5 a.m., morning.
Axel woke up. Slowly opening his eyes, he stretched his arms and legs. Stretching body in the morning was good for health, or so he had heard. It energizes your blood vessels. When he opened his eyes, he saw a hologram and there were a series of notifications.
---
Ding!
Shedinja has learned Dream eater
Ding!
Shedinja has learned Tackle
Ding!
Dream eater has leveled up to 2
Ding!
Hypnosis has leveled up to 2
Ding!
Ghost core is starting to form (1%)
Ding!
Shedinja has started to learn Agility (15%)
Ding!
Harden leveled up to 2
----
"Huh!! What the hell happened", he said loudly. Shedinja also woke up hearing the noise.
'Did he trained at night? Without telling me?', he thought.
"Shedinja, did you train at night?", Axel asked curiously.
Shedinja shook its head saying no. Shedinja didn't want to bother its trainer in this. It wanted to grow stronger and work harder by itself. Axel had already done enough for it, so it thought not to tell Axel about its night training.
However, Axel already knew this through the system. 'Wonder why it doesn't want to tell me', he thought. Axel assumed Shedinja will open up eventually.
Axel took his shower and made Shedinja also take a shower. After getting ready, Axel thought to pick up Nidoran and start to go training. Just as he went to Nurse Joy to pick up Nidoran, he was surprised again.
Nurse Joy informed him that, the random person among the 15 participants, who automatically got selected for the next round was him. Oh my Arceus, that was some luck. The time for battle was the same as yesterday and he was against a trainer name Gabin. Mariana also made it to the next round but unfortunately, Lopez didn't.
Nurse Joy came with a Pokeball and then he went toward the edge of the forest to train.
"Come out, Nidoran"
Nidoran came out of the Pokeball and it looked healthy and full of life. It jumped and embraced Axel. Axel guessed it missed its trainer very much. A Pokemon becomes Beginner Pokemon from baby Pokemon after 1-2 months. Nidoran had just become a beginner Pokemon but it was still childish in nature.
After a short reunion, Nidoran was a bit depressed. This was the first time, that it had nearly lost the fight. That F.Nidoran seemed much more powerful than Nidoran.
"We just need to train even harder, don't worry. If we train more then you will be the most powerful Nidoran there is", Axel motivated Nidoran.
"Luckily we got selected for another battle, So Nidoran!, now for this short time you will focus on training 'Focus energy' and 'Rest'."
Axel found out that, moves like 'Focus energy' and 'Rest' could make a huge difference in battle.
"Shedinja, you will continue training 'Agility', 'Tackle' and 'Harden'."
"Shedinjaa", it said with enthusiasm.
Axel did some meditation. Seeing that he had some bruises on his hands, meditation felt the right thing to do. After training for 5 hours, they returned to the Pokemon center and ate some food.
###
Axel was fighting against Gabin. Gabin's Pokemon was Rattata. It was not a powerful Pokemon but its speed was good and its 'crunch' was deadly. Thank Arceus, it had not learned 'Super fang' or 'Hyper fang' that could turn the table. Axel's battle was on the 2nd, so this time Axel started planning battle tactics with Nidoran.
Finally, his turn came. Axel went up to the stage. Even though he was only in the stadium once yesterday, he had a nostalgic feeling.
Gabin too came to the stage. Gabin was a fat guy, wearing a plain blue shirt and a hoodie. He had long hair up to his shoulders and was wearing brown khaki trousers. A hit of mustache could be seen on his face. He sent out his Rattata and Axel sent out Nidoran.
"Rattattaa.. ", tt shouted.
It looked excited about the battle. Winning 2 matches in a row might have got in its head.
'It will feel very wrong after some time', Axel said clenching his teeth.
"Are you both ready?"
"Yes" Gabin said. Axel also nodded.
"Okay, let the battle begin!!" The referee shouted through his lungs.
"Rattata, start with a 'Quick attack'" Gabin said hurriedly, like he wanted to finish the fight fast and eat some burgers, seeing how fat he was, thought Axel.
Nidoran used 'Focus energy' as it closed its eyes. When Rattata came near it, Nidoran dodged the attack effortlessly.
"Continue with 'Quick attack' until it hits", said Gabin.
Nidoran just closed its eyes and started dodging. Every Dodge was perfect. It's training on dodging the stones was proving well.
After some dodges, Gabin was getting frustrated. As Axel and Nidoran had already planned the fight, he knew that Gabin will start with 'Quick attack'. He had done the same in the last 2 matches. So, without any instruction, Nidoran was doing its thing, as it was already planned.
After some time, Rattata was starting to get tired. Gabin instructed it to use 'Headbutt'. Axel, who closed his eyes too, suddenly opened them and said, "Now Nidoran".
Nidoran used 'Chip away' plus 'Tackle', or 'Chip tackle'. It was the name that they came up with for this combo. Nidoran dodged 'Headbutt' perfectly. As it was 'Headbutt' not 'Quick attack', the speed was very low.
So, Nidoran used level 7 'Tackle' on Rattata and it connected. 'Tackle' had started to become very powerful now. Rattata was flung a couple of meters by the attack.
"Nidoran, now use 'Horn attack'" Axel said. Rattata tried to dodge it, but it still connected well. Nidoran then used 'Bite' on Rattata's neck. It wailed loudly. The bite must have hurt it.
Rattata also tried to bite it, but as Nidoran was biting its neck, it was not successful to do so. Nidoran picked up Rattata with the sheer amount of bite and threw it for some distance.
Nidoran started going for another 'Tackle', but Rattata dodged it. "Rattata, now!!" Gabin shouted.
Rattata then bit Nidoran with its sharp teeth. Rattata's 'Bite' was very dangerous. Nidoran flinched for some time and couldn't do anything. Axel wasn't panicking like the last match today. He promptly said, "Nidoran use 'Venom drench' like before".
Red eyes flashed and then Nidoran used Venom drench. As Rattata was near Nidoran biting its ass off, 'Venom drench' was hit on point-blank.
Rattata got distracted and Nidoran was able to come out of its 'Bite'. Rattata's Agility, Attack, and Sp. Attack got reduced and it also became poisoned due to Nidoran's ability.
As Rattata was hurt due to poison, Nidoran used 'Venom drench' 3 more times. Now Rattata's special speed which it was proud of was reduced drastically. There was a layer of purple poison all over Rattata's body. It was twitching because of the poison. "Rattata No!!!!" Gabin said loudly.
"Nidoran now finish it with 'Tackle', full force." Axel said confidently. Nidoran ran and stuck Rattata with 'Tackle' on its injured neck. Rattata was flown 6 meters in the air and then, it was slammed into the ground. It had fainted.
"The winner is Axel Blaze" Referee shouted. And there were cheers from the crowd. Nidoran was not hurt like it was before. Although 'Bite' took some of its health, it could now fight in the evening. This concluded the 3rd round for Axel.