Journey Towards Greatness

Clay's Sandslash slowly fell on the ground with a thud sound, its eyes closed and its mouth wide open, it has been knocked out and there are no questions about it.

Phantom Force was indeed a terrifying move, if a pokemon is not careful of its surrounding, use one touch from a pokemon that used Phantom Force can put it in grave danger and if it is in the wild, it might even become food to the other pokemon. ​​

Clay didn't expect this at all, he lost his Sandslash and was able to land only one hit on his opponent and that too seemed useless as the Golett only suffered little damage from it, from then on it was all Golett.

Clay looked at the masked trainer and frowned, this level of experience was too much for Clay to handle, he could tell that this guy that is in front of him was no lesser of a trainer than Dhrago, at least this trainer is a merciful and didn't try to kill his pokemons.

Referee "Sandslash is unable to battle, Golett wins"

The referee announced the result of the first exchange.

Clay took a deep breath and called his Sandslash back, he took out another Pokeball and sent out his next pokemon.

Even though he lost the first exchange, it was not over for him, Sandslash was not his strongest pokemon so this time he sent out his ace of his current team, like any other gym leader this team is not his elite team.

His elite team is filled with pokemons that are very close to elite level or are elite level, the team he is currently using is to battle against challengers.

He sent out his second pokemon, it is none other than an Excadrill, seeing his choice Julian already knows what to expect, he also has an Excadrill and he knows what to expect of this pokemon.

His Excadrill can be called the strongest Excadrill of his level in this world and to reach that level he has to do a lot of training so Julian understands how they do stuff, what is their strength and weakness.

Choosing Excadrill might be the biggest mistake he made.

Julian called back Golett as he has won his battle and now its time for someone else, he took out a Pokeball and sent out his next pokemon, Fraxure.

His shiny Fraxure took his place on the battlefield and looked at his opponent, an Excadrill. He has experience battling his friend Excadrill and he still hasn't won a battle against him, only because of the power gap between them.

But it might be different the next time he battles against his friend before he was just an Axew whose strength was limited by the stage he was in and now that he is a Fraxure, there has been a great increase in his stats but he is still far away from matching Excadrill in pure physical strength.

Fraxure roared, his roar is still not loud and dominating as Garchomp's but he will get there once he reaches his final stage.

Fraxure's roar is like a battle cry, he is telling his opponent that it is going down, Excadrill seems to be pissed off at Fraxure's taunt.

Referee "Let the battle begin"

The referee waved off for the start of the battle and Clay once again went for the offensive.

Clay "Excadrill, use Fury Swipes"

Excadrill was already pissed off at Fraxure so it didn't hold back, it just charged at Fraxure with glowing claws, as he got close he started to swipe his massive metal claw at Fraxure.

Julian "Use Protect"

Fraxure used Protect to block all those Fury Swipes.

Julian "Now Dragon Pulse"

As Protect faded away after the Fury Swipes ended, Fraxure blasted a Dragon Pulse at point-blank range, Excadrill got hit and sent it back rolling but it didn't have much effect because Fraxure doesn't have great Special Attack stats, it can be considered bad.

Excadrill just got up and shrugged off the pain as if it was nothing.

Clay "Use Slash"

Excadrill charged at Fraxure once again trying to deal damage, this time Fraxure cannot use Protect as it needs a cool down before he can use it again.

Julian "Use Dragon Claw"

Fraxure counted with a more powerful move to counter, as both collide it created a shock wave that traveled all across the battlefield and both pokemons backed off.

Clay didn't stop and continued with his attacks, he believed in his Excadrill and he also knew that Julian's Fraxure cannot just keep up with the counters against a more powerful opponent.

Clay "Use Dig"

Excadrill dove into the ground and charged towards Fraxure without being noticed by him.

Julian "Use Sword Dance"

Julian waited for Excadrill to attack. Since his Fraxure doesn't have any counter move for a Dig, he waited till Excadrill makes a move, the ground behind Fraxure started to shake and Excadrill charged out and landed a hit on Fraxure but this was what Julian was waiting for.

As he got attacked, Julian made his move.

Julian "Now use Payback"

Payback is a move that doubles in power if the pokemon was attacked by other pokemon first, Fraxure turned and crashed into Excadrill using Payback.

Excadrill got sent flying backward as the Payback was devastating, Fraxure also fell down on the ground as he was hurt by that Dig as well.

Both pokemon were on the ground, Fraxure got up as he is much tougher than he seems but Excadrill was struggling to get up, that Payback was not something one should survive but Excadrill survived it anyway.

As it tried to struggle up, Julian decided to end it.

Julian "Use Dual Chop"

Fraxure charged at the fallen Excadrill and was about to land the Dual Chop when Clay made a move again.

Clay "Horn Drill"

The fallen Excadrill got to its feet and started to spin really fast and tried to hit Fraxure, if this move lands it will be over and Fraxure will lose as it is a one-hit move, the power behind this move is too much to just counter it and the gap between them is too little for Fraxure to dodge.

Julian "Use Protect"

Fraxure quickly switched from Dual Chop to Protect and quickly put himself behind a protective shield but the Horn Drill won't stop there, it easily got past the Protect and shattered it but it gave Fraxure enough time to move to the side and dodge the move.

That was a very close call, it was thanks to Julian keeping an eye out of Clay and his pokemon till the very end as he knows that the battle is not over until the last pokemon of either trainer is down for good.

Now that he dodged it, it was time for Julian to make his move.

Julian "Use Crunch"

As Excadrill is still trying to stop from spinning after using its lethal move that just failed, Fraxure got the distance and used Crunch, a massive dark jaw of energy appeared in the air and shut down hard on Excadrill causing an explosion.

Excadrill was tossed to the ground as he rolled for a while and stopped, it tried to get up but it was out of energy but it is still conscious.

Julian decided to end this and called for a Dragon Pulse, Fraxure blasted a Dragon Pulse at the fallen Excadrill, the Dragon Pulse landed and this was the end of the battle.

The exhausted hurt Excadrill went down as the last bit of its energy was used to resist the Dragon Pulse and got knocked out.

This battle could have been won by Clay if Julian was not attentive enough, the Excadrill would have landed the Horn Drill and Julian would have faced his very first loss in a pokemon battle but it didn't happen because he was aware of his surrounding and kept an eye on both his opponent and his pokemon.