The battle continues, and Elaina begins to fight back! Will Ayame's skills as a caretaker help her maintain the upper hand? Or will her inexperience with pokemon battles cost her, and result in Elaina being able to seize victory as she often does?

KedharS: Top 10 Battles thus far? Hm… that's very difficult to determine, since I've got a bunch more battles in my head. Plus, that's no fun at all! So instead, I'm going to tell you my Top 10 Battles that haven't occurred yet, but will come eventually. What is the context behind them? Well, you'll have to find out for yourself!

10. Kitty vs. Julia

9. Cynthia vs. Maddi

8. Blake and Elaina vs. Cynthia and Caelia

7. Sylvia vs. Valon

6. Kanone vs. Blake

5. Kate vs. Alcea

4. Cynthia vs. Caelia

3. Blake vs. Guinevere

2. Elaina vs. Gerard

1. Blake vs. Elaina

Aquahaze675: Well, Ayame has been a trainer a lot longer than Elaina has.

Thunder Fire: Nah.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 342

Elaina panted, her body a mass of shock and pain.

That… what was that…? She couldn't grasp what she had just experienced. It was like her body had begun shutting down, her heart slowing, her skin freezing, and then suddenly, it had stopped. Noctre had severed her connection to Elaina moments before she had succumbed, Elaina's harmonia cutting off completely. It was likely the only reason she was still conscious.

The cold wind died down and the battlefield cleared, and Elaina could see Noctre frozen completely solid, entombed in solid ice. Across the battlefield, Snows floated calmly, looking a little exhausted, the replicas slowly fading away. Other than that, the ice pokemon was completely uninjured, having defeated Elaina's Noivern without sustaining any damage at all. Elaina bit her lip, worried for her pokemon.

"Noc…tre?" She whispered, reaching out to her pokemon. She extended her harmonia hopefully, but felt nothing but a wall of ice in her way. Noctre was unconscious, she couldn't reach her.

"It's a one-hit KO," Ayame said sternly. "No matter how strong your pokemon might be, no matter how much you can boost it with harmonia, if sheer cold hits you, your pokemon will fall. That's simply how it is."

"…Fine then," Elaina scowled, glaring at Ayame from behind her mask. She raised her pokeball and recalled Noctre, the red beam piercing through the ice and freeing the frozen pokemon, the ice crumbling away in response.

"Ayame actually beat one of Elaina's pokemon!" Sango gasped.

"And she did it rather easily," Maddi said, a tinge of envy in her voice.

"Ayame's talented," Serefina said, smiling proudly. "When it comes to battling, battle sense is important, of course, but how well you raise your pokemon is also essential! Don't go thinking that a pokemon caretaker is some pushover, after all!"

"Ayer!" Elaina shouted, sending out her next pokemon, her Aerodactyl. The ancient pokemon flapped his wings and flew into the air.

Using it this early? Sango noted. She must have been worried.

"Aerodactyl!" Ayer roared, opening his large jaws. Massive stones tore up from under the ground, snow tumbling around them, as he flung the stones at the large ice pokemon with a powerful stone edge attack.

"Snows, double team again!" Ayame ordered. Noting Snows' physique, she could see that his condition had changed once again. His Defense dropped, but his Speed had risen, not a bad trade-off as long as he could avoid attacks with double team and protect.

Multiple copies of Snows spread across the battlefield for a second time, stones raining down on the multitude of Glalie, but harmlessly passing through the duplicates. The real Snows was still concealed among the replicas.

"Now, batter him with your ice shard!" Ayame ordered. Snows's heightened speed and his priority move allowed him to fire chunks of solid ice at a speed so fast it was blinding, hitting Ayer directly.

"Aero!" Ayer growled, the ice shards breaking across his chest. Snows's boost to attack and the super-effective damage did a lot of damage to Ayer, but not enough to put the pokemon down.

"This again…" Elaina growled. "Enough! No more of these tricks! Ayer!"

Her harmonia flared up and her head throbbed in pain. She sent a powerful compulsion through Ayer's body, ordering him to attack the entire field itself with a strong earthquake attack.

"Aaaeerrroo!" Ayer howled. A shockwave surged through the ground, and the earth began to shake violently.

"I knew it!" Sango wailed.

"Crap!" Maddi gasped, tipping off the bag of food and falling into the snow.

Serefina's worries were a lot more concentrated. She whirled around to look at the Pikachu house behind them, and let out a sigh of relief. Clearly, the earthquake attack did not extend all the way to the dorm, which was good.

On Ayame's side of things, though, it wasn't as good. She hadn't exactly forgotten about Ayer's earthquakes, having just experienced them earlier that day. But as the ground under her feet began to roll and she fell back into a snow drift, she experienced what it was like to be on the receiving end directly for the first time. She also hadn't expected him to be able to launch the attack so fast! She hadn't even had time to give Snows the order to protect himself, the violent turmoil of the earthquakes wreaking havoc on the pokemon's body as his clones dispersed rapidly.

"Snows!" Ayame cried out. This wasn't good. Snows might have been a higher level than Elaina's Aerodactyl, but his defenses had dropped thanks to Moody. And with the boost of harmonia given to Ayer, that meant the damage inflicted on her Glalie was rather severe.

"Glal…" Snows gasped out, shaking along with the earthquake. The tremors finally ceased, and Snows fell back, landing on the ground. He let out another moan of pain as Ayer flew overhead, panting, preparing another attack.

A quick glance at Snows's condition showed Ayame that his Moody had just triggered again. His Special Attack had soared, but as for what dropped…

No! Defense again? Damn.

"Ayer! Use your earthquake again!" Elaina ordered.

"Snows, use protect!" Ayame ordered, hoping to buy some time for Moody to boost her Glalie's defenses this time. The ground began shaking again and Ayame was knocked off her feet once more, thankfully landing in some more snow. If this was how the battle was going to go, then hopefully she could escape without too many injuries.

Elaina's head throbbed in pain even as power surged through the rest of her. She could feel that Ayer was already starting to tire, clearly he hadn't had enough time to rest since their last battle. She could feel the fatigue start to set in herself. But she wasn't going to let herself be overcome so easily! She forced power through her Aerodactyl, ignoring the fact that it wouldn't be enough to damage that Glalie through his protect attack.

But to Elaina, it didn't matter. The more power she fed into her Aerodactyl, the stronger Ayer grew, and that would be enough to overcome whatever Ayame had to throw at her. She would… she would force that damn girl to shut her mouth! Who did she think she was, speaking to Elaina like that?! She was outraged! This wouldn't stand!

"Ayer! More!" Elaina shouted, increasing her power. Serefin, Maddi, and Sango all ran back, escaping from the range of the spreading quakes as Ayame curled into a ball in the snow, shivering, letting the ground shake around her.

The rumbling starting to cease, Ayame peaked her head out from the snow and saw large fissures tearing through the ground, snow sliding into them. Snows was still enduring with the power of his protect attack, but it was clearly starting to fade away.

Special Attack increase again, but this time a Speed drop… guess we'll have to make our move now, then!

"Snows!" Ayame shouted. "Use your blizzard attack!"

She couldn't risk sheer cold again. She had only used it before, because her accuracy was so high and the Noivern was partially incapacitated, letting her get the drop on the dragon pokemon. But in this current state, where the Aerodactyl was flying around and wreaking havoc, she couldn't be sure it would work.

So that left the next best thing.

A massive wave of ice and snow billowed over the battlefield, engulfing the flying Aerodactyl. Elaina felt a shiver run down her spine as the cold grew more intense, feeling the sensation of chunks of ice slapping her in the face and breaking across her body. But compared to the sheer cold attack, this was nothing.

Endure! She willed her Aerodactyl, sending her thoughts and harmonia into the raging pokemon. She forced Ayer's defensive stats to rise, the large pokemon enduring the biting cold as well as he could as she willed him to build up power for another attack. She could feel him start to weaken, but that was fine. They wouldn't fall so easily. As for that Glalie? Its power seemed to fluctuate wildly, but she knew that her earthquake had been successful. All it would take would be another strong move. She silently ordered her Aerodactyl to fly forward with agility. The massive pokemon broke through the roiling blizzard, badly injured but still fully prepared to keep fighting.

"Rock slide!" Elaina ordered, Ayer greeting the Glalie with a wave of rocks and dirt as he emerged from the storm.

"Snows!" Ayame shouted for him to protect himself, but Ayer's speed now trumped the round pokemon, and he buried Snows in a tomb of stone, the super-effective attack taking the last of Snows's health.

"And that ties it up," Maddi noted, Sango scowling. She was hoping that Ayame could take down at least one more pokemon like this.

"Maybe, but look at that Aerodactyl," Serefina said. She could see rather easily how much damage the flying pokemon had sustained from the ice shard and blizzard attacks. And even before that, it was clear that the powerful pokemon was a little worn-down. The Noivern had been the same way. It was a miracle, honestly, that the Aerodactyl could even remain flying in the air, let alone be capable of continuing the fight. But it clearly was. Elaina wasn't about to give in so easily.

"Return, Snows," Ayame said, recalling her Glalie. She considered her options. Honestly, Snows had done quite well. Having seen some of Elaina's previous matches, being able to defeat one of her pokemon and badly weaken another was a lot more than she could have hoped for. "You were a real champ today, so you can rest up easy. We'll handle the rest!"

Honestly, that was a lot of bluster. She didn't exactly have the best matchups against Elaina; in fact, her team had several severe vulnerabilities. Troops and Dana were filled with nothing but type weaknesses, meaning she was already starting at a disadvantage. Foof wasn't a great fighter, and while Roll had the type advantage, she wasn't sure he had the strength. Rhox was her ace in the hole, and he was rather easily countered by that Decidueye of hers.

Honestly, my team really isn't suited to this, Ayame admitted to herself. She didn't have one pokemon besides her Glalie that could counter the grass and ghost type.

Dana could… but that's tricky, Ayame had to admit. She was really regretting trying to make such a strong start now that she was so far behind. She scratched her head, really wishing she had the battling foresight to realize what a problem this was. But in Pokeathlons, type advantage wasn't a factor! It wasn't her fault! She hadn't designed her team to be suited to pokemon battles, even if she could win them on occasion! She might be ahead right now, but she could already smell a comeback coming.

For now… we've got to take the advantages when they come, Ayame understood. Even she had the foresight to know what she needed to do at the moment. She couldn't risk her trump cards Rhox and Roll against that Aerodactyl's earthquakes, and Foof didn't have a lot of moves that would do all that much. As for Dana, well… she was a trump card in a different sense, though it would certainly be quite the risk.

"Troops! File out!" Ayame shouted, sending out her platoon of Falinks.

"Oh? You think you can defeat us with numbers?" Elaina snorted. "Ayer will tear them all apart with his earthquakes! Ayer!"

"Troops!" Ayame clapped her hands together. "First impression!"

"Falinks!" The small pack of pokemon rumbled eagerly, their tiny little legs carrying them through the snow as they lowered their horns and raised their shields, their bodies surging with energy. Two Falinks stopped in place and two more leapt atop them, the final two running forward and jumping off the twin towers of roundness, launching themselves into the air at the Aerodactyl at a speed that was stunning to Elaina.

The two Troops raised their horns, and plunged them into Ayer before the pokemon had a chance to respond. How fast was the move?

Elaina felt the pain of pinpricks piercing her flesh, and she let out a gasp. It wasn't a powerful attack against her Aerodactyl, Ayer being able to endure it thanks to his flying type. It hurt a little, sure, but not nearly enough to take out the rest of his health. Ayer, in turn, shook his body, flinging the two tiny pokemon off, readying another earthquake.

"Troops!" Ayame exclaimed. "Iron defense!"

The Troops quickly reformed themselves, gathering into a special formation. Five of them formed a V-shape, with the sixth behind them, in the curve. They all raised their shields and their bodies began shining, their defensive power heightening as the earthquake struck them.

"…It's like a group of soldiers fighting a dragon," Maddi noted. Sango snickered at that.

"It's their teamwork that's impressive," Serefina noted. "Ayame has trained her Troops to respond instantly to her orders and move how she wants them to. In Pokeathlons, having access to an entire platoon like this, even if the pokemon themselves are rather small and not very mobile, is incredibly helpful to winning competitions."

"I can imagine how a numerical advantage would be helpful," Sango nodded.

"It's not just that," Serefina clarified. "Being able to work as a unit, cohesively, that's what makes Falinks so useful. …In Pokeathlons, anyway. But as for fighting, well… we'll have to see."

"Endure it!" Ayame shouted. "Withstand as best you can, Troops!"

"Falinks!" The chorus of pokemon voices cried, their defensive power surging as they withstood the Aerodactyl's rampaging attacks.

"Endure this!" Elaina spat, her harmonia surging again. She could feel Ayer starting to weaken, but that wasn't acceptable.

We'll rest on the ground for now, Elaina soothed her pokemon, Ayer touching down on the shaking ground, immune to the earthquakes himself. Now on solid (if rumbling) ground, close up to the attack itself, Ayer found himself capable of heightening the power of his earthquake even further, feeling the burst of harmonia roaring through him.

"Aerodactyl!" Ayer roared, strengthening the earthquake even more. Ayame already knew what to do, lying flat on the ground before the tremors even got to her, face-down in the snow. It was the best way to keep from getting injured. She raised her head and looked at the backs of her loyal Troops, hoping they could withstand. They seemed to be doing a great job of it, however, much to Ayame's relief. They were taking damage, but nothing they couldn't shrug off and withstand. Troops were excellent in Stamina competitions, after all. Something like this was nothing! The all strengthened their defenses and kept their shields up. Ayame hoped it would be enough. If they could endure, their plan would come to fruition and it would be a great win!

The rumbling slowed, and Ayame's heart soared. Yes! Now was the time!

"Troops!" She shouted. "Start your counter attack now!"

"Falinks!" Her Troops cried out, energy surging through their bodies. They charged forward, horns lowered and shields raised, and dogpiled the Aerodactyl before Ayer could take to the sky, bashing him with their counter, turning the full force of the earthquake on the flying pokemon.

"Aaaargh!" Elaina shouted, feeling the tremors shooting through her body as her head pounded in agony. So this was what she'd inflicted on those pokemon earlier today… if Elaina was in the state to regret, then she might have felt bad. But right now, pain and rage was surging through her, it was all she could focus on! Ayer had been knocked unconscious by the power of the attack, and that was enough to see that things weren't going well. Ayame scowled behind her mask, grinding her teeth. She recalled Ayer to his pokeball, the pain wearing away. But the throbbing in her head wouldn't go away. It was so irritating! That blasted girl…

"Fine… then…" Elaina scowled. Right now, she just… she just wanted to rampage, to completely destroy this girl who mocked her struggles and called her a coward.

Fine, you want to see violence? Elaina silently asked, her harmonia jumping up again. Then I'll show you some good violence if that's what you're so interested in!

"Doria, go," Elaina said, sending out her Oricorio. The dark purple bird emerged with a flourish, swiping her fan-wings and ending a small breeze across the battlefield, a prelude of what was to come, as though challenging the Troops to make a move.

"Not good, she's using a ghost type," Serefina noted. "That's a bad matchup for Ayame."

Ayame didn't mind too much.

"Troops, retreat," Ayame called out, raising her pokeball and recalling the squad of pokemon. Her next choice, that would have to be…

"Now, go, Roll!"

Ayame sent out her Voltorb, the round pokemon emerging from a pokeball that looked exactly like itself, electricity crackling around their body as they built up an electrical charge in preparation for taking down the Oricorio across from it.

"Yeah, there we go!" Serefina cheered. "Without that Aerodactyl and his earthquakes, Ayame can totally take down the remaining flying pokemon with her Voltorb and her Golem!"

"Voltorb!" Roll echoed the thought, more electricity sparkling around them.

"…We'll see, won't we?" Elaina murmured, her harmonia surging. She narrowed her eyes behind her mask and connected with Doria, strengthening the ghostly bird's power. "Doria, use your agility!"

Her speed already boosted with harmonia, Doria danced across the battlefield, her speed stat vastly increasing. Ayame didn't mind that too much, a smirk crossing her face.

"Boost your speed all you like! Roll, use thunder wave!"

"Voltorb!" Roll discharged the electricity they had been storing up, a shockwave of electricity shooting across the battlefield and slamming into Doria, paralyzing her immediately.

Elaina cursed the girl and the round pokemon out, glaring with fury as she felt her body slowly grow numb and heavy. Paralysis again?

"I noticed from the previous battle that you have a slight weakness to being paralyzed. All your speed and power with your harmonia, if we keep them weakened like this, then you and your pokemon aren't all that much of a threat!" Ayame declared. "Now, Roll, let's fuck 'em up!"

"Not happening!" Elaina growled. "Doria, hurricane!"

Though her speed was greatly hampered by the paralysis, the elegant Oricorio still performed her dance moves flawlessly, summoning up a massive tornado that wrapped around her body, and roared out across the battlefield.

"Whoa, she still has that much speed after paralysis?!" Ayame gasped in shock. "I know she used agility, but come on! Harmonia's stat boosts are really something impressive! Damn, Roll, you gotta protect yourself! Use light screen!"

"Voltorb!" Rolling forward across the ground, Roll created a massive barrier of light in front of their body, the wind striking the shield and passing around it, allowing Roll to endure the attack.

"Voltorb don't have the best defenses," Maddi noted. "But as an electric type, they can withstand the power of flying moves quite well. And with a light screen, even with that power, the move won't harm the pokemon too much, I imagine."

Sango let out a sigh of relief.

"…The trainer, though…" Maddi added.

"Ayame!" Serefina shouted.

"Crap!" Ayame tried to jump out of the way, but this hurricane was coming much faster than the previous one she had dodged, and Ayame was sucked up into the storm of ice and snow before she could get out of the way in time.

"Ayame!" Sango cried out as well.

Oh man, not good. Even if Ayame can win the battle, she might not be able to survive it! Will she be able to get out of this intact?