February 9th.
The latter half of the National Competition began, with individual battles commencing first.
However.
Although the competition had started, Fang Yuan was still quite at ease.
He was somewhat special... and in fact, it wasn't just him. The remaining six regional champions also didn't need to participate at this time.
Due to the rules, the individual champions of the seven major regions could directly advance to the main event!!
Fang Yuan naturally supported such a player-friendly rule with both hands.
This spot, had Fang Yuan not participated, would have belonged to Ji Yan, the team captain from Demon Capital University, but the moment Fang Yuan entered the competition, it no longer belonged to Ji Yan...
In the history of the National Competitions, this should be the first time a team captain from Magic City University had to participate in the preliminaries along with ordinary competitors. Ji Yan had indeed set a precedent that would likely be talked about by juniors and underclassmen...
......
The National Competition proceeded fiercely, with broadcasts by various television stations, though not comprehensively.
It's the era of the internet, and if you want to watch the entire National Competition, not missing a single detail of a match, then you can only turn to online platforms.
During these tumultuous days on the internet due to the National Competition, Fang Yuan was still training his Pokémon.
This period was a self-enhancement phase for Fang Yuan's Pokémon.
Targeted training led to significant gains for some Pokémon.
Nurtured by the magnetic field created by the Self-detonating Magnetic Monster, and with the help of Energy Blocks, two Gear children moved beyond the novice level. Though their strength was still average, they could now fight on their own and handle wild Rattata and Beedrill without any major issues.
The improvement in the Gear children's strength made the Self-detonating Magnetic Monster's Electromagnetic Armament form smoother, and perhaps it was now capable of going toe-to-toe with Sun Eevee in a full-fledged battle...
Fang Yuan was looking forward to seeing what heights the Electromagnetic Armament form could reach once the Gear children's strength underwent another qualitative leap and reached Elite Level.
However, achieving another advance in the strength of the two Gear children was not something that could be done in just a few days.
As for the blue lightning, the Self-detonating Magnetic Monster still hadn't shown any signs of mastery, but Fang Yuan wasn't particularly eager about this.
On Monferno's side, it successfully combined Rage with the emission of Fire Type Spells, and it was using them proficiently and smoothly.
Although not as proficient as with Fighting Type Moves, it was still a breakthrough for Monferno itself.
Moreover, while the Rage Eruption Mode didn't offer a comprehensive boost as strong as the Electric Armor Mode, due to Monferno being a Fire-type Spirit by nature, its performance was not bad.
Now, even without using Lightning Armor, Monferno could demonstrate nearly Master Level combat power solely relying on its Rage techniques and Fighting moves.
And, under Glutton's guidance, Milotic easily mastered the Hypnosis Technique Style.
Hypnosis was one of the many basic moves in Illusion Technique. If Milotic could combine Illusion Techniques with Charm Techniques, its charm would be elevated to the extreme.
After Glutton finished teaching Hypnosis, Eevee took over to guide Milotic on the use of spiritual power.
Under the guidance of "Illusion Master Bu Dao", and with Milotic's good foundational coordination, it succeeded in combining Hypnosis with Charm moves and the Attractive body feature in just a day.
Although it was just a beginner, this marked the near perfection of its Charm Techniques, enough to be used in battles against higher-level opponents.
Under the nurturing of large quantities of beauty-enhancing blue Energy Blocks, and combined with its attribute and moves, Milotic's Charm Techniques were exaggerated to the point where even Pokémon of the same gender or those without a gender were influenced.
Fang Yuan had no doubts that by now Milotic could simply shed a single scale and turn a totally ordinary Ugly Fish into a Milotic.
As for Dragonite, the envoy... it had little time for self-training and was arranged by Fang Yuan to be the subject of Milotic's Charm Technique practice.
Fang Yuan sincerely hoped that this naive Dragon could overcome this... It was alright to be charmed by a teammate for now... but if it got charmed by an enemy in the future, wouldn't that be disastrous?
Fang Yuan wanted to teach Dragonite a lesson in manhood: Dog Lickers don't get the house!!
...
"He actually forfeited directly?"
"Tch, he gave up without even fighting..."
On the day of the main event of the individual battles, the sixteen finalists began their fights.
Among these sixteen, seven were regional champions, while the other nine had fought their way through over a hundred other competitors.
Fang Yuan stood helplessly on the field, facing Shu Yu, the deputy captain of Magic City University's team.
In the top sixteen of the National Competition's individual battles, Magic City University had three representatives: Fang Yuan, team captain Ji Yan, and deputy captain Shu Yu.
However, what was distressing for the Demon Capital University students was that the first match was between their own members.
"I... concede!" Facing Fang Yuan, Shu Yu decisively admitted defeat. She settled with stopping at the top sixteen... she was at peace with it...
In private, her Pokémon had been ravaged by Fang Yuan's Pokémon countless times and were traumatized. She knew she stood no chance against Fang Yuan anyway, so it was better to conserve her Pokémon's energy for the upcoming team battles.
"I'm taking the big picture into account..." Shu Yu consoled herself after conceding.
The faculty and students of Demon Capital University were not too surprised by Shu Yu's decision.
After all, even the team captain Ji Yan from Demon Capital had been soundly defeated by Fang Yuan in the regional competition, and if his strength was far inferior, let alone the deputy captain Shu Yu.
However, Shu Yu's proactive forfeiture to conserve energy for the team battles earned her unanimous praise from her juniors and underclassmen!
By giving up the chance to showcase her personal strength and putting team unity and school reputation first, many spectators marveled at Shu Yu's maturity, truly worthy of being a core individual from a prestigious school!