Chapter 166: Giant Serpent Soars Across the Sky

Three large basins, finished.

The giant Steelix opened and closed its jaws, making a sort of lip-smacking motion, its face full of unfinished-business.

"It's the first day, so I'll let you eat till you're full."

Baimu clapped his hands; Aggron dragged a cartload of ore out of the warehouse and dumped it all on the ground. "Actually, taking in too many metal elements will make your body overly bulky, and it's extremely inconvenient for your movement."

"Rooaaar~"

Steelix let out an eager low roar, not hearing a word Baimu said, and on its own used its chin to scoop up those ores, slipping them into its mouth with a clever twist of force.

Crunch crunch crunch…

It let out a piercing, strange noise just like Aggron chewing steel.

While eating, it also started spinning the two top horizontal steel bones.

Baimu didn't notice anything at first, then stared hard and saw that fine sand and dirt were leaking out from the joint between the horizontal steel bone and the next segment, as if it were breaking down the ores it had eaten.

But he understood this was leftover from Steelix's last meal, or the one before that — soil and some fine particles its body didn't need.

Put nicely, these were Steelix's "sweat"; put bluntly, that was "poop."

Of course.

In essence it was still soil.

Baimu once again experienced the special qualities of different Pokémon, and couldn't help feeling cheerful; he patted Steelix's head and let it keep eating.

The latter replied with a low hum.

When you personally start raising a Steelix, you'll find many differences from the information online.

For example, the claim that Steelix lifts two-thirds of its body length, leaving only one-third to support its body — is actually not rigorous. For Steelix, having one-half of its body on the ground is usually the most comfortable; raising two-thirds is a posture for vigilance or attacking.

When necessary, it can even lift its entire body, supporting itself on its tail alone.

But that posture requires spinning four steel bones to keep balance, and it looks a bit like a spinning giant potato.

Even more interesting is Steelix's movement.

Its upper body leans back slightly, then suddenly lunges forward, using that to pull itself along; meanwhile the grounded parts wriggle left and right like a snake, and the two grounded horizontal steel bones help do the work.

Usually it's pretty slow, but when it bursts, it's terrifyingly fast — whoosh, and it's charging forward.

No wonder even its pre-evolution can always chase Ash and the others all over the place.

As for Steelix's movement performance, Baimu had only one assessment:

"You need a Magnet Rise."

"Rooar?"

"Mawile, come help with a Magnet Rise! Baton pass!"

He shouted toward the baton-pass tool Pokémon.

Under the eaves, Mawile, lounging on a chair, leisurely took a sip of an ice-cold drink; electricity began to crackle across its body, and that current turned into a white light that poured into Steelix's body.

"Rooar? Rooar!"

Steelix was puzzled at first, then realized it had actually lifted off the ground; for a moment it panicked, twisting and turning nonstop.

Several times it nearly crashed into the roof.

And an eighteen-meter-long behemoth writhing in the sky was more than a little terrifying, which forced Baimu to shout for it to calm down.

But the two had only just met not long ago, so it didn't work too well.

"You go!"

Baimu slapped Aggron's arm.

"ROAR!"

Aggron unhesitatingly threw its head back and let out a furious roar.

The next moment.

The Steelix in the sky stiffened slightly, its movements quickly settling down, and it began to drift lazily through the air.

"That's right, just like that, slower — try twisting your body to steer, or swinging your crossbones!" Baimu shouted at the top of his lungs.

He was very glad he hadn't just now stood on top of Steelix's head, successfully avoiding what would have been a terrifying super-roller-coaster ride.

And after the Steelix in the sky slowly adapted, it gradually got playful, starting to expand its cruising range, climbing higher, passing over the house and flying toward the front yard.

Baimu hurried after it, constantly interrupting Steelix with words to keep the fellow from getting too lost in play.

He was surprised Steelix wasn't afraid of heights — when Aggron used Magnet Rise, it was always reluctant to gain altitude; keeping itself one to two meters off the ground was its limit.

Regarding this, Baimu often sweet-talked it.

"You can't go on like this. One day when you've claimed a mountain as your territory, won't you die of fright standing on the peak looking down? You have to overcome it!"

Aggron listened and thought that made sense.

But it was still hard to accept the panic that came with being too far from the ground.

Compared to that, Steelix was especially gifted for flight — even though its secondary type was Ground, it didn't have that much fear of the sky.

Before long.

"Alright! Come down now! It's over!"

Seeing the electric light on Steelix's body begin to flicker, Baimu quickly told it to come down.

But the latter apparently couldn't lower its altitude smoothly — it had no idea how to bring itself down, only knowing how to use magnetism to climb, not descend.

Tossing about while flying, it soon reached the airspace above the shrubbery Aggron had so carefully tended.

"Gyaoo!"

Aggron was scared out of its wits on the spot, rushing over in a panic to catch the fellow and keep it from crushing the shrubs — but just as it reached the edge of the lawn, it slowed its steps, to keep its claws from tearing up the turf.

That delay directly caused Steelix to plummet toward the lawn.

"Gya—oo—"

Bossgodora let out a heart-wrenching wail.

Fortunately, just before Steelix was about to crash into the bushes, a sudden streak of blue light lifted it up, freezing it in midair.

ahzww.

It was Chansey's 【Telekinesis】.

"Lucky~"

"What's the panic? I always had Chansey following along." Baimu smiled at Bossgodora, who had nearly burst into tears.

Shortly after.

They returned to the backyard.

Steelix lowered its head somewhat timidly, not quite daring to look at Bossgodora.

The latter had originally wanted to grab its tail and swing it like a windmill in fury, but thought better of it and, with great magnanimity, forgave the former.

On the lounge chair.

Mawile watched all of this and let out a cold laugh of "How boring."

"Chee-doo~"

——

Thanks to the powerful addition of the giant Steelix.

After many days, Baimu once again felt how cramped the battle environment was. In a field thirty meters long and fifteen meters wide, only Steelix could still fit; counting the other Pokémon, it was a bit crowded.

Whether it was basic training or move training, there was a sense of not being able to fully stretch out.

"Ash is lucky to have Professor Oak's backyard as his solid backing. Otherwise, with his standalone little house, where would he fit so many Pokémon?"

After a brief moment of deliberation, Baimu decided to think of another way.

But the cadre housing, as the core area of the Sand Group, had already maximized land use to guarantee private space — where would there be any extra room for him?

——Other people's homes have land.

Without a doubt, Baimu had set his sights on the neighboring Master Liu Ge's house. Because his good big brother basically never came back, and even when he occasionally showed up, he left quickly. Although it was unclear where he usually lived, the large stretches of empty land sitting vacant were truly enviable.