Lance is Serious

Axel looked at the list of Pokemons that were going to fight in the competition. There was a huge list of Pokemons in this competition and it might take some time to finish the whole competition. Axel was not worried about that. 

He had time to relax and train himself and his Pokemons now. He first looked at the list of Pokemons that were going to fight.

Common Rank Pokemons:

1. Togetic (Axel)

2. Bagon (Axel)

3. Aerodactyl (Axel)

4. Croconaw (Axel)

5. Togepi (Lance)

6. Riolu (Lance)

Uncommon rank Pokemons:

1. Primeape (Axel)

2. Pidgeot (Cerlin)

3. Golduck (Lyra)

Rare rank Pokemons:

1. Milotic (Hymer)

2. Dragonite (Agnes)

Elemental rank Pokemons:

1. Heracross (Ryker)

2. Tyranitar (Kate)

3. Crobat (K)

4. Golbat (Lyra)

5. Slowking (Noah)

6. Butterfree (Frank)

7. Charizard (Frank)

8. Crobat (Frank)

9. Machamp (Frank)

10. Jolteon (Frank)

Pseudo-king rank Pokemons:

 10. Arcanine (Ryker) 20. Pidgeot (K)

1. Venusaur (Axel) 11. Magmar (Ryker) 21. Camerupt (Cody)

2. Absol (Axel) 12. Garchomp (Ryker) 22. Torkoal (Cody)

3. Tauros (Axel) 13. Rampardos (Ryker) 23. Blastoise (Lyra)

4. Pidgeot (Axel) 14. Primeape (Kate) 24. Poliwrath (Lyra)

5. Arcanine (Lance) 15. Volcarona (Kate) 25. Raichu (Lyra)

6. Steelix (Lance) 16. Gengar (Kate) 26. Aggron (Hymer)

7. Gyarados (Lance) 17. Chandelure (Kate) 27. Sceptile (Hymer)

8. Salamence (Lance) 18. Venusaur (K) 28. Raichu (Frank)

9. Golem (Lance) 19. Sandslash (K) 29. Scizor (Noah)

30. Arcanine (Arron)

31. Ninetales (Cerlin)

King rank (Tier 1) Pokemons:

1. Alakazam (Axel)

2. Mamoswine (Axel)

3. Lance (Dragonite)

4. Charizard (Kate)

5. Blaziken (Cody)

6. Blastoise (Hymer)

 King rank (Tier 2) Pokemons:

1. Shedinja (Axel)

2. Charizard (Axel)

3. Beedrill (Axel)

4. Machamp (Cody)

5. Hypno (Cody)

King rank (Tier 3) Pokemons:

1. Slowemperor (Axel)

3. Venusaur (Cody) 

A total of 66 Pokemons were participating in this competition. That was a lot of Pokemons from the last time. The common rank Pokemons mainly consisted of Axel's Pokemons. Most of them had not caught new Pokemons. Axel was the only anomaly to catch so many Pokemons. After Axel, there were 2 of Lance's Pokemons.

One of them was Togepi which he had caught recently with Axel and the other one was Riolu.

'Now this is a surprise. Why did he add Riolu to the list? Did he make a mistake?', thought Axel.

Lance had just caught Riolu and it had not been trained. Lance didn't even have a good connection with the Pokemon. Even Axel had not put his Riolu on the list. 

He did ask Lance if he had made a mistake but Lance had really not made a mistake. He had deliberately put Riolu on the list. Axel didn't ask further questions about it as it was not his Pokemon.

###

The uncommon rank only consisted of 3 Pokemons. One was from his mother too. Since she started the restaurant, she had caught a Pidgey and as per Axel's recommendation, it had a black potential. She mainly caught it to deliver messages from her workplace to her home. 

However, Cerlin had also trained it very well. Axel wanted Pidgeot to deliver food too in the future. The concept of food delivery did exist in this world but the concept was a failure. There were too many reasons for it. However, Axel wanted to make a delivery system in his restaurant. 

The rare rank Pokemons section only had 2 Pokemons. One was Dragonite of Agnes and another was Milotic of Hymer. Hymer was a part of the Toise family that Lyra had invited. She only invited one of them as the other was not interested in this competition.

Looking at Hymer's Pokemons, it looked like he was more powerful than Lyra. He also had a king-rank Pokemon which Lyra didn't.

This got him thinking. 

'How could a trainer like Hymer be more powerful and talented than Lance? He had never heard of such a brilliant trainer. Did this Hymer die early? Or is this a butterfly effect?', thought Axel.

He wanted to meet this Hymer guy. He wanted to see how young Hymer was and how strong Hymer was. 

The elemental rank Pokemons mainly consisted of Frank's Pokemons. Almost all of them were in elemental ranks. Raichu had recently ranked up to pseudo-king rank. So, among all the young geniuses, Frank was the weakest. There were some Pokemons of Ryker, Kate, K, and Lyra.

Axel was surprised to see that Ryker had Heracross and Kate had Tyranitar with them. They had not taken these Pokemons even during the battle with Shiinotics. Heracross had strong attack power but Ryker's personality didn't let him have a bug-type Pokemon. It was also a fighting type, so he wanted to see what core it had.

Kate had Tyranitar. That was a pseudo-legendary Pokemon. Frankly, based on just Pokemon's name, Kate might be the strongest. If this was a game, not the real world, Kate might be the strongest. She had many interesting and powerful Pokemons like Gengar, Volcarona, and Chandelure. If she could train them well, they could be very powerful in the future. 

###

The highest number of Pokemons in any rank was in the pseudo-king rank. There was a total of 32 Pokemons in just the pseudo-king rank section. This situation could easily be understood. Most of these Pokemons were from same-aged trainers like Axel. 

Even though they were not as talented and powerful as Axel, they could not be underestimated. So, most of their Pokemons were in pseudo-king rank. Axel had seen all these Pokemons during the battle in the caved hill. 

Hymer had Sceptile and Aggron listed in this section. Aggron was a powerful Pokemon. He had seen Steven's Aggron before and it had devastated Kanto's group. He hoped that it was not as powerful as that Aggron. Sceptile was also a powerful Pokemon and Axel was surprised that Hymer, being from a Toise family would have such Pokemons.

Toise family mainly focused on defense and Sceptile focused on speed. He was interested to see that Pokemon after a week.

###

Axel had seen all of these king-rank Pokemons except for Blastoise of Hymer. Cody also had a Blazekin. Axel was always fascinated by this Pokemon and it was one of their favorite Pokemons. He wanted to fight with it.

From king rank tier 2, it was only Axel's and Cody's Pokemons. Cody was way older than all of them and he was from Venu family. So, it was natural to have a higher tier of king-rank Pokemons.

This showed how ahead Axel was compared to other geniuses. Maybe, only Cynthia and Steven could fight against Axel on equal footing. 

###

The list was finalized. They had also made a website for it. The announcement had been made on the website and the website quickly drew a lot of traffic. 

The list was not going to be on the internet. If this was posted on the internet, all the people in the world would know of Axel's Pokemons and their ranks. Axel didn't want that to happen.

Axel could also see that the group had not listed all of their Pokemons. This might be cause wanted to hide some of their strength. Axel had listed all of his Pokemons for the battle. Except for Gogoat, who didn't want to participate in this type of competition, Roilu, which was just caught, and Gyarados and Steelix that were training on the island, he had listed all of his Pokemons. 

Axel noticed that Lance had not listed those dragon-type Pokemons that had been thrown out of the stage by Salamence. He was curious about the reason for it.

###

Flashback, 1 day ago.

Lance had called out all of his Pokemons in one of the training grounds. He looked at all of them with a serious face and told them about the upcoming competition in which he decided to participate. Everyone wanted to compete in this competition and show off their powers. 

Lance didn't obstruct them in it. After the island and spending time with Axel for a long time, Lance had come to realize that his views in training and his personality were too narrow. 

He wanted to be the best, but he didn't train like the best. He wanted to be at the top, but he wanted to hide his strength. He seriously compared himself with Axel and found out that he lacked in everything. Axel was even better looking than him. 

He considered Axel as his brother but he also knew that there was a sort of rivalry between them. However, he also came to realize that Axel didn't consider him as a rival and why would he? Axel was vastly more powerful than him. 

So, he decided to change all of these. He had heard the details of Axel's training. He was going to follow it from now on and he would also improve it. How can he come close to Axel if he didn't improve?

Just like Axel, Lance had also used 'aura sense' while selecting Riolu. He found one that interested him. This Riolu had black potential and it wanted to be at the top but it was always bettered by others. Riolu's personality and situation matched exactly with Lance's. So, Lance caught it.

He went near to Riolu and said, "I know that we have just begun our friendship and I also recognize your feelings. I also feel the same with Axel. 

So, why don't I also list you in the battle? Remember, Axel's Pokemons are vastly stronger and you will definitely lose. There is no doubt about it but even if you lose, we will not give up. We will train even harder and then challenge them again."

For the first time, Riolu felt that someone understood it. It immediately agreed. Even though it might lose, it will not give up.

He then looked at other dragon-type Pokemons that were sent out of the field by Salamence. Their confidence had plummeted to an all-time low. Being discarded like that was a great shame for a dragon-type Pokemon.

"Now, all 4 of you. I will not let you participate in this competition. You have lost the right for it.", shouted Lance.

All of them felt even more bad after hearing it. Even their trainer felt like that.

"It is not cause I think that you are thrash. This is just your punishment. I know it is your fault that you were sent out of the stadium but it is also my fault as a trainer. I must not have raised you well.

But just like I talked with little Riolu here, we will not back down. Your training would now be harder than others. You are not participating in this contest. Think of it like a punishment and train harder than before. 

After 4 months, we can go to that dragon-type resource place again and we will face that Salamence together. Then we will show who is the boss!!!"

ROOOAR

ROOOAR

ROOOOAR

ROOOAR

Their blood boiled with a vengeance. They were dragon-type Pokemons and someone had trampled on their pride. They would definitely not let it go. They had now decided to train even harder and be at the top.

Lance then started to break down his training plans into even minute details. He was going to check each of their body stats and concentrate on it. He will also think of some new moves for his Pokemons. Even though it would be hard to train in new moves, he had seen Axel do it. So, he was positive that his Pokemons would also be able to do it with time. 

If Dragon (Lance's father) was here, he would have been happy to see his son grow. Lance might be far weaker than Axel right now but seeing the determination of him and his Pokemons, the future would be quite interesting.

Flashback end.