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After letting out a roar, the ancient Dragonite directly smashed down its fist. The massive fist could even shatter the entire Bill's Lighthouse and the cliffside with a single blow. Just as Zheng Hui's face showed terror, he saw a figure dart out from beside him, charging towards the fist.
Mid-air, Ash held his breath and threw a punch. That tiny fist collided with Dragonite's meteorite-like fist!
"Boom!!"
An unparalleled tremor echoed in the air, and circles of shockwaves rippled outwards. Something that stunned Zheng Hui happened: the act, which seemed like an egg hitting a meteorite, resulted in the egg smashing the meteorite away!
Dragonite's fist was blasted back, and even Dragonite's entire body retreated several steps in the air.
It was only then that everyone realized that although Dragonite appeared to be walking on the sea, he was actually floating in mid-air. Only his two feet were submerged in the seawater, but the height of the sea should have been much more than that.
So Dragonite wasn't walking on the sea, but floating over it.
However, this wasn't very important information. The main point was... Ash actually punched such a huge Dragonite back!
Misty and Brock were fine. Although this scene was shocking, given the previous incident where Ash knocked out a Magmar with one punch, it wasn't too surprising for him to do something like this now.
But Professor Zheng Hui was seeing this for the first time!
What kind of freak could do something like this? Forget about punching back a giant Dragonite's fist; just fighting a normal Dragonite, or even a Rattata, as a human would be beyond human capabilities!
Professor Zheng Hui felt his worldview shatter. It turned out that Ash's true strength wasn't his Pokémon, but himself!
In the air, the recoil didn't send Ash flying back, because all the force had been channeled outwards. Only the giant Dragonite would feel the recoil, not him.
However, he couldn't fly either, so he released Pidgeot in mid-air, then stepped onto Pidgeot's back, looking solemnly at the giant Dragonite opposite, who had barely managed to stabilize himself.
"You're an ancient Dragonite, right? I can hear that you're looking for a companion. I also know that us imitating your companion's voice might be a bit wrong, but we actually don't have any ill intentions!" Ash's shout echoed across the entire sea, and naturally reached the giant Dragonite's ears.
A modern Pokémon would definitely understand Ash's words, but Dragonite was an ancient species! He was practically clueless about modern human language, so he didn't understand anything from Ash's shouts.
He just knew Ash was yelling loudly, sounding like he was trying to intimidate her.
In response, the ancient Dragonite grew even angrier. She roared at Ash, then opened her massive mouth, and destructive golden energy condensed within—Hyper Beam!
"Whoa, whoa... I was just saying hello, do you have to go that far?" Ash's mouth twitched when he saw the Hyper Beam. This Dragonite's power level already far exceeded her kin, and she was also an ancient body.
Although he didn't know the connection between an ancient body and Gigantamax, such a massive size wasn't just for show. When she used moves, they would definitely be much stronger than a normal Dragonite of the same level.
This Hyper Beam's power was already on par with a Champion-level move.
"Boom!!" The next instant, the Hyper Beam erupted from Dragonite's mouth, and the destructive golden light pillar pierced through space, illuminating the almost dim sky as if it were daytime!
Ash raised one hand, and a cerulean Aura Sphere formed in an instant. However, his Aura Sphere compared to Dragonite's Hyper Beam was like the difference between an ant and an elephant.
Yet, Ash ignored it and, without dodging, forcefully hurled the Aura Sphere from his hand!
"Boom!!"
"Crack, crack, crack!!"
Professor Zheng Hui didn't even dare to look at the scene above. He was filled with immense regret, thinking that for the sake of so-called curiosity, a gifted young man would lose his life, and even he, Misty, and Brock would probably be dealt with one by one by the giant Dragonite after Ash was taken down.
However, after Professor Zheng Hui closed his eyes for a few seconds, the scorching bright light still flickered in the sky. He looked up, squinting his eyes into a slit, and after clearly seeing the scene in the sky, he suddenly widened his eyes again.
What did he see? The tiny Energy Ball released by Ash actually blocked the Hyper Beam, which was almost the size of the Bill's Lighthouse!
This was possible too!
Although the Aura Sphere was small, it firmly blocked the wide-ranging Hyper Beam, as if an invisible force was holding back the excess parts of the Hyper Beam.
In the sky, Ash extended one hand, remotely supporting the Aura Sphere, preventing the Hyper Beam from advancing at all.
The ancient Dragonite was also bewildered at this point. This was her most powerful move. Although she was out of practice in battle and hadn't used moves to contend with other Pokémon in a long time, it didn't change the fact that this move of hers could move mountains and fill seas.
One Hyper Beam could flatten even a small mountain peak!
Now, it was just blocked so ordinarily by that blue orb of light. Was this even reasonable?
More importantly, the originator of that blue orb was that human!
When did humans become so strong that they could contend with monsters of their level with bare hands?
"Hmph!" Ash exerted a slight force with his palm and let out a soft cry. The Aura Sphere directly traveled against the Hyper Beam, moving upwards!
The golden destructive light pillar was thus destroyed inch by inch by that tiny Aura Sphere, and under Dragonite's horrified expression, it approached her head, then... vanished!
Watching the slowly disappearing Aura Sphere, a hint of lingering fear flashed in the ancient Dragonite's eyes. At the same time, she stopped the idea of continuing to gather energy for an attack.
Even a fool should calm down by now. The first punch could be attributed to being blinded by anger, but in this clash of moves, if she still couldn't see the difference between them, and couldn't see that the other party was holding back, then she would be somewhat ungrateful.
'Dragonite, we have no ill intentions. Imitating your companion's voice was also unintentional. We just wanted to see who the Pokémon hidden in the fog was.' Seeing that ordinary communication wasn't working, Ash directly used Aura to transmit his thoughts, communicating telepathically.
In the past, he rarely needed to use such a method to talk to Pokémon, after all, only humans couldn't understand Pokémon language, there was no such thing as a Pokémon not understanding human language.
But today he met one. In ancient times, humans might not even have been fully developed. Even if they could speak, the language of that era would definitely be different from modern language, so it was natural for the ancient Dragonite not to understand.
But telepathy, on the other hand, ignores both languages, automatically converting one's own language into a language the other party can understand.
After hearing Ash's words, the ancient Dragonite's originally slightly wary eyes relaxed considerably, and her whole demeanor returned to its usual Silly look. However, no matter how simple-minded the ancient Dragonite was, with such a massive body, anyone who saw her would still feel intimidated.
"Woo-oh~~" I want... to find a friend.'
Dragonite's voice entered Ash's ears, translated into a language he could understand.
This Dragonite's desire was actually very simple: to find a friend... a friend to communicate with, play with, and walk alongside.
As an ancient Pokémon, she had lived for an unknown amount of time from ancient times to the present. For the ancient Dragonite, loneliness must have been her greatest pain, which is why when she heard sounds related to her own kind, she was so eager to emerge from the fog, only to find that she had been deceived... The fact that she could calm down now already meant that Dragonite had a relatively good temper. Where would you find a Pokémon with such a good temper in ancient times?
'Can't you make yourself smaller? There are many Dragonite in this world, but none as big as you. Language can be learned slowly, living habits can be changed slowly, but your body size...' Ash said with a hint of melancholy.
Ancient Pokémon are basically rare and hard to come by. Perhaps there's only one ancient Dragonite left in the world, so finding an ancient companion is highly unrealistic.
Then Dragonite basically had only one path left, which was to become the size of a normal Dragonite and then make friends with normal Dragonite. It's easiest to communicate among the same species.
Even if she wasn't communicating with her own kind, the ancient Dragonite would have to find a way to constrain her current size, otherwise, with this size, what kind of friends could she make?
Unless she went to the Galar region, allowing Pokémon to enter Gigantamax state to communicate with the ancient Dragonite, but Gigantamax couldn't be maintained indefinitely. Moreover, the ancient Dragonite's size would definitely be very inconvenient in modern times.
Therefore, if Dragonite wanted to move around normally in modern times, she absolutely had to become a normal size.
However, after hearing Ash's words, Dragonite's face also showed a troubled expression. She closed her eyes, her face showing a constipated look. After a moment, she reopened her eyes and then shook her head.
Becoming a normal size, she couldn't do it!
Seeing this, Ash sighed helplessly, then went to find help...
[Newbie Ash: Big shots, big shots, emergency! I met an ancient Dragonite at Bill's Lighthouse. She...]
When in doubt, go to the group for help!
After Ash recounted the ancient Dragonite's situation in the group, he received a reply in less than ten seconds.
[Psychic Specialist Ash: Actually, it's very simple. As long as there's an Elite-level Psychic-type Pokémon, it should be able to help the ancient Dragonite. Psychic has the ability to shrink body size, but this shrinking requires certain conditions for strength. One is that the Pokémon itself must at least reach Gym-level to learn it, and the other is that the target's level cannot exceed its own by one major rank. Otherwise, even if the target agrees, there's no way to shrink them.]
It's the all-powerful Psychic again!
Ash had already witnessed the marvels of Psychic with Sabrina before. Sabrina could not only shrink people, but she could even turn them into dolls. This was already the ability to alter a species.
This Psychic Specialist Ash in the group was also someone Ash was seeing for the first time. The reason he came out immediately was probably because Ash had set a special focus on him. Before, he was just watching the fun, but now he finally had his knowledge comfort zone, so he popped up.
[Newbie Ash: Thank you, big shot! Then I'll tell Dragonite to wait until my Gardevoir reaches Elite-level first. Let her wait a bit longer!]
Ash finished speaking, then exited the group chat and used telepathy to convey the method to the ancient Dragonite.
Currently, Gardevoir's level, after the last battle, was already Professional Senior. After two more days of training, she should reach Professional Peak, still one major rank and one minor rank away from Elite-level.
With Gardevoir's talent, she should be able to successfully reach Elite within half a year. So Ash informed the ancient Dragonite to wait for him here for another half a year. In half a year, he would definitely return here to take Dragonite to find her companions.
"Woo-oh~~" Thank you, human. If you can truly do that, then I am willing to become your subordinate and serve you for fifty years.
Fifty years, for the ancient Dragonite, was just a few more naps, not a significant price at all.
But Ash waved his hand frantically after hearing that: 'That's not how things work anymore. Nowadays, Pokémon... which you call monsters, and us humans live in peaceful coexistence. No one is superior or inferior. If you're willing, after you recover, let's have a battle. If I win, you become my companion, how about that?'
Companion... equality... Ash's words made the ancient Dragonite a bit confused, but she felt a certain longing for these terms.
This era and the era she lived in certainly had many changes, the most obvious difference being... the humans in her era didn't have such abnormal combat power.
"Woo-oh~~" I understand. We'll have the battle you mentioned then... Dragonite said halfway, then scratched her cheek, seemingly unsure how to address Ash properly. Constantly calling him 'human' seemed a bit impolite.
'My name is Ash.'
"Woo-oh~" Okay, Ash. But I can't battle you. I can't beat you.
Dragonite said with a slightly innocent yet endearing tone, which made Ash's mouth twitch, a hint of awkwardness on his face.
'Ahem, actually, normally I don't get involved in battles, but this was a sudden incident!' Ash explained earnestly.
In reality, if Dragonite hadn't suddenly attacked, Ash wouldn't have counterattacked himself. Even to subdue Dragonite, he advocated using Pokémon for battle, even though an Elite Peak was a bit too overpowered for him right now... However, to protect Misty and the others, he didn't have time to slowly buff his Pokémon. Directly intervening was the best option at the time. He definitely couldn't fight Dragonite himself later!
Wouldn't that completely lack the Trainer's spirit?
Besides, Ash didn't believe that once Gardevoir reached Elite, she still couldn't defeat the ancient Dragonite!