I know updates are slow, but from now on it will probably be slower because now I'm busy and I broke my hand.
Sorry…
——————
——————
——————
——————
"Let the contest battle now officially begin!" The beginning of the battle between May and Drew started as soon as they gave each other a nod to indicate their readiness.
"Roselia, let's begin the show with a Petal Dance!" Since Drew had already decided to go first, his two Pokémon were already ready for his commands. After hearing her trainer's voice, Roselia immediately used its powers and let the sharp petals fall down and go forth on the offensive, directly hitting both of May's Pokémon on her side of the field. Then he further shouted and gave another instruction, "Flygon!"
His Flygon quickly flapped its wings without even needing to hear anything else and attacked Combusken and Skitty under the cover of the still ongoing Petal Dance.
"First, his idea was to confuse May with the beautiful Petal Dance. Then it was to use that to hide his other attacks, this is Drew's team's tactics — quick lightning attacks from the very beginning!" Vivian can see clearly that this move was not only to damage May's points, but also to give her even less time to fight back.
Ash also couldn't help but praise Drew's idea, this guy was much better in how to use moves well with each other now compared to before.
"Skitty, use Assist! Combusken, Fire Spin!"
May has put all her luck on Assist again, and it still didn't really fail her as her luck was being used to call the same attack that her partner was now using.
Since the two flame vortexes had the same source, they were able to be merged together in an instant to form an even much larger pillar of fire, which burned away all of Roselia's Petal Dance and knocked Flygon back by some distance.
"Contestant May and her Skitty used their signature Assist skill to counterattack with a double powerful Fire Spins; looks like her luck is still going strong after this long!" Vivian finished speaking, and Drew saw that he was now losing more points than he did to May before with his combination attack.
Even Drew could not help but think back to that very same May that couldn't even properly communicate with her Pokémon's during their practice, and now that little rookie was standing up to his much stronger power compared to before. He gritted his teeth a little and decided to go all out from now on to be able to battle Ash.
"Flygon, use Flamethrower! Roselia, use Solar Beam!"
He commanded them to attack the still going in combined Fire Spins.
Fire against fire, a hot battle.
Since Flygon was a dual Ground-type and Dragon-type, the Fire-type had little effect on it other than the actual physical force behind it.
He fluttered his wings and tore the flames apart, and looked at the gap where there was no fire and released a column of hot flames himself.
At the same time Flygon was in the middle of its attacks, its partner Roselia was also in the middle of absorbing the bright sunlight, and with it in the middle of getting one of the most well known and strongest Grass-types ultimate moves, Solar Beam, ready to launch.
And just then, it was ready to go and launched in just a single eye flip.
The two attacks actually merged together into one to form a blazing white light pillar, which was not only extremely powerful but also extremely beautiful.
However, since May's fighting style was very similar to that of Ash's unpredictable counterattack style, she had something ready of her own.
Seeing this astonishing double attack, May looked at Combusken, "Combusken, remember what Ash said to us, that your Fighting-type was born for the sole purpose of fighting? Let's prove him right!"
Her words immediately made Combusken fired up even more.
Less than a minute had passed since the beginning of the match, and May was already about to fight like everything depended on it, which to her it kind of did.
Combusken roared into the sky, his body wrapped in bright hot flames, and he rushed into the pillar of light without fear of being injured, without even thinking that what he may be doing may potentially permanently damage him.
Although Fire-type Pokémon's and Grass-type Pokémon's are not the ideal match when it comes to battling, in fact they are very opposite to each other, but when it comes down to combination attacks, they have some of the best offensive synergies there are.
Now wrapped in flames, even this powerful oint attack of two the Pokémon's couldn't do anything to stop Combusken for a while.
"KANG POOA!"
With a loud chicken screech, Combusken heroically broke through the beam of very hot light, and was now wrapped in the same blazing white high-heat flames, which struck Roselia fiercely in the face; it was also very precise.
Flame embers were now flying around its body, and Combusken now looked like a hero saving the world from a big cute dragon and an overgrown rose.
"What kind of idea even is that!" Drew looked at May.
May was even impressed by her own progress now. Now she could fight him to this degree, which was not even worth mentioning anytime before.
Looking at his Roselia who was seriously injured and almost out for the count, Drew looked at Ash and wondered how powerful he truly was if he could take someone like May to this degree of power and skill.
But now Drew had no such luxury as time to think too much about it. Now all he had to do was to put all of his focus onto this battle in front of him right now, or else it would all be for not.
His Roselia tried its best to properly stand up, but it was no longer able to exert its full combat power, which is a good thing for May but a very bad thing for Drew.
Next, May must focus on his Flygon, who was also the biggest threat since the beginning of this battle to go through to the next stage.
"Now, Skitty, use a Blizzard attack!" May reacted happily. The two Pokémon in front of her had a common weakness, and that was the Ice-type.
But Drew was not someone that will be easy to defeat even in this state, "Flygon, use Sandstorm! Roselia, ride on Flygon's back!"
The immediate reaction from Flygon allowed it to block the cold Blizzard attack with a more warm Sandstorm, and Roselia jumped on Flygon's back under her trainer's command to avoid the aftermath of the blast of cold. This was also a tactic often used by Ash before, whether it be his Pikachu or even his own Flygon. The seriously injured Roselia now gained Flygon's mobility, meaning it gained something back.
At this moment, there were only a little more than 2 minutes left, and May was still ahead by a little
May looked at the mostly cute but now angry Flygon in the sky, and kept recalling in her mind all the information about Flygon that Ash had introduced to her when she saw his train his own Flygon, "That Flygon is really tricky, I need to deal with it quickly, or else everything will be still in danger!"
Then to finish everything now, May can only rely on her natural skill, luck, to do the job, "Skitty, use Assist!"
Because of all of her Assist uses so far in her career, she and her Skitty had attracted the attention of every audience in the stadium and in front of the television across various close and far away regions, and now everyone was looking forward to and guessing to what kind of move will appear to help May in her time of need.
May's luck was really good in this battle, and it showed yet again.
What appeared now was the Vine Whip attack that Bulbasaur used very skillfully the previous time against Harley.
What May needed to take away Flygon's movement was the String Shot skill of her Beautiful or the Vine Whip attack of her Bulbasaur, which she got.
Two Vine Whips hit Flygon from somewhere on Skitty's neck, but Flygon easily avoided it. After all, Vine Whip still has a limit to its length.
But May's lips curled up slightly when she saw this, her expression was very reminiscent of the small smile Ash sometimes gives when everything was going according to his plan (kukukukuku), "Skitty, you can change the target now if your Vine Whip! Combusken, jump up! Skitty, now use Vine Whip to help Combusken jump up even higher!"
May's plan was made the second she saw just how high up Flygon and Roselia now was. She let her Combusken, who already has an amazing jumping ability, jump up even higher with the help of Skitty's Vine Whip to reach Flygon flying in the air and hit it perfectly.
However, Drew was not afraid at all seeing May's ongoing plan in action, "Roselia, use Magical Leaf! Flygon, you use your Flamethrower attack!"
Using the grass to make the flames even stronger, Drew also used Magical Leaf's unique power to not miss to further strengthen the preciseness of the Flamethrower, but May had already cracked this trick when herd it, so she was ready for it.
"Come on, Combusken, you can do it!"
Hearing May's cry, Combusken turned into a red hot fireball again and rushed straight into the incoming fireball, just like what it did a minute ago
However, at the moment when it tore the flames apart, Flygon appeared in front of it in the flames and opened its wings and used a Dragon Tail on it to make it blast towards the ground.
This series of movements only took a few seconds, but it was extremely thrilling and exciting, the best battle so far in this year's Grand Festival.
Both May and Drew lost much of their remaining points here, but May still had the higher number, and this is what now matters. After all, the idea of rushing into a pillar of fire was really something the judges could never look away from, and especially for a second time.
But May's moves were not over just yet. Just when Combusken was knocked down from the sky, the fighting hot chicken spirit in its eyes was now burning to its max limit, "Combusken, grab the Vine Whip and throw Skitty up to the sky!!"
Combusken opened his eyes suddenly, stretched out his hand and grabbed Skitty's Vine Whip that had not yet been taken back yet; the strength of its muscles suddenly exploded, and he quite literally tweeted the little kitten up like it was a baseball.
"What the hell is that?"
Drew was shocked, and even that might still be an understatement to what he was now feeling.
The audience was even more shocked than
Drew was, they had never seen anything like this while he had some experience in weirdness because he traveled around and such.
It was at this moment that Drew's points were greatly reduced again, and now they were almost all gone.
There was little he could do to salvage his situation, maybe the best thing he can do now is to knock out both of May's Pokémon's, but that seemed unlikely as he was failing to do it since the beginning of this match.
However, just after Skitty was thrown into the air and its Vine Whip from Assist was retrieved back into its body. May loudly ordered, "Skitty, now use your strongest Blizzard attack!"
The powerful white cold Blizzard devoured Flygon and Roselia in a split second in mid-air, and it was at a very close distance, and because of this Drew's points were deducted to nothing all at once from what little he had left over.
A fateful battle with her rival came to an end.
May defeated Drew.
She also successfully entered the semi-finals.
When the scene of the final moment came out on the big screen, the whole stadium was in an uproar. This battle was by far the most exciting battle they had seen.
Especially for May, she had greatly exceeded any of her previous performances and performed at a level that she could have never have achieved if not for fighting for her fate. Her only focus was on defeating Drew, nothing else. It was precisely because of this that she was able to go to such limits for this battle, it was all because she didn't have any real distractions before or during the actual battles.
"Ash, I won! I beat Drew! I did what you told me to do!"
After coming down, she stood in front of Ash again, as if aiming for his praise. She could finally understand Ash's mood during a real Pokémon battle. On how and why he was so focused and trusted his Pokémon's.
This was the first time she has had ever had such an experience in a battle. All the strategies in the battle just now were inspired by her concentration, nothing pre-planned, all just in a moments notice, and all the inspiration came from the battles she saw Ash have.
"You did well, May." Ash said with a smile as he kissed his lovely girlfriends lips.