Running the Gauntlet to Gymleader Viola

Something I've always wanted to do but never have done is to battle my way through a pokemon gym to a gymleader without healing my pokemon at the 'center.  I'm not sure if this is a man thing or just me being a tool, but I always wanted to experience this as a challenge.  The problem is that I'm something of a nervous little baby (when it comes down to it) and I have never been able to force myself to ACTUALLY go through with it.

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After thoroughly exploring Santalune city, I found myself in the pokemon gym--headed by Gymleader Viola, the Bug gymleader. 

Let's just be perfectly honest with ourselves: the only pokemon type less threatening than the Bug type is the Normal type--so I was not worried at all heading-into this place.  I ended-up spending most of my time trying to level-up Pikachu and Spewpa (evolved from Scatterbug).

My favorite leveling technique is the "sacrifice KO" wherein I weaken an opponent to within one sliver of health with a stronger pokemon of mine, then allow that pokemon to be knocked-out so I can finish the weakened foe off with a pokemon I am trying to level (so that the second pokemon gets ALL the exp.).  I guess this is like the "Sacrifice Fly" in Baseball--but this makes me quite possibly the worst pokemon trainer in the known universe.  Honestly, I kind of see where Team Plasma was coming from with the whole mistreatment of Pokemon thing from the previous game, because I obviously only see them as tools. 

Sorry I'm getting so emotional, but cut me some slack; I just realized I'm the villain.

Usually this sacrifice KO would not be a problem, but in this one case, there was no exit from the gym, so I found myself at the gymleader with three pokemon left remaining and no way to heal-up.  What is worse is that nice, shiny, super-effective against Bugs Farfetch'd I just got was one of my sacrifice KO's.

I found myself challenging Viola with a fully rested Froakie, a weakened Zigzagoon, and a Metapod who was barely alive.  It is times like this that I thank the game for forcing me to get those 90 potions at the start.

She had two pokemon and her first was Surskit, who I took out with Froakie, my lead.  Her second pokemon, Vivillon, who was much harder.  In the end, the battle came down to a "next hit wins the
game" moment between Metapod and Vivillon, and let me just say THANK GOD FOR PARALYSIS.

Metapod evolved into my favorite pokemon, Butterfree, after the battle.  Let me just say that I hope the whole game is this exciting.


Current Squad:


FROAKIE/Froakles/lvl.11
BUTTERFREE/Felix/lvl.11
ZIGZAGOON/Ziggy/lvl.10
SPEWPA/Bubbsey/lvl.9
PIKACHU/PikaPi/lvl.10
FARFETCH'D/Quackin'/lvl.11