"Gardevoir, there's a boulder ahead! Turn left, quick!"
"Right this time! Use Confusion to destroy that tree in our way!"
The ice boat raced downhill. Whenever they encountered an obstacle, under Xia You's decisive commands, his Pokémon either destroyed it or steered the ice boat around it, always narrowly avoiding the danger.
Whoosh, whoosh!
The speeding ice boat kicked up layers of snow.
The two ice boats sometimes ran neck and neck and sometimes took turns in the lead. They seemed evenly matched, yet each had its own advantages.
Compared with Danny's ice boat, Xia You and his Pokémon were too light. Haunter was even floating entirely above the boat, so on straight stretches, they could not apply enough weight to lower the boat's center of gravity and maintain its stability and speed.
Conversely, that light weight made it easy to steer around obstacles without using too much force and capsizing. Those moments were often precisely when Xia You made his move and overtook Danny!
Just then, the scenery ahead changed. They had passed the halfway point and raced below the snow line. The ice and snow gradually disappeared, replaced by a winding mountain trail of rock and dirt.
With every meter they advanced, the constant friction scraped and wore away the ice boats beneath them, leaving two long white trails of ice shavings in their wake!
Fortunately, the ice Articuno had frozen was extremely hard, keeping the hull from being in danger of cracking in the short term.
High above, Sabrina sat in the cable car, looking down at the course through its glass window. Watching them trade the lead, she still could not tell who would win.
In her heart, however, she was naturally rooting entirely for Xia You and did not even spare Danny a glance.
Fortunately,