He knows Pokémon better than me.

Chapter 4378 Nightmare! The Nightmare God's Unique Ability!

That night, Marnie, Hop, and their Pokémon all fell into a deep sleep.

Especially Heppe.

When Xiao Zhi saw him that night, it was the first time he had ever seen this guy say only "I'm going to sleep," without any further words, and then he turned around and went into his room to sleep soundly.

"Hehe, it seems Senior Abandoned Monkey's effects are quite powerful~"

Xiao Zhi smiled secretly to himself.

Inside the courtyard, you could see Hop's Pokémon, all huddled together, looking exhausted and almost unconscious.

Seeing this scene, he couldn't help but think of his own Yanwu King.

Back then, this guy was trained by the abandoned monkeys in roughly the same way every day.

However, Xiao Zhi didn't go to bed early today, which is unusual for him.

During dinner that evening, Darkrai mysteriously pulled him aside, saying there was a surprise in store.

So, around midnight, at the agreed time, Ash arrived at the open space outside the watchtower.

The night was deep, and the moon was obscured by clouds under the pitch-black sky.

Xiao Zhi looked up.

At the top of the watchtower, a sinister-looking ghost was silently floating there.

Darkrai was enveloped in black mist, his gray-white hair billowing in the night wind, as if he were preparing some kind of attack.

"Whoa?"

The spirit horse, which was still wandering outside the castle, suddenly raised its head and looked at the top of the tower with a puzzled expression.

"Marsha?"

Even Marshadow peeked half its head out from Ash's shadow, curiously staring upwards.

"Dark—!!"

The next moment, Darkrai suddenly raised his arms, and a long, low growl spread through the night.

Visible black flames radiated outwards from it in concentric circles, like a polluting shadow, seemingly about to engulf everything.

If it weren't for his familiar Pokémon, Ash would have thought some evil villain was up to no good.

"This is.?"

Ash raised his hand and touched it, but the drifting black clouds passed right through his palm.

Nothing happened, it was just a bit chilly.

So Ash curiously looked into the castle gate.

The Pokémon that were sleeping suddenly frowned and groaned when touched by the dark clouds.

His face gradually darkened; it seemed he was starting to have nightmares.

"A nightmare?"

Ash blinked; this was Darkrai's unique ability.

Of course, you could also call it its special ability—

It can cause a sleeping being to have nightmares, thereby continuously depleting the other party's stamina.

Therefore, for Darkrai, the Black Hole move = double the chance of hypnosis, and the Nightmare move = double the Nightmare damage.

In the Sinnoh and Unova regions, there is an urban legend about little boys and girls who are trapped in endless nightmares and will remain asleep until death unless awakened by the Crescent Wing of the Dream Goddess.

Actually, it's not entirely false.

Soon, Ash also reached the top of the watchtower.

From this vantage point, you can overlook everything inside the castle.

Beside him was Darkrai, who was raising his hand to create nightmares. It was arguably the place with the densest black mist, filled with a chilling aura.

Xiao Zhi stared at the scene below for a while and couldn't help but offer a sharp comment:

"But...it doesn't seem like there's anything special about it?"

Isn't this just Darkrai's basic move?

If a trainer has a nightmare one night while traveling in the wild, it's highly likely that a wild Darkrai was passing overhead in the middle of the night.

Upon hearing this, Darkrai immediately straightened his face and began to defend himself:

"Dark, Dark!!" It's a rare appearance; will it not have any new tricks up its sleeve?

Just then, Ash noticed that Mr. Mime below was still awake and sitting cross-legged in the corner of the courtyard, meditating.

"Big cousin, come here for a second!"

He quickly waved and shouted.

Anyway, everyone in the castle is having nightmares right now, so there's no need to worry about disturbing the neighbors if we shout loudly.

Whoosh!

The Mr. Mime understood, its body outline flickered, and it appeared at the top of the tower the next second.

It was precisely because of the bear-wearing senior that he was forced to use Instant Transmission!

Upon closer inspection, Ash noticed that the feather hanging on Mr. Mime's chest was emitting a faint blackish-purple glow, repelling the surrounding nightmare mist.

Ash nodded. That made sense, since it was a Galar Articuno feather, capable of withstanding the special abilities of Mythical Pokémon.

With Mr. Mime's translation, Ash quickly understood Darkrai's meaning—

Previously, Darkrai's Nightmare ability meant he couldn't control whether a dream was good or bad; if he unleashed it, it would result in a nightmare.

The dream content page cannot be specified; it simply represents what each person fears and resists most.

If it's Misty, a friend from Kanto, the dream involves going to Evergreen Forest, and the encounter rate of Bug-type Pokémon is increased by 10.

If it's Xiaogang...

That probably means we've arrived at an island full of people who are stunning from behind.

From afar, everywhere you look, there are beautiful women with long, wavy hair and wearing gorgeous dresses, as if you were in a land of women.

But when you turn around, all you see are strange, unshaven middle-aged men.

The upgraded Nightmare form allows Darkrai to precisely control the content of dreams.

As for the nightmare content it has now constructed

It's just a repetition of the daytime training.

Keep training like crazy!

Xiao Zhi: "."

After training until you're exhausted during the day, do you still have to train in your dreams after you go to sleep at night?

As expected of a mythical beast with an evil attribute!

He looked down at the courtyard and silently mourned for them for two seconds.

"But... isn't this a bit too harsh?"

Ash couldn't help but turn back to Darkrai, and said with concern.

Before Darkrai could answer, several soft sounds suddenly came from the outer wall of the watchtower.

Looking down, I saw the abandoned monkey clinging to the edge of the stone wall with both hands, and in a few moments it climbed over the outer wall to the top of the tower.

Who says rock climbing techniques are useless?!

With the abandoned monkey also standing on top, the once spacious tower top suddenly became much more crowded.

"Stop drinking! Stop drinking!!"

The abandoned monkey pointed at the Mr. Mime and called out a few times, and the Mr. Mime immediately began to translate earnestly.

Its Ghost/Fighting typing perfectly counters its Psychic/Ice typing.

As expected of a senior, he exudes a strong sense of pressure!

So the Mr. Mime typed quickly, and Rotom on the phone emitted a translation prompt:

"The abandoned monkey said that this was a training method that it had discussed with Darkrai."

"Train your physical strength during the day, and then train your mental strength at night before you sleep."

Darkrai's upgraded version, Nightmare, can now be controlled to prevent damage to the physical body.

Not only that, it can also temper one's mental strength!

Mental strength isn't something only psychic Pokémon need.

In Pokémon battles, a strong enough mental focus can be incredibly useful in many ways—

The simplest point is that if your mental strength is strong enough, you can directly become immune to the intimidation effect of your opponent, preventing yourself from falling into a state of cowardice.

Mental power is generally not something that can be cultivated. For example, Mr. Mime's meditation training is basically a training method exclusive to Psychic Pokémon.

For the other 17 types of Pokémon, even if they are washed by the waterfall every day, the improvement is very limited! (End of Chapter)