Divine Beast Ascension

558 Three-Way Rumble

“The same,” Oli answered instead.

Making sure to keep calm and better represent the Rhyner Region, Hiztor nodded. “I’m also the rightful winner of that fight and should be joining you, Oliver on your trip to Nightscape City.”

Oli no longer cared if people saw how annoyed he was. He scoffed, “Shut up, or I’ll have you explain why Lady Kelna’s ruling was wrong in front of the entire colosseum. I have no desire to fight alongside you and I refuse to do so. Let’s just see who of the three of us comes out on top.”

The other two gave Oli a strange look. Hiztor was puzzled, letting his eyes dart between Oli and Gennor’s wings. Gennor looked at Oli as if he were studying the human for research purposes.

“Oliver–”

“Hiztor, I told you to shut up,” Oli reminded him. “I have no desire to work with someone like you. So I won’t. If you can convince Gennor to team up against me, so be it. But I’d take that gamble long before I agree to work with someone blinded by arrogance and silenced by fear.”

Cracking his knuckles, Hiztor clenched his fists. Yet he still kept quiet. All he did was steel his gaze on Oli and decide that so long as Oli was eliminated, then Hiztor would feel that he had won.

“Excuse me,” Gennor remarked, “but I feel it’s best that you work together. Just because you dislike someone doesn’t mean you shouldn’t temporarily work with them. If that were the case, then most wars would be lost in days, not months or years. Also, you’re both humans. I’m not trying to be boastful, but bloodlines do play a role in our strength. And your lack of a bloodline is a great disability against me.”

“Lack of a bloodline?” Hiztor replied with a hint of disgust. “I’m Hiztor Galdo, son and heir of the Galdo Clan that has ruled the Galdo territory for over one hundred years. I have a bloodline.”

.....

“Perhaps. But it’s not equivalent to mine. Besides, if you rely on your bouncing trick I’ve heard about, then you’ll inevitably fail,” Gennor casually retorted. “Such a strategy can’t be used in team fights–”

“It can if I team up with you,” Hiztor stated, nodding to the wyvern. “If you take the sky and I cover the ground, we’ll have Oliver gone in seconds–”

“I refuse.”

Oli broke out in laughter after Gennor’s refusal. “Oh… You don’t know when to quit or how to read a room, Hiztor. No wonder you were a terrible team leader.”

Though Hiztor’s tone got colder, he refused to let his face fully express his frustration. Hiztor had experienced the consequences of not controlling himself and would continue to feel those consequences for years to come. That’s why he was determined to learn from the experience and never lose control again.

Gennor was taken aback by Oli’s casualness. “You don’t seem worried, Oliver. Why is that, might I ask?”

Oli smiled back at the draconic beast. “Because I’m gonna have a lot of fun fighting you. I’m looking forward to it. I don’t get to fight a beast like you every day, so I’ll make sure to savor the experience.”

It was Gennor’s turn to chuckle, “That’s… That’s something very few people have said to me. And none of them were humans.”

“Then you haven’t met the right kind of humans,” remarked Oli. “I know plenty like that, unlike that arrogant bastard.”

“I’m also looking forward to our fight!” Hiztor chimed in.

“Will you two not be working together then?” King Sardin’s voice called out. “I don’t think that’s a wise decision. Especially with Gennor’s advantage of flight.”

But Oli shook his head at the kings’ table. “Sorry, King Sardin, but I refuse. If Hiztor’s strongest technique is a detriment to his team, I might as well not be on his side in the first place. Also, I genuinely don’t feel threatened by Hiztor, and I believe Gennor feels similarly.”

Laughter rang out as Zelsh slapped the table. “Go for it, Oliver! Just don’t make me regret sending you out there.”

“Of course, Master Zelsh.”

Rhyner covered his mouth while holding back his own laughter. He and Zelsh already knew that Oli couldn’t use soul arts in Iron Town without the risk of his identity getting questioned. But they didn’t want Oli using soul arts anyway. The further he could go without soul arts, the further he would make it in the Mortal Championship, after all.

Hiztor felt his blood boiling as his face reddened in anger. But Hiztor didn’t say anything more. He remembered his father’s advice: “If you’re too frustrated and can’t hold back your words, speak with your actions instead. That way you’ll prove why you can be proud in place of giving fuel for others to belittle you.”

Gennor sighed, “Are you sure, Oliver? I will not be holding back.”

“You’ve got to put on a good show after Netra’s and Tilgron’s fights, right? Sorry, but I don’t care about that. I just want to fight you and get Hiztor out of the way. He’ll just be a nuisance anyway,” Oli replied and walked away to get into formation.

Keeping his mouth shut, Hiztor marched to his spot too.

Unable to change Oli’s mind, Gennor took his place and nodded to King Sardin.

Ingall nodded back. “Alright. You may begin.”

Flap, flap!

Gennor took to the sky in the blink of an eye. To most mortal candidates, Gennor’s speed was surreal.

Hiztor smiled and took off as well, leaping backward into one of his springing walls. Though he couldn’t match the Sky Wyvern’s speed, he would accelerate more and more as he got moving.

Crunch!

But before Hiztor could reach his first rebounding wall, another stone wall appeared in front of Hiztor. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it though.

So Hiztor curled up and plowed through it while boosting his essence armor to the max, just to make sure he was ready to defend himself. The wall fell apart easier than Hiztor expected. However, another wall was standing less than a krin away from the first. Yet there was no excess earth essence emanating from that wall either.

Hiztor nearly scoffed and mocked Oli’s use of stone walls from the sight alone, since it was obviously him that had put them there.

However, Hiztor suddenly felt his body stiffen and stop flipping before he could fully commit to another front tuck. Dark tendrils rose out of the heavy shadow between the broken and untouched walls. They had latched onto the slowed Hiztor and almost brought him to a grinding halt. Hiztor managed to crash into the remaining wall but was unable to fully break through to the other side with the shadow tentacles holding him suspended in the air.

Then, two more walls appeared perpendicular to the first two, making a stone box of sorts.

As the shadow below got thicker and more defined, more shadowy tendrils reached out to hold Hiztor in place.

“What are you doing–”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Oli laughed, leaping onto one of his walls. “I’m eliminating you first.”

“Oh yeah?!” Hiztor roared as he forced a stone wall to rise from the center to the box, hoping to lift him up and carry him out of reach of the shadow tendrils.

But Oli was already on top of him and faster than the wall.

C-CRACK!! CRUNCH!

“AA-Aaahh!!” Hiztor screamed while coughing up blood.

Oli’s mace slammed down onto Hiztor and crushed the man’s chest. Hiztor’s back was thrown into the rising wall meant to save him. But Oli only let the wall bring Hiztor pain.

The shadow tendrils had abruptly yanked Hiztor down along with Oli’s slamming mace. Hiztor’s torso was driven down like a nail through Hiztor’s essence-filled wall. Yet Oli broke it apart with ease, letting Hiztor feel the crushing weight of a mace on his chest, the pull of Hiztor’s arms and legs from opposite sides of the essence-reinforced wall, and the back-splitting pain of the wall trying to fight Hiztor’s descending spine.

Unlike the kings and the perennials present, who could better sense what was happening, the other mortal candidates only saw Oli trap Hiztor in a stone box and beat him till Hiztor wailed in agony.

CRUNCH! CRACK!

Hiztor’s mostly limp body was suddenly launched through one of Oli’s walls. Everyone could see Oli standing there, finishing a swing of his mace.

And before Hiztor collided with the ground, Hiztor’s back was slammed into a diagonal stone wall. His already injured spine nearly gave out from the impact alone. Yet Hiztor didn’t dare close his eyes. He had already spotted Oli chasing after him with mace already mid-swing.

“I GIVE!!”

Whoosh! …

Oli’s mace stopped only a breath away from Hiztor’s upper torso. Had the blow connected, Hiztor’s body would’ve been forcefully folded around the diagonal wall before breaking it.

Scoffing, Oli grabbed Hiztor by the collar and tossed him toward the edge of the arena. “That’s how you show mercy to those that surrender. Remember that, and maybe you won’t be a disappointment.”

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