Chapter 321: CH89 (319), Global Competition Day One (3)
Caroline did not let the fact that I successfully intercepted her shuriken discourage her. She simply threw out a second volley and a third directly after that.
I naturally blocked them with my senbons, at least those I couldn't simply dodge. Still, after successfully dodging a few shurikens I decided that blocking them was the smarter approach since I noticed a purple sheen on the edges of the shuriken that flew past me.
It did not take a genius to guess that the shuriken had been coated in poison, so even a scratch could have disastrous consequences. I could become, numb, get paralyzed, or fall asleep. I doubted she would use any fatal poisons, but even those impairing effects could decide the outcome of our fight.
I was busy blocking shuriken or dodging them while racking my brain for a way to finish this fight as quickly as possible without revealing I was a psychic. Meanwhile, Caroline decided to change her approach after her 5th volley failed to nick me as well.
I saw her pull out small balls, a little smaller than a ping-pong ball, that she then threw at me. I decided to block them all and as soon as my senbon came in contact with them, the balls exploded, releasing a colored cloud, that probably contained some form of poison.
Caroline simply chucked more balls at me and added shuriken into the mix as well. I was unable to block everything since I was apparently worse than her at throwing stuff. That she was a ninja took off the sting of that realization since that was what they specialized in.
Anyway, I was forced to dodge the ones I couldn't block and thankfully the balls harmlessly flew by as well as long as I did not touch them. However, my relief came too early since Caroline, in a show of masterful throwing, nailed two of the passing balls close to me with her shuriken, causing them to explode.
The smoke they released engulfed me, but thanks to my upped reaction speed I managed to hold my breath before that happened. Without losing any time I threw a handful of senbons upwards to distract Caroline while I released the aura platforms below me and fell through the smoke cloud.
I saw Caroline throwing her shuriken above me towards the senbons I threw as a decoy, showing that I managed to dodge her trap with my little ploy. My appearance drew her attention, and I greeted her with a shower of senbons.
I was the one showering her for a change and as much as I would have loved to nail her like that, it was ultimately just a distraction/stall tactic, while I pushed off from the platform, hurling myself at Caroline.
I drew my swords in midair, but Caroline showed a remarkable reaction speed and released two smoke bombs that she used to escape while being obscured by the smoke.
Unfortunately for her, I had locked on to her with my aura, so I took a deep breath and followed after her, hidden by poisonous smoke or not. Still, she was adamant about running away, and she threw shuriken at me while doing so.
I naturally blocked them all with my swords, barely losing any speed, but it seemed she was trying to force me to leave/escape upwards after being unable to hold my breath.
Well, at least that was what I thought before I noticed that I was feeling a bit numb, which showed that the poison probably also worked through skin contact, even if the effect was most likely slower.
Knowing that I had to go all out if I wanted to win this without resorting to plan P, I gave my body the maximum boost I could while simultaneously boosting my legs as much as possible.
At a speed that probably looked like a blur to most of the audience, I sped toward Caroline and prepared to slash my sword at her, fully confident that the staff would be forced to interfere to save her, which would make me the winner.
That plan went down the drain, when Caroline threw something at me, which unfurled into a big net just before it reached me, or rather I reached it/her.
I failed to see where exactly she managed to pull out something like this, but I nonetheless slashed at it, fully prepared to go through it to reach Caroline, who had sprinted away without locking back after dropping some more smoke/poison bombs.
To my surprise, my first sword failed to completely cut through the net, and I was forced to slow down a bit, to avoid getting entangled in it, and use my second sword to completely cut through the net.
All that was enough for her to open up the distance between us some more, and I knew that I would be unable to catch her with the breath I had left, so I went up into the air to get some sweet fresh air.
Still, coming up for air was only a temporary solution that was delaying the problem at most since I had to enter the smoke to get to Caroline and each time inside the smoke would increase the numbness I felt.
Nonetheless, I took another deep breath and reentered the fog with all my aura boosts applied. Yet, Caroline managed to escape my clutches once more, by pulling out another net from Giratina knows where and mixing flare bombs into the mix.
The astonishment from the last one made me draw a breath in surprise which led to me inhaling some of the poison, which worsened the numbness I felt.
I used my aura to reduce the effect of the poison as much as I could but I knew that it was only a matter of time till I would be completely numb. So, I released a sigh of frustration before I decided to stop holding back.
During my next attack/rush, I used my telekinesis to stop her from moving once I was close enough to trigger her usual defensive response. Not having expected any telekinesis, she failed to react in time and was fully immobilized.
I then simply finished approaching her and placed the tip of my sword on her throat. As soon as I did that, the referee declared me the winner, and I released Caroline from my telekinetic hold.
"Well, to think you've managed to force me to reveal my psychic abilities. You're pretty strong Caroline," I praised her before I decided to add on to that. "Strong and resourceful," I finished while motioning towards the destroyed nets, poison fog, and traces of the flash bombs.
"Thanks, you're not half bad yourself," Caroline returned with a laugh. "I didn't expect you to also be a psychic, or I would have prepared for that one as well," she mock-complained before shrugging.
"Well, being unable to gather enough information shows I have to become better as a ninja," she finished and I only gave her a wry smile.
If she had been able to learn about it in advance would have worried about a leak, so the problem was not with her intelligence-gathering ability. Still, I chose to remain silent on that topic, and we left the battlefield after saying goodbye to each other.
Well, there were still 45 minutes until the round of 32 for the Pokemon battles began, and since I was among the first batch that had to fight, that meant I had 45 minutes to chill before I had to be at my next battle venue.
Actually, I had yet to look up where I was fighting, so I quickly remedied that. It turned out that the place was not too far from here according to the map I was perusing. The "Aspiring Samurai Hall" was just 10 minutes away on foot, so I could make my way there at a relaxed pace.
I decided to hit two Spearow with one Rock Throw and checked out who my next opponent was while walking towards the venue at an easygoing speed.
*Oooooooo*
It seemed like my next victim, sorry, I meant my next opponent was someone from the eastern continent. Bill Barnes was a student at a ranger academy in Orre, so I was facing a generalist after a long time of fighting type specialists.
Well, if one could call someone with 4 Pokemon a generalist. Hmm, actually, now that I thought about it, everyone that was not a type or another form of specialist would count as a generalist, so I guess he was considered one as well.
The 4 Pokemon he had shown so far turned out to be Houndoom, Mantine, Rhydon, and Altaria. All four had reached the (high) silver stage at this point, which was lucky for him since his only (high) silver stage Pokemon at the start of the regional competition seem to have been his Houndoom.
Now, seeing as how I could not know which Pokemon Bill was going to go with, I decided to choose Seb/Nidoking, Abzu/Milotic, and Tatsumaki/Kadabra for this battle.
Having made that decision I enjoyed the rest of my relaxed walk, and I made it to the venue with 5 minutes to spare. I directly headed to the battlefield and saw that Bill was already there as well. The introduction began and we took our places in the trainer area.
As soon as the introductions were done, the referee's usual rundown of the rules followed, and after that came the starting signal. Bill and I simultaneously released our Pokemon under the expectant eyes of the crowd.
On Bill's side, his Mantine appeared, while on mine Seb made his appearance. Mantine took off into the air as soon as it appeared since there was no available body of water.
Meanwhile, Seb forewent any real opening move since none were helpful against Mantine, and directly attacked it with a Thunderbolt. Mantine tried to dodge it but got grazed by it.
It retaliated by sending Air Slashes at Seb, which my guy completely blocked with a single Sludge Wave. He then froze the wave with Ice Beam before ripping out chunks of that frozen poison and hurling it at full speed at the Mantine in the air.
Mantine dodged Seb's projectiles and tried to stop his throws by shooting a Hydro Pump at him. Well, it succeeded since Seb stopped throwing frozen poison at it and shot a Thunderbolt at its Hydro Pump instead.
That forced it to stop the Hydro Pump and dodge to the side, which allowed it to barely dodge the Thunderbolt coming at it. However, it failed to dodge the second one that Seb sent directly after the first one.
Mantine's flight faltered a bit and Seb tried to hit the iron while it was hot. Unfortunately, Mantine managed to block the third Thunderbolt with a Protect.
While Mantine was trying to regain its equilibrium behind its shield, Seb stomped the ground, but not in frustration. He used Earth Power and raised earth ramps around the field to prepare the area a bit.
Most thought he was trying to get closer to Mantine, including our opponent, who fired Air Slashes at Seb to stop him. He failed and Seb managed to finish his little project. He then released a Sludge Wave and only when the earth bowl began to be filled with toxic sludge did they notice what he did.
Still, many were confused about what that was supposed to do to Mantine who was up in the air. That question was answered when Seb released a Flamethrower.
He actually aimed it at the toxic bowl and not Mantine. The fire began to cook the sludge and it began to vaporize. The resulting toxic gas covered the whole air space of the battlefield, including Mantine who had no chance to avoid it.
After that, it was simply a waiting game for Seb. Mantine became frantic and attacked Seb as fiercely as possible while using Aqua Ring to hold out for as long as possible.
However, in the end, its frantic behavior only helped the poison and it became more and more sluggish as well as hurt. Close to 10 minutes into their fight Seb managed to land a Venoshock that finally gave Mantine the rest, and the referee declared it unable to battle. Bill recalled it and I did the same with Seb.
Seeing both Pokemon leaving the field, the referee gave the signal for us to release our second Pokemon, and we let them out at the same time once more.
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