Chapter 17B
Brendan zoomed through the gym, quickly making his way to the final door. Through the door, James was there. He would show almost no mercy, and Brendan knew he had to do his very best. He double checked with May, to make sure she was also ready. Sensing a weak but existent confidence, Brendan gripped the doorknob... and pulled.
A guy with jet black hair waited in the middle, hands firmly on a pokeball. He smiled, and said "Hello. I'm James."
"You've done pretty well, getting through three people to get to me. It seems like you only have two pokemon and no badges, so it'll be a fair fight. To be honest, your fighting style confuses me. You never say a single word during battle, and your pokemon have to look back to know what to do. Why? I know you aren't the silent type, because after battles, you tend to talk normally."
Brendan would've answered, but he couldn't. May was in control of words.
"... you don't need to answer. If you were willing to stay silent during your battles, you're probably dedicated enough to not reveal why. Let's just begin." With that, James released a Vigoroth.
Battle start.
James's pokemon would be heavy hitters, Brendan thought. May chose for the Radots to shine first, and Brendan was happy with that. Double Team was a pretty good play, and the two damagers were special attacks. It would be plausible that a good hit took out James's pokemon, even if (M)Radot's Absorb did most of it.
Beginning with that strategy, three fingers were held out. Double Team quickly multiplied (B)Radot, and sidestepped the Vigoroth's Scratch.
Encore was used by the Vigoroth, and Brendan silently cheered. More Double Teams.
A flurry of scratches followed, but the Double Teams worked like a charm. The strikes almost always missed, and the few glancing blows did almost nothing due to May's Harden.
Time for assault, thought Brendan. Four fingers, Confusion. Ralts ran forwards and delivered a crippling blow using Confusion, and the rejuvenation (B)Radot seemed to get from the strike meant that (M)Radot had used Absorb. Keeping up the damage, Brendan kept the four fingers out for more Confusion. A trade of damage then happened, as an Uproar struck (B)Radot. This is bad, Brendan knew. Uproar was a special attack, not physical. Harden wouldn't work, the only thing that would work was dodges via Double Team.
James was thoroughly confused now. His opponents sometimes had quirks to them, but never had one been so inconsistent. They flinched when nothing attacked, dodged almost every strike, and physical strikes did almost nothing. Pushing these thoughts to the back of his head, James had to wait for Uproar to finish.
Two Absorbs got through, draining more health, but then the Uproar ended and critically struck (B)Radot. The result was (B)Radot barely standing. A scratch followed, and took out (B)Radot, due to the low health.
"Really thought you'd take a bit longer to take down. Anyways, let's see your next pokemon."
Author's note: Woohoo extra cliffhanging to bump views woooo