Silas had been working Gigalith hard for quite a while.
"Ah… as expected, it doesn't work." He sighed, helplessly giving up.
Counting tonight, this was already the third attempt.
According to his theory, since Gigalith can absorb sunlight and compress the energy within its core to release it, then perhaps it could also do the same with moonlight.
After all, at its core, moonlight is just reflected sunlight.
But at least for now, his Gigalith was unable to pull it off.
Or rather, it wasn't impossible—it's just that the results came out… different.
During these three nights of training, although Gigalith hadn't been able to burst forth with a powerful attack by absorbing moonlight, it did succeed in mastering a new move—Weather Ball.
This is a move that changes its type and power depending on the weather conditions.
The first time Gigalith used it was on a clear, starry night. Weather Ball shone with a faint white light.
Back then, Silas was so excited that he thought his hypothesis had worked.
That glowing sphere looked so much like a ball filled with moonlight.
No exaggeration—he even had a name ready for his "original move": White Jade Disc. Elegant and poetic.
But Gigalith's feedback, along with Zero's calculations, quickly shattered that beautiful fantasy.
On second thought, though, this move was still great. Combined with Gigalith's ability to summon sandstorms, Weather Ball could be considered a Rock-type heavy-hitter—at full power, that's 100 base power.
It was just a shame that his brilliant naming talent had nowhere to shine.
"Forget it. No point forcing it. Next, let's carefully focus on Earth Power."
If it's not time yet, don't force it. Maybe Gigalith's strength simply hasn't reached the required standard.
At least, according to Silas's calculations and Zero's projections, the theory was sound.
The fact that Weather Ball emerged as a result proved it—the direction was correct. Otherwise, Gigalith wouldn't have learned a move at all.
That meant they just needed to wait until it grew stronger.
Silas enthusiastically laid out the next training segment for Gigalith.
Here, "Earth Power" was a double entendre—it referred not only to the Ground-type move Earth Power, but also to the literal power of the earth itself.
Long ago, Silas had set Gigalith on this training path.
This was based on its hidden ability, Sand Force.
And Gigalith had been meticulous in carrying it out, building an incredibly solid foundation.
To put it politely—even though Gigalith isn't a Ground type, with Sand Force and its own training, its mastery of Ground-type energy wouldn't lose to any other Ground-type Pokémon of the same level and aptitude.
To put it less politely—Silas wasn't joking—among the Pokémon present (with a few exceptions), they were all little brothers compared to his Gigalith.
Ground-type moves, as the name suggests, mostly draw their strength from the earth—things like Sand Attack, Earthquake, Stomp, and so on.
Every one of these moves comes from a Pokémon manipulating energy to affect the earth's power and produce the corresponding effect.
The reason Silas made "Earth Power" the next training focus was that he wanted Gigalith to use it in combination with the irregular Gravity it had already mastered, perfectly restricting opponents' movement.
With Earth Power as the core, supplemented by moves like Sand Tomb, Earthquake, Stomp, and Bulldoze, plus others like Stealth Rock, he could force opponents to keep their distance—only able to fight back with ranged moves in a battle of attrition.
And that was Gigalith's specialty.
As a Trainer, the number-one rule is to maximize a Pokémon's strengths while covering its weaknesses.
That's the true meaning of "training"—not simply making tactical choices during battles.
Pokémon aren't dumb compared to humans. If not for the outsider's perspective, their natural combat instincts would be just as strong—wild Pokémon battles already prove that.
A completely flawless Pokémon does not exist.
Unless it's Arceus, the Original One.
Gigalith's small-scale agility was definitely not good—in fact, it was pretty bad. That was unchangeable, and Silas knew it well.
But on the flip side, its reaction speed and energy concentration were definitely not slow. In fact, they were quite fast.
Not every Pokémon was born with a body as blessed as Gigalith's.
Whether it was the orange crystals on its body or the energy core inside, both contributed massively to its performance in battle—no less than Cubone or Marowak's bone club.
When it came to ranged duels, Gigalith, with both high offense and defense, was practically a pseudo-legendary in its own right.
Besides its beam-type moves with extremely high potential, Gigalith also excelled in ranged physical attacks such as Rock Slide, Knock Down (a.k.a. Smack Down), Rock Blast, Stone Edge, and Rock Tomb.
And what if some hyper-agile Pokémon really did manage to close in?
That's what the Gravity training was for—it wasn't for show.
With sudden increased gravity, opponents were bound to become sluggish. At that moment, Gigalith's Heavy Slam, Iron Head, Superpower, or even Giga Impact would make them feel the crushing weight of stone.
"First is Earth Power. Remember when we sparred with Hisashi's Nidoking last time?
Your main issue right now is that between the release and when the attack actually reaches the opponent, it's not hidden well enough.
Unlike Earthquake or Stomp, Earth Power can definitely be concealed. Think about how Stealth Rock is used.
You can completely mask the energy fluctuations of Earth Power, set it up like a trap at your opponent's landing point, and then strike without warning."
As Silas spoke, he pulled a laptop from his bag, opened a video file, and pressed play.
"Look here." Silas pointed at the screen and hit pause. "Right here, your two hind legs have a very obvious push-off movement as you charge."
Gigalith silently nodded.
It was indeed very clear—the ground even had two dents. Anyone could see it.
"The charge-up motion can't be completely eliminated, I know that.
But you could build a habit of occasionally lifting a foot."
Silas gave a rather strange suggestion.
Gigalith tilted its rocky head slightly, not fully understanding.
"It's a feint—lots of feints.
For example, when you use Solar Beam.
Even though, with the help of your energy core, the charging happens internally, you can still make an external feinting motion.
Like stomping your left foot.
That will mislead others into thinking you're not using Solar Beam, but something else entirely.
Or, say with Earth Power and Stealth Rock—you could make two or three feints but only use the move once.
This induces your opponent to misjudge your move timing and stamina."
Silas spoke passionately.
Battles were all about deception; tricks like this weren't unique to him.
It's just that every Pokémon's personality, traits, and development paths were different, so each trainer's tricks varied.
Previously, it hadn't been necessary—with only a handful of moves, there was no need to overthink it.
Gigalith pondered deeply.
"Now, look here."
Silas, satisfied with Gigalith's state, switched to the next clip.
"Bulldoze and Earthquake can be said to come from the same lineage of moves.
But their emphasis is different."
He brought up an energy fluctuation chart, clearly showing Gigalith's different outputs for the two moves.
"Earthquake relies more on your energy output into the seismic core; Bulldoze focuses on the energy's diffusion through the ground surface."
He casually jotted down formulas on scrap paper, calculating.
"Gigalith!"
"Hm? No, based on seismic displacement and wave cycles, you still need to add a correction factor here, look…"
Neither of their voices was soft.
Even in the vast training grounds with all the background noise, many trainers around them overheard.
Some shed tears of ignorance.
They remembered when Silas had first arrived—hearing his kind of training method, many had scoffed.
Theory? Paper talk? No way it would ever work.
Especially since the key point depended on the Pokémon's own understanding—completely unrealistic.
Silas never cared what others thought.
One night, though, when he was teaching Servine, an Eevee happened to overhear.
He noticed, but didn't chase it off. What could it understand anyway?
Unexpectedly, it was smart—after following Servine and Silas through the night, it actually learned Double Team, a move almost every Pokémon can learn but is hard to master.
When the Eevee's trainer returned, he was overjoyed and thanked Silas profusely.
Sometimes Silas let the Eevee hang around the training field. He hadn't expected such extra gains.
Others were green with envy.
Quite a few secretly tried to get their Pokémon to eavesdrop.
Silas didn't mind, letting them do as they pleased.
Soon, though, they discovered it wasn't that easy.
Their Pokémon reported back that it was like listening to a foreign language.
Some trainers, unconvinced, thick-skinned, even personally crept closer to listen to Silas's teaching.
The longest lasted two minutes before giving up.
Yet Silas's Pokémon listened with rapt attention.
That was when people realized—their own knowledge reserves didn't even compare to his Pokémon.
And so, Silas earned his third nickname: Professor.
A tribute to his broad knowledge and teaching skills.
"Snap."
Silas shut the laptop.
"That covers the main issues. A bit of steady improvement. Today's goal…" He paused to think. "Let's set it as mastering Earth Power. Servine, come here."
He also called over Servine, who had been dutifully following its training plan from the start.
"Ser?"
Servine tilted its head, its big eyes full of confusion.
"Use Grassy Terrain to cover the ground. Sense Gigalith's Earth Power presence and release, and mark them with Double Team clones."
Silas explained simply.
This had multiple benefits: improving mastery of Grassy Terrain to make Servine more familiar with fighting in its home-field condition—since, in the future, it would nearly always keep Grassy Terrain active.
It also helped hone Servine's perception of other types of energy—many moves far trickier than Earth Power existed.
And, most importantly, it trained its newly learned Double Team.
Especially this last point.
Servine's grasp of Double Team was far slower than Silas had expected.
It was as if it had no real talent for it.
Based on Silas's projections and Unit Zero's simulations, before evolving, Servine should be able to split into about eight clones at maximum.
Even early on, three or four clones should've been easy.
Progress always slowed as it neared the peak, but…
Yet Servine, even when pushing itself and with luck, could only make three clones.
Normally, it fluctuated between one and two.
That wasn't very helpful in battle.
Never mind the higher odds of finding the real body—even smashing the clones would only take a moment.
Still, by Silas's set plan and Unit Zero's move details, Servine was performing excellently.
Which baffled him.
Even Pokémon especially good at this—like Pidgeot and Blaziken—couldn't understand why.
In their eyes, their little princess was doing everything right.
But the number of clones wouldn't increase.
"Ser…"
Servine's little face drooped unhappily.
Silas worried—maybe the little one had developed a resistance toward Double Team? After all, it was the first move it had trained for so long without success.
Waving Gigalith to train on its own, he scooped Servine up.
"What's wrong, little one? Feeling upset?"
He massaged its back soothingly.
"Ser, ser-ser…"
Servine's watery eyes told its grievances.
Silas's tiny eyes filled with confusion.
His expression scrunched as he asked, "Wait—you mean you think you're too cute, and having too many clones would make others think you're not the cutest one anymore?"
Silas never imagined Servine would think something so bizarre.
"Ser!" Servine nodded firmly.
"But they're just your shadows." Silas tried reasoning.
It was useless.
Servine still refused.
As he massaged his little princess, Silas racked his brain for a convincing argument.
"Hmm… wait, it should be in this folder…"
He suddenly remembered something, grabbed his laptop, and started searching.
"Contest—Wallace Performance—Dance of Shadows."
Clicking through two folders, he found the file.
Confidently, he played the video and showed it to Servine.
Even if his own sense of aesthetics wasn't reliable, surely Hoenn's Champion, the top-tier Contest Master Wallace, could persuade his little cutie.
....
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