The First Match of the Top 32 was between Aizen and a Trainer named Cameron, who was from Unova.
Even though the Prince was confident in his ability, he had studied the matches of the boy in the tournament so far and had paid a careful attention to his battle style.
When the two met at the First Water Battlefield at 9 a.m., Cameron had a confident smile on his face, and Aizen was pleased about it.
The Top 32 and the Top 16 matches were those in which Trainers could use four Pokémon each, so the First Round was not as crucial as it had been up to this point.
There was enough room to make a comeback, and this was the reason Cameron was relaxed.
However, that smile faltered when he saw his Samurott facing an Electivire.
Even the audience was surprised, as most of them had been expecting Blastoise to make another appearance.
Leaf gasped in the stands when she laid eyes on Elektra and witnessed how powerful the Electric Pokémon looked.
"When did she evolve?"
"A couple of days ago," Anira asnswred. " Want to know a secret?" She mischievously asked, and her friend curiously looked at her.
She knew Anira would not give away secrets or say things if Aizen was not okay with them.
"What?"
"Elektra did not lose Static upon evolution. She has three abilities."
"What?!" Even Gary was shocked at her words and intently stared at the Electivire, who was menacingly glaring at her opponent.
As soon as the match started, the Electric Pokémon used Discharge, and Cameron could not even ask Samurott to get into the water, as that would have been suicide.
"Hydro Pump!"
To everyone's surprise, it managed to use the move, even though it was partially paralysed.
Electivire suddenly leapt into the water to dodge the powerful torrent of water headed her way, and then she unleashed another Discharge beneath the pool.
When she climbed back up again, she was struck by a powerful Hydro Pump, ending up getting slammed into the wall of the pool.
Aizen, however, still did not give her a command.
His Electivire tried to get up again and managed to bait the Samurott as it unleashed another Hydro Pump at her.
At the very last moment, she dived into the water again before quickly resurfacing on the platform.
Elektra, who somehow looked even more charged up, grinned at the Water Pokémon before using Thunder, which struck the target directly.
Cameron was stunned at the intensity of the attack, and his Pokémon was left paralysed.
And then things came to an end when Electivire used Wild Charge and threw the Pokémon into the pool.
The Electric Pokémon jumped into the water again and used Discharge, and those who were paying close attention realised what Electivire was trying to achieve.
"Elektra is using her own Discharge to create an Electric attack on herself inside the water, utilising her Motor Drive to make her faster," Brock spoke in reverence at the Pokémon's intelligence, and Anira happily nodded her head.
"Exactly."
"Wow..." Gary and Ritchie were shocked and eagerly waited to see the Electric Pokémon's next battle.
In the second round, Cameron gritted his teeth and sent out his Hydreigon.
Aizen smiled when he saw the powerful Dragon, and he chose not to recall Elektra.
What followed was a battle that forced the people to rise to their feet, and Elektra quite literally beat the life out of Hydreigon when she managed to climb over its back and use Close Combat.
Cameron was stunned when the haggard and tired Electric Pokémon defeated his powerful Hydreigon. And the way Electivire sent bolts into the sky to announce her victory made the crowd go wild in excitement.
Even the referee was looking at the Electric Pokémon with reverence, beyond shocked at its pride and resilience.
Next, the boy from Unova sent out his Bronzong.
Electivire looked pumped up to continue, but Aizen chose not to let her.
"Give an opportunity to your friends too, girl." He playfully said, and Electivire quickly returned to his side and shared a fist bump, sending a playful shock through him, before returning to her Pokéball.
Aizen then revealed another Pokémon in the tournament, his Gengar, who traumatised Cameron by how effortlessly it dealt with his mighty Bronzong.
In the fourth round, no longer thinking clearly, the boy simply sent out his Greninja, and Aizen kept his Gengar out.
The Ghost Pokémon toyed around with the poor Water Pokémon. Even though the latter had a type advantage against it, Greninja failed and fell unconscious after being smacked by Brick Break and Thunder Punches. It was helpless against Gengar's speed even though it was very fast as well.
After the match, and after successfully making it into the Top 16, where he had not lost a single round in the Conference so far, Aizen's ratings skyrocketed, and he was tied with Egnar as the favourite now.
Aizen, Electivire, and Gengar's victory motivated all the Trainers in the Top 32, especially Leaf and Gary, who stayed focused on winning and managed to prevail against experienced and powerful Pokémon.
Ash and Ritchie had the final match of the day at 5 p.m., against each other, and both the Trainers, having watched Pokémon Battles all day long and having witnessed the victories of their friends, were very solemn.
Ash managed to catch Ritchie off guard by sending out his Pinsir against Farigiraf, and the Bug Pokémon won the round for him by landing a crucial X-Scissor which decided the outcome.
The Water Battlefield was the trickiest of all, and Ritchie had to think very carefully about his next choice.
In the end, he opted to keep his reservations in his heart and sent out his Raichu.
Ash, being smart, quickly recalled Pinsir and sent out his Pikachu, which stunned a lot of people in the audience.
Misty sighed as she could already see the result of the battle. Ego was the killer of intelligence; not that she believed Ash was intelligent at all.
Pikachu, to the surprise of people, nearly pulled off the win but failed as the Raichu proved to be the more powerful and faster of the two.
Ritchie was very relieved when the result was announced, and then he waited for Ash to reveal his third Pokémon.
When he saw that his friend sent out his Lapras, he chose not to continue with Raichu and sent out his Poliwrath instead.
However, against his expectations, he lost his Pokémon as well when Lapras used Perish Song.
Deciding not to reveal his last Pokémon, he sent out his Raichu again, but when Ash called out his Charizard, something completely unexpected happened.
The Fire Pokémon turned its face away and refused to fight Raichu, who was already on the verge of collapse, considering it an insult to beat someone whom he deemed weak.
Ash begged his Pokémon to fight, and Charizard did not listen and instead flew up to rest on the roof of the Arena, leaving the Battlefield.
The boy from Pallet Town was stunned when the referee announced Charizard's disqualification, and Ritchie was just as stunned as him.
"Ash..." he worriedly looked at his friend when he half-heartedly sent out his Pinsir again.
However, winning was all that mattered right now, and Ritchie did not take any mercy.
Raichu quickly dealt with Pinsir, despite being in a weakened state, and when the result of the Match was announced, he walked over to his friend.
"Congrats, Ritchie!" Ash brightly said and shook his hand, but the tears in his eyes could not lie.
"Thank you. You fought well." He sincerely said and then stayed silent when Ash nodded his head and left.
After coming out of the Arena, Ritchie searched for him again, and his heart grew very uneasy when he saw Ash on top of the Arena, recalling his Charizard.
His friend did not come down to join them. Instead, he called out his Pidgeot and climbed onto its back to leave the Village.
"Ash!!!" Ritchie worriedly called out to him, but Brock placed his hand on his shoulder and stopped him from chasing after their friend.
"He needs to be alone right now, Ritchie. Whatever happened in your match was not your fault. He failed to train his Pokémon." The dark-skinned boy seriously said. "And he realises it too now."
"I could have forfeited Raichu... I still had one Pokémon left..."
"Ritchie." Anira seriously called out his name. "There are no friends in an Official Pokémon Battle. And you would have done him a lot of harm by doing such a thing. He needs to work on his relationship with his Charizard."
"But..." he stopped and sighed before lowering his head. "I did not want things to turn out like this. This was not how I wanted to win."
"None of us wanted this, but it would be a lie to say that we did not expect such a thing to happen. It was only a matter of time before Charizard was going to make Ash suffer." Gary sighed.
"Aizen told him months ago to work on his relationship, even Brock kept..."
"Misty." The Orayen Prince stopped her from speaking, and the orangehead lowered her head and turned quiet. "I am sure he has learned his lesson now. Let us hope for the best. Do not make him feel more low when he returns. Some cracks in relationships never heal. Some words cut very deep even if your intentions are good." He warned her and everyone else, and they all obediently nodded their heads.
"Let us go and have a dinner. The four of you are in the Round of 16, and you need to get to work because tomorrow is not going to be easy." Brock smiled at all of them, and they nodded their heads and walked towards the Pokémon Center.
Tomorrow really was not going to be an easy day for them.
Ritchie was up against one of the favourites, Jon Dickson.
Gary was up against another favourite, Jimmy.
Aizen was up against Davy, the boy who had sold them the Magmarizer.
And Leaf, just like Gary and Ritchie, was also up against a Favourite of the Conference, a very experienced Trainer and someone whom she was acquainted with.
She was going to face Anthony Marken in the first match of the Round of 16, tomorrow at 10 a.m. in the first Grass Battlefield.