Osiris/Skellibra and Dragonite continued to slug it out for over two minutes before Ryujin tried to take advantage of an opening to let her Dragonite take off. Unfortunately for them, Osiris threw out his Bone Sword using Bonemerang to force Dragonite to stop to block the flying club/sword, which was more than enough time for him to step in himself. He jumped up, grabbed Dragonite by the feet, and released a point-blank Thunderbolt as he dragged him to the ground.
The audience first cheered at the maneuver before gasps and exclamations of surprise followed. I was honestly just as surprised as everyone else at what Dragonite had pulled off and I had to admit that I had not considered whether one could do this or not until now since it was virtually impossible to come across this situation in the first place. Well, unless Osiris was involved. Dragonite managed to neutralize the Thunderbolt Osiris was releasing by using Iron Tail and touching Osiris with said tail passively channeling the electricity into Osiris.
Osiris's body then ate that electricity up with zero consequences due to his ground typing, which allowed both Pokemon to escape the electric punishment. Had Osiris not been a ground type, what would have most likely happened was that both would have gotten shocked, but since he was one, neither Pokemon got shocked. It was a clever idea, and since I could sense the surprise coming from Ryujin, an improvisation on Dragonite's part. I had to respect it for that.
Nonetheless, Dragonite finding a way to get around the shock did not stop it from being dragged down since it was unable to fly while it was maintaining Iron Tail as the electricity flowed through its lower body. Not that Osiris was planning to wait for gravity to do the job. No, he strengthened his grab on Dragonite's feet and utilized force/his strength to slam Dragonite face-first into the ground. He obviously had to interrupt the Thunderbolt as he did that since he was unable to do both at the same time.
However, he released a second Thunderbolt as soon as he could, which was after Dragonite's intimate reunion with the ground and moments before his feet touched the floor. Yet, the expected cry of pain did not follow and moments later when the dust dispersed, we were able to see why. Even during all this Dragonite somehow managed to maintain its Iron Tail, and I was not sure if it had done it on purpose or if it was coincidental, but its tail was actually stuck into the ground, so when Osiris' Thunderbolt struck, it hit the Iron Tail and got channeled into the ground, saving Dragonite from yet another shocking experience.
Osiris directly stopped his Thunderbolt when he saw that, and I could feel that he was irritated by the fact that his "sure-fire" move had been neutralized twice in a row. I could feel considerably more anger radiating from Dragonite, who was pushing itself off the ground, with a Dragonbreath gathering in its maw. It released the Dragonbreath even before it was fully upright, and Osiris, who had been rushing toward Dragonite to vent his irritation, was forced to block it since he had no time to dodge.
We went for Dragon Claw since that was the only one he could pull off that fast that could stop the Dragonbreath and avert the risk of paralysis that came with directly/physically blocking the move. Either way, Dragonite's move bought it enough time to properly stand up. Once that happened, Dragonite cut off the Dragonbreath and actually rushed up to Osiris. I saw Dragonite's fist take on a light blue hue and Osiris, who still had to deal with the last spurt of the Dragonbreath, was forced to use Dragon Claw to intercept Dragonite's Ice Punch.
The fist clash showed once more that just because one had been able to get rid of a (physical) weakness, the energy one used did not follow suit. Just because Osiris was able to get rid of his biological weakness to ice energy did not mean that the draconic energy he released no longer followed its natural relation to ice energy. What this translated to was that Dragonite's Ice Punch clashed with Osiris' Dragon Claw for a few moments before overpowering it and forcing the claw/arm away, following which Ice Punch slammed into Osiris' face.
I felt Dragonite's satisfaction at that moment, just as I felt its pain when Osiris' retaliatory Ion Tail slammed into its chest. I was sure that everyone heard its grunt when the shimmering grey tail hit home, but I was the only one who knew what the two were truly feeling. Osiris was still feeling some stinging/burning pain on the right side of his face along with a lot of anger, with a slight undertone of satisfaction, while Dragonite only had a fleeting moment where the pain it felt was prominent before near blinding rage took the forefront.
I had honestly not thought that gentle giants like Dragonite were capable of that much rage, but one should not forget that they were apex dragons I guess. Either way, the two dragons erupted into a brutal brawl where fists flew, knees, as well as elbows, were used, and headbutts were sneaked in even when no moves were applied to them. Neither side spared defense a thought aside from the bare minimum necessary to prevent the worst of the damage.
The dragons were fully committed to causing the most damage they could instead, and the speed of their clash, as well as its intensity, was such that all Ryujin and I could really do was keep an eye on things and insert a command on occasion whenever we saw an opening/opportunity that would cost the other side more than it would ours. That was pretty much it.
I was aware that Osiris' current (emotional) state meant that any orders forcing him to abort the brawl would have a negative impact on his state as well as the battle, and the same applied to Dragonite as well. Going by Ryujin's attitude, it seemed that she was also aware of that, but I probably should not be surprised by that since she could pretty much be considered a Dragon Master.
Anyway, the two continued slugging it out for nearly three minutes before I was able to feel that Osiris had vented enough for some proper strategies to make it through to him, so I gave him a little move-chain order to follow once the opportunity presented itself while they continued to hit each other. It took nearly a full minute before that happened, but the moment Dragonite overextended a bit Osiris spun into a crouch and delivered an Ion Tail at Dragonite's feet.
Dragonite got bowled over and tried to flap its wings to regain control, but Osiris had already followed up with a Discharge, which hit Dragonite. The current caused its wings to seize up and Dragonite to grunt in pain before it literally slammed its head into the ground. It regained control of its body after that, and I was pretty sure it had used Iron Head to do that. Either way, Osiris cut off the Discharge once it was clear that it had lost its effect, and threw out his bone sword instead while rushing shield first towards Dragonite who was still planted head first into the ground.
The moment the Discharge cut off, Ryujin had Dragonite use Protect, and the energy shield blocked the Bonemerang heading their way, allowing Dragonite to stand up without any obstacle. Dragonite, obviously much calmer now, listened to Ryujin's order to fly up and began to lift off. Osiris made it to its side just as Dragonite managed to rise for a few meters. My earth dragon did a running jump, and slammed his shield into the Protect first, which caused a crack but failed to break the shield.
However, that was fine since Osiris had already followed up with a Dragon Claw at the same area, which broke the Protect, though at that point Dragonite had already readied a Dragon Pulse, which it released at Osiris. If he had been fighting alone, Osiris might have been hit by that, but because I had already noted Dragonite accumulating dragon energy in its throat, I ordered Osiris to push off the Protect as it was crumbling and counter with a Thunder Strike, so Osiris managed to avoid being hit by Dragon Pulse and bought himself enough time to follow up with that Thunder Strike.
That forced Dragonite to abort its attempt at adjusting its Dragon Pulse in favor of dodging the Thunder Strike heading its way. Nonetheless, it still tried to follow up as soon as it had dodged, but at that point, Osiris had landed back on the ground and was able to dodge out of the way instead of having to block or tank it. The Thunderbolt Osiris released in retaliation forced Dragonite to finally abort its Dragon Pulse, as it fully committed to dodging the Thunderbolt, and it kept doing some air acrobatics to continuously dodge Osiris' follow-ups, starting with Rock Slide followed by Thunder Strikes and more Rock Slides.
Yet, it was hard to miss that Dragonite's speed allowed it to maintain those evasive maneuvers without any problem. That much became obvious when Dragonite managed to start counterattacking after it successfully dodged the first wave and further opened up the distance between them. Consequently, Osiris had to stop his attacks after a minute or so to stop wasting his energy since both he and Dragonite were already showing signs of exhaustion, which did not surprise me considering the duration and intensity of their battle.
Instead of continuing something that had no effect, I had Osiris alternate between Sword Dance and Dragon Dance to prepare for a decisive final round and to lure Dragonite into interrupting him, which would hopefully give us the opening we needed. This decision led to a 180 development where Osiris was dodging while trying to pull off either Dragon Dance or Sword Dance, as Dragonite bombarded him with long-range moves to stop him and to cause damage obviously.
Still, maybe it was because the ground did not allow for as much room for maneuvering as the air or maybe it was simply because Osiris was slower than Dragonite, but Osiris had a harder time dodging Dragonite's attacks than it did with his. This meant that Osiris would occasionally be forced to block a move, interrupting his dance, or straight-up get hit without being able to block, which also interrupted his dance. Despite all that, Osiris was eventually able to reach the maximum charge his body could tolerate, so I had him Dig down for the final act.
Ryujin and Dragonite obviously chose to stay away from the ground when they saw Osiris burrow down, but that was exactly what we expected them to do. While they observed the situation or waited for either us to act, or for the 3-minute allowance to run out, I had Osiris dig multiple tunnels, with each one ending close to the surface. This way the tunnels closest to the initial hole would serve as vents if they tried to flood the hole again.
I had him make multiple tunnels just in case they persisted in pouring down more water in hopes of flushing Osiris out even after the first (few) tunnel(s) began to spurt out water. After a minute with no action taken against us, it became clear that the other side was not planning to close in. Instead, I saw Dragonite first use Agility twice before switching to Dragon Dance. It seemed apparent that they were preparing for a final clash as well. We approached the end of the 3-minute allowance like that, and 10 seconds before the timer ran out, I had Osiris break out of the ground while releasing a Thunder Strike toward Dragonite.
We left a bit early to take the other side by surprise, and Osiris knew where to aim thanks to my guidance. Despite that, Dragonite managed to swerve out of the way and even fired off a Dragon Pulse in retaliation, which Osiris dodged by jumping back into the hole he left just a few moments ago. Seeing that, Dragonite switched back to cruising, but I was not planning to let it wait for long since I knew that Osiris was getting tired, both of dragging things out and reserve-wise. So, I told him that I wanted him to use Rock Slide as soon as he emerged.
However, it would not be to attack Dragonite, but to create steps for him to close in on Dragonite for a physical strike. Osiris was pretty happy with the plan, and as soon as Dragonite had come/cruised close enough, I had Osiris break out of the ground to start the plan.
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