Pokémon Court

Chapter 850: Anorith Fossil

Before entering the pitch-black cave, Terrance voiced his doubts.

It was far too quiet along the way.

Hearing this, Rotom Pokédex shook its head.

Terrance didn’t think too much about it and took out Pupitar’s Poké Ball.

“Pupitar, you come out too.”

Arriving at the first dark cave, Terrance called out Pupitar.

If nothing unexpected had happened, this was where it had turned into a fossil in the Mirage Ruins.

Perhaps it could sense something.

After coming out of the Poké Ball, Pupitar first looked around to the left and right, then revealed a bewildered expression and took the initiative to enter the cave.

“Did you notice anything?” Terrance followed and asked.The next moment, Pupitar bared its teeth, bit off a chunk of rubble with a crunch, and started chewing it.

But as it chewed, Pupitar’s expression suddenly changed. It quickly spat the stone out, spraying fragments everywhere like a “pebble machine gun”…

Turning its head back with a bitter look, Pupitar shook its head and sighed.

“All right… and don’t randomly eat rocks. Rotom Pokédex has already analyzed the composition of this ruin, it’s a type of ore with extremely low nutritional value.”

Terrance said helplessly. For the Pupitar accustomed to feasting on “the finest mountain delicacies,” spitting it out already counted as a relatively good outcome.

With the experience from the first dark cave, Terrance, along with Castform and Pupitar, entered the second dark cave.

The environment here was much the same as the previous one, with nothing particularly unusual, which made Terrance puzzled.

Just like before, after taking a look around and finding nothing noteworthy, Terrance shook his head and prepared to leave. But at that moment, another crunching sound rang out. Pupitar had bitten into the wall again.

“Uh…”

Seeing Pupitar’s action, Terrance froze for a moment. After a while, Pupitar once again spat it out with a look of disgust.

“Pup~itar!” Pupitar said, this time with a serious expression.

“You’re saying that you don’t actually want to eat it, but you sensed some strange fluctuations from these rocks, so you couldn’t help taking a bite, Roto?” Rotom Pokédex translated and asked in return.

“Pup~itar!” Pupitar nodded.

“Strange fluctuations?” Terrance walked closer to the wall, activated his meditation method, and let psychic power gather around his eyes as he looked at the wall.

“Nothing there.”

After confirming that he wasn’t seeing things, Terrance blinked. They were clearly just ordinary rocks… so what were these strange fluctuations that Pupitar sensed?

One possibility was that Pupitar was mistaken; another was that the fluctuations really did exist, but only the Pupitar that had turned into a fossil here could perceive them. Terrance decided to investigate further, so he directly called out Ninetales and had it probe the stone wall with stronger psychic power.

But… there were still no results.

“Forget it, let’s check the other caves first.” After thinking for a moment, Terrance recalled Ninetales.

Next, Terrance entered the other caves one by one. Pupitar repeated the same action, taking a bite in each cave, then spitting it back onto the wall. Watching this made Terrance break out in a cold sweat. Even if they couldn’t sense anything, this little guy’s actions were far too exaggerated.

Pupitar didn’t care about that at all. It seemed completely immersed, its eyes gleaming with a light of wisdom as it stared intently at the wall, yet still failed to discover anything.

“Pup~itar!” Pupitar grumbled in frustration.

No longer paying attention to the little guy, Terrance was drawn by Rotom Pokédex’s voice and quickly ran over.

“It has appeared!! A fossil, Roto.”

Rotom Pokédex hovered in a corner, trying to pick up the fossil with its hands, but it simply wasn’t capable of doing so. It wasn’t until Terrance walked over that the fossil was finally picked up from the ground.

“Much lighter than Larvitar’s fossil… and judging by this shape, could it be Anorith?”

Weighing the flat, elongated fossil in his hand, Terrance voiced his guess. The fossil’s form was clearly based on a marine arthropod, and from the traces on it, it was extremely ancient, at least far older than Larvitar’s fossil.

“Anorith… scanning… scanning… 97% match. Confirmed as an Anorith fossil.” Rotom Pokédex spun around as it reported.

“Nice. A 97% similarity scan means it should be revivable,” Terrance said with a smile. “With this, the trip to Mirage Ruins wasn’t wasted. What puzzles me, though, is why, in all the desert ruins, fossils can only be found here, and there even seem to be quite a few of them…”

“Pup~itar!” At that moment, Pupitar leaped up, seemingly trying to take a bite of the Anorith fossil, but was immediately slapped back down by Castform.

“Castformmm~~ Castformmm~~~”

“Behave yourself. Castform’s right, this one can’t be eaten hastily either,” Terrance said. “Come on, there are still two caves left. Let’s go gnaw on some walls over there. If we’re lucky, we might find another fossil…”

Having obtained a fossil, Terrance was in a good mood. Anorith was a Bug-type Pokémon and could also use Water-type moves… If it could be revived, it would be worth raising at Fallarbor Gym as part of the gym’s foundation.

With that sense of anticipation, Terrance, Pupitar, and Castform entered the last two caves in the area. As usual, Pupitar took a bite of the wall in each cave and only then seemed satisfied. Although it eventually spat everything out with a look of disgust, it appeared to have a strange fixation on the walls here, leaving Terrance utterly baffled.

Still, he couldn’t sense anything unusual either. After all, Castform spraying the walls with Water Gun or scorching them with flames produced no reaction at all, leaving Terrance at a complete loss.

“Let’s come back and investigate again after Gardevoir and Mismagius rejoin us. With their skills, they might be able to detect something…”

After calling out to Pupitar, which was still staring blankly at the wall, Terrance prepared to leave. Unfortunately, no fossils were found in the last two caves, so this area no longer held much value.

Just as Terrance led the reluctant Pupitar back to the previous corridor, he suddenly remembered that the entrance to the passage had been sealed earlier.

“Forget it, let’s have Gallade take us to another part of the ruins,” Terrance said, taking out Gallade’s Poké Ball and preparing to have it use Teleport to bring them to the underground level of the ruins.

Larvitar’s fossil had been obtained in the underground level, and alongside it were two other fossils. Terrance figured there were likely plenty of treasures down there. It never hurt to take a look, but he couldn’t find the way himself and could only rely on Gallade.

“Gall~ade!!” After Gallade emerged, Terrance recalled Pupitar and Castform, then climbed onto Gallade together with Rotom Pokédex.

As the glow of psychic power enveloped Terrance and the others, Gallade activated Teleport and advanced toward the underground level of Mirage Ruins.

But at the same time, unseen by anyone, strange symbols began to surface on the cave walls that Terrance and Pupitar had just explored, appearing around the spots where Pupitar had bitten into the stone.

Dense clusters of symbols covered entire walls. Each one had a different shape, clinging tightly to the stone, looking utterly eerie…

At the very moment Gallade used Teleport, these symbols suddenly opened glowing eyes, releasing a startling wave of psychic energy. If Terrance had been there, he would have been shocked to discover that the shapes of these symbols were largely similar to the twenty-six letters of the alphabet…

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