"How dare you disturb this King's practice? I will definitely devour you but not before playing with you."

The Flame Lion growled in Itachi's direction. And although the Lion was speaking in an arrogant tone, it had not moved but had become cautious and putting its guard up because it could sense a sense of danger from the human with strange eyes in front of it.

Hearing this lion speak didn't make Itachi surprised since in the shinobi world it was common for beasts to speak, especially summons. But what did make him a little surprised was that in his predecessor's memories there were no beasts that could speak, at least his predecessor never encountered any.

But from the memories he absorbed from the first soul, Itachi knew that in the Realm of the Gods it was common for profound beasts to be able to communicate and some even transform into human form.

Furthermore, he also realized that the profound beast in front of him had a profound core proving that this beast was an adult and with the knowledge of his predecessor, he found that if he sold the profound core of this beast he would make a lot of money, this was because the beast in front of him was an earth realm profound beast.

Even though his cultivation had decreased Itachi was still confident that he could handle this profound beast, especially when he saw that its speed was not very high.

"Unfortunately you have crossed my path and will be used for me to test my current level..." Itachi muttered inexpressibly to the Lion in front of him.

When he said those words he intended to provoke the Lion into making some mistakes or even advancing towards him without caring about the defense.

After hearing Itachi's provocative words, the Flame Lion had a murderous expression while growling at him.

*Squeal*

"Wretched human, unexpectedly you dare to insult this King. You really are courting death."

The Flame Lion could no longer bear the gaze of Itachi who wanted to use him to test his current level, so without much thought he made his move violently. Unable to cope with the sense of danger in his head, he launched a powerful magic attack towards Itachi.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" Seeing the magic attack coming towards him, Itachi quickly formed the seals of his hand and launched his jutsu. His hand seal formation speed was simply the best in the shinobi world, going so far as to look like he wasn't even making hand seals.

As hand seal formation was complete Itachi's chakra was converted into earth inside his body and then expelled to form a three meter high wall of earth. Furthermore the wall that was erected was embedded with chakra, making its strength incomparable to that of an ordinary earth wall. Moreover, due to its special characteristics, the wall is highly resistant against fire which is the main attribute of the Flame Lion.

This was one of the jutsus he obtained when he absorbed Madara's soul, and he had to say it was enjoyable to use this jutsu, its only weakness being the amount of chakra used to make the wall more resistant.

"So you can control the earth element? No wonder you want to take me on. Although, I must say that I can easily overwhelm you and your earth with my powers."

The Flame Lion thought that Itachi was someone with the Earth attribute, and for that reason he decided to use a different magic attack than the one he used earlier.

Suddenly, Itachi saw the surroundings of the place where he was fighting the Lion start to catch fire turning the place into a region of flames. Magma that appeared only in volcanoes began to rise from the earth, proving that this was an extremely powerful ability of the Flame Lion.

"Really a powerful skill... And seeing how much you like fire, I should perhaps respond accordingly..." With those words. His Sharingan glowed with cold light, then began to rotate, his hands also moved at a speed unnoticeable by the Lion. And in just a second he completed the necessary fence.

"Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku!" Itachi crumpled the chakra inside his body and soon that crumpled chakra was converted into fire, and soon after he began to expel from his mouth a huge massive wall of intense flames.

These flames were enough to cover the entire domain of the Flame Lion, moreover his flames seemed to swallow those made by the Lion earlier.

Suddenly, the entire valley turned into a valley of flames, much worse than when the Flame Lion had used his ability, moreover the Lion's flame disappeared and the lion itself was engulfed by its flames.

Itachi stood firmly on the surface of the fire and cautiously watched with his Sharingan so that he could react at any moment in case of a surprise attack from the Flame Lion. And as he was careful, he sensed that there was something behind him, and without wasting any time, he moved immediately.

After leaving that place, he heard a loud sound and a huge pillar of flames rose from where he was previously, and gradually that pillar of flames expanded. From inside that pillar, a huge figure came out, advancing towards him at high speed.

Itachi was in the process of avoiding the attack, and seeing the unexpected flame shadow, his eyes shone with a cold glow, and soon he twisted his torso to deftly dodge this attack.

But the flame shadow seemed to have predicted that Itachi would dodge so it soon launched another attack not allowing Itachi to touch the ground.

With cold eyes, Itachi took out a sword that was stored in his cube and quickly pulled it close to him to defend himself.

*Bang*

He and the burning figure collided heavily with each other and both were thrown backwards.

His sword made a noise as if it was breaking in half, and soon after he was hit causing him to fly into the sky and fall a few feet away from the burning figure. After that, he stood firm again, and his pair of red eyes looked at that Flame Lion in a calm manner.

"That Earth Realm Profound Beast is really hard to deal with. However, I think this is more interesting since I'll be able to test my limits." Itachi thought.

"So, what did you think human? Now you must have realized the difference between this King and a garbage human, and even though your flames may have been stronger than mine, I am still a profound beast of the Earth Realm." The Flame Lion commented arrogantly.

He had been a little scared when his flames were engulfed by Itachi's attack. But after he suffered that attack, the Flame Lion decided to activate his lineage skill and luckily managed to escape unharmed while having his strength increased by a small margin.

But even though he had improved his strength slightly, he wanted the human in front of him to retreat. From the confrontation of a moment ago, he had already realized that this human's strength was most likely on par with his, and even if it was slightly inferior a long term battle would not be beneficial to this King, as many enemies could attack when he was recovering. Of course as a proud profound beast he would never say that to the human and would keep fighting until the end.

Itachi didn't know about the Lion's thoughts but he didn't seem to mind either, in fact he was a bit excited to keep fighting the Lion, this was because he noticed that he was improving the way in which he circulates the profound energy in his body as he battled.

"It seems that this is indeed a barbarian world..." Itachi muttered to himself.

Without further thought, he looked at the Lion indifferently as he began to form seals in his hand.