Nidoking kept using Surf and Psybeam to block every path Rhydon tried to take. Repeating these two moves let it achieve two goals at once.
First, the Surf water froze into a sheet of ice across the battlefield, cutting down Rhydon's mobility even further. Second, this forced Rhydon into a predictable pattern of movement. Once that habit was set, Nidoking could seize the moment Rhydon paused to defend itself, and strike with its true specialty: Toxic.
Nidoking's Toxic was nothing to laugh at anymore. After Nova had been feeding it the poison glands of various Poison-type Pokémon, Nidoking had built up even more toxin inside its body. With Toxic in its arsenal, Nidoking was confident it could bring down almost any opponent, except Poison-types, who were naturally immune to being poisoned, and Steel-types, who could not be poisoned at all.
After barely a second of contact, Rhydon's face had already turned a sickly shade of purple.
That alone should have ended things. Rhydon's body was protected by a shell of hard rock armor, which was the only reason it had resisted the Poison-type attack at all. Any Pokémon without such thick natural armor might not have stayed on its feet after taking a hit like that.
With poison this strong already spreading through its body, the match should have been decided.
But Rhydon had no intention of backing down. It planted its feet and took another heavy step toward Nidoking.
Still not giving up, huh?
Nidoking wasn't about to hold back either. The poison spines tucked between the plates of its hide rose up one after another, and then Nidoking launched them all at once with Poison Sting.
Rhydon raised its arms to shield its head and face. The needles themselves were not especially powerful. Against soft human skin they would have drawn blood easily, but Rhydon's thick stone armor was another matter entirely.
Only a handful of needles found the softer skin at Rhydon's joints. Nearly all the rest simply bounced off its rocky hide with a series of dull clinks.
Nova shook his head as he watched. If he had been the one giving orders, he never would have wasted a turn on something like Poison Sting. He would have called for Surf again, to keep pushing the opponent back and buy more distance.
But this was a real Pokémon battle, one that Rhydon itself had requested, so Nova stayed silent and let Nidoking fight its own way.
He could tell Nidoking was starting to get carried away.
That Poison Sting had been mostly for show, a way of proving to Nova that it wasn't slacking off, just making an odd choice of move.
I didn't let it get close on purpose. That was a completely honest mistake!
Nova understood Nidoking's nature well enough by now. With a body strong enough to tear apart a truck, Nidoking was a genuine powerhouse. Even so, Nova always kept it fighting at range, building strategies around keeping the enemy as far away as possible.
Deep down, Nidoking wanted nothing more than to trade blows up close, the way a Growlithe might.
This was especially true in the earlier battle against this same Rhydon. Even though Rhydon hadn't looked like much of a threat to Nidoking, Nova had held it back from close combat again and again, even scolding it sharply at one point.
From Nova's perspective, Rhydon's base Attack stat of 130 and Defense of 120 both easily outclassed Nidoking's own numbers. Meanwhile, Rhydon's Special Attack and Special Defense sat at a mere 45 each. Refusing to use special attacks against a Pokémon with such an obvious weakness would have been foolish.
But for Nidoking, there was no thrill in exploiting an opponent's soft spot. It wanted to beat its rivals at their strongest, since only then would victory truly mean something.
In an official League match, Nidoking would never dream of disobeying Nova's orders. But in a battle against a wild Pokémon, so long as it still secured the win, Nova wasn't likely to be truly upset if Nidoking let its instincts take over for a moment.
At last, with Nidoking finally allowing itself some restraint, the two giants clashed at close range.
Both sides opened with Horn Drill as a rough greeting.
As the two horns met, Nidoking finally understood exactly why Nova had forbidden it from fighting up close. This opponent's raw strength was genuinely frightening.
After the Horn Drill clash, Rhydon, smaller than Nidoking though it was, did not retreat. Instead it pressed forward, driving straight at Nidoking's chest with a follow-up Drill Run, as though trying to run it clean through.
Even so, for all its size, Nidoking was far from slow, and Nova's training had made its movements sharp and adaptable.
Nidoking's step backward after the Horn Drill clash wasn't a retreat born of fear. It was simply making space to set up its next move properly.
Turning smoothly, Nidoking charged its heavy tail with Steel-type energy. The resulting Iron Tail swept in like a metal whip, slipping past Rhydon's Drill Run and slamming directly into its jaw.
The blow landed with tremendous force, and since Iron Tail is super effective against Rock-type Pokémon, it sent Rhydon spinning in place like a top.
Rhydon's Drill Run lost all direction. With its head knocked sideways, Rhydon plowed straight into the ground instead of its intended target.
This fight is finished!
Seeing its chance the moment Rhydon lost its balance, Nidoking immediately unleashed Superpower, a devastating Fighting-type move.
Accepting the temporary drop to its own Attack and Defense that came with the move, Nidoking drove a powerful punch straight into Rhydon's body.
The impact roared like the ground itself splitting open, and the sandy battlefield was carved into a massive crater from the force of the blow.
Breathing hard, Nidoking stepped out of the settling dust and sand. In one hand, it dragged the unconscious Rhydon by the head, pulling its body clear of the battlefield.
Even Nova was startled by how fierce Nidoking had become.
"Whoa, buddy, this is supposed to be a capture battle! Don't actually kill it!"
Nova rushed over at once, grabbing several supplies as he went to check on Rhydon's condition.
Fortunately, even though Rhydon was badly hurt and the Toxic poison was still active in its system, it was still breathing.
Its condition looked rough, with the rock armor along the left side of its body shattered from Nidoking's punch, but it was alive, and that was what mattered.
Nova quickly pulled a Max Revive from his bag and gave it to Rhydon, along with a strong Antidote to clear the poison.
Whatever anyone might say, items like these truly represented the best of human technology.
Barely thirty seconds after receiving the Max Revive, Rhydon began to stir back to consciousness.
Knowing it had been thoroughly outmatched, Rhydon offered no further resistance, and Nova caught it with an Ultra Ball.
As for the rest of Rhydon's herd, aside from a handful of male Rhyhorn who chose to remain in the wild in hopes of evolving and starting herds of their own someday, Nova caught every last one of them in Poké Balls.
Between the thirty-two Rhyhorn and the one Rhydon, Nova now had more than enough Pokémon to form a full Rhyhorn transport team.