Chapter 114: Rest Before the Battle

Before deciding to start a fight, Yang Yan first needed to formulate tactics and confirm the basic information about the Aggron tribe.

After a whole day of observation, Yang Yan discovered that there were a total of 10 Pokémon in this group.

Among them were 2 high-level Aggrons, 3 intermediate-level Lairons, and 5 junior-level Arons.

With this strength, if Yang Yan wanted to win without Kleavor, it would be very unlikely.

Aggron is different from any Pokémon he has encountered before. Not only does it have full physical defense, but its physical attack is also very high. It also has many large-scale skills and its own resistance is strong. However, it is 4 times weaker to Ground and Fighting types, and twice as weak to Water types. Among Yang Yan's group, only Starmie has a chance to win, but that is in a 1v1 situation. However, a field battle is not a one-on-one battle, and a big melee is inevitable.

Besides, Yang Yan can't command Kleavor. First of all, it's not his Pokémon. Secondly, he doesn't fully understand Kleavor, and giving random commands might have the opposite effect. So, he could only let Kleavor fight on its own.

After a week of observation, Yang Yan felt that it would be okay to let Kleavor hold down an Aggron for a short time, but defeating it seemed unlikely. Not being defeated would already be an accomplishment.

And how could Kleavor risk being seriously injured to help Yang Yan? It wants to help its former trainer, Kudo Osamu, fulfill his wish, which is noble, but that doesn't mean it would unconditionally help Yang Yan fight. After all, this is Yang Yan's trial, and he should complete it himself.

In the end, the burden of all this could only fall on Starmie, and Yang Yan must ensure that Kleavor isn't defeated before Starmie can take down an Aggron.

Additionally, the remaining Lairons and Arons also need to be restrained by Yang Yan's other Pokémon, and it would be even better if they could be dealt with in advance.

Haruhiko cannot afford to lose either. If he loses, it will be difficult to retreat, and he might end up like Kudo Osamu. Obviously, Haruhiko doesn't want that, so full preparation before the battle is essential.

Although his high-end combat power matches the opponent, the others are vastly inferior.

And it's not easy for Starmie to win in a short time.

Therefore, now may not be the best time to launch an attack.

Yang Yan had two choices. The first was to go to other places to level up and increase the strength of all his Pokémon. That way, when facing Lairons and Arons, the chance of winning would be much higher.

The second option was to bide his time.

Pokémon like Aggron need to eat ores regularly, and the ores are mostly hidden deep underground, so one day they will have to go out to mine. Once some of them leave, Yang Yan's chances of winning will increase significantly. If there is only one Aggron left, Yang Yan would definitely be able to defeat it.

Although Yang Yan wanted to act early, he didn't want to take unnecessary risks. Therefore, he chose the second, more secure method.

Additionally, with his Pokémon's level increasing so rapidly, Yang Yan wanted to let them consolidate their strength for a while.

The Aggron tribe lived at the foot of a massive mountain. The vortex Yang Yan left was surrounded by rocky terrain in the central area at the mountain's base.

According to Yang Yan's observations, although the Aggron clan doesn't like water, their usual activity range was very close to here.

Some might suggest just blocking the vortex and rushing through, but this was a trial, not a place for cheap tricks.

After all, Lugia was probably controlling everything here. Lugia had the final say on whether to let you pass or not. If it judged that you hadn't completed the trial, how could it let you leave?

Hu Di also emphasized that one should never try to exploit the system.

Yang Yan also felt that the difficulty of his trial had increased due to Kleavor's presence.

Considering how far this place was from where he was originally teleported, and whether it could even be found within a month, Yang Yan doubted how he was supposed to defeat the Aggron clan with his current team.

He felt that the Drilbur clan he encountered before seemed more like the trial he should have faced.

It's too late to dwell on it now; all he could do was face the challenge head-on.

Fortunately, since this is the territory of the Aggron clan, there were no other rival species. Only a few stray Pokémon passed by, so as long as Yang Yan avoided detection, they could stay safely nearby for a while.

Before he knew it, five days had passed.

Even if Yang Yan didn't want to fight, he had to now, as his food supply was running low. If he didn't act soon, he would face the risk of running out of supplies. Unless he left and hunted for food elsewhere, he had to launch his attack today.

Fortunately, after resting for several days, everyone was in good condition, with no sense of the weakness that had plagued them before.

Notably, during the past five days, Yang Yan gave special attention to the nincada. Taking advantage of a few lone Pokémon in the area, Yang Yan commanded the nincada in a series of solo battles. As a result, the nincada reached level 18, surpassing Ponyta in the process.

However, the nincada were still raw. Aside from Shadow Ball, their other moves were quite unrefined.

But for now, Yang Yan could only wait for it to evolve before developing a more detailed strategy.

After this period of training, the other Pokémon had improved their proficiency in their newly learned moves to more than 40%.

More importantly, Butterfree's mastery of the Wind skill had finally exceeded 70%! It was the first of Yang Yan's Pokémon to reach this level of proficiency in any skill.

Yang Yan observed that moves that reached over 70% proficiency not only became more powerful, but also underwent a subtle transformation.

However, due to the communication barrier with Butterfree, Yang Yan couldn't figure out what exactly this transformation was.

Whatever the change, though, it was clearly for the better.