A Machine Crushed Us at Pokémon

For a brief moment, we could taste victory. On the first turn of our online Pokémon battle against the player Athena2023, our Aegislash dealt some serious damage to Athena2023’s Gengar. One more blow like that, and Gengar, a little purple ghost with a sinister grin, would be toast.

But Athena2023 had other ideas. Before we could make another move, Gengar blew away Aegislash, a levitating Pokémon with the appearance of a zoomorphic sword and shield, with a single attack. The point of a battle is to use your team of six Pokémon to knock out all six of your opponent’s, and we were losing fast. Athena2023 sent out a Lunala, a demonic purple-and-white bird with scythes for wings, which proceeded to eviscerate three straight Pokémon in an attack called Moongeist Beam. By turn 13, we had lost four of our Pokémon and defeated exactly zero of Athena2023’s.