Counter Shield

At noon, after special training ended, Fang Yuan was already sitting in the Pokémon Center.

As expected... the special training ended with Eevee unable to move. The little fellow had truly been exhausted over the past half day.

"Number 18, Fang Yuan."

Hearing the announcement, Fang Yuan stood and went to pick up Eevee.

The Pokémon Center really was a magical place. Seeing Eevee lively and energetic again, Fang Yuan scooped it up.

Eevee then climbed up Fang Yuan's arm onto his shoulder and reached out a paw, seemingly wanting to open Fang Yuan's backpack.

"Not now."

"Eevee..." Eevee's paw pads froze, and it pouted.

"Don't rush. You can eat it after lunch."

When they left the Star Glory Battle Club, Uncle Shan had taken Fang Yuan and the others to collect their share of Seven-Horn Berries for the day. Eevee did not know what the berries tasted like, but since they were edible, it had been looking forward to them.

If it had to wait until after lunch, then it would wait until after lunch.

Hearing Fang Yuan say that, little Eevee began looking forward to lunch instead and started urging him along.

"Must be nice..."

Watching the carefree Eevee, Fang Yuan sighed. He wanted that kind of mindset too.

After every bout of high-intensity special training, even if it was eating the cheapest snacks and watching the most mindless anime, Eevee could still be happy and quickly forget the day's troubles.

But he was different. He had been under constant pressure while preparing for the Little Phoenix King Cup.

"Have I been single for too long? Was Dad's advice actually right?" With that question in mind, Fang Yuan finished lunch and finally returned home with Eevee.

There should not have been anything else to do at the Star Glory Battle Club today, so Fang Yuan and Eevee were free to arrange their own afternoon.

Although the morning's special training had already been grueling, time was money. Right after finishing its Seven-Horn Berry, little Eevee was dragged over by Fang Yuan for a talk.

Or rather, an interrogation of the soul.

"Eevee?"

Looking at the drawing Fang Yuan held up, Eevee widened its eyes in confusion.

It was a sheet of blank paper with two Pokémon drawn on it in an utterly terrible style.

Eevee pointed a trembling paw at the Pokémon below and asked Fang Yuan whether that was it.

"That's right. The Pokémon standing on the ground is you, while the one flying in the sky represents all Flying-type Pokémon."

"I gave it some thought. Now that you've learned Bite, with your speed and Ability, you no longer need to fear Ghost-type Pokémon. But aside from that, have you noticed that if your opponent is a Flying-type Pokémon, you'll be at a huge disadvantage without any long-range attacks?"

Eevee nodded thoughtfully.

"Also, regarding this morning's special training, I came to a conclusion. If your opponent is faster than you, you likewise don't have any good way to counterattack."

Eevee nodded again.

And began to suspect that Fang Yuan was targeting it specifically.

Fang Yuan took a deep breath and said, "So, in response to these two problems, I think we need to add another special training program. That way, you'll have one more trump card, and our chances of winning battles will be greater."

"Eevee~" Eevee cried, asking what exactly he intended to do.

"Come to think of it, I got the inspiration while doing exercises..." Fang Yuan pulled a Physics Exercise Book over from the table and opened it to the first page.

It was a question about Centrifugal Force.

Centrifugal force was a fictitious force, a kind of inertial force that caused rotating objects to move away from their center of rotation. Put simply, it was an effect caused by rotation.

It was because of this that Fang Yuan thought of a tactic from the anime.

Counter Shield, also translated as Double Team Shield or Double Team Defense Shield.

This was a tactic developed by the anime's protagonist, Ash, during the Diamond & Pearl series. It successfully prevented the Ghost-type Pokémon of Melissa, a top Coordinator and Gym Leader, from using Hypnosis, becoming the key to Ash's victory. Even Melissa, his opponent, highly praised the tactic and gave it its name.

Counter Shield could be used for both offense and defense. At its core, it was also an application of rotation.

It used a Pokémon spinning in place to stop a move from being concentrated in one direction, instead spreading it over a very large area and turning a damaging move into one that could both attack and defend.

Ash's inspiration for this tactic came from his companion Dawn's Grand Festival performance. From another perspective, the simple display had wrapped the Pokémon's body in a move without any blind spots, and that small idea became the source of Ash's inspiration.

After that, the tactic shone brilliantly at the Lily of the Valley Conference. Ash's rival Shinji and his companion Brock also learned it, developing quite a few variations. It could be said to be one of the few tactical techniques shown in the anime.

Perhaps this technique was nothing unusual to some experts, but it could definitely help Fang Yuan and Eevee and become a new trump card for them.

"If you can master this tactical technique too, then even against opponents faster than you or opponents flying in the air, you'll have a very good way to counterattack."

After Fang Yuan clearly explained the principles of Counter Shield to Eevee, Eevee wore a blank expression.

What move was it supposed to use to perform Counter Shield?

It could not possibly use Quick Attack, could it?

"Of course, using a projectile attack move would be best, but you can't learn any of those fancy moves at all. Let me think... Swift might work, but even if you can learn Swift in the short term, you probably won't be able to use it proficiently..."

"More importantly, you still need to learn Bite, so don't even think about Swift. Give it up."

"I think Sand Attack would be pretty good. You're already quite skilled at using Sand Attack. Although Sand Attack has no destructive power, it has an extremely strong disruptive effect on Pokémon. Think about the previous battle. Snorlax lost the rhythm of the entire battle precisely because of your Sand Attack, allowing you to win easily."

"That disruption... combined with the inertial force granted by rotation, might be usable for attack or defense. If used well, it would definitely be an excellent counterattack method."

"And the enemy would definitely never expect Sand Attack to be used like this!"

The more Fang Yuan thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. Little Eevee's control over Ground-type energy was fairly good, as could be seen from the process through which it had learned Sand Attack.

However, there was still one difficulty. Sand Attack was a status move, vastly different from projectile attack moves like Flamethrower and Thunderbolt. How to use Sand Attack to complete the Counter Shield tactic required further thought.

"Eevee..."

As it listened, Eevee smacked the ground with its tail and yawned, indicating that it did not want to use its brain.

Just arrange everything yourself!

"Then it's happily decided. Come on, let's go downstairs and give it a try first." Fang Yuan said excitedly.