The Latios leader quietly gave his wife a meaningful look, signaling her to run away together with him. Immediately afterward, he shot straight up into the sky, intending to break through from high altitude.
However, Yuga's side had long been prepared for him. Without anyone knowing when it had formed, a patch of thunderclouds suddenly appeared above their heads. Just as the Latios leader took off, a bolt of lightning fell from the heavens, striking him squarely.
The Latias, wife of the Latios leader, was following close behind him and was likewise struck by the lightning.
With two simultaneous screams of pain, the Latios leader and his wife both fell from the sky.
The thunderclouds, of course, were the work of Dragonite. However, its strength was relatively lacking—although it had injured the two legendary Pokémon, the wounds were not severe.
But causing damage wasn't the main goal; as long as it could block the couple's escape route, it was enough!
Just as the Latios leader was about to curse out loud, a Milotic suddenly shot up from the surface of the sea, opening its mouth to unleash an Ice Beam straight at him.
At the same time, a ringing, metallic bird cry came from high above. A Skarmory carrying a Mawile burst out from the thunderclouds. The Mawile suddenly leaped from Skarmory's back, using Ice Punch to fiercely strike toward Latias.
Milotic was Robert's ace Pokémon, while Skarmory and Mawile were Steven's Pokémon.
Steven's Mawile had been trained out of envy for Yuga's Audino, though the two Mawile had walked entirely different paths.
Because this operation was mainly to help Steven and Robert capture the Latios leader and Latias, the two of them naturally had to contribute in some way.
However, they certainly couldn't win against the Latios leader and Latias alone, so Yuga's Pokémon had to provide assistance in between—and that would require some effort.
The gap in strength between the two sides was quite large, so the Latios leader and Latias easily dodged Milotic's and Mawile's attacks.
The Latios leader twisted his body, letting the Ice Beam pass right by him, then immediately countered with a Dragon Pulse aimed at Milotic.
Milotic's reaction speed was fairly quick—it dove straight into the sea and vanished, causing the Latios leader's attack to land on the water's surface instead, throwing up a huge splash.
Latias, on the other side, also avoided Mawile's attack with ease. Being a flying Pokémon, her maneuverability was naturally better than Mawile's, and she easily dodged the fist as large as a cooking pot.
She likewise spat out a Dragon Pulse, intending to strike Mawile, but at that moment, a pillar of fire suddenly appeared, forcing Latias to abort her attack and dodge to the side.
It was Robert's Volcarona, carrying him, that had made the move.
Having missed her strike, Mawile quickly fell from midair, but Skarmory caught her in time, preventing her from plummeting into the ocean.
Yuga's Latios and Latias rose into the air, silently watching the battlefield without making a rash move. As long as Steven and Robert had not yet been defeated, they would only circle around to provide support when necessary.
After a round of exchanges, the Latios leader and his wife realized that leaving today would not be easy, so they began to fight with their full strength.
Robert's Milotic surfaced from the sea once again, but was immediately locked on to by the Latios leader. Just as he was about to attack her, he suddenly felt as if his body had sunk into a swamp—every movement became difficult.
It turned out that Steven's Metagross had used Psychic to restrain him.
Milotic took the opportunity to fire another Ice Beam, and this time she successfully hit, freezing half of the Latios leader's body solid.
But the Latios leader was also a Psychic-type Pokémon, and an even more powerful legendary at that, so he quickly broke free from Metagross's Psychic restraint and shattered the ice encasing his body.
At this moment, however, Milotic had already hidden back into the sea again, causing the Latios leader to lose sight of her completely. This made the Latios leader utterly furious.
At the same time, Mawile once again launched an attack on Latios. Having failed with close combat earlier, this time she switched to a ranged attack.
Suddenly, her whole body erupted with a dazzling rainbow light, which condensed into a pillar of light that shot straight at Latias.
This was the Fairy-type move, Dazzling Gleam.
But Latias was no pushover. A flash of purple light quickly danced in her eyes, and the light pillar coming at her instantly froze in midair.
She had used the Psychic-type move Psychic.
Clearly, compared to the Latios leader and his wife, Steven and Robert were still too weak.
Just then, a melodious song suddenly rang out across the battlefield.
Hearing the song, Yuga, Milotic, Metagross, Volcarona, Mawile, and the rest of the allies suddenly felt their bodies jolt, as if a surge of unprecedented power was welling up inside them.
Everyone turned to look at Shaya, only to see her standing atop Hydreigon's back, singing a ballad whose tone and lyrics were impossible to make out clearly.
At the same time, the Latios leader flew into a rage, roaring: "Shaya, you traitor! You are a member of Dragon Island, yet you help outsiders strike at your own kin!"
At this moment, the Latios leader suddenly remembered that Shaya was part of Dragon Island—completely forgetting how he had used her human identity before to ostracize her.
The Latios leader knew full well what Shaya's abilities were, and that was precisely why his anger burned even hotter.
Shaya ignored the Latios leader's scolding entirely and continued to sing her song, while Yuga and the others felt the boost to their abilities growing stronger and stronger.
It was only now that Yuga realized just how powerful Shaya's abilities truly were. It seemed that when she had blocked them from entering Dragon Island before, she had not been using her full strength.
The enraged Latios leader suddenly changed his attack target to Shaya, swiftly charging toward her.
At that moment, bolts of lightning began falling from the sky one after another, relentlessly striking at the Latios leader. Thanks to the amplification from Shaya's song, these new bolts of lightning were thick and powerful enough that even the Latios leader felt threatened.
The lightning strikes were so dense that they forcibly blocked his path forward.
At this point, Milotic once again surfaced from the sea, unleashing the wide-range move Blizzard, instantly engulfing the Latios leader.
However, Milotic was also grazed by a Dragon Pulse suddenly fired by the Latios leader.
From above, Yuga waved his hand, scattering a wash of green energy that fell onto Milotic, instantly healing her wounds.
With the boost from Shaya's song, Yuga felt that his healing ability was now almost on par with his master's.
"Roooar!"
From within the Blizzard came an enraged dragon's roar, and immediately afterward, the Latios leader burst out of it. His eyes were blood-red, and the fury burning within them seemed as if it could reduce everyone present to ashes.
Before, in his eyes, Yuga, Steven, and Robert had been nothing more than insignificant ants. The only thing that had concerned him were the members of his own kind at their side—so after winning over his kin, he had simply ignored the humans.
Never had he imagined that today he would be forced to such a state by a group of ants!
"You've forced me to this!"
After saying this, the Latios leader called out to his wife, Latias, who was still entangled in battle with Mawile, Skarmory, and Volcarona. Latias immediately forced her opponents back and turned to fly swiftly toward her husband.
Once the Latios leader and his wife reunited, Yuga and the others saw the two of them suddenly radiate an intense rainbow-colored light all over their bodies.
The three humans were all extremely familiar with this scene—this was Mega Evolution!
Sure enough, when the rainbow light faded, two completely new Pokémon stood before them, and the aura emanating from their bodies was now on a completely different level.
Mega Latios and Mega Latias!
It was true that Legendary Pokémon could Mega Evolve on their own, but those who could actually achieve it were extremely rare. Yuga had not expected that the two before his eyes were capable of doing it, and he immediately shouted to Steven and Robert:
"Fall back! Leave the rest to me!"
However, the moment the words left his mouth, the Latios leader and his wife each unleashed a Dragon Pulse, aiming separately at Milotic and Mawile. The two Pokémon had no time to dodge.
In the blink of an eye, both Pokémon lost the ability to battle.
Both had been taken out in a single blow. Even with Yuga's healing abilities, it was too late.
The Latios leader and his wife then turned their sights to Shaya, who had been helping Yuga and the other two. Shaya was so startled that she immediately stopped singing.
Fortunately, Yuga had already reacted—his own Latios and Latias descended from the sky, landing in front of the Latios leader and his wife just in time to block their advance.
Yuga quickly released two bursts of healing energy, stabilizing the injuries of Milotic and Mawile, after which Steven and Robert each returned their Pokémon to their Poké Balls.
Crack! Crack!
Lightning rained down from the sky under Dragonite's control, targeting the Latios leader and his wife. But the pair's speed was incredible—they easily evaded the strikes and, together, used Zen Headbutt to ram into Yuga's Latios and Latias.
The sibling duo were not to be outdone—they also used Zen Headbutt to collide with the pair.
In truth, the siblings' base strength was about equal to that of the married pair, but because they had pretended to submit earlier, they had been holding back.
Now, however, with the opponents in their Mega Evolved forms, the gap between the two sides naturally widened again.
Boom!
With a resounding crash, the married pair shot upward into the sky, while the siblings, letting out cries of pain, plunged toward the sea—clearly outmatched by a single move.
Yuga quickly sent out a burst of healing energy and shouted to Shaya:
"Keep singing!"
Pushing aside her panic, Shaya steadied herself once more and began to sing her boosting ballad again.
Healed by Yuga's energy, the siblings recovered in time to pull up before hitting the sea. Empowered again by the song's boost, they flew back up to face the married pair, staring them down.
The siblings' strength far surpassed that of Milotic and Mawile, so the amplification they received from Shaya's song was naturally greater as well. This made the gap between them and Mega Latios and Mega Latias almost nonexistent.
Sensing the power boost in the siblings from the song, Mega Latios shot Shaya a fierce glare—but with her eyes closed in song, she didn't notice at all, which only made him all the more furious.
The battle reignited. The two pairs of Latios and Latias once again crashed into each other with Zen Headbutt, this time evenly matched, both sides taking significant damage.
However, both Latios and Latias were adept at using Recover, so in the blink of an eye, their injuries appeared to vanish, making them seem as if they were back in peak form.
But that was only an illusion.
Recover was not a skill that could erase all damage—it could only restore half of a Pokémon's full stamina at most. In other words, if the injury was too severe, Recover could not fully restore them in a single use.
For Yuga's Latios and Latias, the siblings had Yuga's healing ability to make up for the half that Recover could not restore. But Mega Latios and Mega Latias had no such advantage.
As time went on, because of the frequent use of Recover, the difference between the two sides gradually began to show. Mega Latios and Mega Latias were already panting heavily, while the sibling pair still appeared calm and composed.
However, because the battle had gone on for quite a while, Shaya's throat had already become somewhat hoarse from singing. Yuga noticed this, and so he shouted to the siblings:
"Finish it quickly!"
Upon hearing this, the siblings launched even fiercer attacks, simultaneously unleashing Dragon Pulse toward Mega Latias and Mega Latios.
The married pair dodged the attacks while secretly growing anxious in their hearts: This can't go on like this!
But escaping was also impossible…
Driven into desperation, the pair spotted Yuga, who was guarding Shaya, and, throwing caution to the wind, they charged straight toward him.
Seeing this, Dragonite hurriedly summoned lightning to intercept them, but the pair could no longer care about anything— even after taking several lightning strikes, they still forced their way through.
Shaya happened to open her eyes and, catching sight of this, was so startled that she forgot to keep singing. But Yuga remained calm. He took out a Poké Ball, and with a flash of red light, Florges appeared in front of him.
At once, Florges's entire body began to emit waves of pink mist, making her look as dreamlike and illusory as a vision from another world. Even the Dragonite beneath her felt an intense sense of discomfort.
Fairy Aura!
When Mega Latias and Mega Latios were just about to pounce, a giant silver moon appeared above Yuga and Florges's heads.
Moonlight rapidly gathered in Florges's palm, and in the next instant it transformed into a massive beam of light that completely engulfed Mega Latias and Mega Latios in a single moment.
Moonblast!
When the attack ended, the silver moon vanished, and the entire battlefield instantly became incomparably quiet.
When the radiance finally faded away, the two Pokémon simultaneously fell into the sea.
After waiting for quite a while without seeing the Latios leader or Latias emerge from the water, Yuga released Lapras, who quickly retrieved the pair, now completely incapable of battle. At this point, they had already reverted from their Mega Evolution forms.
Shaya rode over on Hydreigon, staring blankly at the unconscious, now-harmless Latios leader and his wife. Somewhat in disbelief, she said:
"That's… it? We succeeded?"
For Shaya, the Latios leader had always been synonymous with overwhelming strength. On Dragon Island, apart from the ancient patriarch of the past, no one had ever been a match for him.
The only reason she had agreed to Yuga's plan earlier was because she had been too furious and had let her emotions override her reason. Thinking about it now, she actually felt a trace of fear—she had never expected that they would truly succeed in the end.
Yuga, hearing this, chuckled and said, "What else? You saw it with your own eyes, didn't you?"
Shaya patted her cheeks hard a few times, then said, "It's real!"
At this moment, Steven and Robert also flew over on their Pokémon. Steven gave Yuga a thumbs-up, his face full of admiration, and said, "You're getting more and more amazing!"