Kanto sea area.
Watching the giant Dragonite and giant Tentacruel chatting openly about the inconveniences of their huge sizes, faces full of happy smiles, and calling each other friends.
Even Lugia seemed infected by their atmosphere. A trace of relief appeared in its eyes.
No matter what, after breaking the ice, the giant Dragonite and giant Tentacruel no longer had to endure that lonely feeling.
They finally had friends in this world they could embrace.
After watching for a while, Lugia turned its attention to Lucas, who had been talking to empty air for some time.
Fortunately, Lugia had already accepted that humans always came up with all kinds of strange things, so it didn't treat Lucas speaking to nothing as a mental patient.
It simply watched Lucas's somewhat grave side profile and asked through telepathy, "What happened?"
"…Sigh."
Lucas looked up at Lugia and sighed sincerely.
Several minutes had passed since the call ended, but he still couldn't figure it out.
No, he clearly hadn't gotten involved at all. Why had the plot still gone off track?
The Aqua spy sent to Magma had been discovered directly. Kyogre hadn't been released early. The red Orb in Maxie's hand hadn't ended up with Pikachu and merged into its body.
From the very beginning, everything had gone completely wrong, just like the LaRousse situation.
Where was the supposed powerful plot correction force?
Having mentally prepared himself, when he later heard Nemona say on the phone that they had also gotten involved and had an intense battle with Team Aqua, Lucas's heart remained calm as still water.
Hehe, I'm completely unshakeable now.
Even if Groudon and Kyogre started fighting again, Lucas didn't necessarily have to get involved. If he had to meddle in every matter in the world, how would he live?
When things truly became critical, the balancing Rayquaza would definitely arrive, even if late.
Looking at it that way, it actually didn't matter.
—The problem was that his three unlucky students had gotten involved, and Lucas wasn't sure whether the Hoenn Rayquaza that had just taken a beating, or the Shiny one, would be willing to handle it.
Lucas was not someone who liked to bet the future on uncertain probabilities.
Thinking this way, he was definitely going to have to be the laborer again.
However…
Lucas glanced at Lugia a few more times and suddenly had an idea.
"Sigh…"
He let out a deliberately long sigh. His eyes looking at Lugia were filled with "bitterness."
Under Lugia's puzzled expression, Lucas seemed to find it hard to speak, but after hesitating, he finally opened his mouth.
"I think… that bad premonition you mentioned earlier is probably about to come true."
…
Monsu Island nearby sea area.
The moment the steaming red blades tore through the seawater and shot upward, even Lance's battle-hardened heart skipped a beat.
Fortunately, the experienced Dragonite reacted instantly. It unhesitatingly activated the special Extreme Speed passed down through the Dragon Clan.
Treating air resistance as nothing, Dragonite's full-speed flight left a trail of afterimages.
Its figure flickered and weaved through the densely sprouting red blades as if using a Psychic-type Teleport.
Moments later, Groudon's attack temporarily ceased.
Only then did the cold sweat on Lance's back ease a little.
Never mind whether that Ground or Rock move was effective against Flying-type Dragonite.
Even if it was Ground-type, just looking at the terrifying kinetic energy that instantly tore through seawater showed how strong the physical impact would be if Dragonite were hit.
In that case, type immunity was meaningless.
Not to mention that the prerequisite for Flying-types to be immune to some Ground moves was that the Flying-type Pokémon hadn't been hit by the Ground move in the first place.
Was it a blessing in disguise?
At least in terms of speed, the two ancient Pokémon whose bodies seemed to be growing larger over time were still inferior to his Dragonite.
Dragonite successfully avoided Groudon's attack, but in exchange, Groudon's originally indifferent attitude toward him changed.
Maxie, who now seemed like a mouthpiece for Groudon's will, shouted with a ferocious expression: "Eyesore eyesore eyesore—!"
"Groudon, get rid of them!"
In response to Maxie, light spots sprinkled onto Groudon's back, and a dazzling light suddenly shone from its opened mouth.
Solar Beam!
A several-meter-wide light pillar pierced the air, carrying inescapable heat as it shot toward Lance and Dragonite.
The attack was extremely fast. Even Dragonite barely reacted in time.
At the critical moment, Dragonite tilted its body and flapped its wings, using the shockwave from the beam passing by to narrowly dodge the Solar Beam.
Though it had quadruple resistance to Grass, it didn't dare take this head-on.
Lance, nearly thrown off by the sudden impact, gripped Dragonite tightly. Enduring the body pain from the violent wind pressure and the terrifying weightlessness during aerial maneuvers, he shouted loudly: "Hyper Beam!"
Dragonite's powerful Hyper Beam instantly struck the slow-moving Groudon, making it roar in pain.
Good news: The attack was effective.
Bad news: The opponent's HP bar was ridiculously long, and that hit had only angered it further.
Commanding Dragonite to dodge the sky-filling fire-meteor rain from the volcano that had erupted again due to Groudon's rage, Lance clicked his tongue.
No, could this thing really be beaten by a Trainer?
If someone could truly defeat them head-on, in Lance's view, that person's strength would already be approaching the domain of the two most monstrously talented Trainers he had seen since his debut.
While Lance and Dragonite could at least stall Groudon with speed.
The red Gyarados versus Kyogre could only be described as one-sided suppression.
Even with Lance's remote commands, the red Gyarados—which had only been caught for less than half a year and still had a lot of room to grow—could at best be considered an Elite Four-level main Pokémon.
Now look at its opponent: the ancient legendary Pokémon known as the creator of the seas, the one myths linked with the origin of the ocean itself—Kyogre.
Under the barrage of sky-filling cyan-white beams, the red Gyarados was beaten until it could barely roar.
Even when it dove underwater, Kyogre—with Archie as its "external brain"—smartly stopped sweeping and instead leaped into the air, delivering saturation strikes from sky to sea.
Those beams, seemingly highly compressed water energy, pierced through seawater as easily as Groudon's red blades tore the sea.
Plus, even underwater, Gyarados's agility was far inferior to Dragonite.
Dragonite's side was barely stalling, but Gyarados's side was pure survival.
During one underwater evasion of Kyogre's pursuit, the surfacing Gyarados was hit by Groudon's remote Solar Beam.
With Maxie as its "external brain," the normally brainless Groudon had also categorized Gyarados as part of Lance and Dragonite's group.
It took aim and fired whenever there was an opening.
To make things worse, Groudon and Kyogre—the mortal enemies who could not coexist—now seemed to have a perfect tacit understanding.
The instant Groudon's Solar Beam struck Gyarados and knocked it down, Kyogre stirred the sea. A chilling light beam swept past, freezing both Gyarados and that entire section of sea into ice.
The retreating Team Aqua and Magma members watching this scene felt their hearts turn cold.
What now? Even the invincible Dragon Master Lance was gradually falling behind.
Could they only watch as their bosses Archie/Maxie fell into madness?
"Fire Blast!"
Riding Dragonite to the frozen sea, Lance ordered Dragonite to quickly free Gyarados.
But could Kyogre's Ice move be melted so easily?
In that moment of delay, Lance and Dragonite were immediately targeted by both Kyogre and Groudon.
The two giant beasts roared thunderously. Near-instant Ice Beam and Solar Beam erupted.
Even though Lance reacted quickly and had Dragonite use Hyper Beam to block the more threatening Ice Beam, the Solar Beam from the other side left them with no way to dodge both.
It's over—
The moment these words flashed through Lance's mind, his ears faintly caught a shout from afar through the storm.
The instant Lance registered this, the shout suddenly became clear.
If he hadn't misheard, the voice was shouting—
"Pawmot, Thunder!"
The stormy, cloud-covered weather over the sea was undoubtedly the best environment.
Golden lightning instantly tore through the sky. Before the sound could even be heard, a vast torrent of electricity descended from the heavens, striking with perfect precision the white-green light pillar about to hit Dragonite.
This wasn't a brute-force block—it was a preemptive detonation.
The violent explosion's shockwave directly sent Lance and Dragonite flying. The half-melted ice block trapping Gyarados also shattered, releasing the heavily injured red Gyarados.
"…Hiss."
Holding his painfully throbbing right arm, Lance sucked in a cold breath as he struggled to stand up from the ice platform Kyogre had created.
He didn't need to look to know his arm had dislocated from that fall.
This was after Dragonite had used its body to absorb most of the impact.
But no matter how bad it was, it was still much better than taking Groudon's Solar Beam head-on without any defense.
If he had really taken that hit, even if Dragonite could withstand it with its tempered body, Lance himself would have been reduced to nothing.
At this moment, Lance actually felt a little envious of Ash.
After all, that kid could really tank Pokémon moves.
Lance looked up toward the sea not far away.
On Wailord's back—which was even larger than the gradually "growing" Kyogre—amid the turbulent waves, Nemona and Pawmot, who had saved him at the critical moment, were waving at him.
Soon after, on Wailord's back.
Dragonite, which had carried Lance onto Wailord, had already returned to the battlefield alone to fight alongside the heavily injured red Gyarados and buy time, so as to avoid drawing Kyogre and Groudon's fire toward them.
"Mr. Lance!"
Nemona and Paul quickly helped up the somewhat pale Lance and called out worriedly.
"It looks like the impact dislocated his arm. He also has many scrapes. There's also a possibility of mild concussion!"
Shizuka quickly assessed Lance's condition based on experience.
"I'll provide simple first aid!"
Shizuka took out her portable medical kit and was about to begin treatment, but Lance's gaze remained fixed on the battlefield. He kept trying to struggle to his feet.
"No… I still need to command Dragonite and the others…"
The good education Lance had received since childhood gave him a far stronger sense of justice than ordinary people, but beyond that, he also had the pride of a "genius."
Yet before the power of ancient Pokémon, he realized how insignificant his pride and boasted strength truly were.
He had only stalled for twenty minutes and ended up in this miserable state…
Even when he had been defeated by those two freaks, Lance had never felt such regret over why he couldn't be stronger.
The him who had stubbornly chased an unreachable Kanto Champion position was like a fool.
Nemona and Paul didn't know how to comfort Lance, who rarely showed his vulnerable side.
Only Shizuka, at this moment, fully displayed the dignity of her former Pokémon Nurse Joy identity.
"I don't care what you think, but if you don't want to become a burden to Dragonite and the others, then obediently accept my emergency treatment!"
"At least this way I can guarantee you'll recover enough in a short time to fight alongside them again!"
Looking into Lance's somewhat unfocused pupils, Shizuka's eyes were extremely serious.
"…I understand."
Awakened by these words, Lance stopped struggling and obediently accepted Shizuka's emergency treatment and bandaging.
Nemona stood up at this time. Her eyes were full of determination.
Now, she would take over Mr. Lance's duty of stalling for the full twenty minutes and wait for further reinforcements!
Looking at the determined back of the eleven- or twelve-year-old girl, Lance opened his mouth, but the worried words stuck in his throat.
Was this heavy burden that had even crushed him now going to be carried by such a child?
The usually carefree Nemona noticed Lance's emotional fluctuation and gave him her signature "Nemona" confident smile.
"Don't worry, Mr. Lance."
"My teacher is the Trainer who defeated the 'Sky Dragon.'"
"As his student, I will also fight until the very end!"
Nemona's voice carried not only thick pride in her teacher's achievements but also the sun-like confidence and determination of a Trainer her age.
At this moment, Lance suddenly recalled the two boys he had once met who were about Nemona's age.
They had still been young and inexperienced when they first met, yet they had crushed through the Champion League and defeated him.
And now, the back of Nemona as she looked back strangely overlapped with the images of those two boys in his memory.