This challenger who will be challenging the gym before Ash is Paul, Julian remembered this kid was pretty annoying.

He looked at him for a few seconds then walked to the receptionist, there is an old man with long hair standing there. ​​

Julian "Can I watch the battle that is going to take place?"

Old Man "Sure, there isn't any limitation that stops anyone from watching pokemon battles"

He said.

Julian nodded and walked towards the gym area, Paul watched him walk towards the gym, he didn't know who this person is and why would he want to watch the gym battle but he didn't care.

Soon Ash arrived with Roark, the old man looked at Roark and welcomed him.

Old Man "You have a challenger and an extra audience as well"

Roark was surprised not because of a challenger but because they are going to have an extra audience, sometimes they do come but mostly they don't.

Nobody would want to miss a pokemon battle but trainers appear out of nowhere and challenge the gym leaders and no one will know about it.

Having an audience for a normal gym battle is rare.

Roark looked at Paul.

Roark "So you are the challenger?"

Paul "Yes"

Roark "Great, meet me on the battlefield"

He said and walked away, Paul soon walked towards the battlefield, Ash and his friends followed behind.

______________________

Julian is waiting for the trainers to arrive, he has taken a seat at the corner of the gym to get a full view of the whole battlefield.

He saw Roark walk in, Roark glanced at Julian and was surprised as his face is covered.

Paul also walked in and right behind him, the old man, Ash, and his friends also walked in.

Ash and his friend looked at Julian who is sitting on the corner, they didn't know it is Julian as his face is covered.

Julian didn't want to show his face because he doesn't want to distract the challengers when they are battling.

The old man walked towards the referee area and started the battle between Paul and Roark.

Roark sent his Geodude and Paul sent an Azumarill.

The battle began and Paul, of course, had the advantage but it soon changed, Geodude's Rollout got stronger and stronger with each turn and soon one-hit KOed Paul's Azumarill.

Paul didn't expect that. He called back his Azumarill and frowned.

Paul "Useless"

He said and put the Pokeball to the side.

Julian frowned when he heard him say so, it seemed like he is treating his pokemon as a thing and Julian didn't like it.

He took out another Pokeball and tossed it up, an Elekid came out and the battle once again began and was over within a minute, Elekid did a brick break and knocked out Geodude in one hit.

Roark then sent out his Onix and asked Paul if he wants to switch his pokemon but Paul stuck with it, soon his decision came and bit him as Roark commanded Onix to set up Stealth Rock, Elekid is in a very bad situation.

Onix used slam and got paralyzed as Elekid's Static ability kicked in and Onix got paralyzed, Paul then made a switch completely ignoring the Stealth Rock and sent out Chimchar.

Julian didn't think anything of this as he would do the same, no matter what happens that stealth rock would hit the next pokemon, instead of sacrificing his strongest pokemon he would send out another one so that his winning chance increases and it would also let his pokemon who is badly injured get some rest.

Chimchar got batted by a bunch of rocks and it is hurt, as Onix moves in for a Double Edge again, Paul commands Chimchar to use Dig, Chimchar uses Dig and throws of Onix's balance and it crash-lands, Dig is very effective and due to the paralyze still being in effect Onix stops moving again.

Chimchar uses a bunch of Digs one after the other and Onix faints as it cannot keep up with it.

Roark praises Paul for his strategies and then sends out his next pokemon, he tosses his Pokeball and a blue and gray colored Pokemon comes out, it's a Cranidos.

This is the pokemon Julian wanted.

As he expected it looks very good, and when it evolves it would be a monster.

The battle began again and this time it was more intense than before, Chimchar's Blaze kicked in and it became more powerful and got a hit on one of Cranidos's knee, then it got Zen Headbutted and knocked out.

Paul frowned again and called back Chimchar.

Paul "You are useless"

He said and put away Chimchar's Pokeball, seeing this Julian got annoyed, even though Paul is a good at Pokemon battle he is not a great trainer, he seems to not appreciate the effort his pokemon put in for his pokemon battle

The battle started again as Paul sent out his Elekid again, the Stealth Rock kicked in and hit it.

The battle went on as Elekid kept hitting the same knee again and again until the Cranidos was hurt badly and it couldn't move faster.

The battle ended with the last exchange, Elekid used Brick Break and defeated Cranidos, if the battle lasted any longer it would have been a draw.

Paul won and got his badge.

Julian looked at Ash and he seems to be very annoyed by Paul, he asked Paul to watch his battle.

Julian sighed.