The battle went on for other trainers. Axel was interested in the battle of people like Cynthia and Steven and he wanted at least to fight with 2 of them but unfortunately, the battle of the second round was between Cynthia and Steven.
The hype was real this time. Even though he could not fight against 2 of them, he wanted to see how good they were. Axel noted that Eevee of Cynthia was not so special but she was doing great against Steven's Machoke. It must be noted that this Machoke was buffed and Eevee not so much.
Axel was surprised by the tactics of Cynthia cause she was really creative. Even though the Pokemon of Cynthia that she was using this time was not so strong, she was doing very well.
Steven must have known about this competition for quite some time and he must have prepared a lot of this. He had chosen Machoke for this competition and in reality, Machoke was quite a strong Pokemon, especially on an Eevee.
The battle went on for 6-7 minutes and finally, both of the Pokemons fainted at the same time. It was a draw. Since there was no high camera and technology, it could not be known who fainted first, so it was a draw.
Axel could see that Steven was quite happy with the result while Cynthia was not looking so good.
Joseph came at the right time to come to a conclusion from this.
"Since this was a draw, I propose that both of you choose one of the trainers who are still qualified to fight after this round is over. If one of them lost and one of them won in that battle, then the winner would take the seat of that trainer and the loser would lose his/her position.
If both of them lose, then both of them will lose their position and if both of them win then we will select one trainer as per their performance.", said Joseph.
No one had a problem with this except for the trainers that were participating in the competition as they would have to face either Cynthia or Steven. That was just crazy.
###
Finally, the battle between Axel and Wallace came.
Both of them went to the stage with confidence. Axel was confident that he was going to win while Wallace was feeling the same thing. This was natural as both of them were talented and hardworking traine rs.
"Please call out your Pokemons.", said the referee.
Since the end of the first round, all of them knew the Pokemons that they were going to use. So, there was no need to use the coins.
Both of them called out their Pokemons with confidence.
"Are you both ready for the battle."
"Yes."
"Yes, I am."
"Good. Let the battle begin!"
"Wartortle, use 'Aqua Ring' and 'Withdraw' and then use 'Water pulse'.", shouted Axel.
"Krabby, use 'Bubble beam'", said Wallace with a calm face.
Wartortle first used the move 'Withdraw' but it didn't do it normally. Half of its face was inside the shell. Its legs were still on the ground but its hands were inside the shell. A bluish watery aura covered its whole body as a ring of protection.
Ding!
Wartortle has leveled up the move 'Withdraw' to level 40. Now it could choose to hide any part of the body as it wants. But the total defensive capabilities of the move have decreased.
This was a nice surprise. Axel had been telling Wartortle about this move for some time and now it was able to grasp it.
As Wartortle was ready to use 'Water pulse', Krabby was also ready to fire it towards it.
Another interesting thing about 'Bubble beam' that Krabby used was that it first used those bubbles to cover its whole body, especially its arms and legs. This move was modified and Axel was surprised that Wallace and Krabby would be able to do it.
This Krabby must be very talented. But it didn't really matter to Axel. Both of the moves clashed and Wartortle won this bout and Krabby was pushed away.
Wartortle immediately used 'Rain dance'. Actually, Axel wanted to start with 'Rain dance'. The move would improve the effects of water type moves but he knew that Wallace would not let him do it.
Krabby didn't have status moves like Wartortle. Of course, it had 'Amnesia' and 'Ancient power'. But Axel knew that Wallace was not stupid to use those moves at the start of the battle.
First of all, 'Ancient power' had a very low chance of increasing the stats and secondly, after using the move 'Amnesia', the user would forget a lot of things. So, the move was very risky.
"Krabby use 'Mud shot'", said Wallace.
Krabby was able to hit it but Wartortle had also completed the dance. With the effect of 'Withdraw' and 'Aqua ring', Wartortle was in a very healthy position.
"Damn it!, Krabby use 'Dig' and start the plan.", said Wallace.
"Wartortle, use the move 'Chilling water' and then 'Ice spinner'. Don't destroy the ground just cover them with ice.", said Axel.
Wartorlte's 'Chilling water' was not strong enough to create ice right now. However, due to the help of 'Rain dance' and also 'Ice spinner', it was able to create ice around the ground and around itself.
Wartortle's defense was very good as its shell was very hard but its stomach was its reverse scale. So, Axel had to do something to protect it. He knew that Krabby would come out of the ground any second and hit Wartortle and that was what happened.
Krabby came out with a loud roar. Its pincers were covered in grey color. Axel immediately knew that the move was called 'Metal Claw'. However, since the whole ground was covered in ice, its speed was drastically decreased and Wartortle was able to tell where it was coming from.
Wartortle was able to prevent itself from getting maximum damage. Its defense stayed true to its name as it was able to defend a large amount of damage.
" 'Wave crash' and then 'Skull bash'", said Axel.
'Wave crash' was a powerful move. The move would also damage the user a bit. Wartortle was instantly filled with a raging aura of water as it crashed into Krabby. Since both of them were close enough, it was not able to gain momentum, so the power of the attack was not so high.
But since it could take some time, the power of 'Skull bash' was very high. Since the move had also leveled up to 40, the power of the move was high. Krabby was flung over the stadium as it crashed with a loud thud.
The protection from the bubbles was already gone and now it had multiple wounds on its body.
It stood up with great difficulty and then used the move 'Mud shot' and Wartortle used the move 'Water pulse'.
As it was raining, the power of 'Water pulse' was heightened. Krabby lost again.
"Krabby, use 'Ancient power' and then use 'Amnesia'", said Wallace. He knew that he could lose at any time and so he could just take this risk.
Krabby first used the move 'Ancient power'. The ground started to shake and it threw a beam of energy towards Wartortle. Wartortle used the move 'Water gun' but the move fell short in front of 'Ancient power'.
Wartortle was hit by the attack. For some unknown reason, Krabby turned out lucky as all of its stats increased. This was a very good boost.
It then used the move 'Amnesia' which further increased its special defense. This was very well done as most of Wartortle's attack was special in nature.
But this also came at a cost as the move made it forget everything. It even forgot why it was here.
Wartortle of course took a lot of advantage of that but the time was running out and it had to use a powerful move.
It used the move 'Water gun' to distract Krabby for some time and then used the move 'Skull bash' again. By this time, Krabby already knew that Wartortle was the enemy and it had to fight with it.
It used the move 'Water gun' but Wartortle also countered it with its own 'Water gun'.
Wartortle won the bout and then used the move 'Wave crash'.
Krabby didn't stand up after that.
The battle was over.
"Krabby is unable to battle. Axel and Wartortle won this round.", said the referee.
"You fought well. I am impressed.", said Axel with a smile.
But Wallace thought that Axel was being sarcastic.
'What did I do so well? I messed up everything.', thought Wallace and went out of the stadium.
Wallace was competitive and he wanted to win against Axel but he lost and since this was the battle between common rank Pokemons, the battle was not so hardcore. So, it looked a bit stupid.
After some time, the second round was over and now it was time for Cynthia and Steven to decide which trainers they wanted to battle.
The trainers that were selected were:
Axel Krishna Crasher Susan Cynthia/Steven
These people were the cream of the crop and their battle strategy and tactics had impressed the elders.
"Since the second round has been over, it is now time to decide who is going to the semi-finals. Cynthia or Steven.
First, I want both of them to come to the stage.", said Joseph.
This was the first time he had seen Cynthia properly. Most of the time, his mind would be focusing on how to defeat her.
Axel must admit that Cynthia was really beautiful. If she had a bubbly personality, then she would have attracted a lot of boys. She had a long height, long yellow-colored hair, and a fair face.
"So, both of you are going to choose the trainer from those 4. Of course, to make things impartial, the first person to choose would be decided with a coin flip.", said Joseph.
A man came to the stage and told Steven to choose head or tail. Steven chose heads. and waited for the decision.
"It is heads, Steven wins.", declared the man.
"So, Steven among those 4 trainers, who do you choose?", asked Joseph.
Steven looked at all of them for some time and then spoke.