The officer had never come across the idea of a "Trainer who overcomes type disadvantages," but after listening to Nova's half-explanation, she could tell he wasn't going to change his mind. She gave him a firm warning to stay alert out there, stamped his form, and waved him through.
Nova was now officially inside the Uninhabited Area.
There were no roads in the Tamar Desert. Any patch of ground solid enough to ride on counted as a path, and the only way to navigate was by compass. The landscape was flat and featureless in every direction — pale rock, loose sand, and the occasional low ridge breaking the horizon.
Out here, the biggest threat to humans wasn't the heat or the dry air. It was wild Pokémon. Nova kept that in mind and made sure he wasn't travelling alone.
Nidoking was too large and too slow to run alongside the bike for any real distance, so Nova returned him to his Poké Ball for now and instead released Corvisquire. The dark-feathered bird spread its wings and rose into the air, circling high above Nova as he rode, scanning the terrain below.
They hadn't covered more than a few kilometres before Corvisquire let out a sharp, urgent cry — a clear signal that something dangerous was close by and that Nova needed to change course immediately.
Nova braked and looked ahead. He already knew he had been too slow to react. Out on the flat, open desert, there was nowhere to hide, no cover of any kind.
About fifty metres ahead, on the far side of a low ridge, something enormous stirred. A massive iron-grey head rose slowly above the crest, its eyes locking onto Nova with cold, territorial focus.
It was an Onix.
The scan from Nova's Cultivation System projected its details in front of him at once.
Species: Onix Level: 46 Ability: Rock Head
Traits:
Large Frame — Body significantly larger than the species average. Slight boosts to physical Defence, Special Defence, and Attack; slight reductions to Speed and evasion. Stone Shell — Reduces damage taken from physical moves. Lord — Fiercely territorial. Will attack any creature that enters its domain without hesitation.
Moves: Rock Throw, Rock Slide, Dig, Smack Down, Block…
Blue-tier potential. Three traits. Level forty-six.
Nova stared at the readout for a moment.
This was the Uninhabited Area, all right. He hadn't even been inside for half an hour, and he had already run into something that would have been treated as a field boss anywhere else.
Onix wasn't typically considered one of the more dominant wild Pokémon. Despite their enormous size, their bodies were made up of a long chain of large boulders stacked together, which made them heavy, stiff, and slow. That lack of flexibility meant their movements were predictable, and their raw attack power suffered for it — which was why, despite being so physically imposing, Onix had a base Attack stat of only 45.
But a level-46 Onix with the Lord trait was a different matter. At that level, even modest Attack could deal serious damage. And with the Lord trait, this one wasn't going to back down or let him pass.
Nova dropped the bike and grabbed Nidoking's Poké Ball.
The Onix lunged the moment he moved, its massive head sweeping toward him — but a dark blur cut across the sky as Corvisquire came diving in, striking with Fury Attack. The flurry of sharp pecks peppered the Onix's hide before it could follow through.
It was a tactic Nova and Corvisquire had been drilling together all week.
Since Nidoking couldn't travel alongside him on the road, any wild encounter meant Nova had to spend precious seconds releasing him from his Poké Ball, and that delay was dangerous. Wild battles didn't follow the orderly rules of a stadium match. There was no referee, no turn order, no guarantee that the wild Pokémon would wait politely while Nova got ready. If it moved first, it might go for his Pokémon — or it might go straight for him.
So Nova and Corvisquire had worked out two plans to cover the gap.
The first: if Corvisquire could outspeed the opponent, it would open with light, fast moves like Fury Attack to disrupt the enemy and buy time for Nidoking to be released safely.
The second: if the opponent was faster or more dangerous, Corvisquire would pull back and use Protect to absorb the first hit, then let Nidoking take over once he was out.
Nova trusted Corvisquire to read the situation and choose the right approach. He had always treated his Pokémon well. They wouldn't leave him hanging.
...Probably.
Fury Attack was a Normal-type move, which meant it barely registered against a Rock-type like Onix. The Onix felt nothing more than a mild irritation — like being tapped repeatedly on the shoulder. But that wasn't the point. The point was that its attention had been pulled away from Nova.
What the Onix did feel, however, was offended.
It was a Lord of the Tamar Desert. It had claimed this territory, and nothing dared challenge it here. To have a small bird bouncing off its hide like that, in the open desert where anyone could see — that was simply unacceptable. This wasn't just an intrusion anymore. This was disrespect.
The Onix's gaze fixed on Corvisquire, its eyes narrowing. It drew itself up, preparing to knock the bird out of the sky with Smack Down.
But Nidoking was already out.
With a low, rumbling growl, the large Poison-type stepped between the Onix and his partner. He wasn't about to let that hit land.
Nova called the move. "Nidoking — Psychic!"
A wave of psychic energy surged from Nidoking, striking the Onix squarely. The Onix's 160 base Defence was no help against a Special Attack — the impact hit hard, and a faint frost spread across its polished stone hide from the force of the blow.
The desert heat blunted some of the move's power; on a colder mountain, a single Psychic at that level might have ended the fight outright. Even so, the damage was severe. Nova watched the Onix's aggressive glare shift into something more cautious.
Wild Pokémon didn't fight the way stadium battlers did. In a regulated match, a Pokémon that took heavy damage could be healed at a Pokémon Center within the hour. Out in the wild, there was no such safety net. A bad injury out here stayed with you. Wild Pokémon knew this instinctively, and when a fight started going wrong, most of them chose to cut their losses.
The Onix had clearly taken enough to give it pause. Nova could see it wavering — it wanted to retreat, but something in it refused to simply turn and flee. That would be a different kind of loss.
So it went for one final move.
The colossal Onix slammed its head into the ground. The earth shook. And then, in a shower of dry sand and crumbling rock, the entire creature bored downward into a freshly carved tunnel and vanished.
Dig.
The ground fell still.
Nova's expression didn't change. If the Onix had just fled underground and kept going, it would have gotten away clean. But a Pokémon that used Dig in battle wasn't retreating — it was setting up a strike from below. That was a completely different situation, and it had just charged straight into Nidoking's territory.
Nova gave a quick hand signal to Corvisquire, who swooped down and gripped him by the shoulders, beating its wings hard to lift him a few metres into the air. Corvisquire wasn't built for long flights with a passenger, but it could manage a short hover — just enough to clear the ground by several metres and put Nova safely out of reach of anything coming up from below.
Nova raised his arm and pointed down.
"Arno — use that move!"