“So, do you have a strategy against them?” Ondine asked Sumara.

“The Serprads are indeed strong, but you are faster in comparison of speed,” Sumara said. “So, keep attacking them up close while I attack using long range.”

“Can’t you fight close combat as well?”

“Magicians aren’t known to fight close combat, Ondine.”

“I see,” Ondine said, nodding her head at Sumara. “Okay. I’ll go with my close combat fighting style, but make sure not to hit me with your attacks, okay?”

“I will,” Sumara said in consent.

“Right, here I go!” she said and lunged towards them.

“What? Attacking us again?” the right man said incredulously. “Haven’t you learnt about us just from our first clash?”

“Yes and I realised I have speed to my advantage!” Ondine shouted and she vanished.

“What?!” they exclaimed and started looking around.

“Brother, from behind!” the left man shouted and he struck out his sword and caught her sword.

Ondine made a “Che” sound with my mouth. Then she pulled the sword away and spun in mid-air before aiming at the left man with her other sword. Her eyes widened slightly when it was caught by the right man.

“You can’t hit us while we’re on guard,” the right man said with a wicked smile on his face.

“I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you,” Ondine said and smiled at them.

“What?!”

They turned around quickly and saw Water Bullets headed their way. While they were fighting off Ondine, Sumara quickly activated her Magic Force and fired off several Water Bullets at them.

“Damn it!” the right man shouted.

He moved forward and started swinging his sword and destroyed each of the Water Bullet. Once all were destroyed, he swung his sword down and sent an energy slicing wave at Sumara.

“Spirits of the earth, form a barrier and shield me. Earth Guard!”

Instantly, the earth in front of her rose high and over her head. Then the middle extended forward to form a concave shape. The slicing wave of energy smashed into the wall and created the ground to tremble, but it did not penetrate.

“I missed!” the right man shouted in anger.

“Don’t forget me!” Ondine said as she landed in front of him.

She quickly moved forward and started swinging her swords at him in a quick succession. He parried all of her swings with speeds equalling the speed of her swings. Then the left man came charging in and Ondine dodged him easily.

Ondine then aimed her sword at the left man, but he threw his sword and blocked hers. Then he caught his sword handle with his other hand and held against her.

“Brother, go get that magician while I keep this one busy!” he said to the right man.

“Alright!” the right man said and he charged towards Sumara.

“Oh no!” Ondine said in a worried voice and she broke away from her stance.

She made to rush over to Sumara’s defence, but she suddenly found her path blocked by the left man.

“I will not let you get past me!” he said fiercely.

Then he started swinging his sword, but Ondine dodged them easily. The two Serprads were indeed stronger thanks to their heritage and years of battle. Ondine found herself unable to land a powerful blow to end this.

Meanwhile, the right man charged at Sumara with a crazy smile on his face. Seeing him coming, Sumara calmly pointed her staff at him and instantly a wall rose in front of him.

“Wha?!” he said and he attempted to stop, but it was too late and he smashed head first into it.

The strong impact caused the wall to shake slightly and loose rubble fell to the ground. For a moment, he stood there with his head pressed against the wall. Then he stepped back and clutched his head.

“Now that’s using your head,” Sumara said and she smiled slightly as she stayed behind her Wall Guard.

He looked at her as he made a “Grrr” noise with his mouth before saying “Why’d you do that for?! I was only coming to greet you, you know?!”

 “Oh, my mistake,” Sumara said mockingly. “I believed you were after my life just now.”

“No, not really... kidding. I’m going to kill you!”

“Okay. Extend,” Sumara said and part of the wall blocking him suddenly extended towards him.

“Wha?!” he exclaimed and, the next instance, his head got smacked hard by the extended rock.

The impact against his head sent him flying for a few meters. Then he recovered and clutched his face.

“My face!” he said in pain.

“Do you realise now that magicians aren’t just for show,” Sumara said coldly. “Your clan has always been looking down on the Midgrads and their magic capacity.”

“So what?!” he yelled and he glared at her with mad eyes. “I’m mad!”

“I know that,” Sumara said in a bored voice and he yelled, enraged by her comments.

“Fine! Prepare yourself to die, lowly Midgrad!” he screamed and lunged towards her.

Sumara waved her wand and the wall started to extend parts of it at him. With powerful brute force, he started destroying the parts and soon reached the wall. He kicked at it so hard the force smashed the wall into pieces and sent them flying at Sumara.

Sumara did not flinch as the rubble smacked against her Wall Guard. Then he she sent more Water Bullets at him, but he somehow dodged them all and reached her Wall Guard.

“AAARRRGGHH!!” he screamed and he slashed his sword at it, destroying it in one shot.

Sumara moved quickly away as the Wall Guard was utterly destroyed. Smoke rose into the air and their visions were clouded. Sumara continued to move back to keep some distance between herself and her attack.

“Get back here!” he shouted as he appeared out of the smoke.

Seeing her moving away from him, he lunged after her. He may not be fast, but his longer legs more than made it up to give him the speed edge he needed against Sumara. Her small body is slow because of her short legs.

“This time you die!” he shouted when he reached her and swung his sword aiming for her neck.

As the sword swing drew closer and closer to her, Sumara made her decision. She ducked down and her flew above her and flew away to some distance. With her blue hair dancing, she spun around and faced her attacker.

“Spirits of the water, freeze and strike my enemy. Ice Bullets!”

The instant she finished changing, her Magic Force activated and a dozen of ice materialised in front of him. His widened and he quickly backed away and she pointed her staff at him. With the target set, the Ice Bullets were sent flying at him.

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Knowing he could not dodge them, he decided to fight it with brute force like he did with the extending earth wall parts. He started swinging his sword around and destroyed most of them. Unfortunately, three Ice Bullets struck him in the shoulder, arm and leg.

“Argh!” he screamed in pain as he stumbled backwards and blood polling pouring out from the wounds.

“Don’t think you’ve won with something as small as this!” he said as he glared at her fiercely.

“No, it’s far from over,” Sumara said, looking down at him coldly.

She raised her staff and it began to glow as she said “Ice Bullets Barrage!”

More than a dozen suddenly materialised all around her. They hovered with their pointy edges glinting dangerously. He opened his eyes wide in shock at the sheer number of them.

“Wait? What?!” he said, startled to see so many. “You... didn’t chant a magic spell just now?”

“Are you stupid or what?” Sumara said sternly. “It takes time and that’s a waste to continuously use magic spells. So I devised a technique that allows me to use the already activated Magic Force to create an extended version of the same magic spell.”

“And... why are you tell me this?” the man asked, looking confused.

“I thought you should know at least how I was able to do this to kill you,” Sumara said with a small smile.

His eyes suddenly bulged and he screamed in mad rage. Then he rose to his feet with his sword at the ready, glaring at her through blood shot eyes.

“If you think your puny attempts to create multiple magic spells like that give you an advantage, you are sorely mistaken!” he shouted at her. “I am Yakin, a mighty Serprad warrior! You can never defeat me!”

“We shall see,” Sumara said and she pointed her staff at him.

With their target sighed, the numerous Ice Bullets flew at him at high speeds. He roared once more before he started swinging his sword at them. While he destroyed most of them, several pierced through his body.

“This... is... nothing!” he shouted as blood spurted from several of his wounds and the pain caused him to falter. “Now it’s my turn!”

He hesitated for a moment. Then, sensing the right time, he lunged at her once more. Sumara blinked at him as he drew closer with his sword glinting dangerously in the sunlight. Then she smiled as she braced herself for the impact.

“This time it’s over!” Yakin shouted.

“Yes, it is for you!” shouted a voice that was right behind him.

He turned around and his eyes widened in shock. There, flying at him from behind, was Ondine. She held her sword at the ready and then she struck him in the back. He screamed in pain, but he swirled around and brought his sword at her, but it was easily blocked by her other sword.

She flew over him and landed just in front of Sumara as Yakin crashed onto the ground. Ondine stood up and turned slightly to face Sumara.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said as she breathed a little quickly. “That other guy was really a pain I tell you.”

“I can imagine,” Sumara said coolly. “Even so, you had great timing to come at just the right time to help me.”

“Oh please, I finished him off and noticed you needed my help. So I came as quickly as I could!”

“You... defeated my brother?” Yakin said slowly, staring at her in disbelief.

“Well... more like he exploded,” Ondine said with a smile and he made a puzzled face at her. “I hit him with an energy wave so powerful it destroyed him.”

“Then why is it that we did not feel it?” Sumara asked Ondine.

“That’s probably because I accidentally sent him flying for miles before the energy wave exploded,” Ondine said and pointed in the direction with her finger.

Sumara directed her gaze and she saw the large crack in the ground. In the distance, a great cloud rose into the air and settled.

“I’m sorry you did not feel it. My fault for not being as powerful as master,” Ondine said and she stuck her tongue out.

“I see,” Yakin said slowly as he turned around to look towards the spot where his brother was killed. “That indeed is powerful enough to kill him. Ha! He was such a weakling!”

“Why are you being rude about your own brother?” Ondine asked, surprised by his words. “He fought bravely and died like a true warrior!”

“So what?” he said, staring at her as if he did not care for her words. “We don’t care about this nonsense about ‘true’ or ‘pure’. To us, the Serprads, the strong live and the weak perish.”

Ondine looked at him with her mouth hanging open slightly. Sumara, on the other hand, nodded in understanding.

“Whatever, we win!” Ondine said triumphantly.

“No, you haven’t,” he said, surprising them.

“What do you mean? You’re utterly defeated! Course’ if you want to really die that badly, I’ll oblige!” Ondine said menacingly, but he remained unfazed.

“Yes, you defeated me and my brother, but you haven’t defeated that thing!” he said and he nodded his head at the thing behind them.

They blinked at him in surprise and looked around. That was then they suddenly remembered the other thing that was causing so much destruction; the monster also known as the Two-Headed Cerberus. It was rampaging around and firing energy out of its mouth.

It seemed the fight over there was still raging, but it liked like there was no progress. Ondine and Sumara looked at each other and nodded. Sumara used a magic spell, Earth Bind, and locked Yakin’s arms and legs so he cannot escape. Then they headed off in the direction of the monster.

A few meters away, a huge impact could be heard followed by a strong quake that shook the ground beneath them.

“Wow!” Ondine said, surprised by the force of the shaking. “This is intense!”

“It is,” Sumara said in agreement.

Suddenly, something headed their way. They got out of the way just in time and it crashed for a few meters. Ondine and Sumara rushed over to the crash site and were startled to see who it was; Lakshman.

“Master!” Ondine shouted, shocked to see him bruised up pretty bad.

Lakshman was irresponsive as Ondine continued to shake him. Sumara looked at him and there was a distraught slowly spreading over her face. Just then, Felix landed a few meters away. His upper clothes were completely gone with his body revealing strong biceps and scars on his body

“Felix, what happened to master?!” Ondine demanded as she clutched Lakshman in her arms.

Felix looked at her, then at Sumara and back at Ondine. Then he looked at Lakshman with a worried look on his face.