"Shrrk—"
What his claws tore through turned out to be nothing but an afterimage. Elder Vayne knew at once that it had gone wrong, and then a blow of enormous force struck him from behind and drove his whole body down into the earth below, more than ten metres deep.
"Boom, boom, boom—"
The ground roared. The earth was shaking across the whole area.
Down in the soil, attacks of raw force came down on him one after another without a pause, like waves of the sea, unending.
To Elder Vayne it felt like standing against the howl of a vast ocean, and all he could do was hold it off as best he could.
The power in him was a very mixed thing.
There was human psychic power in it, the ghostly power of Pokémon, the ancient power Vance had run into a few times before, and other kinds besides.
All of it stirred together, uncanny and strong.
The display when he called it up was impressive enough — a black sheen rising off him at every turn, a grim cold pouring out of him, an evil wind shrieking, enough to put ice in a man's heart, and in the fighting itself flashes of ghost-light bursting on all sides.
Not like Vance, who made no sound at all when he struck, with no dazzling glare, none of the strange signs of battle.
Another exchange of energy, and again Elder Vayne came off worse and went flying backwards.
"Uurgh—"
The moment he had his feet under him he brought up several mouthfuls of blood. His presence sank, and the body that had stood over three metres tall was shrinking.
"That's the sort of rubbish you Godbeast Gang people are. Always mixing things together, wanting every kind of it, with no solid foundation under you and your energy in an absolute mess. It's power you never trained up yourself — where do you get the nerve to trade blows with me?"
Vance walked out of the smoke, his face cold.
Elder Vayne did look strong enough, a match for a Near-Champion; but set against Vance he did not amount to much.
"You did something to me. You disturbed the power inside my body at the moment I struck!"
Elder Vayne said it savagely. Every time the fighting grew fierce his own power would come loose and drift out of his control, which had never happened before.
"What's taken from others is never your own power in the end. If it were yours, it wouldn't be so easy to pull about."
This form of Elder Vayne's was a frightening thing to look at, and its fighting strength was real enough; it was only his misfortune to have met Vance, who held the Viridian Power. Vance's command of life energy went extremely deep, and against power as unanchored and as jumbled as Elder Vayne's he struck true every time.
"Kreeee—"
In the sky, Alakazam had seized its chance at Articuno: a psychic strike full in the front, and it could battle no longer. It gave one mournful cry and dropped towards the ground, and Zapdos, left alone to face an Alakazam of energy level 79, felt the weight of it a great deal more.
Over on this side things went on as before, the two of them holding each other in check — except that Gyarados's fighting strength had plainly risen.
His handling of power at the Near-Champion level was growing practised as well.
"Thud—"
When Articuno came down, Elder Vayne swore inwardly.
He could not beat the man in front of him, and now his Pokémon could not beat the other side either.
And what an oath it was.
Besides Articuno, Slaking and the one with him, in their hard fight against Slowking, had made progress too.
They had already wounded Slowking badly and were finishing it off.
"Blaziken—"
Over where Blaziken was, the fight with Darkrai was still going on, also at a standstill, with no decision likely for some while.
But once Alakazam, or Vance, got free, the shape of the battle was clear enough.
The advantage was piling up on Vance's side.
"Rraah, rraah—"
Zweilous let out the energy of two types at once, ice and fire, and the two of them wound about each other; the force where ice met fire gave off a terrible presence, and then it came down over that part of the field.
One shattering roar, and the ground thundered.
Ice and fire spilled out everywhere. Zweilous was at Elite-Four-class strength now, and the move in his hands was far stronger than it had been before.
"Slowkiing—"
Slowking, standing at the centre of the storm, was swept into it as well, and the raging ice and fire were the last straw that broke its back.
After one howl of pain it toppled to the ground by itself and did not stir again.
Two battles lost, and the faces of Gerald Farrow and the man with him went pale.
It meant they had lost. The plan to hunt Vance down had come to nothing, and what they were about to face was death!
They looked back, and saw Elder Vayne still calm-faced, his presence recovered and still climbing.
The two of them could not help taking heart at it.
"Ha-ha-ha! You forced me to this!"
Sure enough, Elder Vayne laughed aloud. The red in his eyes deepened, and the black markings on his skin came and went, as though he were working up to some terrible move.
But the look of him gave the two men behind him heart.
With that, and the few Pokémon they had left, there was still a fight to be had.
With Elder Vayne there, there was hope yet.
They had lost men and Pokémon, but Vance's Pokémon had come down in strength too.
There might still be a hope of winning. It all turned on Elder Vayne.
Seeing his presence surge again, Vance looked at him. He would see what else the man had.
"Then don't blame me for this..."
Red flashed through Elder Vayne's eyes, and a blood-red slash rose up and drove straight at Vance.
"Boom—"
By the time Vance came flying out of it, there was no trace of Elder Vayne anywhere on the field.
"...? Well now. So that's what you meant by it. Alakazam, this end is yours — Darkrai above all."
"Right."
With Alakazam's answer Vance vanished from where he stood and gave chase in the direction the man had fled.
That left Gerald Farrow and Wren, and the pair of them were dumbfounded.
Hold on — Elder Vayne had worked himself up like that, and not to fight Vance to the death, but to run away??
Don't blame me for this. Had that been said to the two of them?
He was gone, and they were left. How were they to deal with all this? Were they not as good as dead?
A chill went down both their spines. They called out the Pokémon they had left, meaning to take the moment and run.
They turned their heads, and Slaking and Zweilous were already looking at them.