122: Chapter 122 Cold Fire Extinguishes Steel, Black Mountain Traverses Harbor

Olivine City only truly saw the enemy clearly after the Black Bridge approached the outer port.

That rock ridge rising from the direction of the Whirl Islands, like a black blade plunged into the sea, cut the waters outside the port into two white waves.

The defensive fire network that Olivine City had originally relied on—built around shipping lanes, tides, and reefs—was torn open by this land bridge, creating a direct path to the shore.

the abyss fleet did not need to ram the port.

Their heavy combat units could walk directly onto the shore via the Black Bridge.

The port's red alert blared piercingly.

The coastal batteries all turned to face forward, steel gates dropped layer by layer, and magnetized steel nets rose between the high-rises of the storage area.

The civilian districts were forcibly evacuated, and women, children, and the elderly were ushered into underground passages by the militia.

Jasmine's reaction was swift, and her coordination was steady.

She had only one weakness left.

The army that arrived today did not play by the rules of port warfare.

Jasmine stood beneath the lighthouse, her palm pressed against Steelix's cold head plating, her eyes fixed on the end of the Black Bridge.

The first wave of the abyss vanguard pressed forward.

At the very front were Golem and Mudsdale clad in heavy armor, treading on the rock bridge to pave a front for the assault.

A swarm of low-flying black bees flew along the flanks, specifically targeting artillery positions, tripwires, and sea mines.

Further back, a Skeletal Aerodactyl circled in the gray mist, its bone wings cutting through the sea breeze.

Moltres hovered above the fleet, its pale cold fire flickering.

Tyranitar stood in the center of the Black Bridge, like an entire moving black mountain.

Jasmine stood her ground.

"Port main batteries, test fire."

Two heavy coastal guns fired simultaneously.

Alloy armor-piercing shells skimmed across the sea surface, trailing scorching exhaust as they hurtled toward the middle section of the Black Bridge.

An ordinary armored vehicle would be blown into scrap metal on the spot if hit by one.

the abyss pressed forward against the artillery fire.

Lynn stood at the bow of the ship, merely lifting his chin.

The Skeletal Aerodactyl dove down.

It did not fly like a bird, but rather like a bone spear thrown into the sky.

The first shell was deflected by its bone wings, slamming into the outer sea and sending up high waves.

Just as the second was about to penetrate the Black Bridge, the Aerodactyl had already turned and opened its maw, its teeth biting down hard on the shell casing.

Boom!

The shell exploded in mid-air.

Firelight and metal fragments sprayed from between its bone wings, illuminating the entire skeleton with a ghastly glow.

It used the blast to ascend again, slicing horizontally across the magnetized steel net above Olivine Port.

A straight tear opened in the center of the steel net.

Jasmine's eyes darkened.

"Groups two and three, adjust angles."

"Steelix, push forward."

Steelix charged out along the main thoroughfare, its steel body striking sparks against the concrete ground.

It bypassed the Aerodactyl, directly seizing the entrance to the port area.

As long as it held this position, the abyss vanguard would find it difficult to charge into the city along the Black Bridge.

But just as it moved into position, the sky suddenly dimmed.

Pale cold fire rained down from above.

Moltres swept toward the outer side of the lighthouse, casting a sheet of cold white flames onto the steel support beams.

The fire did not look intense, yet upon touching the steel, the entire section of the support beam rapidly lost its luster.

The metal turned gray first, then softened, and subsequently collapsed section by section, like wax losing its support.

The port workers watched with pale faces.

Jasmine understood even better what this meant.

The enemy had turned the fact that Fire-types counter Steel-types into a public execution.

Lynn was using a modified Legendary Bird to tell Olivine City in public: the steel they took such pride in would also soften into mud under his fire.

"Ampharos, lighthouse boost!"

Jasmine's voice turned cold.

At the top of the Olivine Lighthouse, Ampharos lifted its head, its tail orb and the tower's top conduction ring lighting up simultaneously.

Stored electricity poured into Steelix's body along the steel rails and ground conduction piles.

Steelix began to glow section by section, and a blinding white light shimmered across the surface of its steel armor.

Jasmine chose to attack head-on.

"Steelix, Heavy Slam!"

This strike carried the weight of the entire steel behemoth, charging straight at the bone hunter in the sky.

Steelix, like a burning armored train, caused the steel rails of the entire port to vibrate as it collided head-on with the Skeletal Aerodactyl that had just sliced through the steel net.

Steel and bone collided in mid-air.

The deafening roar made the ground of the port tremble.

The Aerodactyl was sent tumbling away, shards breaking off the edge of its bone wings as it spiraled toward the outer sea.

The Olivine defenders were about to cheer, but Jasmine still pressed her lips together tightly.

She saw the Tyranitar in the center of the Black Bridge move.

It walked forward step by step.

With every step, the crushed rock on the Black Bridge was compressed another layer.

Seawater exploded from beside its feet, only to be forced back to both sides by its sheer weight.

The old scars on its obsidian carapace turned white in the morning light; those scars came from Victory Road, the Sea God battle, and the Articuno battlefield, making it look all the more like a monster that had walked over corpses the entire way.

Lynn's voice swept across the sea surface via long-range amplification.

"Extinguish the lights of this city."

As the order fell, a swarm of Gastly scattered from behind the vanguard.

They looked unremarkable—low-level, light, and scattered in number, like clusters of black mist drifting with the wind.

The Olivine defenders' attention was captured by Tyranitar and Moltres, causing them to miss the first second of the Gastly swarm climbing the tower.

By the time the black mist climbed the lighthouse, it was already too late.

The Gastly swarm drilled upward along the central axis of the lighthouse.

They slid along the conduction lines, power rings, and maintenance gaps, like damp mildew burrowing into a wall.

By the time Ampharos sensed the anomaly, the mist had already entangled its limbs and neck.

The black mist did only one thing: cut off.

The lighthouse orb shook violently, and the port's illumination went out one by one.

The coastal artillery's vision darkened, the searchlights lost their direction, and the crying of children in the evacuation passages suddenly grew louder.

Olivine City's sense of security was snatched away by Lynn in one fell swoop.

Jasmine gritted her teeth.

"Backup circuits!"

"Make Ampharos hold on!"

"All coastal restraint piles, lock Tyranitar's legs!"

A dozen heavy restraint piles sprang up simultaneously, and black chains dragging electric arcs lunged at Tyranitar's lower body.

Just as they coiled the first loop, a skeletal shadow returned from the sky above the outer sea.

The Skeletal Aerodactyl had returned.

Bearing broken bone fragments and scorch marks from artillery fire, it swept past behind Steelix.

The edge of its bone wings scraped fiercely against the steel armor, pulling out a string of sparks.

The damage was not fatal, but it forced Steelix's second charge off-angle.

Tyranitar seized this moment.

The King of Monsters let out a low roar, clamped its hands onto the steel armor at the front of Steelix's head, the rock bridge beneath its feet shattered, and its entire body pushed it forward toward the port's main defensive line.

Steelix whipped its tail back in a counter-strike, knocking Tyranitar's shoulder armor askew.

Tyranitar cut in sideways, wedged its shoulder against half of the steel body, and exerted force forward once again.

Crack—

The steel bridge split first.

The heavy pier at the very forefront of Olivine Port was ripped into two by the wrestling of the two monsters.

Seawater, broken steel, and concrete churned up together, knocking down a row of soldiers on the shore.

Jasmine finally saw with her own eyes the first heavy combat unit of the abyss step onto Olivine Port.

Tyranitar stood amidst the broken steel and waves, lifted its head, and spewed a blast of black-purple breath at Steelix.

The steel armor was blasted into a dent, with electric sparks flying wildly.

Steelix still held on.

It used its remaining strength to coil around half of Tyranitar's body, buying time for the artillery crews behind.

Two gunners braved the falling rocks to rush to the manual artillery position; one had his thigh cut open by broken steel, yet he still gritted his teeth and pushed the firing pin to the end.

"Fire!"

The close-range artillery blast struck Tyranitar's back.

A web of cracks was blasted into its obsidian carapace.

Tyranitar staggered, then backhanded a half-section of steel rail, smashing it along with the artillery housing back into the coastal battery area.

After the roar, the artillery position went silent.

Looking at the half-extinguished lighthouse, the melted support beams, the split pier, and the black behemoth that had already stepped ashore, Jasmine finally understood Lynn's tactics.

He was in no rush to slaughter the city.

He first smashed the lights, then melted the steel, and finally let the monster tread into the port.

He wanted Olivine City to see with its own eyes that every layer of the old city defense could be dismantled.

On the other side of the port area, Jasmine's adjutant led the reserve team rushing toward the backup lighthouse.

They hooked Magneton onto the conduction rack, attempting to relight the half-extinguished city defense lights.

The Gastly swarm immediately split off a wisp of black mist to pounce over, while the Skeletal Aerodactyl swooped down from the sky, using its bone wings to slice a row of high-altitude cables into scattering silver snakes.

Jasmine saw her adjutant knocked down by the exploding electric sparks, yet she still ordered in a suppressed voice.

"Save the people, hold the line, don't panic."

She had not collapsed.

This was also the reason why Lynn was willing to take an extra look at her.

This steel line of Olivine City was indeed tough; the lighthouse was obscured, the steel net was torn, the pier was crushed, yet the defenders were still filling the gaps layer by layer.

Such an opponent was more valuable than those councilors in Goldenrod City who only knew how to hold meetings.

But value is value.

If they stand in the way, they must still be smashed open.

Seventeen minutes later, this footage of the "Black Bridge Pressing the Port" was edited into a ten-second clip and forcibly inserted into all the public screens still functioning in Goldenrod City.

The screen was silent.

The whole city could only hear the cracking of the steel bridge.

Only the sound of Tyranitar crushing the steel bridge was played repeatedly three times.

People on the streets watched in silence.

They could continue to doubt Lynn.

But from this moment on, it would be hard for them to believe, as they had in the past, that the Johto League could defend all the ports.

The lights of Olivine City were half extinguished.

The hearts of the people of Johto were also dimmed by half.