After losing one of her strongest pokemon, Alcea's ready to take this match seriously! She's brought out her Dhelmise, and will use the pokemon's Ghost typing to defeat Olivia's Fighting type Grapploct! But will Hollander be enough? Or does Olivia have something else up her sleeve? This fight's reaching a turning point, where will things go from here?! Remember to review!

The Semi-Final Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 3 has begun! These are our semi-finalists! Make sure to get those votes in, and choose which of these girls you think should make it to the finals! So far, only three people have voted, we need more votes for the finals! You can only vote for 3, so make sure to pick your favorites!

Semi-Finalists: Ayame, Chloe, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Marion, Sango, Vic

KedharS: Most battles with harmonia come down to that in one way or another.

Aakareo Kokokuhikari: Pretty strong, I imagine. And it's not going to be very good for our heroes, that's for sure.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: He couldn't help himself, some things are just really stimulating, that's all there is to it.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1012

"Using your Dhelmise next, I expected as much," Olivia smiled. "Figures you would use your Ghost type to fight Benny!"

"That's right, Dhelmise looks like a Water type pokemon, but it's really a Grass/Ghost," Marion remembered. "That's a great matchup!"

"Besides her Garchomp, the rest of her team is Psychic types," Donoma said, tapping her chin thoughtfully with a wicked smile on her face. "Well played, Alcea, you've saved quite the trump card for yourself!"

"Benny, return!" Olivia raised her pokeball to recall Benny, but Alcea was too quick for her.

"Anchor shot, Hollander!" She ordered.

"Dhelmise!" Hollander wailed, raising their body and swinging out the anchor hung from the wheel. The anchor shot across the field and wrapped tightly around Benny's body, holding him in place. The light from Olivia's pokeball couldn't retrieve him.

"You're not the only one who can restrict their foe's movements," Alcea smiled. "Or do you not like it when I'm the one tying you up, is it?"

Olivia's cheeks turned red. She could feel the pressure of Hollander's chains squeezing down on her, like the shipwreck pokemon had her bound and not her Grapploct. If was like a heavy weight was strapped to her, dragging her down, and it was all she could do to struggle against it.

"This… this isn't… don't think you can hold me back like this!" Olivia exclaimed, her anger flaring back up. "Benny, use ice punch!"

"Grapploct!" Benny cried, his tentacles turning icy and cold. The cold froze the anchor and shot down the chain to hit the seaweed that composed Hollander's main body.

"Dhelmise!" The seaweed warbled in pain, their whole body shaking, loosening just enough to free the octopus.

"So she had a trump card of her own," Ian grimaced.

"Should have figured," Raizer shrugged. "After all, she's preparing to fight Alcea of all people, she would need to come up with something like that."

"Benny, use your ice punch again!" Olivia ordered. Again, she was relying on Gabrielle's knowledge of the Ice type to gain an advantage over Alcea. But she had no way of knowing that Alcea was just as prepared as she was.

Benny scuttled across the electric terrain with his tentacles raised, preparing to unleash a barrage of ice punches. But Alcea was ready for him.

His strength has been weakened due to superpower… but that probably offset by her harmonia, she reasoned. We'll still need to be careful about this.

She turned to her Dhelmise. Luckily, the effects of the ice punch were negligible due to Benny's lowered attack stat.

"Hollander, use phantom force!" Alcea ordered.

"Dhelmise," Hollander buzzed, disappearing into the shadows just as Benny raised his tentacles to strike them. The punches flew through thin air.

"So, hiding away, are we?" Olivia scoffed. "That won't help you! Benny, focus yourself, we're going to strike the second they reappear!"

Alcea just smiled. Olivia had no idea how Hollander was planning to attack.

"That strategy… works in theory, is it?" Alcea murmured, the faintest of smiles playing across her lips. "But in practice… difficult, is it?"

Then, Hollander reappeared. But not at all as Olivia expected. It wasn't the hulking remains of a shipwreck that appeared to strike her pokemon, no, what had come to attack was seaweed, and lots of it. In the netherworld, Hollander had forsaken the debris that made up the majority of their body, and imbued their REAL body with ghostly strength.

As seaweed, the pokemon could attack Benny from all directions at once, delivering countless stings of ghostly energy to their foe before Benny could even attempt to mount a counterattack. The tentacle'd pokemon swung as hard as he could and twisted his body in an attempt to evade, but it was like mounting an attack against the ocean itself.

"This… is nothing!" Olivia said, raising her arms instinctively to shield her face as her pokemon was doing. "I've had seaweed face wraps that were more harmful than this!"

In spite of her proclamations, the barrage continued. Benny finally managed to pull himself free of the swarm and swing an ice punch that froze some of them, but their compatriots shattered the ice and reformed themselves into a mass of seaweed before slowly retaking control over the debris and returning to their normal appearance.

"That was a rather masterful play of Alcea's," Ian said. "I can't imagine, using a Dhelmise's main body to mount an attack from all directions like that."

"Olivia's at a disadvantage too, and she knows it," Donoma agreed. "She needs to fight directly with her Grapploct, but because of his current condition, and the fact that he's fighting against a large mass of pokemon, that's going to be difficult."

"Enough of this!" Olivia snarled. "Benny! Use topsy-turvy!"

"Topsy-what?" Giselle gasped in disbelief.

"I've never even heard of that move!" Lukas exclaimed.

Everyone looked to Ian, the most knowledgeable battler here. But he just shrugged.

"It's a special move. Known only to a few kinds of pokemon."

Everyone whirled to see Mirar standing there, watching the battle.

Was… Was he always here? They all thought at once. Nobody had been paying any attention to the nondescript boy until now, so they couldn't remember if he'd been watching the fight this entire time or not.

"Topsy-turvy," Mirar continued, "is an attack that is exceptionally rare but very powerful. It reverses all stat changes of the target."

"All stat changes?" Giselle asked, confused. "But her Dhelmise was just sent out, none of their stats have changed."

"But Grapploct's have," Ian reminded her. "Remember that superpower move he used to finish off Alcea's Tsareena?"

"Wait, you can do that?!" Donoma exclaimed. "That's, like, cheating! Totally cheating!"

Benny flipped up into the air, landing on the ground with newfound strength. Where before his physical attack and defense had dropped considerably due to his use of superpower, now he was stronger than ever before, and burning with harmonia.

"What do you think, Alcea?" Olivia cackled. She felt reinvigorated herself. "With this, my Benny is more than powerful enough to finish off that pesky bit of flotsam! Benny, use ice punch once again!"

"You're relying on that move so much because you have nothing else, is it?" Alcea scoffed. "You will need more than that to defeat us. Hollander! Use your spite!"

"What?!" Donoma couldn't believe her ears. Somebody actually used that move?!

"Dhelmise…" Hollander began glowing ominously, and ghostly energy flickered from their pulsing body over to Benny, wrapping around him. He charged forward regardless and swung with all his might, unleashing a devastating freezing punch that sent Hollander spiraling backwards. But it wasn't enough to finish them off.

"This is… what did you do?!" Olivia demanded. She couldn't quite put her finger on what she was feeling; it was like her own energy had been drained somehow, but not in a way she could quantify. She wasn't any weaker, or more tired, there was just… "something" that was missing, and she couldn't say what.

"I had my Hollander use spite," Alcea said matter-of-factly. "You may not be aware of this move, but the term is something you are quite familiar with, is it?"

Olivia glared at Alcea, unimpressed by her witty statement.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She snarled.

"You may disdain me, but I have a great deal of respect for you," Alcea explained. "And in spite of your words… I know you feel the same. But your other feelings, that envy and spite wafting off of you… those things are toxic. How do they feel?"

"Enough of that!" Olivia spat. "Benny! Use ice punch again!"

"Grappl… oct?!" Benny gasped. He waved his tentacles, but no ice appeared.

"He cannot use that move anymore," Alcea said. "Hollander's spite has drained it of all PP. Now you must rely on your pokemon's other moves to get an advantage."

"Other moves?" Giselle said, her eyes widening.

"Can Grapploct even learn other moves that would be good in this situation?" Marion wondered, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

Olivia bit her lip in frustration, surging her harmonia. "Benny!" She shouted. "Use your octazooka on that thing, now!"

"Gr-Grapploct!" Benny nodded, firing a swift burst of ink at Hollander. It hit them directly, barely leaving a scratch.

"A minimal move… in the intense sunlight, against a Grass type pokemon, not even using the physical attack stat you buffed so… did you think that would even make a dent?" Alcea asked, raising her eyebrow. "Hollander! Time for power whip!"

"Dhelmise!" Hollander whipped their chain forward, wrapping their anchor around Benny and lifting them into the air. With a flick they slammed him back down into the ground, and lashed against him again for good measure.

"GRAAAAP!" Benny cried in pain, and Olivia shouted with him, feeling the swing of the chain rip into her flesh. But she stood her ground, coughing, even as her pokemon was weakening. He'd taken some serious blows against Anastacia, and even with his defenses hardened there wasn't much more he could take.

"Now finish this," Alcea said calmly. "Solar blade."

Hollander raised their anchor high, the bright sunlight glowing against the shining metal. It formed into a large anchor of light around the wreckage, and with a single swing Hollander brought it down and slashed into Benny, knocking them unconscious.

The force of the attack was enough to knock Olivia off of her feet.

"Olivia!" Alcea cried. But Olivia was fine. She quickly stood back up and wiped the blood from her nose, recalling Benny to his pokeball.

"Not done yet…" She panted. "I still… I still have three pokemon left, you know!" She shouted in defiance, reaching for her next pokeball.

The electric terrain has almost run its course, she judged. Before that happens, I need to…

"Ren, come back out!" She tossed Ren's pokeball into the air, releasing the slumbering pokemon.

"She's using her Slowbro again?" Lukas asked, surprised. "But he's fast asleep! Why would she do something like that?"

"Because of the electric terrain," Raizer said, narrowing his eyes. "If I had to guess… that's probably one of the reasons she set it up in the first place."

Ren landed on the ground, and the stinging tickle of the electric terrain began to lick at him, waking him from his sleep. As he awoke he drained the rest of the electricity gathered on the ground, the current dispersing at last.

"Slow… bro…" He yawned, stretching.

"With electric terrain, no pokemon can be put to sleep, remember?" Olivia smiled. "And those that are, well… they're easily woken up, as you can see! Now's the time we make our counterattack! Go, Ren, use your shell side arm!"

"Slowbro!" Ren swung his hand up and released a blast of poison right at Hollander, hitting the pokemon directly.

"With his quick draw, he was able to go first!" Donoma gasped.

"That was a direct hit, too," Ian winced.

"Hollander, are you well?" Alcea shouted.

"Dhelmise," Hollander gurgled, though it was clear they were injured from that attack. In spite of their Steelworker ability giving them many of the advantages of being a Steel type and the fact that they were wrapped tightly around the debris of a shipwreck, they were still susceptible to poison.

It was only by good fortune that they were not infected.

"It looks like we'll need a few more then," Olivia decided. "Use shell side arm again, Ren!"

"Slowbro," Ren nodded, raising his arm once more. This time was a lot slower than before, however, which gave Hollander a chance to strike.

"Anchor shot," Alcea ordered. Hollander whipped their anchor forward and wrapped the chain around Ren's leg, tugging hard. He was pulled onto his back as he fired the shot, sending the wad of poison flying into the air, far from its initial target. Prey captured, Hollander began to spin, dragging Ren through the grass and slamming him into the rocks left over from Wes's fight against Alden the week before.

"Slowbro!" Ren cried out in pain. Just as he was about to slam into another rock, though, his body was replaced with a stuffed animal, and Hollander's chain clanked harmlessly against the bolder.

Ren reappeared a second later, panting.

"We still have our substitutes, so don't get cocky!" Olivia snarled. "Ren! Change of tactics! Use ice beam!"

"Slowbro!" Ren nodded, raising his shell. He fired a beam of concentrated icy energy at the hovering Dhelmise.

Alcea wasn't impressed.

"Freezing again, is it?" She sighed.

"It's the best way to handle your team," Olivia smirked. "Your pokemon are weakened by ice moves, and your Dhelmise is no exception to that!"

"Is it? Hollander! Whirlpool!" Alcea ordered. The wheel on Hollander's body began to spin, and as it did, their anchor spun with it, spinning up a torrent of water in front of them to serve as a shield against the attack.

"We'll freeze that just fine!" Olivia assured her. "You can't behind that shield forever!"

But in spite of her certainty, Hollander quickly proved her wrong. The ice struck the whirlpool and was dispersed, but it failed to freeze the water in the slightest.

"What?! What's going on?" Olivia gasped in disbelief.

"It's seawater," Marion said, a bright smile on her face. "Don't you know? Dhelmise are found deep, deep at the bottom of the ocean! Their bodies are composed mainly of sea water, and sea water doesn't freeze! That's why if you use an Ice type move on them, you might freeze their equipment, but not the seaweed itself! And not only that, they can draw out the water from the seaweed and use it to defend themselves, like that!"

Alcea nodded. "Basically correct."

Olivia growled. "Oh, you think you're so clever, don't you? Well, fine then! We have more than ice moves up our sleeve! Ren, use flamethrower!"

"Slowbro!" Ren fired a blast of flames from his shell this time, but again, Hollander counteracted it with a burst of water.

"If ice didn't work, you thought fire would?" Alcea asked, raising her eyebrow. Confusing. Olivia was fighting much better than this not so long ago, so why the sudden change?

The reason behind Olivia's sudden change in tactics was because, unfortunately, as much skill as she'd been able to acquire from the trainers that Samarra was friends with, that didn't mean those trainers could make her pokemon better.

Olivia had sculpted Ren's moveset for Cuteness Contests, which means he did not possess a wide range of moves that would be very effective against Alcea's pokemon. Which meant that all the tactics and strategies she may have had weren't useful with a pokemon who couldn't take advantage of them properly.

But she wasn't about to let that get the better of her. She could win this, she knew she could. She just had to rely on her pokemon's strengths.

Both those attacks were very slow, and so was Ren's last shell side arm. If the chance of Quick Draw making him go first is about 30%... then this next attack will almost certainly be much faster! I'll have to gamble on that probability! Olivia decided.

"Ren!" She shouted. "Use shell side arm!"

"Slowbro!"

Yes! It was just as she thought! Ren raised his hand with lightning-fast speed, firing a massive glob of poison right at Hollander. This time, the seaweed pokemon wasn't quick enough to mount any kind of defense; the poison hit them directly, and they screamed in pain.

"Yes! Perfect!" Olivia cheered.

"That won't be enough!" Alcea shouted.

Hollander shot towards Ren, shrugging off the blast from the poison. To Ren and Olivia's shock, they were still moving as strong as before.

"We won't yield to something like that! You may have harmonia, you may be far more skilled than you were previously… but at this moment, Hollander and I are still stronger!" Alcea declared. Hollander had been at her side since the beginning. Her beloved pokemon, who had shielded her from the sun all those years ago when she was stranded on that island.

She didn't have harmonia, but she still knew that, at this moment, their thoughts were united towards defeating Olivia.

Hollander raised their anchor, and ghostly energy surged through it. They swung with a devastating shadow claw that struck Ren directly in the chest, and called a cry of pain out of the Poison type pokemon's mouth.

"Ren!" Olivia whimpered, clutching her chest and stumbling. She'd weakened him with those substitute attacks, and he didn't have the strength to withstand that last move. It was so much more powerful than she'd expected, even with her harmonia boosting it.

That's right… a critical hit… I see…

Olivia had been gambling on the chance of Quick Draw giving her the victory. But not only did Hollander not get poisoned after being struck by the move twice, they were still capable of mounting a counterattack and lashing out with a powerful shadow claw that had landed as a critical.

So my luck failed me… of course. Of course luck would favor someone like her… Olivia's bitterness took hold, but she couldn't yield to it. Admitting that Alcea was just luckier than her would be the same as admitting that there was something she couldn't achieve through hard work.

And even as her pokemon lay unconscious in front of her, their connection severed, that was still something she absolutely refused to do.

Alcea stared impassively at Olivia.

"With this, now I have taken the lead, is it?" She coldly declared. Olivia only had two pokemon remaining.

Alcea and Hollander have really turned this match around! Olivia only has her Rapidash and her Garchomp left! But it's too soon to be relaxing, even though Alcea has a serious type advantage against Olivia's Rapidash, that isn't enough to ensure her victory. What other tricks does Olivia have up her sleeve?