Shedinja backed out after being hit by the attack. Thankfully, the power of the attack was not too high and by using 'Endure', it was able to hold it and stay strong. Its HP rapidly went down to 1.
Shedinja had leveled up 'Endure' and now it could endure 2 hits. This was the first hit and it only had 1 lifeline now.
"Marcus, let's get serious, use 'Substitute' and the 'Dark breath'"
3 substitutes came out of Shedinja. Each of these substitutes had 50% stats of Shedinja after 'Substitute' leveled up. All 4 of them fired up 'Dark breath'.
Dark breath was a powerful attack. It had also crossed the threshold and now after using the attack, other dark-type moves had a high effect.
Pidgeot was still not down after getting hit by that attack.
"Marcus, now 'Hypnosis' and then 'Dream eater'"
These 2 moves had sealed the deal for Pidgeot. Since it was still getting over 4 'Dark breath', it could not dodge 'Hypnosis'.
It was already very tired and also injured after the battle. So, after getting hit by the move, it fell asleep. Marcus then used 'Dream eater' and sucked some health from Pidgeot.
The referee came to check on Pidgeot and announced, "Pidgeot has fainted. Shedinja and Axel won this round. Bruno is requested to send out his next Pokemon in 10 seconds."
The crowd went wild after seeing the battle. Shedinja, one of the weakest Pokemons species had battled 3 Pokemons and it had come out victorious. It was an unbelievable scene.
Most of the crowd was blaming Bruno for his bad karma. He was the one that left Shedinja and now he was paying for it. It was true that Shedinja was a tier 2 king-rank Pokemon, but battling so many Pokemons had taken a toll on its stamina.
The fight with Slaking was especially hard as the battle was very long. It was not hurt when it battled Slaking but its stamina had taken a huge toll now he didn't know if Shedinja could beat the other 2 Pokemons.
###
"Let's do it, GOLEM!!!", shouted Bruno.
Bruno was getting frustrated now. Shedinja was like a perfect Pokemon. He had used every strategy that he could but Shedinja was still not down. Pidgeot was able to affect Shedinja but it survived due to 'Endure'.
That was only 1 Pokemon and that Pokemon had defeated 3 of his king-rank Pokemons.
Axel knew why Bruno used Golem. Normally, Shedinja was weak to rock-type attacks and Golem could use some powerful rock-type moves but Bruno didn't know that Shedinja was now immune to rock-type moves.
The reward from the main mission was very helpful. He didn't know what he would have done if the reward had not appeared at the right time. If Shedinja was able to take care of another curse after it completed the next main mission, then it would be the most powerful Pokemon in his team.
There was no doubt about it.
"Let the battle begin!!!"
This battle took 20 minutes to complete. Even though Golem could not do anything to Shedinja, it had very high defense and very high health. So, it took a lot of time for Shedinja to finish the battle.
In the end, Golem was able to use a dark type move called 'Fling'. It had a locket on its neck and it used that locket to use the move. 'Fling' would basically fling a held item towards the enemy. It was a simple move but it was a dark type move and Shedinja was weak to dark type.
Axel told Shedinja to use 'Endure' and its second lifeline had already been finished. Axel could also tell that Bruno somehow knew that ghost-type and dark-type moves could really hurt Shedinja.
"Golem has fainted. Shedinja and Axel have won this round. Bruno is requested to send out his final Pokemon within 10 seconds."
This was now a final battle. Shedinja had already used its 'Endure' to its maximum potential and it was very tired now. Axel was going to see who it would be battling next.
If the Pokemon turned out to be strong, then he was going to forfeit the battle.
"Come out, Gengar!!!!", shouted Bruno and threw a ball in the air.
Axel half expected to be another Pokemon and the name 'Gengar' was just a nickname for that other Pokemon but he was mistaken.
It really was Gengar.
Axel saw its stats and had ghost type core and many ghost-type moves. Now, if Shedinja had not used its 'Endure' and if this was the last battle then he would have fought it but….
Axel raised his hand in the air and said, "I forfeit"
The crowd got silent after they heard Axel saying those words. Axel, who was dominating this battle with his Shedinja had suddenly surrendered the battle.
What was going on?
"Are you sure you want to surrender? Cause if you do, you would be losing the league battle.", said the referee to confirm again.
"Yes, I am positive about it.", said Axel.
"Axel has surrendered the battle. The winner of the league battle is Bruno Welts!!!", shouted the referee.
Instead of cheers from the crowd, there were BOOOS
Nobody liked Bruno. First, the guy was taking advantage of Axel. Bruno had also left his first official Pokemon and then he won after only beating 2 of Axel's Pokemons.
None of them had any good impression of Bruno. But Bruno was not someone to be sad about it. He just thanked the referee and then went on his way.
He also didn't talk to the commentator who was coming towards him. He had nothing to say. If Axel could not prioritize the health of his Pokemons, then it was not his mistake. That was what he was thinking.
The commentator came towards Axel to ask some questions.
"So, Axel, only one question for you. Why did you surrender? You were going so strong."
"Marcus was already tired and it was also injured. That Gengar is a tier 2 king-rank Pokemon. I knew that it could not win against that Gengar in such a condition. Even if it could, it would be heavily injured and I don't want that.", said Axel.
The commentator asked some other questions and Axel also went on his own way.
###
"CHHERRRSS!!!"
Axel, Lance, and Lorelai were celebrating Axel's loss.
"Damn!! You showed Bruno what you are made of. Shedinja defeated 4 of his Pokemons. How did Shedinja get so strong?", asked Lance.
"You already know the answer. It just trained hard."
"But you did a good job. Even if you lost the battle, you didn't lose anything. You can still challenge Charles when you want. What are you planning to do now? Go to another reason or stay at home?", asked Lorelai.
"I will go to the Johto region. First, after my Pokemons are healed, I would home for a week and apply for the registration for Johto. I heard that it would take a week to 10 days to get approved.
After that, I would go to the Johto region."
"You are not even taking a break. I think you should take some time off for a month or two.", said Lance.
"Nah, I don't want to take any rest. I still have 7 regions to concur. That would take years to complete. I want to be a Pokemon master as fast as I can.", said Axel with determination.
"Ok, you do you. I am going to take 2 month's break before I go to other regions.", said Lance.
"Which region are you planning to go to?", asked Axel.
"I have no idea. I know you travel alone. If you want to travel together I may prefer the Johto region too.
By the way, I have some interesting announcements and an invitation for you."
"What is it?"
"You know I have been telling you that powerful families get together once in 2 years. That is happening after a month and I want to invite you. Cynthia is also going to be there.", said Lance.
"Can I really come? I mean, I am not a part of your family.", said Axel.
"Of course, you can come. I already talked to Dad and he is okay with it. So, do you want to come? You have been telling me that you want to meet Cynthia for a long time."
"I would be there. Just tell me the time and place.", said Axel.
He was finally going to meet Cynthia. Every young and influential trainer had said that Cynthia was a monster. Axel wanted to see what kind of a monster she really was.
He was excited to meet her but he was also nervous. What if she was vastly stronger than Axel? What was he going to do? Cause he had given his all to be a Pokemon master and he could not give more than this.
###
A week had passed since that day and all of his Pokemons had been healed. Axel was now ready to go to his home. He didn't sit quietly in those 7 days. He did 2 things.
First, he recruited additional members to his team and now they were 50K strong people including him. A lot of soldiers and trainers had applied to be a part of his team. His charisma was all-time high now.
Specially, the soldiers from the north zone. They had seen how Axel had handled the tide battle. If there was any other leader, then most of them would have died in a horrible way. So, now most of them trusted Axel more than the league.
So, a huge number of soldiers and some of the trainers applied for this position. One of these members was Lance. Axel had no idea why he wanted to be a part of his team but he immediately agreed.
Axel had also done a lot of background checks on these additional soldiers. Most of them were genuine but some of them were spies from the league or some other organization. Some of them also had ulterior motives. He directly kicked those people out.
All these additional members had at least 1 pseudo-king rank Pokemons. Since a lot of people had applied, Axel chose the best of them. There were also 3 people who had king-rank Pokemons. That was a huge thing. However, each of them had only 1 tier 1 king rank Pokemons.
###
The second thing that he did was to work on his new restaurant plan. He wanted to set up this restaurant in his own hometown. They would only serve one dish and that was 'Dal Bhat Tarakari'.
However, there would be a lot of variations on this dish. Rice, dal, curry, salad, lemons, ghee and curd were compulsory. However, there could be a lot of variations of dal and curry.
Some of them could be fried, and some of them would be in gravy. There would also be some meat items in addition to veg curry.
Axel believed that his restaurant plan to take off and that he would earn a huge amount of money from it.
He told all the recipes to his mother and his little sister. They would be the ones who would handle the business. He would just invest in it. He would not be in his home.
If the business went well, he could also tell his father to join the restaurant business. His father would not have to do a job.
Axel already bought the land. He was deciding the type of restaurant building that he wanted and the interiors. His sister was very invested in interiors.
After some thought, they decided to go with Japanese-style interiors with short tables where people could eat while sitting on the floor. Axel also wanted to add beverages like smoothies, mocktails, and liquors. He also wanted to add cigarettes.
They decided that the restaurant would be on 2 floors. If the business went well, they would increase the floors of the restaurant.
Axel didn't know why he had not thought of such a brilliant idea before. He was confident that the business would be a huge hit. He could just feel it.
After a week, all of Axel's Pokemons had fully recovered and now it was time to meet them and go home. He wanted to spend some time with his family before he went to the Johto region. He had already applied for the registration.
If a trainer wanted to challenge the gyms in a region, the trainer would have to get registered first. That was the rule in every region. This was basically done to get the data of the trainer which would also help in league battles.
Axel also wanted to get his pseudo-elite trainer badge as he now had king-rank Pokemons. He wanted to do it when he was in the Kanto league but it turned out that the process would take a huge amount of time.
When a trainer ranks up from master rank to pseudo-elite ranks, it would be a big deal. There were only a few trainers in the whole wide world that had a king-rank Pokemons. The numbers may be in thousands but it was still a small number.
So, the league would do many checks before giving that badge. That was why it would take some time. Axel was told that it would take around 2 months and then he would be called for an examination.
Axel didn't care about the badge. Red told him to get it as it would be helpful in the future so he was just following Red's instructions.
Axel was now going to meet his Pokemons and now he had a new potential Pokemon with him.
Slowbro.