229 CH98 (228), Using Pressure To Train (4)

After Mimikyu's little cosplay show Horus/Xatu-sensei along with Mothra/Butterfree-sensei continued their Teleport lessons, and this time around even Agni/Arcanine joined in.

While they were doing that, we let the others work on their own moves. As for us, we began talking, or rather I asked them a question and they answered.

"So, what's the plan for the future? I mean the hunt for points should be done in 2 months, so what are you two going to do after that?" I asked curiously and dad gave me a grin while mom looked amused at dad's reaction.

"Son, good that you asked. It's pretty simple actually, we're going to train. In 10 years the Grand League Tournament is going to happen, so I want to try to participate in that one. Further, I'm planning to win the Senior League Tournament that will happen in 5 years.

So, our short-term goal is to help everyone enter the dark gold stage in preparation for the Senior League, while the long-term goal is to improve as much as possible before the Grand League.

While winning the Grand League is unlikely, I want to go as far as possible. The experience will help me win the second one," dad said full of confidence.

"Well, unlike your dad, I don't plan to participate in the Grand League in 10 years, but my goal is to win the Senior League Tournament within that time. Your mommy is going to become a champion, then you can brag about your awesome mommy to everyone." Mom said while stroking my right cheek lovingly.

Well, luckily for dad the Senior League Tournament in 5 years would be held a few months before the start of my official journey. Now, mom's plan of winning the tournament in 10 years would be hard since I was going to participate in that one as well.

Now, I would say whether she could beat me or not, would depend on how far they came with improving their Pokemon to and within the dark gold stage.

Still, I was not planning to give up or make it easy for her just because she was my mom. However, there was no need to destroy her dreams, who knows maybe something would happen that would solve the possible embarrassing moment.

"Those are some impressive goals," I applauded them. Still, that did not completely answer my previous question. "So, does that mean you two are going to be staying home once the time is up?"

"Yes, and no. Well, stay at home for a while, where any training would happen on our property or in the wild nearby. However, we'll also go out for certain periods for some more intensive training and to battle, since just training is not enough," Dad replied.

Mom on the other hand focused on another point altogether.

"Oh, does my baby miss his mommy and want her to stay with him? Or are worried about having to once again live more than a few days with your dad?" She said and I could see the mirth in her eyes.

We both had to laugh when dad mock protested because of her second question.

"Yeah, I'm worried that dad is going to mooch off my luck. Well, at least I get to bully you more often. Sorry, I meant we get to train together more often." I returned humorously.

We talked a bit more about their plans before turning our focus to our Pokemon, and before I knew it Arcday had arrived. My parents went back to the point grind and I decided to honor the first day of the new month by calling my friends before I went to Mt.Moon to train.

I called everyone to ask them how they were doing and it seemed that they were all busy training. Well, Jessica was busy due to her internship at the PokeCenter, but that's just semantics.

Kinji/Samurai did not take my call but called me back near the end of my calling session when I was nearly done calling everyone. He said he had been in the middle of a fight when I called, so he had to finish that one first before he could talk.

He was still inside the Viridian Forest training hard to reach the Bug King rank. Apparently, his Wimpod broke through to the silver stage two days ago, and he believed it would evolve within the next few months.

One of Aaron's latest missions had brought him to Sinnoh, and he currently had two months off, so he was going around Sinnoh challenging Gyms to train his Pokemon against strong/experienced trainers around his level.

I had to laugh when he said that. I was sure that there were not many people who went around challenging gyms not for badges but purely for the sake of training/fighting.

Weiss and Ace were really being kept busy by their parents/families. Still, they said that they managed to get the last week of this month off, so they wanted to meet up on one of the days.

We agreed on a meeting on Palkiday in Coral City. The specific time and place of our meeting would be determined a day or two before Palkiday.

Erza was visiting family in Kalos, and Yu, well who cares about Yu?

Jokes aside the poor boy came two hours ago, bright early in the morning, waking all of us up, and told me his parents were sent on a long-term mission to the Orre region and he got dragged along for the ride.

Seeing as he came to say goodbye, I forgave him for dragging me out of bed, less than an hour after I went back to sleep after checking up on Eggy.

Misty traveled to Galar for a Chewtle or Drednaw and she said that she might stay in the western continent for a few months to train and to see if she can find some water types that arouse her interest. The others were simply busy with their journeys, so nothing was new on that front.

Oh, and her parents had brought Rose on a month-long road trip. They were not going around all of Kanto since that would be laughable, but they were planning to make a circle, by traveling from Orchid City to Iris City, then from there to Citron City, and finally from Citron City back to Orchid City.

They were traveling on the official route system and the total distance of their little round trip was 2200 km. I told her to have fun and since that had been the last one on my to-call list, I made my way to Mt.Moon.

We were wandering around a new area each day, with trusty Luna/Clefairy-chan leading the way. Hmm, when I said new, I meant that we continued where we left off the previous time, but we had only seen a really small part of the whole mountain range until now.

Well, considering the size of the area that made a lot of sense. I was pretty sure that no one would consider covering around 670.000 km² in just 5 days as possible.

Anyway, as I said, we were going around Mt.Moon in search of worthy battles for Saphira/Swablu and Hashirama/Ivysaur today as well. The first two hours of our hike went like usual, but we just came across a small colony of Nidoran led by 2 Nidorino and 3 Nidorina.

Since I wanted some one-on-one battles, I might have intimidated them into agreeing with the help of Luna/Clefairy, Nyx/Umbreon, Thor/Pikachu, and Mars/Ursaring's presence.

Anyway, Saphira first fought against the (mid) bronze stage Nidorino and then the (mid) bronze stage Nidorina. She actually managed to win by making copious use of Safeguard, Cotton Guard, and Refresh.

Another factor, I noticed was that the Nidos were not used to fighting a flying foe, probably because the only ones living around their area were members of the Spearow line.

Add to that the fact that Saphira was safe from poisoning as well as her increased defense, and she managed to win against the odds because there was no mistake that she was actually weaker than both her beaten opponents.

Well, experience and a nice move pool with decent mastery were the decisive factors here. Still, Saphira would have to take a backseat now, since the strength difference with the rest of the Nidos was too large.

The two other Nidorina were at the (high) bronze stage, while the alpha Nidorino was at the (low) silver stage, so just right for good old Hashirama. As soon as the battle began Hashirama used Sunny Day which increased his speed substantially.

Nidorino ran towards Hashirama its horn lit up signaling the use of Horn Attack, but Hashi dodged thanks to his boosted speed and let out a round of Leech Seed that we're buried around the area like mines that we're waiting for someone, in this case, Nidorino to step on them.

There was not much that Nidorino could do the only useful move against Ivysaur it could naturally learn was Earth Power, and they normally learned that one only around the (mid) silver stage.

In fact, the only long-range move it used was Poison Sting, which was not that useful against Hashirama, so Nidorino had no choice but to get close for close combat, which Hashi knowingly avoided maximizing his advantage.

After another failed rush Nidorino stepped on one of the buried Leech Seeds and got endangered by the energy-draining root that grew. Hashi used his temporary immobility and distracted state to shower him in Sleep Powder. A single round was not enough to lull it to sleep, but he kept using Sleep Powder until Nidorino fell asleep.

Well, that was a pretty bad match-up. I seem to have underestimated what a bad match-up a Nidorino that has not been taught a lot of extra moves was against someone capable of keeping the distance between them, on top of being immune to poisoning.

I kinda felt bad about how bad that whole fight went for Nidorino. I was sure that the fight would have gone different if it had been a Nidoking but seems like using Nidos for Hashirama's pressure training was not worthwhile.

I woke up the Nidorino healed any damage it suffered and threw out a few berries before doing a tactical retreat. I truly felt a bit awkward about that last fight since I had mentioned how beneficial a close fight would be for both before they began to battle.

After that episode, another few hours went by with us finding one helpful opponent after the other, until we came across a really big business of Sentret and Furret. They all went on full alert as soon as we stepped into their little clearing.

Seeing so many of them gave me an idea of how I could use that to help Hashirama train, so I called out to the leader of the business. I began to negotiate with him since I would need their cooperation if I wanted the right amount of pressure.

In the end, the Boss Furret agreed and all bronze stage Furret and Sentret were called to the front. There were roughly 20 of them, and just like we had agreed on they all began attacking Hashirama at the same time. Yes, it was a mini-tide.

Hashirama had to deal with a large number of opponents that were weaker than him, but the difference in strength was relatively small, so the pressure he felt at having to face 20 at once was huge.

He did not have to win for this session. If he did win great, but the main goal was to hold out as long as possible. The fight was impressive to witness, Hashirama first used a Sunny Day to boost his speed, and then he alternated between Sleep Powder, Vine Whip, and Razor Leaf to attack/slow down his enemies.

He spread around Leech Seed in hopes of slowing them down, but it was not enough. He was unable to deal with so many attackers at once, so he got hit quite often by those he failed to block. Still, whenever he got too hurt he used Synthesis to heal, which worked quickly and effectively thanks to the Sunny Day he made sure to keep going.

While he actually managed to dwindle their number to 5 after an unbelievable 23 minutes, he was out of steam. While his last Synthesis ensure that he was in good shape health-wise, he was out of energy and nearly out of stamina as well.

Nonetheless, Hashirama kept going despite him suffering damage from his 5 assailants. He fought until even his stamina was used up, but he managed to take one more Furret down before he was unable to continue. Still, despite his loss, he put on a grand performance and I told him as much.

He beamed at my praise and the brief disappointed look he had vanished. His friends congratulated him well which proved to him that I was not just saying that to console him.

After praising Hashirama and healing him back up as well as giving him a stamina and energy boost, I turned to the Sentret and Furret strewn around the area, as well as the 4 that were still standing.

I began to heal them back up again as well, and once I finished healing the last one, I turned to the Boss Furret who had been quietly observing me. I handed over the promised reward, which was 30 bags/kg of F-class normal type Pokefood and 10 bags/kg of E-class normal type Pokefood.

Boss Furret actually told me that it was a pleasure doing business with me and that I could come to them if I wanted a repeat performance. I agreed since the wave/tide method worked out great in my opinion, so I would definitely retry it from time to time.

A quick look at my watch told me that it was time for me to go home, so that's what we did. The next two days went by without any fuss. The highlight was Makuhita which we came across on Giratiday, which was cool since I did not think that any Makuhita were living in the Moon mountain range.

On Palkiday we actually came across a (low) silver-stage Donphan which proved to be a good challenge for Hashirama, and after our leaving training session I saw that his Endurance got raised to SSS. The next day and the weekend with my parents flew by quickly as did the two days after that up until Giratiday.

During those days the only surprise was a Cacturne I came across on Dialday, and a Sudowoodo we met on Mewday. Still, finally on Giratiday Saphira showed some progress, her Energy Capacity got increased to SSS as well, which left only her Strength for her to complete her limit breaking.

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