Before Hoenn League’s main combat forces arrived, Lance is the only Trainer here capable of stopping Groudon and Kyogre in their tracks.
The Team Rocket trio, who had already fled to a safe place to observe, did not dare approach. Ash and his companions were even less capable of shouldering such a responsibility, and there was certainly no point expecting Team Aqua and Team Magma to clean up the mess before them. To prevent Groudon and Kyogre’s power from spreading toward Sootopolis City, Lance needed to delay them for as long as possible and wait for the Hoenn League to find a way to resolve the incident.
Under the influence of the terrifying power of the ocean and the power of sunshine, Ash and the others wore grave expressions. After only a brief clash, Groudon and Kyogre’s power had already created a freezing glacier zone and a molten lava zone on opposite sides of the sea, each no smaller than Monsu Island.
After Lance’s Gyarados delivered Ash and the others onto an ice surface far away from the two Super-ancient Pokémon, it immediately rushed back to provide support.
“What do we do now? Can Mr. Lance stop them all by himself?” Max asked nervously. “Should we go help?”
“No…” Brock stopped him. “If we go over there, we’ll only distract Mr. Lance.”
Ash said, “I believe in Mr. Lance.”
If there was one Trainer Ash admired above all others, even Terrance would have to rank second. First was Lance, the “Invincible Dragon Master” whose legendary exploits had influenced Ash throughout his entire childhood.
Although he only had two Pokémon, Lance perfectly demonstrated the strength befitting a Champion Master.
In the sky, Dragonite’s expression gradually turned serious. Two consecutive, tremendously powerful Hyper Beams swept out, instantly blasting away Groudon and Kyogre as they tried to approach. Kyogre was sent straight beneath the sea, while Groudon toppled over, sending countless splashes of water into the air.
After landing the attack, Dragonite rapidly climbed higher. In the next instant, countless blue-white, dazzling beams swept upward from the deep sea and filled the sky. Every single beam contained terrifying energy. As Dragonite dodged the attacks, both it and Lance tensed their nerves to the limit.
Kyogre’s signature move, Origin Pulse!
And that was not all. As Groudon stood back up, even while surrounded by ocean, it effortlessly gathered the power of the earth and transformed it into blades that shot upward at tremendous speed.
Groudon’s signature move, Precipice Blades, instantly tore apart the Origin Pulse and passed right beside Dragonite—
Lance covered his mouth with his sleeve, his entire body stinging painfully from the fierce winds generated by Dragonite’s flight. To evade the moves, Lance’s Dragonite pushed Extreme Speed to its absolute limit. Even Pokémon such as Arcanine, Lucario, and Togekiss that could naturally use Extreme Speed would probably find it difficult to reach such a velocity. For the past century, Lance’s Dragonite was the Pokémon that had mastered the Blackthorn City dragon tamers’ secret Extreme Speed technique most perfectly, and Lance himself deserved a great deal of credit for that. Terrance had once fought Elite Four Drake’s Extreme Speed Dragonite as well, but the speed of these two Dragonite was on completely different levels.
A speed that allowed it to contend with Super-ancient Pokémon with ease, combined with the coordination to fly freely through Origin Pulse and Precipice Blades, fully displayed Lance’s formidable skills as a Champion.
However, this way of fighting, practically playing with fire, greatly increased the pressure on them.
Still, Lance achieved his objective. He had successfully drawn Groudon and Kyogre’s attention toward himself, causing them to begin moving in the direction Dragonite was flying.
“This can’t go on.” As Lance made his judgment, a red Gyarados suddenly leaped out of the deep sea. With a sweeping Hyper Beam, it once again drew Groudon and Kyogre’s attention, easing the pressure on Lance.
However, Gyarados did not possess Dragonite’s speed. Groudon turned its head and swept out a thick yellow-green beam like a laser, chasing after Gyarados as it continuously swam through the sea. After several seconds, Kyogre’s freezing beam successfully sealed off Gyarados’s route of movement, rapidly freezing it inside an iceberg. At the same time, the thick Solar Beam swept across and shattered the iceberg, instantly sending white smoke billowing into the sky.
“Gyarados!!” Seeing this from afar, Ash and the others felt their hearts leap into their throats. However, the outcome was not as bad as they had imagined. At the most critical moment, Lance had already coordinated with Gyarados, and under the power of Mega Evolution, Gyarados directly broke through the ice and successfully dodged the Solar Beam.
Mega Gyarados looked shorter and thicker, and its whiskers had grown longer as well. Lance’s red Mega Gyarados looked as though its body were clad in crimson battle armor. As an experimental subject of Team Rocket, this red Gyarados’s strength, once fully brought out by Lance, was no weaker than Terrance’s Gardevoir.
At this moment, because Lance had activated the Champion medal he carried, his battle against Groudon and Kyogre was being broadcast live simultaneously to the Indigo League headquarters and the Hoenn League headquarters.
During this period, the two Leagues also witnessed firsthand the terrifying power Groudon and Kyogre displayed when they went berserk.
“Mr. Lance, please hold them off. Hoenn League’s Elite Four Terrance will arrive shortly—”
“But with only two people, I’m afraid the pressure will still be immense…” After personally clashing with Groudon and Kyogre, Lance let out a breath and said. Dragonite’s attacks could cause the two Super-ancient Pokémon to feel pain, but they could hardly inflict injuries severe enough to affect their condition. Even when the two fought each other, they rarely suffered fatal injuries. Their stamina seemed almost limitless, and their defenses were astonishingly powerful. Pokémon like these were simply too difficult to defeat. Even merely holding them back was probably beyond what an ordinary Elite Four could accomplish.
What should he do…
Lance’s heart grew heavy. One Elite Four… was still not enough! At most, Terrance could only buy them a few more minutes.
The upper echelons of the Hoenn League were worried about the same problem. Even if all four of Hoenn’s Elite Four were dispatched, would they truly be capable of holding back two Super-ancient Pokémon that had returned to their primal forms? With every minute and second now desperately precious, no one knew when the two Super-ancient Pokémon might completely lose control.
Facing Groudon and Kyogre, with their seemingly limitless stamina and energy, terrifying defenses, and extraordinary resistance, Dragonite and Mega Gyarados were soon suppressed. In order to protect Lance, Dragonite hurriedly threw him away, saving him from a fatal blow. However, Dragonite itself was sent flying by a swipe of Kyogre’s fin as it leaped forward, smashing through countless layers of ice. During this time, Mega Gyarados swiftly caught Lance, but immediately afterward, Groudon’s attack came bearing down on them. For a moment, every higher-up and staff member in the Indigo League watching the battle held their breath.
Lance was the Indigo League’s trump card. He absolutely could not die here. No one knew whether Lance had managed to activate the protection system built into his Champion medal. At Indigo Plateau, a group of people stared fixedly at the screen with bloodshot eyes, silently praying.
But before anyone could confirm what had happened, the screen was suddenly filled with a pink glow. Seeing this, the Hoenn League’s higher-ups watching the battle temporarily breathed a sigh of relief, though their expressions remained grave.
“Reinforcements have arrived…”
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