Read advance chapters for both of my work, exclusively on Patreon at - www.patreon.com/Sniperwoof
-----------------
In Aura Vision, everything in motion appeared very slow.
When Li Xiang walked, he looked like a wooden puppet, lifting one foot and then the other.
It was like the slow-motion function on a video player.
Time had slowed down.
After experiencing a series of events on Mist Island, Lucario instinctively thought so.
'Can I also control time?'
An immense sense of excitement followed. However, Li Xiang's words mercilessly shattered its dream.
"This probably isn't time slowing down, but rather you becoming faster, an acceleration of your senses."
He waved his hand and explained, "Aura Vision is one of your ways of perceiving the world. If your thinking becomes sharper at this moment, this situation will most likely occur."
"You also feel this way when you're running, right? Isn't that the case? Think back."
Changing time wasn't that easy. Only Lucario itself was affected.
Only a place like Mist Island, where the entire space underwent changes, could truly be called altering time.
"Rooo..."
Hearing this, Lucario's ears drooped, and its face was full of dejection.
"Uh, ahem, of course, things are relative." Li Xiang coughed twice, comforting Lucario a little.
"A living being's perception of the world comes from its own observations. Perhaps, for you, time really has changed."
"Roo?"
'Really?'
The dog's ears perked up, its expression excited.
"Of course, as long as your actions can keep up with the speed of your observations, isn't that the case?"
Li Xiang smiled. But in his heart, he wondered if Lucario was about to become the Flash.
Running faster and faster, eventually joining the Speed Force setting...
Well, he was overthinking it.
The general situation was probably similar to what was shown in "Mewtwo Awakens," where speed was so great that everything around slowed down.
It was as if time had stopped.
The prerequisite was that Lucario's movement speed could keep up with the visual speed it perceived through Aura Vision.
"Come on, let's practice."
Li Xiang clapped his hands.
Lucario eagerly switched to Aura Vision. However, the expected scene did not appear.
Bursting into a run and being fast in every move at any time were two completely different concepts. Lucario helplessly discovered that even if it deliberately accelerated its body's reactions, it still couldn't match the Accelerated Vision.
It was as if it were in water, hindered by something.
It couldn't truly move freely. The constitution couldn't keep up with the senses; this feeling was quite strange.
Moreover, Accelerated Vision consumed a lot of its mental energy. After just a short period of testing, it already felt sleepy.
'How could this be?'
Lucario forced itself to stay alert and tried to turn off this special perception, retaining only the most basic Aura Vision.
Thus, it discovered that as long as it didn't focus too intently on a single object, Accelerated Vision wouldn't activate.
Earlier, because it was overly focused on Li Xiang's movements and then got too excited and mentally tense, Accelerated Vision had remained on.
In fact, once it got used to it, Lucario could turn this ability on and off at will.
Essentially, it wasn't that different from an improvement in its dynamic vision.
It was just that Accelerated Vision's slowing effect was more exaggerated and abrupt, which gave Lucario the illusion that time was slowing down.
If it had improved gradually, like its dynamic vision, Lucario probably wouldn't have had this idea at all.
...
Aura Vision had become Accelerated Vision. This was definitely an unexpected bonus.
Li Xiang wondered if it was precisely this point that had attracted the attention of those two legendary Pokémon.
After all, Mist Island happened to involve time. And the source of all this came from the Adamant Orb belonging to Dialga.
But after thinking it over, he felt it wasn't quite right.
He could only continue testing. For example, using Aura as a shield.
This was something Li Xiang had always wanted to achieve. He had even tried to imitate the method of creating a Psychic Shield to replicate it.
Unfortunately, using Aura as a shield was an advanced application, not something that could be done with a few casual gestures.
He hoped that after evolution, Lucario could accomplish this thing it had been longing for.
Of course, making a shield required an attacker.
An appropriate sense of crisis could increase the success rate of a Pokémon's move usage.
"Someone come and be the attacker!"
Li Xiang shouted to the group of Pokémon nearby.
"Incineroar!"
Incineroar arrived the fastest, hopping in place and frantically recommending itself, its desire for payback evident.
"Then you do it."
Seeing how enthusiastic it was, Li Xiang didn't bother switching. He thought its temperature control ability could regulate the output of its flames.
It might be a good choice.
"Roar!"
'You can count on me.'
Incineroar proudly patted its chest, then looked at Lucario with ill intent.
"Roo."
Lucario was unafraid, even finding Incineroar very childish, and showed a disdainful expression.
Its contemptuous attitude greatly annoyed Incineroar.
'Hah! You can only talk tough for now!'
It grinned, cracking its neck, producing a sound like popping beans.
"Are you ready? Take it slow, don't rush, and don't attack too fiercely right away."
Li Xiang asked.
"Roar!"
"Roo!"
The two Pokémon responded.
The principle of the Aura Shield was simple, similar to Aura Vision and Aura Sphere. It involved releasing Aura and condensing it into a defensive barrier.
There was no shape restriction; a spherical shape like Aura Sphere would also work.
But the biggest difference between a shield and an attack was that a shield wouldn't harm the user, while an attack could cause recoil damage.
When an Aura Sphere exploded, the expanding energy was indiscriminate.
That clearly didn't meet the requirements for a shield.
Li Xiang had considered first teaching Lucario Psychic to develop a Psychic Shield, and then working on the Aura Shield.
However, Lucario couldn't learn Psychic while it was a Riolu, even though it had already learned many moves that were only supposed to be learnable after evolution.
He had to temporarily put that idea aside.
Now, with Lucario's Aura having grown terrifyingly, perhaps he could try using Aura Sphere directly, instead of taking the roundabout way of learning a Psychic Shield first and then coming back to this.
Incineroar drew its left index finger across its waistband, and a small, delicate fireball appeared on its fingertip. It was like a ping-pong ball, fiery red and bright.
"Phew."
It gently blew on it.
The fireball seemed to gain fuel and grew slightly larger.
"Roar!"
Incineroar shouted at Lucario, asking if it was ready.
The dog took a deep breath and nodded.
'Good!'
Incineroar's eyes lit up. It took the fireball with its right hand, held it in its palm like a baseball pitcher, and threw it fiercely!
Whoosh—
The wind howled!
Lucario felt a rapidly spinning fireball flying towards it at breakneck speed!
It instinctively sidestepped to dodge.
Bang!
The fireball hit a stone and suddenly exploded.
Lucario...
"Roar!"
'Why are you dodging, you idiot!'
Incineroar was furious and shouted angrily, clenching its fists.
"Roo..."
Lucario covered its mouth in embarrassment. Subconscious reactions being faster than conscious thought was just how it was.
"Alright, alright, continue!"
Li Xiang gestured.
Only then did Incineroar form a second fireball. After the dog braced itself, Incineroar threw it.
This time, Lucario didn't dodge, but the Aura didn't have time to form a shield either. All its attention was focused on not dodging.
Still unsuccessful.
Lucario patted the black ash off the backs of its hands.
Seeing this, Li Xiang said, "Let's try condensing it first, and then have Incineroar attack afterwards."
Normally, that should be the process. But he felt Lucario could directly apply it in action, similar to how Metagross practiced its Psychic Shield.
It couldn't do it at first, but after being hit by Incineroar, it panicked and instinctively used it.
He hadn't expected that he was overthinking it.
Lucario nodded, focusing intently on projecting its Aura out of its body and controlling it in the direction of a Psychic Shield.
Things weren't going as smoothly as imagined. Currently, Lucario's methods of using Aura involved either spreading it flat or gathering it together.
It had never experienced the advanced application of shapeshifting.
"Visualize, rely on visualization."
Li Xiang wasn't an Aura Guardian, so he could only offer advice from the sidelines. "Imagine the Aura Shield as a mass of water in front of you."
He snapped his fingers.
Rotom flew over from a distance and, following his instructions, created a Reflect.
"Touch it. This is roughly what it feels like."
Li Xiang took Lucario's hand and placed it on the illusory yet tangible wall.
Reflect wasn't what it appeared to be. It didn't feel like glass but rather had a viscous quality like cotton or mud.
If you punched it, it would slow your punch, reduce your type energy, and ultimately weaken the move's power.
"Got any ideas?"
Li Xiang asked Lucario. The latter seemed to understand but not fully.
He then called over Metagross.
"Use Psychic to make a water ball, make it a bit big."
"Metagross!"
Metagross responded. Its eyes glowed with golden light, and it shaped a ball of water from the nearby river.
The water ball was quite large, with golden light shimmering at its edges. Its surface reflected the sunlight, making it quite beautiful.
Li Xiang couldn't resist taking a picture with his camera.
"Continue. Punch this, don't use a move."
He patted the water ball. The psychic waves didn't block his movement; the water ball made a crisp pia-pia sound.
Lucario complied and punched the water ball.
Poof!
Water sprayed out from the opening in its fist, splashing onto its face.
"Groo..."
Lucario blew a snort through its nose.
Finally, there was the Psychic Shield.
When Lucario hit this shield, which it had punched countless times before, the feeling was completely different this time.
After experiencing Reflect and the water ball, the Psychic Shield finally gave it inspiration.
"Roo!"
Lucario barked crisply. An invisible wave of Aura was released, rapidly condensing in front of it.
In the end, it became a sky-blue light barrier, only the size of a head.
It was obvious that it couldn't yet find a perfect balance between diffusion and condensation.
So the shield it created was relatively small.
But Lucario had already completed the most difficult process: going from zero to one.