Dante vs. Shinobu

"The final battle of this competition is about to begin! Let us all witness who among these two young Trainers will emerge to become the winner!"

Standing on opposite sides of the arena, Dante and Shinobu stared intensely at each other. 

"Both Trainers are ready? Release your Pokemon!"

"I choose you, Pikachu!"

"Let's have our revenge, Shelly!"

By comparing their current stat, Accelgor can only compete with Pikachu in terms of Speed. In other aspects however, she was suppressed all around. 

"Pikachu, just look at the ground and use Double Team!"

"Shelly, Yawn!"

Dante pre-read Shinobu's command and ordered Pikachu to not look at Accelgor. 

After the increase in Accelgor's Special Attack stat after evolution, although her Special Attack is still lower than Pikachu's Special Defense, her Yawn could once again take effect on Pikachu. 

Currently, the only move Accelgor can threaten Pikachu the most with is Yawn. Therefore, before the battle, Dante already prepared a strategy against it.

Before being fully mastered, Yawn would not work as long as the Pokemon doesn't see the opposing party use the move. 

Of course, not looking at the opponent could lead to a whole other problems such as being unprepared for attacks. Therefore, using Double Team can force the opponent to be careful when attacking in case they chose wrongly and leave themselves vulnerable.

Pikachu's afterimages spread around the battlefield. After seeing this, Shinobu furrowed her eyebrows.

"Shelly, use Swift!"

Swift is a Normal-type special attack that has a base power of 60. It releases star-like energy in an all around manner at a fast speed, making it almost undodgeable.

Accelgor's attack hit all the afterimages, causing them to burst with a pop. Even Pikachu, who had been hiding among the clones, wasn't able to dodge the attack.

However, instead of being troubled by this, Dante smiled.

"Pikachu, now's our chance. Use Electroweb!"

Pikachu didn't even flinch from taking the move. He raised his head and quickly released Electroweb at Accelgor. 

Accelgor moved swiftly to dodge the attack. Unfortunately, because of the large range of the move, he was still entangled.

And with more than a 20 point difference between Pikachu's Special Attack and Accelgor's Special Defense, even though the attack was just meant to slow Accelgor down, she still took considerable damage.

Shinobu's expression turned a little grim. With the decrease in Shelly's speed, their chances of winning had further decreased!

"Shelly, use Recover!"

"Huh?"

Dante was surprised why Shinobu made such a rookie mistake. She can't possibly think he'd let her heal in peace, right?

"Pikachu don't miss this opportunity, use Thunderbolt!"

Pikachu gathered Electric energy on his cheeks and then raised his head to target Accelgor.

However, the moment he looked up, instead of seeing Accelgor using Recovery, she instead released a large Yawn. Almost at the same time, Pikachu released the Thunderbolt at Accelgor.

"ACCELLL!!!"

An explosion erupted as the large bolt of lightning hit Accelgor as well as the floor around him. Smoke and rubble filled the arena, making visibility from the outside difficult.

On the side, Shinobu was looking anxiously at the arena. She and Shelly already discussed this tactic if other Pokemon ever avoided eye-contact to remain unaffected by Yawn.

Now, she can only hope that Shelly would be able to take on the hit so they can begin their comeback.

"What an intense battle! Trainer Dante and Pikachu had an upper hand ever since the match began! To reverse the tide, Trainer Shinobu decided to take Pikachu's Thunderbolt head-on to hit Pikachu with Yawn!"

"While her decision is a bit risky, it is also very logical. Based on the flow of the battle, she would have no chance of defeating Pikachu otherwise."

Erika stated while giving a puzzled look at the Pikachu in the arena.

This Pikachu gives her a weird feeling, like it seems to be more powerful than usual…It can't be that this Pikachu already broke through its racial limit, right?

Even her, a Gym-leader of 3 years, only had her Vileplume who broke through its Speed and Special Attack limits! There's no way this Pikachu could already break through its own limit, especially since it looked to be less than a year old.

Everyone watched with bated breath as the smoke began to clear. A trembling figure could gradually be seen as the smoke dissipates.

"A-ACCELLL!!" (I WON'T LOSE AGAIN!!)

Accelgor steadied himself, panting heavily while she stared intensely at Pikachu to prepare for his subsequent attacks.

"And Accelgor tanked the hit! Now the question is, can she hold on until Pikachu falls asleep!?"

Shinobu's face lit up after seeing Shelly still standing up. Especially after she saw Pikachu begin to look drowsy on the opposite side, she began to feel full of hope for this battle.

"Pikachu, use Quick Attack!"

"It's useless! Let's do our best to hold on, Shelly!"

Just as Pikachu was about to hit Accelgor's body, he was stopped by a solid green barrier. From the looks of things, as long as Accelgor can hold on for 2 more seconds, Pikachu will fall asleep.

Dante looked at the hopeful face of the girl opposite him, feeling a bit sorry for her for what he was about to do next.

"Let's finish this Pikachu, use Feint!"

"F-Feint!?"

Shinobu wasn't given time to react as Pikachu gathered Normal-type energy on his head before tackling Accelgor.

The moment his head touched the green barrier, he only stopped for a moment before completely passing through. Pikachu's attack continued unabated, and he scored a direct hit on the unprepared Accelgor.

Accelgor let out a grunt of pain, flying backwards a meter or two before falling on his back. There, she lay, unmoving on the cold arena floor.

Meanwhile, after this attack, Pikachu finally couldn't hold on and also fell asleep.

"Please, please, wake up, Shelly!"

Shinobu cried out as her eyes fell on Accelgor's body. Sadly for her however, she wasn't Kachina. 

Accelgor remained unresponsive on the floor, with her eyes already swirling.

After the referee came closer and confirmed Accelgor's condition, he raised the flag in Dante's direction.

"Accelgor is unable to battle! Trainer Dante wins!"

"OOHHHH!! Just when Accelgor was about to succeed in delaying time, Pikachu's Feint stopped their plan cold!"

"That was unexpected. Who would've thought that Feint, a rather unremarkable move, would become the key for Trainer Dante to win this competition!"

Feint is a Normal-type physical attack with a base power of only 30. Its effect is that it can deceive moves such as Protect and Detect to make them ineffective, allowing a direct hit on the Pokemon using that move.

The reason why this move isn't of much significance, to the point where people forget about it, is because of two reasons.

First of all, Protect and Detect are energy-intensive moves which are strategically used to block powerful attacks. Cases like this battle, where Protect is still maintained even when the Pokemon is not under attack, is very rare.

Secondly, because of its low base power as well as being a Normal-type physical attack. This allows the opponent to just tank the move and then counter-attack with a high accuracy. So instead, it is just better to use a stat-boosting move while the opponent consumes their energy while using Protect.

Not to mention, Tackle and Scratch, Normal-type moves that can be learned by most Pokemon, have a higher base power than this move.

Pikachu, and even Dante in his Zorua form, had learned this move for a while now. However, this was the first time that they had a chance to use this move for its intended purpose.