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Speaking of Greninja's performance in internal battles, it could only be described in four words: "Absolutely loathed!"
Every Pokémon that battled against it said the same thing, because every battle turned into a game of hide-and-seek. No matter who you were, you just had to search.
This was true even for Mo Ye and his Pokémon, as well as Mewtwo. Under Concealment, all were equal.
Of course, not everyone was willing to play hide-and-seek. Those Pokémon far stronger than Greninja usually just tore down the entire stage.
Therefore, using wide-range moves against him became the first choice.
Incineroar and Lucario went without saying. The reason Greninja couldn't leverage Concealment to achieve the highest win rate was partly due to them.
Corviknight had no way to deal with Greninja. It would start the battle by loudly cursing and using Taunt, but couldn't overpower Camouflage either, so it couldn't lock onto Greninja. Thus, it couldn't be bothered to search anymore, relying on Metal Sound followed by Hurricane. Since it knew it couldn't find him, why bother searching?
After all, Greninja didn't have any super-effective moves against it, neither Fire-type nor Electric-type moves.
So be it if his invisibility could last the entire battle without ending, but he couldn't use it twice anyway.
The battle between Corviknight and Greninja became a war of attrition. The former relied on its ability to recover, while the latter relied on not being discovered, moving about frantically.
In the end, Greninja won more often because Corviknight's Hurricane didn't really deal much damage.
Meanwhile, Greninja's same-type Water Pulse packed at least some punch. He would let down his guard by deactivating Concealment, then work hard to spray a few more times after reactivating it, and Corviknight would be just about done.
Corviknight's battle experience was utterly dreadful. As a companion, it could still be unable to find Greninja's location even after losing the ability to fight.
Against Rotom, both sides had a very straightforward approach: be the first to Taunt the opponent.
Both were Pokémon that relied heavily on status moves. Once Taunted, their strength was basically cut in half.
If Greninja got Taunted, the only outcome was being chased into a corner by Rotom using Discharge for some electrotherapy. If Rotom got Taunted, it could practically say goodbye. There was no fundamental gap between them.
Their win rates were around fifty-fifty, depending mainly on who Taunted whom first.
The situation was slightly uninteresting.
Against Metagross, he generally played hide-and-seek with it as well. With Miracle Eye in play, Dark-type moves were useless.
The versatile move Psychic was also great for detection. However, a nimble opponent made it unable to properly set up, only able to use moves in a standard fashion.
This was fatal.
To take down Metagross, Greninja usually bombarded it with Dark Pulse, often using three of them simultaneously.
Metagross frequently blocked them with a Reflect. Both sides were competing on their reserves of type energy. Unfortunately, Metagross's level was lower than Greninja's, so its total reserve was slightly inferior.
If it couldn't catch the real Greninja before its energy ran out, the match could be declared over. Therefore, Greninja had a slightly higher win rate.
As for the final one, Aegislash... this guy couldn't effectively use its talent—Forme Change. It simply couldn't find Greninja, so naturally, there was no question of taking him down.
The sweeping circle of Sacred Sword had no effect on Greninja using Shadow Sneak. It often couldn't resist attacking, happily hitting a useless Substitute instead.
The result, naturally, was falling to Greninja's triple Dark Pulse.
It was also the one who hated hide-and-seek the most.
Next was Li Xiang, because he was genuinely worried that one day he wouldn't be able to find this guy. Even if it was right in front of him, he might not see it, hear it, smell it, or even sense it.
He couldn't imagine that scene.
"Greninja!" he couldn't help but call out loudly.
"Ninja?" Greninja, trying to act cool, spat out a twig and came before him, confused.
Li Xiang knocked on its head. "Don't eat random things."
"Ninja." Greninja narrowed its eyes, knowing full well he was just picking a fight. It couldn't resist licking Li Xiang's face with its tongue, then turned and ran.
It didn't activate Concealment or Camouflage, just ran away happily, seemingly wanting him to chase it.
Watching Greninja's retreating figure, Li Xiang breathed a small sigh of relief.
...….
After noon, Mewtwo returned, carrying a large pile of fresh fruits and vegetables, along with Moomoo Milk.
The quality of Mist Island's Moomoo Milk was incredibly high and had always been a favorite of Incineroar and the others. Even without any further processing, it was delicious beyond belief.
Corviknight was the fastest to dash forward, its two legs swinging wildly, its momentum the most fierce, its eyes sparkling like twinkling stars.
It looked just like a Husky that had spotted a meaty bone.
Li Xiang remembered that back at the Qingcheng Conservation Base, it had confidently declared it would be the star of victory and reach the highest peak.
Now it had turned into the star of foul language. Quite a change.
"Don't spill it." Mewtwo placed the iron bucket in front of Corviknight.
Corviknight lowered its head, picked it up in its beak, and carefully brought it to Li Xiang, who was preparing ingredients.
"Thank you." Li Xiang took the milk. He planned to make hand-pulled noodles today and mix the milk and berries together as a dessert.
"You don't have to come back every night. It's still early outside."
"Boring, so I came back." Mewtwo caught Lucario's punch with one hand, flicked its wrist, and sent it flying.
At the same time, its eyes lit up, and a large pupil image appeared behind it, freezing Incineroar in place.
For Mewtwo with its limitless energy, even without Miracle Eye, it could achieve its goal by restraining the air around its target. Too simple.
Incineroar struggled but found it couldn't break free from Mewtwo's restraint. Dejected, it gave up resisting, its arms and legs hanging limply.
Behind Mewtwo, Metagross, which had been trying to sneak attack with its claws raised, got its head smashed by a wave of terrifying energy, its body driven into the ground with a loud bang.
"Too much noise. Next time, remember to be more stealthy." It looked at Metagross and at Greninja, who had revealed itself on top of Metagross.
Not far away, the two Ghost-types exchanged glances and gave up on the idea of charging in to be defeated.
"Cawww, Cawww, Cawww!"
But the furious Corviknight, seeing half its companions taken down, charged over howling—while running.
Li Xiang watched its back and thought to himself that he should just pluck this guy's wings. After all, it was supposed to be a Flying-type Pokémon.
"Reckless but brave." Mewtwo had a decent impression of this Corviknight because Li Xiang had scolded it severely for trying to imitate its way of speaking.
After the scolding, Li Xiang had comforted it for a long time.
Mewtwo really liked that feeling of being cared for, so it went a little easier on Corviknight, merely pushing its entire head into the ground.
"Next time, remember to charge in with your move already activated, not activate it after you charge in." It stepped on this Corviknight's head and said softly.
In the distance, Li Xiang twitched his mouth. Unbidden, information about Corviknight came to mind.
Pokémon: Corviknight
Gender: Male
Level: 58
Ability: Mirror Armor
Type: Flying, Steel
Height: 234cm
Moves: Tailwind, Protect, Drill Peck, Sky Attack, Brave Bird, Bulk Up, Hurricane, Sleep Talk
Dual Wingbeat, Taunt, Scary Face, Heavy Slam, Defog, Agility, U-turn Iron Defense, Body Press, Substitute, Reflect, Light Screen, Screech, Metal Sound, Steel Wing, Iron Head, Roost
As a Pokémon that only appeared in the eighth generation, Corviknight's move pool was truly limited, and useful moves were few.
Barely, it could be said to have no coverage blind spots.
Its level growth rate was also one level per month, having already been unable to widen the gap with Incineroar and the others; everyone was gradually catching up.
This was inevitable, as leveling up slowed down more and more later on. The experience candies taken were of the Flying type; what was lacking was supplemented with Steel-type candies.
Steel-type candies were truly the most sought-after, but fortunately, the deficit wasn't too large.
The candies consumed this time made this bird, who lived to take hits, even tankier, allowing it to endure even moves that were super effective against it. It could even dare to receive Incineroar's Fire-type moves before counterattacking with Body Press.
Unfortunately, Incineroar had high offense and strong staying power, while Corviknight had strong staying power but much weaker offense.
It couldn't outmatch Brother Incineroar.
Still, it was one of the few in the team who dared to clash head-on with Incineroar in a passionate, one-on-one man-to-man battle.
The other was Metagross, who loved to run down opponents, and Incineroar used it to practice stopping high-speed trains.
Regarding moves, most had no special changes, except that when Corviknight used Brave Bird while grounded, the sky-blue flames always burned more intensely. Quite strange.
Additionally, the charge time for Sky Attack was reduced to an acceptable range, usable when at a distance.
This move was flashy, powerful, and had no side effects, so it would be a shame not to use it.
Taunt went without saying. Cursing was ingrained in Corviknight's soul; it would feel terrible all over if it went a day without it.
When enraged, it would even dare to yell at Mewtwo. Of course, it could also shrink back quickly enough when needed.
Its success rate was extremely high, making it the undisputed king of Taunt. Compared to it, Incineroar and Rotom were not even a ten-thousandth as good.
Greninja never competed with it over who could use Taunt, knowing it couldn't win, so it didn't bother doing something so pointless.
The king of trash talk was terrifying; any support Pokémon that relied on status moves would probably cry upon encountering it.
Now, even Magic Bounce probably couldn't stop it.
Then there was the same old Tailwind; no command was needed, just come out and use Tailwind immediately.
It wasn't as proficient with screen moves as Rotom, but occasionally it could be useful.
U-turn wasn't used very often; the fact that contact was required to switch out was quite fatal. However, it could be surprisingly effective in certain situations.
Iron Head was used more frequently. Recently, Corviknight had been considering whether to have Li Xiang weld a ram onto its forehead, like Aggron.
As for Steel Wing, it was a land-walking miracle move, because with Dual Wingbeat, the spread range was enormous, but unfortunately, it was still a contact move.
Defog was often used to clear fog. Few people in this world used entry hazards; Li Xiang had rarely encountered them.
After all, move slots were unlimited, and Defog wasn't a particularly rare move.
Iron Defense was good for blocking Flare Blitz; Corviknight had used Protect and Iron Defense to block it several times.
Body Press was a move whose power, enhanced by candies, was comparable to same-type attacks.
It was immensely powerful; even Lucario and Greninja dared not take it head-on, and Incineroar cried out in pain when hit by it.
Unfortunately, its usage was essentially suicidal.
Bulk Up could compensate for Corviknight's offensive shortcomings and also make its defense even more exaggerated.
When Incineroar used Bulk Up, its body would swell and steam would pour out.
Corviknight only had a red mist shimmer on its body's surface. The gap was too large, and Corviknight was very dissatisfied, wanting to also swell up and emit steam.
These were roughly the commonly used moves.
As for its Ability, it was already perfected. Whether it was Ice Beam or Solar Beam, they definitely went right back where they came from.
Even Mewtwo, caught off guard, almost suffered a loss. Li Xiang had tricked it into using Ice Beam on Corviknight.