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The territory of the Dragonite Family could be said to be the largest in the entire Inner Island. According to Ash's estimation, even the territory of the fellow pseudo-legendary Salamence Family was less than half of the Dragonite's.
Theoretically, this should also be home to the Pokémon with the best talent on the entire Dragon Island. After all, Dragon Island was still within the Kanto region, and here, it was still the Dragonite Family's home turf.
As for how Ash knew this was still in Kanto, it was naturally because of his sensitivity to distance. He could feel the speed of the Dragonite he was riding and the distance they had flown through the stimulation of the air on his skin.
He didn't even need to consciously perceive it; he could do it through instinct alone.
So, within Kanto, Dragonite still had a certain advantage. However, another reason Ash didn't want to come to the Dragonite Family was that in another part of Kanto, there was an incredibly massive Dragonite waiting for him.
He had promised the other party that he would definitely return to find him within half a year and have a battle with him. Regardless of the outcome, he would help the other party return to a normal size so that he could live properly in the modern world.
Previously, he had to wait for Gardevoir to reach the Elite Four Class and then layer his Aura on top of it to potentially restore the Ancient Dragonite to normal. But now, with Mewtwo joining, there was no need for those fancy tricks. Just letting Mewtwo go there, whether to shrink the other party or defeat him, would be a piece of cake.
But Ash still wanted Gardevoir to have a battle with the other party because it was something that had been decided long ago. Furthermore, as long as she won, the other party would become his Pokémon.
The addition of the Ancient Dragonite was basically a done deal, so Ash hadn't thought about coming to the Dragonite Family. As it turned out, he ended up here anyway.
When entering the Dragonite Family's territory, a group of Dragonites all cast their gases over. There was no hint of anger or violence in their eyes; instead, there was only a sense of gentleness.
From Dratini to Dragonite, the main personality trait of this species' three forms was two words: gentleness.
As long as their Outrage wasn't triggered, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they were one of the gentlest species in the world. Matching them was the Goodra Family from the Kalos region; both of these Clans were famous for being the "Mr. Nice Guys" among Pokémon.
Ash also smiled and greeted the many Dragonites. Pikachu, on Ash's shoulder, also smiled and waved his hand, receiving smiles in response from the Dragonite Family.
In Mewtwo's perception, that God Domain Level Dragonite didn't make any moves either. It seemed it had defaulted to allowing them to enter the Clan's territory, or perhaps Lance had informed them in advance.
Regardless, not causing any commotion by coming here was for the best.
After saying hello, Ash began to pick from among the many Dragonites to see if there was a Pokémon that caught his eye. Unfortunately, he still couldn't find one.
To be fair, however, the talent of the Dragonites was generally quite high. The best one even had an S
plus five As configuration; this kind of talent was outstanding even among pseudo-legendaries.
Considering that Lance's Dragonite only had double S-rank talent, an S plus five As might already be the highest talent on the entire Dragon Island, excluding that God Domain Level Dragonite.
But Ash still didn't make a choice and continued walking. Within the Dragonite Family, besides Dragonite, there were also Dragonair and Dratini, and compared to Dragonite, their numbers were even greater!
When Ash arrived at the habitat where the Dragonair were located, he saw a marvelous sight.
A group of Dragonair were glowing with a deep blue light, flying high in the sky. The normally rare pseudo-legendary Dragonair could be seen here in groups of ten or twenty, each one carrying a divine radiance.
Seeing a group of Dragonair take flight together was even more shocking than seeing a group of Dragonites do the same.
But after his initial shock, Ash discovered that one Dragonair didn't fly up with the others. She just looked at the group of Dragonair with envy, her eyes filled with deep longing.
"What's wrong with that Dragonair? Can't she fly?" Ash scratched his head, feeling a bit puzzled.
The next second, the Dragonair's data appeared in his mind.
[Species: Dragonair]
[Gender: Female]
[Type: Dragon]
[Level: Mid-Superior]
[Ability: Marvel Scale]
[Skills: Twister, Thunder Wave, Dragon Rush, Rain Dance, Safeguard...]
[Six-Dimensional Stats: Attack A (S), Special Attack B (A), Defense B (A), Special Defense C (A), HP C (A), Speed A
(S)]
Double S and four As. This was the strongest talent Ash had seen in a Dragon-type Pokémon since landing on Dragon Island. But how could such a Dragon-type Pokémon, having already evolved once, be unable to fly?
"Woo-oh~~" One of the Dragonites near Ash let out a cry. Ash was stunned for a moment, then turned to the Dragonite and asked.
"You're saying this Dragonair hasn't been able to fly since she evolved? And even on Dragon Island, her progress is very slow?"
Ash's words made the speaking Dragonite freeze. Only then did it realize that Ash could actually understand what it was saying. The other Dragonites nearby also looked at Ash with surprised expressions.
It wasn't that they had never seen people who could understand Pokémon, but those were people from the Dragon Tamer Clan. Most people in the Dragon Tamer Clan possessed Dragon Taming Power, which not only strengthened the power of Dragon-type Pokémon but also allowed them to communicate with and understand the language of Dragon-type Pokémon.
But it was limited to the Dragon type. The Dragon Tamer Clan was like a Family born naturally for Dragon-type Pokémon.
Aside from the Dragon Tamer Clan, the Dragonites had never seen anyone else who could understand the language of Pokémon. They didn't expect an outsider today to be able to understand their language; it was truly rare—or rather, they had never seen it before.
"Woo Woo-oh" Since Ash could understand them, they didn't mind telling him everything about that Dragonair.
That Dragonair had entered the Inner Island from the Outer Island. It wasn't that there were no pseudo-legendaries on the Outer Island, but their talent was generally not that good. Even in the Pokémon world, there were clear class distinctions.
For Pokémon, the criteria for judging talent were simple: see how fast you evolve and see how fast your strength grows. That's all.
Compared to humans, the criteria on the Pokémon side were much simpler, purely looking at the speed of strength growth. Therefore, compared to humans, misjudgments often occurred.
This Dragonair was one such case of misjudgment.
In the Outer Island, this Dratini had evolved into a Dragonair at an incredible speed. In terms of growth rate, few Dratini could improve as quickly as she did without a Trainer.
Thus, she was directly deemed qualified to reside in the Inner Island. In the Inner Island, not only would Dragon-type power increase more quickly, but because of the competition among the same species, it should have improved even more rapidly. That's how it should have been.
However, since entering the Inner Island, not only had this Dragonair's growth rate been quite slow, but she also couldn't fly.
It was normal not to be able to fly during the Dratini stage, but if she still couldn't fly as a Dragonair, it was a bit hard to justify.
A Dragonair's flight doesn't rely on wings but on manipulating the power of the weather, flying with the wind. Some Dragonair can also enlarge the wings on the sides of their heads and fly with them, but that is something only Dragonair with outstanding talent can do.
For a Dragonair that couldn't even control the wind, wanting to use the wings on her head to fly was even more impossible. So, this Dragonair was clearly the type that improved quickly in the early stages but slowly later on; her talent was actually quite ordinary.
However, because this was the Dragonite Family and not a more irritable group like the Salamence Clan, this Dragonair was allowed to stay here.
Yet, even though the Dragonite Family didn't drive her away, this Dragonair felt very inferior because of the gap between herself and her companions. She had put in a lot of effort; even if she couldn't improve her strength, at least being able to fly would be enough!
Things didn't go as planned; not only did her strength remain slow to improve, but she also couldn't fly. To this day, no one knew the reason.
After listening to the Dragonites' explanation, Ash also looked at the Dragonair with a strange gaze. What he found strange was that this Dragonair's talent was clearly so good. In terms of talent, Mr. Lance's ace Dragonite was only on par with her. Why was this Dragonair performing so poorly?
It was also strange; most of the Pokémon he encountered seemed to be the type that were considered to have poor talent but actually had explosive talent.
Whether it was the ignored Pikachu, or the abandoned Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle, as well as the Chimchar he had just obtained recently, they were all considered to have insufficient talent.
Now there was another one: the Dragonair in front of him.
Clearly possessing excellent talent, yet performing so poorly—it was exactly the same as the Pokémon he had caught. This made Ash feel a bit of an urge. Could it be—
"Leave it to me, I'll make her fly!" Ash patted his shoulder and said to the group of Dragonites. Immediately after, Ash began to walk slowly toward the dejected Dragonair.
At the same time, Paul and Gary were fighting a Salamence. This Salamence was one of the gatekeepers guarding the entrance to the Inner Island.
When they arrived at this island, the two already knew that the Pokémon with good talent and strength were in the center of the island. Although there were differences in the maps they had obtained, they all had one thing in common: there was no central area.
Moreover, after the Dragonite brought them to the island, a member of the Dragon Tamer Clan specifically told them about the division between the inner and outer parts of the island.
They not only had to find the entrance to the Inner Island but also had to pass the Dragon Trial at the entrance to be able to enter.
The places where they were dropped were actually quite far apart. Being able to meet at this entrance was purely a coincidence. Because of this, they were able to take the test together.
The content of the test was simple, yet not simple. The simple part was that as long as you defeated the gatekeeper, you could enter. The not-so-simple part was that you could only use one Pokémon at a time. Once the Pokémon was defeated, the test was considered a failure, and a second challenge was not allowed.
The gatekeeper was an Early Elite Four Class Salamence. With an Elite Four Class pseudo-legendary serving as a gatekeeper, if it weren't for monsters like Paul and Ash in this generation, it would be basically impossible for anyone to enter the Inner Island.
Even Paul wasn't 100% sure he could defeat that Salamence with his Torterra, because his Torterra had also gone through many battles during the day and was not in peak condition.
This was also the reason Paul chose to team up with Gary.
One person could only use one Pokémon at a time, but multiple people could take the test together. In other words, they could perform a "justice" two-on-one!
After Gary's Blastoise reached MEGA Evolution, it had at least High-level Gym Stage combat power. It wasn't suitable as the main attacker, but it was definitely no problem as a support.
In order to be 100% sure of entering the interior of Dragon Island, the two who didn't really like each other finally chose to cooperate. After all, they didn't have any substantial conflict.
"Blastoise, intercept him with Hydro Pump!"
"Kame!!" Two thick pillars of water shot out, blocking the scarred Salamence that was about to fly into the sky.
"Torterra, Frenzy Plant."
grass-type moves were 4x resisted by Salamence, which was why Paul wasn't sure he could defeat the opponent with Torterra. However, this Frenzy Plant wasn't meant to cause damage to the Salamence but to restrain him!
Several thorny green plants burst out from the ground, thick vines tightly binding the Salamence's wings and limbs. The Salamence struggled violently, and although he tore through most of the vines, he was ultimately restrained for a short moment!
"Now's the time, Ice Beam!" Gary seized the opportunity and shouted.
Blastoise slightly crouched, and in its three cannon barrels, ice-type energy was frantically condensing. The Salamence felt a fatal threat; his limbs and wings struggled even harder, and the Frenzy Plant, already on the verge of shattering, was finally torn apart under the Salamence's frantic struggle!
"Don't think about leaving, Torterra!"
"Goal!" The moment the Salamence wanted to fly into the sky, Torterra squeezed the power within his body and extended another thick vine from the ground, grabbing one of the Salamence's legs. The Salamence, who was about to escape, was once again restrained for an instant. In that very moment, three ice-blue beams of light blasted out from Blastoise's cannons!
"Go, Blastoise!!"
"Kame!!"
"Boom!!" Ice Beam, hit!
Salamence has a 4x resistance to grass-type, but—he has a 4x weakness to ice, just like Dragonite!