Xia Huanao considered, Gongsun Xue's words made sense. Any move that could be used in a fight was a good move, and only through fighting could Xia Huanao truly understand if he and Guagua had learned properly.
Xia Huanao stepped forward before everyone. "Alright then, consider this my reconnaissance in force. So, who will go first?"
Before anyone below could answer, Huang Tianxiao stood up. "Me, me, I'll go first."
The students watched Huang Tianxiao's excited demeanor and egged him on. After all, he was their teaching assistant and senior. They couldn't let their morale falter. Gongsun Xue watched Huang Tianxiao eagerly step up and offered a simple smile without comment. Huang Tianxiao was one of her star pupils; she had taught him the martial arts style obtained from Xia Huanao without holding anything back.
Xia Huanao glanced at Huang Tianxiao. "What's the point of fighting you? I spar with you all the time during training matches. Are you confident you can beat Guagua now?"
Hearing this, Huang Tianxiao's expression darkened slightly. Xia Huanao was speaking the truth. The training matches with Xia Huanao had been peculiar. Although everyone had traded wins and losses with Xia Huanao, the victories had been incredibly difficult, while the losses had been swift and decisive. Now, Xia Huanao's Guagua had made significant progress. Huang Tianxiao genuinely worried he would lose even more quickly.
Xia Huanao waved his hand dismissively, clearly uninterested. "You go stand aside. I need to find a student I'm interested in, fighting you is no fun."
As he spoke, Xia Huanao's gaze swept across the assembled students. They recognized what was happening and straightened their backs, displaying their best demeanors, hoping Xia Huanao would pick them. Xia Huanao briefly scanned them before pointing to a young man in the crowd. "This student, it's you."
A young man stepped forward and looked at Xia Huanao. Xia Huanao asked, "If I recall correctly, you participated in this year's Collegiate Pokémon Tournament, and you used Doublade, didn't you?"
The young man nodded. "Yes, that's right."
Xia Huanao looked at him with interest. "What was your name again? I saw your profile back then, but too much time has passed, and I've forgotten."
"Gongsun Yu."
Xia Huanao looked at Gongsun Xue. "This is..."
Gongsun Xue smiled. "My cousin. He was quite impressive back then, wasn't he?"
Xia Huanao nodded; he had indeed been impressive, holding his own against Aegislash in a one-on-one battle. He couldn't quite recall the outcome later, but at the time, he had already considered a battle with this student.
Xia Huanao directly sent out Guagua. "Guagua. It's you."
Xia Huanao, disregarding the rules, was about to begin. Gongsun Yu reacted quickly and sent out his own Aegislash.
"It's evolved. This will be tough," Xia Huanao remarked, cautioning Guagua. "Guagua, this is the one we saw battling Aegislash before. Be careful."
Guagua had reviewed the replay of that battle. Upon hearing it was the same Doublade, its fighting spirit immediately ignited.
"How about you make the first move?"
Xia Huanao sought the opponent's opinion. Gongsun Yu was not polite at all and immediately had Aegislash attack. Seeing Aegislash charging forward with its shield, Xia Huanao understood that the intention was to close the distance using its defense before switching to an offensive mode. However, Xia Huanao never directly confronted powerful enemies head-on. Even if he had to, he had to first put himself in an invincible position.
"Guagua, throw Shuriken at it."
Guagua obeyed, launching a volley of Shuriken. The Shuriken arced through the air, bypassing Aegislash's front shield and heading towards its sword.
"Aegislash, turn and block it."
Although Aegislash had strong defenses, directly deflecting with its sword was a disadvantageous move. It would be foolish not to use its shield. Moreover, Guagua's Shuriken was a continuous attack, and taking several hits would be painful.
However, as Aegislash turned, it exposed a weakness to Guagua. Before Xia Huanao could even speak, Guagua flashed beside Aegislash and unleashed a Dark Pulse directly at its back.
Regardless, Honedge, as a ghost type, was not built to withstand a direct hit from a dark-type move. But Gongsun Yu was prepared. Aegislash's sword managed to cleave through the Dark Pulse Guagua had launched.
Xia Huanao narrowed his eyes. "Oh? Interesting. It can directly cleave through a move. While its power was reduced, taking that hit head-on would have been unbearable."
Aegislash used its sword to deflect Guagua's Dark Pulse and its shield to block the Aqua Jet Shuriken. It had to be said, it was trained very well. Even after several Shuriken, Aegislash sustained no significant damage.
"Aegislash, use Shield Bash."
Xia Huanao knew this wasn't a move from the move list. It seemed they had their own unique strategies for Aegislash.
"Guagua, catch the shield and throw it!"
Guagua placed its hands in front, stopping the incoming shield. It spun its hands, using the rotation of Dark Pulse to hold, or rather, to grip Aegislash. This put Aegislash in a difficult position, as it was a dark-type move, and even a variant was still Dark Pulse.
Guagua spun its hands, about to throw Aegislash, while Aegislash directly swung its sword towards Guagua's head. Guagua quickly slapped Aegislash's shield with its hands, creating distance.
Here, Xia Huanao decided not to press the attack and opted to observe. Meanwhile, Aegislash raised its right hand and began to slash.
"Using its hand to perform Sacred Sword? Guagua, create distance, use Double Team!"
Guagua, instantly creating several clones, temporarily halted Aegislash's attack. After all, Sacred Sword was not an area-of-effect move, and Aegislash's sword swing was vertical, not a sweeping horizontal attack.
Dodging Sacred Sword, Xia Huanao commanded Guagua to use Ice Beam first. While Aegislash could cleave through Dark Pulse, it couldn't do the same for Ice Beam and had to dodge to the side. After just a few exchanges, Xia Huanao discovered a rather troublesome suspicion. "You don't happen to not have King's Shield, or rather, you don't need it, do you?"
The so-called King's Shield was Aegislash's signature move, allowing it to switch between defensive and offensive forms, reversing its stat distribution. However, Xia Huanao felt that the Aegislash before him switched between its offensive and defensive forms with such ease that it didn't seem like it was using a move, hence Xia Huanao's suspicion.
Gongsun Xue confirmed this suspicion. "Yes, under my tutelage, he and Aegislash have mastered the skill of freely switching forms. Impressive, isn't it?"
Xia Huanao nodded. King's Shield only had ten PP. But if King's Shield were transformed into an instinct, it wouldn't be limited by energy, allowing for unlimited use.
Aegislash, which fundamentally relied on King's Shield as its tactical core, became extremely difficult to deal with when its core strategy couldn't be targeted.
Xia Huanao pondered for a moment and commanded Guagua, "Guagua, use Hex-Ninja Barrage!"
With the idea that an outsider might have a better approach, Xia Huanao had Guagua try Hex-Ninja Barrage to see if it could gain an advantage. Gongsun Yu was still just a university student. If it were Gongsun Xue, she might have broken through this technique quickly, but Gongsun Yu might not. Moreover, this was another version of Hex-Ninja Barrage that Guagua had modified.
The original Hex-Ninja Barrage had three circles. After Guagua evolved, Xia Huanao ruthlessly added three more circles, completely meaningless, purely for show, running around the outside.
Over thirty Greninja ran circles around him, and at six different speeds. Even a seasoned Aegislash would be a bit disoriented at this point. Xia Huanao stomped his foot. "Form the array!"
Eighteen Guagua immediately attacked Aegislash. But Aegislash was even more astonishing than that Charizard. With a sword in each hand and its shield, it managed to break through all the attacks. What level of hand speed was this?
Xia Huanao shook his head. "No, this isn't Gongsun Yu's ability. This must have been trained by Sister Xue."
Gongsun Xue looked at Xia Huanao. "Why are you so sure it was me who trained it?"
"The response has changed. While Aegislash is different from Doublade, Gongsun Yu's fighting style, as I recall, didn't involve this kind of redirection. Similarly, if he were to break through attacks using speed, Gongsun Yu's trained Aegislash would consume more energy."
Gongsun Xue applauded. "Impressive. This was indeed taught to Aegislash by me, though Little Yu is gradually learning as well."
Xia Huanao breathed a sigh of relief. If it were truly taught by Gongsun Yu, he would be an incredibly brilliant trainer. Xia Huanao himself had only noticed the difference after seeing the slow-motion replays and multiple camera angles.
"Since that's the case, we won't hold back anymore. Guagua, Aqua Jet Shuriken."
Hearing Xia Huanao was about to reveal something, everyone watched Guagua with great interest. However, when they saw Guagua simply holding a large Aqua Jet Shuriken and charging towards Aegislash, engaging in close-quarters combat, everyone was stunned. Was this the so-called hidden technique?
Gongsun Xue looked at Xia Huanao, while Xia Huanao grinned. "What's wrong? Isn't using Aqua Jet Shuriken in close combat a rather rare occurrence?"
The crowd remained silent. Using Aqua Jet Shuriken in melee was indeed rare, but was that oversized Aqua Jet Shuriken being used as a hammer? Besides smashing it on the ground, couldn't you find another use for it?