CH159 (773), The Hell Is This?

I suddenly had to pull an emergency brake not far from the suspected ruin, not because Seb/Nidoking messed with my sand(board) control, but because a sand mound suddenly appeared in front of me. At least that was my first thought as I stopped in place to avoid surfing into it, but after taking a proper look at the sand pile, I noted that it was more than just a sand pile, it was a freaking Pokemon. I had honestly not expected to see a Sandygast in the Hoenn Desert, especially one that looked different from the ones I remembered.

Well, the difference was in some ways minor but it could also be seen as major. Either way, the Sandygast in front of me had no shovel stuck in its head. Instead, I saw something that looked like a handle stick out from its head, and I assumed it was from either a dagger or a broken sword since I did not see any metal glinting in the hole that counted as Sandygast's mouth, though given how strange ghosts could be, the blade of the sword might simply be inside a strange space that existed inside Sandygast's body instead.

Regardless of which one it was, it was a fact that this accessory made this Sandygast distinct from the known ones, but considering where we were that might not be unbelievable if one took into account how Sandygast were said to come into existence. The Hoenn Desert was no beach after all, but it was still a sandy environment where plenty of Pokemon had been defeated and/or killed. Given the proximity of our current location to the suspected ruin, and the fact that Sandygast had a sword or dagger stuck in its head, it was likely that the ruin was in fact a proper one, or at least was the abode of a blade wielder at some point.

It was also possible that this was just a regular Sandygast that had been released to the Hoenn Desert or had found its way here through some other manner and ended up losing its shovel forcing it to replace it with something else until it managed to find it. I remembered that Sandygast had been observed doing something like that before, but I honestly preferred the idea that it was the difference in spawning location that caused the divergence in accessory, though that made me curious if it was merely a visual difference or if it had any other impact on Sandygast.

Another question that sprung up was if this Sandygast was the only one in this area or even the desert or if there were more. If the latter was the case, then the idea that they spawned here as Hoenn Desert natives was much more likely, but if it was the former, then Sandygast might simply have been forced by circumstances to replace its shovel. Anyway, I decided to stop thinking about the possibilities and directly check Sandygast instead. To that end, I used my psychic energy/powers to immobilize it so that it could not run/phase away since I could feel the nervousness it felt after gaining our attention. After I had it trapped, I went ahead and observed its status sheet.

'Species: Sandygast

Gender: Male

Type: Ghost, Ground

Potential: Green

Stage: Bronze-stage (Low)

Modifiers: Desert-variant

Abilities: Storm Drain, Sand Veil

Talents: None

Affinities: Ghost, Ground'

The modifier section revealed that it was indeed a desert variant as I had suspected or rather hoped for, and looking at his abilities I saw what I deemed as proof that the difference between the regular Sandygast and the desert version was not only visual. Thanks to his green potential, Sandygast possessed two abilities, and while the Sand Veil was the same for both versions, the desert Sandygast apparently had Storm Drain instead of the Water Compaction that the regular Sandygast had. Personally, I thought that Storm Drain was a better fit for Sandygast since it not only granted him immunity to water (energy) but also raised his energy capacity.

Compared to that, Water Compaction "only" doubled its possessor's endurance each time a water move hits, and while that was a pretty great ability, it lagged a bit compared to Storm Drain, at least in my opinion. Anyway aside from that ability distinction, there were no further differences I could find, and I even checked his racial values, which proved to be the same as that of the standard Sandygast. Still, I was already happy with what I had found, and considering Sandygast's decent potential as well as his potential use in exploring what I deemed a real ruin site, I went ahead and captured him.

I directly released him again and asked him to share what he knew about the ruin site not far from here, which only confused Sandygast at first since he apparently did not know what I meant by ruin. When I explained that I was talking about manmade structures like houses or castles that had been left for nature and time to do as they wanted, Sandygast showed his understanding and replied that I was talking about his home. Through his explanation, I learned that the site was nothing as grand as I had hoped and that it was just a bunch of stone houses that had mostly become wreckages with only the cellars somewhat intact.

I was naturally disappointed by that news, but I still decided to check the place out for myself just in case I misunderstood Sandygast's description. Decision made we headed for the site, and at first glance, I saw a lot of sand, with a bunch of wrecked walls poking out of the sand here and there. Letting my gaze wander a bit, I spotted 16 places where stones were poking out of the sand, with none of them hinting at any grand structure but rather simple houses if not well-made ones considering their walls were made of stone.

Nonetheless, even though the site seemed a bit underwhelming, I still chose to inspect each wreckage to see if I could find something interesting, and I did end up finding something, though it was not what I had been looking for. I got ambushed by a Palossand as soon as I entered the third wreckage, and it was a surprisingly strong one at that. It was Mothra/Butterfree who reacted first and froze Palossand as it tried to submerge me in sand. Unexpectedly, she failed to keep her psychic grip on Palossand; Not because it used dark energy to break out, but because Palossand split into innumerable sand grains, causing Mothra's hold to lose its focus.

The sand grains regathered as a Palossand just a few meters away from its initial position and I took a moment to properly observe the (low) dark gold stage sand castle. Now that it was not hiding I was able to sense an incredible amount of malice. In fact, the malice it was exuding was so strong that I was unable to believe that I had been unable to sense it before. How much training was needed to be able to conceal something like that, and why the hell was Palossand still hanging out at this place instead of living in the inner or core area of the desert?

While I was thinking that I was also checking out Palossand's look, and it looked different from what I expected, even when I expected it to be a desert variant like Sandygast. I thought it would look like a regular Palossand except that the shovel atop its head would be replaced by a blade, but that was not the case here. Instead of the blade I was expecting, there was a pitchfork stuck in there handle first, and if that had been all I might have thought that that was simply the object it formed around as it came into existence as a Sandygast. However, there were some unexpected differences; Some of those made sense, like the fact that the seashells had been replaced by colored glass or maybe those were crystals.

Either way, I thought that change made sense since it was a desert variant, but what did strike me as odd were the multiple extras atop the two sand towers that doubled as Palossand's arms. Unlike a regular Palossand, this one had a few objects sticking out of those towers, kinda like the pitchfork on its head, just a bit smaller. The left tower had a fork, a butterknife, a wooden shield, and a (…) stick, I guess, sticking out; The right tower on the other hand had a knife, a hatchet, and a spear sticking out. At least the assortment on the right side did not feel as random as the left one. Still, that did not change that those objects felt out of place, and I was curious if that was because it was a desert variant, though I had a feeling that that was not the reason for it.

During the second that those thoughts flashed through my mind, Palossand, without any hesitation, started a second attack. A sand wave rose in front of it, while a Sand Tomb simultaneously appeared below my feet, but I dealt with that by simply levitating a few centimeters above the ground, while Seb and Gaia/Nidoqueen solidified the sand beneath their feet. Meanwhile, Mothra froze the sand wave using Ice Beam, before using Shadow Ball to break it apart and send frozen sand at the Palossand along with the Shadow Ball that continued on after breaking the ice wall.

Palossand stretched itself and let the Shadow Ball pass through the opening/mouth in the middle of its body while ignoring the frozen sand that pattered against its body. Mothra lost no time and released another Ice Beam while it did that, and Seb as well as Gaia actually joined in and used Ice beam as well. The duo decided that there was nothing wrong with ganging up on Palosand, and I could not help but look over at them when they did that because I had honestly not expected them to do that. Still, my gaze merely lingered for a moment before it turned back to Palossand, who being the victim of three simultaneous Ice Beams was rapidly freezing solid without being given the chance to escape.

It took just a few seconds for Palosand to turn into an ice castle, and once that happened I finally turned towards Sandygast, who began to rise out of the sand since he was the only one among us that got dragged down by the Sand Tomb Palossand released. Sandygast looked a bit worse for wear, but overall fine. Still, once he was back up, I asked him why he had not told me about Palossand, and Sandygast actually told me that he had not known about Palossand's existence either. He admitted that he had always thought that he used to be alone except for the occasional strong wild Pokemon that passed by without him daring to act against them.

I could sense that he was telling the truth, which made me question why Palossand was hiding away from Sandygast since there was no doubt that Sandygast posed absolutely no danger to it. While pondering on the matter I could not help but think about the many "unusual" objects planted in the two towers of Palossand, and a pretty chilling idea came to my mind. I could not help but step up to the ice castle to touch it while I invoked its status sheet, and what I saw there gave me the chills for a moment since it proved that my idea had actually been true.

'Species: Palossand

Gender: Genderless

Type: Ghost, Ground

Potential: Deep Green

Stage: Dark Gold-stage (Low)

Modifiers: Desert-variant, Amalgam

Abilities: Storm Drain, Sand Veil

Talents: Cannibalize

Affinities: Ghost, Ground'

Palossand had to have devoured Sandygast to reach its current strength, and going by the number of objects planted on its towers, I suspected that he had eaten 7 of them so far. Palossand probably intended to make (my) Sandygast its 8th victim. It had probably been watching Sandygast ever since he formed, waiting for Sandygast to get stronger so that it could devour him and get the best return. The reason it stayed here instead of leaving was probably that this place for some reason consistently spawned Sandygast every few who knows how many years.

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