After its Dragon-type bloodline had awakened again and again, Sceptile had come to master a wide range of Dragon-type moves. Against its former opponent, Hakamo-o, those moves could turn the tide of the match, and its opponent had no idea what was coming.
To make the most of that advantage, Willow had kept Sceptile's Dragon-type moves hidden throughout the fight, using weaker attacks as feints while she waited for the right opening. Just as she'd hoped, Hakamo-o, leaning too heavily on its own defense, finally took the bait and was badly hurt by a close-range Dragon Pulse.
Backed into a corner, Hakamo-o answered with a desperate gamble, throwing everything it had into Giga Impact. Sceptile answered with an ancient, flowing dance, its agile body slipping clean out of the attack's path, leaving Hakamo-o's strongest move to land on nothing but empty air. Riding the momentum of Dragon Dance, Sceptile surged forward with even greater speed than before.
"Sceptile, close in! Dragon Claw!"
There was no reason to hide the Dragon bloodline any longer, not now that it had already been revealed. Sceptile spun and closed the gap in a few swift bursts, arriving right in front of the Hakamo-o it had just dodged. Thick, dark purple energy wrapped around its outstretched claws as it struck without mercy.
Dragon-type moves are super effective against only one type: Dragon-type itself. This Dragon Claw tore into Hakamo-o far more deeply than the earlier, almost playful Slash attacks had managed, cutting straight through its scaled defenses and drawing blood.
"Roar! Roar, roar…"
Hakamo-o let out a furious cry, its eyes flashing crimson as it glared at Sceptile, breathing hard. Without waiting for a command, the enraged Hakamo-o launched its own counterattack. A white light flickered across its scaled fists, and it slammed one foot down hard enough to crack the arena floor before charging straight at Sceptile.
Close Combat: the user drops its guard entirely and throws itself at the opponent, sacrificing its own Defense and Special Defense in exchange for raw power.
It was a true double-edged blade, devastating in strength but risky by nature. If it failed to finish the job, that self-inflicted drop in defense could end up costing everything.
Sceptile had no intention of meeting that attack head-on. Hakamo-o held a clear edge in both power and defense, and trading blows would only end one way.
"Double Team!"
In an instant, seven or eight identical copies of Sceptile filled the arena. Unable to tell which one was real, Hakamo-o lashed out at the nearest illusion, and true to the odds, its strike missed entirely.
But Hakamo-o was no green rookie. The moment it shattered the decoy in front of it, it drove the leftover force of Close Combat straight into the ground. The arena floor shuddered under the impact, the shockwave rolling outward with all the force of an Earthquake. Before Willow could even enjoy the moment, that man-made tremor shattered every last one of Sceptile's copies, leaving it with nowhere left to hide.
Still furious, Hakamo-o barreled forward with Take Down, determined to settle the score. Caught off guard by the sudden follow-up, Sceptile took the full weight of the impact, its slender frame nearly buckling under Hakamo-o's far tougher build.
"Chamo…"
"Sceptile!"
Had it not been for the body-refining potion David had provided earlier, that hit alone might have been enough to knock Sceptile out of the fight, or at least leave it far weaker than before. As it was, Sceptile grit through the pain and quickly steadied itself, still able to fight on.
"Hakamo-o, full-power Outrage! Let it all out!"
Josiah's earlier confidence had faded. Hakamo-o's stamina was already past the halfway mark, and the wounds Sceptile had dealt it hadn't faded either. Sceptile, by comparison, was in noticeably better shape. With the fight already this far gone, Josiah decided to stake everything on one final, overwhelming move.
At its Trainer's command, Hakamo-o's fury climbed higher than ever. Its crimson eyes deepened to a bloody red, mist rolled off its body, and its frame seemed to swell with barely restrained power.
"Roar!!!"
Fully consumed by rage, Hakamo-o ignored everything in its path, its urge to destroy burning out of control as it attacked with wild, reckless abandon.
Outrage, the berserk move reserved for Dragon-types, first appeared back in the second generation of Pokémon and was once considered a signature move of the Dragonite line. Even now, it remains one of the most fearsome Dragon-type attacks in existence.
Watching Hakamo-o descend fully into its frenzy, with the two of them standing so close together, Willow knew there was no room left to dodge. The only path forward was to stand her ground and see it through.
She wasn't lacking the nerve for it.
"Sceptile, full-power Leaf Storm!"
It was the strongest move Sceptile had ever mastered.
"Chamo!"
In a flash, a swirling mass of emerald leaves gathered before Sceptile, then swept forward across the entire arena, crashing into the charging Hakamo-o under Sceptile's complete control.
"Roar!"
Blade-sharp leaves tore across Hakamo-o's body. Even through its thick scales, Hakamo-o began bleeding under the sheer force of the attack, and with its Special Defense already lowered from Close Combat, the damage landed even harder than it otherwise would have.
Before long, Hakamo-o was covered in wounds. Only its Dragon typing, which resisted the Grass-type energy behind Leaf Storm, kept it standing at all.
Even so, battered and bleeding, Hakamo-o refused to go down. The pain only stoked its rage further, and with the last of its strength, it drove itself forward one final time, throwing itself at Sceptile in one last desperate strike.
"Bang!"
Outrage's power was nothing to underestimate, and after pouring everything into that full-power Leaf Storm, Sceptile had nothing left to brace with. Hakamo-o's final blow sent it flying clear off its feet.
Having spent every last drop of its strength on that attack, Hakamo-o collapsed to the arena floor. Struck down by that same final blow, Sceptile fell as well.
This time, there was no dramatic twist. Neither Pokémon could rise again.
After a beat of silence, the referee Rotom's voice rang out across the arena.
"Both Pokémon are unable to battle! This match ends in a draw!"
The announcement left the members of Wyvern Academy, Josiah included, struggling to accept the result, and First High School's team wasn't faring much better. None of them had expected Josiah to fail to beat Willow. In their eyes, anything short of a clean win counted as a loss.
After all, Josiah was Wyvern Academy's team captain, their strongest ace, someone thought to stand shoulder to shoulder with David from First High School. Yet by every account they'd gathered beforehand, Willow wasn't even ranked among the top three battlers on First High School's team. How could a result like this make any sense to them?
Josiah's expression darkened on the stage. His face twitched once before he recalled Hakamo-o and walked off without another word.
Willow, meanwhile, was in high spirits. She understood well enough that the real gap between her and the true prodigies came down to time and the resources she'd started with. Getting this far against Josiah was more than enough to satisfy her.
The outcome wasn't the one she'd hoped for, but the tournament wasn't finished yet, and the next match was already waiting.