Time quietly slipped by, and in the blink of an eye, another week had passed.
During this period, aside from occasionally helping Brandon enter certain fixed ruined ancient relics within the desert to search for strange artifacts, Sato spent nearly all his time at the base training his Pokémon.
As Pikachu and the other Pokémon used under the identity of "Tyler" gradually leveled up and learned more moves, Sato also began consciously developing new combination techniques tailored to their individual strengths.
Although time was short, after several days of focused experimentation, he truly managed to achieve some results.
However, among all his Pokémon, only Pikachu, Starmie, and Kadabra successfully developed new combination moves.
....
Pikachu's New Combination Move
Pikachu's combination move was comparatively simple: a fusion of Iron Head and Volt Tackle.
This Steel- and Electric-type hybrid move could already be considered Pikachu's strongest offensive technique at the moment.
However, the original purpose behind creating it was not to increase attack power.
After all, Pikachu possessed the mutated Thunder Orb, a supreme Electric-type treasure, so his offensive power was already more than sufficient. His true weakness was obvious—he was extremely fragile.
If an opponent got into close range, Pikachu could easily be instantly defeated.
Furthermore, Pikachu previously specialized in long-range special attacks such as Thunderbolt, Thunder, and Hidden Power (Ice). Physical attacks like Iron Tail and Iron Head lacked sufficient power because they couldn't trigger the charging effect granted by the mutated Thunder Orb, making them ineffective against close-range enemies.
At present, the only close-range Electric-type move Pikachu possessed that could instantly defeat opponents was Volt Tackle.
Because it could trigger the charging effect of the mutated Thunder Orb, its actual destructive power reached the level of Pikachu's Thunder.
Unfortunately, this 120-power physical Electric-type move was the classic case of "deal a thousand damage, suffer eight hundred in return."
Once Pikachu used Volt Tackle, he was usually nearly finished himself.
Thus, Sato began thinking of ways to temporarily give Pikachu an ability similar to Rock Head—something that could reduce recoil damage.
Eventually, he thought of Iron Head.
The principle behind Iron Head was simple: coat the forehead with Steel-type energy, temporarily turning it as hard as steel before ramming into the opponent.
Naturally, merely hardening the forehead couldn't completely negate the terrifying recoil of Volt Tackle. But without question, a hardened head could endure much stronger impacts, greatly reducing the recoil damage.
To help Pikachu extend the coverage of Iron Head over his entire skull and minimize recoil as much as possible, Sato even paid a considerable price—two mid-grade Fire Stones—to trade with a Steel-type specialist at the base for a small bottle of diluted Metal Coat solution.
Metal Coat, also known as metallic coating, was a special liquid rich in Steel-type energy. Pokémon only needed to apply a small amount to easily sense Steel-type energy in nature, making it one of the best items for training Steel-type moves.
Pokémon like Onix and Scyther required large amounts of Metal Coat for evolution, needing to coat their entire bodies with it.
Otherwise, Onix could only evolve naturally through extremely long periods of geothermal pressure and metallic accumulation, while Scyther would never evolve at all.
Pikachu paid quite a price during his Iron Head training.
Because he constantly coated his head with diluted Metal Coat solution while repeatedly using Iron Head, he indeed became stronger…
…but he also went bald.
Because of this, Pikachu sulked for several days and constantly argued with Sato.
In the end, Sato had to give Pikachu his favorite hat and promise to buy him his beloved deluxe spicy beef noodles once they returned to the city before finally coaxing him back into training.
Now, after arduous effort, Pikachu successfully managed to extend Iron Head's hardening effect across half his head, reducing the recoil of Volt Tackle by at least 60%.
Sato was extremely satisfied with this result.
Reducing the recoil by 60% meant Pikachu could now unleash Volt Tackle several times at full power instead of collapsing after a single use.
Finally, Sato officially named this combination move:
Thunder Headbutt
...
Starmie's New Combination Move
The combination move learned by Starmie was much more complex.
Sato had it combine Light Screen and Reflect.
Both were Psychic-type moves:
Light Screen reduced special attack damage.Reflect reduced physical attack damage.
Furthermore, both effects could extend to allies, making them highly practical support techniques.
However, Sato knew these moves were far more powerful than they appeared.
Once perfectly fused together, they could form an incredibly powerful defensive technique.
In the Pokémon Adventures manga, the extraterrestrial Psychic-type Pokémon Deoxys once perfectly merged these two moves to create an overwhelmingly durable barrier whose defensive strength rivaled that of Protect.
And it wasn't just Deoxys.
Lugia had also used a similar technique when battling the Legendary Birds, repeatedly blocking their combined assaults.
Even Celebi had demonstrated this skill in one of the movies, using it to defend against a Pokémon Hunter's Scyther and its repeated Fury Cutter attacks.
Sato had always been deeply impressed by this technique and naturally wanted his own Pokémon to learn it.
However, the prerequisites were strict.
A Pokémon needed to know both Light Screen and Reflect, and apparently also required extremely powerful psychic control.
Sato estimated that aside from Psychic-type Pokémon, even if other types learned both moves, they still wouldn't be able to combine them.
Practice proved that this combination move consumed enormous mental energy.
Starmie became exhausted simply maintaining Light Screen and Reflect simultaneously. To merge them together required incredibly delicate psychic manipulation.
In the end, Kadabra—whose psychic power surpassed even Sato's own—stepped in to help guide Starmie.
With Kadabra's assistance and instruction, Starmie barely managed to produce the prototype of the combination move.
At the same time, during the teaching process, Kadabra learned Light Screen from Starmie and naturally mastered the combination move as well.
Once Light Screen and Reflect fused together, they formed a milky-white energy shield.
The defensive power of this shield was truly astonishing—even Pikachu's Thunderbolt could not break through it in a short time.
However, after communicating with Starmie through telepathy, Sato learned the move's greatest flaw:
It consumed an absurd amount of psychic power.
Simply maintaining the shield required 20 points of psychic energy per second, while activating it consumed a full 100 points instantly.
Only then did Sato fully understand why only Psychic-type legendary Pokémon could use this technique so freely.
Their mana pools were simply enormous.
As for this terrifying psychic-energy-draining combination move, Sato finally decided to name it:
Psychic Shield