Zesa City

It had been 2 weeks since that day and things have completely changed.

Sring.. Sring.. Sring...

One could see a man with a red hair and another young man with a light silver hair was sparring with their swords. Each of their movements were very fast.

The clashing of swords could be heard from far away too.

"Axel, let's stop for now. You have improved a lot.", said Red with a smile.

Axel had now completely devoted himself to making himself stronger so that he could protect himself.

"Remember, the thing that you need to be efficient is dogging. In the extreme case where your Pokemons cannot protect you, you need to give them some time so that you can stay alive.

But that doesn't mean that you are only going to do that. If you really want to master the grand energy and also above it, then you must use your aura powers to reach that level.", said Red.

"I know but the progress is very slow."

"Of course, it is going to be very slow. One cannot completely master aura in a week. Your progress is commendable for now. I think you are ready to master another aura technique."

"You are right. I will do that after the gym battle.", replied Axel huffing and puffing.

"Hmm, do you think that Salamence and Feraligatr are ready for it? They have just reached elemental ranks a few days before. They need some time to get used to their new ranks."

"I know but I don't have much time. They must be ready in 3 days cause I have already registered myself for the gym battle."

###

Feraligatr and Salamence had completed their rank up condition and just ranked up recently. This was the least that they needed to do for the gym battle. A lot of things have changed in these 2 weeks.

First of all, the day care had been almost completed and Agnes was quite busy on it. After seeing so many eggs of new Pokemons and new Pokemons, she was totally invested on it.

Axel's plan had come to fruition. Agnes was slowly thinking about the day care and she may not even think about being a trainer in the future.

Her Wartortle had also evolved from Squirtle and her Dragonite was in rare rank. Axel must admit that she had quite a knack for being a good trainer.

The one who had made the most progress was actually Gandiva the Staravia. It had taken this training seriously and its progress was actually much higher than other Pokemons in Axel's team.

Its hidden power typing was fire which didn't surprise Axel as Staravia was known for its arrogance. This brought a lot of changes in its training plan.

Staravia had successfully learned the move 'Mud-slap' and it had also upgraded it to level 30 as of now. Its stats had leveled up a lot and due to medicinal baths, vitamins and other resources, its body had gotten stronger than compared to last month.

It actually looked completely different than before. It's height increased to 0.8 meter compared to 0.5 meter a month back. Its feathers looked shiny now and it looked very handsome.

Axel looked at its status page once again to see the difference.

Pokemon's name: Staravia

Pokemon Nickname: Gandiva

Pokemon Rank: Common rank

Pokemon Tying: Normal/Flying

Ability: Intimidate (80%)

Hidden Ability: Reckless (40%)

Potential: Red (Advanced)

Health: 900/900 Attack: A

Agility: A+ Defense: B

Sp. Atk: B+ Sp. Def: B+

Moves:

Active move: Quick attack (G) (Lvl 34), Aerial ace (G) (Lvl 35), Double team (C) (Lvl 24), Wing attack (G) (Lvl 35), Feather dance (C) (Lvl 28), Tail wind (C) (Lvl 28), Fiery aura (G) (Lvl 31), Mud-slap (G) (Lvl 30), Agility (C) (Lvl 24), Heat Wave (G) (Lvl 31)

Passive move: Struggle king, Intellect mind

None of its moves had leveled up to 40 and above but that could be understood as it was so weak before. But now, a lot of things have changed. Its stats have massively increased and its move mastery had also increased a lot. It had learned 3 new moves; 'Mud-slap', 'Agility', and 'Heat wave'.

All of these move were very practical and essential. Staraiva like Pidgeot was going to be a speed-focused Pokemon and it would be focusing on physical attacks. So, having moves like 'Agility' was essential for it.

Axel knew that if this was any other Pokemon in his team, they would have such a massive change. But Staravia had done it. It looked like the move 'Struggle Bug' was really coming along.

Axel had trained Pidgeot before. So, he knew how to train a Pokemon who was focused purely on flying-type moves. But Axel didn't want Staravia to be the next Pidgeot. He wanted to do something else with it.

So, he had to devise a new battle strategy for Staravia, but that could wait until it could master its existing moves to a satisfactory level.

"Gandiva, you have done a good job till now. But you must know that you are still far behind others. You only have 2 months left before the start of the Blaze family Pokemon competition.", said Axel.

Cripp. Cripp..

It shouted by swaying its wings as if saying that it knew about it and it could handle all of them. Even it didn't believe that it could progress so rapidly in just 2 weeks. That was only half a month. So, it still had 2 and a half months and it believed that it would be ready for all of them till that time.

"Hehe, it looks like you don't understand what you are getting into. Let me tell you, as I have already said, the Pokemons with the same rank would be fighting against each other. You are very close to evolution right now. So, in these 2 and half months, you will surely reach your final evolution.

At that time, you will be an uncommon rank Pokemon and you will be facing different kinds of Pokemons in that round.

Crip….?

Gandiva was shocked because it had not thought of such a crucial thing before.

"Let me give you some inside information. Wartortle will also evolve during that time but Magnemite will not reach its final evolution. But since this is Blaze Pokemon competition, you will not only be facing my team but a team of other people also.

Like the team of my dad, mom, and my uncle. You might also be facing the team of my friends. They may or may not come but there is a possibility that they will.", said Axel.

Crippp. Cripp…..

It was basically saying, 'Then how do I plan for those battles when I don't know who I will be facing?'

Staravia was devastated. It was so confident in its victory that it had been practicing its victory pose after it won the competition. But now there was a strong variable.

"We cannot plan that but there is something that we can do so that you can win this battle. Prepare and become stronger as soon as possible. You have to strategize on how you will deal with every situation of the battle."

Staravia was frustrated. It had thought that it might be facing Magnemite, so it trained on 'Mud-slap' but now it had to prepare for every scenario. That was just not fair. How was it going to handle all of them?

"Since you are under a lot of pressure, let me help you out a bit. If you do something for me, then I might leak the name of the Pokemons that you will be facing in the tournament. This is an offer that I have not given to anyone else."

Crippp. Cripp….

It said that it was ready.

"So, what you have to do is…."

###

After a few days,

Axel was now in a different city and this was his first time coming here. Zesa City was different. It was not one of the 8 famous gym cities of the Johto region but it was still a gym city. So, its development was better than a normal city.

At least, that was what Axel had expected but he was totally wrong. The city looked very ancient. It gave a sort of ancient and mythical vibe. The buildings looked old cause the paint had started to come off. But it also didn't look disgusting.

It was a weird combination. Axel was a famous trainer and when the gym received the news that he was going to compete here, they had advertised the hell out of it. This had gathered a lot of attention among the locals and some of the tourists from the nearby cities had also come here to watch the battle.

Since he was so famous now, he could not go out in the city like a normal person. Recently, he was hailed as the first knight of the Kanto region and this had increased his reputation to a whole new level. So, Axel had a big hood and a mask. He tried his best not to look like a villain but people were staring at him. He got to his hotel room and locked himself in.

The gym battle was going on to be tomorrow and most of the hotels were packed. This was the first time in a long while that the city had so many tourists and businesses.

###

"Rob, are you ready for tomorrow's battle?"

"Yes, I am, and don't ask me the same question 49th time in a row.", snarled a young man.

"It is just that this is your big match since you took over the gym and I just want everything to be perfect. Which Pokemon are you going to use tomorrow?", asked the young girl.

"What makes you think that I going to tell you about it? It is a surprise. The battle is going to be the same as every time. If he is not a competent trainer, he will lose and try again but if he is a good trainer, then he will win. I will not differentiate like the other high-class gym leaders."

"Sigh, you never listen to a thing that I say. Why do you want me as your assistant?"

"You know why. Now, let me rest. It is Axel that should be nervous about tomorrow, not me. I am the gym leader, the examiner. How can an examiner but nervous about taking the test?", asked the young man.

"Maybe, you are right but the boy is the successor of the Pokemon master. What if something bad happens and Oak decides to nuke our city? You have heard the news."

"And why would he do that? The Pokemon master is a reasonable man and he will not do such things if we are neutral and you know I am neutral."

"Sigh, you are right. Best of luck for tomorrow."

"I said, I don't need the luck because I am here to get the badge."

###

The next morning,

Tring.. Tring.. Tring.. Tring..

Katchak.

"Hello."

"Good morning, Mr. Axel. The car is right outside your hotel for the gym battle. We are ready when you are.", came a voice.

"Ok, I will be down in 10 minutes."

"Yes sir."

This was the provision that Axel had requested from the gym as he was so famous and he didn't want to be stopped every 10 steps by the public.

He took all of his Pokeballs and then got ready for the gym battle.

"Let's win this."

 ---

A/N: Hello, everyone. I have just opened the Discord server with many new cool channels and categories. You can get some juicy updates on the novel and the world of Pokemon. It is also a nice place to just hang out and chat. 

So, if you are interested, do click on the link below:

https://discord.gg/4XTAh4Jh