I have honestly never lost this many story-required fights in any game ever. I really like this game, but I struggled against Shiv and Kuiki so badly that I literally spent 3 hours just to beat each of them, and now I'm having the same issue with Nova. My team consists of Torracat, Noibat, Spheal and Pansage since I there aren't any other pokemon that I like that are available in this point before gym 2, and there are nothing but Unown in the cave and I can't leave.