Akata had spent a lot of energy to deal with the evolved Lunar Bear so he used the most time to recover. About an hour or so had passed when Akata finally recovered enough strength to carry on into the forest. He still let the group fight by themselves and wouldn’t join in unless absolutely necessary. And when he did join in the battle would end within the next few moments. He was just too powerful of a person when compared to the rest of his group.

Although Akata was mostly watching from the sides as his team fought, he wasn’t just standing there. He was constantly using the Single Existence Art to combine different elements he had control over to create new abilities and discover new elements. So far he has only been able to combine the Inner Elements of Darkness and Light to improve his Shadowlight evasion art. With that he could now move fifty percent faster than before.

What he really wanted to do was combine three or more elements together to see what that would create but it was proving a bit difficult to do. His comprehension in most elements were about on the same level so that wasn’t the problem, but as he continued to try and fuse the elements it proved difficult to complete.

‘What I’m lacking the most in right now is long distance attacks. I don’t really like fighting long distance so to make up for it I either need a skill that will make me much faster than even when I’m using my Shadowlight evasion art or a skill that improves my defense to a whole new level. If I want speed I should combine fast moving elements such as lightning, light, or wind. For defense I should probably combine something that will bring forth a strong defense but will also allow me to move agilely. I have a lot more choices for this one, I could probably choose between the elements of metal, wood, clouds, curses, illusions, earth, water, wind, and then some.’ Akata went into an extremely deep thinking process.

He would cast runes or even switch to magic in order to test some things out, but overall, nothing seemed to be working. ‘Runes are able to combine together to form bigger and stronger attacks; I saw the Scarlet Tigers constantly combining runes in order to attack. But runes take a while to be set up and can’t be strengthened further or sustained indefinitely. That means it has to be a magic skill.’ Akata shook his head.

Runes were very different from magic skills. They could be casted by anyone, combined easier, and could be concealed for later effects. But, they also took a bit longer to cast and couldn’t be strengthened after they were casted. This meant there was no way to further increase the power of a rune after it was made, and once all the power within it was used, it was seemingly useless. Magic on the other hand didn’t have this issue. A magic practitioner could continuously pour in their energy into a magic skill to constantly boost its longevity or power.

Although he was skilled in many things, magic wasn’t really considered one of them. This was because Akata didn’t like to use divine energy because his nature energy was much stronger. This can be seen by how he still struggles to use the basic power of Astral Obliteration, and even then it sometimes still doesn’t work. Most of Akata’s skills and abilities are either close combat skills or runic skills. Even his Shadowlight evasion art uses nature energy in order to operate it.

Akata circulated his divine energy in an attempt to form elemental magic. ‘To be agile and also have a strong defense something formless yet strong should work… Something consisting of clouds, lightning, and vines. The clouds will allow me be formless and agile, the lightning will allow me move fast while also slowing anybody down who comes close to me, the vines will create a tensile strength that protects me but also allows me to move around well.’ Akata formed the basis idea of his armor and then started to formulate how everything will come together.

‘The clouds will be the foundation so as to serve as the last line of defense. With them I shall be able to move around freely and if it gets serious I can use the power of clouds to simply allow attacks to move through me.’ Akata stood still with his eyes closed completely focused on making his magic armor. A cloudy aura soon formed around him.

‘The lightning will form around the clouds and serve as the second line of defense in order to boost my speed and slow enemies down with a numbing effect. This should be seen as both offensive and defensive.’ A layer of faint lightning formed within the cloudy aura around Akata. The nearby air trembled slightly, alerting the nearby disciples who were catching their breath from fighting.

“What’s going on with Akata? What’s with this aura around him?”

“He seems to be comprehending something important.”

“It looks to be incomplete but it’s already so formidable.”

Astonishment flashed across the various disciples faces that noticed a change in Akata’s aura. They took note of it and kept their eyes on him but also stayed extremely vigilant. If Akata was making a breakthrough then it meant he was getting stronger. They didn’t know what would be in the Central Circle so they had to let Akata become as strong as possible. They unconsciously put a defensive circle around Akata, protecting him from unknown dangers.

Soon, others took note of what was happening and also took defensive postures around Akata’s body. Akata’s aura was continuously rising and notifying his team of his comprehension. Not only were his groupmates notified of the strong aura, so was the wildlife nearby.

“Awooo!”

“Gwar!”

“Swoosh!”

Various sounds started to become clearer as they headed toward Akata. These creatures were extremely territorial and could tell that a strong presence was beginning to rise within their homes. They knew that this presence was at a critical point and so they rushed over to eliminate it as soon as possible before it became a threat to them.

“Everybody! Defend Akata as best you can!” Sumting Wong yelled out as the sounds of beasts came closer to the group. He punched out with a ball full of divine energy and aimed for a flying bird creature. This punch sent the bird creature flying back to where it came from. The spirits of the group rose abruptly and all of them had the will to fight vigorously. Soon magic, weapons, and skills were unleashed everywhere, lighting up the environment.

Akata, who was deep within contemplation, had no idea what was going on. Time was oblivious to him at this moment and he had no idea that a huge fight had just broke out around him. As of this moment he was struggling to semi fuse the lightning aura with his cloud aura. He could only semi fuse it in order to be able to later semi fuse the vine aura in with the cloud and lightning aura. Once all of them were semi fused he could take the final step and fully fuse them all together. When that happened then he would have completely finished with using the Single Existence Art.

The true use of the Single Existence Art wasn’t to fully combine different things into one, it was to slowly infuse different things partially together to create a better understanding of them. Once that understanding of it reached a certain level then you would be able to fuse it fully with what you were trying to fuse it with. This allowed you to bring out the full power of what you were fusing together. Not only was it a skill to increase your power rapidly, but it also increased your comprehension abilities substantially.

The fusing process of the Single Existence Art was very profound. It would take what you were trying to fuse and separate all that you knew about it and mix it up into a disordered mess. This disordered mess would then form a kind of aura around your figure that would have to be stabilised. To stabilise it, you would have to take the knowledge of what you were fusing and order it in a neat and tidy manner. This would deepen your knowledge further and in the process you would also comprehend a few more things. After the aura was condensed and stabilised you would then do the same thing for the other thing you were going to fuse together, the aura of the next thing would converge within the aura of the previous one and you would have to sort it out while it was mixed in with the previous stabilised aura. Because it was mixed in with the previous stabilised aura, the “jumbled” insights that you had gained would want to find some order on its own, so it would group together with like things with the other aura.

For instance, if you were trying to fuse the Inner Elements of Fire and Lava, you would condense one of those auras together. If you had condensed the fire aura together first, then all you would have to do is condense the lava aura next. The lava aura would be jumbled about within the condensed fire aura. Since the elements seek order on their own, they would already try to find order within the previously condensed aura. Because of this, the lava aura will find similar traits between it and the fire aura. The “jumbled” lava aura would jumble around similar traits of the fire aura such as “hot” and “formless”. These traits will help the cultivator to realize the similarities between the things trying to be fused together and help to better fuse them. With this process, new insights will be formed and make it easier to fuse them.

After all the things you were fusing together had a stabilised aura, you would then form a new aura that consisted of the similar traits between the things you were fusing together. This new aura would be jumbled as well and would have to be stabilised. Once it was stabilised then you would have to open a “gate” with this new aura and connect it with the energy of either heaven or hell. The heavens will bless this new aura or hell will curse it. Once it was blessed or cursed the aura will form into an element that could be used by the cultivator.

This was done because only something driven by the energy of heaven or hell could be used as an element. With this skill it was possible to discover new elements that you previously didn’t know anything about or to outright create a whole new element. It was simply a heaven defying art!

As of right now, Akata was in the middle of stabilising his lightning aura. Akata already had heaven defying comprehension abilities and lightning was originally formed within clouds so it was fairly simple to condense its aura. Akata soon finished condensing it and moved on to the most difficult of the parts, the Inner Element of Vines. This was the most different of the three elements so it would be much harder to order it within the two other auras of clouds and lightning. But Akata steadied himself and dove in head first in completing it.

Meanwhile, a skeletal shaped creature took notice of the condensed cloud and lightning aura coming from the distance. He opened his eyes from his meditative state and looked off into the distance. “ A mere human is offsetting the energy of the heavens… I shall pay him a visit.” He stood up slowly and as he did a boundless aura of life spread from his body and filled the surrounding area. The plants all around this creature seemed to approve of his aura and swayed. He took in a single breath and life energy flourished toward his bones, soon muscles and skin formed around his figure and made him look like a middle aged man. He swiped his hand and countless leaves stormed and surrounded his body giving him an attire made of leaves.

He took a single step and soon vanished.