After Xia Hunao persuaded Shui'er and Ruan Tian to go home before discussing the Water Stone, the group continued their journey deeper into the forest. Meanwhile, Cai Rou and her companions, also in the forest, were advancing downwards after concluding their battle with the Hairy Pig.
As for how they won, it could only be said that Li Han came up with a wicked idea. Things with longer fur would naturally be affected in various ways by their fur, much like how girls find it troublesome to comb their hair. Li Han thought of this and had his Pokémon move directly towards areas with dense tree branches.
The Hairy Pig, not particularly bright, followed the little Pokémon into the dense foliage and got caught. Restrained by the trees, the Hairy Pig had little room to resist. Li Han managed to win the battle with a bit of effort and captured the Hairy Pig with a Poké Ball.
The first battle was decent enough, but as they walked, they encountered some, well, peculiar-looking Pokémon leaping out from the grass.
A Pokémon with a predominantly white color scheme approached them with a powerful aura, parting branches with its paws as it moved. Cai Rou couldn't help but curse upon seeing this Pokémon: "Holy crap, what is that thing..."
It wasn't surprising that Cai Rou swore, but this Pokémon was truly bizarre. Teddiursa, an ordinary Pokémon, evolves into Ursaring at level thirty. Ursaring is a completely different Pokémon from its pre-evolved form. But Teddiursa, is its primary color white? Even a shiny Teddiursa isn't typically white.
If Xia Hunao had seen this, he would have undoubtedly approached it to research. However, with Xia Hunao absent, the one most closely related to him present was Rotom.
Rotom, bolstered by curiosity, floated over and poked it. It then returned to Cai Rou and said, "Don't worry, this is definitely a Teddiursa."
Cai Rou pointed at the Teddiursa, which was patting its chest: "While I haven't heard of white Teddiursa, as Coach Xia would say, the world has rare species. But a Teddiursa that's two meters tall, are you kidding me?"
Rotom checked its Pokédex. The average height of a Teddiursa was barely two feet. After evolving into Ursaring, their average height should be around 1.8 meters. The Teddiursa before them was already larger than an Ursaring.
Cai Rou took out a Poké Ball from her pocket: "This thing..."
She was about to say that they might not be able to handle this thing and that they should provide backup. Then, she heard Meng Tianya's voice from her earphone. Cai Rou blinked. She had received this earphone from Yu Linglong upon entering, who said it would allow them to hear each other's voices and communicate situations within the secret realm. But she hadn't expected it to connect to Meng Tianya outside.
However, after hearing Meng Tianya's words, Cai Rou nodded subtly and changed her follow-up: "This thing seems incredibly rare. Is anyone interested? If not, I'll step up?"
Cai Rou was indeed interested in this Ursaring. Primarily because Meng Tianya's first sentence was: "This bear is on our approved list for capture." His second sentence was that Xia Hunao had mentioned this bear might undergo reverse growth.
What did that mean? It meant that despite this albino Teddiursa being over two meters tall now, after evolving, it might become an Ursaring even shorter than a Teddiursa. A fifty-centimeter-tall little temper tantrum was an unprecedented level of rarity.
Although Cai Rou asked her teammates to go first, they weren't very interested in this bear. The main reason was its intimidating size.
Seeing that no one stepped forward to face the Teddiursa, Cai Rou had to take the initiative: "Come on, Teddiursa. If I win, you have to come with me."
The Teddiursa opened its mouth and bared its teeth, but to everyone watching, its attempt at cuteness was still quite potent. Its intimidation factor, however, was far less than the one that appeared earlier.
Cai Rou took out a Poké Ball, intending to summon Xiao Yi. However, the Teddiursa directly put up its two paws in front of it, making a "stop" gesture. Then, to everyone's bewilderment, it turned and walked away.
Cai Rou froze, holding the Poké Ball: "Wait, what are you doing? We agreed to battle, why are you leaving?"
Not long after, accompanied by a tremor of the earth, a white silhouette reappeared before them. Unlike the Teddiursa that left with a cute demeanor earlier, this Teddiursa appeared somewhat more ferocious. As Xia Hunao had put it when he first picked it out: "Look at this physique, wielding an axe or a mace, it's a total Barbarian King! Come on, Teddiursa, shout with me: Barbarians will never be slaves!"
If one were to rewind the historical timeline of Ling Yao Star significantly, then Teddiursa wielding twin axes would have been excellent lumberjacks. But ever since humans and Pokémon coexisted and began capturing Pokémon, this strenuous and dangerous work had been replaced by Pokémon's rapid slashes. In truth, humans only saw axes on television these days.
However, Teddiursa wasn't human. It couldn't wield human iron axes. It emerged holding two stone axes. The edges of these stone axes were honed to a fine sharpness, glinting menacingly under the secret realm's sun. But this Teddiursa should stop acting cute! Xia Hunao probably never imagined that his carefully chosen Barbarian King would have such an expression.
The Teddiursa blinked its eyes and wiggled its small axes towards Cai Rou, as if to say: "Come on, I'm ready."
Cai Rou sent out Xiao Yi to battle. However, as soon as Xiao Yi leaped out of the Poké Ball, it jumped back into Cai Rou's arms. It glanced at the Teddiursa and, with its eyes, asked Cai Rou: What in the world is that?
Cai Rou petted Xiao Yi's head and then said, "Come on, defeat him, and he'll be our new companion."
Xiao Yi reluctantly leaped out of Cai Rou's arms. It was clear that it wasn't keen on battling this opponent, who appeared to be a simple brute. The Teddiursa could also sense Xiao Yi's reluctance. It lightly tapped its axes against its chest with a rather pitiful expression.
Seeing this expression, Xiao Yi immediately leaped out and unleashed a wild, uncoordinated scratch. Its little claws raked the Teddiursa's legs vigorously. However, Eevee's abilities were hardly noticeable against the two-meter-plus, abnormally developed Teddiursa. Nevertheless, this demonstrated Xiao Yi's stance: I've decided to fight you for a bit.
After taking Xiao Yi's claw attack, the Teddiursa immediately brought down an axe. Xiao Yi moved quickly, jumping to the side to evade. This fierce axe blow landed directly in the ground and became stuck...
Xiao Yi hopped a couple of times on the ground, watching the Teddiursa grunt and strain as it tried to pull its axe free. Li Han, observing this, coached the Teddiursa on how to exert force, using methods taught by Xia Hunao: "Teddiursa, get into a low stance, lower your waist..."
The Teddiursa, obediently mimicking the actions, exerted effort and indeed managed to pull its axe out of the ground. Immediately afterward, it vanished.
The Teddiursa hadn't expected to succeed so easily. It hadn't gripped the axe firmly, and with the surge of effort, the axe flew away. The Teddiursa was stunned for a moment, then began wildly swinging its remaining axe.
"I know you're angry because you lost your axe, but you can't give up on yourself."
After throwing a tantrum for a while, the Teddiursa continued its one-on-one battle with Xiao Yi. Meanwhile, Cai Rou, utilizing Xiao Yi's agility, engaged in guerrilla warfare with the Ursaring, using the forest to her advantage.
"Xiao Yi, evolve!"
Xiao Yi, now Vaporeon, continuously wore down the Teddiursa. The team members beside them questioned: "Why not evolve into Flareon or Jolteon? Vaporeon doesn't seem to have any advantage in this kind of battle."
A sharper team member looked at the surroundings and explained: "It's probably for everyone's safety. In this terrain, if it caught fire, it would be difficult to handle. Besides, these trees look quite dry, and a lightning strike could also ignite them."
While they were discussing, Cai Rou's Xiao Yi kept dodging and weaving through the branches. The Ursaring possessed immense strength, but Xiao Yi continuously used skills to impede its vision. The Ursaring's attacks were ineffective, and with one swing, it hit a tree. The tree remained unharmed, but the axe chipped.
Within a few more rounds, both of the Ursaring's axes were gone. The Ursaring, seeing its axe-less hands, sat down on the ground and began to cry loudly, patting the ground with its paws as it sobbed.
Cai Rou walked over and, with Xiao Yi, patted the Teddiursa's head: "There, there, Teddiursa, don't cry anymore."
The Teddiursa rubbed its eyes, glanced at Cai Rou, and then voluntarily allowed Cai Rou to capture it. After capturing the Teddiursa, Cai Rou hugged it and said, "Be good, okay? When we get back, I'll ask Sister Zhi Shui if we can make some sort of tool axe for you. If Li Xing can make things, we should be able to too."
Upon hearing this, the Teddiursa picked up one of the broken axes from the ground. It touched the chipped edge of the blade and then, with a surge of effort, hurled the axe in the direction the other one had flown. As the axe disappeared into the sky, the Teddiursa waved its hand, seemingly bidding farewell to its axe.
Having captured an albino Teddiursa, Cai Rou and her companions continued their work in the secret realm. As for whether that ill-fated pair of axes would be reunited through the Teddiursa's efforts, that remains unknown.