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"Growlithe, Flame Wheel!"
Growlithe opened its jaws wide and breathed out a burst of fire. The flames caught instantly on the rocky coat covering its body, spreading across its fur until the whole Pokémon was alight. It sprang off the ground, tucking its legs in and spinning, turning itself into a rolling wheel of fire.
Pidgeot's Aerial Ace came slashing in at that very moment and struck the spinning blaze head-on.
The collision sent a sharp crack across the field. Both Pokémon were caught in the burst of force at the center, each taking the other's attack directly with their body.
On paper, Aerial Ace should have won that exchange. It was a clean Flying-type physical move, and Flame Wheel, for all its heat, was not especially powerful.
But as the smoke thinned and the two Pokémon were pushed apart by the shockwave, Aston's expression darkened.
Growlithe's Intimidate ability had already done its work at the start of the battle, dropping Pidgeot's Attack by one stage before either side had thrown a single move. That alone had taken the edge off Aerial Ace. On top of that, Growlithe's volcanic coat seemed to offer a natural resistance against Flying-type attacks, blunting the move further.
And then came the part that stung most.
Sparks were crawling across Pidgeot's feathers. The Burn had landed.
Flame Wheel carries only a ten percent chance of inflicting Burn, but that one-in-ten had come through. Now Pidgeot would lose a portion of its HP at the end of every turn, and its already-weakened Attack had dropped to half. A burned Pokémon moves carefully, hesitantly, instinctively holding back when it tries to strike. The result was that Pidgeot's physical power was now a shadow of what it had been.
Aston stared at the orange flickers dancing on his Pidgeot's wings and said nothing for a moment. This battle had gotten complicated faster than he had planned.
Nova, for his part, had not counted on the Burn landing so cleanly. A one-in-ten shot was exactly that, and he was not the kind of trainer to stake a whole strategy on something that unlikely. But he was not going to waste the advantage either.
Growlithe was built to take hits. Its solid frame and surprising endurance meant that trading blows was exactly the kind of fight it could win. And in a worst case, it had a stubborn streak that let it push through even when its body was running on nothing. Nova had trained that quality into it specifically for moments like this.
The plan was straightforward: keep pressuring Pidgeot with Smack Down, force it to respond, wear it down, and finish with something decisive when the opening came. It had worked once already.
"Growlithe, Smack Down!"
Aston could not let that pattern continue.
"Pidgeot, Quick Attack!"
Pidgeot became a white blur. It streaked across the field before Growlithe could set its feet and knocked the smaller Pokémon off balance, slipping past the Smack Down entirely. The hit landed cleanly.
But the impact told a different story than the speed suggested. With Burn halving its Attack on top of Intimidate's earlier drop, the Quick Attack had almost no real force behind it. Growlithe stumbled, then steadied itself and shook its head.
"Growlithe, Scary Face."
Growlithe turned and fixed Pidgeot with a hard stare. Its eyes went wide and bright, and something in that gaze seemed to press against Pidgeot like a weight. Pidgeot flinched, and the speed it had relied on began to drain away, its movements growing just slightly heavier, just slightly slower.
Aston saw what was happening. Nova was pulling Pidgeot's speed down to keep it in range, setting up a defensive trade where Growlithe could absorb hits and hit back harder. Quick Attack had been the right call while Pidgeot was faster, not to do damage, but to stay out of reach of Growlithe's Rock-type attacks. Now that the speed gap was closing, that reason to dodge was gone.
Pidgeot still had one card left that Growlithe could not easily answer.
"Pidgeot, Hurricane!"
Pidgeot beat its wings with everything it had. Two great masses of churning wind tore down from the sky, dark and howling, the kind of storm that left marks on the field long after the move was over.
"Growlithe, Double-Edge! Straight through!"
Growlithe lowered its head and ran.
Nova had spent time training Growlithe to use Double-Edge not as a finishing blow, but as a way through. Against a quick, mobile opponent, landing a slow charge is difficult, and a miss wastes stamina badly. But Hurricane was not a precise move. It was a wall of force, and Double-Edge, thrown with enough intensity, could punch through a wall. Growlithe had the ability Rock Head, which meant it felt none of the recoil that would normally punish a move of that kind. It could run through the storm without holding back.
The two vortexes of wind crashed down around Growlithe and scattered, unable to stop its charge. Growlithe burst through the swirling air and slammed headfirst into Pidgeot before it could lift higher.
"Arooo!"
The impact hit Pidgeot like a stone. Hurricane had taken most of the punch out of the blow, but Pidgeot's resistance to that type of attack was already low, and what remained was still enough to send Pidgeot reeling, barely keeping itself airborne.
Growlithe did not let go.
"Growlithe, Fire Fang!"
Growlithe clamped its jaws down on Pidgeot's left wing. The fire on its teeth spread fast, running along the feathers in thin lines that widened into sheets of flame. In seconds, Pidgeot was surrounded by fire, the blaze rising off its wings and chest.
There was nothing left for Pidgeot to do. The pain of burning had locked its muscles, and it could not pull together the focus to launch another attack.
Nova looked at the field and called out quietly.
"Flame Wheel, Growlithe. Finish it."