Divine Beast Ascension

545 Yeter vs Hiztor

As the bear leaped to the side to avoid the axe’s trajectory, Kako was forced to adjust. But the baboon didn’t seem fazed in the slightest.

Kako was already gone by the time the bear could reach him. Kako had used the axe’s momentum to perform a speedy cartwheel and flank the bear. Fuux still had a moment to react to the raised axe but the bear was too close to evade it this time. He could either leap away with his back to the baboon or come up with a way to counter the axe slash.

Without thinking, Fuux denounced the first option. Considering how versatile the baboon was with his attacks, retreating with his back to the baboon was the worst option possible in Fuux’s eyes.

So Fuux readied as much earth essence as possible. It gathered in his paw and rushed forward to swipe the side of the axe, attempting to knock it off course.

CRACK!

To the bear’s shock, he never had a chance to hit the axe. Mid-swing, Kako stored the axe. While his body was leaning forward on his front leg, Kako used all of his strength to turn his disappearing axe attack into another side flip, resulting in another two-footed kick to the bear’s jaw. But this time it wasn’t a straight kick. This time it felt like an overpowered, two-fisted uppercut.

Fuux failed to retain his balance, staggering backward. It took everything Fuux had to not fall on his back.

Yet all Kako needed was that small window of opportunity.

The double-sided axe was already back in Kako’s hands. It was swung the moment Kako regained his footing, slashing into one of the bear’s knees. Though it wasn’t a match-ender, it was enough to topple the stumbling beast by lodging the axe in its heavy legs.

.....

But Kako wasn’t done. Once the axe blade was stuck in the bear’s knee, sideways, Kako gripped it with both hands and jumped up with all his might.

Crack, CRACK!!

Fuux roared and billowed as his back hit the ground and his leg was splintered and pulverized under Fuux’s weight.

“I GIVE!” roared Fuux, snarling in anger and defeat.

Just as Kako unsheathed the axe from the bear’s flesh, he stored it and smiled. “It was a pleasure facing you. Your defenses are incredible.”

“... You too… You don’t just wield a human weapon. You’re skilled with it,” Fuux groaned while a medic rushed to his aid.

“The winner and our first qualified candidate is Kako, representing the Saber-tooth Baboon Clan from Sardin Region!” Kelna declared with a brilliant smile, raising Kako’s hand in victory.

At the same time, a medic healed Fuux’s grotesque knee. Within just a minute it appeared to be fully healed, but Fuux was told to not fight or exert himself for at least a sun before having it checked again. Then, Fuux was carried to his seat in the stands.

With only four candidates left to fight, they were all sizing each other up.

“Come on, come on, come on…” Yeter repeated his silent prayer to the heavens while they waited for the next two stones to light up.

Extending the suspense, the staff members waited almost a full minute just to activate the stones and keep everyone on edge to see the final pairings.

“YEEEESSSSS!!” Yeter shouted, leaping into the arena the moment the stones revealed the pairings.

Scoffing, Hiztor leered at the stallion and dropped into the arena. But he took his time walking to the center. Hiztor was eager to enjoy the final fight but didn’t let his emotions get the better of him. Unlike his fights against Trenk and Karos, Hiztor showed complete seriousness against the giddy stallion.

Oli took a second to smile and nod to his upcoming opponent from across the colosseum. The Permafrost Captain did the same, giving Oli a full bow.

But they both quickly turned their attention to the arena. This was a fight that had been initiated days ago but stopped due to the rules of the survival round. And now it could finally get its ending. Also, the moment Hiztor showed his solemn expression to the crowd, every candidate understood what was about to happen. Hiztor wasn’t going to be playing around or taking chances.

“As this village boy knows, I’m Yeter, representing Rot City, Rot Region!” Yeter whinnied and shouted while rearing back on his hind legs, elongating his body to look down on his human combatant.

Hiztor wasn’t happy with the display but he could do nothing to change it. Though he was used to looking down at most people and hated with others looked down on him, there was no changing biology. So Hiztor merely nodded his head and armed himself with his barbed gauntlets. “I’m Hiztor Galdo, son of Heuzon Galdo of Galdo Territory in Rhyner Region.”

Sensing the immediate tension, Kelna was excited to finally see what came next. “Ready… FIGHT!”

Taking off in a full sprint, Yeter barreled toward his opponent. Hiztor, however, leaped to the side. Both of them hurriedly activated their essence armors.

They were using the same essence type yet their armors couldn’t have been more different.

Hiztor’s earthen armor was all about stacking essence on top of more essence. It was as if his essence took the shape of triangles stacked atop one another and locked into place.

Yeter’s essence armor was thin beyond common belief and almost looked fluid. Such earth essence armor had never been seen before by nearly the entire audience, including the people in the reserved section. But they had all seen how that flimsy-looking essence armor could easily pierce the defenses of each opponent Yeter had faced.

Yeter turned to better face Hiztor while maintaining his sprint. “Get back here, village boy!”

Without saying a word or flinching, Hiztor had already created the first wall to bounce off of. But it wasn’t aimed at Yeter. It forced Hiztor to the side, as did the next rebounding wall. Hiztor was trying to bounce around the stallion in anticipation of Yeter’s charging attack.

However, Yeter came to an abrupt stop far easier than Hiztor had anticipated. He had to use earth essence to dig his hooves into the floor but it was just enough control for Yeter to reposition himself.

While Hiztor threw a punch, Yeter redirected his headbutt into the human cannonball before Hiztor was able to increase his momentum any further.

Crack...

Blood trickled down Yeter’s forehead but his skull was still intact.

Hiztor managed to not be pushed back, but that was mostly due to his incredible forward momentum. His trajectory was completely thrown off after getting a hairline fracture from his fist-to-head collision with Yeter. The pain in Hiztor’s wrist would only get worse with every following attack, but Hiztor readjusted with a new rebounding wall. Though he was forced to rebuild his momentum, Hiztor knew he couldn’t stop. The moment he stopped bouncing around was the moment the brawny stallion could potentially tackle Hiztor to the ground.

The audience cheered as the exchange ended in a surprise. It was the first time seeing Hiztor injured, and it was the first time anyone had come close to throwing off Hiztor’s rhythm.

Yeter also kept running, never coming to a stop. He remembered Oli’s and Trantor’s thoughts about Hiztor’s last two fights. He cheerfully bellowed, “I’ve just got to hinder your mobility! If you can’t move like you want to, then I can plow through your measly defenses, village boy!”

Though his blood was boiling, Hiztor remained calm. Years of training and sparring against his older family members kept Hiztor from losing his cool.

While Hiztor was sent flying, something strange appeared on the opposite side of Yeter. A huge boulder two krin wide was lifted out of the ground. It looked like an enormous, stone golf ball resting on a small pillar, teed up and ready to be launched by a rebounding wall.

When a wall appeared and bounced the boulder to another wall, Yeter caught on. He now had Hiztor on one side and a huge boulder on the other, splitting his attention.

Yet the stallion never flinched or looked away from Hiztor. While Hiztor continued to bounce around in search of a good angle to attack, Yeter ran around in circles. Yeter effortlessly evaded all the walls, both new and old, without batting an eye.

In the stands, Zelsh’s chest was puffed out with pride. It felt great to see his surprise pupil show off such great earth essence sensory.

Hiztor and many in the audience were startled to see the stallion weaving through the growing maze of walls, evading both Hiztor and the boulder. Though Hiztor had managed to reach his top speed, Hiztor realized that a new problem was about to make things even harder.

In his attempts to stop the horse, Hiztor was building wall after wall. Though they could all be used to rebound off of, the maze was getting too complex. And despite only making the simplest of walls to conserve essence, the sheer volume of walls would soon take its toll on Hiztor.

But the worst part was that Hiztor would have to start doing something he hated. Either slow down to properly bounce through the crowd of walls, or break his own walls in order to chase down Yeter. And since he was constantly airborne, that left Hiztor without the ability to properly see or sense Yeter among the maze of stone walls.