"Rhyhorn, huh," Akiyama murmured.
That one was going to be a problem.
When a Leader took the position, they registered six Pokémon with the League. A three-on-three Gym like this one pulled three out of that six, and you never knew which three.
"Rhyhorn—charge!"
Rhyhorn had been straining at the ground since the second it came out, and the moment Dagan gave the word it went.
"Kirlia, meet it. Ice Punch."
Something twice her size was bearing down on her, and she didn't hesitate for even a fraction of a second—Akiyama said meet it, so she cocked her fist and let the cold gather.
Rhyhorn closed. She swung.
"Now use that force—jump! Triple Axel!"
Fist met horn, and instead of trying to absorb the impact, she rode it, exactly the way he'd told her to, launching herself up off the collision.
"Rhyhorn, Scary Face!"
Rhyhorn planted its feet. From Kirlia's angle its face twisted into something monstrous, eyes wide, lips peeled back over its teeth.
Darkness came at her like a wave and swallowed her whole.
Her jump died in midair. She dropped straight down.
"Bulldoze." Dagan's voice was flat.
Rhyhorn reared and slammed its front legs into the arena. The stone split in a spiderweb, and the shock knocked Kirlia off her feet.
"Kirlia—look out!"
His voice was what brought her back. She blinked the fear out of her eyes.
"Stomp."
Rhyhorn's mouth curled, and one front leg came up wreathed in white light, poised over a girl who suddenly looked very, very small sitting in all that broken rock.
"Roll! Get out of there, sideways—go!"
Being small had its advantages, and this was one of them.
She threw herself into a sideways roll—but the cracked ground caught at her, and the aftertaste of Scary Face slowed her by a hair. Not quite clear.
The shock wave off the impact still picked her up and threw her.
Dagan watched her get back to her feet and nodded to himself where nobody could see it.
"Kirlia, you okay?"
She didn't turn around. She just nodded, hard.
"Rhyhorn, Horn Attack!"
Light gathered along the horn on its snout. Its back legs pawed twice at the ground, and then it came.
"Kirlia—Ice Punch, straight into it! Use the hit to get off that broken ground!"
The fractured section under her feet was eating her speed with every step. Staying in it meant losing.
Same trick as before, and it worked again. Rhyhorn ate a frozen fist, and the height Kirlia got out of the exchange bled off most of the Horn Attack's force.
"Rhyhorn, Scary Face."
Dagan smiled a little. You want to reuse a trick? So can I.
"Now—Zen Headbutt!"
Akiyama beat him to it. In midair, Kirlia steadied herself, and what little fantasy energy she had gathered at her forehead. She shut her eyes and dove.
Dagan's brows twitched. He didn't panic.
"Rhyhorn. Swords Dance."
He was going to eat the Zen Headbutt and buy something better with it.
Rhyhorn threw itself into a hard, driving rhythm—and Kirlia crashed into it.
It skidded back, but its legs held.
"Shadow Sneak!"
The move had landed clean, and Akiyama wasn't about to hand a boosted Rhyhorn a free breath. Kirlia's shadow shot out, surfaced behind it, and struck.
Rhyhorn bellowed and swayed.
Arms folded, Dagan tapped one finger against his own forearm, thinking.
"Kirlia, get in there—Triple Axel!"
Akiyama never saw the finger. All he saw was a strengthened Rhyhorn that absolutely could not be allowed to attack first.
Kirlia ran. She covered the distance in a blink and went up.
"Rhyhorn. Take it."
Akiyama's stomach dropped. He understood, and he understood a half second too late.
Three kicks landed.
Rhyhorn stayed on its feet through all three, face screwed up in pain.
"Counter!"
It grinned through the agony, and the whole field went white. Akiyama's hands came up over his eyes on reflex.
Boom.
He heard something hit the ground. When the light died and he could see again, Kirlia was sprawled on the stone.
"Kirlia!"
He was already moving forward—and then she got a hand under herself and pushed, shaking all over, and stood up.
"Kirl!"
She looked back at him, and that stubborn, unbudging look froze him where he was.
Across from her, Rhyhorn was in worse shape. It couldn't hold its stance at all; it staggered, went down onto its belly, and lay there heaving. A few seconds later something in it gave out. Its head sank and its eyes turned to spirals.
Kirlia let out a breath and sat straight down in the dirt.
The progress bar surfaced in Akiyama's vision. After Geodude it had gone from 74 to 73. Now it read 70.
Gold particles poured into her, and she got back on her feet.
"Huh." Dagan glanced over at her as he recalled Rhyhorn, genuinely surprised. He hadn't figured she'd be standing.
The referee's flag came up. "Rhyhorn is unable to battle! The winner is Kirlia!"
"So Swords Dance was a decoy." Akiyama let out the breath he'd been sitting on and started putting it together.
He'd read it as a setup for an all-out push. It hadn't been. Dagan had boosted specifically to bait him into pushing.
"If I've got this right, Kirlia is the only Pokémon you brought," Dagan said. "So let's see what you do about this one."
"Go, Onix!"
The thing that unfolded onto the field didn't need Scary Face. It had a face like an old, angry cliff, and it bent that face down to look at the tiny figure below it, every plate of stone in its body looking dense enough to shrug off a landslide.
"Kirlia—move!"
"Onix, Bind!"
They went at the same moment. Kirlia broke into a circling run, and Onix's tail lashed out after her.
It wasn't close. All that tail caught was dust.
"Screech."
Onix stopped chasing and began grinding its own segments together, and the sound that came out of it was unbearable.
Kirlia's feet stopped. Her hands clapped over her ears.
"Onix, Rock Throw." Dagan folded his arms like the match was already in the book.
The noise cut off. Onix's tail gouged a slab out of the arena floor and flung it.
"Kirlia, break it!"
Akiyama wasn't rattled. He was looking at the fire sprinkler pipe running along the ceiling directly over Onix's head.
And thinking about somebody he'd never met.