"Aidan. Look behind you. Look at your tail. You grow weak."
"I don't care!" he screeched, pouncing with his mouth agape. Maude pranced out of the way and Aidan skidded across the floor, the bottom half of his mouth scooping up mud and dust like a spade. He quickly observed the flame on his tail; she was right. He was becoming somewhat weaker.
Maude leapt gracefully into the air. When she landed, she stomped on him with her front paws and pushed him into the dry ground.
"Come on, Aidan. Try harder."
Aidan attempted to let out a dragon pulse, but he couldn't let one escape his throat whilst Maude's foot was pressed down so powerfully on it. He picked up is paw and stabbed his claws into the top of her foot. She yelped and raised it involuntarily, allowing Aidan to push her to one side and escape her grip. She swung her tail across his tail flame to gain its fiery power, so it would increase the power of her own fire attacks. She used the flame on the end of that tail to light the others, setting them ablaze.
Once again, she performed an energy ball attack, but the fiery power now imbued in her tails combined with it to create a flaming orb of burning energy. She flung it at the Charmeleon and it exploded into orange light. Despite his resistance to fire, Maude's increased power had done much to make the attack more powerful. Even for a charmeleon, Maude's fire attack was too hot to handle. Once the flames had died down, Maude leapt towards him, planning to bash him with her burning tails. He swiftly side-stepped to avoid it, and retaliated with a powerful slash across her stomach. She bit his hand to prevent his claws from digging into her flesh any further.
Maude cracked her bony tails like whips into Aidan's back, smashing him into the soil. She went to hit him again whilst he was down, but he grabbed onto it, flipping off of her tail and onto her back. He scraped the skin and fur from yet another two tails, leaving four tails. Maude was clearly beginning to weaken, as he steps became lighter and her tails drooped to the floor.
"Look behind you. Look at your tails. You grow weak," Aidan mimicked, imitating Maude's soft and sophisticated voice. He chuckled. "Looks like you ain't as strong as you make out." Aidan approached her and placed his foot on her neck. Assuming that he was winning the battle, Aidan allowed himself to be a little calmer. "Can you really blame me for what I did? My father died because of you, and I was only small. Did you really expect me to think about what I was doing?"
Maude coughed up little plumes of smoke. "Excuses."
"I'd bet that, if you were in my situation, you would've killed the Pokémon that murdered your father."
"My father was a disgusting wretch, much like yours."
Aidan kicked Maude in the face. "You shut your mouth about my dad!"
Suddenly, he lost his cool again. Maude noticed a primal flash in his eyes, and he attempted to slash Maude's throat open. She pushed him back with her paw and tangled a bony tail around his throat. He desperately tried to escape the powerful coil of her tail, but as his breath escaped his lungs, he was losing the power to remove himself from the grip.
"Go on," Maude taunted. "Give up."
Aidan thought for a while about what he could do. He couldn't let himself die right now; he didn't know if it was certainly his death that would save his friends. Maude's ruby-esque eyes probed into his own. He couldn't help but realise from the fire orb attack that Maude must have possessed the special ability of Flash Fire- the ability to use the fire attack of an opponent to strengthen her own fire powers. If he pummelled her with fire attacks, her attacks would become so strong that they would do massive damage even to one of her own type. With her power slowly being drained from her by the stripping of her powers…
Aidan hacked powerfully at the bones in the tail, disconnecting them from each other, and freed himself from Maude's grip. He breathed in and breathed ribbons of orange flames at Maude. They wrapped around her and she drew in their power, allowing herself to take on a bright orange glow.
She pranced towards him and blasted a fiery beam at him. But, to her disbelief, Aidan had leapt out of the way of her attack. She couldn't believe how fast he'd reacted to such a swift attack. Did he have this planned in advance?
"Dodging won't do you any good. Stop being such a baby and retaliate!" she snapped.
A vast daimonji-like shape burned viciously, but it stretched out much more than she had expected it to. It seemed that she had misjudged her power. She could feel something tearing away at her body- the flames. They had become so powerful that, since her own powers had become much too weak to withstand it, her own attacks had affected herself.
Aidan sniffed the air, breathing in the burning flesh as if it were a cake being baked in the oven. He put his paw to his chin, as if thinking. "It smells like something's burning…" He brought his tail around and sniffed the end. "Is it my tail?
Maude screeched shrilly as the flames ate at her skin. Aidan peered over to her.
"Actually…I think it might be you, Maude."
Aidan's sarcasm burned at Maude more than the flames. She wanted to retort, but the only noises she could let escape her mouth was the harsh screaming from the extreme pain of the fire. Eventually, she gave up trying to fight the flames. Maude's eyes were fixed on Aidan. One side of his mouth rose into a sneaky grin, and the raging fire was reflected off of his eyes. He waved goodbye. He giggled in his throat.
"See ya."