Read advance chapters for both of my work, exclusively on Patreon at - www.patreon.com/Sniperwoof
-----------------
It was nearly evening.
Corviknight, spotting someone returning next door, flew down from the second floor, rushed into the study, and snatched Li Xiang's headphones.
"They're back! They're back!"
Li Xiang, in the middle of a team fight, was startled before realizing what the raven, whose speech sounded tangled, was saying.
"I know!"
He responded, then refocused on the battle.
But those few seconds of distraction cost them the fight.
Metagross failed to carry, getting caught and instantly wiped by all four enemies.
Even the best positioning couldn't save it from a relentless barrage of Flashes and ultimates.
"Metagross!"
Metagross poked Li Xiang's stomach irritably with its hammer-like arm, waving it near his head.
'Can't you focus when you're gaming?'
"My bad, my bad. Next time for sure!"
Li Xiang promptly took the blame and quit the game as the enemy team pushed mid for the win.
Nearby, Aegislash, its ribbons remarkably deft, looked at the "Defeat" screen with a hint of lingering disappointment.
After adjusting for most of the day, it had grown fairly accustomed to its new body.
Combined with the battle against Kingdra, while not perfectly stable, it was at least a bit stronger than right after evolution.
"That's enough for today. Song Jie's back." Li Xiang stretched lazily. Incineroar and the other two had gone out to play, promising to return before dinner.
Those three were getting wilder by the day. Who knew what interesting things they'd found this time.
Heading outside, he sought out the white-haired guy and learned he'd rushed off to a family dinner.
With four people in his family who rarely dined together, these occasional meetings were quite special.
"I've never met your older brother. How old is he this year?"
Li Xiang was curious about Song Jie's brother, having only seen a photo before.
He looked about seventy to eighty percent like Song Jie. Basically an adult version with dyed hair and colored contacts.
"Twenty-four, nine years older than me. I invited you over before, but you weren't interested! What's the point of asking now?"
Song Jie shot him a cool glance.
"Just curious." Li Xiang glanced at the Lycanroc beside him and beckoned it over.
"Awooo!"
Lycanroc barked crisply, trotting over happily and lowering its head for him.
A little dog head patting brings a lot of joy to life.
Li Xiang rubbed its jackal-like head. Though the black, curved stone on its forehead seemed fused with its fur, the fur was just a covering.
The thing was basically a horn growing from its skull.
Lycanroc's rough tongue kept licking Li Xiang's hand. It was surprising how much drool a Rock-type Pokémon could have.
"Ew, that's gross!"
Li Xiang wiped his hand clean on Lycanroc's fluffy fur, then looked back at the exasperated Song Jie. "Anyway, I'm off to make dinner."
Regarding meals, part of the team's benefits included having prepared food delivered right to their door.
However, Li Xiang personally preferred to cook himself, using the provided meals as a benchmark.
Even though his cooking still couldn't compare to those specially formulated meals.
...
Before dinner, the Li family's "big three" returned somewhat stealthily, only to be caught by Li Xiang waiting on the sofa.
"You guys... went out brawling?"
He looked at the three grimy Pokémon, who looked like they'd spent the whole day deep in the mountains or forests.
"Roar."
Incineroar and the others glanced at their dirty bodies, walked back outside, shook off all the dust, and then came back in.
They definitely hadn't been fighting; they'd just been acting as backup for a group of cats.
Recently, the Savage Hounds Gang, under Houndoom's leadership, had started encroaching on other groups' territories.
Unlike Zoroark, who was fixated on the Iron Cats Gang, Houndoom knew to target weaknesses, picking on the easier targets.
And which group was the easiest target?
The Bug Horde.
These bugs had the largest numbers but also the most scattered members, without continuous territory.
Their top-tier strength was no match for the fiercely competitive, survival-of-the-fittest Savage Hounds Gang, making them the prime target.
As it happened, Houndoom had time today and made a move on the Bug Horde.
Fortunately, the Bug Horde's top officers were clever, promptly seeking the Iron Cats Gang as reinforcements to preserve part of their turf.
But even so, some territory was taken by the Savage Hounds Gang. The Bug-type Pokémon living there had no choice but to join the gang.
The ring matches tonight would determine the true ownership of that territory.
If the Bug Horde lost, they would inevitably be slowly consumed by the Savage Hounds Gang, forced to become its subordinate.
Just like the former Vile Rats Gang.
Many intelligent Pokémon watched these developments, sensing a storm brewing within Mist City's Pokémon world.
The eye of the storm was the Savage Hounds Gang.
Along with the soon-to-retire Director Grandpa, and the Ranger attempting to unify the management of Mist City's Pokémon world.
The Iron Cats Gang and other Pokémon groups were merely passive casualties.
Of course, this had little to do with Li Xiang.
Pokémon matters belonged to Pokémon; human matters belonged to humans. While closely connected, one couldn't interfere too much in their lives.
After dinner, Li Xiang spent some time at home digesting, did some light exercise, then took Incineroar and the others out for night training.
With the Spring Tournament approaching, it was necessary to fully integrate their capabilities.
...
Training Facility.
Incineroar and the others took turns.
The big tiger went first, of course. Aside from its already well-known endurance, its Magma Form was an ability Li Xiang had always focused on. They were also trying to extend the "three-minute heat" duration and increase the temperature.
Unfortunately, flame temperature became harder to increase the higher it got. Now at around 5,500 degrees, every hundred-degree rise was a proud major breakthrough.
In Magma Form, the appearance of Fire-type moves would magnify—this was undeniable—symbolizing an increase in power.
Thus, some extraordinary scenes were inevitable.
For example, Fire Punch would become a pair of greatly enlarged, azure-blue flaming gauntlets, creating a stark color contrast with its dark-red body.
Also, Fire Fang could manifest outside its body, forming a fiercely burning, sharp-toothed maw, even larger than Incineroar's upper half.
It seemed it could transform into a huge tiger head at any moment.
It looked extremely similar to the move visual effects in the anime's later seasons.
—Purely energy-based attacks.
It was hard to tell whether these were physical or special attacks, and the line between contact and non-contact also seemed blurry.
Others like Flare Blitz, Blaze Kick, etc., were even more not worth mentioning.
Each one was flashier than the last.
As if competing to see who could have the more extravagant budget.
Perhaps in the end, the only attribute that could remain honest and simple was the straightforward Fighting-type.
It stayed exactly as it was supposed to be.
"Three minutes and thirty-two seconds. Good job, another three-second improvement! Brother Incineroar rocks!"
Li Xiang gave Incineroar a thumbs-up.
"Roar!"
Lying on the ground, utterly drained but still holding a cigar between its teeth, puffing smoke, Incineroar returned the thumbs-up.
Every time it used Magma Form, it truly felt like its body had been emptied, unable to even stand.
As if a little demon kept sucking out its vitality.
However, it was indeed quite satisfying, that feeling of unleashing all its power in a short burst.
He let it rest off the field.
Second up was Riolu.
The dog's stats were simple: just Aura and attack speed.
For it, compared to using its eyes, it trusted the precise data from Aura more.
As long as its thoughts were fast enough, it didn't matter if its eyes couldn't keep up; Aura would tell it everything.
Therefore, even though it had been training its eyesight, when executing certain rapid-fire assaults, Riolu would still unconsciously open its Aura to confirm the opponent's status.
Everything in existence has Aura.
No one could dodge Aura, be it Ghost-type, Dark-type, or even Greninja in its hidden state.
Of course, whether it could be detected and whether you noticed were two different things.
In such circumstances, when Riolu faced opponents it could hit with its moves, prolonged close combat basically didn't happen.
Often, one punch was enough.
One punch sufficed.
Like Abigail's Arcanine, which couldn't keep up with Riolu's speed, it deliberately took a hit to the eye to capture Riolu's position and counter with Fire Fang.
Even Extreme Speed had trouble catching the little dog, making the arrogant guy somewhat question his life.
Fortunately, it was tough enough to withstand one punch.
"You might break the sound barrier someday." Li Xiang looked at the numbers on the treadmill. Riolu's explosive bursts of Agility and Extreme Speed produced truly terrifying values.
If only its evolved speed could compensate for the gains from Prankster...
Unfortunately, speed was speed, and move cooldowns were move cooldowns.
Additionally, Li Xiang was having Riolu try to expand Aura's applications.
Looking at the anime alone, aside from telepathy and environmental sensing, Aura also had abilities like predicting attacks, seeing through objects, creating barriers, and releasing shockwaves.
Even, it could seal a living being inside a gem for thousands of years.
Unfortunately, these were all advanced techniques Riolu was temporarily unable to achieve.
Recalling Riolu.
Next up was Greninja.
Its abilities were still those three.
Concealment camouflage, giantized Water Shuriken, and clones.
Among these, Concealment State was a power that grew steadily without its conscious effort, increasing with its energy level.
The giantized Water Shuriken, through its diligent efforts, had recently successfully integrated the third basic Water Shuriken.
Although the form wasn't very stable yet, it was absolutely enough for attacking. The power of the three-in-one was much higher than the original three separately.
Regarding clones, they now contained much more attribute energy than before. Using a quarter of its stamina, a clone could last at least ten minutes if not attacked.
The original "dual focus" was also progressing toward triple focus, currently at about dual-and-a-half focus.
Two bodies could move, while the remaining one could only speak and remained immobile.
To be honest, Li Xiang was a bit worried this guy might develop multiple personality disorder, often taking Greninja for psychological evaluations.
And it turned out, Greninjas were different.
The chuuni Greninja had once, in a fit of anger, controlled three bodies to launch a fierce assault on the flower clusters on the second floor.
Within five minutes, it finished chores that normally took half an hour.
After finishing, it could run downstairs, hug a bucket of popcorn, and watch a movie with Li Xiang.
Then take a sip of Li Xiang's Coke and ask him to rewind the progress bar.