Zeraora could feel the powerful aura emanating from Lucario, and it didn't sense that this unusual Pokémon before it was much weaker than itself.
Perhaps it was even stronger than Zeraora had imagined, possibly more powerful than itself. These were all possibilities. Otherwise, Zeraora would never have sought it out, wanting to test its skills and see who was superior.
But when Zeraora launched its first attack, it felt that something was off, though it couldn't pinpoint exactly what seemed strange.
When the sudden Plasma Fists strike—charged with overwhelming electric power—hit toward Lucario's face, Lucario's exceptional reflexes should have allowed it to dodge this kind of melee attack. Although the strike was fast, it hadn't reached a speed that Lucario couldn't react to. After all, its opponent was quite close, and Lucario's aura power had already predicted its opponent's actions in advance.
However, while Lucario's mind had processed the information quickly enough, its body's reaction couldn't keep up with its mental reflexes.
Lucario realized that the intense pressure transmitted from its hands and feet made its body unable to follow through with what its brain commanded. It could only resist this extremely powerful attack by subconsciously bracing itself and digging into the ground.
Zeraora could also see the struggle in Lucario's eyes.
During this exchange, Lucario was questioning itself constantly. If its physical conditioning were strong enough, it definitely wouldn't be unable to respond under such pressure. But unable to move as intended, it had no choice but to use other methods to forcefully endure this attack. Its body quickly began releasing heat from its surface, and a faint red glow appeared. It seemed Lucario was going to use its body's raw strength and the power of Bulk Up to take this powerful attack head-on.
Boom!
Lucario's sturdy fists were raised above its head. Although it did have the ability to dodge this attack, when the body's strength and reaction speed couldn't keep up, the only option was to use defensive measures to block this powerful strike.
Even if it would cause some damage, that damage might not be enough to significantly impact its opponent.
Tremendous force came crashing down on its fists. Although Lucario defended in time and prevented any direct damage to its body, the massive power still caused the ground beneath it to sink. The spot where Lucario stood descended at least ten centimeters, and the impact created cracks similar to a spider's web spreading across the ground.
This kind of battle scene was within Roy's expectations. After all, they had already experienced such powerful clashes before. If they still couldn't exert this level of destructive power, that would be questionable. However, Roy wasn't disappointed with the physical capabilities these two Pokémon displayed.
After all, just by using close-combat Fighting-type techniques to exchange blows, they could generate such destructive power. Although they hadn't gone all out yet, one could vaguely see the offensive power and defense they possessed from these strikes, which were important factors used to measure a Pokémon's strength.
Zeraora, having landed this successful blow, quickly retreated. It didn't want to be caught by this Pokémon that specialized in close-combat fighting, which would create very troublesome problems.
So after attacking once, it quickly pulled back, continuing to use Agility to increase its speed. Using friction with the air, it could build up more electricity, making the Electric-type moves it would use in the next phase of battle even more powerful.
Lucario ignored the red marks left on its fists from blocking the attack. After all, this was an attack created by a very strong Pokémon. Even the exceptionally powerful Lucario couldn't defend against it completely without consequence.
Such an attack could leave certain injuries on its body. If Lucario hadn't used its arms to block this time, the attack would have caused significant damage to its body. Though it wouldn't be seriously injured or killed, it would definitely affect subsequent attacks.
The power of the blue aura was conveyed to Lucario once again. Roy knew that this battle didn't need his direct commands—it was enough to rely on Lucario's understanding to fight spontaneously. But in some aspects, Lucario still needed to be reminded.
"I know you'll never give up in an intense battle, but you also need to adopt a smart fighting approach. Although I trust in your strong body, I'm not worried about what kind of damage Zeraora's powerful lightning attacks will cause you. What concerns me is when you use your body to resist physical attacks and then counter with moves like Counter.
But as a prerequisite, you need to actually get hit by your target before Counter can be 100% effective. However, you've also seen how fast Zeraora is. Before you can match its speed, using Counter isn't a very good choice. If you can restrain its movements and make its untrained body accept the counter-damage you can deliver during that time, it definitely won't be able to handle it."
"And your current weakness is simply that once you suppress all the special advantages that an agile Pokémon can have, what are you left with? That's exactly why you created this kind of training regimen for yourself."
"If you want to defeat Zeraora, you must restrict its movements and force it to accept your attacks. The second approach is to use the power of Aura to affect its behavior as much as possible. Although Aura is primarily a power used for perception and spiritual communication, we might be able to transform this spiritual energy in a way that could have some impact on physical reality. Even if it's only a very subtle influence, I believe you can seize that opportunity."