I'm not late!
Also, man, this one turned out long. That's what happens when you pit a Pokemon with high physical defense against a Pokemon that excels in physical attacks! There may also have been a lot of dodging too.
I wrote this while sick. I hope you all appreciate that.
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Dragon Games: Final Round
“Here we are, Bob! The finals! Just listen to that crowd!”
“Yes, Harry, it certainly does sound quite a lot like a crowd. The match we’re about to see promises to be a good one, too. In one corner, we have Jeff Azure and his Persian, Raini. Together, the two of them managed to scrape through both rounds so far, barely eking out victory. In the other corner, there’s Kismet Yilmaz and her Metang, Malzem. Unlike Jeff and Raini, Kismet and Malzem have absolutely thrashed both of their prior opponents. In fact, in round one, I believe they set a record for how quickly they fainted Madrigal Blanco Montilla’s Houndoom.”
“So Jeff and Raini are in for a treat, Bob?”
“If by ‘treat’ you mean ‘incredibly tough battle,’ it certainly seems that way.”
“Fantastic! Let’s get rolling!”
Jeff held Raini’s Pokéball in his hand. “Good luck, Raini,” he muttered before tossing the ball onto the field. Raini appeared with a flash, opposite a Metang that had likewise been chosen by the woman on the other side of the arena.
Raini glanced around. All eyes were on her and her foe. An Alakazam – one that could have been Maza, but he was too far away to tell – leaned on one of the guardrails, watching her intently.
FINAL ROUND! RAINI VERSUS MALZEM!
Malzem: “HOO-HAH!”
Raini: “…”
“I know what you’re thinking, hey?” Malzem said, slowly floating around the arena. Raini scowled and pawed the ground. The soil was moist and stuck to her pads whenever she moved them. Ick. She idly shook one paw, sending a shower of dirt to the ground, and noted with a frown that the soil wasn’t deep enough to try to Dig through. “You’re thinking that it’s going to be soooo easy to win this match! Why, it’s just a little old Metang! How bad could it possibly be?”
Raini turned a stare on him with her best “you’re serious” look.
“Well, I’m here to tell you…” Malzem paused, then grinned. “No. Let me ask you something.”
Raini’s claws extended, sinking into the dirt, completely unconsciously. Steel and Psychic. A lovely combination. Don’t let him get under your skin like that fool Kartzel did. Don’t let him put a timer on you like that psychopath Sasha did. Just see what he can do first…
Malzem spread his arms and raised them to the sky. “Can you SMEEEEELL… what MALZEM IS COOKING?!” Inexplicably, even though most of the crowd likely couldn’t understand what he had said, the audience began to roar.
Okay, Raini thought. This guy is a hack.
“And I tell you what!” Malzem continued. He floated behind Raini, and she padded in a circle, keeping her eyes locked on him. “You’re not leaving this arena conscious! Because the way I do things, I’m going to stomp you, I’m going to walk all over you, I’m—”
The Bullet Punch that hit Raini right in the middle of Malzem’s monologue, to put it lightly, took her completely by surprise. Malzem socked her in the chest with a fist and she tumbled back, coming to a rest against a wooden pillar. It took a moment for her head to stop spinning.
“Looks like Raini wasn’t expecting that one, Harry!”
“Yes sir, Bob, Malzem has taken first blood in this match. Raini’s got her work cut out for her!”
“Boom!” Malzem yelled, following it with a snide laugh. “That’s how I roll! You better step up your game!” As Raini got back to her feet, he darted in and threw another punch, this one right between the eyes. Raini’s head snapped back, hitting the pole and making her ears ring. “What’s the matter? Don’t tell me this is your A-game?” He tsked. “How’d you even make it this far?”
A quiet hiss accompanied Raini’s rise back up. Her eyes glinted and she gave Malzem a small smile, revealing a fang, before disappearing into the shadows.
“Oooh, too bad!” Malzem clicked his claws together as a cyclone of yellow, cartoony stars began to circle him. One by one, they spread around the arena, then homed in on an otherwise-innocuous spot in the dirt. “That’s what you get for messing with an all-star, yo.” The stars impacted with Raini in mid leap, pulling her back from the shadows, throwing her off her stride, and knocking her, tumbling, to the ground.
“Raini better look out, Bob. She’s falling into the same problem she faced in her last matches: her opponent is setting the pace before she can even get her feet under her.”
“Right you are, Harry. Raini needs to come up with something and quick!”
Raini slowly picked herself up. That Swift hurt more than it should have. She narrowed her eyes. There. Precariously attached to one of Malzem’s spikes was a small earring, glinting in the light. Her eyes darted down to the crystal key hanging from a chain around her neck. As she and Malzem circled each other, her mind kicked into overdrive. Will this Metang use any barrier moves? So far, he’s been centered around throwing quick attacks and catching me by surprise… so his battle style doesn’t seem to involve defensive ploys. Good. With barely a twitch of her haunches, Raini disappeared, leaving only a small puff of dust in her wake.
“Nice try!” Malzem said, and summoned a cloud of stars again. Before he could loose them, Raini reappeared behind him and, with a quick paw motion too fast for the eye to follow, she swapped her key with the earring. With another cloud of dust, she retook her original position on the other side of the field, the earring clipped onto one of her ears. Malzem let fly the Swift, not even paying attention to where it went; instead, he looked appreciatively at the crystal key hanging from one of his arms. He laughed.
That can’t be a good sign.
“You are a trip, you know that?” Malzem said, swinging the key around in a circle in an annoyingly casual fashion. He slammed his claws together, and a sphere appeared around him, composed of blue hexagons. It quickly faded, but every so often, as Malzem hovered in the air, it glinted in the light, revealing its continued presence. “Have fun with that Reflect. I didn’t use it earlier because, hey, your key was kind of obvious!”
“Oooh, Bob, Raini’s Switcheroo gambit has backfired on her! Malzem just keeps knocking down everything she does!”
“She hasn’t even landed any damage yet, but Malzem’s been chipping away at her health!”
Raini growled. The constant narration was getting on her nerves. Let’s review. This Metang has a wide variety of moves, and everything I use, he has a counter for. If I leave him with the key, he can use Reflect to block most everything I can do. If I let him have the earring back, his projectiles will just hurt more…
You could almost see the lightbulb appear over her head when Raini’s inspiration struck. This’ll be tricky, but it might start throwing him off-balance… Appearing behind Malzem again, Raini adeptly switched the two items, appreciating the familiar weight of her key.
“Oh, you want the key back?” Malzem said, smirking. “Fine! It was trash anyway.” He opened his mouth wide and spit up a glob of purple, oozing muck. It flew up into the sky, traveling slowly enough that Raini was more than able to dart out of its way, leaving it to splash and sizzle against a wooden pillar. She dashed at Malzem, her key glowing; the Reflect shattered into its component hexagons and she latched onto Malzem’s arm with a savage Crunch. Ordinarily, biting something made of steel would have been a poor move on Raini’s part, but her teeth, flaring with ethereal black wisps, sank in easily.
“Gah!” Malzem hissed and flailed his arm. Raini let go and slid back, grinning triumphantly. “Nice try, but you—” Once again, he cut his sentence short and threw a punch at Raini, but she saw it coming and disappeared. One swap later, and Raini was once again wearing the earring. “I thought we already went over how that was a bad move, huh?”
Raini didn’t say anything in response. She only stuck out her tongue and waved her paw in the universal gesture for “bring it on.”
“Oh, that is it!” Malzem howled. “You’re going down!” He hovered in the air over Raini and plunged a fist down, but Raini had the presence of mind to not be there when it happened.
“Are things starting to swing in Raini’s favor, Bob?”
“Looks like it, Harry! Malzem’s fallen for her Taunt, and now he can’t bring out his Reflect!”
“That’s some nice strategizing by Raini, right there!”
Somewhere in the audience, Maza nodded almost imperceptibly. Raini didn’t notice. The taunt had served to infuriate Malzem enough that he was throwing Bullet Punches with no down time in between. They were easy enough to dodge – his rage was throwing off his aim more than he probably would have liked – but Raini could feel herself lagging. Okay, shut down his defensive moves. Now to keep him from using that same move over and over… This’ll take some good timing.
Immediately after Malzem’s latest Bullet Punch missed its mark, Raini skipped back and stomped her paws on the ground. She let out a wordless yowl, and Malzem squinted. “I see how it is!” he hissed. “You don’t think I can do anything else! I’ll show you exactly what I can do!” Moving more slowly without the aid of Bullet Punch, Malzem floated to her and threw out another punch – this one slower, but with more force evident behind it. “Chew on this Meteor Mash!”
“Niiiice, Bob! Raini’s completely turned the tables on Malzem! Now he’s been Taunted and Tormented!”
“I’ve always heard about cats playing with their victims before they deliver the final blow, but Raini seems to be raising it to an art form!”
Raini smirked at the praise. She still had enough presence of mind to roll to the side before Malzem hit her. The announcers had the right idea – she certainly was messing with Malzem – but for the wrong reason. Sure, she was regaining the advantage, but actually dealing enough damage to knock Malzem out would be hard. So let’s take the time to swing things further my way… Raini smiled and opened her eyes wide, suddenly appearing significantly more cute than she had moments prior. This served to have absolutely no effect.
“Raini used Charm, Bob! But it had no effect!”
“Stop playing games, Harry. Looks like Raini didn’t know about Malzem’s Clear Body.”
Raini cursed herself. If she had paid more attention to Trezzatura when he was still around, she would have realized that Charm wouldn’t have worked. He can’t use defensive moves, he can’t repeat the same move, I can’t drop his attack… there’s just one thing left to try. Raini prepared to flash Malzem another unnerving smile, but before she could, he smashed his fists into the ground. The earth shook, and the tremors struck Raini, knocking her off her feet. The move didn’t hurt quite as much as Raini was expecting – it obviously wasn’t a full-blown Earthquake – but nonetheless it took her by surprise.
“Hah! You might be good at dodging, but I’m got you covered!” Malzem crowed. “I can still slow you down!”
Raini wavered to her feet. The Bulldoze had shaken her enough that she was having a hard time standing. She did her best to ignore it, and focused her attention back on Malzem. She aimed another smile at him, this one more coquettish, and noted with some pleasure that it made his eyes spin.
“Bob, Raini’s still trying to impede Malzem! Even with her speed dropped from his Bulldoze attack, she used a Flatter to confuse him!”
“Is Raini ever going to get to the meat of this battle? She can’t win through status moves alone!”
Thank you both, I understand that. Raini rolled her eyes. The trick will be preventing as much damage as possible before I can whittle him down. But that shouldn’t be too hard. I think I’ve got this one covered.
That was, of course, when the battle turned a rather sharp corner.
First, Raini, when she dodged another Meteor Mash, noticed that, though confused, Malzem’s rage seemed to have subsided. The Taunt had worn off. She took that to mean that the Torment would be done shortly too. With Charm not an option, that meant that the only thing keeping him from attacking her was his confusion. And she knew that she couldn’t risk trying to confuse him again – that would only drive his special attack up even further.
That meant that she would have to finish this now. If she waited, she wouldn’t have another good opportunity for the rest of the match.
Well, Maza, here’s where strategizing got me. Hope you don’t mind if I do things my way now. Raini scowled and faded into the shadows, just as she had at the beginning of the match.
“Trying that again? Forget about Swift?” Malzem said. He waved his arms, summoning the familiar cloud of stars, but this time, they rushed inwards, impacting against him.
“Malzem’s confusion gets the better of him, Bob!”
“Raini ought to take advantage of it!”
And so she did: Raini reappeared without warning and body-checked Malzem in the back, knocking him out of the air. He skidded to a stop, then rose up, an expression that could be best described as a cross between extreme annoyance and rising rage on his face. “You’ve done it now,” he muttered, all traces of lightheartedness gone. “You’re done for.” He rushed into the sky, about halfway up one of the pillars, and with a quick swipe of his claws, he sent it falling to the ground. Raini neatly backed out of the way, avoiding its landing. Malzem flew to the next pillar, then to the next, repeating the process each time. It became harder and harder to dodge each log, but Raini managed until all of the poles were cut down.
“What’s Malzem doing, Bob?”
“Who can say, Harry? Either way, it looks like Raini’s forcing his hand. He’s resorting to some interesting strategies.”
Raini was similarly confused. As Malzem floated back down to ground level, she eyed him warily. This didn’t stop her from disappearing, then reappearing with her teeth latched around Malzem’s arm, but he took the blow stoically and flung her off. Raini flew through the air, landing painfully against one of the fallen logs. She winced as she got back up, then jumped when she realized she was face to face with a pole hovering in the air. It was cloaked in the familiar blue glow that denoted psychic manipulation.
“I’ll give you a chance to concede,” Malzem said quietly. “Otherwise, I’m going to beat you with a wooden pillar. It will be painful.”
Raini’s only response was to focus her attention on another log. Her own psychic powers wrapped themselves around the wood, trying to coax it into the air… but all that happened was that the log rolled slightly to the side. It was just too heavy, especially for how tired she was.
“I warned you, bro,” Malzem said. The log swiped in a vertical semi-circle, catching Raini, knocking the wind out of her, and launching her into the air. The blow sent her higher than she expected, and, in a detached part of her mind, she noted as she flew up how she could see the whole arena. One of the pillars flew up from the arena as well, neatly catching her right as she began her descent. Malzem followed her up shortly afterwards. “One last chance,” he said. “If I let this log drop, you’re going to go with it. Don’t think I won’t do it. I’m only offering this so your trainer won’t have to see his Pokémon fall from… however high up we are.”
Raini looked off the edge of the log. They were up awfully high. She could barely hear the announcer chatter from where she was; they sounded suitably amazed. The fall would hurt. A lot. She wasn’t sure if her own psychic powers could let her cushion her fall; the last time she had tried it, she had been much smaller and much less exhausted. She looked back at Malzem, who was waiting patiently, and hissed.
“So be it,” Malzem said simply. He let the log go. Just as it began to drop, Raini sprung off of it, jumping through the air. She tried very hard not to look down, and there was a heart-dropping moment in which she thought she wouldn’t make her goal. But just as quickly, her paws latched onto something solid again – Malzem himself.
Malzem yelped and started ducking and weaving, trying to throw Raini off. “What do you think you’re doing?!” he yelled, but his protests turned into a cry of pain when Raini sunk her fangs into him. He grabbed her with both arms and tried to hurl her to the ground, but she kept a tight grip and used his arm as a lever to swing herself back up. She landed back on top of him with a heavy blow; the momentum he gave her was more than enough for an effective Foul Play. Malzem winced and started flying a little lower, seemingly as much from surprise as anything else. He spun around in a tight circle, but Raini didn’t give; she latched her teeth back into Malzem and hung on for dear live. The Crunch prompted another yelp, and Malzem ducked a bit further down. At this point, they were not very far from the arena floor again, and Raini nimbly jumped off from Malzem, onto one of the pillars’ stumps, and from there to the ground. Malzem followed her and, as soon as she turned back around to face him, he met her with a Bullet Punch. She tumbled backwards over a log, and took a little longer than normal getting back up.
“After a high-flying battle in the sky, Bob, it looks like both competitors are on their last legs!”
“Does Malzem even have legs?”
“You’re missing the point here, Bob. One more attack should decide it!”
Raini locked eyes with Malzem. As fast as the two of them could manage, they raced at each other. Malzem held out a fist, winding up a punch, but at the last minute, Raini darted sideways and into the shadows. Malzem drove his fist into the ground, then got tackled from behind, sliding into the dirt once more.
Raini held her breath. Did that do it?
The same question was on everyone’s lips. The referee inched closer, keep a close eye on Malzem… but the Metang twitched, then slowly rose back into the air. He must barely have any health left… this really will be the last exchange! Any attack will work!
“You are getting on my last nerves,” Malzem muttered in a wavering voice. “I’m going to beat you. I’m going to—”
“Stop.”
A hush silenced the arena. It was the first time anyone in the tournament had heard Raini speak. Even Jeff was surprised; the number of times Raini had spoken to him could be counted on one hand, even if two of the fingers weren’t there.
“I have something to say to you, Metang,” Raini said in a voice no higher than a whisper. “You have done nothing but assert your superiority over me since we began this match. After this point, I think—”
She stopped her monologue in mid-word and hurled a pawful of coins at Malzem. They struck and deflected off of his hard metal shell, but it was enough. He sunk back down to the ground, and his eyes stayed shut.
“And there it is! Knockout!”
“That was an incredible match, Harry! Neither Pokémon let up for a second! And for this victory, Jeff Azure and Raini are in the running to be the champion of this tournament!”
The crowd roared, but the sound seemed oddly distant to Raini. She barely noticed it when Jeff ran into the field, neatly running around all the fallen logs. He put his arms around her, seemingly not caring about the bandages that still wound up and down his arms. “You did it, Raini. You won. I’m so… so proud.”
“And for his troubles, it looks like Azure is also taking home… Help me count here, Harry. You’ve got better eyes than I do.”
“Sure thing, Bob. Raini just used $160 in rare, old coins as projectiles. Collectors around the world must be weeping.”
ROUND 3 ENDS! RAINI WINS!
Raini grows to level 34!
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Jeff sat in his room. The tournament was over. All that was left was the announcement of the rankings. That, however, didn’t mean that the stresses on his shoulders had gone away. Kurtzwick was still missing in action, and nobody had heard from him. Gabi had asked him to go investigate a place where they could hopefully dig up some information on the Black Dragon. And on top of that, he hadn’t heard from Sydney for a while – efforts to locate her through the Guild had failed, and she hadn’t shown up online at any point either.
He sighed. Sitting in his room turning it over in his head wasn’t going to help anything. “Maybe I need a soda,” he mumbled to nobody in particular, then left.
Raini remained on her perch on the bed. She yawned lazily. Though a trip to the Center had fixed her right up, it had still left her exhausted. She hissed as Maza teleported into the room. That was exactly who she didn’t need to see at the moment.
“I hate to admit it, Raini, but I’m impressed,” Maza said.
Raini’s head perked up. That wasn’t what she expected.
“You did show a lot of good moves out there. Even if all of your status moves didn’t take, you kept him off-balance instead of the other way around. You were at a severe disadvantage, but you got through it anyway. Plus…”
Raini listened carefully, her expression neutral.
“That Metang was a jerk. Seeing you shut his mouth with the same trick he kept pulling on you was very satisfying. See? If you strategize well, you can be effective and stylish at the same time.”
Raini gave Maza a smile – a very wide smile that showed an impressive number of her fangs.
“But don’t mistake me. If you lay a paw, psychic or otherwise, on anyone in our family again, I’ll still be the one to take you down. Remember that, Raini. You’re making good progress. Don’t waste it.” Without so much as a noise, Maza disappeared.
Arrogant Alakazam, Raini thought. But she didn’t spend long on that train of thought, and instead fell asleep.