Popping out, Guagua immediately shot some bubbles at the sprite. The hit sprite looked up to see Xia Hunan and Guagua looking down at it.
This sprite was very hot-tempered and charged at Xia Hunan and Guagua with increased speed. Xia Hunan watched it charge head-on towards him: "Guagua, let's fall back a bit, lure him out, we can't let him destroy the flower sea."
As he spoke, Xia Hunan and Guagua retreated, and the sprite was thus lured onto the grass by them.
Looking at this sprite, Xia Hunan sighed, "I say, Nincada, why are you charging out with such a temper instead of staying in the dirt and waiting to evolve?"
Nincada, whether it understood Xia Hunan's words or not, directly lunged at him with a Mud-Slap. Xia Hunan dodged the Mud-Slap by taking two steps back, but he would not tolerate such attacks from sprites on humans!
"Guagua, let's finish him quickly with a Water Pulse!"
Guagua quickly charged at Nincada, forming two water spheres with its hands. Nincada, sensing danger, immediately dug a hole to escape.
Although Guagua was fast, it couldn't catch up to Nincada, and it managed to escape.
Looking at the hole Nincada left behind, Xia Hunan sighed, "Forget it, I guess it was just bad luck."
Although he said that, Xia Hunan couldn't figure something out: "System, for Nincada to learn Dig, it usually needs to be around level thirty, right? At that level, Nincada would typically have evolved into Ninjask, and a Pokémon of that level wouldn't appear in a beginner trainer's secret realm."
The system's explanation was: Although Dig as an attack requires about level thirty to learn, that's for using Dig in combat. If it takes thirty levels to dig a hole to escape, then the Nincada species would have gone extinct long ago.
Xia Hunan thought it made some sense. It was like the battle of underground tunnels; the most basic ones were only for hiding, while later ones could be used for offense and defense.
Not capturing Nincada made Xia Hunan a bit unhappy, but there was no rush. There was still plenty of time, and he could deal with it when he got back to school.
Unexpectedly, even though Xia Hunan had decided to let Nincada go, Nincada itself crawled out to cause trouble. A mound of dirt suddenly appeared not far away, and then Nincada poked its head out from the mound, shook its head at Xia Hunan, and crawled back into the hole.
Its provocation really got Xia Hunan riled up: "Xiao Die, you go ahead first. Head back to school. I'm determined to capture it today."
Chu Xiaodie asked, "Coach Xia, do you need my help?"
"Is there enough time? We might not make it back before Six Mausoleum locks its gates at night."
"It's okay, worst case, I'll stay at a hotel outside the school for the night."
"Alright, in that case, I'll trouble you."
While Xia Hunan and Chu Xiaodie were quickly discussing capturing Nincada, this Nincada escalated its provocation by digging several more holes, and the holes got closer and closer, until they were only three or four meters away from Xia Hunan.
"Hey, you're really pissing me off! Do you think you're a Diglett or a Dugtrio? Rotom, you go too, use a Strange Shine!"
Despite facing a pincer attack from Guagua and Rotom, Nincada still managed to escape by digging a hole. This made Xia Hunan very displeased: "What kind of a disappearance is this?"
Chu Xiaodie came to Xia Hunan's side: "Butterfree, fly up and use Sleep Powder!"
Butterfree flew into the air and sprinkled powder onto the ground. Nincada happened to crawl out of the ground again to provoke them, and this time it was hit directly by Butterfree's Sleep Powder, falling into a dazed sleep.
Seeing Nincada lying there asleep, Xia Hunan did not hesitate: "Guagua, hit it with all you've got, don't hold back!"
Guagua did not hold back either, charging straight forward. Whether it was Bubble, Water Pulse, or Ice Beam, it relentlessly bombarded Nincada. Nincada had never experienced anything like this before and was quickly knocked unconscious. Xia Hunan let out a long sigh and threw a Poké Ball, capturing Nincada.
Picking up the Poké Ball, Xia Hunan did not feel the excitement and elation he had when capturing Diancie and Rotom. Instead, he gritted his teeth and said, "Nincada, get."
This lightning-fast battle ended quickly. Xia Hunan and Chu Xiaodie did not linger in the secret realm and took the high-speed rail back to Liuling City.
Rushing, Xia Hunan finally managed to send Chu Xiaodie back to the girls' dormitory before the gates were locked. Upon returning to her dorm, Chu Xiaodie was immediately questioned by her roommates: "Did you go on a date with Assistant Coach Xia? Then why didn't you stay overnight with Assistant Coach Xia!"
"I just had Assistant Coach Xia accompany me to capture a new Pokémon, it was not a date at all!"
"Don't think like that. A woman two years older is like a golden brick. You're two years older than Assistant Coach Xia. If you can't hold a golden brick, holding a gold bar is also good."
"Get lost, I'm not talking to you anymore."
...
Unlike the atmosphere in the girls' dorm, Xia Hunan released Nincada upon returning to his dorm. As soon as Nincada came out, it began to scamper around. Xia Hunan, watching the busy Nincada, threw a cushion at it, telling it to behave.
Nincada, hit on the head by the cushion, could only lie there obediently. Xia Hunan asked the system, "How is this Nincada?"
The system scanned Nincada's attributes and then presented a table. Xia Hunan's eyes lit up as he looked at the attributes in the table.
Who the heck...
Abandoning the escape tactics, Xia Hunan took out his notebook: "Let's set up our existing battle strategies."
Xia Hunan wrote down Guagua, Diancie, and Shedinja on the paper: "Hmm, I currently have Water, Dark, Rock, Fairy, and Bug, Ghost types. What Pokémon should I capture next to expand my combat effectiveness?"
Originally, Xia Hunan had wanted to capture a Shuckle. After all, Shuckle's type combination was quite good, with only three weaknesses and no four-times weakness. Although its speed was only five, its Defense and Special Defense were 230. Paired with moves like Power Trick, Trick Room, Power Split, Defense Split, and Gyro Ball, it was a powerful weapon for a sweep strategy, especially in two-on-two battles, where it was incredibly useful.
However, the troublesome problem was Xia Hunan's personality. Xia Hunan was somewhat averse to having two Pokémon of the same type in his team. Shuckle's types were Bug and Rock. Bug overlapped with Nincada, and Rock happened to overlap with Diancie. If Nincada hadn't been there today, Xia Hunan wouldn't have minded capturing a Shuckle. After all, overlapping Rock types was acceptable, and an extra Bug type coverage wasn't bad. At most, he would have had to agonize over capturing Nincada, but now, there was no need to hesitate.
Xia Hunan put down his pen: "Damn it, why does the strategy I thought of get ruined by myself in the end? Should I lower my standards a bit? No, one's principles cannot be changed..."
Xia Hunan pondered for a long time and finally decided: "Forget it, if it's not there, it's not there. At worst, I'll have Xiao Yu capture a Shuckle to support me. Besides, Shuckle isn't the only one that can satisfy these three moves. This strategy can be given to Wei Chiting; let him research it."