Divine Beast Ascension

“I suppose...” Lady Inka sighed and looked back at the rabbit. “By necessity, Fotain will be seen as the victor of the match. Please, return to your seat. Numbers 7 and 8?”

No time was given for the young cultivators to take in what had just happened. All they could do was watch the badger of the Scale Region go down and pick up the corpse, along with the golden spike. At the same time, Zelsh and the female king of Tempest Prefecture held up their tiles.

“Go ahead, Vant.”

Before she said anything, the female king took a moment to think and reevaluate the situation. She then asked, “Why not Tilgron?”

“Why not Oliver?” Zelsh replied sarcastically. “Hurry up, Lymba. Don’t make us wait.”

“Fine then...”

.....

Somewhat reluctantly, Lymba motioned for her first seed to step down. She and Zelsh were in a strange predicament. They were the contenders of both the fourth and sixth matches, and they both still had their top two seeds remaining. But Lymba was lucky to choose second for both fights, allowing her to better assure at least the victory of her top seed.

A large python slithered down the steps and approached Vant on the arena floor. Being a little smaller than Kraz without arms, the green python hissed at the human. It laughed telepathically, “I’m not allowed to eat you, at least not all of you...”

“Good luck.” That’s all Vant had to say before bowing.

“Then... you may begin.”

Like the crack of thunder, the massive python’s fangs snapped at Vant but missed. Another echoing snap sounded as Vant backed away from the charging serpent. Wind essence blew over both of them as they sped up and chased around the arena. Despite being massive, the serpent’s speed was incredible as it kept up with Vant’s every step. It never lost track of the shifty martial artist, nor did the snake drop its guard.

Vant was left to evade the snake’s fangs, but all the snake’s tail and body. Being so large made evasion of the serpent much more difficult in a limited area, like the arena. One wrong step and Vant would be corralled to one side and eventually trapped.

But Vant kept calm and kept his wits. No weapons were taken out though, which surprised most everyone. Without weapons, it was much more difficult for humans to overcome not having a bestial bloodline. A family bloodline could be strong, but it wasn’t the same as inheriting a king-grade bloodline. If anything, coming from a long line of cultivators helped humans cultivate smarter and not harder. But that alone wasn’t enough to let a human compete physically with a dragon, wyrm, or other king-grade beasts.

Yet Vant never showed a weapon. He only moved like a leaf. With every strike or attack of the snake, Vant narrowly flowed around it. And now, he finally struck back.

As the tail slammed into Vant, he dunked and slid alongside the tail instead. Also, a blade of wind formed around Vant’s open hand. A quick swipe was all it took to finally land the first blow of the match. But what would be a brutal blow against a human was only a scratch on the serpent’s enormous body.

The chase continued for a while as many became entranced with the chasing dance the two combatants were performing.

“Ahh... How lucky can he get?” Brak clicked his tongue, annoyed.

“Excuse me?”

“Your snake will lose. Don’t let that break your heart.”

Lymba glared at Brak while reexamining his posture. It had immediately shifted from intrigued and interested to bored and pessimistic. And no matter how much Brak annoyed the other kings, they weren’t able to deny his knowledge and experience of battling.

She took a moment to try and see the fight from another perspective and immediately sighed. Lymba didn’t call off the fight, but her breathing was much less lively than before as she leaned her head on her fist.

Little by little, Vant’s strikes pecked at the giant, green serpent, drawing a little more blood with each strike. Eventually, that began to take its course. Though it was dragged out and repetitious, the fight continued until the large python could no longer ignore the many scrapes across its body.

“The match is over. Zelsh is the victor,” Lady Inka called the fight without delay. Neither opponent had the means to overpower the other, but at least one could chip away at the larger, easier target until victory was unquestionable.

“Thank you. It was by luck that I won,” Vant claimed, bowing humbly to both the giant serpent and Lymba above.

The serpent squinted but also bowed its head. “Sorry... I misjudged your skill.”

With that, the enemies went separate ways. The snake began using potions and more while Vant began cultivating without hesitation. All while Lymba shook her head in disappointment, glancing in disbelief at Zelsh.

“Numbers 9 and 10, please?”

Jeminine confidently held up her tile and sent out her last representative. Her second seed was wolverine only one-krin tall while on four legs. It proudly stepped into the arena and looked up to the remaining two representatives of the Scale Region.

Apart from overlooking the fresh corpse, the wolverine eyed the badger with ill-will behind its gaze. But it wasn’t the badger that was sent to the arena.

With a shrug from Brak, the large, fiery jaguar strolled down the steps. It stepped over the wolf corpse without skipping a beat and reached the wolverine with a toothy grin painted across its face. “Should I be expecting a fight?”

“Depends. Would you prefer surrender or castration?” the wolverine chuckled while scanning over its opponent. Since the jaguar, and others of the Scale Region, had supposedly ascended mid-match, the wolverine understood that it would be an uphill battle despite them both being second seeds.