It was only fair that Cian had done research on such a high-profile challenger; after all, it wasn't every day that a fellow Gym Leader or Elite Four member challenged one's Gym. Josh knew this from experience! The challenges from Melody Miro and Callan Young earlier in the year had left the Master of Faster in a funk that required intervention from the latter to get him out of. It was severe enough that Callan had awarded him a Badge merely by overcoming said funk, though it was by a very technical definition a Gym battle. In a more traditional battle, there was no way he would have overcome the TERAVOLT star's immense battle prowess. And yet, if he was to challenge the Elite Four, he would need to do so.

Therefore, the presence of a Tyranitar did not come off as a surprise; the SANDSTORM would decrease visibility and mitigate the challenger's speed advantage substantially. The moment he saw the Ground-type Larvitar, his first instinct was to preemptively and proactively have Saber protect himself from the impenting Ground-type assault with MAGNET RISE. Before his battle with Callan, that was exactly what he would have done.

Not the new Josh, though.

The new Josh knew tempo was everything. The roar of the SANDSTORM and the SCREECHing voices of the rock-types deafened the racer's Manectric and Dragonair, leaving them unable to hear the Leader's commands for a disabling THUNDER WAVE toward the adult brute and a whipping AQUA TAIL toward the younger Rock-type. Being two of Josh's cosest Pokémon, though, they didn't need the verbal commands. They knew what to do. The two Pokémon kept the Tyranitar and Larvitar barely in sight before firing their attacks, the Dragonair's specialty in speed evident from her unusually fast charge. Just before impact, she aborted her feigned DRAGON RUSH and flicked her long, blue-and-white, waterlogged tail toward the smaller foe.

It had been so long since Josh had been to a Gym as a challenger rather than as a Leader that he had forgotten what it was like to battle when he didn't have the home field advantage. He was used to wide open fields with ample visibility, where he could take advantage of his team's ludicrous speed. This was not the case; the sandstorm not only hampered visibility, but its sharp quartz grains would only pound at Josh's team more the faster they ran. While the Tyranitar's DARK PULSE was formidable, it was a strange attack to follow up with after a SCREECH.

Something wasn't adding up. The DARK PULSE, fired from the distance it was, had to be a bait. Was it truly the Tyranitar that was the threat, or the Ground-type Larvitar that could loose a match-ending EARTHQUAKE at any given moment? He had to answer one of them now, and nothing would change his mind about which one was the true threat. Resheph's AQUA TAIL, especially with his secret weapon, would be able to handle that Larvitar any time he wanted. "Cian, you should know me better than that by now. I'm not going to fall for your scheme," he smiled, trusting his partner's ability to withstand the Dark-type attack. Where he went wrong was not the power of the direct attack, but the shrapnel it had lifted into the air around it. That did just as much harm as being struck by the DARK PULSE itself. The sandstorm itself was a ticking time bomb, as well, wearing the Manectric further down.

"Now, DISCHARGE!" the Master of Faster shouted. Surrounding himself with a sphere of electricity, the racing-bred Manectric galloped toward Cian's larger Pokémon, barking loudly and expanding it around all the combatants. While the Larvitar would be unaffected and Resheph's scales would leave her mostly unscathed, at least in theory, Josh hoped the surge would be strong enough to pierce the rock-type's impressive defenses.

The reality was much more bleak: the friendly fire had left Resheph wrack with PARALYSIS. "Guess there's no holding this back now." Josh reached for his TERA ORB, the hand that grasped it glowed a sparkling blue. He hurled it toward his Dragonair, encasing her in a crystal pyramid for a second or two. When the pyramid shattered around her, a veil of water flowed over her new crystalline body, a water droplet-shaped TERA JEWEL adorning the weather orb on her neck. The flowing water soothed the PARALYSIS away and softened the blow of the Larvitar's IRON HEAD, Josh's quick thinking the only reason she was still floating. "Now, AQUA TAIL one more time! You're not getting away so easily this time!" The now Water-type serpent flung its Tera-enhanced tail toward Larvitar, trying to add splash to gash by flicking it into the Tyranitar.

Even by Josh's standards, everything happened so quickly during that last exchange: Josh had been so focused on the Tyranitar that the Rustboro Leader's true ace was the Larvitar. He paid for that mistake with the little one's CRUNCHing blow to Saber's neck, neither the trainer nor the Manectric able to see it coming until it was too late. A totally unnecessary critical hit, only held back by the Gym's standard safety systems he was more then familiar with from having to install them in his own Gym, prevented the electric-type from suffering a serious injury despite being felled in a single attack. He threw his arms toward the referee in protest. Where was the unnecessary roughness penalty? That blow to the neck could have killed Saber!

The match was even, and it was hard to tell who had the advantage. Resheph's Terastal form and speed gave her the clear advantage in direct combat, but the Larvitar was a small target. Connecting with her AQUA TAIL would be a real challenge, and with the sandstorm wearing her down, Josh knew he only had one shot. Even one scratch from that Larvitar would fell her. His instinct was to have his Terastallized dragon speed around the outer bounds of the court with AGILITY, preparing for a lash of her AQUA TAIL that would be veiled by the sandstorm until it was too late. It was a solid plan, but it came with a real danger.

It meant Cian no longer had to be offensive.

With the sandstorm doing the work for him, he could, in theory, instruct his Larvitar to hold back and hide in the shifting, blowing sand. The alternative was worse, though: engaging in open melee with the Larvitar, even with a water attack, would likely result in a double knockout. And by the rules of the Gym Challenge, the challenger had to win outright. A tie was the same as a challenger defeat. As much as it went against his battling style to be as fast and decisive as possible, he was quickly learning that not only in his pursuit of Champion Rank, but his pursuit of the Johto Beast, the Six Virtues would not be enough. He needed a Seventh Virtue, and this one would be the most challenging one of all to learn.

The Virtue of PATIENCE.

"Resheph, it's time to show Cian why I'm the Master of Faster! Circle the court with your AGILITY!" Surrounded in purple dragon energy, the serpent's body disappeared into the sandstorm, her exact position both visually and aurally obscured by the Leader's own weather. The next exchange would be decisive, that much was a certainty. Would speed or attrition triumph? The crowd was on the edge of their seats.

Cian had set a brilliant speed trap, but Josh was ready for it. His speedy Dragonair, on every lap around the court, was getting closer to the Larvitar that the Mauville Leader was certain to be knocked out first. "Now, AQUA TAIL!" Josh cried, Resheph using her momentum to whip her Terastallized frame into where she expected the Larvitar to be. Cian was one step ahead of him, though; inside the sandstorm, it was extremely easy for the Tyranitar to fake its own collapse. While he expected the small Pokémon to fall, it would instead be the larger Pokémon the potent attack would be aimed at.

No amount of speed could allow Resheph to dodge a point-blank DARK PULSE. A screech from the Dragonair was the only sign Josh needed that he had lost. He had taken neither of the Rustboro Leader's Pokémon down. If he couldn't defeat a mere Gym Leader, then how was he to pass the Champion Assessment? Clearly he had a long ways to go, and was living proof that even Gym Leaders were not all-powerful savants of Pokémon combat.

Dejected, he withdrew his Pokémon, unable to see the fundamental mistake he had made: the side judge had never declared the Leader's Tyranitar unable to battle. Perhaps the call was made and he was unable to hear it over the sandstorm. From how motionless the mountain Pokémon was, he had assumed that to be the case. "...Cian, where did I go wrong?"

Today's loss was a tough one. His first loss on Hoenn's Gym Circuit as a challenger. In his defense, the fifth Badge was where most recreational challengers gave up. Even in his training as a Gym Leader, he was stressed of the difficulty jump between challengers seeking their fourth Badge versus their fifth. Every region had a particular Badge count where the challenge's perceived difficulty spiked. For Johto, it was the sixth Badge. Here, it was clearly the fifth.

"You know, Cian... it's just like in Unovan football. Until the ref whistles the play dead, you assume the play is still live. Until the judge rules a Pokémon unable to battle, you have to assume it's still up and able to fight." As for the Leader's second point, Josh came prepared for as many different weather conditions as he could. Sand wasn't one of them. Now that he knew to come prepared for sand, he would be bringing a different squad to the rematch.

After all, knowledge is power.