Al Stahlzahn and Les Furtein quickly moved out towards the ring in order to recover their fallen and marginally conscious teammate, Markus Fulmine. Ellis Belton watched on a bit unsure about what to do before she just smiled apologetically and headed back over towards her side of the battle area where her teammates either snickered or shook their head at the after battle hug. Shroud set down the Pachirisu carefully as a medic came over in order to make sure their fallen comrade wasn’t going to be out of commission for long if at all. Les just sighed again and motioned for Greg Avaler, their team’s sophomore and Swalot, to get in there; which he did with a measure and apathetic gait.

“Go to it, Molly,” Tamara Tellamapolou told her friend as the two bumped fists for a moment. Jasper Drake leaned in to give the Combusken a good luck kiss before she trotted out and stood across from the larger student. Quietly the two sized one another up as the referee looked between them and held her hand for a moment. Molly Johnson assumed her usual kickboxing pose as her arms rose and a knee angled itself as if ready to move suddenly. Greg seemed to do little to prepare as he simply stood there and watched his fellow combatant.

“Ready?” Referee Suzuka Ishikawa looked between them and waited for half a second before her hand shot downward,” Begin!”

Molly wasted little time as she lashed out with the first attack; her clawed foot reached out and brought itself down and across the Swalot’s body and flared with dark energy. Greg let out a bit of a grunt at the impact as he staggered back a step and quickly retaliated. His mouth opened wide as a massive gout of poisonous gunk spewed forth in what seemed to be an easy counter. Molly’s flexibility paid off in spades as she leaned back and managed to avoid a majority of the Shot as it flew over her head. The Combusken didn’t hesitate as her foot came out again for a pair of quick strikes against the mass of Greg’s body. Thankfully for him the attacks did little as she danced backwards again and out of his direct line of attack.

The two stared across from one another for a moment as if they waited for the other to strike first. Molly knew she needed to get up close even if it’d do so much for her but wanted to hit him at the right moment. Greg didn’t seem to move so much as swivel as he watched her. Finally he acted first as his mouth erupted in a spew of nasty and noxious gasses and liquids. The sudden attack caught Molly off guard as it sprayed over her and left her with a sense of revulsion. She knew that she had little time at this point as the poison started to take over. The Combusken crouched in on herself for a moment as she concentrated and prepared her next action. That action was to spring forward again and slash with her foot across his body, the same dark energy as before encasing her clawed foot. Greg once again took the blow as he weebled back and then wobbled forward to smack himself into her and staggered the Combusken back a few feet.

Molly muttered to herself for a moment and reached into herself once more before she struck again, this time her foot blazed with fire as she dealt Greg another blow. The Swalot took it all in stride as it didn’t seem to end him as it could have and he retaliated once more by simply smacking her with the majority of his bulk. The blow was enough to cause her to stagger before she recovered and shot out with her feet in quick succession once again. He still did not fall though this time he mixed things up a bit and spat out another mass of gunk at her. This one caught Molly as the belched and vile secretion washed over her. She immediately wanted a bath and knew she had to end the battle quickly if she was to survive the poison that continued to sap the strength from her. Her foot lashed out again as it flared to life and smacked Greg across the face in the first attack that caused him to move with any appreciable distance. Still he stood and refused to go down as yawned directly in her face.

She knew then that this was going to be her only shot if she was going to win and kicked Greg with all the strength and energy that she still possessed to drive her fiery foot into his massive bulk. Her claws struck true as they ripped across his body and sent him towards the arena floor where he thudded hard and didn’t move. Molly stood there for a second in hopes that she’d be declared the winner; though her luck didn’t hold out. As the Poison took its toll her eyes rolled back as her form went limp and soon collapsed on the ground as well. Suzuka looked between the two before her arms quickly shot up.

“Neither combatant is able to continue!” She quickly declared, “Match ends in a draw!” Both teams rushed out to check on their fallen comrades to make sure they were okay as a pair of medics came in as well. Greg had taken a fierce beating and was slow to get up even after some treatment had been applied to him. Molly struggled as well given that she’d taken the brunt of some nasty gunk though an Antidote quickly cleared it up. Jasper held the Combusken carefully as the medic did their work until Molly’s eyes finally fluttered open.

“Are you all right, Molly?” Jasper asked concern evident in his face.

“I do believe I will…be okay, Jasper,” She answered before she started to force her way up. Jasper kept her from moving to much as he gently picked her up and carried her towards the sidelines. Molly didn’t fight him overly much on it as she was still very weak from the wounds she’d received on the battle. The other members of TasiMiti followed suit except for Tamara who stood in the ring and turned towards the other side as she waited her turn. The battle was coming down to her versus Les and she wasn’t about to let him be her first loss. The Lopunny also turned and looked towards Tamara with fierce determination as he was ready to make their first battle a win and prove his dominance over another potential doubter. Suzuka quickly stepped and made sure they were both ready. Each battler gave indication they were prepared before her hand came up and then swiftly lowered itself.

“Begin!”

Les wasted little time as he charged forward as the voice of his girlfriend Katrina cheered him on to victory. The Lopunny brought his clenched hand up with a determined look as he was ready to show just what he could do. His fist swiftly and brutally swung at the Poliwhirl who hadn’t moved a step out of the way which drew a bit of a smile from Les as he threw a hard Dizzy Punch at her! A moment later he blinked a couple of times as he realized Tamara wasn’t there and started to look around. Two solid blows to his ribs let Les know that Tamara had just delivered a hard pair of heavy punches, one that left him cold and slightly frosted on his shirt, to his side. Jumping out of the way the Lopunny turned to look at Tam with a frown.

“Keep goin’, Luv!” Katrina called out from the stands towards Les.

“You kin do eet, Tamara mon!” Barry, Tamara’s boyfriend, added to it. Both the battlers looked at one another for a second before the Lopunny moved forward with blinding speed as a pink trail streaked behind him. Les’ fist came up again as he swung once more at the Poli, his speed giving him a bit of an advantage as it connected firmly. The Lopunny could feel as some energy drained out of his opponent on impact as he allowed himself a hint of a smile. Tamara spun in a circle as she brought her arms up and formed an ax-handle attack with them. Water jetted from her fists as they held together and slammed into the back of her opponent’s head which sent him spinning as well. Les righted himself before he could fall to the ground and growled in her direction. Tam shook herself a bit but stood there seriously and waited.

It was Les’ move again as he charged once more and decided to allow all of his Frustration from the fight pour out of himself and into his attack. Instead of doing a charge to punch he charged to try and tackle her which proved unsuccessful as she stepped to the side. Tamara swung her fist hard at the other ‘mon in hopes of catching him off-guard though it didn’t work as she expected. Les’ had planned for her to dodge and instead of waiting for her blow to land he dodged himself and then through himself against her in a shoulder tackle. Tamara took the full brunt of the attack and flew back a few steps; Les rushed take advantage and threw another Dizzy Punch at the Poil which landed solidly and sent her back another step. Tamara shook her head for a moment and was thankful the attack hadn’t confused her. She glanced up in time to see Les swing for her once again only this time she was ready and ducked below the punch. Instead of throwing her own back at him the Poli aimed for the back of his head and let out a burst of concentrated water against him and caused Les to sprawl forward onto the arena floor.

The Lopunny didn’t wait as he pushed himself up quickly but painfully. He turned once more and looked at the Poli who seemed to be in pretty good shape and moved along spryly. He wasn’t happy at the fact that she’d danced around him so easily and knew that he had to strike quickly to end it. His body blurred as he put on another burst of speed and charged hard and fierce towards the Poli. Tamara didn’t seem to move for the longest moment as the Lopunny barreled in at her. Les lowered his head at the last minute and prepared for a tremendous impact that would’ve finished her off for sure! Only, there was no impact.

He sputtered and pushed and tried to stop before he could fall and almost managed to succeed, except that Tamara suddenly struck and helped him along as she slammed her fists into his back once again. The water-jet fueled force was enough to bounce him off the ground before he finally settled and didn’t move very far anymore. Suzuka watched for a moment to make sure that he wasn’t going to move before her hand came up to call the end.

“Lesley Furtein is unable to continue!” Suzuka declared, “Tamara Tellamapolou is the winner of the battle and the match goes to Team TasiMiti!” Tam’s team let out a whoop as they moved onto the battle area and headed for their team leader for a quick celebration. The teammates all hugged one another and threw high fives as their record reached an impressive nine and zero.

On the other side of the area Team Shroud made their way on to go check on Les who continued to groan in pain. Al and Markus, who’d finally recovered from his own crushing result, lifted him the Lopunny and settled him on his feet before they made sure he wasn’t going to fall over. They all looked over at the celebrating TasiMiti a bit jealously as they’d hoped their first battle would’ve been more memorable. Tamara’s team didn’t congratulate each other for very long before they all turned and walks over to Les and crew. Tamara was the first to approach them with a bit of a smile as she extended a hand out towards the other team leader.

“Best match we’ve had in a while,” Tamara said to them. Les looked to the offered hand for a moment as he pondered if she was joking or not before he took hers and shook it firmly. The smile on her face was genuine enough and was enough for him as he almost returned it.

“Yeah, that wasn’t bad,” He said which drew a smirk from Tamara. The two teams mingled for a moment as they shook hands and congratulated one another on a well fought battle. They separated shortly after that to go their own ways as people from the stands came down to greet them to varying degrees. The battle hadn’t gone quite as well as Shroud had wanted but it hadn’t ended as badly as it could have either. The two teams had formed a healthy respect for one another and it was obvious they’d have a few meetings in the future. Some would be friendly and away from the ring, others would be in the arena of battle. Either way, it’d been a well fought fight and things would only go up from there.

Lovely! It's been an estemed honor to work with you!

The pleasure was all mine.

Aww...great a good one.

Thank you.

Great as always dude!!

Thank you.

The action got hotter in the second part. I was totally absorbed in this battle! Both you and  The_Lost_One should be quite of yourselves. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collaboration of talented writers.

Glad to hear it.