Divine Beast Ascension

539 Trenk vs Hiztor

Right away, Yeter and Oli needed only a moment to understand the nature behind Hiztor’s earth essence. They previously had an idea of what it was due to their earlier skirmish in the survival round. However, it wasn’t the same as getting to analyze it from the nearby sidelines. And their confirmation put a long face on both Oli and Yeter.

Oli grumbled softly, only letting his teammates nearby hear him, “Trenk won’t win. Not against Hiztor.”

Before Fulkar or Freele could reply, the first clash of Trenk’s sword and Hiztor’s gauntlets scattered embers of essence everywhere.

Trenk’s flaming blade was swatted and almost grabbed by the gauntlets, forcing Trenk to pull back just to keep his weapon. But Trenk used that moment to assault Hiztor with two of his four shadow orbs.

Sadly, Hiztor was utterly unfazed. The shadow orbs held no penetrating power against Hiztor’s earthen armor. Also, Hiztor didn’t seem to care about the high heat Trenk was radiating from both his blade and his person. While Trenk’s essence defenses were incredibly hot to prevent anyone from getting too close or trying to grapple him, paired with a hint of darkness to help counter non-physical attacks, none of that mattered to the close-combat, defensive specialist that was Hiztor.

But Hiztor said nothing. He merely grinned like a maniac underneath a helm of earth essence.

Trenk focused his footwork on evasion without hesitation. Despite Hiztor specializing in defense, it was Trenk that was quickly forced into a defensive approach. Without it, there was no way for Trenk to learn and counter Hiztor’s abilities.

From both the team’s skirmish during the survival round and how the fight had gone so far, one thing was proven to be in Trenk’s favor. His speed.

That’s why Hiztor rushed Trenk from the get-go. It was the only way for him to make sure Trenk wouldn’t try and turn it into a long-range duel. Sure, Hiztor had countermeasures for long-range specialists, but why work harder than he has to? Especially when Trenk so willingly accepted their first clash.

.....

Already, Trenk understood something. He had made a grave mistake going for a close-up fight, and Hiztor was reaping the rewards of that blunder. Now, all Trenk could do was try and create space while occasionally throwing fireballs and dark orbs at Hiztor.

Freele kept a close eye on the fight but said nothing back to Oli. Everyone could see that Hiztor was controlling the tempo already, so she silently hoped for her brother-in-law to prove Oli and thousands of spectators wrong.

Fulkar wasn’t a fool but he was still curious how Oli could tell before the combatants had exchanged their first attack. “What makes you say that so quickly?”

“Simple,” Oli reasoned, “because Trenk is an all-around cultivator. He’s good at close combat and mid-range, also decent at long-range. But his reliance on those sensory disruption orbs won’t help at all against someone like Hiztor. The reason Hiztor focuses on defenses so much is so he can simply run up to anyone and fight them with his bare hands. You won’t find a grittier fighting style and I know it well. It’s the worst match-up against someone like Trenk. Even if Trenk was only a long-range specialist he would fair better than he does now.”

“But how come he doesn’t stand any chance?” Freele asked.

Startling his wife, Trantor replied dejectedly from behind, “Because… Trenk doesn’t have any single attack strong enough to pierce Hiztor’s defenses. His sensory disruptions would work great but only if he can make a hole in the defenses first. I’d guess that someone like Hiztor rarely even gets scratched in battle.”

“And if this is how his family trains, it explains how they’ve defended and maintained their status as an elite territory for over a century…” Oli admitted.

“KILL HIS ASS, TRENK!” Defying everything that had just been said, Yeter cheered for his teammate all the same. His usual zeal never cracked or broke away, no matter what.

In the arena, Trenk was quickly coming to the same conclusion as Oli and his brother. But there was no retreating now.

Without warning, stone walls and ridges began to rise from the ground. From the essence alone, Trenk could tell it was all being done by Hiztor. So he used a short-range, dark-based speed art to retreat all the faster. It wasn’t even a perennial grade art but it was still useful.

When Trenk sensed a wall emerging in the middle of his chosen path, he decided to attack rather than change directions and waste that use of his battle art.

Chink!

To Trenk’s bafflement, his sword could crack and chip the stone wall. But that was it. The essence coursing through the stone was tougher than anything Trenk had sensed before. And it felt like the impact of his blade was dissipated and weakened while also being mostly repelled by the essence alone.

This falter gave Hiztor the opening that he wanted. With Trenk slowed and stalled, Hiztor suddenly rocketed forward with his fastest speed yet. By creating a thin, rising wall under his feet, Hiztor leaped off the launching platform imbued with his sturdy essence. That allowed him to not only propel himself forward but for the thin, stone wall to withstand his overbearing leap and give Hiztor a single lunge of incredible acceleration.

Of course, in some cases, such a tactic would leave him open and unable to change direction. But that didn’t matter when his essence nature was all about compacting and dissipating energy, allowing Hiztor to become a human-sized cannonball.

CRUNCH! CHINK! Crack…

The wall that had survived Trenk’s attack exploded as Hiztor launched himself through it.

Trenk managed to jump away, but he wasn’t able to escape unscathed. He had to use his sword to defend and deflect Hiztor’s outstretched arm that had tried to decapitate him. That left his hand shaking from the impact and his grip was loosened drastically. It offered Trenk some extra momentum to jump away, but the crack in his wrists was an evident sign of what was to come.

Yet again, another section of wall rose up behind Trenk, forcing him to choose his reaction. However, Trenk’s hands were too shaken to try and break a wall he had already failed to demolish at full strength.

So Trenk decided to use it as a platform and vault to the side.

But while Trenk prepared to leap off the wall, Hiztor did something none of the other candidates was expecting, apart from Hiztor’s teammates.

Hiztor did a half-flip to reposition his feet in front of him. Another wall had risen there at the same time as the one blocking Trenk’s escape. But when Hiztor’s feet landed on the wall, something strange happened.

As if on a hinge at the base, that wall started to fold under Hiztor’s feet, absorbing his momentum. Then, suddenly, two more walls erupted out of the ground underneath the folding one. They propelled the folding wall back the other way, launching Hiztor at Trenk as if he was a ball bouncing off of a speeding paddle.

The smirk on Hiztor’s face was priceless. Having looked away for only a second, Trenk looked back in shock to see Hiztor already on top of him. Trenk had barely put his hand on the wall and Hiztor was rocketing at him with a predatory leer, as if Trenk was a rabbit about to be snatched by an eagle.

“I–”

CRUNCH!!! C-C-CRACK!!

An explosion of debris and stone sprayed everywhere as Trenk shouted the moment he accepted it was all futile. But he was too slow. Even if Trenk spoke a second sooner, Hiztor was already airborne and too close to Trenk to ever consider stopping.

Among the flying rocks, Trenk was hurled back. Just before his body skidded and tumbled across the floor, Kelna appeared and caught him.”

“I-I… G-give…” It took everything Trenk had left just to utter those words before going unconscious.

Under her breath, Felna shook her head, saying, “You should’ve said that a second sooner. Then we could’ve stepped in.”

Trenk was in horrifying shape. His ribs had broken and his chest was caving in. Trenk’s shoulder blades had been shattered by the sturdy stone wall that absorbed Trenk’s impact until Hiztor’s forward momentum was just too much to handle, sandwiching Trenk with excruciating pain.

“Hmm! Lucky bastard!” Hiztor grumbled and spit on the floor. “I was aiming for your head to put you out of your misery, painlessly. You’re the one that chose to tank it in the chest and suffer…”

Doing her duty, Felna played no favorites. “The winner is Hiztor Galdo from Galdo Territory, Rhyner Region!”

Cheers erupted from the crowd with a mix of boos thrown in. But most of the spectators were amazed by Hiztor’s unexpectedly flashy fighting style.

Felna moved swiftly yet carefully as she dashed with blinding speed to appear by the Rot Team in the blink of an eye. There, she passed the unconscious candidate to a medic that had silently appeared beside the Rot Team.