....
Because the Rattata colony had been practicing Shock Wave so often, Julian felt like the whole territory had turned into one giant static trap.
No matter where he walked, there was always a faint prickling in the air.
Two of the Rattata had especially poor compatibility with Electric-type energy. Every time they tried to use Shock Wave, their fur stood up in stiff, tangled spikes.
Touch one of them and a tiny jolt would skip across your fingertips.
It was honestly kind of hilarious.
Though if someone dumped a bucket of water on them in that state, they would probably twitch for half the day.
Even so, Julian's real focus in both training and evaluation was still on Zen Headbutt.
Shock Wave was mainly there as insurance against a surprise attack from Rufflet.
Julian had been awake in this era for quite a while now, and not once had he seen Rufflet hunt inside the Rattata territory. That made one thing pretty clear. Even if Rufflet considered Rattata edible, they were not its first choice.
Right now, the real priority was still the threat directly in front of them.
Ekans.
Against Poison-types, Psychic-type moves hit hard.
Even when used by a non-Psychic Pokemon like Rattata, Zen Headbutt still packed enough punch to matter.
With the right strategy behind it, it could easily become a fight-winning move against Ekans.
The Rattata already had a deep understanding of charging attacks, from Tackle to Quick Attack. Add Julian's guidance on top of that, and unless a particular Rattata had terrible Psychic aptitude, Zen Headbutt was not especially difficult to learn.
Patch was the first to use it successfully, on the third day of move training.
Then he spent another two days reinforcing it, becoming the first Rattata in the colony to push the move into the beginner stage.
Now, when he used it, he clearly had better instincts than the others.
Its power had already started to edge ahead of the pack.
That was a very promising sign.
Still, whether a move was truly good and whether its power was enough were not things anyone could settle just by talking.
A move proved itself in battle.
No matter how much training went into it, the only result that really counted was what happened in a real fight.
As if it somehow knew the Rattata were preparing for it, Ekans vanished for several days after its last failed ambush.
During those days, the Rattata sharpened themselves with real purpose.
They had learned from the last disaster. This time, every one of them stayed on edge. No one dared loosen up.
Once the ten elite trainees finished Julian's daily assignments, they finally started setting aside time to train the more ordinary Rattata as well.
And when they did, they copied Julian's methods almost exactly.
First came the foundation.
Solidify the moves they had already learned.
Raise their levels until they could at least start learning Hyper Fang, and get it to the beginner stage if possible.
The point was simple. Before learning specialized taught moves, they needed to be strong enough to protect themselves in a real fight.
Not every Rattata was suited for the two moves Julian was teaching.
In theory, the whole species could learn them.
But theory and reality were not the same thing, and assuming a one-hundred percent success rate in the wild was wishful thinking.
Julian's method was designed to prevent the worst-case scenario.
He did not want them failing to learn the taught moves while also neglecting the natural moves they could gain through leveling up. That would leave them stuck in the middle, wasting time and making no real progress.
The Rattata, of course, did not think about it that way.
As far as they were concerned, Julian had used this training method on them, and it had worked.
That meant the method was good.
And if it was good, then it should work for the whole species.
The logic itself was not wrong.
But from a sharper angle, it still felt like something was missing.
They were copying the form, but not the spirit behind it.
At that point, Julian needed to step in less and less.
Which meant he could finally devote most of his remaining time to improving his own level and learning better control over his moves.
As a former top-tier Trainer, he did not need anyone to remind him how important that was.
He had once thought Disarming Voice would not be especially useful in this forest.
Even so, something was better than nothing.
And besides, this forest was only one tiny corner of the world in this era.
It was only a matter of time before Julian went beyond it and saw what lay outside.
So doing something was always better than sitting still and waiting for trouble.
Unfortunately, that stretch of quiet did not last long.
And the thing that broke it was not Ekans.
...
The newcomer had the same purple, serpentine body, but the difference between them was still enormous.
Julian had found Ekans's disappearance strange.
But the moment this new threat appeared, every missing piece fell into place.
Why had Ekans vanished?
Because it had reached adulthood.
Once an Ekans matured, it needed to evolve quickly so the nutrients and power it had built up would not go to waste.
Like most wild Ekans, it had chosen to evolve the moment it hit that stage.
So the predator arriving now was no longer Ekans.
It was Arbok.
Its body was thicker and heavier than before. Its length had stretched from around six feet to well over ten. The dramatic markings on its hood and the sharp, triangular eyes made it far more terrifying than it had ever been as an Ekans.
The sense of danger was immediate.
And for Rattata, barely a foot tall, Arbok looked absolutely enormous.
It towered over them like a living wall of muscle and venom.
One careless twitch from that massive body looked like it could crush them on the spot.
The moment Arbok's head pushed through the grass, the colony nearly fell apart.
Out of the thirty Rattata, almost a third immediately panicked and ran for cover.
Another third froze in place with fear and despair written all over their faces.
They looked like their souls had left their bodies.
Other than the ten Rattata Julian had personally trained, only four colony members still held onto their fighting spirit.
One of them was Scar, from the older generation.
He might have been old, but that did not mean he was afraid.
"Arbok."
The huge cobra opened its mouth and flicked out a crimson tongue.
Its jaws did not seem quite as wide as they had back in its Ekans days, but the long poison fangs lining its mouth made it impossible to believe it was any less deadly.
Patch turned and glanced back at Julian, waiting for the order.
At the same time, Julian was watching the others.
The Rattata that had stayed in place were all in defensive stances, but their eyes kept sliding toward him.
After that crushing defeat before, none of them dared move without Julian's command.
Even though he was not a Rattata, he had effectively become the leader of the colony.
Granted, he was still a leader with the battle power of a decorative mascot.
"Patch, take the younger Rattata and use Quick Attack to build speed. Keep Arbok guessing first."
"Scar, while Arbok is tied up with Patch's group, look for an opening and hit it with Zen Headbutt."
"Remember. Hit once and pull back immediately."
"Whether the attack lands or not, do not linger."
Patch and the younger fighters had the stronger bodies and the speed advantage.
Scar and the older Rattata were slower, but they had also learned Zen Headbutt, and their combat value was still nothing to sneeze at.
With a little thought, it was not hard to design a plan that made both groups useful.
How to use them well, though, was Julian's job.
The second he gave the order, ten streaks of white light shot past him almost at once.
In a blink, they spread out around Arbok.
Since their role was only to distract and pin its attention, Patch did not rush in recklessly. Instead, he and the others used Quick Attack to dart in and out around Arbok's field of vision, leaving the real opening for Scar and the others waiting behind them.
"Arbok."
The cobra lifted its neck high, cold eyes moving over the Rattata one by one.
Then its Ability is activated.
Intimidate.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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Thank you so much for your support and for reading!