Chapter 60: Astonishing Control

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"Zubat, use Air Cutter again on that big tree ahead," Sato instructed while pulling out his laptop.

Hearing Sato's command, Zubat nodded and immediately unleashed the newly learned Air Cutter on the tree in front of it. In an instant, Zubat's wings, covered in Flying-type energy, flapped forcefully, creating a gust of wind comparable to level 7 winds.

In a flash, a small area of trees ahead was blown into disarray, with some dead branches and leaves being sent flying several meters away. The large tree, which was the primary target of Zubat's Air Cutter, now had several shallow scratch marks along its sturdy trunk.

"Did you see the power of your move? This level of attack can only push the opponent back a little, but defeating them is still a long way off. Don't be discouraged; this is just because you've only just learned it. Keep training, and as your move's power increases, you and Gloom will be able to defeat even stronger opponents," Sato said as he recorded some data on Zubat's Air Cutter.

Upon hearing Sato's words, especially the part about being able to defeat stronger opponents, Zubat felt its fighting spirit ignite. Even now, the scornful gaze of Ursaring still fueled its anger. However, Zubat understood that its current strength was nowhere near enough to take on Ursaring, so it had to train seriously to gain the power needed to defeat it.

"Whoosh~~" The sound of the strong wind whipping around echoed continuously. With Ursaring now a target for pursuit, Zubat trained hard on Air Cutter, pushing itself to extract every bit of strength, practicing relentlessly to improve its proficiency with the move.

Thanks to the previous training with Whirlwind and the stamina-building exercises against strong winds, Zubat's control over Flying-type energy had significantly improved compared to a week ago.

As a Flying-type move, Air Cutter also required good control of Flying-type energy. Therefore, after repeatedly using the move and gradually familiarizing itself with the steps to control it, Zubat showed noticeable progress.

After two hours of skill training, Zubat finally managed to produce some white wind blades with Air Cutter. However, the maximum number it achieved was only six, but these blades had impressive attack power, leaving deep cuts on the trunk of the tree that was their target.

At the same time, due to Zubat's still low proficiency with this move, it couldn't yet effectively control these wind blades to target specific enemies, resulting in random dispersal attacks within a certain range in front of it.

While Zubat was training, Sato also began training Gloom. Currently, Gloom's attack moves were Absorb, Acid, Mega Drain, Hidden Power, and Nature Power.

Among them, Absorb and Mega Drain required a target for training, so without any living creatures available, Sato had to set those aside. Of the remaining moves—Acid, Hidden Power, and Nature Power—Sato was particularly interested in Nature Power.

Nature Power, as the name suggests, allows the Pokémon to use energy from the environment to attack. Interestingly, this move automatically changes to a different type of attack based on the strongest energy attribute present in the surroundings.

(Note: Nature Power has different transformations depending on the environment: in building complexes and roads, it becomes Tri Attack; in graveyards, it becomes Shadow Ball; in sandy and rocky areas, it becomes Earth Power; in volcanoes, it becomes Lava Plume; in caves, it becomes Power Gem; on ice, it becomes Ice Beam; in snow, it becomes Blizzard/Frost Breath; in grassy areas, it becomes Energy Ball; in swamps, it becomes Mud Bomb; on water, it becomes Hydro Pump; in the sky, it becomes Air Slash; in electric fields, it becomes Thunderbolt; in misty fields, it becomes Moonblast; and in psychic terrain, it becomes Psychic.)

For example, since Gloom was currently in a forest, when she used Nature Power, the following would automatically change to Energy Ball.

Sato's goal now was to help Gloom become familiar with the use of Energy Ball so she could truly learn this special ranged attack that she was capable of.

(Energy Ball has a power of 90 and is a special Grass-type ranged attack that releases life energy collected from nature and sometimes lowers the opponent's Special Defense.)

Gloom was eager to follow Sato's training. She stood in a small patch of grass and used Nature Power to create Energy Balls aimed at another large tree for practice.

In fact, due to Gloom's own foul odor characteristic, along with being a Grass-type Pokémon and choosing to isolate herself, her activity range since evolving into Gloom had been limited to that small patch of slightly smelly grassland that Sato had visited not long ago.

As a result, Gloom had hardly battled any wild Pokémon. The battles she participated in alongside Zubat were more than all the battles she had engaged in since her evolution combined.

Therefore, the prolonged self-isolation and comfort led to Gloom neglecting her move training, with her proficiency in each attack move barely reaching the beginner level.

Currently, the Energy Balls that Gloom created through Nature Power were not much better than when Zubat had just practiced Shadow Ball, but because Energy Ball matched Gloom's Grass-type attributes, its power was a bit stronger.

At first, the Energy Ball Gloom produced was only about 35 centimeters in diameter, with a range of about 10 meters, and it could only leave a shallow spiral dent on the trunk of the large tree.

However, this was merely a small beginning.

Gloom was a Grass-type Pokémon that had lived in the nearby forest for years. During the long and lonely times, her only way to alleviate boredom was perhaps sleeping and manipulating the dense Grass-type energy in the forest.

For Gloom, these Grass-type energies that made her feel exceptionally comfortable wouldn't dislike or avoid her because of her foul odor like other wild Pokémon would. Moreover, she was delighted to occasionally hear a special voice responding to her during her "communication" with this Grass-type energy.

In order to communicate with this special voice, Gloom eagerly engaged with the dense Grass-type energy in the forest.

It was precisely because of her loneliness that Gloom often used this method to pass the time, gradually developing an unparalleled control over Grass-type energy.

After only two or three uses of Energy Ball created through Nature Power, Gloom leveraged her powerful control over Grass-type energy to grasp the technique of Energy Ball, effortlessly executing a genuine Energy Ball with skilled proficiency right from the start.

Then, as if she had activated a cheat code, the Energy Balls she created grew larger and more powerful each time.

Ultimately, in a state of astonishment from Sato and Zubat, Gloom easily produced a vivid green Energy Ball with a diameter of a full meter. The stability of this Energy Ball was frighteningly strong, showing not a hint of energy leakage (this was also Gloom's limit of control at the moment).

With a loud "bang," the large tree that served as the training target could no longer withstand the tremendous attack from Gloom's Energy Ball, letting out a wail before crashing heavily to the ground.

"Is this what they call a genius?" Sato swallowed hard, feeling utterly astonished as he watched Gloom quickly learn Energy Ball and rapidly improve her proficiency with it.

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