After breakfast, Nova let his Rhyhorn herd wander freely around the off-road vehicle. He set Growlithe to work like a sheepdog, keeping watch so that the thirty-odd big babies did not stray more than two hundred meters from the car.
Nidoking and Rhydon stayed close to the vehicle, holding the perimeter.
With so many large Pokémon moving about, plus two monsters near the Elite Four level standing guard, Nova was confident that no wild Pokémon in the area would be foolish enough to cause trouble.
Nova decided to take a nap in the vehicle, along with Vibrava and Rotom, who had both been busy through the night.
Before he drifted off, Nova gave Corviknight a task: scout the area for the Little Oasis said to be nearby. With the main scout resting, the veteran scout had to step up. Nova could not waste the two or three hours he planned to sleep.
Besides, Nova always expected something special from his clever Corviknight, Little Blue. He hoped it would surprise him again.
Once Corviknight had its orders, Nova climbed back into the vehicle, switched on the air conditioning, and pulled Meowscarada close to sleep beside him.
It was not that he could not sleep without holding the cat. It was simply that the desert heat was brutal. Without the air conditioning, he would roast like jerky inside the car, but with it running, he risked catching a chill. So really, Meowscarada was just serving as a blanket.
It certainly was not because the cat was too comfortable to let go!
Corviknight, meanwhile, was rather pleased with its assignment. As long as it could slip away from Nova's watch and enjoy some freedom, it was happy to brave the blazing sun of the Gobi Desert.
The sky was clear and a light breeze drifted past. Corviknight decided the weather was perfect for a leisurely flight. As for the actual task, it figured a casual look around while having fun would be more than enough to repay the bowl of bird feed Nova had given it that morning.
After all, Nova would never know whether it had searched thoroughly or not, and Corviknight was not nearly as skilled at scouting as Azir. Even if it came home with nothing to report, it doubted Nova would scold it.
Cruising along in this easy mood, Corviknight flew low in one direction for over ten kilometers, and then sensed that something was wrong.
Whoever lived around here clearly had no manners!
A boulder the size of a millstone came flying straight at Corviknight's head. Luckily, though Corviknight was not the fastest flier, its reflexes were sharp. Spotting the danger in time, it used Aerial Ace to dodge out of the way.
A massive head rose from a burrow in the sand below. Corviknight had clearly wandered into someone's territory, which explained the sudden attack.
Then, getting a better look at that huge rocky head, Corviknight froze. It had not expected to run into a familiar face out here.
This Onix, a self-styled lord of its territory, was the very one that had once battled Nova on the outskirts of Lune Town for daring to trespass, only to be captured afterward. Later, during Nova's battle with Taylor, it had panicked and fled, burrowing deep into the Tamar Desert. Now that Nova had returned to the Black Rock Desert near Forest City, Corviknight had run into this same Onix once again, completely by chance.
"Haven't you had enough beatings yet?" Corviknight said. "You dare use Rock Throw on me, even after seeing who I am?"
In fairness, this was not entirely Onix's fault. When it had fled from Nova before, Corviknight had still been a Corvisquire. Now it had evolved into a towering steel bird, so it made sense that Onix did not recognize it.
Still, calling it a glutton for punishment was not far off. After parting ways with Nova, Onix had used its enormous size to claim a territory for itself, slipping right back into its old habit of acting like a lord. Even faced with a strange giant bird it had never seen before, it could not resist picking a fight.
Corviknight was not in the mood to let this slide. Now that its evolution was complete, it was no longer the helpless little bird that Rock-type moves used to trouble. As a Steel-type, it could easily outmatch Rock-type Pokémon at its own level.
After dodging the Rock Throw with Aerial Ace, Corviknight dove straight down and struck with Steel Wing.
Steel Wing, however, was a physical move without much raw power, and Onix's already impressive Defense was boosted further by its Sturdy Body trait. So even a super-effective hit did not do much damage.
Without wasting words, Corviknight simply began stacking Iron Defense.
Seeing its opponent hovering motionless, Onix kept firing off Rock Throw again and again, not realizing this was quietly raising Corviknight's Steel Heart trait even higher. After three uses of Iron Defense, Corviknight's physical Defense had climbed to an almost absurd level, and Onix's Rock Throw could no longer land a scratch.
Then Corviknight used that unbreakable steel body to unleash the Fighting-type move Body Press, a move whose power scales with the user's own Defense stat. The higher the Defense, the harder the hit.
Fighting-type moves are also super effective against Rock-types. Even with its remarkable Defense, Onix took the full weight of that iron ball crashing down from above. Its HP dropped to zero in a single blow, and it fainted on the spot.
After knocking out its opponent in one hit, Corviknight turned and headed back to camp, letting out a satisfied cry along the way. It felt this was worth reporting to Nova in person.
By the time Corviknight arrived and woke Nova with its cawing, Nova had only managed an hour and a half of sleep.
At first, Nova assumed Corviknight had done well and actually found the Little Oasis. But once Rotom translated what had happened, Nova was so exasperated he could barely speak straight.
"That's it? That poor Onix really had the worst luck, didn't it, running into you, Little Blue?"
Well, there was nothing to be done about it now. Since it was an old acquaintance, Nova figured he ought to go check on the situation himself.
After all, once the proceeds from this desert trip were handed over to the Gym, Gilbert would pay Nova a bonus at double the market rate. A Pokémon with blue potential, over level forty, and carrying both the Lord and Sturdy Body traits would fetch at least twenty or thirty thousand. Following his usual rule that every bit of profit counts, Nova decided to grab a Poké Ball and catch it.
Of course, Nova knew how to set his priorities. Since he could not help with the oasis search himself, he drove out to deal with the Onix, while the partners with better detection skills continued searching for the oasis on his behalf.
He recalled the Rhyhorn herd into their Poké Balls, made a few quick preparations, and drove toward Onix's territory.
Ten minutes later, guided by Corviknight, Nova found the half-fainted Onix, its eyes spinning in dizzy circles, and tossed a Poké Ball to catch it without much effort.
Looking at Onix, an old acquaintance now reunited with him, Nova felt a small pang of nostalgia. Strictly speaking, this was the very first Pokémon Nova had ever released. Yet after all this time and all these twists, it had found its way back into his hands, thanks entirely to Corviknight's unexpected handiwork.
Truly, every cause has its effect, and here he was, delivering the outcome.
He wondered what Onix would think when it woke up and saw Nova's familiar face staring back at it.