As the brilliant glow of light slowly dimmed, the view of the two warriors fighting fiercely came into focus as their battle heated up greatly. Both Lakshman and Lagron were throwing every bit of power they got into each fist and kick they delivered at each other while moving so fast that it made their limbs appear like flashes.

Even the ground shook violently in terror and began to cave in deeper while expanding its diameter as they delivered vicious blows at each other. Meanwhile, the wind blowed wildly and sent rocks, pebbles and dust swarming everywhere as each blow delivered released a shock wave that shook the ground forcefully.

After several punches and kicks, Lagron yelled as he moved forward to grab both of Lakshman’s arms before swinging his head down, as hard as he could, down onto Lakshman’s head. The collision of heads caused Lakshman to cry out in pain as the force of the blow propelled him to slowly fall towards the ground.

Lakshman quickly recovered from the blow to place his hand on the ground and swing his entire body in a 360-degree angle to smash his legs against Lagron’s head. This attempted attack failed as Lagron crossed his arms above his head and blocked the legs before they made contact with his head.

As he grinned broadly in triumph, Lakshman gritted his teeth and moved his body forward to place both of his hands on the ground. The next movement, he pushed himself to do a reverse 360-degree swing, which brought his hands up to aim directly at Lagron’s face.

“AAAAHHH!!!”

The Phoenix Titan instantly gathered a large amount of energy into the open palms of his hands before unleashing it as a large wave of destruction while yelling. It soared straight at his rival and was just about to slam directly into him when the Dragon Titan brought his palms forward and seemed to stop the attack’s movement with his bare hands.

“GGGRRRR!!!”

Lagron fought against the wave with his bare hands as Lakshman moved his body quickly to swung around and land on his feet without losing grip on the energy wave. As he straightened up, he poured more energy into the attack and the wave began to push Lagron away while making his feet got dragged on the ground.

“RRRAAAAA!!!”

The Dragon Titan got pushed back for several meters before Lagron roared like a dragon before splitting up the energy path in half, causing the two split waves to travel away from him. At the same instance, Lagron brought his hands forward and instantly gathered energy into the open palms of his hands before rapidly firing large energy blasts at his target.

Lakshman gritted his teeth and stood his ground before waving his arms around to deflect the blasts away. They soared away from him and travelled some distance before smashing against the ground and creating a large explosion that caused the ground to shake violently. Each explosion caused the ground to quake violently as smoke soon clouded the battlefield

Lagron continued to fire rapid energy blasts at him, but Lakshman was having difficulty seeing and did not wish to use Elemental Sight wastefully just to avoid simple energy blasts. So, he surged with power and kicked off the ground at high speed before soaring high into the ground. Despite this, Lagron continued to fire wherever his rival was at through his red glowing vertical Dragon Eyes.

Lakshman, noticing that the energy blasts were missing him by quite a bit, looked down towards where the energy blasts were originating from with a serious expression on his face.

“He’s locked onto me through his Dragon Eyes!” Lakshman thought seriously as he began to wonder about what to do to win that battle. “I suppose I can’t get away from him now that he’s locked onto me, so I’ll just send his own blasts right back at him!”

With a determined look on his face, Lakshman stopped flying and came to float in mid-air as he pulled his fist back while gathering energy into his arm. A moment later, he thrust his fist at the incoming waves of energy blasts while shouting the techniques name out loud.

“Sosakave!”

In an instant, a powerful sonic boom was released and it immediately began to sweep forward on all sides. The racing energy blasts suddenly found themselves facing a powerful force before getting deflected towards the ground as their aim changed to their caster, Lagron.

“What?!” Lagron exclaimed as he was surprised to see his attacks suddenly charging towards him.

Realising his rival must have deflected them at him, the Dragon Titan began to flip his body backwards to land on his hands before pushing them up once more to land on his feet again. He continued to do this over and over as fast as he could to get away from the rain of energy blasts that exploding upon smashing onto the ground.

It took him several seconds to get away from the falling energy blasts before landing on his feet finally and straightening up to glare angrily at his rival. Not pausing for a moment, he raised both of his hands into the air and aimed them in the direction his rival was floating at before gathering energy and activating it by saying the technique name in his mind.

“Dragon Lightning Strike!”

In an instant, several magic circles suddenly materialised all around Lakshman much to his surprise and before he could do anything, lightning began to strike his body from everywhere.

“AAAAAAHHHH!!!!”

Lakshman closed his eyes and screamed as hard as he could from the pain he felt because of the lightning he was suddenly hit with. This torturous attack momentarily reminded him of a time he was once treated like an experimental object by the fiendish Demon Dragon King in order to control the Demon Slayer. At that time, he barely survived it and the after effects if it were not for the sacrifice of his guardian, the Decisive Player.

As the pain intensified by the appearance of more magic circles around him, Lakshman thought firmly, “I’m not a foolish young child that I used to be so long ago! I’ll prove that the Decisive Player’s sacrifice is being put to good use!”

Through the pain he felt, Lakshman brought his hands together in front of him and managed to grab each hand firmly. Then, he lifted his head to glare fiercely at the lightning striking him and the magic circles responsible for all this through gritted teeth before he shouted a techniques out loud.

“Maga Distrab: Chain Field!”

In an instant, there was a powerful whoosh of wind as the force of the attack rushed away on all sides before smashing into the magic circles. For a moment, nothing happened, but something happened eventually as the magic circles cracked and exploded into pieces while making sounds like breaking glass.

Lagron saw his magic circles destroyed and he gritted his teeth with seething rage before making his move to fire another technique in the same similar fashion. He lowered his arm and extended his one arm upward at Lakshman before gathering energy into it. As the required energy was gathered, he activated it by thinking the technique name in his mind.

“Multi Cast: Dragon Discharge Balls!”

The moment he finishing thinking the technique name, a large magic circle formed in front of him while hovering off the ground and aiming towards his intended target. From out of his hand came a single electric ball that soared up and went straight into the magic circle. The next moment, a large group of electric balls were unleashed and they soared away towards Lakshman at high speed.

With the lightning strike stopped, Lakshman breathed deeply while looking towards where his rival stood and was shocked to see a large number of electric balls soaring towards him at high speed.

“Oh man!” he exclaimed sharply because he was taken aback at suddenly seeing the attack.

Despite his initial surprise, he quickly recovered and pulled his fist back while gathering energy into it. A few moments later, he unleashed it forward while shouting the technique, behind it, out loud.

“Agrakili!”

In an instant, a powerful shock wave was released and it soared towards the incoming wave of electric balls before smashing hard into them. For an instance, Lakshman smiled triumphantly as he believed his powerful techniques would destroy the electric balls, so he was shocked to discover that only the trajectory of the electric balls changed by his techniques.

“What?!” he exclaimed sharply in disbelief as the electric balls soared away from him and expanded into large lightning balls. “They got deflected?!”

Meanwhile, his attack did not stop at changing their trajectory as it continued to soar straight towards their caster. Lagron, seeing the techniques, immediately took action by activating a spell by thinking of its name in his mind.

“Dragon Armour Energize!”

A large red armour of dragon scales appeared hovering several meters above his head to defend him against Lakshman’s attack. There was a split second pause before Agrakili smashed forcefully against the top of the floating dragon armour, which fought back to defend its master. In the process of their clashing forces, the ground beneath Lagron sank a little before an explosion resulted above his head.

The view got covered by a lot of smoke which took a few seconds to clear and it revealed Lagron standing firmly on his feet with a broad smile on his face to show his confidence. This angered very much because he, first, could not believe his powerful technique only managed to deflect those attacks and second, it only destroyed the armour without dealing any physical damage to his opponent.

“Dammit!” he thought furiously. “I thought it might not hurt him that much, but I was hoping it’d destroy those annoying balls! This is going to be tough…! Far tougher than I expected it’d be…!”

As he was deep in thought, Lagron’s grin broadened as he thought his rival was having second thoughts about challenging him, which made him feel more confident than ever before. Feeling very arrogant about it, he amplified his voice and spoke very loftily to his rival.

“What’s the matter? You ain’t retaliating!” he said in a loud clear voice that could be heard by all who were present and this included Lakshman’s companions, who were far away from the battle. “You said times have changed, but does that mean… you’re weaker than me…?”

He asked it as a question with a slight hesitation to make it sound like he was mocking his rival. Lakshman realised this and it made him feel very angry, but he took a deep breath to calm himself. He knew better than to let his anger lose as it would only make it seem that his rival was winning.

So, Lakshman amplified his voice and replied firmly, “The fight’s just started, so stop assuming things already knucklehead! There’s much more for me to do than what you’ve seen so far!”

Lagron smiled arrogantly as he said, “Clearly, but from the way you’re hesitating, one would think you’re… you know… fearing the thought of defeat…!”

Lakshman’s eyebrows shot up for a moment before falling down to knit them together to form narrowed eyebrows.

“What’s wrong idiot? What happened to all your bravado you had earlier?” Lagron asked loudly with an arrogant smile on his face.

Lakshman vecame very serious and he instantly deactivated his amplification spell before clapping his hands together as he shouted, “Thousand Army!”

There was a sudden flash of light before the light dimmed to reveal a thousand copies of Lakshman hovering in mid-air. The smile on Lagron’s face remained fixed, but his eyes narrowed somewhat to give him a very devilish expression on his face. The Dragon Titan was feeling the pain of being followed by that technique before, she he planned to seriously take revenge for it.

“ATTACK!!!”

With one of the thousand copies shouting, the rest began to soar towards Lagron at high speed while roaring loudly. They soared through the air at high speed and headed straight towards the Dragon Titan, who deactivated his own amplification spell while continuing to smile in return.

“You think you can avoid my Dragon Eyes despite making so many copies of yourself?” Lagron thought as the large crowd of Lakshman copies flew down at him. “I marked you as my target and my Dragon Eyes cannot be fooled by such a flimsy technique!”

His eyes were still following the real Lakshman, whose body was surrounded by a red light like a barrier. With a smile on his face, Lagron began to surge with power before kicking off the ground with great intensity and flew towards Lakshman at an incredible speed that surprised the numerous copies of him at the front.

“Out of my way!” Lagron shouted as he raced towards them.

He began punching every copy of Lakshman that got in his way and sent them flying away to disappear in a puff of smoke. As he punched more and more Lakshman copies, the smile on his face slowly widened as he appeared to enjoy beating up the copies very much.

“On second thought, beating up his copies feels very good,” thought Lagron in a cheery mood.

He beat up several more copies of Lakshman before reaching the real one surrounded by the red light. As he reached him and attempted to punch him in the face, Lakshman grabbed the punch and held it firmly in place. Flowing with the same movement, Lagron attempted to strike him with his other arm, but it too got stopped by Lakshman as he grabbed it.

“Think you can disguise yourself amongst your other copies?” Lagron asked him with a gleeful smile on his face. “Did you perhaps forget about my Dragon Eyes?”

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

To his surprise, Lakshman smiled as he replied, “Yeah, but I’m actually not the real me.”

Lagron’s eyes momentarily flashed in surprise as he asked, “What?!”

Without pausing to say anything, Lakshman threw Lagron’s arms aside and moved forward before hugging him tightly. Then, with a wide smile on his face, Lakshman began to glow brightly as he stared into Lagron’s stunned eyes.

“Self-destruct!” he said and in the next moment, he exploded in a flash of light.

The blast was so strong that it wounded Lagron quite a bit and pushed him backwards as smoke slowly spread everywhere. He opened his eyes and stared at the place the copy of Lakshman exploded while gritting his teeth angrily. The next moment, he was riddled with punches from all sides as the numerous copies of Lakshman rushed forward to punch him as fast as possible.

After receiving several beating, Lagron began surging with power and he swung around to punch all the Lakshman copies on the sides of their faces. The blow he delivered was so strong that they instantly disappeared in a puff of smoke as Lagron moved to grab the legs of another copy before swinging him around and around to throw him at several of his comrade copies.

“How?! How the hell did you deceive my eyes!” he shouted loudly with an angry expression on his face.

The many Lakshman copies looked at one another for a moment with questioning looks on their faces. A moment later, they turned back to face their foe and this time, each and every one of them was smiling, which angered Lagron very much.

“Simple; it’s cause’ I’m awesome,” replied all copies of Lakshman at the exact same time.

Time seemed to stop for Lagron as he could not believe what his ears just heard from his surroundings. In an instant, he flew into a fit of rage and began to surge with wild power while screaming in madness.

“How dare you mock me?!” he exclaimed in a fierce roaring voice.

The next moment, he crossed his arms in front of him and quickly gathered a lot of energy that formed into the shape of a sphere all around him. It glowed brightly for several seconds as he gathered energy before he unleashed it by spreading his arms out sharply to either side while screaming in rage.

In an instant, the energy wave expanded at break neck speed and totally engulfed all the copies of Lakshman within the expanding diameter of the energy sphere before they vanished in a puff of smoke. Those, that the energy sphere had not yet decimated, attempted to flee from the scene, but got caught up as the energy sphere began sucking them forcefully into it for decimation.

The energy sphere lasted for several seconds and as it slowly died vanished, only a few copies of Lakshman were left hovering in the air. They were looked shocked at how powerful the energy sphere was and at how forcefully it managed to destroy much of their comrade copies.

As the smoke from the exploding copies cleared, Lagron soared towards the remaining Lakshman copies with the real one still mixed with them. Not holding back one bit, Lagron began delivering one-hit-kill blows that caused the copy warrior to groan in pain before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

He was momentarily stopped, however, when a copy Lakshman managed to deliver a powerful punch straight to the side of Lagron’s face. It stunned the Dragon Titan for a moment, but he behaved as if the fist embedded into the side of his face did not exist as he placed his hand on the Lakshman copy’s chest.

“Ru-shan-kara!” the Dragon Titan screamed before firing a large red energy wave of destruction.

The wave destruction completely enveloped the Lakshman copy and decimated him as it continued to soar away to hit a few more that were hovering behind him. The Lakshman copies attempted to get away, but Lagron did not give them the chance as he began to scream while swinging his body around to send the wave in their direction.

The real Lakshman realised that hiding was no longer an option, decided to gather his own energy for preparation for his own attack. As his copies completely got decimated by the energy wave and it soared straight towards him, Lakshman brought his arms forward to unleash his energy cannon while quickly shouting the technique out loud.

“Pho-nik-ala-chala-ra!”

A brilliant blue wave of destruction got released and it soared straight towards the incoming red energy wave of destruction before colliding almost half-way away. A powerful shock wave was unleashed as the pressure in the air became intense and the ground shook violently as the clashing forces between the two sides fought fiercely.

Lakshman got pushed back a few meters from the initial clash of forces before he managed to regain his control over his wave to push forward. Unfortunately, it was being held in place by Lagron’s energy wave as the Dragon Titan gritted his teeth and tried very hard to push his wave forward. Like this, several seconds went by as the two warriors showed no weakness to allow the other to triumph.

“I… will… win…!” Lagron roared and he applied even more power than before into his wave.

As he felt his energy wave being pushed back somewhat, Lakshman gritted his teeth and stared firmly in the direction his rival was at, desperately trying to win the contest of their beam battle.

“Oh yeah…? I don’t plan on losing to you either! AAAAHHH!!!”

With a roar, he applied even more power behind his wave and pushed forward to return the balance, but that balance did not last long. Only a few seconds went by between the two clashing forces before a powerful flash of light occurred before an enormous explosion resulted, sending shock waves everywhere and hurling the two warriors into the wild blowing wind as the ground shook and exploded everywhere.

***

Far away from the battle field where the Phoenix Titan and the Dragon Titan were fighting, Lakshman’s companions stood around while feeling the intensity of their battle. It was easy because the ground quaked as if the planet was going through an intense pain and the pressure in the air was intense due to the amount of power the two warriors were unleashing at each other.

“This is intense!” Atem said sharply with an unbelievable expression on his face. “Both of them are so strong and exhibiting such intense power! Man…! I’m glad I’m not their enemy!”

“Yes indeed,” agreed Sonia with a small smile on her face. “I doubt any stubborn man would want to engage either of them in battle.”

“That’s cause’ they are part of the Nine Pillars of Power,” said Tetra with a confident smile on her face. “Only can they fight each other to test their strength and achieve true victory.”

“That may be, but I still wish we’re fighting alongside him!” Silvera complained with a sad look on her face.

“Calm down. I’m sure they’ll summon us eventually if they think their current power isn’t sufficient to take the other down,” replied Tetra soothingly with a reassuring smile on her face.

“Mmm… Okay…” said Silvera with a disgruntled look on her face.

While they were talking to one another, Sumara remained outside the conversation as she looked in the direction the battle was taking place. She had a hand placed on her chest and she was clenching it tightly due to the nervousness she was going through.

“I still feel something’s going to happen to Lucky…” she thought in a worried voice while looking anxiously in her husband’s direction. “Please be careful… Return to me safely…”

***

As the flash of light dimmed and disappeared, a deep cave in on the ground was visible for everyone to see. This was caused by the clashing forces from the released energies of both warriors going out of control and exploding. The wind also died down as the smoke drifted away and slowly disappeared to reveal where the two warriors had landed.

Lakshman and Lagron had landed several kilometres away from each other and they slowly got up while breathing a little unevenly. This was due to both of them getting winded by the shock wave that slammed into them and sent them hurling through the wild blowing wind.

Lakshman picked himself up and kneeled as he thought, “Damn… I put a lot of power behind my attack, but we still ended up being evenly matched. Why…?” He remained silent for a moment before he thought unhappily, “I-is it possible for me to be… w-weaker than… him…? No! I don’t believe it, but… I’m having to put a lot more effort than I used to while fighting him, so… it’s only understandable to think that I’m… that he’s… stronger.”

He mused over his thoughts for a moment before climbing to his feet before he muttered while staring into the distance.

“Oh well. I doubt thinking about it now will help me in any way because having so much power doesn’t guarantee victory; having skills and training extensively with the use of strategy does,” he said from the bottom of his heart because that was how he felt about achieving victory.

It was a lesson he learnt when he got captured by the Demon Dragon King so long ago when he had a substantial amount of power, but lacked skills to back them up. Due to that, he was forced to undergo torturous experiments at the hands of that fiend and eventually came to say goodbye to his guardian, the Decisive Player. Since then, he had become determined to apply the knowledge and wisdom to carry out the order of freedom and justice as the Phoenix Titan.

“Now, the time has come for me to, once again, push myself to attain victory,” he said with a half-smile on his face. “After all, if I can’t defeat him now, I don’t stand a chance against the Calamity Titan two years from now.”

As he became determined to achieve victory by pushing himself forward, Lagron was stood up straight and looked towards where Lakshman stood. Naturally, even with the power of the Dragon Eyes, he could not locate Lakshman’s exact location, but he determined to not be fooled again like he was previously.

“I’m amazed I’m not having that much difficulty in fighting against him,” he thought with a slightly puzzled look on his face. “He used powerful techniques on me, but they didn’t do the kind of damage I usually expected coming from him. Mmm… Is it possible that he’s… weaker than me…?”

The question in his mind seemed to puzzle him for a moment before a light ignited in his mind and he smiled confidentially as he thought, “Of course! That has to be it, otherwise, why does it feel like he’s struggling to keep up with my power? Sure, it’s hard to determine whether he’s actually weaker or not because he isn’t showing any signs of weakness, but it’s the only explanation that makes sense!”

Brimming with confidence, he smiled in the direction of his rival as he said, “Asura… You’re right that times have changed and this time, I can feel… that I’ll finally win!”

He grinned broadly in great happiness and from feeling the thrill, he began to surge with incredible power as he thought, “Dragon Force!”

The ground quaked under his feet and the wind blew rapidly all around him as shock waves were unleashed. It took him several seconds to power up using his special techniques before stopping to radiate in pure red aura that surrounded him.

“Here I come!” he shouted and he kicked off the ground to rocket towards Lakshman at super speed.

Lakshman, sensing that his rival was on the move again and was headed towards him, he began to surge with power and kicked off the ground to soar towards him. He was determined to make sure that he does not fall behind his rival no matter what because that would be dangerous.

As he soared towards the Dragon Titan, the Phoenix Titan pulled his fist back, gathered energy into it and unleashed it forward while shouting, “Phoenix Fist!”

A powerful energy wave was unleashed and it quickly transformed into a large phoenix bird that flew rapidly towards the Dragon Titan. Lagron sensed that his rival had unleashed a techniques and as he drew nearer, he saw that it was the Phoenix Fist that was a common use for all members of the Phoenix Clan.

Lagron grinned broadly and he pulled back his fist before charging his fist with lightning magic. A moment later, he hurled his fist forward and released a large lightning shaped dragon in the form of an energy wave while saying the technique name in his mind.

“Dragon Thunder Force!”

The two techniques raced towards each other and collided in the centre where a strong flash of light occurred. It lasted for only a second before the lightning attack burst through the phoenix attack before soaring quickly towards the Phoenix Titan. Lakshman, surprised to see his technique thwarted so easily, attempted to get away when the lightning attack suddenly increased speed and smashed into him.

“Gah!” Lakshman groaned painfully as the force smashed him full in the chest and delivered a powerful shock wave that left his body feeling a little sluggish. Slow to recover, Lakshman became frustrated as he thought, “Dragon lightning, but it feels different and it increased speed! That’s unbelievable!”

He continued to struggle to try and move his body as it slowly recovered, but could not do anything as Lagron reached him several seconds later. The Dragon Titan saw the state that his rival was in and he grinned broadly before hurling both of his fists out to smash them into Lakshman’s chest.

As the blows left a painful wound in his chest, Lakshman became very angry at his body’s slow recover from the earlier attack as he thought, “Dammit! I need to retaliate now!”

He flew through the air and his body smacked the ground several times to make him flip over a few more times before he came to a crashing stop. He was a little rattled and wounded, but that did not stop him from quickly getting to his feet and retaliating against his rival that chased after him.

Catching Lagron by surprise, Lakshman managed to successfully deliver ten consecutive blows to the Dragon Titan’s face before kicking him away. Lagron’s feet got dragged on the ground as he was pushed away with great force, but he managed to remain on his feet before glaring fiercely at his rival. The next moment, he kicked off the ground and flew so fast that it appeared to be a blur before he reached Lakshman and slammed the surprised Phoenix Titan in the gut.

“Argh!” Lakshman yelled in shock as he felt intense pain in his gut.

He could not believe what just happened because everything seemed to have happened in an instant. Even before he could retaliate, Lagron moved forward and delivered a powerful uppercut straight at Lakshman’s jaw, causing him more pain and blood to erupt out of his mouth. As his body seemed to sail slowly into the air, Lagron suddenly grabbed his feet and slammed him hard onto the ground.

As he lay there feeling surprised and dazed, Lakshman’s mind recovered quickly as he thought, “W-What’s going on here?! He’s suddenly faster and far stronger than he was before! What the hell?!”

He only had time to think because, the next moment, he felt himself being lifted into the air and slammed onto the ground elsewhere. Like this in a repeated pattern, Lagron continued to lift Lakshman by his feet and slam him down on the ground whenever he pleased. Several seconds passed by the blood was slowly covering Lakshman’s exposed body area from the wounds he was being dealt with.

After slamming him several times down and getting tired of it, Lagron began swinging Lakshman by his feet round and round at an incredible speed that could make any normal person violently sick. Very soon, Lagron was spinning at great speed that looked like a blur before stopping and hurling Lakshman high into the air without care.

“Aaaarrrrggggghhhh…” groaned Lakshman slowly in a daze as his body flew high into the air at great speed.

Once he sent his rival flying off into the sky, Lagron stomped his feet firmly on the ground and brought the palms of his hands together as he said, “This time, for sure, I’ll get him!”

He pulled his arms back and began to gather energy into the space between the palms while looking up at where Lakshman was flying off at. In a moment, he gathered the necessary energy within his palm and he hurled his palms out to unleash the wave while shouting its technique out loud.

“Ru-shan-kara!”

A large red wave of destruction erupted from out of his palms and rocketed into the air as it soared towards its intended target. Meanwhile, Lakshman took several seconds to finally recover from the dizziness of being spun around and slammed painfully multiple times onto the ground. Thus, he used great force to stop his flight and hovered there in mid-air while turning to face down.

It was at that moment that Lakshman saw the energy wave roaring towards him at high speed and caused his eyes to widen in shock. Realising that he could not fend against it with the remaining time available, he attempted to dodge it by getting out of the way, but Lagron moved his arms in a way that would make it difficult to miss the attack.

Lakshman aimed his hand down at the incoming energy wave and shouted, “Maga Distrab—Aahh!”

He was just about to activate his techniques when lightning suddenly erupted out of nowhere and shocked him. It lasted for only a moment before vanishing and left him feeling very surprised.

Seeing the attack drawing closer to him, Lakshman shouted, “Instancity—Argh!”

Just as he was in the process of activating another technique, lightning erupted out of the blue and zapped him, causing his attack to fail. On the second time, he widened his eyes in shock as he realised no magic spell was working in his favour.

“Fine! Pho-nik—Ugh!” Lakshman began to chant his technique name while gathering energy when, like the two times before, lightning struck out of the blue and failed his technique. Realising that a spell was placed on him without his knowledge, Lakshman stared at the attack and thought with a serious look on his face.

“Oh man…! I can’t use any technique and can’t get away with energy skills either! Even if I try to dodge now, he’ll move the energy wave towards me again, so I’ll just dodge it at the last second so he doesn’t know which wave I’ll be going! It’s risky because he could guess my movement correctly at the last second, but it’s better than sitting here like a sitting target!”

So, he waited until the last moment for the attack to draw nearer to him before deciding to make his move. He would later regret making such a move because it proved to be a costly mistake.

Lakshman had moved towards his left at the very last second to dodge the attack and it was also then that Lagron thought that his rival would move in that direction. There was no proof that his rival would move that way, but years of experience fighting his rival had taught him to anticipate his next attack despite it being a very difficult task. So, the Dragon Titan swung the technique towards the left just as Lakshman moved away towards the left before realising, in shock, that the wave was still coming after him.

“Dammit!” he shouted in a frustrated voice with a shocked look on his face.

In a split second decision, he spun his body around to move himself away from the path of destruction the wave was taking. It looked like he had made it clear until the wave soared upward and completely enveloped his left arm, causing him to widen his eyes in shock and scream out loud in pain.

As the energy wave flew high into the air and disappeared, Lakshman clutched his left side and groaned as he felt intense pain coming from there. As the focus shifted to his side, the view revealed that his left arm was completely missing as blood as slowly seeping out from the severed portion of his arm. The energy wave had incinerated his arm and left the Phoenix Titan with only one arm to fight with in its wake.