Argh... Vladimir. In the town of Lavaridge, where the fire gym leader (the 4th gym) is, there is a hot spring. Next to this hot spring is an old woman with an egg, but she can't seem to get it to hatch. She offers you the egg to take with you, hoping that by being with a good trainer it will hatch one day. I was pretty down on my luck at this point, having just lost Hrothgar to the gym leader's Torkoal. I figured that I could use another Pokemon to fill out my party, so I took the egg. I carried it with me for days, through a desert, across a sea, and across the breadth of the region. When it hatched, I was frustrated to see that the Wynaut that hatched had no attacking moves, only such moves as Counter and Reflect. What this meant was that it had to take damage in order to deal damage, which was pretty unfortunate for it. I gave it an XP share, hoping to level it up to the point where it could take a hit without being crippled, but it never rose to its full potential. Why? Goddamn eagles made of steel. I was crossing the ash plains north of Mt. Chimney when I ran into the most ferocious Skarmory I'd ever seen. Most of my pokemon were at very low health, had no PP left in their attacks, or were named Vladimir. I knew Vladimir wouldn't do very well, so instead I sent out Theodore the Spinda so that he could confuse the Skarmory. He missed the first time, but the Skarmory only did minimal damage with Peck. I try again, and suddenly the Skarmory gets a critical with Swift, and Theodore dies, only minutes after I caught him. Because fleeing is for cowards, I had a difficult choice to make. Most of my Pokemon could take it, but they were also so low in health that any retaliation would kill them. Instead, I threw out Vladimir. He slowly whittled at the Skarmory's health by reflecting its attacks, but eventually Vladimir's health went into the red and he had no way of countering... except via the ultimate sacrifice. The move Destiny Bond automatically kills an enemy if that particular enemy kills you on the same turn you use it. Vladimir's quick claw item activated, letting him move first for once. The Skarmory killed him instantly, but due to Vladimir's heroic sacrifice, the Skarmory was slain and I fled to Fallarbor town to heal the living and bury the dead.
Destiny bond made for an intense battle, but the only moves less useful in this mode are Explosion and Selfdestruct. Enemies don't hold to my rules, so my journey through New Mauville was fun, attempting to slay instantly-self-destructing voltorbs before they could instantly kill my Pokemon.