Journey Towards Greatness

Just like Yesh, everyone noticed Darmanitan's change, Darmanitan has now entered Zen Mode, this is where he is the scariest and the most dangerous.

The fun and explosions end here, while Darmanitan before Zen Mode is happy, enthusiastic, fun-loving, and mischievous, Darmanitan in Zen Mode is cold, not very fun-loving, and wants to end battles as quickly as possible so others don't waste his time which he can dedicate to having a peaceful mind. ​​

It's like Darmanitan has completely two different personalities, he is completely different than before, the reason why Darmanitan entered Zen Mode is that his health is now below half of his full health, this will activate his skill Zen Mode and he transforms, all those explosions do come at a cost, they cause damage as well, Julian usually don't like these type of battle style but seeing Darmanitan's nature, he decided to train him this way, he also knew that once they reach the halfway point, he won't have to continue using this suicide tactic due to the Zen Mode.

In Zen Mode, Darmanitan loses the majority of his physical attack powers and puts them to his special attack, he also loses his speed while both his defense and special defense doubles making him an average tank of a pokemon as well, he also gains Psychic typing while he is just a Fire time in his previous form.

Yesh looks at the change and gets worried, he has never seen Zen Mode Darmanitan in action, he doesn't even know what it is capable of, the only thing Yesh knows is that Darmanitan now has half of his health and this is advantageous to him and his pokemons.

Yesh sent his Chandelure back to its Pokeball and sent out his next pokemon into the battlefield, a Bisharp.

This time Yesh's choice is not the best, while it is indeed a dark type and is immune to psychic type attacks from his Darmanitan, it is also weak to fire type attacks.

Julian wondered why Yesh would send out Bisharp and came up with an answer in his mind, a physical fast attacker, with Darmanitan's speed gone, Bisharp could easily get close and deal fatal blows to his Darmanitan.

Special Attackers are always weak at a close distance fight so Yesh might try to get close.

The battle began as soon as Bisharp entered the battlefield.

Yesh "Get close, Night Slash"

Yesh went on the attack again, and just as Julian expected, Yesh's Bisharp is fast, not blinding fast but fast enough to trouble Darmanitan in Zen Mode, without Zen Mode Darmanitan is much faster.

Bisharp came rushing towards Darmanitan in a random zig-zag pattern so that Darmanitan can't pinpoint it and attack, as soon as it got close and ready to attack, Julian went on the defense.

Julian "Use Protect"

Darmanitan set up a Protect and protected himself from the incoming Night Slash.

Julian "Now, Flamethrower"

As Darmanitan is still behind the Protect, he charged up a Flamethrower and shot it at Bisharp, Bisharp saw this and quickly moved out of the way as the Flamethrower went past it by an inch as the Protect disappeared.

Yesh "Now, Night Slash"

Seeing that Darmanitan is open to an attack, Yesh couldn't miss this, Bisharp was very close so it couldn't miss this hit as well, it landed the Night Slash on Darmanitan and sent it spinning backward in the air.

Julian was surprised by this, he didn't expect Yesh's Bisharp to react so fast, that Flamethrower would have hit any pokemon but Yesh's Bisharp dodged it on time or it might have been seriously hurt or even got itself knocked out.

Darmanitan stopped spitting and suddenly stopped and locked onto Bisharp.

Julian "Flamethrower"

As soon as he stopped spinning he shot a powerful Flamethrower at Bisharp, Bisharp saw this coming and moved to the side to dodge it but then it suddenly noticed that the Flamethrower suddenly changed direction and came towards it like a homing missile.

It got hit by the powerful Flamethrower and was sent shooting through the sky and out of the marked battlefield.

While normal Darmanitan loved explosions and dealt damage by it, Zen Mode Darmanitan could use his psychic powers to have complete control over his attacks and change their direction, the only reason his last Flamethrower didn't hit Bisharp is that it was too close to Darmanitan and he couldn't change the direction of an attack at such short distance.

Just that one Flamethrower took out a lot from Bisharp as it struggled to get back to its feel, this just showed that Julian's Darmanitan was not something one should mess with.

Yesh realized the full potential of Darmanitan right now and how hard it will really be to take him down.

Yesh "Come on, once again, Night Slash"

Bisharp quickly got to its feet and charged at Darmanitan once again, this time it moved in an even crazier pattern so that Darmanitan couldn't lock onto it like last time.

As it got close and was able to land that Night Slash, Julian made his command.

Julian "Use Protect"

Darmanitan set up a Protect and blocked the incoming Night Slash, it was the same as before so Bisharp was ready to dodge the next attack that will be thrown at it.

Julian "Finish it, Overheat"

This time Bisharp is doomed, there is no way it can dodge a wide-area attack like Overheat and it is also one of the most powerful Fire-type attacks, Darmanitan charged up the Overheat to release it.

Bisharp tried to escape and make some distance but it was too late, a powerful burning sea of flame suddenly engulfed the whole battlefield, the sound was like a massive wave hitting a cliff, as the fire disappeared, Bisharp could be seen on the ground knocked out.

Referee "Bisharp is unable to battle, Darmanitan wins!"

The Referee called the result.

Darmanitan took out another one of Yesh's pokemon but in exchange, he sacrificed some of his firepowers, using Overheat has a side effect, it will decrease his special attack power by two stages.