Axel woke up the next day and immediately saw his phone. There was a message from the tournament saying that he already passed this round. Axel was too sleepy to get angry right now. What he wanted to was to let his young Pokemons fight as much as possible but now he could not.
Among the 25 participants, 13 were going to be selected. The 12 pairs would fight among themselves but the last person would automatically get selected and Axel was that person.
"Talk about luck.", said Axel to himself.
Now, he didn't have to go to the stadium early in the morning and just needed to go there in the afternoon. He decided that it was time for Togetic to learn some new moves. He also brought Frank for discussion.
Frank was in another zone. He had been thinking about what Axel said for the whole night. He woke up early in the morning at 4 a.m., did his shower, and then went to the training ground.
Since the tournament was on the run, the training grounds were empty. He then called all of his Pokemons for a talk.
"Listen, this may come out of the blue but I think we should start to train seriously from now on. Let me finish. I know that I am very soft on you guys. It is because I care about you a lot. I have been thinking for some and I realize that I want to get stronger.
You have seen the Pokemons of Axel and Lance. How hard they train and how determined they are. I am not saying that you guys are lazy but it is I that don't have any determination to become strong.
I want to get stronger than anyone else. I don't want to be under Axel's shadow. I believe that you also don't want that.
So, do you want to train hard from today?", asked Frank.
There was a silence for a few seconds and then Raichu came forward saying that it would give it a try. Then Muk came over saying that it also wanted to stretch its legs.
Slowly everyone came forward saying that they would train hard. Even the young Riolu and Gabite came with their small steps saying that they also wanted to train hard.
He realized that Axel was right. He realized that he had good Pokemons that wanted to support his ambition. It was him that was the problem but that would change from now on. His Pokemons had seen his determination and they had replied.
Frank went forward and hugged all of them saying, "Thank you guys. You will not regret it."
###
As Frank was making training plans for his Pokemons, he got a call from Axel saying that he was free till the afternoon.
"So, you don't want to go and watch the tournament right? I need your help in selecting the moves for Togetic.", said Axel.
After making promises with his Pokemons, he was not going there anyway. He could just see the tournament on T.V.
After talking with Frank, Axel came up with 3 moves that Togetic should learn.
'Solar beam' 'Air Slash' 'Agility'
'Solar beam' was purely due to 'Sunny day' and for better move coverage. 'Air slash' was for its typing. It was also a flying type Pokemon when it reached pseudo-king rank, it would have 2 cores, and finally, 'Agility' was for its speed.
Togetic had decent speed but it was not as good as some of his speedy Pokemons. Axel wanted it to have some good speed as it was also a flying-type Pokemon.
Togetic was a fast learner. It learned 'Solar beam' and 'Air slash' in a matter of hours. Even though Axel was using TMs for it, it would take some time to learn the move.
This showed how talented it really was. However, Axel was not going to praise for it. He had to be harsh sometimes.
###
Of the 25 participants, 13 were selected. All of these 13 participants were now in the stadium including Axel.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, today we are going to select 8 participants for the quarter-finals. But there are 13 of them. So, we came up with an interesting solution.
We have personally selected 8 of the participants that we feel should go to the quarter-finals. So, 5 of them are out. But wait. There is a twist. If those 5 participants think that we are wrong in our selection, then they can challenge any of those 8 participants in a 2 vs 2 Pokemon battle and if they win, they will replace them."
This was a very good solution. Since they had to have 8 participants for the quarter-finals, this made it interesting.
Unsurprisingly enough, Axel was not selected in those 8 participants and he had to challenge one of them. Axel expected as he had not fought in the previous round, he was sure to not be selected. If he was selected, others would have to pick him up for the fight which they would never do considering his powers.
So, who was he going to select for the fight? Mia was also there in the top 8 but he didn't want to fight her right now. He had seen her battles, and she was very powerful. So, he wanted to save her for last.
"Mr. Axel, do you want to challenge someone or do you think that the tournament made a better decision?", asked the referee.
Axel looked at all the trainers and selected Noir. Noir was a girl with a small height and a small body. Axel felt that he could crush her with his bare hands. This was also one of the reasons why he selected her. She was the most nonintimidating person among all of them.
Axel had not seen any of them battle before. He was so busy with his training that he never considered looking at this competitor. So, for him, Noir was the easiest choice. How very wrong he was. He would later understand that he had made a wrong choice.
###
The first battle was between Axel and Noir. It was 2 Vs 2 Pokemon battle.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Yes."
"Why did you choose me?"
"Well, you are the one who looked the weakest of all. So, of course, I would choose you.", replied Axel.
"So, you thought that I am the weakest of them all? I didn't know that you were so racist."
"Hey, don't blame me. I never saw any of your battles. So, I just made the most reasonable choice."
Noir had always been cast out due to her appearance. She was not even 5 feet tall. She didn't have any good girly features and she had a very high pitch voice. That was why she was always serious about her training and she had achieved a lot.
She was going to show this kid, how good of a trainer she really was.
The referee did the coin flip and Noir won it.
"Axel Blaze, please send out your first Pokemon.", said the referee.
"Come out, Lucario."
Lucario had just evolved and reached uncommon rank. Since this was going to be 2 Vs 2 Pokemon battle, Axel thought that Lucario could participate cause even if it lost, his last Pokemon could take care of it.
Another reason why Axel chose Lucario was for it to have experience in battle. It had not participated in tide battles or any other form of battle. So, it highly required some experience.
Noir became incredibly angry after seeing that Axel had taken out an uncommon rank Pokemon. She felt that Axel was underestimating her. Then she gave a smile.
"OK, if that is how you want to play.", said Noir and called out her Pokemon.
It was a humanoid Pokemon with four well-muscled arms. It had bluish-gray skin, red eyes, and large, pale, yellow lips. On its head, there were three brown ridges right above its eyes. It had two arms on each side of its body: a pair located in the normal position, and another pair directly above that attaches on the top of the shoulders. It had black markings that resembled briefs. Its legs had considerable muscle tone, and its feet had two toes each.
It was Machamp.
Axel looked at Machamp's stats:
---
Pokemon's name: Machamp (Age- 4 years)
Pokemon Nickname: NA
Pokemon Rank: Elemental rank
Ability: No Guard (95%)
Hidden ability: Steadfast (89%)
Potential: Brown (Monstrous)
Health: 3900/3900 Attack: E
Agility: F 34 Defense: F+
Sp. Atk: F Sp. Def: F++
Moves: Focus energy, Low Kick, Vital Throw, Bulk up, Mega kick, Bullet punch, Thunder punch, Ice punch, Fire punch, Brick break, Earthquake, Body Slam, Darkest Lariat, Rock Slide, Endure, Power trick.
Core: Fighting (mastered)
---
This was a powerful Machamp. First of all, it was an elemental rank Pokemon. This meant that Lucario was not going to win against it. Even though it looked like it had recently ranked up, the difference between an uncommon-rank Pokemon and an elemental-rank Pokemon was huge.
Secondly, it knew a variety of moves that surprised even Axel. Axel didn't know the mastery of these moves but he could tell that it was powerful and thirdly, it was a fighting type Pokemon.
Lucario was weak against the fighting type even though it was a fighting-type Pokemon. This meant that Lucario was not going to win in any circumstances.
Axel used his mental communication with Lucario.
'Lucario, we are not going to win this battle. The opponent is too strong. So, what are going to do is to concentrate on prolonging the battle and making it injured as much as possible.'
Lucario could not believe that it would be losing its first official battle but it was the one that asked Axel to include it in this tournament.
"Are you both ready for battle?", asked the referee.
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Let the battle begin!"
"Machamp! Use 'Focus energy' and 'Bulk up'.", said Noir.
"Lucario, use 'Detect' and 'Agility'", said Axel.
'Detect' will help Lucario to dodge the next attack and 'Agility' would increase its speed. As of right now, it could use 'Agility' 3 times. It had really practiced the move.
"Machamp, now use 'Bullet punch'.", said Noir.
Now, 'Bullet punch' was a steel-type move where the user would punch at a fast pace. It was not an overly powerful move but in the hands of Machamp who had 4 hands and fast reflexes, this move had become very deadly.
Thankfully, Lucario was able to dodge all these moves due to 'Detect' and 'Agility'. When Machamp started the move, Lucario had already used 'Agility' 2 times and its speed increased.
Even after using 'Agility' 2 times and Machamp being a slower Pokemon in general, Machamp was as fast as Lucario due to its higher rank.
It dodged the move and Axel told it to use 'Swords dance', 'Mind reader' and..
"Also use 'Aura sword'".
'Aura sword' was a new move that Lucario had just learned.
---
Aura sword: The user will be able to manifest a sword formed purely from aura in its hand and can use the sword to fight. Can use this for 5 minutes.
---
Thankfully, it was able to use all those moves in a quick time frame. 'Swords dance' increased its attack stat, 'Mind reader' increased the chances of hitting the attack and 'Aura sword' was the attack move.
Lucario went ahead and slashed toward Machamp. One might expect Machamp to defend or dodge the move but it didn't.
It took the attack head-on and then used 'Vital Throw'. This was also one of the reasons why Machamp was slow. 'Vital throw' took time to take effect. But the move was successful.
Machamp carried Lucario and threw it with a lot of power.