Kanone and Blake's battle got off to a good start! Blake tried to poison Kanone's Samurott with Maria, but Sammy was too tricky for her; all Maria could do was weaken Sammy a little with her acid spray! But now Blake's sent out his next pokemon, his Snivy! Will Tara be strong enough to take Sammy down? Doubtful, but hopefully she can keep chipping away at her until one of her comrades manages to defeat the monstrous pokemon!
Arbiter8991: Kanone's definitely got a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Blake will have to bring everything he's got to deal with him.
KedharS: Sadly Maria did go down, but not before she was able to weaken Sammy! Blake's pokemon are definitely tough!
Tambry96bj: Fasted Mareanie in the world, apparently.
Hyphenman: Yeah, Sammy really is just that strong. Even with how strong Blake's pokemon are, none of them are a match for her in an even fight. We'll have to see if he's strong enough to take her down with all their power combined.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1280
"Snivy!" Tara emerged from her pokeball and landed on the ground. Then she cried out in pain.
"Tara?!" Blake cried. "What's going on?"
"It's the effect of ceaseless edge," Kanone coldly replied. "After striking, shards of sharp seashells have been littered across your field. It's like walking on caltrops, that's definitely got to sting."
"Sni!" Tara hissed, glaring angrily at the Samurott.
"Blake's second pokemon is his Snivy!" Olivia announced.
"That's a good choice for fighting that Samurott, don't you think, Darla?" Lila asked.
"You're right about that, Lila," Darla agreed. "The Grass type is a good advantage, and as we saw with that Mareanie, a small pokemon is definitely agile enough to dodge those blades."
"Tara, start things out with taunt!" Blake ordered.
"Snivy!" Tara nodded, narrowing her eyes. She raised her tiny hand and beckoned at Sammy, smirking at the otter.
"Samurott!" Sammy growled, enraged by the snake pokemon's display. She raised her shell swords and charged at her, slashing with everything she had. Tara managed to duck under the sword strike, evading the attack just as Maria had done so many times.
"Taunt's a good move in this situation," Darla noted.
"Why's that, Darla?" Lila asked.
"With taunt, that Samurott had to use only attacking moves now," Darla explained. "That means she won't be able to boost her strength with swords dance."
"Oh, wow!" Lila gasped. "That's really good!"
"And that's not all," Olivia added. "Doesn't that mean Samurott won't be able to use taunt herself, either?" She was genuinely asking.
"That's true, too," Darla agreed. "Which means she can't stop that Snivy from using status moves on her."
"Taunt's a bit of a hassle, but nothing we can't get around," Kanone laughed. "So what do you have next? Shall we have some fun with this?"
"I'm not in the mood for fun," Blake scowled. "Tara, use leaf tornado!"
"Snivy!" Tara hissed, raising her hands. A tornado leaves erupted around her, flying towards Sammy. She was aiming for the larger pokemon's eyes, trying to lower her accuracy by blinding her. But Kanone saw through that trick immediately.
"You dropped our special defense, and now you're trying to cut down our accuracy? Not bad, but it won't work! Sammy, use x-scissor!"
"Samurott!" Sammy raised her shells in an "X" shape and swung, slicing through most of the leaves in a single stroke. But she didn't get all of them. A few errant ones made it through, cutting into her fur and obscuring her vision, which was just the opening Tara needed.
"Nicely done, Tara!" Blake cheered. "Now hit her with your leech seed!"
"Snivy!" Tara spit a large seed at Sammy, burying it into her chest. The seed immediately began to sprout, its tendrils wrapping around the Samurott and sapping her strength from her.
"So that's your plan, huh?" Kanone scowled.
"You stopped Maria from poisoning you, but you can't stop this," Blake grinned. "With leech seed, your Samurott's awesome power will be drained from her to strengthen Tara and my other pokemon. Here's the next phase of our plan!"
"Excellently done," Alcea said, a faint smile appearing on her lips. "Leech seed has no defense. And as Kanone can't switch his pokemon out to get rid of it, it shall drain her strength for the rest of the battle, is it? A brilliant move on Blake's part."
"You're so right, milady!" Kate gushed. But she still felt uneasy.
Maddi of all people was the one who put that uneasiness into words. "But that Samurott… it looks like she has strength to spare."
Kanone's scowl shifted into a crooked grin.
"With our accuracy lowered, and our strength being drained, Tara's done a lot of damage already," he mused. "I suppose that's to be expected, given how much you treasure her. That bond is a powerful one."
Tara smiled proudly at her foe's declaration.
"That bond is one I share with all my pokemon," Blake stated. The frown returned to her face and she grumbled.
"Snivy!" Tara raised her hands and began to form a leaf tornado, preparing to finish the work she'd set out to do earlier.
"His Snivy's drained Samurott of her strength already!" Lila cheered. "Now she's using leaf tornado to weaken her even more!"
Kanone narrowed his eyes, his smile turning dangerous.
"Yes, she is," he agreed. "So it's time we start taking things seriously ourselves, wouldn't you agree, Sammy?" He asked, turning to his Samurott.
Sammy smirked.
The tornado of leaves tore across the battlefield, heading right towards her. But before it could hit, Sammy disappeared.
"She vanished?!" Lila gasped in shock.
"How'd that happen?" Even Darla was surprised.
Elaina bit her lip. "Aerial ace," she whispered, recognizing the Flying type move well. Sammy had disappeared, and right now she was moving at a speed no one could see.
"We trained to counter this move," MIrar said, actually looking nervous for once. "But with harmonia, there might not be a chance."
Kanone was using his harmonia to increase Sammy's speed as much as he could. With that, there was no way Tara would be able to fend off the attack.
Sammy appeared behind her and raised her shell, slashing with everything she had. The strike was supersonic, fast enough to cut through the air itself and send Tara flying with just the draft it produced. But Tara took a full blow.
"SNIVY!" She wailed, rolling through the dirt.
"Tara!" Blake cried.
"Sni… Snivy!" Tara panted, standing up. There was a massive gash on her back that practically ran from her neck to her tail, and it was bleeding profusely.
"That's not good!" Lila wailed.
"It's really not good," Darla agreed.
Olivia bit her lip. She wasn't sure who she should be rooting for here. Kanone had done her a big favor by agreeing to this exhibition match. But he was also a colossal jerk who abandoned his family and had, however briefly, captured Alcea's heart.
Fuck it, she was going for Blake.
"Blake can do it," she said confidently. "Look at that Snivy. The fire hasn't gone out of her yet."
"Is Tara going to be alright?" Kitty winced. The Grass type pokemon had only taken a single hit, but it was a whopper of one that had changed the power dynamic of the entire battle. She was already on her last legs.
"I'm sure Blake has a plan," Julia promised her friend.
"He does have one," Mirar confirmed. "The only problem is that he couldn't use it before because that Samurott was moving too fast to be seen."
"Tara, use leaf blade," Blake ordered.
"Snivy!" Tara lunged forward, forming a sword out of leaves. It was a futile gesture and everyone knew it. Forget that her blade was far duller and more fragile than Sammy's shell swords, the Water type pokemon had years of training in how to use weapons like these, while Tara was just using a simple attack.
Sammy deflected her easily and swung her sword at the snake's throat. Tara leapt back, dodging the strike easily. She smiled, already feeling her strength return from the power of the leech seed sapping away at Sammy.
"Back to dodging, eh?" Kanone smirked. "Well then, we'll have to use aerial ace again!"
"Samurott!" Sammy nodded, clenching her swords tightly. She disappeared in a flash.
"Tara, now!" Blake shouted. They didn't have a choice. They needed to take the opportunity, or everything would be over.
This has to work, he thought, clenching his teeth. It has to!
As Sammy blurred back into existence with her sword raised, swinging down on Tara, the Grass type pokemon responded.
Her tail, which was standing up perfectly between herself and the attacking Samurott, started to glow brightly. She flopped the glowing appendage to the side and Sammy's blade crashed into it, bouncing off the tail with a clang.
Lila and Darla both gasped
"That was…"
"…Iron tail!" They finished together.
"Nice! Tara's special trick!" Julia cheered.
"He's using iron tail as a defensive move?" Nick was impressed.
"It's smart thinking," Reiner said, nodding. "That Samurott is already attacking Tara from behind. By training up his pokemon like that, he can rely on using her tail to protect herself from the assault. Pretty good plan, don't you agree?"
"It's got one major flaw in it, though," Nikita frowned. "It's not fast enough."
"What are you talking about?" Sango asked. "You just saw it work! What do you mean it's not fast enough?"
"She's right," Maddi said grimly. "The only reason it worked was because his Samurott didn't see it coming. She just attacked blindly from the back. If she tries that trick again, then it's not going to work out for her."
Sango bit her lip worriedly. Come on, Blake, she pleaded with him. As angry as she was at her friend, she at least wanted his sacrifice to be worth it.
"With that iron tail, I suppose we'll have to forego attacking you from behind," Kanone frowned. "Well, no matter. We can do more than enough with an attack from the front!"
"Samurott!" Sammy raised her sword and turned into a blur, shooting at her foe and slashing with everything she had. She was moving too fast for Tara to see, too fast for any of them to see. But they saw her when she reappeared.
Sammy brought down her sword in a might slash that ran parallel to the one she'd inflicted on Tara's back. Blood spurted everywhere and Tara cried out in pain.
But she didn't crumple. Thanks to the strength she'd sapped away from Sammy, she ws holding on with her last slivers of health.
And Sammy was right in front of her. Just like they'd planned.
"NOW!" Blake shouted. It was their only chance. They had to land this attack before Sammy could get out of the way.
"Snivy!" Tara shouted, opening her mouth wide and spitting a massive hunk of poison at Sammy from point-blank range.
A hush fell over the crowd as the liquid poison traveled through the air. Sammy was already moving to dodge it. But she was too close. The toxic sludge hit her directly and she cried out in pain, her attempted retreat turning into a stumble backwards.
"Eww, Blake's pokemon used that poison again!" Lila whined. "I thought we were done with that when his Mareanie fainted!"
"Clearly he had a backup plan," Darla noted. "He must have expected that his Mareanie would fall without being able to poison her opponent, and prepared a countermeasure. Not a bad plan, I must say."
"There it is!" Kate crowed. "The third TM I gave him! Of course, it was my signature toxic!"
"Nice!" Akira cheered. "With that Samurott infected by poison AND leech seed, Blake will be able to wear her down easy!"
"Yeah, but look at Tara," Serefina said quietly, pointing at the Snivy.
Tara should have been growing healthier by the second as her leech seed sapped strength away from the monstrous Samurott. The fact that she was growing weaker instead was proof of just how desperate the pokemon's condition was.
Her wounds were too severe. She wasn't healing from the attacks. Instead, she collapsed in the dirt, succumbing to her injuries.
Blake sighed, lowering his head. Tara had put up a good fight. She'd done everything he needed to, reduce Sammy's accuracy slightly, infest her with leech seed, and then poison her, to boot. But it still felt miserable to use his pokemon this way.
"That's two of Blake's pokemon down!" Lila announced. "He's getting wiped out for sure!" She forced herself to sound happy about that. Lila Seelie was a perky commentator with a celebrity crush on Kanone Harker, this was the role she had to play.
"I wonder who his third pokemon will be," Darla mused. "Will he bring out someone capable of taking advantage of the setup so far?"
He would. In fact, he had the perfect pokemon for the job.
"Ruru!" Blake shouted, sending out his Galvantula.
"Gal!" Ruru chittered, scurrying forward. But she stopped, feeling intense pain in her feet from the sharp shells left over from Sammy's ceaseless edge attack. That move was definitely frustrating.
"And his third pokemon is a Galvantula!" Darla announced.
"Eeeww, Bug type pokemon are so gross!" Lila wailed.
Darla rolled her eyes. "You don't like Poison types, you don't like Steel types, you don't like Dragon types, and now you don't like Bug types? Are there any pokemon types you DO like, Lila?" She asked, half putting on a show and half serious.
Lila scrunched up her face like she had to think about it.
"…Fairy types…"
Darla rolled her eyes.
"Galvantula, huh?" Maddi's lips curled up into a smile. "I'd say that's the perfect pokemon for the job, myself."
"Really?" Sango asked, surprised. "Why do you say that?"
"Because of her typing," Akira said, taking over the explanation since Maddi didn't like talking very much. "That Samurott is a Water/Dark type pokemon, right? Well, Galvantula is Bug/Electric. You won't get a better combination for taking her down."
"Leave it to Akira to know all about Water types and their weaknesses," Sylvia sneered, grinning at him. Her eyes shifted to Dakota. "I suppose you were actually doing a bit of learning during our work with the gym leaders, not just ogling Misty in her swimsuit.
Dakota tensed.
Akira glanced at her, seeing the complex emotions playing out on her face. "Wait, Dakota, it's really not what you-"
"Misty, huh?" She muttered under her breath. "I should have known. She's always been your favorite, after all."
Serefina turned around in her seat and gave Sylvia a death glare that would end all death glares. Sylvia wasn't fazed in the slightest.
"Better pay attention," she smirked. "This match is about to get interesting."
"Ruru, electroweb!" Blake shouted.
"Galvantula!" Ruru turned her rear towards Sammy and sprayed a blast of webbing at the Samurott, which expanded and began to crackle with electricity.
"Talk about predictable," Kanone snorted. "You didn't think we'd be able to handle some webs, even in our current state?"
Sammy was poisoned, seeded, taunted, and half-blind. But she didn't seem phased by any of that. She lifted up her blades and swung them fast.
"Aqua cutter," Kanone ordered.
Water blades flew from Sammy's shells, slicing through the webbing like- well, like brushing away spider webs. Ruru would have to do better than that if she wanted to land a hit on the Samurott even in her present condition.
Luckily, Ruru had "better than that" to offer.
"GALVANTULA!" Ruru unleashed a hypersonic shriek that shook the stadium, the air buzzing with snoic energy.
"Ugh, I hate bug buzz!" Lila wailed, squeezing her ears.
"But it's sure working!" Darla shouted over the sonic wail. Sammy was starting to succumb to the effects of the attack.
"Nice work!" Blake shouted over the top of his lungs. "She's stunned!" The Bug type attack was wreaking havoc on Sammy due to her Dark typing. Sammy was weakening quickly. She had only recently acquired her secondary type, and that meant she wasn't used to all the weaknesses that came along with it.
That was the gamble Blake was counting on. He'd already played two of his trump cards, and he was saving the best for last. Now he just needed to overcome this match as a trainer with no tricks, and let Ruru fight the way she wanted to. It was their best chance at winning this.
"Samurott!" Sammy roared. Kanone had taken advantage of his harmonia to give her silent orders, orders she didn't need to hear through the bug buzz.
Sammy lunged forward, sword raised, and slashed hard at the Galvantula. Ruru scurried out of the way, but Sammy was undeterred.
"Samurott!" Water rose up around her and she picked up speed, crossing the distance between the two of them in a flash. She lifted her sword and brought it down on the Galvantula's back with a powerful slash.
"GAAAAL!" Ruru wailed in pain, thrashing her legs. She released a blast of webbing from her sac, which sprayed out all over Sammy's legs.
"Sa-Samurott?" Sammy looked down at the webbing she was caught up in. She raised her sword to slash herself free, but found it difficult. Even when she finally managed to tear enough of it off to break out, the webs still clung to her feet. Every step she took, it would stick to the dirt, making it almost impossible to walk.
"That Galvantula has tripped the Samurott up with her sticky web," Darla announced. "Now Samurott's speed will be drastically lowered!"
"That's still so gross," Lila winced, imagining what it must be like to be trapped in a spider web herself. She didn't like the thought of it. "…But at least it's better than poison…"
"Ruru, you should take the opportunity to put some distance between the two of you, now!" Blake ordered quickly.
"Galvantula," Ruru nodded, scurrying out of the way and crossing the battlefield. She doubled around on Sammy, picking up speed with her agility attack.
"Nice!" Reiner grinned. "While that Samurott's trapped in the web, Ruru's only getting faster! Nice work, Blake!"
"But it's not that simple," Nikita winced. "Remember? No matter how fast she gets, Samurott is even faster."
"Samurott!" Sammy roared, and she disappeared in a flash. Aided by Kanone's harmonia, not even Ruru's eyes could see where she was going clearly.
Sammy's accuracy may have been lowered, but when she was attacking with aerial ace, that didn't matter. She could read the changes in the flow of the wind and adjust to them, striking before her enemy could respond or try to dodge. It was the perfect attack for a situation like this one.
"SAMUROTT!" With a roar, Sammy reappeared above Ruru, dropping down on her in a powerful slash that scarred the spider's back. Ruru let out a pained roar, thrashing about angrily.
Then her fur began to spark, and she released a discharge of electricity that caught Sammy up in the blast, knocking her off.
Nicely done, Ruru! That electric attack had to hurt! Sammy's already lost a bunch of strength against Maria and Tara! They wore him down nicely! But will Ruru be enough to finish the job? Or are Kanone's pokemon just that powerful? This match is getting real intense, and we'll have to see how it goes! Hopefully Blake will pull out the win!