Crack.
The Solar Beam ice sculpture shattered into countless motes of light. The ice that had sealed up Bulbasaur splintered along with it, revealing Bulbasaur's unconscious body.
Compared to the first four battles, nothing was wrong with this one in terms of the tacit understanding between Ash and Bulbasaur, nor in the choices they made mid-battle.
What they lacked was simply strength.
Ash returned Bulbasaur to its Poké Ball, planning to take everyone to the Pokémon Center for treatment once the match was over.
When he stood up, the impulsiveness from earlier was gone from his face. In his eyes now was a faint glimmer of contemplation.
Obviously, although Bulbasaur had lost the ability to fight, it had also cooled Ash's restless heart, forcing him to calm down and start thinking.
Perhaps, in the middle of a battle, this state of mind might at some critical moment give rise to a flash of inspiration—something out of left field that would lead him to victory.
Seeing Ash like this, Lucas smiled. At least in terms of battle style, it looked like Ash no longer needed a reminder from him.
With that in mind, Lucas signaled with his eyes for Ash to send out his sixth Pokémon.
Ash pinched the brim of his cap, took a deep breath, and shouted, "I choose you, Pikachu!"
"Pika!"
Perched on Charizard's shoulder, Pikachu sprang lightly into the field, where bits of ice still remained scattered. It crouched low on all fours. The red electric sacs on its cheeks flashed with dazzling arcs, and its eyes were filled with seriousness.
Pikachu's title of "Pika-God" could be traced back to the Battle Frontier, when it defeated Brandon's Regice.
Before that point, its status as Ash's ace hadn't truly been revealed.
But judging from the look in Pikachu's eyes now, its growth seemed a fair bit faster than in the original storyline.
From the corner of his eye, Lucas glanced at Delibird. He clearly remembered Delibird mentioning once that, ever since the time of Mewtwo Incident and after, it had battled Ash many times, and each time it had thrashed Ash and his Pokémon so badly that they were left in tatters. Among them, Pikachu's tenacity had been the strongest.
It had been a long time since their last battle. Delibird was very curious: just how far had this Pikachu—who once swore it would one day defeat it—come?
The battle began with Ash's shout: "Quick Attack!"
Compared to Cyndaquil's Quick Attack, Pikachu's was not only much faster; its agility and impact were on a completely different level.
It was as if it had become a streak of white light racing along the ground. In the span of a heartbeat, Pikachu was right in front of Delibird.
Delibird crossed its wings before itself and forcibly endured Pikachu's Quick Attack. At the same time, from its beak a long-charged, ice-blue bolt of energy shot out point-blank at Pikachu!
"Pika—chuuu!"
Pikachu did not panic. Electricity surged from its cheeks, spreading to cover its entire body in an instant.
The next second—
Bathed in blinding thunder, Pikachu's Thunderbolt erupted and collided head-on with Delibird's Ice Beam in a violent clash!
Boom—!
With a deafening blast of intersecting energies, Pikachu and Delibird, who had gone for a point-blank bayonet clash with Thunderbolt vs. Ice Beam, both staggered backward out of the smoke in turn.
Compared to Delibird, whose feathers were only slightly dusted with ash, Pikachu was much more battered.
A thin layer of frost covered more than half its body, making it shiver from the cold.
From their respective conditions, it was obvious which side had come out on top in that exchange.
"Even Pikachu…"
Misty covered her mouth, looking worriedly at Ash and Pikachu together with Togepi in her arms.
The difference in strength was simply too great.
"Don't be afraid! Thunderbolt again!"
Ash, who believed that the best defense was a good offense, gave another order.
Enduring the cold, Pikachu forced its stiff limbs to move, leaping up once more. Blinding electricity enveloped it again as a powerful Thunderbolt blasted straight at Delibird.
Lucas narrowed his eyes. "Drill Run."
He had to hand it to Mewtwo. Even with Delibird at his side, Lucas wasn't sure he could have taught it so many moves so systematically. Yet Mewtwo had somehow even had Delibird master the Ground-type move Drill Run.
Brown, earthen energy spiraled at Delibird's beak, the vortex spinning faster and faster as it concentrated, producing a shrill screech like a spinning steel drill.
Wrapped head to toe in that earthen vortex, Delibird flew straight into Pikachu's Thunderbolt and shot toward the falling Pikachu, who had no foothold in the sky!
The Thunderbolt was completely neutralized by the earthen energy spiral. A heartbeat later, Pikachu let out a cry of pain as Drill Run exploded against its body!
The effect of that strike was outstanding. The heavily damaged Pikachu plummeted to the ground. In the billowing dust, its battered body was painfully conspicuous.
By Lucas's calculations, even if Delibird's Attack and Special Attack weren't particularly impressive, Pikachu's level gap with it was enormous. After taking multiple hits in a row—one of which was a super-effective Ground-type move—there was no way Pikachu should still be able to fight.
But reality was far from what he imagined.
"Pikachu, hang in there!"
At Ash's shout, Pikachu, which was lying on the ground and looked like it couldn't even stand, strained with all its might to push itself up. The electric sacs on its cheeks flickered with faint sparks, as if cheering it on.
A few seconds later, under Lucas and Delibird's astonished gazes, Pikachu actually forced itself to its feet and let out a spirited cry.
"Pika pi! Pikachu!"
Lucas: "…"
There it was—the revival roar plus the one-HP clutch!
But this was precisely the charm of Ash and Pikachu's battle style.
Expression complicated, Lucas spoke up. "Delibird, Ice Beam!"
An ice-blue beam of extreme cold spewed from Delibird's beak. In the still-ongoing hail, it was something Pikachu, in its current state, absolutely could not take head-on.
But Pikachu still had its speed.
At Ash's command of "Quick Attack," Pikachu once again became a white streak racing across the field, dodging Ice Beam with agile movements and charging straight toward Delibird.
It was like it had entered some kind of Overdrive state. Pikachu's speed right now was even a shade faster than at the start of the battle.
On instinct, Delibird reached into its tail and pulled out a ball-shaped object with a rainbow sheen, hurling it at the Pikachu who was now almost upon it.
The move: Present!
It had four possible outcomes. The first three were explosions of low, medium, and high power, respectively.
The fourth was a small chance to heal the opponent instead.
As Pikachu collided with the rainbow-hued ball, Ash's face was tense.
In the next instant, searing white light filled everyone's vision. When they finally blinked open their watering eyes, they were greeted by a shocking sight.
Pikachu, which had been forced back some distance from Delibird, not only had not lost the ability to fight—its ragged breathing had actually calmed, and many of the wounds on its body were visibly reduced.
"What just happened?"
That question arose simultaneously in the minds of Ash's group and Pikachu.
Lucas, who had been a step too late to stop Delibird from using Present, could only helplessly explain the move's effects.
After hearing the explanation, Misty and Brock couldn't help lamenting Ash's ridiculous luck. Even odds that low, and he'd blunder into the best possible outcome…
Ash, on the other hand, was staring at Lucas, eyes shining. That snowy battlefield, Drill Run, Present—these were all moves he'd never even heard of before!
To Ash, just gaining that much knowledge from today's battle already made everything worth it.
He didn't hesitate at all and chose to attack again.
"Thunder!"
This time, Pikachu didn't leap up. Instead, it unleashed all its remaining power while moving at high speed.
With a roar like the heavens splitting, the Thunder that once held the record of knocking out over a hundred Spearow in succession descended, like a titanic tree of lightning whose branching bolts snaked toward Delibird.
Delibird had no interest in getting zapped for free.
Its expression turned serious. It called up the same resolve it once had when Dragonite carried it into the heart of a storm. With a series of high-difficulty aerial maneuvers, it weaved through the serpentine thunderbolts and then dove at Pikachu the moment Thunder ended.
An Ice Punch was already charged and ready.
As Delibird's wing, wrapped in ice-blue chill, drew closer and closer, Pikachu's eyes widened. Time itself seemed to slow in its perception.
Precisely because of that, Pikachu found it had enough time to think.
Double-Edge?
There wasn't enough room to build up the charge for a proper tackle.
Thunderbolt and Thunder were no longer options; it had nearly run its batteries dry.
Quick Attack couldn't stand up to Ice Punch.
With almost every option exhausted, Ash's shout suddenly echoed in Pikachu's ears. At the same time, a peculiar feeling welled up in its chest.
It suddenly recalled the scene of Delibird's Steel Wing cleaving through Bulbasaur's Vine Whip.
From Lucas's vantage, Pikachu's lightning-shaped tail suddenly took on a distinct metallic sheen. Pikachu twisted its body and, in a blur of silver, swung that tail down at Delibird's Ice Punch!
Zzzzzz—
Two stubborn forces clashed in a roaring struggle between Delibird and Pikachu.
After a brief deadlock, Delibird ultimately proved the more skilled. It broke through the new move, and with the burst of frigid energy from Ice Punch, Pikachu was sent flying, trailing frost as it crashed to the ground—clearly losing its ability to battle.
"Pikachu is unable to battle!"
Brock's voice rang out again. His perpetually squinted eyes were fixed on the unconscious Pikachu, as if he were pondering something.
"That move just now… could it be…?"
Delibird glanced at its own wing in mild surprise. The thin scratch on it was starkly visible.
Ash scooped up Pikachu and said softly, "You worked hard, Pikachu."
"Pika… pi…"
Pikachu answered Ash in a weak voice.
At this moment, Ash's eyes were full of nothing but Pikachu. He didn't even spare a thought for what move Pikachu had used at the end.
Clap, clap, clap.
Lucas's applause pulled Ash's attention back.
Smiling at Ash, Lucas said, "Congratulations. Pikachu just learned Iron Tail."
"Iron Tail?"
Ash looked blankly at Lucas.
Misty stepped forward and took Pikachu from Ash's arms, while Brock deftly pulled out some medicine for simple first aid.
Pikachu didn't want to go back into its Poké Ball. To keep its injuries from worsening, they had to start treatment right away.
"Even though it's a Steel-type move, it really suits your Pikachu," Lucas explained.
Even he hadn't expected Pikachu to master Iron Tail—something it didn't learn until Hoenn in the original timeline—halfway through their Johto journey.
Among Pikachu's mainstay moves in the later stages, Iron Tail's presence was certainly not low.
It would eventually reach the point where a single Iron Tail from Pikachu could cause a full-on earthquake. Absolutely busted.
After a string of one-sided losses in the earlier rounds, Ash and Pikachu had still been able to explode with such potential. Lucas couldn't help but look at them in a new light.
Turns out, if you squeeze them a bit, the potential is there.
Once Brock finished basic treatment for Pikachu, Misty took it to the side to watch the rest of the battle.
Having waited a long time for its turn, Charizard walked forward with heavy steps. Even though Ash's Charizard was much smaller than the average Charizard, it was still far bigger than Delibird.
The oppressive presence that came from size alone had nothing to do with raw strength. Looking at Charizard, Delibird remembered the Johto region's eighth gym, Blackthorn Gym—the time it had fought a Dragonite sent out by a tight-suited blue-haired woman.
That Dragonite wasn't the one it knew, but under Mewtwo's command, Delibird had still won.
If it could topple a Dragonite, what was there to fear from a Charizard?
Delibird took to the sky first, giving Charizard a provocative look.
Type disadvantage? So what? Just watch it take the final victory!
Charizard's eyes burned with the determination to win, to not waste the belief and effort its partners had passed on to it.
"Roooaar!"
Charizard roared forth a jet of scorching flame, beat its dragonlike wings, and flew into the sky to chase Delibird's silhouette.
It had been less than a month since it arrived in the Charicific Valley, but Charizard's strength, flying posture, and move accuracy had all improved significantly.
By now the snowfall had faded away, and sunlight once again bathed the field. Feeling the warmth of the sun on its skin, Charizard's fighting spirit surged even higher, and it launched into a fierce aerial dogfight with Delibird.
Up to now, Brock and Misty still found it hard to believe that such a small body as Delibird's could hide such tremendous power.
Even if Delibird's level surpassed Charizard's, it could not compare in sheer physical power. But Delibird made up for that by showing off a host of aerial combat techniques it had learned from Dragonite, Mewtwo, and the wilds, toying with the bulky Charizard until the latter was fuming.
The Aerial Ace it had used at the start to slip past Cyndaquil's Swift was used repeatedly to mock Charizard, and every so often it would catch Charizard from a tricky angle with a Water Pulse.
By the final moments of the battle, Delibird's offense was finally broken through by Charizard's brute strength, and it took a full-power Flamethrower head-on. In response, Delibird gathered Ice-type energy and struck Charizard with a full-powered Blizzard, bringing the battle to a close.
As Charizard tumbled from the sky to the ground, Ash knew that he'd lost today's challenge—and lost miserably, an utter defeat.
If Pikachu and the others hadn't burned off so much of Delibird's stamina, Charizard's last Flamethrower might not even have landed.
Yet Ash didn't feel discouraged. On the contrary, he was overjoyed.
After all, it meant that he had indeed grown stronger—he'd managed to actually hurt Delibird this time, where once he couldn't even scratch it.
When he saw Ash and his friends say goodbye and prepare to take Charizard to the Pokémon Center, Lucas called out to him.
Meeting Ash's puzzled gaze, Lucas suddenly said, "Ash, when you're doing special training before the Silver Conference, come to Paldea for a while."
Ash blinked, as if he hadn't quite processed the words.
Lucas pointed at Charizard, who was being helped to its feet by Ash and Brock. "Bring Charizard along then. Its aerial combat skills are way too rough. For a Flying-type Pokémon, it barely knows any flying-type moves it can use properly."
"Sounds like, in the Charicific Valley, it was too busy thinking about building muscles and bulking up and wrestling other Charizard on the ground, huh?"
At that, Charizard gave him an embarrassed look, scratching its head as if to say: how did you know?
Lucas walked up and patted Ash's shoulder with a faint smile. "Trust me. In the Silver Conference, you and Charizard will need those skills."
Ash didn't know why Lucas was suddenly inviting him, but the thought of battling him again, of experiencing that kind of rapid growth like today, made Ash nod without hesitation. "Thank you for the invitation! I'll definitely come!"