"This Totem Kommo-o has too much of an advantage in battles between Fighting-type Pokémon!"
Seeing Kommo-o in the field, whose blows made the ground tremble with every impact, the faces of all the competitors twitched.
In battles between Fighting-type Pokémon, the most common thing was fist-to-fist duels.
But in front of this terrifying beast five meters tall, added to Kommo-o's already fearsome scales...
How were they supposed to fight against that?
"How could a monster like this appear in this edition?"
In the guest area, the old dojo leaders had very unpleasant expressions.
Originally, they had all planned to use this combat competition as a stage for their disciples to show themselves well.
But now, it seemed that their disciples' first battle was completely a joke. On the contrary, it only served to highlight the opponent's strength.
"It seems that, in the Fighting-type Pokémon test of the type battles of the World Championship, this time there will be another strong contender for the slot," said a dojo leader, frowning.
In previous editions, the Fighting-type event within the type battles of the World Championship had practically been monopolized by the Trainers of Battle City.
But in this edition, Ethan had suddenly appeared, and that really gave them an enormous headache.
"His Kommo-o is certainly strong, but compared with the Fighting-type Elite of our Battle City, it is still far too far away," said the lord of Battle City.
"The Fighting-type Elite... that is certainly true."
"But each type event has three participants."
"Now there is still around a year before the official selection of slots for the World Championship."
"By then, relying on this Kommo-o, he will still be able to compete for that slot."
The other dojo leaders nodded. Looking at the Kommo-o in the field, even they felt quite a bit of pressure.
However, when they thought of the strength of those excellent disciples who had emerged in previous editions, their brows relaxed a little.
It seemed that the competition for the slots of the Fighting-type event in the type battles of the World Championship, one year from now, would be worth watching.
...
In the field, the battle did not last long before ending.
Without any doubt, after gradually mastering its own body, Kommo-o showed an overwhelming advantage.
In a competition whose main goal was to train young people, having a competitor of Ethan's level participate was truly bullying the others a little.
"The opponents are too weak."
With the closing of the Martial Arts Tournament, Ethan slowly sighed.
After reaching his level, that kind of battle had already lost meaning.
Although this time he had participated in the tournament only to make Kommo-o adapt to its body, the effect only reached a certain point.
For Kommo-o to obtain true training, it would have to face Quasi-Elite-level Pokémon.
...
Several days later, Ethan returned to Solaria Town.
Nowadays, Solaria Town, that small town located near Ironvale City, had already developed into a themed town centered on tourism and leisure.
At Solaria Town's Solar Farm.
Countless Grass-type Pokémon gathered in groups.
Under the effect of the move Grassy Terrain, terrifying natural energy condensed in the place.
In the center of the field, a figure stood upright. In front of that figure, an energy sphere condensed, while a faint green light enveloped its whole body.
That Pokémon was precisely Ethan's Cacturne. As the move Energy Ball became more and more powerful, its control over life energy also became stronger.
A Pokémon that mastered life energy possessed extraordinary attraction to Grass-type energy. Perhaps it was because the essence of Grass-type energy and life energy was similar; between the two, there vaguely existed a very close connection.
After Ethan established the research institute centered on life energy, some principles about the conversion between life energy and Grass-type energy were also included as research topics.
After Cacturne learned the move Energy Ball and obtained a certain ability to control life energy, its mastery over Grass-type moves also increased considerably.
Now, Cacturne could use the move Energy Ball to guide other Grass-type Pokémon to condense and absorb life energy, making the life energy of all Solaria Town reach a very dense level.
Although a normal person could not feel that life energy, imperceptibly it exerted a great influence on their bodies.
For example, some elderly people who were originally quite weak now had much stronger bodies, making Solaria Town seem to have become a sacred place of recovery.
"The Gracidea flowers are about to bloom."
At that moment, Ethan was standing in front of a sea of flowers.
Thanks to Cacturne's infusion of life energy, those Gracidea flowers were growing very well.
From the buds that were about to open, it could be seen that there was not much time left before those Gracidea flowers bloomed.
"Will Shaymin appear?"
Ethan murmured, raising his gaze toward the sky.
When the sea of Gracidea flowers bloomed, Shaymin would fly over the flower field.
Precisely because he knew that legend, he had cultivated such a large sea of Gracidea flowers.
Of course, this sea of Gracidea flowers was only one of the many uses Ethan gave to life energy.
Now, with the specific research into the different aspects of life energy, the improvement of his Pokémon was enormous.
Among them, Cacturne and Lucario specialized in cultivating life energy, and they were also the ones who obtained the greatest benefits.
"Perhaps we can already begin attempting autonomous Mega Evolution training."
Ethan reflected. Although the research on life energy had not yet reached the stage of Mega Evolution.
But Lucario, relying on the power of aura, had long ago begun exploring the process of change in life energy during Mega Evolution.
As long as it could autonomously master the changes in life energy that occurred during Mega Evolution, it could successfully imitate them through its control of life energy and thereby complete an autonomous Mega Evolution.
On this point, legendary Pokémon such as Latias, Latios, and Diancie could achieve it, and what they relied on was precisely the control of life energy possessed by legendary Pokémon.
Besides that, Ethan had also not neglected Swinub's training.
Since capturing that Swinub that mastered the Rock-type Hidden Power move, he had sent it to train in front of the sealed stone door.
In front of the sealed stone door, Rock-type energy was extremely dense. In addition, on the sealed stone door there also vaguely existed Regirock's ancient aura, something very beneficial for training the move Ancient Power.
Now, after this period of training, Swinub had already successfully evolved into Piloswine, and its understanding of the move Ancient Power had also progressed.
As long as Piloswine's strength increased a little more and at the same time understood the move Ancient Power, then it could attempt to evolve into Mamoswine.
(End of chapter)