The next day as the soldiers were getting ready for battle in the morning, they could feel that the place had started to become hot and the temperature was rising.
Meanwhile, Axel was sleeping and he woke up.
"Damn it!! Call the others.", he shouted and got out of his bed ready for battle.
The second leader had arrived.
###
All of the leaders got ready for the final battle. The second leader was making its move. As they were waiting for Arcanine to come with his minions they saw a large dog. Flames had covered its body and it was running towards them. But it was alone.
"Huh?"
"What is happening?"
He knew that the second leader would lose a lot of its allies but it would not be alone. So, why it was coming here alone? And the audacity to come here alone. Was that Pokemon crazy?
Finally, the second leader came near Axel and the gang. It directly looked at Axel and said, "Human, we finally meet."
How could Arcanine know that he was the leader? This was a mystery in itself but Arcanine didn't stop there. It started to talk.
"I didn't know that I was being bested by such a tiny human. But you have won and I have lost."
"So, why are you here? Do you still want to die? I don't see any of your allies coming to your rescue.", said Axel.
"Do you know why my father didn't finish this settlement when he was in his prime?"
"You still have not answered my questions but go on. Tell me why?"
"He said that it was due to humans during ancient times that our species are still alive. That is why he didn't want to have any feud with humans and no, I didn't come here to die. I came here to talk."
"Talk?"
He didn't know that Arcanine and humans had such a long history.
"Yes, talk. At that time, I was very angry and due to my young brother, I wanted to kill all of you. But I came to realize that I was wrong. The human that killed my father is long gone and that human is not a member of this city.
Due to my rage, I killed many of you and lost my brother and my family members. I also lost many allies. You were also protecting your city. So, I can understand.
That is why I came up with a proposal. You give me that human, I will not go rampage today."
That was a good proposal. Even if they could kill Arcanine here, if they fought, they would lose a lot of soldiers and Axel didn't want that. But how could he get that human that killed its father?
"Arcanine, I don't like to give empty promises. There are millions of humans in this world. I know nothing of that human. So, how can I find that human for you?"
"I have some evidence.", said Arcanine and brought a torn cloth.
"When that human killed my father, I detected and tried to kill him but he teleported with his Pokemon. That Pokemon was Alakazam and it was a tier 3 king-rank Pokemon. The human was a man who was young with black hair, a similar height to yours, lean and fit body. I tore his cloth and this is the evidence that I have."
Axel took that cloth. This information narrowed down that man. There were not many Pokemons who had tier 3 king rank Alakazam with them. He could narrow it down.
"Thanks, I will help you."
"I didn't think that you would agree so fast."
"I also want to kill that man for destroying the peace of my village. I will give my best."
"That is all that I ask for. Unless you don't disturb my forest, I will not attack you. Goodbye human. Come to the forest, when you have the location of that human for me.", said Arcanine and went to the forest.
"Ahh, sir Axel, is the tide finished?", asked Liam.
"Yes, it is finished. Tell the soldiers to back up. Count the casualty and call the doctors if necessary. I will make an announcement tomorrow about our victory.", said Axel, and then shouted the same thing to nearby soldiers.
Axel had to make a public announcement to the citizens of the city about the tide.
"Hector, gather the details and tell me the names and number of soldiers that we lost in this tide.", said Axel.
The first thing he did was to heal his Pokemons. Then he went to Charizard to tell the good news. Charizard was not happy about it. It could not fight properly in the tide. It was injured and had to rest.
"Charles, the main thing is your life. If you lose your life or the ability to fight, nothing matters anymore. So, from the next time concentrate on that and also concentrate on your defensive moves."
"I will do that father. You don't need to worry about it."
"Good. Squirtle will be born after 2 days. Make sure to come home at that time. I am leaving now. I have a lot of things to do.", said Axel saying goodbye.
###
Finally, Axel went to his desk. Hector was already present there with a bunch of papers.
"Hector, give me the numbers. How many did we lose?", asked Axel.
"Sir, we lost 9,948 soldiers. 100 of them are permanently injured. 1000 of them have serious injuries but they will be okay and others have light injuries.", reported Hector.
"Of those 9,948 soldiers, how many are from the mercenary?"
"None."
"Really? What about permanently injured ones?"
"2 of them are from the mercenary."
"Can't we do anything to cure them?", asked Axel.
"Sir, both of them lost their arms and 2 of their Pokemons each. They could fight but they could not contribute much to the battle as before."
"Good. After they are properly treated, tell them to come see me. So, the death rate is around 3%."
"Yes sir. It is a miracle. I don't think we have heard about such fantastic results in the history of this world."
"Well, the enemy lost almost all of its allies and we assassinated most of them."
"But that is also a part of our strategy. Sir, you don't need to sell yourself short on this. You did a fantastic job."
"Thanks, Hector. Now we need to discuss the money that the city is going to pay to the mercenaries and how to divide the dead bodies."
"Sir, there are 2 ways we could do this about the dead bodies. First, we could just let the ones that killed the Pokemons claim them. Of course, this would not include king-rank Pokemons as all those who participated in killing the king-rank Pokemons would get a share.
Or we could just divide the numbers of mercenaries and city soldiers and divide the money from it as per the numbers."
"Hmm, let's go with the second method.", said Axel.
"Sir, are you sure? If we go by the first method, then we will gain a lot as our soldiers have contributed a lot."
"I understand that Hector but the city doesn't have any money now. The city would also have to provide money to the mercenaries separately. Don't think that I am not thinking about our mercenary team. If we go by the second method then we can make a good relationship with the city and that would be helpful to us in the long run.
The city might not face tides in the near future but this city is connected to 3 other cities. If they were to face the tide, the city could recommend us and we will earn big."
"Ok, sir. We will do as you have suggested. Now I have some good news. Those team members that didn't have pseudo-king rank Pokemons, now have one as their Pokemons ranked up during the tide. So, as of right now, we fulfill all the requirements and now we can register our mercenary team to the league.", said Hector.
"That is good news. After this, go to the league and get our team registered. If you need my help, I will be there."
"Sir, there is still a small issue."
"Oh, what is it?"
"What would be the name of our mercenary team?", asked Hector.
"Oh…. Let me think about it. What do you suggest?"
"Nothing comes to my mind but I think we should think about it carefully. The name of our mercenary team will be known in the whole world in the future. We cannot select a crappy name."
"You are right. Why don't you and others think about it too and I will also think about it. We will come to a decision tomorrow.", said Axel.
"Yes sir."
###
Next day,
The civilians were talking about the tide. Even though Axel had not publicly announced it, everyone knew that the tide was over. Some of them were happy cause the death rate was so low. However, some of them were crying cause their family members had died.
Axel always hated this part of the tide and now since he was the acting mayor he would have to face these people. The positive thing was that none of them blamed Axel for it. All of them knew that Axel could have gone out of this city to save himself from his connections but he chose not to do it. He fought with them and brought them victory.
The mercenary team of Axel also got a lot of recognition. It was due to them that the death rates were so low. When people knew that this was the team of Axel, Axel again became the talk of the city.
###
Almost every civilian had gathered around this place. This was the biggest training ground and Axel was on stage.
"Now, all of you know about it but let me formally tell you all. The tide has been cleared."
"YEAHH"
"HOORARRYYY"
"YESS!!!"
The citizens were excited to hear it formally from Axel.
"I have a couple of things to say to you all. As an acting mayor, it is my duty to award the 3 best contributors to the tide. Now, since I am the biggest contributor but also the acting mayor, I will not be including myself in this list. So, the 3 best contributors are…"
Axel did the ceremony. Since the city had almost no money, he could award them with previous items but nobody cared about it.
"Now, you might have known about the previous mayor. Due to the previous mayor, the city doesn't have sufficient money. After this tide, the city may not have any money left. We will now actively prosecute the mayor and try to recover as much money as we can.
Finally, the deaths. The death rate is around 3% and it is better than any other tide results. However, we still lost a lot of capable soldiers and citizens of this city.
Today at 12 p.m. we will all be joining in the funeral to pay the respect to our martyrs."
Deaths were common during the tide and people lost their close ones. Going to the funeral together gave the family members some consolation. This had not been done before in any place but Axel copied it from the Naurto world.
After the funeral, only 1 day was left before Squirtle hatched. Axel was excited to meet it. After getting Squirtle, he could have all the starters of the Kanto region.
Axel was eagerly waiting for it.