Over the next two weeks, outside of occasionally training with Winnie or Kaiju to see what they’d improved on, I mostly worked with Sahara to expand her moveset. She would be the my team’s only powerhouse for a while, so I needed to make sure that she’d be strong enough to fight off any aggressive wild Pokemon during the expedition.
It didn’t take long for her to master Fire Fang, Flamethrower, Brick Break, and Hyper Beam. I was hesitant to train Outrage for the time being just because of how unpredictable the move was and decided to focus on something I could handle by myself. I’d have to wait until Kenta had free time to ask for help on that move.
After her evolution, Sahara’s power over ground type energy had exponentially grown. Her Sandstorm had grown a ton in power and instead of simply being in a small storm that was whipping around sand rather uncomfortably, being in her Sandstorm was now the equivalent to a proper desert sandstorm where the wind felt like sandpaper violently trying to rub your skin off.
I could attest to that considering my very raw arm. No, I totally did not stick my arm into the sandstorm without thinking about it.
Because of her increased power over earth type energy, it wasn’t hard for her to learn Earthquake with a bit of help from Turtonator. I was honestly astonished on how she didn’t know Bulldoze or Earthquake before I caught her but maybe it just wasn’t necessary for her to learn, or she never had the chance to.
For some more variety to her moveset, I move tutored her on Mud Shot, and got her started on Stone Edge with a bit of help from Leo’s Tyranitar. Though I literally had to beg Tyranitar to help and it refused to help until I bribed it with some absurdly expensive treats and a lot of praise about how great it was.
I was cautious about introducing Sahara and Tyranitar to each other, as the landshark had gotten a lot more competitive after evolving, especially with anything even remotely dragon-like.
After a tense initial introduction with the two sizing each other up, Tyranitar and Sahara seemed to tolerate each other well enough and the rock-zilla gave Sahara a few demonstrations and a short explanation on how it used Stone Edge.
I tried to help out using some explanations of the movie I found on the rock type Pokenet forums and they seemed to help a bit.
It only took a day for Sahara to get a good grip on Stone Edge and she quickly began using it alongside her other new moves in her spars with Charizard. She was still a bit slow with creating the stones needed for Stone Edge, but speed and accuracy would come with practice.
Sparring with other Pokemon that were more powerful than her only seemed to help with rapidly improving her growth and I was proud of her progress.
Once I felt that Sahara had gotten a good amount of practice with her new moves, I decided it was time to introduce two final moves to her that would give her a bit more coverage against water types and fairy types.
I borrowed Boltund from Jason to help Sahara learn Thunder Fang to counter any water types, but she was having a lot of trouble learning how to use electric type energy at all. Probably something to do with how ground resisted electric?
Suggestions from electric type forums didn’t help as much as I hoped they would and Jason was too busy doing some work for Professor Rowan. When I asked for some help when he wasn’t working he simply ignored me, and his Manectric sent me the meanest look ever. I kind of just scurried away and didn’t bother him anymore. If he was that busy or didn’t want to be bothered he could’ve just said so…
Bolthund felt bad that it wasn’t able to teach Thunder Fang very well so I had to reassure that it was doing a good job. Even after we tried to use similar tactics to how Ben introduced fire type energy to Sahara, she was only able to create a few sparks between her teeth.
After an unsuccessful week of trying to get ahold of electric type energy, it was time to take a break before we both got too frustrated with the move, and I changed the goal to learning Iron Head.
It would be important for any dragon type in my team to know at least one steel type move–if they were able to learn any–because of the dreaded fairy type. I’d have to do something similar for Kaiju when he evolved due to his four times weakness against fairies.
So I tracked Abigail to get her to tutor Sahara for the move Iron Head. Well, I tried to track her down.
It was so hard to find this elusive ice-steel specialist that I had to enlist the help of Winnie’s gang to go search for her. Turns out, she was hiding out in this huge artificial snow biome on the property which made sense considering her specialization, but that was literally the first place I looked!
I found the girl of the hour sitting with an Alolan Sandslash and a bunch of Walrein, Sealeo, and Spheal and drawing in the snow at the edge of a large pond in the deepest section of the ice biome.
She was dressed in some thick winter clothes and literally looked like she was born to be an ice and steel specialist with her shoulder length straight silver hair and ice blue eyes. It was hard to see the rest of her face due to the massive scarf covering the bottom half of her face.
Man, are people in this world just born to specialize in one type if they become trainers? Red hair with Ben, the ghost purple hair with Justine and Angela, even Jason has yellow-blonde hair, it can’t be a coincidence right? But Collin looks very normal besides the karate-martial arts getup…
Rotom had been having a field day with all the new Pokemon to scan, it had scanned the Walrein in the ice biome the first time I came here to look for Abigail, but it had never seen an Alolan Sandslash before.
“Alolan Sandslash, the mouse Pokemon. This is Sandslash’s form after adaptation to a frigid environment. The cold air emitted by its body sharpens its icy spikes. This Pokémon’s steel spikes are sheathed in ice. Stabs from these spikes cause deep wounds and severe frostbite as well.”
“Thanks Rotom.”
Abigail slowly turned to look at me, she had a completely flat poker face expression. Her Sandslash was a bit more expressive and gave us a friendly wave.
“Hi, are you Abigail?”
“...”
We awkwardly stared at each other until her Sandslash nudged her and she shyly nodded.
“Great, uh, I’m Azalea, I was added to the expedition party a while ago.”
“Sandslash!” Abigail’s Sandslash gave us an affable greeting to compensate for its trainers lack of a reaction, which helped with the awkwardness.
“I heard that you were an ice-steel type specialist, so I was wondering if you would be willing to help one of my Pokemon get the hang of Steel type energy to learn Iron Head.”
“..........Ok”
We stared at each other before she went back to drawing in the snow.
“Um. So I guess I should bring my Pokemon over here?”
“Sandslash!” Again, Sandslash answered for its trainer with what sounded like a yes.
“Ok, got it, I’ll be back in like, ten minutes.”
Thankfully, Abigail was still there when I came back with Sahara. Her Sandslash ended up taking the initiative in teaching Sahara Iron Head. Sandslash was even nice enough to teach her what looked like Swords Dance, which I was super happy about.
Abigail watched them for a short while and she surprisingly talked a few times to explain the moves better to Sahara when she seemed like she was struggling with some part of the move, though she had to repeat herself a few times due to how quiet her voice was.
From the little tidbits I was able to hear from her speaking, way she talked to Sahara and Sandslash kind of reminded me of Fluttershy from My Little Pony.
I just sat on the side and watched them, Sandslash and Abigail knew what they were doing. Too bad neither Winnie nor Shuppet were with me. They were the best at translating what other Pokemon said, so I had to rely on Rotom’s notes to interpret what instructions Sandslash was telling Sahara.
Well I got bored with watching Sandslash and Abigail explain stuff to Sahara, as Sandslash was doing most of the talking, so I kinda just sat in the snow and made a bunch of tiny snowmen while I waited.
Listening to Abigail and Sandslash work together to teach a move, my thought turned to how Ben and Charizard taught Sahara Fire Fang and Flamethrower. Something about humans helped Pokemon learn new moves faster, and a human and Pokemon working together made that process even more efficient.
It took a few days for Sahara to properly use Sandstorm with only my instruction, and with only Boltund’s help on Thunder Fang, she was barely able to learn how to use electric type energy.
I get how being able to demonstrate the move can help, but can’t the Pokemon teaching the move explain it well too? It is something about how the human language and Pokemon language work?
I came back to the outside world and looked up as Sahara, Sandslash, and Abigail came over.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Garchomp.” “Sand, sandslash.” “...”
Sahara was done with her move tutor lesson and was eager to test out her Iron Head in battle. She gestured to the ice biome exit cause she wanted to head back out to the main field to find someone to challenge.
I got up and stretched, reaching out to shake Abigail’s hand, “Thanks for teaching Sahara.”
Abigail just stared at my hand and kind of hid behind her big scarf. I switched my hand to to a fist, “fistbump?”
At the encouragement of Sandslash, Abigail reached out a hand and barely fistbumped my hand before quickly retracting her hand and putting it back into her pocket.
Kneeling down a bit, I took a bag of Pokepuffs that Justine and I had baked that morning and handed it to Sandslash, “Thanks for helping us too Sandslash.”
Sandslash’s eyes lit up and it quickly took the bag with a happy honking noise.
I stood up and turned back to Abigail, “If you guys like the Pokepuffs tell me and I’ll bring you guys some the next time we make them.”
The ice-steel trainer simply nodded and scurried away back to the edge of the pond where Walrein was patiently waiting for her.
Sandslash saluted us and turned to Sahara, “Sandslash slash slash sand sandslash.” It said, which Sahara nodded to, before it walked over to join its trainer.
I exited the ice biome with Sahara, the warm afternoon sun felt nice after the constant cold of the ice biome.
Despite awkwardness, I had a much better impression of Abigail than Jason, that’s for sure. Sandslash and Abigail as a duo kind of felt like an extrovert that adopted an introvert, which was pretty cute. Hopefully Sandslash would be able to help Abigail come out of her shell a bit more in the future.
Anyways besides hitting a wall with Thunder Fang, I felt the Sahara had a pretty good repertoire of new moves without having too much new stuff on her plate.
Protect was still on a list of moves to learn, but I’d probably just get a TM for that because I wanted my whole team to learn the move.
All that was left was for Sahara to refine these new moves and incorporate them into our battle strategies and perhaps find a way to work on Outrage.
I’d need help from a specialist for that, and I knew just the person to ask for advice. I didn’t want Sahara to end up starting a fight with one of Kenta’s dragons, so I left her to spar with Collin and his fighting types while I looked for mr dragon type specialist.
From Collin’s suggestion, I looked around Kenta’s usual hangout spots and found him at this artificial rocky area of the ranch with his dragons.
There were only two dragons with him, a Dragonite and a Kommo-o. Dragonite was sunning itself on a smooth rock while Kenta brushed out the crevices in between the scales of the biggest Kommo-o I’d ever seen. I guess Dragonair evolved. Or maybe he has a Dragonite and a Dragonair.
Dragonite yawned, opening an eye to look as me before going back to sleep. Kommo-o sized me up but quickly lost interest.
Rotom did its self assigned duty and scanned the two dragons,
“Dragonite, the dragon Pokemon. This marine Pokémon has an impressive build that lets it freely fly over raging seas without trouble. Dragonite is capable of circling the globe in just sixteen hours. It is a kindhearted Pokemon that leads lost and foundering ships in a storm to the safety of land.”
“Kommo-o, the scaly Pokemon. When it spots enemies, it threatens them by jingling the scales on its tail to unnerve opponents. This Pokémon will battle only those who stand steadfast in the face of this display. It battles valiantly with its fists, which are armored in steel scales that serve as both offense and defense. Kommo-o specializes in uppercuts. In the past, its scales were processed and used to make weapons and other commodities.”
Without even sparing me a glance, Kenta asked in a slightly annoyed voice, “What do you want?”
That was a bit rude wasn’t it?
I put a hand on my hip, “I was looking for advice on dragon types cause I have two of them on my team.”
Kenta glanced up at me and his eyes widened a bit.
“Oh, you’re the girl with the Garchomp and Deino. Sorry, I thought you were someone else.”
“That’s fine.”
Kenta’s prickly demeanor disappeared and was replaced with a much more professional attitude, “Ok, what do you want to know about dragons?”
“Umm, general care for dragons, some advice on how to properly train a dragon to use Outrage, and how to handle multiple dragons in one party. My Deino and Garchomp currently have no issues with each other but I’m not sure how that will be once Deino evolves.”
Kenta put his brush down and gestured for me to come over as he went over to his bag and pulled out a few textbooks and notebooks.
“Here, you can take my old copy of How to Care for Dragon Types, you can use that as a reference on how to care for specific dragon type species, but also make sure to adapt your care for each individual dragon’s needs.”
I opened the book and flipped through it. Some of it was a bit singed but it was still in good enough condition to use. There were still a few notes written onto the book from Kenta too that I’d definitely make use of.
“It should also include tips on how to maintain good relations between dragons in your party. It’s not as hard as most people make it out to be.”
Or maybe you’re just talented and/or have connections to a clan of dragon type specialists. I bet that Kenta was at least sponsored by the Blackthorn gym, not to mention that he had a striking resemblance to Lance, minus the different eye color.
“It’s not uncommon for wild dragon types to form colonies with one to two rulers, so keeping that sort of social setting for a team isn’t hard as long at you’re well informed. I suggest using this book,” He handed me a thick textbook that was also slightly singed, the title read: Social Dragons.
Kenta continued to explain, “I’m not sure about how a Hydreigon will do in a social setting because I’m not familiar with the species, and the book doesn’t have a very long section on them, so I would suggest doing asking in dragon specialist forums and finding someone who has a Hydreigon on their team for better advice than what the book can provide.”
“Oh, wow thanks. Are you sure about just giving me these textbooks?”
“It’s fine. They’ve been sitting in my bag an collecting dust for while now, and I prefer that trainers of dragon types stay well informed in order to stop any preventable accidents from happening.”
“That’s valid, thanks again.”
“Really, it’s fine. I really appreciate people who actually ask for advice from someone more experienced, especially about trying out moves like Outrage before actually trying to use them. It’s not bad when the dragon is young, but it can become deadly when it’s an uncontrolled fully evolved dragon going on a rampage.”
“You don’t say.” I replied, this felt like a talk about irresponsible dog owners vs responsible dog owners, which was reasonable cause dragons were basically giant reptilian doggos who could casually destroy a town if they really wanted to.
----------------------------------------
“Wow Kaiju, you got a hang of Dark Pulse pretty quickly.” Meowscarda clapped as he gave the little dragon more words of encouragement.
He had been having a lot of trouble properly getting ideas through to Kaiju’s incredibly dense head, but once things clicked in his head, he was almost immediately able to use the move.
The little dragon proudly puffed up his chest, “I’m powerful dwagon!”
“Yes you are dear, why don’t you try out Snarl now? Let me show you first and you try to copy it. It’s one of my specialties.” Houndoom pushed Meowscarda aside. Now it was her turn to teach Kaiju a move.
The two had argued about the best way to teach Kaiju new moves, Meowscarda thought teaching the young dragon through an explanation like Leo did would work but Houndoom disagreed and it was time to prove her point.
Houndoom slightly crouched down and snarled viciously at a boulder that was their new pretend target. A shockwave of dark type energy radiated out of her in ripples and hit everything in her surroundings, violently ripping through whatever the move hit.
Meowscarda stood in front of Kaiju and used Protect to block the wave of dark type energy from hitting them.
“Houndoom, I don’t think simply showing the kid Snarl is gonna teach him it. It took me the entirety of yesterday and this morning to teach him Dark Pulse.”
“Watch and learn pussycat. Go on kid, try it out.”
“Yes! I powerful dwagon!” Kaiju roared, sending a weaker version of Snarl cascading into his surroundings.
Houndoom gave Meowscarda a smug grin, “See? He’s not dense, he just learns differently.”
“Maybe that was just luck. How about Protect?”
“Dude, you needed a TM to learn that, how–”
“I protecc!” Kaiju shouted. The little dragon grunted a few times as he concentrated hard on something.
“You gotta take a shit or something?” Houndoom quipped.
A small translucent shield formed in front of Kaiju’s nose before it flickered and disappeared. Kaiju sat back down, tired from the effort of using more than half a brain cell.
The grass cat and hellhound’s eyes widened, “Oh shit. Did he just use Protect?” Houndoom exclaimed.
“Yes he did.” Meowscarda replied, “How long did it take for you to learn that move?”
Houndoom looked up as she tried to remember,“Two weeks…and another one after that to be able to properly use it in battle.”
“You know what Houndoom?” Meowscarda said, Houndoom raised a brow, “What?”
“I’ve change my mind. I think this kid is a certified genius.”
“I’d say he’s smart, but I dunno about calling him a genius.” Houndoom doubtfully said.
“He taught himself Draco Meteor last week, you know, one of the most complicated dragon type moves there is!” Meowscarda said, waving wildly at a somewhat confused Kaiju.
“And he copied Bolthund’s Thunder Wave just by getting shocked a few times. Meanwhile that overgrown Garchomp is still struggling with getting more than a few sparks with Thunder Fang!”
Houndoom pursed her lips as she considered that, “What other moves can he learn?”
Her contemplative expression turned into an evil grin, “Hehehe! If you’re right then I’ll be able to make Weavile eat her head feathers.”
“What, did you make a bet with her again?”
“Maaaybbee~” Houndoom grinned, slyly waving her tail around.
Meowscarda facepalmed and dragged his paws down his face, “Urgh, you really should’ve been born as a Liepard. Why do you have to make everything a betting competition? Whatever, if you’re so eager to help Kaiju learn more moves, using a battle will probably help. If Kommo-o has hammered anything into my head it’s that dragons are battle maniacs.”
“Hah! Yeah I remember that. You had to wear a funny ice hat for a while after that Brick Break literally broke your head!” Houndoom commented with a loud chuckle. “And for the record, Dragonite is an absolute sweetheart, don’t you dare put her in the same group as those brutes.”
Meowscarda scoffed and dismissively waved a paw at Houndoom, “She’s only a sweetheart when she’s not trying to rip you into tiny bits during a battle and laughing like a maniac about it. I swear she’s related to a Hydreigon.”
“Hydweigon! Like mommy!” Kaiju helpfully added, he felt proud that he was being part of the grown ups conversation.
“Yes Kaiju. Anyways, since you’re the one who made the bet, you’ll be the one battling him. Have fun!” Meowscarda gently pushed Kaiju forward towards Houndoom, whispering something in the little dragons ear before scurrying off to the side.
Houndoom scoffed, “What a pussy. Fine, I’ll do it.”
“I am a cat Pokemon you know.” Meowscarda shouted back.
Houndoom rolled her eyes to the moon, “You know what I meant.”
Houndoom trotted over to Kaiju and nudged him into a fighting position, “Alright Kaiju, you’re gonna battle me! Show Auntie Houndoom what you’ve learned in the past few days. Meowscarda, you count dow–”
Kaiju straightened up and screamed, “YEEAAAHHH!!!! I FIGHT!!!”
Then the little Deino charged straight at Houndoom, slamming his entire body against the hellhound and forcing her back a step. Houndoom put her paw on the Deino’s head to stop him from charging her again.
“Damn kid, chill out for a second we still nee–YEOWCH!” Houndoom shrieked as Kaiju chomped down on her paw and worked his way up crunching on every part of her arm like it was a bone chew toy.
A stream of fire shot out from Houndoom’s mouth at Kaiju, who was forced to let go and stumble back a few paces before literally flying straight back at the hellhound with a swirl of dragon type energy around him. Kind of like how a moth flies straight at a lamp with no regard for its personal wellbeing.
Houndoom sidestepped Kaiju like a matador narrowly dodging the charge of a raging Tauros before Roaring at the little dragon, “COME ON! IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?”
Kaiju charged back at Houndoom again with Dragon Rush, this time with a squeaky Roar of his own, “I STRONG DWAGON!!!”
A pulsating stream of black and dark purple energies blasted out of Kaiju’s mouth and narrowly missing Houndoom on the side.
The hellhound smirked as she dodge the Deino’s reckless attempt to charge her again, there was no way this kid would be able to win against her.
Well, that’s what she thought.
A sudden loud shriek and an icy chill went straight through Houndoom. The ghost type energy from Astonish did little to no damage, but its sudden effect made her flinch, giving Kaiju just enough time to latch onto Houndoom’s nose with a powerful Crunch.
“AAAHH! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK GEITOFFME GAAAHH!! THAT LITTLE RAT’S GOT MY FUCKING NOSE!! OWWW!”
Houndoom bucked around in a panic and shot Flamethrowers in every direction as she tried to throw Kaiju off. Unbothered by the fire, Kaiju held onto her nose with the tenacity of a starving Poochyena that had just found a piece of delicious meat to eat. He was hungry, hopefully Azalea would put some of that tasty herb thing on his food today, he loved that yummy plant.
“He’s not gonna let go until he wins Houndoom~” Meowscarda chided with a teasing finger wag, the cat magician was trying his best to hold back his laughter.
Houndoom grunted in pain as Kaiju redoubled his efforts to tear the hellhounds nose off. “Fine! You win! Let go of my fucking nose!”
It took an extra few seconds for the words to register with Kaiju before he let go and was flung a few yards away, rolling a few times before getting up and shaking the dust off himself.
“I WIN! I STRONG DWAGON!” Kaiju roared, puffing his chest out and breathing a large plume of Dragon Breath into the air, narrowly missing a few Starly who had been watching the match from a tree above.
Meowscarda walked over to pat the Deino on the head and watched as Houndoom rubbed her bruised and swelling nose in the grass in an attempt to get rid of the stinging.
The cat magician patiently waited with Kaiju until Houndoom had calmed down before giving his teammate a shit eating grin, “Well, well, well, the great Houndoom. Conference finalist, surrendering to a baby dragon after getting her nose hurt. Who’s a pussy now?”