The boom didn’t come from some kind of collision, rather it came as a thunderous voice. That voice was deep and shook the whole island when it spoke. It landed in the ears of every being within the island causing them to go pale. However, this only happened to the people that were loyal to the Lord’s.

“Banish my people? What gives you the right?” The deep thunderous voice said. Although the sound of it could be heard everywhere on the island, it was actually directed at one person, Great Lord Taple!

When Great Lord Taple heard the voice he immediately flew up into the air with an astonished look. ‘It can’t be him? Could it?’ He mused to himself as he made his way toward the owner of the voice. Lord Tafei flew into the air behind him also with an astonished look.

They both flew through the air toward the owner of the voice to confirm their suspicions. If their suspicions were correct, then it wouldn’t be good. But if they weren’t correct, then it would be even worse. That was because the power in the voice was no less stronger than Great Lord Taple’s.

As they made their way closer to the owner, Great Lord Taple constantly absorbed the energy of Earth to replenish his energy and recover faster. His speed in absorbing the energy of Earth was actually quite fast considering his cultivation level. By the time he actually laid eyes on the figure he was already had half of his strength.

When Great Lord Taple and Lord Tafei laid eyes on the figure, both of them gasped out of surprise. It was actually who they thought it to be. And he wasn’t alone either.

“Great Priest Bayou. And Priest Bambe?!” Lord Tafei uttered in disbelief. Two figures were floating in midair across from them. One was supposed to be captured in the mainland while the other he had supposedly killed. How could he not be surprised?

Great Lord Taple was also surprised but he didn’t let it show on his face at all. He simply looked calmly at the two across from him as if everything was normal. None of his thoughts could be read at the moment as he just kept silent, pondering.

Another person was surprised too. Great Priest Bambe. He was surprised to see Great Lord Taple completely healed. He never expected for Akata to succeed. He didn’t expect this because when Akata was healing him, he was paying special attention to all of Akata’s movements. He soon realized that Akata didn’t have the skill to heal Great Lord Taple. But who would’ve known that Akata wasn’t even serious when healing him?

Originally the plan was to fake his death and get back to his father’s side. That way they could quickly take over the island for themselves. But unfortunately, a figure as powerful as his own father stood just fifteen meters away from him. This immediately dampened his mood.

When they first heard Great Lord Taple’s voice sound out, they were shocked to disbelief. Priest Bambe even suspected it to be somebody else not from the tribe. However, deep down he knew that that wasn’t the truth. At that moment, Great Priest Bayou and Priest Bambe, knew that their plans had to change.

Great Priest Bayou and Great Lord Taple looked at each other calmly, not saying a word. There wasn’t even an ounce of killing intent between the two, it was as if they were looking at each other for the first time. Lord Tafei and Priest Bambe, on the other hand, were the complete opposite. They brought a fierce wind as their pressure built up and swept out.

Finally, Great Priest Bayou spoke. “Taple… It seems that our paths differ greatly now. From your words earlier, it seems that you don’t wish to slaughter our people and I have to agree with you on that. So, instead of starting a war between our two factions, we have ourselves a duel instead. Just the two of us.” He spoke slowly and calmly, completely different from his voice just seconds ago.

Priest Bambe looked over at his father with reluctance. This isn’t how he had wanted to do things, but he knew that he had no say in the matter. He looked over coldly at Lord Tafei and spoke. “How about we have our rematch?” He said coldly.

Lord Tafei gave a cold snort and stated, “Humph, this time don’t run away with your tail between your legs.” With that he vanished to reappear off in the distance. Great Priest Bambe snorted coldly and followed him. Their battle instantly started, tearing down trees and kicking up rocks and dirt.

Great Lord Taple stood there for a moment before speaking. “What are the stakes?” He said calmly as well, closing his eyes in the process.

“Naturally nothing happens to the winner. As for the loser, they have to get off the island.” As he spoke he closed his eyes as well.

For a long while they had their eyes closed in silence. Neither of them moved or spoke, it was as if they were floating statues facing each other.

Soon, Great Lord Taple spoke, “Fine.” With that he opened his eyes and waved his hand sending out hundreds of bright splendid orange runes to appear in the sky in front of him. They gave off a deep pressure that exploded out and crushed the forest around them. Then each rune turned into an orange ball of flame that caused the temperature in the area to intensify greatly. The crushed trees in the area immediately burst into flames and burned away into nothingness. With a wave of his finger, the hundreds of fireballs converged together and was sent flying toward Great Priest Bayou.

Great Priest Bayou also opened his eyes and waved his hand causing hundreds of blue runes to surround his body in the air. The blue runes seemingly twinkled in the sky and then undulated as they transformed into hundreds of drops of water. Then those hundreds split to make thousands then ten thousands! Soon a giant wave of water could be seen floating in the air. Great Priest Bayou waved his finger toward Great Lord Taple sending the water in his direction.

A giant wave of fire and water were sent barreling toward each other in an attempt to stop the other. Great Lord Taple’s and Great Priest Bayou’s faces were calm as they sent their attacks hurdling at each other. In a breath of time the two attacks collided in midair.

Boom!

The heat of the flames and the cool of the water resulted in a heavy mist forming and covering a portion of the island. The two figures still stood in their same spots as they looked at each other. Memories of their past flowing through their minds as they both simultaneously let out a sigh.

Great Priest Bayou’s eyes filled with battle intent as he raised his arm and waved it down sending a streak of tan runes flying toward his opponent. This was the Inner Element of Sand, and he converged it together to form a blade of sand that cut through trees on its way to Great Lord Taple.

Battle intent appeared within Great Lord Taple’s eyes too as he waved his hand causing green and purple runes to appear and converge together. The Inner Elements of Wood and Illusions converged to make a rune that was four times stronger than single runes. The runes converged and formed into a giant spike of wood that twisted around.

Both attacks were sent flying to the other but the wood and illusion attack easily overpowered the sand attack. It crushed apart the sand and barreled forward toward Great Priest Bayou. In return he flashed an incantation gesture and caused a tan and aqua rune to appear and merge together. These were the Inner Elements of Sand and Healing that merged. But instead of flying out and forming an attack, they instead flew to Great Priest Bayou and imprinted itself on his sparkling gray robe and formed some armor. The armor fit right over his skin and made it look like nothing even happened to him, as if there was no armor in the first place.

Bang!

The wood and illusion attack slammed into Great Priest Bayou but nothing happened to him. A few cracks could be seen on his skin but they quickly mended itself together as if it was never there. The battle intent rose and so did his pressure as he waved his hand causing more runes to fly out. And in return so did Great Lord Taple.

Back and forth the two created runes after runes and attacked and defended as they fought each other. They were simply too similar in strength, skill, experience, defense, offense, and all other things. There was no way to easily gain the upper hand early on in the fight. Countless booms rang out as their attacks collided against each other, causing more and more of the forest to be obliterated.

By now, Akata was too intrigued at the thought of seeing four experts fight. Although the Great Lord and Great Priest were talking to each other, they intentionally let the others on the island hear them. It was a message to tell the Scarlet Tiger’s that they were going to be the only one’s to fight.

Akata was so interested that he just had to come and see. He climbed out of the hole in the ceiling and could instantly see the lights of battle from far away. ‘Wow.’ he couldn’t help but muse to himself. He was so immersed that he didn’t even hear Tabet calling to him to come back.

“Bah! This battle is nothing. Wait until you see a real fight between experts. This, by comparison, is really lacking. Heh, and don’t even mention the level that I’m going to bring you to once I’m done with you. These type of figures will be so measly to you that you could kill them with nothing but a glare.” Plantist Noluck spoke confidently to Akata.

Akata couldn’t help but shake his head at the thought of living with this being inside of him for who knows how long. But he quickly recovered and didn’t respond and slowly and carefully made his way over to the fight between Lord Tafei and Priest Bambe.

There he would start to gain enlightenment regarding runes. And be on his way to becoming stronger!