Pokémon: The Kanto Saga

Chapter Twelve: Loss

"Got to admit, that surely took me by surprise." Thundra gritted her teeth retracting her sleeping Pokémon into the pokéball and took out another different colored sphere in her hand. This one was completely black with a golden lining separating the two hemispheres. And the capsule seemed rather lustrous. "But you won't be this lucky again. Not today at the very least."

From the Luxury Ball jumped out a bipedal Pokémon with a round body and a thick, powerful tail. The Pokémon had soft pink skin with yellow lines on her belly and yellow ring marking on each knee. She had beady eyes gazing down at Ivysaur and a long, prehensile tongue sticking out from her mouth.

"Lickitung, the Licking Pokémon. Its tongue is twice the length of its body. It can be moved like an arm for grabbing food and attacking."

Leaf was on her guard, her gut-feeling telling her that this Pokémon is going to pose a problem in their battle and that she should properly think before executing a command.

"Lickitung, Mega Punch!" Thundra commanded, throwing his fist in the front.

Gathering strength on her right arm, Lickitung started running towards her Grass/Poison-type foe, her right fist glowing in a white aura. Ivysuar jumped away at the last moment, following his trainer's command to dodge. The muscle packed punch landed on the floor causing a mini tremor as a result.

"Let's see how long you can dodge. Flamethrower!" Thundra roared.

"Razor Leaf!" Leaf rebuked in haste.

Charging flames within her maw, Lickitung let out a swirling column of flames at her foe. The latter shot out several pointed leaves at the incoming attack. The leaves were burned to crisps as soon as they came in contact with the flames and were rendered useless . 

The flames however didn't stop until they landed a direct hit on Ivysaur who let out a cry of pain. The damage inflicted by the super-effective attack was no joke. Few burnt marks were already visible on his skin.

***********

On the other hand the match between Red and Ice was like a never-ending game of tennis. One side throwing their attacks with full strength and the other side effectively countering them. Red's side seem to be the one attacking while Ice was easily countering. 

Pikachu despite his agility and supremacy in speed against Cloyster, soon found himself out of breath. It was mostly due to the fact of attacking relentlessly in order to find any loopholes in the almost perfect defense of the Bivalve Pokémon. With Ice's calculative commands and Cloyster's swift execution of those commands, they seemed like a perfect combination with trainer and Pokémon being in perfect sync with each other.

"You waste commands with your rash decisions and that's how you exhaust your Pokémon." Ice stated without any kind of emotion in his face. His eyes held the look as if he were looking down on Red. "Your battling prowess and strength is commendable but you lack in critical judgement. Which is why your strength is a wasted potential."

"Why you?!" Red was stubborn to admit that his opponent's words are hitting the mark. "The battle is not yet over for you to start preaching!"

"Oh? But it will be over soon." Ice adjusted his glasses. "Let's end this Cloyster. Use Rock Blast!"

"Double Team, quick!" Red responded. 

Even if he doesn't take calculative decisions unlike Blue or the spectacled trainer in front of him, he knows how to counter to attacks coming at him. His rash decisions are mostly born in the heat of the battle where the situation can flip over anytime. A battle is unpredictable and what he tries is to harness that unpredictability to his advantage and to his battling style too. Which is why he is sure that he might be not able to win the battle here but he can at least try and break Cloyster's seemingly perfect defense and Ice's confident attitude along with it.