Noctowl vs Ether's Bane

[Noctowl]

Erm, just realised that my substitute has vanished. Did it die?

 

[allitersonance]

Hey, I'm your new ref.

After rereading, it looks like the substitute should be intact until the third action. Since Kallamehr's attacks didn't connect, the third action is revised to a play rough. I'll just change the third action.

I can't edit the old post, but here's what the revised third action + ending summary for round four should look like:

As the klefki charges again, his keys charged with the faint pink glow of fairy energy, the forgotten sandile-shaped doll jumps up to meet him. Kallamehr playfully smacks his keys into the doll's body, grinning all the while, as though he isn't smacking his victim with metal weapons. They're dull, like play swords, anyway...! Fortunately, the doll doesn't seem to mind even though the keys slice right through its body and shred it to pieces. Snap, unharmed, takes the opportunity slap more mud into his face.

As this point, Kallamehr can barely see, but, well, no matter. He could feel his attacks connect with something, so he's content with that. If only he had hands to wipe off some of the mud, though...

Noctowl [O]

[Snap] Sandile (F) Moxie
Health: 36 | Substitute: Broken
Energy: 65
Protect ~ Mud-Slap ~ Mud-Slap
Status: Not a tad ill.

Ether’s Bane [O]

[Kallamehr] Klefki (M) Prankster @ Lucky Egg
Health: 47
Energy: 53
[confused] ~ Play Rough (missed) ~ Play Rough
Status: Definitely tired and emotional.
Attack +2, Accuracy -2
Confused (light)

In light of this, I'll give you a chance to re-issue commands; Noctowl goes first.

 

[Noctowl]

Thanks for taking this up!
Let's get earthy in here with some earthquakes! If you are tormented, do earth power instead for your second turn. If Klefki protects, use hone claws.

Earthquake/Hone claws~Earthquake/Earth power/Hone claws~Earthquake/Hone claws

 

[allitersonance]

Timestamp on your post shows that you probably saw mine before I edited, but this final version is what I'll be going with. FYI.

 

[Ether's Bane]

Magnet Rise, then Play Rough twice, but if at any time Magnet Rise fails, use it until it works.

Magnet Rise ~ Play Rough/Magnet Rise ~ Play Rough/Magnet Rise

 

[allitersonance]

Noctowl vs Ether’s Bane​

Spoiler: Challenge details

Format: 1v1 Singles
Style: Set
DQ: 1 week
Damage Cap: 35%
Banned/Restricted Moves: OHKOs, Rest
Arena Description: A small forest, with a few ogres sleeping in some camps in little alcoves in the forest. They will tend to leave pokemon alone, unless directly attacked, then they will do 5% damage to the nearest pokemon and go back to sleep.

The referee is still gone, after having been taken by that swarm of bees; despite leaving its ref baton behind, it seems the battle can’t proceed much further without an actual referee present. It takes several long moments for one of the battlers to see a notice posted elsewhere of said referee’s apparently permanent leave of absence. Fortunately the league has procedures to deal with this situation, and a simple call later, another referee teleports in with another swarm of bees and picks up the baton to continue the battle. The bees awkwardly leave, not really sure why they’re here, and a few minutes later there’s some ogre-ish yelling and some distant buzzing as if there’s another battle beginning in these woods.

Noctowl [O]

[Snap] Sandile (F) Moxie
Health: 36
Energy: 65
Earthquake / Hone Claws ~ Earthquake / Earth Power / Hone Claws ~ Earthquake / Hone Claws
Status: Not a tad ill.

Ether’s Bane [O]

[Kallamehr] Klefki (M) Prankster @ Lucky Egg
Health: 47
Energy: 53
Magnet Rise ~ Play Rough / Magnet Rise ~ Play Rough / Magnet Rise
Status: Definitely tired and emotional.
Attack +2, Accuracy -2
Confused (light)

Round Five

With a clinking of his keys, Kallamehr makes a minor adjustment to the way the metal in his body interacts with magnetic fields, more specifically, that one specific dynamo originating somewhere far below his trainer’s feet. He finds himself floating a little higher, which doesn’t feel too different except that he can hardly detect the ground under his feet at all. Snap, though, isn’t paying attention to the difference—instead, as ordered, she looks for the distortion in the air that would indicate the presence of a barrier. Seeing none, she instead stomps on the ground, sending a shockwave that rather thoroughly shakes the ground and tears up the roots around the trees and does absolutely nothing to the pokémon she’s actually targeting.

Kallamehr can’t feel a thing, but he can hear the ground rumbling, and he has a sort of nasty grin on his face. Serves that arrogant jerk right, to have her plans go awry. And wouldn’t it be even more fun to bring the fight to her? He dives at her, keys glittering with some sort of energy, but with the mud in his eyes, he mistimes the attack. Snap flattens to the ground, nearly finding herself grazed by the keys, but more importantly, setting off another earthquake that causes the trainers to have to brace themselves to prevent from falling. One tree, its roots freed or torn thanks to the repeated quakes, topples over.

With a huff, Kallamehr turns around and charges again. This time his keys connect quite soundly with Snap’s body, and he laughs with every smack of his keys. But it’s the same sort of laughter as someone tearing the wings off a ledyba, and Snap finds herself unmoved. Instead, she shoves him off and thwacks the ground with her tail. Once more, the ground shakes and the trees sway and Kallamehr feels absolutely nothing. More than that, Kallamehr actually feels a bit more in control of himself now, calmer after having taken out his frustration on his opponent, and he gazes upon Snap with lucid, though still mud-covered, eyes.

End of Round Five

Noctowl [O]

[Snap] Sandile (F) Moxie
Health: 15
Energy: 53
Earthquake (miss) ~ Earthquake (miss) ~ Earthquake (miss)
Status: Hurt and pissed off and worried about how things are going.

Ether’s Bane [O]

[Kallamehr] Klefki (M) Prankster @ Lucky Egg
Health: 47
Energy: 41
Magnet Rise ~ Play Rough (miss) ~ Play Rough
Status: Feeling calmer, but still having difficulty seeing. Floating in the air (2 more actions).
Accuracy -2

Notes:
- All of the earthquakes missed thanks to magnet rise.
- I guess ogres didn’t happen with previous earthquakes so I’ll follow the precedent there.
- Kallamehr’s first play rough missed.
- Kallamehr’s attack returned to normal after swagger’s effect faded at the end of the third action.

Next round:
- Ether’s Bane issues commands
- Noctowl issues commands

 

[Ether's Bane]

Okay, let's take it home.

Spam Play Rough, but if Snap uses Swagger, use Protect.

Play Rough/Protect ~ Play Rough/Protect ~ Play Rough/Protect

 

[Noctowl]

gg WP

Torment~Protect~Dig

 

[allitersonance]

One- or two-action dig, Noctowl?

 

[Noctowl]

Just the one. :)

 

[allitersonance]

Noctowl vs Ether’s Bane​

Spoiler: Challenge details

Format: 1v1 Singles
Style: Set
DQ: 1 week
Damage Cap: 35%
Banned/Restricted Moves: OHKOs, Rest
Arena Description: A small forest, with a few ogres sleeping in some camps in little alcoves in the forest. They will tend to leave pokemon alone, unless directly attacked, then they will do 5% damage to the nearest pokemon and go back to sleep.

Noctowl [O]

[Snap] Sandile (F) Moxie
Health: 15
Energy: 53
Torment ~ Protect ~ Dig
Status: Hurt and pissed off and worried about how things are going.

Ether’s Bane [O]

[Kallamehr] Klefki (M) Prankster @ Lucky Egg
Health: 47
Energy: 41
Play Rough / Protect ~ Play Rough / Protect ~ Play Rough / Protect
Status: Feeling calmer, but still having difficulty seeing. Floating in the air (2 more actions).
Accuracy -2

Round Six

The end is near. Kallamehr can feel it. Snap is hanging on to her last bit of consciousness, and Kallamehr can take that all down with one blow. It’s hard to see with the mud in his eyes, but all he has to do is… strike!

Snap watches him fly harmlessly past her with some relief. And his miss gives her the perfect opening, too. She mocks his repeated attempts at playing rough with her, and how despite how much he relies on it, how unreliable the move actually is. She mocks him for using such an inaccurate move and how his constant missing shows that she’s just destined to win. In fact, just relying so much on any single move is pretty stupid, isn’t it? Surely he’s not intending to do the same thing three times in a row—her voice becomes more vicious here—because he’ll probably just keep missing as he futilely follows his trainer’s commands out of a misplaced sense of duty. Kallamehr can’t help but react to the dark undertone to her words. She’s right, isn’t she? Attacking with play rough all the time is kind of stupid. Attacking with anything all the time is kind of stupid. He should do pretty much anything else. But his trainer wants him to do it now, he can’t just pretend he misheard orders… but he can’t bring himself to attack the same way again, he doesn’t feel playful at all.

Snap blinks as nothing comes at her this time, the faint transparent bubble of her shield being struck by nothing. Oh, right, that’s her fault, isn’t it? Whoops. She drops it just in time for Kallamehr to gather himself and charge at her again, but again he misses by a narrow margin, nearly scratching Snap’s snout. Snap laughs, then notices that Kallamehr is now hovering a little lower over the ground this time, his keys nearly touching the torn-up forest floor. Excellent.

She practically dives into the dirt, her front claws a storm of motion that tears through the ground even more easily than an earthquake. She takes a shallow route to where she knows he was last hovering, and, not even stopping for breath, emerges from under him with an explosion of dirt. Kallamehr yelps in shock as much as pain—he’d forgotten he was no longer safe—and he quickly moves out of the way, though with new scratches and dents in his keyring to show for it. He glares in Snap’s general direction. Even if she’s survived this long, he can still end this in one blow. That’s better than she can say. Just… maybe another kind of blow.

End of Round Six

Noctowl [O]

[Snap] Sandile (F) Moxie
Health: 15
Energy: 39
Torment ~ Protect ~ Dig
Status: Highly amused and hoping this battle can actually get turned around.

Ether’s Bane [O]

[Kallamehr] Klefki (M) Prankster @ Lucky Egg
Health: 32
Energy: 33
Play Rough (miss) ~ tormented ~ Play Rough (miss)
Status: Frustrated that he hasn’t won yet. Tormented by terrible luck and also in general (1 more action, for the status at least).
Accuracy -2

Notes:
- Both play roughs missed.
- Torment prevented Kallamehr’s play rough on the second action.

Next round:
- Noctowl issues commands
- Ether’s Bane issues commands

 

[Noctowl]

Heh heh, sorry about that. Let's just fire fang. If tormented yourself, feel free to mix things up with thunder fang on the second action.

Fire fang~Fire fang/Thunder fang~Fire fang

 

[Ether's Bane]

Torment first, to prevent a triple Fire Fang. You should be able to survive a Fire Fang and a Thunder Fang, so use Toxic. Finally, Protect on the third action.

Torment ~ Toxic ~ Protect

 

[allitersonance]

Noctowl vs Ether’s Bane​

Spoiler: Challenge details

Format: 1v1 Singles
Style: Set
DQ: 1 week
Damage Cap: 35%
Banned/Restricted Moves: OHKOs, Rest
Arena Description: A small forest, with a few ogres sleeping in some camps in little alcoves in the forest. They will tend to leave pokemon alone, unless directly attacked, then they will do 5% damage to the nearest pokemon and go back to sleep.

Noctowl [O]

[Snap] Sandile (F) Moxie
Health: 15
Energy: 39
Fire Fang ~ Fire Fang / Thunder Fang ~ Fire Fang
Status: Highly amused and hoping this battle can actually get turned around.

Ether’s Bane [O]

[Kallamehr] Klefki (M) Prankster @ Lucky Egg
Health: 32
Energy: 33
Torment ~ Toxic ~ Protect
Status: Frustrated that he hasn’t won yet. Tormented by terrible luck and also in general (1 more action, for the status at least).
Accuracy -2

Round Seven

…w-well, maybe Kallamehr shouldn’t be spamming the same move all the time, but what about Snap? Didn’t she do the thing with the earthquakes? And he bets she’s going to try to spam the same move this time too, because she’s got that stupid hope that she can win when he can take her out pretty easily at this point.

Snap winces, unable to deny the truth of that, but… well, it’s okay. Her trainer had the foresight to deal with this. Flames erupt from her teeth and she dives at Kallamehr and shows off her namesake—her jaws snap down on Kallamehr’s keyring, the flames melting the metal, although she winces when she dislodges her fangs. She full-out cringes when she gets a face-full of poison, fortunately missing her eyes but unfortunately getting right in her mouth. Maybe doing that again isn’t a good idea. She spits out the poison, then decides to try something else. Electricity crackles around her fangs instead of flames, and she leaps at Kallamehr and snaps down again. Her fangs hurt more than before—the lightning not doing much to soften the metal—but Kallamehr’s cry, more of pain than mere shock, tells her she’s really struck home. She pushes off again and offers a toothy grin to the new bite-marks along the metal bit sticking out of the top of his head. She probably could’ve done something stronger, but it’s hard to argue with these results.

It’d be bad to spam that attack just because it worked, though, right. She probably has better things in her arsenal than fire fang too, but as long as it’s different from last time maybe he won’t adapt to it too much. Flames lick at her fangs and she dives at him again, but this time is blocked by a familiar transparent barrier.

Kallamehr drops the shield, a bit relieved that didn’t hit, but now that the dark tendrils of Snap’s words are no longer clinging to his soul, he can’t help but wonder if he shouldn’t have spammed something after all.

End of Round Seven

Noctowl [O]

[Snap] Sandile (F) Moxie
Health: 14
Energy: 30
Fire Fang ~ Thunder Fang (crit) ~ Fire Fang (blocked)
Status: Trying to ignore her nausea, and otherwise feeling pretty good.
Poisoned (toxic, 1% this round)

Ether’s Bane [O]

[Kallamehr] Klefki (M) Prankster @ Lucky Egg
Health: 11
Energy: 20
Torment ~ Toxic ~ Protect
Status: Hurt and exhausted and kind of wishing he’d just attacked instead.
Accuracy -2

Notes:
- Thunder fang scored a critical hit.
- The second fire fang was blocked by protect.
- You guys do know I’ve been speed-reffing because I wanted the battle to end at some point, right?

Next round:
- Ether’s Bane issues commands
- Noctowl issues commands

 

[Ether's Bane]

Time to go all-in.

Spam Play Rough. If Snap Protects with her first or second action, Reflect. If you are Tormented on your third action, use Flash Cannon.

Play Rough/Reflect ~ Play Rough/Reflect ~ Play Rough/Flash Cannon

 

[Noctowl]

Sorry! D:

Fire fang all the way baby.

Fire fang~Fire fang~Fire fang

 

[allitersonance]

Noctowl vs Ether’s Bane​

Spoiler: Challenge details

Format: 1v1 Singles
Style: Set
DQ: 1 week
Damage Cap: 35%
Banned/Restricted Moves: OHKOs, Rest
Arena Description: A small forest, with a few ogres sleeping in some camps in little alcoves in the forest. They will tend to leave pokemon alone, unless directly attacked, then they will do 5% damage to the nearest pokemon and go back to sleep.

Noctowl [O]

[Snap] Sandile (F) Moxie
Health: 14
Energy: 30
Fire Fang ~ Fire Fang ~ Fire Fang
Status: Trying to ignore her nausea, and otherwise feeling pretty good.
Poisoned (toxic, 2% this round)

Ether’s Bane [O]

[Kallamehr] Klefki (M) Prankster @ Lucky Egg
Health: 11
Energy: 20
Play Rough / Reflect ~ Play Rough / Reflect ~ Play Rough / Flash Cannon
Status: Hurt and exhausted and kind of wishing he’d just attacked instead.
Accuracy -2

Round Eight

The referee, pen poised over the cheques given out to the winning and losing trainers, pauses as it hears the last set of orders. Then it stares up at the sky for a very long time.

Meanwhile, Kallamehr’s desire to end the battle with one strike has finally aligned with that of his trainer’s, and he dives at Snap—and straight past her. She turns around, more fire spewing from her fangs, and snaps at his keys, but Kallamehr twists out of the way and dives at her a second time. He goes flying past her shoulder again, and she turns to dive at him again, this time her bite actually meeting its mark. Kallamehr tears himself from her jaws, shaking now—barely holding onto consciousness and tired besides—and he wonders how it ever came to this. If that attack had been stronger, he would have actually lost, a thought that would have been impossible just a few rounds ago. He shakes himself with another clinking of keys. This time, he knows, the battle will actually be decided. Snap meets his eyes with the same determination. It’ll come down to luck and aim, now.

And this time Kallamehr’s aim is true. He dives at Snap, and she’s too slow to get out of the way. A playful drive bubbles up within Kallamehr, relief and anticipation of victory mixing into something almost like joy, and he smacks Snap with his keys, emitting a laugh that sounds more hysterical than fun. And this, as promised, is too much for Snap. The playful blows are still heavy enough to hurt, and a final strike upside her jaw sends the last threads of her consciousness floating away.

End of Battle

Noctowl [O]

[Snap] Sandile (F) Moxie
Health: 0
Energy: 24
Fire Fang (miss) ~ Fire Fang
Status: Fainted.
Poisoned (toxic, 2% this round)

Ether’s Bane [O]

[Kallamehr] Klefki (M) Prankster @ Lucky Egg
Health: 2
Energy: 8
Play Rough (miss) ~ Play Rough (miss) ~ Play Rough
Status: Victorious—barely.
Accuracy -2

Noctowl recalls her sandile, and Kallamehr tiredly drifts toward his trainer for a hug or maybe some commiseration. Seeing how close Kallamehr is to unconsciousness himself, Ether’s Bane recalls the klefki too. Victory celebrations or commiserations can come later.

The referee buries its head in its hands, then quickly scribbles out something written on the cheques before handing them to Ether’s Bane and Noctowl, not even bothering to stuff them into professional-looking envelopes this time. Granted, these are somewhat of a relic from ancient times when cheques had to be given to the bank rather than entered automatically, but they’re probably symbolic of… something. They’d look the part if not for the numerous scratched-out names on the pay to the order of lines.

It firmly ignores all comments along the lines of hey, that was a close battle, wasn’t it, and sends out a gallade to drag everyone back to Asber.

Notes:
- Kallamehr’s first two play roughs missed. What did you do to so drastically offend the random number gods, Ether’s Bane? (Twice now you would’ve won early if you’d used dazzling gleam instead of play rough, as it has a 10% higher accuracy rating. That’s ignoring torment and the entire seventh round, of course. Alas, your choices and the whims of chance never aligned.)
- Snap’s first fire fang missed too. (I almost thought you were gaming Ether’s Bane to not think about magnet rise last round, so that you could finish him off with earthquake this round. It would’ve worked!)
- Snap fainted on the third action.
- Ether’s Bane wins the battle.

Prizes:
- Ether’s Bane receives $8 for winning. Kallamehr receives 2 exp and 2 happiness.
- Noctowl receives $4. Snap receives 2 exp and 1 happiness.
- I get $5.

Note that lucky egg comes into effect for the pokémon sent in holding it, and that acquiring the lucky egg later has no effect whatsoever.