//------------------------------// // 312. Super Pound Out! // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Pokémon world, Kingdom of Pugilis, currently inside Pummelton's indoor mountain stadium, Dolly- “You might not want to let the pups watch this mom, this next fight isn’t going to be pretty.” Understatement of the year, I know. “Dolly, you do realize that you can’t use magic directly on Pom, her wool will reflect, block and in general cancel any magical attack directed at her.” Yes Ocellus, I remember what happened with Cuckoo Lane. You didn’t need to worry so hard about it, I knew I was about to get my butt kicked. “Winner Machamp!” Well that wasn’t a big surprised, my fight with Pom was about to start and Combustion Chicken was already out of her fight. Machamp would be fighting Pom next if I lost here, like I had any better chance against the four armed muscle monster with lips big and yellow enough be confused for a beak. “Winner Wild Wrestling Wooloo!” Huh, Geoff already won his match with the guy that onion blade and grass shield guy that took out Shanty?! Well Shanty wasn’t fully at her best after facing that Low Butt guy. “Will participants D.D.D. Lambchop and Pom Lambchop come to ring 3-D?” Okay according to the prior announcers so the Machamp guy would be facing Pom, then Pom would have to fight Geoff… I have my bets on Mock Champ actually putting a stop to whatever Pom was doing here. I gave off some friendly sounding words to Smolder, Ocellus and Dazzle as I made my way towards my fight. I could already feel Pom waiting for me. Arriving at the ring, which seemed far large than it previously did. I saw that our referee was something like a cross between a Rhinoceros and a Beetle, it was also blue. The big bug looks like it could take a real beating with that kind of tank armored shell, makes me wonder why Ocellus doesn’t have carapace like that. “Uh… you two family by any chance?” The big guy asked as I took up a position on the opposite corner from Pom. I nodded to him, yeah… we were definitely family. I would like to at least think we would continue being so even with the way Pom was currently. Being connected to her made me know she was not in any mood to be talkative, as if the blank and dull lifeless look in her eyes wasn’t anything to go by already on that front. “Right then, are either of you going to have a problem fighting one another?” To the big bug’s credit, he managed to look at Pom’s lifeless eyes without flinching. She shook her head no and I reciprocated the sentiment. We weren’t going to have any problems beating the total snot out of one another. “Okay, get ready, say or get anything out of the way before the fight begins.” I was going to have some problems with hurting Pom, mostly because she could take and dish out more damage than I was full capable of. Her wool was a ridiculous obstacle, blue and cutting forces will do basically zip, meaning I would have to jab her with my claws quite a number of times… that is if I didn’t want to go for her face. Even if I did go for her face she could shift her wool to protect her and I wasn’t about to try and poke out her eyes. Okay, ‘Aerora’ had flexibility in how I decide to use it. There’s also… ‘haste’ which can leave me with a case of magical induced high and being more aggressive than I normally would be. My flow-motion ability will definitely be on full blast constantly. My repertoire wasn’t that big without my weapons, I might even have to bite Pom a few times… at least my teeth would go through her wool like I know my claws will if I keep stabbing her with them. The unfortunate problem is, even if I knew Pom’s every exact move, she was still going to cream me into next week as I couldn’t react very well to her going absolutely full tilt against me. “Pom… can you please tell me what’s wrong with you?” Where was the kind and caring person I cared about? The one that could be dangerous, smart, fast, sweet and full of life in a manner to spite the world constantly pressuring her to break. “You do realize Tianhuo is going to figure out eventually and would want to talk through things with you. Sure, leave me out in the cold as much as you want, but what about her?” “…” Pom didn’t say anything, but it almost felt like she wanted to. I sighed and motioned to the referee as I sat down staring at Pom and she sat down as well. “Are you ready?” We nodded, we were getting quite a crowd. Heh I might as well put on a show, before I’m taken down. “Bow-Whacka-Wow!” I shouted while raising my right paw in the air and bowing my head and letting the two strands of black cloth flow behind me from my headband with the orange paw print. Afterwards I was paying full attention to Pom. “Well, okay then… ready, fight!” The blue beetle stated while swinging his right arm down and backing away. I’m going to need a heart song and we’ll see what happens from there... but my opening move should be… -Pom Lambchop vs. Dolly Danger Dalmatian Lambchop- “Aerora!” Dolly shouted as her starting move, Pom thrust her right leg forward and fired off a Thousand Spear and the jet of air deflected off the powerful silver swirling barrier that surrounded the Dalmatian. Dolly and Pom already knew each other’s moves as they were making them, including the fact that Dolly shifted gears now that her barrier prevented her from taking long range hits in the various forms that Pom could pull off. “What can this canine do for you~?” Dolly was starting a heart song as she started to move, Pom hesitated and quite a few Pokémon were now focusing on Dolly with the swirling silver winds protectively wrapping around her. As she strutted forward with the beat. “What can this canine do for you, what can this canine do for you, what can this canine do for you~? I can’t hear you~!” Dolly lunged at Pom and landed short of a block and lashing out attempted. Dolly took two rapid steps forward on her hind legs, while getting entirely under Pom’s guard, she lashed her right paw out and up in a jab claws first into Pom’s chest. When she pulled her paw back with some blood on her claws, she gave it the briefest glance and then steeled herself as Pom was going to take this fight seriously after that. Pom had been bodily lifted off the floor from the momentum empowered blow, she brought her hooves up and slammed them down on top of Dolly only to be buffeted and knocked back slightly by the defensive blasts of wind. Her anti-magic wool notably didn’t protect her from it. Dolly went skidding backwards and was almost toppled onto her back, barely able to absorb the impact of the blow for energy for some more magic. “Far beyond the lazy borders of your heart, you can feel the pace, it’s moving like this~.” Dolly sang as they started clashing paws versus Pom’s longer legs and larger form. Between the two of them Dolly clearly wasn’t as good on her hind legs as Pom was. Each clash left Dolly wincing as Pom was far stronger and faster, than her the best she could even do was deflect a blow using her momentum control ability on contact and get in a hit or two on Pom’s legs with her slapping claws stabbing through the wool using momentum boosted strikes. With how blazingly fast Pom was it was hard to land a blow, but that didn’t mean Dolly was going to give up. Still that didn’t mean that the wind surrounding Dolly wasn’t buffeting Pom with every deflect blow and clash between the two. “Every now and then I won’t know what to do, still… I know that I… would never look back~.” Dolly leapt up and used her right paw and claws to grapple onto the puff on Pom’s head and pivoted to slam her left paw down into Pom’s back. She wasn’t showing it, but she was upset to be covering her claws in Pom’s blood even if the damage she was doing was minimal. Pom’s wool tried to cling to Dolly, but for some reason Dolly managed to slip free even as the wool enclosed around both her front paws. Apparently Dolly’s Flow-Motion magic was preventing her from being pinned by the magical wool as she immediately slipped free of Pom and got free to drop behind her, this was apparently news to both Dolly and Pom. As even the dull eyed Pom showed some surprise, but not for long. Dolly silently decided to keep her Flow-Motion running full blast and had to quickly roll out of the way of a fast low buck from Pom, by rolling underneath the attack and Pom before they could lash out and catch her in the face. “All the things we’ve seen, like a life made of dreams, can’t compare to what I’m doing now~.” Dolly lashed her claws upwards into Pom’s exposed belly several times and getting a few more pinpricks of actual injury from her small claws. “Everything feels so different, that I would rather have some fleas~.” “Though, I know, the power of Flow-Motions it surrounds me, I will lean into it~.” Dolly sang as Pom leapt up and started to rapidly stomp Thousand Spears at her from above with a trample attack. Yet throughout the possible chance of each threatening to pierce the barrier of wind around her, Dolly kept effectively dodging them. Any that she couldn’t dodge the wind barrier absorbed or deflected into the fighting ring or surroundings around them. “So now, you know, that forward is the only way my heart can flow~.” Pom had to land eventually and when she did she stumbled to the right when Dolly delivered a powerful leaping right paw haymaker up after seeing a green triangle in her sight for some reason. That it had nearly knocked Pom off her hooves left Dolly a little upset. “Can you even hear my voice calling out for you~?” Dolly sang with some tears in her eyes as she backed away her ears drooping down her back from under her headband and she got a little angry. “I won’t ever let you feel alone~!” Pom just regained her balanced and scraped her left hoof against the floor, the usual sign of a starting up for Cow Kempo. Pom launched forward both her hind legs coming about to do a flying buck, but she was also doing something with her right hoof that seemed unusual. “What can this canine do for you, what can this canine do for you, what can this canine do for you~?” Dolly dodged the initial buck by shifting to the left, but saw Pom had her hoof planted and quickly ducked to the right to dodge a second buck that came at her face far faster than the first, instead of falling to the floor Pom had used her right hoof to stabilize for a second buck in the case the first missed. “I can’t hear you~!” With her back facing Dolly, Pom pivoted and threw a hasty left straight for her head while blasting forward using a spring boosted shock from the wool on her rear legs. Dolly’s wind barrier was almost used up and it wasn’t going to deflect Pom’s entire body coming at her with what she was recognizing as a Fake Buster Wolf that wasn’t followed by the angular wolf spirit explosion as she frantically dodged back and to the left. Pom looked to have overextended and Dolly saw that green triangle, acting on instinct she leapt forward and bit onto Pom’s left leg with her teeth where the triangle was as Pom was about to draw it back. Pom flinched, allowing Dolly to slam her rear paws into Pom’s forehead and then bound away, as she let go of Pom’s leg with her jaws. This left Dolly with a disgusting taste in her mouth, a taste she never wanted to ever have again, the taste of Pom’s blood on her tongue. She just stared at the wound on Pom’s leg that she caused. “I don’t plan on going back to my old life, I don’t even plan… to always rely on you~.” Dolly focused and narrowed her eyes, there was still a fight going and she could worry about the pain they were causing to each other later. “Though there’s always chance that everything could break this bond, I’d have still come along anyway and will try to save you~!” Pom wool shifted and the bleeding stop. There was a spark of light in the hollow eyes, but Dolly hadn’t reached her. The next moment, Dolly and Pom spread out their paws and hooves respectively and then leapt at each other. “If from time to time, we have a rough patch to climb, then you must know that I believe~.” Dolly wasn’t going to stop singing as she grabbed onto Pom’s right swinging hoof and then used the momentum to her advantage to pop off of Pom’s leg and slam all her paws down on Pom’s skull to slam her bodily towards the floor. Dolly landed on the ropes and pointed towards Pom. “Where’s your true heart that I’m seeking~? Since I know it’s not inside of me~!” Then much to the audience sudden shock as much as Pom’s, Dolly’s chest gave off a strange golden spark and before Pom knew she was being hit from behind by Dolly who had turned into a burst of golden wind that appeared in a flash behind her. Dolly rammed into Pom sending her skidding on her side across the. A small spark of gold appeared on Pom’s head for a split second similar to the one on Dolly’s chest. “Aerora!” Dolly decided to use wind magic directly on Pom and had it spiral inwards for her, Pom’s wool glowed a powerful golden color the wind suddenly reversed directions and appeared around Dolly, but that’s exactly what she wanted. Pom was frozen for a moment looking at her glowing wool in despair, something Dolly took as being something to do with the Chrysomallus. She was starting to piece together what was wrong with Pom through their bond. “Come and find, the world of Flow-Motion that surrounds me, I will lean into it~.” When the wind encompassed Dolly, instead of hurting her she used her flow motion to spread it around the ring and get a sense for what Pom’s wool did to reflect instinctively and leapt up to kick off of it. Dolly could feel their bond breaking under the strain, but it wasn’t quite to the point of shattering completely yet. Dolly looked like she was flying as she danced around on the wind and using her gliding ability to attack Pom from all sides in the air with every one of her four legs, flowing and gliding about her in a circle and could change direction at any moment instantly. Evading deftly each hoof thrust and swing with incredible swirling and flipping finesse while striking out with her claws. At one point Dolly nipped at one of Pom’s ears to pivot around and dig her hind legs claws into Pom’s right side before kicking off back into an evasive glide. Quite a few of the watchers were astonished that Dolly had been saving this up until now as her previous opponents were seeing Dolly trying to utilize her full capabilities against Pom in an aerial display of acrobatics that most fighting type Pokémon would have problems dealing with. Dolly knew it was not nearly enough to win this fight and she didn’t want to win, she just wanted Pom back. “The many things we shared, back then, will always be enough to get us through the pain~.” Dolly was sharing memories of the loss of her mother with Pom and how hard she worked to hold her family together, Pom reciprocated with memories of growing up while not having parents and being exiled. “Because of you, I’m strong enough, you’ll never be alone~!” Dolly slapped her left Paw forward. Pom blocked with her left leg, then threw her right leg straight for Dolly. Everyone could visibly see the shockwave blasting off it into the rocky ceiling above, doing some damage to the overhead lighting structures as Dolly redirected Pom’s leg upwards with a wild kick from her left hind leg. “What can I do for you… what could I do for you… what will I do for you… what can this canine do for you?~” Dolly stated as she softly floating backwards and landed on the floor on all fours, bowing her head and then looking up directly into Pom’s hollow eyes. “Still can’t hear you~! …haste…” Even as the wind barrier finally died out, Dolly had finally used her ace in the hole and started growling as a sickly red glow overtook her body. Pom’s hollows eyes widened fractionally with a vague sense of concern filtered over to Dolly. Pom inhaled as Dolly moved, in a blur and that blur slowed down to be more visible as she did so. “And if, you find, that a world of commotion has surrounded you, and you can’t go on~.” Dolly and Pom were now moving quite fast as they assaulted each other in the form of two indistinct mostly white blurs. A number Fighting Types were riled up with excitement and some parts sadness because there was something about Dolly’s song that let them know something was going on. Dolly was landing far more blows on Pom as she had a sustained speed boost compared to Pom’s bursts of dodging and attacking. “I’ll be there, the moment that you close your eyes, to comfort you~.” Even as Dolly sang she felt a crunch and a flash of pain across her nose, she had to bit Pom again as it helped her avoid the next attack and a triangle had called to her. It felt like a moment of opportunity and she slapped her hind legs up under Pom’s chin as her right leg came back from battering her nose bloody. Pom stumbled from the blow to the chin and Dolly launched herself off of Pom’s leg and clung to her chest. “We are connected, a strong bond of time, to never be…~” Pom managed to slap Dolly off her chest with her right hoof and then slapped her down into the floor where she bounced and flipped to come back at the lambkin. “And though, I know, the Power of Flow-Motion has surrounded me~.” The attacks come from Pom were growing fiercer as much as Dolly’s were coming out at high speed paw slaps or quick bites, the two continued to lay into each. “It won’t let me win this~.” Pom started firing off a Fiery Flurry of hoof jabs that Dolly was hard pressed to keep dodging as she swirled and twirled, dancing her way between the blows and lashing out with as momentum boosted strikes as she could behind her paws to actually slam her claws into Pom with incredible precision. Any wound she opened on Pom would be sealed off by her wool anyway. “Now, we know, that this is the only way that our hearts will flow~.” Dolly started wearing down quickly, Pom’s longer legs and reach was hard to compete with and she had to take devastating grazing blows to even get into range to hit Pom’s torso or head. “Please start calling out to me, I’ll never leave you alone~.” Dolly flipped over a left straight and rolled along Pom’s leg to slap her in the nose with both her hind legs crunching it as she pulled Pom’s muzzle downwards. She curled up to slapped Pom across the right side of her face with a harsh left paw with no claws, leaving a mark similar to the one on her slightly tattered headband. Pom force Dolly to the floor of the ring, yet she didn’t stop trying to get up even as the haste ended and her various injuries were getting to her more than Pom’s were to her. “What can I do for you… what I wouldn’t do for you… what do you wish to do…. still can’t hear you~.” Dolly sang as she felt their bond start to fray and Pom pinned her to the floor with her left hoof. Raising her right hoof, Pom’s right leg lit up in a golden glow. Pom was hesitating, Dolly continued to stare into the hollow eyes. “What can I do for you, what can this canine do for you, what will this do for you?” Dolly grinned slightly as the bond was about to be broken, if Pom wanted it to break all she had to do was hit Dolly and she was letting Pom know as much. Even then Dolly wouldn’t stop being by her side at this point if she survived the coming blow. “Still can’t hear you~…” Pom reared her glowing right leg back and her eyes started to give off the same golden glow as she brought it down, Dolly closed her eyes. “….’m… sorry…” Pom’s leg came down with crushing force. -Ocellus- I sat here wide eyed, just staring at the destruction. The dust was starting to clear from the volatile explosion, something felt off about the way the wool along Pom’s right leg glowed before she brought it down. The power behind the blow was as unreal as the explosion was…. and Pom was actually controlling it. Could Dolly actually survive being at the epicenter of something that destroyed the entire ring?! When the dust fully cleared I just stared at the blue beetle, known as a Heracross, flew up to Pom with wide eyes and when I looked to the floor. Pom’s right leg buried into solid stone. Whatever wild magic had been powering her leg had been quite devastating, but as for Dolly… she was lying safely next to the hole Pom's leg currently occupied. Pom hadn’t struck Dolly with that amount of force. Dolly looked somewhat relieved about something, as the power unleashed had all but flowed around her and seemingly refused to touch her battered form. Dolly’s tail even began weakly wagging as she looked up at Pom nose to nose and she had a smile on her face despite being more bloodied and battered than Pom was. She lightly licked Pom’s bleeding nose and her face scrunched, she promptly got a disgusted look on her face and spat off to the side. -Dolly- Heh… the bond just strengthened itself… funny… not getting rid of me that… easily… huh Pom. “Love… you…” I stated out loud. “Love you too Dolly.” Pom’s voice came through loud and clear, even if her lips weren’t moving and it was bland sounding, it was something at least. The world was slowly going black for me… think I hit my limit. Pom had… plenty left… I heard her whisper a secret to me, it was something to do with the golden glow her wool could take on and it was something she’s currently trying to unsuccessfully bury inside of her. She knew they’d find out eventually from Tianhuo. That Tianhuo, her puppies and practically everyone could eventually know, she just couldn’t deal with it at the moment and needed a lot of help. The hesitation in not telling me everything, made me sharpen my eyes and focus. I tried to sit up despite how badly it felt to try. She gently pushed me back down with her left hoof after I had lifted it up slightly with whatever remaining strength I had. “Talk later… while alone please… get some rest Dolly.” Still not talking out loud Pom… at least you were talking to me. “Pom… you don’t have to… just didn’t want… bond…” Everything was getting pretty dark. “Please rest.” Pom’s voice was gentle and sad, I could hear her. I had to… tell our friends… about what that was… after a nice… long… Dolly brand… nap… -Shanty- “Did she actually be controlling the glow of her wool that time, I did not be seeing any magical attack on her when she be doing that.” I haven’t seen her do it on purpose before, it was always used in repelling magic of some kind as Ocellus has told us. “Oh yeah, and whatever that was, it sure was powerful!” Smolder seemed in awe of the destruction as we watched Pom carefully take up Dolly in her left hoof and then wrenched her right leg out of the solid stone and then proceeded to be walking on said leg towards us. “Ocellus is practically catatonic from whatever she just felt. I’m surprised that Dolly is still alive.” “Winner by knockout and absolute total destruction of ring Three D, Pom Lambchop.” The big bug referee eventually called out once he be getting his wits about him as Pom carried Dolly towards us, quite a few Pokémon be wondering how someone as scrawny as Pom can be destroying an entire ring in one blow. A blow that be sticking her leg up to her withers into the stone beneath said arena after totally decimating it. Pom does not be having the physical strength to do that... magical strength on the other hoof. She did be getting better at controlling her wool over time. -Pom- I walked up to my… my friends… and then slowly held Dolly out for someone to take. Smolder, really shouldn’t stress herself given her injuries, not that anyone from our group was all too well off anyway. Still she carefully took Dolly off my hoof and held her carefully and gently, gentle and sweet are not what dragons should be known for… it’s definitely what Smolder would be known for even if she was already fierce and strong. I looked them all over. Ocellus, almost nothing could really hurt a changeling more than damaging them emotionally in a permanent fashion. Smolder, almost nothing could hurt a dragon more than being entirely helpless. Dolly, almost nothing could hurt Dolly more than our bond being truly broken. Shanty, almost nothing could hurt her more than being completely alone in any world or never having met us in the first place. Dodo, almost nothing would hurt Dodo more than if Shanty got grievously injured when he was around to prevent it. Dazzle, almost nothing would hurt her more than if she were to witness me lose myself completely. “I have no idea how to comprehend the kind of injuries you just dealt to my daughter.” Delilah, nothing would hurt her more than knowing that she failed to do all she could for her family, a good role model for Dolly. “I should be angry, but I just… don’t know how to feel about this. I hope you come to your senses, you’re part of our family too Pom.” Me… nothing would hurt me more than knowing that… I burrowed my chin into my chest and sniffled a bit before turning away from my friends to go prepare for my next fight, it was that four armed grey monstrosity of raw muscle. Maybe he would be able to stop me? Before I get any worse. Nothing would hurt us all more…. than losing each other now. -Origin Space, Arceus- “Dad… what was that?” Mew said wide eyed and horrified. “That’s for Pom to decide.” I said staring curiously as Pom mentally readied herself to fight one of my four armed children, Machamp’s were really quite powerful yet… yet what was more surprising was Geoff and his reasons for joining the small competition. “Ten oran berries on her winning the fight with the Machamp.” “Dad that’s a suckers bet, you’re god of our worlds, you likely already know the outcome.” Not every outcome Mew, there are some things that even I can’t predict… chaos exists for a reason. “Depends on whether or not the outcome can change, Celebi continues to exist for a very good reason.” Like the fact that I didn’t like dead end timelines where everything dies, I’m a big proponent in making sure that doesn’t happen. “I’m more surprised by Geoff’s current actions though.” “Yeah, where exactly would a Wooloo learn to do all that?” If there’s one thing Wooloo were known for Mew, it was being reliable and resilient. They were really ridiculously hard to kill, I mean was dating a Muk and you’d think that Wooloo’s life expectancy wouldn’t be more than a month tops. -Pom- “Ready… Fight!” Apparently the referee was a Gallade from Illusio, tall green and white guy with bladed arms and a central red chest and back spike that looked like someone stabbed them with a knife. Psychic and fighting at the same time. My opponent the, Machamp, wasted no time in attacking me. I already planned for his inevitable defeat by going onto my hind legs, gluing my hind legs to the floor and bringing up my hooves defensively. Hundreds of punches trying to slam into my center, each one striking out at me with incredible speed and ducked dodged in place. My upper body started wobbling under the constant pummeling for the hits I couldn’t dodge or even see coming, unfortunately for me… my wool was taking it with relative ease. Aside from the shockwaves sending tremors through my wool bypassing my defensive abilities with pure force, this… hurt I guess. I was being punch by four arms that were acting like jackhammers, hundreds of blows coming at me. The only problem was… this guy’s coordination left something to be desired. He had strength and plenty of speed in his arms, but as for his accuracy and the finer control of his arms… “Come on now, after that last fight, is that all you have to give?” After a moment Machamp stopped and took a step back to examine me. I had been slowly inhaling and leaning away from some of what would have been the more painful blows. Did he not even notice that his attacks weren’t very concentrated? For all that raw power he really lacked finesse or focus… if he had all his arms hitting me in the exact same spot with that amount of speed constantly for over five seconds, then I would be worse off than I am currently or would have even lost by now. As it was he was just flailing his arms at his opponents and not using the greatest advantage of any fighter who was worth being called a ‘fighter’, their brain. I sent most of the impacts into the floor, absorbed some of it for a wobble counter and took the rest to the best of my ability if the force of the blows got through my wool. I unclenched my wool sticking me to the floor and exhaled explosively while half my body vibrated with unbridled force. Using the speed gained from Dancing Flame, I stepped forward into his guard, crouched and then threw a perfect rising right hook and unleashed as much of the stored up force from my opponent’s attacks. My blow landed on his face and he went spinning around before dropping on the floor like Hitmonchan had. Blunt force and raw power, were useful in a fight, but really… knowing yourself and your opponent was much better. My opponent naturally favored using his four arms, he was too obvious about overwhelming his opponents outright. With that said… he wasn’t going to win by overwhelming me with uncontrolled attacks. My wool could easily handle multiple impacts from various directions as much as single heavy impacts, not since that hammer hit me and my wool armor ability took the entire force of the attack have I felt so… at peace to be fighting someone like this guy. Machamp was only down for a minute and he got up his lower left arm rubbing at the massive bruise on the left side of his face, I hopped back to gain some space and start inhaling again as he narrowed his eyes at me. “Hmph… neat trick… let’s see how you handle Double-Edge!” Mr. Machamp, if you have a name that was in any way, shape or form related to Mr. Beezy then this will be a very short fight. All four of Machamps arms glowed as he hopped towards me twice and then on his third hop he thrust them all forwards. I went onto all fours and then dropped flat to the floor so that all four arms passed over head, a quick rising left thrust into the bold bull’s charge and he was stunned clutching his stomach with his all of his arms. I’m pretty sure the name of the Pokémon Double Edge was rather specific in its meaning. Hitting in the head with several left and right hoof strikes to push him back, until I turned my back on him and held my right hoof to the side. “Are you okay?” I just couldn’t do the real Buster Wolf move without actually saying that, not when I was fighting Dolly and not even now. “Why are you asking…” Machamp start to say until I spun and launched for him right hoof first, he blocked my hoof with his lower left hand, which got slightly burnt from the friction of the impact. I thrust my left hoof forward now and he blocked that as well with his lower right hand. His upper arms were about to punish me, at least they were posed to do so until I announced my attack. “Buster Wolf Cross!” My regular Buster Wolf attack was… unsuccessful on several occasions, I decided to add a little extra oomph to it. Two forty five degrees explosions erupted from my sides inwards cutting twelve claw marks across Machamp’s chest going left and right from hips to two arms shoulders, he was sent sliding backwards. At least it went much better than the usual central forward eruption that I do. Again, another Buster Wolf that has yet to fell an opponent, maybe I’m doing it too soon or I’m just not physically strong enough to really give the attack the power it deserves. “What… ugh… good one.” At least my opponent didn’t seem in dire spirits even if he was bleeding a bit from claw marks that exploded all over his body. I fired a Thousand Spears at him from my left leg and he seemed too shocked to dodge, the attack did a lot more damage to him than I thought it would. Oh right, Fighting types are weak to Flying type attacks which means… well on a windy day it would be surprising that someone like this would be beaten so easily. My Thousand Spears had been useless against Dolly while she was running a swirling air shield, here… it was my most useful technique. I decided to end this fight before it could keep going, sure it was going to be cheap to do this… but I was still going to try and win this tournament. I braced myself against the floor by locking myself in place with my wool and brought my two front leg forwards. While the wool on my left leg was twisting up the wool on my right leg fired of a Thousand Spears, then my left leg did so as my right leg reset. I was soon rapid firing alternating Thousand Spears into Machamp, jets of air were pummeling him before he could even close in on me and with each blast of air I saw the will to fight leaving him. Type advantage in this world was powerful, but not always key as far as Geoff was concerned given he’s been through two matches with the type advantage of this region working against him. My pummeling kept going right up until I stopped firing. Once the wool on both my legs was wound up, I fired two Thousand Spears at Machamp simultaneously and he toppled over the ropes and out of the ring. “Winner by knockout and ring out, Pom!” I calmly exited the arena and thought about Dolly… at least someone would know why I’m behaving the way I am now. -Ocellus- Pom could have done that from the start. Whatever the word ‘Chrysomallus’ did to her, she must be really out of it to have not thought of that sooner. It sounds too close to the word or name Chrysalis, it sent some shivers down my spine. Wind based attacks were anathema to Fighting Types as our battles against Riolu showed, then again… most immaterial attacks seem effective against them. Fairy, Psychic and Flying all specialize in that kind of attack. Ghost types would be unique in the fact that they can hurt Fighting Types but fighting types can’t hurt them. Ghost Types act immaterial, but don’t do double the damage? Maybe it was a Fighting Types literal fighting spirit protect them from taking twice the damage from Ghost Types, but allows Ghost types to still hurt them unlike Normal Types. On the flip side of things, Fighting Types seem to be more capable of damaging material things easily. Which explains their strength against Steel, Rock and Ice, most solid sounding stuff. The Dark and Normal types being weak to them are, to my guessing, because Fighting Types can be either based on having a heroic or bullying nature. Fighting Types live up to the name by being mostly close combat being, with few ranged options. This world had so many fascinating rules… now if only Pom was as interested in her surroundings. Her eyes were a little less dull now, but still quite unsettling. “Do you think the Wild Wrestling Wooloo can take her Ocellus?” Glancing at Geoff, I sighed. “We know it’s you Geoff, do you really need to hide behind a mask?” I know a thing about disguises and his was pretty poor. “I’m quite sure that I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Sure you don’t Geoff, makes me wonder if you were in this tournament to fight Pom. Which of course is weird considering you don’t like fighting all too much unless you have to, but you’ve been a far sight more reliable than most Pokémon in standing up for yourself and others. What drove Wooloo to be so weird? I could write an entire series on the subject alone at this rate. "I believe he can, he is a very brilliant student of Lucha Mundo's Wrestling dojo!" Okay, the bird that just spoke up could pass as an Ornithian from Equus, at least a male harpy. He had a red down around his chest and feathered arms and the tip of his beak. His head was mostly green down along with the feathers on his red arms. The rest of him was fluffy as fur white down until his legs which were as yellow as his startling eyes. Speaking of feathers his were acting more like a cape and he had the vibe of a masked wrestler and a somewhat suave voice. "Lucha Mundo I presume?" I ask because I wanted to know, even if I might regret it. On some level, this felt something like what Pom would do. "Honor, Family, Tradition... and Donuts! I am a Hawlucha outsider and my name is the great Lucha Mundo!" He said cheerfully introducing himself while posing like the Team Pocket trio. "I love churros by the way." "Did you actually take a crash course on wrestling from this weirdo Geoff?" It was an honest question, because it felt like that's what Geoff did. It's how I believed he got acquainted with this guy... who admittedly seemed to be fairly well built all things considered. "Again, I have no idea what you're talking, but that Wild Wrestling Wooloo is so cool! I can't wait to see how he does against Pom, he might even be able to reach her where we can't!" Really Geoff... you're not fooling anyone. That you are even actually trying is sad... it's also so you... so... I'd actually be more fooled by Ms. Cheerilee's sister teaching a class of students than whatever this is. The less than subtle winking between you and Lucha Mundo wasn't helping your case either Geoff. To think Gallus calls me an adorable dork... I wonder what he would have said about this.