[X] My Assistant

[Kamaitachi]

The Preliminaries and First Round matches of Hunter Price and Tikal Faylen.

[rt117]

Having her Pokemon knocked out so quickly was perhaps not the most surprising thing she had seen today. After all, the type disadvantage could work strongly in one's favour, and with the Elekid's ability to maintain distance, Croconaw could have only done so much. However Nidorino, who was more experienced in his current form, was more capable of standing a chance against the baby Pokemon, lasting long enough for the knock out. This Hitmontop however, as experienced as it was, would find itself under the disadvantage of Nidorino's abilities.

"Nidorino, deflect with Fury Attack!" Tikal called, seeing the oncoming flurry of kicks from the advancing Hitmontop. Digging his claws into the ground, the Nidorino brandished his horn like a sword, swinging it about in a feverish swathe of stabs to push back the spinning Hitmontop. As the heat of the attack reached its climax however, Nidorino broke away, jumping back to avoid the rest of the attack.

"Let's see... a Hitmontop is a fighting type, so Nidorino should resist its best attacks..." Tikal thought, watching as the Hitmontop ceased to spin and hopped onto its feet to face the trainer. "It is quite fast however, so we'll need to slow it down first before using Peck and Confusion."

A quick glance down at the printoff listed Nidorino's new moves, the words 'Toxic Spikes' catching her eye. Perhaps using the ability would force the Pokemon to slow down, unless risk getting hurt by the spikes. "Nidorino, use Toxic Spikes to slow down the Hitmontop!" Tikal called out to her Pokemon, watching as the opposing Hitmontop readied itself for another attack.

A ball of purple energy formed in the Nidorino's mouth, which it soon shot upward. The ball seemed to grow, before exploding out into a rain of small magenta orbs, which sunk into the ground out of sight. The Hitmontop stumbled for a moment, catching itself from stepping on one of the traps. Unless it were to pay attention to the location of the spikes, it would risk poisoning.

"Good job Nidorino! Use Focus Energy!" Tikal called, the poisonous Pokemon halting in its tracks, to focus upon the opposing Pokemon and where to strike. Watching her Pokemon prepare itself mentally, she glanced up to hear her opponent calling from the other side. "Hitmontop, don't let Nidorino focus! Use Rapid Spin to make a path, then follow with Triple Kick!"

"Rapid Spin?" Tikal questioned to herself, unsure what he was planning. Sure enough, the Hitmontop began to spin quickly, and as it dashed toward the Nidorino, the orbs of purple that had been embedded in the ground were tossed aside, the speed of the Pokemon's attacks kicking them away. Tikal blinked in surprise, watching as the Pokemon caught up rather quickly to her still focused Nidorino, before slamming into it with a flurry of kicks from the following Triple Kick.

Knocked aside, the Nidorino had successfully completed its Focus Energy, though still taking the brunt of the blow. Zach's Hitmontop stopped spinning however, beginning to look rather ill.

"Yes! Poison Point made it through!" Tikal grinned. Being a Pokemon that would focus mostly on physical attacks, it was inevitable for the Hitmontop to become poisoned by her Pokemon's ability, which would slowly sap away its health. Zach however refused to let the poisoning get to the best of his Pokemon, instead wanting to finish off the Nidorino before the status effect took its toll. "Hitmontop, Rolling Kick!"

"Nidorino, get up and use Confusion!" Tikal replied quickly, watching as the opposing Hitmontop attempted to shake off the poisoning effect to trudge on with another attack. The Nidorino's eyes snapped open, a blue light emitted from its eyes. With the use of Focus Energy, the Pokemon had become capable of unlocking the full potential of its egg move, and as the Hitmontop closed in, the poison Pokemon knocked it back with a blow of psychic energy, further adding to the dismay of the trainer by confusing it. Now back on hits feet, Nidorino stomped the ground lightly, readying its horn like a bull.

"Let's finish this: Peck!"

Charging forward, the Nidorino collided head-on with the confused and poisoned Hitmontop, sending it flying to its own side of the field, where it was knocked out shortly afterwards.

"Hitmontop is unable to battle!" the referee announced, glancing over to Zach to call out his third and final Pokemon. Removing the final Pokemon from his belt, he called out Skorupi, the board that showed each trainer's progression updating to reflect that only one of Zach's Pokemon were left.

"A Skorupi? I think Nidorino might be in trouble..." Tikal frowned, trying to recall the type of the Pokemon. The combination would only leave Peck as a useful move, for Nidorino's poisonous attacks would do very little, and the bug side of the Pokemon left Confusion out of the question.

"Nidorino, we need to wrap this up. Horn Drill!"

Lowering his head, Nidorino's horn began to spin menacingly, before charging forward toward the new challenger. However the nimble Pokemon jumped over the charging Nidorino, avoiding the attack with ease.

"Skroupi, Bite!" Zach called, watching his Pokemon barrel down from the air, clamping down onto the halted Nidorino, which had left himself open to attack after the Horn Drill. Nidorino tried to buck off the opponent, though at the Bite began to flinch from the attack.

"Finish it with Night Slash!"

"Nidorino, watch out!" Tikal cried, watching as the opposing Skorupi jumped high again, before coming down hard, one of its claws turned crimson as it swiped at the flinched Nidorino, quickly ending the conflict.

"Nidorino is unable to battle! Tikal, call out your last Pokemon!" the referee announced, the image of Nidorino on the score board fading out with the knockout.

Frowning, Tikal recalled her unconscious Nidorino, before calling out her last Pokemon for the fight: Charmeleon. The fire Pokemon stood firm, smoke drifting from its nose as it looked at the bug Pokemon, suddenly hitting a nerve. The Charmeleon had a bad history with bug types, and the Skroupi was no exception.

"Charmeleon, use Flamethrower, and stay away from the Skorupi!"

Opening his maw, the Charmeleon proceeded to breathe a hot stream of fire toward the opposing Pokemon, which dodged and avoided the oncoming fire attacks.

"Skorupi, use Venoshock and get up close!" Zach called out, the Skorupi firing out globs of green gunk at Tikal's Charmeleon. "Charmeleon, use Metal Claw and deflect the oncoming attack!" was Tikal's reply, as the Pokemon's claws began to shine, slicing through the oncoming attack with the Steel move, using its property to defend against the poison-typed attack. However as Charmeleon sliced through the last attack, the Skorupi seemed to come out of nowhere, following up its attack with a Poison Fang. Digging its teeth into the tail of Charmeleon, the Pokemon failed to shake it.

Gritting her teeth, Tikal knew there was no choice but to retaliate in kind. "Charmeleon, show it who's boss with Fire Fang!" Fangs glowing red with heat, the Pokemon proceeded to bite down on its opponent with fiery hot fangs, the two Pokemon locked in each other's mouths. However before Zach could respond with another command, Tikal followed up with: "Fire Spin!"

The flames in Charmeleon's mouth only seemed to intensify, as the two were engulfed in a typhoon of flame.

"Skorupi, use Night Slash and get out of there!" Zach called out, his Pokemon disengaging before swinging with the glowing red claw that had knocked out Nidorino, flying out of the twister of flame. Badly hurt by the attack, the Charmeleon wasn't ready to give up yet, not against a Bug Pokemon. At this point it was obvious that both attackers were considerably weakened and tired from the fighting.

"Charmeleon, finish this up quickly with Flame Burst!"

The twister of fire quickly burned away, only to reveal the blast of flame that was to come from the attacking Charmeleon. While Skorupi tried to dodge the oncoming attack once again, the sheer range of the resulting blast of flame caught the Skorupi, finishing the fight there and then.

"Skorupi is unable to battle. Trainer Zach has no more Pokemon. The winner is Trainer Tikal!" the referee announced. At this point the female trainer quickly rushed onto the battlefield, hugging her exhausted Charmeleon with a smile. "We did it!" she grinned, pulling out her Pokeball before recalling the tired lizard. With that, she returned to standing at full height, before looking at her opponent with a smile. She walked across, offering him a handshake before adding:

"You did great out there! I hope we can hang out sometime later."