While I was confused by the odd encounter with the Beldum, we continued anyway. Another day passed slowly, the only mark of time passing being the ever-increasing presence of ore in the tunnel walls. I found another of the triangular marks on the walls that I now realized were probably caused by the Beldum’s three claws latching onto the walls.

One other thing I had noticed as Ladon and I ventured further down the tunnel was that we encountered more and more Bronzor and fewer of any different type of pokémon. Luckily, Ladon’s Bite and dark typing made it relatively easy for him to defeat the Bronzor. Their strongest attacks centered around their psychic attacks, which were useless against him.

It was the day after that when Ladon’s head perked up, catching my attention. Seeing him staring down the tunnel in a mix of curiosity and confusion. Feeling curiosity well up in myself as well, I gestured forward, and we continued. Slowly, the tunnel began to widen. I realized the tunnel was gently curving downwards and left. As we followed the curve, I began to see exactly what had caught Ladon’s attention.

The tunnel widened out into a massive cavern that was only barely lit up with little bits and pieces of glowing crystal. What I could see, though, was the dozens and dozens, almost close to a hundred Bronzor, all floating about within this incredibly ore-rich cavern.

I quickly retreated back up the tunnel, thinking quickly. We could double back and find another path, but whatever path we would need to take would be taking us in some other direction than down, which means that I needed to get through this cavern somehow. Ladon was good; he could probably beat up to five or so Bronzor at once, but not as many as we saw in that cavern.

I swore as I came up with the only plan I could think of. I knelt down in front of Ladon, “Alright, I’m going to return you and then sneak through, alright? Two of us won’t be able to get through, but maybe one can.” Ladon let out a faint whining rumble and butted his head against my chest. I grunted as I stumbled back from the force, my hands rising to gently pet him, “Hey, it’s all good. If something goes wrong, the first thing I’ll do will be release you, okay? Don’t worry. It’ll be okay.”

Ladon whined at me again before dipping his head in acceptance. I smiled at him softly before raising his pokéball and returning him. I made sure the bright red light of the return beam was gone before I flicked off the lantern, and the tunnel fell into darkness.

Letting out a long breath, I slowly walked until I felt the wall with my hand. Using the wall to help guide me, I began to walk as quietly as I could. Slowly, I emerged back into the Bronzor cavern once more. Trying my best to ignore the dozens of Bronzor just within sight, I made sure to gently trace my hand across the cavern wall as I moved.

I made it a third of the way around the cavern when I saw it, just barely visible in the reflected light. The large bell-shaped body with two winged arms to the sides, I saw a Bronzong resting in the center of the cavern.

I felt my heart rate speed up at the sight of the evolved pokémon resting so close by. I was confident in Ladon’s ability to fight off Bronzor, but not a Bronzong. I paused where I was, bringing my breath under control. Eventually, I felt calm enough to keep going.

As focused as I was on being quiet, I barely noticed as one of the Bronzor floated over to a piece of exposed ore and seemingly absorbed it into its body. My thoughts flashed back to the Beldum at the sight, starting to realize why the fight had been happening. The Bronzor used this area to feed off of the ores, and the Beldum was trying to do the same.

CRACK

I froze. The sound of a rock skittering across the ground and scraping across the floor was so impossibly loud in the quiet cavern. Slowly looking back inwards to the cavern, I felt my stomach drop at the sight of a Bronzor looking directly at me.

“Bronzor! Bron! Bronzor!” The pokémon screeched out in alarm, making me curse loudly. I fumbled with Ladon’s pokéball for a moment before managing to release him. I hurriedly flicked on my lantern once more before looking up.

Hovering towards us slowly was the Bronzong, vibrating softly but threateningly. I tried my best to ignore the slowly gathering and watching Bronzor around us as the Bronzong got closer.

“Ladon! This… This is going to be hard; just hang in there! Begin building up Focus Energy!”

Ladon growled at the approaching pokémon as energy began to build up. Seeing this, the Bronzong let out a loud grinding sound before a shadowy ball of energy appeared in front of it. I could barely recognize it as a Shadow Ball before it shot towards Ladon.

“Dodge Ladon! Dragon Breath!” Ladon managed to duck out of the way of the Shadow Ball before rearing back and releasing a torrent of purple flame over the Bronzong. Charred slightly but emerging from the flame, the Bronzong quickly hit Ladon with a Heavy Slam, making Ladon reel back in pain.

“Keep building up energy! Attack with Bite!” Ladon growled and lunged forward, letting the dark energy surge against the Bronzong. It recoiled from the hit before releasing a quick Flash Cannon that knocked Ladon backward, crying out.

“Shit, Tackle to close the distance! Build up as much dark energy as you can into a Bite!” I called out quickly, trying the crazy idea that had just run through my mind. Ladon charged forward, the Bronzong floating along to meet him in a tremendous clash. Before they could separate, I called out again, “Bite now! Use the Focus Energy!”

I watched as the immense amount of dark energy that had built up around Ladon’s fangs was compressed and empowered by the Focus Energy. As Ladon’s attack hit, the Bronzong released a loud shriek that sounded like metal scraping metal.

Another Flash Cannon began forming in front of the Bronzong as it floated back and away from Ladon. “Use Tackle on the Flash Cannon!”

Ladon’s Tackle sapped a good amount of energy from the Flash Cannon, but it still slammed into Ladon hard enough to knock him back. Feeling a grimace across my expression from the brutal hit he’d taken, I thought quickly.

“Dragon Breath, then Bite!” Ladon roared as he released the plume of flame and charged forward, trying to hit the Bronzong. Unfortunately, the Bronzong had dodged the Bite, giving it a good opportunity for another Heavy Slam that made Ladon grunt heavily.

I swore loudly as a bundle of cold energy began to form into what I recognized as a Weather Ball. Apparently, it was still snowing outside, causing the move to be ice-type. This wasn’t good.

“Dodge with Tackle! Then Dragon Breath!” Ladon hurriedly tackled away from the ball of ice energy that barely missed. Another surge of flame lit up the cavern once more. Ladon let out a pained cry as another Weather Ball splashed across his chest after being fired through the Dragon Breath.

“Get close! Use Bite, and don’t let up!” I hoped that if Ladon got too close, he’d be able to prevent the Bronzong from using those Weather Balls. The only reason Ladon and I were able to fight this pokémon was because of the advantage Ladon’s dark-type gave him.

Ladon surged forward and into the Bronzong, interrupting another Weather Ball. His Bite landed heavily, stronger than usual. The Bronzong recoiled heavily, but Ladon simply followed, slamming another Bite into it. Once more, Ladon charged it, and his attack was different this time. The dark energy flooded forward like a tidal wave, washing over the Bronzong and making it screech louder than ever before.

Ripping my pokédex from my pocket, I went straight to Ladon’s screen and grinned as I saw the move Crunch now listed. “Awesome job Ladon! Build Focus Energy and use Dragon Breath to buy time!”

Ladon roared once more, wisps of red energy starting to gather around him as he released a long wave of purple flame, forcing the Bronzong to dodge. Ladon kept breathing fire as often as he could, trying to just keep the Bronzong from firing too many attacks.

Slowly, the shimmers of red energy gathered around Ladon, showing the built-up energy. “Crunch! Release it all!” Ladon surged forward and bit down hard, the Focus Energy causing Crunch to brutalize the Bronzong. As Ladon jumped back from the attack, breathing heavily and hurt more than ever before, I watched the Bronzong hover unstably in midair.

Finally, and slowly, the Bronzong began to sink to the ground, and its eyes closed. I watched silently, not quite believing that we had actually won. Ladon looked back at me, his eyes drooping tiredly.

“Good job Ladon, you were amazing,” I spoke softly, becoming aware of the many Bronzor around us. Walking slowly over to him, I quickly retrieved one of the potions from my bag and began to treat some of the worse of his injuries. As I did, I whispered to him, “Look strong, Ladon, if the Bronzor think we’re weakened, then they might attack. We’ll leave soon, okay? You did amazing, buddy.” Ladon let out a low huff before bobbing his head.

Standing up from where I was kneeling to apply the potion, I glanced around at all of the Bronzor around us, fighting to keep any nervousness away from my expression. Before I could speak, though, I heard an artificial-sounding high-pitched noise. Looking in its direction in surprise, I felt my eyes widen as I saw the Beldum quickly floating into the room.

It moved to hover over the fainted Bronzong before floating around it in circles. After a minute, it moved up to look at Ladon and me. It let out another artificial noise; this time, it was inquisitive. Ladon seemed to understand it, responding with a few low cries of his own.

The Beldum looked between Ladon and the Bronzong for a long few moments before slowly floating over towards us. I glanced at Ladon for a second before deciding to stay calm since he wasn’t reacting aggressively. The Beldum moved so it could hover at the same level as me, looking at me for a quiet minute before ever so gently floating forward and bumping its steel head against my chest.

I glanced back at Ladon, confused. “I uh… Me?” I asked while pointing to myself, trying to interpret what it was communicating. The Beldum indicated Ladon and then myself, before finally Ladon’s pokéball.

“Wait! Do you want to come with me?” I asked, surprised at what the Beldum seemed to be indicating. It bobbed up and down in the air for a few moments before appearing to wait for me.

“Um, alright… I uh, one second,” I spoke slowly, wrapping my head around this. I had genuinely not even considered trying to catch a second pokémon. I had been so focused on simply escaping Mt. Coronet. But if I was right and the Bronzor were keeping the Beldum from ‘eating’ the ores, then I could see why it might want to come with us after Ladon and I not only rescued it once but also beat the Bronzong in charge.

I took out the premiere ball and held it out towards the Beldum, “If you want to come with, then just tap it.” It spun in place for a moment before gently tapping the ball, capturing itself. “I don’t even know how to react to this….” I muttered to myself, earning an amused huff from Ladon beside me. After waiting a minute to ensure the pokéball’s data was transferred to my pokédex, I released the Beldum once more. It spun curiously as soon as it emerged before floating around Ladon and me idly.

“Okay then,” I muttered. Watching the pokémon around us carefully, Ladon and I began to search around the cavern to find the exit from the cavern. As we searched, I smirked as I watched the Beldum follow us and absorb a bunch of ores along the way. Apparently, it was taking advantage of it now being with the ones who beat the Bronzong.

We walked a short way down the tunnel after gathering up a number of ores into the backpack to make sure the Beldum could absorb them as we traveled since it seemed to be its version of food.

As we settled down for camp, the Beldum watched everything curiously. Once everything was finished, I softly called it over towards me. “I’m going to scan you with this,” I showed it the pokédex, “It’ll tell me some about you as well as letting me know what ability and moves you know. Okay?”

I smiled as the Beldum bobbed in agreement. Not wasting time, I quickly activated the scan.

Beldum, the Iron Ball Pokémon. Beldum float by emitting magnetic waves from its body. Beldum often are found in caves eating ores and metals, using them to strengthen their bodies in preparation for evolution. Beldum use their latent psychic abilities to simulate noises that it uses to communicate.

This Beldum has the ability, Levitate. Its moves are: Tackle, Iron Defense, and Telekinesis

Reading over the information, I nod slowly. “Well, I’m glad I grabbed those ores then, huh?” It spun in place slowly, almost seeming amused. “How about a name?”

It shot up in the air suddenly before bobbing up and down quickly. I chuckled, “Alright, alright, sounds good. Hmmm… How about Adamant?” Adamant let out a pleased sounding trill that surprised me but still caused me to smile.

“Good to have you on the team, Adamant.”