Chapter 223: Arrogant Ice Dragon! Come Try the Glaciate!!
"ROOOARR!!"
The continental Pokémon's roar was something felt more than heard — a bone-deep vibration that went through the ruins and the stone and the air simultaneously. With it came light: searing, merciless, the specific quality of sun that exists nowhere naturally at this latitude.
Desolate Land.
The boundary was immediate and dramatic. At Primal Groudon's position, the rain clouds that Primordial Sea had been building simply — ceased. Above Groudon: harsh sunlight, cracking through the overcast in a cone of blazing gold. Below: everywhere else still under heavy rain.
The sky divided. One half: Primordial Sea, pouring. The other: Desolate Land, scorching.
"That sunlight." Alder touched his tongue to his lips, which had gone dry in approximately four seconds. Standing in the Desolate Land zone felt like being dropped into a noon-hour desert. The heat pressed down and sideways simultaneously.
But more immediate issues were developing.
"Of all the moments—"
Wallace's expression had gone several shades past unhappy.
Mega Gyarados had just launched an Aqua Tail directly at Mega Metagross — and the water flowing across its scales evaporated. Turned to steam. Dissipated into the Desolate Land air before the move could land.
Water-type moves. Desolate Land neutralized them entirely. Same principle as how Primordial Sea blocked Fire-type moves from functioning.
Aqua Tail: negated. And in the half-second it took Wallace to process this, Mega Metagross was already returning the favor — a Thunder Punch drove into Mega Gyarados's side with a crack of electricity that sent it spinning.
Mega Gyarados after Mega Evolution lost the Flying typing, which meant the quadruple Electric weakness was gone. That was the only reason this hit hadn't been immediately fight-ending. But it was still very heavy, and Mega Gyarados's body curved around the impact in a way that suggested its structural integrity was having thoughts.
Wallace's expression was tight.
The rain — he'd been relying on the rain. Fire-type attacks suppressed, water-types amplified. And now Groudon had inserted Desolate Land and converted the entire equation.
Though he was also aware, being honest with himself, that Primordial Sea hadn't been great for their side either. Alder's Volcarona couldn't use Fire-type attacks under Primordial Sea. Under Desolate Land, Fire was boosted — which meant if Volcarona could land something on Genesect, the type disadvantage would hit extremely hard.
Neither extreme weather was comfortable. Both were just too much.
High in the sky, away from the smaller battles:
"That smelly lizard."
Primal Kyogre's attention registered on the source of the new weather before anything else — the golden eyes sweeping down to find Primal Groudon below.
The immediate instinct was to go deal with it personally.
Then the second thought arrived. It had just waterlogged Groudon into looking pregnant last time. Thoroughly. Demonstrated dominance conclusively. There was nothing else to prove here.
Primal Kyogre elected to feel superior and move on.
"ROOOARR!! (FAT FISH!! Get down here and fight me like a grown Pokémon!!)"
Primal Groudon had seen it too and had immediate, extremely specific feelings about this.
"Hmm. (You can't fly. What exactly are you yelling about.)" Primal Kyogre's eyes were ice.
The nerve of that lizard. It was going to add another installment to last time's lesson—
An impact of cold hit before any further deliberation could occur.
"ROOOARR!!"
Black Kyurem's Cross Thunder detonated at Primal Kyogre at close range, close enough that the electric ring had barely finished forming when it connected. Kyogre hadn't been paying attention to Kyurem.
It lurched backward, instinctively, trying to create distance — too slow.
"Protect!!"
Dark Mewtwo moved.
The green barrier snapped up between Kyogre and the remaining force of the Cross Thunder impact. The explosion transferred into the Protect instead — lightning flooding across the barrier in a sheet, the discharge so intense it visibly destabilized the green light.
Dark Mewtwo's violet eyes flared. Both arms locked against the pressure.
Heavy.
Exceptionally heavy. The barrier was holding but it felt like holding a dam against a flooding river with your hands. Kyurem's raw force was on another tier.
"Genesect — Techno Blast!!"
The Shiny Genesect looped around Black Kyurem's flank in under a second, cannon already charging — Ice-type cartridge loaded, the only option that landed without a resistance modifier against an Ice-type legendary.
The beam hit.
BOOM.
Ice crystals exploded across Black Kyurem's side, thick and spreading. For roughly one second, a meaningful section of its body was frozen.
Then Kyurem looked at the Shiny Genesect.
You used Ice against me.
"ROOOARR!!"
An Ice Beam of extraordinary width carved across the air, directly at the Shiny Genesect.
"Dodge!!"
The Shiny Genesect had been moving before the order. It cleared the beam by a margin that would have been terrifying to watch in slow motion.
"Origin Pulse!!"
Hmmm~!
Primal Kyogre rallied — five Calm Mind boosts now, its Special Attack at roughly double its base value — and spheres of condensed water materialized in rapid succession before it, then launched in a spread pattern.
Kyurem was the problem. Kyogre had almost nothing that hit it well. Ground-type Rock Slide existed and had super-effective value — but it was physical, and Kyogre's physical attack was not where its strength lay. Ice Beam and Blizzard hit neutral; Kyogre had no Ice typing. Origin Pulse plus Primordial Sea rain boost was the best available option.
The blue-white water beams punched through the rain toward Black Kyurem.
Black Kyurem answered with Blizzard.
The two attacks met in the middle of the sky, and the collision generated something that was part weather event and part detonation — water and ice tearing at each other, the temperature differential so extreme that the falling rain caught in the Blizzard's wind and froze mid-drop. The area directly under the exchange was suddenly receiving a mixture of rain and hail, the hailstones irregular and jagged and fast.
And then, from below, a very large white beam of energy streaked upward.
Solar Beam.
Under Desolate Land, no charging required.
BOOM.
It caught Primal Kyogre unprepared, driving into its flank without warning. Kyogre's cry was short and pained — its body tilted, the momentum of the Origin Pulse scattered and broken as the kinetic force of the Solar Beam threw off its balance.
Mammon looked toward the source.
Primal Groudon. Already readying another charge. But with the young Rayquaza hitting it in the temple with Extreme Speed at that exact moment, its head had tilted somewhat to the left.
Groudon did not care about the Rayquaza.
Groudon had hit the fat fish.
Giovanni gave Mammon a small, apologetic shrug. There was genuinely nothing he could do. Groudon had — opinions — about Kyogre that superseded battle strategy.
"HMMMM!!"
Primal Kyogre was furious. The Solar Beam hadn't done significant structural damage — five Calm Minds boosted Special Defense as well as Special Attack, so the physical-attack-adjacent Solar Beam had somewhat reduced impact — but the principle of the thing—
That lizard —
Primal Groudon's maw was already blazing with built-up energy, another Solar Beam charging—
"ROOOARR!!"
Black Kyurem's roar interrupted everything.
An Ice Beam descended from altitude — wider than the previous ones, covering a broader sweep — and found Primal Groudon at dead center.
CrackCRACKCRACKCRACK—
The sound of rapid freezing was physically uncomfortable to be near.
Primal Groudon, lit from within by lava-light, crackling with Desolate Land energy — was frozen solid. Completely. A massive ice sculpture where the Continental Pokémon had been.
"Groudon!!" Giovanni's eyebrow went up.
"I will warn you only once."
Black Kyurem's mental voice was slow and very precise.
"Human. Do not interfere in my battle. This fight is mine."
Giovanni looked at the giant frozen Groudon. Then at Black Kyurem. Then let out a quiet, controlled sound of amusement.
Arrogant ice dragon.
Primal Kyogre glanced sidelong at the Groudon-sculpture. Made a sound of quiet satisfaction. The universe had its moments of justice.
"ROOOARR~!!"
White Kyurem.
The shift was instant — fire surging across Black Kyurem's body, reshaping it, the grey-and-black becoming grey-and-white, the turbine at its tail cycling from electric blue to burning red. White Kyurem tilted its head back.
The cry it released was different from what had come before — longer, lower, with a resonance that was less like a battle sound and more like a force of nature beginning.
The turbine blazed.
Energy poured out of it — ice-blue, deep, incredibly concentrated — spreading from White Kyurem's body in a wave that made the air itself contract. The rain near it froze as it fell. The clouds above it thickened with ice crystal. Snow mixed into the rainfall and then overtook it.
The radiant cold wave expanded outward.
This was not Ice Burn.
"Is that—" Mammon said.
Glaciate.
Kyurem's signature move. The one that changed form based on which forme was using it — White Kyurem should have replaced Glaciate with Ice Burn upon transformation.
This Kyurem had both.
The ring of cold expanded at visual speed — a shockwave of freezing air, emanating outward from White Kyurem in all directions, at all altitudes simultaneously.
"Reshiram! Rayquaza!!"
Reshiram already had a Protect up, green barrier blazing in front of Mammon. Rayquaza was faster — it had sprinted to Mammon's back and erected a second barrier before the echo of his voice had finished.
Dark Mewtwo, Primal Kyogre, Shiny Genesect — Protect across all three, simultaneously.
CrackcrackcrackCRACK—
The sound was everywhere. In every direction, at every distance, overlapping and continuous.
Primal Groudon — who had just broken free of the previous ice — was caught by the Glaciate wave before it could move. Frozen again. Immediately. A perfect sculpted repeat.
Giovanni, behind Mega Beedrill's Protect barrier, surveyed the scene without visible distress.
Nearby, in a section of the ruins that had become significantly less comfortable:
Wallace had somehow — again — found himself in the grip of Mega Metagross, secured with both arms behind his back, completely unable to reach his Poké Balls.
The expanding Glaciate wave was visible from here.
Moving fast.
Toward him.
Wallace assessed his options, found none, and turned his head toward the nearest person who might conceivably help.
Leon was, at this moment, the closest combatant not currently engaged with an enemy. Cynthia was further off, still dealing with N.
"LEON!!" Wallace's voice carried the particular energy of someone for whom this was simply becoming too regular an occurrence. "HELP ME!! NOW!!"
Leon turned, looked, processed the situation in about a second.
He was going to have to help, wasn't he.
Again.
(End of Chapter)
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