Crobat flapped its wings, leading Ace toward the northwest.
"Everything is ready. Now, let's complete my goal."
Ace glanced at the electronic watch on his wrist. According to the navigation, the Whirl Islands were close. Ace had come to Johto and first visited the Ruins of Alph to see if there were any clues about Ho-Oh or Lugia. He had also gone to the Kurt Master to get Poké Balls that could increase his capture rate.
Although he hadn't found any clues, Ace didn't mind. After all, according to the storyline, Lugia should be near the Whirl Islands at this very moment. Ace's main mission was to stop Pryce, and Ace's plan was simple: capture Lugia or Ho-Oh to nip Pryce's ambition in the bud.
As Crobat slowly landed on a desolate island in the Whirl Islands, Ace recalled Crobat and sent out Lapras. Lapras landed in the turbulent water, and the large whirlpool on the sea began to pull, trying to suck Lapras in.
"Lapras, freeze the sea."
Ace jumped onto Lapras's back. Lapras nodded to Ace, and an icy chill spread from its four limbs into the seawater. In an instant, the sea around Lapras quickly froze, and a huge sheet of ice, nearly five to six hundred meters wide, appeared on the surface. The ice drifted toward the whirlpool with the current. During this process, the ice sheet continued to expand, and when it floated to the center of the whirlpool, a huge ice sheet covering nearly eighty percent of the entire whirlpool covered it. The ice sheet rotated slowly, but due to its massive size, the whirlpool could no longer devour it.
Click, click, click...
The ice layer gradually expanded, and its rotation speed became slower and slower until it connected with the island and the rotation completely stopped. At the same time, a massive ice field had been created on the vast sea by Lapras.
"That's enough."
Ace gave Lapras an order, and Lapras stopped expanding the ice field. Ace landed on the ice field. Ignoring the biting cold, he looked up at the sky. The corners of his mouth lifted into a smile as he muttered, "I don't know where Lugia is, but we've been this provocative. If it doesn't come out, then it doesn't deserve to be called a legendary Pokémon."
Boom!
At that moment, the entire ice surface trembled violently. An ice sheet about a kilometer away from them was instantly shattered by an air vortex. Along with the ice shards and seawater, a white figure shot up from beneath the sea. As its wings flapped, a strong wind howled, causing Ace's windbreaker to flutter noisily.
Ace didn't dodge. Some seawater and ice shards hit his body, bringing a slight sting. The corners of Ace's mouth slowly rose. "You've come out? Then, surrender to me obediently!"
With that, Ace leaped onto Lapras's back again. Lapras moved its limbs, carrying Ace swiftly toward Lugia.
Lugia also spotted the "little bug" provoking it on its territory. Lugia instantly opened its mouth, and its signature move, Aeroblast, shot toward Ace!
"Blizzard!"
Ace wouldn't back down. Lapras opened its mouth, and a condensed and compressed Blizzard, like an ice pillar, shot toward the Aeroblast.
Thump!
A muffled sound was heard. Where the Aeroblast and Blizzard met, snowflakes fell everywhere. Lugia was suddenly surprised to find that the opponent's Blizzard was equal in power to its Aeroblast!
Clang!
In the instant Lugia lost focus, two ice spikes quickly grew from the ice surface, stabbing toward Lugia in a lightning-fast crisscross. Lugia flapped its wings fiercely, dodging the attack. It looked at the two "little bugs" below, its eyes no longer filled with contempt but with vigilance.
"Is that all a legendary Pokémon is capable of?" Ace said with a cold laugh, looking at Lugia, who had dodged Lapras's attack. If Lugia's strength was only this much, then the probability of him capturing it was at least eighty percent!
As if sensing Ace's contempt, a heavy energy fluctuation became visible around Lugia. Even the scenery around Lugia began to distort.
"Haha, that's it! What kind of fight is it if you don't use your full power!" Ace laughed heartily. This feeling of battle was far more exhilarating than the Pokémon league he had participated in in Sinnoh!
Boom!
An Aeroblast came, visibly more than twice as large as the previous one!
"Sheer Cold!"
Lapras moved its four limbs, quickly dodging to the side. The water molecules in the air instantly froze, and in an instant, they froze Lugia above!
Crack!
But the freeze was ineffective! At this moment, Lugia was wrapped in a high-density energy fluctuation. One-hit knockout moves like Sheer Cold simply had no effect, at most acting as a normal minor move.
"Tch, then we'll continue to wear it down! At least we'll wear down all that energy!" Ace smacked his lips and shouted, "Hail!"
Without any action from Lapras, dark clouds quickly gathered in the sky, and soon a large number of thumb-sized hailstones began to fall rapidly, bouncing off Lugia's energy layer.
"Blizzard!"
This time, the Blizzard was not condensed. All the hailstones in the sky were drawn into Lapras's Blizzard, and in an instant, the entire space seemed to enter the dead of winter.
Buzz...
A buzzing sound rang out. The hailstones gradually melted and turned into a light rain. The power of the Blizzard instantly weakened by a fifth, but it still slammed into Lugia's energy layer, dispelling a lot of energy.
"Rain Dance?"
Ace raised his hand to catch some rainwater, and his body was quickly soaked by the downpour.
"In this situation, it probably won't stop anytime soon."
Ace didn't continue to fight for control of the weather. Taking advantage of the brief opening after Lugia was hit by the Blizzard, Lapras slammed its foot on the ground. Dozens of ice spikes broke through the ground and quickly wrapped around Lugia. Lugia's body swelled with energy, and the ice spikes that were wrapping around it were instantly shattered, not even leaving a single ice shard behind.
After a series of attacks failed to cause any damage to Lugia, Lugia relaxed its guard against Ace and Lapras. With a flap of its wings, Lugia charged toward them. The powerful air current instantly shattered the ice surface, and large cracks spread across it. If Lapras hadn't tried its best to keep the ice from breaking, the ground beneath Ace's feet would have probably been shattered into pieces before Lugia even landed!
Seeing Lugia charging toward them, Ace stood on Lapras's back without the slightest fear, a glimmer of light in his eyes.