Besides Misty, Brock's progress is also significant. His Rhyhorn has already reached the Advanced Peak. When he first captured it, it was only at the Ordinary Advanced Level. Now, in less than two months, it has crossed a major stage, which is quite a remarkable speed of improvement.
However, to become a main battle force, there is still a long way to go.
Currently, Brock's main battle force is no longer the few Pokemon in the Gym, but his Onix and Golem. Both Pokemon are now stuck at the Professional Senior Level, still a distance from breaking through to Gym Level.
After all, these two Pokemon are equivalent to Brock's second team. Although they have been with him since childhood, they have lacked training. He focused more effort on the Gym's main team of Trainers, which were actually his parents'.
It wasn't until he started traveling that Brock shifted his training focus to these two Pokemon. But when they set out, one was only at the Ordinary Level and the other at the Advanced Level.
Now, they are just a small step and a level away from Misty's Starmie. If this isn't considered fast, then what is? You have to know, Starmie was initially at the Elite Level, and the gap between it and Onix and Golem was not small.
The reason these two Pokemon managed to catch up step by step is due to their hard work, and Starmie being stuck for a period at the Professional Peak. How much time it will take when these two Pokemon hit the Gym Level bottleneck is still uncertain.
However, Brock had an ace up his sleeve: the evolution of Onix.
Onix requires a Metal Coat to evolve through trade evolution and cannot evolve through normal leveling up. So, Brock plans to use the evolution into Steelix to break through the bottleneck when Onix reaches the Professional Peak.
This is also the reason why Brock hasn't let Steelix evolve yet.
Apart from these two Pokemon, Brock also has a Zubat and a Wartortle, both of which have long since evolved. Zubat evolved into Golbat, and Wartortle into Blastoise.
The former's strength has reached the Elite Peak, while the latter is at the Professional Junior Level, on par with Misty's Blastoise.
These two Blastoise were originally subordinates of Ash's Blastoise, and their talents are almost the same. They trained together, eating, drinking, playing, and never separating, happily following Ash's Blastoise as their leader.
So, their level progression is surprisingly consistent, including evolution and skill learning.
This summarizes Brock's improvements over time, but in overall combat strength, Misty still has the upper hand. After all, Misty has brought out her main Pokemon, while Brock hasn't brought along the Pokemon he has trained since he took over the Gym.
If Brock also brought his Gym's main forces like Misty, then those main forces should now have Gym Senior Level or even Gym Peak strength.
In normal training, Brock wouldn't dare to think like this. But with training by Ash's side, it's like there are no bottlenecks. Even if they get stuck, they quickly overcome it. Ash frequently comes up with training methods specially tailored for their Pokemon, like custom-made.
In terms of nurturing talent, Ash is indeed exceptional, a unique kind of Super Trainer!
In fact, these strategies were the result of contributions from Ashes in another world, but it still counts as Ash's own credit. Why? Is the version of yourself from a parallel world not you?
It still is him!
Lastly is Ash's improvement. Charizard reached Gym Level one and a half months ago, and one and a half months later, it has already reached Gym Senior Level. At first glance, increasing only two small levels in one and a half months seems a bit underwhelming, but one must consider what levels are being improved!
In the past, Ash's Pokemon increased one small level every seven days, one large level every month, that was before the Professional Level. After reaching the Professional Level, the speed of Pokemon's improvement slowed down.
No matter how Ash improves the quality of food, adjusts recipes, or seeks advice from masters in the group for new training methods, the Pokemon's level is as it stands. To increase it quickly, unless you cheat and use the power of a top-tier booster, it's impossible to make such large improvements in a short time.
So, being able to improve Charizard by two levels within one and a half months at the Gym is already admirable.
Originally, Charizard's level was slower to improve than other Pokemon because it needs to increase its Ability Value to S level before leveling up to maximize ability improvements. Otherwise, it's a case of slow and steady losing out.
But Charizard's ability potential already has four at S-level. To train them all to S-level naturally extends the time it takes to level up.
However, the benefits of this are obvious. As long as it doesn't encounter other Pokemon with the same S-level potential trained to the extreme, Charizard can achieve invincibility at the same level!
Moreover, now that Charizard can proficiently use Sacred Fire with its power, ordinary Elite Level opponents are not a match for the current Charizard.
Gardevoir is improving as well. Compared to Charizard, Gardevoir is even more outrageous; all of its Ability Values have S-level potential. Yet, its speed of leveling up is about the same as Charizard's, now also at Gym Senior Level.