Chapter 271: Dragon Rush

Returned to the Pokémon Center.

Baimu gave the two Aggron that had fought a physical check-up, then eagerly found a deserted spot and began learning Dragon Rush.

As a Dragon-type ultimate move, it features high damage and low accuracy, plus a side effect of doubled power against opponents that have used Minimize and a chance to make them flinch.

Normally, this move is used by Dragon-type Pokémon with the ability to fly.

Baimu had hardly ever seen a non-flying Dragon Pokémon use this move in the anime, so he was very curious how a wild Aggron would perform it.

"You can start!"

He shouted at the wild Aggron.

"Gurr!"

The latter growled back in response, then glanced at the larger of its own kind, and a terrifying aura that seemed ready to tear everything before it apart suddenly surged up around its body.

The two horns on its head lit up with blue light, and immediately its entire body was covered by a pale-blue aura that rapidly expanded outward!

"Roar!"

The wild Aggron bellowed and charged forward fiercely, the pale-blue aura instantly expanding into a huge, ferocious energy dragon head that wrapped around its body, emitting a terrifying, almost roaring pressure as it tore through the air!

Boom!

With no target, the energy dragon head exploded violently.

And with that, one whole process was complete.

Unable to take off on the spot with the move, it simply ran forward and unleashed an energy charge — this point is actually quite similar to Giga Impact.

Compared with the Dragon Rush in his memory, it seemed to be missing a pair of wings and a body — probably because it has no wings and didn't take off?

This point is worth studying carefully.

The key is the release logic of this thing; once the process is understood, it's simple for a Pokémon — the underlying principle isn't that important.

If you explain physics to it, will it understand? But that doesn't stop it from breathing fire or spitting water.

"I see, so the Dragon Rush of a 'land-walking dragon' is like this." Baimu nodded, expressed his thanks to the wild Aggron, then looked at his own big monster, "Did you understand?"

"Gurr… roar?"

Aggron scratched its face — if you say it understood, what could it possibly get from just one demonstration? But if you say it didn't understand… it really did grasp something.

"Give it a try?" Baimu asked.

"Roar!"

It nodded, swapped places with the wild Aggron, and recalled what it had just seen.

First, build up the aura!

Aggron tried hard to widen its eyes, claws clenched tight, body tensed all over. It immediately felt something was off, hurriedly stopped to adjust its state.

Baimu spoke up:

"Killing intent is a bit tricky to grasp, but actually there's a shortcut."

"Roar?"

"You can imagine it stealing your territory, planting trees on your mountain, drinking the spring water on your mountain, eating the food I make for you — get it?"

Hearing its trainer's words, Aggron's pupils instantly dilated.

The will tempered through countless fierce battles turned into an almost tangible, terrifying killing intent, making its expression incomparably ferocious; its eyes on the wild Aggron were filled with coldness and hostility.

"Roar…"

It ground its teeth and let out a low growl, pale-grey smoke drifting from its mouth, seemingly representing its fury.

The wild Aggron being stared at was panicked out of its wits, hurriedly trying to warn Baimu in front of it, but the latter spoke first, "Very good! That's the aura! Keep it up!"

The moment the words left his mouth.

Aggron's act broke on the spot — the frightening killing intent vanished, and it looked down at itself in some bewilderment.

《Treading the Stars》

"Looks like I shouldn't talk too much."

Baimu stepped forward and patted its chest, "Did you remember that feeling just now? Killing intent is essentially a power driven by emotion — if your emotions aren't there, how could you possibly use it?"

"Gurr-roar…"

"You can roar, I didn't say you couldn't roar."

"Roar!"

Aggron glanced at the wild Aggron, and amid its somewhat flustered expression, nodded at Baimu.

"Let's start over!"

The big monster started over.

But this time the wild Aggron joined in as well, serving as a reference and reminder for the former.

The two simultaneously released their aura, and simultaneously stepped forward to launch a fierce charge.

Unfortunately, the big monster's head didn't light up, but the one beside it did — once it lit up, the Dragon-type energy naturally spread outward, forming a ferocious dragon head.

Baimu hadn't expected to succeed in one try to begin with; he had even planned to break the learning into four parts.

The first part is building up the aura; the second part is having Dragon-type energy generated inside Aggron's body; the third part is gathering the Dragon-type energy at the top of its head; the fourth part is having the Dragon-type energy spread out and form the complete Dragon Rush construct.

Today, as long as it could get used to performing the first part, that was enough.

"Again! Don't get discouraged!"

He shouted loudly, boosting Aggron's confidence.

And unexpectedly, the big monster was extremely talented at mastering aura — in less than half an hour it could already smoothly mobilize its emotions and complete the key point of releasing killing intent.

"Roar!"

It couldn't help urging its trainer to let it move on to the next stage.

"Are you sure?"

"Roar!"

"Alright." Seeing its firm attitude, All Baimu released the Dragonite from the ball.

Bang!

"Mo Nao! Mo Nao?"

The Dragonite let out a tender cry, sniffed around, and quickly flew over to the trainer.

Then its cheeks got tugged.

"I want you to use Dragon Rage on Aggron, understand? Dial down the power a bit, let it feel what Dragon-type energy is like."

All Baimu's instruction made the Dragonite obediently nod its head.

When a Pokémon learns a move outside its own type, feeling the power of that foreign type is a fairly effective method—though it carries a certain danger, and demands a high degree of control from the trainer over the Pokémon.

This looks somewhat similar to Paul having his Electabuzz use Thunder to wear down Chimchar's stamina, forcing it to trigger Blaze on its own, yet the two are vastly different.

Because the former requires adjusting the power, just like Pikachu deliberately using ten volts to let Paras feel electricity. The latter, meanwhile, just zaps them within an inch of their life as long as it doesn't kill them—using pain to draw out the Pokémon's latent power. Fundamentally different.

"Mo Nao!"

The Dragonite trotted over in front of Aggron.

"Roar!"

The latter called out to indicate its position.

"Alright, that's the spot—Aggron, lower your head; Dragonite, open your mouth!" All Baimu stood to the side directing. Seeing an indigo flame gather in the Dragonite's mouth, he immediately said: "Smaller!"

The flame shrank a ring.

"Smaller still!"

The flame shrank another ring.

"Good! You can release it!"

Boom!

A ball of flame struck Aggron square on the head, leaving faint scorch marks.

The big monster raised its head, closed its eyes as if savoring it, "Roar... roar!"

"Again? Alright then, again!"

"Mo Nao!"

The Dragonite gathered another small ball of flame and sprayed it onto Aggron's head once more.

The lingering Dragon-type energy swirled between the latter's two horns, seeping into Aggron's body in wisps and threads—inflicting a certain amount of damage while also brewing something else.