“You both did very well.” Eric stroked the heads of the two little ones, one on the left and one on the right, praising them: “Lilligant fused with Victini’s power very well; compared to last time, you’ve improved a lot.” “And Pon-Pon.” Eric looked at Ogerpon: “Your power completely exceeded my expectations.” Still the same saying, reality is not a game.
In Eric’s view, many Pokémon abilities possess rule-like effects.
Simply put, it’s mechanics and stats.
Abilities like immunity to Fire-type moves, or Water-type moves failing to cause damage and instead restoring HP, belong to the mechanic system.
But in Eric’s observations over the past two years, there are still significant differences between individuals regarding such immunities.
For example.
With immunity to Fire-type moves, you can be immune to the Fire-type energy contained within the move, but the high temperature caused by the move itself might exceed the Pokémon’s tolerance range.
In this way, as the high temperature affects the Pokémon, it’s like an invincible barrier on the surface of the body being destroyed, unable to block the subsequent incoming Fire-type energy.
In other words, every Pokémon’s so-called immunity is largely based on body parts, current state, and tolerance limits.
Similarly, the boost that Ogerpon’s Defiant ability can bring is much more powerful than that of ordinary Pokémon.
Take Dragon Dance and Swords Dance as examples.
[Dragon Dance] Effect: After use, raises Attack and Speed by 1 stage each (a 50% increase).
[Swords Dance] Effect: After use, raises Attack by 2 stages (a 100% increase).
As everyone knows, in the game, the limit for this type of boost for each stat is 6 stages, which raises the original 100 Attack power to the level of 400.
A 300% increase, when placed in reality, is actually quite exaggerated; it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a 4x Kaio-ken.
However, this is just theory.
As living beings, Pokémon’s bodies have a tolerance limit.
6 stages can be considered an average value.
Based on Eric’s observation of Ogerpon, she triggered the Defiant ability multiple times during the battle with Lilligant.
The final stat boost obtained was definitely not just 6 stages.
“It must be at least 10 stages, right?” Eric roughly estimated and arrived at a quite terrifying number: “Good grief, raising the Attack stat to 600% of its original level within 1 minute; no wonder she managed to cripple The Loyal Three and Pecharunt with just a single teal mask back then.” The title of “Little Kaido of Kitakami” is well-deserved!
“Besides, this probably isn’t Pon-Pon’s limit yet.” The 10-level boost from Defiant was merely due to the enhancement from her Ability.
“Pon-Pon, do you know the move Swords Dance?” Eric intended to continue testing Ogerpon while the buffs on her were still active.
“Pon-ny!” Ogerpon nodded; she knew the Swords Dance that Eric spoke of.
Pokémon are peculiar creatures; they don’t actually understand human language, but they can directly perceive the thoughts humans wish to express.
Just like the move Swords Dance, Ogerpon likely didn’t know the name of the move.
But when Eric mentioned it, Ogerpon immediately understood his meaning.
“Pon-ny~~” Consequently, accompanied by the appearance and disappearance of four pale green sword phantoms, Ogerpon’s aura was boosted once again.
“It really works!” Eric hadn’t expected that Ogerpon still hadn’t reached her limit.
Furthermore, Eric learned one more thing.
That is, in this world, Ability boosts and move boosts belong to two different enhancement systems.
Of course, one Swords Dance wouldn’t just multiply Pon-Pon’s 600% base by 1.5.
“An increase from 600% to 650% is probably already quite exaggerated.” Eric said: “Pon-Pon, how do you feel now?
Can you continue?” “Pon-ny!” Ogerpon felt her body was slightly heavy, but she could still continue to strengthen herself.
“Alright, then continue.” Seeing this, Eric added: “If you feel uncomfortable, stop immediately, understand?” Thus, following Eric’s instructions, Ogerpon used the move Swords Dance once again.
After doing this eight times in a row, Ogerpon shook her head at Eric, her whole body exhausted.
“That’s enough.” After having Victini test Ogerpon’s current state, Eric had her directly release all her enhanced states.
“Pon-ny~~” After releasing the enhancements, Ogerpon sat down on the ground with a thud.
That panting appearance made Eric feel quite distressed.
Fortunately, Ogerpon isn’t a delicate little girl; she is very strong.
Moreover, being able to test her own limits through this series of enhancements made Ogerpon feel incredibly pleasantly surprised as well.
‘So, I can become this strong?’ Ogerpon looked at Eric with anticipation, wanting to hear his evaluation.
“Eight Swords Dances, that makes 18 levels of Attack?” “No, that’s not right.” Eric looked at the data feedback he received from Victini: “The first 10 levels were correct, but why did the subsequent 8 Swords Dances only increase it by 200%?
Shouldn’t it be 400%?” He pondered for a moment and finally reached a conclusion: ‘Is the proficiency of Pon-Pon’s Swords Dance move too low?’ The stat boost from moves is not fixed.
Some powerful Pokémon, like the Garchomp from Cynthia’s family, can increase their Attack by 4 levels with a single Swords Dance, equivalent to the effect of someone else using Swords Dance twice.
Not only that, but with the improvement of move proficiency, Garchomp can complete a Swords Dance that originally required 2 seconds in 1.5 seconds, or even 1 second.
In this way, in the same 2 seconds, Garchomp can quickly perform Swords Dance twice, and the effect of each Swords Dance is twice that of a normal one.
The result is that in 2 seconds, Garchomp directly completes the maximum Attack and speed enhancement the move can provide.
When applied to Ogerpon, it is exactly the opposite.
Perhaps because she hasn’t battled for too long, Ogerpon is very unfamiliar with the Swords Dance move.
The effect of each of those eight Swords Dances was likely only half of the normal effect.
“No wonder it takes Pon-Pon so long to use Swords Dance once.” This is a manifestation of both poor effect and long duration!
“Well, this seems quite normal.” Wild Pokémon cannot beat Pokémon raised by Trainers, and move proficiency is exactly one of the reasons.
In comparison, things like enhancement limits are innate and difficult to change later.
Ogerpon’s maximum enhancement is 14 levels in a single stat, which means increasing the Attack stat to 800%.
It can only be said that the worth of a Legendary Pokémon will never disappoint a Trainer; the two are simply like two different creatures, the gap is too large.