The battle was easily won by Bruno Welts. This showed how powerful Crobat truly was. Axel could still not understand how Bruno could have a Crobat.
"The unknown Pokemon called Crobat by the contestant Bruno has won the battle. This is the first time we have seen this type of Pokemon. We don't know what it really does but it seems like a poison-type Pokemon.
Let's ask Bruno himself what this Pokemon really is.", said the commentator and she came near Bruno and asked the same question.
"Contestant Bruno, can you tell us what is this new Pokemon?", asked the commentator.
"Yes, this is Crobat. It is the evolved form of Golbat.", said Bruno with a smile.
"Can you tell me who was the one who found the evolution of Golbat?"
"I am sorry. I am not at liberty to say. But I can say that Crobat is vastly more powerful than Golbat.", said Bruno with a smile.
"Can I make a guess that you are the one who discovered the evolution?", asked the commentator.
Bruno gave a happy smile and then walked off the stage confusing the commentator.
Meanwhile, Axel was seething with anger. Indirectly Bruno was saying that he was the one to find out about the evolution but since he didn't say out loud, he was not in the wrong.
He was taking all the hard work of Axel and Axel was not liking it one bit. Axel may have been Bruno's rival cause Bruno wanted to surpass Axel for a long time but today the dynamics have changed.
Axel was going to crush Bruno and humiliate him in front of all the people in the stadium.
His turn came after some time and he didn't waste any time calling out Steelix.
###
"Is that?…."
"Yes, it is. I just cannot believe it.",
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first king-rank Pokemon in this league battle. Axel had summoned a genuine king rank Steelix. He had shown that he really is the successor of the Pokemon master.", said the commentator.
King-rank Pokemon was a huge thing in the league battle. It was very rare for a trainer to have a king-rank Pokemon. King rank was a second great filter after elemental rank.
"Let the battle begin!!!!", shouted the referee and Axel told Steelix to finish the battle in one shot and it complied showing its full power.
"Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, this is the power of the king rank. Contestant Axel had only been using Gogoat this entire time but now he seemed to have changed his strategy and used Steelix, a king-rank Pokemon.
We can all see that the power of king-rank Pokemon is absolute. I believe that only another king-rank Pokemon could defeat this monstrosity.
This battle is also the end of preliminaries and we would begin the round-robin after 7 days. The contestants who won should be ready for the second round.
The rules of the round-robin would be sent again to the winners of the preliminaries. It would be assumed that they know about the rules before the start of the round-robin.
With this, we would end the preliminaries here. All of you are welcome for the second round after 7 days."
The crowd had started to move to the gates after Axel finished his battle. Some of them were busy taking pictures of Steelix as it was a king-rank Pokemon.
###
"Hey, that was a good battle. I didn't expect that you would take out Steelix on the final day. Why did you do that?", asked Lance cause it made no sense for Axel to reveal his secrets.
Lance could see that Axel was angry, so he didn't pester Axel much.
"Lance, you go with Lorelai. I will catch you guys up. I have some calls to make.", said Axel.
"Are you sure that you would know the way?"
"Yes, I am confident."
"Alright, come fast. It would be rude to make her parents wait long for you."
"I know. It would only take 10 minutes.", said Axel.
Lance and Lorelai left the place.
###
"Why did he seem so angry? Do you know the reason?", asked Lorelai as they were walking to her house.
"I don't know but he seemed truly pissed off. I have never seen him so angry. I don't want to be the receiving end of it."
"I think we should ask him when he comes to my home.", said Lorelai.
"Yes, you are right. Let's do that. If we could help him, we would do our best. Axel is our good friend and we should help him.", said Lance.
###
Axel picked up his phone and dialed the number…
Tring.. Tring.. Tring.. Tring.
Katchak
"Oh, hello Axel.", said K picking up the phone.
"Did you tell Bruno Welts about the evolution process of Golbat?", asked Axel directly.
"Yes, I did."
"Before I come there and smash your head, tell me a good reason why. I told you that in confidence. I also told you, Mark and Angela, to tell only Venu family members if you truly trust them. Bruno is not a member of Venu family. He is also not someone that I trust.
So, tell me, why did you say it to him? Are you in cohorts with that guy? Cause that Bruno publicly said that he was the one who discovered it in the whole stadium. So, tell me why you did it…"
"Wo. . WO.. Wo.. Calm down a little. I will tell you the whole story…."
K then started to tell his story of how he encountered Bruno. Bruno challenged on a 3 Pokemon battle with K.
K won the first 2 battles with ease with only his Crobat. Bruno directly said that this Pokemon was the evolved form of Golbat and he wanted to know the evolution process cause he also had a Golbat.
"I refused the offer. I said that this evolution process was discovered by my friend and I cannot say it.", said K.
"Then what happened? How did he know?", asked Axel.
"I then looked around and found that he had some friends. There were 6 of them and all of them took out their Pokemons. I was surrounded by angry Pokemons and I didn't have anywhere to go.
So, he gave me a proposal. He said that he only had 1 Pokemon now. So, if his one Pokemon could beat all 3 of my Pokemons, I would tell him the evolution process.
If he could not do it, I would be free and I would also be given 10 million Poke dollars.
Since I had no choice, I accepted and you know the result.", said K.
Axel replied with a surprise 'Oh'.
"Axel, I am sorry I revealed it but my life was on the line. I know I should not have said it even at that time but I panicked.", said K.
"No, your life is more important than some evolution process. You did right. I am sorry I was angry earlier.
I think it is high time that you also have some friends on your journey. It is not safe in the wild.", said Axel.
"You are right. But there is no one who wants to go on a journey with me in Venu family and I don't trust any other outsiders.", said K.
"Why don't you ask A and B for the journey."
"They don't want to be the champion or Pokemon master like me. They don't have to go on a journey with me.", said K.
"Yes you are right but they can go on a journey with you. Going on a journey would also help them mature faster and they would be ready to be the elders of the family in the future.", said Axel.
"You are right. That is a good idea but I don't think that they would agree.", said K.
"You don't worry about them. I will convince them myself. Where are you right now?", asked Axel.
"I am getting ready for my 6th gym badge. I finally have 2 pseudo-king rank Pokemons now.", said K with a proud voice.
They talked about their journey for some time and Axel hung up the phone. He didn't want to be late. So, he started to run for her home.
###
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Kanna. I apologize for being late", said Axel bowing a little.
"Oh, it is all right. You don't have to worry. Come inside.", invited Lorelai's father.
Her father and mother were not famous like Lance's parents and grandparents. They worked in the league as teachers to train the young soldiers. Her father, Blade was the commander and he trained young soldiers for the tide. Being a commander, he had at least 3 pseudo-king rank Pokemon.
Her mother was a zone commander and she also focused on training young soldiers.
Lorelai grew up in a military family and her father taught her to be strong and disciplined. Her father was fascinated by Axel and his journey. He was excited to meet the kid.
They welcomed Axel and Lance with big arms, made them comfortable and within an hour, Axel and Lance were talking to her father as if they were long-lost friends.
Blade was very adept at talking to new people. He made Axel very comfortable to speak. He also brought out some whiskey. Axel and Lance were now adults and they could drink alcohol.
After talking about all the things and their journey, Blade finally popped the question, "So Lance, I also heard that you were a lieutenant in a small village for the tide. How was that experience?"
"The experience was very brutal but I made a lot of friends and also learned a lot."
"Oh, tell me more.", said Blade while pouring another drink for Lance.
Lance started to tell his story about how hard it was for him. It was the first time he had seen dead people and he was appointed as a lieutenant. He also said that his father decided him to be a part of that tide after Axel participated in it.
He shared that he lost 2 close friends that he made in the tide and it took him a lot of time to recover from it. He still had not recovered from it.
After Lance finished his story, it took some time for him to calm down. Blade then looked at Axel and asked the same question.
He poured Axel's whiskey glass again and Axel also started to tell his story on how he was appointed as a zone commander by the league and how he chose the north base.
He also told the story about his strategy and plans and also about his subordinates. He talked about how he and his team valiantly defeated every wild Pokemon in the north base and how they had won.
He also said how many people and soldiers that they lost in the north base and how responsible he felt.
"That is a good story. I don't know why the league appointed you as the zone commander cause a zone commander is a position of leadership, a position of power. But as much as I have heard, you have handled the situation very well.", said Blade.
"Oh, by the way, I met Hector in the league battle and he said that most of the soldiers from the north base had made a group and they had started to train. I could see that Hector had grown stronger.
He said that I would be the leader of the group and they are training to become powerful. I don't know what that means. I mean the league still controls the soldiers but he said that they would be under me. I am not a full-time soldier. So how is that going to work?", asked Axel.
"Oh, I can make a guess on what he meant by it.
You are right, the league does control and is responsible for the soldiers. However, the league realized that it could not control all the soldiers without any problems. Sometimes, the soldier would not want to be under the league cause they had seen the dark side of the league.
Sometimes the soldiers want to follow another individual like the general for their whole life and they don't want to be under league. Such things started to happen a lot around 50 years ago.
The league still had to function and they needed the soldiers. So, the league made a rule.
If there are soldiers that don't want to be part of the league but still want to fight in the tide, they could be called mercenaries and they could freely participate in the tide.", said Blade.
"Really, there is such a rule?", asked Axel.
The people who could participate in the tide are the soldiers appointed by the league or the residents of the village/town/city. Other people could not participate in the tide battle even if they wanted to. They would have to have approval from the league to participate in the tide which was very rare.
Axel had never heard of this 'Mercenaries' thing. So, he was surprised that others could participate in the tide other than the league or the residents.
###
Others could not participate in the tide battle for many reasons. However, the main reason was trust. If a criminal organization happened to be in the town during the tide and if they were given a chance to fight in the tide, the result would be disastrous.
###
"Yes, there is such a rule. However, the league hardly gives any team the title of 'Mercenaries'. It is not that the league is being biased but the conditions to receive that title are very stringent."