All right, by putting it to sleep, I had finally gotten Garchomp to doze off before it could fire its projectile.
And then-
"Let's restore your health first! Pain Split!"
"Tangela!"
As expected, Tangela was holding an Eviolite. It was an extremely useful held item for unevolved Pokémon. With its help, Tangela's physical durability even surpassed that of the famous defensive monster Cresselia. In other words, it was really, really tough against physical attacks. On top of that, its Effort Values went into HP, Defense, Special Defense, and Speed, allowing it to comfortably endure even super-effective attacks. Of course, that didn't mean it took no damage. It had switched in this time, and its opponent had also raised its Attack two stages with Swords Dance, making things even worse. That was why I used Pain Split, which added the user's and opponent's HP together and divided it equally between them, to recover.
That uneven division was a choice made purely with the damage we'd taken in mind. The only damage Garchomp had suffered was from the sweeping attack. That had barely hurt it. Tangela, on the other hand, had clearly lost more health from the damage mentioned earlier. Using Pain Split in this state would both heal Tangela and hurt Gaburias. Two birds with one stone.
Now, while Fifth explained things like that, let's move on!
"Hey! Garchomp, wake up! Wake up!! Wake up!!"
"Not yet! Our attack isn't over! Tangela, Leaf Storm!"
"Yaaah!"
Countless leaves rode the gale whipping up from Maractus and assailed Gaburias. Garchomp was a Dragon- and Ground-type, and Maractus's own Special Attack was quite high, so it should have been fairly effective.
"Garchomp was put to sleep by Sleep Talk! After Pain Split, it took Leaf Storm head-on! This is a real crisis!"
"And thanks