The resulting clash happened so fast that it was hard to comprehend. Akata’s combination of moves and tricks were flawlessly stringed together to come out on top and prevail over Pina.

The blue runes he used earlier served four different purposes. First, he used it to block the sound of Pina’s attack. Secondly, it was to be used as a distraction for Pina. Third, was coverage for him to get into Pina’s range. And fourth, was to shoot himself into the air at a fast enough speed to get into range. The quick use of this made sure Pina didn’t expect this.

Once Akata was within range of Pina he further blocked her vision and impeded her by causing a large amount of sand to fall from the sky on top of her. And finally once her vision was blocked he delivered a powerful punch backed by his red rune to send her flying into the ground. All of this took less than two seconds of time to play out and was why Akata won so easily.

Akata landed on the ground softly and walked over to Pina. Although he had hit her into the ground, it wasn’t hard enough to actually damage anything, after all this was just a challenge not a life and death battle. He bent down and stretched a hand out to help her up off the ground.

Pina looked up at him with confusion and bitterness.

“Staying on the ground won’t do you any good.” Akata smiled and said as he helped her up. “That was a good fight. I really learned a lot from it. We should definitely fight again sometime.” Akata said while beaming with joy.

This fight truly did bring him a rush.It had been a long time since he had actually truly fought someone and had to use some skill in to win. Even though he had fought Tabet, that was a battle where they could only use one element so it wasn’t much to work with. This duel however, he was able to try things that he had been thinking over while in seclusion and was able to gain more insights. It really did help him out and he had fun doing it.

Pina looked at him with more confusion. “Mn. We should.” She said aloud. ‘How is he so strong, yet his strength is only at the 7th Grade? Not only his strength but his combat skills are definitely nothing to laugh at. It’s like he was made just to fight.’ She thought to herself.

However, she wasn’t the only one thinking that. Gorgon, Alabasta, and even Tabet were thinking the same thing. The crowd above them were also in discussion. By this time, more and more beasts had shown up to watch what was going on below.

“That must be the mortal everyone is talking about. How is he so strong?”

“He’s our savior Akata of course he’s strong. He even went toe-to-toe with our Young Lord.”

“Ahaha! That’s our savior for you! Of course that Pina girl was no match for him.”

Various shouts and cries could be heard in the crowd but the shouts didn’t reach the main arena below. Pina walked off the stage and went to stand alone. There, she went into a deep thought. Only she knew what she was thinking about.

After seeing Pina walk off stage Gorgon looked over to Alabasta and said, “I’ll be going next.” Then he jumped over to the center of the arena stage.

Alabasta didn’t even pay him any attention. He just gave a snort and continued to keep an eye on Akata. His body seemed to disinterested but his eyes showed a rare trait, that of anticipation!

Gorgon was a Gatorape, a beast that looked like an ape but had alligator skin. They were extremely tough to deal with because their defense was too formidable. By the time they reached the Beast Rank, their skin was comparable to steel. Not only that, but their attacks were just as strong as their defense. Thus, Gatorapes were very hard to deal with.

Gorgon stood in front of Akata and sat down. This action caused Akata to become confused. “What are you doing?” He asked curiously.

“I’m waiting for you to recover. You used some big techniques in your last match and even if you have battle prowess as high as yours, you’re still at the 7th Grade. Therefore, you must have used a bit of energy. So I want you at your peak state.” Gorgon said deeply but meaningfully.

Akata nodded to him. He had indeed used up quite a bit of energy last match even though he didn’t show it. If his battle prowess was at the just a hair away from the Great Circle then his energy consumption would be at that level as well. And being at the 7th Grade meant that he had spent a bunch of energy. That was why Akata didn’t use that many attacks and conserved as much energy as possible in his fight against Pina.

Akata sat down and meditated to recover his energy back to its full peak. With his nature energy, drawing on nature to help him recover made gaining his energy go much faster. It only took half an hour for him to be back at his peak again. Akata opened his eyes and stood up, battle intent surging.

At the same time, Gorgon stood up as well. “I don’t like being in my mortal form so I’ll just stay in my beast form. Come at me anytime.” He said as he prepared himself to take Akata’s attack.

Akata nodded his head and then waved his hand causing a line of orange runes to appear. The runes then transformed into fireballs that shot at Gorgon from all directions. It was a grand display and was beautiful to see.

Gorgon stood there motionless. He took in a deep breath and stomped his foot on the ground. When his foot crashed down it caused some of the earth around him to shoot up and act like a shield for him. The fireballs crashed into the earth shield and was blasted apart.

Gorgon still stood in the same place as he punched forward sending a chunk of rock flying toward Akata. The rock moved extremely fast as it went in Akata’s direction. It seemed like an unstoppable force that would seek its target until it either made contact or was destroyed.

‘I can’t take that head on.’ Akata thought to himself. The lower half of his body became dark and misty, the the rest of his body followed. Soon, his whole body was like a shadow as he quickly evaded the flying rock.

“Heh. That trick again? Speed won’t save you against me.” Gorgon said as he smacked his hands on the ground causing it to tremble and crack. The ground began to soften until it turned into mud.

Akata zipped across the ground until he suddenly slowed down by way too much. His speed while using his Shadowfeet skill was now comparable to him walking in his normal form. Which is suffice to say that he was extremely slow.

Gorgon didn’t stop after he turned the ground into mud. He threw out two more punches making two more rocks fly in Akata direction. Then, he himself dashed forth toward Akata. With the assistance of the mud, his speed reached insane levels.

Akata’s eyes constricted slightly as tried to come up with a way to get out of this situation. ‘He’s a genius when it comes to fighting. Instantly coming up with a way to stop my speed and then using it to bolster himself as well. It’s almost like my fighting style. Except, my fighting style is much more skillful than his.’

Akata’s eyes showed with battle intent as he stuck his hand out causing his Bludhaven Scythe to appear. He slashed it out toward the incoming flying rocks with the Guillotine Slice attack. Scythe-light smashed the rocks into rubble.

Akata knew he couldn’t get out of the path of Gorgon fast enough so instead of trying, he readied himself to receive the blow. Akata waved his scythe in front of him causing a tan rune to appear in front and produce a large amount of sand. He then held his scythe in front of his chest.

Bang! Boom!

First Gorgon simply forced his way through the sand by running through it, then he punched Akata’s scythe sending him flying backwards. The punch nearly made Akata cough up blood.

Even though he was sent flying back, Akata was ready for this and instead of using that to get some distance from Gorgon, he instead made use of it to launch an attack of his own.

Akata waved his scythe in the air and caused a purple rune to appear behind him. A ball was produced and he used it to bounce off and head straight for Gorgon. He was going in for head on attack.

“What is wrong with you?! You can’t beat him head on!” Tabet couldn’t help but scream out towards Akata for his recklessness. But Akata didn’t listen as turned into a shadow and gained even more speed.

Gorgon, after sending Akata flying, didn’t stop his pursuit as he headed to Akata’s position. But after seeing Akata heading back to him, he thought something was wrong. ‘He should know he can’t beat me head on. He must have a trick up his sleeve.’ Even though he slowed down his pursuit he didn’t stop and still went after Akata.

Akata stopped using Shadowfeet and held his scythe out to the side of him. His eyes became extremely focused and soon, golden light erupted from his body. The pressure in the area immediately intensified as Akata rotated his golden rune. The pressure caused Gorgon to become sluggish and uneasy but he still grit his teeth and ran towards Akata.

He stomped on the ground to make some of the earth stick out then he sent punches out causing rocks to fly toward Akata. But Akata was prepared this time.

“The same trick won’t work twice on me.”He said calmly as he waved his scythe causing a blue rune to appear under him. It transformed into water and shot up, sending Akata flying into the air, dodging the incoming rocks. After that a giant purple rune appeared beneath his feet making a mist form around him. Out of the mist came a skeletal figure clothed in black robes. The skeleton was glowing with golden light bringing tremendous pressure to Gorgon.

Gorgon roared and said, “Come at me!” At the same time growing in size to a height of ten meters. He stared at Akata who was in the air looking down at him. The scene made the crowd reel with excitement.