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"Extreme Speed followed by Bone Rush."
Li Xiang watched Lucario chasing Incineroar and noted it down in his notebook.
As these guys learned more and more moves, he had to write down the less frequently used ones or he would forget them.
After Lucario evolved, its offensive output had naturally increased by a large margin.
Even without using Swords Dance, simply using moves that were doubly effective against Incineroar could make it yelp in pain.
See, right now Incineroar was being chased down.
"Don't run!" Li Xiang couldn't help shouting. "What are you running for while we're testing moves!"
"Roar!"
'Why don't you come and try it then!'
Incineroar shot him an angry glare but still stood its ground and used Bulk Up.
Even with Bulk Up, it still hurt, but at least it could endure a bit more.
"Heh."
Lucario, having dispelled the bone in its hand, let out a disdainful sneer, looking at Incineroar with contempt.
'Weren't you acting all tough? Keep it up!'
"Roar!"
Incineroar couldn't swallow this insult. Already hot-tempered, it immediately patted its chest, signaling for another round.
'Your big brother Incineroar had never feared anyone since it was young!'
"Rooo~"
'That would be perfect~'
Lucario bared its sharp fangs. Its fists glowed with a reddish-brown light and then swung over like raindrops!
Close Combat!
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
Each punch landed like hitting a sandbag, producing a continuous heavy thud.
In Li Xiang's eyes, Incineroar's expression gradually shifted from casual to something resembling chronic constipation.
Finally, when Lucario threw its last punch, Incineroar's stance wavered, and it clutched its chest as it stumbled back several steps.
"Hiss—"
Incineroar clutched its chest, the marks of the energy explosion hard to hide on its grey vest.
Seriously? Had Lucario's offensive output increased this much?
Li Xiang's face showed surprise.
As a standard tank, Incineroar's damage tolerance and pain endurance were very high. If even it was hurting this much, there was no need to mention how powerful the move was.
A same-type high-power move was truly different.
Li Xiang silently drew a star next to Close Combat in his notebook.
Lucario was a typical example of a Pokémon limited by move slots.
Without restrictions on the number of moves it could learn, there was almost no Pokémon it couldn't handle.
After evolution, it also gained a Steel typing, which made it much more durable than before, even though it was still a bit of a glass cannon.
Not far away, Incineroar and Lucario were arguing.
The former asked the latter if it was trying to kill it, while the latter retorted that a certain cat had told it to continue. Back and forth, it seemed they were about to come to blows.
"Stop, stop, stop! What are you doing!"
Li Xiang stood between the two Pokémon, separating them. "Can you stop messing around when we're trying to do something serious?"
The two Pokémon gesticulated and argued, each claiming to be blameless and placing all the fault on the other.
"Enough!"
Li Xiang slapped each of them on the head with every word he spoke, successfully calming the two troublemakers down.
"Continue. If there aren't any new moves, practice the old ones."
He waved his hand, then said to Incineroar, "When it attacks you, defend! What's Protect for? Just because someone teases you for being a punching bag, do you really just stand there and not move?"
"Roar..."
Incineroar felt a bit wronged. It had stayed still so that Li Xiang could better observe the move's power.
This was truly biting the hand that feeds! Both of them!
Incineroar glared hatefully at Li Xiang and Lucario.
That said, the move testing still had to continue.
At this stage, there were many moves Lucario used frequently before that it didn't use much now.
Moves like High Jump Kick, Force Palm, and Vacuum Wave.
Unless the situation was special, they generally wouldn't be needed.
The execution forms of the moves hadn't changed much either, since Lucario had only gone from a little dog to a big dog. Not like some Pokémon that had fundamental differences between their unevolved and evolved forms.
The important part came later.
Lucario had always been a speed attacker in Li Xiang's team, even though its base Speed stat was lower than Greninja's.
But with the help of Prankster and Agility, its instantaneous burst of speed was astonishingly fast.
Now, Prankster had become Justified.
The speed boost when using status moves was gone, but its base Speed had increased significantly. Therefore, whether Lucario's instantaneous burst speed was faster or slower than before was worth measuring with a stopwatch.
Speaking of stopwatches, "Metagross!"
Li Xiang shouted behind him. A large silver crab immediately drifted over from a great distance.
"Metagross!"
Metagross raised its body, curious about what Li Xiang wanted it to do.
"Help out. Use your supercomputer brain to keep time."
Li Xiang tossed it the stopwatch. The supercomputer occasionally had to be put to use, such as in situations requiring precise timing.
"Metagross!"
Mission guaranteed! Metagross raised a claw and waved it.
"Are you ready?" Li Xiang then looked at Lucario.
The best way to test burst speed was running, following a predetermined route. Since there was no professional track, they had to run along the riverbank.
The speed from its Riolu days had already been measured, so there was no need to worry about a lack of comparison.
....
By the river.
"Roar!"
Lucario signaled that it was ready.
Li Xiang held the whistle in his mouth, exchanged a glance with Metagross, silently counted to three, and then suddenly exhaled!
"Tweet—"
The sound of the whistle cut through the silent forest.
Then came the sudden explosive sound of the ground cracking!
Grass clippings and dirt flew up, and ripples on the water spread backward as if struck by a heavy blow.
Under Agility, Lucario was like a shadow, kicking up a fierce gale!
In just a few breaths, Lucario's body appeared at the finish line a hundred meters away, one foot stepping onto the dirt and leaving a long trail.
"Rooo!"
It looked excitedly at Metagross, feeling that its performance was good and should be faster than its Riolu days.
—And indeed it was.
"Wow! Twenty percent faster!"
Li Xiang looked at the time on the stopwatch and compared it with the past.
He was surprised to find that Lucario had improved so much.
From the start, to using Agility, to reaching the finish line, its performance was far better than its Riolu days!
"Lucario?"
Upon hearing this, Lucario's eyes sparkled like little stars, its tail wagging back and forth.
Nothing made it happier than knowing the skills it relied on had improved once again.
"Impressive! Power increased, speed increased. Evolving was definitely a win!"
Li Xiang gave it a thumbs-up.
Perhaps some of the credit went to the further improvement of Agility, with its fixed boost value rising again. But it was undeniable that Lucario was indeed stronger than before!
It was even starting to threaten Incineroar's position as the ace.
And that was without even considering Mega Evolution. After evolving, its power would increase even more sharply.
Thinking about it this way, Li Xiang suddenly felt fired up.
He couldn't help but put his arm around Lucario and point at the sun.
"White holes, a white tomorrow awaits us!"
"...Rooo?"
Lucario looked utterly confused, not really understanding what he was talking about.
"Just saying something random." Li Xiang chuckled.
The final part of the testing was Aura.
Li Xiang had deliberately left Aura Vision and Aura Sphere for last, wanting to see what was so special about this thing that had caught the attention of the Spirit of Mist Island and Dialga.
First, of course, was Aura Sphere, the attack composed of the purest aura.
It was slightly different from Mewtwo's sky-blue spheres.
Lucario's Aura Sphere had a deeper color, lightening from the outside in. The main body was a dark blue sphere that spun rapidly, with a sky-blue vortex inside, resembling a galaxy.
It looked both beautiful and cool.
Of course, the color was secondary; the more important thing was its power. The target was, as usual, Incineroar, but this time it was ready to use Protect.
However, the moment Lucario threw the Aura Sphere, the constantly spinning and pulsating energy ball vanished!
Incineroar was momentarily stunned, then alarm bells rang in its head.
Without thinking, it immediately used Protect and braced its arms in front of itself!
Bang!
The green shield shattered!
The Aura Sphere landed on its arm and exploded violently!
Before the acrid smoke could even expand, Incineroar was pushed back repeatedly by the immense force, barely managing to steady itself.
"Roar!"
It grinned, showing its sharp white teeth. That move packed a punch!
The Aura Sphere must have vanished because it was flying too fast for it to see clearly. It felt similar to Vacuum Wave from before.
Incineroar shook its arm, dusted it off, and looking at Lucario waiting for feedback, gave the move a thumbs-up.
"Roooo!"
Lucario couldn't help but beam with joy.
The most noticeable change from evolving from Riolu to this was its massively increased Special Attack.
Li Xiang hadn't given Lucario many Special Attack boosting candies before, but after getting the gummies, thanks to the random factor, Lucario had improved quite a bit.
With the boost from evolution, and the special properties of Aura itself, this move had easily broken through Incineroar's Protect while still dealing some damage to it.
It had both power and speed.
On the other side, Li Xiang, who was in charge of recording, was using a video recorder to review the Aura Sphere just thrown.
Although he didn't know why, Aura Sphere basically had a flight speed comparable to Vacuum Wave.
The only difference was that its startup was relatively slower.
'It was that impressive?'
Li Xiang looked at Lucario and had it continue to the next item.
—Aura Vision.
This was one of the basic applications of Aura powers, allowing one to see through all hidden things.
Lucario closed its eyes, raised its hand flat, and the four spindle-shaped objects behind its head lifted.
An invisible wave spread outwards.
One hundred meters, two hundred meters, three hundred meters... one kilometer, two kilometers, three kilometers!
It wasn't until just over three kilometers that Lucario's Aura Vision reached its limit.
Undoubtedly, this was an astonishing number, many times greater than before!
The gummies didn't boost Aura powers; all of this came from Lucario's own talent.
Li Xiang listened to its feedback and walked towards Incineroar—
"Roooo!"
Lucario suddenly cried out in surprise!
"What's wrong?"
Li Xiang instantly turned his head, seeing Lucario open its eyes and close them repeatedly, finally showing a shocked expression.
It looked at its trainer and told him, in disbelief…
Under Aura Vision, time had slowed down!