Besides Misty, Brock's improvement during this period was also far from insignificant.
His Rhyhorn had already reached Mid. When Brock first caught it, Rhyhorn was only at Low-High-level, and in less than two months it crossed an entire major stage. That speed of improvement was already quite impressive.
However, if Rhyhorn were to become Brock's true main combatant, it still had a long way to go.
At present, Brock's core battle strength no longer lay with the Pokémon stationed at the Pewter Gym, but rather with the Onix and Golem he personally carried. Both were currently stuck at High Level, still some distance away from breaking into the High Peak Level.
The reason for this delay was simple.
These two Pokémon were effectively Brock's second team. Although they had been with him since childhood, they had long been neglected in favor of the Gym's main lineup. Those Pokémon were trained under Brock's parents and represented the Gym's official strength, not truly his own.
It was only after Brock began his journey that he redirected his focus toward Onix and Golem.
At that time, one of them was merely Low-High Level, while the other was only High- Low Level.
Now, both had climbed to a point where they were just one minor level and one major level behind Misty's Starmie. That rate of progress was undeniably fast.
After all, Misty's Starmie had already been at same level back then. The initial gap between Starmie and Brock's Pokémon had been enormous.
The reason Onix and Golem could steadily close that gap lay in two factors.
First was their own effort.
Second was the fact that Starmie had been stuck at the same level for quite some time, giving them the opportunity to catch up.
Of course, once they reached the bottleneck of, how long it would take to break through was still uncertain.
Fortunately, Brock had already prepared a solution.
Onix could not evolve through leveling alone. It required a Metal Coat and trade evolution to become Steelix. Brock planned to deliberately wait until Onix reached Mid Peak, then use evolution to forcibly break through the bottleneck.
This was precisely why he had not allowed Onix to evolve yet.
Besides Onix and Golem, Brock also carried a Zubat and a Wartortle.
Both had evolved long ago.
Zubat had become Golbat.
Wartortle had evolved into Blastoise, currently at same level as Misty's Blastoise.
Interestingly, these two Blastoise shared a peculiar bond.
Back then, they had both been subordinates of Ash's Blastoise. Their talents were nearly identical, and during training they were inseparable. They ate together, trained together, and even played together, always following behind Ash's Blastoise like loyal underlings acknowledging a boss.
Because of this, their growth paths were astonishingly synchronized.
Their evolutions, skill acquisition, and even level progression were almost identical.
That summarized Brock's improvement during this period.
In terms of overall combat power, Misty still held the advantage.
After all, she had brought out her true main Pokémon, while Brock had not brought along the Pokémon he had been training since officially inheriting the Gym.
If Brock had done the same as Misty and brought his Gym mainstays, those Pokémon would likely already be at Mid Peak Level.
Normally, Brock would never dare to think this way.
But training beside Ash was different.
Under Ash's guidance, bottlenecks were almost nonexistent. Even when they appeared, they were quickly broken through. Ash would occasionally propose training methods that felt perfectly tailored to each Pokémon, as if designed specifically for them.
In terms of nurturing ability, Ash was without question a unique and terrifying Super Trainer.
Of course, the truth was that these methods came from the Ashes of other worlds.
But in the end, that still counted as Ash's own achievement.
After all, were those parallel-world Ashes not still Ash himself?
Weren't they all the same person?
Finally, there was Ash's own improvement.
Charizard had reached High Level a month and a half ago. After another month and a half of training, it had advanced to High Peak Level.
At first glance, advancing only two minor levels in that time might seem slow.
But that perspective ignored one crucial point.
This was improvement at the High tier.
Before reaching High Level, Ash's Pokémon could gain a minor level every seven days and a major level every month.
After entering High Level, however, improvement slowed dramatically.
No matter how much Ash refined diets, optimized training plans, or learned new techniques from the experts in the group chat, levels still obeyed hard limits.
Unless one outright cheated by borrowing power from a vastly superior existence, rapid growth was impossible.
Under those constraints, raising Charizard by two stages in a month and a half was already outstanding.
Charizard's growth had actually been slower than that of other Pokémon for a reason.
Before leveling up, he insisted on pushing his core stats to S-rank, ensuring maximum stat gains per level. A single compromised step would result in permanent inefficiency down the line.
Charizard possessed four stats with S-rank aptitude, and training all of them to perfection naturally extended the leveling process.
The payoff, however, was enormous.
As long as Charizard did not encounter another Pokémon with equal S-rank aptitude trained to the same extreme, he would be nearly invincible at the same level.
Moreover, Charizard could now proficiently wield Sacred Fire using his own power.
Against ordinary Elite Four–level opponents, the current Charizard was simply overwhelming.
Gardevoir's growth was no less terrifying.
In fact, she was even more extreme than Charizard.
Every one of her stats possessed S-rank aptitude, yet her leveling speed matched Charizard's, and she too stood at High Peak Level.
The reason lay within her mind.
She carried a fragment of Mewtwo's psychic essence. As long as she could draw power from it, her mental strength would continue to grow rapidly.
For Gardevoir, an increase in mental power meant an all-around enhancement.
What truly required hard physical training were only her endurance and movement speed.
Everything else was amplified by psychic essence alone.
In terms of fighting above her level, Gardevoir was inferior to Charizard.
She possessed only one true over-level technique: Psystrike, Mewtwo's exclusive move.
Using it once would drain her completely. It was a do-or-die attack with almost no margin for error.
However, when it came to pure leveling speed, Gardevoir surpassed Charizard.
Though both were currently at the same tier, Gardevoir had reached High Peak Level seven days earlier, while Charizard had only done so two days ago.
And that gap was continuing to widen.
The most important reason for Gardevoir's rapid improvement was simple.
Mewtwo personally took action.
She began actively helping Gardevoir develop the psychic essence within her body. That essence had originally belonged to Mewtwo, so guiding it out was effortless for him. There was no need for Gardevoir to repeatedly rely on MEGA Evolution to forcibly stimulate it.
The power guided by Mewtwo was purer, more direct, and far easier to absorb.
Neither Ash, Gardevoir, nor Mewtwo had ever imagined such a day would come.
Mewtwo was now voluntarily helping the very Pokémon who had once "stolen" her psychic essence, actively assisting her in absorbing her own power. The situation was so absurd that it felt unreal.
If word of this ever spread, it would sound like a joke.
Compared to Gardevoir, who effectively had a built-in shortcut, Charizard could only grind relentlessly day and night, trying to stimulate the power of the Rainbow Feather within his body.
Charizard also possessed a cheat.
The problem was that his cheat came without the cheat-giver.
Without Ho-Oh's guidance, relying solely on his own strength and Ash's help, drawing power from the Rainbow Feather was painfully slow.
Charizard did come up with a method.
He suggested pushing himself to the brink of death through extreme combat in order to forcibly stimulate the Nirvana power within the Rainbow Wing.
Ash rejected the idea immediately.
Even setting aside whether it would actually work, Ash would never allow his Pokémon to be beaten half to death. Let alone do it himself.
That kind of "training" was no longer about hardship or endurance. It was pure self-torture.
And worse, it would essentially be venting frustration at Gardevoir's rapid growth.
Ash would never agree to that.
Charizard, though fearless toward pain and exhaustion, ultimately gave up on the idea and followed the established plan. Unless they could one day find Ho-Oh and receive direct guidance, the Rainbow Feather's power would only awaken naturally during true life-and-death battles.
There was no shortcut.
While the two pokemon were constantly comparing themselves, the team's true senior member, Pikachu, had already reached Peak.
Only now did Ash fully understand why Pikachu's rebirth had been labeled an S-rank lottery.
Because of rebirth, Pikachu's starting level had been lower than Charizard's and Gardevoir's. Yet somehow, he had overtaken both of them.
Although Pikachu's six-dimensional stat aptitude still fell slightly short of Charizard and Gardevoir, in theory his leveling speed should not have surpassed theirs.
Yet reality ignored theory.
Pikachu surged forward at terrifying speed.
Now at Peak, when fully unleashed, he could fight an Elite Four–level opponent without issue. With two buffs layered on top, he could even clash directly with a Champion-level existence.
The progress of the Big Three was extremely satisfying, and the rest of the team was not lagging behind either.
Ash trained every Pokémon equally, but for some, he invested extra effort.
Blastoise was one of them.
Compared to Charizard and Venusaur, Blastoise's improvement speed was noticeably slower, and his overall combat power lagged far behind theirs.
Unlike other Pokémon, the relationship between the three Kanto starters was special.
The title of "Kanto Starter Pokémon" was deeply ingrained, not just in human perception, but in the Pokémon themselves.
Blastoise knew this.
Charizard and Venusaur had joined the team almost at the same time as him, with a gap of less than ten days.
Their strength did not need to be equal, but it should not have diverged so drastically.
Yet reality was cruel.
Charizard and Venusaur had already left Blastoise several streets behind. No matter how hard he tried, closing the gap felt impossible.
For a period of time, Blastoise even fell into self-isolation.
Fortunately, Ash noticed and intervened in time.
Blastoise's MEGA Evolution unlocked a new ability: Mega Launcher.
This ability boosted all Pulse-type moves by fifty percent.
At first glance, it seemed like a strong but straightforward buff.
Ash, however, noticed something critical.
Pulse was another term for Aura.
Aura was Ash's domain.
In the entire world, there were probably very few people who understood Aura better than him.
Blastoise possessed the potential to learn Aura.
Once Blastoise began controlling Aura Power, Ash could directly assist in his growth.
Ideally, Blastoise would receive a Water-type power amplifier. But lacking that option, strengthening raw power became the priority.
Compared to Charizard and Gardevoir, Blastoise's disadvantage was clear. The power he was improving was not Water-type power, but Aura Power.
Even so, Aura-enhanced techniques were terrifying.
For example, Water Pulse strengthened by Aura not only gained raw power, but also dramatically increased its confusion probability.
The issue was that Blastoise learning Aura Power was equivalent to starting from zero.
This path was extremely difficult and not immediately compatible with his current state.
However, Blastoise had an advantage the others did not.
He had direct guidance from a God level expert.
Ash did not merely advise. He performed precise power adjustments, integration, and fusion.
Charizard and Gardevoir relied on divine remnants.
Blastoise had a living guide.
Although Mewtwo assisted Gardevoir, her help was limited to drawing out her psychic essence. Ash could fully synchronize mind and body with his Pokémon.
The depth of Ash's assistance far exceeded Mewtwo's.
Because of this, even though Blastoise remained at Mid-low level, his true strength skyrocketed.
Without Ash's involvement, a MEGA Evolved Blastoise would have a sixty-forty matchup against a Charizard not using Sacred Fire.
Charizard would still hold the advantage.
After all, Mid Peak versus Mid-low Level was still a fundamental gap.
Even with MEGA Evolution and type advantage, fighting a Charizard already capable of cross-level combat was extremely difficult.
Without Aura Power, Blastoise's win rate would drop to twenty percent at best.
The final Kanto starter, Venusaur, had reached Mid Level.
Like the others, his level did not fully reflect his true strength.
When going all out, without relying on Ash's Aura Fusion, Venusaur could still contend with Elite Four–level opponents.
Blastoise still lagged behind the other two, but now there was hope.
Before, he could only watch the gap widen until it vanished from sight.
Now, with Ash's help, Blastoise could barely keep pace with Charizard and Venusaur.
And the moment Ash found a God–level item suitable for Blastoise, that would be the moment he truly caught up to both of them.