Chapter 662: Rayquaza: Don

Black clouds press upon the sea, wild waves devour the shore.

The advantage of large size became evident at this moment.

On the turbulent sea, Whiscash King stood unmoved; on its back, Shizuka had already reset Ato’s dislocated arm and given him a small dose of pain-relieving medicine.

This would allow Ato to regain some mobility.

“Thank you.”

As he thanked her, Ato used his right hand—only slightly scraped—to smooth his red hair, no longer as “showy” as before, and asked, for the nth time, in a hesitant voice:

“Did Luo Mu really do that?”

“Yes. Everyone in Hoenn knows about it.”

Even though this was Ato’s fifth time asking, Shizuka nodded helplessly.

As a former medical professional, patience was the most basic required lesson when dealing with patients.

“.”

Ato stopped asking, instead staring blankly beyond the rain curtain toward the returning figures of Dragonite and the red Gyarados.

It was no wonder he kept questioning Shizuka and Shinji.

The truth was—after facing Groudon and Kyogre, even as proud as Ato was, he could not deny that even with his full team and his own trained Dragon Corps,

before that power, he didn’t know how long he could even resist, let alone defeat.

But according to Shizuka and Shinji,

Luo Mu, with just two main Pokémon, directly took down Rayquaza—the very Pokémon capable of single-handedly defeating Groudon and Kyogre.

—It was simply impossible not to be stunned by how he achieved it.

Ato’s impression of Luo Mu still dated back to when he arrived at the Dragon Clan’s ancestral land to obtain the “Speed Secret Manual.”

At least back then, even without saying it outright, Ato believed his Dragonite was far stronger than Luo Mu’s.

How much time had passed since then, and now the man had felled Rayquaza?

Could he really be using farming as a cover to build a Pokémon training camp?

Ato didn’t understand—his growth rate might already rival those two.

At that moment,

Dragonite and the red Gyarados arrived at the “relatively safe” waters where Whiscash King was.

After setting down Nimo and Bubu the Groundhog and others, they tried to stubbornly return to the battlefield alongside Ato, but Shizuka coldly insisted they first treat their injuries.

Otherwise, they’d only last a few rounds before needing rescue themselves—better to heal first, recover some condition, then go out again.

After all, Milotic and Wallace were holding the line over there.

Under the natural authority of Shizuka’s medical demeanor, Dragonite and the red Gyarados could only obediently accept treatment and recover alongside Ato.

The sky was ink-black, rain fell like arrows piercing the air, the furious sea roared with man-eating fury.

Milotic stared at the man laughing wildly on the aircraft, his face unusually serious and focused: “Wataru, stop now.”

At this moment, Milotic’s main team had clearly surrounded Kyogre.

Leading the front was Milotic’s signature Wangpai , the famed “most beautiful Pokémon,” Milotic.

Followed by several of his water-type generals.

Lapras, whose thick tusks could easily shatter icebergs, and the Hoenn-iconic Swampert.

The Luvdisc, playing its unique rhythm in the rain, the Starmie guarding its allies with “Spotlight,” and the Gyarados using its unmatched aquatic speed for guerrilla strikes.

Plus the Gyarados, tasked with protecting Milotic’s safety and serving as his mount.

This lineup, hastily assembled yet perfectly coordinated, successfully pinned Kyogre in place.

As a “genius” who achieved the highest honors in both Trainer and Coordinator fields, Milotic’s breeding style was inevitably unlike most single-focused Trainers.

Though all seven Pokémon shared the Water type, their secondary types spanned Ice, Ground, Grass, Psychic, Dark, and Flying—six entirely different types.

He unified their conflicting traits, move pools, and individual strengths into a complementary, seamless synergy.

This was the power of “Coordination.”

On this single path, Milotic was utterly unmatched.

Milotic’s Ice Beam froze not only the towering waves but Kyogre itself; yet the moment Kyogre burst free, seemingly unharmed, its massive flippers swung toward Milotic.

Lapras and Swampert instantly stepped forward to block, while Starmie’s “Spotlight” already bathed Kyogre’s soaring form in light.

Diverse moves struck Kyogre—the center of attention—hammering it back into the sea.

On the other side,

Wallace’s Steel- and Fossil-type Pokémon were methodically restraining Groudon’s movements.

Leading the charge, taking the full brunt of Groudon’s crushing pressure, was Wallace’s signature Pokémon: the shiny Metagross.

Bastiodon, Armaldo, Aerodactyl, Lileep, and Cradily formed an unbreakable defense Groudon could not yet breach.

Though he’d absorbed much about Coordination from his friend Milotic, Wallace was undeniably a pure Trainer.

Most of his Pokémon were classified as Fossil Pokémon.

Some were powerful individuals revived by the Devon Corporation at great cost; others were ancient dominators who survived undetected in hidden regions until now.

In simple terms, the Fossil Pokémon that endured from ancient times to modern revival were all stat monsters.

Metagross landed a “Meteor Mash,” knocking Groudon down—only for Groudon to recover instantly, its devastating Fire Punch about to explode against Metagross.

At that moment, Cradily, who had been “pedicuring” Groudon, leapt high on Wallace’s command and used its armored body to block the attack dead-on.

“Roar—!”

Frustrated by the blocked attack, Groudon shifted to energy-based assault, gathering blinding fusion light in its mouth.

—Then, ignite!

Scorching flames erupted into a “big”-shaped explosion, targeting Metagross, now at a distance.

Among all present Pokémon, Metagross had struck Groudon the hardest and most painfully—Groudon naturally regarded it as its top enemy, after Kyogre and Rayquaza.

Groudon took a step forward, preparing to use “Cliff Edge” to cut off Metagross’s escape route, then deliver the fatal “Big Bang” strike.

Just as the deadly “Big Bang” was about to erupt, two vines, silently sprouting from the bare red earth—normally barren under lava flows—wrapped around Groudon’s legs.

Lileep’s “Vine Bind”!

Given Groudon’s weight, expanded from its original 3.5 meters to this size, if successful, this would deliver its heaviest, most effective blow of the day!

Wallace’s commanding style was always bold, confident, yet never reckless.

Unfortunately, most tactics were meaningless against a walking natural disaster like Groudon.

The instant Groudon felt entangled, it didn’t need to struggle—rolling lava waves spontaneously burned through the fragile vines.

“Duo—”

Sensing danger, Bastiodon, waiting nearby, risked its steel armor melting and charged like a steel cannonball straight at Groudon!

Groudon’s “Big Bang” was forced off-course, scorching the storm-tossed sea, vaporizing countless waves and rain, then detonating harmlessly in empty space.

Feeling humiliated by the disruption, Groudon’s emotionless beast eyes flared crimson—the prelude to its Earthquake-powered “Cliff Edge.”

Wallace, having fought it for over ten minutes, had already analyzed this pattern; without hesitation, he ordered his two aerial generals to strike.

Aerodactyl’s “Rock Slide” and Armaldo’s “Steel Wing” precisely interrupted Groudon’s attack animation.

Now Groudon was even angrier.

Massive flows of molten lava surged from the ground, forcing Bastiodon to retreat and cool its armor.

The land expanding from Mew Island began violently shaking, tremors like a subterranean dragon turning—Lileep, Bastiodon, and Cradily instantly took massive damage.

Wallace had no choice but to halt his Milotic’s psychic support and fly it into the air to evade.

“Tch. After all this damage, it still shows no sign of fatigue.”

Wallace clenched his thin lips; his calm had turned grim.

Plainly put, after this long battle, Wallace had roughly gauged Groudon’s strength.

Its attacks were devastating—his carefully bred Pokémon could be seriously injured by even one direct hit.

But its movement speed was slow, and its massive size made it clumsy.

Its defense was strong, but not invulnerable to all attacks.

In fact, Metagross’s focused output had already accumulated considerable damage.

The only problem: Groudon’s HP seemed limitless. No matter how much damage it took, unless it was enough to temporarily disable it, it was meaningless.

The crueler truth: at this point, his team couldn’t deliver enough instant damage to disable Groudon.

If they continued like this, they’d end up just like Ato and Nimo—only lasting longer due to greater numbers.

And during this stalemate, the natural disasters caused by these two ancient Pokémon wouldn’t stop; Hoenn’s devastation would only worsen.

“If Metagross could be like Souji’s Flygon… maybe there’d be a chance.”

Though Wallace’s desire to grow stronger peaked at this moment, he forced himself to calm down and search for other opportunities.

Soon, Wallace noticed a blind spot he’d overlooked.

Though Flamebringer seemed fully under Groudon’s control, during the assault, Groudon deliberately shielded Flamebringer from any attacks that might hit him.

Wallace remembered Milotic saying on the way:

This wasn’t the natural energy eruption season for Hoenn—Groudon and Kyogre should have been sleeping quietly until the eruption period.

It was Team Magma and Team Aqua who found them and woke them up.

—Did that mean if Flamebringer were defeated and the Gem extracted from his body, Groudon and Kyogre, lacking any real reason to fight, would likely cease battle and return to their habitats to sleep?

“. Regardless, this idea is worth trying.”

Wallace silently set his goal.

Coincidentally,

On the other side, his friend Milotic, who was also gradually losing strength, came to the same conclusion.

They began to coordinate their attacks, focusing all force on Watermelon and Blaziken.

They didn’t intend to kill them; if conditions allowed, they still hoped to bring them back to the Hoenn League for trial.

At this point, half an hour had passed since Groudon and Kyogre had begun fighting with Wallace and Milotic.

The natural disaster was also slowly advancing toward Hoenn’s interior.

Other reinforcements were still en route from across Hoenn, and they knew that to prevent the situation from worsening, they had no choice but to risk everything.

The only thing they had misjudged was one thing.

—That was Kyogre’s and Groudon’s possessive desire for the orbs inside Watermelon and Blaziken.

If previously, the two ancient Pokémon had merely treated the battle as a warm-up for bodies that hadn’t moved in centuries,

the moment they targeted the orbs, they adopted the same seriousness they reserved for the other two Hoenn legends.

Over the sea, lightning split the sky.

Kyogre leapt into the air, revealing its white lower jaw; its tooth-filled mouth opened, and behind its wide flippers glowed countless brilliant bluish-white orbs.

Under the relentless bombardment of “Origin Pulse,” even the most coordinated Water Army was torn apart by Kyogre’s brute force.

Pokémon kept sustaining injuries; Milotic himself was struck by countless sharp shards of ice flung outward when Kyogre shattered the frozen waves summoned by Milotic for defense.

His shoulder and torso clothing was soaked through with blood.

Wallace’s side was slightly better off, but his defensive line collapsed almost in the blink of an eye.

The “Cliff Sword,” fueled by the Earth God’s fury and erupting from the ground without regard for energy cost, completely shattered his defensive formation.

Even Metagross, skilled at using psychic calculations to dodge, was struck by the Cliff Sword and its condition plummeted rapidly.

The previously clearing battlefields on both sides were once again shrouded in gloom.

Milotic and Wallace gritted their teeth and held on, but they could not stop their Pokémon from falling one by one—they could only recall them to ensure their safety.

In less than five minutes, excluding their ride Pokémon, only their Wangpai Metagross and Milotic remained standing before Kyogre and Groudon!

Far away, on the back of Whiscash.

Agatha struggled to rise, ignoring Shizuka’s objections, determined to join the battle with Dragonite and Red Gyarados.

If things continued like this and the front line truly collapsed, leaving no one to stop Groudon and Kyogre,

their unconscious expansion of rain and scorching sun would become deliberate, and the speed and scale of destruction would become utterly incomparable.

“We must relieve their pressure!”

Agatha gritted his teeth.

“Please take me with you, Mr. Agatha!”

Nimoh and Bidoof, who was receiving treatment from a Chansey, also stood up.

At this moment, they were all prepared to fight to the death alongside Wallace and Milotic.

Just then, over the storm-lashed sea,

“Woo——”

A melodic, resonant whale song echoed through heaven and earth, unlike Kyogre’s ancient, abyssal cry.

A gentle breeze suddenly rose from behind them.

In the surprised expressions of Shinji and Shizuka as they turned, a black-haired young man appeared atop the rapidly approaching white Sea God.

Sky Pillar.

Shigan, kneeling in prayer, suddenly noticed that the Key Stone in her hand glowed with a brilliant green light.

Her face instantly lit up with ecstatic joy.

Rayquaza had sensed the disaster’s expansion and imminent arrival—it would intervene to stop Groudon and Kyogre’s further conflict.

“.”

At this moment, Shigan’s excitement was beyond words.

She gazed hopefully at the starry sky untouched by rain and sun, waiting for the divine emerald dragon silhouette to descend upon Sky Pillar.

Meanwhile, in the endless starry sky filled with countless glittering stars,

Hoenn’s Rayquaza was searching for lucky meteorites to enjoy “Star Cuisine.”

But suddenly, it sensed a continuous, unrelenting call coming from the planet below.

Normally, Rayquaza would have ignored it and kept sleeping.

But for some reason—perhaps a sudden whim, or perhaps recalling its unpleasant experience not long ago—it lowered its gaze.

Instantly, it saw the chaotic natural energy of Hoenn and the familiar auras of those two fools.

Rayquaza understood at once.

Though it didn’t understand why those two fools were fighting outside the natural energy eruption period, it didn’t care—it would beat them anyway to vent its frustration.

Rayquaza simply answered the call.

Just as Rayquaza was about to depart for Sky Pillar, it sensed another familiar—or rather, unforgettable—aura.

It was that human’s aura.

In the starry sky, Hoenn’s Rayquaza narrowed its eyes.

Did this guy get involved too?

It had no desire to perform a savior act in front of him right now.

As for its reputation in Hoenn?

Please, was it the kind of dragon that cared about reputation?

Besides, with that human present, those two fools couldn’t cause any real trouble—not during a non-eruption period—and once they were beaten senseless, they’d just go back to sleep.

Thinking this, Rayquaza simply flicked its tail, severing its response to the Sky Pillar’s call, and resumed searching the stars for meteorites.

Don’t call. Too lazy to come.

Meanwhile, atop Sky Pillar,

Shigan, who had expected the Dragon God’s approval, stared in disbelief as the Key Stone dimmed again, frozen in place.

“Huh?”

(End of Chapter)