Dark extended his hand and lifted Little Eevee onto his knees, habitually scratching the skin beneath its chin, before using Normal Summoning to activate [Pride III].
The crest of [Pride] was the red of the sun, but after being refined into a card, it appeared dark gold, and the light it emitted was of the same color.
The light of [Pride II] tended more towards black, appearing deeper.
The light of [Pride III], however, tended more towards gold, appearing more brilliant!
When the radiance of [Pride III] illuminated every corner of the bedroom along with the surge of magic power, all the Magic Guide Spirits were inevitably affected, their gazes looking around shifting slightly.
But among them, only DemiDevimon grinned.
"It's a familiar scent!"
...
In the center where the light converged, the crest of [Pride] slowly emerged on Eevee-chan's forehead.
It raised its head slightly, and the surrounding dark gold light converged into the crest at extreme speed.
As the light gathered, the crest grew increasingly scorching, and the golden glow became more magnificent.
Like the blazing sun, sitting high in the sky, overlooking the day.
Suddenly, the golden light erupted.
From top to bottom, it completely covered Eevee-chan's body.
Its form underwent a change within the golden light that could be called drastic!
Its rounded limbs became slender.
Its fluffy tail forked at the end.
The golden light gradually dispersed.
A small feline animal, even more petite than Sylveon, came into view.
Eevee → Espeon.
"As expected, it's Espeon!"
Espeon, resembling a purple spirit, became even more slender after evolution.
Its entire body was covered in soft, fine purple short fur, possessing a velvet-like touch. It is said that it can rely on its body hair to sense the flow of air, thereby detecting changes in weather and the movements of opponents.
A red gemstone was embedded in its forehead, and its slender cat tail forked at the end, looking just like the Nekomata of legend.
If one observed carefully, one would discover that inside the gemstone, the crest of [Pride] was faintly preserved.
To understand the changes in Espeon more clearly, Dark had already retrieved Eevee-chan's Magic Guide Card.
He immediately injected a wisp of magic power and received the information feedback.
...
[Card Name: Magic Beast (Espeon)][Type: Spirit Card][Level: ????][Race: Animal species][Attribute: Psychic-type][Magic: 2000][Attack: 1700][Defense: 900][Ultimate: Magic Mirror, Confusion, Future Sight]
...
"Sure enough, three skills."
The evolved Espeon was, as expected, a four-star orange card.
A Magic Power value at the peak of four stars, along with barely acceptable Attack and Defense stats, gave this Magic Guide Card its own statistical characteristics.
But beyond the surface data, Espeon possessed extraordinary agility and speed.
And the three Ultimates it mastered...
Honestly speaking, they were all god-tier skills!
The Ultimate born from its hidden ability—[Magic Mirror]—was a passive skill that could be called a BUG!
[Magic Mirror: When present on the field, the user is continuously in a magic reflection state, nullifying partial status-changing skills directed at the user and reflecting them back to the skill user!]
The so-called status-changing skills referred to skills that did not directly deal damage to the opponent but instead inflicted abnormal conditions or status changes, thereby altering the opponent's stats or state.
The simplest example: Bastemon's [Confusion] belonged to status-changing skills!
Virt's [Forbidden Love].
Emma's [Golden Treasure Chest].
The Sphinx Cat's [Shadow Tag].
These all fell within the category of status-changing skills!
This meant that Espeon, permanently equipping the passive skill [Magic Mirror], could be completely unaffected by these powerful moves, and could even reflect them back!
For first-year students who lacked curse-breaking methods, a Magic Guide Spirit possessing this skill was simply the nemesis of the hard-control faction!
...
Dark lowered his head to look at Espeon curled up on his knees, gently stroking the smooth short fur on its back, feeling slightly puzzled.
A Magic Guide Spirit evolved under the effect of [Pride III] should theoretically be more active.
For example, climbing to the top of the cat tree and shouting something like, "I am the great shining star..." or whatever.
It was truly rare for one to have such a mild reaction like this Espeon.
But from an angle he couldn't detect, Espeon was squinting its eyes and glancing sideways at the other Magic Guide Spirits, the pride in its heart gradually accumulating.
Perhaps in this Espeon's eyes, his knee was the highest throne!
...
Although slightly puzzled, Dark didn't think too much about it; he focused more on Espeon's Ultimates.
For a Magic Guide Spirit, the Ultimates were the true soul.
A good Ultimate could completely make one overlook deficiencies in stats.
Among Espeon's three skills, besides [Magic Mirror], the others were also quite good.
The second Ultimate, [Confusion], although a Psychic-type skill with extremely low power, had great breadth in practical application.
[Confusion: Sends weak telekinetic force to attack the opponent; sometimes causes the opponent to fall into Confusion.]
It was more like the telekinesis of a psychic; not only could it be used to attack, but it could also be used normally to move objects!
More importantly, it had no CD, only a continuous consumption of magic power when used.
This offered a huge advantage.
And the third Ultimate, [Future Sight], was literally a Special Move that could be deeply developed!
[Future Sight: Foresee the future, causing the designated field to fall into a future attack state. After 30 seconds, the future attack state is lifted, and opponents in the designated field will take Psychic-type damage.]
The power of [Future Sight] was in no way inferior to [Hyper Beam].
If one disregarded the "precognition" factor and looked only at the literal description, it belonged to delayed trap-type skills.
Setting a trap 30 seconds in advance, which erupts 30 seconds later, causing unavoidable area-of-effect damage to the enemy.
In special scenarios, this Ultimate could often produce unexpected results.
For instance, letting Espeon release [Future Sight] and then sacrificing it—the Magic Guide Spirit summoned by the opponent 30 seconds later would still be hit by the attack of [Future Sight].
...
On the other hand, [Future Sight] also meant that Espeon possessed the ability of "precognition"!
If this skill could be deeply developed, it was even possible for Espeon to possess abilities like "Future Vision," relying on precognition to dodge opponent attacks in battle, thereby compensating for its defense deficiency.
Furthermore, if Espeon could learn and master more knowledge, there was a high probability it could become a genuine fortune teller, a prophet—and not one of those swindling old geezers!
...
Overall, Dark was very satisfied with Espeon's three Ultimates.
These skills, which would only be considered powerful Ultimates for ordinary Magic Guide Spirits, were symbols of super potential for a Magic Guide Spirit possessing high intelligence!
Dark was even considering: should he bring Little Eevee along to audit the Astronomy class next time?
"Ee~"
He accidentally used a bit too much force while petting the cat, and Espeon immediately issued a slight protest.
Though it sounded like a coquettish whine, one could insistently hear a trace of arrogance that said, "Below one, above ten thousand"!
"As expected, [Pride] is still Pride."
Dark instantly felt reassured.
"While there's still time, let's test the skills!"
Thinking this, Dark looked up at DemiDevimon and said, "DemiDevimon, come here."
DemiDevimon immediately tilted its head and asked, "Is it my turn? Is it so fast today?"
Although its face was full of confusion, DemiDevimon still flew to the experiment table and stood obediently.
Dark, however, took out a [Pride II] card and shot a dark gold ball of light at it.
"Just this?"
DemiDevimon shook its head, slightly dissatisfied.
"More, more!"
...
With the gradual maturation of its mind and multiple experiences of [Pride] infusion, DemiDevimon's tolerance had clearly increased.
Merely [Pride II] could no longer make it lose its composure.
Dark had noticed this issue, but this was not today's research topic.
He picked up Espeon from his knees, facing it outward, and held it with his arm.
Then he said to DemiDevimon, "Come, use [Demonic Hypnosis] on it."
"Eh? Is that really okay?"
DemiDevimon's eyes lit up, and a look of joy surfaced from the depths of its eyes.
This Eevee had been staring at it ever since evolving, and it had been unhappy about it for a while.
It never expected a heaven-sent opportunity to punish it so soon in the name of the Master!
"Isn't it just experiencing evolution in advance? What's so amazing about that? I'll show you the power of Lord DemiDevimon right now!"
Thinking this in its heart, DemiDevimon suddenly spread its wings and flew high, looking down at Espeon in Dark's arms. Its eyes suddenly widened round: "Demonic Hypnosis!"
Immediately, ripples of hypnosis were released from its eyes, circle after circle.
DemiDevimon's mouth corners curled up into a Nike shape because of this.
But in the next instant.
The hypnotic ripples that had just touched Espeon returned extremely quickly along their original path, shooting entirely toward its noggin!
"Ah!"
Caught off guard, DemiDevimon had no reaction at all and forcibly took the full brunt of its own [Demonic Hypnosis].
Its brain reeled, instantly crashing, and it fell from the air with a plop.
"Espeon, Confusion."
Espeon opened its eyes, and the red gemstone on its forehead emitted a red light.
DemiDevimon's body was scooped up the instant before it hit the ground.
But although it was in the air, it had already been hypnotized into sleep.
"Can it really be done? Using [Confusion] purely to move objects rather than attack."
Dark nodded slightly, then said, "Put DemiDevimon on the bed for now."
Although Espeon wanted to use telekinesis to lift it higher and then "accidentally" let its telekinesis fail so it would smash onto the floor even harder...
Since the Master had commanded, it could only regretfully drop the idea.
"[Magic Mirror] and [Confusion] have been tested. Next is [Future Sight]."
Dark thought for a moment and placed Espeon on the ground.
Although reluctant, Espeon landed on all fours.
Having left the Master's embrace, it held its chin high. The arrogance surging in its heart stripped away its previous humility and caution; the gaze it directed at Sylveon and Gatomon was full of cold pride and disdain.
In its past fantasies, these two Magic Guide Spirits were trash that it would defeat sooner or later.
Especially Sylveon; it was its greatest imaginary enemy!
Gatomon on the cat tree let out a slight cold snort. Being equally arrogant, it could sense Espeon's thoughts relatively clearly, but it crossed its arms, not feeling threatened.
Sylveon, on the other hand, appeared calm on the outside, only its ribbon feelers curling up and unfurling.
"Mi-yo."
(I'll deal with you tonight!)
"E-hei!"
Espeon's ears perked up abruptly, and the red jewel on its forehead was already lighting up.
But Dark's hand, pressing timely on the top of its head, made that light dim down again.
While greedily enjoying the smooth hand-feel, Dark scanned the Magic Guide Spirits one by one, finally settling on Hawlucha.
"Hawlucha, you come here a moment."
"Ha-cha!"
Hawlucha immediately spread its wings and flexed its muscles.
But Dark said, "Can you try shooting the feathers of [Feather Dance] one by one?"
Hawlucha: "Hah?"
...
The power of [Future Sight] was too great; Dark certainly couldn't test it indoors.
What he truly wanted to test was Espeon's "precognition" ability.
According to memory, Espeon could use its fine and short body hair to predict the opponent's movements from the flow of air.
But this kind of operation, which sounded very high-end, was definitely not something all Espeons could do.
However, an Espeon that had mastered [Future Sight] theoretically shouldn't have a problem.
He explained his idea once, then got up and left the spot, clearing the empty space to let Hawlucha and Espeon perform to their heart's content.
The two Magic Guide Spirits stood on the left and right.
Espeon held its head high, its temperament elegant and noble. Its long, forked tail swayed gently in the air, and the fur all over its body relaxed, sensing the flow of air.
Hawlucha was fully focused. Even if it was just an experimental spar, it would still go all out!
"Ha-cha!"
With a light shout, Hawlucha fiercely waved its wings. Several feathers condensed rapidly, and then only one shot out abruptly under its control.
The rest of the feathers fell one after another.
This was obviously a sign that its control wasn't precise enough.
But it had done its best for now.
Espeon subconsciously wanted to use [Confusion] to block the feather, but the red jewel on its forehead flashed and extinguished as the Master's words surfaced in its mind.
Subsequently, it tilted its head to the left with an extremely small amplitude. That single feather flew past the side of its slender neck, drifting to the ground as its momentum faded.
Before it could reveal a smug smile.
"Ha-cha ha-cha!"
Hawlucha had already shot out two feathers simultaneously!
[Feather Dance] had a CD; it needed to attack continuously without stopping to maintain it.
Espeon's tail swayed lightly, and it took a small jump, once again dodging the continuous shooting of two feathers with an understatement of effort.
Then Hawlucha slowly increased the quantity and speed of the feathers.
But Espeon was always able to avoid them before being hit by the feathers.
It was as if it could truly foresee the future!
________________________________________
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