Thomdolt was not pleased. Their strategy of trying to starve Ash out was not working as well as he had hoped. Though the population of Galea always suffered casualties throughout the ages, it always seemed to manage to surge up again, so that almost always the land was struggling to provide for all the people it harbored.

As it was, though Marley had not stocked his realm well enough, but as the people there did farm, the supplies would last long, though Thomdolt had a feeling that they would get sick of eating carrots. Add to that their quantity of Miltank, and the catch from the rivers, and they would not begin to feel the shortages until winter came around.

And winter was not coming. Not yet and not soon enough. His agents had told Thomdolt that Ash had not bothered with Cinnamon City and was instead coming straight for him.

It was just as well. While Thomdolt had tried to remain confident, in truth, he was wavering slightly now that the threat was at the gates. He had considered fleeing, but where? He could not enter the other's territory without permission, and he was definitely not going to beg Freyja to take him in. No, he was going to tackle this pretender and put all ideas of his cowardice to rest.

Once his scouts reported that they were close enough, Thomdolt moved out to meet him. He had no Gym Trainers as he mistrusted anyone training Pokemon even more than the other Gym Leaders since he didn't train himself that often. He had taken most of the usable Pokemon in the area once he had come to power. It took him twenty minutes to find the stragglers walking slowly yet steadily towards him. They were not many, and they were not walking in any set formation, but rather as if they were leisurely out for a stroll.

Thomdolt snarled. Such arrogance! He was going to meet them, and allow this pretender to issue forth the challenge. And the fight would take place right then and there, where he would have no time for rest.

They seemed to be surprised to see Thomdolt though, as everyone else they had run into had run away the moment they had seen them. Thomdolt saw Ash, a boy in some ridiculous clothing with a Pikachu on his shoulder.

"Halt there!" Thomdolt snarled. "I am here to face you."

"I'm Ash Ketchum, and I challenge you to a Gym Battle," Ash said.

"Then so be it," Thomdolt said. "We will battle, right here and now. Our Badges are enough to ensure that the rules will be obeyed. And, I believe I am obliged to tell you, child, that there is a special rule when you fight me. Before the battle, the Hemlock Badge will badly poison all of your Pokemon. As for those who can't be affected by poison, they will be randomly given other status conditions, such as paralysis, or burns, or sleep."

"What?" Ash said. "That's not fair!"

"It never is," Thomdolt said and grinned. "Why do you think I was so confident I could beat you? Now child, there is no backing out either for you or for me, so without further ado let us begin."

Thomdolt had intended for the battle to begin immediately. He knew that Ash was probably tired from walking for several days, while he had been well-rested. A clear patch of ground was quickly found and the battle commenced.

"I'll start off with Pikachu," Ash said. As his electric rat entered the battleground, the Hemlock Badge shone and Marley knew that it had been badly poisoned. It was now a simple matter of waiting for it to defeat him.

"I'll send off my Roserade," Thomdolt said. He still remembered the exorbitant price he had had to pay for the Shiny Stone to evolve it all those years ago from Marley.

"Pikachu! Thunderbolt!" Ash shouted.

"Roserade, Protect!" Thomdolt replied. Roserade was shielded from the lightning blast by a barrier which then dissipated, doing her no harm. "Now, Roserade, Leech Seed!"

Roserade then shot several small seeds at Pikachu. Pikachu was able to dodge some of them, but still most of the attack hit true. "Good, now Roserade, move out of striking distance."

Roserade was very nimble, and for all of Ash's Thunderbolts and Quick Attacks, very few hit, and then there was the fact that Thomdolt alternated her fast movements with a Protect thrown in-between, and compounded to that the fact that Electric attacks were just not very effective on Grass types, well, in the end Ash had hardly done a dent.

Pikachu though, had quickly become very spent, and it was then that Ash realized the obvious and almost smacked himself in the face. Thomdolt was delaying him! He immediately withdrew Pikachu into its Pokeball for the first time in a while so the poison at least wouldn't get to it and instead sent out his Skorupi, a Pokemon he was sure, at the very least, wouldn't get poisoned.

Skorupi wasn't poisoned, but the moment it entered the battlefield, it nodded off to sleep.

"Excellent," Thomdolt said with a grin and withdrew his Roserade to replace it with a Skarmory. "Skarmory, use Spikes!"

Small spikes covered the battlefield, capable of dealing small amounts of damage to any Pokemon that Ash would switch out with, another excellent part to his delay and poison strategy. Thomdolt then took out the Skorupi with two Aerial Aces.

"You don't seem so confident now," Thomdolt said.

Ash was disappointed, but one thing gave him confidence, that despite all the years that Thomdolt must have had for raising and training his Pokemon, they were still weak enough that a Skarmory needed two hits against his Skorupi, which he had been training only for a few weeks.

"Next, I'll send out Fearow," Ash said. He knew it was a type disadvantage, but he thought it wouldn't matter, not with Fearow being one of his strongest Pokemon.

Fearow was poisoned the moment it was released, but it was saved from the barbed spikes owing to it being a Flying type.

Despite himself, Thomdolt had to admire it. It was a beautiful specimen, with the tendons and muscles finely developed.

"Fearow! Use Return!" Ash said. Fearow struck the Skarmory with such force that it would have fainted if not for its Sturdy ability. Thomdolt's grin was wiped off his face.

"Skarmory! Use Protect!" Thomdolt shouted in vain. Though that blocked the next attack, his attempt to use it again failed and Skarmory was defeated.

"Graveller!" Thomdolt shouted as he sent the huge Rock-type Pokemon out. "Use Rock Slide!"

Stones began to move towards Ash's Fearow, and though initially Fearow seemed shocked, it was able to nimbly dodge most of them and then quickly flew out of range of any more attacks.

Thomdolt wasn't worried though. Time was on his side, and Ash could not delay for long without the poison doing Thomdolt's job for him.

Perhaps sensing this, Ash decided once again to ignore type disadvantages and struck out at the Graveller with another Return. Though this did damage Graveller heavily, it could still take yet another hit. As Ash's Fearow went in for the finishing blow, Thomdolt waited for the right moment, and then said,

"Graveller, Selfdestruct!"

The explosion weakened Ash's Fearow so much that it could not fly any longer, and then the poison did its work. The Graveller had fainted, but so had Fearow.

"You just sacrificed your own Pokemon!" Ash protested.

"It was going to faint anyway," Marley said with a shrug. "And that is how battle is truly done in my opinion. Not through lightning-fast strikes, but preferably through long, drawn-out sieges." He sent out a Chansey, and Ash sent out his Grimer this time.

His Grimer was hurt by the spikes, and was also Paralyzed, but it was able to do quite a lot of damage to the enemy Chansey. Thomdolt tried to counter this by having it use Recover over and over, but this only delayed its defeat and the Chansey fainted.

And so, the battle raged on.

A/N: And so we've returned. Next chapter should have us wrapping up with this Gym Battle, and we'll be on to Freyja soon. Thanks for reading, and please don't forget to review!