Divine Beast Ascension

543 Watching Oli’s Fight

CRUNCH!

While barreling through the opening and into a wall in the outer ring, Hiztor never bothered to slow down or create another rebounding wall.

Karos realized this almost instantly. Because while Hiztor continued speeding past him, Karos felt his body being yanked backward.

Hiztor had grabbed hold of the long tail during his speeding charge. And Hiztor had no plans of letting Karos free. With Karos in tow, being dragged through the rubble, Hiztor tucked into a front flip to whip the lynx around and put the cat in front of him.

It was impossible for Karos to compete against the momentum throwing him around. After tanking the tackle to his broken side, Karos’s footing was shaky at best and nonexistent at worst. So Karos was forced to make a decision. He could let himself be thrown about like a ragdoll. Or…

Krssh!

Everyone felt blood flush from their face. The spectators went silent for but a moment. The kings and territory leaders were astounded and shocked. Vloz was hurt by the sight.

“KAROS!!” Yeter gave a desperate yell. If Oli hadn’t reached out to stop Yeter and remind the stallion where they were, the security staff would’ve needed to step in.

Hiztor was also baffled. But his confusion didn’t even last a second before he donned a mad grin. “HA! How’s it feel to be a Short-tailed Lynx?!”

.....

To avoid losing the match flat out, Karos decided to attack his own tail. With a splash of blood and an electrified claw, Karos slashed his tail in half to escape the grip of his unruly opponent. Yet Karos’s gaze was steeled and more determined than ever. There was no sign of surrender. No hints of cowardice. Only resolve to win and defeat the man standing in front of him. In fact, Karos was already pivoting to lunge back at Hiztor in an attempt to intercept the pinballing man mid-flight.

“SURRENDER IS BETTER THAN DEATH, YOU IDIOT!!”

A resounding shout passed over the arena, hitting Karos where it hurt most.

Hiztor noticed the tinge of hesitation and immediately capitalized on it. He created another wall at a diagonal in order to readjust his trajectory and take the lynx head-on in a collision of all-out power. At such speeds, there was but a split second before the two candidates clashed again.

“I… Give!”

Suddenly, Karos ducked down to turn his diving lunge into a roll across the ground, dissipating his charge as much as possible.

Hiztor grumbled but could only use his newly built wall to slow himself down before also rolling across the ground to dissipate all of his momentum. “What gives?! Are you some kind of coward, Karos? That’s what Iron stands for??”

“The victor is Hiztor Galdo from Galdo Territory, Rhyner Region,” Kelna hurriedly stated while catching the collapsing lynx.

Karos was speedily yet tenderly taken to his seat where a medic had already gathered life essence to scan Karos’s body and tell the medic what needed to be done. The man’s expression sharpened while the security staff took Karos and laid him down.

The medic then flooded Karos’s side with life essence, ignoring the rushing stallion at his side.

“How bad is it? Will he be okay?” Yeter shouted while standing over his friend.

The medic nodded but never smiled. “He’s lucky. These broken ribs punctured some internal organs and his body would fail him in a matter of minutes without proper treatment. And there’s also a lot of blood loss from his tail… We can regrow it, but such treatment will cost money.”

“We’ll pay whatever the cost,” Vloz stated, appearing beside them. The leopard startled the doctor and terrified the security staff that never sensed his arrival. “I’m his master and will pay the cost.”

“N-no…”

Hearing Karos’s weak voice, everyone was either confused or stunned. But the lynx turned his head to the side, coughed, and said, “I… don’t want to forget this fight. This will always remind me to get stronger.”

Then, ignoring what the medic was trying to explain, Karos did his best to look at Oli. “... Thanks for shouting. I… almost forgot what mattered.”

Oli’s eyes had never left the arena. But he took a moment to look back at the lynx. “All I did was share an opinion. Take that however you want.”

Finished speaking, Oli raised his stone and leaped into the arena. He didn’t even bother looking around to spot his opponent. Right now, he wasn’t in the best of moods. Even if Karos wasn’t the closest of friends, he was still a friend. And knowing how much contempt Galdo had for Iron Territory for simply existing only added fuel to Oli’s silent bonfire of motivation.

Only after reaching Kelna in the middle of the arena did Oli notice who his opponent was. It was a beast from the Sardin Team.

“You’re… Some kind of hawk?” Oli asked.

Bowing his head, the beast introduced herself. “I’m Geppa, Night Hawk from Sardin Region.”

“Oliver. Rot City. Rot Region…” Oli plainly stated, returning the bow while keeping a straight face.

Sensing the silent tension under Oli’s blank expression, Kelna decided to keep a close eye on the fight. Despite sensing Oli’s lower, mid-elder cultivation, Kelna had been warned by Jeerda of how confident King Zelsh was in his team leader. So Kelna would pay extra close attention to this fight.

“If you two are ready… FIGHT!”

The Night Hawk rushed Oli without hesitation. Though no one had been able to see Oli fight in the exhibition due to Freele’s surrender, it wasn’t difficult to learn about some of Oli’s abilities by bribing Hiztor. Thanks to Hiztor shouting to everyone about how they were cheated, everyone knew exactly where to get such information.

Chtung! CRACK!

“I recommend you surrender.”

While coated in dark essence and unleashing a slicing wing attack with wind essence, the night Hawk felt an abrupt pain shoot through her shoulder. And the moment the bones in her wing snapped, the hawk was pulled back and slammed into the ground.

Blood trickled down Oli’s hand and wrist. But his grip on the hawk’s wing never wavered. Oli’s lifeless eyes stared back at the hawk. “One last time. I recommend you surrender.”

Before the hawk could reply, Oli’s half-dark-half-death essence oozed out of his hand and into the hawk’s broken wing.

The hawk spasmed slightly at first, sensing the strange, foreign essence invading her body. But the moment Oli tightened his grip even more and prepared to grab the hawk’s other wing as well, the hawk understood its mistake. Rather than trying to rush in and overpower Oli’s earth essence defenses with speed and wind power, she should’ve tried to make it a long-range battle.

“I GIVE!” the hawk cried, feeling immediate relief as Oli let her go and dispersed all the essence he was able to.

“The winner is Oliver from Rot Region!”

During the declaration of the winner, Oli bowed to the hawk once more and turned to walk away. Kelna made note of how Oli seemed to be less tense and stressed after the brief but dominating exchange.

Everyone in the colosseum burst into applause! After Karos’s epic yet obvious defeat, The crowd got excited to see an even more overwhelming victory. And the fact that it came from someone in Rot Region only added to the crowd’s hype.

Some people in particular paid extra close attention to what had happened. Anyone that knew their stuff could see that Oli’s dark essence couldn’t be normal. Once the night hawk was handed a life essence elixir, the truth behind Oli’s strange essence was quickly revealed and everyone that dared call Rot Team weak for having the fewest candidates moving on shut up for the rest of the second round.

All the candidates kept an extra close eye on Oli, even Hiztor. Though Hiztor was absolutely confident in his defenses, Hiztor still understood a hard fight when he saw one. So he and the others were all praying to Dominus that Oli wouldn’t be their next opponent.

The following fight was less one-sided. But Oli didn’t seem to care. It was only when Yeter ran up that Oli gave his full attention to the arena.

‘What do you think? Was that enough to scare and impress them? …’ Oli felt a bit of rejection as he tried yet again to reach Eeole but to no avail. ‘... Right. You’ve got important business to handle… I guess I’ll see you when I see you.’

Yeter won his match as well, keeping both of Rot Team’s remaining candidates moving on to the final round, claiming two of six spots.

Zelsh was already getting praised and brown-nosed by those around him. But all Zelsh could do was beg fate to pit Hiztor against Oli. He wanted to see that fight so badly and it was still evading him. And Zelsh wanted Oli to face true challenges. Without those, Oli wouldn’t be able to keep growing and would never reach the peak-elder realm before the quadrant finals of the Mortal Championship.