[ti]closed[/ti][C/Alicia][Arena] Crumbling Clash

"No joke, I am a bit nervous," Shalin answered, physically jittery as she held Reynir's and Ellie's Poké Balls in her hands. "You're a lot stronger than I am, but I'd be more comfortable fighting you than randoms on ladder." It showed how much their friendship was blossoming that she would be more willing to fight a friend at a level disadvantage rather than grind ladder. PVP against randoms was always a wild card. "Before we get started, I'm just confirming you're giving me a one-Pokémon handicap, right?" The match was listed as 6v6, but in reality, it was 6v5, provided Alicia had agreed to it. She would surrender if five of her Pokémon collapsed.

Regardless of whether Alicia acknowledged the agreement, Shalin would thrust her two Poké Balls toward the arena's center. As the Galarian Ponyta and Phanpy touched down with a thud, cracks began to spread from the center of the large, chessboard-like platform to its edges. Wasting no time, Reynir and Ellie got to work double-teaming Fumar, galloping and stomping toward the Carkol. When it looked like there would be friendly fire from the ground-type stomping and BULLDOZING everything around it, Reynir leaped out of range in a burst of tremendous AGILITY, free from the hazards of the wide-reaching, indiscriminate attack.

And with that, the metaphorical bell sounded, the one Pokémon handicap in place. Fumar had chosen fight over flight, the Carkol's retreat preventing Ellie from striking a nasty critical hit. To be able to withstand a tantrum like that, the fossil Pokémon had to be quite strong. She let up for a brief moment, taking a spherical form with a DEFENSE CURL. Unlike the hillsides she was used to battling on, the flat island high above the ground had no elevation changes. Her follow-up attack would only be able to hit ground-bound Pokémon.

Crios towered over Reynir, but could she snatch the psychic horse mid-gallop? The Onix did, causing him to trip and whinny loudly. Where a Kantonian Ponyta would have been helpless again the Onix, this one was far from it. "Nice try," Shalin smirked. "That won't work on Reynir like it does traditional Ponyta. Use CONFUSION!" she chirped. Every swirl of multicolored hide and mane glowed a hot pink, the young equine mentally pushing back against the giant snake's constricting body in an effort to escape. The pink glow spread to the Onix's head area and wherever Alicia's partner was grappling him before becoming almost painfully bright to look at. "Can't make getting a ring-out that easy!"

Shalin was ready to press her advantage gained from forcing Fumar's withdrawal. The Tatsugiri, despite being water-type, was a smaller target, making it more susceptible to being bowled over with the potent ROLLOUT attack. It would be a risky play, given the size of the arena and that there were no walls to deaden her momentum, but it was the best defense she could come up with.

After all, it was common wisdom that the best defense was a good offense.

With a short leap, the Phanpy curled up, rolled, and bounced toward Alicia's Pokémon. As soon as she landed, she performed a sharp U-turn, leaving a grey trail as her body produced a squealing noise akin to a vehicle slamming on its brakes.

The psychic-type, seeing the crushing attack coming, braced himself for the impact. It was a heavy one, too, causing the Ponyta to fall on his side and whinny loudly in pain. He seemed helpless and motionless as the floor beneath him began to crack and crumble. Stirring and shaking after a long few seconds, the psychic-type created a vortex of FAIRY WIND around the two, trying to keep them both above the crumbling outer ring of tiles. He wouldn't last much longer, but he was taking the Onix with him in his last heroic effort!

The ground-type fell for the TAUNT, the skid marks beneath her growing more and more dense as her ROLLOUT grew in speed and intensity. Even under pressure of such a strong attack, the Tatsugiri floated defiantly. It didn't take long to realize, both from her stance and from her speech, that she was expecting the attack. "Change of plans, Ellie! Bounce off--"

Too late.

Seeing red from the TAUNT, Shalin's Pokémon screeched toward the dragon-type almost too fast to track. Inflating her body at the precise moment the swift combatant passed, her partner had catapulted sky high, RING OUT flashing in the center of her HUD the moment she was out of bounds.

Knowing he was a goner, Reynir shifted his FAIRY WIND to be in Crios' face, making it harder for the snake to crawl away. Shalin crossed her fingers that the gambit could buy enough time as the outer layer of stone tiles began falling away, one by one. A likely double RING OUT.

"You're... amazing," Shalin exhaled, reaching for the Poké Balls containing her two bugs, expecting the rock-type keeping them at bay to be gone. "The timing on that Taunt had to be pretty close to frame perfect." After their brief chat, two more Pokémon would enter the fray on the now-smaller platform: a Yanma and Pheromosa whose churning wings may have made it difficult to hear...

Shylla's cloud of STUN SPORE blanketed the inner part of the crumbling arena in paralyzing pollen, forcing Flit and Nymris backward. "I'm not giving up yet, though. Flit's mandibles aren't his only weapons, you know!" Shalin taunted as the dragonfly hovered just outside the edge of the cloud's radius. Closing his eyes, he loosed a headache-inducing, SUPERSONIC wave of vibration that made even Shalin squint. Alicia had seen Shalin ride those wings before, and was likely aware of what the loud attack could do.

Nymris danced around erratically, looking CONFUSED. So confused that he performed a spinning TRIPLE KICK, kept going, and crashed near where Flit was creating his racket. In addition to the Ultra Beast being beautiful and fast, he was crafty. The only sign that Alicia might be able to notice was the lack of a three-stars icon above the Pheromosa. If she wasn't paying very close attention, she might not see that Shalin's Pokémon was feigning being confused... which could lead to a devastating retaliatory strike!

Nym's MUDDY WATER left Shalin in a tight spot. Her instinct led to having Flit try to ward the wave off. "DETECT, Flit!" she ordered, the Yanma fluttering loudly in an effort to part the waters. It did little to stop the enhanced water=type attack, washing him out of the sky and toward the edge of the crumbling battleground... where yet another row of blocks fell from underneath him. He, too, was forcibly recalled back to Shalin's belt, the Tatsugiri scoring yet another RING OUT.

The vibrations pushed the water aside in places, making its density low enough for Nymris to adroitly leap through it and toward Nym in a whirling TRIPLE KICK the Tatsugiri may not have been expecting. Wasn't that Pheromosa confused just before? With the platform being roughly half its original size, the Ultra Beast's melee attacks were growing increasingly dangerous...