I walked over to Kun/Remoraid and called over everyone as well since watching the evolution of one of our members had become somewhat of a group event.
I began placing Water Stones, Water Gems, Float Stones, and Flying Gems in a circle around the spot I was planning to temporarily place Kun for his evolution. That was on the ground in front of Kun's pond, since I could not apply the paste while he was inside the water.
To avoid washing the paste away after applying it, he was going to evolve there instead of his pond. Anyway, after finishing the circle I placed Kun in the center. I pulled out all the special food I prepared and had him eat as much of that food as possible.
While Kun was busy stuffing himself, I began applying the paste to his body. I made sure to cover his whole body in the paste leaving only his eyes and mouth uncovered.
I put away the rest of the PokeFood, stepped out of the circle, and gave him the go-ahead. Kun began to glow in the tell-tale white of evolution under the cheers of the others.
Once he did, everyone quietened down, watching with bated breath how the shining increased in intensity while the Water Stones, Water Gems, Float Stones, and Flying Gems around him lost their luster.
It took around a minute for the light show to settle down. Once it did, we saw Kun in all his new glory, and I had to say it looked much better than Octillery would ever do.
At least, in my opinion, it was like that. Everyone was taking in Kun's new form, meanwhile, the guy was feeling out his new wings a bit before taking off the ground.
I had seen how an Azuraid looked while dismantling the carcass I used to prepare for Kun's evolution but seeing the body in action was just different. Since this was the first time I saw a living example of this species, I was interested while observing his new look.
The shape of his torso was the same as that of a Remoraid just longer, and the head was a bit sharper along with a longer horn. The fins at the end of his body were bigger, but that was because his body was more than twice the size of a Remoraid.
He had two large wings on his back, positioned just behind his head, and there were two smaller wings on his belly close to the rear end, where the two fins were located. The fins were a pure white, while the wings were a really light silvery-grey.
His torso had light blue color while the two stripes that went through half his back were a dark blue, and his eyes had a dark blue color as well. Honestly, due to his size, it looked as if Kun could be ridden, which would be great since he could carry one inside the water and in the air.
His length, fins not included, seemed to be 150 cm long, and with the fins, it should be 170 to 180 cm. The larger wings looked to be nearly as long as his body, and I would place them around 120 to 130 cm, while the smaller pair were roughly 20 to 30 cm long.
I observed Kun's first flight and saw that the large wings were used to fly, the smaller wings were used to maintain his posture mid-air along with increasing the speed a bit, while the fins helped change directions, allowing for sudden and rapid changes in direction.
Everyone was cheering him on while he was enjoying actually being able to fly, but I could see a few of them getting restless while waiting for him to come back down. So, I told him to join us on the ground and he slowly flew into me, embracing me in happiness.
I returned his hug and congratulated him. I couldn't stop myself from marveling at his relatively small weight. By my estimate, he weighed less than 70 kg, which considering his size was not that much. I would have thought he would weigh around 100 to 120 kg at that length.
I was mentally kicking myself for not weighing the carcass before butchering it. Anyway, after giving us a few moments to hug the others joined in.
Thank Mew and every other legendary out there that they did not join in all at once or I would have doubted my chances at survival. Just imagining being buried under a hug-pile made by 6 Gyarados, 2 Milotic, and a Lapras made me break out in a sweat.
Not that I would have ended much better if everyone else doggy-piled us at once, but thankfully Horus/Xatu brought order into the chaos. Horus had the land-bound Pokemon join the hug in groups of five, while the water Pokemon joined in groups of three since they were much bigger.
I had to laugh at the fact that we needed to hug in turn to avoid forming a mountain and after the last group finished their hug, we, or rather I, started the traditional evolution celebration.
I brought out everyone's favorite food as well as drinks, and everyone dug in while animated by chatting with each other. Seeing everyone busy eating and chatting I decided to finally check out Kun's new status.
'Name: Kun-Peng (Kun)
Species: Remoraid -> Azuraid
Gender: Male
Age: 7+ Years
-
Type: Water -> Water, Flying
Potential: Light Purple (50.4%) -> Light Purple (69.1%)
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Hustle, Sniper -> Swift Swim, Keen Eye
Talents: Sniper
Affinities: Water, Flying
-
Bond: Mikail (strong)
Quirks: None
----
Parameters:
Stage: Silver Stage (mid)
Vitality: E (+)
Strength: D (+)
Endurance: E (+)
Agility: D (+)
Energy Capacity: D (+)
Energy Density: E (+)
----
Resistance: Fire (Minor), Water (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Bug (Minor), Steel (Minor)
-
Weaknesses: Electric (Minor), Rock (Minor)
-
Standardized:
None
----
Condition: Healthy, Happy, Excited
----
Masteries:
Water Energy Manipulation (Proficient), Flying/Air Energy Manipulation (Novice)
----
Techniques:
-
(Unofficial) Initial:
N/A
-
Novice:
Air Slash
-
Beginner:
Hyper Beam, Flamethrower (+), Protect (+)
-
Proficient:
Psybeam, Aurora Beam, Bullet Seed, Lock-On, Endure, Soak, Rain Dance, Thunder Wave
-
Advanced:
Water Pulse, Focus Energy, Hydro Pump, Ice Beam, Scald, Bubble Beam (+), Charge Beam (+)
-
Mastered:
Water Gun'
The most obvious change was the species change to Azuraid and the addition of the flying type as the second typing that followed that transformation.
The addition of the flying typing also upgraded his flying/air affinity to a complete/standard one. Another change that followed the evolution was the switch that happened to his abilities, more specifically to his Sniper ability.
Sniper was swapped with Keen Eye instead, and while some may somewhat look down on that ability, since it was one bird-like Pokemon possessed inherently, it was still useful.
He got to avoid any accuracy loss through other means that targeted him, and good eyesight was important while flying.
Hustle was replaced with Swift Swim, and considering the Azuraid lines speed, doubling that under rain was undoubtly a boon.
Furthermore, luckily Kun managed to unlock a talent while evolving. Well, unlock was not the right word, he managed to, in a way, preserve his Sniper ability as a new talent.
The effect of the talent was the same it had been as an ability. I assumed that Kun managed to "unlock" it as a talent due to previously possessing the ability and because Keen Eye could be one of the ways Sniper could be derived, probably.
I was not sure about the last bit, but the important part was that it happened. Anyway, Kun's parameters and our (strong) bond had not changed after his evolution. They were just as they had been before the evolution.
What had been affected, was his type relation section. He had lost his (minor) resistance toward the ice type, but in exchange, he gained a (minor) resistance toward both the fighting and the bug type.
Kun also lost his weakness toward the grass type, but in exchange, he gained a weakness toward the rock type. Not only that but the electric type that had just moved to the standardized section was moved back to the weakness one as a (minor) weakness.
The only good part of that was the fact that the previously successful resistance training had ensured that the weakness was only a (minor) one instead of a major one.
Since (minor) weaknesses were easier to train than (major) ones, standardizing the electric weakness once more would only take as long as it did the first time around, maybe even less.
That would not have been the case if I had not waited for Kun to finish his resistance training, he would have most likely lost most, if not all, of his progress.
That Kun gained Flying/Air Energy Manipulation was not surprising, nor was the fact that it started at the lowest mastery. However, it was a pleasant surprise that he automatically learned Air Slash upon evolving to Azuraid.
It was his first flying-type move, and it was a pretty strong one at that. Previously, I had him finish learning Flamethrower and raise it by a grade, before doing the same with Protect. After that Kun focused on Bubble Beam as well as Charge Beam and raised them to advanced mastery.
Charge Beam had been his latest project, and I have been thinking about which move to focus on next, but with the addition of Air Slash, that question has been solved.
I was going to have Kun reach proficiency with the move before focusing on other flying-type moves such as Gust, Hurricane, Wing Attack, and maybe Air Cutter.
All in all, everything went smoothly, the potential increase was even bigger than I had expected, and the talent part was something I had not expected at all, so I was satisfied.
After stuffing ourselves we performed another tradition of ours, we took a group photo. We did this after each evolution to have a reminder of how everyone changed between each evolution and who else joined our group in the meantime.
Since it was right between lunch and dinner time-wise and we had eaten a lot during the celebration, I decided to forgo dinner. So, after relaxing and playing around with everyone for the rest of the day and evening, I went straight to bed.
The next day classes resumed as they did every Arcday, signaling the start of the third week of the sixth term. Besides enjoying the "Combat Preparation" classes of Mr. Koetsuji, I made some progress in the "Emotion Sensing II" class.
I successfully stimulated the feelings of an individual that does not have a bond with me. The reason I emphasized that part was that I asked my Pokemon for help in training that ability, but it turned out that it was much easier to use the ability on them due to our bond, so they were not good indicators regarding my actual prowess.
Anyway, I managed to stoke the feeling of aggression in a non-bonded person/Pokemon. Currently, I only succeeded with emotions like those, slightly negative ones, since they seem to be easier to amplify than positive ones. No wonder people were susceptible to negative emotions.
My ninja training in "Aura Sensing II" was progressing at the same speed as before. I was pretty good at suppressing my aura, but I was still trying to completely hide it. That was the first step toward blending into the environment, which was essential for my Ninja plan.
Scaring the sh*t out of others by suddenly speaking up beside them, or abruptly appearing out of nowhere. That was definitely a necessary ability and absolutely not childish.
My ambitious Ninja Way aside, the combat lessons with Mr. Koetsuji were pretty great this week as well. Predictably the sparring partner he brought for the first lesson this week was a Hitmontop, and I had to admit that hitting Hitmontop with his dancing/capoeira fighting style was pretty challenging.
Nonetheless, it made for a good sparring session. On a side note, by the end of the lesson, 3 more students managed to qualify for new sparring partners.
Anyway, following the trend until now I had expected to face a Hitmonform during the second combat class this week, but Mr. Koetsuji brought along some Hariyama instead. Those guys used a mix of Judo and Wrestling (sumo and regular) to fight so it was a great experience.
While I hit the ground more often than I would have liked, it did not hurt so I took it in strides. Nonetheless, this once more showed me that facing a wide range of fighting styles was important if one wanted to be prepared for everything.
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