I caught a Pokémon

When it's time to avoid their sharp edge, you should avoid their sharp edge.

Even in hand-to-hand combat, you can fight by circling around!

boom!

Steelix seemed to be carrying immense power as its massive body rammed into Lucario. However, as Lucario nimbly dodged, it didn't hit its intended target but instead smashed a huge rock to pieces.

Even the most solid rock appears extremely fragile under the steel head of the giant steel snake and its immense force.

Amidst the flying debris, Lucario first withdrew its strength, then unleashed a Rock Smash, its fist slamming into Steelix's side.

As a fighting-attribute move, you can tell what this move is about just from the name Rock Smash.

This is an attack method that, while dealing damage, also has a 50% chance to lower the target's defense. It can be said that it is a move that Fighting Pokémon use specifically to deal with Pokémon with high defense!

Steelix is ​​known for its extremely high physical defense!

It can be said that this is a targeted treatment.

Most importantly, although Lucario has a black dog face, it is quite lucky. So much so that its Rock Smash actually triggered the effect, reducing Steelix's defense!

This made Donggua secretly shake his head.

Lucario's good fortune is undoubtedly Steelix's misfortune.

But luck is a reflection of ability, so aside from silently cursing his bad luck, he didn't think much of it.

To be honest, this strike was quite effective against steel.

It was only because of Steelix's enormous size, excellent defense, and immense stamina that, although the Rock Smash was successfully executed, it felt somewhat ineffective.

But it doesn't matter, after all, the battle has just begun and there are plenty of opportunities, so there's no need to rush.

Under Donggua's command, Steelix began to turn its body around.

This is another weakness of Steelix.

It's just too big, and because of its size, it's not as agile as most small Pokémon.

This isn't a big deal when battling opponents of similar size, but it becomes a significant disadvantage when facing smaller Pokémon like Lucario.

If it had just bumped into Lucario, it would have been fine, but now that it has missed, it is destined to suffer another attack.

In fact, Xia You did just that.

After dodging Steelix's massive tail, which served as both a defense and an attack, Lucario spun around and landed another Rock Smash on Steelix.

This time, Steelix twisted its body in pain, which also made Donggua a little uncomfortable.

Why is this Lucario so good at dodging?

And it even dared to fight Steelix at such close range?

Even if it's a Fighting-type Pokémon, aren't you afraid of accidentally getting coiled up by a Steelix?

The question had barely formed in his mind when, based on his experience, he keenly realized that the waveguide of this Lucario must be quite powerful.

All I can say is that Donggua is indeed something special.

Even an average person, or even another gym leader, might not be able to guess the reason.

But Donggua guessed it!

And his guess was indeed correct.

Xia You's Lucario does indeed have some unusual waveguide capabilities, as can be seen from the fact that it can sense Xia You's commands without him having to speak.

While its Aura ability can't achieve the same level of precision as other Pokémon, it can still easily sense an opponent's actions a second or half a second in advance.

The development of waveguide capabilities is far from complete, and we do not yet have a full understanding of them.

It is precisely this inexplicable and mysterious power that is why Lucario is always able to dodge attacks unscathed.

Of course, even if the rock allowed Lucario to predict more in advance, it probably wouldn't be able to do it.

Even that one second or half a second is enough time for a Fighting-type Pokémon to react.

Once Donggua understood this, he realized that brute force alone wouldn't work.

"Steel Serpent, burrow underground!"

At his command, the Steelix turned and spun around, like a giant drill, quickly making a large hole in the battlefield before its entire body disappeared into it.

The enormous figure vanished completely in an instant, leaving only Lucario as the sole Pokémon on the battlefield.

Lucario shifted its gaze from the cave entrance, constantly looking around. Its dog ears stood erect, listening intently to any sound and observing the situation closely.

However, unlike its cautious demeanor, Xia You's expression was more relaxed, forming a stark contrast with his Lucario.

As someone who used to enjoy burrowing and had sparred with other trainers skilled in burrowing many times, his opponent's burrowing underground no longer caused him much of a stir.

To put it simply, the technique of drilling holes has only three uses.

The first reason is that when faced with an opponent who is too powerful, one has no choice but to go underground to avoid their sharp edge.

Secondly, we might need to pull off some unconventional tricks.

The third strategy is to burrow underground when the battle is at a stalemate, find an opening in the opponent's defenses, and then launch an attack.

In this match, Steelix undoubtedly falls into the third category.

To put it bluntly, for a Pokémon like Steelix, no matter how long it hides or how unpredictable its location, it will eventually break through the ground and launch a close-range attack.

Therefore, by observing the increasingly large tremors on the ground or the Pokémon sites that have been attacked, it is still possible to predict where Steelix might appear.

This involves a lot of experience and the trainer's judgment.

Fortunately, Xia You is one of the best among them.

Faced with this situation, he glanced at it and pointed to the highest rock in the area.

"Lucario, let's stand on higher ground!"

Chapter 1098, Lucario!

Lucario made a few leaps, stepping on the small rocks in front of him, and jumped to the top of the tallest rock in the middle of the arena.

However, although this rock is the tallest and largest stone in the entire battlefield, it is only about two meters high.

Although it's still a bit short, it's better than nothing.

After all, it's standing there, more than two meters off the ground, which gives Lucario an extra two meters of reaction time when Steelix emerges from the ground.

Most importantly, occupying the highest point makes it easier to control the situation on the entire field.

It's quite a sad state of mind that a perfectly good Steel-type Steelix, which was originally meant to rampage across the battlefield, was forced to resort to such underhanded tactics.

Oh... okay, it was forced into this situation by its own Lucario, then it's alright.

Just as Lucario stood on the rock, the entire battlefield began to tremble.

The noise caused by a behemoth over nine meters tall underground is naturally not small, especially as it gets closer to the surface, the noise will only get louder.

However, this shaking manifests differently on the ground.

Xia You's gaze swept across the battlefield.

The previous battle had caused many of the rocks on this rocky field to break, and these broken stones fell to the ground, shaking along with the ground.

It can be said that the closer the rock is to the Steelix, the more violent the vibration; conversely, the farther away the rock is from the Steelix, the smaller the vibration amplitude.

Especially those stones smaller than a coin, some of which can be shaken one or two centimeters off the ground!

Although it's still not very obvious, you can still notice it if you want to.

This is experience that Xia You himself summarized, and it is something he gradually figured out while using Pokémon that can burrow underground, or battling against other Pokémon that can burrow underground.

For example, right now, although he felt the entire battlefield was shaking slightly, he was still able to guess from this subtle change where Steelix would likely emerge.

His idea was quickly perceived by Lucario through the waveguide.

Without needing to turn around, it had already followed Xia You's gaze to the ground to the side of its body.

Sure enough, the next second, as a huge hole was torn open in the ground, Steelix burst out of the ground with tremendous force and crashed straight into Lucario's location!

The giant steel snake, its body gleaming like steel under the indoor lights, flashed by, covering the short distance in less than two seconds.

Although it seemed somewhat unexpected, Xia You and Lucario had actually anticipated it.

This allowed Lucario to easily dodge what seemed like a dangerous collision once again.

boom!

Although Steelix failed to hit its target, it smashed the rock that Lucario had just been standing on to pieces. Seeing that its attack had failed, it burrowed into the ground again, its massive form disappearing in a flash.

Donggua and Xiaoyao had different thoughts about Lucario successfully dodging the attack.

One felt sorry for Xia You, while the other was happy for her. Although they had different perspectives on the matter, they both shared the same thought: Lucario's escape this time was probably just a fluke.

From their perspective, Lucario had not only failed to receive instructions from its trainer but was also occupying the highest position in the arena, which is why they gave it time to warn them.

But now that the tallest rock has been smashed, it's probably impossible to dodge like that again.

Both of them indeed shared this view.

Under their watchful eyes, Steelix's second ground-breaking impact had already begun.

However, to their surprise once again, Lucario narrowly dodged the attack, and Steelix still failed to hit it!

Not only that, but because he dodged even faster, Lucario also delivered a chop to Steelix's body as it brushed past him!

This surprised both Donggua and Xiaoyao.

Actually, despite the fact that one of them is a Steelix user and the other has been traveling for so long, they haven't actually discovered a way to predict Steelix's actions by observing the vibrations of ground debris.

It's not that they're stupid, it's just that they simply didn't think of it.

Although this may sound simple, in the heat of battle, everyone's attention is drawn to the Pokémon, so who would bother with such a small thing?

Only someone as meticulous as Xia You could do that.

After dodging twice and retaliating once in between, Donggua realized that something was wrong.

However, the fact that he actually mastered the method of evasion was merely a coincidence; he still needed to observe more.

Could it be sensed through waveguides?

After all, this directly determines the way we fight next, so we must make a careful decision.

The giant steel snake burrowed underground again.

However, this time it did not come out immediately, but moved quickly underground, intending to confuse Lucario's judgment.

Lucario's gaze followed the vibration as it moved.

Wherever Steelix moves, its gaze naturally follows.

This plunged Donggua's heart into despair.

Although he was a trainer, he couldn't pinpoint the location of Steelix after it went underground. But the performance of this Lucario gave him a strong premonition.

That means it must know where Steelix is!

That's incredible!

How did you do that?!

Unable to contain his curiosity, he looked up at Xia You, about to ask a question, but before he could speak, he saw that the young man opposite him was also looking around the room, and he was startled again!

Even if he didn't understand, he immediately realized that this man must have discovered something too!

Could it be that this person and their Pokémon had received training in this area before?

Or rather, what is the waveguide capability of this Lucario?

No matter what, this is just unbelievable!

The very next second, when Steelix, which had been hiding for so long, burst out of the ground again and was once again dodged by Lucario, Donggua's heart sank to the bottom.

Sure enough!

By this point, he was completely certain that the burrowing attack would have no effect on this Lucario!

How is this played?

It won't work on the ground, and it won't work underground either.