"I'm in awe to see how far you've come in this battle," Ramos said, "Yer truly do have potential... but I'm not giving up yet."
"Neither am I." Abigail stated.
The Gogoat and I stared at each other for quite a long duration, but he was foolish to have done this.
Through his stare, I could read his whole personality. A serious, rough at times, and trusting one made it all too easy.
I did say he was done for, after all.
Light filled my vision at last.
Now.
I ran at the Gogoat with Quick Attack, boosting my speed as I stayed to the side of the battlefield, heading over to his side from the left at a dangerous rate... at least for him.
"Gogoat, trap the Umbreon with Grass Knot!"
I predicted that, but it was too late. The Grass Knot had already burst from the ground before I could even react. It felt like if time froze at that moment- and I wish it did.
The look on his face when the attack missed was the best reaction I've ever seen to my Confuse Ray. He looked genuinely confused, and he was almost fully, or so it seemed.
Regardless, I kept the momentum of the Quick Attack and leaped from the terrain below me, landing a direct Assurance on the side of his face and landing gently on the ground, then turning around immediately to attack again.
I stopped in my tracks, however, upon watching him. He had actually fallen down from the attack, which I was moving at too fast of a speed to see, but was getting up from the ground with haste, looking at me as he did so.
"Admitting that hurt would be an understatement..." The Gogoat started stroking the ground roughly with its hoof again over and over, "but it proves that this battle wasn't going to be as bland as I thought after all."
Staring into his eyes once more, I could see that the confusion had broken. To get him in the first one took much longer than I expected, so I doubt he would've allowed me to use it again now that he was out of it.
"Nova, gain some space away from the Gogoat before-"
"Charge at him and use Bulldoze with each one!" Ramos interrupted.
I was beginning to run when the Gogoat rushed at me, then jumped and slammed into the ground with power, cracking the ground around him as shards of rock fly into my face, one of them hitting me close to my right eye and temporarily blinded it.
I used the opportunity to run at this point in time, and found that I was still unsteady from the Bulldoze. Then, a thought.
"You're not running away," The Gogoat turned and tried to ram at me with his horns, the light attack being so powerful itself that I could feel the air shifting in that direction.
"Look to the right, Gogoat!"
The illusion of me had disappeared from the hit already, but I was in the air just in time, and landed a Faint Attack on the side of his face. Looking back at him, he was barely fazed, and quickly attacked back with his horns as I landed, sending me rolling to the side.
"Take Down!"
"Nova, dodge it!"
I was just getting up when I heard her, and jumped back at the last moment, avoiding the Take Down in a small window of time, too small for it to have been not considered a miracle of sorts.
The Gogoat turned, then stared at me, waiting for Ramos' next instruction. I wasn't panicking much, but I should've been. The Gogoat seemed to have taken no damage from the Assurance or the Faint Attack, or at least hid it in his movements so that I wouldn't pick up on it.
Time slowed for me again, and all I could think about was flaws. This flaw. The battle's flaw. Flaws.
The foe that stood before me had to have one, but from my view, I couldn't see it- until... I did.
Ramos, even though his trainer, was the only one he'd take commands from, and react to them as follows. I don't think he would've acted on his own, and from there, the plan was formulated to then be tested out promptly.
I dashed once, then twice, and hit the Gogoat in the face once more, hoping not to lose my vital stamina in the process of the plan. Another hit went by him as I landed, and another followed that one as such, continuing on in a barrage of attacks that my speed was compatible with, but my energy struggled with, instead.
"Stop that..." The Gogoat muttered as he tried to dodge my attacks, but failed, most likely also noticing that he couldn't counter the attacks either.
Ramos uttered something that I couldn't quite hear while attacking as I mixed in Faint Attacks here and there as well with the regular ones, those hitting harder than the rest. He footsteps were faltering with each hit, and I could tell he was finally fading with each one, but then he closed his eyes.
I was surprised at this, but still continued attacking.
Maybe it was something Ramos said?... I thought, but then noticed that his body became almost like a brick wall, not moving from the attacks I did as much as before... just barely.
I glanced at Abigail while I sped around and barraged him, and she seemed a bit happier that I was actually winning, but still focused on the battle.
Almost running out of stamina, I went in for one more Faint Attack, this one to be stronger than the others, and prepared to jump. Leaping from the air to attack the Gogoat one last time to try to end this once and for all, his eyes opened... and glowed green.
Fuc-
My thoughts couldn't even keep up with the speed of his Grass Knot as it wrapped around my left front paw and pulled me to the ground, slamming me onto it with a brute force.
"Nova, get outta there!" Abigail shouted before the opportunity was in vain.
Skidding across the field a blow from the Gogoat's horns, I coughed briefly and got up, hearing Ramos' voice in the background but not being aware of what he was saying, the attack making all my senses unstable in one mere hit. I quickly recovered and rolled from the Gogoat's Take Down, just in time for him to miss again, but curve at the right moment to not go out of the battlefield.
Barely getting enough time to pant even, I was rushed at by another Take Down, then rolled again, but got caught in it mid-action.
The attack was powerful, and it would've made me cough up blood if I had landed on a harder surface than the ground. I knew that if I had taken that attack in full that I was done for, surely.
The Gogoat turned again, this time a bit pained, but I saw an opportunity, and I took it. His stare locked with my recent one as I used Confuse Ray on him once more, buying time so that I could get back my stamina.
Again, I couldn't hear what Ramos said, although it sounded faintly like 'Bulldoze'.
Shit, he must've noticed the Confuse Ray then...
Confusing him would've been good for only attacks like his Grass Knot and Take Down, but not for an attack that covered a large area of the field like Bulldoze, as I soon learned, the ground shaking below me. I regretted having to use up my stamina that was only creeping back in small portions, yet I had to if I didn't want to be hit.
Running in short sprints and rolling periodically between them, I avoided most of the Bulldozes, the loud noise of the ground cracking making my hearing even worse than it already was at that point. Eventually, he stopped when I least expected him to, and closed his eyes again.
From there I could already tell that was some sort of strategy for him to pick up on my location without relying on using his eyes, which Ramos' must've taught him to do.
He was panting more than I was after stopping, and somehow just stopped as soon as he blackened his normal vision. With time slowing again, I could rule out Take Down as a move he'd think of using, seeing as we were a bit of a distance away from each other, leaving only Grass Knot and Bulldoze as possibilities.
Minutes passed, however, and the Gogoat kept its eyes closed, but I wasn't sure why. I still had to be cautious, though, and having regained my stamina almost fully, I could engage him and attack once more.
I didn't want his confusion to pass by, so I acted quickly, readying a Faint Attack in case disappearing would've been enough to confuse his senses... and ran.
"St-op!" Abigail shouted, but what came out of her mouth sounded jumbled up when I heard it, "T-he gro-un-d, No-va, the grou-"
I looked down while running, and my eyes widened, my right paw grabbed by the vine below me, and pulled to the ground as more vines quickly gathered around that one, covering my paw and tightening its grip around it.
The Gogoat opened his eyes that faded from a green glow... and smirked.
I heard one last 'Take Down' from Ramos... and knew that it was over. The entire area around me blurred, and all I could do was stare into the darkness that now enveloped my vision. It reminded me of failure, and of deep regret that winning wasn't in my grasp any longer, and all of the effort I put into this fight was futile. I already knew well enough that if my strength from before wasn't strong enough to break the Grass Knot, my strength then wouldn't have been enough to even move it.
The feeling of the water gathering in my eyes from staring at the incoming Gogoat that moved towards me in a warping motion of time made me close them to hide my shame of losing the fight I so desperately tried to win.
And in my last attempt of fighting back, I gathered what strength I had remaining in my body, and the pain and sadness that lurked inside of me from the past... and fired one last attack at the Gogoat, still clenching my eyes from what I knew was about to strike me and finish me off once and for all.
Assurance.