The Hypno's taunting arrogance vanished the moment it saw Spiritomb.
In its place—raw caution, as if facing a mortal enemy.
It didn't waste a second: attack first.
Its pendulum whipped into a rapid sway—
Hypnosis!
Against the Hypno's signature mind attack, Cynthia's beautiful, composed face didn't so much as ripple. She whispered a single order: "Spiritomb, Hypnosis."
Vmmm!
Two invisible waves of sleep crashed together midair. No thunderous blast, no flashy visuals—but Jason and Gast could see the air twist violently where they met.
In the end, the Hypno's hurried Hypnosis was effortlessly crushed by Spiritomb's greater psychic force.
One miss, and the Hypno skipped back—eyes flashing—
Shadow Ball!
A smaller sphere than Spiritomb's blasted toward it—
"Double Team." Cynthia's tone stayed even.
Spiritomb's 108-soul mass split in an instant into perfect copies, slipping aside with ghostly footwork; the shot missed with ease.
Before the Hypno could react again, her next order fell:
"Will-O-Wisp."
One clone gaped; three ghost-blue flames struck in a "pin" pattern and licked across the Hypno's body.
Burned!
"Poh!"
The Hypno snarled—it knew it'd fallen into the opponent's tempo.
The entire exchange—the feint and counter—was blisteringly fast. The Hypno's tactics were as dirty as ever, but Cynthia met each with calm, anticipatory ease, as if playing with a toddler just learning to walk. The once-cocksure Hypno felt the vise tightening—like a third-rate chess player whose every move was called ahead of time.
Then, knowing it couldn't win straight up, a sly, vicious light flashed in its eyes. The pendulum twitched; the puppeted Tinkatink ran to it and formed a human wall.
"Keh!"
On the sidelines, Gast exploded. "Shameless! Can't win, so you use Tinkatink as shields? Have you no shame?!"
Spiritomb's next Shadow Ball halted—the sudden hostages worked. Cynthia's brows, cool till now, pinched slightly; a flicker of distaste crossed her gray eyes. She could wake them—Spiritomb's Dream Eater would snap them out of sleep—but it would stress their already-fragile minds. Not her choice.
In that heartbeat of hesitation, Jason moved. He didn't attack. He pulled the freshly dug Twisted Spoon and held it high above his head.
He called out, teasing, to the Hypno hiding behind its pawns: "Hey! You went to all that trouble for this, right?"
The spoon's psychic aura yanked the Hypno's attention like a magnet. Its gaze slid off Cynthia and Spiritomb to the spoon—pupils shrinking.
"Th—this—!"
Need sharpened its voice.
In that stunned instant, Cynthia flicked a glance at the Ditto with the spoon, then looked away—amused. Knows how to draw aggro. Not bad.
"Now," she said.
BOOM!
The Shadow Ball Spiritomb had primed roared across the gap like a black shell and slammed into the Hypno.
"Poh!"
It screamed, blown back—the psychic strings on the Tinkatink snapped at once. The smiths, Tinkatuff included, woke like from a bad dream, terrified by the wreck of a battlefield, and scurried behind Jason and Gast.
The Hypno clawed upright, hatred locked on Jason for spoiling its plan—but with the hostages gone, a real smile finally touched Cynthia's face.
"Now, Spiritomb—show your full hand."
The Hypno understood it had no edges left. All in—its ultimate play:
Future Sight!
Frames flickered in its eyes; it read the field seconds ahead and seeded a compact psychic warhead at the coordinates where Spiritomb would be.
Sure enough, seconds later—mid-dodge—Spiritomb crossed the mark. The waiting warhead detonated.
Solid hit.
"Got it!"
Triumph surged—the move had felled stronger foes before. Spiritomb's purple soul-mass recoiled into the Keystone's cracks—
—and flowed calmly back out again.
Cynthia smiled. "Forgot to mention—Spiritomb's immune to Psychic."
The Hypno froze. Its first time facing Spiritomb; it hadn't known about the Dark typing. So after all that… zero damage?
Being toyed with made its blood boil.
Cynthia's voice fell like a reaper's verdict. "Finish it."
Shocked, the Hypno snapped up a guard—
Protect!
It would weather the killing blow.
Cynthia's lips curved. "Protect, hm… Spiritomb—Phantom Force."
A deep violet rift yawned open beneath Spiritomb; it dropped into the other space and vanished.
Phantom Force slips into another plane, bypassing Protect and striking true.
A matching rift snapped open behind the Hypno.
Spiritomb slammed into its unguarded back—
BOOM!
~~~
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