“Toxic Spikes!” Ran immediately orders, eager to dictate the rest of the battle’s terms.

  Skorupi obediently moves to execute the order, his carapace glowing with poison-type energy in preparation as tiny bristles start to form in preparation for their launch. Chuck clearly doesn’t intend to give any freebies however, as his own order is only a half second behind Ran’s.

  “Bulk Up, Machoke!” Chuck declares enthusiastically, before slapping his own slight belly as he continues, “It’s time to get in fighting shape!”

  Machoke immediately carries out the move, whilst Skorupi is still in the process of executing Toxic Spikes. The Superpower Pokémon’s thick hide seems to ripple, as his muscles bulge with power, the powerful fighting-type flexing every possible muscle in its body as it poses not unlike a bodybuilder might.

  It’s a worrying sight, the promise of power rolling off of Machoke’s form a clear reminder that Skorupi, already the underdog, is well and truly outmatched from a physical perspective. Still, as the Toxic Spikes fly out and sink partially into the sand, lying in wait for an unsuspecting victim, Ran can’t feel too bad about the fight’s first moments.

  “Venoshock!” He instructs Skorupi next, “Take your time, pick your moment!”

  “Very well, return fire, Machoke,” Chuck orders calmly, only the pleased glint in the corner of his eye hinting at the other shoe he’s clearly about to drop, “Use Rock Tomb.”

  Ran’s eyes widen in dismay, not having expected the rock-type move.

  “Dodge, Skorupi! Burrow into the sand and hide!” He orders hurriedly, forcing his pokémon to break off his budding Venoshock, the slowly building amount of poisonous liquid he was gathering in his mouth dripping uselessly onto the sand.

  Still, Skorupi obeys without hesitation, hurriedly dipping down into the sand beneath him and starting to burrow to the best of his ability. Unfortunately, Skorupi doesn’t know Dig, which means that his digging isn’t assisted by ground-type energy. The result of that, is that he isn’t by any means fast enough to avoid Machoke’s attack, as the imposing fighting-type moves.

  With a few loping strides, Machoke reaches the nearest rock before easily hoisting it up with a single hand. It tosses it up like a tennis ball once, as if to test its weight, before confidently throwing it at Skorupi with an underhand motion, ensuring that the massive rock will slam right down on the frantically digging poison-bug-type. Ran can only watch in dismay, knowing full well that Skorupi has no earthly chance of outrunning or otherwise evading the enormous projectile.

  At least Skorupi has dug down somewhat, the top of his body roughly at the same height as the sand on either side of him, hopefully muting at least some of the impact. It’s still a crunching hit, however, as the massive rock lands heavily on Skorupi’s back, completely obscuring Ran’s pokémon from view.

  “Skorupi!” Ran cries out in dismay, as he glances worriedly to the referee, to see if she has a better idea as to the state of his pokémon.

  The referee doesn’t seem worried however, simply continuing to observe the battlefield and the large boulder sitting on top of what used to be Skorupi’s position on the field. Chuck similarly doesn’t seem too worried, though both he and Machoke are clearly scanning the field with increasing attention, as the boulder doesn’t move and Skorupi doesn’t immediately surface.

  “Skorupi, if you can, get close and use Poison Fang!” Ran orders hopefully, unsure of Skorupi’s state or whereabouts, but at the very least trying to give his pokémon a fighting chance.

  “Machoke, use Strength on the boulder, prepare to bring it down again if it’s still conscious and under it.” Chuck orders tersely after a few long seconds, as the sand remains entirely undisturbed, leaving both trainers, the referee, Machoke and the respectfully silent crowd all watching either warily or uncertainly as they all seek for any sign of Skorupi.

  Obediently, the large fighting-type steps forwards, large hands reaching out to grasp the boulder as if it weighs nothing, before its biceps bulge briefly, as it hoists up the boulder and looks down. As it lifts, however, for a second, the boulder obscures Machoke’s vision of what lies underneath. In that second, Ran just manages to catch a glimpse of Skorupi’s familiar pale purple, before his pokémon seemingly uses his tail to fire himself out of the hole he’d been squashed into, flying directly at Machoke’s face.

  Machoke stumbles backwards in surprise, the boulder dropping out of its hands and crashing back to the ground mere inches from Machoke’s feet as it forms an instinctive block whilst jerking its head back in a move that, against a punch or kick, would at the very least have dodged a hit to the head and quite possibly would have blocked the incoming attack entirely. Against the vengeful Skorupi however, who has become quite the specialist in crawling all over humanoid bodies due to his habit of using Ran as his personal mount, it merely sees the attack hit lower than intended, as Skorupi’s jaws, dripping with poison due to his prepared Poison Fang, slam into Machoke’s chest rather than his face.

  It’s a strong hit, with Skorupi clearly pumping his opponent full of venom in the second it takes Machoke to stumble back and Chuck to react.

  “Revenge!” Chuck snaps out sharply, seemingly ignoring the double resistance Skorupi’s typing gives it in favor of the increased damage the move is capable of under circumstances like these.

  Knowing that there’s no chance for Skorupi to get clear, Ran simply doubles down in return, “Cling on! Poison Fang again! Use your tail!”

  Ran means for Skorupi to land his second Poison Fang by using the large claws on his tail, but Skorupi clearly interprets things differently, wrapping his tail part way around Machoke’s abdomen. Skorupi isn’t big enough, and his tail too short, to fully wrap around, but it’s still effective enough as, although Machoke’s Revenge, a harsh punch, clearly knocks Skorupi loopy and causes him to lose his perch on Machoke’s chest, but it doesn’t fully knock the smaller pokémon off.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Instead, Skorupi’s clinging tail slows his descent down just enough for him to regain his footing on one of Machoke’s tree trunk thighs. Immediately, Skorupi bites down once more, pumping a second load of his venom into the larger pokémon.

  Both pokémon are clearly hurting at this point, with both showing obvious signs of exhaustion and pain. Machoke’s breathing is labored, whilst its movements show the occasional jerking reflex that make it very clear to Ran that it’s picked up a proper poisoning. It still looks ready to go, however. Unlike Skorupi, who looks as if a stiff wind might be enough to do him in, after getting crushed by the super-effective Rock Tomb and then hit hard by the damage-fueled Revenge.

  Immediately, Ran accepts that Skorupi won’t win this fight. But he might be able to pull out a draw.

  “Venoshock, Skorupi!” He snaps out, relying on Machoke’s poisoned status to empower the move further and knock it into unconsciousness.

  “Strength, Machoke! Hurl it into one of the rocks!” Chuck counters, miming out a hammer throw on his mat as he does so.

  His pokémon obeys immediately, one hand wrenching Skorupi’s tail off of his hips before stepping into a turn. Skorupi, in the moment before he gets wrenched off of Machoke’s thigh, fires off the tiny beginning stages of his Venoshock directly in front of him, the deep purple liquid seeping into Machok’s thigh and drawing an annoyed hiss from the poisoned fighter.

  With just how little time Skorupi got, however, and just the small amount of poisonous liquid he managed, it isn’t enough to disrupt Machoke’s attack, not to mention knock it unconscious. So, Machoke steps into a spin, whirling around his own axis twice before letting go of Skorupi’s tail.

  Ran’s pokémon is sent hurling through the air at worrying speed, headed directly for the same boulder he ended up under in the beginning stages of the fight. Fortunately, Machoke’s windup gave Ran enough time to unclip Skorupi’s pokéball, as he immediately recalls his team member before he can make impact.

  Recalling a battling pokémon in the middle of a move is frowned upon to say the least, which is why Ran immediately raises a hand, “I recall Skorupi from the match, he would’ve been knocked out if I hadn’t recalled him.”

  The crowd, completely silent up until now, lets out a short but polite round of applause, whilst Chuck nods in approval, before recalling his Machoke.

  “I’m switching,” Chuck declares easily, shooting Ran a taunting smile, “I know of your stall trick with poisoned opponents kiddo, you’re not getting any freebies off of me.”

  Ran huffs, not even trying to argue as, yes, he would have played the clock to the very last second, if Machoke had still been on the field. It seemed so close to fainting!

  Unfortunately, with that plan now well and truly sunk, he’s not quite where he wanted to be by this point in the match. Still, it’s not as if they’re doing poorly either, with Skorupi roughly having traded one-to-one and his Toxic Spikes set up for the remainder of the match.

  Hesitating for just a moment, Ran can’t suppress a dismayed frown when the referee turns to him first, with his pokémon having been the first to be recalled.

  “Challenger, send out your next pokémon!” She instructs, forcing Ran to make a decision.

  He wants to send out Golbat next, as between his extreme type-advantage and his mobility, he’s just extremely good against fighting-types. But the looming risk of another fighting-type capable of the elemental punches causes Ran to hesitate. Caesar is more vulnerable to ground-types and an easier target to hit in general, but his only real weakness Ran sees being a factor is his weakness to ground-type attacks.

  Ultimately, with seconds to spare, he convinces himself to send out Caesar rather than Golbat. A decision he immediately regrets, when he sees Chuck hurriedly clip the pokéball he’d just taken off of his belt back on, before selecting another option. When Chuck sends out his selection, Ran isn’t particularly happy to see a Poliwrath on the other side of the field, considering the significant number of ground-type moves he knows it gets access to.

  Before anything can happen, other than Poliwrath getting poisoned by the lingering Toxic Spikes, Ran immediately recalls Caesar, “I’m switching!” He calls out instantaneously, hurriedly sending out Golbat in Caesar’s stead.

  Chuck squints at him in obvious annoyance, his own hand moving to his belt for a moment, before he noticeably pauses. Glad to take the moment’s pause to give Golbat some time to gain his bearings and subtly gain some extra height whilst at the same time letting the poison do its work on Poliwrath, Ran doesn’t order an immediate attack, instead waiting for Chuck to voice whatever is clearly on his mind.

  “Slow your heartbeat, Poliwrath!” Chuck orders sharply, as if it were a regular instruction he gives his pokémon every other day. Then, he turns his attention to Ran, “We’ve both used one switch. If I switch, you’re just going to send that Arbok of yours back out again, aren’t you?” Chuck huffs, though he seems more amused than truly put off.

  “Yes sir,” Ran agrees easily, “Whatever your other pokémon is, it’s obviously your answer to Golbat, considering how you just reacted, so I’d be stupid to give you the match-up you want when I don’t have to.

  “You realize that you only have the initiative because I recalled Machoke to counter your little stalling trick? You’re really going to use such a lucky turn to try and force my hand?” Chuck asks, expression severe as he stares Ran down across the battlefield, his Poliwrath slowly crossing its arms in front of its chest disapprovingly in concert with its trainer.

  It’s a gesture that immediately gets met with a challenging shriek from Golbat, but Ran remains calm, taking a moment to examine the Poliwrath on the other side of the field before answering. It’s obviously, as expected for a fighting-type specialist’s pokémon, in superb physical condition. In particular, its exceptionally thick shoulders and arms hint at the raw power with which it can cut through even the choppiest waters at great speeds.

  The thought of a Poliwrath in water is enough to turn Ran paranoid for a moment, as he hurriedly glances around the arena for any hidden sources of water, or maybe a sprinkler installation. Fortunately, there’s no such tricks to be found, the large rocks scattered around the battlefield seemingly the only advantage Chuck granted his fighting-types.

  Still, that leaves an imposing Poliwrath squaring off against them. As Ran looks towards it once more, it chooses that moment to dance in place for a moment, hopping from one foot to the other and back again as it shakes out its limbs in clear preparation for the match, despite Chuck’s earlier order to slow its heartbeat.

  Golbat lets out a frustrated screech then, as Poliwrath still doesn’t even spare Ran’s pokémon a single look, its angry look instead remaining fixed on Ran without showing any sign whatsoever of the poisoning that must be afflicting it. It’s that detail which finally spurs Ran into answering Chuck’s taunt.

  “That stalling ‘trick’ is a valid tactic, which forced you into using one of your switches, giving me the initiative,” Ran counters, “I’m playing to my strengths and implementing a strategy! Or should we discuss these totally naturally occurring rocks that just so happen to be scattered around the field?”

  For a few seconds, Gym Leader and challenger stare each other down, a tense silence broken only by the beating of Golbat’s wings falling over the battlefield. Then, Chuck lets out a loud guffaw, clearly amused by Ran’s response.

  “Ha! You’re alright kid. I look forward to seeing just what you end up doing with that Croagunk. Very well, let’s do this then!” Chuck laughs enthusiastically, before spontaneously punching and kicking an imaginary opponent in front of him for a few seconds.

  When he plants both feet back down onto the ground again, Ran can tell by the tensing in his jaw that he’s about to snap out an instruction for his Poliwrath. Without hesitation, Ran snaps out his own order as well.