A/N: I've now caught up with myself in regards to posting so everything beyond this point will be completely knew and unseen by any readers.
This is part two to the Pokemon Battles of the previous chapters, so don't expect amazing descriptions of pokemon battles. I'm not brilliant at battles of any kind. This chapter is also very short.
A/N 2: Please be aware updates will be slow due to Real Life and other stories
Chapter Twenty-Two: Determining their Strength Part 2
The second to last battle was between Salamence and Hydreigon.
I thought about releasing Lucario to face the Salamence, but I knew that Lance was going to leave Dragonite to last and no matter what team he was using Dragonite was going to be the strongest. I didn't like thinking about my family in terms of strongest to weakest, but Lucario was technically the strongest.
Hydreigon was my strongest hitting Pokemon, and the one with a body which can take the most damage, so it made sense to put her against the heavy defence Pokemon of Salamence. Once he evolved, Vulpix would have a very good chance against Salamence, but for now that was a battle that only Lucario and Hydreigon stood a chance in without serious injury since the rest of the family relied on evasion, speed and cheeping away at the opponent.
"Flamethrower," Lance once more started this battle.
"Protect, Dragon Breath." I countered.
The battle started off as a battle of aim and distance, the both of them not willing to move in close until they had gotten a measure of their opponent. Salamence mostly chose to endure the hit or dodge, while Hydreigon dodged or used protect. She had been clipped by a hyper beam and then she had been used protect to take the initial impact in order give herself the time that she needed to use dig and get out of the way of the rest of the power.
In turn, Salamence took a direct hit from thunder wave and three different dragon breathes, which had left his hard scales a little scorched and damaged but he was mostly fine.
"Let's change this up, shadow claw." Lance decided.
"Match fang." I snapped quickly.
Hydreigon charged forward and met the shadow claw with her own dark pulse, and then used the manoeuvrability of a second hit to bite down on Salamence's neck with thunder fang. Salamence roared out in pain and managed to dislodge Hydreigon by hitting her with a steel wing.
"Outrage," I instructed before Salamence could put too much distance between them.
"Defence Curl!" Lance snapped.
Salamence pulled his wings and head in close just as Hydreigon slammed into him. They skidded across the floor for a few paced before the attacked ended and Hydreigon acted on her own and used thunder wave before backing up and putting distance between them. Some of the close combat moves that Salamence could learn were very damaging to Hydreigon, so when they got in close Hydreigon needed to act quickly before disengaging and preparing to get out again.
"Dragon claw," Lance called, he knew why we wanted Hydreigon to keep our distance.
"Endure, twice bite." Jenny decided to use the in close opportunity they were being given even if Hydreigon took some damage.
Hydreigon took the dragon claw and before Salamence could reposition himself two heads shot out and clamped down on either of his wings in a powerful crunch. The roar of pain Salamence let out at this was louder than before since his wings were the most delicate part of his body. Using the hold that she had, Hydreigon lifted Salamence larger body and threw it a few metres away and followed the falling body with dragon breath.
"Salamence, can you continue?" Lance questioned as Salamence forced itself to his feet with his wings tucked in close to his body in a protective measure.
"Mence!" Salamence growled furiously.
"Alright, rush flamethrower, dragon tail."
Hydreigon dodged the flamethrower and went to meet the dragon tail with a crunch, but Salamence had learnt his lesson and swept his tail low so that it met Hydreigon's front legs. Hydreigon growled angrily before releasing a point-blank dragon breath followed by dragon rush. Salamence wasn't able to get up this time.
"Well, this is turning into an interesting battle. Maybe I should have tried my champion team." Lance sighed. "Dragonite is on my Elite Team, but he's borderline so should give you a good challenge."
"Lucario, fast and light," I instructed aloud, causing my aura partner to jump forward to take the stage.
I decided not to silently battle as I tended to with Lucario because this was learning opportunity for the entire team. This was a learning experience for me, directing my team in one-on-one battles with rules and regulations. It was hardest with Lucario because I regularly directed him non-silently in battle.
"Into the sky, speed." Lance ordered Dragonite.
Dragonite wasn't that fast on the land but in the air, he was virtually unchallenged. The problem was, Lucario was one of the fastest land-based Pokemon and he could jump at the same speed that he could run – something that I had made sure off during their training. The speed difference, along with the power, was one of the reasons that I had decided to match Lucario up against Dragonite.
"Electric wind," Lance once more got the ball rolling.
"Move," I said simple.
Lucario dodged the electrified twister that Dragonite released, while sending a series of shadow balls of his own back.
Dragonite managed to dodge the ball of dark energy and decided to get in close with a fire punch. Lucario dodged under the punch and used a shadow claw on Dragonite's exposed belly.
"Watch your guard, she likes sneak attacks! D-rush!" Lance called once Dragonite was back at altitude.
"Chip and slide," I decided.
I didn't need to call many attacks for Lucario, he had a better lay of the land then I did since he could take in more visual impute at once using Aura than I could – allowing him to determine what was happening at all angles while I needed to focus on one or two. He could also track something moving faster than I could; if Dragonite started using extreme speed, I wouldn't be able to determine where Dragonite was until he was about to land an attack, but Lucario would be able to track him. The order chip and slide, was their code for random hits whenever an opening was presented and to dodge any incoming attacks. He wasn't to move in to engage, he was only to attack Dragonite when he was attacked.
With the orders in place, Lance and I watched and waited as they clashed time and time again. Both Pokemon were using their speed to their advantage, although Lucario temporarily took extreme speed off the table by using disable the first chance he could. He could track Dragonite using the move, but he could only counter it when using detect, a move he couldn't sustain at all times.
"He's fast," Lance complimented.
"Speed is important to me," I smiled, gentle running my fingers running across Greninja's head.
"But you don't lack power, either." Lance said just as Dragonite took a cross chop to the back after trying to slam Lucario.
"And this taking it slow," I smiled towards Lucario.
"Well then, let's see how you handle this. Hyper beam the field." Lance changed the rhythm off the fight.
"Defence," I called.
With an order like that, it was possible that Lance had taught his Dragonite to target a wide area with Hyper Beam which would make dodging difficult. Lucario could go on the offensive in the time it took Dragonite to charge the hyper beam; but if they timed it wrong, he would end up too close to dodge. Most couldn't take a hit from hyper beam without getting knockout damage, and even protect wouldn't be enough to stop the damage of hyper beam just limit some of the damage.
Fortunately, Aura Shield was a little bit stronger than protect. Lucario crouched low, raising his arms and crossing them. He got his protection up, just in time for Dragonite to release an extremely powerful and wide hyper beam which covered nearly half of the field. I lifted my sleeve to cover my mouth from the dust that was picked up.
Before the dust had settled, Lucario lunched himself up at Dragonite. Having not expected Lucario to have not only survived but remained in ready fighting order straight after such an attack, Dragonite wasn't prepared to dodge the force palm which became a mega kick to send Dragonite down to the ground with a loud bang. With the damage he'd taken in their previous encounters, this ended up being the last exchange of blows.
Lucario landed before me, breathing deeply and with burns on his fur, but otherwise fine.
"Jennifer wins. That's seven knock outs too none." The referee called the match.
"Well done, all of you." I knelt down and pulled each of them into a hug.
"Jenny, you were amazing!" Chloe cheered from the gallows.
"My family were amazing," I corrected, still hugging my team.
"That they were." Lance agreed, coming to my platform.
"I hadn't expected to have to use my Elite Team, but you pushed us and managed to win. I'd love to see how you do against my Champion team in a month or two, once you're really settled." Lance rubbed the back of Hydreigon's middle head.
"I think that would be a good idea. So that my team can experience what it means to face a superior team. That had been my intention today, but well… we defeated more than three of your Pokemon." I shrugged, standing with Vulpix on jumping up on my shoulder to have a nap.
"Defeat three had been your goal?" Chloe started, surprised from where she'd joined us.
"I didn't have a measure of what a Gym or Elite Team is capable of, so I estimated my family to be at Gym Level." I informed them. "Considering that, I thought we would be able to take down three of Lace's Pokemon as he was using his between Gym and Elite Team."
"You listen to uploaded battles a lot," Chloe responded, like she was trying to figure out why I didn't have an understanding of a Pokemon's battle level.
"I can hear the moves and strategy being used, but I can't see how they execute the move or the damage done." I informed. "Sight or being physically present are very important for getting such a level estimate. I know the theoretical definitions of each of the levels, but not the practical."
"That makes sense," Lance hummed. "But I think it's time to move into the dining room. There is a large buffet waiting, and people who wish to meet you."
