Chapter 164: Bullying the Boss

Considering Steelix's size.

Baimu chose the largest battle arena.

"Are you sure its load-bearing capacity is the best you have here?" he asked the owner repeatedly.

The owner replied again and again, "Rest assured! These walls are like bronze and iron — even if you brought a level seventy Pokémon to ram them, they wouldn't break! And if they did, not only would I not charge you, I'd pay you instead!"

Hearing this.

Baimu was about half reassured.

Even if the owner was exaggerating, it should still be enough to contain a level sixty Steelix, and the bottom construction should keep it from digging its way out.

He shut the main door.

He took a deep breath and released Aggron and Chansey into the half-enclosed battle arena.

The former was the main attacker for this taming job, the latter was for keeping himself alive — if Steelix landed a clean hit on him, forget type energy, the momentum from a ton and a half of weight alone would be enough to send him to the afterlife.

After all, it's the equivalent of a small car.

"Come on, let's welcome our new partner!"

Baimu gave a low shout, and the two Pokémon braced themselves.

Bang!

A white light flew from the Poké Ball, and the instant it hit the ground it transformed into a massive creature that even Aggron had to look up at.

Its steel-like body reflected a cold, harsh sheen; the air currents stirred up by every movement made one's hair stand on end, and its low roar was as deafening as a ship's horn.

Like some kind of terrifying monster from a sci-fi work.

Seeing the fellow in person, Baimu unexpectedly discovered that not only was it huge, but while ordinary Steelix had only three lateral metal segments, this one had four.

From bottom to top, the length and diameter increased in turn, and the topmost lateral segment at its base was nearly as thick as he was.

Its enormous head blocked out the lights like dark clouds, casting a vast shadow.

Its twelve-meter height meant it was almost touching the arena's ceiling.

"Roar!"

The boss Steelix looked around, then, as if sensing something, lowered its head and spotted the toy-like Aggron, the figurine-like Baimu, and the shrimp-like Chansey.

A hostile glint quickly rose in its pitch-black eyes — clearly the unfamiliar surroundings and the intimidating unfamiliar Pokémon had roused its fury.

"Roar—!

The boss Steelix bellowed at Aggron.

"Guraaa—!

Aggron answered with an even louder roar. Steelix's size was certainly exaggerated to a degree, but it wasn't enough to make it retreat.

So what if it's big?

At this point in its career, it had occasionally still lost to a Mawile that barely reached its knee!

The two giant beasts stared at each other, neither willing to look away.

Just as Cang Zhi Lang had said — a fierce temper indeed.

"First strike wins! Sand Tomb!"

Seeing Steelix's tail take an attacking stance, Baimu hastily gave the order.

Hearing the command, Aggron immediately clenched both fists and slammed them hard into the ground. The ground split with countless terrifying fissures, and a massive sand pit instantly formed beneath Steelix's feet!

"Roar!"

Steelix apparently hadn't expected Aggron to dare attack first. The ground vanished beneath it, sudden weightlessness took hold, and it dropped straight into the sand pit.

At the same time, its exaggerated weight combined with its fishbone-like body accelerated its sinking, and soon only half of it was still sticking out.

And that half had already hit the bottom, and the swirling Sand Tomb couldn't budge it even a fraction.

"Sand Tomb!"

Seeing the furious Steelix open its huge black maw and begin to inhale, Baimu immediately gave a second order.

Aggron stomped the ground hard, and countless grains of sand spun at high speed into a massive sandstorm vortex sweeping toward Steelix. By now the latter had already spat out a cyan-blue twister!

Boom!

Sand Tomb clashed against Dragon Breath!

The two exploded violently, and the fierce residual type energy buffeted Baimu's hair and the hem of his clothes like a gale.

But soon the Sand Tomb gathered itself and swept toward Steelix once more.

Clearly, Steelix's Dragon Breath was fierce, but not enough to match Aggron's Sand Tomb.

He squinted slightly and shouted again: "Surf!"

"Roar!"

Aggron raised its right hand, and an aquamarine water orb expanded at visible speed. When it slammed into the ground, it summoned a massive wave crashing toward Steelix!

Seeing this, Steelix rapidly spun its second lateral segment, gathering the sand beneath it into sharp rocks enveloped in white light, and fired them at the wave like bullets.

Peng peng peng!

The sharp rocks shattered the wave again and again, successfully breaking it apart.

However, Baimu's main purpose in using Surf wasn't to deal damage, but to further trap the Steelix stuck in the Sand Tomb.

The water mixed into the mud and sand, creating a vast stretch of mire.

Steelix twisted its lateral segments trying to struggle free of the Sand Tomb, but like a mixer it only sped up the blending of water and grit.

Soon.

A huge mud pit was complete.

Steelix's twisting grew slower and slower; the sand pit was becoming increasingly tenacious, and it had to expend more and more strength.

Just then, it suddenly realized the Sand Tomb's width was actually quite limited — enough for it to stick its head out of the pit and use its skull as leverage to pull its tail out!

Realizing this method of escape, Steelix immediately slammed its head down.

All Baimu smiled at the sight.

"It took the bait! Stomp!"

"Roar!"

The instant Steelix's head hit the ground, Aggron suddenly leaped up, raised its big foot, and delivered a fierce stomping right onto its bucket-shaped head!

The frustration of Surf failing to hit Steelix transformed into Aggron's attacking power; even with Steelix's monstrous physical defense, faced with this onslaught it was beaten dizzy, swaying left and right.

But Aggron's attack wasn't over yet.

"Brute Force!"

It grabbed Steelix's chin, sank its Qi into its dantian with a roar, and suddenly exerted force. Its whole body flushed with a brownish-red glow as it actually lifted the one-and-a-half-ton Steelix clean off the ground!

*The First Evolution*

"Roar—!"

Aggron swung with all its might and hurled Steelix toward the wall!

Boom!

The ground and wall let out a terrifying explosion, trembling ceaselessly.

Aggron kept closing in on Steelix, grabbed its tail, and spun it around like a giant windmill at an amusement park, letting its skull collide over and over—thud thud thud—emitting terrifying dull thuds.

Steelix's once-confident roar now turned into a low, droning hum.

"Alright, stop!"

All Baimu, crouched down, called a halt in time.

Aggron immediately released its grip, sending Steelix into yet another enthusiastic crash against the hard wall.

"Noraa..."

The latter lay sprawled on the ground, letting out a train-whistle-like wail.

"You really are getting fiercer and fiercer, huh."

All Baimu first praised Aggron—this one after hitting level sixty was far stronger than he'd imagined.

The confidence brought on by its strength also made this fellow utterly cocky now.

"Roar!"

Aggron proudly raised both claws and bellowed at the sky like it was showing off its muscles.