Gastly Against Phantom Force

The practice method of psychic powers had been firmly imprinted in Gastly's mind, but the practice only took two or three hours at most. Gastly was not like psychic-type Pokémon who could make rapid progress in developing their psychic abilities. Its main focus was still on conserving energy during the day.

Ten days before Fantina would be leaving the Ecruteak Gym, Cain's Ditto had finally fully recovered.

On that day, Morty found Cain. "Cain, do you think we should return to challenge the fifth floor? After all, Fantina will be leaving in ten days."

"Sure," Cain replied.

Now that the plethora of trainer challengers in Ecruteak had slowed down, there were only one or two challengers arranged for Cain each day. It was time to test the progress Gastly had made in the past twenty days.

After twenty days of intensive training, Morty, Fantina, and Raikou's Pokémon had made great progress. They were confident in their challenge of the fifth floor of the Brass Tower.

This time, Cain's team faced a Banette and twenty Shuppets.

"How should we fight this time?" Fantina asked Morty.

"Banette is strong in physical attacks. As long as we don't let it get close to us, we should be fine," Morty replied.

As soon as Morty finished speaking, the Banette and Shuppets all disappeared.

"Don't be surprised by this move. Dusclops, use Foresight," Raikou said disdainfully. The Foresight move could reveal the location of invisible Banettes.

Dusclops's eyes emitted a brilliant light that swept across the entire fifth floor of the Brass Tower.

Raikou sneered, preparing to turn the tide with Foresight, while Cain watched him act coolly.

After the Foresight technique swept across the area, not a single Shuppets appeared.

"What? How is this possible?" Raikou's arrogance disappeared in an instant. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Gastly, use Night Shade and Dark Pulse," Cain commanded. Gastly did not hesitate to engulf itself in a shadowy cloak that then radiated energy waves from its body.

Morty and Fantina hadn't even reacted yet when the Shuppets suddenly appeared next to their Pokémon - Spiritomb, Drifblim, and Dusclops - and launched a series of attacks that caused significant damage in the first round.

The Shuppets close to Gastly were forced to retreat due to the damage caused by Dark Pulse. Moreover, they couldn't see Gastly due to the Night Shade, so they had no choice but to abandon attacking it.

Before Morty and Fantina could launch a counterattack, the Shuppets disappeared from the area again.

Fantina's frustration grew as she observed the Shuppet's constant surprise attacks.

Such guerrilla tactics were indeed enough to drive one crazy, but such frustration was only a denial of one's own abilities. It was because of their lack of ability to solve such a predicament that this annoyance arose, and complaining was just a way to find some comfort for themselves.

"It's a Phantom Force, yes, a Phantom Force," shouted Morty suddenly.

Cain looked at Morty, only now realizing? It was probably too late this time.

"What? Phantom Force, my Drifblim can do it too, but I didn't think it was useful, so I've never used it," Fantina seemed to hear a familiar term.

Useless?

Heh, Cain rolled his eyes at Fantina.

It was no wonder that someone who only knew how to attack head-on would think that the move was useless, far worse than Morty.

"Ah, why wouldn't it be useful? Phantom Force is the easiest and sneakiest move. The Shuppet's hide temporarily in a different dimension, which is why it's useless even if you use Dusclops Foresight to detect them. When they get close to you, they suddenly attack, which is naturally hard to resist." Morty said.

"Ah, Morty brother is so knowledgeable, I will also try to use this move next time," Fantina looked at Morty with an admiring gaze.

Looking at how easily Cain dealt with the situation, Morty thought to himself: The truly remarkable one hasn't spoken yet.

While the three were discussing, the Shuppet's had already completed another sneak attack, and the Drifblim that had been attacked twice by the Shuppets had lost its fighting ability.

Then Morty's Spiritomb used a loud Snarl to block the Shuppet's from approaching, and Cain's Gastly used a Dark Pulse, causing the Shuppets to not dare to approach.

The hesitation of the Raikou's Dusclops naturally made it the target of focus.

Just as Raikou remembered that Dusclops could also use Dark Pulse and was about to order its use, Dusclops had already been besieged and lost its fighting ability.

Only Gastly and Spiritomb were left.

"What do we do now?" Morty asked Cain.

Cain directly withdrew Gastly. "What else can we do?" After saying that, he was the first to leave the Brass Tower.

It was already impossible to win with just his Gastly and a half-dead Spiritomb. Continuing the fight would only waste time.

"What does he mean? He's so rude, why show off?" Fantina was a little angry.

Morty sighed, "Forget it, let's go. It's true that we're relying on him to hold us back."

"But Morty, you waited more than 20 days for his Ditto to recover before you challenged the tower. He should be grateful too," Fantina said.

Raikou sneered, "If you could pass the tower alone, you could come by yourself."

"You!" Fantina was at a loss for words.

"Forget it, let's try again tomorrow. Now that we know the tactic of the Shuppets, we should be able to pass the tower by imitating Cain's method." Morty said.

Recently, Yan had no time to pay attention to Cain and the others' progress in the tower, because this year's Gym Exam was about to begin, and the one in charge of examining the Ecruteak Gym was the cold-blooded Elite Four of the Johto Alliance, Pryce. Every year, the gyms that were examined under him were stripped down to their bare bones.

Cain was still very lucky, as when he was a Gym Leader in his previous life, Pryce had already passed away. Otherwise, this old guy would have really shown no mercy. His identity as the "Winter Pryce" was not for show.

Although Pryce had no friends in the League and everyone wanted him to step down, no one could match his strength. A single Delibird could freeze the entire Lake of Rage, and his Mamoswine can confront the legendary trio of Raikou, Entei, and Suicune head-on. With such strength as the foundation, all people dared to do was to silently bear his anger.

This demonstrates the power of deterrence through strength.

If it wasn't for the fact that the Alliance Council feared that Pryce would upset the political balance, he would have become champion long ago with his strength. Therefore, during Pryce's tenure as an Elite, the Johto region remained politically stable, and some of the larger families and gyms did not dare to make any unreasonable moves.

Pryce was quite ruthless in his actions, even against other Elites, he showed no mercy.

The Alliance Council naturally would not allow Pryce to go rogue and obstructed his actions, so every time he acted, they would step in to stop him.

Pryce eventually resigned in disappointment, having been an Elite for only a few years, and went back to being a Gym Leader in Mahogany Town.

After Pryce left, the entire Johto region fell into a slump and lived in the shadow of the Kanto region for decades.