At this moment, the noble and cool Articuno was crouching deep in the mountain orchard, seemingly resting with her eyes closed.
Similar to the Mythical Darkrai, Articuno wasn't classified as a common Pokémon but as a "Minor Legendary" among Legendary Pokémon. She possessed the ability to control ice freely and resided on snowy mountains with permafrost.
When she flew through the sky trailing her long tail, the flapping of her wings would cool the air, bringing snowfall to the land below.
"Mmm... could she have flown down from Mt. Coronet recently?"
The peak of Mt. Coronet, not far from the farm, was a permafrost zone, so it wasn't strange for an Articuno to live there. And the time the cold wave arrived coincided perfectly with her appearance...
"Doom..."
Houndoom, who had been observing for a while, was about to step forward when Hakuya reached out to stop her.
"Wait a moment... this Articuno's condition seems a bit abnormal."
According to League reports, Articuno populations usually only appeared during blizzards and often helped Trainers lost in snowy mountains. Their personality was definitely considered gentle and friendly.
But seeing her trembling ice-blue wings and her struggling attempts to open her eyes, Hakuya instantly felt something was wrong.
This aura didn't feel gentle or friendly at all.
It felt more like...
[Farm Upgrade Mission 3: While developing the farm, setbacks are inevitable. At this moment, an Articuno who accidentally absorbed the Icicle Plate and went berserk due to the unbearable energy has landed in the mountain orchard. To protect the farm's safety, you need to calm her down completely.]
[Mission Rewards: Ice Gem (Red), Ice Radish Seedlings x300]
"Cooo-eee!"
Synchronized with the system's mission prompt, the legendary bird Pokémon snapped her eyes open and let out a high-pitched cry.
Her light brown eyes were completely dyed in a tyrannical blood-red. Her screech carried an explosive sound wave that penetrated the entire orchard, and a beam of azure light instantly burst from her beak.
[Ice Beam: The target is struck with an icy-cold beam of energy. This may also leave the target frozen.]
"Doom~!"
At this moment, the Houndoom leader, though usually aloof and proud, showed exceptional loyalty to her Trainer. She leaped forward, orange-red flames erupting from her throat like lava, colliding violently with the solidified Ice Beam.
In an instant, an energy storm of blazing red and icy blue swept out in a ring.
In the blink of an eye, Houndoom, who took the hit head-on, was blasted away.
"Houndoom, be careful."
Rushing forward to catch her in his arms, Hakuya comforted her softly.
There was already a level gap, and with the immense power from the Icicle Plate, even with type advantage, the Houndoom leader was no match for the berserk Minor Legendary before them.
Hakuya looked around, his heart sinking again.
Under the fierce collision of Flamethrower and Ice Beam, the frantically vaporized and re-condensed water vapor exploded like a giant storm, destroying all the berry saplings within a radius of several hundred meters.
Although defeating and calming Articuno was important, they absolutely shouldn't fight here.
If this guy used a large-area Blizzard later, the entire mountain orchard would be ruined.
"Doom..."
Patting the Houndoom who still wanted to fight, Hakuya made up his mind.
Can't beat her one-on-one? Then drag her to an open space and gang up on her!
"This isn't the place for a battle. Retreat first!"
"Cooo-eee!"
Emitting a tyrannical aura, Articuno saw the fleeing farm owner and flapped her ice-blue wings violently, following closely behind Hakuya wrapped in a fierce gale.
Along the way, blade-like storms swept through, and bone-chilling ice shards shrouded the farm with the swaying of her long tail.
Fortunately, although Articuno's strength had greatly increased after absorbing the Icicle Plate, she had completely lost her rationality due to the rampage. Hakuya easily lured her to the open space not far in front of the wooden cabin.
And Miss Gardevoir, whose mind was connected to his, had already foreseen her Trainer's plan. The moment she saw Articuno, she raised her slender hand, and the accumulated Moonblast crashed down from the starry night sky.
Because it was night, the move—already boosted by attributes—was further enhanced by the "Five Moons in the Sky."
In the moment time seemed to freeze, under Gardevoir's near-full power, the silver-plasma-like moonlight poured down like a reverse waterfall, unstoppable!
"Cooo!"
Hit directly, Articuno let out a sorrowful cry, clearly severely injured.
But to Hakuya's surprise, she didn't lose combat capability immediately. Instead, she flapped her wings frantically, firing a barrage of Weather Ball attacks at close range toward Miss Gardevoir, who hadn't recovered yet.
"Garchomp, use Dragon Claw."
At the critical moment, a cool command rang out from behind.
Garchomp leaped out like a dragon god. Three crescent-shaped wind blades solidified between its claws. With a sudden swing, the glowing white Weather Ball was torn apart along with the air.
"Gardevoir, catch her with Extrasensory."
Taking advantage of the gap while Articuno recklessly used Brave Bird to fight Garchomp fiercely, the recovered Gardevoir followed Hakuya's command. Her eyes glowed purple, and wave-like Extrasensory energy restrained the nearly exhausted Articuno.
In an instant, the legendary bird Pokémon hit by the psychic force finally lost her combat capability.
"Phew—"
Watching the thrown Poké Ball shake a few times before finally settling, Hakuya and Cynthia breathed a sigh of relief in unison.
"Your guess should be correct. I heard people over there mention that an Articuno indeed resided on the peak of Mt. Coronet. She must have descended to the farm during this period..."
After a while, following Hakuya's explanation, Cynthia roughly understood the sequence of events and couldn't help but sigh.
It had to be said, this was probably the strongest wild Pokémon they had encountered so far. She managed to withstand attacks from Gardevoir and Garchomp consecutively without falling behind.
If Hakuya hadn't positioned Gardevoir in the open space in advance and unleashed a maximum-power Moonblast directly, this battle wouldn't have ended so quickly.
Affected by the battle, the fields, medicinal garden, and mountain orchard along the way suffered varying degrees of damage. He estimated he would have to spend a lot of time repairing them over the next few days.
Although Hakuya felt heartache over this, he shook his head helplessly.
It was purely a disaster from the sky, unavoidable.
Forget it, I'll just have Articuno, this Pokémon girl, pay with her body obediently in the future~
After the capture, he didn't forget his original goal.
It was precisely because she absorbed the Icicle Plate that this Articuno went berserk, flew all the way down from Mt. Coronet, and finally ended up in the farm's mountain orchard.
Now, only by removing the Icicle Plate could she be completely calmed.
Hakuya had already thought of a solution for this.
Naturally, it couldn't be taken out in her Pokémon form, but after capturing her, he could easily achieve this with his [Telekinesis] superpower.
"Endure it for a bit~"
Placing the humanized Articuno gently on the bed, Hakuya smelled the faint, cold fragrance and reached out to stroke her forehead gently.
At this moment, a cascade of ice-blue, silky hair fell to her waist and hips. Her hibiscus-like face was as fair and snowy-soft as mutton-fat jade soaked in morning dew. Her peach-blossom eyes rippled with water, yet the corners were stained with rouge red—appearing both cold and seductive, tugging at one's heartstrings.
Looking slightly lower, a moon-white gauze dress lightly wrapped her charming body. Because of her lying posture, her voluptuous, ripe snowy breasts stretched the thin gauze tight, two crimson buds looming faintly beneath the fabric.
An ice-silk sash cinched the cool, elegant beauty's willow waist even slimmer, revealing her long, slender, and smooth beautiful legs, inspiring an urge to handle and play with them.
Retracting his gaze, with a thought, he telekinetically extracted the energy slab absorbed by this blue-haired, cool, and elegant beauty.
[Icicle Plate (Rainbow): A special item imbued with the original power of the Creator, Arceus. When absorbed, it increases the power of an Ice-type Pokémon's Ice moves by 200% and physical stats by 200%.]
[Note: Cannot be absorbed by Pokémon below Minor Legendary status.]