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Chapter 246: A Hard-Fought Victory
🕑 Added 2025-10-07 12:30:05 +0000 UTCChapter 246: A Hard-Fought Victory
Swish!
Excadrill, in its drill form, charged forward, sending the Sandshrew and normal Sandslash in its path flying. It was unstoppable.
"Sand-shrew!"
Seeing the ferocious approach of Excadrill, the shiny Sandslash King's face showed not shock, but excitement. It curled its body slightly, instantly becoming a large, blood-red ball. Then, it also began to accelerate, rolling forward to meet Excadrill head-on.
As it rolled, a dim light flashed across the shiny Sandslash King's body, almost too quick to see.
Defense Curl + Rollout. This combo was a natural talent for the Sandslash line.
BOOM!
The shiny king and Excadrill collided with a deafening thud that sounded like an explosion.
From the immense recoil, even with its claws dug into the ground, Excadrill was pushed back several meters, carving a deep trench in the earth before it could stop.
The shiny Sandslash King, on the other hand, was only pushed back a few steps.
"Dro-lisk..."
Excadrill's expression changed, a hint of gravity in its eyes.
"Sand-shrew," the shiny Sandslash King sneered.
Excadrill was strong, stronger than any other Sandslash in its clan. But compared to him, it fell a little short. In both size and strength, the shiny Sandslash King held the absolute advantage.
"Dro-lisk!"
After a long, hard stare at its opponent, Excadrill began to change tactics.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A white light flashed, and in an instant, a dozen identical copies of Excadrill appeared on the field, making it impossible to tell which was real.
Unfortunately, the shiny Sandslash King was not easily fooled.
Excadrill's trick only made it pause for a second before it easily saw through the illusion and locked onto the real one.
"Sand-shrew," the shiny Sandslash King scoffed. As a Ground-type Pokémon, its perception of ground vibrations was extremely keen. Double Team was useless against it.
Having no other choice, Excadrill prepared to switch tactics again, immediately unleashing an Earthquake.
RUMBLE!
The ground began to roll like ocean waves, the vibrations containing immense energy. Some of the Sandshrew caught in the radius of their duel were knocked out instantly.
Unfortunately, the shiny Sandslash King met Excadrill's Earthquake with one of its own. Its version was far more powerful, and the new wave of tremors completely overwhelmed Excadrill's, surging back towards it.
"Dro-lisk!"
Excadrill's face fell, and it quickly retreated.
It was smaller, weaker, and now, it seemed its mastery over the Ground type was also inferior. This was incredibly frustrating. Excadrill felt a heavy blow to its pride.
However, it wasn't completely outmatched.
In terms of speed, at least, it still held the absolute advantage.
Although this shiny Sandslash also had the Sand Rush Ability, Excadrill's base speed and its mastery of the ability were far superior.
So, using its speed advantage, Excadrill was able to continue the fight, launching a variety of ranged attacks with ease: Rock Tomb, Rock Slide, Hidden Power...
The only problem was that the shiny Sandslash King's Rollout also increased its speed significantly. If it got close, Excadrill was in for a vicious beating.
Facing the shiny Sandslash King, Excadrill was on the back foot, forced to rely on its speed to stay in the fight.
But in the main group battle, without the shiny king's involvement, Basalt's side had gained an overwhelming advantage.
After Lileep's root domain had absorbed enough water, its range had expanded, and its firepower had actually increased instead of diminished. Its energy bullets flew like a goddess scattering flowers.
In addition, with the raging sandstorm and the poison mixed into it, most of the Sandshrew clan had become poisoned, and their offensive momentum had plummeted.
With the swarm's attack weakened, Lileep took over defensive duties, protecting Basalt with a thick wall of roots.
As for Bronzong, it was finally free to counter-attack.
One Hypnosis, and it put at least five Sandshrew to sleep, using Dream Eater to recover its health when its stamina got low.
One Flash Cannon could clear out a small area of enemies.
One Heavy Slam could plow through the crowd just like Excadrill, creating a path of destruction. It was unstoppable.
Even the Advanced-rank Sandslash couldn't withstand the combined assault of Bronzong and Lileep. The few Sandslash in the swarm—only two of which were Advanced-rank—were focused down from the start.
And so, within three minutes, the swarm collapsed. The casualties were just too heavy. Even the shiny king couldn't keep them in line.
Not to mention, the king's own battle wasn't going much better. Despite using every move it had, it still couldn't take down Excadrill.
A long, fruitless battle with heavy casualties... this fight was no longer winnable.
"Shrew! Shrew-shrew!"
They had come quickly, and they left just as fast. The Sandshrew cried out as they retreated, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
All that was left on the ground were basketball-sized holes, covering a vast area.
"Sand-shrew!"
The shiny king's face was grim. It shot one last, deep look at Basalt, then used an Earthquake to force Excadrill back and dug a tunnel to escape.
It couldn't even beat Excadrill in a one-on-one duel in a short amount of time, let alone with two other opponents who were just as strong. Especially that Lileep... the Grass-type energy coming from it was so dense, the shiny Sandslash King felt a huge sense of threat from it.
"Excadrill, do not pursue a desperate enemy!"
Excadrill was about to give chase, but Basalt called it back.
Its body was covered in wounds. The brown fur on its chest and back had been torn away in patches, and in some places, beads of blood were seeping out.
Besides the alloy claws and the cap on its head, almost no part of its body was unscathed. The shiny Sandslash King's claws were no joke. They might not have been made of steel, but they were no less hard.
Besides Excadrill, Bronzong was not badly injured, but its psychic energy was severely depleted.
Lileep, on the other hand, had fought intensely, but as long as its root domain was wide enough, it could maintain a balance of energy intake and expenditure. It was a master of attrition.
"Dro-lisk..."
Excadrill's face was full of frustration. During the fight, it had confirmed that the shiny Sandslash King possessed a mysterious energy that was incredibly attractive to it, an allure almost on par with the Smooth Rock Crystal.
"What? It had something like that?"
After Bronzong translated, Basalt was shocked.
As a top-tier item, the Smooth Rock Crystal was an extremely rare treasure in the entire Pokémon world, priceless and impossible to find. He hadn't expected the shiny Sandslash King to have something similar.
"Could it be... that mysterious energy is what caused the Sandslash's form to change?" Basalt thought, rubbing his chin, his eyes narrowing. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Shiny Pokémon were rare, but not unheard of. But this one's striking red color, its enormous size, and its ability to completely dominate Excadrill... all of it pointed to the fact that this Sandslash was anything but simple. If there wasn't something special about it, he'd eat his hat.
"Whatever it is, let's treat our wounds and recover our strength first. This Micro-secret realm is only so big. That shiny Sandslash can't run far." Basalt's eyes narrowed as he made the final decision.
Hearing this, his team didn't object. Recovering was the right move.
"Lileep, expand the root domain and keep an eye on what's underground."
After assigning Lileep, who was in the best condition, to stand guard, Basalt took out a special Potion spray from his bag and began treating Excadrill and Bronzong's wounds.
Then, he gave Bronzong a Psychic Gem to help it quickly absorb the pure energy and recover. As for Excadrill, it didn't need any extra help; it could draw on the energy from the Smooth Rock Crystal it had absorbed.
"Yuji~"
Watching its three big siblings silently recovering, the carefree little Larvitar started to get restless again. The inexperienced baby didn't even realize it had just survived a life-or-death crisis; it thought it was all a game.
"You need to grow up fast, little guy."
Basalt patted Larvitar's rocky head, filled with emotion.
In the end, it all came down to a lack of strength.
A single, barely Pro-level shiny Sandslash, a moderately strong swarm of Sandshrew, and a few Sandslash had been enough to leave him beaten and bruised, and almost killed him.
How was he supposed to survive in the Takla Desert later on?
At this thought, Basalt silently made a resolution. Even though he was now an Advanced-rank Trainer, he couldn't get arrogant. He had to go back and train even harder.
"I'll set a small goal for myself: become a Pro-level trainer within a year," Basalt thought, clenching his fists.
"Yuji~"
Enjoying Basalt's petting with its eyes closed, little Larvitar had no idea that its training intensity had just been raised another notch.
It took about an hour for Bronzong's psychic energy to recover.
Excadrill's injuries were more severe, but its constitution was astonishing. With the help of the special Potion, it took about half a day, but it was finally back to its energetic self.
With everyone back in top condition, Basalt's eyes narrowed with a cold light. He shouted, "Excadrill, can you still sense the direction of that aura?"
After taking such a beating, not getting even was impossible.
And what's more, the shiny Sandslash King seemed to have some kind of priceless treasure.
That was even more reason not to let it get away.
