Chapter 16

The next day Ibaeran arrived at Nigerona along with the other warriors who would participate in the tournament as well.

At first, the warriors were shocked upon seeing Ibaeran, questioning how a girl could make it so far in the tournament but the shock slowly turned in to respect and admiration as Ibaeran was the only girl who had ever participated in tournament and made it to the final tournament.

The warriors knew they could not underestimate Ibaeran, knowing only the skilled and strongest of warriors could make it that far in to the tournament and at the same time Ibaeran knew she could not underestimate the warrior either knowing they had to be the most skilled warriors in their nations to have been able to reach the final level of the tournament after all.

Ibaeran knew the final battle would not be easy especially after seeing all the warriors that were there but she had worked too hard and come so far to be intimidated by those warriors, she was going to fight with everything she had and hold nothing back, knowing she was strong enough to win the tournament.

Soon the Uha Tamunarans came to escort Ibaeran and the other warriors to the arena where they would all fight to claim the wings of the Su Baera and save their people.

On their way to the arena Ibaeran could not help but look around nation of Nigerona; the entire city looked like it was made of silver with flying ships copying the sky above, the streets down below were filled machines of different shapes and sizes, each with a different function and all being operated by the Uha Tamunarans.

Ibaeran felt as though she had not travelled to another nation but another world entirely as even the air itself felt different.

Ibaeran could not see any slaves serving an Uha Tamunaran master but the Uha Tamunaran she did see looked at her and the other warriors of the tournament with astonishment as if they were looking at a rare breed of animals.

Ibaeran felt her stomach twist and turn upon seeing the Uha Tamunarans who stared and pointed at them like they were animals in a zoo, she was so disgusted that she felt like attacking them, beating them in such a way that they would never dare to look at any of them in the same way.

Ibaeran managed to calm herself down and allowed the anger she felt the Uha Tamunaran subside as she understood that fight them would solve nothing in fact it would only prove that they were right that they are nothing but savage creatures which deserved to be locked up in cages.

“Its disgusting isn’t it” whispered a warrior to Ibaeran.

Ibaeran then turned to the warrior who spoke to her.

“What is disgusting?” asked Ibaeran.

“The Uha Tamunarans,” said the warrior.

Ibaeran nodded her head, agreeing with the warrior.

“They look down at us humans because we are powerless; treating us like slave even lower than animals it’s barbaric. They kill more and more of our kind every day, forcing them to labor for them, obeying their every command and anyone who dares to go against them…” the warrior just crushed his arm in to a tight fist as his anger and disgust for the Uha Tamunaran’s would not let him speak.

Ibaeran could tell from the way the warrior spoke, with anger and disgust for the Uha Tamunarans, he had lost someone to their cruelty and wickedness.

“What did they take away from you?” asked Ibaeran.

The warrior looked at Ibaeran shock as to how she knew he had lost someone to the Uha Tamunaran.

“It is evident in your voice; you speak harboring a great anger and pain in your heart that could only be created by pain, a pain of loss. I should know I’ve felt the kind of pain you felt” said Ibaeran.

The warrior just smiled at her before asking, “So you’ve lost someone to the Uha Tamunarans”.

“Yes, my closest friend. She was the rock I leaned, my strength to live in a world like this came from her” said Ibaeran.

The warrior saw the pain in Ibaeran’s eyes as she spoke, understanding that the pain she felt came from losing the friend she spoke of.

“I’m sorry for your loss and like you I understand this pain well. I not only lost a friend, I lost my greatest source of joy and happiness, my mother. She, like your friend was to you, was the rock I leaned on, she loved and cared me with all her heart, she provided for me as best as she could but I lost her when I was still a boy” said the warrior with tears falling down from his eyes.

Ibaeran saw the pain and sorrow in his eyes as his tears fell down, understanding the pain he felt was great after all it was a pain a son felt for his late mother.

“I’m sorry” said Ibaeran.

“Don’t be, you aren’t the one who ended her life. They did” said the man looking at the Uha Tamunaran with a look of pure rage and disgust.

“I lost my mother to those monsters who made her work so hard, doing labor under the hot sun working in the fields, suffering under these cruel and heartless monsters until death came for her and freed her from them,” said the warrior.

The warrior then wiped away his tears before saying, “I made a promise to her and myself after she died to fight in the tournament, win and become the next Su Baera and then use the power of the Su Baera to rid the world of these savages known as the Uha Tamunaran”.

“Rid?” asked Ibaeran upon hearing the bitter and hateful way he spoke, she then wondered if this warrior harbored so much hatred for the Uha Tamunaran that he would wipe out every them all out if he had the power to.

“Yes, these monsters don’t deserve to live and I will ensure that they are all gone to forever free us all from their rule over us,” said the warrior.

“Don’t you think that that’s a bit extreme, I know the Uha Tamunaran are monsters but that doesn’t mean they deserve to be wiped” said Ibaeran, knowing how ruthless and cruel the Uha Tamunarans could be but still she lacked the immense hatred needed to want to wipe them all out.

The warrior then sighed and nodded his head, disagreeing with Ibaeran.

“Listen girl, I respect you, you must be a truly fine warrior to have been able to make it this far but you are young both in body and mind and like my mother used to say, what an elder see sitting down a child standing from the top of the highest tree will never see. I am that elder and I see what you fail to see, the Uha Tamunarans are not people like you and me, they are monsters who hide behind their power to suppress and torment us all, they have no heart or soul only black holes in their chest. They all deserve to die like the monsters they are and if I win and become the next Su Baera, I will make sure they do,” said the warrior.

Ibaeran could see the determined look on the warrior’s face; he was angry, bitter and wanted revenge for his dead mother.

Ibaeran could help but feel more afraid of the warrior at that moment than the Uha Tamunaran as she had never before seen such a level of rage and anger in a person before.

Ibaeran then her attention away from the warrior and then saw woman holding a small baby from the window of one of the metal homes, next to the woman was man who lovely held on to the woman with his arms, it was clear that they were Uha Tamunarans.

Ibaeran did not need to be told that the woman, the man and the child one the woman arms were a family and they shared a deep love for one another.

Ibaeran then began to wonder if the Uha Tamunarans were capable of showing love to their own why couldn’t they do so to other people.

They treat her kind like worse than animals but treat their own with love and respect.

Seeing the love, the Uha Tamunarans shared among themselves disgusted Ibaeran but at the same time Ibaeran could help but wonder if the Uha Tamunarans were all bad if they were capable of showing love even if it was only to their own kind, if so, it would mean they had hearts that could express love and Ibaeran believed that any creature that possessed the ability to love even if it was at a very small capacity could not be completely evil.

Ibaeran thoughts about the Uha Tamunarans not being all bad end as she began to remember the fate Preyina met because of the Uha Tamunarans.

Her hands tightened in to a fist as she remembered the look on Preyina’s face before she died, remembering that looked reminded Ibaeran of who the Uha Tamunarans were and misery and pain that brought upon her and countless people enslaved by them.

The warrior saw Ibaeran’s tightened fist and then whispered softly to her, “Save your anger for the tournament, let it be your strength, you will need every bit of it”.

“Why are you giving advice when I’m one of you opponents?” asked Ibaeran.

“We are all fighting for the same thing, for our freedom. I honestly don’t care who wins the tournament as long as that person frees us from the Uha Tamunarans” said the warrior.

“But what about the promise you made?” asked Ibaeran.

“I intend to keep my promise but if for some reason I can’t I want someone else to claim the steel wings and free us all and that person can be anyone, even you” said the warrior.

Ibaeran was left speechless after hearing what the warrior said but at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel more determined to win after hearing what the warrior said and even though she still could understand why she felt that way she knew what she felt was too strong to ignore.

The warrior saw Ibaeran determination in her eyes and smiled, she was unlike any warrior he had seen before; he could sense something inside her, spark fueling a flame inside her that burned within her pushing her to go and fight with everything she had.

The warrior could help but feel a bit intimidated by her but at the same he was intrigued by her, he wanted to face her in the arena and see just how strong she was.

The warrior could tell she was an opponent who would refuse to stay down and that made him even more excited to face her as he was a warrior who enjoyed a battle between him and a worthy opponent and he knew Ibaeran would be the worthy opponent he would ever face.

“Try not to be defeated easily girl, I want to be able to face in the tournament,” said the warrior.

Ibaeran just smiled at him before saying, “are sure you want to, I haven’t lost in the other tournaments”.

“Neither have I but there is a first time for everything,” said the warrior.

Ibaeran smiled at him once again before saying, “That there is”.

Soon there arrived at the arena and the tournament was about to begin.

The Uha Tamunaran too came to witness the tournament with the four governors there as well alone with Datubo, the king of the Uha Tamunarans seated on a platform that floated above the tournament.

Ibaeran upon seeing Datubo felt and overwhelming wave of fear flow through her.

The king was far big than the other Uha Tamunarans, so big that if a fully grown man stood beside him while he was seating down on his seat the man would only be able to reach his knees, and the king had a single eye with an eye patch covering the hole where his other eye was meant to be.

The king’s incredible height was not the only thing that made Ibaeran fear him, she saw the way the other Uha Tamunaran shuck and shivered with fear just by being near him, even the governors could not help but sweat nervously from being near him.

Seeing the fear, the other Uha Tamunarans had just by being near him was enough to send chill down Ibaeran’s spine.

The warrior who spoke to Ibaeran before they arrived in the arena saw the fear in her and whispered to her softly.

“I know the king looks threatening and his presence alone summons fear to even the Uha Tamunarans themselves but you must ignore your fear and remember why you are here. I don’t want a warrior like you to fall because of a dishonorable weakness like fear but if you must fear something fear defeat,” said the warrior.

Ibaeran upon hearing what the warrior said took a deep breath in and summoned all the courage she could muster, casting away her fears so she could fight with a clear mind.

“Good girl, I can’t wait to face you in the battlefield” said the warrior making Ibaeran smile at a little upon hearing him.

The tournament began with a bell rung by and Uha Tamunaran and with that all the warriors in the arena charged straight for each other in an intensely heated battle.

Even though the warriors in the arena were small compared to the many warriors Ibaeran had to fight in Ijawana and Porti Hara they were far more skilled and stronger than the other warriors Ibaeran had faced.

The battle was truly intense with the best warrior from each of the four nations colliding with one another, each driven by one goal and one goal alone, and that was to win and free themselves from the Uha Tamunarans.

The battle was hard and difficult with each warrior fighting with everything they had but sadly not all of them could win.

The warriors from east and north fell to Ibaeran and the warrior from the west, the same warrior that Ibaeran talked before the tournament began, now only Ibaeran and the warrior of the west remained.

The warrior smiled at her, happy to see her come so far and now they were the only ones left.

“You are a true warrior girl; you fight with honor and the fiery heart of a warrior but only one of us can win and I have no intention of losing” said the warrior.

“Neither do I” said Ibaeran with the both of them looking each other in the eye as they prepared themselves for fight unlike any other.

Ibaeran and the warrior the charged in, colliding with each other, delivering blow after blow to each other as they did.

It was an immense battle as both Ibaeran and the warrior refused to stay down.

The warrior fought Ibaeran, forgetting that she was girl as he could only see her as one thing at that moment, a warrior and so he held nothing back and delivered every single blow to her with all his strength making the battle even more difficult for Ibaeran.

As the Uha Tamunaran watched the heated battle feeling they felt the heated tension between Ibaeran and the warrior as nether of them were willing to stay down.

The governors watched the battle with closely waiting for to see who would come out victorious before they would commence with their plan.

The battle was close with neither side making it easy as they fought with everything, they had but Ibaeran refused to lose, and so, with one final blow to the other warrior’s stomach he fell down to the ground, defeated and unable to continue the fight.

The warrior who was now on the ground, tried desperately to get up but he was too tire, beaten up and exhausted to do so.

Ibaeran stood above him victorious but even though she had won and the warrior had lost he could not help but smile, happy to have at least lost to a true warrior.

The warrior then spotted the mark on the side of Ibaeran’s neck and then his eyes widened, he then realized who Ibaeran but before his mind could begin to ponder about Ibaeran he felt something come over him, a feeling he could not recognize neither could he describe.

The warrior feeling completely took over the warrior and soon he lost himself and his mind to it.

All the governors smiled upon seeing what happened to the warrior, pleased that their plan had now began to unfold.

The warrior slowly rose up with his eyes completely white with pupils.

The warrior then spoke with two voices one his own and other distorted and unrecognizable, “the battle is not over girl”.

The warrior then charged straight for Ibaeran and delivered a blow so powerful it sent her flying from the ground and straight in to the arena walls.

The Uha Tamunaran’s were shocked to see such a display of strength by an ordinary human warrior, the king though showed no expression of shock on his face but rather of suspicion.

Ibaeran collapsed on the floor after receiving such a powerful blow.

She felt weak and in tremendous pain, she didn’t think she could continue the fight.

The Uha Tamunarans looked at Ibaeran with a look of sadness as they had taken a liking to her and the way she fought in the tournament even the king had a look of disappointment on his face as he had seen great promise in Ibaeran and hoped that she was the warrior he was looking for.

The only Uha Tamunaran that smiled were the governor who hoped Ibaeran would stay down so she could lose the tournament and would no longer be a threat to them.

A tear fell down from Ibaeran’s eyes, feeling like she had failed everyone, Preyina her closest friend, Bafuro the man who trained her and taught her how to fight, all the people who had faith in her and hoped that she would be the one to free them all from the Uha Tamunaran oppressive reign over them and most especially she felt like she had failed herself.

She had work so hard and come so far but now it seemed all the hard work and effort she had put in to come that was all for nothing.

Ibaeran at that moment felt lower than she had ever felt before, like an utter and complete failure, feeling like a fool for believing even if it was for a brief moment that she could be the next Su Baera.

But then Ibaeran heard a voice whispering softly inside her, “get up and keep fighting, you have come too far to fall down when victory is just within your reach. This is not the end Ibaeran, now get up and finish what you started”.

Ibaeran was not sure what that voice was or where it came from but upon hearing she felt a wave strength and power flow through her entire body.

Ibaeran then got up, shocking everyone especially the governors.

Ibaeran then looked into the warrior’s white eyes and said, “It will take much more than a single blow to put me down”.

The warrior became enraged upon hearing what Ibaeran said, he then charged straight for her like a raging bull.

Ibaeran took a deep breath and prepared herself to fight.

The warrior delivered a powerful blow to Ibaeran but Ibaeran dodged it, moving away before the warrior’s blows could reach her causing the blow to strike the ground instead making it crack and break apart due to the warrior’s raw strength.

Ibaeran then struck the warrior’s chest causing him to stumble back and before the warrior had a chance to recover from the blow Ibaeran gave him another, delivering many more blows to him, hitting him again and again with her fist, frustrating the warrior with her many blows without giving him a chance to strike back.

The warrior’s rage grew and grew the more the Ibaeran hit him with her many blows, he soon grew mad with anger and then struck Ibaeran with a powerful blow which sent her flying and crashing down on the ground.

The blow the warrior gave Ibaeran hurt her immensely with blood sipping out of her mouth but still even though she was in immense pain she refused to stay down.

Ibaeran stood up with a determined look on her face; she wasn’t going to lose this fight, not after everything she had been through.

She looked at the warrior and then wiped her blood away from her mouth.

The warrior looked at her with a look of mad rage before charging straight for and then crushing his hand in to a tight fist to deliver a powerful blow using all his strength, one that would put Ibaeran down for good.

The warrior launched his fist straight for Ibaeran but she caught the arm he wanted to use to strike her down with and then summoned every ounce of strength she had she used it lift him up and then used it to flip him down to the ground.

Ibaeran then rushed to the man, getting on top of him began to deliver blow after blow to the warrior who was now on the ground.

She delivered so many blows to the warrior that her fist were stained red with his blood, she only stopped when she was sure the warrior could no longer continue the fight and upon deliver the final blow to warrior a gust of air blew out of his mouth and then turned in to a man lying next to the warrior.

Everyone including both Ibaeran and the Uha Tamunarans that watched the battle were shocked to see the man.

The governors were less shocked and more worried and afraid, not only due to their plan failing but all they could hope for was that the king wouldn’t find out what they did.

The man that came out of the warrior in the form of air was an Uha Tamunaran who used his power to take control over the warrior giving immense strength which he used to try and defeat Ibaeran and the king upon seeing him was enraged so much so that he summoned his guards to go and capture him and take him to his private prison in his palace so the king may deal with him personally which filled the governors with even more fear.

Ibaeran was now the clear champion of the tournament and not only was she the only one left standing after such an intense battle but she had also defeated an Uha Tamunaran in the process which greatly shocked not only the Uha Tamunaran that watched the tournament but Ibaeran as well as she unable to believe that she just bested an Uha Tamunaran, the thing she and her people feared the most.

The crowd of Uha Tamunaran looked at Ibaeran with a look of fear as she did something they would never believe was possible, she defeated one of their own.

Even though all the Uha Tamunarans looked Ibaeran with fear the king looked at her and smiled, certain that she was the warrior he was searching for, she was the next Su Baera.