Silas, who was watching from the side, felt his eyes flicker.
The moment Pryce appeared before him, he had already noticed that seemingly ordinary Delibird.
However, on Zero's status panel, this Delibird was nothing like its harmless-looking appearance.
That glaring Champion-level strength was painfully eye-catching.
Silas honestly found it hard to imagine how Pryce had managed to train a Delibird to this extent.
Even with Zero as his cheat-like advantage, he wouldn't dare claim he had the confidence to develop a Pokémon like this.
The origin of Delibird's name largely came from the fact that they spend their days transporting food, storing it inside their tails.
They usually feed this food to their young, and sometimes even share it with humans trapped in glaciers.
The so-called "delivery" refers to bringing hope of survival to those stranded in desperate situations.
On the other hand, the name also comes from Delibird's fondness for using the move Present, with "delivery" also carrying the meaning of giving gifts.
This was a move unique to Delibird alone.
Inside Delibird's hollow tail were mysterious, unknown gifts.
When these gifts were handed to another Pokémon, they could randomly trigger different effects.
They might deal damage or they might restore HP.
But all this also indirectly showed that Delibird's direct combat capability was actually quite weak.
And that was indeed the case. According to statistical data, at the same level, Delibird's overall strength was only slightly stronger than the first-stage forms of the starter Pokémon.
That was why Silas was extremely curious—what kind of astonishing feat Pryce's Delibird could possibly pull off under such circumstances.
After all, at the Champion level, the strength of every Pokémon was beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
Under Pryce's command, the penguin-like Delibird—red overall, with white feathers covering its face and chest, slowly ascended into the sky.
…Huh?
Silas froze for a moment.
Why did it feel leisurely?
Delibird had clearly accelerated from a dead stop and shot straight into the sky in an instant.
This contradictory sensation made Silas deeply uncomfortable.
Even though he was already accustomed to similar movements from his own Pidgeot, the feeling was the same.
This could only mean one thing, the gap in speed between the two Pokémon was enormous.
A seemingly insignificant movement from a Champion-level Pokémon was already enough to reveal a hint of its overwhelming power.
"Woo—"
After reaching high altitude, Delibird let out a soft cry.
Then the yellow part that looked like its feet but was actually its tail, gently stirred.
A clearly visible white stream of freezing air burst forth from its tail, covering the entire sky in the blink of an eye.
Under the shocked gazes of Silas and Morinan, the sky already dimmed by Snow Warning, suddenly flashed with something like an aurora.
In the next instant, the snow-covered forest transformed into a world of ice.
Whether it was the flowing water from moments ago, or the snow clinging to tree branches, everything instantly solidified into massive blue ice crystals.
From as far as the eye could see, all the way to the source of the river beneath the distant cliffs, the raging flood had become completely frozen in place.
"…Hiss."
Both of them inhaled sharply, their faces turning red from the cold.
The forest's temperature had dropped to at least –30°C (–22°F). With such a drastic temperature shift in such a short time, it was only thanks to their excellent physical conditioning that they didn't immediately fall ill.
But Silas was far more shocked than Morinan.
Because at the exact moment Delibird unleashed its power, Zero's panel changed the Champion-level indicator turned into three even more glaring words:
Sub-Legendary Tier.
He never expected that before even seeing how strong an ordinary Champion Pokémon could be, he would first witness the terrifying power of a Sub-Legendary–level Pokémon.
And what made it even more unbelievable was that this Pokémon was Delibird—widely regarded as weak.
No, Silas immediately rejected that thought.
Pryce's Delibird could practically be called a mini Articuno.
In fact, aside from rarity, most Articuno individuals would likely be weaker than this Delibird.
Coincidentally, Delibird and Articuno were also the only two Pokémon with the Ice/Flying type combination.
"Boss… it's all frozen."
Reports came through the headsets of both Silas and Morinan from the Guard Corps command center.
The voice was filled with disbelief.
After all, normal people had no chance of witnessing the power of a Sub-Legendary Pokémon.
If he knew just how rare this was, he'd be bragging about it for years.
What shocked everyone most was that despite releasing such immense Ice-type energy over such a massive area, Delibird ensured that not a single wild Pokémon was harmed.
In other words, it had precisely controlled the Ice-type energy, focusing it entirely on the floodwaters.
That level of control was unparalleled.
"That should do it. Arrange the follow-up work. I'll investigate the cause of the anomaly."
After saying this, Pryce turned around, recalled Abomasnow, and left with Delibird.
His tone was utterly calm—as if he had just finished pouring a glass of water.
"…He's really not easy to get along with."
Morinan muttered quietly as he watched Pryce disappear.
He naturally wouldn't dare say something like that to Pryce's face, he genuinely felt Pryce might turn him into an ice sculpture on the spot.
"That said… once all this ice melts, won't it just turn back into water?"
Silas looked down at the frozen layers below and raised a very serious question.
The two of them immediately fell silent.
The flood had been dealt with but also, not entirely.
And yet, there was nothing they could really do about it.
"Blaziken, come out for a moment."
Silas released his ace Pokémon from its Luxury Ball.
He had a bold idea.
"Use Flamethrower on that rock over there."
He pointed at a nearby boulder encased in ice and gave the order.
"Blaze."
Blaziken nodded calmly.
Roaring flames burst from its mouth, scorching the frozen rock.
After a full thirty seconds, the ice layer finally showed the first signs of melting.
"That's enough. Stop."
Silas called off Blaziken's attack.
He felt like the number of times he'd been shocked today exceeded the total of the past month.
The quality of this Ice-type energy was simply too high.
Normally, Fire-type energy had a natural advantage over Ice-type energy.
And Blaziken's flames were far stronger than those of ordinary Pokémon at the same level.
Yet even so, it took half a minute just to begin melting the ice.
Based on that, Silas estimated that under normal seasonal sunlight, melting ice this thick would take at least a full week.
"If that's the case, given the surrounding terrain, a week should reduce the impact to a minimum or even eliminate it entirely."
Watching Silas's experiment, Morinan gave his own thoughtful assessment.
Though he hadn't been stationed in Heracross Forest for long, he had studied this kind of material at ranger academy. Applying formulas by analogy wasn't difficult.
"But the Pokémon might not be able to hold out for that long."
Silas voiced the same concern Morinan had been thinking about.
This was Heracross Forest in Johto—the Pokémon living here weren't particularly cold-resistant.
They couldn't exactly solve the flood by turning the forest into something else entirely.
A full week was enough time for the resident Pokémon to migrate elsewhere, completely destroying Heracross Forest's original ecosystem.
"Let's wait for Senior Pryce to come back and ask him. He should already have a plan."
After thinking for a moment, Silas finally gave up on overanalyzing it.
Perhaps when he reached Champion level himself, he'd have a clearer idea. For now, his strength and insight simply weren't enough to solve this problem.
"Mm. I'll report to the League first. Also, the rampaging Pokémon that assisting Trainers captured earlier need to be arranged through the Joy family and Professor Elm."
Morinan nodded in agreement and immediately got to work.
"And you—do you feel the gap in strength is huge? Feeling a little discouraged?"
With nothing else to do, Silas started chatting with Blaziken.
Ever since the experiment ended, he could clearly sense Blaziken's rapidly shifting emotions.
"Mm."
Blaziken gave a dull response through the power of aura.
"There's nothing to be so discouraged about."
Silas pulled it over and sat down together on a thick tree branch.
The chilling cold seeping up from beneath him was completely ignored at this moment.
It was as though he was speaking to Blaziken, yet also as though he were speaking to the other five partners inside their Poké Balls who could see what was happening outside.
"But I—"
Blaziken's intense emotional turmoil was clearly reflected through its aura.
"That's normal," Silas said, his tone unconsciously growing heavier.
"If a Pokémon with the same talent as you has trained for over thirty more years than you, then it would be abnormal if it didn't have that kind of strength, wouldn't it?"
He never felt that his own Pokémon were inferior to Pryce's Delibird.
All six of his current partners had been carefully chosen and painstakingly trained over a long period of time. Otherwise, there was no way he could have become the most outstanding trainer among those of his age.
On the contrary, Delibird's strength only further ignited his own confidence.
If Pryce and his Delibird could reach this level, then there was no reason he and his partners couldn't do the same.
Blaziken remained silent.
"You don't have the confidence to become just as strong as it?"
Silas glanced at it.
This time, Blaziken reacted.
For Pokémon with relatively straightforward minds, provocation was an extremely effective method.
"Of course I do."
Blaziken answered without the slightest hesitation.
"Then that settles it. Or are you saying you don't believe I can make you that strong?"
The corner of Silas's mouth curled into a faint, knowing smile.
This was part of a Trainer's job as well—Pokémon, just like humans, could suffer from psychological issues.
It was just that their problems were usually much easier to resolve.
For a Pokémon like Blaziken, this was more like suddenly getting stuck in a mental dead end. Once things were talked through, a good session of crushing weaker opponents would have it back to normal.
"Of course that's not it."
Blaziken's resolve only grew firmer.
From the very beginning, it had always believed in Silas's abilities and even now, that belief remained unchanged.
The reason Blaziken felt discouraged was simple: it felt that all its efforts so far hadn't produced meaningful results.
That feeling existed purely because Delibird's strength surpassed it by far too much.
And just as Silas had said, comparing a Pokémon that hadn't even lived a full year to one that had lived for over thirty, nearly forty years was inherently unfair.
It would be one thing if the latter had mediocre talent and didn't train hard. But the problem was that its talent wasn't inferior at all and it might have worked even harder.
Pokémon didn't have something like a so-called "golden age" for strength growth.
Except when approaching the end of their lifespan, a Pokémon's strength was almost always on an upward trajectory, provided it still had untapped potential.
Moreover, at the Champion level, where a Pokémon's strength largely depended on how much natural energy it could control through its bond with its Trainer, the advantage of time became overwhelmingly evident.
Only an extremely small number of prodigious Trainers and Pokémon could overcome this limitation.
For example—Lance, Steven Stone, Wallace, or Cynthia.
But how many people like those four existed in the world?
Setting everything else aside, the fact that Champion Alder had held Unova's Champion seat firmly for over twenty years was proof enough.
It was only because Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh so frequently produced exceptional monsters that people developed the illusion that younger Trainers could easily surpass older ones.
When all other factors were roughly equal, the advantage brought by time was enormous.
Whether it was experience or bond, it applied to both.
One Trainer and one Pokémon simply sat on the tree branch, talking like this.
With Blaziken's body heat, the surrounding environment didn't feel quite as cold to Silas.
"So you're the kid Professor Oak mentioned—Silas Alaric, right?"
A cold voice suddenly sounded from behind him.
Silas and Blaziken instinctively took defensive stances.
But almost immediately, he recognized the voice and relaxed.
"Yes, Senior Pryce."
Silas turned around and greeted him respectfully.
The one who had appeared behind him without a sound was none other than Pryce.
It could only be said that someone who came from a ninja town truly lived up to the name, Pryce's ability to conceal his presence was exceptionally powerful.
With its attention divided, even Blaziken hadn't noticed him.
Another human-shaped Pokémon, Silas thought with deep emotion.
He always felt that every powerful Trainer was essentially a human Pokémon.
"Good reaction."
Pryce glanced at Silas and gave a cold evaluation.
If it weren't for the decent relationship he'd had with Professor Oak and Professor Rowan in his younger years, he wouldn't have bothered with such a meaningless test at all.
"I've figured it out. The abnormal reactions from the weaker Pokémon are probably related to that."
Pryce said this to Morinan and Silas.
Only then did the two of them notice that on a nearby treetop, a pure-white Pokémon stood quietly.
Beside it was Pryce's Delibird.
"The Disaster Pokémon!"
The moment he saw it, Morinan blurted out its nickname.
"Absol."
Silas also came to a sudden realization.
No wonder—no wonder the Pokémon seemed to already know disaster was coming.
.....
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