Gorgon was already a tall beast as he stood five meters in height before. Now he was an absolutely towering presence. He looked completely intimidating, however, Akata didn’t see any of that.

Akata looked cooly at Gorgon as the skeletal figure and then began to descend. He waved his hand causing another purple rune to appear and produce a ball which he used to bounce off of and shoot faster toward Gorgon. His speed didn’t stop there as he used his Shadowfeet skill to increase it even further.

He shot like an arrow toward Gorgon at this utterly astonishing speed that he produced. Akata closed his eyes and put his scythe to the side once more, then the area around him became calm and tranquil. It was a kind of calm that made one’s spine tingle. To Gorgon, it became extremely silent all of a sudden and fear rose up within his heart and mind.

Gorgon waved his hand out in front of him toward Akata and yelled, “Earthen Spikes!” The ground around him suddenly trembled and soon, ten spikes shot up from the ground towards Akata’s body. They were sharp beyond belief and stabbed toward him with ferocity. Also, Gorgon stomped the ground making it turn into mud beneath his feet.

Akata was still in a calm state and before the spikes reached him his eyes snapped open. Akata twisted his body midair and avoided two spikes in a row. He then hit another spike with his scythe using the collision to bounce off and avoid another spike. After that he caused a purple rune to appear beneath his feet and turn into a ball which he bounced off of and sped down even faster than before. His speed was too fast and he zoomed past the rest of the spikes heading his way.

This caused Gorgon’s mind to reel with shock. He clapped his hands together and all of a sudden his body started to turn grey. His alligator skin seemed to harden and his body grew a bit larger as well. He then pulled his arm back and prepared to punch Akata straight on.

Akata was still calm as he got into range of Gorgon. The golden light shining off of him suddenly disappeared, his skeletal form disappeared, and his scythe disappeared. He returned to his normal state but the calm around him was still there.

Gorgon couldn’t hear anything as silence still covered the air. He threw his punch toward Akata with all his force.

Bang!

The punch landed straight on Akata’s body and a boom resounded in the ears of all the nearby beasts. But after that, his body just shattered like glass. Then the glass-like pieces fell to the ground and dispersed into thin air like motes of light and went away.

Gorgon stood there shocked as was everybody else. It was then that Gorgon looked down to see a slash across his arm that trailed all the way up to his shoulder. The slash was light and shallow to the point that only a trickle of blood oozed out.

“Hehe. Give up?”

Gorgon finally heard something, but the first thing he heard was Akata’s voice that was clearly playful. He whipped his head around to punch Akata but as soon as he did his eyes widened and he stopped in place.

Right in front of him he saw Akata and also… his tail! Akata was holding his tail in his hand, yet the strange part about it was that his tail wasn’t attached to his body. Akata had actually cut his tail off.

While it might not seem like a huge thing to do, and in fact a tail to Gatorapes wasn’t even that important since they would eventually lose it upon growing up, the fact was that his tail was just as defensively strong as his own body. That means that the same force used to cut through his tail would be the same amount of force used to cut through his own body. How scary of a fact could that be? Not only that, but his body had been reinforced to the maximum with his tribe’s skill, yet Akata was still able to cut through him.

Gorgon had thought that it was already astonishing enough that Akata was able to slash through his arm deep enough to cause blood to trickle, but to see Akata behind him holding his own tail… that was something he never would have thought possible. It showed how much attack power Akata had and the skill he had as well.

He may not know what trick Akata used to get by him, but at the moment that didn’t matter because he knew that he had lost. The speed in which Akata did it was even more inconceivable for him. All he could do was shake his head in defeat. “I’ve lost.” He said.

He gave Akata a long deep look and then walked off stage, returning to his normal form. As he was walking off he said, “This won’t be our last fight. In a true battle of life and death, things might turn out different. As for my tail… keep it.” With that he didn’t return to the side of the stage but instead exited the arena.

Akata looked at him thoughtfully and nodded at his words. That was true. In a real life or death battle things would most certainly have gone differently. Such as the instance when Akata was stuck in the mud. Gorgon could have used many other ways to harm Akata severely but since this was just a duel, he didn’t use them.

Akata put away the tail and looked over to Alabasta who would be his last opponent. Alabasta had his head down and eyes closed and when Akata looked his way he spoke. “Don’t spend your time looking at me, you should be recovering right now.” He spoke savagely and then went back to being silent.

Seeing as Alabasta was also giving him time to recover, Akata sat down in meditation. He had spent a lot of energy during that battle with Gorgon. More than three-quarters of his energy had been used up. In fact, if Alabasta hadn’t suggested letting him recover, Akata would have himself. He didn’t show it during the fight but as soon as he sat down in meditation, his face turned slightly pale.

It took Akata roughly an hour or two to fully recover. Although these times seemed long, to cultivators like them, this was nothing at all. However, Akata took a bit of time to review his fight with Pina and Gorgon and gain some insights.

‘Pina’s use of elements were okay individually but when she combined them they became much more formidable. All in all, she combined fire with air so that it would greatly empower her fire. She also combined air and sound so that her sound attack would be trapped and focused and stronger. Her speed was also at another level. I would only be able to barely surpass it using my Shadowfeet skill.

She’s not much of a close quarters fighter and therefore focuses on long range attacks. She didn’t focus on defense as her speed would usually great enough to evade her opponents. Only by constantly tricking her would you really be able to land a hit on her, and that hit would have to count.

Gorgon, on the other hand, is completely different from her. He’s much more refined for close combat than Pina was. His defense was very formidable as I figure I would only be able to harm him with an extremely dangerous skill or my scythe arts. His use of the earth element is outstanding and he has many uses for it. He used it to slow me down to a crawl and used that same move to make himself far faster than me.

However, he relies too heavily on his defense and thinks that it is impregnable. If I truly wanted to kill him it would have been an easy manner at that last moment. I even underestimated my own scythe art thinking it wouldn’t be enough to hurt him that much. The second stance of World Omen of Lord Dullahan’s scythe art is the Silent Meteor Kill. It uses immeasurable speed to produce much more force than the scythe would otherwise be capable of. If it wasn’t for me wielding the scythe with one arm, I would’ve easily been able to use it without doing all of that extra preparation. But alas I need to do more to compensate.’ Akata sighed internally and then opened his eyes and looked toward Alabasta.

Alabasta didn’t look back as he just appeared on the stage in front of Akata. Akata looked at him with a bit of caution. ‘I didn’t even see him move. Clearly his speed is much faster than Pina’s.’ Standing up, Akata took in a deep breath.

Alabasta looked at Akata with disdain and then changed into his mortal form. “I don’t find you worthy to face me in my real form.” He said savagely. “I’ll only take you seriously if you complete a certain condition. But I won’t tell you what that condition is.” After that Alabasta became silent.

He now wore a black robe with white spots on it. His hair was black and his eyes seemed to be filled with the endless universe. He looked imposing but his aura made him seem weak.

Akata wasn’t going to take him lightly because of this however. ‘I should probably probe him to see what skill level he is at. Seeing his speed, let me start off with a fast attack and follow up with a strong one to push him back.’ Akata waved held his hand out causing his scythe to appear then he sent out a strike, Guillotine Slice! The scythe-light moved at incredible speeds. Akata didn’t stop there as he immediately followed up with a large fireball of hellfire.

The two attacks came one right after the other. The scythe-light was the first to reach Alabasta. Alabasta didn’t even look at it as he held up his hand toward the arc of black light and crushed it as soon as it came into contact with his palm. He opened his palm again and inside could be seen a neon light. The neon light flew out and collided with the fireball completely destroying it.

All Akata could do was look on with a blank look.