So at the end of the last update we had defeated both the 8th Gym Leader and our Rival, ready to start heading up to Victory Road. We passed through the badge gates, walked and surfed through the route and made it to the toughest challenge. Victory Road. For the most part it was actually pretty easy to make my way through, aside from the repels but I wasn't entirely confident considering some wild Pokemon were appearing even with the repels on. I did find the TM for Dragon Claw and taught it to Icarus, as Dragon is Special in this game so it'll be very useful for taking on Lance with.
I eventually found the exit and the team had arrived at the final frontier, the Pokemon League! I knew my team were very much under levelled for the fights but I decided to have one attempt at it first, just to see how much preparation I'd actually need to do to win without much cheesing required (even if that meant having my first whiteout of the challenge). So with Icarus, Jules, Olsen, Tornado, Rhaidan and Skrrt it was time for our first crack at the League!
Elite Four 1: Lorelei
While I knew her Ice Types could cause quite the problem, I was feeling pretty confident we could at least stand a chance at beating her on the first attempt. I decided to lead with Skrrt for her Dewgong as most of her Pokemon are also water types. Skrrt delivered and one shot it with Thunderbolt, giving us a good lead already.
Next up was Slowbro, while yet another water type, I didn't want this to be Zapdos sweeps everything because that's not fun so Rhaidan came in instead. This had.... mixed results, I used Shadow Ball for some super effective damage but I did pretty weak damage, to which Slowbro decided to become even more bulky with Amnesia. I swapped out to Jules to try and stall it out with Toxic, which while I managed to get it off, Jules was taken out pretty quickly with Ice Beam to which my astral sized brain decided to bring Olsen in to try and finish it off and was met with a OHKO from Ice Beam. The whole thing proved meaningless as Lorelei Full Restored and undid all my work, leaving it to Tornado to finally knock it out with a few Strengths.
The rest of the fight was a complete walk over, deciding to take no prisoners, OHKOing her Cloyster and 2HKOing her Lapras with Thunderbolt. Finishing off the fight with Icarus by taking the Jynx out with a couple of Flamethrowers, after a brief scare from Attract.
Elite Four 2: Bruno
Bruno was certainly going to be the biggest walk over of the Elite Four, Fighting being completely dominated by my team and the ever present threat of Tornado for washing away the Rock Types. I started off by leading with Jules, where Onix got the Sleep Powder treatment and took it out with Giga Drain.
The next two were slightly more awkward, as Hitmonchan came out I swapped into Rhaidan and while Wing Attack did do over half, thanks to the speed drop from Rock Tomb Rhaidan was taken out. Olsen came in and finished it off with Aerial Ace, where Bruno responded with Machamp that while Olsen did some damage with Aerial Ace she wasn't strong enough to take a Cross Chop and so Skrrt had to come in an Drill Peck to finish it off.
It was smooth sailing from here, with Hitmonlee coming in and after missing a Mega Kick was Dream Powdered to death by Jules. Finally it was yet another Onix but this team the honour went to Tornado who OHKO once again with Surf.
Elite Four 3: Agatha
I didn't know what to expect going into Agatha, I felt like I had more weaknesses than I actually did so I was certain this was where I'd go out. Anyway she led with her first Gengar and I opened with Rhaidan to Shadow Ball it, she used Confuse Ray and while first turn Rhaidan hit himself in confusion, he quickly snapped out and 2HKO the Gengar, surviving the hits on very low HP.
Next up was Haunter, I sent out Jules to take it out with Dream Powder as I felt Haunter would be the weakest and easiest to kill on her team. Aside from it waking up and missing Hypnosis it really put up no fight and was swiftly defeated. Next up was Golbat, where I swapped into Icarus to take it out with Rock Slide, she spammed Poison Fang and managed to get a Crit and take him out before I could take it out. Skrrt came out and put the Golbat in its place.
Out came Arbok next, Tornado had to get into the action somewhere so he came out and we exchanged intimidates. From there Earthquake was an easy 2HKO, though Sludge Bomb did managed to poison and do a good amount of damage. Finally it was the stronger Gengar to round out her team and I went back to Jules for it, the Gengar tried to get its own sleep off but missed the Hypnosis and allowed for Dream Powder to work its magic and end the fight.
After the match I figured it was smart to teach someone the Blizzard TM strictly because of Lance's Dragonite, so Tornado gets it over Thunder Wave (which I don't ever think I actually used apart from the Legendary Bird).
Elite Four 4: Lance
As the Elite Four progressed it became more and more clear just how under levelled I was for the battles at the end, this was no exception and I was absolutely certain this would be the end of the line for me.
Lance opened with his own Gyarados, a Pokemon I knew can do huge damage. This wouldn't be the case however as Skrrt quickly sent it to the grave with Thunderbolt. Next up was Aerodactyl and while Ancient Power did a lot of damage, Thunderbolt was still too much for his prehistoric bones.
Dragonair came out next and it was time to put that Dragon Claw TM to use, Icarus came out and did about half before it responded with Outrage. I thought that'd be the end but he tanked it pretty well and finished it off with a second. With the second Dragonair coming out I went for the same tactic, dealing half with Dragon Claw until it blasted me away with a Hyper Beam but that left Olsen all the time she needed to finish it off with her own Hyper Beam.
Now it was the big boi, Dragonite. I was terrified of this thing running riot so I went into Tornado, lowering its attack and also because I had Blizzard. I landed my first Blizzard and my second would have killed if not for the Sitrus Berry and so it could attack back with Hyper Beam which didn't do enough to kill. One Full Restore and a couple more lucky Blizzard hits later and we had done it. We were the league champion! Well we would be if Blue hadn't of made it there first.
This was the point where I realised this run is actually pretty serious and even though I'd probably be too under levelled for the fight, I decided to go for it and uses all the Rare Candies I had stored up, with this Olsen picked up Drill Peck and Jules learned Silver Wind. Anyway CHAMPION TIME BABY!
Champion Blue
Once again leading out with Skrrt to deal with his Pidgeot, it managed to out speed me but doing pitiful damage allowing Skrrt to clap back with Thunderbolt which only just about didn't kill, this worked in my favour however as Blue wasted a Full Restore early and Skrrt finished it off with another two Thunderbolts (out speeding this time thanks to a Paralysis) and we were 1-0 against the final fight!
Next up was Rhydon and from our history with Giovanni there is only one member for the job, Tornado completely washing away his Rhydon and further increasing my lead to 2-0!
Here's the turning point in the match, where it suddenly became a lot harder. Alakazam was by far the scariest Pokemon on his team for me, if Rhaidan could get a Shadow Ball off he'd be able to take it out but Alakazam is rapid and also at least 10 levels higher. I opted to try and exploit its weak defences, swapping into Jules to put it to sleep, with her surviving on incredibly low HP and putting it to sleep. From there I swapped into Olsen planning on Hyper Beaming it out of existence, however I was once again cursed with the one turn sleep and Olsen was one shot from full. I knew that I needed to try and put it back to sleep so I swapped into Rhaidan to heal back Butterfree but on my way to use a hyper potion I miss clicked and accidentally used an X Attack. For some reason the RNG gods were shinning on me and Alakazam used Future Sight, which it continued to do allowing me to blow it back with a Shadow Ball. 3-1 the score.
Exeggutor was next, which I was actually quite confident I could take out with Rhaidan. Shadow Ball however only managed to do about 40% of its health, where then the Future Sight struck, which Exeggutor followed up by with an Egg Bomb that luckily missed. One 40% Wing Attack later and he actually landed an Egg Bomb and that was the end of Rhaidan. Icarus was my next alternative, where Blue healed Exeggutor back with another Full Restore but that didn't matter to Icarus who almost killed and the burned, where Blue used
another Full Restore, and finally Exeggutor had gone down. 4-2 the score approaching the end.
Just like the start of our journey, he tried to send Blastoise in against Icarus. Of course I swapped out into Jules instead but still, anyway yeah Jules out speeds and I Toxic him to whittle it down. Blastoise opts to set up the rain, then next turn blowing Jules away with Hydro Pump. Skrrt comes in to hopefully try and pick up an easy kill, but I'm not confident in killing it so I use Fly instead with my plan being to waste the PP of Hydro Pump, get more Toxic damage out and try and get rid of the rain. All of this worked and the fly didn't do a whole lot, but then Blastoise comes out with a lucky Crit and takes out Skrrt. I sent Icarus back out so I can Max Revive Skrrt and finish this big turtle off, where at first I was confused why he went for Bite but realised that Hydro Pump had run out of PP. The Toxic damage taken can't finish Blastoise off and when I go to finish it off he used
another Full Restore (seriously how many of these things does he have?!), but I did do 25% thanks to a Crit Dragon Claw. Skrrt finally comes back out and I can safely take it out with a Thunderbolt. The score is 5-2 and all that stood in my way was his Arcanine, which I'm sure would be easy.
I swap into Tornado and exchange intimidates, since the rain was still up from the Blastoise I was absolutely certain Tornado would one shot and clench us the title of Champion. Unfortunately it got lucky and managed to flinch with Bite, the rain also disappearing at the end of the turn but I was still confident I could kill it. The Arcanine did out speed but surely it couldn't do much damage to me- aaaaaaaand Crit Flamethrower... the score at 5-3. I swapped back into Skrrt, figuring its high power could be enough to take it out all I had to do was survive a Flamethro- aaaaaaaand it got
another Crit (the RNG on this Arcanine is actually scary). With the score at 5-4, thing were looking very scary for me, so I used my final Max Revive to bring back Tornado as the Arcanine finished off Icarus with Extreme Speed. From there thankfully there was no more bad luck and Tornado finished Arcanine in two hits. 6-4 the final score and after a tense final few turns, we had successfully clinched victory!
I'm genuinely amazed I managed to beat the E4 the first time round, I thought I'd have to grind till at least 55 all round to even make a dent in the later battles. The team pulled through it was incredible, though I will admit most of the heavy lifting was done by Skrrt and Tornado. So just like that Skrrt, Tornado, Icarus, Rhaidan, Jules and Olsen were registered into the Hall of Fame. Now this is where the session ended but I've still got the Post Game/E4 Rematches to take on still, so I won't be rounding off my opinions in this post.