Chapter 660: My Teacher Is a Training That Defeated the Sky-Subduing Dragon

The Kanto sea region.

Watching the giant Dragonite and giant Tentacruel, who were speaking freely about the various inconveniences caused by their massive sizes, their faces brimming with joyful smiles as they called each other friends.

Lugia, seemingly infected by the atmosphere of their interaction, also had a trace of gratification appear in Emperor Yan Di's eyes.

In any case, now that the ice had been broken, the giant Dragonite and giant Tentacruel finally no longer had to endure that feeling of loneliness.

In this world, they finally had friends they could embrace.

After watching for a while, Lugia shifted its attention back to Luo Mu, who had been talking to something unknown for some time now.

Fortunately, Lugia had already recognized that humans always came up with strange and bizarre things, so it did not mistake Luo Mu, who was speaking to an empty space, for a lunatic.

It simply gazed at the somewhat Solemn profile of Luo Mu's face and asked via telepathy, "What has happened?"

"... Sigh."

Luo Mu glanced up at Lugia and let out a heartfelt sigh.

Several minutes had passed since the call ended, yet he still could not figure it out.

No, clearly he had not interfered in anything, so why had the plot still gone astray?

The spy Team Aqua had sent to infiltrate Team Magma was discovered immediately, Groudon was not released ahead of schedule, the Crimson Orb held by Maxie did not fall onto Pikachu, nor did it fuse into Pikachu's body.

It had gone completely off track from the very beginning, much like the situation in LaRousse City.

Where had the powerful plot correction force that was promised gone?

Having mentally prepared himself, when he subsequently heard Hearing Hearing Nimo on the other end of the phone say that they had also gotten involved and even had a tense and thrilling Battle with Team Aqua, Luo Mu's heart remained as calm as water.

Hehe, I am completely immune to having my defenses broken now.

Actually, even if Groudon and Kyogre started fighting again, there was no need for Luo Mu to intervene; otherwise, if he had to meddle in every affair under heaven, would he still have a life to live?

When things truly became serious, Rayquaza, as the constraint, would definitely arrive, even if it was late.

Looking at it this way, this matter actually had no impact regardless.

—But the problem lay in the fact that his three unlucky students had also gotten involved, plus Luo Mu really could not be sure whether the Hoenn Rayquaza that had just taken a beating, or the Shiny Rayquaza, would be willing to handle this matter.

Luo Mu was not someone who liked to gamble the future on uncertain probabilities.

Thinking about it this way, he was definitely going to have to be the one doing the hard labor.

However...

Luo Mu secretly glanced at Lugia a few more times, and suddenly a plan came to mind.

"Sigh..."

Feigning a long sigh, Luo Mu looked at Lugia with eyes full of "bitterness."

Under Lugia's confused expression, Luo Mu seemed somewhat hesitant to speak, but after struggling with himself, he ultimately chose to open his mouth.

"I think... that bad premonition you mentioned earlier is probably about to come true."

The sea area near Mossdeep Island.

The moment the steaming, red-hot blade tore through the seawater and emerged from below, even Lance's time-tested big heart skipped a beat in that instant.

Fortunately, the battle-hardened Dragonite reacted immediately, activating the special "Extreme Speed" passed down through generations of the Dragon Clan without the slightest hesitation.

Treating air resistance as nothing, the flight trajectory of the Dragonite, accelerating with all its might, revealed a series of afterimages.

Its figure constantly flashed, turned, and shifted amidst the densely emerging red-hot blades, just like the Psychic-type Pokémon's "Teleport" move.

Moments later, Groudon's offensive temporarily ceased.

The cold sweat constantly breaking out on Lance's back finally subsided somewhat.

Leaving aside how effective that move, which might be Ground-type or Rock-type, was against the Flying-type Dragonite.

Even if it truly was a Ground-type move, just looking at the terrifying kinetic energy with which that move instantly tore through the seawater to protrude, one could know how strong a physical impact the Dragonite would suffer if hit.

In that case, type immunity was utterly meaningless.

Not to mention that the prerequisite for a Flying-type Pokémon to be immune to certain Ground-type moves was that the Flying-type Pokémon had not been hit by a ground-based move in the first place.

Should one call it a blessing in disguise?

At least in terms of speed, those two Ancient Pokémon, whose sizes seemed to be growing larger and larger as time passed, were inferior to his Dragonite.

The Dragonite successfully dodged Groudon's attack, but in return, Groudon's originally indifferent attitude toward him had changed.

Maxie, who existed as if he were a mouthpiece for Groudon's will, even shouted repeatedly with a ferocious expression, "Eyesore, eyesore, eyesore—!"

"Groudon, eliminate them!"

In response to Maxie, spots of light scattered upon Groudon's spine, and a brilliance suddenly flashed within Groudon's gaping maw.

"Solar Beam"!

A pillar of light several meters in diameter pierced through the air, carrying an inescapable scorching heat as it surged toward Lance and Dragonite.

This strike was extremely fast; even Dragonite had almost failed to react in time.

At the critical moment, Dragonite turned sideways and flapped its dragon wings, using the shockwave formed as the beam grazed past to narrowly dodge the Solar Beam by a hair's breadth.

Although it had a quadruple resistance to Grass-type moves, it still did not dare to take this thing head-on.

Lance, who had nearly been blown away by the sudden shockwave, firmly gripped Dragonite, enduring the physical pain brought by the intense wind pressure and the terrifying sense of weightlessness generated during aerial maneuvering, and shouted loudly, "Hyper Beam!"

The powerful "Hyper Beam" released by Dragonite instantly hit the slow-moving Groudon, causing it to let out a roar of pain.

Good news: The attack was effective.

Bad news: The opponent's health bar was impossibly long, and that previous strike had only enraged it further.

Directing Dragonite to dodge the sky-full of fiery rain and meteors erupting from the volcano again due to Groudon's fury, Lance clicked his tongue incessantly.

No, could any Trainer really win against this thing?

If someone could truly defeat them in a frontal battle, in Lance's view, that person's strength would likely be approaching the realm of the two individuals with the most monstrous training talent he had ever seen since his debut.

If one could say that Lance and Dragonite could still stall and maneuver against Groudon relying on their speed.

Then the situation between the Red Gyarados and Kyogre could only be described as a one-sided crush.

Even with Lance's remote command, the Red Gyarados, which had only been tamed less than half a year ago and still had much room for growth, could at best be considered a main force on the level of an Elite Four trainer.

Then look at its opponent: hailed as the Creator of the Sea, a super-ancient legendary Pokémon mythologically linked to the origin of the oceans themselves—Kyogre.

Under the relentless bombardment of cyan-white beams filling the sky, the Red Gyarados was beaten until it could barely even roar.

Even when it hid beneath the seawater, Kyogre, equipped with Archie as an "external brain," wisely chose not to sweep horizontally but instead leaped into the air to execute a saturation strike from the sky against the target below the sea.

Those beams, seemingly highly compressed with massive amounts of Water-type energy, pierced through the seawater as easily as Groudon's crimson blades that tear apart the ocean.

Furthermore, even though Gyarados was in the sea, its agility was far inferior to that of Dragonite.

While Dragonite's side could barely be described as kiting, Gyarados's side could only be called fleeing for its life.

Moreover, while dodging Kyogre's underwater pursuit and leaping out of the water, the Gyarados suffered a long-range strike from Groudon's "Solar Beam."

With Maxie also present as an "external brain," Groudon, which usually fought without any strategy, immediately categorized Gyarados as part of Lance and Dragonite's faction.

Seizing the opportunity, it fired a shot.

To make matters worse, Groudon and Kyogre, two arch-enemies who could not coexist under the same sky, seemed at this moment to become companions sharing a single mind.

The instant Groudon's "Solar Beam" hit Gyarados and knocked it down, Kyogre churned the sea, and in the moment a beam emitting a chilling cold swept across, Gyarados and the seawater in that area were frozen solid into ice together.

The members of Team Aqua and Team Magma, who had already begun to retreat, watched this scene and felt their hearts turn half cold.

What could they do? Let alone them, even that invincible Dragon Master Lance was gradually falling into a disadvantageous position.

Could they only watch helplessly as Boss Maxie or Boss Archie sank into despair?

"Fire Blast!"

Riding Dragonite to arrive above that frozen stretch of sea, Lance ordered Dragonite to rescue the Gyarados as quickly as possible.

But how could the freezing caused by Kyogre's Ice-type move be so easily thawed?

In that very moment of delay, Lance and Dragonite were immediately targeted by both Kyogre and Groudon.

The two behemoths let out sky-shaking roars, and nearly instantaneously, "Ice Beam" and "Solar Beam" burst forth.

Although Lance reacted quickly and immediately ordered Dragonite to use "Hyper Beam" to block the most threatening "Ice Beam," the "Solar Beam" from the other side left him and Dragonite unable to cope with both.

It's over—

The instant these two words floated through Lance's mind, his ears faintly caught the sound of shouting echoing from afar amidst the storm.

The moment Lance realized this fact, that shouting voice suddenly became clear.

If he hadn't heard wrong, that voice was shouting—

"Pawmi, Thunder!"

The weather over the sea, filled with dark clouds, was undoubtedly the perfect environment.

Golden lightning instantly tore through the sky, and before its sound could even be heard, a surging torrent of thunder crashed down from heaven, striking with extreme precision the white-green pillar of light that was about to hit Dragonite.

This was not a block relying on brute force, but a premature detonation.

The shockwave raised by the violent explosion directly blew Lance and Dragonite away; the block of ice, half melted and burned yet still encasing the Gyarados, also shattered, releasing the Red Gyarados covered in wounds.

"Hiss."

Clutching his right arm, which was in excruciating pain, Lance gasped sharply as he struggled to stand up from this ice foothold created by Kyogre.

Without even looking, he knew his arm had dislocated directly from that fall just now.

This outcome was only because Dragonite had reacted in time to use its body to offset most of the impact force for him.

But no matter how bad the situation was, it was far better than being hit directly by Groudon's "Solar Beam" just now while completely unprepared.

If he had truly taken that hit, even if Dragonite could withstand it with its long-honed physique, Lance himself would have been reduced to bones and ash.

At this moment, Lance actually felt a slight envy toward Ash.

After all, that kid could truly withstand Pokémon moves.

Lance looked up toward the sea not far away.

Amidst the surging waves, on the back of a Wailord whose size was even slightly larger than the gradually "growing" Kyogre, Hearing Nimo and Pawmi, who had stepped in at the critical moment to save Lance, were waving toward this side.

Shortly afterward, on the back of the Wailord.

Dragonite, which had brought Lance onto the Wailord's back, had already returned to the battlefield alone to fight alongside the wounded Red Gyarados and buy time, in order to avoid having them caught in the crossfire of Kyogre and Groudon.

"Mr. Lance!"

Hearing Nimo and Paul hurriedly helped up Lance, whose complexion was somewhat pale, calling out with worry.

"It seems the impact from just now directly dislocated his arm; there are also many abrasions on his body, and we cannot rule out the possibility of a mild concussion!"

Relying on her experience, Shizuka immediately made a rough assessment of Lance's condition.

"I will perform simple treatment!"

Shizuka took out the medical kit she carried with her and was about to begin her treatment, but Lance's gaze remained fixed on the battlefield over there, and he himself repeatedly tried to struggle to his feet.

"No, I still need to command Dragonite and the others over there..."

The excellent education Lance received since childhood endowed him with a sense of justice far beyond that of ordinary people, but beyond that sense of justice, he also possessed the pride of a "genius."

However, in the face of the super-ancient Pokémon's power, he suddenly realized that his pride and the strength he took pride in seemed so insignificant.

Having only delayed them for twenty minutes, he had somehow gotten himself into this miserable state.

Even when defeated by those two freaks, Lance had never regretted not being stronger as much as he did today.

Obsessing over a Kanto Champion that he could never reach made him seem like a fool.

Facing Lance, who rarely showed such a wretched side of himself, neither Hearing Nimo nor Paul knew how to comfort him.

Only Shizuka, at this moment, fully brought out her authority as a former Pokémon Nurse Joy.

"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 the very least, this way I can guarantee that you will recover within a short time to a state where you can fight alongside them!"

Looking into Lance's slightly unfocused pupils, Shizuka's expression was extremely serious.

"... I understand."

Roused by these words, Wataru stopped struggling and obediently accepted Shizuka's emergency treatment and bandaging.

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

Now, she would take over Mr. Wataru's duties, who had held the line for a full twenty minutes, and wait for further aid to arrive!

Gazing at the determined back of the girl who was merely eleven or twelve years old, Wataru opened his mouth, but words of worry stuck in his throat, unable to be spoken.

This burden, so heavy it had crushed even himself, was now to be shouldered by such a child?

Usually carefree, Hearing Hearing Nimo nevertheless noticed the fluctuation in Wataru's emotions and flashed him the confident smile belonging to "Hearing Hearing Nimo."

"Rest assured, Mr. Wataru."

"My teacher is a Trainer who defeated the 'Sky-Sovereign Dragon'."

"As his student, I too will fight until the very last moment!"

Hearing Hearing Nimo's voice carried not only deep pride in her teacher's achievements but also the sun-like confidence and determination of a Trainer her age.

At this moment, Wataru suddenly recalled the two youths he had once met who were around Hearing Hearing Nimo's age.

Though green and immature at first sight, they had swept through the Champion Alliance with irresistible force and defeated him.

And now, the image of Hearing Hearing Nimo turning to look back strangely overlapped with the figures of those two youths from his memories.

(End of Chapter)