"Confusion!!" A wild torrent spewed from Slowbro's mouth, transforming the surrounding rain into the power of Hydro Pump. The already formidable Hydro Pump grew even stronger, its jet much thicker!
"Protect!" At this distance and speed, aside from Protect, there's no other way to counter the Hydro Pump.
Under Trick Room, Slowbro's speed was completely reversed, what was once extremely slow has now become incredibly fast. Lugia, on the other hand, had the opposite effect, leaving it with no way to dodge Slowbro's moves.
A faint black barrier appeared, blocking the surging Hydro Pump from penetrating through. The violent water sprayed everywhere, and if Lugia had been directly hit, even with its thick hide, it would likely have sustained significant damage.
After all, this was a Hydro Pump bolstered by rain!
"Slowbro, use Calm Mind."
"Lugia, use Nasty Plot!"
Calm Mind can boost a level of Special Attack and Special Defense, while Nasty Plot directly increases Special Attack by two levels!
One focuses on both offense and defense; the other emphasizes utter attack prowess.
Even when facing an opponent utilizing Trick Room, Ash still opted to fully maximize the attack!
"Nasty Plot? Dark Pulse... Why do these moves seem a bit strange?" Lorelei furrowed her brows slightly, a hint of confusion appeared on her pretty face.
She didn't know a lot about Lugia, but she knew that Lugia is a Psychic and Flying type Pokemon.
Using Dark Pulse initially could be explained as a tactic against the Psychic-type Slowbro, but now even Nasty Plot is being used... boosting power moves also have attribute differences. Nasty Plot belongs to the Dark-type moves, although it can increase Special Attack by two levels, it doesn't feel as comfortable for Psychic type Pokemon as using Calm Mind.
The most notable difference is that for Psychic-type Pokemon, the time taken to use Calm Mind and Nasty Plot differs by at least twice.
For Slowbro, using Calm Mind takes about 0.5 seconds, but using Nasty Plot requires a whole second.
Some Psychic-type can't even learn Nasty Plot, but Lugia, being a Legendary in the Psychic group, knowing Nasty Plot wouldn't be that surprising. However, choosing Nasty Plot over Calm Mind isn't the best option.
Although many thoughts emerged in Lorelei's mind, in reality, less than a second had passed. Just as Lorelei wanted to take advantage of completing the empowerment to hit Lugia head-on, Ash shouted: "Lugia, use Dark Pulse!"
Still using Dark Pulse, but under the boost of Nasty Plot, the power of Dark Pulse nearly doubled!
The terrifying force gathered in front of Lugia, causing the entire venue to tremble. Even with Mewtwo using a protection barrier to isolate the battlefield from the outside, the audience could still sense the chilling power emanating from Lugia's call.
"Boom!!" When Lugia unleashed Dark Pulse, Slowbro had only just finished using Calm Mind!
"How is that possible, how could it be so fast?!" Lorelei's pupils contracted as she shouted in disbelief.
In such circumstances, even with Trick Room, Slowbro did not have time to defend or dodge.
Dark Pulse directly pierced through the Light Screen, once again hitting Slowbro harshly!
The dark energy of Dark Pulse, like a solid blade, struck aggressively on Slowbro's hefty pink body, its round head slumped suddenly, and the light in its small eyes dimmed instantly. The heavy shell on its back made a "crack" under the impact.
Slowbro's short and stout limbs stiffened in vain, and its massive body, like a boulder lifted by a hurricane, flew back towards the edge of the arena at an astonishing speed!
"Boom" Amidst the muffled sound of the airflow being torn apart, Slowbro's shell on its back first hit the faint protection barrier. The energy shield, enough to withstand Legendary-level attacks, trembled violently, with ripples visible to the naked eye spreading like water waves. However, the force wasn't enough to break the shield.
Slowbro, rebounded by the counter force, was thrown back several meters onto the puddled ground, raising countless splashes of water and rubble.
The situation on the field suddenly turned dramatically, Lorelei's meticulous setup was flipped back by a single Dark Pulse!
The severe injury dealt to Slowbro by this blow was unparalleled. If it weren't for Slowbro using Calm Mind to boost Special Defense, plus the weakening effect of Light Screen, Slowbro might have already lost its combat capability.
This was Lugia's full-force strike, and the initial Dark Pulse was just an appetizer. Now, after the Nasty Plot boost and Lugia's full-force release, the true Divine Power manifests!
"Wow! So this is the power of the Sea God! What fancy tricks, I'll break them all with sheer force!"
"Lorelei had prepared so much, suppressing Ash for so long, but in the end, everything got reversed by one move—this truly is a Legendary Beast! So unreasonable to the peak extent!"
"Come on, dude, don't blindly bash. What's this got to do with being a Legendary Beast? Isn't Ash mighty himself? Even under Lorelei's Trick Room, he managed to seize the opportunity to strike first and heavily damage the opponent. Besides, the Sea God may be termed 'god,' but Ash's is clearly still in a juvenile stage, merely having Elite-level strength, and isn't this falling on Ash's contributions? Why place it all on the Sea God?"
"Exactly, you're erasing all of Ash's efforts with one Legendary Beasts phrase? Are you human!"
"But speaking of it, isn't the Sea God from the legends a Psychic attribute? The reason it's called the Sea God isn't for having ocean-controlling powers, rather due to its psychic abilities affecting ocean currents, thereby influencing the sea! So why does this Sea God wield Dark-type power so adeptly?"
Among hundreds and thousands of spectators, there were knowledgeable folks aware of the Sea God legend.
A Psychic-type Sea God's adept use of Dark-type powers is highly unusual, considering Dark is Psychic's arch-enemy!
These two attributes were like water and fire, incompatible, just like a Water-type Pokemon skillfully wielding Fire-type power… it's somewhat ludicrous.
This is why Lorelei was unexpectedly hit by Lugia; who could have imagined Lugia would use Nasty Plot so swiftly? Who could have foreseen using Nasty Plot then unleashing Dark Pulse at an even greater speed.
The many unforeseen factors combined caught Lorelei completely off guard.
"I see... So that's the secret your Lugia was hiding. This Lugia isn't of Psychic and Flying types, right?" After pondering for a moment, Lorelei parted her red lips.
Reaching this stage, Ash had no intention of concealing it further, he nodded and smiled: "Yes, my Lugia is Dark and Flying type, hence super proficient with Dark-type moves!"
Dark and Flying type... So it really changed its attributes!
No wonder the use of Dark-type skills is so fast and powerful, those are Lugia's natural-type moves.
By pure luck, she never attempted using Psychic attributes against Lugia; otherwise, she would have realized this much earlier. That way, she wouldn't have suffered such a big blow.
"I didn't expect such a mutation in Lugia. I thought only its form changed, but even its attributes altered. You've truly given me a big 'surprise', Ash." Lorelei commented with emotion, but the next moment, she immediately returned to a stern demeanor.
"But now that I know Lugia's secret, it's our turn to counterattack. Slowbro, use Ice Beam!"
Finally, Lorelei began to use Ice-type moves to attack!