This is the critical moment in the hero's journey in which there is often a final battle with a monster, wizard, or warrior which facilitates the particular resolution of the adventure.

• Sumanguru now advances to Krina and makes an official declaration of war against Sunjata who responds that he will not back down from the fight. On the evening before the great battle, Sunjata holds an enormous feast for the troops and Balle sings the history of Mali in order to remind Sunjata of his birthright and great destiny. The next morning, the two armies meet in an enormous clash. At first, the battle is evenly fought, but eventually the cavalry from Mema manage to break the enemy center. At this time, Manding-Bory informs Sunjata that Sumanguru has swept down upon the left flank of the army. Enraged, Sunajta pulls the cavalry in that direction but barely manages to withstand the onslaught. He now seeks the Sumanguru, but the sorcerer-king retreats far behind his men. Sunjata fires an arrow with cock's spur on the tip and it grazes Sumanguru's shoulder. As soon as he feels the totem touching him, Sumanguru begins to lose his powers. He begins to tremble and looks up towards the sun where he sees an ominous black bird of misfortune. Realizing his fate, he turns around and flees. With their leader gone, the Sossans give way to the great force of

Sunjata's army, leaving the hero free to pursue Sumanguru. They ride all day and night and manage to track the sorcerer's path to the north. Finally the catch up with him at the top of Mount Koulikoro, where Sumanguru vanishes into a black cavern and disappears forever. 

• Yamato Takeru travels on again. This time he heads off to Mount Ibuki, where he vows to slay the deity of this mountain bare-handedly. On his way up the mountain he comes across a large white boar. Yamato Takeru mistakenly believes this boar to be a messenger of the mountain deity and so does not slay it. However, the boar is indeed the deity itself, and this deity stirs up a great hailstorm which tires and disorients Yamato Takeru. Finally, his senses and strength are restored a bit, and he continues on; however, by now the end is near for Yamato Takeru, and he starts to weaken. Some versions of the myth claim that Yamato Takeru's misidentification of the mountain deity is what led to his weakening and to his final amazing and magical death. He starts to ponder life and declares, "Within my heart, I have always felt as though I might soar like a bird, but now my very legs will not walk, they are swollen and bowed." We are seeing a new, weaker and more vulnerable, but no less noble hero in this passage. After his encounter with the deity-boar, Yamato Takeru continues on

and his movements and actions become the origins of several place names. We see how this hero's travels literally mark or make the land he crosses. As the end nears, Yamato Takeru, for the first time, shows great nostalgic feelings for his homeland and composes another poem that sings of the beauty of that place. He composes more poems, and in fact dies as he utters the final words of a poem about a sword that he left at the bedside of one of his consorts. The news of his death is quickly taken to the emperor back in Yamato. Yamato Takeru's consorts and children travel to the place where he died and hold rites of mourning and build a burial mound there. Their grief is captured in several songs/poems.  
 

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