Ash defeated Morrison in his battle to advance to the Top 8 of the tournament, and Tyson also easily defeated his opponent later that day.
Coincidentally, the two met for the third round—the rivals long awaited match was finally about to begin.
It is worth mentioning that since the now identified mysterious Tobias came to meet Ash some time ago, and although it was inexplicable to say the least, Ash began to pay more attention to this person.
After his battle was over and he watched Tyson finish his, he went over to watch Tobias' battle and found a glaring problem.
Each of his Pokémon looked to be well-trained, but even most normal people could see that they didn't have any of the bonds they should have had with him as well taken care of and also their Trainer. Those Pokémon feel more like the kind of Pokémon that were trained in the Pokémon Schools for the students to practice mock battling.
Though they are well trained and can follow any Trainer's command and execute it well, they have no real bond as Trainer and Pokémon.
Moreover, Ash noticed that his team looked like he just randomly caught the first six Pokémon with decent stats he saw and entered the competition with them without any coordination or tactical arrangements to help each other.
And he just defeated his opponent and came to the Top 8 round with the likes of Ash and Tyson, so by no means was he a weak Trainer.
But Ash can't care about him right now, he had more pressing matters to deal with.
They just confirmed that the battle that Ash has been looking forward to the most since coming to Ever Grande City. It was finally about to begin.
———
"The match between the Top 8 now officially begins! The first match is between Trainer Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town from the Kanto Region and Trainer Tyson of Mauville City from our very own Hoenn Region!"
For the first half of the battle between the two, it was decided that it would be the grass field. Tyson didn't say anything but accepted it by directly sending out his Sceptile.
This is his Royal Starter Pokémon, the one considered the strongest member of the team and is the one entrusted with the most important of tasks.
And Tyson here actually sent it out at the beginning of the battle as his first Pokémon, obviously to get a good start and overpower any momentum Ash can bring out.
However, like usual, Ash, as the undisputed main character of the show, also prepared a big gift for Tyson's Sceptile, "Stand by for battles, Blaziken! Show them all your searing flames!"
As soon as Ash's splendid Blaziken appeared on stage, Molly, a big fan of furries, cheered, "Wow, Blaziken and big brother are so cool!"
"Yeah, your big brother is so cool right? He already has so many Pokémon!" Delia hugged Molly and smiled, seeing her son getting better and better, she as his mother felt nothing but pride.
"Yeah yeah, whatever you say. But that Blaziken of his is really something to look at, I wonder how Ash trained it," Gary said from the perspective of a friend and professional.
Saying Gary really admires Ash would be one of the understatements of the whole century.
He has first hand seen and experienced the astounding progress Ash made when it comes to dealing, taking care of, and training his Pokémon. The small Krabby that he laughed at during his time in his grandpa's lab before the Indigo League Conference was trained by Ash to become a Pokémon that was stronger than most Trainers Ace Pokémon's.
"Oh mah gawd!"
The whole stadium cheered from seeing this. As most of the audience are people native to the Hoenn Region, it is only natural a battle between members of the Royal Starter Families would get them railed up with pure excitement.
Moreover, Ash, without a doubt the strongest Trainer in the tournament, has already sent out his Sceptile before, and now he has sent out his Blaziken, which the Hoenn natives both envied and loved.
In the corner of the auditorium, Tobias looked at Ash with a smile, "Wow, his luck is indeed extraordinary…"
{This dude ;)}
——————————
"Let the battle begin!"
"Blaziken, use Flamethrower!" The first one to send out his Pokémon and also the first one to attack, Tyson really was giving everything he has for Ash.
After evolving, Blaziken has spent much of its time on the Professor's Lab to go through a special training program Ash made for him in mind; first part being learning Blast Burn from Typhlosion specifically, and then learning more variants of kicking skills from Annihilape and Hitmonlee.
Ash made sure that Annihilape was there to watch the training over.
Why?
Because Annihilape was now very busy with things outside of his training plan made by Ash. Professor Oak has been very busy studying Annihilape, and he seems to have made a breakthrough in the past month, so it has only gotten worse for poor Annihilape.
Ash had threatened the old Professor not to bother his tired Annihilape too much and especially not to disturb his training.
Or he would have to go back and have a training session with Rayquaza, Groudon, Entei, Raikou, Suicune, Latias, Latios, and Zapdos.
Anyway, after this period of crazy hard training, its strength has improved by leaps and bounds.
In fact, before the Ever Grande Conference started, every new and most of the older Pokémon was training like crazy under the auspices of Ash's lazy but powerful Slowking, with the help of powerful Legendary Pokémon's and senior members of the team, to improve their strength and prepare to fight for Ash and help him achieve his goal.
And to reward their hard work, Ash is trying his best to let all of his Pokémon appear on the battlefield. As the tournament progresses, the Pokémon he sends become stronger and stronger.
————
The power of Blaziken's Flamethrower surprised Tyson, "Sceptile, use Solar Beam!"
The weather was fine today, the sun was also shining much brighter than it should be, akin to the usage of Sunny Day, making the activation speed of the Sceptile's Solar Beam become much faster than even Tyson and his Sceptile thought was possible.
Sceptiles tail began to glow more and more until Solar Beam finished powering up, barely fast enough to block Blaziken's Flamethrower.
Two astonishingly powerful Special Attacks collided and exploded over the grass field. The power of condensed sunlight and scorching flames combined to form a huge beam of light that shot straight into the sky, igniting the long-awaited battle between the powerful rivals.
Ash looked at the opposing Tyson, who gave him the look saying "do you accept my challenge, or do you want to do something more?" Or something along the lines.
Ash chose the challenge, and Tyson responded in kind, "Sceptile, use Leaf Blade!"
The light beam disappeared, and a large piece of sharp, green blade appeared in the center of the grass field. Immediately after, Sceptile took action to not let its momentum go to waste. It raised its blade and attacked Blaziken with everything it had.
Both Ash and Blaziken's eyes flashed with the light of approval, and Blaziken's muscular, flame designed legs burned with blazing hot flames!
Blaze Kick!
Blaziken kicked the incoming attack away with a look of arrogance in his eyes. If it was his friend Sceptile who had slashed out like this, Blaziken, the one who had the type advantage, would never have dared to block it like this, but this one was in a league below and so he could do this.
"Ash's Blaziken parried Sceptile's Leaf Blade! And now it looks like Blaziken is up to something!" The commentator couldn't wait to express his nervousness, so he said the most obvious thing out there, but still, like he said, Blaziken's action was far from over.
After its Leaf Blade attack got parried, Sceptile lost its footing, but still with its level of power, it jumped away to get ready for whatever was coming.
"Flare Blitz!"
Ash wondered if Tyson and Sceptile could actually deal with this situation even though Sceptile was an expert at dodging close attack. This move is the strongest fire-based Physical Attack that Blaziken currently has in its wide arsenal.
"Sceptile, come out with a Leaf Storm!"
Tyson made a prompt decision seeing the air around Blaziken waver, and the Leaf Storm carrying many sharp blades swept towards Blaziken!
But it did little to the Blaziken who was burning with the arrogance of the blazing sun in the air. The power tore the incoming Leaf Storm into pieces and hit Sceptile hard on the head!
When the attack landed, it caused the entire battlefield to shake.
"Sceptile has lost its ability to fight, meaning Blaziken wins this round!"
Tyson gritted his teeth. He had understood and prepared himself mentally for Ash's strength early on, but when he actually stood on the battlefield, he found that he still underestimated his strongest rival greatly.
The kind of power Ash demonstrated was crushing in every possible way, from Trainer level to Pokémon level, as well as the unseen extreme bonds between the two parties, which was beyond Tyson's reach, as he wasn't a protagonist.
However, Tyson and his team have been working hard until now for this very battle, so he must not admit defeat and fight until the end for their sake, "Alright then, go, Hariyama!"
Tyson sent out his Hariyama, which is also a Fighting-type like Blaziken, put pure, to fight, and it also had the Thick Fat Ability, which can weaken the damage of Blaziken's Fire-type attacks.
Ash glanced over at his Blaziken, saw it nodding slightly, and smiled, "Alright, I'll happily grant you your wish, partner!"
According to the plan, Ash just planned to let all the Pokémon show their faces once. However, this Hariyama is indeed especially suitable as Blaziken's opponent to check his skills, and its fighting spirit is also burning very hot from his last battle. He wasn't ready to back out yet.
"Flamethrower!"
The blazing pillar of fire struck again, but Tyson ordered a defensive attack, "Hariyama, use Arm Thrust!"
The Hariyama family has a pair of palms stronger than most irons, making its Arm Thrust attacks much more powerful than it normally should be. But Blaziken's flames were even stronger than most other flames, they have been strengthened by Ash's special training and taught to increase temperature by the volcano dawg himself, making it possible to push the flames closer to Entei step by step.
However, Hariyama was still giving everything it had.
"I can't believe it. Tyson's Hariyama has the strongest will to move I have ever seen. Despite the burns and the intense heat, he does not look to be afraid of the Flamethrower at all. He keeps moving forward with his Arm Thrust active!" The commentator was stunned by anything, like always, and really a moment like this by watching the scene in front of him. He finished his words, "Hariyama has reached in front of Blaziken!"
"Hariyama, use Brick Break with everything you have!"
"Blaze Kick!"
Hariyama struck hard with his strongest attack with the help of his iron palm, and Blaziken's burning kick hit its big belly.
The Brick Break hit Blaziken on the shoulder, but he was surprisingly kicked away by Blaziken.
"Hariyama!"
Tyson exclaimed in surprise, only to find that Blaziken on the other side, just ignoring his injury, stamped his strong legs on the ground, and came closer and closer.
At this moment it wasn't the two Trainers on the two sides who were the most anxious, or the commentator, surprisingly, it was the audience. They feared what would happen to the strong-willed, already -favorite Hariyama.
At that moment, Blaziken's whole body was burning with the same kind of blazing arrogance it had just moments before, but this time it was no longer its Flare Blitz attacks.
Instead, it was Brave Bird!
Tyson's eyes widened when he recognized this devastating move, "Hariyama, you have to get out of the way!"
However, hearing Tyson and its own instincts made it realize its danger; however, it failed to do so.
Hariyama, who was injured on the ground, was hit by Blaziken's fully charged up Brave Bird, and he lost his fighting ability immediately after without even being able to get to use his third move.
Blaziken was surrounded by arcs of flames that reflected damage, but it roared to the sky. It defeated Tyson's two Pokémon with its crushing power, proving his Trainers might!