She failed. While ground fighting had many limitations—being useless in anything other than a one-on-one duel was one—few knew how to grapple effectively.
Vir tightened the pressure around Tara’s neck, choking her. A few more seconds, and she’d either be forced to yield, or she’d fall unconscious.
Either way, it was Vir’s win.
Or so he thought.
Tara’s body writhed under Vir’s grip, and he felt his grip slacken. Not through any fault of his own, but because Tara’s body was changing.
Shifting.
“Grak it!” Vir cursed as the Naga’s body grew and grew, shifting to her serpentine form. Tara’s face disappeared, turning reptilian. She swung her serpentine head around and grinned, flicking out her forked snake tongue.
“How is that allowed?” Vir cried, hurriedly distancing himself from the ever-growing snake.
He wasn’t fast enough.
Tara’s tail snapped up, circling around Vir’s legs, causing him to trip.
Unable to roll to dissipate the impact, Vir hit the ground hard. Had his body not been strengthened by prana, he’d most certainly have broken some bones. Even without broken bones, though, it still hurt.
Vir attempted to wriggle free, but it was useless. Tara’s serpentine torso wrapped around Vir’s body, tightening. Constricting. With awesome force, it crushed…
But if Tara was hoping to force Vir’s body to break quickly, she was sorely mistaken. Calmly, Vir gripped the serpent’s neck and started applying pressure of his own.
Tara began to suffocate, while Vir’s body was being subjected to more and more force by the moment.
This was now a battle of attrition. Vir had no way out. Not without suffocating Tara. Tara wasn’t about to let go of her stranglehold until Vir was knocked out.
Both had wild, vicious smiles plastered on their faces as they fought.
The seconds ticked by. Vir felt his body reach its limit. He might’ve been strong, but a snake’s constricting force was simply too great to bear.
His leg snapped. Pain ripped through his body. But Vir didn’t relent.
Tara’s motions grew increasingly desperate as the air was blocked from her lungs. Her tail began to writhe desperately, and her neck convulsed.
Another bone broke in Vir’s body. This time a rib. Then another. And another.
Yet this level of pain was nothing to Vir. He’d endured far, far worse.
“How?” Tara hissed. “How are you sssoo ssssstrong?”
“The Ash will do that to you,” Vir grunted. “Makes you strong. You should try it sometime.”
His opponent, unable to endure any longer, finally relented.
“I… yield,” Tara hissed.
Vir instantly let go of her neck, and the constriction force that had pinned him in place came undone as they both flopped to the ground.
Vir landed on his broken ribs, and the pain nearly blinded him. It had been so long since he’d sustained such injuries. He almost missed it. Almost.
“Well fought!” the registrar said, clapping with both pairs of arms. He wasn’t the only one. Cirayus was hooting from the side, and even Shan was howling.
Vir wasn’t surprised in the least to see Tara back up on her feet. He hadn’t really injured her, and Yuma’s Embrace would negate any injury she’d taken nearly instantly.
It was, in all honestly, an utterly unfair power. If Ultimates hadn’t been banned in this tournament, Vir would give her excellent odds of winning. Iksana’s Clarity might allow them to see into the immediate future, but that did little good without a means to take Tara down instantly.
And with that ability, Vir doubted she could even fall unconscious.
“Wow,” Tara said, walking up to the prone Vir. “Now that was a fight! I don’t even feel like I wasted my afternoon anymore!”
“Gee, thanks,” Vir said, gingerly sitting up.
Before he could react, Tara slapped her hands on Vir’s ribs and leg and activated Yuma’s Touch. Vir felt the healing prana enter his body, mending his bones.
“You should be in top form by tomorrow, when the tournament begins,” Tara assured him. “I admit, I got a little excited there. Went a bit overboard.”
“As you always do,” an elderly woman’s voice called out from the distance. “I swear, when will you ever learn?”
Tara—the ferocious warrior woman who’d fought on par with Vir—cringed upon hearing that voice.
Who is that woman? Vir thought, turning to its owner. If she could cow Tara…
She was an ordinary red demon wearing an unadorned gray robe, and she was accompanied by a great monster of a giant that made her look absolutely tiny. Even among Bairans, this red demon’s physique seemed large to Vir.
He was unarmed, and his upper body was bare, revealing deep blue tattoos that covered his arms, chest, and back.
This was one tattoo Vir was quite familiar with.
Balancer of Scales.
“Hello, Ajji. Guess you saw that?” Tara asked sheepishly.
Ajji?
“That I did, young woman.” The gray-eyed red demon turned her gaze to Vir, and for a moment, he felt Greesha’s hawk-like eyes upon him.
Except multiplied tenfold. The sheer pressure from this woman’s presence was unlike anything the old seer had ever mustered.
“Well fought, Vaak,” the woman said. “I look forward to your performance in the Tournament.”
“Oh, you won’t want to take your eyes off him,” Cirayus said, hopping up onto the stage with the grace of a cat. “That, I assure you. Lad, allow me to introduce you to some old acquaintances of mine. Thaman and Kira. They’re both young upstarts, but these days, they call themselves the Raja of Baira and the Rajni of Panav.”
82
THE FIGHTER’S BANQUET (PART ONE)
Vir’s meeting with the clanlords hadn’t lasted long. After congratulating him and exchanging pleasantries, the two departed, citing that they were eager to converse more at the function later that day.
Cirayus had told him on the way back home that they wanted to be the first to see him. It seemed both the Panav and Bairan chiefs knew of Vir’s true identity—being allies of sorts to Cirayus.
Even so, they had refused to simply hand over their Ultimate Bloodline Tattoos to Vir. Doing so would be seen as a declaration of allegiance to the Akh Nara, and would thus be seen as enemies to the Chitran when Vir eventually announced his existence to the world.
It was becoming clear to Vir that nobody especially liked the Chits—particularly after how they had treated the Gargans. What was initially a war to redraw fairer borders became a regime of total subjugation, as the Chitrans took out centuries of pent-up bitterness against the imprisoned Gargans.
Even so, not one nation dared upset the status quo. Nobody wanted another realm-wide war. Not so soon after the last one.
To gain their approval and aid, Vir would have to prove that the Akh Nara was someone they can trust. Someone who would usher in a new, more prosperous and fairer era for demonkind.
Given the long and colorful history of Vir’s predecessors, he couldn’t blame them. In the past, Akh Nara had brought destruction as often as they had helped.
Vir spent the next hours back at Cirayus’ home, resting. While it was true that neither needed as much sleep as most, the constant travel of the past few days had left them exhausted.
And Vir didn’t want to be exhausted for the function the clanlords had mentioned.
The fighters’ banquet. It was an opportunity for Baira to celebrate the tournament combatants and for the fighters to meet each other and show their camaraderie.
That was the official explanation, at least. Vir suspected the real reason had more to do with allowing the combatants to size each other up. Maybe even hurl some taunts and throw down challenges. This was a spectacle, after all. There was even money involved, so it made for good drama.