Pokémon: Wings Of Shadow

About three hours later, Shiro was so exhausted he could barely move. He simply lay on the ground, watching Rookidee train with full concentration in midair.

Rookidee's proficiency with Air Cutter was improving rapidly. After many attempts, it had shortened the time needed to form the attack to around a second. However, trying to conjure two wind blades at once was still beyond its ability, its control over Flying-type energy wasn't quite there yet.

Meanwhile, Gastly, who had initially wanted to be lazy, was inspired to give its all when seeing Shiro push himself so hard. But after just a few attempts, it ended up completely drained and collapsed onto the ground.

Using a move beyond its level consumed far too much energy.

Shiro decided to take out all the Pokéblocks he had, piling them up against the wall so Gastly could eat whenever it got hungry.

Under this intense training, Gastly's proficiency with Shadow Ball was improving at a visible rate. If not for its current limitations—mainly a lack of raw power—it might have already been able to launch the attack with ease.

Yet despite the struggle, Gastly seemed captivated. It refused to give up on Shadow Ball, obsessing over the move.

Seeing this, Shiro reminded it that it didn't need to make the Shadow Ball so large, it could use smaller versions for attacks instead.

That simple suggestion seemed like a revelation for the not-so-bright Gastly. Excited, it quickly formed a series of Shadow Balls, each about the size of a human fist, and hurled them at the alloy training dummies.

That counted as completing the task, in a way.

Gastly's talent was clearly far superior to Rookidee's. Not only did it inherently know more moves, but its control and understanding of energy developed at a much faster rate.

In other words, its elemental affinity was extremely high.

Shiro even suspected that Gastly was already on the verge of reaching the Beginner level. The pile of Pokéblocks he had placed against the wall had been devoured at an alarming rate, nearly an entire week's worth of food gone in no time.

"Roo-ki-dee!"

Noticing Gastly's progress, Rookidee trained even harder. No matter what, it refused to fall behind its teammate.

But some gaps simply couldn't be closed with effort alone.

"Rookidee, come down and rest for a bit." Shiro leaned against the wall, calling out to it.

Rookidee was already panting heavily, its yellow belly fluff rising and falling with each breath. It had been training so hard that even the blue feathers on its back had started shedding, scattered across the floor.

Yet it still hadn't mastered conjuring two wind blades at once. To Rookidee, Flying-type energy felt like two spinning iron balls—one wrong move, and they slipped out of control.

"Rooki…deeeh..."

It wobbled midair, flapping weakly before finally tumbling to the ground in front of Shiro.

It had actually been at its limit for a while, pushing itself purely through willpower.

"Rookidee!" Shiro quickly scooped it up, crushed a few Pokéblocks into water, and fed it. Then he placed a Flyberry—the one he had bought off the black market—by its beak.

Shiro had taken time to ask several league trainers about recovery methods. They all said that feeding a Pokémon special berries right after exhausting training yielded the best results.

After eating, Rookidee curled up into a small ball.

Shiro gently stroked its feathers, planning to feed it the remaining rare candies once it woke up.

Right now, Rookidee had just reached the Beginner-level, around Level 11. If everything went as expected, it should be able to reach Level 16 or 17 in the next three days, right on the verge of evolution.

Its rapid growth was partly because of its low level and the abundance of resources Shiro was pouring into it.

Once training was done in these three days, and it had sharpened its moves a bit more, it would be ready to evolve.

Shiro had also thought about Rookidee's future at the Hammerlocke Stadium after evolving.

At Level 16 or 17, it would probably be the strongest among its kind there. But once it evolved into Corvisquire, that wouldn't be the case anymore. There were bound to be many Advanced-level Corvisquire competing for the position, all over Level 30. A freshly evolved one wouldn't stand a chance.

By then, Shiro could only swap it out for another training partner—Gastly.

With its superior talent, Gastly would probably reach a similar level by the time Rookidee evolved, giving it some solid battle strength.

...

Afternoon.

After quickly having a meal at a nearby restaurant, Shiro returned to the training room, diving straight back into his training.

Rookidee, having eaten the Fly Berry, had already woken up and was full of energy, chirping and eager to train.

Bang!

In the training room, Rookidee flapped its wings in mid-air. The surrounding air visibly condensed, quickly transforming into two wind blades that slashed toward the metallic target.

It had mastered the flying-type energy much better than in the morning. Not only did it effortlessly create two wind blades, but after just a few more tries, it successfully formed a third one.

Rookidee trained tirelessly, enjoying the rapid growth of its strength. Ever since Shiro fed it the Fly Berry, its body had become noticeably lighter and more agile.

Bang, bang, bang...

Four or five small Shadow Balls shot from Gastly, flying in a orderly fashion and hitting various parts of the metallic target.

"Gaa-gaa-gastly!"

Gastly giggled, floating next to Rookidee and showing off.

Rookidee glanced at Gastly with its red eyes but didn't pay it any mind. Gastly felt a strange chill run through it, as if a cold breeze had blown by. It shrank back, nervously calling out.

"Gaasss~"

Gastly, feeling slightly intimidated, backed down.

It had lost to Rookidee the last time they fought. Now, Rookidee was already at a higher level, faster, and had moves that could actually deal damage to it. There was no way it could win.

Besides, Gastly could feel that if it kept showing off in front of Rookidee, it would be caught and beaten up.

Seeing Gastly give up so quickly, Rookidee didn't bother with it anymore and continued training on its own.

At this time, Shiro was carrying a weight of several dozen kilograms, pushing himself through his exercises with great effort.

Gastly, who wanted to slack off, looked around, feeling a strange sense of guilt. It decided to continue training as well. In this atmosphere, both people and Pokémon were slowly but steadily improving their strength.

The evening soon arrived.

The training room's timers signaled that Shiro's session was up. The machines began flashing and beeping, reminding him that it was time to renew his session.

But Shiro, along with Rookidee and Gastly, had already been training for over ten hours.

Although Rookidee and Gastly still had plenty of energy and claimed they could keep going, Shiro was concerned that they might overstrain themselves and cause injury.

Training could become addictive, but taking appropriate breaks was necessary to maximize efficiency and avoid harm.

So, Shiro recalled his Pokémon, quickly tidied up his things, and left the training room with his bag.

In the hallway outside, several trainers were leaning against the wide copper windows, gazing out at the city of Hammerlocke and chatting casually.

"Hey, Shiro, you're done already?" A man in an orange-red tight training suit with curly hair waved at him from near the window. His name was Hugo. Shiro had spoken with him earlier in the day and had asked him about the recovery method for Pokémon.

"Yeah, I finished training for today. Hugo, I'm heading out." Shiro waved back.

Hugo nodded, watching Shiro take the elevator down, then returned to his conversation with his companions.

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