"Taunt!"
With a piercing roar aimed at the heavens, Absol attempted to provoke Froslass into attacking, hoping to disrupt her focus through sheer verbal aggression.
However... in a world where even "sure-hit" moves can miss, this Taunt failed to connect.
The battlefield remained eerily silent. All that could be seen were countless ghostly figures drifting through the snowy haze, making the scene feel otherworldly and unsettling.
"It missed?"
Calem furrowed his brow and scanned the battlefield intently, trying to locate Froslass' presence—but it was futile. She was nowhere to be seen.
"Astonish!"
The moment Paul gave the command, all the ghostly figures across the field let out a collective blood-curdling screech. The sound was so deep and piercing, it felt as though it stabbed into the mind.
Startled by the sudden noise, Absol instinctively stepped back, fear creeping onto its face.
"Blizzard!"
Seizing the opportunity while Absol was flinching, a raging blizzard swept across the entire battlefield, engulfing Absol in its icy grip. The freezing wind battered the Pokémon relentlessly, chipping away at its strength.
"Three o'clock—Psycho Cut!"
"Sooool!"
Shaking off the fear, Absol snapped back into action. With a fierce twist of its head toward the direction the Blizzard came from, it launched a crescent-shaped blade of psychic energy.
The purple Psycho Cut tore through the storm, growing larger and more forceful as it flew—until it cleaved the blizzard clean in two.
Yet despite its force, the attack struck nothing.
A clean miss.
Both Calem and Absol's expressions darkened. Watching this unfold on video was one thing—but experiencing it firsthand was something else entirely.
"Light Screen!"
To minimize unnecessary damage, Absol had intended to raise a Light Screen to block the incoming attacks.
But Paul had no intention of letting that happen.
"Taunt!" he commanded.
From the swirling snow, one Froslass after another emerged—grinning, hand in hand, dancing in a playful ring around Absol. Their movements were elegant yet openly mocking, taunting the Disaster Pokémon with theatrical boldness.
Already feeling stifled and agitated, Absol's restraint snapped. Its eyes flared with fury before it could even bring up the Light Screen. It stomped its front paw into the frozen ground—unleashing a rippling Dark Pulse that erupted from its body and forcibly dispersed the ring of dancing Froslass.
"Icy Wind and Confuse Ray."
Paul's voice was calm, but a subtle smirk played at the corner of his lips.
A cutting chill surged across the battlefield—Icy Wind blowing toward Absol in unpredictable directions. One gust struck from the front, another from the right, then one suddenly swept down from above. Though the attack didn't deal much damage, each gust steadily chipped away at Absol's mobility, lowering its Speed.
At the same time, ghostly shadows across the field shrieked in a commotion of Astonish—a chorus of piercing, chilling cries that stabbed through the air, searing into Absol's mind. The pain was sharp, its concentration unraveling.
"Hyper Beam!"
With Taunt still in effect, Absol could only resort to offensive moves. Enraged and tormented, it let loose a powerful Hyper Beam, channeling its fury into a sweeping shockwave of sound. The blast echoed in all directions, aiming to both drive away the ghostly screams and strike the elusive Froslass.
But once again—not a single hit landed.
"Ice Shard!"
Paul's suddenly gave the command.
The Froslass moved in perfect synchronization. Half of them unleashed Confuse Ray to disorient their opponent with haunting cries, while the other half raised their arms high and conjured a barrage of oversized Ice Shards, sending them hurling toward the Absol in the center of the field.
Absol gritted its teeth through the onslaught of ghostly shrieks, its body wracked by the psychic pain. It fought back, slashing the air with wave after wave of Air Slash to fend off the blizzard of illusions—uncertain which shards were real and which were mere phantoms.
WHAM!
But no matter how skilled, how could it dodge them all?
A real Ice Shard struck it dead-on, knocking Absol off balance with a painful grunt.
"Sooool!" it cried.
Reflexively, it whipped its head toward the direction of the attack and launched a Dark Pulse straight at its supposed attacker. But in response came a gust of Icy Wind—from an entirely different direction.
Realizing it couldn't pinpoint its attacker for the moment, Calem fell into deep thought, searching for a counter.
Absol, buying time, split into a dozen copies using Double Team and dashed in every direction across the battlefield.
But then a howling Blizzard swept over the arena, instantly wiping out every illusion. The real Absol remained, barely holding its ground, throwing out another Dark Pulse in defense.
Calem's mind raced. He needed a way to land a clean hit on the elusive Froslass.
There were only two options: either strike with an area-of-effect move broad enough to catch the real one…
Or use a guaranteed-hit move.
But of course, "guaranteed-hit" doesn't mean guaranteed damage—the mechanisms differ wildly depending on the move.
Absol did know the move Swift, a Normal-type attack that never misses.
The problem?
Froslass is part Ghost-type—Swift would simply pass right through her, doing nothing. It wouldn't even force her to reveal her true location.
Then suddenly—Calem's eyes lit up. A spark of inspiration.
"Absol, use Thunderbolt—charge it onto your Swift stars and launch the attack!"
"Soool~!"
Absol immediately understood its Trainer's intent. Countless golden stars burst forth from its body, each one crackling with electric energy. The electrified Swift stars scattered in all directions, intercepting the Icy Wind, dissipating Shadow Sneak, and sweeping across every inch of the battlefield—searching relentlessly for Froslass' hidden position.
At last, despite the heavy toll on its stamina, Absol finally pinpointed where Froslass was hiding.
Every time the charged Swift stars flew toward a specific point, they would mysteriously vanish, repelled by an invisible force. There was no doubt about it—that had to be where Froslass was concealing herself!
With its target locked in, Absol immediately redirected all its electrified Swift stars toward that location in a concentrated assault.
Realizing she had been discovered, Froslass revealed herself at last. Four ghostly violet rings spun around her in midair, forming a spectral shield. Any incoming Swift star was intercepted and dispersed before even touching her body.
"Flamethrower—follow up with Sucker Punch!"
Absol let loose a torrent of flames toward Froslass, the inferno roaring across the field. In the very next moment, it blurred forward with a Flash of Lightning—Quick Attack energy coiled around its form as it leapt straight behind the Flamethrower's trail.
"Aurora Veil."
With a calm sweep of her arms, Froslass summoned a shimmering wall of light just beyond her spectral rings—a barrier that looked like a natural forcefield born of northern light.
BOOM!
The Flamethrower struck first, its power reduced by half as it clashed with the Aurora Veil. Then came the spectral rings, layer after layer of ghostly energy absorbing and dulling the impact. Finally, the flames vanished entirely, their remaining heat absorbed into the rotating rings, which in turn became sturdier and brighter.
But the moment the fire faded, Absol's long horn came slashing through—cutting past the Aurora Veil and crashing down onto the spectral rings with force.
In an instant, the glowing halo around Froslass began to waver—teetering on the edge of collapse.
"Eeno~!"
But as the blue light shimmered in Froslass' eyes, the flickering aura stabilized, bracing solidly against Absol's horn.
"Blizzard!"
With a sweep of her icy hands, a vicious blizzard surged forth again. The howling winds and icy shards struck Absol head-on, sending it hurtling backward through the air.
"Rock Tomb—then Swords Dance!"
From the skies above, a rain of boulders began to fall. Absol, still airborne and finally free from the effects of Taunt, seized the moment. Using the tumbling stones as stepping points, it danced nimbly through the air, channeling the time gained to unleash Swords Dance, sharply boosting its attack.
"Psychic!"
Though Psychic-type moves are normally ineffective against Dark-types like Absol, that doesn't mean Psychic can't be weaponized in other ways.
A pure blue light flared in Froslass' gaze as intense psychic energy surged outward, manifesting as a wave of telekinetic force. Every falling boulder across the sky suddenly froze midair—then, as if drawn by gravity, they hurtled all at once toward Absol at the center of the storm.
"Detect!"
Sensing imminent danger, Absol's instincts flared. Standing at the heart of the telekinetic trap, it activated Detect, and its eyes flashing blue as it instantly read the trajectories of every incoming rock with razor precision.
With its honed agility, Absol began zigzagging through the rain of stone—dodging left and right with refined grace. At the same time, it unleashed Dark Pulse from its mouth in rapid succession, blasting apart any boulder in its way as it desperately surged toward a safer zone.
Just as Absol broke free from the encirclement of massive boulders, it was startled to discover that Froslass had once again vanished without a trace.
This meant it would now have to expend yet more time and stamina just to relocate her.
But before Absol could even grow frustrated, it suddenly realized—it couldn't move.
As it struggled, the illusion shattered. The four ghostly rings that had once been orbiting Froslass were now surrounding Absol instead. At some point without its notice, the rings had transferred to its body, suppressing both its movements and its strength, and forcing it to float helplessly in midair.
"Double Team. Confuse Ray. Taunt!"
At that moment, dozens of Froslass surrounded Absol from all sides, as though welcoming an honored guest. They gazed at it with gentle, almost mocking smiles, and unleashed a chorus of ear-piercing shrieks—simultaneously eerie and provocative.
The Will-O-Wisp Rings were effective in locking down their target. Once a foe was trapped, it became nearly impossible for it to strike at the outside world—just as it became nearly impossible for outside attacks to reach in. In this sealed state, only low-power moves like Astonish could chip away at the captive from within.
Naturally, Absol couldn't remain composed under such constraints.
It opened its mouth to release a surging wave of Dark Pulse, slashed wildly with its claws using Shadow Claw, swung its tail in an Iron Tail attack, and even drove its long forehead horn forward with a fierce Megahorn strike.
Thanks to the Swords Dance it had used earlier, its raw power had sharply increased. In a wild burst of energy and desperation, Absol unleashed all its might. Though the attacks were unfocused and frantic, it ultimately shattered the ghostly rings in a short span of time and broke free from its aerial imprisonment.
But because the "wings" on its back were merely fur and not capable of flight, Absol plummeted straight down from midair.
Falling from a height of several dozen meters wasn't enough to injure a Pokémon like Absol—so long as it adjusted its posture, the impact would do little harm.
But then, without warning, a concentrated Blizzard swept down from directly overhead.
"Blizzard!"
After a series of intense clashes, Absol was already showing signs of fatigue. Now airborne, it found it increasingly difficult to maneuver, and before it could adjust its position, the ferocious Blizzard struck it head-on with devastating force.
BOOM!
With a heavy crash, Absol slammed down by the sheer force of the Blizzard—hit the ground hard, sustaining even more damage upon impact. There was no getting back up this time.
As the dazzling white light faded, the effects of Mega Evolution were lifted.
(End of Chapter)
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