Chapter 51: Move Learning Class - Dragon Breath

Three days later, Saturday arrived, bringing the weekly move-learning class that everyone had been eagerly anticipating. This also marked the first move-learning session for the elite training class.

The move-learning class was divided into two sessions: the first focused on teaching a specific move, while the second covered its practical application in actual combat.

During yesterday's lecture, Long Yanning had already informed everyone that today's move would be Dragon Breath, advising everyone to prepare and preview the material beforehand.

[Dragon Breath]: A Dragon-type special attack. It releases a fierce blast of breath to attack the enemy, occasionally leaving the opponent paralyzed.

Dragon Breath was a fairly standard skill among the many Dragon-type moves—neither overwhelmingly powerful nor particularly mediocre. At the same time, it was a classic special move for Dragon-type Pokémon, learnable by the vast majority of Dragon types, as well as non-Dragon types like Charizard, Steelix, Aerodactyl, Sceptile, and Milotic.

However, much to Xia Yu's slight disappointment, in the video games, the Dragon-type Pokémon Noivern surprisingly could not learn Dragon Breath.

Whether that held true in reality, however, remained to be seen; Xia Yu was unsure if a real-life Noivern could master the move.

On the training field today, Long Yanning had changed into a new outfit. Her fragrant, stylish ensemble paired with her tall stature made her breathtakingly beautiful. At twenty-five, she was at a woman's most radiant age, combining the youthful innocence of her student days with the alluring charm of a mature woman.

Her Pokémon had also changed, shifting from Noivern to the pseudo-legendary Kommo-o. Even so, the gazes of many students remained fixed firmly on Long Yanning rather than the Kommo-o standing beside her.

Kommo-o was a seventh-generation pseudo-legendary Pokémon whose appearance was not particularly striking at first glance. Its arms were covered in scale-like armor, and most of its body was gray, with a small, tooth-like spike on each side of its upper and lower jaws. Its head was covered in neatly arranged fine scales. It walked upright, and the scales on its tail and head were exceptionally numerous.

Kommo-o's appearance was generally not favored by the mainstream public. Furthermore, its typing was quite unique: Dragon and Fighting, making it the only Dragon/Fighting-type Pokémon aside from the ninth-generation Miraidon and Koraidon.

This typing combination was actually quite unremarkable, as it was weak to Flying, Psychic, Ice, and Dragon, while bearing a fatal fourfold weakness to the Fairy type.

Ever since the introduction of Fairy-type Pokémon, the ones who suffered the most were not the Dragon types, but rather the Fighting types. A large number of Fighting-type Pokémon had faded into obscurity, with only a few steadfastly upholding the glory of the Fighting type, such as Conkeldurr and Lucario.

If pure Fighting-type Pokémon had it this hard, let alone a Dragon/Fighting-type like Kommo-o, which carried a fourfold weakness to Fairy types, it was no wonder that Kommo-o practically never got a chance to shine.

Weighed down by its typing and appearance, Kommo-o's battle usage rate and popularity in the games had always remained low, consistently ranking dead last among all pseudo-legendary Pokémon.

Yet, was Kommo-o truly weak? On the contrary, if one set aside its fourfold weakness to the Fairy type, Kommo-o was actually an immensely powerful Pokémon.

Consider three of its moves: its signature move, Clanging Scales, was a Dragon-type special attack with a staggering power of 110, one hundred percent accuracy, and the drawback of lowering its own defense by one stage.

Another signature move, Clangorous Soulblaze, consumed one-third of the user's HP to raise all stats by one stage. Frankly, such a potent effect was borderline absurd.

Finally, there was Boomburst, a Normal-type special move boasting a massive power of 140, perfect accuracy, and zero negative side effects.

If such a phenomenal trio of moves were handed to a fast, special-attacking Pokémon, it would instantly take off.

Naturally, these moves were also formidable on Kommo-o. While it might not have been considered overwhelmingly strong within the video games, in reality, it was absurdly powerful.

One had to remember that the games operated on a turn-based system, and Kommo-o's base speed stat of 85 wasn't particularly fast, leaving it vulnerable to being instantly eliminated by a Fairy-type in a single turn. Reality, however, was different—there was no such thing as a speed stat in the real world.

A real-life Kommo-o was not only quite fast, but it also possessed the agility and reflexes of a Fighting-type Pokémon, allowing it to truly shine brightly among pseudo-legendary Pokémon.

Moreover, unlike in the games, reality allowed for dodging attacks, and as combat strength increased, battles between Pokémon of equal tier rarely resulted in one-hit knockouts.

Therefore, once a Kommo-o successfully executed Clangorous Soulblaze, raising all its stats by one stage—and even doubling them entirely upon a second use—it was entirely capable of sweeping through entire teams single-handedly.

Long Fan, who held the position of Dragon-type Heavenly King among the Four Heavenly Kings of the North China Region, kept a Quasi-Champion-level Kommo-o as one of his ace Pokémon.

As Long Fan's daughter, Long Yanning naturally owned a Kommo-o with astonishing strength and potential. Her Kommo-o had already reached the Quasi-Heavenly-King tier, yet it could already fight evenly against regular Heavenly-King-level Pokémon without losing ground, standing only a single step away from the Heavenly-King tier itself. An age paired with such strength was unimaginable in Xishu Province, but in the Imperial Capital, it was considered quite reasonable.

Her older brother had become a Quasi-Heavenly-King trainer at the age of twenty-five in Xishu Province and was hailed as the youngest in that region, yet compared to Long Yanning, the gap between them was vast.

Even Shilu in his prime, as a twenty-five-year-old Quasi-Heavenly-King trainer, would be no match for Long Yanning.

"Dragon Breath is an important foundational move for Dragon-type Pokémon. Mastering it will greatly help you learn more powerful Dragon-type moves in the future," Long Yanning said. Dressed impeccably and wearing high heels today, her height nearly rivaled Xia Yu's. Her face was etched with absolute seriousness as she detailed the Dragon Breath move to the students. Whenever she spoke of Dragon-type Pokémon, her eyes always sparkled with brilliance. "Dragon Breath is quite simple; it involves expelling breath imbued with Dragon-type energy from your mouth. It remains quite practical during battles, and even when your strength reaches the Gym Leader tier in the future, the supplementary paralysis effect of Dragon Breath will still be extremely effective."

"Using Dragon Breath is not overly complex. I will have Kommo-o demonstrate it for everyone first."

Long Yanning gently stroked the scales of the Kommo-o beside her, signaling it to demonstrate the move.

Xia Yu shifted his gaze away from Long Yanning and onto Kommo-o. This was the first time he was seeing a living, breathing Kommo-o in the flesh. He watched as the Pokémon took a sharp, deep breath, its cheeks instantly swelling up, before unleashing a brilliant red stream of dragon breath from its mouth toward the front with breathtaking momentum.

So strong!

Is this what a Quasi-Heavenly-King pseudo-legendary is capable of? Why does this look less like Dragon Breath and more like Draco Meteor?

After Kommo-o finished its demonstration, Long Yanning turned back to the crowd and continued, "This move isn't actually complicated. The key lies in the manipulation of Dragon-type energy—you must convert the internal Dragon-type energy into breath and store it in your abdomen. The higher your affinity with Dragon-type energy, the easier it is to learn this move."

"Everyone, try having your Pokémon practice it first. Afterward, I will guide each of you in turn."