The battle between Alcea and Gabrielle continues! In spite of Gabrielle seizing control over the sky and the terrain, Alcea is putting up an excellent fight, pushing Gabrielle to her limits! And with the support of Olivia behind her, is there any way she can lose? Well, Gabrielle certainly hopes so, that's why she's fighting so hard. But even if things are going good for Alcea right now, this fight is far from over!
KedharS: I think that's enough. Chill out.
Thunder Fire: Now that would be juicy.
Arbiter8991: There's definitely going to be some drama coming.
Tambry96bj: Lots of sweet moments there.
Hyphenman: Yeah, they're very cute together, it's adorable.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1166
"Glaceon!" Glaceon snarled, standing back up as the snow fell down around her. She opened her mouth and fire several chunks of ice at Rosetta, hitting the Roserade before she could attempt to dodge. Rosetta groaned in pain and stumbled back, but Glaceon's low attacking power wasn't enough to finish her off.
"Rosetta," Alcea snapped. "Now that she's poisoned, use venoshock!"
Alcea was exceptionally grateful to Kate for how much the other girl cared for her pokemon. All those Poison type TMs she'd given to Alcea were coming in handy now.
"Roserade!" Rosetta whipped her bouquets forward and send a stinging burst of poison out towards Glaceon. The poison shocks arced through the sky towards the infected pokemon, hoping to deal serious damage to her.
Gabrielle had other plans.
"Double team," she ordered. Several copies of Glaceon appeared around her in the snow, blending in with the blizzard. The venoshock struck through one of them, dispelling it, and exploded in a blast that struck more, but they were all fakes. The real Glaceon was long gone.
Alcea clicked her tongue, but she didn't expect much better. She could have Rosetta use sweet scent to lower Glaceon's evasion and nullify her Snow Cloak, but if she did that she ran the risk of being struck with a blizzard attack. That was too likely under these circumstances. It was better to follow Kate's strategy and let the poison wear her opponent down first.
The thought of Kate's joy at learning Alcea was following her approach and using her strategies brought a smile to the redhead's lips.
"Rosetta, use magical leaf," she ordered. It wasn't a very powerful attack, and likely wouldn't do much in the face of Glaceon's high special defense. But it was an attack that couldn't be dodged. If her goal was to handle this carefully and gradually wear down her opponent, magical leaf was a move that couldn't be dismissed out of hand.
"Rose," Rosetta nodded, releasing a cloud of multicolored leaves into the air around her. They hovered in the sky for a moment, searching for their target, before locking on and shooting through the sky towards Glaceon.
So that's your game, huh? Gabrielle expected something like this from the moment her pokemon got infected with poison. Even now, she could feel the stinging numbness spreading through her limbs courtesy of harmonia's connection to her pokemon. She clenched her jaw and focused, preparing for a counterattack.
"Freeze-dry," she ordered.
"Glaceon!" The air around Glaceon turned sub-zero and she released a burst of energy from her body that flash-froze the area. The cloud of magical leaves surrounding her turned to ice crystals instantaneously, the shockwave strong enough to freeze their momentum completely.
They dropped harmlessly to the ground, causing the snow to glisten.
Alcea was caught off-guard by that move, but she wasn't overwhelmed by her surprise. She quickly regained her focus, directing Rosetta to her next attack. If her instincts were right, this would force action out of Gabrielle for good.
"Rosetta, use grassy terrain once more!" She ordered.
"Roserade!" Rosetta raised her bouquet, and a green aura surrounded her body. She flung her arm down in a chop that directed the energy into the ground, causing the abundance of nature teaming beneath the snow to burst out and cover the field once more.
"Yes! Way to go, Alcea!" Olivia cheered, joyfully pumping her fist into the air. "Grassy terrain! I wouldn't have expected any less from an amazing trainer like you! Now you'll definitely be able to take her down!"
"Is it just me, or has the Empress gotten really creepy since she started getting so close to Alcea Vermeil?" Tommy whispered to Ross.
Ross nodded in confirmation that he felt the same way.
Gabrielle's sour expression was imperceptibly slight, but it was enough for Alcea to confirm that she'd been shaken by the move.
Just as I thought! She swelled with confidence. And not just because of Olivia's cheering, either. From what she'd observed, the move "ice spinner" that Gabrielle had used to freeze the grassy terrain she'd set up before was similar to rapid spin. The fact that Glaceon hadn't used it when the toxic spikes were scattered across the field made her suspect that the Ice type pokemon didn't know the move in the first place.
Of course, she had no way of knowing whether or not ice spinner would work the same as rapid spin and clear away entry hazards, that was just a guess on her part. But her instinct had still been correct, as shown from the lack of a response to the grass once more taking its rightful place on the fields of Agate Village.
"That ice spinner move you were so proud of… your Glaceon was incapable of learning it, is it?" Alcea mused. "If you like… it might be in your best interest to send in a pokemon that can reclaim the terrain for you, oui?"
Gabrielle narrowed her eyes. No way in hell was that happening. She wasn't about to waste the power Glaceon had built up.
"Glaceon, use ice beam!" She ordered.
"Glaceon!" Glaceon opened her mouth and fired a massive beam of icy energy at Rosetta. Such an attack would have been devastating seconds before, but now Rosetta was playing by a different set of rules.
"Grassy glide," Alcea ordered. Rosetta took advantage of the grassy terrain, moving at top speed across the green surface around her. With the aid of the grass at her feet, it was a simple matter to get out of the range of ice beam. And now she could perform a counterattack.
"Now, terrain pulse!"
"Roserade!" Rosetta gathered energy from the grass beneath her feet, and focused her power into her bouquet. Gathering up nature energy she released it in a compressed blast of verdant light that shot towards Glaceon.
To Alcea's surprise, the icy pokemon did nothing to dodge. It was almost as if she was waiting for the attack to come.
Only too late for it to matter did Alcea realize what that meant.
"Mirror coat!" Gabrielle ordered. She focused her harmonia and directed it towards Glaceon, focusing her energy and empowering her prized pokemon to boost her special defense. With the buff from harmonia Glaceon's defensive stats rose, giving her more than enough of a cushion to endure the terrain pulse. It didn't hurt either that the restorative powers of the grass were doing wonders for offsetting the effects of the poison.
While Glaceon withstood the attack, a sheen of rainbow light glowed around her fur. It took the force of the terrain pulse that the pokemon was forced to endure, and strengthened it, turning it back on the caster with twice the power.
And there was nothing Rosetta could do about it. The outburst came too quickly for her to even attempt to dodge.
The mirror coat-reflected terrain pulse smashed into Rosetta, knocking her backwards. The Roserade rolled through the grass and managed to stand up, but she was clearly very injured from the attack, as was Glaceon.
Gabrielle's Glaceon had been through a lot. She'd endured seriously powerful attacks from Hollander and came out the victor, and was forced to withstand even more abuse from Alcea's Roserade as well. Alcea wouldn't have been surprised if she'd fainted from that terrain pulse, or even the solarbeam before. But she was still standing, even as the poison continued to drain away her strength by the second.
This must be the power of harmonia… Alcea realized. Gabrielle was a dangerous opponent under ordinary circumstances, but with harmonia strengthening her pokemon so considerably she was an even more lethal foe.
Alcea could see that Rosetta's strength was flagging. That mirror coat had been the turning point. She wouldn't be able to take another attack, and recalling her to her pokeball to rest would only prolong her suffering. The only thing they could do was strike with the most powerful attack they had, and do as much damage as they could.
"Rosetta, use leaf storm!" She shouted. Her Roserade raised her bouquet and the leaves gathered around her, forming a massive tornado of destructive power. Rosetta flung the tornado at Glaceon with every bit of the power she had left, and Alcea knew there was only one way that Gabrielle and Glaceon could possibly respond. Only one move in their arsenal would be able to compete with leaf storm's power.
"Blizzard!" Gabrielle shouted. Her Glaceon opened her mouth in a mighty howl, calling on the snowstorm to grow in power and size. A massive wave of wind and ice billowed across the battlefield, heading for the swirling tempest of leaves.
"This is going to be a big once," Vic scowled, shielding herself.
Olivia refused to back down, standing tall in her confidence in Alcea's abilities. As the two storms clashed in front of her, it was clear that one had to emerge the victor, and that would determine the course of this battle.
But the truth was far different from her expectations.
The two attacks cancelled each other out completely, neither one overpowering the other, much to both trainers' surprise.
"So it seems… our pokemon are evenly matched, is it?" Alcea mused.
"No way," Gabrielle snarled, narrowing her eyes. "Glaceon, use blizzard again!"
"Glaceon!" Glaceon howled again, summoning another powerful blizzard that threatened to freeze Rosetta where she stood.
"That's not good," Tommy scowled. "Leaf storm lowers the user's special attack stat drastically. There's no way Alcea could get the same amount of power from it a second time!"
"Is that so?" Alcea asked, narrowing her eyes. "Rosetta! Leaf storm once more!"
"Roserade!" Rosetta raised her bouquet, summoning a powerful tornado of leaves that was every bit as powerful as the one that came before it. The storm raged across the battlefield, smashing into the cold front in a blast of snow and plantlife, the two attacks canceling each other out a second time.
Gabrielle was shocked by the display, as were the onlookers.
"How did you do it?!" Olivia gushed, thrilled that Alcea had been able to get so much power out of her Roserade even after using leaf storm. While not an expert at battles she knew all of Alcea's moves by heart, so she knew such a thing shouldn't be possible.
Alcea replied by turning back to Olivia with a smile and a twinkle in her eye. "With a white herb, of course," she revealed. She turned to Gabrielle.
"I would have thought to give Rosetta some grassy seeds to boost her defense, but I reconsidered that decision," she said. "Because I knew that you were being controlled by Samarra."
Gabrielle narrowed her eyes. "Oh? What do you mean?"
"You're an exceptional trainer, Gabrielle, and I knew that if you were with Samarra, the person who would stand the best chance of saving you was someone who already knew how you and your pokemon fight," Alcea explained. "So I made that my responsibility. I prepared my team for when they would eventually have to battle yours."
She glanced at Rosetta, who was weakening. This time, the effect of leaf storm was sinking in, and her special attack stat had taken a hit.
"Your pokemon tend towards special attacks, so a boost to defense isn't very useful for a pokemon like Rosetta," Alcea explained. "But I thought that it would become necessary for me to use leaf storm more than once, instead of as a last resort. That's why I gave her a white herb from my own garden, to mitigate the loss to her special attack from the move."
"Very clever," Gabrielle scowled. "But now your pokemon is too weak to do it again."
"Oui, that is true, is it?" Alcea nodded glumly. But she didn't lose heart, or let the fire in her eyes die down. "But all the same, we shall continue to press on until the end! Rosetta, use leaf storm for a third time!"
"Roserade!" Rosetta raised her bouquet and began to glow, ignoring the stat drop from her prior use of the attack. But even though her heart was set on this course of action, it was clear that she could not summon the same level of power. The leaf storm she called was like a shadow of the previous attacks, and as it whipped across the battlefield it was clear which pokemon's move would emerge successful in the end.
"Blizzard!" Gabrielle ordered for a third time. And this time was the charm. The powerful blast of ice and snow whipped across the field and smothered the smaller tornado, rolling past it and striking Rosetta directly.
The effect was instantaneous, and Rosetta was frozen solid. She stood unconscious as a sculpture, the outcome of the fight decided in a second.
Alcea recalled her pokemon, but she still retained the glow of confidence, which was an annoyance to Gabrielle.
"You managed to defeat Rosetta, and I congratulate you for that," Alcea nodded. "But it cost you something too, is it?"
Gabrielle scowled.
Alcea held up her hand, palm spread out. "You've used blizzard five times now, correct?"
Gabrielle had no choice but to nod.
"Which means… you have run out of your power points for your strongest move," Alcea stated. "Your Glaceon can't hope to put up much more of a fight. Anastacia, come and finish this!"
"Tsar!" Anastacia emerged from her pokeball, standing regally in the grassy field. She flipped her green hair behind her in an image of her trainer, prepared to take down the weakened Glaceon.
"This is perfect!" Olivia cheered. Alcea might have lost another pokemon, but she'd exhausted Glaceon's strongest move! And now Anastacia would finish her off!
"Even if we can't use blizzard, don't think that means we'll back down!" Gabrielle snarled. She still had the edge in this fight, she had five pokemon remaining to Alcea's four! And she was going to make use of all of them.
"Glaceon!" Glaceon fired an ice beam at Anastacia, but it didn't have a prayer of hitting. With grassy glide, Anastacia was too fast. She easily evaded the ice, and maneuvered around the toxic spikes as well to get to Glaceon, raising her leg and swinging it in a powerful kick.
But she was taken aback for a moment by how adorable the wounded Ice type was. Glaceon looked up at her with those big, charming eyes, and for a moment Anastacia found that she couldn't attack the poor pokemon.
Just for a moment. Then she delivered a devastating kick that send Glaceon rolling through the grass, coming to a stop at Gabrielle's feet.
"Return," Gabrielle said, recalling Glaceon to her pokeball.
Alcea scowled. "That move just now…"
"You don't need to worry about it," Gabrielle replied. "Mamoswine, go!"
"Mamoswine!" Her massive Mamoswine was the next of her pokemon to come out, and the huge pokemon landed on the ground with a thud.
"Yes!" Olivia cheered. "The toxic spikes will get him!"
Gabrielle smirked. "Oh, will they?"
Alcea expected that too, but then she saw that the Mamoswine was wearing something unusual. A pair of thick, heavy boots were on his feet, which kept the toxic spikes from striking him.
"These heavy-duty boots are my answer, Alcea," Gabrielle said. "How many times do I have to tell you I've been preparing? It isn't just sunny day, or grassy terrain, your Roserade loves setting toxic spikes as well. And it wouldn't do for my team to be poisoned. I decided that the best course of action was to prepare this little gem, a set of heavy-duty boots that nullify the effects of entry hazards. And now that we don't have to worry about that… Mamoswine, use ice spinner!"
"MAMOSWINE!" The massive pokemon roared, spinning with far greater speed than should have been possible for such a bulky pokemon. A blast of ice swept across the field, freezing the grass solid and blowing away the toxic spikes. The only reason Anastacia was able to avoid it was due to her powerful legs, and even then, it was tricky to jump over such a large attack.
"Anastacia, are you well?" Alcea asked.
"Tsar…" Anastacia paused for a second, then shook her head.
"It's charm," Olivia said. "That must have been what Gabrielle's Glaceon used at the end there. Because Anastacia is a physical attacker, she tried to lower her attack stat with her adorableness."
Vic glanced at her. "…For someone who doesn't do pokemon battles, you've got a lot of insight."
Olivia smirked, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Of course. You think I don't pay exceptionally close attention to Alcea's battles? Ridiculous."
Vic rolled her eyes.
Alcea took what Olivia said to heart and had arrived at that same conclusion. With a reduction to her attack, Anastacia wouldn't be able to fight nearly as well as she should. Better to take a break for now and come back later.
"Return, Anastacia," Alcea said, recalling her Tsareena. She had to think about who she would send out for her fourth pokemon.
Alcea and Gabrielle are squaring off! They've both lost two pokemon, and are getting in some good hits on each other. But who will win? And what other pokemon does Gabrielle have in reserve? Right now, it looks like she's got a slight advantage, but Alcea isn't someone to underestimate! Things are getting really intense here, we'll have to see which one of our trainers will emerge the victor!