Ondine charged towards the leader of the thieves and pushed him back, much to Lakshman’s surprise.
“Ondine! Ondine!”
He tried calling after her, but it was no use. She had already gone away to battle the leader on her own, leaving the many thieves to attack him, Emilia and Sumara. He scratched his head in annoyance and looked around at the warriors with his Elemental Sight still active.
“What should we do, Lucky?” Emilia asked him curiously while looking around.
He sighed heavily and said, “Like I said earlier, all these people are neutral and on top of that, they’re weak! I don’t even have the will to fight these people anymore…”
“That’s understandable. So, leave it to me,” said Sumara and he looked at her in surprise.
She raised her staff at the chagrining enemies and said, “Water Wall.”
In an instant, magic circles appeared on the ground all around them and water erupted out of it like exploding volcano. The men were startled when they were faced with rising water from the magic circles on the ground.
With a wave of her staff, the wall of water surged forward and slammed into the people. The gang of thieves suddenly found themselves being pushed back by the force of the moving water wall. However, they quickly regained themselves and began applying energy to create a strong energy barrier.
Once the water wall vanished, the thieves together shouted, “Come on! Push forward!”
“Cool your heads off, idiots!” Sumara said in annoyance. She raised her staff above her head and said, “Waterfall.”
In an instant, magic circles appeared over the heads of the thieves and water began pouring down. It splashed against the people and they cried out in surprise from suddenly being rained upon.
“Gah! Why is it suddenly raining?!”
“I don’t think this is called raining! More like downpour!”
“Whatever! What the hell is this?! Where is it coming from?!”
“I don’t know, but the energy barriers aren’t stopping it!”
“Gah! Wet! Completely wet!”
Many slipped and fell on the wet grass while others barely managed to keep their footing while desperately trying to get away from the water. Lakshman and Emilia watched in awe as Sumara’s magic pushed the thieves away from them.
Once the magic circles disappeared, most of the thieves were coughing and stuttering from being rained upon. Their clothes were completely wet and left them feeling rather cold as the wind breezed through the forest.
“Good. That should stop them from attacking us again,” said Sumara in a relieved voice.
“That’s impressive how you effortlessly used such strong magic to push them back,” said Lakshman while sounding impressed.
“Thank you, but this isn’t much. I actually wanted to freeze them up and turn them into frozen statues, but I refrained from doing it because since you forbid Ondine from killing them.”
Lakshman chuckled at hearing her cold words and said, “Well, these people are neutral and I didn’t want to hurt them wilfully because it feels wrong. I mean, they must have a strong motive to want to steal our possessions and I don’t feel the usual killing intent from them. Otherwise, I would’ve outright killed them all due to how weak they were.”
“I see,” said Sumar as she nodded in understanding. Then, she looked confused and asked, “How can you tell they are neutral? I can understand you don’t sense killing intent from them, but how can you so accurately tell they are neutral?”
Lakshman appeared to be surprised by her questions and it made him realise something.
“Ah. Looks like she doesn’t know about Elemental Sight and Elemental Sense. Well, they are mostly Phoenix Clan reserved techniques, so it’s only natural that she doesn’t know about them.”
A small smile appeared on his face and he said, “I can tell because I possess two techniques known as Elemental Sight and Elemental Sense and I use them both regularly. With Elemental Sight, I can tell if someone is enemy, ally or neutral by the colour they are surrounded in and with Elemental Sense, I can detect danger and such things around me as well as detect when someone is lying or fearing from the way they speak.”
Sumara widened her eyes in amazement and said, “Wow…! Those are quite amazing techniques you’ve learnt. Mmm… Now that I think about it, I doubt I’ve read anything about such techniques at the university in Ashtra Kingdom in the Human Continent.”
“No because these techniques are reserved for the Phoenix Clan’s use. However, hardly anyone use them due to how difficult they are to control and the amount of concentration one needs to use it while use other skills at the same time.”
“That makes sense. Those two techniques are highly useful and complicated with the way they are used, from what you explained it to me. So, one would require a strong level of mind and concentration that won’t lose control of those techniques while using other techniques at the same time. I’m very impressed that you’re capable of using other techniques while using them at the same time.”
As she finished saying that, she looked up at him with a highly impressed look on her face. He blinked at her in surprise and her beautiful face with the diamond shaped eyes that seemed to want to suck him in, made him feel really strange. He quickly looked away while scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
“I-It isn’t much. I just trained really hard to get my skills up to this level and allow me to use a wide range of skills together without losing speed and time,” said Lakshman before looking at her quickly to change the topic. “Anyway, I’m quite surprised that you’re using a staff right now. I thought you became quite proficient at using magic without it.”
“Ah. So, you noticed,” said Sumara and she looked down at her staff. “Actually, I am pretty proficient at using magic without my staff now a days, but when I come these kind of places, I find that it’s difficult to use magic efficiently. That’s why, I need the support of my staff to assist me in that regard. However, Emilia told me that you handed the staff I made for you, over to her.”
Lakshman instantly became panicked and said, “No! I didn’t mean to give it away, but… You see… I sort of grew out of it and not wanting to throw it away and seeing that Emilia needed its help, I handed it over to her.”
He realised what he just said and thought, “Ah shoot! What the heck am I saying all of a sudden? I never thought of throwing it away, but I didn’t want to make it sit around like it was a useless item. Damn… Now, my chances of making a good impression of her has failed…! Dammit it all…!”
The thoughts of his mistake has made him feel very sad, but surprisingly, he saw a smile creep onto her face. He actually had no idea that his torment of making the mistake had made itself clear on his facial expression. She had seen how worried he instantly had become and clearly understood why he felt that way.
“So, he became worried and thought I would get upset from him referring my custom made staff for him with the trash. Oh, silly Lucky…”
She inwardly felt happy at the thought and said, “That’s okay. I quite understand that you’ve become really strong since when you were still a kid and had given the staff away to Emilia. I also feel it had reached the right owner with the way she uses it.”
Emilia and Sumara looked at each other and smiled happily, each holding onto their staffs. Lakshman looked at them and blinked in surprise because it was not the reaction he had expected from her. It, once again, made him wonder how to acquire her love without forcing the matter into her hands.
“Ah… I’m a powerful warrior and all, but I suck at being a romantic partner,” he thought unhappily.
While they were doing that, the men had already recovered and looked on with astonished looks on their faces. They were puzzled by the scene taking place before them and looked at each other in confusion.
“We’ve already recovered, but these people are ignoring us…”
“Yeah. That guy and his partner are flirting in full view too…”
“Damn… It’s making me angry just looking at them…”
Then, one of them loudly shouted at them to get their attention.
“Hey, you! Will you stop flirting and focus on us! We’re getting really angry!”
Lakshman, Emilia and Sumara quickly turned and together said, “We’re not flirting!”
He clapped a hand to his forehead and said, “Geez…! These people are a nuisance.” Then, he saw Ondine fighting furiously against their leader on the other side of the clearing and sighed deeply. “Oh well. At least, she seems to be having fun over there by going easy on him.”
“It’s best you people surrender now so that we may not harm you!” Emilia told them in a firm voice as she held her staff at the ready.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Normally, when she is in a comfortable area, she does not need her staff to use magic. However, she was currently using the staff that she had extract out of her Item Box, which she carried within the pockets of her clothes. She had applied magic to her staff and made it become small to easily carry, but now it’s in its full size after activating it.
“Idiots! That’s our message to you!” the men shouted together.
They all raised their weapons into the air and quickly gathered Weapons Force into them. Then, as they swung their weapons down, a powerful slicing wave of energy got released and it travelled towards where Lakshman, Emilia and Sumara stood.
“Dear me...” Lakshman began and he raised his hand at the waves, but Emilia reacted faster than him.
She pointed her staff at the energy waves and said, “Enforce.”
In an instant, a barrier formed around where she, Sumara and Lakshman stood to protect them. It acted as a shield and defend them against the slicing waves of energy. Once they were gone, the men appeared to be stunned that their strong energy attackers barely touched them.
Lakshman, who held his hand out, turned to look at her in surprise before dropping his hand to his side.
“I was going to use Maga Distrab to disperse all of their attacks, but oh well,” he said and he smiled at his wife.
Just then, Emilia flicked her staff to activate another magic spell while keeping the barrier around them to act as their shield.
“Stone Barrage,” she said in a calm voice.
In an instant, multiple magic circles appeared all around them and stones flew out of them. They soared towards the thieves at high speed and smashed into them. The men became shocked by the barrage of stones that flew at high speed and did their best to defend themselves with either their weapons or by using the person in front of them as their shield.
Watching them getting hit like that, Lakshman muttered, “Damn… Emilia is always so soft, so I forgot how dangerous she becomes when she is angered.”
Sumara looked at the thieves desperately defending themselves by using each other as shield and said, “It is sad how these humans, who escaped from the Human Continent to come live here peacefully, have become nothing, but thieves.”
“Yes, but I’m more curious to know the reason behind their motive for them to appear neutral with my Elemental Sight,” he said through narrowed eyes with a serious expression on his face.
“D-Dammit!” shouted one of them and he charged towards Lakshman at high speed.
“Ah!” Emilia said in surprise.
She quickly realised that her defensive barrier does not stop enemies from attacking them directly.
Quickly acting, she turned to her husband and called out to him, “Lucky! Be careful!”
Lakshman, who had turned to speak with Sumara, turned and saw the man charging towards him. At the same time, the men quickly charged after him as quickly as they could by powering up once the magic circles disappeared once they were used.
“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!” the man screamed as he lunged forward and attempted cut Lakshman down.
Lakshman slightly turned and saw that the man swinging his energy infused sword was aiming towards Sumara. He instantly reacted and pushing Sumara out of harm’s way first before he stepping back and easily evaded the strike before glaring fiercely at the man. These people were neutral to him, but the fact that the man attempted to attack Sumara, who was a Destiny Queen and the person whom he loves deeply, angered Lakshman greatly.
Lakshman instantly stepped forward and brought his left fist forward and smacked it hard into the man’s face. He followed it through with his right fist and he landed a powerful uppercut to the man’s jaw. The force of the impact caused the main to sail into the ait for a moment before Lakshman grabbed his leg with his right hand. Gripping it firmly, he swung it around and shouted at the girls at the same time.
“Duck!”
They were surprised by his movement and instead of waiting, Lakshman used his left hand to push them down. With them ducked down he swung the man by his feet around and smashed him into the other thieves. One by one, the thieves were whacked by the swinging body of one of their comrades before being knocked to the ground.
After swinging around completely, Lakshman released the man’s leg and he sailed away to smash into several thieves. The thieves were astonished by his feet of using one of their own men to hit them without causing too much damage. However, this proved to anger them and they rose to their feet, roared angrily like wild animals and charged at him once more.
Finally losing his patience, Lakshman clapped his hands together and firmly said, “Gravity Down!”
In an instant, multiple magic circles appeared on the ground that the thieves ran on and instantly began pulling them down. One by one, the thieves found themselves pulled towards the ground and fell to their knees before falling flat on the ground. They struggled to move, but their bodies would not move and appeared as if they were glued to the ground by the magic circles.
“You people might be neutral and all, but you’re pushing my limits if you dare to touch my women!” Lakshman shouted at them angrily and glared down at them fiercely as he relaxed his arms.
“Eh?” Sumara said in a surprised voice in response to his shout.
“Mmm…” Emilia said quietly and switched her glances between him and Sumara curiously.
At that moment, there was a sound of an explosion originating from somewhere nearby. The ground shook violently and surprised everyone, causing Emilia and Sumara to stumble, but they were quickly grabbed by Lakshman.
“T-Thanks, Lucky,” Emilia and Sumara said at the same time.
“Don’t mention it,” he said to them with a smile on his face. Then, one they straightened up, he asked, “What was that just now?”
As he looked up, he was surprised to see a large smoke rising into the air somewhere nearby. It was also at that moment that he sensed a powerful dangerous presence nearby as well. The senses told him that it was pure evil and whatever it was, the damage it was doing nearby was extensive.
The men, who had been released by the magic being disturbed by Lakshman being distracted, slowly got to their feet and looked into the forest from where the explosion originated from.
“Oh no…!”
“The village…!”
“Our people are in trouble!”
Just then, Lakshman noticed Ondine rush over to them as the leader guy sprinted into the forest while bleeding from the multiple wounds on his body. Following his head, the thieves also rushed into the forest and headed over to the location of their village as quickly as they could.
“Are you okay, Ondine?” Sumara asked her curiously.
“I’m fine, but what the heck was that?” Ondine asked with a confused expression on her face. “That thieving thug said something about the village in trouble and then said someone’s name. I think it’s someone related to him or something.”
Lakshman nodded in understanding and said, “Most likely, it is. I’m sensing a terrible power coming from that direction.” He turned to the girls and asked, “Should we head over there and see what’s going on?”
“Why should we? They attacked us and invoked our anger! Let’s just leave them and go on our way!” Ondine said angrily with her arms folded.
“Ondine… I know you’re angry at them and I’m angry as well, but they are clearly neutral. It looks like they will need my help and I cannot let my emotions dictate my judgement,” he said and Emilia nodded in agreement to him.
“Yes. I Feel we should go see what’s happening over there instead of being cold hearted about it,” said Sumara in agreement to his words.
Ondine remained standing there with a frown deepening on her beautiful face. Then, she sighed heavily and looked at him with an expression of resignation.
“Fine. At least, I can vent my anger out on whatever it is that’s attacking them,” she said and the others chuckled.
“Alright. Let’s go!” Lakshman said and the girls nodded before they headed through the forest in the direction the smoke was rising from.
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Author's Note
I'm sorry that I posted the chapter a little later than usual, but I didn't have any sleep last night due to me having to do some late night work. Anyway, here's the chapter with Lakshman's side of the battle and hope you liked it.
Now, onto a different topic, my 300th chapter for Phoenix Rising is fast approaching. So, I'm now asking my awesome readers what they want me to do on the day I release the 300th chapter. Maybe a special or something? Or something else? I don't know, but that's why, I'm giving that option to my wonderful readers. I look forward to the interesting stuff people will reply with.