Does it really need to be said?
Tobias said nothing as he tossed his first Pokeball, but Ash could tell that he was interested in the battle, despite the slightly condescending smirk on his face.
"Sceptile, you're up!" He yelled as the expected Darkai burst into existence. His plan was simple: Dark Void would essentially mean an instant KO, so he had to avoid that with a fast Pokemon.
"Ice Beam," Tobias said immediately, and Ash winced. Sceptile dodged without his command, but the entire battlefield iced over from the overpowered move, leaving a slippery surface that Sceptile struggled to stand up on. He followed it up with Dark Void, but Sceptile leapt over it, barely managing not to land on his head.
Ash remembered that one time Chimchar had come across this. Thankfully Sceptile had a much easier way to get the same effect. "Use Leaf Blade to make ice skates!"
Sceptile just looked at him, confused. "Uh, blades on your feet so you can't slide sideways? They're like knives pointing forward, and you stand on the blunt side," he ventured, and Sceptile shrugged back, absently ducking another Dark Void with his quick reflexes. Ash side-stepped it, having a little longer to react, as the vaguely draconic grass-type jumped once again and formed blades under his feet.
After a bit of a warm-up period, where Sceptile narrowly escaped three more Dark Voids, the grass-type was skating around the battlefield as if he'd done it his entire life, the grass receding underneath him to stop the blades from jamming. Tobias seemed agitated; he obviously didn't have an easy way to remove the ice.
"Dark Pulse," he said instead, and Darkrai used it to hit the battlefield, where it exploded with the force of a Hyper Beam. Sceptile could still skate around the edge of the field, but he couldn't get to where Darkrai was with any kind of speed, over the rocky, icy, earthy combination of terrains.
At least not on the ground. "Sceptile, go as fast as you can, turn towards Darkrai and jump at it with a Leaf Blade!"
"Prepare for attack," Tobias ordered, unsettled. For whatever reason, Ash was attacking him head-on. After seeing the strategy that he'd used in the other battles, he'd been certain that Ash was the most likely to defeat even his first Pokemon, but he'd taken the boy for a decent strategist, and it wasn't likely that he'd just given up. Whatever he had up his sleeve, it wasn't something that he could figure out.
Sceptile was now moving so fast that he was difficult to see, but he'd obviously been learning to maximise his speed in the odd situation. That was the mark of a well-trained Pokemon; adaptability. He suddenly jinked towards the middle of the ring, but Tobias was ready.
"Dark Void," he called, close to losing his composture, and Darkrai spun to face the leaf gecko, firing off a sphere of dark energy. It was visibly shaking now and Tobias cursed softly; Dark Void was a very draining attack, and it wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer.
"Block it," Ash countered, and Tobias actually sighed in relief. Sceptile pulled up its glowing blades to block the attack, but it was absorbed into his body regardless and put him to sleep. If blocking was his plan, Ash hadn't seen all his other matches, but that begged the question of how he'd lasted this long without the information that helped the other trainers get closer to beating Darkrai each match.
Considering that he'd studied Ash's fighting style and the boy had still done so well, that was very unsettling.
There was an almighty boom, and Tobias found himself staring at a cloud of smoke that he definitely hadn't expected.
The smoke cleared and then... "Darkrai and Sceptile are both unable to battle! This round is a tie!"
Incredulous, Tobias tuned in the announcer.
"Incredible! Never have I seen a Pokemon continue using a move once it's asleep! Sceptile's Leaf Blade hit its mark on an unprepared opponent, but Sceptile was unable to land properly in its sleep. A double knockout at its finest!"
He'd underestimated the kid.
Ash beamed as he returned Sceptile to his Pokeball. He hadn't actually expected Sceptile to knock Darkrai out, and they'd agreed to just get as much damage on the ghostly legendary before Sceptile was knocked out, but they'd come out even. Ash now officially had a Pokemon as strong as a legendary. And considering that some of his Pokemon were stronger still, if in different ways, he thought that said a lot about his skill as a trainer.
"Latios," Tobias spoke as his threw the next Pokeball. Ash tensed as the next legendary came out, and weighed his options.
Most of Ash's Pokemon wouldn't stand a chance. Latios was a dragon type, not flying, so Pikachu was out. Really, it was difficult to get a type advantage on it, but there was one Pokemon...
"Corphish, I choose you!"
The lobster-like Pokemon popped out of its Pokeball with a battle cry worthy of a Pokemon half its ferocity, and Ash was hard-pressed not to chuckle at the ridiculousness. Then it slammed a claw on the ground, which shattered.
That got its statement across. Even the legendary Latios looked nervous, although that might have had something to do with the knowledge that Darkrai had been beaten.
"Corphish, you can walk fine on ice, right?" Ash asked, and the water-type nodded in reply. "Great, see if you can get close!"
As it turned out, Corphish was faster on ice than off it, something that Ash would have to remember. After another period of getting used to the terrain, shorter than Sceptile's attempt, it was soon skating around the donut of unharmed ice like a hockey puck, launching Bubblebeams and Crabhammers whenever Latios came close enough. None of the latter connected, but the former formed a screen that obscured Latios' view and promised pain if he tried to bull through it.
Then one of Corphish's legs suddenly stopped dead, having hit a patch of ground where the ice had melted, and the Pokemon crumpled into a heap at the unexpected force. Latios dived, a purple aura surrounding it even as Tobias called, "Giga Impact!"
"Ice Beam!" Ash countered, and he swore that he could hear Tobias' muttered curse. The thought made him smirk as Latios veered off in pain, unable to risk the damage that a direct hit on the source of the cold could deal. The dragon-type coasted around the air, regaining its energy from the failed attack, and Corphish fired an Ice Beam at the ground just as Darkrai's ice conveniently melted away.
Another few seconds of struggling later, Corphish had worked out a system and was leisurely pulsing out Ice Beams, leaping between frozen patches in a manner more suited to a Politoed. Tiny lines were carved into each patch, marking the lobster Pokemon's trail.
"Get close," Tobias ordered.
Ash frowned; he'd made it pretty clear that that was a bad strategy. "Repel Latios with Bubblebeam!" he replied, but at some unseen signal, Latios glowed golden and charged through the bubbles unharmed. He bore down on Corphish, a piercing shriek emitted from his open mouth as he drew closer- "Now!"
The pattern, which Corphish had 'unknowingly' been carving into the ice, was cruelly subverted in that instant as Latios' Thunderbolt impacted an empty space, revealing his ace in the hole and leaving him open to a Crabhammer.
A vicious Crabhammer, and one that actually connected to the side of his head. Latios was blasted halfway across the field, and embedded in a wall, before it slumped into a punch-drunk hover. Tobias looked ready to call it off, but Latios stubbornly flew back into battle, worse for wear but still keeping up fairly well with Corphish's movements.
Ash grinned at his strategy - he'd noticed the patterns that Corphish made when it skated, and realised that his opponent would see it too, and try to divine where Corphish would go from that. Add a command to abandon the pattern and nothing could hit it... The first time.
He snapped back to attention as Latios glowed the purple of Giga Impact again, but this time there would be no stopping the dragon-type; he was damaged enough that he was clearly going to faint, and this was just to take out Corphish with him. "Block it with Harden!"
Latios collided with the equivalent of a brick wall, and the resulting explosion threw up the dust that had settled from Darkrai and Sceptile's final clash. Once again, there was silence as the crowd waited for the cloud to clear.
When it did, Latios was on the ground, slumped gracelessly in a small crater of its own creation. Corphish looked like one good poke would knock it over, but stood proud regardless.
It was well-justified.
So I started growing weary of writing about Hogwarts yet again. Sue me.
The battle scene was fun to write, and I think it's creative enough to fit in the anime and balanced enough to be possible. Really the only thing stopping Sceptile from defeating Darkrai easily was Dark Void (not true, I know, but shhhhh), and I figured Corphish could punt a Latios pretty easily with its ridiculous Crabhammer, which could throw Ash before its stay at Oak's lab, where it undoubtedly trained even more.
Ash's plans are often half-baked, but the plans he actually plans before the battle starts are usually very solid. Take the Counter Shield, for instance - if he'd used that ever again after Sinnoh, he'd have won the Unova league. I don't think it's too hard to believe that he can come up with a proper strategy based around Corphish's ice.
Next time, I have no idea. More ice, probably. Corphish is still up and running, if barely, so Ash definitely has the edge.