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Phoenix Rising
[Arc 14] Chapter 365 - Tempered Arrogance

[Arc 14] Chapter 365 - Tempered Arrogance

They went upstairs and Amaranda sat down on a chair next to the bed where Lakshman lay to check on him. In the meantime, everyone surrounded the bed while looking anxiously at her and him, all except Lagron. The Dragon Titan entered the room and took one glance towards the bed where his rival lay before walking over to stand in a corner with his arms folded and eyes closed.

It took several seconds for Amaranda to check on Lakshman before sitting straight on her chair and turning to look at the women and men in the room. They immediately stared at her expectantly as they eagerly wanted to hear some good news.

“Relax. He’s not in any danger,” she said telepathically and everyone looked at each other in relief.

“But, he’s not waking up no matter how much we heal him,” said Sumara with a sad look towards her sleeping husband.

“That would be because you’re healing his physical wounds, but not really replenishing the fatigue he was feeling,” replied Sonia and Sumara, along with everyone, looked surprised. She turned towards Sumara and asked, “Did he get into a battle where he had to use everything he had?”

As Sumara nodded, Silvera slowly said, “Yes. He engaged the Dragon Titan in battle and looked like he pushed himself really hard to try and beat that guy down.”

By finishing her words, she looked over her shoulders towards Lagron to give him a fierce glare of dislike. The Dragon Titan felt stares coming in his direction and decided to ignore them, but something Silvera said sparked him to speak to them.

“Push himself to beat me?” he asked as he flashed his eyes open and glared at them angrily before demanding, “Are you calling him weak?!”

Everyone was surprised by what he said and Atem sighed as he thought, “Not this again!”

“Huh?!” Silvera exclaimed and stared at him in shock. “Of course not! I never called my husband weak!”

“Then don’t!” Lagorn said sharply and surprised Silvera. “He was the most powerful warrior in the entire world in ancient times and now, he’s been reduced to this! I blame his family!”

This time, everyone else were surprised and they exclaimed, “What?!”

“He’s spending too much time with his family!” Lagron said firmly with a fierce look on his face. “To be a strong warrior, one must polish their powers and skills on daily basis, but he’s clearly slackened off by spending too much time with you losers!”

Silvera became enraged and she began, “How dare you—?!”

She was instantly stopped by Ondine, who placed a hand in front of her to stop her. Silvera stared at her in surprise as Ondine stared seriously at him and said, “Look. A lot of things happened, a lot of time was wasted, but he’s a busy man because he’s the kind of Floria Kingdom!”

Her words caused Lagron to widen his eyes in shock as he bellowed, “He’s the king of a single kingdom?!” He slowly looked down at the floor in shock as he muttered, “This is unbelievable… The strongest warrior that dominated the world is now the ruler of a single kingdom…? This is… insane…!”

As he became quiet, Ondine sighed and turned back to the Magic Titan before she asked, “Can you wake him up, Amaranda?”

Lagron snapped out of his shock at her words and he looked at the Magic Titan and said sharply, “Yes! Wake him up this instance so that I can have my rematch!” He clenched his fists tightly and said, “I’m a lot angrier than I thought I’d be and I’ll gladly wash it all over him once finally I defeat him my way!”

Amarand slowly turned her head in his direction and silently looked at him with her closed eyes. She could not see his face, but could feel his physique through the flow of energy and sensed how strong he was. It did not faze her as she sensed that he was getting angry at her silence and decided to speak.

“I will wake him up, but I will not allow him to do battle for some time,” she said and startled everyone. “He’s lost a great deal of energy as he seemed to have pushed himself to the edge of his limits before getting knocked out.”

Lagron clenched his fists angrily and glared at her fiercely as he asked, “Who the hell do you think you are to reply to me in that way?!”

For the first time, she suddenly smiled at him and said, “I’m sorry for the late introduction. I’m Amaranda Lefrity, but I’m also known as the Magic Titan.”

Lagron was momentarily rendered speechless before he smirked and said, “Cocky woman.” He jabbed himself in the chest and proudly said, “I’m Lagron Rodraigun! The Dragon Titan! Know your place and do what I say woman!”

“You don’t scare me,” replied Amaranda telepathically in a curt voice that made him smirk again.

“Well, naturally. Why’d you be afraid of me woman when you know I don’t attack woman. Besides, you’re just a weak little Magic Titan and on top of that, you’re blind and don’t have a voice. I seriously feel pity for you. I really do,” jeered Lagron with a crazy grin on his face.

While everyone was shocked by how rude he was, Tetra merely sighed and thought, “Damn. He never changes his attitude whatsoever. I really wish his wife was here right now to stop him as usual.”

“How can you say that to her?!” Sonia said with a shocked look on her face. “I may not have known her for very long, but I’m aware that she’s really powerful!”

“She might be handicapped, but she’s a lot more powerful than she lets on!” Sumara warned him.

Lagron shrugged his shoulders as he disregarded her warning and said, “Like I care woman! The only one that really riles me up is my so called rival, who’s currently sleeping it off over there! Still, this makes perfect sense why he lost me; it’s because he hangs around weaklings like you lot and this Magic Titan!”

He burst out laughing at his own cruel joke and everyone looking uncomfortably at each other as they could not find any words to shut him up. Amaranda, on the other hand, rose to her feet and turned to face him silently with her hands clenched into fists.

“I’ve listened patiently to you saying constantly about how weak I am, how weak your rival is and how weak everyone else was. That’s enough. You should realise that you’re the weakest one in this room when it comes to poor behaviour control who possess an excessive loud mouth.”

Lagron jeered at her by saying, “Oh? You’re angry, but what can you do? You’re weak!” He laughed once more when he suddenly stopped to stare at her in surprise as she slowly raised her power. Grinning broadly, he extended his arms out and said, “Going to attack me? Come on then! Hit me with your best shot! I dare you! Seriously! Come. And. Hit—!”

Even before he could finish his speech, Amaranda extended her hand out towards him and activated her spell. In an instant, a powerful energy ball formed in front of her and she sent it flying towards him, who was taken by surprise.

There was a sudden flash of light before the blast exploded upon making contact with the Dragon Titan and blasting him out of the room. He soared through the air for several meters before bumping against the ground and finally coming to a crashing halt. Everyone stared at the place he had crashed at before turning to look towards her in surprise and awe.

“What made you think I wouldn’t attack after you goaded me so much?” she asked of no one telepathically before disappearing from the room and surprising everyone in the process.

As Lagron regained his feet while dusting his clothes, Amaranda appeared out of thin air to stand a few meters away from him. He was surprised to sense her presence and turned around to glare fiercely at her with a crazy smile on his face.

“That was a good shot, but you still don’t compare to him!” he said to her firmly.

“I was never comparing myself to him,” she replied telepathically and surprised him.

He recovered to chuckle as he asked, “Then, why’d you blast me out here? Surely, you didn’t go through the trouble of putting a hole in their wall to talk to me privately?”

Lagron started to grin at his own words, but Amaranda remained motionless as she replied, “No. I brought you out here to test you.”

The Dragon Titan raised an eyebrow incredliously and he began to ask, “Test me? What—?”

Amaranda stretched her arm out at him and activated her spell by saying it in her mind.

“Hell Gravity.”

In an instant, a large circle appeared beneath where Lagron stood as its radius stretched up to where she stood before stopping. The next moment, the gravy inside the circle became so intense that Lagron widened his eyes only a moment before slamming onto the ground with great force. The intense gravy was so strong that the ground quaked momentarily as the ground beneath it exploded and split to pieces.

Lagron was being pulled against the ground with a tremendous force that caused him a great deal of pain and difficulty to move. Still, he was not going to allow himself to stay lying there like a helpless person that is incapable of doing anything. So, by gritting his teeth, he began to push himself up by applying a tremendous force against the ground.

As he slowly rose to his feet, he looked up at her fiercely and slowly said, “You think… you can keep me down… like this…? No. You won’t. I’m stronger. I’m better. I won’t stay down!”

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While he slowly spoke, he managed to get into a kneeling position and eventually raise to his feet. He stood a little unevenly, but he quickly managed to stomp his foot down firmly on the cracked ground and stared fiercely at the Magic Titan.

He thumped his fist against his chest and said loudly, “I’m Lagron! The Dragon Titan!”

As he screamed the last word, he began to surge with wild power while radiating pure red aura that surrounded him. There was a sudden flash of light before a powerful wave of force went in all directions, causing wind to blow incredibly fast as well as creating shock waves. Amaranda activated her defence magic as the light engulfed her and so did everyone inside the house as the light was blinding as the ground shook violently and exploded everywhere.

It took a few seconds for the light to dim and disappeared to bring everything back to normal vision. Smoke was slowly spreading from where they stood and the people inside the house deactivated their magic to stare outside the opened hole in the wall in awe. The ground near the house from all sides of the explosion point was cracked as debris lay everywhere.

As the smoke slowly cleared and revealed Lagron radiating red aura that surrounded him as he stared firmly at Amaranda, who had deactivated her magic. She remained motionless for a moment in silence while facing him.

Lagron pointed a finger at her and shouted, “You still think you can fight me?! Huh?!”

Strangely, the Magic Titan smiled to his demands and replied telepathically, “No, but I never intended to.”

He blinked at her in surprise and asked, “What?! What did you just say?!”

She merely shrugged her shoulders and telepathically said, “I was merely ensuring you have the power to back up your arrogance and checking whether I could trust you as my future ally.” She suddenly turned away to face the house before she said, “I’ve got my information and now, if you’ll excuse me, I must take care of the Phoenix Titan.”

Amaranda activated her spell and before he could say anything, vanished into thin air and left him standing there surrounded by a cracked and destroyed ground. He was feeling totally lost as his mind erupted so many questions that it stopped him brain from functioning for a moment. Finally managing to gain control over his head, he scratched his head and stared towards the house uncomfortably.

“This is so confusing,” he said finally before powering down to fly over to the house.

It took the Magic Titan only a moment to disappeared and reappear inside the house and was greeted by surprise from everyone. They were impressed by her display of power, especially Emilia, Ondine and Sumara as they knew of how tough she had trained under Lakshman on her familiar, the Spirit Turtle.

“It wasn’t much,” she replied with a small smile on her face before looking sorrily at them. “Also, I’m sorry about your wall. I’ll fix it now along with restoring Lakshman’s inner strength, stamina and energy.”

“That’s okay. It was done for a good cause, so you’re excused,” replied Emilia with a smile on her face while the others nodded their heads in agreement.

Amaranda replied by nodding her head before retaking her seat next to Lakshman and clapping her hands together as she activated the spell in her mind.

“Restoration.”

Lagron made it back into the house through the open wall just in time to witness the air in the room change somewhat. A moment later, the wind picked up inside the room as the Amaranda focused her energies on restoring Lakshman and the hole in the wall she had created by attacking the Dragon Titan. Lagron watched intently as Lakshman was surrounded by a green glowing light as the broken pieces of the wall flew back to reform it.

“Impressive,” he said with a smirk, causing Atem to stare at him in surprise because he thought the Dragon Titan might disdain the effort of magic to restore a being such as the Phoenix Titan.

It took several minutes of time for her to complete the task and when she was done, she dropped her hands next to her and breathed deeply. Everyone was surprised and Emilia moved forward to help, but she waved at them with a hand to reassure them that she was fine. So, they turned their attention towards the man lying on the bed and were relieved to see him slowly open his eyes.

Lakshman blinked a few times wearily and muttered, “So tired.”

He noticed that he was lying on a comfortable bed and looked up at the ceiling, but did not register where he was at that moment. So, he looked around and was surprised to see his family and friends standing there with a relieved look on their faces.

“Where am I?” he asked them.

“You’re in your room,” replied Emilia, who had taken the seat that Amaranda had vacated as she stood up to allow his family to get nearer. “Are you feeling alright?”

He smiled a little as he noticed the anxious looks on their faces and said, “Yeah. Tired, but fine.”

“If you’re fine, then let’s get this rematch going!” Lagron said loudly and made everyone turn to look at him.

Lakshman recognised the voice, but he did not know who it was until his wives got out of his view. Seeing his rival standing there with a determined expression on his face, the Phoenix Titan sighed deeply.

“So, I lost,” he thought as he remembered the events before he fell unconscious. He looked at his rival and asked, “What brings you here? Didn’t you win?”

His rival became angry by this words and he exclaimed, “Are you serious?! Do you call it winning when you fell unconscious right after blasting me into the sky with your signature technique?! No! Definitely not! That’s why I’m here to have my rematch!”

Lakshman could not believe his ears and he asked, “What? You want a rematch for something that silly?”

“Don’t say it’s silly! It’s very important to a proud warrior like me, but you might not have the same pride anymore now that I take a look at your family!” Lagron said as he looked around at his wives.

“Hey. Don’t drag my family into this,” said Lakshman before sighing deeply. “I wish your wife’s here to cool you down or something.”

“I’m not a wild beast!” Lagron shouted angrily and he looked towards Amaranda for a moment in silence before turning back to his rival. “Anyway, get off your bed and get outside so we can battle!”

Just before Lakshman could say anything, Emilia rose out of the chair and moved towards him with an imploring look on her face as she asked, “Can you please give him time? Please look. He’s really tired and doesn’t feel up to battling you right now, so please give him time to rest. You can do whatever you want afterwards. Okay?”

Lagron blinked at her for a moment in silence just as Ondine followed up on her words and said, “Listen to reason. He’s really tired right now and is too weak to do any battle in his current state, so give him some time to rest up. Until then, take a break or something.”

“Take a break?” Lagron asked incredulously while everyone looked surprised by what Emilia and Ondine said. “I came all this way to challenge him and you’re just telling me to give up and take a break?!”

“No! I just want you to wait a bit for him to recover,” said Emilia reassuringly with a smile on her face.

At that moment, Amaranda got into this and telepathically said, “Just take time off. Your rival is weak and in his current state, do you really think you’ll have a satisfactory victory?”

He was a little surprised by her words, but not that he thought about it, he realised the truth behind her words. Turning to look at his rival looking at him with half-open eyes made him so angry that he felt like attacking him right now, but instead he decided to heed downstairs to cool off.

“Fine! Whatever!” he said loudly in an angry voice and everyone smiled in relief as he left the room and slowly went downstairs. As he reached the bottom floor, he muttered to himself, “The once strongest warrior is now lying in bed while mulled around by his family and friends. How repugnant!”

He walked into the hall and sat down on a spare chair before folding his arms in front of him and closing his eyes. Like that, he remained seated for some time before sensing the arrival of someone outside out of nowhere, which made him think the person teleported there. He opened his eyes and looked over his shoulders just in time to see an unfamiliar face walk through the entrance, who was actually Zen Phylon.

“This isn’t good…! This isn’t good!” Zen muttered repeatedly in a nervous voice while looking anxiously at the front. “I hope he’s back…!”

Not knowing what the man was here for, Lagron asked him, “What are you muttering to yourself?”

That was the first time Zen had noticed Lagron sitting behind a chair to the side and he winced so much that he almost fell over. He managed to quickly recover his footing to stare confusedly at the stranger he knew nothing about.

“Wow! Where did you pop out of?! I didn’t sense you at all!” Zen demanded in a surprised voice.

“I was here right from the beginning, but you were probably too concerned about something else to realise it,” replied Lagron and Zen nodded his head in understanding. He suddenly narrowed his eyes suspiciously and asked, “Besides, how did you miss my presence?”

Zen smiled apologetically and said, “I’m sorry. I was worried about something and you were so quiet that I didn’t notice you immediately.”

Lagron smirked softly and said, “That’s right. After going through so much ordeal today, I decided solitude was my only solace. Anyway, what’re you here for?”

“I’m here to see if the Phoenix Titan’s returned because there’s trouble at the castle and we need his immediately presence to sort things out,” said Zen with a worried look on his face.

He began to explain the problem to Lagron, which seemed to be about the other two kings demanding his presence, otherwise, they would leave. Lagorn listened to his story silently and when he finished, he smirked with an arrogant smile on his face.

“Times change, but people’s behaviour doesn’t,” he muttered before chuckling to himself. “So, you came here to meet that guy?” When Zen nodded in agreement, Lagron smirked and said, “He’s currently too busy being weak like a baby lying in his bed while surrounded by his annoying family and friends.”

Zen’s eyes widened in shock and he exclaimed, “What?! Lakshman’s wounded?!” When Lagron nodded in return, Zen looked at him in shock before turning to face the entrance of the house as he said, “Okay. Maybe, I’ll ask Amaranda for help in this matter.”

“Whose help?” Lagron asked curiously.

“Amaranda. The Magic Titan,” replied Zen shortly.

“Oh. Her,” said Lagron as he finally understood who it was and frowned. “Why her? I thought you needed your kingdom’s ruler to make them listen or whatever you wanted them to do.”

“Well, Lakshman’s busy recovering and cannot meet them, so I thought that maybe her presence as the Magic Titan in the meeting room would really help me out because they won’t listen to a guy like me,” said Zen while looking disappointed.

Lagron blinked at him in surprise and asked, “How are you actually?”

Zen turned to him in and introduced himself by saying, “I’m Zen Phylon and I’ve recently been given the title of the Phoenix Emperor.”

His introduced caused the Dragon Titan to widen his eyes in shock and he remained silent for a moment before he said incredulously, “You’re the Phoenix Emperor? You’re not serious! You’re so weak compared to the Phoenix Emperor of the ancient times!”

Zen was stung heavily by those words and his shoulders slumped as he said, “I’m sorry. I was newly appointed and am doing my best to fill the role.”

Lagron stared at him disapprovingly as he thought, “Young people these days are so laid back, it’s painful. Anyway, I think going to this meeting room to meet the other human kings might be the best time killer I could get right now besides sitting around and doing absolutely nothing!”

Deciding on his course of action, Lagron said firmly, “Forget about the Magic Titan since you’ve got me because I’m coming.”

Zen recovered and looked up at him with a questioning look on his face as he asked, “Um… Sorry, but who are you?”

Lagron puffed his chest out proudly and said, “I’m Lagron! The Dragon Titan!”

There was a moment of pause in which Zen digested this piece of information and the next, his eyes widened sharply and he exclaimed, “The Dragon Titan?! You’re him?! No way! You must be playing a trick on me!”

Lagron suddenly looked at him very seriously in the eye and said, “Tell me, can’t you sense my power? Can’t you feel the pressure of my presence? Can’t you tell that I’m being serious?!”

Those words hit Zen like a powerful energy blast and he took a step back in shock as he slowly said, “You’re really the Dragon Titan! This is unbelievable!”

The Dragon Titan chuckled at the Phoenix Emperor’s reaction and said, “This is the kind of reaction I like.” In a louder voice, he said to Zen, “Come on. Let’s get going. We’ll be late for this meeting!”

“Ah! R-Right!” Zen said distractedly as he continued to stare at Lagron in disbelief as he quickly walked outside and activate the Phoenix Portal for them to go to the castle.

As he stood back to allow Lagron to go through it, the Dragon Titan smiled as he thought, “After so long, let’s see how the kings of their respective kingdoms will do after meeting me. Maybe, I’ll get the same kind of reaction I got out of this guy! It’ll be amazing!”

 Feeling very confident, Lagorn entered through the portal before Zen followed behind and the portal closed behind them as they went on their way to the Floria Kingdom’s castle.