The final event for the Mr. and Miss Zodiac competition was the same as it had been the last two years: a race up Zodiac Mountain. Though unlike previous years, this event wouldn't necessarily be the decider for choosing the winners of the overall competition. The winners were chosen from points accumulation, not by elimination. That was because tiger Animalians aren't quite as common as some of the other species. Theoretically, this could be anyone's win, but over the course of these events, some individuals have pulled out ahead further than the others. On the male side, Heracles was clearly dominating, especially after being undefeated during the Fights for the Tiger's Crown. He would have do really badly in this race to lose the crown here. On the female side, things were more neck-and-neck. Liao had been strongly in the lead until she got eliminated by Shelly in the fights. And when Shelly and Tuxing fought to a draw in the finals, they both received substantial boosts, putting them into the top three. While it's possible one of the other tigresses could surpass them, it looked like it would all come down to them.
Zodiac Mountain has been altered to better put the tigers to the test. Instead climbing up the rock walls or running along a ramp, a series of thick wooden poles have been set up along the mountain's tiers. Tigers are more comfortable climbing trees than mountains, though they aren't as arboreal as, say, leopards and jaguars. The goal was for the competitors to climb up these wooden poles to get to the next tier. Some poles were taller than others, but they were also further away from the edge of the next tier. There was going to be a lot of jumping involved instead of straight climbing. Which would give more of an edge to the lighter tigers over the larger ones. Though in the interest of keeping things fair, points won't only go to the winner. Once a tiger has reached the top, points will be allotted to all competitors, the points received getting lower the further down the mountain they were at the end.
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First, there was the race for the male tigers. Even if the race may not have any bearing on who would be wearing the crown at the end, it was still exciting enough to watch. The climbing poles would make it more of a challenge than a straight-up rock-climbing contest. This race certainly favored the smaller tigers. The bigger ones had trouble jumping between poles. A bit surprising was that Heracles was struggling with this. While he was undeniably strong like his namesake, mass was working against him here. Not to mention, as a liger, he is half-lion and lions are not good tree-climbers at all. Diego did worse, with little wonder. The Smilodon was built to take down huge prey on the plains, not chase small prey up trees.
The smaller tigers made much better progress. Surprisingly, it was Wayne who ended up taking the lead. Wayne would later attribute this to having climbed a lot of trees when he was a kid. This was actually easier because the poles went straight up and he had claws in both his hands and feet to get a better grip. He may not have gotten a complete course in karate, but he had picked up enough to know how to be limber. To the astonishment of some, Wayne managed to outspeed the others and get to the top. While some of the other tigers were close on his tail, it was Wayne who reached the top first.
But as said before, the entire competition was judged on accumulated points, not the final challenge. Wayne had been in the middle of the pack when it came to points, but Heracles had gained a very large edge during the fighting tournament. If Heracles had been any lower on the mountain, he probably would have lost. But there were other tigers who did worse than him, including Diego. Still, it was a very close thing and Wayne would be getting some recognition on his near-victory.
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Then it was time for the tigresses to race. In some ways, it was a bit of a repeat of the males' race. The larger tigresses had trouble on the climbing poles. Also, the 'nominal' tigresses, Megara and Patty, fared no better than their male counterparts. And despite being among the top three, Shelly actually did rather poorly. She slipped a lot on the poles, even falling off more than once. Just because she was an experienced boxer didn't mean she could climb. Fortunately, Molly wasn't going to tease her wife about her lack of climbing grace. After all, polar bears aren't really tree climbers either, lack of trees in the arctic non-withstanding. Still, the experience taught Shelly that she'll need to be more rounded in future competitions.
But the real excitement was with Tuxing and Liao. The tigresses were well-trained and found the poles to be quite easy for them. Even before they were halfway up, it became clear that the race would come down to just those two. And unlike Wayne and Heracles, their scores were close enough that this really would decide the winner. It fairly could have been either one's victory, seeing how they were able to keep apace of each other. It was only during the last few tiers that Tuxing started to edge out ahead of her apprentice. It was hard to tell what was the deciding factor. Perhaps Tuxing was just a little more skilled than Liao. Maybe Liao's defeat at Shelly's fist left her with less stamina than she would normally have. But when they got to the top, Tuxing had a definite, if short, lead. Liao may have been on her heels, but Tuxing was the one who touched the pedestal first.
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After that, it was the time for the long-awaited coronation. Nate and Shuixing, the Mister and Miss Zodiac of last year, approached Heracles and Tuxing respectively. They held up the crown and tiara, which currently had the sign of the Ox on the front. They turned it slightly so that the sing of the Tiger was now on the front before placing them on the new Mister and Miss Zodiac's heads.
It was a very nice ceremony to wrap up the month with. Fortunately, Heracles and Tuxing won't have to do any official duties until it's time to pass the title on next year. They weren't obligated to spend any time together except for a few photos. Despite some misconceptions, Mr. and Ms. Zodiac didn't have to be a couple. Just looking back at the Year of the Dog could confirm that. Besides, Heracles was already married with kids.
Tuxing was quite popular enough being the leader of the Five Elements without being Miss Year of the Tiger as well. She had plenty of admirers now, but she wasn't going to make herself as openly available as Liao tried to do. Still, there were some tigers who had caught her interest. Chiefly, there was Lenard who seemed to be a very dependable man. Tuxing wouldn't even mind his younger brother. Mikey was certain to give her a bit more reverence than Liao. Tuxing had a feeling that Liao was also interested in Lenard, though Wayne's performance did raise him a little in her estimation. Still, if Liao was going to compete with Tuxing over Lenard, she wasn't going to let her apprentice win easily here either.