Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 23 - Chapter 3.4

4

The fourth event was pole tugging. I had seen this kind of competition done before in the post town, between Ji Maam and the massive Doga of the Gamley Troupe, but it seemed the rules were quite different this time, since that had been just a bit of entertainment for the townsfolk. To start with, the competitors would be holding on to their poles with only one arm each. Furthermore, they had to stand on top of boards that were only around thirty centimeters wide. They could win by either snatching the pole away or by pulling their opponent off that board.

The pole was about a meter long, and the distance between opponents would be roughly the same. Since their footing was going to be so narrow, they wouldn’t be able to widen their stance to brace themselves effectively. They would simply have to grip the end of the pole and try to knock their opponent off-balance by pushing or pulling it. This competition tested not only the obvious things like one’s grip strength and sense of balance, but also instantaneous strength and reflexes, as well as the ability to read an opponent’s breathing.

“All right. It’s time to determine the pairings, so everyone grab the end of a single vine.”

A pelt had been laid out on the ground, with the ends of several vines snaking out from underneath it. It was a way of drawing lots for matches.

Each of the thirty-three hunters grabbed a single vine end, and then the pelt was removed. When they followed their vine to its other end, the one holding it was to be their opponent. That determined the first sixteen pairings, while Masa Fou Ran got a victory by default in the first round.

“We will begin with those holding the shortest vines first. The victor of the first match will go up against Masa Fou Ran next.”

The first match was a clash between clan heads, with Ai Fa on one side and the head of the Deen on the other.

The Deen clan head’s gaze was fixed on Ai Fa. He was a middle-aged man with a very sturdy-looking build who didn’t really let his emotions show on his face, and though he wasn’t all that tall, he was muscular. Because I was so close with Toor Deen, I was fairly familiar with him as well.

He scolded Toor Deen once because her sweets weren’t to his taste, but he doesn’t seem to be a bad guy or anything, I thought to myself as the match kicked off in silence. It was an intense fight. Both of them were right-handed, so the pole was at an angle between them. As they read one another’s breath, they pulled and pushed the pole, sometimes twisting their wrists or shaking it up or down.

That continued for around fifteen seconds before the end of the match suddenly arrived. The Deen clan head thrust his arm out, and at the same time Ai Fa twisted her body while pulling, causing the former to lose his balance, and one of his knees to hit the ground.

“Ai Fa is victorious!” Baadu Fou declared, which was met with cheers and applause.

“That was amazing. The Deen clan head made it all the way to the end in the last contest of strength,” Toor Deen remarked, clapping her hands with a look of admiration. The Suun clan didn’t hold festivals of the hunt or contests of strength at their own settlement, so this was only the second time in her life that she had ever seen one.

From there, the matches steadily continued. All the clan heads except for the head of the Deen made it through the first round, as did all the other men whose names I knew.

The second round kicked off with seventeen competitors still in it. First up was Ai Fa versus Masa Fou Ran, a match that my clan head swiftly won. The hunter fell powerlessly to his knees after having the pole stolen from him just a few moments after it started.

“Looks like there’s no way I can beat you when it comes to pole tugging,” Masa Fou Ran said with a calm smile, while Ai Fa just silently nodded back.

After that, Baadu Fou and the Ran clan head won their matches, after which we ended up with another clash between clan heads, this time between the Liddo clan head and Raielfam Sudra. In other words, it was a match between the largest and the smallest of the six clan heads who were present.

This seemed to be a competition where a difference in size didn’t seem to offer any particularly big advantages or disadvantages. If I had to say, though, the increased reach and muscular strength of the bigger hunters probably gave them a bit of an edge. The smaller hunters might have been able to leverage their lower center of gravity, but reach allowed for a lot more mobility in terms of both pulling and pushing, which would be really useful for throwing someone off-balance.

However, it was Raielfam Sudra who claimed victory in the end. When his opponent pulled on the pole, he thrust out his arm with all his might, causing the other clan head to tumble backward.

Yun Sudra cheered and threw her arms around another woman. Even among the members of the other clans, men and women alike started freely voicing surprise and admiration.

“Damn! I lost! You’re quite a hunter, clan head of the Sudra!” the Liddo clan head said, sitting cross-legged on the ground and scratching his head in frustration. He kind of reminded me of Dan Rutim, possibly because of his goggle eyes, beard, and big-bellied body. “Seems like you’ll be a real capable competitor in the combat competition too. I’d very much like to face you then!”

“It all comes down to the forest’s guidance.” Rather than acting all proud of his victory, Raielfam Sudra just carefully placed the pole on the ground.

Before long, eight matches had ended, leaving nine competitors. They included the four clan heads except for those of the Deen and the Liddo, one man each from the Ran, Sudra, and Liddo, and two from the Deen. Cheem Sudra, Jou Ran, and Toor Deen’s father still remained in the competition.

Ai Fa’s next opponent ended up being none other than Cheem Sudra, and their match proved to be a fierce one. Cheem Sudra’s quick movements seemed to be giving Ai Fa difficulty. On top of that, the Sudra hunter had his waist lowered super far down from the start, to the point that he was almost crouching at times, causing my clan head even more trouble.

Now that I think about it, Ai Fa’s only competed against her father in this kind of contest of strength. Does she have trouble with opponents who are smaller than her?

Even if he wasn’t as little as Raielfam Sudra, Cheem Sudra was still a small man. He must’ve been nearly ten whole centimeters shorter than Ai Fa. However, though he was slender for a man, he wasn’t thinner than Ai Fa. He had narrowly lost to Ai Fa at the weight pulling, but he didn’t seem to fall significantly behind her in terms of instantaneous power.

Their intense battle continued for nearly two minutes, until Ai Fa finally made a big move. While pulling on the pole, she turned her body on top of her board. Holding his arm out as far as he could, Cheem Sudra somehow managed to brace himself. However, Ai Fa immediately rotated the opposite way and pushed on the pole, sending the hunter falling on his rear.

A loud cheer erupted, accompanied by the loudest applause yet. Ai Fa sighed, and wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand.

“That was amazing! Do you think Ai Fa will be able to keep winning all the way to the end?” Yun Sudra excitedly asked. She looked just as happy as when Raielfam Sudra had won. Apparently, one of her relatives losing wasn’t enough to sully her mood.

“I’m not sure. I definitely want her to do her best, but Raielfam Sudra’s going to be a tough opponent,” Toor Deen said.

“Our clan head is even better at pole tugging than Cheem. Wouldn’t it really be something to be proud of if both our clan heads made it to the final round?” Yun Sudra whispered to me with a smile, acting as if she hadn’t heard the other girl. She had some complicated feelings about Ai Fa, but she wasn’t the sort to bring them into a situation like this. And that wasn’t because she was suppressing her feelings or anything, but because she honestly adored Ai Fa as a fellow person of the forest’s edge. It was a testament to the days they had spent together at the Sauti settlement.

At any rate, the contest was still ongoing.

Jou Ran beat the Ran clan head, Toor Deen’s father defeated the Liddo man, and Raielfam Sudra won over the Deen man. Adding in Ai Fa, who won the first match, and Baadu Fou, who got the bye, we had the five hunters moving on to the fourth round.

The first match was between Ai Fa and Baadu Fou. For the second, it was Jou Ran versus Toor Deen’s father. Raielfam Sudra got the bye for the round, and would face the victor of the first match in the semifinals. For Jou Ran and Toor Deen’s father, though, this already was the semifinals.

Huh. Ai Fa ended up in the first match again, which means she’ll have to win one more match than everyone else to make it to the end. Still, luck with drawing lots came down to the forest’s guidance too, and since the amount of stamina you had after facing your opponents depended on the level skill they had, there was no point in lamenting a bad draw.

At any rate, the match between Ai Fa and Baadu Fou kicked off. It was yet another tough one, but going up against tall opponents really did seem to be Ai Fa’s specialty, as she didn’t show any of the hesitation she had when facing Cheem Sudra. Rather than relying on brute strength, the two of them measured each other’s breathing as they pushed and pulled on the pole, fighting in a calm and measured way.

In the end, it was Ai Fa who emerged victorious. The moment that Baadu Fou pulled his arm back in a feint, my clan head swiftly twisted with her wrist and snatched the grigee pole out of his hand.

“Hmm. So you read my breathing? You truly are skilled, Ai Fa,” Baadu Fou said with a breezy smile.

Ai Fa nodded back at him while wiping more sweat off her brow.

In the next match, Jou Ran beat Toor Deen’s father. The young chef’s father seemed to specialize in this event, but Jou Ran had an advantage: he was left-handed.

Now that I thought about it, when he had been drawing his bow, I was pretty sure his body had been facing in the opposite direction that the others were. Apparently, when your opponent was left-handed, it could confuse your senses. That wasn’t a problem for Jou Ran, though, since he had always faced right-handed opponents.

As a result, Toor Deen’s father was swiftly defeated. Toor Deen let out a sorrowful “Ah...” and lowered her head dejectedly.

“What a shame. Seems like it was a bit of a bad matchup.”

Toor Deen wriggled bashfully for a bit, then brought her mouth close to my ear. Because of the extreme height difference between us, though, I had to stoop down. “Isn’t it unfair that everyone else is competing with their right arms, while he’s the only one using his left? It didn’t matter for archery, but now it’s making me feel frustrated.”

As I recalled, Jou Ran had beaten Toor Deen’s father in the archery competition as well.

“Maybe, but it isn’t a taboo, so there’s nothing that can be done about it. Besides, he’s probably only competing like that because he’s left-handed.”

“That’s true, but still...” Toor Deen said, her eyebrows drooping. It was rare for her to be so assertive, so this really must have been upsetting for her.

Meanwhile, the hunters who had already lost were starting another competition over in the plaza. Apparently, it was to give the hunters who had won a chance to rest. At the same time, it also gave the defeated hunters another opportunity to show off. There wasn’t any particular order to it, with the hunters volunteering themselves to clash against one another randomly.

After around ten minutes of such matches, the semifinal match of Ai Fa versus Raielfam Sudra kicked off.

Ai Fa might have lost in the tree-climbing competition, but this time she was able to seize victory. Since Raielfam Sudra was even smaller than Cheem Sudra, he caused her some real trouble, but in the end she snatched the pole away just like she had against Baadu Fou. The match probably lasted around three minutes in total, and once it was over, there was yet another explosion of cheers and applause.

After that, there were some more filler matches, and then at last it was time for the finals between Ai Fa and Jou Ran. Thanks to the break in between, Ai Fa didn’t seem to be having any issues in terms of stamina, but considering the fact that my clan head had previously fought Lem Dom for literally hours on end, this competition couldn’t have exhausted her anyway. However, she was up against the left-handed Jou Ran. Somehow, it reminded me of Shin Ruu having to fight the ambidextrous Melfried.

“Begin!” Baadu Fou shouted, and both competitors lowered their hips.

Ai Fa had fully taken on her fighting stance right from the start. Did she figure it would be difficult to face him head-on? She tugged the pole with her right hand, turning the left side of her body toward her opponent. Naturally, pushing in that position wouldn’t work out too well, so she stuck to mainly pulling on the pole, and when she went to push, she temporarily shifted her body and thrust with incredible force, which made Jou Ran the first to fall into a bad position. Ai Fa possessed astounding instantaneous strength and reflexes. Jou Ran’s posture came close to crumbling a number of times, and whenever it did, cheers and shrieks filled the air.

A large number of people were shouting Ai Fa’s and Jou Ran’s names, and most of those voices belonged to women. About sixty percent of them seemed to be calling out for my clan head. She must’ve been really popular, considering how many relatives Jou Ran had in the crowd.

“Are you not going to cheer for Ai Fa, Asuta?” Yun Sudra asked, sounding confused.

“Well, it’s kinda hard for me to shout like that unless something makes me really lose control of myself.”

At the swordsmanship tournament, I had been so worried that Shin Ruu might get injured that it had really thrown me off. But because this was more of a sportsmanlike competition, I had no trouble maintaining my composure.

Still, I feel like I’ll regret doing nothing if Ai Fa doesn’t end up winning, I thought, bringing my hands up beside my mouth...only to be cut off by a round of loud cheering. Ai Fa and Jou Ran had both fallen together.

After a bit of silence, Baadu Fou shouted, “Jou Ran is victorious! Does anyone have any objections?!” Once again, no one objected. And so, Baadu Fou nodded and raised his right arm. “Jou Ran is the victor of the pole-tugging competition!”

Congratulatory applause rang out from the crowd. However, I remained frozen there, looking like a fool with my hands up beside my mouth. Unlike the previous competitions, I couldn’t believe that Ai Fa had lost this one.

It wasn’t as if I had been absolutely certain that she would win, but now that the match was settled, I was so taken off guard that I felt truly shaken. If she had been up against Raielfam Sudra or the Liddo clan head, I might not have been so badly thrown for a loop, but her opponent was a young man, and one who didn’t appear especially formidable at that, so I might have subconsciously let my guard down.

“Are you all right, Asuta?” Toor Deen asked, tugging on the sleeve of my T-shirt. That brought me back to my senses, so I lowered my hands and leaned in close to the girl’s ear.

“I’m fine. Still, I think I might understand your frustration now.”

“Yeah. It really is frustrating, isn’t it?” Toor Deen replied, giving me a big nod with a furrowed brow.

In the center of the plaza, Ai Fa stood up like nothing had happened, while Jou Ran faced her with an earnest smile.

“I thought for sure I had lost that one. You really are a fantastic hunter, Ai Fa.”

My clan head offered no response.

“If I had been competing with my right arm, I would have lost in an instant, so I don’t really feel like I can brag about having beaten you.”

“Regardless, you were the one who was declared the victor, man of the Ran clan,” Ai Fa said with a bow, and then she left the field of battle.

Now that Jou Ran had been announced as the victor, he was given a great big round of applause.

“All that remains is the combat competition, but Ai Fa and Jou Ran will need a bit of time to rest. Let us take a bit of a break before resuming.”

Everyone then shuffled around a bit, with the clans mingling together as people chatted with one another. For my part, I started looking to see where Ai Fa had gone, and soon spotted her by herself, scooping tea out of a water jug to wet her parched throat.

“You did great, Ai Fa. It was a shame how the last match went, though.”

She just stared at me.

“I’m sure you’re frustrated, but try not to fixate on it too much. And I hope you’ll give the last contest your all too.”

Ai Fa silently nodded back. Since she didn’t even say “Indeed,” I felt even more uneasy.

“Are you really okay, Ai Fa? If you have something you want to say, then you should come out and hit me with it.”

“What has you so out of sorts?” Ai Fa finally said, causing me to breathe a sigh of relief.

“I guess I’d say that I’m feeling kind of frustrated myself, so much so that it’s kind of surprising to me. To be honest, I can’t believe that you lost that match just now.”

“He is skilled with his left hand, which is rare at the forest’s edge. Raielfam Sudra and the Liddo clan head are better hunters than him, but that one factor worked out to his advantage. That’s all there is to it.”

“Yeah, but still. The stuff that happened before this didn’t bother me much, but that match really got to me.”

Ai Fa’s eyes narrowed, and she brought her mouth in close to my ear. Then, with warm breath she whispered, “Do not worry. I’ll win the next one for sure.” Apparently, Ai Fa’s fighting spirit had quietly caught fire.

I gave her a nod and a smile. “Then I’ll believe in your words, and in your strength as a hunter. Anyway, I need to go check on the pots, so I’ll see you later.”

“Right.”

With that, I left Ai Fa behind and hurried to the kitchen to check on the state of the giba bone soup.

I added some firewood to the stove, stirred the contents of the pot, and added some fresh water, then headed back to the plaza. The men had already gathered in the center, and the Beim clan head was over by the guests.

“Well then, let us begin the combat competition! Once again, each of you is to grab hold of a vine in order to determine your opponent!” Baadu Fou declared.

The hunters pulled another set of lots, and once again, Ai Fa ended up in the first match, with her opponent being the Liddo clan head. They were both renowned for being the foremost hunters among the six clans, so the crowd was getting fired up right from the very start.

“I never expected to be facing you right at the very beginning. This must also be the forest’s guidance,” the Liddo clan head remarked with a frank grin. That smile of his kind of resembled Dan Rutim’s as well. “I’ve heard how you defeated the Lea clan head at the Ruu festival of the hunt, and had an even match with the head of the Rutim. As I understand it, those two are as strong as the hunters of the north, so I intend to face you as if I was facing one of them.”

“Hn.” Ai Fa simply replied with a calm nod.

Amid excited cheering, the two of them stepped into the center of the plaza.

I was already well acquainted with this competition. The victor was determined by who knocked their opponent to the ground first. Touching the ground was permitted, but only with the bottoms of your feet and the palms of your hands. There were no real fouls, so you were free to grab your opponent’s hair or clothing, or to hit and kick them.

However, there was one firm, absolute taboo: they weren’t to seriously injure their opponents. Causing bloodshed or breaking bones was forbidden. However, I wasn’t sure how the rule applied to causing muscle injuries or bruises. There was no shortage of people who attacked their opponent with blow after blow, clearly not caring about that kind of minor wound, so maybe the rule allowed them to go that far. After all, that kind of roughness was just part of the competition.

Just don’t get injured...and do everything you can to earn a result you can be happy with, Ai Fa, I prayed as I kept my eyes fixed on my clan head.

Naturally, she looked as calm and composed as always.

There were no elders among the smaller clans, so Baadu Fou took on the role of referee. He stood between the two of them, and then shouted out, “Begin!” signaling the start of the match.

The Liddo clan head grabbed at Ai Fa with the force of a wild beast. However, my clan head twisted her body and grabbed the man’s right arm from the side. Once she had done that, she just had to drop her hips to cause the Liddo clan head to float through the air, and then his back slammed into the ground. It was like something out of aikido.

After a moment of silence, resounding cheers erupted from the crowd.

“A-Ai Fa is victorious!” Even Baadu Fou sounded surprised.

Ai Fa, however, just bowed and exited the arena.

“Th-The Liddo clan head went down in no time at all. Doesn’t that mean none of the other hunters have any chance of beating Ai Fa either?” Toor Deen asked, unable to hide her surprise.

“Hmm. I’m not sure,” I answered with a tilt of my head. “I’m sure compatibility is a part of this competition too. Ai Fa might have trouble facing opponents who are shorter than her.”

At any rate, Ai Fa wasn’t the sort of person who would get careless in a fight, no matter who she was up against. And as if exemplifying what I had just been thinking, she swiftly took down her second opponent—the head of the Ran—as well. She had been up against two clan heads in a row.

There weren’t any big upsets among the other matches. In fact, the results seemed kind of similar to the pole tugging competition. The combat competition wasn’t a battle of pure strength, but one that required a broad skill set and tested things like reflexes, concentration, and the ability to read your opponent’s breathing.

After the second round finished, there were nine competitors left. Except for the head of the Ran clan being replaced by the head of the Deen, it was otherwise the same lineup as with the pole tugging.

For the third round, Ai Fa was up against a Liddo man. This time, her opponent didn’t just rely on his brute strength and try to grab her directly, but Ai Fa still managed to grab him by the arm in a heartbeat and kick his leg out from under him, bringing the fight to an end before he could do anything at all. As for the other matches, Raielfam Sudra was victorious over the Deen clan head, Baadu Fou beat Toor Deen’s father, and Jou Ran won versus Cheem Sudra.

In the fourth round, Ai Fa ended up against the Deen man who had previously gotten the bye. He had quite an impressive build too, but he was no match for my clan head.

With that, we headed into the semifinals, where Ai Fa was up against Jou Ran.

The crowd seemed to be even more fired up than normal, probably because Jou Ran had just won the pole tugging competition. Ai Fa had been steadily advancing through the rounds, but they seemed to think that he might be able to stand in her way.

Naturally, I was feeling nervous too. In a competition that involved the use of both arms, like a combat contest, I couldn’t imagine how being left-handed would give him any real advantage. The hunters of the forest’s edge didn’t really fight in a way that would make one’s dominant hand all that important. However, there was something about Jou Ran that was difficult to get a grasp on, so I couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

Please, at least beat Jou Ran this one time. Otherwise, I don’t think I’ll be able to sincerely get along with him. Despite what I had said to Ai Fa earlier, I really doubted my ability to stay above it all if he won. This was pretty much our first meeting and he was young, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of my clan head losing to him in combat. I guess that made me more petty than jealous.

But at any rate, the match only lasted for an instant. The Ran clan head who had taken over from Baadu Fou as judge shouted out, “Begin,” and Ai Fa suddenly kicked off the ground hard. It was rare for her to go on the offensive like that. Having covered the distance in a flash, though, she grabbed hold of her opponent’s collar, swept his feet from the outside, and then flipped Jou Ran’s body over in a move similar to a major sweeping leg throw from judo.

Ai Fa lifted Jou Ran’s swept legs up higher than where his head had been, so if she had slammed him into the ground there would have been some serious damage. However, my clan head would never be so merciless. Instead she used her grip on his collar to slow his fall and gently lowered him to the ground, defeating him without inflicting any damage whatsoever.

Silence once again fell as everyone was taken aback, only for them to then explode with cheers all at once a moment later.

Ai Fa removed her hand from Jou Ran’s collar, then rose up as smoothly as a leopard. I could hear Rimee Ruu shouting, “Hooray!” from a distance, and looking down, I found Toor Deen staring up at me with a sparkling smile.

Amid the thunderous applause, Jou Ran stood up, scratching his head.

“You got me. I never imagined the difference in our strength would be that wide.”

Ai Fa bowed to him without saying a word, and he bowed back before turning around.

The next semifinal match was between Baadu Fou and Raielfam Sudra. Just like with the pole tugging, Baadu Fou fought calmly without any unnecessary movement. On the other hand, Raielfam Sudra didn’t stop moving for even a second, displaying agility and strength similar to that of a real monkey. Their strategies were so different that I couldn’t tell which one had the advantage. However, it was Raielfam Sudra who ultimately won the bout. He got under Baadu Fou’s long legs and then grabbed his sash from behind to pull him to the ground.

“Raielfam Sudra is victorious!”

The cheers came once more in raging waves. Some of the hunters even shook their heads in admiration. They must not have expected a small man like Raielfam Sudra to be so skilled. It wasn’t like everyone had Ai Fa’s talent for judging strength, after all.

After facing off with all those other men, Ai Fa and Raielfam Sudra ended up being pitted against one another in the finals. It was a clash between clan heads, though the pair happened to be in charge of the smallest of the six clans, and neither possessed a robust build.

Still, it’s no fluke that it came down to the two of them.

I wasn’t any good at telling how strong hunters were. However, Ai Fa had once said that Raielfam Sudra was skilled enough to fight off Tei Suun, and according to her, Tei Suun had been dangerous enough that even Ludo and Shin Ruu working together would have had a hard time capturing him alive. I didn’t know what exactly that said about their relative ability levels, but it at least gave me the strong impression that Raielfam Sudra was no ordinary hunter in terms of strength. It was fitting that he had made it all the way to the finals of this combat competition.

“Begin!” Baadu Fou shouted, once again acting as judge, and Raielfam Sudra began moving to circle around Ai Fa. If my clan head didn’t react, he would be behind her in an instant. Ai Fa shifted to maintain her distance while Raielfam Sudra kept trying to circle around her to both the right and the left.

My clan head continued to adjust her posture to face her opponent, and occasionally reached out with her arm to threaten him. But Raielfam Sudra wasn’t striking out at her at all, so Ai Fa was going to have to take the offensive. However, the Sudra clan head just brushed her hand aside and then tried to slip inside her guard. Ai Fa refused to let him get close, though. She was every bit as agile as her opponent.

The crowd roared with excitement. As they did, my clan head took a big step forward. Just when her fingertips grabbed hold of Raielfam Sudra’s shoulder, though, he swiftly turned. His hand was now gripping Ai Fa’s wrist. His posture was set for the sort of one-armed shoulder throw Ai Fa and Shin Ruu had used in the past.

He lifted Ai Fa’s body into the air, just like what had happened to Melfried several days prior. It was the sort of throw where if you tried to forcefully brace yourself against it you would injure your elbow, and it had such momentum to it that it looked to me as if she had kicked off the ground herself.

My clan head flew through the air in an arc, and the young women in the crowd shrieked. However, Ai Fa rolled over in the air and managed to land on her feet. Then, Raielfam Sudra charged at her, his body low to the ground. The Sudra clan head’s head crashed into her abdomen, causing her posture to collapse backward. But before her back touched the ground, she grabbed hold of the sash around his waist and pulled hard, despite her bent-over position. Using the head jammed into her abdomen as a fulcrum, Ai Fa sent Raielfam Sudra’s body into the air. The clan head had to twist his body like an acrobat in order to land with his feet on the ground.

Ai Fa was unable to avoid having her hands touch the ground as she fell, but she sprung up with incredible speed. At this point, Raielfam Sudra’s back was facing Ai Fa. He kicked off the ground in order to close in on her, twisting his body in the process and slamming his shoulder into her. My clan head had only just managed to right herself, but she was once again thrown into an unstable position when Raielfam Sudra’s shoulder tackle struck her right on her side.

Ai Fa was starting to fall over again. However, she did manage to wrap her left arm around the man’s neck. Then she grabbed her opponent’s sash from behind once more with her right arm and bent backward, going into what looked like a brainbuster from pro wrestling. Raielfam Sudra’s small body was sent flying. However, it looked like he had his knees bent. If he managed to land his feet on the ground, he would probably be able to regroup.

Perhaps noticing that, Ai Fa rotated her body to the right at the last possible moment, shifting the Sudra clan head so that it was no longer his back that was plunging toward the dirt, but rather his left shoulder. The force of the impact made both of them bounce, with Ai Fa landing on her back, while Raielfam Sudra’s body was sent tumbling along the ground multiple times. After slamming into the firewood pile for the ritual flame several meters away, the Sudra clan head finally came to a stop. The pile then collapsed, with a number of pieces falling on his back. But even still, it only took a moment for him to sit up.

“Hmm. It seems you got me.” Despite having been slammed into the ground so forcefully, he seemed to be completely uninjured.

Amid deafening cheers, Ai Fa slowly rose.

“The victor of the combat competition is Ai Fa of the Fa clan!” Baadu Fou shouted, at which point I finally released the breath I had been holding in. Apparently, I had forgotten to breathe as my eyes followed their intense movements.

“Congratulations, Asuta,” Toor Deen said with a smile.

“Ai Fa is amazing,” Yun Sudra added from my other side.

Over Toor Deen’s head, I spied Saris Ran Fou staring at my clan head with teary eyes. And as for Raielfam Sudra’s wife, Li Sudra, she was applauding too, with a bright smile on her face.

And with that, the curtain closed on the five contests of strength that had taken the last several hours to complete. As the cheers and applause washed over her, Ai Fa simply closed her eyes and brushed the dirt off of her clothing.