Pokémon: Midnight Blue

Futile Efforts

The battle ended here. Lucius had only one Pokémon left to fight with. The stress on his face was evident, and he had lost hope from the moment he saw Espeon struggling. He had a choice: he could go down swinging, or he could hand the match over to Kira, seeing as he would emerge either way.

Lucius chose the former.

"Go, Jolteon!" the fire in Lucius's eyes blazed. Jolteon emerged, refusing to show any intimidation whatsoever, like the soldier it had been trained to be. That was Lucius's first mistake, I soon realized; raising his Pokémon like soldiers.

Snorlax got up again, and as it did with Espeon, flopped its body weight over on top of Jolteon. Lucius did not so much as cringe at the sight of this. Then it hit me. Lucius wanted that to happen.

"Thunderbolt, now!" Lucius roared. Snorlax immediately lit up like a Christmas tree, taking an intense amount of damage from its opponent's electric attack. Snorlax rose again, ready to retaliate, but Lucius was prepared to strike once more. He howled for a Take Down attack, and Jolteon complied.

The Lightning Pokémon charged recklessly at Snorlax and slammed violently against its belly. Snorlax stumbled back and fell to the ground, no longer able to fight.

Kira did not hide his impression at Lucius's victory, but also made it evident that he was disappointed by Lucius's recklessness. He grabbed another Ball from his belt, silently as always, and sent out Venusaur.

"I know your strategy, Kira!" Lucius yelled across the battlefield, "You're gonna pressure me to attack first, knowing that Jolteon won't be able to cause your Venusaur any serious damage. Then you're gonna attack Jolteon while it's vulnerable and keep up the heavy blows from there! I'm not gonna fall for it this time around, and I'll bet you don't have enough hair on your ass to try and pull it now!"

Kira smiled and opened his arms at Lucius, as if saying, "Let's go, then."

Venusaur readied a Vine Whip attack and started snapping at Jolteon. Jolteon dodged each hit, having no intention of attacking or even approaching its opponent. Meanwhile, I noticed something that Lucius had overlooked. A light was concentrating in the flower on Venusaur's back. Venusaur was preparing a Solarbeam attack while Lucius was worried about playing defense. It could not be long before Lucius noticed, but by the time he did, it would be too late.

"Wait a minute," Lucius eventually realized, "Jolteon, use Light Screen!"

Jolteon put up a shield, hoping to endure Venusaur's sneak attack. Venusaur did not hesitate in releasing the Solarbeam once it was fully charged. Jolteon took the powerful blast of light and still managed to remain standing, violently tattered, but conscious.

"Take down," Lucius sighed, finally accepting that there was no way he would win this match.

Jolteon kept strong and slammed itself into Venusaur, causing quite a bit of damage, but it was subject to rough recoil damage, and fell out from exhaustion.

That was the end. Lucius had lost to his rival yet again, and this time, he accepted that he did not have a chance.