Akata’s smile caused Tabet to lose his focus momentarily but then his face washed over with a smile as well. It wasn’t that he no longer cared about making sure Akata didn’t surpass him, but he knew that Akata himself saw it as a challenge to surpass Tabet himself! It was rivalry between the two, one had to surpass the other and the other had to make sure they weren’t surpassed!

Great Lord Taple obviously saw the exchange between the two and thought that this would be very beneficial to Tabet. If Tabet wasn’t met with resistance then he wouldn’t grow as fast. He had already reached the Great Circle of the Docile Rank at age 18 which was really fast, then how fast would he be if he actually pushed himself? This thought made Great Lord Taple smile himself.

He then continued on, “Well then Akata since you know how to create runes using illusions then we might as well move you along to the magic portion as well. I’ll do what I did with Tabet and show you an illusory spell, although I don’t know if you’ll be able to sense it with your nature sense.” Great Lord Taple waved his hand causing a yellow fire to appear, only this time it didn’t emit any heat or anything. It was as if it wasn’t even there only the image of it was present and that too seemed to be not there.

Even though it was illusory Akata still picked up traces of it using his nature sense. His face instantly became one of focus as he studied the illusory fire. He was putting his full attention towards understanding illusions, and gaining insights regarding it. He thought about how it was different from his use and idea of illusions and mentally tested out his conjectures. By doing these things and more he was rapidly learning more and more about the Inner Element of Illusions.

Tabet saw the intense focus from Akata and immediately went back to work himself. He too had an illusory yellow fire in front of him. Unlike Akata, he was already familiar with the basics of using illusions in magic and had come into contact with illusory yellow fire before. His insights were tremendous as well to go along with the time he spent on studying it.

The only reason he was here was so that he could check up on Akata. Who would have thought that not only was he doing just fine, he was actually growing stronger at a rapid pace. It was as if losing an arm and his sight was nowhere near enough to even be called a setback for him.

The two sat quietly while contemplating the mysteries of illusions. In roughly ten minutes of time Akata let out a long breath “Whew.” This caught the attention of both Tabet and Great Lord Taple. Akata smiled and said, “I’ve pretty much accumulated all of the insights I could gain from this illusory fire. The next step should be to use it in magic, correct?” Akata asked.

At these words Tabet would have originally looked down on Akata but after learning and seeing how fast Akata could comprehend fire and use it in magic, he didn’t dare to counter him. Instead he grit his teeth and focused back in on the illusory yellow fire in front of him.

“Yes that is correct. But before you do how about you and Tabet here have a Battle of Elements in the Inner Element of Illusions. This should help both of you further your knowledge on the element and be beneficial to you too when trying to conjure it with magic.” Great Lord Taple didn’t want Tabet to lose his confidence and drive so he offered a battle of elements.

“A Battle of Elements tests one’s use of a particular element, whether that be fire, or wood, or even holiness. It would show how one would use an element in battle or everyday life through the strength output, timing, speed, duration, quantity, all of that. In short it showed all a person was capable of doing with a particular element.” Great Lord Taple said to Akata.

“You aren’t allowed to severely injure your opponent and no killing. All other things are permitted. How does that sound?” Great Lord Taple looked toward Akata and said calmly. He wanted Akata to accept and give his grandson a chance to build his confidence back up.

Akata could obviously see through Great Lord Taple’s intentions and actually thought highly of him. ‘It’s great that he still puts family first even when teaching. The clan is more important than a single outsider anyways.’ Akata found no problem with the way Great Lord Taple was acting and instead smiled and nodded his head, “I accept.”

If Akata could see through the ruse of Great Lord Taple then obviously Tabet could too. He watched as his grandfather spoke about the Battle of Elements and saw Akata agree. A Battle of Elements was normal in his tribe as all of them focused their efforts on honing their skills with runes and elements. The deeper your insights into elements were the more powerful your runes would be so Battles of Elements were held quite often. To say the least, Tabet was accustomed to participating in them.

‘Well maybe this won’t be a bad thing. I’ll at least be able to see what kind of insights Akata gained in this short amount of time, it can’t be that much considering he only spent ten minutes contemplating the profoundness of it.’ Tabet mused to himself.

But in reality, Akata didn’t even spend ten minutes on the illusion. He had really only spent a bit more than half that time on the illusionary aspect. The other time was spent on how Great Lord Taple perfectly mixed the Inner Elements of Fire and Illusions together in harmony. Akata was intrigued by this and spent some time pondering over it. If Great Lord Taple knew this he would have passed out from the surprise in his heart.

Both Tabet and Akata stood up and walked toward Great Lord Taple. “First let’s go outside and find a wider space than in here.” Great Lord Taple waved his hand causing Tabet and Akata to be swept up and then he himself took a step and appeared outside in the area that he and Great Priest Bayou had fought. It was a spacious place now thanks to their battle and was perfect for people to spar in. In fact other Scarlet Tigers were there already sparring.

When they saw Great Lord Taple arrive they all stopped what they were doing and immediately bowed down and greeted him, “Greetings Great Lord Taple!” They yelled out in unison. Great Lord Taple nodded his head in response. He then waved his hand and caused Akata and Tabet to appear on the ground in front of him.

“This should be the place where your battle of elements will take place. Here you don’t have to worry about space and you both can move and act freely. There’s no need to worry about bystanders either as I will set up a barrier to prevent your attacks from harming others. In other words go all out.” Great Lord Taple said calmly as he waved his hand causing a giant golden rune to appear below Akata and Tabet and then a golden shield springing up around them. It was a dome shaped light that covered over them and an area of a hundred meters.

“That’s Young Lord Tabet and that must be Akata.”

“He’s the one that healed all of us and saved us from certain death.”

When the surrounding Scarlet Tigers saw Akata and Tabet appear they once more bowed down. They bowed down because of respect and awe for the two of them.

“Look an area is being cut off for them, are they going to duel?”

“Is it going to be a Battle of Elements?”

“I wonder what element they are going to use? Young Lord Tabet is adept at wood, illusions, light, and fire. But what about Akata over there? Can he even use an element?”

“Who know’s… he was the hero that saved our whole tribe from death. He may even have talent in fighting as well. His cultivation is a alright though as it’s at the 7th Grade.”

Conversations sprang up as the Scarlet Tigers discussed what Tabet and Akata were going to do. It was almost guaranteed that it was going to be a Battle of Elements as that was mostly the only kind of sparring the tribe did. And since Great Lord Taple was overseeing it, it was certainly going to be a spectacular duel between the two figures. The only question the now audience had in mind was what element was going to be used.

A few others had displeased looks on their faces as a mortal was facing a tiger in one of their traditional activities. Although they felt grateful for Akata, they still didn’t want to get too close to a mortal for reasons already known. However, even those figures who had those thoughts were still interested in the outcome of the duel between the two. One was the future Lord of the tribe and also the genius of the younger generation. The other was the mortal who saved the whole tribe from death. Obviously these two were exalted figures.

Even though they were both exalted within the tribe, Tabet obviously had all of the tribe supporting him for the win. He did actually belong to the tribe after all, it was only right that they supported him over Akata. But even still nobody booed Akata as that would be crossing the line of not just Great Lord Taple, but of the whole tribe itself.

All in all everyone was anticipating the Battle of Elements. Some even rushed back to the cave in order to inform others of the showdown that was about to ensue between the two exalted figures. Thus in a short amount of time lots of tribe members came to view the duel, even the Elders, Lady Haque, and Lord Tafei. All of the tribe had come to watch this Battle of Elements!