Icicle Spear directly pierced a hole through Night Shade, striking Haunter inside, and all three Icicle Spear attacks broke through Night Shade's defense.
"Alright, that's enough!"
Tetsuya now clearly understood the drawback of Night Shade defense and sprayed a Potion on Haunter.
Haunter shook its body, looking quite confused.
"Every move has its drawbacks, but we must find ways to overcome them. Being able to discover the flaw in Night Shade defense now is already fortunate. If an opponent had discovered this flaw, we would not have had it so easy today."
Tetsuya also let out a long breath. Being able to find the drawback of the Night Shade defense he had once been proud of was truly fortunate. What he needed to do now was to clearly explain this drawback to Haunter.
"Do you see the Avalanche and Icicle Crash on the ground…?"
Tetsuya pointed to the icicles embedded in the ground and the scattered Avalanche. Haunter also looked very seriously at this contrast.
"Your defense has been trained under the glacier falls for so long. Against Freeze-Dry, Icy Wind, and even Avalanche, which are wide-area damage moves, you can handle them with ease. That is because you distribute your psychic power evenly across every part of Night Shade, making it a full-coverage defense without blind spots. Am I right?"
"Haun Haun Haun!"
After Tetsuya finished speaking, Haunter nodded repeatedly.
"There is nothing wrong with doing that, but when facing concentrated point-type damage like Icicle Spear and Icicle Crash, it becomes insufficient. Take Icicle Spear for example, its power is concentrated on that small piece of ice, giving it extremely strong penetrating force. Your psychic power is in a dispersed state, so it naturally cannot resist that kind of instantaneous explosive force."
Tetsuya's explanation was simple and easy to understand, and Haunter quickly grasped the key point.
Since the weakness had been identified, it was natural to find a way to deal with it.
Tetsuya looked around at the surroundings. The grassland was vast and very suitable for training. He decided to stay here today and set off again tomorrow. Ahead lay a large forest that blocked out the sky, making it impossible to properly train. Today, he could teach Haunter how to deal with moves like Icicle Spear, and then let it practice on its own without delaying their journey.
"Today we will carry out targeted training for the Night Shade defense here. Haunter, first use Night Shade."
After Tetsuya finished speaking, Haunter immediately became energized, and Night Shade combined with psychic power was used once again.
"Alright, Haunter. In a moment, I will have Ditto fire an Icicle Spear. Watch its direction carefully and concentrate your psychic power on that point of the Night Shade shield. Let's see if it works."
After giving instructions to Haunter, Tetsuya ordered Ditto to use Icicle Spear.
Whoosh~
A single Icicle Spear shot out.
Inside Night Shade, Haunter stared closely at the incoming Icicle Spear, judged its direction, and began to concentrate its psychic power.
With the sound of the Icicle Spear falling, Tetsuya's hypothesis had been confirmed. As long as the psychic power was also concentrated, there would be enough energy to deal with Icicle Spear and naturally block it.
After half an hour of training, Haunter was already able to handle Icicle Spear attacks with ease.
But this was only the simplest beginning…
"Next, it will be two Icicle Spear attacks at the same time. This means you not only need to judge the direction of the Icicle Spear, but also concentrate your psychic power on two points."
This kind of multitasking was the greatest test for Pokémon, but Haunter now had powerful psychic power as support. Just two Icicle Spear attacks should still be barely manageable.
When the two Icicle Spear attacks were used for the first time, Haunter successfully blocked the first one. Although the second one did not damage Haunter, it had already penetrated into the interior of Night Shade before Haunter used psychic power to block it.
There was no need for Tetsuya to say more. Haunter also knew that this was not a success.
"Mm, continue."
Although it was only one additional Icicle Spear, the difficulty of defense was far more than just doubling. Not only did it have to judge the direction of both Icicle Spear attacks at the same time, but it also had to concentrate psychic power separately.
Even after maintaining such training for an hour, success could not be guaranteed every time.
If two Icicle Spear attacks could not be handled perfectly, then three did not even need to be mentioned. Of course, being able to handle three would already be sufficient, because when using the Night Shade defense, one was often forced into a corner due to mistakes and had no way to avoid the next attack
At that point, the Night Shade defense could be used to block the next attack, allowing Haunter to take the opportunity to adjust its state and counterattack. This was only a transitional process, and this process was also the key to training. Naturally, the faster it could be done, the better.
Haunter itself was already very fast. Although it had not yet undergone "systematic counterattack training", with its current speed, it would not be possible for it to still fail to adjust its condition after the opponent had used three Icicle Spear attacks.
---◓---
The training continued until evening, and finally the success rate of handling two Icicle Spear attacks could be ensured.
After a tiring afternoon, Tetsuya promptly began dinner time. At present, only Haunter and Ditto could participate in training, so Tetsuya felt much more relaxed.
At night, Ditto could no longer continue training. After all, it would still be needed for travel tomorrow, so sufficient rest had to be ensured. Tetsuya placed it early into the Quick Powder bag.
He also did not assign any tasks to Haunter. For now, he did not plan to have it begin training to handle three attacks at the same time. After all, it was still barely managing two. Forcing it into the next stage of training would definitely not succeed and would instead affect its confidence. It was better to wait until it had fully controlled handling two attacks.
This grassland was relatively barren, and since spring had not yet arrived, the migrating Pokémon had not returned. Therefore, there was no vitality for Haunter to absorb, so they would have to wait until reaching the forest tomorrow.
Tetsuya set up the tent, and his camping preparations were complete.
Haunter was still continuously practicing the distribution and concentration of psychic power. Perhaps it also knew that the daytime training was not yet fully dominated. Ghost-type Pokémon were indeed more active at night than during the day, and Haunter was no exception, seeming not tired at all.
After accompanying Haunter until around ten at night, Tetsuya called for it to rest. Tomorrow they would enter the forest area ahead. Although he would try to follow paths that had been opened by humans, there was no guarantee that Pokémon would not suddenly appear. At present, Haunter was still the main combat force, so it had to maintain a good mental state.
---◓---
After camping on the grassland for one night, the next morning, after eating and drinking their fill, Tetsuya, Ditto, Haunter, and Piloswine all did a morning warm-up exercise to bring their condition to its best!
Mounting RaDittash, they headed toward the forest area ahead…