- Blessed by Divinity -

Talent vs Hard Work

The time had finally arrived where I would be facing off against Calem in the final of the Kalos League. For hours before, my pokemon and I did our best to keep our morals high, especially with everything on our plate, including Lysandre.

As much as it pained me to hold off on investigating to whereabouts of the Blaziken Mask, he made me promise him to not come to his aid until I had won the league. I felt that I owed it to him to at least prove my strength and show him that he was right to rely on me in the fight against Team Flare and Lysandre.

Right now, Calem and I were stood at opposite ends of the arena, our stares unwavering under the immense pressure that we were both feeling. We exchanged knowing nods before sending out our first pokemon.

"Gengar, I chose you!"

"Let's start off strong Slowbro."

The shadow pokemon gave her best attempt to intimidate us, but the oblivious psychic pokemon was unaffected. He nodded back to me, showing me that he was ready to set the pace for the battle.

"Gengar, start off with shadow ball."

"Counter with scald."

The large ball of otherworldly energy was neutered by the torrent of boiling water as both attacks cancelled each other out. Using Gengar's speed to his advantage, Calem made the call for the shadow pokemon to close the distance.

"Keep them away with psychic."

Unable to avoid the multiple orbs of blue psychic energy, the opposing Gengar was thrust backward by the super effective hit. However, the hard work that Calem had put into training his pokemon seemed to pay off as the shadow pokemon leaped back to her feet, ready to continue.

"Use dark pulse Gengar!"

The sudden counter attack came at us with too much speed to avoid, causing Slowbro to take the attack head on. However, the psychic's endurance prevailed, showing him to be nearly unaffected by the super effective attack.

"Slowbro, use scald on the battlefield."

In one swift motion, boiling water was shot across the field, causing a hot steam cloud to kick up, obscuring everyone's vision. The lack of vision was no drawback for us as Slowbro was able to maintain our connection using his telepathic power.

"Gengar use dark pulse to clear the steam."

Using the obscured battlefield to our advantage, I could feel Slowbro moving like liquid in the steam cloud as the opponent did her best to clear the field. The plan worked perfectly, causing Gengar to become distracted, providing us the perfect opening.

"Use ice beam!"

Just as the steam dissipated, a blast of ice cold energy connected with the poison pokemon, causing her to reel back in pain. The attack's secondary power came into action, completely freezing the pokemon's right side. With her decreased mobility, Gengar wouldn't be able to exploit her speed advantage.

"Gengar, use energy ball!"

"Use psychic to stop the attack then follow up with scald!"

As expected, the ball of natural energy was forced to halt, dissipating into the air, leaving an opening. Slowbro unleashed all of her power into the attack as the blast of boiling water connected with the target.

Gengar was forced to the ground once more, this time struggling even more to get up. After a few seconds, the poison pokemon couldn't return to her feet, collapsing onto the floor, unable to continue the fight. With that, my pokemon and I had claimed our first victory.