Ayame may be doing her best, but Vic is just that much more determined. Theo was able to overcome Dana, and now Ayame has to choose her next pokemon to fight. Are any of her pokemon able to defeat Vic and her team? Or is this the turning point for Vic, leading to her victory? The battle is only going to get more intense from here!

KedharS: Yep. I just hope that they'll be able to fight without turning it into hatred and getting each other hurt. This is getting really dangerous…

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 915

Vic panted, wiping the blood off her face. The rain was pounding down on her, soaking her down to her swimsuit, and the fatigue was starting to get to her. She could feel how weak Theo was, he was almost unconscious.

Ayame recalled Dana to her pokeball. She glared at the dazed Vic, and thought about her next move. She could see that the Gastrodon was almost finished, but she wasn't a fool. She didn't believe for a second that he didn't have any fight left in him, which is why she needed to rely on her stronger pokemon to finish things.

"Snows, go," Ayame said seriously, sending out her Glalie. Snows was rested and refreshed, and his condition in all stats was back to being balanced. She was prepared, and she started her preparations off strong. "Use ice shard!"

"Glalie!" Snows bellowed, opening his mouth and firing chunks of ice at the Gastrodon, hitting Theo directly.

Vic didn't even flinch. Compared to the injuries and fatigue she'd already been forced to endure, a few chunks of ice were nothing. She shook it off and connected with Theo, focusing her harmonia on boosting his defenses and using recover.

Ayame could see Theo start to glow, and she realized he was trying to heal himself again. She was going to put a stop to that immediately.

"Taunt!" She ordered.

"Glalie!" Snows cackled, shooting Theo a wicked glare as he smirked, hovering over the beach as the rain washed over his body. The glare was galling, and Theo narrowed his three eyes, enraged, and lumbered forward.

The glow around Theo's body faded, and he stopped recovering his health. His focus had shifted onto attacking, and with him, Vic could feel her own heart's rage start to stir. She seethed, and shouted her lungs out, forcing her harmonia into attacking.

Which was exactly what Ayame wanted. Theo might have been preparing an attack, but with all the damage he had sustained, and the energy that was still being drained from him, he would never get a chance to follow through with it.

"Now, Snows!" Ayame cried. "Use ice beam!"

"Glalie!" Snows tilted his head down, and blue light began to encompass his body. Energy crackled through his horns, forming a bridge between the two of them, and he fired a beam of frozen lightning at the injured Gastrodon.

Theo didn't stand a chance. Even with all the power Vic had given him, he crumpled and slumped over, and with him Vic fell over as well, nearly losing consciousness as the connection between herself and her pokemon snapped.

But she didn't let herself fall. She stomped down on the wet sand and braced herself, remaining standing in defiance.

"You… bitch…" Vic spat, returning Theo to his pokeball. Without the connection to the weakened Gastrodon, her fatigue was already starting to pass, and was getting replaced with anger. She reached for her next pokeball. "No more playing nice."

Vic threw her pokeball into the air, and from it, her Bisharp emerged, landing in the sand with her hand raised. The glint of her armor was sharp in the rain, and she glared furiously at the Glalie just as her trainer did.

The sharp stones floating around her broke against Valkyrie's armor. She was slightly injured, but she didn't even notice with how hard her shell was. Vic didn't notice the pain, either. All that mattered was winning.

"Valkyrie. It's time we show this girl just who she's messing with," Vic spat. Her harmonia surged and she felt Valkyrie's strength become her own, the sun lighting up her face as the rainclouds faded away, marking a new chapter in the fight.

"Well now, this should be interesting," Alden smirked. "Vic's finally sent out the big guns, huh? I wonder how Ayame will respond to that Bisharp…"

"Is… is she powerful?" Callie asked worriedly.

Alden nodded. "She's probably one of Vic's strongest pokemon. Defeating her will be no easy task, that's for sure."

Vic couldn't believe what she was hearing. She'd sent out Valkyrie to defeat Ayame, and all the Commander was talking about was how difficult it was going to be for Ayame to defeat her?! As if Valkyrie falling was a foregone conclusion, like she wasn't enough to defeat Ayame's entire team on her own?

This wouldn't stand.

"Valkyrie!" She shouted. "Let's show that girl… no, let's show them all how powerful you are! Use your swords dance!"

"Bisharp," Valyrie nodded, raising her hands and sharpening her blades, increasing her attack stat as she charged at Snows.

"Snows, don't let her keep boosting her strength!" Ayame ordered. "Use taunt!"

Vic smirked. She expected that. Ayame kept using taunt to prevent her from using status moves? That was fine. All Valkyrie would need was a single swords dance, and then she could wipe out the rest of Ayame's team.

Ayame had left herself wide open!

"Take care of that Glalie!" She shouted, feeling the taunt already setting in. Her desire to attack was fanned even more fiercely as she ran with Valkyrie, feeling herself moving as one with her pokemon in attack. "Metal claw!"

Valyrie raised her arm, sharpening the blade on her wrist, preparing to strike. She swung at Snows before he could dodge, knocking him backwards.

"Glalie!" Snows cried in pain. The damage dealt was severe. But Ayame wasn't daunted. She could see his condition. His speed had taken a cut, and that was a problem, but in exchange his physical defenses had improved, which had let him withstand the powerful blow.

"This isn't good," Olivia said worriedly. She'd seen how hard that blow was. She didn't have to be an expert in pokemon battles to know what a disadvantageous situation looked like.

Then she realized that she shouldn't be showing weakness in front of her opponents. She gathered her calm and put on a professional face.

Alden shrugged. "She's definitely disadvantaged. Bisharp are Steel/Dark type pokemon. Valkyrie resists most of that Glalie's moves. And with how powerful she is…"

"Snows, come back," Ayame said, raising her pokeball to recall her Glalie. She didn't want Snows to get unnecessarily injured fighting a bad matchup, not when she had other pokemon who were capable of putting up a fight.

"You won't get away!" Vic shouted. "Valkyrie!"

"Bisharp!" Valkyrie lowered her head and ran towards Snows, raising her arms. She swung her blades and struck Snows hard just as he was recalled to his pokeball, the Glalie letting out a final wail of pain as he returned.

Ayame winced. She didn't need harmonia to feel how powerful that attack was.

"Pursuit, is it?" Alcea said. "A rather brutal and inelegant move, but unquestionably powerful. How will Ayame respond, I wonder?"

"Roll! You're up again!" Ayame responded, throwing out a pokeball and sending out another pokeball. The Voltorb buzzed, crackling with electricity.

"Voltorb again?" Vic snorted. "That pokemon could barely hold its own against my Arcanine! It'll fall in a single blow from my Valkyrie! Go!"

"Bisharp!" Valkyrie snarled, charging at the Voltorb with her blade raised, dark energy surging through her arm, sharpening it into a powerful sword.

"But you still have to hit," Ayame reminded her. "Roll! Use thunder wave!"

"Voltorb!" Roll buzzed, building up a current of electricity around their body, releasing a shockwave that pulsed through the air and hit Valkyrie directly, paralyzing her.

Vic growled, feeling her own body growing heavy. Valkyrie wasn't nearly as fast as Dash, and she could feel herself being weighed down. But she wasn't about to let that stop her. Valkyrie had the brute strength needed to win, and she wouldn't let a little something like paralysis get the better of her. She flared up her harmonia, directing her energy into speed instead of power.

Valkyrie was strong enough on her own, anyhow.

"Bisharp!" Valkyrie was slowed enough for Roll to dodge to the side, and begin building up another current of electricity. Ayame was quick to take advantage of it.

"Thunderbolt," she ordered, and Roll released the electricity in their body in a powerful bolt that aimed right at Valkyrie, hitting her directly.

"Aaaargh!" Vic wailed, feeling the pain of the electrical current running through her body. She twitched, doubling over in pain, but was only stopped for a moment. Her head shot up in a rage, the agony long-forgotten with her murderous intent.

"You think… you can just stand there and put me off?" Vic hissed, spitting out pain as her harmonia flared up even stronger. "Run all you like, pathetic little Voltorb…"

Ayame was undaunted by Vic's taunts. With Valkyrie's paralysis and Roll's speed, she could drag this out nicely.

"It's an excellent play by Ayame!" Alden applauded. "Voltorb don't do well with taking hits, but as we saw before, their speed can't be matched so easily! Meanwhile, Valkyrie has incredible strength, but if it can't land, there's not a whole lot she can do. It's definitely a tricky position to be in, that's for sure. I'm impressed."

Those words just made Vic's anger even more severe. But they were nothing compared to what she felt when she heard what he said next.

"It's really a pity that you got your hooks into her, Olivia," he sighed in resignation. "She would have made an excellent member of the Battle Course, with instincts like this."

And that was all it took to make Vic snap. Her harmonia surged up stronger than ever, and the blood began to roll down her face again, as she fueled Valkyrie's strength with pure jealous rage. Valkyrie charged forward like she wasn't even paralyzed, raising her blades and preparing to slash the Voltorb in half.

But Roll was fast. "Agility!" Ayame shouted, boosting Roll's speed even more as they dodged the strikes. It didn't matter how hard Valkyrie tried, there was no chance of her getting the better of the two of them, not with Roll's speed.

"Roll! Use thunderbolt!" Ayame ordered, now that she was sure that Roll was a safe distance away, where they could attack without being struck back.

Roll began to crackle with electricity, preparing to release it.

But that was what Vic had been waiting for.

Vic may have been consumed with rage, but that didn't mean she had the wildness of a rabid pokemon. She was still thinking clearly, and she had planned for this the second she realized there was no hope of Valkyrie catching up to the Voltorb.

Valkyrie shot forward at incredible speed, raising her arms and charging them with darkness, sharpening her blades perfectly. She hit Roll with a powerful sucker punch, knocking them into the air like a beach ball.

"Roll!" Ayame gasped in disbelief.

"Sucker punch," Alden said, nodding. "That's what you'd want, alright."

Valkyrie leapt from the sand after the falling Voltorb, blade raised, preparing to finish them off.

Ayame could see from her pokemon's condition that there was no way that they would be able to withstand the attack. So she gave the only order she could. It was a hard order, and one she hated, but it was something that needed doing.

"Explosion!" Ayame shouted.

"Voltorb!" Roll cried, gathering energy into their body, building up a charge more powerful than any other they'd built up before. The glow suffusing them was so bright it was blinding, and then Roll released the energy in a massive explosion, swallowing Valkyrie whole.

"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!" Vic roared in pain. It was like her body was set on fire, every inch of her was burning.

"Victoria!" Rui cried in horror, seeing her daughter collapse.

"Victoria!" Ayame gasped, realizing what she'd just done. In the heat of the moment, she'd forgotten that she was fighting a trainer with harmonia, someone who felt all the pain inflicted upon their pokemon. She never should have used a move like explosion in that situation!

Roll and Valkyrie fell out of the sky, hitting the sand hard. Roll wasn't moving, of course, having exhausted all of their energy, but Valkyrie…

Valkyrie was injured, but not unconscious. She twitched, and rose to her feet, trembling, lifting her bladed gauntlets.

As Valkyrie rose, so too did Vic. She was covered in sand and badly injured, but she wasn't about to let little things like that get the better of her. Valkyrie's armor had insulated her from the most powerful effects of the blast, and now she was ready to keep fighting, and Vic was ready too.

"Victoria, maybe we should stop this," Ayame said, starting to get seriously worried about her opponent's health.

"She's right, sweetheart, you don't have to keep-"

"No way!" Vic snarled, their pleas falling on deaf ears. She wasn't even looking at them, all she could see was the Commander.

He was excited about the battle. He wasn't worried about her. Because he had faith. He wanted to see how this battle ended, and maybe… maybe he even believed that she could still win. Vic wanted to hold onto that hope.

If she gave up the battle now, she wouldn't be able to look at herself in the mirror.

"I'm not beaten yet…" she spat. "Ayame… call back your Voltorb… and send out your next pokemon already!"

Ayame nodded, and returned Roll to their pokeball. There wasn't anything she could do at this point, Vic was just going to keep going. And if she wanted to keep from fighting… if she just gave up herself… well, that didn't really feel like an option right now. She doubted Vic would respond too kindly to something like that. The only thing she could do was keep the pain from getting out of hand, and try to defeat Vic without injuring her too severely.

"Rhox, go!" Ayame said, sending her Golem back out. He may have been weak to Steel type moves, but with the strength of his earthquake and other Ground type attacks, he was the perfect pokemon to defeat Vic's Bisharp.

"I expected something like that," Vic smirked. "But don't think it will be that easy!"

"Oh, I know it fucking won't be," Ayame replied. "But that doesn't mean we'll just roll over and let you win! Rhox, use earthquake!"

"Golem!" Rhox bellowed, stomping the compacted sand and sending shockwaves through it to strike at the Bisharp.

In spite of her paralysis, Valkyrie was still fast. She leapt into the air, avoiding the force of the tremors, and raised her blades.

"Bisharp!" Valkyrie's blades began to glow silver, and she sliced into Rhox, carving chunks of rock off of him.

"Golem!" Rhox wailed in pain, stumbling backwards. Ayame was startled. Rhox's defensive conditions were superb, she couldn't believe that a pokemon as injured at that Bisharp would still have the strength to deal so much damage!

Valkyrie's armor was dented and burned. Her blades looked dull. But it was clear that wasn't the case, she was more than lethal enough to win.

But Ayame believed in Rhox. She wasn't going to let her partner fall, not while she had his back!

"Rhox!" She shouted. "Use brick break!"

"Golem!" Rhox pulled back his fist and swung it as hard as he could, smashing Valkyrie in the stomach with all the force he could muster.

Vic choked and doubled over, clutching her stomach in pain. She coughed and fell to her knees, the air knocked out of her. She focused her energy, however, and concentrated on Valkyrie, ordering her to withstand and keep going.

"That was a powerful move," Alden winced.

Callie was pleased, in spite of the fact that she was supposed to be on Vic's side. "Bisharp are Steel/Dark types!" She crowed. "Which means they have a quadruple weakness to Fighting type moves! A move like that is exactly what Ayame needs to win!"

But even as powerful as that brick break was, Valkyrie still did not fall. Neither Vic nor Valkyrie were prepared to give in to a move like that. Vic was using every last scrap of harmonia she had to keep her pokemon conscious, and she built up the power for a counterattack.

Luckily, she didn't need to rely on harmonia to boost Valkyrie's strength. With what she had in mind, Valkyrie was more than strong enough already.

Vic smiled, her teeth stained in blood.

"The power of that move… even I… was impressed… so why don't you… have a taste of it yourself?" She asked, spitting blood into the sand. "Valkyrie…"

"Oh no," Olivia gasped. She was no expert, but even she could see what was about to happen. The way Valkyrie was glowing wasn't normal.

"Vic took that move in order to win," Alden said calmly. "She knew that her Bisharp was strong enough to survive it, and now she's going to use that damage for an attack that's even stronger. One of Valkyrie's strongest moves, metal burst."

Valkyrie began to glow. Energy built up in her body, and she released that energy in a powerful explosion, blades of metal ripping themselves off of her armor and slicing into Rhox from close-range, breaking into him.

Chunks of rock were broken off of Rhox's body and he fell backwards, collapsing in the sand.

"Rhox!" Ayame wailed, unable to believe that one of her strongest pokemon had fallen so easily.

"That's the power of harmonia," Vic spat, her moment of triumph fueling her strength even more. "And now, take care of that Golem! Finish him off with an iron head!"

"Bisharp!" Valkyrie roared, looming over Rhox. She reared her head back, the axe blade on her helmet sharpening and glowing silver. She slammed her head down into the trembling Rhox, knocking him unconscious.

"Rhox!" Ayame cried again, falling to her knees. Another one of her pokemon had been knocked unconscious.

Valkyrie stood tall, even as her body shook, glaring fiercely at Ayame. Vic and Valkyrie were one at this point, united in their harmonia, ready to defeat them.

"You aren't strong enough to defeat me," Vic hissed. "But go on… you still have a few pokemon left, isn't that right? Send them out, and let's finish this!"

Oh man. Ayame had such a powerful lead! She was preparing to win, and her pokemon were doing great, but all it took was Vic and her Bisharp, and now it looks like she doesn't have a prayer! Can she somehow pull herself out of this and pull out a victory?