This length is unexpected.


Chapter 29: Benaras

Steven repositioned himself in the fight. He had plenty of options for this situation, and it wouldn't even be close. He and Cynthia had never faced each other in battle, but he had seen her entire team in a friendlies tournament between Sinnoh and Hoenn. At that point, Wallace had already solidified his spot as champion, but Steven was nonetheless invited as a spectator. It gave him the kind of information money could never buy. Knowing Cynthia's entire team, he could play this around all of her possible counters, without revealing any unnecessary information himself. The only thing he didn't know was which the sixth pokemon she was missing was. He saw her lucario earlier, and had since faced spiritomb and roserade. This last mystery is unfolding rather quickly in his favour.

"Skarmory." The silver metal bird emerged from his pokeball. Its sharp, crimson underwings ripped through the air at high velocity, putting it in a defensive levitating motion. The two sides stared each other down for a quick assessment. To Steven, his battle was already won. His physically strengthened steel types have very little to fear from his opponent's lineup except milotic, presuming that she even had it. Skarmory alone would easily wall the majority of her line up.

This made him flinch when roserade spun forward. Its petals in full display, it fired off the same emerald orb of energy at his metallic bird. As skarmory has four times the resist, it barely scratched the surface of its grey body. This entirely inadequate attack perplexed Steven greatly, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Skarmory fluttered its wings, releasing a sea of spikes at the opponent's position. This would damage any pokemon being put out by Cynthia. It's not the best of damage, but something that could add up quickly.

Steven was now weighing his options. He didn't expect roserade to stay in last turn, or else skarmory could have knocked it out easily. If Cynthia were to tap in another pokemon this turn, he could catch her off guard with a well-timed toxic attack. If roserade were to be kept out, however, that move would be completely absorbed. Feeling his chances, Steven went for his command. To his surprise, roserade stuck in, and unleashed yet another futile energy ball at his metallic bird. Once again, it did basically nothing, except leaving him entire confused. Of course, this meant that skarmory's attempt to poison its enemy went similarly fruitless, and they're essentially back to square one. This was very strange to him. It wasn't like witling his pokemon down was of any use for Cynthia. The rest of his team walked all over the poison plant, perhaps even harder than skarmory, so this was nothing but a waste of time. Still, if she wanted to play chicken, then Steven had news for her.

Roserade went first again due to its superior speed. This time, however, a psychic pulse erupted from its core, forming a long lavender cone aiming straight for the avian pokemon. Skarmory had little trouble tanking it still, but it did a little bit more damage than the other futile attempts. Steven had enough of these games, however. The bird flew in with great speed, wings spread wide, before diving like a comet straight at its enemy. The roserade tried to dodge, but the wingspan was too large. Those knife-edged feathers cut through the petals and left it in complete tatters. The roserade was no longer in any condition to fight, and was forced to be retracted.

Steven stood, incredulous. He was still trying to make sense of those serious of actions. Cynthia, on the other hand, appeared completely unaffected by said turn of events. What was the point of that? Those words echoed in his mind, but he pushed them out. There was no need to think more than needed. Maybe she was trying to mind game him with her inefficient moves, but failed. That made his case even stronger, and with it came a great confident boost.

Cynthia's next pokemon was her lucario. It held a fighting stance, awaiting orders. The spikes laid from before dug into its canine legs, but it managed to hold firm. Steven narrowed his eyes. This was yet another strange choice. Lucario had no business fighting his skarmory, and would rather be better off trying to fight his slower, more grounded team members. From this, he derived that Cynthia didn't actually know his team very well, and was simply trying to gather as much information as he could. This being the case, it was easy enough to wall this pokemon as well.

Lucario had its feet on the ground, and dashed forward. Steven, knowing this was simply yet another useless fighting move, had skarmory face it had on. In the middle of the run, however, the lucario made a sudden stop. Its right hand palmed its left, and slid onto the side. This came as a surprise. Searching his memory, Steven soon found the answer, but not soon enough. An energy sphere erupted from where the palms connected into a burst of transparent light, aiming for skarmory. It scrambled to dodge, but was too slow. The beam was like a thousand punctures in its armour, striking at it from every angle. The bird dropped like a rock, forcing Steven to return it. He realised his mistake too late. Lucario just performed aura sphere, a special move meant to circumvent skarmory's gigantic physical defence. Usually even this wouldn't take his pokemon out in one hit, but the pathetic chip damage roserade had managed to deal over the last three turns put the bird just low enough. It all made sense to him now, but he could only grit his teeth in annoyance.

It was fine, he thought. The situation was still three against four in his favour, and she had just revealed that her Lucario was actually now special based, unlike what he saw the last time. His next pokemon, an armaldo, would have little trouble dealing with that. Yet another steel type in his arsenal, the mantis pokemon's second bug typing should deal easily with anything the lucariou could throw at it. Extending its metal, shrimp-like claws, it was ready for combat. Before Steven could think, the bipedal canine had already approach in an attack, this time same as before. This dented the metal shell of his pokemon, but didn't come close to knocking it out in one hit. Armaldo retaliated by curling into a cylindrical form as it jumped into the air. Using its huge grey tail as a control rod, the armaldo dove at its opponent with blazing speed, the same way skarmory did. The frail lucario could not withstand the attack, and fell over unconscious. This small mental victory was short lived. As Steven scrambled to contemplate whether or not he was being lead into yet another trap, his eyes caught the new eruption. Cynthia stared into her second last pokeball, and slammed it onto the earth.

This was her ace in the hole.

Emerging from the beam of energy was first the wing-like fins strapped to the dragon's arm. The arms made a circular motion, preparing for movement. The shark tale, split straight in two at the end, flailed about in light of being free from captivity. The hands, entirely comprised a bony white claw, extended forward. The shark features in its back fin, and the hammerhead rounded out the garchomp's exterior. Its tail continuously slapped the ground as if to prepare momentum. This was before the pulses of ruptured earth emitted from this epicentre, catching the steel mantis in great surprise, and toppled it over, slamming hard into the ground. Steven retracted the fallen pokemon, and cursed under his breathe. It was now obvious to him that Cynthia had been setting up for this sweep the entire time. His team didn't have a clear answer to this menacing threat. None of them could possibly take the shark dragon in a one on one battle, and it was also far too fast to put a dent on. Usually his skarmory would be perfect to wall off such a threat, but he had been baited far too hard to dwell on that mistake.

Sweat was beginning to gather around his cheeks. Cynthia had few threats, but she coordinated them in perfect sequencing to get to this point. Despite his knowledge, Steven's own instincts have been completely neglecting this circumstance. Kicking himself, he reached for his belt. Despite the obvious bad situation, he still had the number's advantage. If he could play it right, there was still one thing he could do to turn this into a manageable loss.

Strangely enough, he smiled. This was the only time he had done so thus far. He hadn't faced this kind of pressure for a long time, having taken to travelling so much. It was the kind of drive that made him the trainer he was then. He stared at Cynthia. As they exchanged glances, this fact was communicated thoroughly.

She smiled as well.