Ten minutes later.
By relying on Kilowattrel's agility to keep harassing his opponent, Qingyu ultimately won the challenge with ease.
"I lost..."
Kato shook his head helplessly and readily admitted defeat.
What a shame. He had thought he might have a chance to beat the Sunshine Gym head-on and earn himself some bragging rights at school...
He had never expected Teacher Yu's backup to be Kilowattrel. Neither of the two Pokémon he had committed to could do much against it.
Krokorok couldn't reach it, and Armarouge's moves struggled to target Kilowattrel as it kept flying under Tailwind. The entire battle could only be described as torture.
If Tailwind hadn't ended, allowing him to land a Psyshock as one last "consolation prize," Kato might have cracked a little.
Still, this battle had at least quickly revealed another of his shortcomings-
Krokorok clearly needed more than close-range moves. In a real battle, Flying-type Pokémon could easily toy with it, just as they had today.
That meant adding moves such as Rock Tomb and Rock Slide, which could hit distant opponents while also filling gaps in his type coverage.
Ground-type moves couldn't hit Flying-type Pokémon, true, but Ground-type Pokémon could generally learn Rock-type moves, which were particularly effective against birds.
So that was what Teacher Yu meant by filling coverage gaps!
Following that train of thought, Kato soon felt as though he had discovered a treasure he had overlooked all this time-
If he faced an unfavorable type matchup like this one, suddenly pulling out a move that countered his opponent could work wonders!
And this method applied to any Pokémon. Surely no Pokémon in the world was completely without a counter. As long as it had a weakness, he could exploit it!
Teacher Yu, I get it now!
Having learned something, Kato