"What's... with your situation?"
Caesar reached out a claw and tapped on the stone's forehead.
"Thump, thump."
It felt solid, quite realistic.
"This is the new magic This Miss comprehended last night!"
The stone... oh no, Cecilia, spoke triumphantly, her voice coming out muffled from inside the rock.
"Impressive, right? This is high-level Transformation magic! As long as I turn into a stone, no Demonic Beast will be able to find me!"
The corners of Caesar's mouth twitched.
It was indeed impressive.
If he wasn't mistaken, this was that legendary Move—Transformation.
In the pokémon game settings, this was an extremely rare skill. Aside from that purple blob Ditto, only the Mythical pokémon Mew could learn it.
By changing one's own cellular structure, one could perfectly copy the opponent's appearance, voice, and even skills.
This was originally a divine skill.
Combined with Moves like Seal, it could even annoy an opponent into quitting the game.
Following 'Celebrate' and 'Bounce', Cecilia had finally learned a useful skill. According to the rules of this world... it probably belonged to an extremely profound type of Transformation magic, right?
"This Transformation of yours... besides turning into a stone, can you turn into anything else?" Caesar couldn't help but ask.
"Of course!"
Cecilia said proudly, "I can also turn into a tree stump, a pile of dirt, or even a pile of—"
"Kha!"
Caesar quickly interrupted her, "No need to try that last one."
This stupid Dragon's skill tree was completely crooked.
When others transform, they turn into Divine Beasts or powerful experts, or at the very least, they turn into one of their own kind to blend in.
She, on the other hand, turned into a rock.
Was she planning to become Sun Wukong?
"So..."
Caesar squatted down and poked the stone's elastic face with his claw: "Besides being an ornament, what else can you do? Can you breathe? Can you fly?"
The stone was silent for two seconds, then bounced again: "But I've become very round! And very hard!"
Great, she also learned Defense Curl and Harden.
Instead of learning proper Meditation, she learned nothing but troll skills.
First Bounce, then Celebrate, and now Transformation.
With this setup, it would be a real shame if she didn't become the star of a circus.
"Fine, stop showing off."
Caesar stood up and patted the dust off himself, "Change back, we're going out to find food."
He didn't want to discuss career planning with a rock.
However.
One second passed.
Two seconds passed.
That stone was still there, wagging its tail, without any change.
"Change back?" Caesar urged.
The pair of large eyes on the stone blinked, revealing a hint of confusion.
"That..."
Cecilia's voice sounded a bit guilty, "Wait, you can actually change back?"
Caesar's movements froze. He slowly lowered his head and stared into those eyes.
—What do you mean 'you can actually change back'?!
"Hey, don't tell me... you only learned how to transform, but didn't learn how to revert?"
The stone shivered.
"This... this magic is just too profound!"
Cecilia shouted righteously, trying to cover her embarrassment, "The Legacy memories only gave the first half, and I didn't understand the second half either..."
Caesar took a deep breath.
He felt his blood pressure rising again.
This wasn't a Silver Dragon; this was clearly a Husky.
"So you plan to be a rock forever?"
Caesar said crossly, "Just as well, I'm missing a charcoal-grilled stone for roasting meat."
"No way!"
The stone panicked instantly, bouncing even more vigorously, "Earth Dragon, think of something! I don't want to be a stone! Stones can't eat meat!"
So that was the main point.
Caesar sighed and began to think of a strategy.
According to common sense, there are usually two ways to dispel this type of Transformation magic or skill.
First, exhaust the mana.
But although this pig's Rank wasn't high, her mana bar was ridiculously long. By the time her mana ran out, he'd probably have starved to death twice over.
Second, receive a heavy blow or lose consciousness.
In the pokémon anime, if a Ditto was knocked out, its Transformation would automatically dispel.
That made it easy.
Caesar looked at the round dragon-stone in front of him, and an extremely 'kind' smile suddenly appeared on his face.
Since you can't change back yourself, don't blame me for being impolite, okay?
You asked for this yourself!
"Cough, I have a way."
Caesar cleared his throat and said solemnly.
"Really?" Cecilia said in surprise.
"Of course, who am I? I'm your big brother."
Caesar put on an air of profound mystery, "This is a type of physical impact therapy, specifically for breaking half-baked Transformation spells."
"Then hurry up!" Cecilia urged.
"Then turn around, put your back to me."
Caesar commanded, "Stick out that... uh, stone butt."
Although it was a round stone, this posture was still easy to distinguish, since there was a tail wagging.
Although Cecilia didn't understand why, out of blind trust for Caesar (※ with Friendship as high as 186), she obediently complied.
She clumsily wiggled her body on the ground, turning the side with the tail toward Caesar.
"Are you ready?"
"Ready, ready! Hurry up!"
Caesar took two steps back and loosened his right ankle.
He had wanted to give this fellow a good kick in the ass for a long time.
The resentment from the past few days, plus the frustration of being slaughtered by Charizard just now, all found an outlet at this moment.
This wasn't a personal dragon grudge!
This was to save a Dragon...!
—Behold my kick of justice!
Caesar aimed at the slightly protruding spot in the center of the stone, took a deep breath, and his thigh muscles instantly tensed up.
Even without using a skill, the power of this kick would have no problem snapping a tree as thick as a bowl.
"Here it goes!"
Caesar gave a low shout, and his right leg lashed out like a whip.
The top of his foot struck the rock solidly.
Bang—!
A dull thud echoed through the cave.
Immediately following were two screams overlapping each other.
"Waaaaaaaah—!"
That was Cecilia's.
The round stone was like a shell fired from a heavy cannon, drawing a perfect parabola in the air as it flew straight out of the cave entrance and slammed hard into a towering tree outside.
With a crack, the tree snapped in half.
Under that massive impact, Cecilia's Transformation spell instantly collapsed.
As the smoke cleared, the little Silver Dragon hung from a branch with stars in her eyes and her tongue sticking out.
And inside the cave.
"Ow♦Ow♦Ow♦Ohohoho—!!!"
Caesar clutched his right foot, hopping frantically on one leg like a blue cat that had stepped on a nail.
Pain!
So much pain!
The feeling was like kicking an iron plate with all his might while barefoot—no, it was harder than an iron plate!
Caesar felt as if his toe claws were about to shatter.
He gasped, and physiological tears even welled up in the corners of his eyes.
That was absolutely not the hardness of a normal stone!
Was that freaking diamond?!
Cecilia, hanging from the tree, finally recovered. She rubbed her sore butt and shouted into the cave with a look of grievance:
"Why... why did you kick me? It hurts so much."
"You have the nerve to say it hurts?!"
Caesar roared, his voice trembling: "Did you secretly use some magic just now?!"
Cecilia shrank her neck, her eyes darting around: "That... I saw your Aura was so fierce when you rushed over, so I subconsciously used Harden..."
Caesar's vision went dark, and he almost fainted from anger.
Harden.
A Normal-type status Move that raises the user's defense.
If it were just normal Harden, it would be fine, but this girl used Harden on top of being a stone!
Stone + Harden.
To guard against me, she actually didn't hesitate to stack the hardness...?
"Nickname! You set me up!"