Great Priest Bambe stood there at a loss. His face was blank and his eye was left twitching. He was expecting for Lord Tafei to fly into a rage over his tribe but instead he was concerned over his wife?

He looked down at his hand where Lady Haque was being held by the throat. After a short moment Great Priest Bambe gave a cold smile and squeezed harder. While doing so he licked his lips and picked his head up to look into the eyes of Lord Tafei.

“Ahahaha!” Seeing Lord Tafei’s eyes grow wider caused Great Priest Bambe to let out a sinister sounding joyous laugh. He unconsciously gripped Lady Haque’s throat harder, making cracking noises sound out.

“Ahh!” Lady Haque managed to let out a squeal before her throat was held so tight that she couldn’t even produce a sound. Her eyes were bulging and were turning red yet, as hard as she struggled, she was unable to break free of Great Priest Bambe’s grip.

At the sight of this Lord Tafei’s eyes turned into a deep crimson as he turned into his human form. All of the Scarlet Tigers that were able to, had changed into their human forms. All beasts pretty much like battling within their human form as it made things much more easier. This was because for big beasts it made them more nimble and agile while for littler beasts they could grow become more fearsome.

As Lord Tafei changed into his human form he waved his hand. The wave of his hand produced hundreds of runes that glowed with an orange light. Instantly, the temperature in the area rose up immensely as numerous balls of flames were produced from the orange runes.

But he didn’t stop there as he simultaneously waved his other hand making numerous brown runes appear in the air around him. The brown runes dug into the ground below him and caused the cave room to shake tremendously. Cracking sounds could be heard as the ceiling above them split apart and the ground below them moved upwards. Surprisingly, Lord Tafei was taking the battle to the surface.

Even as they were moving upward to the surface the balls of flame shot toward Great Priest Bambe in a shocking speed. It might have seemed like a wild attack that could end up harming Lady Haque, but in reality it wasn’t. In fact, if you were paying close enough attention some of the fire wasn’t hot at all, it even brought a nurturing feeling with it.

Those flames were aiming straight for Lady Haque in an attempt to grab and carry her away from Great Priest Bambe. The rest, however, were trying to engulf and utterly destroy him.

But given Great Priest Bambe’s level of cultivation being at the Beast Rank Grade 8, how could he not notice this? His level of strength was the same as Lord Tafei’s, and they had even grown up alongside each other, so of course he knew some of Lord Tafei’s tricks of disguising his true intentions within his attack.

Great Priest Bambe gave a cold snort and threw Lady Haque toward the flames that carried an intense heat within them while he himself dodged out of the way of the fire. Fighting someone with the same cultivation base as you was already hard enough, not to mention trying to hold onto a hostage as well. Of course he was going to get rid of her as soon as possible.

Lady Haque whistled through the air toward the flames of extreme heat. However, Lord Tafei let out a relieved breath as he saw this happening. He waved his hand and the oppressive heat from before immediately disappeared without a trace.

His whole attack had been a ruse to rick Great Priest Bambe in releasing his wife. From the beginning all of the fire he created had been harmless, the only thing he did with his mastery over fire runes was increase the temperature in the air around certain fireballs.

He knew that Great Priest Bambe was looking for an opportunity to release Lady Haque from his grasp, yet also wanted to burden himself in the process. So he intentionally used a trick that Great Priest Bambe was familiar with in order to throw him off. And it worked!

In truth, Lord Tafei was extremely frightened that Great Priest Bambe wouldn’t take the bait and would instead hold onto Lady Haque a bit longer or even attack with his own skill. But luckily he hadn’t.

“Come here.” Lord Tafei made a grasping motion with his hand as he made the flame in the surrounding area to form into the image of a hand. It then reached out and caught Lady Haque midair and safely returned her to his side.

Although her throat was on the verge of being crushed she still smiled at her husband and spoke, “Thank you.” She said hoarsely. This type of injury couldn’t be considered light, however, it couldn’t be considered serious either.

She didn’t stay for long as she hurriedly rushed into the cave to fight. There was still and Elder of her tribe that was fighting one-against-two and it wasn’t looking good for him. Lord Tafei watched as his wife left and nodded his head. He then immediately turned his head to focus in on Great Priest Bambe once again.

The face of Great Priest Bambe was extremely unsightly as of this moment. As soon as he saw the look of Lord Tafei’s eyes turn to one of relief, he knew that he had made the wrong choice. “Shit.” He said to himself as he was dodging the “deadly” fireballs coming his way. By the time he had stopped moving, Lady Haque was already on her way to help out the sole loyal Elder of the tribe.

His expression grim, Great Priest Bambe said, “Humph. Well there’s no need for me to hold back now is there.” He waved a hand in the air causing tens of runes to appear. However, even with the small number, the complex symbols on them radiated a fearsome pressure that weighed down on most things.

“Outer Element?!” Lord Tafei’s face took on an immediate change. He knew that the difference between an outer element and an inner element was tremendous. The ability to wield an Outer Element could turn an ordinary person into a legendary figure that reigned supreme.

Invisible runes that sparkled with white motes of light appeared. Instantly, the feeling of time moving was felt in the area. It felt as if the area had gone back to the past and yet also had hints to the future as well. It was a peculiar feeling but nonetheless it was one of supreme control over the forces of time.

“Outer Element of Time! You can actually control the Outer Element of Time?!” A bit of fear rose up within Lord Tafei’s mind as he saw the sparkling runes before him. As he analyzed the situation his mind gradually returned to normal, albeit he was still cautious.

‘It seems he doesn’t have that much control over this Outer Element otherwise he could produce a lot more runes. Also the time in the area doesn't seem to be in his complete control which means he doesn’t have much skill regarding this.’

It was true. Great Priest Bambe didn’t have much skill using the Outer Element of Time. It was just that he wanted to get this over with quickly and with both he and Lord Tafei having the same level of cultivation base, that really wasn’t a possibility. Especially since they knew each other's tactics and grew up together. The only way he saw himself beating Lord Tafei quickly was if he revealed his secret and brought out his Outer Element of Time.

A snicker appeared across Great Priest Bambe’s face as he caused the tens of runes to appear. He watched as Lord Tafei’s face fell and his heart immediately eased. He had been worried that Lord Tafei might have secretly had an outer element as well, but alas he didn’t.

“Prepare yourself.” Great Priest Bambe called out. The sparkling runes danced in the air before shooting out toward Lord Tafei.

Lord Tafei immediately waved his hand causing hundreds of purple runes to appear around him. He spread the runes out to cover over a wide area that encompassed the battle. He looked at the approaching sparkling runes and then took in a deep breath.

Boom!

The sparkling time rune slammed into his figure causing it to age extremely rapidly. Lord Tafei went through multiple passages of time. He transformed back into his beast of a Scarlet Tiger where he appeared as a young tiger. But then he quickly grew up to his teens, then his young adult stage, and then back to his middle aged self, and finally to an elderly tiger. All of this happened in a flash.

Even as he turned into an elder however, the passage of time still didn’t stop. Lord Tafei’s eyes went wide and his arm turned into dust. Then his legs and chest until finally all of him had been reduced to nothing more than ash and dust. He had completely lived his life in that brief moment.

After all of that happened Great Priest Bambe swung his arm around, face grim, and caused hundreds of tan runes to be produced around him. Sand started to fill the area as an hourglass was made around him.

Bang!

A fireball had just hit the hourglass the moment that it was put up. It caused extreme heat to bolster the area. In fact normal sand would’ve turned into glass by this intense heat at the moment. Luckily, Great Priest Bambe’s sand wasn’t exactly normal.

Great Priest Bambe faced the tiger in front of him as a trace of anger appeared on his face. He gave a cold snort, “Tafei! Don’t think that you can escape me using your illusions. They will only get you so far for so long!” Great Priest Bambe waved his hand causing more tan runes to appear as they congregated together into the form of another hourglass. The tan runes however were a bit different this time however as they had a sort of sparkle to them.

Lord Tafei was in his tiger form panting. His line of family were known to be experts in the Inner Element of Illusions, but it was still a close call for him. Switching places with one of his created illusions took a lot of energy out of him briefly but given his strength and a little bit of time he would be fine afterwards. But what he saw at this moment caused all of his exhaustion to wash away instantly.

“Now he’s infusing the Outer Element of Time with the Inner Element of Sand? I didn’t think he had skill of this caliber with the Outer Element of Time.” Lord Tafei’s face was extremely grim as he saw the sand in the hourglass start to fall and time begin to distort.