Episode 19: It's time to RUUUUUUMMMMBBBLLLLEEEE!
Anto ran across the empty and abandoned southern residential district of Nimbasa City. In the distance, he heard loud clashes and several beams shoot up into the sky in farther away places. It got his heart racing to know that there were already trainers and participants fighting against their opponent for the day. His opponent was yet to be chosen, and with each second that went by Anto just got more and more excited.
The specialized X-transciver on his wrist beeped. "Contestant number 13~!" The machine beeped out. "You're opponent, #64, is in the next turn to your left!"
Anto nodded, he looked to Takezo who nodded at what this meant. Anto quickly took something out of his pocket and handed it to his partner and briefly linked over what to do with it.
Takezo nodded and tied it to his blade.
Anto slid into the next turn and faced down his opponent. Takezo, jumped off, blade ready to for the first battle.
"Go, Dusclops!"
Both participants machines loudly stated, "#13 Anto versus #64 Emerald! Ready!? Battle!"
The smaller green-themed boy smiled. "Well it looks like you got the short end of the straw, Anto! Cause I'm here to win! Dusclops, Will-o-Wisp!"
[Earlier that day…]
Takezo perched on Anto's shoulder viewed the amount of people around him. He especially focused on the blue themed girl that was staring at him.
"I've seen Patrats before but… this one has a bokken?" Sapphire asked as she looked at it.
"Yep. And I think he makes his own as well. They're all pretty good." Wes explained.
"Odd, it doesn't say that in the Pokédex." Emerald said as he looked at his device.
Anto smiled. He knew what Pokédexs were. Short for Pokémon index or something else. Basically they told all basic genetic behaviors of Pokémon, but as obvious with Takezo, Ohko, and Sentinel, they prove that just like Humans, just because they can all do one thing genetically doesn't mean they are only restricted to them.
"Trust me guys," Wes vouched out. "If you're with Anto, the strangest of things follow him around like white on white rice."
The four of them glanced around the Small Court which was only named that in Nimbasa City because it was smaller than the Big Stadium. It was a pretty contradicting name since it was rather big by itself.
This was the place where all 128 contestants would gather for a briefing on the rules of the tournament.
A crowd of people with miscellaneous Pokémon of all kinds were out and waiting in front of a stage.
Out of the stage, came out Hilda, Anto immediately recognized her as White's mother.
"Welcome one and all! Thank you participating in the Music Festival's first ever battle tournament!" She opened up with a mike before the crowd cheered in excitement. "I must thank you all again for participating in this cultural appreciation for the arts. Here to explain the rules is the current champion of Hoenn, Wallace!"
Everyone roared in applause as the elegant but powerful man strode into the center of the stage with his own mike.
"Thank you, Hilda. I must admit that you yourself are quite skillful to continuously organize such a worldwide event. Let us give us a hand to the President of the BW Company!"
Everyone gave the same energy they did to Wallace to Hilda, who waved politely back at the crowds with a small blush on her cheeks.
As the applause died down, Wallace turned back to the trainers. "Now first let me explain the rewards for participating in this event. The first place winner of the tournament will receive a million Pokédollars in check!" He let the crowd cheer for a few seconds. "And the winner also gets bragging rights to be the very first Queen or King of the musical Festival! One of the first world wide events hosted here in Unova! Essentially saying you're one of the best of the best in the world—well maybe unofficially, but no one can take that away from you."
Some people chuckled.
"But I digress. Allow me to explain the rules for the preliminary matches. You are allowed to choose three Pokémon per battle. However, if one of those three Pokémon gets knocked out, you lose and are knocked out of the tournament. In other words, this will be a battle of who gets knocked out first." Wallace explained.
Hilda walked up and a screen above showed and exampled of Unova Starters versus kanto starters. "Basically saying, you are allowed to switch in Pokémon during mid battle," The screen showed a cartoon version of the simulation. "But by doing that, you potentially leave your upcoming Pokémon in an awkward position since it may get attacked the moment it comes out. But there are also cases where you can possibly recall a Pokémon before they are knocked out, so they are risks and rewards for these. If any one of your three Pokémon get knocked out, then you lose. For today you will only have one match to determine who will move on to battle on tomorrow. The matches will only be once per day all leading up to the end of the week where we will be down to the final two."
She smiled and turned back to the audience and cameras. "Now with so many of you being somewhat of a mini League Tournament, where will we hold all the battles? For today, the matches will be held in three areas: some here in Small Court, which we all wonder why it was called such a thing; some in the Big Stadium, it's not much of a surprise really, but for the last branch where we'll be sending a good chunk of you…"
Hilda turned back to the screen and it showed a 3-D model of Nimbasa City. It zoomed into an old corner that showed old looking buildings.
"We made a deal with the Mayor Basa, of Nimbasa City. What you see here is the old residential district that has long been abandoned and evacuated. The mayor has been meaning to tear this district down, but I convinced him to do something else. The tournament will be spent have matches in this dangerous place. You trainers will have to think on your feet and be very careful about the environment falling around you."
Everyone looked around and mumbled. Fighting in a condemned area? That really was different from the usual arena's the Pokémon Federation would allow.
Whoever would get sent to the Condemned District today would have to worry about near destroyed buildings that might collapse if some trainer's battle to fiercely inside a condemned house. Not to mention, if a powerful Pokémon used Earthquake or any other powerful move the other trainers might suffer for it.
It sounded dangerous.
"Oh this sounds like fun!" Wes smirked.
Hilda calmed the crowd down a bit and pointed to a large table with state of the art XTransceivers.
"These are customized XTransceivers just for this tournament. All 128 participants will wear them as proof of your participation in the tournament. The XTranscievers here will be the one to guide you to your battle arena, record which three Pokémon you use per battle, and locate and synch with your opponents. They will monitor each fight and health so use them to your advantage to keep tabs on your opponent's Pokémon and your own! Be ready! As soon as you get one, you will be given ten minutes before your directions are sent!"
"Golduck, if you would." Wallace asked his Pokémon politely as the amazing water Pokémon used his psychic abilities to send all individual 128 devices to all of them.
Wes, Emerald, and Sapphire had their pictures taken and digitized to the screen.
Anto actually sneezed when his flashed, and then showed a deformed picture as his ID.
"Really?" Anto complained as he saw the other three snickering at his picture.
"Best of luck to all of you! Have fun~!" Hilda said before ending her announcement.
As if on cue, dozens flying machines with cameras attached to them were sent flying around all trainers, it seemed like all battles would be telecasted all over the city!
"They are really going all out." Wes whistled.
"Well boys," Sapphire started as she punched the air excitedly. "You better start bowing to your new queen!"
"Pssh, no one bows to the queen of delusional daydreams," Wes snarked before spinning a Poké Ball on his finger. "When I get to be king, you all get to be my court jesters."
"Ha! As the True king," Emerald huffed. "I'll make you eat those words! And I'll make Anto my royal advisor. He has the best advice after all."
Anto's was response was deadpan.
All of their XTs started beeping to life, and showed something like a GPS route to their desitnation.
Anto smiled and had a look that was easy to read for all of them. "Good luck."
All trainers, some new, some old, some familiar, some strange, some powerful, some weak, some unseen, but all were ready.
Takezo and Anto shared a glance saying they were ready for this, before laser focusing on the exits in front of them.
As the doors re opened, there was only one thing left,
"May the best trainer win!"
[Current time.]
Dusclops launched a flurry of ghostly fire towards the smaller normal type. But Takezo spun his blade into a rather offensive looking fighting stance and charged straight for the flames at amazing speeds. His blade started to flare black shadows, and swung the blade to cut through whatever sparks of flames getting close to the speedy Pokémon.
"OK that Pokémon is fast!" Emerald as he backed off, "Dusclops, Psychic!"
The ghost type blasted a force of psychic onto the fast charging Pokémon, but Takezo simply held the dark type empowered blade in front of him and the connection broke.
Thinking fast, and realizing the typing of the attack prevented the move from connecting, Emerald acted quickly. "Psychic on the ground! Create a wall!"
Despite the huge amount of psychic power Duclops had, he was only able to move chunks of the street they were in and make them float. However, the ghost type had a great mastery over the psychic move and made the rocks move even faster than the flames. Before Takezo could launch an Assurance, a rock came swooping in, which forced the normal type to back off. Dusclops masterfully puppeteered the boulders, making them like make shift weapons in attempt to crush or smack Takezo.
However while the boulders were fast, Takezo was still able to dodge the approximately dozens of rocks trying to hit him.
"This is a repeat of the first gym all over again!" Takezo cried as he slid under a charging boulder then kept running up a nearby empty house and running up the walls to avoid more boulders breaking through the failing building. He kicked off the wall as his speed started to fail running up the concrete and hopped on several of the psychic held boulders until he leapt off like a bullet when he was on the boulder closest to Dusclops.
Emerald smiled. Wes was right that Patrat was amazing, but he definitely wouldn't lose against something this fun. "Dusclops, Fire Punch!"
"Detect into Assurance!"
Takezo started rotating his body counter clockwise midair.
Dusclops threw his left arm into a Fire Punch toward the Pokémon. However, Takezo spun to barely avoid the flaming fist. The second he angled himself out of the way, Takezo' blade burst with dark energy and using the spinning momentum, made his blade hit the back of Dusclop's neck.
Dusclops staggered at the supper effective attack in such a unprotected area while Takezo continued sliding away from the momentum and creating distance between them.
Emerald was relieved that Dusclops was still willing to fight, but that wouldn't help. Quickly, he took out his Poké Ball and returned the ghost type.
Anto saw this and did the same with Takezo.
Emerald smirked. He hadn't had a battle this tense since fighting his seniors! "Go Sudowodo!"
Anto threw a Great Ball the same time Emerald threw his.
The smaller boy automatically didn't like how he had to fight a fighting type.
The ground shook slightly, probably from someone not too far away using an Earthquake attack.
Sudowoodo acted quickly and used a Takedown attack on the unsuspecting Sawk—that had one arm! Wow. Emerald shook his head and concentrated, he's seen a lot of even crazier stuff before, so this was actually pretty slow compared to his adventures.
"Keep it up! Double Edge!"
Sudowoodo, glowed with enormous power coming after the flying Sawk.
However, the Sawk flipped midair, slid on the ground, and faced toward the speeding rock type with an entertained smile on his face.
The very first thing the Sawk did when his sliding momentum stopped, was quickly kick off and charge straight for the Double Edge.
Sudowoodo clenched her teeth and ran faster at the fighting type.
Ohko threw back his fist, and Emerald swore he could hear it crack all the way from where he was as it clenched tightly into a fist. The fist burst into purple dragonic energy.
And the two made contact.
Emerald and Anto braced themselves as the shockwave shattered all nearby glass within a quarter of a block-radius.
However, to Sudowoodo's surprise, Ohko's fist was set ablaze once more while it was still connected to her!
Ohko stopped forward, crying out in pure strength as he pushed through and followed through the attack with the second combo, smashing Sudowoodo into an old lamppost and breaking through it and slamming hard into a wall.
Sudowoodo, blinked, slid into the floor and fell into her knees.
Emerald underestimated the sheer power of that Sawk, it was stronger than usual! He quickly used his Pokédex to view it one more time.
"Sawk, the Karate Pokémon. Tying their belts gets them pumped up and makes their punches more destructive. Disturbing their training angers them."
Anto blinked. "Wait Ohko that Pokédex said you can have stronger punches by tying your belt tighter? I didn't know that."
"Really?!" Ohko turned back to his trainer excitedly. "Yo, I gotta try tha—"
It was then Ohko remembered he had only one hand.
"You makin fun of me!?" Ohko roared before he burst of from where he was with his fist reclined towards the downed Sudowoodo. Emerald frantically recalled his rock type before she was hit by the powerful anger induced hit.
As Ohko made contact with the wall behind Sudowoodo, the condemned building shook violently and started cracking everywhere from the heavy impact of the blow.
"And note to self: keep away from Pokédexs." Anto told himself.
Emerald whistled, before grinning excitedly at Anto. "You've got great Pokémon, Anto! But you still won't win!"
Anto returned a competitive glare and smile.
Emerald threw out his next Pokémon, a great Sceptile who locked sights with Ohko.
Ohko rolled his neck to crack the creaks back in place before taking another fighting position.
"Leaf Blade!" Emerald cried.
The mighty Hoenn starter, launched himself in amazing speeds toward Ohko, but the fighting type didn't flinch. Rather, he tightened his fist and tensed his body.
"Counter!"
Ohko reached out and punched the incoming Leaf Blade. The instant it made contact, all light form the attack vanished, encompassed all over Ohko, then exploded with a bright flash and musical clang.
Sceptile was sent flying back, but slid on the ground as he readied himself for the next attack.
As the light died down, Anto's eyes widened. "Ohko! Return!"
Ohko looked confused at Anto, but shrugged and trusted him as his boss recalled him back into his Great Ball.
Emerald clicked his tongue. "Tch! OK, you're definitely sharp to see that!"
As Ohko left via laser, several seeds fell harmlessly into the ground before sprouting. Somehow, Sceptile had used Leech Seed the split second after the attack made contact, making the fight go any longer would have knocked Ohko out faster.
But he knew that Grass type effect moves don't work on other grass type Pokémon.
"Salutations." Lily bowed.
"Not making that same mistake I did with the Sawk," Emerald cried as he brought out his Pokédex.
"Lilligant, the Flowering Pokémon. The fragrance of the garland on its head has a relaxing effect. It withers if a trainer does not take good care of it."
"It does what!?" Anto mentally shrieked as he realized that the pretty flower on Lily's head could actually wither. He didn't know he was supposed to take care of that!
"What do you mean, 'It does what'?!" Lily shrieked back, "And why are you staring worryingly at my head!?"
"Uuuuhhhhh, no reason?"
Lily leered. "You better tell me later!" She warned before facing Sceptile.
Emerald blinked and wondered why Anto's Lilligant started screaming at him. In fact, he wondered how Anto was giving out commands to his Pokémon at all, he had been paying attention, he didn't see any significant physical cues, especially since his Pokémon were very focused on their opponents.
But he digressed, this was one great battle. He needed to bring his A game for this one.
"Sceptile, Iron tail!"
The giant grass type blasted off, slamming his empowered tail into Lily, making her fly a good distance back.
Emerald raised his brow. Why did he let her take that hit?
"Now! Quiver Dance!"
The Dex wielder's eyes shot up. That was why he let the attack connect! To widen the distance between Sceptile and Lilligant so he could set up easier! Clever little (Emerald was the midget here, mind you.) Smeargle!
"Bullet Seed quickly!"
Sceptile fired a large amount of empowered pellets at the empowered grass type, who countered the attack by launching a speedy Magical Leaf attack. But Lily was the better special attacker and her attacks lasted through Sceptile's
Sceptile's hand blades glowed and ripped apart the attack before it could harm him.
"Go charge in! She's better at Long Range than you!" The small boy shouted.
Sceptile dove in, powering up Leaf Blades and attempting to slash up the opposing grass type.
Yet Lilligant dance in rhythmic footwork, beautifully dodging the swipes with dance moves along with glowing brightly.
Emerald started to sweat as he saw Lilligant avoiding the attack by using Quiver Dance! The more she dodged the attacks, the stronger she was becoming!
There was one shot and turning this around, but Emerald was impressed that someone other than a dex user was actually able to push him this hard to use it!
"Sceptile back off!" Emerald cried out. He then concentrated as the fully evolved starter came back.
"Lily, gather up Magical Leaf! Something big is coming!" Anto warned.
A light started to envelope the grass type and the ground started trembling.
Emerald pointed at Lilligant. "Frenzy Plant!"
[Meanwhile, in several locations…]
Ruby flipped through the channels that al showed individual battles.
"So who are you looking for?" Lisia asked as she sat down with Ruby.
"Trying to find my friends, I heard they both entered… oh hey! There, see that midget? He's my friend, Emerald, and he conquered the Battle Frontier in Hoenn."
Lisia cooed as she pointed to the screen. "Ooo! Look at his opponent! A Shiny Lilligant! Oh those Pokémon are so loving, patient, and so gentle along with beautiful!" None of those described the current Lilligant on the screen except beautiful. "I should catch one while I'm still here in Unova!"
"While I do admit that is such a beautiful Pokémon, Emerald is a better—" Ruby blinked as he saw Emerald's Sceptile be pushed back and start to concentrate.
His eyes widened as he recognized what he was doing.
In the Small Court, a trainer and her Pokémon were tactically retreating from their opponents.
Sapphire and her Blaziken, Chaka dodged a Water Pulse attack.
"Now!" The blue girl cried and pointed to the poison and water dual type.
The Hoenn fire starter nimbly jinked left and right to avoid more water blasts before launching a powerful Thunder Punch on the Tentacruel and knocked it out.
"The winner! Sapphire!" Both Xtransciveres cried out and showed Sapphire's picture.
The two trainers shook hands in good sportsmanship before the girl in blue wondered how the others were doing.
She got her answer when Blaziken seemed distracted over the fighters in the residential district.
While in the big Stadium, Wes and Espeon were finishing their match.
"Psychic!"
The enemy Machamp was sent smashing into the wall.
"Winner: Wes!" The two wrist machines called out.
Espeon proudly walked over to Wes before they saw something eye catching in the distance.
"Wanna bet that's Anto?" Wes asked.
"Do we know anyone else that can get into that type of situation?"
"Winner: Sebastian Wong!"
"Well there's a sight you don't see every day…" The seventeen year old shielded his eyes as he looked towards the thing that was sticking out.
"Winner: Platinum Berlitz!"
"I wonder…"
Winner: Black!"
"Whoa! That's one powerful Move!
"Winner: Arran Valliquete!"
"Huh."
"Winner: Jamie Stanton!"
"… Wait a second…"
[Back in the fight.]
The earth beneath everyone trembled as a storm of living giant roots burst out of the ground and rocketed wildly towards Lilly.
The female grass type saw the attacks encompassing even the nearby surrounding buildings and readied her storm of leaves. However, she looked back at her exposed trainer and decided something else.
The massive attack of the Ultimate Grass Move barreled hard on them, encompassing the entire street with lush, wild roots covering the area and even shooting high up into the sky, which stood out in the residential area.
Emerald checked his Xtransciver. There was no indication that he won which meant…
A large burst of green light appeared and impacted/shoved several thick, giant vines away, showing a large dome of glowing leaves before they dispersed with Lily, a little out of breath, but shielding Anto.
"Thanks."
"No problem. … Whoa, I didn't know he had this type of move." Lily took in the sight of all the trees surrounding the area.
"Are you still powered up?" Anto asked.
"Twice." Lily answered before Sceptile jumped on a high root with Emerald being carried.
Emerald got off and smiled. "Not many Pokémon can survive the ultimate type moves, but then again, you're not normal, are you?" Emerald pointed, "Now! Iron Tail!"
Sceptile jumped off, but not towards Lily. Sceptile, expertly jumped from vine to vine, almost making this place look like a pseudo jungle.
Then it he bounced off and tried to slam Lily with an Iron Tail. Still Lily was now faster thanks to the power boost of two Quiver Dances and dodge the attack easily.
However, Lily threaded over a protruding root, and tripped. Sceptile had no trouble bouncing back from his first attack and quickly going after Lily again.
This time, Sceptile turned his giant tree tail up and tried to bring it down hard on Lily, but Lily acted quickly and rolled out of the way. She flipped back up, only to miss step and almost trip again by another root.
Anto realized what had happened! Emerald's attack wasn't just strong; it completely changed the battle field in favor of Sceptile with more vines, roots, branches, and such! It was like fighting in a thick forest or jungle that Sceptiles and their pre evolutions are great at! Not to mention, despite Lily's boosted speed, her mobility and range has been cut down greatly due to the twisting and thick roots and thorns surrounding the area!
After all, what good is speed if you can't move freely!?
What a powerful attack! Even when it misses, Emerald still uses it to his advantage!
Anto gritted his teeth. "Lily! Get back!" his shiny Pokémon quickly complied and Anto returned her.
"Oh? You're going to get rid of your stat boosts?" Emerald smirked.
Anto started to sweat. He still recalled the Leech Seed thing Sceptile tried to do on Ohko. Sceptile was faster before he changed the field to his advantage, Ohko would no doubt get knocked out during a long battle.
For Lily, he just recalled her, and even with her boosted powers, her movement was hampered greatly by this forest like area.
Which only left his last Pokémon…
Anto did not notice that with the other matches already finishing, more and more camera drones were gathering around his and Emerald's battle.
[Aspertia City]
Meanwhile, in a small and humble home…
"Hey Mom," A tall teenage boywith familiar sky blue eyes, but long auburn hair that reached his shoulders and was tied into a pony tail, answered the phone as he watched TV. "Oh yeah, I'm watching the Music Festival tournament right now. They really are going all out since they're occupying a thirty minute air time each match in 64 different channels. … Huh? Channel 13? You want me to watch that one? Why? … OK, OK hold your Rapidashes Mom, I'm turning into it."
The boy's dad walked in. "Hey, Katsu my boy! What are you watching?"
"The Music Festival Tournament, Dad. You know, where mom got called to work to? She specifically called to ask me to watch this match about a boy named Anto." The boy answered.
The two men looked at the screen and were surprised to see an urban looking area swamped and jungle like. On the screen showed a picture of Anto mid sneeze, causing the two men to scoff and laugh at the hilarious face.
"Is that why your mom called?" His father asked after calming himself down.
"I… I dunno." Katsu took a look at the Pokémon used in this battle: A Sceptile, which was currently out, a Sudowoodo, and a Dusclops versus a Patrat, Sawk, and Lilligant.
He saw the smaller boy with a triumphant smile on his face while the younger looking boy seemed to be sweating and deep at thought. Katsu knew that an evolved grass type like Sceptile obviously had the advantage over such a battlefield, and looking over this Anto's Pokémon none of them looked like a good match up.
On the screen, Anto sighed before throwing out his Pokémon.
Katsu's eyes widened. His eyes focused on the wooden blade with something tied to it.
His father's did as well. "Whoa! Look at that, Katsu! That Patrat has a wooden blade like you!"
His father was surprised his son didn't react and looked at him. He seemed to be staring with deep thought at the most common Pokémon in Unova with a blade of all things. His son did know a lot of martial arts, and as the father looked at the screen again, the Patrat also carried himself with an air of a martial master.
The father smiled at his son and roughed up his hair.
So this was why his wife called.
[Nimbasa City.]
Wes and Sapphire were watching a screen.
"Whoa, didn't know the little guy could pull off such a move." Wes remarked while being impressed.
Sapphire beamed with pride. "He didn't win the Battle Frontier for nothing. But I have to admit, Anto is pretty good for actually making Emerald use his most powerful move."
"Or he's just unlucky," The Snagger smirked. "Though knowing him, I wouldn't be surprised if it was both." He laughed lightly.
"Oh, hey."
The two turned to the new voice to see three people.
"Wes, was it? Did you win your match?"
"And you are Arab, right?" The boy from Orre pointed back.
"It's Arran. And I am going to make you pay for that jab." The swordsman glared.
Wes' response was to just smirk. "Get in line." He retorted.
"If he's your friend, I hate to see your enemies," Two boys behind Arran came to them. "I'm Sebastian Wong, and this Jamie Stanton. You obviously met Arran Valliquete here. Good to know he treats everyone poorly."
Before anyone could say anything more, they were all distracted with Emerald on screen calling an attack.
{Recommended Music to play over the course of this fight: Valentin Wiest - "Tomahawk"}
Takezo dodged the Leaf Blade by the skin of his fur and quickly hopped on the top of a large root. He empowered his blade with an Assurance as the second stage Pokémon followed after him. Sceptile pressed his assault, slashing wildly with Takezo barely parrying or dodging the larger, more powerful strikes by margin.
Anto knew this was bad, if only he had a chance to set up! But Sceptile was just too fast and not letting up!
Takezo had to use Detect to avoid being cut in half like the root behind him.
It was then Anto realized something.
"Takezo! How does detect work!? Can you just sense where you're opponent's moves are!?"
Takezo jumped away, but didn't dare take his eyes off Sceptile. "Yes that is the point of that defensive move!"
"Then don't use it defensively! Use it offensively!"
"Excuse me?" Takezo looked to his friend, before snapping back to face Sceptile and dodging an X-scissor attack.
"Use can sense where the attack is going to go right? Instead of avoiding it, parry and strike him!"
Takezo slid back again, before taking an offensive sword stance. "At least this plan does not involve me being crushed by boulders once more!"
"That only happened around three times! Now hurry up; here he comes!"
Sceptile did a powerful horizontal slash with his arms, Takezo's eyes quickly glowed blue, and he quickly slid under the attack! While sliding, the little samurai used his moving momentum to hit the back of Sceptile's left knee, causing the taller Pokémon to flinch.
"Huh!?" Emerald cried in shock.
Takezo moved quickly after he slid, empowering his blade with a Cut attack, and slashing the back of Sceptile in an upward motion.
But while the attack hurt, it didn't do too much. Sceptile regained his senses and smacked Takezo with a fast Iron Tail, sending the smaller and lighter Pokémon flying. Takezo regained his senses mid air, and landed feet first into a nearby root before bouncing off to another higher root, running up it, then launching himself toward Sceptile from above him.
Sceptile, saw this coming and launched a Bullet Seed attack at the speeding Pokémon. Takezo empowered his blade again and slashed in quick succession the seeds that would hit him while ignoring the rest.
Sceptile readied another Leaf Blade. Takezo used Detect for a brief second, before deactivating it and empowering his blade with an Umbra Shred.
Just like with Dusclops, Takezo spun his body to just angle himself to avoid the swipe before unleashing a far more powerful dark slash on to the Grass type.
This time, Sceptile flew back, not as much as Takezo did earlier, but it was far more noticeable this time.
Emerald noticed how the fight was going, but as he did, he smiled. "Keep up the attack Sceptile!"
Anto blinked in surprise. Why was Emerald pressing the attack? Takezo could just keep using… OH CRAP!
"Takezo, stop using Detect!"
The Samurai blinked before he could process that, but barely avoided an X-Scissor attack before back flipping away.
"Why!?" Takezo shrieked.
"I forgot Detect has a limited usage that's even lower than most moves! Emerald was planning to power through until it won't work anymore! You used it four times in this fight! After the fifth time, it may not be as effective as the other times!"
Takezo did his best to escape Sceptile's assault without the use of his Detect move, but he was obviously struggling without it.
"Then what do I do!?"
…
"We get creative! Hypno eyes!"
Takezo wondered what this was about, but did as he was told, avoiding a slash and revealing his dual glowing eyes onto Sceptile and causing the giant Pokémon to fall into the ground asleep.
"Your Patrat knew Hypnosis?!" Emerald cried out in surprise.
But Anto ignored him. "Back off, and use as many Sword Dances you can!"
Emerald's eyes widened. "Sceptile, wake up!"
Emerald's voice snapped his Pokémon wide awake and he kicked himself back up, glaring at the small normal type finishing up several Swords Dances.
Takezo used Assurance again, but this time, there was a dense darkness that extended the reach of Takezo's wooden blade. Takezo spun it in his palm above his head before shifting into battle stance. He slashed right where Sceptile was, forcing the evolved Pokémon to back off.
Emerald sighed in relief. Despite the Patrat's power boost, Sceptile was still faster.
"… Takezo now!"
It was then both Pokédex wielder and his starter were startled as they saw the small Samurai take the tied piece of blue cloth around his sword and wrap it around his neck.
Like a scarf…
Emerald recognized what that item was! It was one of the highest prizes in the Battle Frontier for BP points!
A Choice Scarf!
"Sceptile quick! Leaf Blade!" The blonde boy cried hurriedly.
The Pokémon blasted off with incredible speed, but to his surprise, the Patrat was even faster now, maybe even faster than him!
With seemingly longer range and stronger power behind him, Takezo parried the Leaf Blade by colliding it with his Assurance move, making both attacks repel each other. However, Takezo spun with the repelled momentum and did a horizontal slash to launch Sceptile into a root.
Sceptile looked shocked before sliding into the ground, face first.
Anto thought something was off. Takezo did as well and did not let his guard down.
Both of them blinked when Sceptile started glowing green.
Sceptile slowly got up, locked sights with Takezo reading his blade and glaring back at him. Scepilte coiled, before roaring in a burst of energy, summoning Leaf Blades that cackled with electric-like energy and became longer and more vivid in light.
"Yes! Overgrowth Ability!" Emerald cried.
The two Pokémon stared each other down. Both Emerald and Anto, sensing the air between two powered up Pokémon, took a step back.
Then the two launched themselves at each other.
The way the two Pokémon moved was absolutely majestic. They clashed blades over a dozen times in less than ten seconds! Each time the opposing swords clashed, a powerful but musical sound echoed through the area. The ground beneath them and whatever roots they would use as platform were slashed and torn from the swings of their energy blades. And their own trainers had a hard time keeping up with the movements of their Pokémon.
Takezo then lead the fight upward. As both he and Sceptile started climbing the highest standing mega root that stood tall like a pillar or an obelisk. Even ascending, the two fought fiercely. The cameras in the sky zoomed in as the two would jump on one branch to another, at times clashing with each other in a bright flashes.
They got so high up that Emerald and Anto had to watch the cameras on their XTransciever.
The two sword users were at the top two branches before the very tip of the root. They stared down each other with fierce determination, ready to fight with everything they—
"We get creative!"
Anto's words echoed into Takezo's mind and then he smiled. Doing things the normal way, facing Sceptile down in a final showdown… just seemed too cliché.
Sceptile's eyes widened as Takezo powered down his blade, closed his eyes, and removed his Choice Scarf before tying it back to his blade.
But there was no way he would misuse this opening. Sceptile burst and launched himself at Takezo.
Meanwhile, everyone watching wondered why the Patrat would do that!
All except Anto.
"I trust you buddy…"
Sceptile raised his blades, but then Takezo's eyes shot open—with glowing blue eyes with his last useable Detect move!
Takezo jumped to the highest point of the root, to avoid the blow, before bouncing off it just as quickly and smacking his wooden blade right into Sceptile's head and sent him falling down like a meteor!
Sceptile crashed down on the ground hard, and a huge dust cloud covered the area which made both Anto and Emerald cover their face and cough a little.
Takezo landed much more smoothly at a higher root, gasping for breath.
As the dust cloud settled, they saw Sceptile's body sprawled on the floor.
But he twitched.
To Anto and Takezo' shock, and to Emerald's Joy, Sceptile weakly stood back up and looked towards Takezo fiercely.
Takezo panted, but held his blade out and pointed it to the fierce opponent.
Sceptile smiled at that…
Before falling back down unconscious.
"The winner: Anto!" Both XTranscivers cried.
"YES! WAY TO GO TAKEZO!" Anto whooped in mental excitement.
"I… I think I will sit out the next fight." Takezo panted, obviously exhausted as he sat down on the root he was standing on.
"Aaww man!" Anto looked to Emerald recalling his Sceptile before coming up to him with a huge grin. "That was one of the best battles I've ever had! Even though I lost the first round, I'm not disappointed at all! You're a great trainer Anto!" Emerald brought out his hand. Anto smiled and shook hands with his opponent.
[Aspertia City]
"Wow! That was some fight huh, Katsu!?" His father excitedly cheered. He was on the edge of his eat ever since the battle between the last two Pokémon started.
Katsu still kept his eyes on the screen in wonder, still starting at the winner and the Normal type slouching on his shoulder. He spoke out, not moving his head form the two on screen declared as winners. "Dad… I want to start my own Pokémon journey as soon as possible!"
"Don't worry son, I'm sure you're journey will be great!"
{Author Notes.}
Woohoo! Done! I had a lot of fun with this chapter for a fighting sequence.
For those wondering, the OC named Katsu Akio is owned by my good friend, MangoLimePie. And stars in his own story, Icy Wrath!
I highly recommend reading his works since its fun! And he helps me out!
Thanks a lot dude!
Also, I'd like to point out that writing the rules of moves are kind of hard here.
I tried my best to write beside the four move only rule, having Anto's Pokémon strictly know four moves, but according to all the manga and Anime, there are hints to all their Pokémon knowing more than four moves even though per match, they only limit to four. So writing around such loose rules is hard. But for Anto's Pokemon at least, i ill try to abide by the four moves rule while everyone else can be allowed more than four moves. (Five to six moves at best, which now that i think about it, i might let my pokemon have a limit on five to six rather than four. Bah.)
So just a small retcon from chapter ten, instead of four, I'm bumping up the cap limit from four to six. Hopefully none of you mind, if not, i can re write somethings otherwise.
Why I'm focusing on such a detail is because there's a lot of cool potential I see with the rules. I've seen some crazy pokemon moves online, and i want to see how well i can incorporate that.
Now for the next chapter, another slow chapter (sorta) after this high octane action!
(Also, PokéDex entries + Anto's Pokémon = Funny business.)
Thanks for reading!
EDIT: Thank you, May845, for pointing out Emerald's Sudowoodo was a girl. I think I overlooked that.