Unbelievable. That was all that came to Akata’s mind as more and more information from the creature's soul popped into his mind. This Winged Skyfrog was simply a terrifying creature. Akata was only able to get simple and brief information regarding the soul of something, yet with the measly information he was able to get, it was already shock inducing.

He shook his head. ‘Now’s not the time to be flabbergasted. This is a terrifying creature and from the information I got, I will be the only one who has a chance of stopping it. Right now I need to protect everyone.’ Akata took in a deep breath as a fierce fighting will erupted from his body. He took a step forward while immediately calling out, “Everyone step back. I’ll handle this alone.”

“No! I’ll help you out!” Basik Bufmann called out.

“Let me lend you my strength.” Sumting Wong also yelled.

Akata turned to look at them. “No. I want to test myself. Just watch the show.” Akata smiled and then turned back to face the beast. Taking in another deep breath he held out his hand where a scythe appeared. Swish! He swung it through the air where a black beam of light shot toward the Winged Skyfrog.

The Winged Skyfrog quickly moved to the side, easily avoiding the attack. It let out another screech and shot toward Akata. It’s screech shook the bodies of all the group members in the vicinity and caused their faces to pale. Most of them even fell down to the ground, unable to keep standing.

Twisting his Blacksoul Scythe in the air, Akata shot out many black arcs of scythe-light toward the incoming Winged Skyfrog. His body lit up in a ball of black light as he moved away from the group in the blink of an eye.

Seeing as Akata was the main attacker and that the other group members were weak, the Winged Skyfrog instantly changed directions and flew toward Akata. It happened so fast that the scythe-light didn’t even have the chance to touch it.

‘Long distance attacks won’t work at all. It seems they’re just too slow. I’ll have to fight it in close combat.’ Akata concluded from his probing attacks. After moving more than fifty meters away the Winged Skyfrog was hot in pursuit. It moved much faster than Akata could, there was no way to out maneuver it.

Akata stopped backing up and then shot forward with his scythe in front of him. It was a straightforward attack that was fast. Perfect for what Akata needed at the moment. The Winged Skyfrog was going really fast and wouldn’t have time to stop its charge and therefore would be right in the way of the attack. It saw that it couldn’t get out of the way in time and therefore screeched once more.

This screech was different from the other times. It seemed to have some mystifying power to it. When it hit Akata’s ears, his body trembled fiercely and his posture was severely messed up. The Winged Skyfrog charged head first into Akata’s chest and with a bang sent him flying.

Bang! Bang! Boom! Akata’s body flew through two trees and then collided with a hard rock. Blood seeped from his mouth and body as he struggled to stand up. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and then looked up.

Screech! The Winged Skyfrog flew in his direction and then started to fly upwards. Water shot out of its arms and grabbed onto Akata’s body like whips. Akata was forced into the air by the Winged Skyfrog and was completely helpless. It through him in the air, making him reach a height that would surely injure him severely if he fell all the way down.

The Winged Skyfrog quickly turned and charged toward Akata. Maneuvering in the air was nearly impossible for Akata right now. Not to mention effectively attacking. He was completely vulnerable to the Winged Skyfrog’s attacks. It would charge at him, swipe at him, and bite at him. Once it did, it would circle back around and continue its attacks. All Akata could do was endure and hope that he would land soon so that he could counterattack.

Akata’s eyes were completely bloodshot. ‘What is this? I’ve never been so humiliated in my life! I’m completely helpless right now and not able to fight back at all. This damn beast is making sure that I don’t fall to the ground so that it can keep attacking until I die. Ahhh!’ Akata was at the cusp of losing his mind. He was unable to fight back at all.

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‘No. It wants an easy victory? I won’t let it happen. I want to be the strongest being in existence and then surpass those who aren’t even existing anymore. I want overwhelming power that will let me do whatever I want. I want freedom to do what I want, when I want, and how I want. That’ my true aspirations.’ Akata’s eyes gleamed for the desire to be free of being oppressed.

Just a few months ago, he wasn’t even a cultivator and the whole sect would oppress him with their power. When he had gone to live with the Scarlet Tigers, many beasts over their were much stronger than him. The one’s who had wanted to kill him could have done so easily if they had shown themselves. His life was at the mercy of their choice. That wasn’t how Akata wanted things. He wanted to be able to do anything he wanted. That was his dream. And the only way to accomplish such a dream was to be overwhelmingly strong. Strong to the point that nobody could pose a threat to him. He would have to reach the pinnacle and then surpass that!

“Ahhh!” Akata screamed out and his head jerked in the direction of the Winged Skyfrog. ‘How can I reach the pinnacle if I can’t even handle this simple damaged baby of a beast? It’s strong but its only a baby, its fighting tactics just aren’t smart enough.’ His eyes filled with a gold and crimson tint. “Red Cloud Formation.” His body grew to a height of eight meters. He grabbed onto a wing of the Winged Skyfrog and then, with all the strength he could muster, threw the whole beast downwards.

Bam! The Winged Skyfrog slammed ferociously into the ground below and let out a ear piercing screech. Akata fell to the ground and also slammed into it. He didn’t have a way to slow himself at all, but luckily he was much bigger and therefore he didn’t get injured as badly. He was still able to operate.

The Winged Skyfrog got up faster than Akata did. It was barely injured in the counterattack that Akata had done. Shaking its wings, it quickly took to the air; a gust of wind following closely behind it. Letting out another strange sounding screech, it flew toward Akata’s body.

The strange screech made Akata’s body feel as if he didn’t have control over it at all. He hadn’t even gotten up yet, but he already felt his body not cooperating. ‘Ugh. I need to think of something. This weird power is really annoying. I don’t even know what it is so I can’t really think of a plan for it. Come on Akata! Think. Think!’

Akata clenched his teeth together and forcefully held out his arm. An azure vine spread out and covered the area that he was laying in. These vines let out a deadly demonic feeling that crept into the souls of nearby living beings.

The Winged Skyfrog suddenly stopped its charge and changed directions to move away from the vines.

Shwoop! A weird droning sound came from the vine and in the next instant everything was silent. The area that was covered by the vines had completely disappeared into nothingness, as if it had never existed in the first place. All that remained was the soil and rocks that were deep within the ground. Part of the tree canopies up above looked as if they had simply been obliterated, as if they were made incomplete.

The Winged Skyfrog was just  barely a meter away from the devastation. If it had been a second slower, it would have been annihilated right along with the area surrounded by the vines. Water wrapped around its body as it swung toward Akata as it had done before.

Akata’s use of the vine hadn’t changed much but his control had changed greatly after all of the training he put into it. Using it’s full power was impossible for him right now but using a very tiny bit allowed him to fully have it under his will. There wasn’t any risk of the vine going out of his control. But that meant that it had to be fully under his control and therefore he had to use his own energy to use it.

The tiny bit of power of the vine was immense and drained a lot of energy from Akata. The tiny bit made it so that he could only use this power once. Even if it was only once, the area he could unleash the vine’s power was drastically limited. Only about 3 meters from Akata’s body. This was a great reduction from the previous 299 meters. The damage and area were limited greatly but the energy consumption was drastically increased. It was a huge drawback with barely any benefits to speak of. That was why it was a last resort attack. The thing was, Akata couldn’t think of anything else to do.

This attack had failed and he didn’t even have the energy to stand up anymore. He coughed up a mouthful of blood as his vision darkened greatly. ‘I shouldn’t use that anymore for a long while. I’m nowhere near strong enough to handle even that small power of the vine.’ Akata thought to himself.

“Akata, what are you doing?! Get up right now! Are you about to die to this beast right now? How could a mere beast that isn’t even at the 10th Grade be a match for you?” Noluck yelled out within Akata’s dantion region.

‘I don’t know how this beast is able to beat me. Physically it should be just about equal to me, agility and speed wise it’s faster than me but not by much, and mentally it is way inferior to me. It’s just that mysterious power that it has, it’s like it weakens me and makes me vulnerable. Almost like he is able to take control of my body for a bit.’ Akata thought this. He could feel the Winged Skyfrog coming closer.

‘No… I still can’t lose. Not right now! I must win! I have to become the strongest figure in existence.” The later part of his sentence actually escaped his lips. He blacked out…

***

Red Cloud Hall

“Don’t tell me he’s about to actually use up his life-saving power so soon. It is true he ran into a Winged Skyfrog though. That’s a terrifying beast indeed. If it were any of the other groups I would have been saved them by now but I wanted to see what Akata could do. That demonic vine is really weird but even then, he still wasn’t able to contend with it. Well… that was the likely scenario after all. I guess I should-”

Sect Leader Fu’s eyes went wide as she stared at the scene before her. “Ah! How is he able to do this already? That isn’t his life-saving power.” She could barely speak as she looked at Akata. She slowly lowered her hand and looked deeply at the scene. “Well then. I should relay this to father.”