The New Normal - 16-16

The New Normal – 16-16 – Champions

My first thought was that I was hearing things wrong. I had absolutely no idea that such a thing was going to be sprung on us.

Fuck, this must have been the surprise that Cynthia was hinting to me about. I thought it’d be something newsworthy, but I didn’t imagine it would be on a scale like this!

Who drops a battle against two Champions on you out of the blue like that?! We didn’t even have any time to prepare!

I turned to Elesa with a questioning look, “Did you know about this?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw both Steven and Cynthia walking into the arena as they waved to the crowd. They were saying something, probably to each other or the crowd, but I tuned them out for the moment.

She shook her head violently, “No. Absolutely not.” She was as surprised as I was, “I thought you knew something about this and just didn’t tell me. Did Cynthia not tell you?”

“She mentioned that there would be some sort of ‘surprise’ waiting for me, but I definitely didn’t expect something like this.” I grumbled, though there was no real heat in it. Now that some of my surprise had waned, the excitement and adrenaline was flooding through my veins once again.

I always cherished an opportunity to battle against powerful opponents. And what was more powerful than two Champions at the same time?

Preparations or no, I wasn’t one to back out from a fight.

“…Are you ready for such a fight though?” I asked her, “Some of your Pokémon are injured, after all.” Although I’m sure our Pokémon would be healed before the fight, that didn’t mean that their exhaustion would be gone. That could only be recovered through some proper rest.

“I… I should be fine.” Elesa replied, a little hesitantly. Although that hesitation was quickly replaced with a growing sense of confidence, “I never imagined I would be facing off against a Champion, or even two, so soon. But I will cherish and make the most of the opportunity.”

Then she shot me a chuckle, “Besides, you’ll be fighting besides me, won’t you? So Champions or not, what do I have to worry about?”

It wasn’t so simple as that, but her confidence was infectious as I shot her a smile, “Sure. Just follow my lead.”

The two of us headed over to where Steven and Cynthia were, as they had been waving us over. Karen and Iris were also there.

“Congratulations on your victory, John and Elesa. That last battle of yours was truly a marvel to watch.” Steven said, “You truly deserve to be considered the victors of this World Championship.”

“Thank you.” I replied on our behalf, then I turned to our former opponents, “And you too, Karen. Iris. It was very well fought. That was definitely our toughest battle yet.”

Karen snorted, “I couldn’t just hand you the win without putting up a decent fight, now could I? And after training together for so long, I’d be disappointed in myself if I couldn’t make you sweat a little.”

“Well you certainly did that.” I replied, “A lucky critical hit or two and that would have been your victory instead of ours.”

“Same to you, Iris.” Elesa added, “I know a lot of people were still looking down on you as the 8th Gym Leader of Unova. But with how well you did in this Tournament, I think many of your critics will be silenced.”

“Thanks, Elesa.” Iris smiled cutely, “Karen already said the same, but it’s nice to know you think so too. But your own reputation is going to be boosted a lot too, especially if you win the next battle.”

“Oh? Do you think they will win against us, Gym Leader Iris?” Steven asked with a disarming smile, letting her know that he wasn’t offended with the suggestion.

Iris giggled, “Maybe. I’d like to think Karen and I were pretty strong too, and they still beat us. So yes, I think they can beat you too.”

While they continued their merry discussion, I stepped over to Cynthia, “Was this really the surprise you had for me? I know you wanted to keep this a secret, but personally speaking, I would have really appreciated a bit of a heads up. Even if it’s only a 2v2.”

She laughed, “Well it really was last minute, and telling you too early would have ruined the surprise.”

“I think I would have accepted that if that meant I got time to prepare.” I shot back.

“I’ll make it up to you later.” She waved me off, “Besides, I did this for you, you know?”

“Me?” I asked, “What do you— oh, I see.”

Giving all of our political talks in the past, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together. Cynthia had said she wanted my strength to be unquestionable. So what better way would there be to prove that than to put me in a battle against two Champions?

She nodded knowingly, “I see that you understand.” Then she chuckled, “But this was just a bonus anyways. Even if you didn’t have this battle, while it might not have the same ring as being called a Champion, being a ‘World Champion’ sounds similar enough, don’t you think? It’s why I chose to call it a ‘World Tournament’ to begin with.”

“…That’s very clever. I wouldn’t have thought so far forwards.” I admitted with a smile, “Your brain never ceases to amaze me, Cynthia. It really is a beautiful thing.”

She laughed softly, “Oh you can save the compliments for later. And even though I’m doing this for you, you know I won’t be holding back, right? Not only would the crowd see through it, but I can’t disappoint Steven. This is his first ‘official’ battle after he’s become Champion. I don’t want to mess this up for him.”

“No wonder he agreed to do this then.” I replied, “But yeah, I get it. I would have loved to have more preparation time… but I guess I’ll have to make do. I’ve never been one to back down from a fight – not even against two Champions. I’ll just have to win against you both too.”

She poked me in the side, “Don’t get too arrogant now. This might not be a fight you can win, even though I know you will do everything you can to do so. But win or lose – show the world that you deserve to stand alongside us. Show everyone that your victory against Lance was no fluke. That your strength rivals ours.”

“Of course.” I nodded, “May the best trainer win.”

“Likewise.” And there was nothing more to be said between us. After exchanging a few more words with Karen and Iris, they left the arena, and everyone took their positions for the actual final battle of the Tournament.

Since we didn’t have any time to prepare, I just told Elesa to stick with what she felt comfortable with. There was no point trying to come up with complex strategies now. We just had to trust in each other’s instincts, and the rapport and partnership that we had built up over the entire Tournament.

That was actually our one advantage. For all that Steven and Cynthia were the (much) stronger pair on paper, they had never fought together before. Even if they might have been familiar with how each other fought (and I was sure that Cynthia would have done some preparation before our battle) it wouldn’t be the same as the entire tournament of battles that Elesa and I had gone through together.

I held onto that thought as we took our positions. A barebones plan came to my mind, and it was time to execute it. Before we sent out our Pokémon, I gave Elesa a quick tap on the shoulder – signalling to her with one of our predetermined messages that we had assigned before the Tournament had even began. She should hopefully know what that means.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE ONE FINAL BATTLE HERE TODAY, SO STAY IN YOUR SEATS – THE TOURNAMENT ISN’T OVER YET! WE’RE GETTING A FIGHT BETWEEN OUR LATEST VICTORS AND CHAMPIONS STEVEN AND CYNTHIA! THIS IS DEFINITELY GOING TO BE A BATTLE TO REMEMBER!”

The crowd roared out in approval; they were even more excited for this battle than the one between me and Karen.

“IN THAT CASE, LET’S GET RIGHT TO IT! THE BATTLE SHALL BE A 2V2, WITH BOTH TEAMS ALLOWED ONE SWITCH ONLY! TRAINERS, I HOPE YOU’RE READY, BECAUSE THE BATTLE WILL BEGIN IN THREE!... TWO!... ONE!... BEGIN!”

“Go, Pixel! Start setting up!”     “Maintain your distance, Galvantula!”

“Get them, Kleavor!”    “Break them, Aggron!”

Both of our Pokémon hung back while both of them rushed forwards. This was the first time I had seen Cynthia make use of her Kleavor in a public battle, which she had found at the same time that I had found Wraith, and I knew that she had trained Kleavor up just as much as I had done with Wraith.

So with its stone axes brandished threateningly, it cut through the attempted Sticky Web from Galvantula as it rushed towards Pixel – who was now glowing a dark brown as it had seemingly changed its own Type into a Ground type. Aggron was not far behind, and it unleashed a vortex of razor sharp steel that eviscerated everything that it came into contact with. Fortunately, Galvantula was agile enough to leap out of the way before it was caught within that metallic storm.

Kleavor managed to reach Pixel, and its stone axes began to take on a light green sheen as it prepared to slash down with a vicious X-Scissor. Pixel finished whatever it was setting up with and dodged backwards, narrowly avoiding the blow, but Kleavor lunged forwards to follow-up with another one.

Normally, Pixel should not have been able to dodge this. For all its incredible Special Attack, Pixel was not a close-range attacker as our previous match had already proved. When it came to close quarters combat, it lacked the martial skill and technique necessary to win such a fight.

…However, it was a different story with Wraith.

Shedding his disguise, Wraith let out a malicious smile as he parried away Kleavor’s axe to the side with his own reinforced claws. Now completely exposed, Kleavor was unable to block the incoming Will-O-Wisp, causing the Stone type to be Burned and cutting its Attack in half.

Then Wraith ducked under another desperate swing of Kleavor’s axe and slashed down with a Shadow Claw, which had been further boosted up by the Swords Dance that he had been setting up with.

The earlier ‘Conversion into a Ground type’ was merely a smokescreen to disguise said Swords Dance.

Kleavor winced in pain, but before Wraith could press his advantage, he was forced to dodge backwards as an eruption of rocks shot out from the ground where he was just standing. Leaping backwards, Wraith continued to apply pressure onto Kleavor as he fired off a volley of Shadow Balls and a Taunt in its direction.

However, even though it was struck with a Taunt, Kleavor made no sign it was affected by it at all as it kept its concentration and easily slashed through the incoming Shadow Balls with a precise series of Night Slashes, before leaping backwards and making distance from Wraith as well.

It must not have felt confident in engaging Wraith at close range now that it was Burned. In lockstep, Aggron stepped forwards to cover it, allowing Kleavor to safely fall back and change its target.

Meanwhile, Galvantula had been trying to harass and paralyse Aggron with a series of Thunder Waves. Except Aggron’s ferro-kinesis was so good that it was able to manipulate the steel around it to form a shield around itself that would attract and absorb and divert any stray electric currents. Therefore, none of the Thunder Waves were actually able to hit Aggron as they were redirected harmlessly into the ground.

I caught Elesa frowning as she realised this. But sadly, she wasn’t given any opportunity to change up her plans as Kleavor nearly ambushed Galvantula with a powerful Stone Edge from below.

As Kleavor chased after the retreating Galvantula, Wraith was doing the reverse with Aggron. Knowing that Wraith could not win a fight against Aggron at close range, I was relying on his better speed and quadruply supereffective Focus Blasts to try and wear down Aggron from a distance – hoping that it would be enough to break through Aggron’s immense endurance.

However, Aggron had taken a page out of Vordt’s book and, with a roar to the skies, began burying the entire arena with an unending avalanche of steel and rocks, letting down a torrential rain of steel-tipped rocks that threatened to entomb Wraith from above.

And the attacks were so numerous that there was no chance Wraith could blast through them. His only recourse was to keep on dodging to buy time for an interruption, or hide away with a Dig and risk getting hit by a massive Earthquake.

Fortunately, that interruption came when Galvantula snuck in a quick Electro Ball that zapped Aggron in the back. It didn’t manage to paralyse the Steel type, but it still stunned it for long enough to prevent Wraith from being buried in its would-be prison of stone.

But that interruption came at a cost, as Kleavor suddenly broke away from chasing after Galvantula and rushed forwards in a blur as it disappeared into a sea of afterimages with a Double Team and Quick Attack combo.

The Taunt must have already worn off, though I wasn’t surprised by that.

Wraith was suddenly swarmed by a horde of afterimages, all of them brandishing their stone axes menacingly. But Wraith kept his calm and fired off an Icy Wind in a wide cone, dispersing most of the afterimages while also slowing down the original.

He then disappeared into his own shadow just before the blow could hit. The real Kleavor started to spin around, waiting for the attack to come – but it never came.

Instead, Aggron suddenly found itself tripped over and brought to the ground as one of its legs was ensnared by a hidden Grass Knot. Wraith chose that moment to show himself before firing a point-blank Focus Blast that struck Aggron in the face.

I wanted to capitalise on that, “Curse it, Wraith! Then Pain Split to heal!”

Wraith let out a haunting cackle that quickly turned into a pained shriek as a spectre of cursed agony tore itself out of his body and leapt over to Aggron. Likewise, most of that damage was quickly healed back up with a Pain Split.

Now that the Curse was wrecking havoc inside of Aggron’s body, I knew that this was the only real way to deal substantial and reliable damage to Aggron while also putting it on a timer. Now it wasn’t a matter of if it would fall, but when.

Aggron tried to go for a counterattack as it swung its powerful tail at Wraith, but a surprise Thunderbolt struck down from above as Galvantula interrupted the attack.

The latter proved to be a mistake, as Kleavor capitalised on this momentary distraction by changing its target again. It blitzed forwards towards the unprepared Galvantula, catching it off-guard and mid-retreat, and ambushed it with a crushing blow from its two massive Stone Axes that brutally slammed Galvantula into the ground.

Not only that, but the Stone Axes also caused shards of sharpened rocks to scatter around the arena, which were immediately relevant as Galvantula accidentally retreated into them as it tried to skitter backwards to make distance from the Kleavor.

The Stealth Rocks jabbed down painfully into two of Galvantula’s back legs, causing it to let out a cry of pain before that was very quickly silenced as Kleavor ruthlessly slammed down hard with another crushing blow from its Stone Axes.

Even though it was Burned, Kleavor clearly still had more than enough power to crush its fellow Bug type.

I immediately realised that there was absolutely no point in trying to rescue Galvantula – it was only going to be a liability. Instead, I had to focus on taking down Aggron and making this a trade.

 Fortunately, no matter how much of a defensive behemoth that Aggron might be, the Curse that was ravaging through its body was doing its job. And Wraith was proving too nimble for Aggron to land a good hit against.

Therefore, another Ferrous Storm from Aggron narrowly missed Wraith, before a horde of ghostly resentment burst out of Wraith’s form as he struck with his signature move – Bitter Malice. The spectral swarm dove into Aggron, causing an unnatural chill to spread throughout its body as its Attack was lowered. A follow-up Taunt struck Aggron as well before Wraith darted backwards out of the way of Aggron’s violent swipe from its Metal Claw.

Unfortunately, by this point, Galvantula had gone down to Kleavor. Elesa quickly switched it out and replaced it with her starter Zebstrika.

Zebstrika immediately began circling around the arena, with Kleavor in hot pursuit, and I trusted that its incredible speed would allow it to keep distance from Kleavor and hopefully buy time. Especially since Zebstrika’s speed only continued to increase as it struck itself with weak Thunder Shocks to activate its Motor Drive.

After seeing Kleavor fail to catch up with a Quick Attack, and then miss with a Stone Edge, I was confident that I could keep focusing down Aggron for the time being.

Right now, I knew that Aggron was in a terrible position, even though it had valiantly fended off getting Burned by a Will-O-Wisp by always deflecting the incoming flames with its ferrokinesis. The damage from the Curse simply bypassed all of its inherently high defenses, and Wraith never stood still for even a moment, continuing to make use of his better agility to dodge past any attacks thrown by Aggron.

And even if Aggron managed to land a glancing blow with some wide-area attacks, the Steel type simply didn’t hit as hard as it used to with all of the Attack drops from the Bitter Malice.

Normally, Steven would try to get his Aggron out of such a position by making it set up with an Autotomize or a Rock Polish to even out the speed difference, but the constant taunts from Wraith denied it any opportunity to do so.

Aggron might be considered to be Steven’s second strongest Pokémon, but against Wraith it had a terrible matchup. Wraith simply countered all of its greatest strengths, which was the whole reason I chose to send it out rather than some of my more ‘traditionally’ powerful Pokémon.

Eventually, seeing how ineffective Aggron was against Wraith – Steven simply recalled it back to its Pokéball as he switched it out for his final Pokémon and starter.

The four-legged titan crashed down onto the battlefield. Its eyes glowed a bright pink as it scanned over the battlefield, performing a quick threat assessment on its opponents.

Its emergence was a message – that the real battle had just begun.

Wraith tried to fire off a Taunt to shut down any potential set up moves, but Metagross easily intercepted the attack. It channelled a large amount of Fighting energy into one of its fists and shattered the incoming Taunt with a Brick Break.

…Someone must have been picking up tricks from Bruno. I still remembered how Bruno did something similar to prevent his Fighting types from being hit by my Psychics.

Then an Icy Wind came Wraith’s way, forcing him to retreat into the shadows as he hopped out of the way. Yet Wraith wasn’t his only target, as Metagross had perfectly positioned the Icy Wind so that it not only would catch Wraith if he hadn’t dodged, but was also right in the way of Zebstrika’s movement path.

Not having expected an attack to come from such an angle, Zebstrika was unable to dodge as it was suddenly engulfed by the freezing winds, slowing it down. At the same time, Gravity abruptly intensified around the Electric type, causing Zebstrika to trip and stumble as it was unused to the enormous weight now pressing down on its shoulders.

Having fallen to the ground, Zebstrika was completely exposed to Kleavor, who slashed down with its twin axes. The axes struck deep into Zebstrika, causing it to let out a cry of pain that was quickly silenced as Kleavor followed up with a stomp on the ground that unleashed a violent Earthquake right on top of Zebstrika.

I frowned, knowing that there was little I could do to help. This whole sequence of events to take down Zebstrika had occurred within seconds, and I hadn’t expected Metagross to be able to so quickly turn the situation around with Zebstrika into a 2v1 like that.

It was unfortunate that Elesa accomplished so little in this battle, but it was inevitable. She was just outmatched. But there was no shame in being outmatched by Champions.

Wraith tried to punish Metagross for taking its attention off of himself by firing off a barrage of Shadow Balls, but they were completely ineffective. Probably thanks to Metagross having four different minds operating at once, all of the other incoming Shadow Balls were either nullified by a Protect shield, or the Shadow Balls ineffectively impacted against one of its Steel arms that was surrounded by Dark energies.

Another pained cry from Zebstrika told me that it was out of the fight as a large eruption of stone exploded out from underneath it, and now the situation was truly a 2v1.

Unfortunately, Wraith just wasn’t built for these kinds of extended fights. He was someone that was incredibly useful at setting up ambushes and capitalising on an opponent’s shock, but against something as adaptable and as versatile as Metagross? He couldn’t do much. Especially not when he also had to deal with Kleavor at the same time.

So instead, I did the only thing I could do in this scenario.

“Come back, Wraith. You’ve done enough. But now it’s time – GO, TYRANT! BRING ME VICTORY!”

It was time to beat another Champion’s starter.

=============

(Steven’s POV)

The whole atmosphere of the battle seemed to change when Tyrant entered the field. Even before the battle had begun, Cynthia had warned Steven that the battle before and after John sent out his starter would be like night and day.

He was obviously already familiar with Tyrant’s strength – given that Bruno had faced off against it once himself, and because of all the research that he had done – but Cynthia had insisted that it was different when you actually faced off against it in person.

He could see why. The instant that Tyrant came out of his Pokéball, he had immediately rushed over to Kleavor and ambushed it with a very quick Ice Beam to the chest. The ray of frost failed to freeze Kleavor, but it slowed the Rock type for long enough that it was only barely able to lift its stone axes in time to block against the devastating iron-coated fist that swung its way.

Yet it wasn’t enough. The sheer strength of Tyrant broke past Kleavor’s desperate defenses, and coupled with the injuries that it had already accrued, the subsequent Hammer Arm to the face sent Kleavor flying backwards and into the psychic shields.

Metagross had tried to distract Slaking with a Flash Cannon and Psychic, but his Special Attacks almost seemed like they bounced off harmlessly with how little of a reaction from Tyrant that they garnered. Sure, they were far from his starter’s most powerful attacks, but they should have done something. Therefore, realising that Kleavor would do nothing but be a liability at this point, Cynthia retired her Kleavor and sent out her starter as well.

Her Garchomp took to the field.

And the crowd went wild as the battle entered into its final stage. Three Pokémon that were worthy of Champions were present on the battlefield – each one of them enough to take on over a dozen or so Pokémon by themselves and win.

Even with all of his training to maintain a cool and stoic composure, he couldn’t help it as an eager grin began to split across his face. He could feel his blood pumping through his veins as their strongest Pokémon stared down at each other.

This was why he could never just be a businessman like so many of his peers. The excitement and the adrenaline of a good battle – he could never resist it.

Who knew when he would be able to be in a battle like this again?

A cacophony of thunderous roars boomed out through the battlefield as all three of their Pokémon charged down each other.

Would it have been smarter and more effective to have his Metagross hang back and primarily focus on supporting Garchomp as she clashed against Tyrant? Almost certainly so. Or would it have been better if he just allowed Garchomp to distract Tyrant while he had Metagross buff itself with every setup move that it knew? Yes, definitely.

However, this was not a match with his Champion title on the line. Therefore, why would he have his Metagross stay back and allow Garchomp to hog all the glory? This was his chance to test and prove that his Metagross was as strong and as versatile as any other Champion’s Pokémon, even without buffs.

There was no way he would play a supporting role in this fight. Though Metagross did set up with a Reflect and Light Screen, just in case.

Garchomp was the first to reach Tyrant, speeding forwards with a Dragon Rush that Tyrant blocked against. The damage was all stored up in a Counter, but before the monstrous Slaking could swing his Ice-covered fists around in a devastating counterattack, his Metagross intercepted and disrupted the attack with a double blast of Psychics.

Garchomp took advantage of this and slashed down with a ruthless Dragon Claw, slicing a tear through Tyrant’s chest. But a quick Ice Beam shot out from Tyrant’s mouth, surprising Garchomp with the quadruply supereffective attack and denying her the opportunity to follow up with an Iron Head, as a Brick Break shattered through the two screens.

Yet before Tyrant could step in with another Ice Punch, his Metagross appeared behind him and slammed down with a Hammer Arm to the back of his head. Except Tyrant had activated his Counter once again before spinning around and striking back hard with a boosted Knock Off.

As his Metagross stumbled back, that bought time for Tyrant to swing back around as he tried to smash another Ice Punch into Garchomp’s face. But the Garchomp was faster as an tidal wave of draconic energy began to pour out of her as she unleashed her Outrage, before striking him in the gut first with a ferocious Brick Break and Iron Head combo that caused Tyrant to reel backwards.

His Metagross followed up, sending a blast of Psychic that was deliberately targeted at the back of Tyrant’s legs to destabilise him before another Hammer Arm simultaneously crashed down from above. Tyrant was brought to his knees, though he retaliated by slamming both fists against the ground and unleashing a point-blank Earthquake that interrupted both of their attacks.

“SLAKINGGG!!” Roaring to the skies, Tyrant launched forwards and grabbed onto one of Metagross’ legs before he performed a shocking backflip off of its metallic frame, somersaulting through the air in an act of incredible acrobatics as he landed behind Garchomp.

Garchomp spun around, her claws brandished threateningly as she prepared to slash down with another Dragon Claw. Yet Tyrant struck first – uppercutting the Dragon in the jaw with a critical Ice Punch. The attack was so devastatingly powerful that he actually snapped Garchomp out of her Outrage for a brief moment, before a Drain Punch sent it flying backwards.

His Metagross charged forwards with a Bullet Punch to put a halt to Tyrant’s assault, but Tyrant caught its metallic arm with one of his own – trapping it in his powerful grip – and subsequently unleashing a torrent of flames from his mouth with a Flamethrower.

Yet his Metagross endured through it too and countered with a quick Stone Edge that erupted from below. Meanwhile, Garchomp came charging in from the side as she slammed into him with a fully powered Outrage-boosted Dragon Rush, but though he let out a grunt of pain, Tyrant had dug himself into the ground with his feet and refused to budge.

Instead, he let out a roar of his own as he suddenly exploded forwards with the Giga Impact.

Garchomp was literally being kidnapped as Tyrant grabbed a hold of her and dragged her along for the entire length of the Giga Impact until he slammed the both of them into the psychic shields. Needless to say, even reinforced as they were, the psychic shields instantly shattered apart as Tyrant and Garchomp tore through them as they crashed into the bottom of one of the audience stands.

Even as the crowd screamed in panic and desperately tried to get out of the way, it was like they didn’t even realise it as the two Pokémon began to pound away at each other with every last bit of their strength. Not wanting to be left out, his Metagross rapidly channelled a Teleport before reappearing behind Tyrant – only to receive a spinning Mega Kick to the face as it did so.

Fortunately, his Metagross resisted the move and punished it by slamming Tyrant’s leg into the ground and keeping it pinned below it. The metallic behemoth then blasted Tyrant with another Psychic while simultaneously striking with a lightning fast Bullet Punch into his side. Garchomp took advantage of that and hammered down with another supereffective Brick Break to the face while also trying to pin down his arms with her own.

Yet Tyrant endured through the blow and freed himself from the pin by firing off a point-blank Ice Beam that forced Garchomp back for the moment. Then, with only a single leg of leverage available to him, Tyrant somehow had the strength to pull his Metagross forwards – despite how much his enormously heavy starter weighed – and bashed it in the face with a mighty Drain Punch, which also restored a little bit of health for the Normal type monster.

It spoke volumes that Tyrant was actually somewhat managing to hold his own in this fight – despite it being a 2v1 against two Pokémon that were ‘supposed’ to be his superior. Though with Tyrant having beaten Lance’s Emperor in a 1v1 in the past, perhaps ‘equals’ was a better label for their Pokémon.

Far away, he could barely make out the referee trying to call for the battle to stop as their trio of Pokémon destroyed more and more of the audience stands. He felt bad for those who had to evacuate from the immediate area, but right now all he could think about was the battle in front of him.

And now that he had some space to move, Tyrant dived under another Bullet Punch from his Metagross before his arms grabbed hold of its metallic frame and lifted it into the air in a shocking demonstration of his strength. His Metagross fired off another Psychic to try to get Tyrant to drop it, but Tyrant tanked it with a growl before he hurled his Metagross into Garchomp, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

In an effort to separate the two, Tyrant stomped on the ground and caused a huge slab of rock to erupt out from the ground, using the impact to knock the lighter Garchomp through the air. Another sonic boom echoed throughout the arena as Tyrant launched himself into the air with yet another devastating Giga Impact, crashing into Garchomp in mid-air and sending them both crashing into the opposite side of the arena.

However, this time, his Metagross had already calculated their trajectory and where they were going to land. Therefore, he Teleported to their landing spot, and caught Tyrant completely by surprise as his two front arms thrust forwards with a powerful duo of Hammer Arms. This painful pummelling of blows knocked Tyrant away, buying Garchomp a moment to breathe.

And it was desperately needed for everyone involved. Even though all three of their Pokémon were known for their incredible and almost inexhaustible stamina, fighting at such intensity for so long took its toll, especially coupled with the myriad of painful injuries that they had all accrued.

Between them, Garchomp was faring the worst. She had been forced to take the brunt of Tyrant’s assault, and he knew from his research that Garchomp was not as physically strong as Tyrant was. She was more adept at attacking in bursts, rather than sustained brawls like the one they just had.

On the other hand, Tyrant was doing no better. With both of their Pokémon ganging up on him, the extent of his injuries matched Garchomp’s. He was visibly limping, and one of his arms hung weakly to his side as it had likely been broken. Sweat dripped off his brow as he panted heavily, a tired sense of exhaustion lining his every move.

Meanwhile, his Metagross was doing the best out of all three – though that was only due to its partner taking up all of Tyrant’s attention. Yet his metallic frame was no longer shiny as it once was, and a litany of burns and dents were scattered across its body.

However, despite their mutual exhaustion, all of their eyes still burned bright with determination and fighting spirit. They all knew that the fight wasn’t over, and they would not be the first to fall amongst them.

Then, suddenly, Tyrant made the first move. He blitzed forwards in another explosive Giga Impact, breaking the sound barrier once again as he barrelled into Garchomp.

But this time Garchomp was ready, and she flared out with every last drop of her draconic strength as she pushed her Outrage to the very limit – losing herself into a primal rage as she sought out as much power as possible. Because of this, Garchomp actually managed to hold her ground and somewhat defend against the incoming Giga Impact, giving Metagross the opportunity to slam into Tyrant from behind with a powerful Hammer Arm.

But – to everyone’s surprise – Tyrant then spun around towards his Metagross and launched himself forwards with another Giga Impact.

Steven couldn’t help but gape at that. Just where did he find the energy from?

Unfortunately, even with this extraordinary demonstration of his unrelenting endurance, his Metagross was known to be a defensive titan for a reason, and even as Tyrant came crashing into his Metagross like a freight train, Metagross held its ground.

And when the Giga Impact ended, Tyrant finally grew weak as he had used up what little remained of his energy, allowing his Metagross to bash it across the face with a Brick Break while a Psychic to the legs sent him collapsing to the ground.

From a distance, Garchomp stomped down on the ground and caused a field of sharp rocks to erupt out from below the fallen Tyrant, knocking him into the air.

Normally, this was where his Metagross would get in close and finish the fight with a Bullet Punch into Hammer Arm combo. However, even though Tyrant was on his last legs, he did not dare to underestimate what he was capable of.

A single overextension might be all it took to turn around this fight. Even with Tyrant as injured as it was, he knew that this monster would fight to the very end.

His body would be broken before his spirit. And even then, it was a very close run thing.

At the start of this battle, he had wanted to test out his Metagross in a battle against an opponent that he saw as an equal. However, he now realised that he was completely mistaken in that thought.

Tyrant was not his equal. He was stronger than that. If this battle had been a 1v1, he likely would have lost. Especially if his Metagross couldn’t get its buffs up in time.

So acknowledging this fact, he had Metagross keep its distance and take down Tyrant from a distance. Even Cynthia respected the decision and did the same, obviously thinking along the same lines as he was.

Eventually, after an almost uncomfortably long time where Tyrant absolutely refused to go down – like he was too angry to accept defeat – a barrage of Dragon Pulses, Psychics, and Flash Cannons eventually took down the monster.

He let out a sigh of relief as Tyrant finally collapsed to the ground, and his shoulders relaxed as he thought that the battle was over.

That was until he heard John shouting out once more, “WRAITH! FINISH THEM!”

Oh, fuck.

He had completely forgotten that Wraith was still in the fight, wounded and injured as it was. He might still have Aggron in reserve, but Wraith had already proven once that Aggron was a terrible matchup against it.

He needed to win here. But both Garchomp and his Metagross were terribly exhausted as well, having needed to expend far more energy that they expected to take down the undying Tyrant.

He looked on in horror as he watched Wraith leap out from the ground behind Garchomp. Garchomp quickly spun around and slammed down with a Dragon Tail – causing Wraith to be flung to the side.

However, it was nothing more than an illusion. The real Wraith actually appeared in front of Garchomp and eviscerated with a double slash of Shadow Claws. Garchomp fell to her knees, and though she tried to retaliate with a Dragon Claw, Wraith dodged it with a Detect and Sucker Punched the Dragon in the jaw, sending Garchomp reeling backwards.

Wraith was obviously looking to burst down Garchomp before his Metagross could intervene, but unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen.

A Flash Cannon suddenly struck Wraith in the back of the head right before he could finish off Garchomp, knocking him to the ground. Wraith let out a frustrated snarl as he disappeared into his own shadow, just in time to dodge out of the way of the incoming Flash Cannon, before reappearing right next to Garchomp.

But even as tired as she was, Garchomp had predicted this, and this time it wasn’t an illusion that got hit by the powerful Dragon Tail as Wraith was sent crashing into the side of the arena.

An Earthquake tore through the ground and ravaged Wraith with a flood of rippling tremors of seismic energy. Then Metagross Teleported on top of Wraith and smashed down with a brutal Meteor Mash, burying it deep into the ground.

That spelled the end of John’s final Pokémon.

He almost collapsed to the ground from exhaustion – he hadn’t even fought in that battle, but he felt equally as tired as his Pokémon were.

In the end, they had won. But for a fight between two Champions in their prime against an Elite Four and a Gym Leader? The fight should not have been that close.

Sure, both of their starters made it out of the fight without being knocked out… but they could have easily lost that battle, had things gone even slightly differently.

That just made him all the more glad that John was Lance’s problem to deal with. He would never sit comfortably if he knew someone like could be angling for his position.

A.N. This was a really tough chapter to write, and it went on for far longer than I had expected it to. However, I didn’t want to split up this chapter into two, so I hope you enjoyed the longer chapter.

In the end, John does lose. Tyrant, no matter how immensely strong he is, isn’t going to be able to take a 2v1 against both Garchomp and Metagross. However, that doesn’t mean he will go down easily, and I wanted to show that even when outmatched, Tyrant is still an absolute monster of a Pokémon.

Of course, please remember that this was merely a show match. As Steven mentions, he could have fought more effectively, which he would have done had this been a real battle. The same goes for John, of course, and he was arguably handicapped by Elesa since she’s really too weak to fight in this sort of battle (which isn’t her fault). If this was John + Drake vs Steven + Cynthia, for example, then the chances of John’s victory would be much, much higher. Hope you enjoyed!