After dodging the Water Gun by turning sideways, Kartana was a bit confused, this wasn't going how it had imagined.
Shouldn't it have been able to slash through the Water Gun with a single strike after delivering a cool one-liner? It had even prepared the line.
Kartana: "Pathetic."
But now, there was no chance to say it. Worse yet, the second Water Gun from Bruxish came rushing at it, this time with even greater force than the first.
Given Kartana's speed and the fact that it was still dozens of meters in the air, dodging this attack would have been effortless.
Yet, this stubborn guy still wanted to take it head-on.
Seeing this, Julian couldn't help but shout, "Dodge it!"
This kind of fighting habit was unacceptable, and it stemmed from Kartana's untamed, self-taught fighting style.
'Dodge?'
'Fine, if you say so.'
The Water Gun missed.
"Clear out the small fry first, use Fury Cutter!" Julian commanded.
The reason why the early-stage Elite-level Bruxish could threaten Kartana was entirely due to its move fusion.
So the solution to breaking through the opponent was simple: just take out its underlings first.
Among its minions, the strongest were the three pseudo-Elite-level Bruxish, while the rest were all Advanced-level or below.
Seeing Kartana trying to attack its underlings, the Elite-level Bruxish leader burst out of the water, its mouth wide open as ten pitch-black sets of teeths materialized around it.
Bruxish's teeth were sharp enough to crush Cloyster shells, a testament to their lethality.
Noticing Kartana's injured right arm, it aimed the Crunch directly at it.
But Kartana was far too fast. Its paper-thin body slipped through the closing jaws with a whoosh, darting past the attack.
In the next instant, Kartana was already in front of the Bruxish swarm.
Though it didn't use its right arm, its left arm and legs transformed into razor-sharp blades, and with every flash of light, a dozen Bruxish fell.
They weren't killed, just knocked out.
It wasn't that Kartana didn't want to kill them, but rather, it deemed these weaklings unworthy of dying under its blade.
Only the Bruxish leader deserved that honor.
Under the relentless Fury Cutters, Kartana became a harvesting machine, and within a few seconds, dozens of Bruxish lost their ability to fight.
Seeing this the Bruxish leader unleashed a powerful Psychic surge.
Instantly, an immense force of restraint interrupted Kartana's Fury Cutters.
As a side note, Bruxish was a Water/Psychic-type.
During Kartana's momentary pause, the Bruxish leader let out a sharp cry.
Then, an extremely piercing sound erupted from Bruxish's mouth.
Metagross immediately shielded Julian with its Psychic power.
Sound-based moves were moves that didn't distinguish between friend and foe, and they had a large range.
Using Screech against Kartana wasn't a problem, but the Bruxish leader still had its underlings around it, who would also be affected by it.
However, when Julian noticed the faint psychic fluctuations exuding from the Bruxish swarm, he understood what was going on.
They were using psychic energy to block the sound, just like Metagross was protecting him.
Screech sharply lowers the target's defense.
And as the name suggests, it was ear-splittingly loud and extremely harsh.
Even someone as strong-willed as Kartana, when it heard Screech, instinctively raised its arms to cover its ears.
Seizing the moment, Bruxish's eyes flashed, and it leaped out of the water again, its tail whipping up a swirling current behind it.
Wild Pokémon that reached a certain level had a lot of combat experience, especially those that have naturally grown to the Elite-level.
Without this ample combat experience, they wouldn't have survived this long.
Instead of releasing the Aqua Tail, Bruxish kept it coiled in the water, then twisted its body in a crescent motion—
WHOOSH!
The Aqua Tail tore free from the water surface in an instant, its sheer force making the air crackle.
With this amount of power and Kartana whose defense had already been lowered by Screech and its still existing injuries, a direct hit might not knock it out, but winning later would become much harder.
And because of being disoriented by Screech, it was too late for Kartana to dodge or counterattack at this time.
At this critical moment, Julian's voice cut through:
"Detect!"
Detect was similar to Protect, and if used repeatedly, it becomes unreliable.
If a Pokémon uses Detect first, then tries to use Protect later, even if it's the first time using Protect, but since it had used Detect before, its success rate drops as though it were the second attempt.
There was no "BUG in the system" here.
The Aqua Tail was blocked by Detect.
The Bruxish leader's confidence was shaken, it had failed to take down the opponent with its surefire attack.
And now, mid-air and unable to act, it was wide open.
Julian didn't even need to give the order. Faced with an Opponent wide open, Kartana's left arm gleamed with a holy light as it swung down—
Sacred Sword!
A radiant blade arced through the air, descending like divine judgment.
With a sharp cry, Bruxish was sent crashing into the water by the force of Sacred Sword, the impact carving a deep crater into the surface of water before waves exploded outward in all directions.
Before long, the Bruxish leader floated back up—eyes rolled back, completely knocked out.
Kartana pointed at it with its right arm and scoffed, "I didn't even use my full strength, and you already fell."
Then, with its usual cool demeanor, it flew back to Julian and demanded, "Why didn't you let me cut its head off?"
Julian flicked it on the forehead in exasperation. "Stop being so bloodthirsty."
If not for Julian's silent command to spare Bruxish, Kartana's Sacred Sword wouldn't have been a blunt strike—it would've cut through the Bruxish directly.
But Julian had no real grudges against the Bruxish, so killing it was unnecessary, and it would've weighed on his conscience.
Kartana crossed its arms: "My blade must draw blood."
"Yeah, yeah. How about this—tonight's hot pot. You help Slowking slice the beef and lamb," Julian said dismissively.
Kartana's sword skills were excellent, even better than Doublade's.
Putting that precision to work slicing meat for dinner was perfect. Plus, with its mastery, assisting Slowking in the kitchen would speed things up considerably.
Kartana stiffened: "...You insult me."
"It's not like this is your first time, but if you don't help, Slowking will take longer to cook, and dinner will be delayed. Do you really wanna eat late?" Julian shrugged.
The moment its dinner schedule was threatened, Kartana paused—then nodded stiffly: "...Fine. But this is the second and last time. A third is out of the question."
"Sure, sure. No third time," Julian nodded, knowing full well there definitely would be.
*****
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