Ash's ghostly tale

Chapter 6

walking down the road to mount moon ash could see the massive mountain getting closer on the horizon, mount moon was the second largest mountain in the kanto region and was one of the main reasons why trade between the northern and southern halves of kanto was so difficult as the only path connecting the two sides was a path under the mountain. travel by sea was the only other way for people to travel unless they wanted to take their chances going thru the wild but even the most experienced trainers avoided going to far off the traveled paths to avoid running into the more aggressive wild Pokémon that made their homes in the untouched corners of the world.

stopping for a quick lunch ash looked out over the large group of Pokémon that was following him of their own free will and those he had captured since his journey began while he thought over how he was going to continue training them and preparing for later battles. his battle with brock had been a simple battle of power mostly but he wouldn't be able to rely on such a thing once he got to the tougher gyms let alone once he entered the league championships, if there was one thing he had learned from watching all the past indigo championships it was that your strategy had to work with your Pokémon's strengths not against them.

the best way to do this was to plan his strategy around his Pokémon so he could work with their physical and mental strengths, dark types typically had thin and weak bodies that were meant for hit and run tactics as they darted thru the shadows though this meant they couldn't take many hits unless they were a duel type with ground or steel energy backing them up. ghost types were similar in a way as most didn't have a true physical form and while this made them immune to blunt physical attacks they could still be hurt by elemental or energy based attacks.

one thing that both types had in common though was their mischievous personalities as both types loved jokes and playing pranks or picking on those around them just to get on their nerves though around humans a ghost would wait in the shadows t pick on your nerves but a dark type might rob you if they saw something they liked, dark types were excellent thieves and enjoyed collecting trophies though what they choose to steal is different from Pokémon to Pokémon.

ash wanted to use that mischievousness that both types shared to his advantage in battle and started working with his ghastly a long time ago on strategies to confuse or enrage their opponent, one of these strategies was to faze thru the arena floor since the ground would block them from any attacks and since they weren't actually in the ground moves like earthquake and magnitude wouldn't effect them. 

it was a basic strategy right now but ash knew he wanted to work towards other strategies and moves that would make him an infuriating nightmare to battle against, he would make sure his Pokémon were either to fast to hit, could take the hit, or would have the hit go thru them. all the while he was going to train his team to deal out devastating attacks so they didn't have to wait for their opponent to tier out and they would be able to take care of any surprises.

there were a few trainers who tried to go for a tank strategy with their Pokémon but they often forget about working on the Pokémons offensive moves at the same time, there had been a couple of trainers that he had seen on tv who could have gone farther in the competition if they hadn't neglected their Pokémons offensive abilities.

gastly was in a unique situation as he had been training with him for a while and had all of the other ghosts to help him out with battles and learning new move, no doubt the Gengar and haunter would help the others on the team if asked but other than that their training was up to him. the little ghost had always enjoyed messing with others and took really well to the hit and run tactics that ash wanted for their team thou he had been working hard with him so that his hit would leave a bigger impact.

kitsune was difficult to categorize since she could use hit and run tactics or she could go in for overwhelming force but she could also go for a perfect defense strategy once he awoke her psychic nature, she was a jack of all trades kind of Pokémon which could be a good thing as it would let him have a lot of flexibility in his battles.