At this moment, as an ordinary Team Magma grunt possessing only two weak Pokémon—Geodude and Taillow—Sato naturally chose to walk at the very back of the group. As for the contemptuous looks from those "companions" who were eager to show off in front of their superior, he couldn't have cared less.
After several Team Magma Pokémon used Flash, the pitch-black cave suddenly became illuminated, and Sato's group cautiously advanced deeper inside.
From the fresh scrape marks on the cave walls and floor, Sato could tell that this enormous cavern was clearly not naturally formed. It had been forcibly carved out by a gigantic Pokémon that moved by crawling.
"Judging from these traces, there's a ninety percent chance this cave was made by an Onix. But all these marks seem to have been left by the same Pokémon. If that's true, just how huge is this Onix?"
Looking at the marks around him and estimating the width of the tunnel, Sato's heart sank. A very bad feeling began to creep into his mind.
The sounds of battle were still echoing through the cave, though only intermittently. Every now and then, a bloodcurdling scream would ring out, making the team led by a single Team Magma Elite increasingly uneasy.
Before long, Sato and the others encountered Team Magma members fleeing in panic from deeper within the cave.
When those people spotted Sato's group, joy first appeared on their faces, only to be replaced by terror moments later.
Several of them didn't even bother greeting Sato's team. They simply continued sprinting toward the cave entrance as though scared out of their wits.
"Run! Run for your lives! There's a monster in there!"
One Team Magma Elite, his hair standing straight up, at least had enough concern for his comrades to issue a warning the moment he saw them.
Hearing this, Sato and the others immediately understood that they had stepped into a dragon's den and a tiger's lair. With living proof already demonstrating the danger and retreating, they quickly followed suit and joined the escape.
However, they had only been running for a short while when heavy tremors began sounding from behind them, growing stronger with every passing second.
Some clueless Team Magma members glanced backward.
The moment they did, the color drained from their faces, and they nearly doubled their running speed.
"So it's not an Onix—it's a Steelix! But that size is completely ridiculous!"
Using his psychic senses, Sato finally got a clear look at the monster chasing them.
It was a Steelix. An unimaginably enormous Steelix.
Its gigantic head almost completely filled the cave tunnel.
Compared to the massive head currently revealed, Sato and the others looked like infants standing before an adult.
No wonder the previous Team Magma squads had been so terrified.
Encountering such a colossal monster in terrain like this was practically a death sentence.
At once, everyone wished they had grown a few extra legs.
Despite its enormous body, the Steelix moved through the cave with astonishing speed—actually a bit faster than the fleeing Team Magma members.
As the Steelix rapidly closed the distance while the cave entrance remained frustratingly far away, despair began to rise in everyone's hearts.
"NineTales, use Flamethrower!"
Just as Sato was preparing to escape using Teleport, Courtney suddenly appeared riding atop a NineTales.
After rushing past Sato and the others, she immediately issued an order.
The next second, NineTales unleashed a massive pillar of deep-blue flames.
Steelix naturally feared fire.
The moment NineTales appeared aggressively before it, Steelix sensed danger and instinctively slowed its pursuit.
As Flamethrower was about to strike its head, Steelix immediately lowered its head and burrowed downward, avoiding a direct hit to its skull.
However, the pale-blue flames still struck its steel body solidly.
One section of metal behind its head instantly glowed red-hot. The pain caused Steelix's entire body to convulse violently.
In an instant, the cave shook as if an earthquake had struck.
Countless rocks began raining down from above.
"NineTales, let's go!"
Seeing this, Courtney dared not linger and immediately ordered NineTales to retreat.
It was obvious that Courtney had specially trained NineTales' nine tails.
Even in such a crisis, NineTales simultaneously used Iron Tail with all nine tails, smashing apart every falling rock overhead.
In the end, Courtney actually escaped the cave ahead of everyone else.
Because of the falling debris, some unfortunate Team Magma members never made it out.
They were struck by falling rocks and buried beneath the collapse.
Sato's own luck wasn't particularly good either.
Just as he was about to reach the cave entrance, a huge boulder happened to fall directly toward him.
Fortunately, his psychic senses detected it in time.
He immediately had Geodude use Mega Punch, shattering the rock and allowing him to narrowly escape.
Nearly fifty Team Magma members had entered the cave.
In the end, fewer than half emerged.
The casualties were horrifying.
Courtney's face had become as dark as the bottom of a pot.
However, before she could order a rescue operation for any survivors still inside the cave, the NineTales beneath her suddenly sensed abnormal vibrations from the ground and immediately warned her.
"Not good! Everyone scatter! It's coming after us!"
Seeing NineTales pointing at the ground with its tails, Courtney instantly understood what it meant and hurriedly warned the surrounding Team Magma members.
Unfortunately, the warning came too late.
The moment the words left her mouth, violent tremors erupted beneath their feet.
Steelix's gigantic head burst out of the ground directly beneath the assembled Team Magma forces.
In an instant, Team Magma members and their Pokémon were sent flying in all directions before crashing heavily onto the ground.
As Steelix's primary target, Courtney reacted quickly and ordered NineTales to dodge.
Even so, she and NineTales were still grazed by Steelix's massive head and violently blasted away.
The Steelix clearly had a terrible temper.
After suffering such a painful attack from Courtney's NineTales inside the cave, there was no way it would simply swallow its anger.
The moment it emerged, it immediately gave Courtney a brutal warning.
"This Steelix is absurdly huge. I never imagined a Steelix of this size could exist in a place like this. Team Magma has really gotten themselves into trouble this time."
Sato had quietly retreated to the side long ago.
Now, staring at the gigantic Steelix that had burst from the earth, his heart was once again filled with shock.
At the same time, he couldn't help feeling a little amused as he watched Courtney, who was now being stared down relentlessly by the enraged Steelix.