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The Salamence hit by the Ice Beam lets out a cry of pain. A fourfold effectiveness was absolutely fatal for a Salamence.
Even if the attacker's level was far below his, the fourfold effectiveness made up for it. Furthermore, after MEGA Evolution, Blastoise's attack power had improved significantly; he could cause some damage even against an Elite Four Class Salamence, let alone with this fourfold effective attack.
Previously, Salamence had been hit by attacks from both sides many times. Although he had also attacked multiple times, they were all skillfully neutralized by Torterra. Torterra took on the role of a meat shield; Otherwise, once Gary's Blastoise was hit even once, he probably wouldn't have the strength to fight anymore.
This attack from Blastoise became the last straw that broke the Salamence's back. After letting out an unwilling roar, the Salamence finally fell powerlessly.
At this moment, two Salamence suddenly descended from the sky. Gary and Paul's faces turned green. They weren't going to have to fight again, were they? Wait, that sign at the entrance didn't say anything about this!
The rules regarding the Dragon Trial and the conditions for victory at the ruins were all written on a sign at the entrance. Otherwise, even if they knew they had to defeat a Salamence, they wouldn't have known rules like only being able to use one Pokémon without understanding the Pokémon language.
And the sign at the entrance didn't say the battle would continue after defeating one Salamence. If they were limited to just one Pokémon, they simply wouldn't have the energy left to defeat the two Salamence behind them!
However, after the two Salamence landed, one of them lifted the fallen Salamence onto its back and flew directly into the island. The remaining Salamence shook its head at the two of them, signaling them to sit on its back.
Paul and Gary glanced at each other and then recalled their Pokémon. Blastoise's MEGA...
...form also deactivated at the same time it was recalled.
The two of them sat on the Salamence's back together and flew toward the interior of the island. In less than two minutes, the Salamence descended from the sky, and Gary and Paul discovered a familiar face below—Ash!
They knew Ash had entered the interior of the island before them. This was considered special treatment for the Champion. Having not won the championship, they had nothing to say; compared to Ash, they had spent a full day and a half more just to get here.
Perhaps Ash had already chosen his Pokémon, while they were still spending time getting into the Inner Island.
But now, they saw Ash doing something with a Dragonair. Was he...
...taming the Dragonair? He looked a bit silly doing it.
"—Actually, flying is very simple. You just need to get used to the feeling of being in the sky and then manipulate the wind. Although I don't know what manipulating the wind feels like, isn't it an innate ability of yours? If other Dragonair can do it, you certainly can too!"
"While I can't tell you how to control the power of the wind, I can show you how I fly." As Ash finished speaking, he slowly stood up and then kicked off the ground, leaping into the air!
In mid-air, Ash stepped down hard, creating a visible ripple in the air. Ash, suspended in the sky, instantly shifted his position to another spot.
"Strictly speaking, this method can't really be called flying. It's more like using the impact of stepping to move and float in the air, but I feel it's quite similar to using the power of the wind. See, it's simple!"
Ash shouted to the Dragonair below while making dull thudding sounds in the air.
The next second, Ash saw the bewildered Salamence in the air, as well as the equally bewildered Paul and a slightly helpless Gary sitting on the Salamence's back.
"Gary! Paul! You guys are here too!" Ash greeted the two while "floating" in the air.
Paul's pupils shook as he looked at Gary, his eyes seemingly asking, "Is this person Ash?"
Gary nodded helplessly and said, "You're not seeing things; that's Ash. That guy is a monster whose physical body is not inferior to a Pokémon's at all. Flying and tunneling are nothing to him. He usually trains alongside his Pokémon, and he even trains harder and more than they do. I shouldn't need to explain what that implies, right?"
Paul: —
For a moment, Paul almost thought something was wrong with his ears. What did he mean by being able to fly and tunnel, and even having a higher training volume than a Pokémon? Was he even human?
It turned out that besides his Pokémon being freaks, Ash himself was also a freak!
Speaking of which, at the Indigo Plateau Conference, Ash seemed to have once flashed onto the field to catch his Pokémon. At that time, he didn't know what that signified—
It turned out that was just the tip of the iceberg of Ash's superhuman abilities; this performance now was even more significant!
Didn't you come to Dragon Island to find a Pokémon? What are you doing now? Teaching a Dragonair to fly???
"As I thought, I still can't understand this guy's train of thought." Paul silently admitted in his heart that he completely failed to understand Ash.
Perhaps he had some understanding before, but as this scene appeared before his eyes, he could no longer understand Ash's logic at all. Would a normal person do something like this after entering the time-sensitive Dragon Island?
As Ash, Gary, and Paul landed from the air, Gary asked Ash with a slightly strange expression, "Ash, what were you doing just now?"
"Hmm? Isn't it obvious? I'm teaching Dragonair how to fly! Let me tell you, she—" Ash gestured as he told Gary and Paul about Dragonair's situation. However, the two didn't care about that at all. A Dragonair that couldn't fly was certainly rare, but not as rare as a human who could fly.
What they cared about was—
"Why did you go and teach a Dragonair to fly? Have you already decided on the Pokémon you want to catch?"
"Uh—not yet, but I'm quite fond of this Dragonair. I want to teach her to fly first before talking about catching her."
Paul's brow twitched. Here we go again—a Dragonair that couldn't fly and her slow progress in strength within Dragon Island all indicated that this Dragonair was just a pseudo-legendary with average or even poor talent.
If it were outside, even a pseudo-legendary with poor talent would still be attractive enough. But in Dragon Island, while you couldn't say pseudo-legendaries were everywhere, their numbers were certainly clustered compared to the outside.
In this situation, Ash still chose this useless Dragonair, just like how he chose the abandoned Chimchar.
Is this guy a dedicated junk collector?
After Gary learned that Ash's target was this Dragonair, his expression also changed slightly, but his thoughts were different from Paul's. Instead, he thought from the bottom of his heart—Ash is about to catch another exceptionally gifted Pokémon.
Ash had a habit of regularly reporting his journey's experiences to Professor Oak. Out of curiosity, Gary had once asked Professor Oak where Ash's exceptionally gifted Pokémon came from and why Ash could accurately catch those Pokémon every time, while out of the many Pokémon Gary had caught, those with strong talent could be counted on two hands.
Could it be that Ash had the ability to see through a Pokémon's talent?
As a result, Gary was shocked to learn the truth. Rather than saying Ash had the ability to see through talent, it was more like Ash specifically picked those Pokémon with "garbage" talent to catch.
The Pokémon he had were either an abandoned Charmander or a Riolu that was a loser at the start, along with Bulbasaur and Squirtle, who were also abandoned Pokémon, and Pikachu, who had a unruly temperament—
If one only looked at the surface, they would feel that Ash's Pokémon were completely unrelated to so-called exceptional talent; instead, they were all "useless" Pokémon.
However, Ash's magic lay in his ability to "turn trash into treasure." Those clearly useless Pokémon became exceptionally powerful in Ash's hands, looking as if they had great talent.
But in reality, it was Ash who dug out their talent. If it were an ordinary person, even if those Pokémon had powerful hidden talent, the only outcome would be remaining useless.
Without looking far, take that Chimchar. Gary was also one of the witnesses of that event. The Chimchar, who couldn't display its talent at all in Paul's hands, seemed like a completely different Pokémon after coming to Ash.
So even if this Dragonair performed very poorly, Gary still felt that if it were Ash, he would definitely be able to draw out Dragonair's talent. As long as he could guide this Dragonair's talent, she might become a top existence in the Dragonite Family in the future.
Paul didn't respond to Ash's words but looked around, picked a random direction, and walked away.
Although he was somewhat interested in whether Ash could stimulate Dragonair's potential, it was more important to find a Pokémon to catch now; otherwise, he didn't know when the next time he could enter Dragon Island would be.
Gary stayed for a while before saying to Ash, "I'm going to find my own Pokémon. You take your time practicing here."
"Yeah, go ahead—oh, by the way, head east. There's a Bagon with very good talent over there. Whether you can find it and gain the recognition of the Salamence Clan will depend on you." Ash waved goodbye to Gary, but then he suddenly remembered something and reminded Gary.
The Bagon Ash mentioned was the strongest pseudo-legendary in terms of talent he had encountered since entering Dragon Island, besides the Dragonair in front of him.
Talent can only determine the floor of a Pokémon; as for determining the ceiling, that naturally depends on the Trainer.
However, Ash believed that if it were Gary, he would surely be able to bring out that Bagon's talent.
Gary was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then thanked Ash with a look of joy and quickly ran toward the east.
Based on Ash's special abilities, Gary didn't doubt Ash's words at all. If he said the talent was good, then it was good.
For the first time, he truly felt what it meant to rely on connections when away from home. If it weren't for Ash, he estimated he would have had to walk around the entire Inner Island and then hurriedly catch a decent-looking Pokémon because of lack of time.
Now, he only needed to pick carefully within the Salamence Clan.
After Gary left, Ash continued teaching Dragonair how to fly. In her half-understanding, Dragonair actually began to float slowly.
Ash's method although slightly clumsy, hit the essence directly. Simply put, it was about manipulating power to make oneself fly. Ash relied on pure physical strength, while Dragonair utilized the power of the wind.
One of the reasons Dragonair couldn't fly for so long was that she couldn't even manipulate the power of the wind, let alone fly.
But after Ash's strange teaching, for some reason, she suddenly became able to manipulate the wind. Once she could control the wind element, making herself fly was actually quite easy.
In just half a day, the Dragonair, who hadn't been able to fly since its evolution, actually took flight!
Pikachu clapped his hands in awe from the side. This was Ash; it wasn't surprising no matter what he did, but when you actually saw what Ash did and that he succeeded, you couldn't help but sigh—is this even humanly possible?
Where else could you find a human who could teach both Pokémon skills and how to fly?
After flying up, two lines of clear tears couldn't help but flow from Dragonair's expressive eyes. She could finally—finally fly!
She was no longer an outlier among the Dragonair!
All of this was because of this person named Ash who had arrived on Dragon Island.
"Wu oh?" Can I stay by your side?
In the air, Dragonair asked Ash sincerely.
Before Ash could even ask Dragonair himself, Dragonair instead took the initiative to request to follow him.
Whether it was out of gratitude or her recognition of Ash's abilities as a Trainer, Dragonair acknowledged Ash exceptionally.
Now, although she had solved the problem of not being able to fly, the issue of her slow progress in strength had not yet been resolved.
After evolving, for some unknown reason, her strength improved extremely slowly, even though it had been so fast before evolution.
This problem was even more serious and difficult than not being able to fly, but Dragonair believed that if it were Ash—he could definitely solve her problem.
Ash's great kindness could never be repaid. The only thing she could do was follow Ash and contribute her greater strength to him, even if it meant risking her life!
So she was the first to propose staying by Ash's side, which actually left Ash bewildered—wasn't I the one who wanted to catch you? How did it get reversed?