The hill we stood on provided us with a great view.

Mushlands stretched as far as the eyes could see in the west while Mount Cornet loomed on the opposite side, endless in its own way.

The sun had begun its slow descent down the heaven and in turn the wind changed from being spring-like warm to cold and biting.

It was a perfect place to hold a battle in my eyes, a place worthy of a crushing defeat.

Elekid had taken the first move, it was spinning its arm rapidly while arcs of lightning were generated the apendage.

My distracted mind began to wonder how that would work? Was his arm functioning like a dynamo or was he ionizing his own blood cells with the movement; maybe it was just showing off?

“Ralts, don’t let him finish, Confusion!”

Ralts prepared a Confusion but before she could fire it Elekid released all the electricity it had generated and a stream of lightning shot towards Ralts.

There was nothing to conduct the electricity’s path, no water on the ground nor anything resembling iron around us.

Yet it flowed through the air, defying anything that resembled anything close to the laws of physics, or at least it looked like that.

The speed it traveled at was too slow for actual lightning, I could follow its trail with my own eyes which is not possible with actual lightning at such a small distance.

Okay, so it wasn’t an actual lightning strike, it must be, subconsciously, ionizing the air to create a path for the lightning to follow, or maybe it was warping a magnetic field.

If I ever get my hands on an electric type I should look into manipulating the flow of electricity into another shape.

Lightning whips would be awesome.

Still despite the fact that it was not like getting hit by actual lightning, it still struck Ralts with a deafening blow.

“Thunder Punch!” Paul yelled as Ralts was launched backwards by the blow.

Elekid charged after Ralts, its fist crackling with electricity again.

Luckily Ralts wasn’t stupid, she had the presence of mind to fire the Confusion she had been building up and the purple rays slammed into Elekid as well, evening the score by throwing him back as well.

Both Pokémon landed on their backs and I feared that Ralts wouldn’t get up.

Due to Ralts’ unusual campy fighting style she avoided getting hit most of the time which meant that she had built up almost no pain resistance and defense.

If this were an RPG she would be the assassin, fast moving speed, decent attack damage but a very low defense.

It made me wonder if my Ralts was unusually weak or if it was just a lack of training. Considering I had picked her up in the middle of nowhere 2 weeks ago it wasn’t too much of a stretch.

Ralts got up and was prepared to go another round, Elekid followed and let out a victorious cry.

“Nice,” I encouraged her. “Now use Sandstorm!”

“What!” Paul’s eyes flared and his fist clenched. “Ralts can’t learn Sandstorm!”

She can, if you’re creative enough.

Ralts inhaled deeply and unleashed a high pitched scream, much higher than ever before.

Elekid was too far away for Disarming Voice to hit but Elekid wasn’t the target.

The low aimed Disarming Voice tore through the earth and soil in front of Ralts, dirt, grass and debris were shot up in the air.

Ralts closed her eyes after that to protect them.

“What is this nonsense?” Paul muttered and Elekid gave Ralts a wary look.

When Ralts had stirred up enough debris she shot 8 different Confusions, each spreading into a different direction, scattering the dust that already blocked Elekid’s sight.

Within five seconds Ralts had managed to cover the entire battlefield in a sandy mist that was almost impossible to see through.

Elekid let out a cry as the Confusion that carried the hazy mist hit it. However, it was a low power Confusion and the damage output was low compared to Ralts’ other attacks.

Sadly, Elekid didn’t get the Confused status effect which was pretty rare.

In the last few days of battling random trainers only a few Pokémon had gotten the Confused status effect while the majority was only knocked back and got damaged.

“That’s not a Sandstorm.” Paul said, glaring at me.

And he was right, it didn’t look in the slightest like an actual sandstorm.

But it still functioned as a mist that could hide Ralts from sight.

The sand attack we had created with Disarming Voice during our battle against Barry was already useful but it had terrible range.

If we tried to do a sand attack with Confusion it would be even worse because the psychic energy ray doesn’t stir up any dust that’s outside its range because the rays don’t bounce.

However when the two attacks were combined it created a much better result.

The end result was a hasty mist of debris that blanket a large area in a cloud of dust that was almost impossible to see through.

Ralts however didn’t need to see.

“Thunder, again!” Paul said, probably figuring out that the rapid motion of swinging Elekid arm would blow away the mist and it was a smart move.

Ralts however appeared behind Elekid and without my command she knew what to do.

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She started her most powerful combo; she jumped up and used Disarming Voice to launch herself even further while at the same time hitting Elekid with Disarming Voice in the head.

The mist was blown away by the sound waves and Elekid could see again but Ralts was already up in the sky.

She turned around when she reached the top of her climb and her left arm began glowing white while she began her descent.

“Elekid, Brick Break!” Paul didn’t waste a second.

Shit.

Brick Break was a move similar to any other punch besides the special quirk of bypassing Light Screen and Reflect. That wasn’t the important aspect of the move, no, the execution was different.

Where a normal punch was just thrown into a direction Brick Break was swung downwards like a Karate chop.

That swing made it a good anti-air move, stopping its opponent’s previous momentum and punishing them at the same time by slamming them down into the ground.

“Ralts, Confusing Punch!” I countered and while Ralts was falling and charging up Mega Punch she executed another attack at the same time.

Purple rays shot out of her forehead and crashed down on Elekid before she could land.

It was a low power Confusion which could be fired while charging up Mega Punch, convenient as shit, I know.

The purple ray hit Elekid and although the damage done was laughable it made it flinch and that was enough to interrupt its Brick Break.

Before Elekid could recover Ralts’ Meteor Smash crashed down on it and Elekid was drilled into the floor while Ralts let out a dramatic cry.

After that debris again stirred up and Ralts jumped back, her fist still clenched in case she had to follow up with another attack.

“Elekid get up, now!” Paul yelled and Elekid whimpered.

The dust cleared and revealed a small crater with a yellow Pokémon standing in the middle of it, heavily damaged but still standing.

Damn, this Elekid had a high defense or he was very well trained.

Well, Paul was shown to expose his Pokémon to heavy attacks during their training because he is that kind of person.

It made sense since it also managed to get a draw against Pikachu but still annoying as hell.

“I see your strategy.” Paul said with a small smile, or was it a sneer? “You bait out an opportunity and use combination moves to deal damage but that won’t work if we approach.”

“Ralts.” Ralts spat out and I had no idea what she said.

“Sure, whatever you say,” I answered, not sure if I should deny or confirm his statement. Personally, I still hadn’t designed a battle philosophy beyond the hit-and-run but if he thought it was something like that then it was fine with me.

Paul groaned and I grinned at him.

“Elekid, hit Ralts with your best Thunder Punch now!”

He didn’t sound encouraging, instead it sounded like he would kill Elekid if it didn’t listen.

Elekid obeyed its trainer and ran towards Ralts, its fist crackling with electricity again.

It was a mad dash, I could see it in one glance, an all or nothing attack for Elekid. It was standing on its last legs and he had enough power for one attack.

Theoretically Ralts could tank the hit and Elekid would lose by just running out of spirit to fight but I still had a new technique to test out.

Okay, time for our finishing move to end this battle.

“Ralts, FINISH HIM! SHADOW COUNTER!”

Ralts narrowed her eyes and nodded.

Elekid didn’t stop , it kept dashing at Ralts but the white humanoid didn’t falter, instead she patiently waited for Elekid to strike.

The fist of Elekid glowed yellow and electricity danced the entire length of his body.

Elekid swung its arm and hit Ralts in the face.

Except it passed through her head and the illusion dispersed, as he struck air he stumbled forward, not meeting the force it expected to meet.

It reminded me of when you think of a staircase that is longer than it is and you take the wrong step and fall down.

The ghostly feeling caused Elekid to fall through the double team Clone.

Behind the faded Double Team clone the real Ralts appeared, previously hidden behind the illusive clone and safely outside Elekid’s initial range.

Her fist was glowing white and a nasty grin was plastered onto her face.

Captain Falcon style she had charged up the Mega Punch and now it was time to end it.

She stepped forward and swung her fist at the stumbling Elekid.

It was smashed straight into the Pokémon's face and he was thrown backwards, he landed on the ground and created a small trail before coming to a stop.

Shadow Counter had worked.

Ralts and I had brainstormed on the idea of turning the tables once an opponent tried to use close combat against her long range attacks.

The result was a technique I named: Shadow Counter.

It was very situational; it relied on tricking the opponent into committing to a melee attack and bait it into attacking the clone, trusting tunnel vision would blind it from seeing what was going on.

Behind the illusion the real Ralts would charge up a Mega Punch and wait until the enemy broke through the clone and it would either really be confused or it wouldn’t be able to react fast enough, both options were good enough.

The biggest weakness of Shadow Counter was that it failed against multi hit moves or attacks that either lasted longer or had bigger range.

Volt Tackle and Double Kick would both break through the illusion and attack the real Ralts afterwards, intended or not.

However Elekid’s Thunder Punch was a single hit move with relatively small range and thus it was perfect.

Ralts walked towards the Pokémon, her fist ready to attack again, though I expected she would use Disarming Voice if it really came to it.

Elekid didn’t move and Ralts smiled widely.

“Well,” I grinned at Paul. “Seems like victory is ours.”

Paul opened his mouth to speak but stopped, his eyes snapped towards Elekid.

“Ralts!” Ralts muttered and her eyes widened, I followed her gaze and a pit in my stomach grew.

“Nononono, this can’t be happening,” I muttered.

In front of me Elekid’s body began glowing white.

White light flared around its body and it began to form into a sphere that ultimately consumed Elekid's entire body and hid it from sight.

Nononononno! This is so unfair.

“Ralts!” I yelled as I saw Rays of light shoot out of the white sphere. “Get away-”

Too late, a large figure appeared as the sphere and the light faded away.

A yellow clawed hand with black stripes on it reached out to Ralts and grabbed her.

She squealed as she was lifted up in the air and met the gaze of the newly evolved Pokémon.

It roared and slammed Ralts down on the ground, she let out a cry as she was pushed down with an impact that could shatter rocks.

I was about to forfeit the match but Electabuzz wasn’t done.

It let out another roar and began to glow yellow, electricity spiked around its body, way more than before.

Large arcs of lightning flew around it and covered his entire body, it screamed and the lightning intensified.

The body of Electabuzz had become one big generator and it unleashed all its stored power into its palm where Ralts was helplessly squirming and trying to wiggle herself free.

The entire area glowed yellow and Ralts screamed.

And a second later it was over.

A red beam sucked in Electabuzz and Paul stood in its place, scowling but a small smile visible on his face.

“I win,” he said coldly and he turned around.

While he walked away with his back to me he muttered something; “Pathetic.”

I gritted my teeth and looked at Ralts who remained unmoving.

Her body was still smoking and she smelled like burned flesh.

I had to resist the urge to vomit, it wasn’t the smell.

Just the horrible realization.

This was so unfair.

“Oracle,” I whispered while trying to keep my voice steady. “Notify the nearest Pokémon Center I’m coming.”

“Confirmed.” the mechanical female voice answered.

I picked up Ralts and began carrying her.

As I walked a thought kept repeating itself in my head.

This wasn’t supposed to happen, this was unfair