In that split second when she faltered, Steven made his move.
Responding to its Trainer's directive, Cradily emitted an ear-splitting battle cry as it readied an attack. A threatening mass of thick, ropelike appendages erupted in an explosive motion from the back of its bobble head to momentarily settle in a terrible imagery of Medusa's visage around its shivering frame. Akin to coils of vine fluttering, they writhed furiously about in the air before swooping in for what would appear to be the finishing blow.
Fatigued and heaving from its previous barrage of attacks, Blaziken's reaction to the incoming assault manifested noticeable delay in stark comparison to its earlier square-off against Skarmory.
Leaping to clawed feet, the Blaze Pokémon beat a hasty retreat through a series of backflips and side jumps, pulling its limbs free whenever the tentacles slithered within constricting distance and kicking out hard in continuous attempts at offense of its own against an advancing Cradily. A well-placed Double Kick to its spindly neck had sent it reeling from the impact, that being the only time Blaziken had managed to cause damage of its own amidst frenzied struggling.
Ultimately, its dwindling stamina failed its efforts.
"Tori, no!" May screamed aloud when a tentacle firmly latched onto Blaziken's left foot, rapidly coiling its way up its leg despite the tongues of flame flaring out in resistance. More tentacles followed in swift succession. Unable to shake off its constraints as they tightened around its flailing limbs, a weakened Blaziken gave one last heaving struggle against the mounting pressure before finally succumbing to immobility under it.
Lifting its prey high up, Cradily leered unblinking yellow eyes at it. From below, May stared at her disabled Pokémon in despair. Tracking her dismayed gaze to where Blaziken precariously swayed in the air within its restraints, Steven coolly commanded, "Cradily, Giga Drain."
Enveloped in a bubble of eerily green light, its inert body jolted, just once and violently as it surrendered the last of its energy to its opponent below, falling completely unresponsive while encased in a cocoon of life-draining tentacles.
As if repaying a favor, Steven had Cradily, just as gently, lower a motionless Blaziken back onto solid floor, withdrawing the rest of its cumbersome body from the spot to reveal its incapacitated form as its visibly frazzled Trainer neared in her mad dash over.
"...Tori!" Panicked footsteps rang out alongside her voice, loudly echoing into the empty space before abruptly dying out as May skidded to an abrupt halt beside it, nearly tumbling over her own feet in the process. Trembling, gloved hands carefully eased Blaziken's head onto her lap, even though her gentleness was sadly lost to it in its unconscious state. Fiercely blinking back hot tears in acknowledgement, she leaned forward and nudged her forehead to Blaziken's beak as she whispered, "Know that I am so, so proud of you, Tori. Now, come back and rest."
Beaming her fallen Pokémon back into its designated Pokéball, May took a moment in contemplation while her gaze drifted to her belt where four remaining Pokéballs were fastened onto it. Eyeing Cradily opposite her, she racked her mind for possible theories with regards to her current predicament. Here she was, dealing with a Grass-Type Pokémon that withstood the worst of Fire-type attacks to little consequence.
Or was she, really?
Recalling an interesting little titbit of information from all that her Pokédex had shared with her, May's eyes flickered anew to the towering oddity of a Pokémon swaying to imaginary wind where it still stood in anticipation of battle.
Wrapping her fingers around another Pokéball, she detached it from its hook in a decided move, cracking it open to summon her next Pokémon onto the arena in opposition to Steven's Cradily. Altaria materialized in a flash of white light, immediately taking to the air and completing a full circuit around the perimeter before circling back to hover right next to May. Folding its wings behind itself, the avian Pokémon presented a charming imagery of cloud-strewn sky.
It was a graceful Pokémon. True to its Humming nature, it was as graceful as a song on a warm spring day. Physical weariness and injury accumulated over non-stop battling did little to detract from the beauty and airiness with which it carried itself. Undoubtedly, it was as strong as it was beautiful.
But... yet another Flying-Type Pokémon after tasting failure the first time with Blaziken?
Glimpsing the thinly-veiled disappointment in Steven's eyes, May imagined herself hearing him question her choice but paid more attention to the fact that beyond what she had observed, he had seemed completely disinterested in the inevitability of having to square off against 'yet another Flying-type opponent'.
She took it as a clear sign that she was not to treat the Fossil Pokémon before her as she normally would of its type. Obviously, targeting Cradily's assumed weaknesses to Fire and Flying-type offense had not gone as well as expected of its given Grass-type disposition.
Perhaps, she ought to focus her energy elsewhere...
Elsewhere that was definitely Altaria's face, towards which a flinty-eyed Steven Stone had Cradily firing an Energy Ball so massively powerful, it would have evaporated her poor, already weakened Pokémon had it fumbled its escape. Flight protected Altaria from suffering attack so long as it physically stayed out of reach however, even from below, Cradily's mass of tentacles remained in hot pursuit of it, extending as much as three times its normal length in repeated attempts at capture. Preoccupied with dodging, Altaria was scarcely able to invoke much offense while still expending considerable energy.
Gosh. This was beginning to feel all too similar to a certain situation not too long ago.
Wiping the rueful expression off her face, May visually tracked Cradily's attack patterns in accordance to Altaria's flight navigation as much as physically possible while opposite her, Steven Stone did exactly the same. Through the haze of Pokémon movements and energy blasts, he saw it happen in all awestruck clarity when May, tightening her stance, kicked off hard to make a chance leap onto Altaria's back as said Pokémon flew past.
Any higher or lower a she would gone clean over the edge of the platform...
Even in the heat of battle, he could not help but pay attention to her.
Oblivious to the train of thoughts chugging away in Steven's mind, May gritted her teeth to hear Altaria trill in pain as more and more of Cradily's attacks were beginning to close in on its increasingly bedraggled self. The move Ancient Power in itself did no damage to the opposing Pokémon but served to fortify the user Pokémon's stats, all at once, to overwhelming extent and it directly contributed to the greatly increasing hit rate behind Cradily's onslaught.
All this time, Steven kept the heat up by keeping Pokémon and Trainer at bay and with little opportunity of either approach or attack. If they could wear down his Pokémon previously, so could he now.
Splinters of feather shook off Altaria's wings in cloudlike wisps every time Cradily lashed out at its passing body with Power Whip, showering itself and its Trainer below in stark white gossamer. Staring, with hardened eyes, into the swell of chaos that obstructed his view of the battlefield as well as the Pokémon on it, he sought to rectify the situation by commandeering an Energy Ball, the largest one yet, straight into its churning midst, hearing May loudly direct a counterattack in response.
Dragon Pulse pulsated outwards of Altaria's hovering form in colossal, rolling shockwaves, brilliantly purple light drowning out the muted green glow of Energy Ball as it overcame and absorbed the latter in enhancement of itself. Shielding his eyes from glare and debris alike, Steven dropped his hand from his face just in time to see Altaria, free of the paralyzing aftermath of their attacks colliding by means of innate Natural Cure, launch a beam of startlingly white light towards Cradily while it weakly twitched in the throes of body paralysis.
Ice Beam hit, to devastating effect, right in the middle of Cradily's face. Creaking noisily all over its unmoving body as debilitating frost took over, the Fossil Pokémon toppled heavily over where it froze, tentacles breaking off, one after another, where they still hung in frozen suspension in the air to crash below in chunks of ice and Steven let out breath he had been unwittingly holding.
Meanwhile, several feet upwards of the now deathly silent battle arena and embedded into a wall overseeing all to have transpired below, a window revealed the observant figures of all Elite Four members behind the glass.
"Woohoo!" Sidney whooped in triumphant satisfaction when a completely frozen Cradily collapsed in a dead faint at its Trainer's feet, joining Phoebe in pumping a fist into the air in enthusiasm that was obviously shared but not as openly exhibited by the other two members.
To the side, Glacia wrinkled her nose delicately as the younger two of her comrades exhaled into the glass pane with their eager faces pressed up against it, causing it to mist wetly across the surface but otherwise, shared his delight at young May Maple's victory over Steven Stone.
Thus far.
Reading her thoughts as though they were clearly written down on paper for all to see, Drake chose not to probe further, instead remarking, in all solemnity, "This does not bode well for May."
"What madness are you spouting now?" Both Sidney and Phoebe rebutted in indignance, silenced only by the grave expression on the senior's wizened face.
"May's not going to last much longer in this battle."
"No way!"
"How can that be? After she's gotten so far?"
"It is precisely because she's had her Pokémon wasting their energies and moves in order to get to this point in battle. She will run out of options before the Champion defeats her."
"She's a far cry from rivaling Steven in terms of brute power and battle experience. Her strategy of manipulating their environment to her advantage was good while it lasted. Now that he's aware of it, it's not likely that she will be getting away with the same tactic again."
The same thought process rampaged through Steven's mind as he took in the ravages of their battlefield. There Cradily still laid, surrounded by patches of discarded feathers within which remnants of ice crystals faintly glimmered, cast into definite visibility now under the ceiling spotlight. Barely discernible in color similarity and appearance, it had been nearly impossible to tell Altaria's deliberate shedding apart from the blinding white of frost once Mist stabilized into lasting effect.
What a visual handicap that had turned out to be. And she had taken advantage of that.
Beaming his fallen Pokémon back into its Pokéball, he stroked at its rounded surface in a comforting gesture, feeling the sharp sting of coldness emanate from inside it while the icy effect of Ice Beam had yet to dissipate. "Cradily," Face lowered towards the Pokéball in his hand, he appeared to address the Pokémon nestled in rest inside it. "-despite being primarily Grass-type, exhibits little weakness to other Pokémon types commonly associated with it."
"Fire... Flying-types..."
He smiled. "How did an Ice-type offense come to your mind?"
"I...-"
"May, do come down here and talk." Directing his bemused gaze above, Steven piped up in suggestion and watched as a sheepish-looking May nudged Altaria downwards in flight. Meeting her towards the end of the short flight of steps leading from the low platform atop which he had all along been standing, he gestured in open invitation for the youth to join him on the last step, nodding encouragingly at her when she hesitated.
Curling up in rest nearby, Altaria tilted its head curiously at the peculiar sight of its Trainer carefully easing herself into a modest sitting position adjacent to the Champion.
"I..." May barely started before biting back again in her misgivings, widened violet eyes anxiously darting back and forth between her kneecaps and the reassurance to his staring eyes. "Cradily's secondary Rock-type disposition had me seriously considering the possibility of it bolstering its defense all along. I thought... What if, I was able to bypass it by focusing offense against a common weakness shared by its dual Grass and Rock-type dispositions? But... But beyond that-"
"-...I was really... thinking... about everything that you had taught me... Try one way, if not another. Rather than throwing oneself uselessly against the wall, climb over it... I-I don't remember exactly how you had said this one but it was something along the lines of finding success in failure and vice versa..."
Listening to her quote his teachings ignited the first flare of recognition inside him. Resisting the urge to act on the surge of pride shooting throughout his body, Steven settled for reaching out to her with words instead. "I look forward to experiencing the rest that you have to offer, May."
Recognizing a blushing fit when one crept its way up from beneath her clothes, May managed an awkward smile beneath embarrassedly-lowered eyelids.
"I-I think I've rested e-enough!" Finding it physically, and emotionally stifling, to remain a second longer in his glowing presence, she hastily scrambled to her feet with Steven rising to his feet almost immediately after, his towering height instantly dwarfing hers as it stretched to its fullest.
"May," He called out to the girl, stopping her in her tracks a meter away. "Wait."
"Wait," Up in their enclosed little space, Sidney and Phoebe loudly, excitably repeated with their staring faces shoved into the glass pane at the ongoing scene below. "Wait, what?"
At her younger teammates' exaggeratedly-disbelieving reactions, Glacia rolled her eyes. However, at the sight of Champion Steven Stone lowering himself to the floor before a wide-eyed May Maple to tighten her shoelaces, well, she stared.