The battle approaches its climax as Blake struggles against Dokukage! Will Dokukage's baton pass strategy win him the day? Or does Blake have a method for dealing with it? Can he still pull off the win? We'll have to find out!
Rus0804: Think more just a general stalker. But I'm surprised so many people aren't surprised that Sylvia would be Sherlock Holmes in another life, considering how she acts here. I guess I'm not the only one who sees that she's really a heroic figure! Kind of!
KedharS: Well Batman is basically a ninja so yeah.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Don't worry. As this chapter will make clear, we're approaching the end. I'd say two chapters left, maybe just one. The problem is, I'd like to add more content to each chapter but my schedule makes that difficult, I can't do 7000+ word chapters right now to reduce the drag without having to abandon daily updates.
Hpntheman: Of course a ninja would have a Ninjask.
Aquahaze675: It's not that it isn't an offensive pokemon, it just doesn't have the blinding 145+ speed stat of Accelgor and Ninjask to basically make it impossible to land a direct hit.
JoshGamerV: Indeed, Blake vs. the main antagonist, so he can't lose here! Just like how in the Fall Festival Tournament there was no way that comic relief Cynthia could beat Blake, the MC, and advance to the quarter finals. If there's one thing I'm known for it's predictable outcomes.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 546
"Ruru!" Blake shouted. "Sucker punch!"
"Galvantula!" Ruru sprang up, she hadn't been trapped by the webs at all! She shot forward, hitting Higurashi in the face as the pokemon moved to strike, Higurashi's claws cutting deeply into Ruru's body as her front legs smacked him, sending the cicada pokemon spiraling backwards through the air, Higurashi letting out a painful buzz.
"Nice!" Lila cheered. "She got him!"
"That Ninjask was really fast, but Galvantula got him with a sucker punch!" Dakota nodded. "That's the kind of tactic I love to see!"
"Not only that, but that blow was on the top of a screech attack that reduced his Ninjask's defense, meaning that he's taken some significant damage," Akira noted. "That being said, Galvantula are special attacking pokemon, so I don't think that blow was enough to finish it off, no matter how fragile Ninjask might be."
Akira was right in his assessment. That attack had done a lot of damage to Higurashi, but the small pokemon wasn't out yet. He quickly flapped his wings to regain his balance, panting, putting some serious distance between himself and Ruru.
"Higurashi," Dokukage said, glancing at his Ninjask. Mentally, he was seriously freaking out. That attack was way too fucking close! His Galvantula nearly wiped out all of Higurashi's health! This whole strategy is going to fail if Higurashi isn't able to keep from getting hit, shit, fuck, there's no other choice, I need to give him some time to rest!
"Nin?" Higurashi glanced at Dokukage, tilting his head to the side.
"Return for now," Dokukage said. "Baton pass."
"Seeing that his Ninjask took a serious blow from that sucker punch, Dokukage has passed on his pokemon's stats to the next pokemon!" Lila said.
"True, but remember, whichever pokemon he uses next, they'll have the same lowered defenses as his Ninjask, the chink in the armor that Blake took advantage of," Akira reminded her.
Dokukage knew that, of course. Hence why his new plan was to prevent that tactic from being effective any longer.
"Kagerou, go," Dokukage said, sending out his Accelgor. Thanks to Higurashi, Kagerou's speed was now maximized, so fast he was practically a blur. There was a problem, though. Dokukage's team leaned more on the physical side of things, he didn't have many special attackers. In fact, Ame was the only pokemon who could use quiver dance to boost his pokemon's special attack (and special defense) which meant that Kagerou couldn't boost his offensive stats.
But that should not be a problem. We aren't fighting against a Shadow Pokemon, after all. Kagerou's special attack might not be amazing, but it will get the job done, especially with his speed. He'll be able to do this, so long as we keep our guard up. We won't let another sucker punch land. Dokukage could see that Ruru wasn't making any attempts to attack. So he wasn't going to give the opening for a cheap shot.
"Kagerou, use venom drench!" Dokukage ordered. Kagerou leaned forward and shot towards, his slender gray form so swift it was almost impossible to see. Only flashes of magenta from his head could be seen.
"Venom drench? No! That's not good!" Kate gasped.
"What's it do?" Ayame asked. "That sounds like a Poison type move."
Kagerou proved that it was. He dashed behind Ruru, blurring into sight, and unleashed a massive spray of poison on Ruru from behind, the strange purplish-green muck seeping into Ruru's fur, missing with poison already flowing through her system as she groaned in pain, thrashing around.
"It is," Kate said. "Venom drench is an attack that doesn't do much on its own, but when combined with another poison it can be devastating."
"What do you mean?" Kitty didn't quite get it.
"When the poison of venom drench mixes with other poisons, it drains the strength away from the infected pokemon," Kate explained. "Reducing their stats! Attack, special attack, and speed, they all get lowered! But it won't do anything if used on a pokemon that isn't poisoned. But if it's poisoned…"
"Oh, no!" Sango gasped.
"A really dirty trick," Julia said, staring snootily at Kate.
"Hey! What are you looking at me for?!" Kate scowled. "I'M not the one doing it, you know! Dokukage is! Don't blame me!"
"But you definitely would," Julia replied. Kate rolled her eyes.
"Come on, it's just a move," she scowled.
"This isn't good," Akira said. "Dokukage's Accelgor might not be able to risk a physical attack, but he can still drastically weaken Ruru with those poison moves!"
"Blake's gotta think of something fast of his Galvantula won't be able to do very much," Dakota said, frowning.
"Ruru!" Blake called. "Use discharge!"
"Gal!" Ruru nodded. She began to build up electricity in her body, preparing to release it. Kagerou might be a fast pokemon, but he couldn't go everywhere. He would be forced to use substitute to dodge it, which would slowly whittle down his health.
"Kagerou, use quick attack," Dokukage ordered. Kagerou appeared in front of Ruru, the spider pokemon crying in pain. No one had seen the blow, but it had landed right in the center of Ruru's cluster of eyes. Ruru thrashed, swinging her legs at Kagerou, but the bug pokemon had already slipped away. Ruru released the discharge of electricity, but it harmlessly struck Kagerou's substitute, breaking through it but not hurting the Accelgor at all.
"That attack did a lot," Lila said worriedly.
"Definitely," Akira agreed. "Accelgor don't have a lot of physical attack, but remember, that attack came from a build-up of two swords dances, so that Accelgor's attack stat has been boosted by four stages. Which means that even a quick attack will do significant damage to her.
Ruru has been really slowed down, and her offensive abilities have been drastically lowered, Blake understood. He had worn down Dokukage's pokemon a little, but he still didn't think it was the time to switch to his trump card. Right now, though, Ruru wasn't able to do very much. He wasn't about to sacrifice Ruru for no reason.
"Ruru, return!" Blake said, raising his pokeball to recall Ruru for later.
"You won't escape," Dokukage said, narrowing his eyes. "Infestation."
"Accel." Kagerou narrowed his eyes as well, and a swarm of tiny bugs emerged from the webs at Ruru's feet, wrapping around her and interfering with Blake's ability to recall his pokemon.
"No! Ruru!" Blake gasped.
"Now, venoshock," Dokukage ordered.
"Accel," Kagerou nodded, building up poison in the air around him, preparing to send the painful strikes at Ruru to finish her off.
Blake knew that Ruru wouldn't withstand the poison move, even if she resisted it. She'd taken a lot of abuse in this match already, and was on her last legs. So he had to think quickly and figure out how she could make her last moments count. And that was a question with a rather simple answer, and both of them knew it.
"Ruru-"
"Galvantula!" Ruru interrupted him, already knowing what he wanted from her. She shot forward and raised her front legs, hitting Kagerou directly with a powerful sucker punch just as the slender pokemon released the blades of poison, striking Ruru from all sides and stinging her open, infected wounds with the shocking venom.
"GALVANTULA!" Ruru howled, her body tingling and shaking as she felt the toxins pulse through her. She let out a groan and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Kagerou stumbled backwards, having lost a significant amount of health from the blow, but not that much. Fortunately, Ruru wasn't a very strong physical attacker, and her attacking strength had already been reduced by the previous poisons.
"Galvantula is unable to battle!" Lila judged. "Accelgor is the winner! Both trainers have lost three pokemon, so we'll be switching the battlefield!"
Blake recalled Ruru to her pokeball, but before Dokukage could move to do the same, an error message began flashing on the large monitor.
"Huh?!" Lila asked, surprised, turning to the screen with a look of irritation on her face. "Great! Just great! What's going on now?!"
She checked the computer in front of her, her frown deepening. She sighed, standing up straight, rubbing her forehead for a moment before popping back up with a big smile on her face, getting back into her role.
"Sorry everybody! We've got some technical difficulties!" Lila chirped. "I don't get the computer stuff that much, but apparently when Dokukage had his Scolipede use that bulldoze attack to flatten the stadium, it damaged some of our machinery! So right now, we can't change the battlefield! Whoopsie, it could happen to anybody!"
Lila rattled her knuckles against the side of her head and winked, sticking her tongue out playfully.
"It was a necessary sacrifice," Dokukage calmly replied. His dismissive tone nearly made Lila break character, her eye twitching in irritation.
Dokukage's internal voice was much less calm. SHIT! SHIT SHIT SHIT! I fucking broke it?! Shit! That wasn't supposed to happen! Shit! The school is absolutely going to make me pay for repairing this fucking thing, shit, fuck, and it's going to be a rush job to get it ready for tomorrow, too, which is going to cost even more money! Fucking hell, what's with that shit?! Do they think I'm made of money or something?! I'm a fucking ninja, do you know how much money there is in being a ninja in the modern day?! FUCKING ZERO, that's how much! But no, no, no matter how many times I bring up modernizing our village and developing other sources of income, no, it's always 'tradition' this and 'ninjas don't use iphones' that, and this is FUCKING STUPID! FUCK!
"Well, if the field won't change, that works just fine with me," Blake said, frowning. "Maria! It's your turn!"
Blake sent out his next pokemon, his Mareanie.
"Mar!" Maria chirped, landing on the ground. "Mareashishishi!"
Maria turned towards Blake, moving to pierce him with her spines, but Blake shook his head and glared sharply at her, pointing at the ground.
"Marea…" Maria glanced down at the spikes covering the ground and the webs threaded between them, and sighed. She took a deep breath, and began drawing the poison out of the spikes.
"Oh?" Dokukage said, raising his eyebrow.
"Yeah! There we go!" Kate cheered.
"What's going on?" Cynthia asked, squinting. "I can't see very well."
"Maria is drawing the poison out of the spikes!" Kate explained. The look on her face was bright and proud, and most of the people who saw it wanted it gone. "That's how Poison type pokemon work! If you send a pokemon out to fight when the field is filled with toxic spikes, then they absorb the poison and prevent it from harming any of their allies!"
"So Blake's immunized the toxic spikes!" Sango cheered. "Nice!"
"That's a good pokemon to use at this stage," Akira said. "By removing the toxic spikes from the equation, Blake's made sure that his other pokemon will be able to fight using their full strength, without having to worry about poisons!"
"Mar!" Maria fired the poison she gathered at Kagerou, who easily dodged the attack.
"You won't hit with that speed," Dokukage said. "You removed the toxic spikes. But the sticky webs are still doing their job nicely."
"Mar!" Maria growled, scooting across the webbing, even though it was slowing her down. She glared angrily at Kagerou.
There would be no sense in poisoning her, obviously, since she's a Poison type, Dokukage understood. He would need to wear her down another way. "Kagerou, use recover."
"Accel," Kagerou nodded. He began to glow, revitalizing his worn-out flesh. But Maria wasn't going to let that stand.
"Maria, let's see how he likes it!" Blake said. "Use toxic spikes!"
"Mareanie!" Maria nodded. She held out her tentacles, the spines sticking out, and she released a wave of toxic spikes out over Dokukage's side of the field.
"Nice! The tables have turned!" Dakota cheered. "Dokukage's pokemon pride their speed, but thanks to Blake's Mareanie, that speed is going to come at a disadvantage! He won't be able to move so easily, if he doesn't want to risk his pokemon being poisoned!"
"Now he can't dodge, use toxic!" Blake ordered.
"We can escape as we like, actually," Dokukage said. "Baton pass."
"Accelgor!" Kagerou returned to his pokeball, and Dokukage switched him for his Ninjask, Higurashi. The blob of poison flew towards Higurashi, and the swift pokemon disappeared in a flash, flying over the toxic spikes with no issue.
Dokukage wore a frown. He wasn't a fan of these toxic spikes. Blake had put him in quite an annoying situation, but he didn't have a choice if he wanted Kagerou to keep being usable in the battle. His Accelgor wasn't going to be very good if he was infected with a painful poison. Luckily, Blake's Mareanie was slow, so he wouldn't have to worry about her landing any serious hits on him, not if he was being careful.
"Higurashi, use defog," Dokukage ordered. Easily dodging a wave of poison from Maria, Higurashi beat his wings quickly, sending a powerful gust of wind that blew the toxic spikes away, but had the unfortunate disadvantage of also blowing away the sticky webs that were littering Blake's side of the field. The entire battlefield was clear of hazards now, and a real fight could begin.
"Maria's toxic spikes forced Dokukage to clear away the rest of the entry hazards he set up on Blake's side of the field!" Akira noted. "That's a really good thing! Now, Blake doesn't have to worry about his pokemon coming in with a disadvantage."
"That's a good thing, I think he's going to turn it around!" Dakota cheered.
"Just what we were waiting for, Maria!" Blake said.
"Mareashishishi!" Maria cackled, preparing.
"Higurashi, use slash," Dokukage ordered.
"Nin!" Higurashi nodded, flapping his wings and flying forward, raising his claws to slice into the water pokemon, appearing behind Maria before she could do anything. "Ninjask!"
"MAREANIE!" Maria cried out in pain, Higurashi's sharp claws slicing into her back. She tumbled forward, rolling around, the attack doing a serious amount of damage.
"Maria! Now!" Blake shouted.
"Mar!" Maria hopped up, opening her mouth wide, and exhaled a massive cloud of dark smoke that engulfed Higurashi.
"What?!" Dokukage gasped, losing his cool slightly for the first time.
"You ninja like smokescreens, right?" Blake smiled. "Well, this is a different kind of smokescreen! Maria, haze!"
The smoke filled the battlefield, Higurashi quickly blowing it away.
"Brilliant!" Akira gasped. "Excellent move!"
"What?" Dakota asked, turning to him. "What did he just do?"
"He had his Mareanie use haze," Akira explained. "Haze is a very special move, perfect for a situation like this! It's one of the best techniques for dealing with a pokemon strategy relying on baton pass! When a pokemon inhales the smoke from the haze, all the stat changes they've gathered will be dispersed. Which means now, all of Dokukage's work has been reduced to nothing!"
"So he doesn't have his speed boosts, or his attack boosts?" Lila asked in disbelief. She whirled around to the battlefield, her mouth falling open. "Oh, man, that's amazing!"
Dokukage resisted the urge to scream. That was bad. Haze was one move that he was absolutely not a fan of. It was going to make dealing with that Mareanie a significant problem.
"Maria, toxic!"
"Mar!" Maria opened her mouth and fired a wave of toxic towards Higurashi. Higurashi just barely managed to fly out of the way, his speed much lower now due to the reduction of his stats. But as low as Higurashi might have been, he was still absurdly fast in comparison with most other pokemon, Maria included.
"Higurashi, swords dance," Dokukage said. He would have to build it up again. At least this time he lost the reduction from screech.
"Maria, sludge wave!" Blake shouted.
"Mareanie!" Maria inhaled, her cheeks puffing up, and her tentacles stuck out in all directions. She fired a burst of sludge in all directions, washing towards Higurashi.
Higurashi doesn't have the strength to use substitute, and there's nowhere to dodge, Dokukage understood, seeing that the waves of toxin were heading everywhere. "Baton pass!"
Higurashi retreated to his pokeball, which was exactly the opening that Blake was waiting for.
"Maria! Return!" Blake held his pokeball up and recalled Maria, switching to his next pokemon. As he did, Kagerou emerged and took on the brunt of the poison, shrugging it off easily and beginning to use recover again. But that was fine with Blake. He could handle that Accelgor.
"Rogen! Go!" Blake said, sending out his fifth pokemon.
"And Blake has sent his Boldore out to fight against Dokukage's Accelgor!" Lila declared.
"That's an interesting choice. So he's planning to fight speed with defense?" Dakota wondered. "Is that really going to work, though?"
"Rogen is a physically defensive pokemon, and Accelgor are special attackers," Akira answered, shaking his head. "This doesn't seem like a good move, but…"
But a smile couldn't help but tug its way up Akira's lips. He had a good idea of what Blake had planned.
"But he might have trick or two left to play."
"So that's your next pokemon," Dokukage said. "I would have thought you would use your Salamence in this fight."
Blake scowled. "I can't."
Dokukage raised an eyebrow. That was curious. It was commonly known that Blake's strongest pokemon was his Scizor. But he had heard rumors that Blake's strongest pokemon was actually a Salamence, one he had been forbidden to use in school events. But that shouldn't apply here.
"You are aware this is a private event? Not sanctioned by the school? You should be able to-"
"I could have used her if I wanted to," Blake said, narrowing his eyes. "But I didn't."
This only made Dokukage more curious. He tried to resist letting his eagerness show by asking "why", but he failed.
"Because I left her to be looked after by someone else," Blake said. "I couldn't risk bringing her to the stadium today. I was afraid… of what would happen if I brought her near Shadow Pokemon."
Blake understood that Sarah would go wild if he used her near a person with harmonia. And she was getting better, but…
He didn't want to know what effect bringing her in proximity to a pokemon as tortured as a Shadow Pokemon would do. Whatever drove Sarah mad about harmonia… Shadow Pokemon were possibly much worse. And until he knew, he wasn't going to risk her even sensing them in the vicinity.
"…I see," Dokukage nodded.
"But don't worry," Blake assured him. "Rogen will be enough. Rogen, stealth rock!"
"Boldore!" Rogen raised his claws, and large rocks shot up out of the cement, hovering in the air around the battlefield. Dokukage scowled.
"Stealth rock deals a lot of damage to a pokemon that switches in," Blake said. "Particularly if they're Bug types, Fire types, Flying types, any type weak to Rock types. And Ninjask… they're Bug/Flying, isn't that right?"
Dokukage didn't answer, because the answer was obvious.
"I figured that you would have a pokemon to clear entry hazards, but I didn't know which ones," Blake said. "It was your Ninjask. So now, weakened as he may be, would you like to send him out to try clearing away these rocks? …Or are you pausing because of his Bug/Flying typing?"
Blake almost sounded like a villain the way he was taunting Dokukage. Sylvia would have been so proud, Kanou thought, resisting the urge to break out into a smile.
"Good… good…" Cynthia rasped, wrapping her black sweater around her head like a cloak. "Let the dark side flow through you, my young apprentice…"
Sango rolled her eyes.
"Blake must have been saving Rogen this entire battle," Ayame said, her voice brimming with pride. "Stealth rock is the ultimate attack for breaking through a team of baton passing bugs! Yeah! Way to go, Blake!"
Dokukage understood fully well that Higurashi would faint the moment he sent him out. The rocks would destroy him. And Higurashi was the only pokemon still conscious who would be able to do something about them.
Using baton pass at this stage would only kill his team faster. Blake had broken his strategy.
Dokukage was quite grateful for his talent at maintaining a poker face. Because if he didn't need to be maintaining his composure right now, he was certain he would be shitting bricks.
Blake has put himself in a controlling lead in this match! Dokukage can't rely on his Ninjask's speed boost for his baton pass, and any attempt at using it would seriously injure his pokemon! Blake's played his trump card, will Dokukage be able to counter it?