Pikachu vs. Onix

"Heh, too bad your journey ends here. But you don't have to be too disappointed. After all, it's the champion of this match who defeated you."

While walking to the arena, Dante's opponent started trash-talking. He had a confident stride, the smile on his face never showing a hint of worry about the upcoming battle.

"You're right, the loser can take comfort that the champion defeated them."

Dante also smiled and 'agreed' with Joseph's words. 

"Both Trainers are ready? Let the battle begin!"

"I choose you, Pikachu!"

"Let's finish this fast, Onix!"

Looking at the side and seeing the disparity in size between Pikachu and Onix, one can't help but worry whether the small Pokemon would even be able to survive a casual blow from Onix.

Most of the audience were very uninterested in this 'predictable' battle. Some of them even already stood up and were going to prepare for the lunch break. Only in one corner of the audience seat, a mature woman and a Herdier were intently watching the battle.

"You can do it, Pikachu! Beat that lumpy pile of rocks!"

"Arf!"

"Jeez, seriously this child. He didn't even tell me about participating in his first Pokemon Competition! When he gets home, I'll have to give him a very long talking to about keeping secrets from his mother."

"And he didn't even mention anything about his girlfriend! Alas, Luna, is this the feeling of watching your child finally growing into an adult?"

Mrs. Zulueta sighed as she looked at the green-haired girl that was sitting in the waiting area. Seeing her appearance, a frown was etched on her face.

"I have to include keeping away from the bad girls when talking to him, too. Oh! The woes and responsibility of being a good mother."

Dante didn't know that his mother learned about his participation in the competition, and even his 'relationship' with Shinobu. Looking at his opponent and the Pokemon in front of him, he fell into deep thought.

'There are many Trainers in this competition that use Grass and Water-type Pokemon. The fact that Onix, who is a Ground/Rock type, was able to survive and even qualify for the top 32 indicates that it definitely isn't the usual small fry.'

"Looks like we'll have to take this a bit seriously. Pikachu, use Grass Knot!"

"Onix, use Dig!"

Although Onix has a Ground typing, most of the moves it can naturally learn are Rock-types. The only Ground-type attack it can naturally learn is Sand Tomb and Dig.

Just as Onix was about to dive headfirst underground, knots of grass appeared on his path. His body was entangled and uncontrollably fell to where the grass was the most abundant.

Grass Knot is a special move that inflicts damage depending on the weight of the Pokemon. In the PMD world, Pikachu mainly uses it in order to interfere with the opponents.

This was the first time in a while that it was used to fulfill its function as an attack, and the result didn't disappoint. Onyx let out a loud cry of pain when its whole body fell to the thorns of grass made of Grass-type energy.

In addition to the physical damage caused by the fall, each blade of grass also caused special attack damage to the Onix. 

'With its 4x weakness to Grass and Pikachu's high special attack, this should be enough to defeat it…unless, it has that Ability.'

Dante was staring at the downed body of Onix, he immediately confirmed his guess when he saw it twitching and about to make a move. It looks like this Onix possessed the Sturdy Ability.

Sturdy is an Ability which allows a Pokemon to maintain a sliver of energy when encountering an attack that will make it faint. 

At this point, as long as Pikachu attacks Onix again, then the battle will be over. However, Dante doesn't want to let Pikachu take advantage of attacking a downed Pokemon in front of the public. 

In addition to leaving a sour taste in his mouth, that would be so unbefitting of the strongest Pokemon Trainer in the future.

Watching Onix dig underground, Dante remained calm and silent.

"I didn't expect your Pikachu would be able to learn that kind of move. However, now it's our turn!"

"Big talk for someone about to lose. Pikachu, use Double Team!"

Dante was beginning to miss his Copycat vision. If he was able to use that move now, he would be able to locate where Onix was underground. 

However, there was no problem with using Double Team in order to confuse Onix and his Trainer. As long as it shows up aboveground even for a moment, Pikachu will be able to attack him and end this battle.

"What a huge turnaround! No one expected that Trainer Dante's Pikachu had learned the Grass-type move, Grass Knot!"

"With just one attack, Onix has fallen down! Will he be able to get back up?! Or is this the end of Trainer Joseph's journey!?"

"He got back up! And he was able to dig underground! This battle just keeps getting more and more unpredictable!"

"Pikachu has made 5 afterimages on the battlefield! Now Trainer Joseph must correctly determine which of the 6 Pikachus on the field is the real one! If he makes a mistake, just one more attack will knock Onix down!"

Everyone in the audience held their breaths. They didn't expect this last match to be so suspenseful. Among them, Mrs. Zulueta and Luna were watching the battle with intense concentration.

Joseph on the field has also broken into a cold sweat. He kept looking at the six Pikachus in the arena, trying to determine which was real and which was fake.

According to the Competition rules, there's only a set amount of time that a Pokemon can remain underground. Therefore, he must make a decision as soon as possible. 

Finally, with a look of a gambler betting all his properties, he commanded Onix to randomly attack one of the Pikachus.

Onix came out under Pikachu and headbutted him into the air. However, when attacking, Onix felt no resistance. The Pikachu also turned into smoke after being hit by its attack.

"Now, Pikachu. Use Slam!"

From behind Onix, Pikachu's figure appeared. Wrapped in a white light, his whole body accelerated and then smashed into Onix's head.

"NOOO! ONIX!!"

Onix flew for more than three meters in the air before landing heavily on the ground. 

Seeing this scene, the referee hurriedly checked Onix's condition before raising a flag in Dante's direction.

"Onix is unable to battle! Trainer Dante wins and will proceed to the next round!"

"Ohhh! Trainer Joseph was unlucky and chose the wrong Pikachu to attack! Trainer Dante successfully won an inverse attribute battle! Let us give a round of applause to the two Trainers for giving us such a spectacular show!"

"Wow! I didn't expect Pikachu would be able to beat Onix!"

"The key to this battle was Pikachu having learned Grass Knot. It's the perfect move to counter the heavy Ground and Rock type Onix."

"Joseph was also unlucky. If he had chosen the right Pikachu to target, then he would be the one to win this match."

"That's a Trainer Battle for you. No one can be sure of the outcome before the battle ends."

Dante raised one hand to respond to the cheers of the crowd. Listening to the commentator's words and the murmurs of the audience, he smiled meaningfully.

Even if Joseph chose the right Pikachu to attack, he already gave Pikachu a command through eye contact to prepare and use Quick Attack the moment he felt something underground.

And in the unlikely chance that Pikachu failed to dodge and was hit by Onix, he still wouldn't have been defeated. 

A normal Pikachu has a racial limit of 35 HP and 40 Defense. 

However, his Pikachu was different. His current HP is 97 and Defense is 63. Therefore, even if Onix was able to hit him with the 2x effective Ground-type move Dig, Pikachu would at most get hurt but he would have no chance of fainting.

Of course, Dante doesn't want Pikachu to get hurt as much as possible. Through the combination of Double Team and Quick Attack, he lowered the possibility of that scenario coming to pass.

It can be said that, the moment Onix was hit by Grass Knot in the beginning, Pikachu already won this battle. The rest only depended on how Dante wanted it to end.

A/N: Sorry about the wrong upload earlier.