I've already become an old penguin

Pryce's guess was right on the mark.

There was probably no need to elaborate on the effects of Sucker Punch. It might not have amounted to much in the games, but in reality, for close-combat fighters, a move that allowed them to rapidly close in on their opponent was immensely important. Those who understood, understood.

When ranged fighters faced close-combat fighters, their advantage was extremely obvious. It was like an adult with a longer reach fighting a child with shorter arms. Everyone understood that length was strength.

Generally speaking, close-combat fighters had to go through three stages to fight ranged opponents: getting close—gathering energy and making an attacking motion—attacking.

The more skilled ones could merge the first two stages, reducing some of the time needed.

But for ranged fighters, they only needed to attack. They did not need to close the distance.

Therefore, when close-combat Pokémon fought ranged opponents, either they knew how to dodge, could control the opponent, or were fast enough to hit the opponent before they could attack.

Other than that, the only path left was to endure the attacks head-on.

That said, Pryce really could not be bothered to use moves outside the Ice type. He clearly had a close-combat move like Take Down, yet he had never used it.

Arbok tightly Bound Dewgong's body. Since Dewgong had used Safeguard, its body could not fall into abnormal conditions such as confusion or drowsiness. But if Arbok's ability had been Poison Point, which could Poison enemies; Static, which could cause Paralysis; Flame Body, which could Burn enemies; or Spore, which could put enemies to sleep, then Safeguard would have become ineffective.

In response, Arbok thought that giving the seal a little shock was... Oh, oh! Dewgong was a sea lion!

Sizzle—

Thunder Fang bit down on Dewgong's