The battle continues, and we'll see how Sylvia's strategies and counterplays will hold up against Elaina's overwhelming power of harmonia!
KedharS: Well we'll have to see. And interesting to see someone ship Blake x Cynthia, most people seem to consider them friends. But I wonder… could there be something more? I suppose they are quite close, as far as friends go…
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 80
Doria… Elaina could feel the pain her Oricorio was in. Although the bird pokemon's spiritually enhanced constitution let her withstand more agony than most, the poison was still doing a good job at eating away at her. Elaina closed her eyes behind her mask and sent a surge of energy toward Doria to boost her endurance, feeling the backlash as the stinging poison made her heart ache. She clenched her breast and opened her eyes, glaring at Sylvia, a wave of wind blowing across the battlefield.
"Ori!" Doria raised her fans and conjured up another tornado of ominous wind, obscuring her from Dusk and Sylvia while simultaneously tearing across the battlefield.
"Going for that 'attack the field' strategy again, eh?" Sylvia smiled. "That didn't work so well for you last time!"
…Is what I'd like to believe, but that girl is no muscleheaded fool. She's been training with Gerard Alkwest. There's no way she'd use the same move again after seeing how easily I maneuvered around it. No… she's baiting me! She must have something else planned, and she's expecting me to use shadow sneak again.
So I stay on the defensive and take damage… or try to attack again and fall into her trap…
Sylvia smiled gleefully.
To come up with something that fast, she's quite a clever little thing. But she might also be bold enough to make a daring bluff, hoping we try to endure it…
"Not a chance! Dusk!" Sylvia called. "Counter her wind with an ominous wind of your own!"
Dusk rose to attention and raised his arms, ghostly wins swirling around his body and striking the gale in a wave of ghostly energy. The two winds collided, tearing up the field at their feet.
Suddenly, something pierced through the wind, striking Dusk in the shoulder. Dusk flew back, letting out a roar, clutching his shoulder in agony. Jutting out from his arm was the long, wispy shaft of a spectral arrow.
The darkened wind cleared, revealing Elaina's Decidueye standing at its center, wing raised as a bow.
"Well struck, Mukuro," Elaina said.
"I see! So you used the wind as a cover and then swapped out your Oricorio for that Decidueye!" Sylvia laughed.
"You're trapped now," Elaina said. "Mukuro will not let anyone escape."
"Oh, you think so, do you?" Sylvia asked. "You need to brush up on your knowledge of spirits, little missy… ghost pokemon… can never be trapped!"
Dusk's body turned transparent and the arrow fell harmlessly through, clattering to the ground and bursting into wisps of shadow. Dusk lunged forward, Mukuro's eyes widening.
"Mukuro!" Elaina shouted. Mukuro spread his wings and took to the sky, but Dusk quickly caught up to him. The ghost pokemon raised his fist, infusing it with icy energy.
"I've been saving this one special just for your pokemon!" Sylvia crowed. "Dusk, use ice punch!"
"Dusk!" Dusk shouted, swinging an icy punch directly at the bird. Before his fist made contact, though, Mukuro hit Dusk in the gut with one of his wings, which was glowing with shadowy energy. The sucker punch caught Dusk off-guard, the ghost pokemon expecting to easily outspeed his opponent. He stumbled back, clutching his gut.
Elaina raised her arm and drew back an invisible bow with her other hand, Mukuro mirroring her movements and conjuring a trio of ghostly arrows at his wing. Elaina released and Mukuro did the same, the arrows firing at Dusk.
"Dusk! Dodge them!" Sylvia ordered. Dusk leapt back, avoiding the attack as Mukuro knocked another trio of arrows, letting them loose one after the other.
Dusk turned his body intangible and sunk down into his shadow, darting across the field and out of sight of the vigilant owl.
Mukuro… Elaina sent a mental command to her pokemon, the two synchronizing their senses. Mukuro could see everything Elaina could see, and vice-versa. They glanced across the field, holding arrows at the ready on their bows, preparing for the Dusknoir's attacks.
Careful… that Dusknoir is preparing a shadow sneak, factoring in his raised speed, we haven't a second to waste. If only… Elaina's eyes widened. "That's it! Mukuro!"
Mukuro nodded and raised his head, pointing his bow at the wall of the barrier they were trapped in. He fired a wave of arrows, the spectral shafts digging into the wall, spiderweb-thin cracks beginning to form across the surface.
"Oh, no you don't!" Sylvia shouted. "Dusk! Go!"
The shadows on the ground shot toward Mukuro, Dusk shooting towards him from the darkness. Dusk emerged behind Mukuro and raised his hand, swinging a spectral punch at the bird, pounding down on Mukuro. Mukuro struck the ground and cried, but then kept moving, sinking into its depths the way Dusk had previously done.
"Quite the copycat," Sylvia said. "Think you can match us in a battle of shadows?!" Dusk sunk down into his shadow as well, the two pokemon disappearing from sight, leaving no trace of one another save for the two ominous dark spots on the ground.
The two shadows danced, both ghost pokemon darting across the ground as they traded blows from within the darkness, neither managing to score any decisive hits on their spectral bodies. One shadow pursued the other across the battlefield, closing the distance. Mukuro emerged from within its depths, flapping his wings and taking to the sky, drawing back his bow and firing another wave of arrows to pin down Dusk's movements. Dusk skillfully twisted his shadow around each of the arrows as they pierced the ground, avoiding all of Mukuro's attacks.
"You won't pin us down that easily," Sylvia smiled.
"I already have. Mukuro!"
"Eye!" Mukuro cawed, his wings glowing with ghostly energy. Shadowy chains shot out from his feathers, striking the shafts on all the arrows that had dug themselves into the ground. The chains shot out from the arrows and formed a ring linking each of the arrows to one another, forming a ring of ghostly energy connecting them.
"What the hell?!" Sylvia gasped.
"You're trapped now, there's no escape!" Elaina said, the ghostly energy flowing from the arrows into the ground, surging ghostly lightning through the ground. Dusk howled in pain as ghostly energy burned through his spectral body, forcing him out of his shadows and into the air.
"Mukuro's spectral chains can bind anything, even ghost types," Elaina informed her. Mukuro raised his wing and drew it back, conjuring an arrow of ghostly energy much larger than the ones he'd fired previously.
"Oh, think so?" Sylvia smiled. "I'm sorry to say, but you're wrong. I told you already, Elaina, but ghost types can't be bound by anything! Dusk, return!"
Sylvia held up her dusk ball, its dark light engulfing Dusk and absorbing him, the spectral chains falling to the ground and shattering harmlessly to pieces.
"Impossible," Elaina gasped. "Your Dusknoir should have been trapped! Prevented from escaping! The spirit shackles should have-"
"Should have," Sylvia interrupted, "but didn't. Ghost pokemon are great at sneaking out of jams like that. Now then, come out, Magia!"
Sylvia tossed her next dusk ball out, her Mismagius emerging with a veil of mystical fire surrounding her spectral form.
"Mukuro, shoot her down!" Elaina ordered.
"Decidueye!" Mukuro said, raising his wing and pulling back a spectral arrow, firing it at the witch-like ghost.
"Miss…" Magia hissed, fading away into nothingness before the arrow struck her.
"She vanished!" Elaina gasped. This must be phantom force… Unfortunately for her, that's something that we can do too.
"So are we just going to make our pokemon stare at one another from across the abyss?" Elaina asked. "Vanish, Mukuro!"
Mukuro's body began to go transparent as well as he attempted to fade into the darkness as well. But before the ghostly owl could fully send himself into the void, he was caught from behind by a blast of shadowy energy.
"Mismagius!" Magia cackled, reappearing over Mukuro's head, wisps of darkness looming around her.
"Phantom force might make your pokemon invulnerable for a time, but only if you can succeed," Sylvia explained. "You must not have much experience fighting ghost types, or you would have known. You see, as the pokemon is fading away from the world, that's when they're at their most vulnerable from attacks from both sides! Your Decidueye may have good reflexes, but there is quite a difference between the speed of completing an attack and the speed of initiating one!"
"I see…" Elaina nodded. Mukuro… did you notice? That Mismagius… her attacks were much slower than that Dusknoir's were. If she's still subjected to the trick room like we are… then it might be… that she's naturally faster than ours.
Elaina focused her energy onto Mukuro, trying to reduce the amount of energy she was giving him as much as possible. It would make him weaker and more vulnerable, but it would also increase his speed; which, in this strange field, would be just the edge Mukuro would need to take control of this battle.
Mukuro flapped his wings and took to the sky, ominous winds swirling around him. Flying at high speed, he closed the distance between himself and the ghost quickly, releasing a blast of ghostly energy with a flap of his wing. Magia groaned, pushed back by the spectral attack, but withstood it.
Elaina clenched her head, wincing. I didn't think… bottling it up… would still hurt this much… She could feel the power building up inside of her, thrashing to be let out. Blood began trickling from her nose as her headache intensified. Just… just a little… if I lose control right now… then we won't be able to win!
It seems she's figured out why I set up trick room in the first place, eh? Sylvia smiled as she saw Elaina's obvious struggle to remain focused. Well, either way…
"Magia!" Sylvia ordered.
"Mismagius!" Magia shouted, opening her mouth. Violet flames appeared in front of her, dancing through the air and flying toward Mukuro.
Elaina stepped back and Mukuro spread his winds, turning away from the ominous fire and separating himself from the ghost pokemon.
"Fire isn't so easy to break away from, especially on a field like this," Sylvia said. The flames hit the ground, sparks touching the dry grass and setting the field ablaze. The flames danced up in a roar, painting ominous shadows against the walls of the trick room. Mukuro ran out of places to land, as the ground beneath his feet licked the air hungrily.
"Mukuro!" Elaina shouted, the heat weakening her focus. She meant to just let out a trickle of energy, but when she opened the floodgate inside, it broke out of her like a bursting dam. Power surged into Mukuro and his stats all sharply rose. This did not go unnoticed by Sylvia, whose smile widened.
"Now, Magia!" Sylvia ordered. Magia began glowing purple, the purple flames beneath them glowing as well. The flames drew away from the ground and twisted into long tendrils carried by Magia's psychic energy, surging toward the slowed bird pokemon. They wrapped around Mukuro's body like vines, the bird's feathers and cloak catching fire immediately.
"Aaah!" Elaina shouted, feeling the flames lick up across her skin. This was bad. The Mismagius was now far faster than they were, Elaina's harmonia being her own downfall. The ghost pressed the attack and the mystical flames squeezed tighter, engulfing Mukuro completely.
"Return!" Elaina said, calling back Mukuro to his pokeball, much to the frustration of Sylvia. Normally she didn't mind opponents swapping out their pokemon, as it meant she'd get to weaken multiple pokemon, but she knew from Elaina's prior battles that weakening her pokemon would not be enough. Unless she could score a decisive blow, Elaina's harmonia would keep her pokemon going strong right up until the brink.
Temporarily freed from the pressure of harmonia, Elaina was able to momentarily catch her breath. Her headache subsided and she regained control, reaching to her waist and retrieving another pokeball.
The biggest problem here… is this trick room… Elaina's realization was a little late, but the damage to her overall strategy wasn't significant. Even if it costs me… we need to get rid of it.
"Noctre!" Elaina shouted, sending out her trusted Noivern.
"Well, hello there," Sylvia said, greeting the roaring dragon with a smile. She glanced at Magia sympathetically. Sorry girl, but it looks like you're going to take one for the team, here.
Sylvia was well aware of how dangerous Elaina's Noivern was. It was why she'd chosen to lead with the trick room strategy in the first place. But now, she was given the perfect opportunity to nip that threat in the bud… and all it would take was sacrificing her trick room, and her Mismagius, to do it.
And you better believe that's a trade I'm ready to make, Sylvia smirked.
"Noctre! Blow this entire space away with your hurricane!" Elaina ordered. Noctre tilted his head back and howled, flapping his wings. A massive tornado swirled up around Noctre, growing in size and intensity as Elaina's power surged. Headstones were ripped from the ground and ashes were strewn in all directions. Scorched trees were carried by the wind and battered against the walls of the trick room, making larger and larger cracks across its surface.
"Magia!" Sylvia shouted over the gale, the ghost pokemon knowing exactly what to do. She flew into the center of the hurricane, glowing with white light, taking on the full brunt of Noctre's ferocious wind attack.
"Noivern!" Noctre roared, wind and water tearing across the battlefield until finally, the first shards of light could be seen peering in through the box's walls. The slivers widened before finally the box burst apart, Noctre's hurricane let loose from within with a ear-piercing howl.
"Uwaa!" Lila cried, the wind striking the announcers' box.
"What the hell?!" Darla shouted, holding onto the table. No longer pressed in by the walls of the trick room, Noctre's attack was let loose, shaking the stadium from all sides.
The wind died down and Noctre landed on the ground, Magia falling unconscious in front of him.
"One down…" Elaina panted. Suddenly, a surge of pain shot through her heart.
"What…" Elaina gasped, clutching her chest as her arm went numb, feeling like her heart was stopping. She raised her head and her eyes widened as she saw Noctre collapse in front of her.
"Noctre… why…"
"I… I don't know what happened in there when we couldn't see," Lila said, confused, "but it seems that both Sylvia's Mismagius and Elaina's Noivern have both lost consciousness!"
"According to their team registers, it looks like neither one of them have lost any other pokemon," Darla noted. "If I had to guess, this would be…"
"Destiny bond," Sylvia answered for her, smiling. "I knew that in a head-on struggle that even with his speed hindered, Magia wouldn't be able to withstand an attack from him in her current state. So… I decided to let her lose in the most effective manner possible. What do you think?"
Sylvia stared at Elaina's expressionless mask, quite certain she was glaring at her from behind it.
"Well, no matter. Dusk! Time to come on back!"
"Sylvia has sent her Dusknoir back out!" Darla announced.
"Will Elaina send her Oricorio out to fight against it again?" Lila wondered.
"Doria." Lila's words were prophetic, Elaina sending Doria back out, set up conditions much like they were at the beginning.
"I'd have thought you'd go for that Decidueye again, considering how easily he held off my Dusk before," Sylvia noted. "But I guess you don't want to risk him so soon again?"
"Well, I hate to do this after all the energy you spend on getting rid of it the first time," Sylvia sighed, shrugging, "but a winning strategy is still a winning strategy. Dusk! Set up the trick room again!"
"Only this time, we won't hold back!" Elaina shouted. Doria ran forward, boosting her speed with a mixture of agility and harmonia to get up close to Dusk as fast as she could. Dusk held his hands up, a cube of space glowing in his palms and slowly expanding, but before he could release the attack, Doria was standing in front of him, fans raised.
"Revelation dance," Elaina ordered. With a flick of her wrist, Doria's fans danced, ghostly energy swirling around her and striking into Dusk, sapping energy away from the already-injured ghost pokemon. Doria swung her fanned wing and hit Dusk in the stomach with a harmonia-boosted attack, a blast of wind and energy exploding from the tips of her fans, knocking Dusk backwards and shattering the cube before it could grow to its full size again.
"Dusk!" Sylvia cried out, but her words fell on deaf ears. Dusk had already sustained severe damage in his prior fight with Mukuro, and had just been holding on by a thread. This had been the final hit Elaina needed to finish him off for good, and it had been a strong one.
"Oh well," Sylvia sighed. "I guess that was a little too ambitious. But even so…"
Sylvia glanced at Doria, who had exhausted a decent chunk of Elaina's energy with that attack, and had begun to feel the effects of the prior poisoning she'd sustained as well.
I suppose things could be going worse, Sylvia noted. I suppose my next best option…
"Letty, I guess you're the best bet!" Sylvia threw a great ball into the air, which her Golett emerged from.
"So Sylvia's next pokemon is her Golett!"
"Normall, Golett's slower speed would be a disadvantage, so why would she choose to send it out in these circumstances?"
"Letty, use rock slide," Sylvia ordered. Letty held their hands up, rocks tearing themselves out of the ground and flinging themselves toward Doria.
"Doria, dance!" Elaina ordered. Doria closed her eyes and raised her fans, and began to twirl, stepping forward, dodging each of the plummeting rocks with a series of dance moves, deflecting the smaller pebbles with a swipe of her fans as she sidestepped the larger boulders.
Doria moved forward, moving past the attack, and raised her fan, sending a blade of wind towards the golem pokemon. The wind hit Letty's body and did some damage to their clay surface, but if it hurt the golem, they didn't show it on their face. Letty raised their fist, lightning crackling around it. He swung it at Doria, but the flying pokemon skillfully turned to the side, avoiding the thunderpunch.
"Full power," Sylvia ordered. Letty's electricity output increased and lightning coursed up their entire arm, sparking out wildly. The electricity caught Doria as she moved to hit the slow pokemon from behind, electrocuting her.
Elaina winced and Doria cried, pushing through the pain. She conjured ghostly energy that she struck Letty in the back with, her revelation dance sending Letty tumbling across the field. Letty righted themselves, injured but unencumbered. Doria had scored the more significant hit on her opponent, but the poison had begun to eat away at her.
"Letty, we just have to hold her down for a little more. Use rock tomb."
Letty raised their hand and slammed it on the ground, pillars of stone erupting around Doria to try and entrap her in a prison of rock. Doria flapped her wings and dodged the crushing boulders by her tailfeathers, taking to the sky. She swung a blade of wind at Letty, hitting the ground pokemon with enough force to blow them over.
"It seems that Sylvia's strategy of using this Golett isn't working out as well as she'd like it to," Lila noted.
"Elaina's Oricorio is weakening, but it still seems to be fighting at full force," Darla noted.
Because Letty specializes in ground moves, they were a token I was planning to use against one of Elaina's weakened pokemon to draw things out. Unfortunately, this isn't going as intended. And since that's a ghost, I can't even have them self-destruct for a last-ditch effort.
"Letty, looks like we'll have to set things up," Sylvia said. "Use curse!"
Letty's body began glowing with ominous energy, laying a powerful hex on Doria. Doria moaned in pain as the curse struck her, falling from the sky. Elaina coughed, blood trickling from her mouth as she felt the ravages of poison and now this strange curse pollute her body.
Letty collapsed to the ground, unconscious, as Doria moaned in agony.
"Return," Sylvia said, returning the unconscious Golett to their great ball. "Now then, while she's weak! Specter, finish her off!"
Sylvia threw out a pokeball, her Shuppet emerging.
"Doria…" Elaina winced, holding up her pokeball. "Return…"
"Sorry, but that's one ghost that isn't getting away," Sylvia said. "Specter, pursuit!"
Specter shot toward Doria, the horn on her head pulsing with darkness. She drove it into Doria's back as the pokemon moved to return to Elaina, Doria moaning in pain as she lost consciousness.
Elaina returned the unconscious Doria to her pokeball, glaring at Sylvia from behind her mask.
"This fight has been pretty even so far," Lila noted. "Sylvia has lost three pokemon, to Elaina's two!"
"That's true, but Elaina's abilities make it difficult to gauge how this fight will go," Darla reminded her. "Things could still go poorly for Sylvia."
"Raiver, go!" Elaina shouted, sending out her Braviary.
"Being a normal type, Braviary is immune to ghost moves," Lila noted.
"That's right, Lila, this is a strong choice for Elaina!" Darla agreed.
"Specter, you aren't a good fit for this one," Sylvia said, returning Specter to her pokeball. Now it's time for my trump card.
"I've been saving something special, just for you, Elaina!" Sylvia said. "It's a gift, from a friend of mine… Sparky! Come on out!"
Sylvia tossed a strange pokeball into the air. It was orange and blue, and its surface was lined with electronics. The pokeball snapped open, and with a crackle of electricity, a large pokemon emerged from it.
The pokemon was large and bulky, and colored a bright orange. Its body was shaped like an enormous freezer, with large purple eyes sticking out of the top. The orange freezer was covered in a blanket of purple plasma, large purple arms sticking out of the sides.
"What pokemon is that?" Lila asked.
"I'm not sure…" Darla said, frowning.
"This is Sparky, a Rotom," Sylvia said. "Since I only have 5 pokemon right now, I borrowed them from my friend, Misato. As far as ghost types go, this one… is quite special."
Will glanced to Misato.
"That's your pokemon?"
"Affirmative. Sparky is one of my favorite pokemon." Misato answered. "They are quite adorable."
Will rolled his eyes and turned back to the battle.
That must be an electric type… Elaina figured, staring at the crackling plasma covering the pokemon's surface. And not only that… but it's floating. So using Ayer's earthquakes won't do anything. I'm not well-suited to handling electric types... Mukuro is my best bet, and he's still injured...
Elaina bit her lip. She closed her eyes, and let her power radiate out of her body, her harmonia amplifying the strength of Raiver.
More… more! I'll give you as much as you need!
So, Elaina's full power of harmonia will go up against Sylvia's trump card, Frost Rotom! This battle will come to its conclusion in the next chapter, so stay tuned!