energy in the process, so barely a minute after Cooper followed up with his (high) dark gold Solrock, Tyson had to throw in the towel, or rather I had to do that since he was planning to let himself get knocked out.

Anyway, not minding Solrock knowing any potential fire moves, I sent out Parvati/Beedrill next, and swiftly she proceeded to poke holes into the sun-shaped psychic rock. Well, she didn't do that literally, or at least none which went completely through, but even though both were at the same substage, Parvati dominated the battle leaving no room for Solrock to do more than desperately defend itself, which included trying to block Parvati with Flamethrower and Overheat.

Using the latter was not the smartest move on their part, but honestly, it was a desperate attempt to hurt Parvati as she hit it with Iron Lances during her Lance Dance. All in all, it took Parvati a bit more than 5 minutes to take Solrock down, and that without relying on her poison. Sure, she got a bit singed by Solrock's desperate flames, but she was still in pretty great shape, so I was only slightly worried about her chances even when Cooper sent out a (high) dark gold stage Aggron as his fourth Pokemon.

I knew her poison was useless against Aggron, but her Adaptability meant that her bug moves lost just a bit of their regular usefulness, while her Lance Dance was not affected at all. She also had her Brick Break which could cause some major damage to Aggron in itself, more so if timed correctly. The only unfortunate bit was that the loss of her poison meant that she had to fight Aggron close up, which was its strongest suit. Still, Parvati did not let that stop her and showed that she was determined to take Aggron down, one chip at a time if she had to.

She made use of her Tailwind and Quiver Dance boosted speed to buzz around Aggron, dodging as many of its retaliatory strikes as possible whenever she flitted close to deliver an Iron Lance. Given how often she did that, it was unavoidable that she got hit a few times, but even that helped us since it eventually ended up activating Swarm, which combined with Adaptability and STAB, pushed her bug moves enough that they still did more damage than normal despite Aggron's steel typing.

Hence, the moment Swarm activated, Parvati switched to Furious Cutter, which quickly stacked up and began to rapidly exacerbate the damage she had caused until then. That was honestly not surprising for me since I knew that each one of her three strikes following the third successful hit of Furious Cutter were as powerful as a regular Self-Destruct. The audience and Cooper did not know that, so they were naturally surprised to see Aggron's situation taking a rapid dive like that.

Nonetheless, despite his initial surprise, Cooper reacted swiftly and had Aggon use Protect. I saw Aggron first use Reflect before performing Iron Defense with the time bought by Protect. This was the first time since the start of the battle that the other party bothered fortifying their defense, and I was thankful that Furious Cutter was able to break through the Protect quickly enough to prevent Aggron from going for another Iron Defense.

In fact, as soon as Parvati had interrupted Aggron, she switched from Furious Cutter to Brick Break just to destroy the protective layer set up by Reflect. Only then did she resume using Furious Cutter. Yet, Aggron did not bother blocking her as I expected it to, but it instead endured the pain and forcefully completed a second Iron Defense. That seemed a bit contradictory since Aggron was in a really bad shape by the time it succeeded, so even though the damage Parvati was able to inflict was reduced considerably, it seemed to be a bit late to be useful.

Oh, I was sure Cooper had some plans, but Parvati and I were not planning to wait for them to implement those. She brought the current Furious Cutter to completion and instead of starting a new round, she met Aggron's Iron Head head-on with Brick Break. The force of their clash propelled Parvati away while it caused Aggron's head to snap back. Cooper lost no time to order Aggron to Rest, and I understood why he went for a second Iron Defense at the cost of being pushed to the brink.

We saw how some of the cracks in Aggron's armor began to heal as it Rested, but we obviously were not planning to let that continue. Parvati rapidly rushed at Aggron and delivered a Wake-Up Slap, which she had (somehow) managed to learn from none other than Slap Master Luna herself. The sound of that slap echoed through the battlefield and caused Aggron to release a pained growl as it woke up, its Rest painfully interrupted.

Parvati gave Aggron or Cooper no time to get its/their bearing and followed up with a Brick Break right to Aggron's nogging, which ended up being too much for the steel behemoth, resulting in its knockout. Parvati happily buzzed through the air as the referee declared Aggron unable to battle and her the victor. I briefly felt happy at her victory, deeming it the completion of the first Duke battle, but then I heard the referee order Cooper to recall his Aggron and ready his final combatant, which had me remember that Duke battles, the challenge ones included, were 5-vs-5 and not 4-vs-4.

Looking at Parvati's state, I knew that she was unlikely to last long unless they let Parvati Drain them without putting up any resistance, which was mere fantasy. I also knew just as well that Parvati would never agree to be recalled without at least getting a few licks in or at least trying to do so, especially since we had not agreed beforehand to her being recalled "early". So, I did not withdraw her and simply watched as Cooper sent out his final Pokemon, which happened to be a (high) dark gold stage Torkoal.

As soon as the referee gave the starting signal, Parvati rushed toward Torkoal, who began to release a lot of black smoke from its back. Torkoal and the area around it got covered in a Smokescreen within mere moments, and Parvati who had rushed ahead soon vanished inside the black smoke as well. I could not see what Torkoal and Cooper were planning, but I could feel that Torkoal had not bothered moving from its position and that Parvati was still on course to reach it, so I told her as much over our telepathic link while also warning her to be ready for a fire front at any moment.

Yet, Parvati reported that she had found Torkaol and that she was going to attack but the expected Eruption did not happen. Torkoal did not even release a Flamethrower in Parvati's direction. I learned why when Parvati reported that she could see Torkoal glinting in a silvery grey sheen, indicating that it was using Iron Defense, which was not good for us/Parvati. Not only would she not be able to poison Torkoal while it maintained Iron Defense, which had been her initial plan, but Torkaol raising its already impressive defense was just annoying since it made it harder for Parvati to hurt it.

That naturally did not mean that Parvati would not try to do so regardless. She went ahead and used Furious Cutter on Torkaol, which resulted in everyone hearing tinking noises which was Parvati's lances crashing onto Torkoal's steely body. Moments after those sounds resounded, Cooper ordered an Eruption, following which a red front began to spread across the black smoke. I naturally had Parvati use Protect the moment the letter E left Cooper's mouth, but a point-blank Eruption was too much for Protect, so it broke after blocking the worst of the fire and heat.

However, even the residue was enough to significantly hurt Parvati who had already been in a pretty bad shape. Despite all that, Parvati weathered the latter half of the Eruption and used Torkoal's preoccupied, and more importantly no longer "steely" state, to douse it in Toxic. She pretty much fell right after that, but she did so knowing that she had poisoned Torkoal. Since I was keeping an eye on things, I knew immediately the moment Parvati lost consciousness, so I directly recalled her when that happened to prevent any accidents.

The Smokescreen was still up after all so the others couldn't see it and Torkoal had just gotten poisoned so it might reflexively retaliate due to pain. Obviously, everyone saw my action, so the referee declared Parvati forfeit and requested Cooper as well as Torkoal to cease performing any moves until my next combatant was on the field and he had given the starting signal. I had no plans to waste any time, so I just pulled out Manami/Lapras' OceanBall and released her onto the field without waiting for the Smokescreen to finish dispersing.

As soon as the referee gave the starting signal, Manami initiated a Freezing Rain, which took the black smoke down as a byproduct and revealed the poisoned Torkoal for everyone to see. The ice-cold rain also ended up further weakening its (second) Eruption, which made it easier for Manami to extinguish it with a hasty Hydro Pump. Manami simply kept the Hydro Pump going and put more energy/force into it, dousing Torkoal in water.

The rest of the battle was pretty one-sided since Manami was just too much for a slow fire-type like Torkoal, especially under Freezing Rain and when it was already poisoned. So yeah, Torkoal got knocked out within minutes, earning me the first victory of the Duke Challenge. Cooper was pretty cool about it and congratulated me on my victory, which was not surprising since he had admitted that he had already seen my battle against Ryujin.

Anyway, I went back to the waiting room to wait for my second battle, and when I made it there, I actually got approached by a staff member who asked me if I needed some time to heal my Pokemon which I naturally denied since I did not plan to reuse any of the ones that just fought. When I declared that I was ready to battle I was told that I could head back to battlefield no.1 in a minute for my second battle. This one was against the on-duty Duke, and I decided to let the Slytherin Squad have a go. Well, the four aside from Dilong/Stan and Ryujin/Gyarados since those two had already taken part in the Gym Challenge.

My poisonous water serpent Medusa first took down Duke Chu's (high) dark gold Camerupt, which admittedly was a rather unfortunate match-up, before doing the same with the Pelipper he sent out next, and the Mawile he followed up with after that. Granted, I had to retire Medusa as well after the referee declared Mawile unable to battle since she was spent at that point, but Medusa definitely earned her rest, and I made sure to praise her before I recalled her.

I decided to leave Chu's last two Pokemon to Ignis/Gyarados, and his first opponent happened to be a (high) dark gold stage Roserade, which once again was not a good match-up for the other side. Ignis won the battle hands down, though the battle against Chu's Swampert that followed was considerably tougher. Nonetheless, even though Swampert fought valiantly, Ignis still managed to take it down, even if he ended up in pretty bad shape in the process, and his victory granted me my second win, which meant that I had completed the advancement challenge.

-----------------------------

Advertising plug-in:

Currently, the lowest number of advanced chapters available on patre'on is 6, while the highest number of advanced chapters is 10.

Sketches, drawings of the MC, Variants and maps can be found on my Patre'on. A patre'on exclusive Legendary Lore and Pokemon Lore/Info series can be found there as well.

Help me stay motivated.

patreo*n/Azrail93