The reason this was interesting was that fighting type and flying type were polar opposites with flying type having the advantage. Sending out both at the same time was a risky move since flying type moves tend to cover the whole field and that would effect his Machamp as well as Floyd's pokemon. This was something that even Floyd picked up on as he frowned in confusion after seeing it. It was only when I noticed the slight red glow on the Machamps fist that I realized what the plan was and clapped with a smile.-

"Oh? You seem to have noticed something about this odd pairing, mind clueing us in?" Phoebe asked curiously. I nodded happily "Most people who are unused to double battles like this see the type chart as a purely positive and negative interaction but in a double battle there is a unique case where this is actually not true. Brendan has figured it out it seems and is planning on opening this battle with a rather nasty combo move that uses the interaction between flying type and fire type to his advantage. Look closely at his Machamps fist and you'll see faint signs of the move fire punch getting prepared."-

"Now if his Pidgeot were to use a flying type move with a lot of wind directed behind that fire what do you think would happen?" I said with a pleased look. "He's going to create a massive burst of fire to cause great damage right from the onset, what a spectacular idea!" Birch said excitedly. "I had no idea that things like this were possible in a double battle." Glacia said equally surprised but clearly in a good way. I nodded at that "It's not surprising to be honest as it goes against centuries of ingrained knowledge about how battling worked."-

"As you can imagine it is as a result very rare and likely not something with many records pertaining to it." I said honestly. "How did you come to know of it then if you don't mind saying?" Norman asked curiously. "I regularly train my team in the wilds to work together so naturally I have personally witnessed moments when two moves mix to create something greater than the sum of it's parts. My first experience with it in fact was between Gaia my Tyranitar and Vulcan my Entei after Vulcan covered an area in magma and Gaia used her custom rock type move stone grasp."-

"It made a magma hand that was stronger than both moves and had both typings as well." I said honestly. "Well then lets see what one of these combo moves looks like since the ref is almost done." Drake said and we all turned our attention back to the arena. Once the ref finished with the standard rule listing and warning the battle started in earnest and none of us were surprised when Brendan called out fire punch and gust at the same time.-

The Machamp had been readying the move since before the match even started and as a result set it off in an instant as flames billowed to life on it's fist intensely while the Pidgeot flew behind it and set off gust much to Floyd's confusion. His confusion was well warranted since this looked like self sabotage at best and stupidity at worse. Brendans Machamp grunted in pain as the gust hit it from behind but thrust it's fist forward perfectly in tune with the flying type move. To Floyd and his pokemon it must have looked like the Machamp had been hit with the gust only to unleash a massive wave of flame at his team out of nowhere.-

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He was forced to return both of them or risk serious damage as the flames burned them and caused a lot of damage from the augmentation of the flying type move. "A double edged sword that combo. The lad may have taken out two of his opponents pokemon with it but his ace also took a not small amount of damage as it had to soak up a super effective move without resistance." Drake said sternly.-

"Yeah gust wasn't the best move for this combo for that reason but rather tailwind would have been since it doesn't cause damage. Clearly this was a theoretical type deal judging from the look on his face at the moment so I'll give him a pass this time." I said and the other agreed that for trail and error this wasn't an unacceptable outcome. The really ballsy part was that Brendan had dared to use such a dangerous experiment on the field of the tournament. Still it paid off as Floyd was down two pokemon and Brendan only had moderate damage on one of his.-

Interestingly Brendan swapped out his Pidgeot rather than his Machamp and sent out his Gyarados. "Cheeky bastards using my tournament to test all sorts of interesting things it seems." I said with a chuckle. "Is he going to use some other combo move?" Roxanne asked curiously. "Not exactly, watch and you'll all get a kick out of it if he does what I think he is." I said and they all watched closely as Brendan didn't let up on the pressure and commanded his newly fielded pokemon to use brine on the arena itself.-

Most water type moves created pure water when used but brine was different as it specifically created salt water. What this meant was that even after the water lost all it's type energy it still served as a very good means of making electricity flow from one point to another. As the arena flooded with saltwater harmlessly while the Gyarados floated above it Brendans Machamp jumped up and sent down four fists covered in electric type energy that immediately moved through the water and zapped the unholy hell out of Floyds newest fielded pokemon. "Ah ha! He changed the environment to suit his purpose before using it as a conduit for his move! The good old rain dance thunder trick!" Watson said with a wide smile.-

"Pretty much, the idea was just like using rain dance followed by thunder but instead used a small amount of standing water on the ground instead to guarantee a hit. If I'm not mistaken he should have his Gyarados follow up with another electric type move while his opponents are unable to react." I said and lo and behold Brendan did exactly that with a thunder from his Gyarados. His Machamp merely jumped when it was about to hit and thus only got a small amount of damage from the residual energy.-

Floyds pokemon weren't nearly so lucky and got knocked out much to their trainers frustration. Honestly I sort of pitied the guy as this wasn't even a battle at this point but a one sided beatdown that he was nearly helpless to correct. In a normal battle he may have had a chance of victory but Brendan was here to win and as a result was hitting him with rather unfair combos that left him unable to send out even a single attack of his own.