The Lunar Bear’s speed was monstrously fast. It broke apart the Clear Passage technique just as soon as it was unleashed and was in front of Akata in the next instant. It let out a roar and then swiped its paw towards Akata, looking to kill Akata in just a single strike.
However, Akata reacted just as fast. The Lunar Bear wasn’t built for speed like the Winged Skyfrog was, so Akata was able to keep up with it much easier. With a swing of his scythe, a black scythe light was unleashed from the scythe and targeted the Lunar Bear directly. This strike seemed simple but it was actually the combination of the Guillotine Slice and Clear Passage technique through the use of the Single Existence Art.
Akata was able to combine even two different stances from the same technique. He had planned on combining the World Omen of Lord Dullahan and the Underdark Arts but they weren’t on the same level. The Underdark Arts were at the Fourth Rank while the World Omen of Lord Dullahan had reached the Immortal level. There was no way to combine the two together completely. The only thing Akata could do was slowly accumulate experience from the two and mix certain similar things one by one. But if the two stances were on the same level then that was a different story.
Water and oil were both liquids but that was all they really had in common, there was no way to combine the two at all. However, if you were to combine fire and wind, they were apart of the five elements, then they could truly fuse together. Making a conflagration or a scorching wind. The power of the two would combine to rise to new levels and this was only possible because they were apart of the same set.
The Single Existence Art was truly marvelous. It was able to combine two things on the same level in no time at all. It brought one to a state of mind that made it much easier to understand things and pull insights together.
Akata’s strike was mixed with the directness of Guillotine Slice and the freeness of Clear Passage. He was able to combine the two to make a totally new skill that perfectly opposed the evolved Lunar Bear. The affected gravity wasn’t able to hinder Akata’s strike at all so it directly swept passed the Lunar Bear’s paw making its attack miss Akata by a hair. Akata didn’t stop there as he pressed on with his fused attacks.
Guillotine Slice and Silent Meteor Kill. These two combined to make Akata’s fastest attack. Once again it had the directness of Guillotine Slice and the utter speed of Silent Meteor Kill. The Lunar Bear was caught completely off guard from the attack and was pushed back. Unwilling to accept this it immediately charged back towards Akata with an even more overbearing pressure.
Whoosh! Akata swung his scythe in a circle as a black scythe light appeared around his body. The light was pitch black but also glittered with white motes of light. The light covered his body like an armor and seemed to form to his body perfectly. Although it looked smooth, terrifying scythe intent gushed out of it. The nearby gravity was utterly unable to approach Akata giving him free range to do whatever he wanted. This was the combination of Clear Passage and Dark Intent Ring.
Boom! Akata held up his scythe which was also covered in the black scythe light in order to block the strike of the Lunar Bear. The Lunar Bear was definitely not prepared for this collision. The jump in defensive prowess Akata just showed was unimaginable. The Lunar Bear was thrown back from the collision and suffered light skin wounds as a result of clashing with Akata’s scythe intent.
Akata himself just stood there dazed at how formidable this scythe intent armor was. Although it was extremely formidable, it also cost a lot of energy to form. This was what Akata found out in this brief exchange.
‘The power of my skills increase exponentially when they are combined but the energy cost is also increased just as much. If it wasn’t for my body being shaped and remolded to perfectly control a scythe I wouldn’t be able to even put out two of these combined moves. Once I break through to the Second Rank I won’t have to worry as much about spending so much energy, but for now I can at most use ten of these combined moves.
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The scythe intent armor Akata had used up energy so long as he had it activated so he immediately cancelled the skill. Luckily, with but a thought, Akata could immediately cast the armor onto himself. This would make critical life and death moments much easier to deal with for him.
Although his thoughts were on his techniques, Akata never forgot about the evolved Lunar Bear. After it had been thrown back it became thoroughly enraged. It raised its head into the air and let out a loud overbearing roar that shook the surrounding foliage. With its open mouth, a blue ball of energy started to form and condense. This energy seemed to control all the gravity in the area and shook the very foundation of the earth.
Akata’s face darkened when he saw this happening. For one, this attack was something that he was not capable of stopping, it was just too terrifying. For two, this was an area of effect attack. The evolved Lunar Bear was looking to attack the whole group at once to get this fight over with. It had truly become angered. Its first target had disappeared somewhere before it had the chance to kill it and its second target had actually wounded it. Thus it wanted to destroy this whole patch of land that these people were in.
With Akata’s speed he was very confident in getting away from the attack area and maybe even bring another person along with him. But he was the leader of the group and had to think of something fast to save the whole group from being eliminated.
Swoosh! The Lunar Bear lowered its head and jumped into the air. The ball of blue light condensed further and then shot out of its mouth in a blindingly fast motion. The speed it was able to unleash wasn’t inferior to the Winged Skyfrog in the slightest! In fact nobody besides Akata could even detect that it had been unleashed just now.
Akata was at a complete loss of what to do right now. His mind went blank but his body started to move on its own accord. He wasn’t retreating… he was advancing! He made a vow that he wouldn’t retreat from another opponent and subconsciously he was sticking to that vow. Akata used all three of his cultivation bases as he nearly instantaneously appeared in the attacking path of the blue ball. The area around the ball was already able to destroy gravity, just imagining what it was capable of once fully unleashed rendered Akata dumbfounded. But he still nonetheless stood there in front of the blue ball as it approached.
As he saw it approach, his mind became clear of all distractions. It felt as if just he and that blue ball of condensed gravity were in the world right now. He could feel its existence and its very being. Everything that made it up was within his mind right now. He could sense its newly formed soul and how it was still strengthening as it flew towards his body.
‘Funny, even these simple energy attacks have souls of their own.’ Akata thought to himself. ‘It’s soul is new and young, it’s even still gaining strength as it is coming towards me. Where is it gaining strength from?’ Akata could feel the soul’s existence becoming stronger with each passing moment. He closed his eyes and it felt as if a whole new world opened up before him. He could feel the world was lively, even within this dead and misted forest. But what he felt wasn’t life, but the souls of every existence near him. He could feel some souls dying out, some being born, some strengthening, some combining, some separating, some transforming… it was a brand new feeling for Akata.
This was a new type of sense like nature sense or divine sense but at the same time wasn’t a type of sense. It was much more than a simple sensing ability. It was more accurate, more in-depth, more lively. It could tell much more than even Akata’s strong nature sense. He felt in tune with this feeling and it felt right to him, as if he had always been able to use this ability. All of a sudden his soul rune started to spin around crazily as if spinning with joy. Each rotation created a type of sonar feeling for Akata. It was as if a wave of soul power swept out with each rotation and each wave would cover the area and bring new information to him in an instant. It brought Akata a new feeling, this soul wave would let Akata know things about the soul that it passed over. He could tell which way the wind was going to blow, which leaf was going to fall off a tree, which egg would hatch out of a bunch… and all of this would be told to him before it even happened!
This wasn’t a simple type of sense it was like a precognition! This was Soul Foresight! Only those who had reached incredible levels in the Outer Element of the Soul could use this ability. It was much better than simple Divine Sense or Nature Sense. It was actually telling the future and it all happened naturally as well. It was a passive ability that made one able to react to something before it even happened. This was soul communication, Akata’s soul was able to communicate with the souls of other things and because of this he was naturally able to tell the future.
There were other types of Foresights as well such as Fire Foresight, Star Foresight, Yang Foresight, etc. All elements had Foresights but they weren’t nearly as formidable as Soul Foresight. The only way for them to contend with this kind of precognition ability was if they completed their set. For example, if Fire Foresight combined with Water, Wind, Metal, and Wood Foresight then it would be even more formidable than Soul Foresight. Also if Yin Foresight combined with Yang Foresight then it would be even more formidable than that.
All the Outer Elements had pairs that could be combined. Yin had Yang, Holy had Demonic, and Soul had Khaos. Souls were found everywhere and therefore was much more formidable than even Yang or Yin Foresight separately. But if it combined with Khaos Foresight, the results would be unimaginable.
Akata calmed his mind and focused on the blue ball heading his way. He could already perfectly tell its path. Even if the Lunar Bear was able to control the trajectory of this ball mid-flight Akata would still be able to know where it would go. With his new Soul Foresight he was able to see into the future a little but the most important part of Foresight wasn’t the precognition, but the passive ability to communicate with the element the Foresight was connected to. And being able to communicate with souls was a really deadly ability.