Shaman King Volume 21 by Hiroyuki Takei

Tao Ren has been killed, and Yoh agrees to withdraw from the Shaman Fight if Lady Jeanne's minions bring him back to life. They do so, even though Tao would rather Yoh continue to fight and not worry about him.

Hao's minions take the chance to go on a rampage and start killing the shamans who didn't succeed in the fights, figuring nobody, including the Patch tribe who are in charge of the fights, will care what happens to "losers". But when Horohoro goes up against Big Guy Bill, it's to help out The Ice Men. But when he realizes he only has 2,000 Mana, and Bill has 40,000 and his spirit guide 160,000, he thinks it's hopeless.

Until Dad, who has only 5,000 mana manages to flatten BGB and all his teammates in one blow, and leaves the Island on his own. Before he goes, he tells Horohoro that numbers don't mean everything, it's how you use the mana you have. Horohoro takes heart from this and ends up using the spirit allies of the Ice Men, who had been knocked out by BGB and his teammates, to take down BGB's spirit ally, Building Blocks, or Blocken.

Yoh, meanwhile, is talking with his old friend, Lyserg, who has been given a new spirit ally by Jeanne and her X-Laws, known as Angel-08 or Zeruel. But will using this new Spirit Ally help Lyserg, or lock him into a never-ending cycle of hatred, revenge and retaliation? And will Yoh be able to return to Shaman Fight, or will he have to live to defeat Hao another day? No one can tell what is to come...

This book is full of chapters called Epilogue (x), with X being numbers, which tells me that the Shaman fight is probably over for now. Hao may be the last Shaman standing, but he and Yoh have never really come to blows, as far as I can tell, so who is stronger may not be an issue (because Hao is, undoubtedly), but can Ren be canny enough with what he *does* have to defeat Hao? That may certainly be so in the future.

Since this book is about wrapping up (and mopping up), none of the fights are scheduled, but may give a look at what will happen in the future. Because it's been so long since I have read the rest of the series, I don't remember whether it was stated before that coming close to death makes you stronger in spiritual power, but since Tao Ren was there, that means an increase for him, and in the spiritual power on Yoh's side. Will Yoh have been as lucky? And can he persuade Lyserg to abandon his new allies, who aren't the best for him?

Since the series is getting away from the arena fighting aspect, I may return to reading it, since pulling rechnique X from out of your ass to defeat opponent Y doesn't interest me at all. Recommended.