The week finished up, and the second month began. Seeing how the situation during my sparring session was going, I decided to crank up my training under gravity a bit to increase my endurance, stamina, and strength.
That was why I was currently asking Luna/Clefable to increase the gravity to 6 times regular gravity instead of the 4 times regular gravity I was usually training under. That was obviously far from Luna's limit, but I had no plans to run before I could walk, and going above 6 times terrain gravity would hurt me more than it would help.
When they saw me increasing my training load, it fired up quite a lot of my Pokemon. They also elected to increase their training load, but I made sure that the new load was still within reason. I would not want them to harm themselves due to being overzealous after all.
Most stayed well within their limits with the increase, but Thor/Raichu, as well as Enji/Arcanine, belonged to the overzealous group and I had to interfere with their plans.
Still, they were eager, so I only reduced the load enough that it was at the absolute limit of their physical tolerance. I was not sure if it was really thanks to the new load, or if he had been close before this, but Thor's Endurance rose to A on Palkiday, only three days after we started training under higher intensity.
This increase signaled the start of Thor's official limit-breaking, and like some of his friends he also started with a parameter being at S. For him, that was his Agility, and according to my estimation, his Strength, as well as Energy Capacity, were close to reaching S as well.
Looking at what has been happening lately, it seemed as if everyone that had yet to start his or her limit-breaking training was reaching that point. I had no such immediate results, so my time during the spars only rose by a minute.
Anyway, Moka/Crobat also joined the limit-breaking club on Dialday, when her Energy Density rose to A, and she began her limit-breaking phase with her Agility already being at S. Speaking of Moka, made me think of Bruce/Zubat.
It had been slightly more than 11 months since he hatched, and he had managed to reach 41% on his way out of the Stageless phase. By my estimation, Bruce would arrive at the iron stage in another 15 to 16 months.
I would already be at the end of my second term of the first year of my tertiary education at that point, but he would still be 9 or 10 months away from his first birthday, so his progress speed could still be considered pretty fast, especially since I was not going as fast as I could because I wanted him to enjoy his Stageless phase.
The stageless phase was practically equal to his childhood, so I did not mind if it took him a year to reach the iron stage. It was not as if he would become useful once he reached that point. It would still take years for Bruce to catch up with the others, so I adhered to the saying "haste makes waste", and did not rush his progress.
At least that was the case for Bruce. Unlike him, his senior/playmate Eggy was progressing a bit slowly compared to all my other Pokemon due to his lower potential. However, I had known that it would be like this from the very start, so I did not mind it and took each step forward at a steady pace.
Yet, unlike with Bruce, I was coming pretty close to Eggy tolerance limit with his food, "games", and even the use of my aura during massages. I went as far as I could without hurting him since he would be even slower if I didn't.
Still, he was making progress, and just like with Bruce, it was not as if Eggy was going to become useful if he progressed a bit faster. In his case, he was going to take a few extra years to catch up, but I did not doubt that he would eventually catch up as long as we both did not give up.
I could guarantee, that I would not be the one to give up, since Eggy had become someone dear to me in the last 66 months since he hatched. As of now, he had reached 97%, and there were still 6 months until his second birthday, so he would probably advance to the iron stage a few months before he turned two.
It would likely happen toward the end of the global competition, or shortly after it. Well, I would see it as Eggy's way of congratulating me for becoming the secondary education level global champion.
On Mewday the following week, Optimus/Butterfree's Agility rose to S, and once that happened he was halfway through the first round of limit breaking.
Just two days later, on Palkiday, Manami/Lapras's Agility increased to SS, which completed the second round of her limit breaking, making her along with Stan/Gyarados the only two Pokemon going through the final round of limit breaking.
However, unlike Stan, I saw no way for her to reach the gold stage before or during the global competition. Stan could maybe make use of the atmosphere and pressure during the competition to finish his limit-breaking and breakthrough to the gold stage, but for Manami that wouldn't work since there was not enough accumulation for that to work.
Anyway, on another note, I decided to use the spars against George to hone my grappling moves since that was his expertise and I could study his reactions. During the last round, I could not resist and used a circle/judo throw on him before using a telekinesis boosted arm lock instead of using grappling moves against him.
George tried to get out of the arm lock, but I managed to keep him from getting free. Just when I thought I was actually going to win he did something that took me off guard.
In a show of ruthlessness, he clad the joint of his arm in aura, probably to keep it from getting permanently harmed, before he dislocated his arm, which allowed him to move his body enough to turn in my direction.
I had not expected him to dislocate his arm like that while I had him in an armlock since that was a pretty risky maneuver that could have broken his arm and/or tore his ligaments, so I was caught off guard by his action.
That gave him enough time to kick at my temple which made me release his arm and broke my telekinesis hold as well. Then while I was shaking off the effects of his kick, he put his arm back in place before grabbing me in a headlock.
I lost that spar after that, and unfortunately, I did not believe that I could take him off guard the same way, so I would have to find an alternative if I wanted to win. Still, I witnessed first hand that seemingly hopeless could be broken if one was ruthless enough, so I should only relax after the fight was determined.
I was naturally disappointed at the lost opportunity, but oh well, nothing I could do about it now. Regardless of me ultimately losing, both George and Mr. Burns congratulated me on my tactic as well as my progress so far.
The next three days were as usual, but on Arcday, Nyx/Umbreon's Energy Density rose to SS, and since it was her first one, it officially started the second round of her limit breaking.
Lately, she had been bothering me about gaining her own Eeveelution Squad or Eevee Rangers, just like the Slithering Six. Nyx was undecided on the name front, so she lept changing group names just like I was for the Gyarados squad.
She probably had that idea for quite some time since Mothra/Butterfree, Parvati/Beedrill, and Stan had their groups, but she started asking me to get some more Eevee after we watched a battle between two Ace-class trainers on TV.
One of them had been specializing in Eeveelutions, and since then Nyx has been asking me to add some Eevee to the team so that she could lead her own group. According to her, they would obviously all have to evolve into different eeveelutions for the sake of the team.
Anyway, she had been asking/bothering me daily for 15 minutes, not more since she was trying to "convince" me, not anger me, and honestly, I was considering it.
Not because I was succumbing to her cuteness/begging attacks, but because all Eeveelutions were strong and I always liked them, so I had been planning to get one of each someday in the future anyway. Getting some ahead of time was not that much of a bother, but I was too busy right now to do it for now.
I might do it during the second year of my tertiary education. When I told Nyx about that, she acted all tsun-tsun and managed to cajole a promise out of me that I would not drag it out further than that.
The days after that were pretty calm if one disregarded the increasingly serious mood at the academy the closer the exams came, and on the first Arcday of the third as well as the final month of the term, just one week before the exams officially began, the air was so thick that I felt as if I could physically cut it.
I was pretty sure that I was the only carefree third-year student at the moment, but I could sympathize with the others. Well, I got some good news, so I had reason to be happy while everyone else was tense.
On Mewday Luna's Agility reached A, and she officially began her limit breaking. Moreover, she belonged to the group that started with two of their parameters already being at S.
Giratiday was quiet, but on Palkiday Horus/Xatu's Strength rose to C, which meant that he only needed to raise another parameter by a grade to reach the (high) gold stage.
Additionally, after the sparring session that day Mr. Burns declared that there would be no more sessions after today, so I thanked George for his help, before thanking Mr. Burns for all his help until now.
He told me that it had been a pleasure and that he believed that I would win the competition, as long as some freak of nature did not show up. I thought I heard a "bigger" before the freak of nature but I was not sure.
Anyway, I decided to relax for the next three days, so all I did until Arcday was speed reading through my notes for subjects once for roughly 3 to 4 hours each day, before spending the rest of the time with my parents.
On Arcday morning I sent good luck into our group chat since the others were also going to start their exams today. They all sent back good luck messages of their own.
The exam period went from Arcday of the second week of the final month until Mewday of the third week since that was when the third-year students began going through the string of qualifiers to participate in the global competition. This year it was finally our turn to do that.
Anyway, once I arrived at the classroom I saw how tense everyone was, so I chose to stay quiet after wishing them all success. Well, what followed was me sitting through two exams, and I obviously aced both.
Our group chat was full of exam talk that day, and during the days that followed as well. I only occasionally threw in my two cents, since I did not want to keep repeating how easy the exams were. That would have made me look arrogant.
On Dialday, once I completed the last exam of that day, I, along with Sorrel, were done with our exam period since Arcday and Mewday next week were only for aura-centric subjects, so I was finally free.
That was not my only reason to celebrate, during this week the other Sinister Six members got their fifth SS parameter one after the other, so all of them were only missing a final parameter to complete the second round of their limit breaking.
Still, the freedom from any further exams won out a bit. Once I came home my parents celebrated the occasion with me, but we decided to wait for the real celebration until after my graduation. That way everyone else would be done with their exams as well, and we could also celebrate my victory at the global competition.
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