Faced with that roaring comet of blue light crashing toward him like a falling star, Ash's pupils shrank slightly.
He could feel the suicidal resolve crammed into that Giga Impact, a power so fierce even the air itself was squeezed into sharp, cracking booms.
"River Thug—Protect!"
Ash's voice cut cleanly through the thunder, cold and steady, without a hint of hesitation.
Gyarados had a deep move pool. It could learn a lot of things.
And how many moves a Pokémon could use was one of the things that decided its strength.
The more moves it knew, the more situations it could adapt to—and the fewer situations where it would just stand there helpless.
Whatever the opponent played, you had a counter in hand. That kind of coverage was its own kind of power.
And Protect was one of those moves that almost every Pokémon had to learn.
In this world, Pokémon didn't have a four-move limit.
So Protect was mandatory.
You didn't have to master it, but you had to know it.
No one demanded you chain it flawlessly, only that in a critical moment, it could succeed just once—and that would be enough.
The only problem was that the move was hard to learn.
It was only after Brock joined them that they even got proper instruction.
Besides self-study, move learning could also be done through normal coaching.
Right now among Ash's Pokémon, only Pikachu and Gyarados had managed to learn it.
Pikachu's progress was ahead of Gyarados's. The golden brute could barely pull it off yet—its Protect was only at LV1.
Pidgeotto hadn't learned it at all.
As for Meowth, that guy was even worse… and not even with them right now.
…Some gaps between Pokémon really couldn't be helped.
Learning ability was hard to quantify.
A flash of unwillingness flickered through the scarlet eyes of the golden Gyarados. What it really wanted was to meet that attack head-on, violence against violence.
Right now it was in a very bad mood, nowhere near as emotionally stable as Misty's blue Gyarados.
But the golden Gyarados was already doing its best.
The trainer's command was iron law.
Its massive body was instantly wrapped in a pale green, almost fragile-looking shell of energy.
Protect LV1—success!
And in the instant the barrier snapped into place—
"BOOOOM!!!"
The blue torrent of Giga Impact smashed down like a flash flood gone wild, slamming full-force into that thin green barrier.
The explosion was deafening.
The entire water field shook violently, as if it might fall apart at any moment.
The energy screen let out a tortured metallic screech, spiderwebbed cracks racing across its surface. It flickered wildly, looking like it would shatter the next second.
Under that terrifying onslaught, the pale green Protect barrier twisted with a tooth-aching creak, its surface rippling like glass about to explode.
The golden Gyarados's huge body was shoved backward by that unstoppable force, its thick tail plowing the pool into a foaming white trench.
It let out a low, pained roar.
Even with most of the impact blocked, the shock and pressure hammering through the barrier still left it in terrible discomfort.
Protect was not invincibility.
The terrifying kinetic force of Giga Impact still had to be absorbed and dispersed by its body, the hard way.
On the other side, Misty's hands were balled into fists so tight her nails were digging into her palms. She stared unblinking at the point of impact, even forgetting to breathe.
She could feel everything her Gyarados had poured into that move.
Not just power—but a resolve that resonated with her, a will that stepped past fear.
After what felt like a century compressed into a single second, the pale green barrier finally gave a mournful crack and burst apart like shattered glass, scattering into nothing.
But by then, the destructive force of that Giga Impact had been worn down to its dying embers by the absolute defense of Protect.
The golden Gyarados's giant frame wavered. The wounds along its neck and body—where Ice Fang had grazed it earlier—split open under the strain, blood seeping into the churned-up water.
It panted harshly, scarlet eyes locked on the blue Gyarados opposite it, who was now frozen in place after unleashing Giga Impact. In those eyes burned rage and bloodlust.
—So.
—You can't move now, huh?
Malice surged up in the golden Gyarados's heart. It was getting a little carried away.
But its own condition wasn't good either, so it didn't immediately rush to attack.
As Protect's proficiency rose, its defensive power would improve, and the success rate of consecutive uses would go up too.
Right now, though, the golden Gyarados only had Protect at LV1.
It had blocked the hit—
But not without cost.
Exactly how Protect resolved damage depended on a lot of factors.
For example, if Pikachu used Protect LV2 here instead:
He probably wouldn't be injured by that Gyarados's move, but he'd still get blown clear across the field.
Protect could stack defense. It couldn't nail you to the floor. It didn't increase your weight.
—It blocked it!
Misty's heart sank like a stone. A wave of loss and powerlessness crashed over her—
Only to be swallowed up in the next second by an even fiercer fighting spirit.
So it blocked it.
So what?
This Gyarados, just like her, had already thrown in everything it had!
This Gyarados wasn't her usual ace that she kept with her, but it was still one of the gym's Pokémon. You could say it had known Misty since she was small.
It had watched her grow up.
Misty took in her partner's battered condition—and that brief, but very real, moment of post-move paralysis.
This was her chance.
Cold sweat beaded at Ash's temples as well.
The burden of Protect was far heavier than it looked; River Thug's condition had taken a sharp dive.
But he still grinned as he looked across at the girl commanding the other side.
"That was… one hell of a hit, Misty."
His voice carried clearly across the humming battlefield.
"But…"
Ash's arm swung down in a sharp arc, his voice like a blade drawn from its sheath, carrying a chilling sense of finality.
"The battle isn't over yet!"
"River Thug—"
"Finish it! Hyper Beam!"
No matter what, Protect was always going to be less taxing than Giga Impact.
Giga Impact and Hyper Beam shared the same kind of nasty recoil—both often left the user unable to move for a short while.
Right now, the blue Gyarados couldn't budge.
This was a perfect one-hit-KO opportunity. They couldn't let it recover.
That meant no little probing moves. If they were going to attack, they'd do it with a big move to decide the match in one shot.
Ash, naturally, chose Hyper Beam.
Oh, and there was one more thing worth emphasizing—
In theory, Gyarados could learn Thunderbolt and fry other Water-types with it.
But in practice, almost no trainer would actually do that.
Electricity wasn't something you controlled that easily.
Using Thunderbolt in the water… most of the time you'd end up zapping yourself too.
And Water-types were weak to electricity to begin with. A Thunderbolt in the pool was the perfect way to hurt the enemy and damage yourself almost as badly.
Of course, Ash's Gyarados hadn't learned Thunderbolt yet anyway.
For now, Brock could only teach Ash some of the more practical, widely applicable moves—like Protect, Foresight, Haze, and so on.
All those dirty four-move-only game strats? In real battles, they just didn't work.
Especially Haze.
Haze could wipe out buffs.
Breaking buffs was always easier than stacking them.
Most "setup strats" only had one solid hit in them and then got countered.
And they usually had to pair with speed-boosting sets. High-speed sweepers were hard to actually tag with Haze.
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