Even though it had become extremely powerful compared to when it was at an uncommon rank, there were a lot of things to improve, too. First was its water-type hidden mastery. He wanted Lucairo to assimilate it with the aura and mix it somehow. It was going to be extremely difficult because even he didn't know if that was possible.
Currently, 'Rain dance' was useless. It did increase the power of its water type moves, but Lucario only had one water type attacking move, which was 'Water pulse'. 'Life Dew' was a healing-type supporting move, but he didn't want it to be a healing-type Pokemon.
Of course, healing was required for a physical attacker to battle for a long time, but healing its allies was not necessary. Axel didn't want to go in a different direction than what it was progressing right now.
So, the next upgrade of 'Life dew' would be purely to heal itself in battle, not others.
He also believed that since 'Vacuum wave' and 'Water pulse' had a similar stance, both of them could be combined in some way to make it more destructive.
That was not the only thing that it was training for right now. Lucario's speed was high enough due to 'Agility' but 'Agility' was a psychic-type move, which it had not properly mastered. So, this consumed a lot of its energy, and it was slower than other fighting and steel-type moves.
So, a fighting type, most preferably an aura move that increases its speed would be ideal. Also, Axel felt that the move 'Sword aura' carried a lot of potential. Lucario had been training in swords for a long time. Currently, it used an external sword and coated it with aura to make it stronger.
But the upgrade on 'Sword Aura' changed everything. With the upgrade, Lucario can now create a sword purely made of aura. The result was that it was more powerful than the normal sword coated with aura. It was sharper, faster, and destructive. Lucario also had the power to throw the sword, which would explode on impact, and then it could create another sword. It looked more tuned and comfortable using the 'Sword aura'.
But the problem was that this 'Sword aura' consumed a massive amount of stamina and energy. Currently, even with the upgrade to level 45, it could only use this sword for 3 minutes. That was a very short time.
Axel believed that if Lucario could upgrade this move to a higher level with lower cost and better efficiency, its battle powers would increase a lot. But that would take time, as every good thing does.
One of the interesting things was its core, which had changed from 'Steel' to 'Fighting'. When it started to train with the god rank Lucairo, it became clear that 'Fighting' core suited it more than 'Steel' core.
Now, Axel didn't know how to change the core to another, but it looked like the god rank Lucario did. So, now it had fighting core, but Axel believed that it should also learn other steel-type moves except for 'Bullet punch'.
###
Axel was carefully watching Lucario fight two of the pseudo-king rank Pokemon. Both of the Magmortars were at a late pseudo-king rank. Lucario was fighting them with his bare hands right now.
It had impressive speed and reaction, but it was actually losing the battle. As the battle progressed, Lucairo was finally able to use 'Agility' 4 times, almost doubling its speed. Then it used 'Water pulse' to attack the Magmortars. One of the dodged while the other was hit by the attack.
It had already used the move 'Rain dance', but since the forest was covered in trees, the move was not so effective, but the power of 'Water pulse' had increased.
BANG!!!
The battle raged on, and after fighting both of them for more than 5 minutes, Lucario used the move 'Counter'.
BOOOM
It combined the move with 'Bullet punch' and threw rapid punches. 'Counter' was one of its moves that could change the battle in an instant. With its current mastery, it was able to heal heavy damage to one Magmortar, killing it.
With the help of 'Counter', it was also able to heal some of the damage that it had received, but the stamina problem remained. Even though it had 'Aura storage', it was in the initial stages of training it. So, 'Aura storage' could not currently be used to replenish aura. Currently, it could only store aura inside it.
Seeing the fight, Axel told the other king rank Bisharp to intervene, and very soon they were able to kill the last Magmortar.
"You have done well this time. It looks like your battle experience had increased a lot.."
Lucairo had also been able to master its ability, and it synchronized with it current mindset.
---
Inner Focus (Lucario): The user can passively focus on each of its physical attacks, increasing the chances of a critical hit. If it is used actively, the critical hit's chances will rapidly increase, and the user may also find the weak points of the enemy.
---
The mastered ability sat very well for a physical attacker like Lucario. Coming to its training plans, the first thing that Axel said to it was to learn the move 'Iron defense'.
This was a must for a physical attacker. Axel knew that the move would decrease its speed, but that was what it would focus on while upgrading it.
'Iron defense' would increase the physical defense of the user to a higher level. Since it was a steel type Pokemon too, the efficiency of the move would be higher.
After the battle was over, Axel told all of them to move out of here as soon as possible. They could fight a whole tribe, as the Magmortar tribe was in this area.
After running for more than two hours, Axel told all of them to rest. He looked at the notification and smiled.
---
Ding!
Lucairo's counter has leveled up to level 50. The user can now assimilate the power of Counter with other physical attacking moves.
---
This was something that it had done while fighting before. It was great news. Some of his Pokemon had been able to do it, too, and now Lucario's options had increased.
###
After a short rest, all of them started to move, and after 6 days of a long journey, they finally reached the place that they were looking for. The journey might have taken them 3-4 days, but they had to be extra careful.
But they had arrived. Just when they reached the border of the tribe, Axel watched the boundary, which surprised him. The tribe looked richer than the Primeape tribe that he had made an ally of. It was large, at least twice as large as the Annihilape's tribe, and the wall surrounding it was made not of hardwood but of stones.
One of the Primeape took a horn and blew it with all of its power. The sound was large, and suddenly, Axel could hear moments inside the wall. The massive door made of hardwood and stone opened slowly, and from there, a group of Primeape came to see what was happening.
One of them was at king rank, while others were at pseudo-king rank. This showed that the overall power of the tribe was stronger than he had expected.
The Primeapes from both of tribes started to discuss something in their own language, which he could not understand, and finally they were led inside.
Axel was surprised.
Just like that?
They were going to let them in just like that? Was it just their warrior's pride, or were they just too stupid?
Who would let their enemy inside their tribe without any proper checks and assurances? They didn't even ask the Primeape to hand out their weapons. As Axel was starting to doubt his own reality, they were led to a training ground.
The training ground was large and wide. It was a normal training ground with simple, low walls covering it.
Annihilape turned towards Axel and said, "They have accepted the challenge, and now they will send out their strongest Pokemon to fight us. It is actually their leader who is a Primeape."
There was something that Axel understood. The fear of evolving to Annihilape was not only in the tribe that he knew, but also in this tribe. If not, he would have seen multiple Annihilape in the tribe, but he could see none. Even the leader was a Primeape and not an Annihilape.
Very soon, a Primeape that looked a head taller than others came with a bunch of its followers. Axel noticed that beside that Primeape there was another one who was at pseudo-champion rank.
The leader Primeape seemed to have healed it wounds, but there were still some of it left. In short, it was not in its full health. Axel could already see that its moments were not so fluid.
Annihilape started to talk to Primeape with roars and screams, which he could not understand. But the King rank Bisharp translated it.
"Do you think a weak tribe like yours could challenge us and win just because I am injured? You are too weak to think about that, BOY!!", shouted the leader Primeape with arrogance.
"If you think that you are so mighty, then why try it in the training ground. I will show you who the more powerful one is. If I win, I will take over your tribe and kill you on the spot.", said Annihilape.
"It looks like I will have to show you the difference between our tribes.", said the leader, Primeape, and it went towards the training ground. Annihilape followed it.
"My name is Ketu. Make sure you remember the name in hell. That is where I will send you."
With that, the leader Primeape spread its legs and, with a WOOSH, it had vanished. The grounds cracked from its momentum, and it rocketed to Annihilape.
But Annihilape was not worried about it. It dodged the move effortlessly and then used the move 'Hypnosis' on it.
Not expecting it to use the move, the move hit Primeape, but it didn't fall asleep. Due to its high mastery over 'Vital spirit', it maintained its control of not sleeping, but it did flatter, and that was all Annihilape needed.
The battle went for 15 minutes, and Annihilape was clearly dominating the battle. Finally, it was able to cut the head of Primeape. It had finally won, but with a price. It had multiple broken ribs, a broken arm, and other injuries.
ROOOARR
It gave out a loud roar announcing its presence, announcing that it had won. One might think that killing a promising pseudo-champion rank was a waste. But it had to be done. That Primeape was the leader of the tribe, and it would never be under anyone. Even if it agreed, there might be a revolution in the future.
The battle was straightforward. The leader Primeape was stronger in terms of stats, but Annihilape's mastery over its moves was clearly better. Coupled with its unexpected ghost-type moves and the injury of the leader Primeape, it had won.