Meowscarada rode on Corviknight's broad back, watching the sand ahead. The instant it saw the enemy's Barbaracle raise its shell in Protect, Meowscarada struck first. Flower Trick tore free and slammed straight into the barrier.
At the same moment, a second attack it had kept hidden all along, a hail of Bullet Seed, shot out toward the Magneton stationed on the other flank. Meowscarada had been holding that one back the whole time, waiting for exactly this opening.
Both shields shattered at once.
Corviknight's Brave Bird had not even reached its target yet.
Cutting straight through the gap left by the two fallen defenders, Corviknight dove for the stocky man standing unprotected at the back of the line. Magneton rushed to intercept, trying to put its own body between Corviknight and the man.
But Corviknight's strike was never meant for a Pokémon. Knocking Magneton aside would accomplish little next to grounding a Trainer outright. So with a small twist of its tail feathers, Corviknight rolled through the air in a tight, impossible arc, slipping past both Magneton and the stocky man, and bent its dive toward the thin man instead.
The thin man had already reached for his remaining Poké Balls, but before he could throw one, all he saw was a streak of dark blue. His vision lurched, spun, and went black.
To the man wearing the blue headscarf, it looked as though the iron dark bird had simply changed direction in midair, faster than anything should be able to. One wing caught the thin man across the chest and sent him spinning upward like a thrown top. A long, deep gash opened across him, and blood scattered into the wind, mixing with the sand kicked up by the storm still raging around them.
The last two men finally understood what they were facing and began releasing their own Pokémon, hoping to box in the lone bird before it could strike again.
Meowscarada used the moment Corviknight climbed back into the sky to leap down from its perch.
It opened with Petal Blizzard. Twin waves of glowing petals rolled outward with the force of the following gust behind them, each petal carrying raw Grass-type energy that burst on contact. Most of the enemy's Ground and Rock types dropped where they stood.
Barbaracle, the Pokémon belonging to the man in the blue headscarf, fared worst of all. Moments earlier, even at level fifty-two, it had been harassing a Rhydon twenty levels its senior with Surf and Muddy Water, forcing the huge Rock type to scramble out of the way again and again. Now it was Barbaracle's turn to feel that same helplessness as the super-effective petals tore through it.
Four times the damage. There was no standing through that.
The blast radius wasn't really meant for any one target; Meowscarada threw it out mainly to clear itself a safe patch of ground to land on. The real plan, the one Nova had worked out beforehand, was never for Meowscarada to be the one finishing this fight. That job belonged to someone else entirely, the team's most trusted and most merciless heavy hitter.
Landing in a smooth roll of Acrobatics, Meowscarada pulled a Moon Ball from its cloak and threw it without a word, the choice already settled the moment it left its hand.
The enormous shape that emerged looked deeply unimpressed. "A little cat like you, giving the orders?" Nidoking grumbled.
Meowscarada answered with a graceful backflip, landing squarely on Nidoking's broad shoulder. Even standing nearly two meters tall itself, it looked almost small perched up there, legs swinging lazily off the side as if settling in for a comfortable ride.
Once it felt Meowscarada steady itself, Nidoking planted its feet and drove Earthquake down into the dune. The ground split, buckled, and folded in on itself under the force. Every person and Pokémon caught nearby were dragged into the collapsing sand as, beneath the still-howling storm, half the hillside gave way and came pouring down like a wave of dry rain.
Meowscarada stared at the devastation, a little stunned. It realized, almost too late, that Nidoking's thick hide and raw strength would carry it through the collapse without a scratch. Meowscarada itself, light and soft as it was, would come out the other side buried and, worse, absolutely filthy.
Nova would not be pleased with a dirty cat.
Luckily, Corviknight banked hard and swept back down just in time to scoop it out of danger.
Meowscarada recalled Nidoking into the Moon Ball and launched itself skyward again with another burst of Acrobatics, the move still new to it but already flowing naturally through the coiled power in its slender frame. It twisted and turned through the air with striking grace before settling back down onto Corviknight's back.
Two of the enemy's flying types were still aloft, buffeted helplessly by the storm now that the Trainers who might have directed them were buried below. Leaderless, with the sandstorm working against them, they stood little chance. Corviknight brought down the Dustox and the Unfezant without much trouble at all.
By the time the sandstorm finally died down, the outcome was already settled.
Nova had stayed roughly three kilometers back from the dune where the fight had unfolded, a distance that would take forty minutes to cross on foot even in open country, let alone across the shifting sand of the Tamar Desert. Closing that gap himself was never an option. Fortunately, Vibrava was larger than most of its kind, its body stretching past 1.8 meters, strong and steady enough to carry Nova a short distance through the air without strain.
Even so, Nova held back from approaching the collapsed dune directly. He couldn't be certain the ground Nidoking had torn open wouldn't give way again, and pressing forward carelessly would only invite unnecessary risk. He was cautious by nature besides, unwilling to move in until he was certain none of the fallen Trainers still had any fight left in them.
So he had Vibrava set him down about half a kilometer from the wreckage, then called Corviknight back to rejoin him. Once Corviknight touched down beside him with Meowscarada still riding on its back, Nova released his second wave of Pokémon.