Josh swiveled his neck around, watching the coastline shrink behind him as he got farther and farther out to sea. Before the landmass could completely disappear, he smacked into the back of the Dewgong's neck from their momentum suddenly deadening. That would have been bad if he had still been an adult; it would have put his face dangerously close to being spiked against the water-type's horn.

Before they could react, Josh found himself deep underwater, glad his SWIMMER class was active. Hoe did he and his Arrokuda downwarp so far? Did they hit an invisible ceiling somewhere? Not wanting to find out any more, the scout reined his Dewgong toward the surface, turning around and heading toward the shore but at an oblique angle. Had they hit the coastline's bounds? Or was this a glitch of some kind?

Even if Josh wanted to catch the Magikarp, they had quickly fled from the larger Pokémon, viewing Ulysses as a predator. They had every right to do so; the Dewgong was not native to waters this warm, typically only found in polar and tundra biomes.

Stowing his fishing rod for the time being, Josh held his Dewgong's reins with both hands. "Mind giving me a big jump?" he asked, the Dewgong rearing and clapping with his front fins. "Whoo-hoo! Let's ride!" Excited, he tensed his legs, ready for his mount to AQUA JET toward the surface.

Two different damage numerals bounced around Ulysses' model, including a dark red color he had been unfamiliar with:

3 WOUNDS

Pulling up his party menu, Josh saw that not only had his aquatic mount suffered sixteen points of damage from the Corphish's parting blow, his hit point maximum had been reduced by three. "Ulysses..." he trailed off, unsure what to say. Even by hunting for a Dratini or rare Magikarp, Josh had put the Dewgong in danger. He couldn't just keep it cooped up in its Poké Ball. He had to figure out what was wrong with the Dewgong and if there was a way to reverse the Corruption. In the meantime, that made the search for a Dratini even more urgent. Without an aquatic mount, there were locations in UNOVR he would never be able to get to... including the Doortals. The thousands of doors on Ostellia's sea bad required further investigation...

Thankfully for Josh, the secondary attack was not needed; with sore hands and wrists, Josh had reeled in the fighting fish. As much as he preferred a Dratini, riding on a small Gyarados might be fun, too. It would be this catch that made him ponder the use of Tiny Seals, too, as some of his Pokémon had grown a bit uncomfortably large to ride since becoming small himself.

Red and black wisps flying upward from the Dewgong's blubbery skin reminded Josh of hos urgent it was for him to find a replacement water Pokémon. Furthermore, training a Gyarados for riding was a handful, what with their typically aggressive demeanor. As much as he didn't want to put Ulysses through the suffering, he felt it would be less painful in the long run if he continued the search for the elusive dragon. Once he had completed the capture, the fishing rod would come back out, as would Ripley's underwater search.