Chapter 68
After the royal family took their seats, the tournament was finally able to begin! With over 200 participants, the trainers had to battle at different venues otherwise a single day wouldn't have been able to conclude the tournament! Jax, Ally and Evelyn were all at different venues and as such, they wouldn't get the chance to hang out as much with each other today until most of the participants had been culled, if they even made it that far.
After a couple hours of intense battles, the tournament was put on hold so that the participants could enjoy lunch. Even if they were excited to conclude the tournament, the royal family wouldn't neglect their guests' basic needs. Meeting up with each other at the same restaurant as yesterday, the trio enjoyed their lavishing lunch and caught up with each other about how their battles had gone.
So far, all three had safely proceeded forward and were some of the last participants. As three out of the fifty left, the trio were beginning to think about how they could spend the money they would win. Even if their families were all well off, having extra spending money as individuals was always an added bonus.
While they rested and waited for the tournament to resume, Jax took the time to check his own pokemons' conditions. Ally did the same with her three pokemon and made sure that Mewton, Aegis the Aegislash, and Rummy the Reuniclus were in tip-top shape. Evelyn also checked her own three pokemon: Froggie who evolved into Greninja, Sylph the Sylveon, and Gallio the Gallade were ready for their next battles.
After three hours, the first one to be knocked out of the tournament was surprisingly Jax! After entering into the top 15, Jax was matched up against a trainer from the Sinnoh region. Out leveled, his pokemons tried their best to hold on managing to knock out two of the three pokemons that the trainer had. Unfortunately, they took too much damage throughout the battles and the trainer's Magmortar was able to sweep them away. Out of the tournament, Jax went to go look at his two friends' battles.
Ally was luckily matched with trainers around her level and was able to squeeze into the top 13 spot before being defeated by a Black-belt trainer who specialized in fighting-type pokemons. Now that both of them were out, they went to go cheer on their pink headed friend who was still trying her best. Barely missing the top 10 spot, Evelyn was defeated and cemented her place as the top 11 participant in this tournament!
Being some of the youngest challengers, many of the audience members were surprised by these children's prowess. Most trainers don't start their journey until they turn 10 years old so they were all shocked that kids who still looked like they were still drinking MooMoo milk were able to beat so many adults!
Even though they lost, the onlooking audience still cheered them on as they left the tournament venue. Some even placed bets on the children raking in a small fortune since they all landed within the top 20 spots; that was the top 20 trainers out of the 200 that participated in this tournament from all over the world!
Now that all three children were knocked out of the tournament, they resumed their previous activity and proceeded to check out more stalls. There were stalls that didn't sell anything and only had games with prizes to be won. Looking at all the games, Jax was reminded about the carnivals he only heard so much about in his previous life.
With a fish scooping game, the challenger held a small wooden paddle with a paper net and attempted to scoop up as many Magikarps as possible in the allotted time. Ally looked like she really, really wanted the giant Magikarp plushie, Jax tried his luck to scoop up the needed 100 Magikarps. To his utter shock, the game was a lot harder than he had thought! Not even getting five fish, Jax could only walk towards Ally and apologize but he was left gaping at the scene he witnessed! Evelyn, by luck or pure skills, had actually scooped up the top score and won the plushie for Ally!
'No way! Must be beginner's luck!' Not believing that Evelyn won through skills, Jax challenged her to all the games that lined this stretch of the road. Carefully breaking pokemon shapes out of caramel molds, hitting a cushion that launched a ball up towards a bell, raising an empty bottle using a stick and string, Jax lost at every single one! By the time the sun set and the stars began to shine, Ally had plushies of all sorts of pokemons but none of them were from Jax!
'Ugh! There has to be one game here that I can win!' Scanning around the populated street, Jax noticed a booth where male-female pairs were entering and exiting with a small, rectangular piece of paper. 'That's it! The one thing I can beat Evelyn at!'
"Ally! Let's go to that booth and stand in line! Give those dolls to the security guys." Dragging Ally away, Evelyn watched as the duo ran hand-in-hand to wait at the short line. Not knowing what Jax was up to, the pink-haired girl kept careful watch of his actions.
Ever since seeing him bring a random girl to her family's estate, Evelyn has kept an eye on Jax to see what his intentions with her best friend were. After the boy returned from the Empire after staying with them for a week, she hadn't seen any sign of the gunmetal grey-haired girl but she wasn't a fool. Even if she couldn't see the girl, she still heard Jax talking to someone who didn't sound like her friend!
'Hmph! Don't think I don't know you're just a womanizer! No way I'm letting my bestfriend fall into your evil hands!' Chasing after the two, Evelyn stood to the side and waited for the duo. What could they do in a tiny booth with her right outside, anyways? As the line progressed, it was finally Jax's and Ally's turn!
"Hehe! It's finally our turn, Ally!" Walking into the booth holding each other's hand, the two kids sat down on the bench and looked at the screen in front of them. Looking at the directions listed on the screen, Ally figured that it was a photo booth! Smiling at Jax's considerate suggestion, she went along with the directions.