Pokémon, Ash is going to become a perfect man from now on.

"Comet Punch!"

The next second, a fist like a comet swept past at lightning speed, and Cala Cala was instantly blasted to the sidelines, even smashing through the already crumbling space wall!

"Lucario!!" Lucario roared, its attack power increasing once again!

"Is it already too late...?" Xiao Mao stared blankly at the fallen Gara Gara, a look of dejection on his face indicating that all hope was lost.

Ultimately, they were unable to defeat Lucario within the time and space constraints.

Without the advantage of striking first, Marowak can no longer compete with its opponent...

"Gara...Gara!!" Just as Xiao Mao was wavering, the fallen Gara Gara suddenly shouted defiantly, and then actually straightened up unsteadily!

It was panting heavily, and turned around to stare at Shigeru for a long time, seemingly encouraging its trainer in a silent way.

After that, it began to move step by step toward the bone club that had been knocked away. By the time it picked up its mother's belongings again, an indomitable flame had reignited on Gara Gara's body!

"Gara gara... You haven't given up yet?" Shigeru's unfocused gaze sharpened again. "That's right! The match is only halfway through, it's not time to admit defeat yet!!"

"Gala!!"

"Lucario, can you feel the opponent's fighting spirit...?" Ash asked the equally badly injured Jackal, "And how do you plan to respond?"

"Lucario!" Lucario roared firmly, and a slender bone club materialized in his palm once more!

It decided to confront the gnawing attack head-on, just like before!

This is the final battle. Marowak will not give up, and Lucario will not run away either!

The opponent's Pokémon was specially trained to snipe it, so it must defeat the opponent's offensive head-on no matter what!

"Now that you've made up your mind, give it your all!" Ash pounded his chest twice. "Whether you succeed or fail, I'll be proud of you!!"

“Luka!!”

"Go! Bone Strike (Flash Charge)!!" *2

Lucario firmly held up the Power Bone Staff, while Marowak charged forward, its body enveloped in flames. The final clash exploded with a deafening roar!

Boom! !

The entire venue was left in a mess by the rampaging energy. Lucario and Marowak gritted their teeth, neither willing to back down in the final stalemate!

"Go for it! Mara Mara!" "Don't lose to it, Lucario!"

The trainers on both sides kept encouraging each other, and in order not to let them down, the two Pokémon were desperately squeezing out every last bit of strength!

"Gala..." "Luca!"

Finally, Lucario was the first to hold out until his opponent ran out of steam!

The waveguide inside its body surged continuously, and it finally managed to straighten the bone club at the last moment, and then swung it with all its might in a desperate attack!

"Luca!!"

call out!

Having no power to resist any longer, the gruff grub could only helplessly transform into a cannonball, embedding itself in the wall behind Shigeru at an even faster speed than it had come, and losing consciousness!

"Garagara is unable to fight! The match is now in halftime!"

“LUCA!!!”

As the result was announced, the jackal clenched its fists and roared excitedly to the sky!

Chapter 227 Midfield: On Cultivation and Tactics

At halftime, Ash is temporarily leading with a score of 3-0.

You could say it's 3 to 2, because Ash doesn't plan to use Steelix and Lucario anymore.

The former needed to rest due to severe injuries, while the latter had gained some insights.

After the battle ended, Lucario retreated to the sidelines without Ash calling it to return to its ball.

During this time, it kept playing with the energy bone rod that had not disappeared, constantly spinning and waving it in its palm, as if reliving the feeling of having just flung away the gnarled creature.

It quickly fell into a state of self-doubt, feeling as if it had subconsciously used a double-edged sword...

If it weren't for the fact that it doesn't feel pain, Lucario would really think it had fouled.

Furthermore, as a fighting move, Double Strike shouldn't be used against a Ghost-type Marowak...

"Don't worry about it, that's the effect of Aura." Ash clearly noticed his partner's confusion and patted its shoulder to enlighten it. "Have you forgotten how you dodged Bellossom's attacks back at the Rainbow Gym?"

"Lucario?" Lucario was taken aback.

It remembered that before it evolved, Ash had covered its eyes with a headband in order to hone its Aura power.

It thus almost completely shuts down all its senses, only able to perceive its surroundings through its own waveguide.

It is precisely through this kind of training that it is able to use the power of waveguide to achieve the effect of quick reflexes in battle, instantly dodging the beautiful flower's special move and counterattacking.

In the battle just now, its aura was indeed extremely active, which is probably why its Bone Strike skill was enhanced, giving it a double-counterattack effect and even allowing it to counterattack Mara Mara.

"That's about it. This might be a direction for cultivation. We can explore it together in the future." Xiao Zhi promised with a smile... but in his heart he was helplessly complaining.

There's an awkward thing: of the three special powers Ash possesses, only the Aura is the original Ash himself; the other two were obtained through cheating. However, his current level of Aura cultivation is the lowest.

Unfortunately, Ash has received absolutely no guidance on the Aura path and is still figuring things out on his own.

In contrast, although few people possess superpowers, they have become a systematic force. Ash not only has renowned teachers like Sabrina and Alakazam, but he can also pull out various teaching materials from beginner to advanced levels.

As for the power of Viridian, it is a pure enlightenment. As long as Ash maintains kindness towards all things in the world, his power will grow on its own.

To put it simply, it's about mutual support and reciprocity—Ash even used this empathetic approach to successfully defeat Mewtwo!

Therefore, the power of Viridian is now Ash's strongest power, and under its subtle influence, Pikachu's strength is also the strongest among all the main characters!

Ash now realizes that the difficulty in cultivating Aura lies in the fact that, in addition to the requirements of qualities and awareness such as 'hero', it also requires systematic training.

However, Ash didn't have any instruction manuals at all, except for a few clips from the movies that reminded him that Lucario could cosplay as Lee Sin.

Neither Ash's Sinnoh Aura Master nor the Lucario Kingdom intended to provide Ash with a training program.

However, this is understandable. The person who sent the egg over only wanted Ash to help hatch it, and then used Ash's status as a second-generation official to get involved in the vetting process, so as to protect Riolu and help it grow up safely.

Besides that, the only place Ash could think of was Ordron City.

There's a small kingdom under Kanto's jurisdiction where a Lucario has been sealed away for a thousand years; it might be able to offer some training experience... but Ash hasn't decided yet whether to go there early.

In short, it's a real dilemma. Ash and Lucario can only try different methods on their own now.

For example, Ash has been training in Fighting techniques because he wants to explore the relationship between the "Aura" that fighters always talk about and Aura.

As for Lucario, Ash decided to let it try the Haki route first... Although it's a bit of a crossover, the general system is really very similar.

Aura Insight is Observation Haki, and that counterattack just now was Armament Haki... I guess so~

...

During the ten-minute break, Ash and Lucario were studying the training of Aura Power. Just as they were making some progress, they discovered that Gary on the other side had not left the field either.

He seemed to be reviewing the previous duel, and a puzzled expression remained on his face.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Ash asked curiously.

"Thinking about the battle just now, I feel like there are many aspects that I didn't do well enough," Xiao Mao said with frustration.

"Your tactics are good, but they're too complicated to execute." In front of the audience, Xiao Zhi chatted leisurely with his best friend, even having the leisure to point out the flaws in his opponent's tactics.

"With rock bolts, baton relays, and space creation involved, there are too many steps involved, making it easy for mistakes to occur during the operation."

In the first half of the match, Gary's biggest problem was that he was greedy and always wanted to come up with a perfect strategy that Ash couldn't counter.

So he sent out Golem to set up entry hazards, had Umbreon use Curse to take over, and even had Exeggutor create Trick Room for Marowak... All of this was to at least catch Lucario in Trick Room, and then continue repeating the process to target Ash's other handy items.

This tactic is indeed sophisticated, but it is so interconnected that if any one link goes wrong, the entire system will collapse!

"Shigeru, whether a tactic is good or not depends mainly on its ease of execution, besides its benefits," Ash offered his opinion. "Field, weather, space... these are all tactics that can be used, but truly good tactics are never too complicated."

To put it bluntly, the essence of tactics is simply to create an advantage, so that even without using tactics, one's partner can still launch a mindless attack.

"Understood." Gary humbly accepted Ash's guidance.

Besides being rivals, they are also friends who grew up together. Now that Ash has surpassed him, Gary naturally doesn't mind taking fewer detours.

This is also a way to close the gap as quickly as possible, isn't it?

The two chatted idly for a while under the watchful eyes of everyone. Ten minutes passed quickly, and Xiao Mao's eyes were no longer confused, but once again showed a sharp fighting spirit!

This is right!

Defeating such an opponent is what gives Ash a greater sense of accomplishment!

"Alakazam, I'm counting on you for the rest of the battle!" Ash sent out his Psychic-type champion as soon as the second half began.

"It's your turn to enter the arena, my strongest weapon, Scyther!" Gary sent out his longest-serving Bug Fighter, which was also the last Pokémon he would use in this match.

"Heh, it really is Scyther." Ash wasn't surprised by this result, and he also approved of Gary's choice.

"This is my strongest lineup right now!" Gary said seriously. "A Pokémon that can't follow its trainer's commands, no matter how strong, can't be put on the field! I won't try to win with power I can't control!"

He was referring to Aerodactyl from Big Fool Valley, which is the strongest Pokémon Gary has.

But as he said, Gary would never send that still wild and untamed Pokémon to fight in a standard battle!