Garriot's eyes narrowed when his opponent called for a Swords Dance. Under most circumstances that was an excellent starting move, but now? It was true that the sleep powder had a few seconds until it reached the Sneazel, but what good would extra power do if the pokemon was asleep? It seemed like the mistake of a rookie who had had success with this tactic in the past without thinking of its weaknesses. Unless...did he intend to boost his strength enough to launch a counter to the sleep powder? Garriot's mind cycled through the moves that might neutralize his Venomoth's attack. Sneazel was rather poorly equipped in this regard...maybe if it knew Icy Wind it could cut through the cloud? But that wasn't a physical attack, the Swords Dance wouldn't help that...

The sleep powder descended unimpeded, and the Sneazel staggered for a bit before submitting to slumber's sweet embrace. Well, it seems that was the extent of the strangely named challenger's power-hm? He wasn't upset by this development? But Sneazel didn't have resistance to sleep powder, in a few seconds it would be called as unable to battle by the referee...

"Sleep Talk!" So that was the challenger's aim. Sleep Talk was indeed a useful move, but Garriot didn't think that most rookies went out of their way to teach their pokemon such mundane TMs. Did this boy have a teacher?

As soon as Sneazel rose from its sleeping position, Venomoth started darting through the air unpredictably. Best not to make itself an easy target. However, in a nearly instantaneous show of speed Sneazel shot through the air and landed a solid hit on Venomoth, making it swerve upward before regaining control of its motion. Another TM? This boy's preparation far exceeded that of most rookies.

It was no matter. Now that Sneazel was reduced to sleep talking, its trainer could only rely on luck to deflect Venomoth's attacks. And even if luck was on their side, they'd already shown that there was at least one type of attack they were incapable of blocking.

"Combo one." Venomoth rapidly flapped its wings, this time generating a large cloud of stun soires. Next it would use gust to spread it all over the field...