Divine Beast Ascension

Ending the Fight

All necks craned to the sound of a bandit on the verge of catching a small stallion who was less than a krin from the patch of trees. Rathe made a mad dash for the man, but he was too far to be able to stop him immediately.

That man was anxious to grab the kid and lunged forward with his sword, causing the tiny stallion to stop in his tracks scared stiff at the sight. Both a blade and a hand aimed for the stallion’s exposed neck.

With a clang, the sword in his right hand bounced off of something that felt like steel, but his target had done nothing.

The expert was caught off balance and off guard by the appearance of another gorilla right in front of him. He was slightly smaller than the other gorillas but compared to a human, this two krin, muscular gorilla was a monster that had caught him in a trap.

Earlier, the young steed broke free from the circle and sprinted for the trees. Oli also ran for the trees, except Oli was already quite close thanks to waiting on the sidelines like Rathe ordered. He disobeyed Rathe’s orders and hid on the border of the trees and bushes.

Just when the stallion froze and the bandit was fully focused on his target, Oli jumped out to block to the sword with his back and before the bandit could react, Oli delivered a right hook to the bandit’s abdomen.

Unguarded from the surprise attack, the bandit took the full weight of Oli’s punch and was floored. Like most human warriors, he had focused more on physical training than essence and suffered greatly from Oli’s essence coated fist. His muscles and inner organs were ravaged as he coughed up blood and laid in agony. Not enough damage happened for him to die but it was enough for his weak will to crumble away.

Many experts witnessed the surprise assault Oli had made and were just as shocked as the man cowering on the ground.

.....

Rathe now stood next to the man that Oli had attacked, reaching the bandit only a hair later than Oli. He made sure to examine the bandit’s injuries, not to help the bandit but to see how good of a punch his nephew had delivered.

When he saw the damage it caused, he was somewhat surprised. Looking back up to Oli, Rathe saw Oli helping the terrified stallion back to his feet and casually conversing with him. With a genuine smile, Rathe watched Oli proudly as he crushed the bandit’s throat and put him out of his misery. He then continued to eliminate the other bandits with the other gorillas and made quick work of them.

Hollen came out from behind the hill, running towards Oli and that young stallion. “Yeter! Are you okay? Were you injured in any way?”

“I’m okay Grandpa, don’t worry. Thanks to Oli, I’m fine,” answered Yeter.

“Yes, you’re right,” Hollen straightened up and faced Oli. “Young Master Oli, thank you for saving my grandson and our tribe’s young master. We owe you and your clan our lives.”

“Whoa, hold your horses, Hollen.” Rathe walked up from behind Oli with the other gorillas. “First, we’ve got to collect our spoils and get your tribe ready to move out! After that, we can handle anything else, but until then I don’t want to hear anything about your debt to us, got it?”

Hollen smiled and met Rathe’s eyes. “You got it, Rathe.”

“That’s better!” laughed Rathe. “Alright, now split up and gather the spoils, boys. I’ll be waiting at the stallion settlement and explaining everything to them,” The gorillas followed orders and checked every corpse thoroughly while Rathe began to walk back with the curious stallions.

Oli took initiative to check the corpses of the two perennials and made sure to inspect their void rings too. Once his essence activated the void gem in the ring, he got a good feel for what was inside and was glad that they had over one hundred gold apiece and a few weapons too. Knowing that the rings would end up with Rathe, Oli thought up an idea.

He activated his own void ring and let it sync with the other two as he passed a few things over to them. After a minute or so, Oli was finished and moved on to the nearest bandit corpse. It took the gorillas less than half an hour to gather a few piles of items inside some blankets taken from the bandits’ gear and begin the trek back to the stallions.

Once they arrived, they all joined the stallions and gathered around Rathe to share their findings. One by one the gorillas showed the coin purses, weapons, and uncommon items among their findings. Oli was the last to speak and he made sure he was loud enough for everyone to hear. “Uncle Rathe, check out the void rings!”

“Oh, they both had one? Bring them over, let me see!” answered Rathe as he gladly took the rings and checked them instantly. “Yo, what luck! Both of these are filled with goodies!”

“What so good to catch your eye, Rathe? I know you want to tell us,” Hurdo chuckled.

“Fine, fine. If you beg me like that then I’ll just have to show you. It’s…” Rathe was surrounded but waited till he drew away everyone’s attention before he finally activated the rings and dropped barrels and bottles of all kinds. “WINE! And it’s some of the finest I’ve ever seen.”

The stallions all cheered at the sight while the gorillas all covered their faces as if they were mad at themselves for not having guessed it. Oli laughed at Rathe’s antics, knowing that only Rathe would turn down everything else in the rings for something like wine.

“Everyone, tonight we celebrate our victory and our future cooperation! Drink as much as you want and enjoy it while you can! Tomorrow, we begin our journey back,” yelled Rathe.

Hurdo spoke up, “Don’t you think that we should take this back and share it with the clan?”

“I’m sure there might be some leftover,” Rathe was in too good a mood to not enjoy himself. “Besides, sharing it here would allow us to form a deeper relationship with the stallion tribe.”

Hurdo raised an eyebrow. “Or, are you just trying to let Oli drink without your sister stopping you?”