Chapter 132: A Thousand-Year Gap
The petty Sprigatito sat down on Lapras's shell, her back to Will, and started smacking the shell with her paws.
Smack.
Will slapped the little cat on the head. She immediately went still, but her temper was clearly stirred up. She refused to look at him.
Will was happy for the peace and quiet and spent the rest of the twilight hours chatting with the Lapras. According to her, her small clan had come from a "rather warm" sea region. Because the world's temperature was rising, they were migrating to a cooler sea to spend the summer, and would only return when the weather began to cool again in the autumn.
"Hm, so from Alola, heading to Sinnoh?" Will had a good idea of their migration route. The Lapras species is very tolerant of cold and isn't afraid of icy seas; they even have Ice as a secondary type. They must have started their migration at the beginning of autumn. The only place that could be described as "rather warm" at that time of year would be near Alola. And in the summer, the "cool sea" they were looking for would have to be the glacial waters north of Sinnoh.
"How many are in your clan? Where did you get separated?"
"La-praas~"
"Only seven or eight? It won't be easy to find them. And it's not easy for you to survive in this sea all by yourself," Will said, shaking his head.
The Pokémon of the sea are different from those on land. The transition from the Era of Primal Beasts to the Era of Leagues was, at its core, a change that affected the land regions. It had very little impact on the Pokémon living in the ocean. Human trainers are active on land, catching a Pokémon here one day, another there the next. The original wild clans on land gradually shrank. Trainers' Pokémon had children who rarely, if ever, interacted with their wild counterparts. Over time, the Pokémon on land gradually lost their sense of territory. By the time of Ash's era, two hundred years from now, the only land Pokémon that still had a strong sense of territory were those in massive, untouchable swarms.
But the sea was different. In the past and in the present, humans lacked the means to explore the deep ocean. The areas they could explore were very, very small. Therefore, the vast majority of ocean Pokémon still retained the habits passed down from the Era of Primal Beasts. If they had a clan, they would definitely claim a territory to ensure their descendants could grow up safely. And these ocean Pokémon would not be merciful to intruders. They might even eat them as food.
The fact that this Lapras had only run into a small-time swarm of Tentacool today was lucky. If she had wandered into the territory of a truly powerful Pokémon, she would have never escaped.
"La-praas..." Hearing Will's analysis, the Lapras looked like it was about to cry again.
Pokémon that have just left their infant stage are often emotionally fragile, especially the females. Sprigatito cried a lot, but that was mostly because she was fickle, and nine times out of ten, it was because Will had made her mad. But this little Lapras was different. To put it bluntly, she was just a coward.
"Achoo!"
Beside him, Sprigatito suddenly sneezed. Will looked up. The sun had almost completely set, and the weather was getting cold. He took the little coat Sola had given him out of his backpack.
"Sprigatito, come here and put this on."
"Meow!"
The kitten turned her head away with a huff, her butt wiggle. She was still angry.
Will: ...
Smack. Smack.
After two light spanks on her rear, Sprigatito became obedient. She let Will put the little cotton coat on her.
"It's about dinnertime. Lapras, you just keep moving forward. I'll feed you," Will said.
"La-praas~" the Lapras cried out, thanking him.
She was the mount, couldn't stop to rest at mealtime, and even had to thank her boss for feeding her. The inexperienced little Lapras had no idea how much of a workhorse she was being.
Will took out the bag of homemade bread and biscuits from Myra. These things weren't in a sealed container and couldn't be kept for too long, or their texture would get bad. It was best to eat them soon.
"Lapras, open up," Will said, standing up. He fed her several pieces of bread. A Lapras's body is large, and even as a baby, she ate a lot. This one feeding used up almost all the bread.
"La-praas~" After eating for about ten minutes, the Lapras felt she was full.
Only then did Will sit back down. He looked in his bag. There were two pieces of bread and a pile of biscuits left, just enough for him. As for Sprigatito, she would, of course, be eating the canned cat food from the Orange Academy. That stuff was made especially for cat Pokémon; it was nutritious and catered to their tastes.
"Come here, eat."
Will picked up Sprigatito, opened a can, and let her lick it herself.
"Meow," Sprigatito tossed her head. She wanted Will to feed her.
"I don't have a spoon, how am I supposed to feed you? Hurry up and eat. I'm hungry too."
"Meow."
Hearing that Will was also hungry, Sprigatito stopped making a fuss and obediently lowered her head to eat. Will also began to finish off the remaining bread and biscuits. With one meal, they had finished the entire bag of food Myra had given them.
Splash, splash, splash~
A series of loud splashes sounded nearby. Will turned his head and saw a red-eyed Gyarados, clearly enraged about something, that had spotted the passing Lapras and was now attacking.
"La-praas~" The Lapras was scared and tried to speed up to get away.
But a Gyarados is much faster in the sea than a Lapras. Although their base stat totals are similar, Lapras has very few points allocated to Speed; it's its worst stat.
"You just keep going. I'll take care of this," Will said with a casual wave. He glanced at his status. After those few battles, he was now Lv. 19. This is just the coastal sea, semi-enclosed by land. The Pokémon here aren't high-level. This Gyarados is probably only in its 20s. Easy.
The thought had just entered his mind when the Gyarados attacked.
"Hiss!" The Gyarados closed the distance with terrifying speed, its sheer presence making Sprigatito shiver. A Pokémon that big must be super strong. But in her heart, she knew it was still no match for Will. So, the next second, she just lay back down and continued to lick her can.
[Focus Energy].
[Razor Leaf].
A sharp leaf, spinning like a shuriken, flew out and scraped against the Gyarados's crest, sending up a few sparks.
"ROAR!"
The Gyarados wasn't one-shotted, but its attention was now firmly fixed on Will. It raised its head, opened its massive mouth, and shot a violent vortex of water at the Grovyle who was leaping toward it.
"A Whirlpool."
[Detect]!
A brown arc of light flashed in Will's eyes, and he instantly saw the "core" of the swirling water. In the games, this move was a perfect shield. But in reality, it was different. It gave him incredibly sharp insight, allowing him to find the breaking point of an enemy's attack. Whether he could actually break it was up to him.
Will's counter was simple. He threw another Razor Leaf... straight into the core of the vortex, which was the Gyarados's throat.
Gack!
As Will expected, the Gyarados, with its throat pierced, was like a faucet that had been jammed. It sputtered twice and the water stopped. The Whirlpool, its source cut off, dissipated.
By this time, Will had already landed on the Gyarados's head.
[Focus Energy].
[Mega Drain].
A faint green light glowed on both Will and the Gyarados. The Gyarados's condition visibly declined at a rapid rate. Its eyes turned to swirls, and it fainted, rolling onto its back.
As the Gyarados fell, Will leaped backward. The Lapras quickly swam over to catch him. Flap. He landed lightly on her shell, barely making a sound.
From the start of the battle to the end, Will hadn't even gotten a drop of water on him, let alone taken any damage.
"Meow!" Sprigatito was not surprised. In all her time with him, she had never seen Will get hurt. Of course, she hadn't seen many Pokémon battles.
"La-praas!" The Lapras was a different story. Although she was only a week or so out of her infancy, she had been fending off other Pokémon in the sea constantly, so she had seen plenty of fights. She could tell how powerful Will's battle instincts were, how rich his experience was. Even the battle-hardened leader of her own clan couldn't have pulled that off!
Her admiration for Will instantly soared to an unprecedented level.
"Keep going," Will said with a smile, not feeling complacent.
The wild Pokémon of the modern era were simply no match for those of the Era of Primal Beasts. This wasn't just a difference in size and weight. Over a thousand years, the combat memories etched into their genes had been weakened too much. As humans and Pokémon began to live and work together, the competitive pressure on wild Pokémon became smaller and smaller. They no longer had to fight for food and territory. This had, generation by generation, caused their bodies to become weaker.
In the Era of Primal Beasts, Will could at most take on an opponent five levels higher, and that was only with every advantage on his side. Now, he dared to take on an opponent ten levels higher even with a type disadvantage.
"My movepool is still too small. I need to recall those other skills as soon," Will thought, reviewing the battle. It had been ugly. If not for his high battle experience, he might have had to jump in the water and get into a fistfight with the Gyarados.
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