"Ralu!"
Ralts slowly floated up from Dian's shoulder, and two streams of blue light wrapped around the blue Kecleon and Misdreavus.
Dian could clearly see two clusters of mysterious, multicolored lights beginning to switch places.
This was Skill Swap, a miraculous move that could exchange the innate abilities of two Pokémon.
However, Skill Swap was not all-powerful. At the very least, a handful of abilities, including Multitype and Wonder Guard, could not be swapped.
After the first round of ability experiments, Dian had broadly classified all abilities into genetic abilities, mystical abilities, and special abilities that lay between the two and might be linked to both genetics and the mind.
Genetic abilities referred to abilities such as Muk's Stench and Drapion's Battle Armor.
Mystical abilities were even easier to understand, with Misdreavus's Levitate and Gothitelle's Shadow Tag being clear examples.
The final category, special abilities, consisted of abilities connected to both the body and the mind.
Examples included the abilities possessed by the two Kecleon before him: Color Change and Protean.
The ultimate effect of both abilities was to freely change the user's own type.
And typing was one of the defining traits that spanned both body and mind.
These two abilities could even be viewed as the product of a qualitative transformation in Kecleon's natural color-changing power through its combination with mental power.
Of course, Dian's current ability theory was nowhere near as comprehensive or sophisticated as his research into move theory.
Abilities themselves were simply too mysterious and difficult to study.
Yet that was precisely why his research theories on abilities had allowed him to stand out among so many scholars.
As Dian watched the Skill Swap before him, he considered the move's limitations.
He suspected that the duration of the move was directly related to both the