The next morning.
Solaria Town was bathed in sunlight.
At that moment, Solaria Town was beginning to wake up, while the singing of birds resounded in the sky.
Although the Solaria Town Gym had still not opened its doors, a crowd had already gathered in front of the entrance. Most of them were spectators, although there was also a small portion of challengers.
"Leader Ethan will face the Trainers in training from all the Leagues today in the Pokémon Gym. Truly, this is too exciting."
The spectators held their tickets in their hands, all with expressions of anticipation on their faces.
"That's right. As soon as I received the news, I came from Solaris City just to see this battle. After Leader Ethan defeated that guy called Sanada Ichiro so easily in Solaris City, I became a complete fan of Leader Ethan from then on!"
Another spectator nodded, his eyes full of admiration.
At the same time, inside the Gym...
"Ethan, this time, a truly huge number of challengers have come."
"If we add up the Trainers in training from all the Leagues, there are already more than one hundred!"
At that moment, Alex had the list of challengers in his hands. After giving it a quick look, he put a hand to his forehead and showed a worried expression.
Although he had absolute confidence in Ethan, facing so many people all at once made him think that perhaps even he might not be able to handle everything.
"Relax. With the Pokémon lineup I have right now, no matter how many come, I can take care of all of them."
On the battlefield, Ethan was accompanied by a total of twelve Pokémon: Sandslash, Cacturne, Slowking, Shuckle, Melmetal, Vibrava, Charizard, Lucario, Magmortar, Litwick, Rhyperior, and Tyranitar.
Before those challenges began, Ethan had already announced that all the battles would follow the 1-on-1 rule.
Now he had twelve Pokémon at his disposal, so it would be enough for each one to defeat more than ten enemies.
"'Only' defeat more than ten... enemies per Pokémon?"
After hearing Ethan's words, even Naira's eyelid twitched.
It had to be known that those were the best Trainers in training from each League.
Although, due to the agreements between the different Leagues, Elite-level forces could not easily leave their own League, as Trainers in training, those combatants were still extremely strong. They could perfectly be considered reserve members to become Elite-level Trainers.
And even so, in such a situation, Ethan still showed absolute calm. Truly, even Naira could not help feeling nervous for him.
But, for some reason, at that moment, what Ethan had told her the day before echoed again in her head: "As long as an Elite does not come personally, I have absolute certainty of winning."
How much confidence did it take to say a phrase like that?!
"Don't tell me... does he already have Elite-level strength?"
Suddenly, a terrifying thought appeared in Naira's mind, making her beautiful eyes open wide.
While Ethan was finalizing his preparations inside the Gym, the challengers from the various Leagues were also arriving one after another in front of the Solaria Town Gym.
"It's finally going to begin. Those who have come all the way here are all exceptional Trainers in training from their respective Leagues."
"I refuse to believe that, even so, they won't be able to defeat a mere world champion from the junior group."
Sanada Ichiro looked at the Solaria Town Gym in front of him while gritting his teeth.
After having been defeated twice in a row by Ethan, he had already completely abandoned any idea of facing him head-on again.
But, as one of the main driving forces behind this entire incident, he was eagerly waiting to see Ethan fall defeated at the hands of others.
As time passed, more and more gazes focused on the Solaria Town Gym.
Due to Ethan's identity, combined with the fact that Trainers in training from different Leagues were involved in that battle, this confrontation seemed almost like a dress rehearsal before the World Championship.
Although the result of that battle could not directly represent the outcome of the World Championship, it could, to a certain extent, reflect the strength of the different Leagues.
In addition, since that battle had been organized right before the official opening of the Solaria Town Gym, it was also considered a kind of media warm-up before the inauguration.
If Ethan managed to crush all the challengers once again in one go, that would be enough to turn him all at once into the strongest Trainer of the League.
And, at the same time, that could also give him an enormous reputation, something that would be very favorable for him when it came to obtaining a spot for the World Championship.
"The door opened! The Gym door opened!"
At that moment, a wave of cheers suddenly rose from the crowd.
As the enormous doors of the Gym slowly opened, a battle field that looked like a large sports stadium came into view.
When the Gym was built, Ethan and the others had already taken into account that the place could also acquire properties similar to those of a club.
Because of that, to a great extent, they took as reference the layout of the battlefield on the upper floor of the Pokémon Nightstar Club, so that the entire venue could accommodate more than a thousand people as spectators.
"Alex, is everything ready with the healing work for the Pokémon?"
As he watched the spectators begin to take their seats, Ethan turned toward Alex and asked him.
"Don't worry, Ethan. With so many Grass-type Pokémon in our Gym that master the move Grassy Terrain and all kinds of healing moves, there will be no problem with recovery."
"And besides, we are going to take advantage of this opportunity to promote the Pokémon therapeutic services of the Solar Farm. It is an excellent opportunity to earn money!"
Alex gave him a thumbs-up with confidence. If you wanted to organize truly worthy battles, one of the aspects you had to take the most care of was precisely the healing of the Pokémon.
"Ethan, do your best."
In the backstage area, senior sister Naira, with an almost young-wife-like attitude, encouraged him enthusiastically.
"Relax, senior sister. This battle is very important, both for me and for my Pokémon Gym."
"I will definitely win it!"
Ethan smiled with confidence and walked with large strides toward the battle field.
At that moment, with the entrance of the spectators and the challengers, the entire venue was sunk in great agitation.
But as soon as Ethan appeared on the scene, the murmur of the crowd was abruptly cut off, and almost everyone directed their gaze toward the figure standing on the field.
"It's Leader Ethan!"
"He really is very young. They say Leader Ethan is only twenty years old. And, seeing him now, it seems true."
"Yes, honestly. If one did not know that Leader Ethan is so strong, it would be hard to imagine that the one who is going to face the Trainers in training from all the Leagues today is such a young boy."
After that brief initial silence, waves of comments once again rose throughout the venue, with exclamations of astonishment everywhere.
"He's here. So that is our opponent?"
Mixed among the spectators, the Trainers in training from the different Leagues were also observing Ethan at the center of the field.
"At that age, no matter how strong he is, he still can't be that much, right?"
"Compared with that, quite a few Trainers in training from other Leagues have come this time."
"If we can battle against the Trainers who came from those other Leagues, then this trip will already have been worth it."
After observing Ethan, several of them shifted their attention toward the other Trainers in training present.
In reality, besides defeating that Ethan, they had all come with the idea of taking advantage of this challenge as an opportunity to gather the Trainers in training from all the Leagues in one place.
At the same time, that was also an excellent occasion for the Trainers in training from different Leagues to exchange experiences.
Or, to put it another way, that was actually the true objective with which they had come all the way there.
(End of chapter)