160 Youth Cup-4

Some trainers like Iris and Aaron took their loss with open arms while others like Clair and Elsa didn't come out of their rooms.

Life didn't change much for the people who won the previous matches as they continued to train but there was a difference.

The trainers who lost had started to help their friends for the next round.

For example, Misty was helped by Siebold due to them both being water-type trainers and her next opponent being a water trainer.

Aoki had left his Gyarados and Nidoking with Misty to push her Pokemon to their limits to prepare for their next match.

Sometimes even Darkrai helped her.

Cynthia asked Iris to fight her as she knew that she would be facing Aoki soon.

Aoki disappeared for two days into Darkrai's dimensions making others think he was busy training.

In the dimension, he only made his Pokemon fight each other, especially Pidgeot and Victreebel,as they had started to fall behind others in power.

As for Aerodactyl, Aoki was training him alone as he needed to master his already existing moves and modify them to become more useful.

Aside from this, Aoki made some new changes to the training plan of others.

The first method was for the ones who could Mega Evolve to understand the changes that had taken place in them and replicate them in their base form.

For example, Charizard's flames turn dark purple in Mega form which he was now trying to replicate in base form.

Salamence in his mega form gained a bit of control over the energy of chaos which was unexpected so he started to try doing the same in base form.

This training method would not only make them understand themselves better but also increase their energy understanding.

The next training plan was for the ones who could not use Mega Evolution like Victreebel, Pidgeot, and Clefalbe.

Aoki tasked Darkrai to forcefully inject the energy of chaos into their bodies while they tried to get rid of it using Aoki's Dark Aura and their energy.

This will not only increase their resistance but also increase their energy control along with their synergy with Aoki's Dark Aura.

While his main team was busy, he trained with the new batch of Pokemon and bonded with them.

This batch contained Trapinch who liked to train to get food, Eevee who wanted to get strong to protect Aoki and be around him, Axew who still hates Aoki but can't disagree that his methods had made him gain strength at a rapid rate, and finally Abra who wanted to laze around.

For Eevee, he made Clefable introduce Fairy-type energy into her body so that Eevee can replicate that energy to learn fairy-type moves like a charm, baby doll eyes, misty terrain, and disarming voice.

For Trapinch, he made him bathe under Salamence's Dragon-type energy and increase his physical attacks and speed before moving to special attacks.

For Axew, he repeated the same thing as bathing under Salamance's Dragon-type energy and increased his dragon-type physical attacks.

He mainly taught Axew slash attacks which utilized his claws and tusk.

Axew's tusks were known to break often after heavy attacks but each time they broke, a stronger one grew back so Aoki made sure Axew broke his tusk often to make a stronger one grow.

For Abra, he had pushed his mind to the limit by making him continuously dodge attacks using teleport while carrying a heavy load.

Aoki made sure to teach all four of his new Pokemon his version of a calm mind and breathing exercises.

Aside from this, Clefable or the Chansey squad was always present there to apply gravity on them while training.

Aoki didn't completely depend on the aura and gave them some energy orbs to increase their power.

***********

"Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to the second round of Youth Cup.

Without much delay, let's start our first match.

With a huge round of applause, welcome our first two participants.

Misty Williams from Kanto and Wallace from Hoenn region. "

As two of them were water-type trainers, a water-type battlefield was chosen for them to show their maximum potential.

Misty and Wallance had determination in their eyes as they entered the field. Being water-type trainers, it was a matter of pride to prove themselves better than their opponents.

Wallace released his lineup being Gyarados, Ludicolo, Walrein, Swampert, Slowbro, and his ace elite Milotic.

Misty too immediately released her lineup Gyarados, Kingdra, Starmie, Politoed, Slowking, and Golduck.

Although she didn't have a specific ace, her battle style mostly revolved around Gyarados and Slowking.

Wallace after analyzing Misty knew that she could not command multiple Pokemon at once so he made all his Pokemon target individual Pokemon of Misty.

His Gyarados began clashing with Misty's Gyarados, Slowbro confronted Slowking, and Swampert confronted Golduck which was especially heated since it was a rematch between them, Walreain confronted Starmie, and finally, Milotic confronted Politoed.

As the match went on, to Wallace's surprise, Misty was almost equal to him.

Her major weakness that her Pokemon completely depended on her commands was almost gone.

The way she dodged the attacks of his Pokmon was almost perfect.

From the participant's area, Aoki smiled seeing the situation.

"Did you do something ?" Sabrina asked.

"I had some of my Pokemon go berserk on Misty's team.

She had already trained in different techniques, the only thing left was to connect those techniques and apply those in battle which I helped her do" Aoki replied.

"Hmm…..her improvement in the last three days is massive.

But even with all those improvements, I don't think it will be easy to win against Wallace.

Both of them have almost equal strength and techniques which makes it difficult to predict the winner " Sabrina said.

"You are right, even I can't predict this match's outcome," Aoki said.

*************

Boom!

With one Hyperbeam, Milotic hit Politoed immediately making Politoed faint putting pressure on Misty.

Somehow that pressure pushed Misty as the next minute her Gyarados managed to eliminate Wallace's Gyarados.

That is when the match which was in a deadlock for a while, started moving faster.

The one-on-one battle that was earlier now made some Pokemon work together.

In this clash, Misty's Gyarados got eliminated with a Solar Beam from Ludicolo who got eliminated by an Ice beam from Kingdra.

Slowbro and Swampert work together to fight Slowking and Starmie.

In this confrontation, Slowbro and Starmie got eliminated while Slowking and Swampert kept fighting.

Walrein was blastic ice-type moves nonstop and managed to take down Kingdra.

Now on Misty's side, she had Golduck and Slowking while Wallace had Walrein and Swampert. With the combination of Future sight and grass knot, Slowking took down Milotic

Now that the pressure was decreased, Misty started to use everything she had to command her two Pokemon against Wallace.

Walrein was defeated by Slowking while Swampert managed to defeat Golduck in the rematch.

The final confrontation was now between Slowking and Swampert who were both almost out of strength.

The audience and the Elite four were on the edge of their seats during the last few minutes of the match.

Using the last of their strength two of the Pokemon used their final moves.

Slowking's Hyper Beam and Swampert's Hydro Cannon clashed creating a large explosion and throwing both the Pokemon off the field at the same time unable to wake up anymore.

Both the participants had lost all their Pokemon at the same time making it a tie.

As per the rules, both Misty and Wallace were eliminated from the tournament.

With frustration and anger for her inability to win, Misty called back her Pokemon as she walked towards Wallace.

Wallace's eyes felt devoid of emotions as she shook Misty's hand and walked away clenching his fist.

For the first time in his training career, he could not defeat a water-type trainer.

This was a huge hit to this pride and confidence.

"Just you wait Misty...I will crush you the next time we fight" Wallace muttered.

**************

Misty walked slowly through the hallway to the participant's area but stopped seeing Aoki standing in her path.

"I lost…..even after working so hard" Misty smiled as tears rolled down her eyes.

"How do you feel?" Aoki asked.

"Frustrated and angry at myself. I was so close to winning…

If I had just trained a bit more, I could have won"

"After seeing what real competition looks like, you know what you lack right ?" Aoki said.

"Experience, originality, and more strategy " Misty replied.

"You know what to do about it right ?"

"I have to keep working hard till I win" Misty replied. Aoki smiled and hugged her as more tears rolled down her face.

Aoki would never mention things like Misty should be grateful for being in this event where millions can only dream.

If she wants to improve, she should not be satisfied with any other rank other than the highest.

The day she is satisfied by any other rank, she would stop growing.

*********

Today's second round was between Sabrina from Kanto and Cynthia Shirona from Sinnoh.

From her last match, Cythina had acquired a huge number of supporters and eyes of expectations. Not just Sinnoh, but even people from different regions cheered for her.

Even then, Sabrina's popularity was also nothing to be scoffed at.

Misty watched the match with excitement as Sabrina was fighting in it while Aoki watched with high expectations.

Although he had only fought Sabrina one on one a few times, he had given her a lot of ways to become stronger.

He was excited to see how far she can go against someone like Cynthia.

Sabrina released her lineup being Banette, Dusknoir, Espeon, Slowbro, elite rank Alakazam, and elite rank Gardevoir.

Cynthia released her lineup which was a bit different from the last time. Her team now included Roserade, Spiritomb, Umbreon, Milotic, elite rank Lucario, and Quiasi champion rank Garchomp.

"Let the match begin !"