Chapter 310: That Unlucky Yellow Mouse
2024-05-15 Author: Samsung Charmander
Unlike the others up above, Brock, down below, was under immense pressure.
A single blow had left his ace Onix on its last legs. This giant Onix wasn't just intimidating in appearance; its power was also terrifying.
"Teacher Bruno is watching from above. I can't let him down."
Brock clenched his fists, glancing upward, only to witness a rather bizarre scene.
Master Bruno stood there, his steel-like body straddled across the pit, completely expressionless. Meanwhile, Ash and his two companions were clinging to him, their hands roaming up and down, feeling his muscles.
Brock was about to shout for them to get their filthy hands off his teacher's noble body, but as his gaze shifted, he met Bruno's eyes.
It was a look of expectation, tinged with a hint of disappointment.
"Disappointed? But I've already done my best to show my strength!"
Brock's heart immediately filled with anxiety. He lost his composure, and his breathing grew ragged.
Master Bruno isn't going to refuse to accept me now, is he?
No, I absolutely must become his disciple!
"Urgh..."
Brock's face contorted with conflict and thought, until a muffled grunt from in front of him made him instinctively look up.
He saw his Onix, though already on its last legs, still stubbornly obeying his command, clinging firmly to the giant Onix's body.
Every move the giant Onix made was a massive strain on his own.
"Onix..."
Brock jolted, struck by a sudden realization.
That's right. This is a battle for me and my Pokémon. Why am I trying to change my style just to show off for someone else?
What Master Bruno wants to see is the real me!
In the next instant, Brock's aura completely changed.
He opened his eyes, and a faint, sacred golden light, as if from a Bodhisattva, seemed to radiate from his body, inspiring an urge to kneel in devout worship.
"Onix..."
Brock's mind was now free of distractions. He ignored the people above the pit and focused his entire attention on the two Onix in front of him.
He was extremely familiar with Pokémon like Onix. While they were ill-tempered and might fly into a rage after being hit by a passing Squirtle's Water Gun, the condition of the one before him was clearly far more volatile than usual.
It was as if it were anxious about something.
"Wait a second."
Brock's eyes narrowed, his focused gaze allowing him to perceive more details. Soon, he discovered an anomaly.
He was not only the team's cook but also its medic. While his skills were no match for Nurse Joy's, he still had a decent understanding of a Pokémon's physical condition.
He noticed something off about the giant Onix. On its enraged, scarred face, there seemed to be... a trace of pain?
"It's injured?"
There had to be a reason for its rampage. If it was injured, that would explain everything.
Besides, for a limbless Pokémon like Onix, if something was wrong with its body, there was very little it could do with only its head.
Brock scanned his narrowed eyes over the Onix's body, which stretched for dozens of meters. He quickly located an abnormal area. As a veteran Onix trainer, he could spot peculiarities that others might miss.
But the Onix was still thrashing its head and body about violently, and it didn't look like it would give him any opportunity to help.
*I have to calm it down...*
With this thought, Brock no longer hesitated and decisively commanded:
"Onix, retreat! Use Dig!"
"Roar!"
The smaller Onix immediately let go, its head plunging toward the ground as it burrowed into the rocky earth.
It shared a bond with Brock, so it naturally understood his intentions.
"Rumble, rumble, rumble..."
A continuous rumbling echoed, and one could even see the ground around the giant Onix churning, as if something was moving back and forth underground.
"Heh."
Above the pit, Bruno smiled at the scene. No longer worried about Brock, he sat down cross-legged and went back to eating a large watermelon.
He was also a veteran Onix trainer and had seen the oddity at a glance.
Ash's trio: "?"
What's going on? What's happening?
"ROOOAAR!!"
In no time, having lost its target and sensing it zipping around beneath it like a little loach, the giant Onix grew even more enraged. It let out a mighty roar, raising its massive rock tail high, poised to smash it downward.
This was the wind-up for Earthquake. And as everyone knows, Earthquake inflicts double damage on a Pokémon that is underground using Dig.
"Get it out of there, quick!!"
Ash yelled from his perch above the pit.
However, Brock didn't need the warning. The instant he saw the wind-up, a brilliant, sharp light flashed in his eyes.
"This is what I was waiting for!"
As soon as he spoke, the smaller Onix burst from the earth, soaring high into the air.
Brock, Poké Ball at the ready, recalled it instantly. The motion was incredibly smooth; in that brief moment, man and Pokémon even met eyes, sharing a look of perfect understanding.
Brock then pocketed the Poké Ball and retreated several steps.
A second later, the giant Onix's tail slammed down squarely onto the ground.
Not daring to be careless, Ash and his companions once again clung to Bruno's pecs, bracing for the Earthquake.
Bruno, however, continued to munch on his watermelon, looking completely unguarded.
"Thump."
Sure enough, the earth-shattering Earthquake they anticipated never came. There was only a faint tremor.
"BOOM!!"
Then came the sound of cracking and collapsing rock.
The giant Onix suddenly sank several meters as the ground beneath it gave way, collapsing into a large pit.
The Onix's serpentine body was now wedged in the earth, unable to move. Only its head continued to thrash about wildly.
"I get it! Brock had his Onix hollow out all the earth underneath!"
Misty was the first to figure it out.
It was a clever way to use Dig to counter an Earthquake. However, a tactic like this required the trainer to be intimately familiar with the moves of both Pokémon to pull off successfully.
"He's amazing, just as I thought! He got the Onix under control. Now is the best time to attack, right?"
Ash also looked down below, curious as to which Pokémon Brock would send out to attack.
After all, Brock had an Omanyte and a Kabuto. Both were Water-type Pokémon—traitors to their own Rock-type—and would be super effective.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
However, things didn't proceed as Ash had imagined.
After taking a deep breath, Brock slowly walked toward the pit until he stood right in front of the giant Onix, his hands empty of any Poké Balls.
He stopped at the very edge, the creature's massive, thrashing head less than a meter away. Shards of rock rained down around him, but Brock paid it no mind, simply staring calmly into the Onix's eyes.
"Rooo..."
His eyes seemed to hold a Buddha-like tranquility. Under that gaze, even the rampaging Onix began to slowly calm down.
"Onix, I mean you no harm. Let me help you."
"Rooo..."
They looked at each other once more. Perhaps because the golden light was too brilliant, the Onix finally gave a low rumble and lowered its head, accepting Brock's offer.
Brock nimbly leaped down into the pit, landing on the giant Onix's back. He walked along its body toward its tail, stopping near a critical joint. He bent over, closely examining the rock there.
Then, seeming to have found his target, he bent down and reached into a crevice between two of the Onix's rock body segments.
It was like the gaps between a human's teeth, where shreds of meat or vegetables can sometimes get lodged.
But for a creature of this giant Onix's size, whatever was stuck in there would be far from small.
Brock seemed to have found something in the crevice. He gave it a firm tug.
"Urgh..."
The giant Onix instantly let out a wail of pain, creating the bizarre image of a monstrous beast of muscle whimpering pathetically.
"It's okay, it'll be over soon."
Brock kept murmuring words of comfort to the giant Onix, but the force he applied with his hands didn't lessen as he continued to pull.
It was a classic distraction, the same technique a doctor uses when giving a child a shot.
"Pop!"
After a moment, Brock successfully extracted a yellow sphere from the crevice, one that was nearly half the size of a human.
"Mmm..."
With the sphere removed, the giant Onix immediately lowered its head, its expression one of pure relief.
So much better.
The faces of Ash and his companions lit up with joy. It looked like Brock had successfully resolved the issue.
"That's Teacher Brock for you! He really gets it!"
"By the way, what the heck is that yellow sphere?"
Upon hitting the air, the yellow sphere trembled slightly and then bizarrely unfurled. It was a Pokémon.
"Mmm~"
A Sandshrew revealed its full form; it had been curled up into a ball.
Brock just patted its head and then set it free.
So that was it. The giant Onix had been on a rampage because this Sandshrew had gotten lodged in a crevice of its body.
A giant doesn't fear a major wound, but it dreads the feeling of having something stuck in its teeth.
Seeing this, Ash clapped his hands.
"So that's what it was! This unlucky yellow mouse was to blame all along."
Pikachu: "?"
(end of chapter)