So here I was, casually plowing through everything on my way, except the occasional moment where I'd give up on my will to continue and just let my team be whited out to return to a center. Those long stretches of walking along the volcano previously had done wonders for my Brionne who was well on his way to becoming a beautiful Primarina. Following this, some ranger quests, the spoopy area, and some audino training, I felt ready for the gym. I had four Pokémon already at level 35: Jule the gorgeous Primarina, Nyoot the shiny Noctowl, Skippy the underestimated Gogoat, and Fyn the gremlin of a Growlithe. I had a level 34 Chingling, Chinny, whom I was keeping around for friendship, and a level 26 Skitty, Tiff. Sadly, I sold a moonstone for treats and didn't realize Skitty evolves with a moonstone. Oh, well...
Regardless! I felt confident. We had plowed through any and all obstacles in our path. We were ready. We were set. We beamed ourselves up into the clouds, fought the surrounding trainers, struggled even harder with the puzzle, until at last we came face to face with the gym leader. Within three minutes, she wiped the floor with us.
Now granted! Much happened here. She got a few crits, her Oricorio devastated my team, and she got a couple of flinches with aerial ace. It was admittedly dicouraging that we only managed a single KO, but we were obviously gonna try again. Time warped back to avoid walking and once more we found ourselves face to face with the Gym Leader. This time we lasted a whole two minutes. Her Oricorio was overpowering, her initial U-turn was a waste as I simply had no set-up I could engage in that would last more than one Pokémon duel before fainting. And there went an entire hour. Attempt after attempt after attempt. We came very close to beating four of her Pokémon before finally I admitted I simply did not have the strength required. My Skitty was holding us back too much and only served as a safe switch-in for a single heal. I returned to the center, grinded Tiff up 3 levels, then got frustrated and returned to show her a piece of my mind.
Up until this point we had been engaging in very simplistic combat with little thinking, but I knew we just had to get creative. We could do this without restructuring the team. Everyone had a role to play and I was gonna figure out who would do what, if necessary, by brute force.
The strategy:
Our fragile and unevolved Chinny was a big hindrance, but she knew a key move: Icy Wind. With a 95 accuracy it might be subject to some rng, of course, but key to it is that by sending out Chinny, the Swellow would almost always U-turn into Xatu immediately. This afforded me a huge opportunity. Icy Wind is not strong, but it is a 55 base power ice type move, which is super effective against that dastardly totem bird! More importantly, it lowers the bird's speed. However, Xatu would then use Ominous Wind and simply knock out my poor Chinny who, unevolved and lacking a decent moveset, was at the psychic type's mercy. But...we could play into this. Noticing this pattern, I began to swap out Chinny and push my dear Nyoot into the fight. Being part normal type, she was immune to Ominous Wind, providing a safe switch. Following this, an Air Slash was a solid idea as thanks to the Icy Wind, my gray birb could outspeed the totem birb for a strong hit. This, however, would then be responded to with a confuse ray that would create a tough situation as there was no easy way to keep avoiding damage with no rng. The best strategy, I found, was to Air Slash, hope for a flinch, and if not, hope that the next turn confusion wouldn't hit. Xatu, now on less than half health, would often switch into Honchkrow, especially if Nyoot was low on health. What to do? Well the same. Air Slash. It took a few tries, sometimes depending on the AI's behavior, but I could reliably leave the Xatu on low health and either knock out the honchkrow without Nyoot fainting or set up a Reflection for her allies to do the work since that would cripple the dark type's physical moveset. This is where things got tricky because no matter what I did, I ended up running into the same issue. My best counter to Oricorio came in Primarina who could two-shot the sitrus berry eating asshat of a bird but would die to two shots himself and be outsped. This meant I needed a sacrificial lamb to heal my beautiful siren, and with Nyoot often at low enough HP to be a one-shot for Oricorio and Skitty unable to tank a hit, I had no safe switch in unless I sacrificed two team members. All in all, it led to the same problem. I just did not have enough of an ability to tank the damage dealt to me.
After another hour of bashing my head against this gym, stubbornly refusing to capture a Pokémon to counter it or rework my entire team, I came up with a desperate Hail Mary solution to the problem. Skitty was the weakest link. By far. I also had to ocassionally deal with bad rng that led to an attack-boosted Honchkrow. How could I neutralize this threat and add more bulk to my team that so desperately needed it? Well, there was a certain Wooper in my team. She was caught earlier by me because she was a shiny and well that's cool, obviously. Upon checking her nature, naive, and her mostly unexceptional IVs, I was sold on the idea that she totally needed to be a part of my team. But how? Well, by grinding her to level 35 with Audino and slapping my wallet against the local vending machine for lemonades.
Quagsire's ability, unaware, gave me a chance to deal with a potentially boosted Honchkrow and while her moveset was lacking, she did learn Yawn which would be key to putting any key threats firmly in their place. That is, under her. The nicknameless blue wall became a core part of my strategy, and as I returned to the gym, my hands were shaking. This was it. Two whole hours down the drain, but I was ready. I had a strategy for the opening that could help me win an early advantage, and I just needed to transition it into a full battle-winning advantage quickly. My Gogoat could tank a couple of super-effective hits and deal serious damage wth Seed Bomb or Aerial Ace, and my Growlithe could hit hard with flamethrower.
With sweaty palms, heavy arms, and weak knees, I approached my roadblock, challenged her, and proceeded to send out the wrong Pokémon first...but after a quick alternate f4 dimensional shift event, she agreed to start the match again, and we began our fight proper. As predicted, at the sight of my Chingling, her Swellow U-turned into Xatu who got promptly smacked with an Ice Wind. Small shards of ice slowed the totem birb, clearly evident to my Noctowl as she was switched in, the Ominous wind meant for Chinny harmlessly passing through her. A swift Air Slash led to a flinch, and I immediately ordered another one, knowing full well she would switch to Honchkrow which she did. The dark type seemed pretty hurt, but while it managed to land an Aerial Ace on Nyoot, my birb proved the superior winged creature as a surprisingly painful Aerial Slash knocked out the larger avian. The following was the result of all the planning we had plus some luck. In no particular order, Swanna was knocked out by Nyoot's Air Slashes which caused a flinch to give her the advantage in the match-up, Oricorio traded a hefty blow with Primarina. Then, as it attempted to electrocute the Siren again for the knockout, it found itself face-to-face with a ground and water type that just smiled at the zaps. It then yawned and allowed a turn for me to heal my water type. With the electric bird now asleep, Primarina came in for another Sparkling Aria to knock out the Oricorio. Xatu suffered a similar fate after being sent out again, heavily wounded from the encounter with Nyoot, and after yet more healing thanks to Quagsire's impressive bulk, Gliscor found itself knocked out at the hands of Primarina. Finally, Swellow tried hard, trading large, painful blows with Jule, but the water type, right on the verge of losing the duel, turned the tables with a last-minute, perfectly timed Aqua Jet which knocked out Swellow for the victory.
Finally, our victory came. We had luck on our side yet with multiple Pokémon having not even been used in the battle, it was certainly a victory to celebrate. The six guys and gals weren't gonna be getting a vacation, but after this? I think they deserve a good night's rest for their hard work, and I get to proclaim victory over the dastardly flying type gym leader and her army of powerful bird Pokémon.
