The bear scanned around the arena, but the only thing it could notice were more rocks forming in random arrangements that grew taller. The rocks began to change colour, glowing bright orange with black stripes. The bear immediately became much more alert, and created a much bigger quake, breaking down all the rocks. At the same time, the tiger leapt up from behind and hooked its claws into the bear's skin. The bear roared in agony as it flailed about, trying to shake the tiger off. But the tiger kept its grip, sinking his fangs into his foe's neck. It tried to topple its opponent, but the bear used its energy to maintain his balance despite the pain. Summoning more energy, the bear created a shockwave that threw the tiger off of it. The tiger was then hurled to the side, crashing into the dome with a loud thud.
Before its opponent could regain its balance, the bear compressed its spiritual energy into three sharp, needle like structures and sent it flying towards the tiger with a roar. The tiger noticed this attack in its state of vulnerability, and summoned a stone wall to act as a shield. However, the bear continued creating more needles, sending them towards the tiger unrelentlessly. As the onslaught of needles charged towards the stone wall, cracks began to form, before it eventually broke down. Still the needles did not stop, but the tiger has regained its battle stance and charged towards the bear, with a stronger shield made from its own energy. This redirected most of the needles to the side, but the needles that hit formed minor dents on the shield.
The bear immediately stopped its attacks upon noticing his opponent's strategy. It immediately condensed a shield of its own to brace for the incomming impact.
"BANG!!" The sound resounded throughout the arena, to which the audience clapped and cheered. The bear stumbled back a little, and the tiger summoned a sharp rock to pierce its back from behind. The rock had pierced through its flesh. Despite the pain it felt, and the blood dripping out, the bear strengthened its muscles to prevent further damage and pulled itself out. The tiger, quick to assume victory as soon as possible, hurled needle sharp rocks towards the bear in its unstable stance. However, the bear immediately wraped itself in a thick cacoon of vines.
"Its good to not show your trump card until desperate times," Miko thought. Although she seemed to be enjoying the match, looking at it attentively, she was on the neutral side. Even though she found it to be outrageous and despicable, she had to admit that watching this was a good way she could learn. Bloody battles are not an uncommon sight for beasts anyway. If not towards each other, they would still fight against others, like humans or other spirits. This battle taught Miko something new. If one was not strong enough to battle, one had to depend on wit. The tiger was wise in capturing its opponent while it was vulnerable, as well as creating the perfect set up for that. However, he was too hasty, being too eager to win.
The tiger hurled sharp rocks at the cacoon of vines in an attempt to break it. Still, the vines were sturdy, with only superficial scratches on it. Unbeknownst to the tiger, however, the bear was curled up inside his vine fortress, healing itself with its own spiritual energy.
A few minutes passed like that, with the bear hidden from all view by the vines. The crowd began to show signs of boredom even though the tiger kept switching up its attacks. It scratched the vines in an attempt to slice them, and performed various other moves, yet the vines seemed to remain as sturdy.
"I'm sure that this bear is especially intelligent, being able to think of a plan we are unable to comprehend as of yet!" The host announced, in an attempt to retain the attention of the audience.
Suddenly, the vines retreated. The bear emerged from it, fully healed, as if it was never attacked in the first place.
The audience roared in excitement, immediately regaining an interest in the match. The host couldn't help but sigh in relief that the bear hadn't holed up and try to hide. If it did, they would have to resort to their other measures to keep the match going till either of them fell.
The tiger gave a low growl, half in threat and the other half in annoyance. It knew that it was going to be harder for it to attain victory now. Still, who said that the tides of battle couldn't turn more than once?
It was time to even the playing field. Both bears and tigers had their own strengths, and it was time to utilise the tiger's. The tiger constructed several rock structures with moving black stripes in random directions, some targeting the bear who used its paws and powerful hind legs to break apart. This tiger's trump card was its stealth. The bear began to quake the stage once more in an attempt to break down the tiger's consrtuctions. However, isn't a trump card useless if you played it once already? The tiger never rooted those rocks to the ground, but rather levitated them with its power. It ran around the stage, confusing the bear by camoflaging with the rock's everchanging patterns.
If the bear were to stay still, there was no doubt it would lose. Yet, if it were to recklessly attack, or charge into those rocks to destroy them, the outcome may be no different. With time slipping away, and each second possibly deciding victory or defeat, the bear made the decision to stay put, yet began to increase the vibrations in the ground. However, as the tiger leaped behind and around each structure while in camoflauge, such vibrations had little effect as its paws barely touched down ground for merely a split second. The bear looked around anxiously, before it ceased the vibrations and laid down and raised its paw as if in defeat.
The audience thought the bear might have lost hope and given up, accepting its own death. As a spiritual beast, the bear was sentient and able to feel such complex emotions like humans, although possibly a little differently. Tashi, along with others that betted on the bear, lost hope as well, thinking they lost their money by betting against the odds. Usually, if the chances of a party winning is higher, the amount won would be smaller. Likewise, if the chances of a party losing was higher, the amount of money won if they won the battle was higher.
The tiger jumped at this opportunity and targetted the bear's neck once more. However, at the peak of its jump, the bear slammed its paw downwards, summoning thick, sturdy vines which circled around the tiger, confining it no matter how much it struggled. With a final roar from the bear, thorns proceeded to grow on the vines, piercing the tiger's flesh before it stopped moving altogether.
"Bravo, a splendid performance!" The emcee cheered as a sleeping powder began to fill the dome, knocking the bear out after a few moments. "It was certainly a turn of the tides. Actually, more than one turn! I proclaim the winner... The bear! May its owner step up to claim his wins!" All of the spectators clapped, although mosy were unhappy about their loss. The owner stepped forward, and took a price of three hundred gold for himself.
"It was certainly a great learning experience," Miko though to herself, "Don't jump at opportunities that seem suspicious, and learn to slowly reveal your cards. In a battle, it is not always strength that determines the winner, but what each person has up their sleve as well."
"The arena is sure to earn alot from this," Tashi said.
"What do you mean?" Miko asked.
"Look at it. Most people betted on the tiger because it looked fiercer, and some betted quite high as well. After giving us our wins and the prize money to the owner, the rest goes to them." Tashi explained. Miko nodded, showing her understanding.