Chapter 198: A Humiliating Beatdown
A hundred meters was not too far, but not too close. From that distance, the girl, whose name was Fiona, couldn't make out the true, imposing size of the Bronzong. Nor could she see that the trainer riding it was her old adversary, Basalt. All she saw was a target, her eyes gleaming with predatory intent.
VWOOM!
Suddenly, a blinding light, brighter than the sun, erupted from the target, and her vision went white.
"What? They spotted me?" Fiona's body tensed.
WHOOSH!
Something shot through the air towards her. She instinctively ducked behind her Magcargo. "Magcargo, Protect!" she yelled.
BOOM!
The ground shook. Fiona's heart pounded in her chest. After all this time, the hunter has become the hunted. She had been the one ambushing others, and now she had been caught completely off guard.
She waited for the follow-up attack, but it never came. When her vision returned, she finally saw her opponent clearly: a massive Bronzong, a powerful-looking steel mole, and a handsome, slender young man.
"It's you!" she gasped. She remembered Basalt all too well. He was one of the very few failures in her short but illustrious career as a bandit.
"That's right, it's me," Basalt said with a grin. Finally, I've found you.
He could have finished the fight right then and there, but revenge was a dish best served cold. He wanted to make her feel the same helplessness and frustration he had felt. He had Excadrill set up a Sandstorm, locking down the battlefield advantage.
"Hey there," Fiona said, her voice suddenly sweet and demure. "If I apologize right now, can you forgive me?" She looked from the massive Bronzong to the raging Sandstorm and swallowed hard. She had experienced Excadrill's power firsthand. And now, the Bronzor had evolved. Just from its size, she knew it was incredibly powerful.
"Sorry, but no," Basalt's smile widened. If he hadn't suffered at her hands before, he might have been swayed by her act. But he knew it was just that—an act.
And sure enough, the moment he refused, her expression changed back to its usual, infuriating arrogance. "You brat! You really think you've got me?" she snarled. "Fine. I'll just have to teach you that in this world, speed is everything!"
BZZZZZZ!
The sound of the Ninjask's wings grew higher and higher in pitch, until it was beyond the range of human hearing. It was accelerating.
WHOOSH!
Even in the Sandstorm, the Ninjask was a blur of motion. As it shot towards them, a streak of light in the swirling sand, Basalt and Bronzong exchanged a look. And then, they smiled.
The Ninjask was the source of Bronzong's deepest grudge. It had been locked onto it with its psychic power from the very beginning. As it launched its attack, Bronzong's own power flared to life.
Speed Swap.
An invisible, mystical energy enveloped both the Ninjask and the Bronzong. And then, a strange thing happened. The Ninjask, which had been moving at the speed of light, suddenly slowed to a crawl, about the speed of a jogging human. Bronzong, on the other hand, suddenly became much faster, its speed increasing by at least three times.
"Jask?" The Ninjask was completely baffled. It flapped its wings furiously, but it was like moving through molasses.
"Rock Tomb," Basalt said with a casual nod to Excadrill.
Fiona, who had been completely unprepared for this, could only stare in disbelief as a volley of cantaloupe-sized rocks shot from the ground and pelted the slow-moving Ninjask. With its four-times weakness to Rock, it was knocked out of the sky in an instant.
With its target fainted, the Speed Swap wore off, and Bronzong returned to its normal, sluggish pace.
"Now it's two-on-two," Basalt said with a sly grin that made Fiona's skin crawl.
"Hey..." her expression changed again, her voice turning soft and pleading.
"Tsk, tsk. A true actress," Basalt said, shaking his head. He was done with her games. "Heavy Slam! Rock Slide!"
The super-heavy Bronzong lumbered towards the Magcargo, while a hail of rocks rained down on the Ariados. Both of Fiona's Pokémon were now at a complete disadvantage.
But Basalt and his Pokémon didn't go for the quick knockout. Instead, they began to slowly, methodically torment their opponents. Bronzong used its psychic power to lift the nearly-fainted Magcargo into the air and repeatedly slam it into the ground. Excadrill pinned the Ariados with its foot and began to rhythmically tap it with its steel claws, dealing just enough damage to cause pain, but not enough to knock it out.
"Enough!" Fiona finally snapped. She couldn't bear to see her Pokémon being tortured. She pushed past Basalt, recalled her Pokémon, and stared at him with defiant, tear-filled eyes. "If you want to take it out on someone, take it out on me!"
"I wouldn't dare," Basalt said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "The spatial bag. Hand it over. Don't tell me you're going to put up another pointless struggle."
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