68 The Winner

Not wanting to quit before giving his all, Oli altered the hammer's head one more time, except this change caught everyone by surprise. The hammer's head grew twice as large yet was narrowed down to a small, flat tip and from looks alone, it was obvious to everyone that it would deal a lot more damage.

Chief Gar froze when he saw that hammer swing towards his son, stopping himself from intervening. Rathe was hesitant to even let the match continue when he saw it but understood why Oli would do such a thing with Karos attacking so wildly. Ania was admiring her son's ability to manipulate the Earthen Hammer art and hoping that the final swing would end the fight.

As the hammer reached Karos, something happened that stunned the entire arena. Karos didn't try to block, parry, or evade the hammer whatsoever. Instead, he traded an attack for an attack and struck Oli across the chest with his lightning claws while the hammer collided with his back. The young lynx was hit harshly into the ground, creating a small crater in the stage around him. Oli was launched to the edge of the stage and almost rolled off.

Rushing to the scene, Ania and Rathe both jumped to Oli's side and Chief Gar did the same for his son. None of them understood what had just happened or why Karos acted the way he did, but it was evident that Karos was after Oli's life and not winning.

Karos was out cold and unresponsive while Oli remained conscious for but a moment until he coughed up blood and collapsed. According to tournament rules, Oli was the winner but there was no announcement.

"Ania, where's Vloz?" Rathe immediately noticed his absence. When Ania shook her head, Rathe guessed that Vloz had maybe discovered something and was busy. "Whatever, that doesn't matter right now. Got anything to stop the bleeding?" They tried their best to remain calm and patch him up but weren't able to change anything in the end.

Soon all chiefs quickly gathered on the platform to try and help. Lucky for Karos his life wasn't in any danger, he was just dealt a heavy blow that broke a lot of bones and knocked him out.

Oli's condition was far worse, some of the chiefs offered advice or some medical supplies they had on hand, but nothing was able to change the situation. Oli's heartbeat was getting weaker with each passing moment and they were unable to change that.

Then, Puula felt a tug on one of her tails. She looked back to see Netra staring at her. Confused by her daughter she asked, "What is it? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Use the sap," Netra said plainly.

Puula's heart shook when she heard her daughter. The nearby Ania had overheard Netra and asked Puula what she was talking about. With all of the chief's listening in, Puula had no choice but to explain. "She's talking about an item that my fox clan has treasured for generations. According to legend, it's a vial of sap from an Ever-life Tree. Of course, that's only according to the clan le—"

"You have Ever-life Sap?" Ania asked her right out. Seeing that Puula was reluctant to respond Ania made her an offer. "Our gorilla clan will offer you anything in trade for the Ever-life Sap, just name your price. But we must act immediately before it's too late."

With such an offer, Puula was amazed that the gorillas didn't just ask for it as a contribution to Iron Town. She retrieved a small, glass vial from her void choker and passed it to Ania, who didn't wait another moment to open it and force it down Oli's throat.

The nearly lifeless body began to soak in essence from all around him, like thirsty tree roots soaking up water; the bleeding gradually slowed and came to a halt. They kept him bandaged up while he recovered and were glad to see that he would pull through.

Ania stood up and walked over to Puula. She wrapped her arms around the fox chief and hugged her tightly. "Thank you, Puula. I will never forget this."

"It's the least I could do. I'd feel the same way if he were my child," Puula wrapped her tails around Ania. "We'll discuss the trade later, go be with him."

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Ania returned to her son's side and got Hurdo's help to carry him into one of the nearby rooms. Rathe quickly declared Oli as the victor and dismissed the crowd. Then, he left to go find Vloz and see what he was up to.

Only a few hundred krin to the north of the arena, Vloz stood in front of a cloaked man with a sinister smile. His cloak was a cloudy black, appearing to be stitched together from shadows. His hands and body were fully covered, only showing his face.

Vloz's essence was released to the fullest, attempting to threaten the mysterious man. However, Vloz's face showed a lack of confidence.

"Haven't you already figured it out? You can't touch me," the man laughed. "You're too weak if you want to stop me from leaving. Don't worry about that little gorilla, he already found a way to stop my little game. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got business to attend to."

Vloz was about to attack when he felt his body stiffen and lock up like it wasn't listening to him. Baffled by the man's abilities, Vloz had no choice but to watch the man walk away and suddenly disappear without leaving a single trace of his existence. He stood in that spot for a few minutes while he tried to understand what just took place.

Rathe easily found Vloz and didn't understand what he was doing. "Hey, what gives? What happened?"

"I… I'm not sure," Vloz looked back to Rathe with a foreboding seriousness, "but whoever he was, he was capable of soul puppetry."

"What!? First off, who is 'he' and second, is he the one responsible for the fight?" Rathe didn't want to believe Vloz's statement.

"He was a man in a dark cloak, and I couldn't even get near him. I'm not sure what his plan was or why he did this, but his little 'game' as he put it involved using Karos as a soul puppet. We're lucky that both of them survived, not just Oli."

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"Well, I guess we'll have to explain this one to the council, right? I'll let you do that," Rathe led the distracted Vloz back to the arena to check on Oli.