Grey's POV
The next day arrived, and I decided to let Persian stay at Bill's house even after the laziness she had shown yesterday. Ken had already ensured that he could find a way to make Persian train, so I wasn't too worried about her slacking off again.
Today's main goal was to get started on achieving some degree of mastery over the various TM moves we had recently taught the team.
I paired Exeggutor and Cloyster together to work on Teleport and figure out how to properly use it.
Teleport was a pretty straightforward move in concept, but there were multiple ways it could be used depending on what the Pokémon wanted to accomplish. They could use it to teleport away from a battle entirely and switch with another Pokémon, or they could use it during a battle to teleport around and avoid incoming attacks.
The problem was actually getting enough control over the move to use it reliably.
For both Exeggutor and Cloyster, though, it was going to be an incredibly useful move.
Exeggutor could use Teleport to suddenly get in close for an easy Giga Drain. Cloyster could use it to instantly appear close to an opponent and fire an Icicle Spear at point-blank range, use Water Pulse, or even pull off one of its counter shields from an unexpected position.
Cloyster's biggest weakness had always been mobility.
We had already worked on innovative ways to compensate for that weakness, such as using Water Gun in the opposite direction to propel itself or using a counter shield to block attacks and alter its position.
But Teleport was completely different.
With it, Cloyster could potentially move anywhere.
That was a game changer.
As for Exeggutor, it didn't have the same mobility problem as Cloyster, but that didn't mean the move was any less useful for it. Rather than using Teleport simply as a surprise pivot, Exeggutor could abuse it to constantly reposition itself and cause even more chaos if it really wanted to.
I could already imagine the amount of mayhem that thing could cause once it properly mastered the move.
On the other side, the other four Pokémon would work on Rock Tomb and Brick Break.
Rock Tomb wasn't something I was particularly worried about.
They had already learned the move through the TM, so now it was simply a matter of mastering it and figuring out how to use the technique more efficiently.
Brick Break was a different story.
I had to teach it to both Charmeleon and Larvitar, and I wasn't entirely sure how quickly they would be able to pick it up.
Fraxure had already told me that Heracross could handle the Brick Break training.
That actually surprised me a little.
Still, I trusted Fraxure's judgment, and I trusted Heracross to handle the training properly, so I decided to let them do it.
Honestly, compared to how things had been earlier in my journey, training my Pokémon had become much easier.
The older members of the team could now train the newer ones, and most of them had developed enough experience and understanding to train on their own whenever they wanted to improve.
I didn't have to stand over every single Pokémon and explain every little thing anymore.
Most of the time, all I had to do was help them come up with innovative ways to use their moves or give them some advice whenever they hit a bottleneck they couldn't figure out themselves.
The team was slowly becoming capable of teaching itself.
And honestly, that was probably one of the biggest signs that they were getting stronger.
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Pokémon POV
There were rocks scattered all across the training area.
All four Pokémon had used Rock Tomb repeatedly, creating a terrain filled with rocks of different sizes. The ground had practically turned into a rocky field, giving them plenty of material to work with for the next part of their training.
Heracross looked at Charmeleon and Larvitar.
"You need to train mind and train body."
Both Charmeleon and Larvitar looked at him in confusion.
Charmeleon immediately glanced toward Fraxure, almost as if silently asking him to take over the training instead of this nutjob.
Heracross, however, continued.
"Brick Break is a move that requires you to break the brick."
Charmeleon and Larvitar stared at him.
The look on both their faces practically said the same thing.
Yes. Obviously.
Heracross noticed their expressions.
"I can tell you younguns are thinking something rude."
He paused for a moment.
"Yes, break the brick. That sounds obvious. But what you need to focus on is the break part. You won't always get a brick as your opponent. The move requires focus and concentration. It may look easy when me and Senior Fraxure pull it off, but it isn't. We've become accustomed to using it easily in battle, but it actually requires focus and time to land properly when you first learn it."
Heracross then demonstrated.
He gathered Fighting-type energy into his hand, concentrating it around his fist before stepping toward one of the rocks.
He punched.
The rock broke apart easily.
Heracross looked back at the two younger Pokémon.
"You need to imagine it. What kind of impact do you want the punch to have on your opponent? Imagine it breaking through the opponent, but from a single point of contact."
He pointed toward the broken rock.
"As you must have observed, yes, I broke the rock in one attack. But the damage to the rock happened from the area I hit and spread radially."
Heracross raised his fist again.
"Brick Break is meant to be a technique that bypasses or breaks even barriers or walls by channeling the strike force into a single point of contact and hitting with a focused strike."
He looked directly at Charmeleon and Larvitar.
"It is meant to strike a weak spot on an enemy and hit them so hard that the damage spreads through their body from that one point. Of course, the main pain would still be felt on the part you hit."
Charmeleon and Larvitar nodded.
The explanation was complicated, but it made sense.
Heracross seemed satisfied.
"Drop down and give me thirty pushups."
Larvitar immediately dropped down and began attempting the pushups with its chubby little arms.
Charmeleon, however, wasn't exactly in the mood.
She looked at Heracross with an expression that practically screamed Who does this bug think he is?
Then she noticed Fraxure glaring at her from afar.
Charmeleon sighed and dropped down as well.
From farther away, Grey was watching the training.
He couldn't help but wonder why the hell they were doing pushups in the middle of Pokémon training.
Then Fraxure gave him a thumbs up.
Grey paused.
He shrugged.
If Fraxure thought it was fine, then it was probably fine.
After Heracross forced Charmeleon and Larvitar through more push-ups, the two of them were eventually fatigued enough that Heracross allowed them to take some rest. Once they had recovered a little, Heracross got back on its feet and looked at the two of them.
"You guys need to have strong physical strength in your arms to pull off Brick Break. That is why we did the training. Now then, the next step is to gather Fighting-type energy in your hands and punch or hit."
Heracross paused for a moment before adding, "Mind you, Brick Break can be done with the legs or even the head as well, but it is generally meant to be used with the arms."
Charmeleon and Larvitar listened carefully.
"Now punch the ground and show me a Brick Break."
Charmeleon blinked.
She didn't understand how Heracross expected her to suddenly pull off a Brick Break out of nowhere, but she decided to give it a try anyway. She began throwing continuous punches toward the ground, trying to figure out what exactly Heracross wanted from her.
"Wrong!"
Charmeleon stopped for a moment.
The hell was this bug annoying her for?
Heracross walked over and explained, "You have to hit with one good punch. Take your time with the punch, gather the energy, and then hit. Just throwing multiple punches at the ground will do nothing."
Charmeleon had finally had enough.
"The heck do you mean energy, you bug? You haven't told us shit about some energy!"
Heracross paused.
"Wait, you guys can't channel Fighting energy?"
Charmeleon nodded.
"Of course not."
Heracross scratched its head.
"My bad. I thought everyone was a genius like me and Brother Fraxure. Well, let me help you with that. Lie down in a lotus posture."
Charmeleon didn't particularly appreciate the genius flaunt, but decided to let it slide. She sat down and crossed her legs into a lotus position.
Heracross walked behind her and placed one of its hands against her back.
Charmeleon had no idea what it was doing. She was about to ask when she suddenly felt some kind of energy flowing from her back.
Heracross was using Brick Break, but it wasn't actually hitting her. Its arm remained against her back, allowing the Fighting-type energy to flow through her body instead.
"Now hit the ground with your fist, even while you're sitting."
Charmeleon looked confused but did as she was told. She pulled her fist back and punched the ground from her sitting position.
"Understand the feeling you are getting," Heracross instructed. "Feel the flow of the energy and try to replicate it with your fist."
Charmeleon closed her eyes for a moment and tried to remember the sensation.
Then she attempted it herself.
She gathered what she could and punched the ground.
Heracross lifted its arm away from her back.
Charmeleon looked at her fist and then at Heracross.
"That's it? I did nothing."
Heracross shook its head.
"While you were faint, you were channeling Fighting energy into your fist. The rest is now up to you. You have to train and gather that energy yourself. You won't get the move done in some time. It needs practice. The more you strengthen your body through physical exercise and your mind by figuring out how to channel the energy, the better you will get at this."
Charmeleon looked down at her fist, trying to understand the strange sensation she had just experienced.
Heracross then moved toward Larvitar.
With Larvitar, Heracross was much more gentle and careful. It knew Larvitar was still young, and more importantly, Larvitar was weak to Fighting-type energy. If the process was done incorrectly, it could seriously hurt the young Pokémon.
Heracross carefully placed its hand against Larvitar's back and began channeling the Fighting energy.
Larvitar took longer than Charmeleon, but eventually it too managed to get a glimpse of the strange energy flowing through its body.
Once Heracross was satisfied, it stepped back.
"Now both of you, go at it. Start hitting the ground."
Charmeleon and Larvitar began practicing their punches, trying to recreate the sensation they had just experienced.
Grey had been watching everything from afar.
He honestly had no idea what the hell Heracross was doing, but he decided to let Heracross handle it.
Third Person POV
Later, when Grey asked Fraxure and Exeggutor about what had happened during the training, Fraxure explained everything while Exeggutor added his own thoughts through telepathy.
According to Exeggutor, Heracross was actually doing a good job teaching them. Despite all the weird cultivation propaganda that Heracross kept throwing around, it genuinely had a talent for teaching, specifically when it came to Fighting-type moves. It had been explaining to both Charmeleon and Larvitar how to channel Fighting-type energy and had apparently managed to give them a basic understanding of it.
Fraxure also revealed that he had managed to learn Brick Break so quickly previously because Heracross had helped him with it. Of course, the fact that Fraxure already knew Rock Smash had also helped him adapt to the move much faster.
Grey listened to all of this while observing the training from a distance.
Heracross was currently training its own moves using the remaining rocks created by Rock Tomb, while Charmeleon and Larvitar were resting nearby, completely exhausted from the training session.
Grey had to admit that he hadn't expected Heracross to be this good of a teacher.
On the other side of the training area, however, things were going considerably less smoothly.
Cloyster was struggling with Teleport.
Exeggutor, meanwhile, was having the time of his life watching the whole thing.
The tall Grass/Psychic-type Pokémon was practically gloating at Cloyster's struggles, clearly enjoying every second of watching the inferior bivalve fail to match his skill.
Grey sighed.
"Exeggutor, you do realize you have a type advantage here, right? You're a Psychic-type. Teleport should naturally be easier for you to learn."
Exeggutor didn't seem particularly interested in that explanation.
Instead, he simply continued to reinforce the fact that he was the superior Pokémon.
Grey stared at him for a few seconds.
There was no point in arguing with this delusional one.
He turned his attention toward Fraxure instead and looked at his oldest Pokémon with a strange sense of relief.
At least there was one normal Pokémon on this team.
Fraxure happened to be looking back at Grey at the exact same time.
The two stared at each other for a moment.
Fraxure's expression seemed to say the same thing.
At least there is one normal person here.
Grey and Fraxure both sighed.
Apparently, being the only sane members of the team was going to be their shared burden.
Author's Note: Hopefully this one was good , tried to lean into the entire heracross cultivator mindset and it being mystic and all , of course these were just glimpse chapters of a training generally I skim through that but I thought maybe lets show what actually goes in the background of the training.