John's Team
Tyrant - Slaking
Vordt - Ursaluna
Smough - Snorlax
Klee - Blissey
Port - Mantine
Zephyr - Pidgeot
Klaus - Wyrdeer
Luna - Clefable
Pixel - Porygon2
Euphie - Sylveon
Ornstein - Obstagoon
Wraith - H-Zoroark
Winston - Lickitung (Shiny)
The New Normal – 12-7 – Psychic Showdown
Even though our conversation was cut short by her having to return to her usual duties, I was glad that we had a plan of action sorted out for how we would overcome the current barriers in our relationship going forwards.
We had cleared the air, and I felt that it made our relationship all the more stronger for it.
With Cynthia gone, I mostly spent the remainder of the evening continuing to train up with Winston, having him immediately practice Rollout to pave the way for his eventual evolution into a Lickilicky. Plus, it was a nice way of further developing his already decent mobility.
While none of my Pokémon were masters at the move, both Smough and Klee knew enough to be able to teach the basics. Maybe I could also get Whitney involved too since she was likely more proficient than I was at mastering the move Rollout.
It could be a joint brother-sister project. That would be fun.
As I mentioned before, I intended for Winston to emulate my sister's Miltank. But not only that, I also intended for him to develop his currently lacking Special Attack as well, though I was going to focus on his improving his mobility for now. I made a mental note to see how much of his unique tongue attacks that I could include into his fighting style, since that would give Winston another weapon to make use of in battle.
The rest of the evening passed smoothly, and I had intended to dedicate the next day to continue training up Winston while he was still new and motivated.
However, a call from Lorelei put a stop to that.
"Hi John, did I catch you at a bad time?" She asked.
"No, not at all." I shook my head, "Is there something the matter?"
"No, no, nothing important." She reassured, "I've actually been showing Lucian around Indigo since we both had some free time, and Lucian brought up his desire to have a Pokémon battle once again. And he remembered you said that you were up for it, so we're both wondering if you wanted to come meet up?"
"Oh, yeah, sure!" I perked up, never one to turn down a battle against someone that I recognised as my equal, "Count me in! Where are you guys now?"
"We're just at Saffron City since Lucian wanted to meet with his fellow Psychic specialists." Huh, I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised, "We're currently having a quick bite to eat, so take your time."
"Sure, see you there." I agreed and hung up the phone.
Deciding to take my time as she suggested, I made sure to finish up on the sandwich I was eating before making my way to Saffron City. Disguise in place, I quickly found the restaurant they told me they were at and saw the two, undisguised, figures of Lorelei and Lucian.
It was impossible to miss them, considering the huge crowd of people that had gathered around them and were currently peppering them with questions. Considering they didn't seem too bothered and instead both had polite smiles on their faces, I guessed that this was intentional on their part.
I actually had a little trouble pushing past the crowd, as they were all eager to ask their questions to the revealed Elite Four members and were mad that someone was trying to 'cut the line'. Eventually, I got fed up and dropped my disguise entirely, which finally allowed me to approach the two undisturbed.
"Oh! John! Didn't see you there." Lorelei said, "Thanks for coming."
"Not a problem." I replied, then my voice dropped to a whisper, "You didn't tell me that this was going to be some public event."
"An oversight on our part." Lucian whispered back, "We dropped our disguises while eating…and this happened." He gestured to the surrounding crowd.
"Well do you still plan on going through with your battle?" I asked, "Even with this crowd?"
"Lucian and I have no problem with it; we've already discussed it." Lorelei replied, "This might not have been our original intention, but we might as well make it into an impromptu show match."
"How's that going to work? There's three of us here." I pointed out.
"Let's continue discussing this somewhere else." Lucian advised before our conversation dragged on, "You think the local Gym Leader would be happy for us to borrow their premises?"
"Uh, pretty sure they'd be okay with it." I thought about Samson, "Let me ask to make sure."
One phone call later, and I received the approval of Samson to host our impromptu show match at his Gym. He also jokingly informed me that, as a Gym Trainer, Whitney might be 'randomly selected' to be the referee for the match.
Regardless, with approval obtained, we relocated from the restaurant after explaining our intentions to the surrounding mob, and carefully made our way to the Gym. In all fairness to the crowd, they were very well behaved when they realised we weren't about to run out on them; the reporters amongst them especially settled down once they saw that they were about to get a few juicy headlines from us with our battle.
"Welcome to my humble Gym, esteemed members of the Elite Four." Gym Leader Samson greeted us at the door, adhering to the necessary formalities considering that he was dealing with a foreign Elite Four in front of many cameras, "I hope you've enjoyed your time here thus far."
"Of course, Indigo is a lovely place." Lucian replied smilingly, "It's a shame that we only knew about your region so recently. Lorelei's been showing me around, but I've been told that there are plenty of beautiful sights that I've not seen yet."
"Where have you been to so far?" Samson asked as we walked deeper into the Gym. In the corner of my eye, I spotted Whitney and Sabrina standing in line with the rest of the Gym Trainers, and we exchanged a subtle nod.
"We've mostly been touring around Johto, since Lorelei is from there." Lucian explained, "I think Ecruteak City impressed me the most so far, though I didn't get a chance to watch the famous Kimono Girls."
"If you have time, I'll be happy to bring you there some other day." Lorelei offered.
Lucian smiled at her, "That would be much appreciated. I'm sure I'll find the time to do that and explore the rest of Kanto as well."
"Was Saffron City your first stop?" Samson asked.
"It was." Lucian nodded, "I always wanted to visit a fellow Psychic specialist, so we came here. Then we invited John because we wanted to battle anyways."
"Shame that Koga and Agatha aren't available though." He added, "I would have loved to face off against them too. But I know they're understandably preoccupied."
"Have you visited Will?" I asked.
He shook his head, "Sadly, we stayed a little too long at Ecruteak, so our schedules didn't match. He's very busy now, which isn't surprising considering he's just taken up his new position. But I have already spoken to him; we'll meet up soon."
The conversation cut off as we arrived at the centre of the Gym's arena. Behind us, the Gym Trainers were already escorting the crowd following us into the audience stands in preparation for our battle.
"So, I was thinking we could do simple 2v2s for the time being, and by that I mean two Pokémon against two simultaneously." Lucian suggested, "I would obviously prefer to battle each of you with my full team, but that would mean I could only battle one of you. And actually, I'd like to spar against you as well, Gym Leader Samson, if that's alright with you?"
"I'd be honoured to." He agreed easily. This was his chance to show off his strength and get some prestige for his Gym.
"Excellent. Then I think we can do three different 2v2s." Lucian stated, "That way I can have Pokémon to spare to handle all 3 battles."
"I'm fine with that." I said, "Lorelei, want to go up first?"
She agreed, so Samson and I moved to sit with the Gym Trainers instead of in the VIP section of the audience stand. I 'casually' and 'coincidentally' sat next to my sister and Sabrina.
"Didn't expect to see you here, bro." My sister whispered to me, "Would have appreciated a heads up; you don't know how surprised I was when Samson told us!"
"I didn't expect this either." I whispered back, "It was a coincidence as well."
Although…it probably wasn't completely coincidental. From what I knew of him, Lucian had probably intended to make a public show of visiting the Gyms at some point, likely to challenge them and show off the strength of Sinnoh while also making new connections with the Gym Leaders. This was probably just him pushing up his schedule a bit.
"Who do you think will win between them, John?" Sabrina changed the topic, "I am not familiar with Lucian and his prowess."
"Try to study up on Lucian if you can; he's an excellent Psychic specialist." I suggested, getting a firm nod from Sabrina, "Anyways, while I cannot claim to be an expert on Lucian's strength, I do remember his battle against Cynthia. He's not recognised to be the strongest of the Elite Four for no reason; and Cynthia greatly respects him. I think he'll win."
"Of course, this is a 2v2 battle, so things will probably be different here." I stated, "He might not use his strongest Pokémon against Lorelei, so he might end up losing. It all depends on who he chooses to use."
There was a very real chance that he was saving his strongest fighters for me. Not to be arrogant, but since I was stronger than Lorelei, he might be thinking that he would have a better showing if he conserved his strength.
Either way, I put my thoughts aside as I watched the two of them take their positions, with the referee (which wasn't Whitney) rattled off the rules for the benefit of the audience, and the battle quickly begun.
"Come out, Medicham and Bronzong!"
"Stand strong, Avalugg and Froslass!"
All four Pokémon emerged and landed in the arena. The crowd gasped as they saw Lorelei's H-Avalugg – despite the public announcement of its existence, it was mostly overlooked outside of Sinnoh. So for many I suspected that this was the first time they had even seen or heard of a H-Avalugg.
However, judging by the lack of surprise on Lucian's face, he must have already known about it.
"Set up screens, Bronzong!" "Medicham, focus Froslass."
"Avalugg, protect Froslass!" "Froslass, set up the Snow!"
Dark and heavy clouds rapidly formed around the ceiling of the Gym, causing a downpour of Snow to fall down onto the arena. At the same time, Medicham dashed forwards, protected by the Reflect and Light Screens set up by Bronzong, as it closed the distance with Froslass.
Until the huge wall that was Avalugg suddenly stood in its way, its eyes glaring down at the smaller Psychic type menacingly, daring it to approach.
Undeterred by Avalugg's bulk, Medicham smashed a supereffective Force Palm into Avalugg…but Avalugg barely even reacted as it was struck, relying on its impressive physical bulk to simply tank through the attack despite being exceptionally weak to Fighting type moves.
Instead, another cloud of ice suddenly formed above the Psychic type, and huge chunks of sharpened ice came raining down on the Medicham in an Avalanche. Yet Medicham hardly even blinked as it calmly disappeared in a flash of light, before being replaced by Bronzong with an Ally Switch.
Taken by surprise at the sudden switch, Avalugg was unprepared as it was instantly blasted by a Flash Cannon to the face. That wasn't all, as now Medicham had taken advantage of the confusion to flank around towards Froslass as it shot forwards with a Bullet Punch that narrowly missed.
No, it didn't miss. But rather the Snow Cloak from Froslass had concealed her form so that Medicham's attack was slightly off centre.
Realising its mistake, Medicham spun on the spot and struck again with a Fire Punch, but Froslass had made use of her superior speed to float backwards and fire off an Icy Wind to slow Medicham down. In the meanwhile, Bronzong had released a Confuse Ray towards Avalugg before blasting it with another Flash Cannon, hoping to use confuse the bulky Ice type for long enough to wear it down.
Avalugg's durability was impressive, a testament to just how much Lorelei had managed to train it up in that short amount of time. Despite a Hisuian-Avalugg's notoriously terrible Special Defenses and 4x weakness to Steel Attacks, it managed to hold on – though not easily – and didn't instantly collapse from the back-to-back Flash Cannons.
However, surprising bulkiness or not, the Avalugg became severely hampered as it was crippled by the powerful Confuse Rays that set in; its' eyes spinning around rapidly as the heavy confusion took hold.
Despite being confused, Avalugg refused to be useless. It might be disorientated, but that didn't stop it from snapping around randomly, crunching down with its powerful jaws that remained a huge threat to Lucian's Pokémon if they were unlucky enough to be caught by them.
"Stay near Avalugg, Froslass! Play around it!"
Wisely deciding to make use of Avalugg's threatening jaws, Froslass dashed over after dodging past another failed Bullet Punch from Medicham and forced Bronzong away with her ally own barrage of Shadow Balls.
Medicham tried to chase, but Froslass' Snow Cloak made her just evasive enough to dodge out of the way, and the lingering threat of Avalugg stopped Medicham from overcommitting.
However, it seemed like Lucian had enough of such shenanigans.
"Mind Reader, Medicham." "Bronzong, Sunny Day. Get rid of the Snow."
Medicham leaped backwards as it shut its eyes in concentration, as a faint pulse of Psychic energy began to radiate out from it. Bronzong tried to do the same, but its attempt to replace the Snow was immediately shut down by a Taunt from Froslass, keeping the vital Snow in place for her Ice types.
However, having trained with Karen for so long, I could tell that the Taunt was a weak one. Bronzong should soon be able to shake off the effects.
In the meanwhile, Avalugg had finally snapped out of its confusion, and with a bellowing roar, charged right back into the fray as it released a stomping Earthquake.
Both Froslass and Bronzong were not affected as they were both off the ground, but Medicham shook violently as fierce tremors coursed through it. Yet thanks to its incredible concentration and discipline, the explosive tremors failed to break through its psychic meditation and a solid bond was formed between itself and Froslass – completing the Mind Reader.
As soon as the Earthquake ended, Medicham rushed forwards with another Bullet Punch as it charged towards Froslass, leaping over a powerful Crunch from Avalugg. Froslass tried to dash away, but having perfectly predicted Froslass' movements thanks to Mind Reader, Medicham was able to course adjust its trajectory and still land a glancing blow against the fleeing Ice type.
Worse, in her haste, she dodged closer to Bronzong, unaware or dismissive of the threat that the Steel type posed to her. To be fair, Bronzong wasn't a threat to Froslass – it moved far too slowly to ever be able to catch the evasive Ice type.
But Froslass had overlooked something crucial, which was that Bronzong could switch places.
"Ally Switch!"
Taken by surprise that the Taunt had worn off so quickly, Lorelei's eyes widened as – with a flash of light – the Bronzong was suddenly replaced with the far more threatening Medicham, who had appeared right in front of a startled Froslass. Before a Protect shield could even form, a devastating Fire Punch slammed the Ice type straight into the ground, before another Bullet Punch came crashing into her face, creating a slight crack in the ground from the impact.
It didn't take long before a final Fire Punch finally shattered the vulnerable Ice type, knocking her out of the fight.
Yet the fight was not over, and Medicham hardly had any time to celebrate its victory as a raging Avalugg slammed straight into it with a powerful Heavy Slam, sending the Medicham tumbling across the arena.
Another Avalanche was formed above where Medicham had fallen, but the Fighting type was replaced by the Bronzong again before the attack could land.
"Crunch to break through that Bronzong, Avalugg!"
Knowing that Medicham was now far out of reach, Avalugg tried to brute force its way through the defensive Bronzong with a savage Crunch. Bronzong whirled out in pain, but it held on for long enough for Lucian to reveal his plan.
"Power Swap, Bronzong!"
My eyes shot open in surprise as I watched Bronzong release a faint pink ray of energy that instantly tethered itself to the Avalugg. The tether flashed with light for a brief moment, and while it appeared like nothing had happened, I knew the fight was over.
A H-Avalugg's only way of attacking was to make use of its great Attack. Yet with one move, Bronzong had just completely crippled its ability to hit back, since it now possessed Bronzong's pathetically average Attack and Special Attack.
…I realised that this just exposed another critical weakness of Lorelei's Avalugg that I hadn't considered. With H-Avalugg's terrible speed, it wouldn't be able to dodge any Power Swap / Guard Swap moves in the future either, leaving it completely vulnerable to being completely crippled like it was now. Worse, H-Avalugg wasn't able to use Swords Dance or any other Attack-boosting moves naturally, so unless it was deliberately trained to know the move, it wasn't able to restore its lost Attack.
That meant that it likely needed a partner that could prevent such moves from being used with a Taunt, which would severely restrict her options.
Well…that was for Lorelei to figure out. I still believed that a H-Avalugg could be a strong Pokémon in niche scenarios, but this just reinforced how cumbersome it was to use.
Nevertheless, it didn't take long for her Avalugg to collapse from the duo assault from both Medicham and Bronzong. Without its high Attack, it had no chance of fighting back as the two slowly wore it down from a distance.
And with that, Lucian had secured a 2-0 victory over Lorelei, though I didn't think she fought badly. Most importantly, I knew that the threat of her Avalugg would skyrocket under a Trick Room, but she hadn't revealed that today. Probably prudent to save that as an ace in the hole.
Despite her loss, the crowd didn't seem to take it that badly as they cheered loudly for her. Though many more cheered for Lucian and his convincing victory over a peer.
"Power Swap…yes…" Sabrina muttered to herself, "I've almost forgotten how powerful those moves were in these niche scenarios."
"Be careful not to get tunnel visioned with using it." Samson reminded, "The moves are niche for a reason, being slow and cumbersome to land. Don't assume that it's an instant-win move. Better to keep it a surprise to take the opponent off-guard."
Sabrina nodded accordingly.
"How would you counter the move like Power Swap?" Whitney asked me, "Because that would shut down my Miltank pretty hard."
"It might sound stupid, but just don't get hit. Or don't let them get the move off." I replied, "You should know from Karen how effective Taunt is at shutting down these kinds of moves. Alternatively, like Samson said, if your Pokémon is agile enough then they most likely won't get hit."
"If you DO get hit, then having a way to buff up your Attack or Special Attack again would prevent your Pokémon from being completely crippled, even if it's still a big setback." I added, "Or, just swap out."
"I can practice the move more with you if you want." Sabrina suggested to my sister, to which she nodded enthusiastically at.
Then Samson patted me on the shoulder, "I think they're done talking." He gestured to where Lorelei was walking towards us, "It's your turn."
I stood up and exchanged a short nod with Lorelei before making my way to Lucian. "A good battle." I said to him, "I didn't think you'd deal with Avalugg in that way."
"I deduced it was the most efficient way to do so." He replied, "I was wary about it having ways of suddenly countering Special Attacks, so this was the best way to cripple it. And I didn't want to see if Medicham could win a close-range battle against it – I suspect that it might not. It looked very threatening."
"Nevertheless, there will be time to analyse that fight again later." He stared at me, "Are you ready? Just for transparency, I intend to use my starter against you, as I am interested to see how it would fare against you. So I hope you choose something who could provide a fair fight."
I nodded, "You won't be disappointed." I already knew which two Pokémon I'd be sending out. I was very eager to see how they would perform in their first team performance now that they've trained so much together.
We both quickly took our places, and with the referee counting down, we sent out our Pokémon.
"Espeon, Gallade, bring us victory!"
"Ornstein and Smough! Taunt the Gallade!"
Having watched his battle against Cynthia, I knew that my Pokémon would struggle to deal with a 3x Attack-boosted Gallade, so an instant Taunt quickly shut that down. However, with its Magic Bounce, I couldn't do the same with Espeon, who was free to set up with both Reflect and Light Screen.
Yet Ornstein wasn't standing by idly as he charged towards Espeon, intent on quickly taking down the weaker Psychic type. Gallade moved to intercept, but without being able to Teleport, Ornstein was significantly faster than it.
Espeon managed to set up both Screens in time and began Teleporting around to make distance, and it became a game of Persian and Rattata as Ornstein tried to chase the Teleporting Espeon, while Gallade tried to interpose itself between the two.
But while both of Lucian's Pokémon were focused on Ornstein, Smough began setting up with a Belly Drum.
Alarmed, Lucian quickly changed his orders.
"Interrupt that Snorlax!"
Espeon immediately Teleported next to Smough, thinking that he was vulnerable while he was setting up with Belly Drum. But, to Espeon's horrified surprise, Smough instantly cancelled his Belly Drum and crashed into the unsuspecting Espeon, slamming hard into it with his full weight in a devastating Body Slam.
To its credit, Espeon's incredible reaction speeds allowed it to form a Protect shield that came up just in time to barely block the incoming Body Slam, but it wasn't fast enough to Teleport away before Smough caught it in his chokehold of a grip. Espeon let out a pained gasp, which quickly turned into a pained cry as it was violently smashed into the ground, then smashed again with a merciless Iron Head.
Seeing its partner in trouble, Gallade tried to rush over to support its teammate, but Ornstein got there first with his superior speed. In a display of teamwork, Smough threw Espeon right into a critical Night Slash from Ornstein that slashed through Espeon's exposed back – while also sending it flying right back towards Smough like it was nothing more than a ping-pong ball.
Then Smough sat on it. Literally.
The poor Psychic was crushed under his colossal weight, which was likely more brutal than any attack that he could throw out.
Needless to say, it did not get up.
For one of Lucian's core Elite Pokémon, it was a…underwhelming performance from Espeon. But that sometimes happened when you make a crucial mistake – and Espeon overextending itself because it thought that Smough was locked into the Belly Drum proved to be its downfall. Espeon did not have the endurance to keep fighting once it was caught.
Either way, this left the battle at a 2v1. And the battle entered into a short lull as both sides stared each other down.
That moment of peace was quickly broken as Ornstein dashed forwards, and claw met blade as the Psychic and Dark type clashed against each other. Ornstein's Night Slash was blocked by Gallade's Sacred Sword, but an Obstruct also managed to block against the incoming Drain Punch.
However, before Gallade could lock Ornstein in a battle of strength, a sudden roar from Smough echoed throughout the Gym as he menacingly charged towards the both of them, forcing Gallade to leap backwards as it narrowly dodged out of the way of Smough's charge.
But Ornstein chased after the escaping Psychic type, firing off another Taunt to shutdown any attempts to Teleport. Using his superior speed, he lanced forwards, his Night Slash barely missing as Gallade expertly side-stepped out of the way. Gallade then countered with a rapid flurry of Sacred Swords, trying to break through Ornstein's Obstruct with an overwhelming number of attacks.
It really showed that Ornstein still had a ways to go with perfecting his use of Obstruct, as he was gradually being overwhelmed by Gallade's superior technique. Yet his role was not to win against Gallade.
He was just there to make sure that Smough had enough time to complete his Belly Drum.
"SNORLAXXXX!" And that deafening roar signified his completion as Smough launched himself back into the fight. With his Attack now maxed out, he was a terrifying monster that would break Gallade in half if he ever landed a good hit.
Knowing this, Gallade did its best to avoid being in Smough's warpath, but Ornstein moved to take that choice away from it as it lunged forwards, keeping the Psychic type pinned down with his claws and ensuring that Gallade remained Taunted so it couldn't freely Teleport around the fight.
At the same time, thanks to the threat of Smough, Gallade could never stand still for more than a few seconds or else it risked being bulldozed over by the sheer, overwhelming power of a Belly-Drum boosted Smough. It knew that it had to take down Ornstein first to buy breathing room for it to focus on Smough, but Ornstein was too defensive of a fighter to be brought down so easily.
Gallade tried to take a step back, but Ornstein continued to press forwards, forcing Gallade to dodge out of another Night Slash. Gallade tried to counter, but Ornstein simply fired off a Dark Pulse and retreated out of the way. The Psychic type moved to pursue, but it was quickly forced to dash backwards as a violent Earthquake from Smough ripped through the arena, forcing it to retreat away from the epicentre of the Earthquake. Then it was forced to quickly parry another Night Slash from Ornstein as he had tried to flank around for another blow.
It was an untenable situation for Gallade. Ornstein and Smough were expertly leveraging their numbers advantage and teamwork to put Gallade in an unwinnable situation. Without Teleport, Ornstein was faster than it, and Smough was too strong for Gallade to try to parry or trade blows with. Having trained so much together, Ornstein and Smough left absolutely no openings for Gallade to exploit, and the Gallade was eventually forced to try to use Special Attacks to try to eek out an opportunity.
That opportunity never arrived. And it only took one misstep, one moment where Gallade had gotten too tunnel-visioned on Ornstein for it to lose track of Smough.
And that was a mistake that it would not be able to fix, as Smough barrelled into the Psychic type with a devastatingly powerful Body Slam that LAUNCHED Gallade straight through the psychic barriers of the arena as it crashed into and broke part of the Gym's walls.
It did not get up from the impact. Allowing Ornstein and Smough to claim their first victory together.
And earning me a solid 2-0 victory.
The crowd cheered even louder than they did with Lorelei, probably because an Indigo representative had just won against a foreign one. I gave them a quick acknowledging nod before quickly shaking Lucian's hand, showing the crowd that there were no ill feelings between us.
"That was a good fight." I began, "Although I was surprised to see your Espeon. I thought you would be using one of your stronger Pokémon, no offense intended."
"None taken." He replied, "I wanted to save my Alakazam for Samson."
"Ah, I suspected that might have been the case." I nodded. He likely wanted the mirror match.
"Admittedly, I didn't think Espeon would go down so quickly. I definitely slipped up there." He said, "But I really thought that my Gallade would be able to hold its own in a 2v1 scenario…but I guess I underestimated the synergy between your Pokémon. Who knew you were the type to focus on double battles too? I don't think I've ever seen a Snorlax fight so well with a partner."
"I always thought they deserved to be together." I chuckled, "But don't sell yourself short. Your Gallade held on admirably despite being outnumbered. I doubt either of my Pokémon would have won if you fought them individually. Your Gallade is strong."
"I appreciate the vote of confidence." He chuckled, "Anyways, I'd better not keep Gym Leader Samson waiting. I think he's eager for a fight himself."
Nodding, I headed back to where Whitney and Sabrina were, and they both congratulated me for my victory. Sitting down, I watched as Samson and Lucian got ready to fight in the last match of the day.
I didn't doubt that Lucian was about to win, but I hoped that Samson would give a good showing as well. That would allow this impromptu show match to be wrapped up on a high note, which I think everyone wanted to see.
Personally, I was just very happy and proud to have Ornstein and Smough be given an opportunity to fight together in a real battle. While hardly my first double battle, it was nice to give the public a reminder that I was no weaker in that department either. And if they still thought they could challenge me in a 2v2?
Well, then Ornstein and Smough would be waiting.
A.N. I hope you enjoyed the 2v2 fights and the debut of Ornstein and Smough. This fight has been on my mind for quite some time – basically ever since I named the two. For those familiar to their source material, I hope that the fight lived up to that.
Likewise, I wanted to show off a few of the side characters a bit and give their team some time in the spotlight. We've not caught up with Lorelei and her team in some time, and I also wanted to show off Lucian's team and strategies a bit again. They've not been forgotten about! Hope you enjoyed!
And to anyone who wants to support me, please check out my p atreon at CartecTNN where you can read 8 advanced chapters! Thanks to those who have supported me already!