We took a ten minute break after that so I could get through the refractory period before going at it again. After we were done we both got a shower before I cooked dinner while Melissa replaced the sheets. "UM~ A good cook and fuck? I sorta feel bad that you'll be leaving in a week." she joked as she ate the meal I prepared for her. Like usual I ate with my pokemon who were thankfully small enough to fit in her house minus Gaia of course. "Must be a generalist unless you are a variant specialist." Melissa commented with a raised eyebrow after seeing most of my team.-

"I train whatever I happen to get lucky or unlucky enough to obtain." I said honestly. "Speaking of I will probably be spending most of the next four days training my challenging pokemon in anti rock type tactics for the challenge." I said calmly. "Don't know why you are telling me since we are merely shacking up un till you get your badge after all." Mellissa said with a shrug. "Figured you'd like to know in case I am late showing up." I explained with a shrug of my own.-

"Thanks for the heads up I guess , ready for round two?" Melissa asked with a seductive look. We went another couple of times before calling it a night and going to sleep. In the morning I got a quick shower before cooking a few eggs and some Spoink bacon that I paired with fresh squeezed oran and leppa berry juice. Melissa was thankful for the meal before she headed off to the gym for work while me and Tank headed towards the nearest training ground. Each city and most towns have an area specifically set aside for training pokemon of varying power levels.-

In the case of Rustboro the training areas for higher powered pokemon rarely saw use so it was no surprise that it was unoccupied when I arrived. The tier four danger area was a wide open area that consisted of extremely hard reinforced stone floors inside of a warehouse like building with equally reinforced walls and roofing. I released my entire team once I was within the center of the area and they looked around curiously. "Vulcan , Gaia for the next few days both of you are going to be working on your ability to face off against rock type pokemon for the upcoming challenge." I said sternly.

"Gaia , your metal claw is the only move you have that will work against rock type pokemon effectively while the rest are either not very effective or will barely do more than tickle them. Thankfully you are poised to tank or avoid most attacks they can throw at you so rock polish and iron defense are going to be our set up moves right out the gate understand?" I asked Gaia and she hummed in affirmative. I turn my attention to the real problem with facing this gym in the form of Vulcan.-

"You on the other hand are unfortunately under the worst conditions for this particular typing as every move they have will be super effective against you and you don't have any moves to return the favor. You have three options for this up coming battle that you need to choose between." I said and Vulcan nodded with a determined expression. "The first is to figure out how to perform one of three different super effective moves that your species can possibly learn in the form of iron tail , rock smash and solar beam before getting a decent grasp of them." I paused to let Vulcan process that information.-

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"The second method you won't like but it may allow you to chip away at the gym leaders pokemon over time. You need to run away and use leer as much as possible before hitting them with stomp while their defenses are at the lowest." Vulcan snarled in outrage at this option. "I get it , really I do but you are that screwed against well trained rock types. Make no mistake our opponents are going to consist of exactly that." I said firmly and Vulcan stopped snarling but clearly hated that idea still.-

"The final option is also not a great one either as it's similar to the last except you will use swagger to confuse the opposing pokemon before putting the psychic move extrasensory you have to use whittling them down and hopefully taking at least one of the leaders pokemon down. I think you should focus on learning solar beam personally since in addition to sunny day it will turn you very dangerous for the leaders pokemon." I said seriously and Vulcan nodded in agreement. Sunny day and solar beam were a dangerous combo as it turned a slow and highly telegraphed attack into a fast and very hard hitting one.-

While I doubted Roxanne didn't also know this considering how popular the combo was it was still our best option unfortunately. Thankfully it was a powerful combo I intended for Vulcan to learn anyways so we lost nothing in case she had a counter ready for that combo. I didn't even bother trying to plan around what pokemon Roxanne had since like all gym leaders she had a wide selection of pokemon at her disposal. I just sincerely prayed she wasn't going to use something like a Kabutops because that species dual water and rock typing was the bane of my teams existence.-

"Alright both of you get to work on your move training , oh and Gaia if you can make a more powerful steel type move during this time our chances of victory will increase dramatically so do your best alright?" I asked and both of them sounded off loudly before finding a spot in the area and getting to work. I walked over to Vulcan since I had an idea about how to speed up it's learning of solar beam.-

"If you are trying to learn solar beam then maybe it would be best if you had some strong sunlight to focus on." I suggested helpfully. I wasn't going to directly spell it out for Vulcan to use sunny day but I hoped my hint would help it figure it out on it's own. I didn't want to ever find myself in a situation where my pokemon froze in battle because I couldn't figure out a strategy fast enough. I hoped to stimulate their minds into strategizing by themselves in case we found ourselves in such a predicament.-

While my two heavy hitters were training their own way for the upcoming challenge I turned my attention to Rune. "You are going to work on your elemental training today so find a spot and get to it." I said and the large reptile did as I commanded. I meanwhile traded away three scarves and four berries for two tickets to see if I got lucky. I did in fact get lucky as I obtained an ability ticket as well as a skill ticket. I tore the skill ticket without hesitation since I honestly don't think it was possible to have a bad experience with them , I got chemistry.