Okay, William thought. I still have Raiden. Now all I need to do is make my way towards Lochness and help him—
Just then, Dragonite— the one who had gone off with Swampert—appeared, flying slightly above sea level with its wings. It looked slightly damaged—with a few cuts and bruises and dried up ice and mud—but other than that, completely fine.
Just then all of his hope had been smashed to pieces. The strongest piece on the board had arrived, and William had nothing to take him down with.
"Lochness…" William said wistfully, memories running through his mind. He looked in the distance— towards where they battled. Silence.
He had lost, but that wasn't what hurt him. What broke his heart was he would never see his friend—his partner—again. It was the last time he would see most of his Pokemon. All of them had given it their all— he couldn't fault them for anything.
William was going to die. Even if he surrendered, he wouldn't put it past Lance to go through with his threats. Especially after causing him this much trouble and bringing it down to the wire.
But William would never surrender, for that was a coward's way out. He would sooner die with his pride intact and unbroken. If was going to die—leaving all of his ambition behind—then let him leave at least with his pride. He would leave going out fighting.
"You guys ready?" he asked Raiden and Valkyrie. Two support Pokemon ready to support him and fight to the last breath. If Shelly's Pokemon were smart they would leave and return back to their owner.
Shelly. Wallace. Team Aqua. Neptune Shipping. He had plans, so many plans that would never come into fruition. William chuckled to himself—for a man of so many plans he didn't anticipate this one. Reality dawned on him that this was the last mistake he would make and the last one he would learn from.
After that it would go to black—it would go to nothing.
His last stand. Against overwhelming odds. Against the prospect of death. For some reason William seemed…calm, like a quiet wave in the ocean.
Not in an accepting way—just in a way where the concept of it didn't scare him.
William had already died once—he knew what it was like. His first death was ordinary. His second would be anything but.
He took a deep breath, preparing to fight, but then…
From behind, Lochness appeared like a folklore. Battered and bruised beyond comprehension, he somehow remained upright. He was surrounded in a light blue aura—a sign that Torrent was active. He grabbed Dragonite from behind, putting him in a chokehold.
Williams' survival instincts instantly kicked in.
"Zap Cannon! Now, Raiden!" William screamed.
Eelektross roared, slithering through the waves—renewed with energy matching that of its owner. It opened its mouth wide, gathering large amounts of electric energy as the air hummed like a generator turning on and powering up.
"Protect, Aether!"
"Crush the barrier with Earthquake!"
Lochness mightily trembled, crushing the protective barrier—which had lost its effectiveness due to constant overuse—in its grip.
The bolt of lightning condensed and shrunk, layering foundations of fleeting thunder on top of each other. It compressed into tiny sizzling layers in the shape of a small ball holding unimaginable power.
"NOW!"
The small ball of lightning was released from the gaping jaws of Raiden. It zoomed through the air, hitting Dragonite directly in its stomach before exploding into a bomb of pure lightning—like an expanding spider web.
The attack consumed both of them in its entirety. William shielded his eyes, watching through small concentrated slits as cracks of lightning exploded and sparkled against the surface of the water and danced in the air.
For a moment, William worried for Lochness despite his immunity to electric type attacks.
When it had finally cleared, in the center of it all remained two smoking bodies. One of them had been harmed by the attack neutrally and paralysed, while the other was immune to the attack altogether because of its typing.
Lochness still remained behind Dragonite, trying to choke it out. The Dragonite crackled with electricity as it struggled to move.
However, the wave of paralysis soon passed, and the beast was unleashed.
"Dragon Rush!" Lance commanded.
The Dragonite roared with anger, eyes burning with intense concentration and fury. From behind, it utilised its strength to easily escape Lochness's grasp and tackled him into the water.
"Dive below, retreat!"
Lochness dived into the water, escaping the wrath of Dragonite. It surfaced a moment later, beside Raiden.
Both of his Pokemon were on their last legs, so to speak. Raiden wouldn't survive an attack from Dragonite, while Lochness was below 30% health—probably 10%.
But Torrent was active, and so was the rain, and so was the glaring weakness which plagued dragon and flying type Pokemon.
"Raiden, use Thunder! Maximum output!" William shouted.
Sparks flashed in the sky, and great bolts of lightning began to fall from the heavens like judgement from Zeus. Raiden poured absolutely everything he had into the attack.
The bolts steamed the ocean below, causing stray lightning to move toward Lochness and Raiden—only to harmlessly dissipate against their bodies.
Dragonite weaved through the chaos, shimmying through little pockets of open space, but then—
A timely tick of paralysis.
A beam of ice from Lochness. x4 effective.
The Dragonite stayed standing.
"Hurricane!" Lance ordered.
"Retreat below!" William said almost instantly. In the rain, this attack was bound to hit.
His two Pokemon dove beneath the water—safe. The same couldn't be said for him though.
A great wind formed and swept through the battlefield.
Valkyrie, his bird Pokemon, was made entirely of steel and weighed upwards of 50 kilograms—yet despite this, the wind was so fierce that Skarmory was thrashed about as if it weighed half a kilogram, spinning wildly like a destroyed jet. William held on for dear life, feeling the wind threaten to separate him from his ride.
As his Pokemon struggled to regain its bearings near the ocean floor, William let go with one hand and dug that hand into the water palm upwards. In a quick motion he then thrust it outside of the water.
It was a signal.
Finally, Valkyrie managed to regain its bearings. "Skar!" it cried.
It steadied itself just before the water clipped its wings and then soared upwards.
Upwards—just like the towering mountain of water that abruptly surged into the sky, with Lochness standing proudly atop it, riding the wave like a surfer.
It was similar to the move that had trapped Altaria before, only this time, instead of using the wave as a prison of ice, it was being used as a launchpad—carrying Lochness high into the sky, closing the gap between him and Dragonite in an instant.
Lochness rose at incredible speed—boosted by Torrent and his expert control over water energy—, appearing right in front of Dragonite within a second.
"No!" For the first time since the battle began, Lance showed visible concern.
He ordered his second Dragonite to assist—but a perfectly timed flash of thunder from Raiden sent it reeling backward. Raiden relaxed its body, exhausted from the constant use of attacks.
William didn't know why it had taken Lance so long to use his second Dragonite. Maybe it was pride—like he believed himself above needing to get directly involved. William had held back to avoid drawing too much attention—any more than he already had— to himself and to stay safely out of the fight. The countless near-death experiences had hammered that lesson in.
But now Lance was suffering for it. William had once held the strength in numbers, and Lance had willingly chosen not to use his full team—simply because he was sitting on one of his soldiers.
Again, pride came before the fall. But for Lance to fall, Lochness first needed to rise.
A cold ice energy wrapped itself around Lochness's right fist, shimmering over bones, muscles, tendons, and joints. The wave carried him forward and upward, and with the momentum behind him, he swung his bright iced fist containing all of the determination and strength of him and William combined.
Dragonite roared as it met the attack head-on with one of its own. Outrage. Its body glowed a deep, burning blue as the Dragonite went in for a punch as well.
BOOM
The world remained silent, waiting for the outcome. The towering wave that had carried Lochness upwards vanished.
Two Pokemon remained.
Lochness was the first to fall—not in defeat, but quite literally—as, without the wave to support him, he plummeted back into the ocean. He landed on the seafloor, looking up at Dragonite, who hovered above, swaying weakly from side to side, its tiny wings flapping just enough to keep it aloft.
And then, it stopped.
Dragonite fainted.
Lochness broke eye contact with the falling dragon—its body withdrawn into a pokeball mid-drop—and looked toward William.
They shared a smile.
Then Lochness collapsed.
It had ended.
Lance was the first to speak, "Even with your numbers advantage, and you're rain— I must give you credit for how well you have fought. Your Pokemon completely trust you, they are strong and work well together. You have my respect."
William didn't say anything.
"However, I still have the Pokemon I ride on. Eos. You have lost. Your electric Pokemon is weak and exhausted. Your Skarmory isn't suited for battle." he explained.
"Out of respect for fighting this much and this well—I implore you to give up. Give up and I won't track your boat you tried so hard to protect. Give up and I will ensure that when you are arrested, your Pokemon will not be wasted in their pokeballs and be given to respectful and kind and powerful trainers."
The ultimatum hung in the air.
"Heh." William laughed. "Tell me, do you really think I would surrender? Why do you think I have been fighting so desperately this whole time? No matter the outcome, surrender was never an option."
"Very well." Lance said. Eos—as he called it—tensed its muscles.
He prepared the Dragonite he rode on to battle, but in that moment, Taddy and Grace, Shelly's Pokemon, who he had been given as merely support Pokemon appeared by his side.
Williams' eyes widened. He turned to Lance.
"Now it is 4v1. Do you still like them odds?" William asked with a smile.
Lance narrowed his eyes, probably now just realising it was these two Pokemon who had kept up the rain and been responsible for the constant downpour in the past however long they had been fighting.
He let out a deep breath. "Ok. Let's call it a stalemate. If we fight again—when we fight again, I won't make the same mistake of not bringing my entire team. And you best be prepared, because I will destroy you—no matter how many Pokemon you bring."
And in a visual William never expected, William saw the back of Lance—William saw him retreating. The only two outcomes he had expected from this fight was death or retreating himself, never the one in front of him right now.
But now that the danger had gone, he felt awfully grateful he was alive. And now that he was alive, he needed to get back to business. Time and money and power awaited for no one, no matter how many near death experiences you go for.
William had a call to make—to the person he believed betrayed him and caused this entire mess.