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Without held items or stat boosts, just relying on rain, Kingdra's Special Attack power was ultimately lacking a bit. Otherwise, Aegislash's King's Shield would definitely have been broken.
Li Xiang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, while also thinking that King's Shield was incredibly useful.
Aegislash had never trained in that aspect before.
On the other side.
"He forced it out!"
Discovering that Muddy Water was blocked, Wei Xiang wasn't panicked at all. Instead, his eyes lit up, feeling he had found an opportunity.
"Yawn!"
Kingdra's long, tube-like snout took a sharp inhale, then blew out a long stream of smoky clouds.
The clouds, like living creatures, quickly wrapped around Aegislash, making its single eye grow heavy and drowsy.
Hit!
Wei Xiang's face showed even more delight. Once Aegislash fell asleep, wouldn't it be at his mercy?
He didn't expect things to go so smoothly. It must be because it had just evolved; its bodily reactions weren't fast enough. Otherwise, moves like Yawn aren't that hard to dodge.
Not far away, having moved behind Aegislash, Li Xiang saw this and frowned slightly, but he wasn't too concerned.
Since it had already happened—
"Shadow Sneak."
Aegislash's shadow rapidly elongated from beneath it, stretching to beneath Kingdra, transforming into a huge, dark-purple sword phantom that stabbed upward!
Extremely fast. Kingdra had just started to retreat when it was struck by the phantom!
Boom!
Pale-gray smoke spread in all directions.
Seizing the moment before it fully entered sleep, Aegislash decisively used King's Shield again, returning to its Shield Forme.
Within the smoke, Kingdra leaped out, its face showing some pain. Its durability was ultimately not high. Even though its level was a few higher than Aegislash's, it was still difficult to withstand its attacks.
Fortunately, Aegislash had already entered sleep.
"Dragon Dance!"
Kingdra swayed in place, beginning to build up its attack, striving to take down Aegislash in one blow.
In fact, if Li Xiang dared to let Aegislash use Sleep Talk and draw an attacking move, then it could probably finish off this fragile guy immediately.
Faced with this situation, Li Xiang thought for a moment, raised his hand, and disregarding being in full view of everyone, loudly shouted:
"Sleep Talk!Sword, come!"
The sleeping Aegislash shuddered. With its single eye tightly closed, it actually actively discarded its shield, flew above Li Xiang's head, and pointed its blade straight up!
In an instant, under the dark rain clouds, a brilliant golden light pillar shot into the sky, taking the form of a blade, piercing through the gloomy clouds, like a Sword of Damocles, illuminating the surroundings!
Wei Xiang was startled, secretly thinking "not good". He hadn't expected Li Xiang to use Sleep Talk and draw the Sacred Sword he was most worried about!
What a lucky draw dog!
"Liquidation!"
No longer continuing to stack damage, Kingdra decisively shot out a thin, dense stream of water like a sniper rifle towards the sky above!
It looked like a trickling stream, almost playful, yet inexplicably gave people a chilling feeling!
At the same time, Li Xiang finished reciting his lines.
The brilliant golden light sword cascaded down like a collapsing mountain!
Boom!
It was clearly a clash of light blade against needle-point, yet when the energy exploded, it caused the air to vibrate continuously, transforming into white shockwaves that swept across the surroundings as if there was an earthquake, making people's scalps tingle!
The ground indeed shook slightly!
Li Xiang crouched down, adopting a Beng Quan stance, yet was still swayed by the shockwave.
This was enough to show the strength of this shockwave.
Of course, this was also related to him being relatively close to the energy explosion point.
Wei Xiang on the other side was in much better condition, merely lying prone on the ground.
Both stared at the smoke in front of them, waiting for the outcome of this clash.
Under the pouring rain, after a few seconds, the white mist dissipated, revealing the hazy scene within.
Many people turned their gaze toward this side.
Within the smoke, both sides lay on the ground, unconscious. Among them, the shield that Aegislash had discarded had somehow already returned to its hand.
A mutual knockout!
The onlookers looked at each other, momentarily unsure whether to applaud or not.
On Kingdra's side: Dragon Dance, STAB, and Rain—it had practically maximized its output at that moment.
On Aegislash's side: only one Swords Dance, using a non-STAB Sacred Sword.
Moreover, there was a certain level gap between the two.
Under these obviously unequal circumstances, they actually mutually knocked each other out!
Didn't this mean that Wei Xiang's ace Kingdra, in terms of training level, was still inferior to Li Xiang's weakest, newly evolved Aegislash?
They silently averted their gaze, pretending they hadn't seen it.
On the field, Wei Xiang looked at the fallen Kingdra on the ground, opened his mouth, but said nothing. He recalled Kingdra and turned and left the field dejectedly.
Without a doubt, he had been hit hard again.
But secretly, he clenched his fist, biting his teeth unwillingly, thinking that next time he must win back.
Perhaps others thought being targeted by Li Xiang was a miserable thing, pitying or mocking him. Little did they know, often practicing with Li Xiang had also allowed him to grow rapidly, improving his strength.
After battling Li Xiang's Pokémon, the attack power of previous strong opponents was noticeably much weaker and couldn't cause much damage to his Pokémon anymore.
Relying on this, one day, he too could enter the school team's reserve list, becoming a member stepping onto the competition field!
As for those sarcastic and mocking guys, let them sit honestly in the spectator seats and lament helplessly!
Wei Xiang bit his teeth, made up his mind.
On the other side, Li Xiang looked at Aegislash, full of surprise. He had already prepared himself to lose.
He knew the output of Wei Xiang's Kingdra. Its Special Attack wasn't great, but its physical attack was very strong, especially the Liquidation's water stream. He didn't know where Wei Xiang learned it from, but the damage was ridiculously high.
Even Incineroar would cry out in pain after taking it.
Under such circumstances, for Aegislash to mutually knock out with Kingdra was truly remarkable.
"Not bad, big girl."
Li Xiang squatted in front of Aegislash, tapping its body. "Impressive! Want to sip a bit of my life force today to celebrate?"
After all, adolescent energy was abundant and inexhaustible.
This sword had been with him for so long and had never sipped even once.
Aegislash opened its eye, saw Li Xiang's handsome face, reached out to touch it a couple of times, then quietly closed its eye again.
'Waking up to see you is really nice.'
At noon, Li Xiang went to find Xu He and told him about Aegislash's evolution.
"Congratulations, congratulations."
Xu He seemed even happier than Li Xiang, taking out a red envelope from his drawer. "Take this."
"—No, no, it's not necessary, Coach."
Li Xiang waved his hands refusing.
"Just take it."
Xu He stuffed the red envelope into Li Xiang's pocket. "This is our school team's tradition. Whenever a team member's Pokémon evolves, the coach has to give a red envelope—Xiao Miao! Red envelope!"
Not far away, Miao Shuang, who was watching a movie in front of the computer, was momentarily stunned. She quickly put the potato chips aside, clapped her hands, tucked her long hair behind her ears, and took out a red envelope from her drawer.
"Congratulations, Li Xiang! You've become stronger again!"
"Thank you."
Li Xiang accepted it, expressing sincere gratitude.
"Ahem... Since you're here just in time, let me tell you this first. Be mentally prepared."
Xu He coughed twice, glanced at the door, and said, "The school has already agreed to let you guys play in the Spring Tournament."
Li Xiang didn't interrupt, listening quietly as he continued.
Xu He said, "For the first two single battles, you'll be the vanguard. Other schools will also field new members, but don't underestimate them."
The single battle team competition in the Spring Tournament wasn't like regular competitions that use elimination brackets.
Instead, each school was randomly assigned five schools as opponents to battle against, with points counted based on wins.
In other words, every school would play five matches regardless of previous wins or losses.
This gave some more lagging schools more opportunities.
Within the United Universities, ranking meant resources.
"Of course, you guys shouldn't feel too much pressure either. The seniors will back you up." Xu He added, afraid Li Xiang would feel too much pressure.
Li Xiang nodded.
...
With the Spring Tournament approaching, after getting his participation qualification, Li Xiang thought of his little friends back in the basic academy.
Hesitating slightly, he opened WeChat.
Lin Feng replied the fastest.
[Being a reserve is a sure thing. Your Brother Feng still has that much skill.]
The little guy was as boastful as ever. Their school team selection matches had just ended two days ago.
[Let me tell you, I saw Xia Chunyu in person yesterday! I even got his autograph and a photo with him! We even battled!]
He sent a photo of a white T-shirt with a flamboyantly written name.
Then a selfie, inside was Lin Feng grinning from ear to ear, and a slightly tanned young man with neatly trimmed stubble on his chin and a kindly face.
[From today on, these two are my family heirlooms!]
[It's a pity our schools aren't in the same competition region. We probably won't have a chance to meet until the Summer Tournament. By the way, how's Mist City?]
Li Xiang: [It's alright... That, I made the Reserve list.]
Lin Feng is typing...
Online.
Is typing...
[Are you going to compete?]
[Yeah.]
[You jerk—! You haven't chatted for so long, suddenly popping up to show off to your Brother Feng? Kid, you've changed! (へ╬)]
[Nonsense! Didn't we have a voice chat a few days ago! Speak with a clear conscience!]
[You don't have a conscience! Was that a chat with me? Obviously, you were borrowing my phone to voice chat with my sister!]
[You were the one who gave it to her! How can you blame me?]
[Trash Li Xiang!]
[Noob Lin Feng!]
[Idiot Li Xiang!]
[Moron Lin Feng!]
The two actually started mutually insulting each other on the phone, but both were secretly happy for the other.
In Lin Feng's life, apart from family and Xu Wan, Xia Chunyu was probably the most important person to him.
When his family fortunes declined, and his parents were heavily in debt, he had once thought of abandoning his dream of becoming a trainer.
It was by chance that a brief talk with Xia Chunyu on a radio program re-solidified his determination to become a trainer.
Without Xia Chunyu's encouragement, Lin Feng would probably just be an ordinary high school student at this time.
In Lin Feng's own words: The kindness is like being reborn.
For Lin Feng to see Xia Chunyu in person and even battle him was probably the happiest thing in his mind.