The main arena was different from all the other arenas because it was built into the ground. That way the crowd would have to look down into the arena to watch the match. The people fighting within would also have to take a special path to go inside of the main arena to get to the stage.

Hundreds of spectating beasts were looking down into the main arena to get a good look at who it was that had entered. Not just anybody could go inside as they pleased. If they were caught going in then they would be punished, so normally people just stayed out.

The reason for this was because this was the place where Akata and Tabet had fought and where Great Lord Taple made his speech to the whole tribe. It was seen as a sort of holy spot for the tribe therefore they made it into a holy place to fight. A grand place to fight. Not even every member of the Scarlet Rune Tribe could just walk inside of this arena.

Only higher up individuals or fights that the higher ups agreed on could be held in this place. Thus Tabet, the Young Lord of the Scarlet Rune Tribe was able to get inside. Alabasta, Pina, and Gorgon, were also Young Lords of their respective tribes as well. But being the Lord of their tribe wouldn’t grant them access to this place, they were granted access because their tribes were the top strongest, because they had someone in the Temporal Rank.

Even though it wasn’t stated to Tabet whether Akata had access or not, it was right to assume that he did. This was because he was seen as the savior of the Scarlet Tigers, how could he not be able to have access. He was also the person that fought Tabet in this very fought.

There weren’t any guards preventing anyone from entering the main arena just bystanders watching by. That was because anyone was able to fight here. Only, if you weren’t allowed to, after your fight ended you would be given your punishment. But, not everybody was daring to take on the punishment so fights here didn’t happen often.

The five walked into the main arena and stood across from each other. Tabet and Akata on one side and Pina, Gorgon, and Alabasta on the other. Alabasta gave a side glance at Pina and Gorgon and snorted. “You can start with them. I don’t want them getting in my way. Call me when you’re done. I don’t care if you lose either, I’m still fighting you.” With that he walked off to the side.

Pina took a step forward and said, “I’ll go first then. I hope you will accept my challenge.” With that she transformed into a beautiful lady with a white robe. She had green flowy hair that reached down to her lower back. She also had big green glowing eyes that made her seem even more beautiful.

However, her beauty escaped Akata’s mind. All he could see with his nature sense was her spiritual self that was tied to nature. Therefore almost all these beasts looked the same to him with a few key differences between them. So, Akata didn’t spare a second glance at the sudden change in her appearance.

“That’s fine with me.” He said calmly and proceeded to walk forward. “Tabet just leave this to me. I’ll be fine.” Akata still had on his ragged red furs that made him seem weak beyond compare. It even made Pina feel like she was bullying the weak at this moment.

Tabet nodded his head and said, “Don’t take them lightly. Each of their tribes has someone in the Temporal Rank which is why they are regarded as being high class. They are also very strong as well.” He gave another look at Akata and then walked off, Gorgon following behind him.

Finally the stage was clear with only Pina and Akata on it facing each other. Pina looked at him and said, “I won’t go easy on you even though you’re missing an arm.”

Akata looked back at her and said, “But you just changed into your mortal form, making you weaker. Aren’t you already going easy on me?”

Pina twitched her eyes. This was true. Being in her mortal form made her slightly weaker than her beast form. She gave a harrumph and then waved her hand sending fireballs shooting toward Akata.

‘Fire magic huh? She seems to have some skill in it as well. I say it’s at the skill level where Tabet was with illusions. No matter though.’ Akata quickly surmised the skill level his opponent had with fire. With his nature sense he was able to “see” things much more in depth and clearly. Thus he was able to determine the strength and insights that his opponents had with certain skills.

Akata waved his own hand causing fire to spew forth as well. A wall of flames shot up around him and headed toward the fireballs. His fire looked black with traces of red in it. This was his hellfire that had he hadn’t used in combat for a long while.

However, this hellfire was noticeably weaker than what he had wanted to output. ‘Must be because of the arena being infused with the holy element.’ Akata quickly thought. With another wave of his hand he caused blue runes to spring up around him and expand until they became drops of water. These drops of water then formed around him into a water shield.

The fireballs quickly reached the hellfire and easily bore through it. Pina let out a breath of relief as the feeling she got from that hellfire was sinister. Her fireballs then headed straight for the water barrier around Akata. It quickly approached and came in contact with the barrier. But the barrier seemed to be a lot stronger than the fire that Akata had cast out and caused the fireballs to dissipate easily. The water barrier still stood as if nothing had happened to it.

“Your skill with water is very impressive, but if that is all you can do and muster then you might as well give up now.” Pina started to run forward at Akata while simultaneously waving her hands in the air. Her speed was very impressive and almost instantly, she closed the ten meter gap between them to appear in front of his barrier.

“Take this.” Her hands flashed and fire began to burn in one while her other hand seemed to control the air around it. She put her hands together and a huge blast of fire came rushing forth onto the water barrier.

Akata slightly knitted his brows and waved his hand to focus the water barrier on one point as to increase its defense. However, even after he did this, the large amount of fire and the power it brought was too much for the barrier. It easily made its way through the water barrier and towards Akata. Akata having little time to think flashed his hand forward and then closed it into the shape of a fist.

“Burn.” He said softly. All of a sudden black flames started to appear within the fire that Pina had cast out. The black flames quickly ate away at the fire and burned it into nothingness. Akata waved his hand sending the black flames toward Pina. Pina’s eyes went wide with shock and she quickly shot back while roaring. She then transformed into a snake with wings and flew into the air, barely evading the black fire.

Sweat poured down her scaly body as she had barely escaped that catastrophe. It had been a really close call just then and if it wasn’t for her super fast speed, she would have been engulfed in those flames. She watched as the black flames slowly dissipated in the air then she turned her head to look deeply at Akata.

“What was that just now?!” She screamed, clearly shaken from the shock and near death experience she just had. Tabet and Gorgon were also shaken from what they had just seen. Even Alabasta looked more closely at the match now. And that’s to say nothing of the crowd looking down at the arena below them.

“Oh. That was just a little trick I pulled but it didn’t work. I just infused my fire into yours and slowly made your fire’s strength aid mine. Then I used the control of my fire to burn yours away while taking its full energy and used it to attack you. You may not understand what I just said but that’s because my insights into fire are much greater than yours.” Akata said this casually as if it were a simple matter to him. Which, in reality, it really was simple for him. Although the concept was difficult to comprehend and understand, it was easy for him.

Pina looked at him deeply some more and then gritted her teeth. “Well you may have better skill than me in fire, but that isn’t my best trait.”With that she flew around Akata in the air at an increasing speed. Soon, a tornado started to form around Akata. She stopped above the tornado and then screeched inside causing a soundwave to emit through it towards Akata.

Akata knitted his brows once more. ‘I don’t have any skill regarding air and I haven’t came into any contact with any sound attacks. This is great practice for me. How should I combat it then?’ He went into thought while he was holding his head trying to concentrate from the ear piercing pain the soundwave attack brought.

‘Sound comes from the air vibrating. With this tornado the air can’t escape so it will all be focused on me and not spread out.’ With these simple thoughts Akata came up with an idea. He took in a deep breath and waved his hand causing a giant blue rune to appear below his feet and one above. The two runes then created a massive wave of water blocking out most of the sound. The top rune shot out water toward Pina making her move over to the side to evade.

‘Humph. Trifling attack. He’s probably out of ideas to deal with this sound attack.’ As soon as she finished speaking however, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Akata came out of the torrent of water that had shot up and in he was waving his hand.

A giant tan rune appeared above Pina. Then a massive block of sand came pouring out of it. The sand blocked her vision. The next thing that she felt was a forceful hit that sent her flying to the ground.

Boom!