Sinnoh Journey

Chapter 88 - Power and Strategy

To Kyra's dismay, the light from the pokéball faded and she saw Garchomp now standing before her. Cynthia had got extremely lucky.

"This should be interesting. It seems I got lucky in the sense that Garchomp was forced out," Cynthia commented.

Kyra knew she couldn't switch Garchomp out now, they had to work out how to stall Milotic for the burn to wear her down whilst staying out of range.

"Luck can only get you so far. Milotic can't take much more damage thanks to her burn. Garchomp, use Earthquake," Kyra replied, guessing that Cynthia would have Milotic do one of two things.

One, Cynthia would have Milotic avoid the attack and in turn let Garchomp take her down with a Dragon Rush. Or two, Cynthia would let Milotic go down to the Earthquake. Either way, Kyra would claw back an advantage.

Cynthia had caught onto what Kyra was doing and she followed Kyra's second prediction. She knew how much her pokémon could take, there was no point in pressuring them to do more than they were capable of after all. Milotic returned to her pokéball to rest whilst Cynthia praised her and she began to think of who to send in next.

Garchomp was the pokémon Cynthia was happiest to see out on the field. But even then, she didn't have a sure fire way of taking him down. She had two main options, Glaceon or Togekiss. Glaceon would give her a relatively easy win as long as Garchomp didn't know any moves like Flamethrower, whereas Togekiss would be the better option unless Garchomp knew a move like Stone Edge. Without knowing the move set Kyra ran on Garchomp, Cynthia was well and truly backed into a corner.

"Cynthia's taking a while to choose her next pokémon. Is she perhaps more fazed by Kyra than we thought?" Nate asked, noticing it was taking Cynthia a while to decide on who to send in next.

"It's more the fact Cynthia doesn't know which pokémon is best to send in. I'm willing to bet she's considering between Glaceon and Togekiss right now. If Garchomp knows a Fire Type attack, then Togekiss is Cynthia's best bet...then again, if Garchomp knows a Rock Type attack then neither Togekiss nor Glaceon are great options. Glaceon may be able to take the attacks better since he has a higher Defense, but I honestly can't see it making too much of a difference," Lucian explained, he was able to read Cynthia like a book and could tell she was beginning to regret using Dragon Tail so late into Flame Orb's burn on Milotic.

Kyra was somewhat relieved by Cynthia's lack of choice, it gave her the hope that Cynthia didn't have a counter for Garchomp besides her own which she would no doubt be saving for last. Then again, Cynthia could be raising the tension of the battle simply to throw Kyra off guard.

"Alright, now that I've decided on who I'll use, we can continue. Let's go Togekiss," Cynthia said, sending out her Togekiss.

Despite Garchomp being weak to Togekiss' Fairy Typing, Kyra was actually glad to see Cynthia's Togekiss. She and Garchomp had practiced against Willow and her Togekiss just in case Cynthia did have a Fairy Type on her team, and Kyra had been right to do so.

On the other hand however, Kyra knew she couldn't let herself get overly confident. No doubt Togekiss had Serene Grace and a plentiful if moves that would benefit from it, Kyra had to play this battle very carefully.

"I'm not too keen on you having an advantage like this, let's try and even it out a bit. Use Tri Attack!" Cynthia called, the pressure quickly stacking up as the battle went on.

Before Kyra had chance to call for Garchomp to avoid the attack, Togekiss' Tri Attack hit. To Kyra's dismay, ice began forming around Garchomp and it froze him in place.

"Good, now use Ancient Power repeatedly!" Cynthia called, taking advantage of Serene Grace to boost Togekiss' stats as much as possible.

Kyra was left completely helpless. With Garchomp frozen, there was nothing she could do apart from let the increasingly powerful Ancient Powers hit. Luckier and luckier, Cynthia was showing to Kyra that all it took was one burst of luck and the tide of the battle would very quickly turn.