The Suicune that Zoroark had turned into was already standing out in front, and feeling the Sandslash behind it with its power suddenly swollen, it looked back at it once or twice.
Then it looked at its Trainer, and understood.
Perhaps this poor creature it had been squeezing was to be a companion later on.
It looked ordinary enough. No particular strengths about it.
It was that carefulness, that caution, that made it take notice. The Sandslash's caution was not something only Vance could see; it could see it too.
Perhaps there was some point about the creature that had caught Vance's eye, some moment in which its own Trainer had taken a liking to it.
"Zoroark, you take the Nidoking. The Onix — that one's yours."
Vance laid out his dispositions and assigned each of the two Pokémon its opponent.
"Oooo."
Zoroark nodded, pushed off with both legs, and its body lifted and flew across to the Nidoking, opening with a Water Gun as it came, and met it head on.
Against the Suicune that Zoroark had become, the Nidoking had battle experience of its own; lightning spread over its body and a Thunderbolt shot out, met the Water Gun and came racing in along it at speed.
Just as it arrived Zoroark changed where it stood, into a Raikou crackling with electric light, and with a crash brought lightning down, bolt after bolt.
The pressure coming off it left the Nidoking below feeling bound, and a reluctance to fight rose in it.
At the same time, matched against Zoroark, the Nidoking's presence had dropped a good deal, for reasons nobody could see.
As though it had been weakened.
"A Nidoking with Rivalry, then."
One look at that change and Vance knew the cause: it was the Nidoking's Rivalry Ability.
With that Ability, when the opponent it meets is of its own sex it is strengthened, and when of the opposite sex, weakened.
A very interesting Ability.
Though the best Ability for a Nidoking is still Sheer Force; paired with a Life Orb or some such treasure, the damage it puts out is remarkable.
"Bang—"
Moves collided and the dust came rolling up.
Wave after wave of Sludge Wave rose round the Nidoking and threw Zoroark clear, and it hammered the ground with both fists; fine threads of cracks ran through the earth with a bright yellow Ground power winding among them.
That was the move Earth Power.
But that was no trouble to Zoroark, which sprang from where it stood and lifted into the air, and once off the ground the Earth Power could do it no harm; the backwash was negligible, and a slight block kept it outside.
This Nidoking's strength was nothing to sneer at and its battle experience was wide; it was a full level 46.
For the moment Zoroark could not bring it down.
Over there, Zoroark and the Nidoking were already at it, and at that speed a dozen and more exchanges had gone by.
Over here with Vance, the Sandslash hung back, hesitating and hesitating.
"Any more problems? Because that Onix is coming."
Vance said it to the wavering Sandslash.
But at that moment the Sandslash was thoroughly bewildered in itself, knocked silly by this power that had appeared out of nowhere.
"Eh?"
"Bang—"
The Onix was not about to stand on ceremony; its huge tail came down out of the air and smashed a deep pit in the ground.
Vance already had the Sandslash by the scruff and was somewhere else, and seeing it still with that dazed look on its face he waved a hand.
"Just go at it. Have a fight with the Onix."
"Ssh-ssh— I can't."
The Sandslash clung to Vance's arm with both paws. This power did not feel real, and that Onix was so fierce, and it was afraid again; no good, it could not manage the least bit of it.
"Afraid of what? Haven't I strengthened you? Besides, I'm right behind you. Follow my orders and nothing can go wrong."
Vance went on.
"Hm. That does seem to make sense."
Hearing him say it, the Sandslash settled, and actually felt safe. Do as he said, and there was a feeling that nothing would go wrong.
From what it had found so far, Vance and Zoroark squeezed it the harder — but then the energy and the rest of it were very fine too.
"But, I..."
"No buts. Off you go..."
Vance put power into it and flung the Sandslash out, and the direction he flung it was straight at the Onix.
"Sandslash, charge — use Crush Claw!"
Behind it, Vance's battle orders sounded in the Sandslash's ears.
That gave the Sandslash a direction, and hearing Vance's solid, strong voice it did as he said without thinking.
Its two claws blazed with light, a very bright light, dragging arcs of it through the air, and struck the Onix's body.
"Shff, shff, shff—"
The Sandslash put its digging strength into it and tore one crack after another across the Onix.
"Rooar—"
The Onix roared in fury, and rocks hung all round its body and gathered inward toward it.
"Sandslash, Defense Curl!"
"Boooom—"
The rocks closed in together, there was one report, and the Sandslash's earth-yellow figure came bursting out from inside it.
Its body, rolled into a ball, was still spinning at speed, holding off the damage from outside.
Defense Curl gives defence enough, using the scales and the like on a body's own surface to hold off harm from outside.
It can be used to attack as well: add a spin while curled, and besides defending it can be used to go forward.
"Ssh—"
Having put some distance between itself and the Onix, the Sandslash rather doubted itself, and looked at its own two claws. They seemed no different. Still its own body.
"Dodge."
Vance's voice came again, and the Sandslash heard it and did as told, shff, and went into the ground at tremendous speed.
"Out, quickly. It's using Sand Tomb."
Vance warned it.
The Onix opposite had used the move Sand Tomb, and over a stretch of ground where the Sandslash was the soil went soft, and a suction came out of it that bound the creature inside and would not let it escape.
"Defense Curl. Bounce the hold off you, then look for the chance to jump clear."
"Ssh-ssh—"
Obedient as anything, the Sandslash did as Vance said, and as it bounced the hold away it found its chance and got out of the Sand Tomb.
As it jumped clear the Onix's next attack was already there; it was not about to give the Sandslash time to react.
Stone Edge followed, sharp keen stones sealing off every line of retreat the Sandslash had, and still in mid-air it had nowhere left to go.
Unless Vance stepped in and teleported it clear, moved it somewhere else.
But Vance did not intend to do that. There was no point in it, and it did nothing for the grinding-down the Sandslash needed.
By now there was no more fear in the Sandslash's heart. It had gone in, so it could not back out; and with Vance directing it, losing was not certain either.
It was a bit of a coward, and that came of being careful and cautious, which was what a life needed — and just now it did not need it!
With Vance at its back, directing its fight, it felt nothing but safe, and it had come by another kind of experience.
And this experience was rather good, not at all like the times when it fought alone.
"Fury Cutter!"
"Ssh—"
Vance's order came, and the Sandslash at once set its claws going and cut and cut, dazzling light flaring up stroke after stroke to meet that dense mass of Stone Edge.
"Bang, bang, bang—"
A spin and a cut, the light of the strike blazing out, and every one of the oncoming stones was cut away.
"Ssh-ssh—"
The Sandslash came down with excitement all over its face. It really had done it.
"Swords Dance!"
"Ssh!"
Seizing the moment, the Sandslash brought out its Swords Dance, and once it had used it the presence about it rose a notch and its strength went up a little.