Chapter 136: The Vector-Thrust Battle Maid
Lorze's Mawile actually had decent talent; she had mastered several moves before he adopted her.
Besides Power-Up Punch, she knew her STAB Iron Head and the Dark-type move Taunt.
And then there was the Stockpile, Spit Up, and Swallow trio he mentioned earlier.
To verify the feasibility of the "Jet Battle Maid," Lorze shared his brainstorm with Mawile.
He pulled out his phone to show her a video of a rocket launch and explained the principle of Newtonian counter-thrust in simple terms.
He wasn't sure if she fully understood the physics, but with the video's help, Mawile got the gist of what he wanted.
"Mawile, I want you to use Stockpile until you can't hold any more. Then, blast all that energy out at once."
"While you blast it, jump with everything you've got. We need to measure your maximum thrust." Lorze instructed.
"Maw~!" Mawile nodded. She didn't get the science, but if her Master asked, she would do it.
To avoid collateral damage to the spectators, Mawile moved to the center of the institute's backyard and began her focus.
Lorze stared at the stopwatch on his phone, timing how long it took her to reach three stacks.
When Mawile signaled she was full, the timer read 21 seconds. That meant 7 seconds per stack.
Seven seconds might not seem like much, but on a battlefield where things change in a heartbeat, a 2-second cast time is already a liability. Seven seconds was combat suicide.
However, part of the delay was Mawile's low proficiency with the move.
With training and Lorze's god-tier Telepathic Resonance, he could surely bring that number down to a viable range.
Proficiency could be grinded later; the priority was confirming if the thrust was enough to move her weight.
"Excellent. Now, blast all that energy out at once!" Lorze pointed to the sky, giving the signal.
"Maw-ile!"
Mawile nodded, jumped with all her strength, and unleashed the stored energy directly toward the ground.
A pillar of white light, resembling a Hyper Beam, slammed into the dirt.
The massive counter-thrust gave Mawile a sensation of acceleration she had never felt before.
Her body jerked violently, she lost her balance instantly, and then she began spinning through the air like a punctured balloon.
She eventually plummeted out of the sky, crashing directly onto the head of the berserk Quilava.
Well, that saved Tang Ming the trouble of calling his partner back; Quilava was instantly knocked cold by the Mawile-projectile.
"Maw... ile..."
Mawile's head was spinning; the entire world looked like a kaleidoscope. Her mind was occupied by the ultimate questions of "Who am I?" and "Where am I?"
Clearly, the first test flight was a disaster.
But it wasn't a total failure.
Lorze hadn't expected it to work on the first try. He just wanted to see the power.
The thrust was definitely there—it was on par with a Quick Attack, comparable to a speed-type like Pikachu.
But honestly, Lorze wasn't satisfied. If a full-power blast only reached Quick Attack speeds, he might as well just shoot the 300-power beam at the enemy instead of wasting it on a jump.
He wanted Extreme Speed levels of velocity. He wanted the battle to end before the enemy even realized it had started.
Lorze hurried over to scoop up his Mawile, using Telepathic Resonance to soothe her mind and erase the vertigo.
"Maw... (I think I failed...)"
Mawile looked at her Master with a dejected expression, feeling like she had let him down.
"Silly girl, how was that a failure? The goal was to see if the engine could move you. Now we know it can, right?" Lorze comforted her.
"Maw... (But I can't control it.)"
Mawile was still down. Being in the air felt nothing like being on the ground. She had nothing to push off of, and the speed blurred her vision and made her nauseous.
"It's fine. Do you know how many trees Kirlia crashed into when she was practicing Teleport?"
"She doubted herself just like you are now. Can you imagine her making a mistake like that today?" Lorze rubbed her head gently.
"Maw? (The Big Boss failed too?)"
Mawile looked at Kirlia in disbelief. To her, the Big Boss was an omnipotent goddess who could do anything their Master asked.
"She failed more times than I can count. So don't lose heart. This time, I'll support you with Telepathic Resonance. Want to try again?"
"Maw! (Yes! I'll work harder!)"
Mawile nodded vigorously, her spirits restored. If the Big Boss had struggled, then her own failure was just a natural step toward greatness.
She returned to the center of the yard, ready for round two.
This time, Lorze tweaked the experimental parameters. He told her not to go for three stacks—one was enough.
Three stacks of energy were too volatile and hard to steer. It was better to start with a "Low-Power" mode to master the basics.
As for whether one stack would provide enough thrust, Lorze realized the previous issue wasn't the energy volume, but the delivery method.
If Mawile's "jaw-engine" was an engine, then previously, the engine was wide open.
The energy escaped through the sides of the mouth, wasting most of the thrust. That's why she wasn't fast enough.
This time, he told Mawile to clamp her jaws as tight as possible, leaving only a fist-sized "nozzle" at the very end of the jaw.
By constraining the output to a small hole, they increased the "chamber pressure," making a one-stack blast more efficient than a three-stack spray.
But this presented a new problem: high pressure meant the "engine" might explode.
Lorze activated Telepathic Resonance to the max, manually stabilizing Mawile's control over the pressure.
Everything was set. One stack was ready. At Lorze's command, the engine ignited!
BOOM!
A sound like a literal jet turbine echoed through the yard.
A concentrated stream of energy erupted from the "nozzle." Under the intense pressure, the thrust hit the target value, sending Mawile soaring into the sky!
However... have you ever played with a high-pressure water hose?
Anyone who has knows the kickback is violent. You have to fight to keep it pointed straight, or it'll whip out of your hands.
Mawile was currently that out-of-control fire hose. With nothing to grab in mid-air, she couldn't maintain her balance.
She began another frantic tumble through the air until the "chamber" finally hit its limit and "burst" open.
As her jaws relaxed, the thrust leaked out and she stopped spinning, falling from the sky.
Luckily, Kirlia was ready with her Telekinesis, catching her gently before she hit the ground.
Test flight number two: also a failure.
"Maw... (So dizzy...)" Mawile muttered.
"It's okay. You did great. Let's rest and try again. This time we'll open the nozzle a bit more to lower the chamber pressure. We'll go slower. I know you can do this."
"MAW! (Okay!)"
Mawile wasn't the type to give up easily. She prepared for the third attempt.
Under her Master's carefully tuned "engine parameters," the balance of pressure and velocity finally hit her current "sweet spot." She successfully achieved a stable, level flight!
Currently, she could only fly in a straight line.
The second Lorze asked her to use the "Vector Thrust" to turn, she entered unknown territory and lost her balance again, stalling and falling.
She simply didn't have the physical strength to keep her jaws clamped against the high-pressure energy yet.
This made Lorze realize a fundamental engineering flaw: you can't just increase thrust; you have to improve the engine's material integrity.
Mawile needed more physical power to constrain that pressure. He thought of her Hyper Cutter (Monster Strength Pincers) Ability.
If Mawile could "Dual-Wield" that Ability, she could easily hold the pressure in check.
Theoretically, Hyper Cutter should be an innate trait; her jaw was built for crushing, after all.
It wasn't like she became a weakling the second the Ability wasn't "active."
Her potential was just untapped. He added "Unlocking Hyper Cutter" to her training queue.
But for now, he focused on her aerial stability.
Mawile was like a child learning to ride a bike—falling every few steps, moving at a snail's pace.
But as Lorze and the teammates watched her slowly master the art of turning, they could already visualize the day she would be performing aerobatics in the sky...
I have to hand it to Lorze's insane imagination. A flying Mawile?
Who the hell said she was 'limited'?!