“Um, I know that there’s no point in bringing this up...but at the last banquet, you said I was the stronger hunter between us, didn’t you?” he asked.
I remembered Cheem Sudra saying that. Geol Zaza had asked if the five champions were stronger than him, and Cheem Sudra had replied that the other four all were, Jou Ran included.
“Back then, that certainly felt true. But that was months ago now,” Cheem Sudra quietly replied, holding out his hand toward Jou Ran. “And we both have a ways to go as hunters, after all. As members of two clans that are subordinates of the Fou, we always need to keep training.”
“Yes. You’re right,” Jou Ran said, taking Cheem Sudra’s hand and letting himself be pulled to his feet. The two young hunters then walked away from the center.
A little later on, Ai Fa faced off with Zei Deen, and my clan head easily emerged victorious. After he was brought down with an arm twist technique that looked like an aikido move, he stared up at her with an intense light shining in his eyes. “You truly are exceptionally strong. My victory in pole tugging really was just luck.”
“That’s not true at all. Saying things like that is making light of the other opponents you defeated in that competition,” Ai Fa said, her expression calm and her eyes gleaming softly. “And besides, I wouldn’t have been forced to let go if you weren’t such a skilled hunter. You should be more proud of yourself as someone who has the strength to claim the title of champion.”
Zei Deen silently looked up at Ai Fa for a little longer, and then he slowly rose to his feet. His eyes now had a soft gleam in them too as he faced her. “In any event, you are the victor of our match. Show the mother forest that you also possess enough strength to be called a champion.”
The two then walked away as voices cheered all around them.
Nine competitors once again moved on to the third round, and in the first match, Raielfam Sudra was able to defeat Radd Liddo. Though the latter was a hunter who possessed incredible strength and agility, Raielfam Sudra was even nimbler still, and won by sweeping Radd Liddo’s legs out from under him.
“You beat me! If the Fou hadn’t gotten you first, I would’ve loved to form blood ties with the Sudra!” Radd Liddo remarked with a hearty laugh.
The five hunters in the fourth round were Ai Fa, Raielfam Sudra, Cheem Sudra, Baadu Fou, and the Deen clan head. My clan head went up against Baadu Fou first, and she won an overwhelming victory. Though he had been tough for her to overcome in the pole tugging competition, in combat she had Baadu Fou down on the ground in seconds.
Because she had only ever been able to train with her father as a child, Ai Fa was very used to handling tall opponents, and a tall and skinny guy like Baadu Fou had a high center of gravity, which might have made it even more difficult for him to keep her from throwing him. The man was an exceptionally strong hunter, but he wasn’t able to do much of anything when facing my clan head.
The next match was between Raielfam and Cheem Sudra, and it made for quite a spectacle too. The two of them excelled in agility even among the Sudra hunters, so their bout was incredibly fast-paced. On top of that, they had fought each other in lots of contests of strength within their clan in the past, so they knew each other very well. At no point did their speed ever start to drop as their match stretched on, which only made the crowd more and more excited as time went on.
In the end, Raielfam Sudra was the one who emerged victorious, which, being the head of their clan, was pretty fitting. He shot forward like a speeding bullet and hit Cheem Sudra with a really low tackle, bringing the young hunter down at last.
“You came very close. The only thing you have to do is keep up with your training,” Raielfam Sudra stated, sounding kind of like he was bragging to everyone else about how much the young hunter had grown. When Cheem Sudra looked up at his clan head, it was easy to see how much he respected the man.
After a short break, Ai Fa faced the Deen clan head in the semifinals. He was a man of average height who had a robust build, and he proved to be very tenacious, but he eventually fell when his legs were swept out from under him.
And so, we came to the final match. Surprisingly, the two finalists were the same as last time, with Ai Fa facing off against Raielfam Sudra.
“That older hunter has some rather interesting moves. If punches and kicks are forbidden, Ai Fa will probably have some real trouble,” Tia said.
Just as she had predicted, their match was every bit as intense as last time. Ai Fa could beat most hunters in no time flat, but she couldn’t avoid getting pulled into a protracted battle when she went up against Raielfam Sudra.
Ai Fa was less muscular than most men, so she usually won by reading her opponent and choosing the perfect moment to strike. But Raielfam Sudra was a head shorter than she was and extraordinarily agile, so things were entirely different with him.
Naturally, Ai Fa also excelled when it came to agility and maneuverability. It was just that Raielfam Sudra exceeded even her in that regard. He would constantly jump from left to right, or even occasionally plunge straight forward, moving about like a wild monkey.
Just like the match with Cheem Sudra, watching their bout was like watching a fight between two acrobats. Their back-and-forth continued relentlessly, until Ai Fa suddenly came to a complete halt. She stopped following Raielfam Sudra’s movements, and simply stood there before him. With a look of great caution in his eyes, the Sudra clan head retreated three meters back. However, Ai Fa remained completely still, keeping her gaze focused straight ahead even when he started moving around to her left.
“What’s going on? Did she give up on the match?”
“Trying to make him drop his guard is a waste of time!” a particularly enthusiastic man shouted out.
Indeed, Raielfam Sudra wasn’t showing any signs that he was getting careless. He remained completely vigilant as moved around behind my clan head.
Ai Fa’s eyes still didn’t turn. Raielfam Sudra circled around until he was behind her and a bit to one side, and then he finally darted forward, launching into a low tackle like the one that had defeated Cheem Sudra. The moment his fingers were just about to reach her knees, though, Ai Fa’s hand came straight down at Raielfam Sudra’s back from above. Her wide-open palm slapped hard into the man’s back, and in the same moment she swung her left leg upward to avoid his grasp.
Since he wasn’t able to support himself by grabbing onto Ai Fa’s leg, the blow from directly above forced Raielfam Sudra’s body to hit the ground and slide forward for some distance. As she lowered her leg back down, Ai Fa breathed a heavy sigh.
“Ai Fa is the victor! She is our combat champion!” Radd Liddo declared, his voice followed by an explosion of cheers.
Raielfam Sudra sprang back up and faced my clan head. “You really got me good there. How were you able to do that when you couldn’t see me, though?”
“I gave up on using my eyes and focused solely on sensing your presence in other ways. If I had made even a tiny mistake, I would have been the one on the ground instead,” Ai Fa explained, slumping her shoulders. “Still, I’m exhausted. If you hadn’t moved so soon, I would have had no choice but to go with a different strategy.”
“You truly are quite the hunter... I am deeply glad to be able to call the Fa clan friends,” Raielfam Sudra said with a big, wrinkly smile.
The corners of Ai Fa’s eyes crinkled like she was smiling. “I feel the same way, Raielfam Sudra.”
That relaxed exchange earned them even more cheers and applause from the crowd, myself included, naturally. Then I felt something well up deep inside me that I couldn’t hold back, and I shouted out, “Congratulations, Ai Fa! You were so cool!”
Amid all the cheering, I thought my voice might not have reached her. But just as I was thinking that, Ai Fa turned toward me, with a huge smile on her face that she clearly couldn’t hold back either. She usually never smiled in front of so many people. It was the first time in four days that I had seen her beaming grin.