Akata raised the scythe that was in his hand and took in a long calm breath. He spread his nature sense out thirty meters to surround him in every direction. His heart calmed down and he became as still as a mountain. His nature sense was calm and if the beast’s weren’t there to see him, they would’ve never even thought he was there.

The tens of beasts charged toward Akata from all sides, bent on attacking him. When the first beast reached ten meters, Akata’s nature sense turned rough and forceful as he rushed in that beast’s direction. The beast was surprised but didn’t back off. It was in the 6th Grade of the Docile Rank and could possibly hold it’s own long enough for support.

Akata raised his scythe into the air and slashed it toward the beast in front of him. It was a bat like beast that was over three meters long. When the scythe reached it, it completely passed through it as if nothing came into contact with it. Akata completely bypassed that bat and went to the beast behind it which was at the 8th Grade.

Jumping into the air, Akata pointed his scythe toward the 8th Grade beast and an orange rune appeared at the end of it. The orange rune then grew to become a fireball and flew toward the beast.

Boom!

The ground was blasted apart in front of the beast forcing it to stop and preventing it from going forward at the moment. Akata, while still airborne, waved his scythe through the air causing a line of orange runes to appear. Each one became a fireball and shot out to a beast and blasted the ground in front of them stopping them in their tracks. This caused their charge to be stopped completely and changed the tide of the battle.

Taking advantage of their sudden stop and confusion, Akata’s body became dark and then turned into a shadow. The shadow first started at his feet and then came to his waist, before gradually making its way to his head. His whole body was now a shadow. This was his Shadowfeet movement skill. His speed instantly shot up and he dashed forward to the beast at the 8th Grade.

This beast had the body of a horse and the head and legs of a cheetah. It was actually pretty fast and a blazing heat radiated off of it. It was the first beast to be stopped by the fireball cast by Akata, and also the first beast to get past it. Now it charged toward Akata once again. It let out a roar and then spewed out a shower of flames out of its mouth toward Akata.

“Fire eh? I can counter that.” Akata smiled and then caused a fairly big blue rune to appear in front of his body. The rune then expanded some more and then turned into a wave of water. The flamethrower crashed into the wave of water and was completely extinguished. The wave, however, continued to move forward to the horse-cheetah beast. The wave washed over the beast and sent it tumbling back along with any beasts that were behind it.

Akata didn’t stop there as behind him, a large ape-like beast with skin made of alligator barreled to him with a fist. Akata didn’t dodge as he let the fist pass through his shadow form. Akata dispersed and then coalesced right behind him in an instant. Akata planted his scythe into the ground, and spun around it to kick the ape-like beast. However, the beast only stumbled back slightly and grabbed his foot and threw Akata away.

“Ahh!” Akata surprisingly screamed. Akata landed against a tree and it cracked and fell apart. “My body really is lacking. I can’t even send a beast at the 8th Grade flying back.” Akata shook his head and got up instantly. He waved his scythe in the air as orange and blue runes appeared. Fire and water were made and then crashed into each other causing a mist to form where Akata was. The mist completely covered over the land and Akata’s figure was hidden within.

All of the beasts were awe-struck and stopped in their tracks trying to pick up any traces of Akata. Akata was actually a terrifying foe for them. Although his cultivation base couldn’t be seen as spectacular, his other traits could be. His speed was definitely terrifying, not just his movement speed, but his casting and judgement speed as well.

Knowing what to do in a fight was very important, and if you could pull it off in an instant and set up for your next move before your opponent could react, that would make any foe wary. Not only that, but this human seemed to be taking this lightly. And they could tell that he wasn’t trying to hurt any of them, otherwise his attacks would have been sent to their bodies and not their surroundings.

But, even if the beasts new this they didn’t want to back down. That was because one of their own had called for help. Not to mention that this human was in their own territory.

“Everyone watch out for his attacks. If he comes by you immediately roar out.” A deep voice called out. This was an ape-like alligator skinned beast. His cultivation base was at the 10th Grade and he could be considered an expert within this group.

“His speed is very fast so I’ll be the first to reach him as soon as he shows up.” A lady-like calm soothing voice sprang up right after the ape-like beast spoke up. The one to speak was a five meter long snake with wings of a bat. It was white in color and had faint blue spots on its skin. This beast was also at the 10th Grade.

“Humph. Just leave this brat to me. I’ll tear him limb from limb in an instant.” A savage voice called out. This came from a black colored wolf that had small different colored dots on its fur. These small dots made it look as if the galaxy were on its fur. It’s body was over three meters long and it had saber teeth protruding from its mouth.

Upon hearing the words of the black wolf both the ape and snake frowned. “Don’t get full of yourself Alabast.” The snake beast replied. “He’s a very strange opponent. And it seems as if he’s been here for a while so I find it weird that the Scarlet Rune Tribe didn’t say anything about him.”

“That is something that I’ve also been thinking about since I laid eyes on him. Why wouldn’t the Scarlet Tiger’s mention him at all?” The spe-like beast said.

Alabast simply snorted. “Who cares. I just want to fight him that’s all. Pina and Gorgon, simply leave him to me.” Alabast replied.

Pina, the snake-like beast, and Gorgon, the ape-like beast simply watched as Alabast ran amok looking for Akata. Pina said coldly, “Those Star Wolves… no, the Meteor Wolf Star Tribe is simply insane.” She snickered. She then continued to look for Akata as well.

Gorgon just shook his head and started his own search. They all casually gave orders to the various beasts around them as they looked for Akata.

Akata, on the other hand, walked around casually looking at the various beasts searching for him. He was using his Demonic Wraith technique to make himself invisible from the various beasts. Of course, that alone wouldn’t keep them from finding him, so he used his nature energy to perfectly blend in with his surroundings. Even still he wasn’t satisfied and used the Inner Element of Illusions to hide his aura. Now it was like he didn’t even exist anymore. No matter how hard the beasts looked they would never find him.

Akata watched for a while until the mist disappeared and the beasts found out that Akata had disappeared. They continued their search and split to search more ground. After a while they stopped and returned to their various locations.

Seeing, that the beasts gave up, Akata appeared once again. Although using the Demonic Wraith skill for invisibility didn’t consume a lot of energy, nor did the use of the Inner Element of Illusions, using it for an extended period of time resulted in Akata becoming tired and drained. However, he didn’t stop to rest as he made his way to the cave of the Scarlet Tigers. He made use of his nature energy to make his energy merge with nature and completely hide himself. Gradually he came closer and closer to the cave.

On the way he saw many different beasts. Eavesdropping on some of their conversations, the one’s he could understand anyways, Akata found out a lot of information. Basically, the Scarlet Tigers had been gathering some of the lone tribes in the area who were in a similar position as them, cast away from the mainland. They brought back different beasts and started their own community of beasts. All of these beasts helped each other and are beginning to slowly build back strength.

Some of the tribes that were brought back were weak, while others were quite strong. However, even the strongest of the tribes didn’t compare in strength to the now divided Scarlet Tigers. The now Scarlet Rune Tribe held the greatest amount of influence and power thanks to Great Lord Taple.

Great Lord Taple was at the 3rd Grade of the Temporal Rank after all. This was why the Scarlet Rune Tribe had absolute sway over the beasts here. And nobody would question that. This was what made beasts different from mortals, the fact that they truly respected and followed the strong. Even if that being was only slightly more powerful, they would wholeheartedly follow them without question.

Soon, Akata made his way to the center of the island where the Scarlet Tigers resided. It looked much more different now as, instead of living underground, the Scarlet Tigers now lived above it. The forest had more clearings now and groups of beasts could be seen in these clearings. Houses made of stone and earth were plentiful and even places for sparring were made. It looked completely different than before.

Akata noticed this but didn’t pay it too much attention. His mind was focused on the true center of the island. Where a huge palace could be seen. This was where the leaders stayed and surely where he could find Tabet.