Darkness filled the forest.
The silence was heart-wrenching as not a single soul made a sound. Even the leaves that would be moving ever so slightly were still.
A pair of eyes frantically darted around the forest, trying to make sense of everything. Until...
A few dozen meters away from these eyes stood a figure. Its body was blurry; one could not make sense of it in such darkness.
The pair of black eyes blinked, and the blurry figure now appeared closer. Another blink and the figure was even closer to it. One more blink brought the figure even closer and finally revealed its identity.
A woman, dressed in black, with hollow eyes and pale skin, stood motionless.
The pair of eyes trembled for a second, and then suddenly the woman was right in front of them. And then...
~Ptouch~
The woman's head was pierced by a lance.
"Fuck!"
Daemon opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling of the tent he was sleeping in, breathing heavily.
He was drenched in sweat, and his body was shivering.
Another nightmare?
Alice asked from the side.
The psychic fairy was meditating by the side of her trainer. The moment he had woken up, she had noticed, and her worried eyes landed on Daemon.
"Yeah, and it's always the same."
You should see a doctor.
"I will be fine."
You said it last week as well.
Daemon opened his mouth but did not speak. Maybe he should see a doctor?
He had told the officer Looker that killing those grunts made him feel nothing, but that was only a coping mechanism.
Ever since that day, he has had the same nightmare. It was fine until he had his gym challenge, since it distracted him, but after that, it only got worse.
It had been a bit over a week since they left Pewter City, and each night, he would wake up similarly.
Daemon opened the zip of his tent. The sun was starting to show up on the horizon.
"Let's start today's training."
Don't avoid...
"I promise to see a Nurse Joy when we reach Cerulean."
The psychic fairy looked at her trainer and then nodded. She knew Daemon would not go back on his words, and so, with a nod, she followed him outside.
Should I wake him?
"Let him sleep a little longer."
Daemon looked at the Charmander, who had snuggled up to him last night. The Fire-type was warm and made for a perfect cuddle buddy.
For the last few days, Daemon had started his training, and Charmander had always gone above and beyond. Of course, the black-haired boy knew the Fire-type was trying to impress, to scare the boy, and would leave him as well if he did not perform well.
The black-haired boy had not stopped Charmander from pushing himself in training unless the Fire-type was overdoing it.
His goal for the Fire-type was simple.
Build the basics.
When he started training his starter, the first thing they did was focus on the basics and then move further ahead.
Charmander was still young and thus not as physically strong.
Daemon's goal was to first bring its physical abilities to a desired level before focusing on learning new [Moves].
With a yawn, the black-haired boy stretched his body and went for a dip in the nearby river they had made their camp beside.
Once done refreshing, he changed into a new set of training clothes and then started preparing breakfast.
Kirlia helped him get things done faster, and the smell of food was enough to wake up the sleeping Pokémon.
"Char?"
The Fire-type peeked outside, and his eyes lit up when they landed on the four bowls of food that Daemon had cooked for him.
"Char!"
He happily walked over, and Daemon gently patted his head. "Eat, you will need it for today's training."
"Charmander." The Fire-type melted into the head pats as he felt warmth from those human hands, something he had never felt before.
It had been a week since he had joined the party of a new trainer, and up till now, he had never been dissatisfied. Not only did Daemon get rid of that weird energy inside his body that caused him a lot of pain, but the black-haired boy also cared for him.
Charmander could easily tell the affection Daemon showed him was not fake.
Even when he tried to train and ended up pushing himself more than necessary to impress, his new trainer would always stop and make him rest.
Cross had never done anything like that.
All the orange-haired boy did was kick and spit at him.
The small claws of the Fire-type held the bowl of food tighter as he remembered those days and then looked at Daemon.
The fire burning on the end of his tail blazed brightly as he internally vowed...
"Should we call him out then?" Daemon brought up a Pokeball in his hand.
If Kirlia...Alice...was a sweet, big sister who sometimes became very scary, and Deino was a forever-grumpy bully who looked for fights on every occasion.
Charmander did not like how the dark dragon ignored Daemon's commands, but he also respected the kind of strength Deino had. The Fire-type wanted it as well.
He had seen the spars between Kirlia and Deino...they were nothing short of amazing. Nothing like the ones between Incineroar and Turtonator, but then again, those two were fully evolved Pokémon who had been battling for more than a year.
The psychic fairy sighed as Daemon released Deino, and the first thing the dragon did was charge at her with an [Ice Fang].
Kirlia dodged the attack, and just as expected, a fight started between the two.
Daemon had already expected as much and thus had made sure Kirlia had eaten her breakfast before calling out Deino. He had also left a dragon's share of food in a different, larger bowl before walking away with Charmander.
Deino did not want to train with them and only wanted fights. So, Kirlia made sure the dragon got one every morning before he was exhausted. After which she would leave for her own training while Deino ate his breakfast, rested and then had another fight with the psychic fairy.
"Char?"
"They will be fine." Dameon chuckled as the duo reached a nearby clearing. "Same as yesterday." He took out various bands and wrapped them around Charmander. "I have increased the weight for today by a little."
The Fire-type felt the heaviness around his limbs the moment those bands were wrapped around his limbs.
"I can see you have grown a little since last week." Daemon carefully inspected the Fire-type. "But it's still not enough. I want you to move around comfortably when the weight of these bands is increased to the maximum."
"Char, Charmander."
Daemon found it a bit harder to understand him than he did to converse with his starter. However, he did understand the gist of what the Fire-type was trying to say.
"[Quick Attack], [Dragon Claw], [Dragon Tail] and [Counter], four of your five damage-dealing moves are physical." Daemon flexed his bicep. "The stronger you are physically, the more damage you will do when using those moves."
He watched as the Fire-type nodded and pointed at a large rock.
"You see that mark?" the black-haired boy asked, and Charmander looked at the mark he had left behind by a Dragon Claw the day they had started training. "Use another [Dragon Claw]."
"Char?"
"Yes, you can use a move for now." Daemon chuckled at his Pokémon's excitement, since he had forbidden the use of any moves until he allowed them.
Charmander excitedly ran over to the large rock and raised his right palm.
~Swoosh~
"Char!"
The Fire-type's eyes widened in surprise as it looked at the draconic energy gathered around his hand.
It was thicker and denser than before. He could already tell this was at least five times stronger than whatever he had managed to gather on the first day of training.
With an audible gulp, Charmander swung his hand and used [Dragon Claw].
The move tore apart the rock, leaving behind claw marks deeper than the older ones. Moreover, he felt no discomfort or resistance when his sharp claws dug into the rock.
His arms were...strong?
"Charmander!"
"You see?" Daemon walked closer to the Fire-type and kneeled. "Strength comes gradually. What Cross tried to do was wrong...Even I was about to make similar mistakes. Even though I am technically weaker than Cross, I only managed to beat him because he tried to take a shortcut instead of training his Pokémon the correct way, the way he trained his Incineroar and Turtonator."
The Fire-type nodded, and his gaze flickered towards the dragon clashing with the psychic fairy.
Deino had left a deep impact on him, and he also wanted similar overwhelming strength. But he also understood the lesson Daemon was teaching him at the moment.
Moves would be useless if he were too weak himself.
"Char!"
He clenched his fists with determination and started training as Daemon had asked him to.
It was boring.
It was repetitive.
It was effective.
Daemon had taught Charmander boxing, how to punch, and how to move around.
Of course, for Charmander, these martial arts were useless in the long term since a fully evolved Charizard had a very different fighting style. However, Daemon was not planning to make his Fire-type master these martial arts.
These were only used for training.
Running, pushups, pullups, punching and dodging.
Charmander did all those with heavy weight, providing excessive restraint. All of his muscles were pushed to their limits before Kirlia came over after her fight with Deino and used [Heal Pulse] to get rid of all the soreness.
The Fire-type felt an inch stronger after every [Heal Pulse].
Seeing how perfectly he was doing his exercises, Daemon left Charmander alone and went back to the tent, where Deino was done eating his meal.
"Not going to join us?"
"Dei." The dragon snorted and looked away.
"Charmander is going to go past you in strength very soon if you don't train."
Deino scoffed at the thought and started walking towards the river with a growl. He was about to go pick a fight with some of the Pokémon living in the water.
He is too stubborn.
"He does not consider us his own." Daemon sighed as he saw his Deino fight a Poliwhirl.
Deino's way of training was to fight and fight and fight until he was exhausted before repeating it once more when he recovered.
While this method had its advantages, there were just as many disadvantages as well.
"Deino will come around." The black-haired boy watched the dragon defeat the Poliwhirl before moving on to the next opponent. "Beating him to submission is not the correct way of doing it. It will only trigger his break or bend instincts."
He would rather break than bend.
Kirlia had fought enough with Deino to be a good judge of the dragon's character and understood how the latter thought.
"Exactly." Daemon nodded before turning to Kirlia. "Let's start your training, shall we?"
I don't need your supervision. Focus on Charmander; he needs you more.
"I want to make sure you are not making any mistakes." The black-haired boy ruffled her blue hair and chuckled when the psychic fairy pouted at being treated like a child.
Kirlia took a deep breath and then sat down cross-legged. Her training was just as simple as Charmander's, but also necessary.
Having used TMs to learn many of her moves, she needed to develop her psychic focus. She had to turn the artificial into natural.
The first step to do that was to get her psychic focus under control.
After her evolution, her psychic focus had increased by leaps and bounds, especially since she was at the peak of power a Ralts could achieve before she evolved. The massive boost in strength provided by evolution had left her with a lack of control.
And control was also something she needed to truly master the TMs she had learned.
Daemon watched as a pen and paper flew into the air.
Kirlia frowned. She brought them closer and tried to write something, not by hand but by controlling the items with her psychic focus.
The force of the pen was too much, and it pierced through the paper.
In the next try, she broke the pen in half.
Daemon observed and corrected her whenever he saw her psychic focus overwhelm one of the two items she was trying to control.
'Once her psychic focus is under control, we can start working on [Psychic Terrain].'
He had plans for what move his starter would learn next.
However, she was still too far away from the degree of control needed for using a "domain" type move.
His Pokémon were too young and inexperienced.
Upcoming gym battles would be nothing like what he had faced against Flint.
First Gym was always easier, and it was the second gym from where the Gym Leaders would start getting a bit more serious.
Even in their fight, Flint was practically on autopilot, holding himself back, using not even 1% of his brain.
That was just how the first gym battle for new trainers was.
For this very reason, many trainers earned a single batch but never went past three badges on their first league circuit. Heck, even getting five or six was considered an achievement for new trainers.
His landed on the Deino, who was once again fighting a new opponent, a Graveler.
Rock-types were the most frequent of his opponents since they were close to Mount Moon, where many Rock-type Pokémon lived.
Charmander, on the other hand, was religiously going through the motions with a serious face...he looked so cute.
"One step at a time."