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The electricity released by the Galarian Meowth undoubtedly startled Riolu.
While it wasn't injured, this level of power was by no means ordinary.
Riolu couldn't help but shout, "Keep going! You think this tickling attack can hurt me?"
On the other side, the dazed-looking Galarian Meowth's eyes brightened slightly. The black coin on its forehead glowed, then shot out a large number of energy coins toward Riolu!
Pay Day!
The metallic coins clinked and clattered crisply in mid-air!
Unfortunately, while this move looked flashy, it didn't have much power. Riolu even felt like crouching down to pick up the coins to examine them.
When the glowing white coins hit its body, Riolu also had the feeling the Meowth was shouting, "I've got plenty of money!"
Hmm... maybe it had watched too many soap operas.
It swatted away the coins that would disappear after a while.
Speaking of which, Li Xiang had always complained about why this move couldn't produce real gold coins, saying something about how it could in the original work, and how he had tortured Incineroar over it for a long time.
Day and night, studying Pay Day, thinking about getting rich.
Even though Riolu already thought Li Xiang was quite wealthy.
"Useless. Change moves. Use your lightning!"
Riolu shook off the distractions in its mind, strangely questioning why it was getting distracted during a battle.
That was way too disrespectful to its opponent.
At that moment, as if understanding Riolu's words, the Galarian Meowth's face finally changed.
Its brows furrowed, face tightened, making an expression that seemed like a smile but sent chills down the spine.
Its malt-colored eyes were full of cold intensity, like a machine operating at its limit!
Blinding lightning erupted again, transforming into countless thin lightning snakes coiling around its body, emitting crackling bursts!
Its eyes shone with shimmering blue electric light, converging with the lightning around its body like a thunder god descending!
Finally, its six slender, dark claws were wrapped in lightning, transforming into two huge lightning balls that smashed down toward Riolu!
This?
"Too slow, too slow! No good, no good!"
Riolu danced with brown-glowing fists, continuously blocking the currents released by the Galarian Meowth.
Although this looked like a physical move, it was still a Special Attack move.
Riolu's body had clearly fed this information back to it.
After that set, Riolu was unharmed.
It thought the Meowth would be surprised, but it remained completely unmoved. Finding Shadow Claw ineffective, it lifted its leg and forcefully kicked toward Riolu's face!
Thud!
A dull sound!
The Galarian Meowth was sent flying, spinning in the air, landing nimbly.
Riolu blocked with its arms before it, looking through the gap—
Huh?
On the flat ground, a speeding silver spiral suddenly appeared, moving extremely fast, almost in the blink of an eye reaching before it.
Riolu took a breath, stepped back, brown-red light lit up at its claw area, and it lightly threw a punch.
Power-Up Punch.
Thud!
Even without any boosts and using a low-power move, Riolu's output was still high enough that the Galarian Meowth couldn't handle it.
Although Gyro Ball reduced some of the force, the remaining energy still sent the Meowth flying high into the air. With a splat, it spread its limbs and fell to the ground like a spread-out pancake.
'Good grief, that was loud.'
Riolu couldn't bear to watch.
The surrounding cheers also gradually faded.
Fortunately, the Steel-type Galarian Meowth wasn't badly hurt. It stood up with a nosebleed, its expression still dazed, as if it had just woken up.
'This guy is a bit interesting.'
Riolu smiled. Others might not see it, but it wouldn't mistake the feeling of the punch it threw itself.
Just now, it had first hit the fluffy fur on the Meowth's chest, then its body.
The force had been attenuated again.
The Meowth looked like it fell miserably, but in reality, it didn't take much damage at all.
Judgment, attack power, move chaining, and physical reaction ability were all top-notch.
Plus, that clearly abnormal lightning earlier. Enough to be called exceptionally talented.
'This guy isn't as dumb as it looks when fighting. Great wisdom appears foolish?'
Thinking this, when the Galarian Meowth charged again, Riolu had seen what it wanted to see and didn't plan to continue fighting this cat.
A crystal clear Aura Sphere went with the wind.
The Meowth tried to dodge, but it clearly had no concept of Aura. Thinking it had dodged, it didn't notice the Aura Sphere turn around behind it and strike its back.
This time, without any room for cushioning, it had no stamina left to stand and dutifully collapsed.
"Go help it up."
Riolu said to the few Meowth nearby.
Those Meowth only then reacted and went to help the Galarian Meowth.
"What's up with its lightning? Natural talent? The power clearly doesn't belong to its current level."
Riolu went straight to the Meowstic and asked directly.
"Uh, about that... you'd have to ask it itself."
The Meowstic instinctively wanted to brush it off, but Absol's words flashed in its mind: these two are trustworthy, should be treated as one of their own, and should be wooed.
Seeing Riolu's "are you kidding me" look, the Meowstic had no choice but to look around, confirming no one was paying attention here before leading Riolu to a small grove behind the rock forest.
"Hmm... I can only say I don't know much. You really have to ask Ah-dai itself. Besides it, no one knows the specifics."
The Meowstic let out a long sigh and said, "I remember it was last year, during a thunderstorm, Ah-dai suddenly ran out from home, disappearing. We searched for a long time and finally found Ah-dai in a tree hollow, but that tree had already been scorched by lightning."
"Scorched by lightning?"
"Right. The entire canopy was burning, a huge, huge fire. We found Ah-dai under that tree. At that time, its whole body had blue electricity jumping over it. No cat dared to get close. We had to ask a friendly Quagsire to move it back."
The Meowstic looked at the Galarian Meowth, who seemed to have recovered in the distance, and continued, "When it woke up, we asked why it went out. It said it saw a very big cat and had a sudden idea."
"Then?"
"Then, halfway through chasing it, it was attacked by lightning from the sky. When it woke up, it was when we rescued it."
"What did that big cat look like? Does it remember?"
"Couldn't get it to tell us."
Not that it didn't know, but that it couldn't get it to tell.
Riolu fell into deep thought. "So, its unusual lightning was produced after being struck by lightning?"
"Right. It directly knew Thunderbolt and Thunder. We couldn't figure it out either."
The Meowstic shrugged. "Maybe this counts as a blessing in disguise? Anyway, the lightning didn't make it smarter. The conservation base didn't find any problems during examination either, so we didn't pay much attention."
The lightning was stronger but still limited. It still consumed attribute energy, couldn't let it jump dozens of levels, could only bully its peers...
Hmm?
"Was its previous opponent seriously injured by its lightning strike?" Riolu seemed to realize something and asked.
The Meowstic showed a "the student is teachable" expression. "Correct."
The opponent was a Midday Lycanroc, a Rock-type Pokémon, seriously injured by a single Thunder from the Galarian Meowth, unable to get out of bed for a week.
Hmm, very reasonable.
But Riolu was still curious about what Pokémon the Meowth saw that day and why it became like this.
"Too bad, communication is an issue."
Riolu looked at the Galarian Meowth in the distance, its expression vacant again, always feeling an uncomfortable sensation like playing a puzzle and finding a piece missing.
Just as it planned to go find Incineroar, in the distance, commotion came from the Savage Hounds Gang's side.
It seemed something was making a fuss.
A cat ran over and said something to the Meowstic by its ear with a rather complicated expression.
Riolu heard clearly: something about the "Eight Pups of the Savage Hounds Gang" being released early too.
'Eight Pups of the Savage Hounds Gang? What's that!
"They are the eight officers of the Savage Hounds Gang, all Eevee evolutions. They are the mainstays of the Savage Hounds Gang. Four of them are above level 60..."
The Meowstic looked at the Savage Hounds Gang's territory, its face uncertain whether happy or worried. "They've run into Houndoom."
...
Indeed.
At this moment, Houndoom was surrounded by eight fox-like dogs that looked extremely cute and adorable.
"You still want to quibble! Thievul has already told us all about your good deeds! Ungrateful hound!"
The leading Umbreon growled, "Wolfish ambition! Heartless! Acting in collusion!"
The seven siblings behind crazily egged it on.
Houndoom, meanwhile, looked at these miscellaneous Eevees with a grim expression.
It couldn't believe it. The Galarian Meowth being released early was one thing, but these eight were also released early.
'Why? Just because they're cute?'
'Being cute means everything before can be treated as if nothing happened?'
'Director Grandpa, you've really screwed me over! Give me two more days, and all these guys' underlings would have been my underlings!'
'And that damn Thievul! Actually feigned surrender!'
Thinking this, Houndoom put on a smile. "Boss Umbreon, you can't listen to its one-sided story. What kind of character is Thievul, don't you know?"
"This guy is full of lies, shirking and scheming. I wanted it to work diligently, so it framed me!"
"Boss! You can't listen to its nonsense!"
A completely crimson big fox with a face that seemed to wear glasses, looking dishonest, ran out and said excitedly, "I, Thievul, might love being lazy a little, but I would never lie about something like this!
"This guy, while you were confined, started frantically coercing and enticing us, saying stuff like 'The Fox Faction is dead! The Dog Faction rises! Surrender early! Enjoy eternal peace!'. It has ulterior motives toward Boss Zoroark! A traitorous official!"
"Hey! Can't talk nonsense!"
Houndoom shouted loudly, cutting off Thievul's words, "What Fox Faction, Dog Faction! Sheer nonsense! I never said such things!"
"Now you don't admit it?" Thievul looked indignant and resentful. In the days Umbreon and the others weren't around, under the oppression of these dog faction members, it could be said to have endured humiliation to accomplish a task.
Every day was miserable patrol duty, couldn't even slack off!
Without thinking, it took out key evidence from its fluffy big tail.
'A—recording pen!?'
"All bosses, my conversations with it are all here—"
Boom!
A flicker of flame flew over, instantly blasting this recording pen.
And the one releasing the flame was none other than Houndoom, who had just been arguing passionately.
Now, it held its head high, expression cold and arrogant.
Seeing this, Umbreon and the others... how could they not understand the situation and couldn't help but growl at Houndoom.
"Hmph, as expected, fox breeds are fox breeds, cunning as ghosts, not trustworthy. But no matter. Right now, I'm the biggest here."
Houndoom looked at the eight Eeveelutions before it. "It's time to bring out the Savage Hounds Gang's most primitive rule: the capable rise, the weak fall! I challenge all you Eeveelutions!"
There was a rule in the Savage Hounds Gang: the strongest becomes the leader, the weak become vassals of the strong.
This was instinct ingrained in their genes.
The superior completely dominates the inferior.
And for "fairness", the dog with the highest status present needed to arbitrate.
Right now, as the highest-ranking officer, Houndoom was the biggest, so naturally, whatever it said went.
"Hmph, a bunch of females thinking of overturning the heavens." Houndoom licked the corner of its mouth and said in a low voice.
The surrounding big and small dogs also, with indifferent expressions, surrounded Umbreon and the others.
Not far away, the female Arcanine glanced at the back of Houndoom's head, thought about it, and decided not to hit it from behind.