Chapter 164

Author Note:

I’ll be taking Friday off to give myself one last break before the fiction is over. Right now, I’m expecting about a month of chapters to be left, but that may or may not change given that they’re only planned out and not written.

Additionally, I’ll be using this time to try to revise Chapter 161. Sam’s meeting with Agatha didn’t quite come out in the way I wanted.

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If Cassandra could claim to be a “Normal” Type specialist, then Xavier could claim to be a Flying Type specialist. Three Pokémon on his team shared that Type, and then his last two species were wholly terrestrial. However, he lacked any singular Pokémon that could potentially be called his “ace.” Yet, it was not that his Pokémon were weak; it was that all of his Pokémon were threats. Every individual member of his team commanded more than enough power to sweep through any battle here—as long as they had the right setup.

In his third-round match, Xavier proved himself to be among the top of the current competitors. He had fulfilled his silent promise to himself and had caught that Honchkrow from north of Mahogany Town. Though Sam didn’t recognize what move it used, that Dark Type Pokémon was able to thrust out its wings and conjure a harsh wind that consistently blew behind it.

After a quick switch, Xavier did not send out his Yanma, but his Yanmega. Something about that constantly blowing tailwind saw the evolved Pokémon’s impressive speed double.

Yanma and Yanmega were known for their passive build-up of momentum, usually attributed to their Speed Boost ability. That constant acceleration combined with the Honchkrow’s Tailwind caused Xavier’s Yanmega to move faster than any Pokémon Sam had ever seen.

With how fast it could fly, the Yanmega was unhittable, unapproachable, and effectively unequivocal. It didn’t just sweep; it defeated its foes flawlessly. The Yanmega never took even a single hit, and not one Pokémon it faced could withstand either its eardrum-bursting Bug Buzz or its uses of Ancient Power that saw its every capability enhanced even further.

Though Redi had an impressive showing in the previous match, the audience was no less excited at Xavier’s perfect victory. He outmatched his opponent in every way to earn himself a one-sided win.

Sam didn’t just witness a domination. He witnessed a demonstration.

When Xavier shook his opponent’s hand at the end of his match, his eyes scanned the crowd. Something about his expression felt off as he searched for someone that he knew was there, but Sam was too far up in the stands for Xavier to find him.

“Is it just me, or is he scarier than you?” Redi said from where she sat next to Sam.

“It’s just you,” Sam replied with a huff, though something about Redi’s words stuck with him.

She let out a laugh, but it came out a bit tired due to all of the energy she expended in her battle.

“You know, I can’t say I’ve been following Xavier’s journey,” Redi started, “but I have caught him on TV. I’m pretty sure he’s been competing in other tournaments for practice.”

“He’s not hiding his team?” Sam asked with a slight frown.

“You already know that not everyone does that,” Redi replied, scoffing. “But yeah. He’s not bothering. He’s one of those trainers who doesn’t care if you know what he can do. It doesn’t matter if someone enters the battle with a bunch of counters. He’ll win regardless. His Pokémon are just. That. Good.”

Silently, Sam watched Xavier walk off the field. Every footstep was deliberate, and he kept his gaze low and wholly focused on the ground.

He’s still in the Conference, but he doesn’t look happy.

“Do you know how many tournaments he’s won?” Sam asked.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Um... In the past month, I think he’s won at least two?”

Sam had thrown himself into practice with his team, but practice meant little in the face of actual experience. There was a reason that one trainer had used the Violet City Tournament to evolve his Kadabra back then. Nothing was as effective as fighting many difficult trainers back to back. Trying for the same through practice alone would have seen that Kadabra’s evolution take weeks instead of hours.

Still, Sam hadn’t entered the Ilex Forest unaware of the benefits of experience. He had done it because his team needed to practice in the shadows, and Annihilape’s developed control over Ghost Type energy made all of that training worth it just on its own.

With Xavier’s match finished, the next two trainers went up, and Sam could at least let out a sigh of relief when they weren’t as intimidating as they could have been. Yet this was still the Conference, and the strength of every displayed Pokémon was immense.

A Tangrowth practically choked the life out of a Ludicolo. A Hariyama and Machamp exchanged blows that sent shockwaves through the air. A rare Relicanth, a fish Pokémon that shouldn’t have ever been seen on a compacted dirt field, was able to carry itself forward with a Surf to deliver a Head Smash that practically cracked a Skarmory open.

And then it was Sam’s turn. He was facing one of the last people here he recognized from his journey. Preston had been eliminated. Cassandra was out. Terry had lost. And Edgar hadn’t even made it past the first round.

Only Redi, Xavier, and Eliza were left. Victor, too, was technically still in the Conference, but Sam couldn’t say he knew the guy too well, and Victor was yet to have his third-round match.

When the battle before Sam’s started, he stood, knowing he needed to get to the lower tunnels to be prepared to come out next. He sent a polite nod to Redi and his mother, and both of them wished him luck in return.

“Crush her,” Redi said, a sharp grin on her face.

“Show them all why they should fear you, sweetie!” his mother added.

She replied with only a polite smile even as Sam sent her a second look.

He parted to the sounds of his Ghost Types cackling around him, and he made sure all of the Pokémon he planned to use in this match were safely inside a Pokéball.

While he waited in the tunnels under the field, Sam took several deep breaths. He also pushed any lingering thoughts about Xavier’s match out of his head. He had prepared himself for this battle. He had seen Eliza’s strategies. Everything she did was to set up the field in her favor, literally adapting the terrain, but he knew how to fight both against and alongside that.

Though he had a plan, he wouldn’t rigidly stick to it. He had learned from his mistakes. If he encountered anything unexpected, he would just adapt, and then he would win.

“....aaaand on the opposite side, we have Samuel Greyson!” came an announcer’s voice as League staff encouraged Sam out onto the main arena’s battlefield floor. “The Ghost Type specialist who shocked the world with his reveal of not one, not two, but three brand new species! His opponent, Eliza, has demonstrated time and time again an absolute mastery of battlefield control! And now, we’ll see which is stronger—the sneakiness of Samuel’s Ghosts, or the sheer power of Eliza’s battlefield-wide moves!”

Eliza wore a polite smile on her face as she approached the field opposite to Sam. She waved to all of the cheering people, but she also sent him a respectful nod that he sent back.

“Good luck,” Eliza said, repeating the same thing they had said to each other at Cassandra’s party last night.

“Good luck,” Sam said to her in reply.

He could tell she was eager to test her team against his, and both of them were eager to win this match.

Quickly, the referee went over the rules—this would be a five-on-five match with six switches allowed per trainer—and then called for both trainers to send out their Pokémon.

“Drakloak.”

“Steelix.”

Eliza looked over Sam’s choice with a pleased smile.

Typhlosion was by far Sam’s preferred choice of a lead, but he had led with Drakloak in his previous battle as well. Leading with her twice in a row almost implied some sort of habit or strategy, but in this case, Sam had simply released Drakloak here since she was a strong counter to Eliza’s plans.

Eliza always started her battles with the same set of moves, after all.

Over the field, Drakloak hovered in the air and faced Eliza’s towering Steelix. It lacked the sheer size of Jasmine’s Steelix, but that didn’t mean it was any less intimidating. However, Drakloak had witnessed that battle, and she had already seen one of these behemoths fall. She was ready for this match, ready to prove that she was just as capable as the combatants she’d watched back then.

Her tail swished behind her. From atop her head, Dreepy let out a hiss in support. Drakloak had to force herself not to flinch at the unexpected noise, and Sam had to force back a laugh when he saw that exchange, pretending his smile was due to confidence alone.

With both trainers’ choices on the field, the referee then gave the Pokémon one last look-over before nodding his head once.

A pair of flags swung through the air.

“Begin!” the referee shouted.

Though neither trainer immediately spoke, the Pokémon on the field moved. Eliza, so reliant on reshaping the field, stayed silent as her Steelix dove into the earth. Drakloak, meanwhile, wasn’t immune to Ground Type moves, but she could outrange them. She shot straight into the sky to give herself some distance.

Only then did either trainer give a command.

“Lock-On,” Sam said.

“Earthquake! Dig!” Eliza ordered.

Drakloak didn’t have to change where she was in the sky. She could remain utterly still even as the Steelix dug through the floor’s surface, the upper half of its body exposed, to cause the field to churn and crack. Almost like ice floes, the compacted dirt of the battlefield itself broke apart into platforms. Pieces of ground shifted and tilted to form discrete, uneven surfaces.

The Steelix then dove deeper, vanishing into the earth, and all of those crooked platforms sank and rose to form gaps and canyons between them.

Eliza was already palming a Pokéball, preparing to switch, but Sam wasn’t going to let her move onto phase two of her plan so easily.

“Infestation.”

Dreepy dropped off Drakloak’s head to plummet toward the still-shifting earth. He carried a payload of Bug Type energy that was delivered via skittering off of him and into the ground. Though the Steelix was protected by the earth itself thanks to Dig, the energy still pierced into the floor.

Then, as fast as he could, Dreepy dashed back to Drakloak with a rapid use of Quick Attack.

“Incredible strategy! Though we are unable to see it, Drakloak’s use of Lock-On has allowed Samuel’s Pokémon to land their move even through the protections of Dig!” an announcer shouted out. “If this move works the way it has in his previous matches, Steelix will be unable to switch!”

If it wasn’t for Lock-On, this strategy wouldn’t have worked. The Infestation would have dissipated into the ground, and Eliza would have been able to return her Steelix the second it emerged.

Instead, when it burst from the earth, Drakloak’s Bug Type energy crawled over the Steelix’s body as if it were covered by clusters of spiders. Infestation did not deal much initial damage due to Steelix’s resistances, but the energy would slowly eat away at it, dealing damage regardless of its Type.

And it would be stuck taking that damage as long as Drakloak stayed out.

“That’s annoying,” Eliza commented, “but not unexpected. Steelix, use Stone Edge!”

Though half of the Steelix’s body was out of the ground, its other half was still buried. It used that to its advantage, swinging its spiked tail to have it explode out of the earth and send jagged fragments of stone up at the floating Drakloak.

Drakloak’s speed would normally let her dodge most moves, but in this case, the sheer power behind that tail swipe saw the stones hurtle upwards with incredible momentum. She could avoid most of them, but not all. Several of the smaller fragments managed to pierce her side.

“Dragonbreath!” Eliza yelled the very second Drakloak slowed from pain.

So she’s using one of those Dragon Type moves she wanted help with, huh? Glad Drakloak can fly. Otherwise, a Dragon Tail might have forced her to switch.

Sam didn’t need to speak for this; as Steelix exhaled a plume of yellow-purpose flame, Drakloak quickly moved out of the way. Agility came easily enough to her that she was able to use it reflexively, and her increased speed gave her the chance to dodge.

Then, she curved around in the air to outpace the flames while rushing toward Steelix.

“Will-O-Wisp, just like Mismagius taught you!” Sam yelled.

She rocketed past Steelix, flying faster than it could track her, and a set of burning wisps followed in her wake to impact its steel-covered side.

From there, Sam only had to wait. Steelix was suffering from both the ongoing damage of this burn as well as Infestation. The tension-inducing scorch marks on it would drastically reduce its physical power. Stone Edge was much less of a threat, especially now that it lacked the momentum that’d outpace Drakloak.

Temporarily, Drakloak focused on running away, and Infestation soon faded. However, between the Infestation’s passive damage and the heated burn, the Steelix looked exhausted, and Drakloak looked similarly tired from spending so long running away.

As much as Sam wanted to call for a U-Turn here, that move would deal little damage given Steelix’s defenses. A close-range strike would open Drakloak up to further retaliation, so Sam hard-returned her instead.

And Eliza returned her Pokémon as well.

Though Drakloak hadn’t secured a faint, her only purpose had been to weaken and stall. Eliza might have begun reshaping the field into terrain that’d suit her battling style, but Sam did not let her get away with that for free.

“Lapras,” Eliza named next.

“Typhlosion,” Sam said, wanting to take advantage of Eliza’s next planned move. “Detect! Will-O-Wisp!”

“Surf!” Eliza yelled.

The second she appeared, Typhlosion dove, her eyes flashing with insight, and she ducked down behind a gap between those broken, uneven platforms of the floor. Eliza’s Lapras cried out its name, causing water to flood out from underneath it, and an enormous wall of water formed behind its shell only to crash down onto the field.

Some platforms broke. Others were swept away. A few remained untouched, but the rushing waters eroded Steelix’s gaps in the field to have everything resemble something akin to a craggy coast.

Tearing herself upwards, Typhlosion grabbed the edge of the cliff to pull herself into the air before the waters reached her hiding place. Wisps formed behind her back, and they stabbed down toward Lapras as she fell through the air.

So focused on Surf, it was unable to use its shell to hide from this burn.

“Return,” Eliza said, and there was not a single ounce of worry in her voice. Though her Steelix was injured and her Lapras was burned, she had achieved everything she wanted to begin her version of the fight.

The field was primed in her face.

“Scizor!” she yelled. “Classic strategy—Double Team, and then strike!”

Sam saw the armored Pokémon appear and gave a simple command.

“Again, Typhlosion.”

They needed to burn Scizor to both win overall and to weaken it in this fight.

When the Bug Type appeared, it perched on a thin pillar of stone sticking up between the field’s broken cracks. Wisps lingering from the burned Lapras rushed toward it, but they all passed right through the image left behind from Double Team.

Doubles of copies flashed into existence, and duplicates of Scizor appeared all across Eliza’s side of the field.

Sam said nothing, and Typhlosion adjusted her strategy. Scizor might have had a way to dodge, but she had a way to guarantee a hit, and she surprised both Eliza and Scizor with a Swift that tracked her foe to guide and deliver her Will-O-Wisps.

With ease, her attack landed. When the wisps followed, Scizor was burned.

“Perfect! That’s all we needed, Typhlosion! Now, return!” Sam called out.

But Eliza just smiled. Hearing Sam’s shout, her own order came out as fast as it could.

“Pursuit!”

Every Double Team duplication moved simultaneously. Typhlosion had barely begun disappearing into red light when Scizor struck. Pursuit was a move that punished all forms of escape, and though Typhlosion could never truly be trapped as a Ghost Type, she could still be hit.

A red claw delivered that Dark Type Pursuit with a massively increased strength right to her chest. Not only did the super-effective damage mean this landed extremely effectively, but this move was powered up by using it against an escaping Pokémon. The only reason Typhlosion didn’t faint outright was because Scizor had been weakened by its burn.

Sam exhaled as she disappeared. He clicked her ball back to his belt.

“Good job, Typhlosion,” he said quietly. “Your part in this battle is done. You didn’t faint, and that was all we needed. Because of you, we’ll win this battle now.”

The audience was roaring as the Scizor came to a stop atop another pillar. It still had its copies behind it, and Sam knew that the speed of its attacks meant it would always be a threat.

Though burned, hitting it would be difficult, and it was free to strike from any angle. Typhlosion’s Swift was Sam’s best answer to this kind of defense, but he had already intentionally called her back.

Instead, his next Pokémon was one unlikely to be a great match-up against any of Eliza’s other team members, especially with so many of them dedicated to range. However, Annihilape did know one move not dissimilar to Swift, and he had already proven himself to be a counter to a much stronger Scizor he had once faced in the past.

“Annihilape,” Sam named.

When at rest, an Annihilape's long hair tended to hang. Upon being sent out, however, his mastery over his anger meant his rage grew, and the sheer power he wielded meant his hair flowed upwards and faded away into smoky wisps.

Eliza hesitated. So far in the Conference, Annihilape had only fought a single Pokémon weak to physical attacks, but he had demonstrated just how well he could take a hit.

Wary of his strength, she seemed to change her strategy.

“Scizor, continue with Double Team,” she said. “Then, use Swords Dance.”

More duplicates spread across the divided platforms, and Annihilape didn’t have any easy way of reaching them due to the large cracks that had split them apart. He could jump between them, of course, but a lightning-fast Bullet Punch could interrupt any such attempt. The move’s impact would also see him fall right into the water below, and that’d put him at the mercy of any Pokémon Eliza chose.

Eliza knew that, which is why she had her Scizor dance. Every image of it shifted side-to-side, and it brought up its claws for a ringing clash that sharpened them to increase its physical power.

Even if Annihilape tried to approach, he had no way to guarantee the image he approached was the correct one, and Eliza planned to use that advantage to set up a sweep. Though Scizor was on a limited timer due to its burn, Trevenant was still resting, and the rest of Sam’s Pokémon weren’t great at taking physical hits.

Sam knew that if he played this incorrectly, the Scizor would tear right through his team.

That’s why he called for Shadow Punch. That move could attack from range, and it couldn’t miss.

“Take it out!” Sam yelled.

Drawing his arm back, a brutal punch from Annihilape sent a shadowy copy of his fist rushing forward. The duplicate didn’t track like Swift, but he could control it, and the copy twisted around the field to pass through the images until it finally landed against the real Scizor, still in the middle of its Swords Dance.

Unfortunately, Scizor's metal carapace let it easily withstand the blow.

“Keep up Shadow Punch,” Sam said. “Don’t stop until it faints.”

“Swords Dance!” Eliza ordered again. “It can only send one out at once! So just keep boosting yourself!”

Ugh. Great.

Sam barely suppressed his groan as Eliza correctly determined Annihilape’s weakness.

Double Team couldn’t quite prevent Shadow Punch from hitting, but Scizor could use its duplicates to mislead Annihilape’s move and stall. Quick bursts from the Bug Type let it jump from image to image, and Annihilape had no way of knowing which Scizor was real until his punch eventually hit.

And then, Eliza gave one final command.

“Swords Dance!”

A third step saw Scizor’s final clash of its claws. Pulling its arms back, the Pokémon was ready to move. It had reached a point where its power was maximized; no further use of Swords Dance could increase its attack further.

For all Annihilape was capable of resisting damage, Sam knew his Pokémon wouldn’t be able to withstand a max-power Bullet Punch. Though the burn was slowly eating away at the Scizor, it would be able to take out several of Sam’s Pokémon unless he did something to counter it, and now.

“Curse,” Sam said tiredly.

Annihilape was more than just a raging ball of physical power. There was at least one move he could use before being taken out here.

If there was one thing Sam could rely on Annihilape being, it was being angry. A single Bullet Punch saw Scizor shoot across the field and tear its claw across Annihilape’s chest, dealing a massive amount of damage, but Annihilape refused to faint there.

His hand shot up to clutch his injury. He was teetering, on the verge of letting that pain see him collapse. Barely able to turn from even just that one punch, he looked over his shoulder to glare at where the Scizor had come to a stop atop a lone pillar of earth.

It stood above him, merely waiting for him to fall, and Annihilape would faint here without the need for any other moves. However, he still brought up an arm. A cold anger fueled him. He pointed at the Scizor with all of the hatred he could muster. The hand clutching his chest became cloaked in shadows, and as he had his fingers dig into his own flesh, Annihilape fell.

As his Curse took effect, the Scizor lurched, almost losing its balance.

“Great job,” Sam said to Annihilape’s Pokéball as he returned his Pokémon.

With that one move, Scizor’s time left on the field had been drastically reduced. Between the burn and the ongoing Curse, Eliza would have to choose between returning her Pokémon or trying to score one more faint.

However, with the amount of time she’d dedicated to setting up Swords Dance, Sam knew that Eliza would not want to give up that investment. Setting up big plays was how she preferred to fight, after all, and that preference was the exact thing that’d trap her Scizor on the field.

“Mismagius!”

Upon appearing, his Ghost Type grinned, a malicious glee on her face sourced from finally having the chance to show something off. Though she had fought before, she hadn’t been able to achieve much to her standards. She desperately wanted to demonstrate the true depths of her strength.

And, when the battle resumed, Eliza didn’t return her Pokémon, just as Sam expected. She would be keeping Scizor out to aim for at least one more K.O., and Mismagius looked fragile enough to bait her to try for exactly that.

Two commands came out at the same time.

“Bullet Punch!”

“Shadow Sneak.”

Mismagius won.

Scizor’s high speed primarily came from the speed of its attacks, not the speed at which it moved. When faced with a Pokémon that could use their attacks just as fast as it, then innate speed was the only thing that mattered, and Mismagius easily had it beat.

The Scizor dropped down to leap through the gaps of the canyons, intending to use the field itself as cover. Mismagius acted similarly, dropping to the floor to turn into shadows, and Scizor leaped out only to have its punch sail right over where she had just been. 

Landing on the platform, it snapped around to stare at the inky darkness that dripped into the gaps of the field. Shadows crept away, but Mismagius did not show herself.

The Scizor winced.

Annihilape’s Curse was getting to it.

Moreso than the burn, it had to fight to get through the ongoing pain, and the red Pokémon wobbled in place, barely able to handle the ongoing damage.

Distracted, it didn’t notice the gathering darkness behind it.

“At your back!” Eliza yelled.

A claw shot out for a punch as it snapped around, but its fist merely passed through an empty shadow. The growing mass had only been a trick.

Instead, from underneath it, its own shadow exploded upwards, and the Scizor failed to brace itself for a defense. Striking from the floor, Mismagius let her arms drag across the Scizor’s body with an aggressive Shadow Sneak, and that was enough. 

She only needed that little bit of chip damage to finish it off.

“Scizor is unable to battle! Trainer Eliza, please send out your next Pokémon!” shouted the referee.

Mismagius looked extremely smug as Eliza returned her Scizor.

“And now, Eliza only has four Pokémon left,” Sam mumbled to himself. The microphones failed to pick up his voice. “That might not seem so bad for her, especially since Annihilape fainted and because Typhlosion is so wounded, but two of her remaining Pokémon are burned. Scizor is down. If we can get just one more burn off without taking too much damage...”

Even if Eliza has four Pokémon left, we only really need to knock out three more, anyway.

Sam wasn’t surprised when Eliza chose to release her Slowking. He was especially not surprised when the regal Pokémon casually walked right off a platform and into the lingering waters below.

“Will-O-Wisp,” Sam ordered Mismagius.

“Wow. You’re really fond of that move, huh?” Eliza called out.

“Hey,” Sam said in reply. “I like it when a battle gets hot.”

He cringed. Hard. Groans came from the audience, and even Mismagius sent him a look.

Sam knew that horrible attempt at a taunt would haunt him for years.

Thankfully, Mismagius was still able to conjure her wisps, and Slowking, kicking its legs to swim with its hands held behind its back, caused a tide to rise behind it with Surf. That wave crashed down right toward where Mismagius had been floating, but her Shadow Sneak let her dash backwards and avoid that attack.

But it didn’t matter that the move had missed. Slowking’s Surf caused the water level to rise, as even more liquid was added to the field. Several of Mismagius’s growing horde of wisps were snuffed out as well, but she had used many of them as intentional sacrifices to burn gaps through the water and allow a few to get through.

A dark shadow swam through the canyons in the field. For once, Mismagius stuck to the light, floating high in the air. Tension seemed to stretch through the air as the audience waited for whatever exchange would come next.

But the Slowking was just letting the water build, and Mismagius was waiting until it slowed for a turn.

Only then did she strike.

“Now!” Sam shouted.

Her wisps turned to needles. This was still a Will-O-Wisp, just reshaped to a new form. Fiery streaks shot into the water, piercing right through it, and though the cool liquid washed several of them away, a few still managed to reach and burn the passively moving Slowking.

Finally, with this one condition, all but one Pokémon on Eliza’s team was burned.

With that, Sam now had no doubt in his mind that he would win.

“It’s time, Mismagius!” Sam ordered. “Reveal it. Use Hex!”

“Future Sight!” Eliza called out quickly,

Mismagius’s cackles were like whispers that chilled the field, and the Slowking failed to conjure even the barest amount of defense. Several of them hit it before it could even begin to use Surf, and its crowned head broke through the surface of the water just to let out a cry.

It opened its mouth for a Water Gun, but that was a move used out of desperation. Mismagius’s wisps were a cascade, a dark, inevitable reminder of the end. Like the Will-O-Wisps before them, they stabbed down at the Slowking. Even Eliza’s hurried shout for a Psychic did not do much at all.

“Slowking!” Eliza began to yell, quickly grabbing a Pokéball. “Retur—!”

“Mean Look,” Sam interrupted.

A sharp glare saw Slowking be trapped. Eliza would not be allowed to call it back.

More wisps flooded out as the full, true power of Hex was demonstrated, and Eliza's expression dropped as her Slowking tried and failed to withstand the damage. It lasted longer than Sam would have thought, but that just gave Sam time to silently thank Redi for snapping him out of his previous plan.

Yeah, hiding moves and strategies is way better than hiding entire team members. The amount of freedom we’ve had in this battle has been exceptionally nice.

Also, sorry, Morty, but you knew I’d reveal Hex eventually. Besides, you seemed more excited about its potential power than any one moment of surprise.

The Slowking soon fell to Mismagius’s persistent wisps stabbing into it, each of them dealing super effective damage enhanced by the Slowking’s ongoing burn.

However, it did not faint alone.

To the sounds of the audience cheering for her victory, Mismagius was suddenly smashed into the field out of nowhere. Slowking might have fainted, but its Future Sight from earlier caught her in the back. The psychic force hit her like a hammer, and the impact sent her crashing into a platform.

With a heavy thump, she instantly fell unconscious.

“Phew,” Eliza breathed.

Sam returned his Pokémon.

“Mismagius, thank you. You were amazing. That Slowking took way more punishment than I expected. But now, we don’t need to worry about it, thanks to you.”

He clipped her Friend Ball back to his belt, and Drakloak returned to the field. Eliza’s Lapras reappeared across from her.

But this was Eliza’s burned Lapras.

For an obvious reason, Sam’s Pokémon had the advantage.

“Drakloak! Hex!” Sam yelled.

“Blizzard!” Eliza shouted in an attempt at a counter.

As her Lapras landed on one of the field’s platforms, it didn’t wait to send a bone-chilling wind blowing out from behind it. A white whirlwind of snow and ice rushed Drakloak, but she pulled up into the air to avoid it.

Terrifyingly, if she had dove into the gaps of the field to dodge, the Blizzard would have just rushed through the twisting openings to trap her on all sides.

But Blizzard was not the most accurate of moves, both due to its chaotic nature and due to the time needed to build it up. If snow was falling, that would have been a different story, but Drakloak was easily able to send out her own form of purple wisps that stabbed into the Lapras’s exposed neck and fins. Any burned mark was stabbed, and the move dealt that much more damage due to the Lapras’s ongoing burn.

Sighing, Eliza seemed to recognize the outcome of this matchup as well. She looked to come to a different decision, instead.

“Perish Song,” she said emotionlessly, and her Lapras forwent all forms of defense.

One last, unblocked Hex finished off Lapras, but the mournful song it sang while under attack seemed to linger and echo through the air.

“You’re trapping Drakloak the same way I trapped Scizor,” Sam said unhappily.

Through expectation.

Eliza smiled.

Sam didn’t want to return Drakloak; he didn’t want to give even an inch to Eliza by returning his Pokémon. He also only had the heavily injured Typhlosion left as well as one Pokémon he was purposefully saving for last. He didn’t have very many options.

Though a Ghost Type, Drakloak was trapped. Perish Song would see her faint, but Sam needed her to stay out to secure this last K.O.

She wobbled a bit in the air, but Drakloak still turned around. Giving him a short nod, she recognizes the current situation.

“Thank you,” Sam said to her.

Dreepy saluted him from atop Drakloak’s head.

When Eliza sent out her next Pokémon, her command was both unfortunate and expected.

“Protect, Steelix!” she yelled.

Upon its appearance, the enormous Steel Type hardened its body so that Drakloak’s quick Hex splashed off of it and failed to deal damage.

“Now Dig!” Eliza yelled next.

Her Steelix dove into the ground, and Drakloak was forced to wait.

She hadn’t had a moment to use Lock-On, and Steelix was avoiding her view. Even if it ever peeked out, there were enough places it could briefly poke out between the platforms to avoid her gaze.

So Drakloak was forced to wait.

But this was fine. She just needed to stay out to stall for Sam’s other team members. With Steelix’s burn, Drakloak didn’t need to deal damage. Much like Eliza, they could just wait.

Time passed, and Drakloak soon collapsed.

The Perish Song had demanded that she’d faint, and that came true while Steelix stayed underground.

Sighing, Sam returned his Pokémon, and he went on to send out Typhlosion, choosing the most injured member of his team to reserve a final Pokémon just the same as Eliza. This wasn’t his plan, but he could make it work. It also helped that he didn’t need to worry about another Pursuit.

“Now, Steelix!” Eliza yelled.

Her Pokémon burst from the ground to try to trigger an Earthquake, but it didn’t matter.

“Detect.”

Typhlosion stepped back on her platform, avoiding the cracks that spread and caused large chunks of the ground to fall into the waters before. Steelix’s body looked superheated from its burn, and it tried to rush her.

All she needed was a quick jump to the side, and Steelix's momentum saw it slide. Its entire body crashed into a platform, and this desperate, final attempt failed to do anything before it succumbed to its burn.

“...Come back.”

Eliza looked tired.

“Return,” Sam said as well, and Typhlosion was brought back into her Pokéball.

And now, he’d won. It didn’t matter what Pokémon Eliza sent out. With Typhlosion conscious in her Pokéball, his final Pokémon guaranteed him the win.

Eliza wasn’t aware of that, and slowly, she seemed to chew on her options, rocking her jaw back and forth. She had only two Pokémon with her with only one left to send out, but she did eventually make her choice.

“Stantler!”

This made sense; a Normal Type would be immune to a Ghost Type move like Hex.

But Sam had to force back his laughter when he realized that he knew the Stantler that appeared.

That same young Stantler, the one once passed over by Redi, snorted as it was released onto a platform, a confident smile on its face. Though Redi had not caught it, it had managed to find itself a proper trainer all the same.

Unfortunately for it, Sam could tell by the look on its face that it was still far too cocky.

It would not be winning this fight.

“Haunter,” Sam named.

This was not Gengar.

Yes, Sam sent out a Haunter and not Gengar, choosing to use one of the many Ghost Types that had been traveling with him in his shadow. There was no sense in lying to himself about the truth of those Pokémon; they were his. Sam might have had a core team, but these Ghost Types relied on him, and he could rely on them. This Haunter was giving him the chance for a trick he could only really pull off once, but it was doing so at the perfect time to allow both Trevenant and Gengar to rest.

Upon being sent out, the Haunter’s initial reaction was one of awe—its very first official battle ever was in the Conference, of all things—but it was also ready to act. It knew what it had to do.

This Pokémon was fast, and it was weak.

That combination was exactly what Sam wanted it for.

“We’re in the perfect position, Stantler!” Eliza shouted. “Remember our lessons together! Charge forward! Take it out with Zen Headbutt!”

Ever so graceful, the Stantler leaped, and it jumped from uneven platform to uneven platform with practiced ease. Fighting it conventionally would have seen it be a hard foe to pin down, but Sam’s current strategy meant he didn’t need to think about any of that.

As its horns glowed with Psychic Type energy, Sam’s Haunter did nothing in response. With a grin on its face, it readied its claws, and a slow, creeping shadow stretched out over the field to connect to the Stantler’s own.

Eliza’s eyes widened, but she realized far too late.

“Stop! Fall back!”

Stantler was already mid-attack.

This Haunter was not a Pokémon that fit on an eight-star team. Honestly, it would have been out of place even on a five-star team. When the Stantler’s Zen Headbutt hit, it had no way of defending itself, and as a famously fragile Pokémon, it fainted to the super effective move just like that.

But that was where Destiny Bond came in.

With their shadows connected, when the Haunter fell, so did the Stantler. The Haunter needed to use no other move. Eliza groaned when she saw her Pokémon fail to get up.

And the referee’s shout announced the end of the match.

“Stantler is unable to battle!” came the yell. “Trainer Eliza has no more usable Pokémon. Trainer Samuel wins!”

Some members of the audience booed. Some members of the audience cheered. Sam waved to them all regardless as he returned his fainted Pokémon from the field.

Everything had been for this final moment, with Sam going as far as to treat this five-on-five battle as a four-on-four match. That’s why he wanted to hold Typhlosion back; he wanted to have at least a final, conscious team member in his pocket for the very end. He hadn’t been worried about Mismagius’s faint to Future Sight, and he had willingly let Drakloak faint to Perish Song for a reason.

He smiled as he shook Eliza’s hand at the side, and she breathed out in disappointment, bringing her fingers through the end of her hair.

“I want to be sad, but I guess I can’t be upset about this kind of loss. Top sixty-four isn’t bad for our first Conference. We gave it our everything, and we almost kind of won.”

“A Normal Type Stantler would have been way scarier if we fought it conventionally,” Sam said. “It was a good battle. You have a strong team.”

After shaking hands, they moved off the field. They needed to make room for the next set of trainers, and they both really wanted to heal their teams. The audience’s cheers weren’t anywhere as excited as the cheers after Redi’s or Xavier’s battle, but that was mostly due to the lack of major reveals and the battle’s rather “anti-climactic” end.

Like Morty had warned him, Destiny Bond wasn’t exactly a trick Sam could rely on too often if he wanted to be regarded well.

But Sam had still won, and he was moving into the fourth round, entering the Silver Conference’s top thirty-two. Somehow, from the initial two hundred fifty-six, he was one of the few trainers who were still able to compete.

Redi caught up to him to celebrate, and he made sure to heal his Pokémon before returning to his mother in the stands to watch the rest of today’s matches. After writing down all of his notes, he had time to relax in the Pokémon Center, and the next set of match-ups was announced.

When he saw them, he went silent. It was like the entire world froze all at once.

Redi patted his arm, and Sam stared at the hanging screen.

The listed pairings stated the obvious.

Sam would be facing Xavier in the Conference’s fourth round.

==========================================================================
Author Note:

Technically, Eliza has a specialty on her team, but it was completely unintentional. See, other than her Lapras, she almost exclusively trains Pokémon whose names start with “S.”

Pokémon included in this chapter:
Honchkrow
Lapras
Slowking
Stantler
Steelix
Scizor
Yanmega

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