Chapter 660

Kanto Sea region.

Watching the two enormous Dragonite and Gyarados freely chat about the inconveniences of their massive sizes, their faces beaming with joy as they called each other friends.

Lugia, seemingly infected by their harmonious atmosphere, showed a faint look of relief in its eyes.

Regardless, after the ice was broken, the enormous Dragonite and Gyarados no longer had to endure that loneliness.

They finally had a friend in this world with whom they could embrace.

After watching for a while, Lugia turned its attention to the side—Romo, who had been talking to something inexplicable since earlier.

Fortunately, Lugia had long accepted that humans often produce strange things, so it didn’t consider Romo insane for speaking to empty air.

It simply gazed at Romo’s serious profile and asked through telepathy: “What’s happened?”

“Sigh.”

Romo looked up at Lugia and let out a genuine sigh.

Several minutes had passed since the call ended, yet he still couldn’t understand.

How come the plot still went off track, even though I didn’t interfere at all?

The Team Aqua spy embedded in Team Magma was discovered immediately; Kyogre wasn’t released early; the crimson orb held by Flannery didn’t land on Pikachu, nor did it merge into its body.

It had gone completely off-track from the start, just like the situation in Lavaridge Town.

Where did the supposed powerful plot correction force go?

Having prepared himself mentally, when Romo heard Nemo say over the phone that they were also involved and had engaged in a tense battle with Team Aqua, his heart remained as calm as still water.

Heehee, I’m completely immune to shocks now.

In fact, even if Groudon and Kyogre started fighting again, Romo didn’t need to intervene—if he got involved in every single event in the world, how could he even survive?

When things get truly serious, Latios, as the natural counterbalance, would surely show up—even if late.

So, in this light, the situation isn’t really that impactful.

—But the problem is, his three unlucky students got mixed up in it too, and now Romo genuinely isn’t sure whether the recently beaten Hoenn Latios or the Shiny Latios would even care to intervene.

Romo isn’t the type to bet his future on uncertain probabilities.

Thinking this through, he was definitely going to be the one stuck doing the hard work.

But

Romo secretly glanced at Lugia a few more times, and a plan immediately formed in his mind.

“Sigh.”

Romo let out a deliberately dramatic sigh, his gaze toward Lugia filled with “bitterness.”

Zailuoqiyayilianmangrandebiaoqingxia ， Luomusihunanyiqichi ， Danjiujiezhihou ， Zuizhonghaishikailekou 。

“I think… that bad feeling you mentioned earlier is about to come true.”

Near Mew Island’s waters.

The instant the searing, red-hot blade surged up from beneath the sea, tearing through the water, even Agatha’s battle-hardened heart skipped a beat.

Fortunately, the veteran Dragonite reacted instantly and unhesitatingly activated the ancient “Swift” technique passed down through generations of its kind.

Accelerating at full speed, ignoring air resistance, the Dragonite left behind a trail of afterimages along its flight path.

Its body darted and twisted between the dense barrage of crimson blades, resembling the Psychic-type move “Teleport.”

After a moment, Groudon’s assault temporarily ceased.

The cold sweat pouring down Agatha’s back finally began to subside.

Regardless of whether that unknown Ground- or Rock-type move was effective against a Flying-type like Dragonite,

Just seeing how it instantly tore through the ocean and unleashed terrifying kinetic energy made it clear: if struck, Dragonite would endure immense physical impact.

In that case, type immunity meant nothing.

Moreover, the prerequisite for Flying-types to be immune to certain Ground moves is that they aren’t directly hit by them.

Was it a stroke of luck?

At least in speed, the two ancient Pokémon, whose bodies kept growing larger over time, were slower than his Dragonite.

Dragonite successfully dodged Groudon’s attacks, but in return, Groudon’s previously casual attitude toward him shifted dramatically.

Flannery, acting as Groudon’s voice, snarled relentlessly: “Annoying! Annoying! Annoying—!”

“Groudon, eliminate them!”

In response to Flannery, glowing dots appeared along Groudon’s back, followed by a brilliant flash within its gaping maw.

“Solar Beam!”

A beam of light several meters in diameter pierced the air, striking Agatha and Gyarados with an inescapable searing heat.

The attack was so fast that even Dragonite barely reacted in time.

At the last possible moment, Dragonite twisted its body and flapped its wings, using the shockwave from the beam grazing past to narrowly evade the Solar Beam.

Sure, it’s quadruple-resistant to Grass, but no way am I taking that head-on.

Nearly blown away by the sudden impact, Agatha clung tightly to Gyarados, enduring the agonizing pressure of the wind and the terrifying sensation of weightlessness during aerial maneuvers, shouting: “Hyper Beam!”

Dragonite unleashed its powerful Hyper Beam, striking the sluggish Groudon directly and causing it to roar in pain.

Good news: the attack landed.

Bad news: its HP is absurdly long, and that hit only enraged it further.

As Agatha directed Gyarados to dodge the torrent of fiery meteors erupting again from Groudon’s rage, he couldn’t help but grit his teeth.

Seriously, can any trainer actually defeat this thing?

If anyone could truly defeat them head-on, in Agatha’s view, that opponent’s strength must be approaching the level of the two most extraordinarily gifted trainers he’d ever encountered since his debut.

If Agatha and Gyarados could still rely on their speed to maneuver against Groudon.

The Red Gyarados and Kyogre side was being utterly dominated.

Even with Agatha’s remote command, the Red Gyarados—only recently captured less than half a year ago and still with vast room to grow—was at best the main Pokémon of a member of the Elite Four.

Compare that to its opponent: Kyogre, the legendary Pokémon known as the Creator of the Seas, mythically tied to the origin of the oceans themselves.

Under a relentless barrage of bluish-white beams, the Red Gyarados was beaten so badly it could barely cry out.

Even when it dove beneath the waves, Kyogre—with Wailord as its “external brain”—cleverly stopped sweeping attacks and instead leapt into the air to deliver saturated strikes from above onto the submerged target.

The beams, seemingly compressed with immense Water-type energy, pierced through the ocean just as easily as Groudon’s crimson blades tore through the sea.

Added to that, Gyarados was far less agile underwater than Dragonite.

Dragonite’s side was at least holding its own; Gyarados’s side was pure survival.

And during one evasion maneuver against Kyogre’s underwater pursuit, Gyarados leapt out of the water—only to be struck by Groudon’s distant Solar Beam.

Just like Spenser, who acted as an “external brain,” Groudon—who normally fought with brute instinct—immediately categorized the Gyarados as part of Agatha and Gyarados’s side.

It seized every opportunity to fire another shot.

To make matters worse, the two archenemies, Groudon and Kyogre, now seemed perfectly in sync.

The instant Groudon’s Solar Beam struck Gyarados and sent it crashing down, Kyogre stirred the ocean, unleashing a chilling ray of light that froze Gyarados and the surrounding sea into solid ice.

Team Aqua and Team Magma personnel watching this scene felt their hearts sink.

What do we do? Even the invincible Dragon Master Awakened was gradually losing ground.

Were they doomed to just watch Flannery and Wailord fall?

“Fire Blast!”

Riding Gyarados to the frozen sea, Agatha ordered Gyarados to rescue the Gyarados as quickly as possible.

But how easily could the Ice-type move unleashed by Kyogre be undone?

It was precisely this moment of hesitation that drew the immediate attention of Kyogre and Groudon toward Agatha and Gyarados.

The two titans roared in unison, unleashing near-instantaneous “Ice Beam” and “Solar Beam.”

Although Agatha reacted instantly, ordering Gyarados to block the most dangerous “Ice Beam” with “Hyper Beam,” he and Gyarados were unable to defend against the “Solar Beam” coming from the other side.

We’re done—

The instant the two words surfaced in Agatha’s mind, he faintly heard a distant cry carried through the storm.

The instant he realized what it was, the voice became crystal clear.

If he hadn’t misheard, it shouted—

“Bulbasaur, Thunder!”

The stormy, cloud-choked sea was the perfect environment.

A golden lightning bolt instantly split the sky; before the thunder could even rumble, a torrent of electricity crashed down, precisely striking the pale-green beam moments before it hit Dragonite.

This wasn’t brute-force blocking—it was preemptive detonation.

The violent explosion sent a shockwave that blasted Agatha and Gyarados away; the partially melted, partially frozen ice encasing the Gyarados shattered, spilling out the scarred, crimson Gyarados.

“Hss.”

Clutching his agonizing right arm and gasping for breath, Agatha struggled to his feet on the icy platform created by Kyogre.

He didn’t need to look—he knew his arm had dislocated during the fall.

That was only because Dragonite had instinctively used its body to absorb most of the impact.

But even this dire situation was far better than being directly hit by Groudon’s Solar Beam with no defense.

If he’d taken that hit, even Dragonite’s hardened body couldn’t have saved him—he’d have been vaporized.

At this moment, Agatha felt a twinge of envy toward Ash.

After all, that kid truly could endure Pokémon moves.

Agatha looked up toward the sea not far away.

On the back of Whiscash, whose size dwarfed even the still-growing Kyogre, Nemo and Bulbasaur—who had just saved him in the nick of time—were waving toward him.

Soon after, on the back of Kingdra.

Dragonite, who had delivered Ash to Kingdra’s back, had returned alone to the battlefield to fight alongside the battered Red Gyarados, avoiding the firepower of Kyogre and Groudon, buying time.

“Mr. Ash!”

Nimo and Shinji quickly helped up Ash, whose face had grown pale, and called out anxiously.

“It’s probably that last impact dislocated his arm, and he has multiple abrasions—there’s also a possibility of mild concussion!”

Shizuka, drawing on her experience, immediately made a rough assessment of Ash’s condition.

“I’ll handle basic first aid!”

Shizuka pulled out her portable medical kit and prepared to begin treatment, but Ash’s gaze remained fixed on the battlefield, and he kept trying to struggle to his feet.

“No—I still need to command Dragonite and the others.”

The strong upbringing Ash received since childhood gave him a sense of justice far beyond ordinary people, but beyond that justice, he also carried the pride of a “genius.”

Yet before the power of the ancient Pokémon, he realized how insignificant his pride and his cherished strength truly were.

He had only bought twenty minutes—and yet he’d ended up in this state.

Even when defeated by those two monsters, Ash had never felt such regret for not being stronger.

Clinging to a Kanto Champion title he could never reach made him feel like a fool.

Nimo and Shinji didn’t know how to comfort Ash, who had so rarely shown such vulnerability.

Only Shizuka, at this moment, fully summoned the authority of her former role as Nurse Joy.

“I don’t care what you’re thinking—if you don’t want to be a burden to Dragonite and the others, then just accept my emergency treatment!”

“At least then, I can guarantee you’ll recover enough to fight alongside them again in a short time!”

Locking eyes with Ash’s slightly unfocused pupils, Shizuka’s gaze was solemn.

“.I understand.”

Awakened by her words, Ash stopped struggling and quietly accepted Shizuka’s emergency treatment and bandaging.

At that moment, Nimo also stood up, her eyes filled with determination.

Now, she would take over Ash’s duty—having held the line for twenty full minutes—waiting for further reinforcements!

Watching the firm back of the eleven- or twelve-year-old girl, Ash opened his mouth, but the words of concern stuck in his throat.

This crushing burden, which had nearly broken him—was it now to be borne by a child?

Nimo, usually so carefree, noticed Ash’s emotional shift and gave him her own confident smile—the “Nimo” smile.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Ash.”

“My teacher is the Trainer who defeated the Sky Dragon.”

“As his student, I will fight until my very last moment!”

Nimo’s voice carried not only deep pride in her teacher’s achievement, but also the sunlike confidence and resolve of a Trainer her age.

At that moment, Ash suddenly remembered the two boys he had once met, who were about Nimo’s age.

When he first met them, they had been young and inexperienced—but they had crushed him without mercy in the Champion League.

Now, Nimo’s turned-back silhouette strangely merged with the memory of those two boys.

(End of Chapter)