Whoosh! Whoosh! The white water and black hellfire were hurdling straight for Akata and Jiandan Fuza respectively. Both of them had just launched attacks and had to defend rather quickly.

Akata held up a hand and a purple rune about the size of his body appeared in front of him. It twinkled for a bit and then a large palm made its way out of rune. The palm faced the white water head on and directly blocked the water for a little bit. But almost as soon as it did, it froze on the spot and crumbled into pieces. It was only able to block a tiny bit of the water for a short amount of time. But that was enough time for Akata to gain some distance away and prepare to fully defend against it now.

‘I’ve already looked into the soul of this skill and know its uses. I know its strengths and weaknesses and I should be able to defend against it. If our cultivation was a lot closer then I would be completely confident in crushing it. But his use of this element is interesting and it greatly enhances his strength.’ Akata thought to himself.

Everyone used elements differently from each other. Many people could use the earth element but some might be more proficient in creating walls while others could have more skill in erecting mountains. It was a slight difference but that difference made it so that others had to adapt to that different skill.

Outer Elements were even more frightful as they had much more different ways to be used. These ways of being used were the difference between your opponent being able to counter you or not. Akata’s way of using his soul element was relatively basic, but as he grew and learned more about it, he would have his own way of using it. For now, all he could do was use the souls of objects for his own use. This included absorbing them and ‘reading’ the memories of them.

‘Jiandan Fuza uses his yang element to make his attacks take on a cold, watery form. But, there’s something else as well. I can’t seem to get the full understanding on it right now. I guess I have to wait until he unleashes it.’ Akata could only gain basic info of techniques that he had been exposed to. He didn’t have the skill yet to try and get information on other things he had yet to see and experience.

Golden light shined out of Akata’s body as he held his hand forward. He had been slowly gaining knowledge regarding the use of his golden rune. Golden light shone brightly from his hand and covered over the incoming water. He took in a deep breath and slowly clenched his hand into a fist. This simple motion caused the white water to shudder violently and decrease in speed drastically. His hand fully closed into a fist and the water finally exploded outward. In its place could be seen an illusory rock that emanated shocking pressure. Akata then calmly looked over towards Jiandan Fuza.

Jiandan Fuza had it a bit easier than Akata. The black hellfire that was heading for him didn’t even seem to interest him as he wiped it away with a swipe of his hand. That swipe contained the power of the yang element. The hellfire froze from the inside until it was nothing but icicles. It then just fell and shattered to the ground. He had a crazed look on his face the whole time.

“Ahaha. Akata let’s stop playing around!” He waved his hand and white water swirled around his body in a chaotic manner. The temperature in the area dropped even more to the point the the grass in the distance started to freeze up.

“Let me show you my true power.” A crazed smile appeared on Jiandan Fuza’s face as he lifted his hands in the air. “Water is the main element my clan uses because it is calm and basic. But me on the other hand, I like things to be unpredictable and filled with utter khaos. Hehe. That’s why I taught myself this.” A boom could be heard coming from his body and all of a sudden a stream of water that was circling him became slim. A crackle of electricity then sparked from it and soon electricity could be seen all over it.

This happened to all of the rest of the water that was encircling his body and soon his body was covered with electricity. He looked as if he were an electric deity of some sort that was just bathing in lightning. This lightning was white and brought along a freezing temperature. “Ahaha!” With a laugh, Jiandan Fuza pointed in Akata direction. “Take my attack!”

Zip! A streak of cold white lightning flashed toward Akata. The lightning itself was fast already but the coldness in the area made it harder to move about. Akata could feel a strong yang energy within the lightning and new this was a dangerous situation. He took in a deep breath and then lifted up his plant arm.

The plant arm was originally hidden by his cloak but now it could be seen. It was completely golden in color and a thick golden vine could be seen covering it. Ever since he had gained complete understanding of his body, Akata’s plant arm had taken on a huge change.

The vine that covered his arm wasn’t like a regular vine that had looked sort of like a rope, but looked more like a blanket of leaves and tendrils. Holding his arm up, the vine shot out to appear in front of Akata’s body and surround him. Boom! The lightning slammed into the golden vine where it trembled vigorously and darkened a bit, but still held on.

“Eh?” Jiandan Fuza’s face became filled with disbelief and his eye twitched. Giving a cold snort he allowed his lightning to branch out and rain in all directions around him. As it did, he took steps forward to get closer to Akata. The lightning flashed everywhere and hit anything around it in an unpredictable manner. This was a type of defensive and offensive attack Jiandan Fuza had come up with. With this, he didn’t really have to focus on attacking or defending. And it made it harder on the opponent because they didn’t know when the attack would be coming.

The white lightning kept on repeatedly slamming on the vine shield that surrounded Akata’s body. It hit in different locations each time with a strong force. The golden light on the vine would dim each time it was hit.

Akata was standing within the gold vines unperturbed about the situation outside. Inside it was as if nothing was happening. He couldn’t hear the booms of the lightning slamming into the vines or feel the effects of it. The vine was basically acting as an isolation barrier for him. He could use the nature energy that emanated off of the vine to help spread out his nature sense to see what was happening outside. As the vines were hit, he could feel that they were weakening.

‘They won’t last much longer. I’ll have to make a risky move in order to get out of this situation.’ Akata thought to himself. The difference between cultivation was just too great. Jiandan Fuza didn’t have insane speed like Alabasta did. And he didn’t have overwhelming power like Tabet had. But he did have considerable skill and knowledge. Unlike beasts, mortals were much smarter and therefore much more deadly when fighting against. If Jiandan Fuza had the same strength and speed as Alabasta and Tabet, Akata definitely wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Akata gathered the nature energy in the surrounding area and focused it on the vine. ‘Here it goes.’ The vine suddenly illuminated brightly and then started to grow explosively. In an instant it spread out to cover an area of 30 meters and was still expanding at a fast rate.

The golden vines encompassed a wide area. They surrounded much of the visible fighting area. In fact it spread out to over 299 meters in total! The maximum distance that Akata could spread his nature sense.

Akata could feel every living and nonliving thing within this field of vines. It was like a whole new feeling for him. This was actually Akata’s first time trying this out as he had never really wanted to use his plant arm before. He wasn’t confident in using it in battle and therefore decided to slowly become accustomed to it. But now, he was pushed to the edge and had no other choice but to try and use it to escape Jiandan Fuza’s furious attack.

Whoosh! The vine blanketed the entire region in an instant causing everything to shine with a golden luster. Not only was Akata able to feel the existence of everybody here, he could feel the elements in the area. It was like he had a special connection to them.

‘Just what is this vine? I haven’t ever seen a plant of this level before. The strength it has now is weak but the profundity behind it is on a whole different level than what I’m used to. This plant is… it’s simply too high of a level.’ Noluck couldn’t even find the words to describe what he was witnessing right now. He had always wondered about Akata’s plant arm and why it was so different from other plant-based lifeforms but he wasn’t able to inspect it at all. Thus he could only witness what Akata would unleash.

Akata, on the other hand, had thoroughly inspected his arm and had extensive knowledge about it. When he was blessed with the plant arm it was as if new information regarding it had seeped into his mind, he just had never planned on sticking with the arm so he paid it no attention. But now, things were different. He had come to accept this arm of his.

A slight smile appeared on Akata’s calm face. “Experience the power of my… kudzu vine!” He yelled out towards Jiandan Fuza.