Battles between Rivals Pt. 2

"Let the moon shine upon us all even when the sun shines down upon us, Moon!" Zaria released the pokemon within her own pokeball at the same time reveal an Umbreon.

Vali spoke with a light grin, "Moon truly is a beautiful pokemon, Zaria. He's lucky to have you. Pele, Heat Wave!"

"Thanks, Vali," Zaria grinned at her, "It took awhile to get him to this level, but I'm proud of him," Pele burned away the water surrounding her and Moon dodged backwards, "Huh, she's going to be a difficult opponent for us, but we'll get through this. Moon , Swift!"

"Magnitude," Vali countered and Pele stamped her hoof on the ground causing it to shake disrupting Moon's attack as the lithe fox spluttered in stumbled, "You'll have to do more than that, Zaria. Pele's a master of her move-pool, my friend," She smiled lightly, "Pele, bring him close and heat things up with Hot Pot!"

Pele let out a warm coo and began using Earth Power to toss Moon the Umbreon close enough for them to use Hot Pot. Zaria shouted, "Oh no you don't! Moon, Swift and Rain Dance!"

The Swift Moon released was more of a condensed beam then the varied stream of stars Vali was used to which meant they'd have to do a lot more playing around with that move in the future. She quickly called out, "Sunny Day, Pele!" The Rain Dance was cancelled out before it could even begin, "Trying to exploit a hole in my defenses you'll know I'll have covered by now, my friend?"

"Thought I'd try it," Zaria shrugged lightly, "Besides it gave us some breathing room, you're far too good at keeping up a continuous stream of attacks," Moon launched a Shadow Ball at Pele who blocked it with a wall of earth and began setting up things for Hot Pot, "It's kind of annoying especially when you've got pokemon with the stamina able to keep it up,"

"A big part of our training goes into that," Vali replied with a small shrug as Moon tried to disrupt Pele's set up or weaken it, "You're a frustrating opponent as well, Zaria. It's been odd to face someone who fights so much like myself. Hit and run tactics only following a semi-diffrent path," She grinned brightly while bending down to run her fingers across Aragorn's head, "But it's also awesome, I feel so excited and determined to win. It makes me adjust my strategies and work even harder for the victory. I cannot wait to see how the rest of our battle progresses,"

"Agreed though it seems we're at a stalemate at the moment," Zaria said with a grimace at the completed Hot-Pot and Moon's pacing form, "We know better than to try and go inside that thing. Pele isn't going to exit it without a fight,"

"So it seems," Vali murmured in agreement with a light smile, "But I can end the stalemate easily,"

"How?" Zaria gave her a searching look filled with suspicion.

"Numel and Camerupt are not much for tunneling. They allow the lava to do it for them and simply manipulate the flow of things to suit their needs," Vali replied having decided to keep up the semi-cryptic words and statements that she'd been saying since her first match of the tournament, "To end this stalemate, Pele need only manipulate the flow,"

Zaria's eyes narrowed as the announcer commented, "Well that was certainly cryptic."

"Pele, I think Moon is getting a bit cold out here," Vali said in a light tone.

"Moon, jump!" Zaria shouted as she realized what Vali meant.

Moon began to follow his trainers orders just a hole opened up beneath him. Before Zaria could breath a sigh of relief, a second hole opened up and a piece of earth shot outward slamming into Moon. Moon hit the ground and fell into another hole. Vali spoke as the crowd started to murmur, "Pele will make it quick."

"Moon might surprise you," Zaria replied while staring at the Hot-Pot with frown, "But regardless, he likely won't be able to continue battling meaning the field's will be switching. Any ideas which we'll have to deal with?"

"Nope," Vali shook her head, "It'll be fun to see what we'll be dealing with though,"

Zaria snorted softly, "Yeah."

They both focused on the battle again as a brilliant white light pierced through Hot-Pot. When it faded, the dome-like structure was beginning to crumble showing that Pele was no longer maintaining it at all. The dome crumbled completely revealing both pokemon with Moon completely unconscious and Pele standing with what looked like a circular wound on her chest. The almost star-burst-like burn mark was the tell-tale sign of a Hyper Beam. Vali's jaw dropped a bit both because of the fact Pele was still standing after taking a Hyper Beam to the chest and that Zaria had taught one of her pokemon that move. More specifically the former, Pele was still conscious after taking a Hyper Beam to the chest where most pokemon would be unconscious.

"Mother of Mew, you taught Moon Hyper Beam?" Vali asked as Zaria returned the unconscious Umbreon.

"Trump card," Zaria sighed deeply, "I was hoping it would've knocked out Pele, but she's a tougher pokemon then I expected,"

The announcer spoke up, "We'll be taking a ten minute intermission to do a field change. Miss Potter-Black, you may heal your pokemon and give your injured pokemon to the waiting Nurse Joy. Miss Warner, you may give your injured pokemon to the waiting Nurse Joy. If either of you wish to make a substitution, please do so within this time frame."

Vali returned Pele and headed into the small trainer's lounge. A Nurse Joy was waiting for her and smiled warmly, "Miss Potter-Black, I can take your pokemon."

"I'd appreciate it," Vali handed over Elrond and Pele's pokeball, "I know there isn't much that can be done for Pele in such a short span of time. I mostly wish to know how much strain she'll be able to deal with and if it'd be better to forfeit her," Nurse Joy looked a little surprised and she smiled lightly at the pink haired woman, "My pack's health is more important than a victory especially when the rest of them are more than strong enough to fight for us. She's done enough. They both did,"

"It's a pleasure to see at least one trainer this year has some form of sense," Nurse Joy took the pokeballs with a gentle smile, "I will be back within nine minutes. I wish you the best of luck,"

"Thank you, Nurse Joy. I know my pokemon are in the best possible hands," Vali replied and moved to take a seat.