Lagron looked down at the group at large and asked again, “What the heck is going on here?”
No one responded, so he descended and landed a few feet away from the spot that the two familiars crashed at where smoke was drifting and blocking them from view.
“What took you so long?!” Priya demanded angrily, to which he eyed her with a cold look.
“Young miss, I suppose you don’t understand, but I’m a hero and a hero has got to have a majestic entrance where he comes and saves the day!” He replied smugly with an overwhelming pride.
Lakshman stared at his rival with a look of utter disbelief on his face before sighing in exasperation. Even his wives were eying the Dragon Titan with appalled looks on their faces because they could not believe the words he spoke. Just then, they were diverted when Lakshman’s familiars rose slowly, looking more surprises them hurt by what had happened. That was until Draga spotted Lagron and was instantly filled with anger.
“What the hell is wrong with you attacking us like that?!” He demanded Lagron telepathically.
“So rude! Want me to take you to a class of educating you on how to speak to a superior being?” Lagron asked in a cold voice, stunning the Spirit Dragon in the process.
Watching them, Phylex sighed before speaking telepathically to the Dragon Titan in a serious voice.
“Don’t you recognise us, Lagron? We’ve met before. Remember?”
“Can’t say I’ve met monsters are diverse as you two around,” replied Lagron, eying them two with an uninterested look on his face.
“This arrogant man…!” Draga said telepathically in a furious voice. Then, changing it to speak in an arrogant voice of his own, he telepathically said, “I suppose you’ll remember me being the one that defeated your familiar, the Red Dragon!”
The moment Lagron registered those words, his eyes widened in shock and it was then that he recognised the Spirit Dragon and the Eternal Phoenix.
“Oh…! Of course! I remember now! You two are Asura’s familiars!” He stated, looking surprised.
“His name is Laksh—!” Draga began.
“Asura!” Lagron replied in a loud fierce voice, cutting across Draga in mid-sentence. “Whatever his name is, he will be Asura to me because he is Asura. Also, I’ll beat him one day!”
Lakshman, after hearing his rival say such words, could only chuckle and mutter, “Well, you better wait a while longer because I got my hands full back in that other world. Anyway,” and he turned towards the forms of his four wives lying on the ground with their bleeding slowly subsiding. “I better start healing them since this idiot won’t bother.”
He aimed his hand at them and activated his magic, causing him to suddenly feel a hollow sensation in his chest. Because of the pain, he realised his time was running out as he saw his hands slowly fading away. Still, he decided to do what he can for his wives before he completely disappears. So, forcing himself to bear through the pain, he activated his magic by muttering the magic words.
“Restoration.”
In an instant, his four wives were surrounded by a green light and their injuries were quickly healing, and the small hole in their chest quickly closed. The rest were taken by surprise at them suddenly being surrounded by glowing light, which they sensed was a healing spell and turned to look at Lagron in surprise. He, who had seen this and sensed what they were about to say, raised his hand to stop them and spoke in a matter-of-fact voice.
“It’s not me. I’m not the one healing them,” he said, causing them to become more surprised.
“Oh. Well, I think it was a given since you’re not the type to do two things, right?” Silvera asked, glaring angrily at him.``
To matters even more confusing, Draga telepathically spoke to Lakshman by warning him in a sharp voice, “You fool! Stop using so much force in that form, otherwise, you’ll vanish completely!”
Lakshman knew he was speaking to him, but shook his head in disagreement and replied, “No, Draga. I have to because I can’t depend on him to help my wives. I mean, he will save them, but he won’t heal them. That’s just him.”
Both Draga and Phylex were feeling sadness towards them master while Lagron, who could not hear any of this, asked them, “Who’re you talking to, ice dragon?”
“Spirit Dragon!” Draga corrected angrily, irritated at him for mistaking his title for something else, “and it’s none of your business whom I speak to!”
That immediately made Lagron shrug his shoulders in disinterest and turned his attention at the men that were obviously their enemies. During the time that Lagron came and spoke to the monsters, the cult’s members were sweating at the prospect of putting up a fight against the mighty Dragon Titan, whom they witnessed down the two monsters they had been struggling to do anything against.
“D-Did you see that?”
“Yeah…”
“He brought those two down… with just two mighty blasts!”
“Yeah…!”
“And his energy! It feels—!”
“—nothing compared to what we’re about to do!” Jagav said, cutting across the man’s sentence with a fierce look on his face. “Everyone! Prepare the spell!”
They understood immediately what he wanted to do, causing them to start complaining to him about their depleted energies and it was better for them to escape. They still had the illusion that they could escape, but Jagav was a realistic man, and he was aware that he was facing a wall when he faced one, which was exactly what he thought what Lagron was.
“There is no escape for us in this situation, but we can at least deploy that spell one last time and take him out! That’ll be a great achievement, don’t you think?” He asked them with an eerie smile on his face.
At first, they were nervous, but they quickly resolved themselves for the cause they came there for and decided to give it their all. And so, everyone began challenging their energies together in order to cast the spell that rendered the wives of the Phoenix Titan powerless.
The Dragon Titan sensed the pooling of energies and turned to look at the men with a curious expression on his face. The women, however, realised the danger that was about to come and quickly shouted to warn Lagron about it.
“Be careful, Lagron! They’re about to cast a powerful spell on you!” Tetra waned in a serious voice.
“Yes! It’s so powerful that it disabled the ability to use our powers!” Silveera added as a warning.
“Act now and stop them, Lagron!” Sonia advised in a firm voice.
“Don’t tell me what to do, women!” Lagron snapped at them, looking towards the men with great interest. “So, the real reason you pitiful souls needed rescue by a majesty, such as myself, because of a spell that disables your powers? Seriously, and here I thought it was an actual problem. This is actually pretty lame.”
“Don’t take it lightly like us, Lagron!” Sonia said, getting to her feet while eying him coldly. “Don’t make the same mistake that we did by treating them as just another weakling!”
“And I always told you to never underestimate me!”
Lagron turned to face them with a serious expression on his face and said, “I have to say something about that.” He pointed a finger at them and said, “You,” then he pointed at himself, “and me are not the same. You’re small, and I’m big; really, really big! So, whatever may affect you doesn’t mean it’ll affect me. You understand me?”
Lakshman’s wives were speechless at the amount of arrogance and pride that was filled inside of the Dragon Titan’s head. Only Lakshman sighed in exasperation because he already knew about his rival’s character and only felt that his wives were wasting their breaths trying to make him realise. He did, however, feel like shouting at him for speaking so loosely with his wives when they deserve more respect than he is crediting them for the effort they put in surviving thus far.
The Dragon Titan turned back to face the group of men with a smug expression and said, “Whatever it is you’re doing, I’m only going to give you one chance! Make sure you don’t miss because—!”
Just as he was about to finish the sentence, the group of men suddenly activated their combined powers and shouted the spell, “Sorcery Downfall!”
In an instant, the ground beneath Lagron, Lakshman, and the others formed while another magic spell appeared above them. Lakshman was shocked by the immense amount of magic was being outputted to channel that spell. Everyone, excluding Lakshman and the familiars, began to glow brightly for a few seconds before the light dimmed and the two magic circles disappeared.
“—you’re going to regret it, but… what did you do?” Lagron said, finishing his sentence and looking confused.
He observed his hands and felt nothing strange, he moved his feet and felt no different, and glanced around and felt nothing had changed. In fact, he appeared to be so normal and unharmed made him feel very perplexed, making him look towards the men as they let out cold mirthless laughter.
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“How does it feel, Dragon Titan?” Jagav asked gleefully.
Lagron raised an eyebrow and said, “Funny question. I don’t feel anything.” His words made them laugh once more, and he looked unimpressed as he asked, “Seriously? Has the stress of your spell failing made you lose some marbles?”
Seeing how unimpressed the enemy was, Jagav chuckled and asked, “Try flying, mighty hero. I’m sure you’ll feel it.”
Lagron raises an eyebrow in wonder and said, “Don’t tell me what to do.”
Then, he tried focusing his energies and kicked off the ground only to find that he soared a few centimetres before landing back down. That was when he came to the realisation that he felt nothing when he tried focusing his energy and when he jumped into the air. Having understood the situation, he looked towards the bearded man and spoke while narrowing his eyebrows in seriousness.
“Yeah. I don’t feel anything.”
“Exactly!” Jagav shouted, before he and his men began to laugh hard from the success of taking out the Dragon Titan’s powers.
“What did you do?” Lagron asked with a cautious look on his face.
Jagav grinned and asked, “Aren’t you a smart person? Can’t you figure out on your own?”
Lagron’s eyebrows flinched, and his expression darkened as he said quietly, “The spell you used earlier… Sorcerer Downfall? I take it has to do with stopping our ability in controlling our powers?”
“See? You’re a smart guy,” said Jagav with a grin, and his men jeered at him. “Now that you know, it’s time to end this game of chase, and although you came here blustering to save them, you should feel honoured in being our test subject in testing out that spell to confirm whether it is effective on people like you. Now that we know, we’ll carry on from here and dominate the world, and then… I’ll reign as the Emperor of the World!”
Once he finished speaking, he and his men began marching towards them with evil smiles on their faces. The women looked at them in shock, and the familiar got ready to engage them in battle once more. Lagron, on the other hand, simply stared at them for a moment in silence before closing his eyes and let out a small sigh.
As he opened his eyes an, he formed a smug smile on his face before letting out a cold mirthless laughter. His enemies were taken aback by his sudden laughter, and so did everyone else as they turned to focus on him laughing madly. A few seconds later, he calmed down, but he continued to smile smugly at the people that made him unable to use his powers properly.
“Just how serious were you when you decided to fight against the likes of me?” He asked them, his face twisting slightly with an air of pride emanating from him. “I expected you’d do something grand and majestic to take me out but… disabling me from using my powers…? Seriously? How disappointing!”
“What?!” Jagav exclaimed while his men looked at him in alarm, shocked by his unnatural bravado. The bearded man saw the doubt forming on his men’s faces, so he quickly shouted, “He’s bluffing! We saw the effects, and we saw him fail to use his powers! He’s playing a trick on us!”
Lagron chuckled darkly and said, “Let me tell you a story.” Without waiting for a reply, he went on to say, “A long, long time ago, there existed a created known as the Ancient Evil and it threatened to destroy the world. To meet it, two heroes rose, the two of the mightiest warriors the world had ever produced! After a fierce battle, one hero sacrificed his life to defeat the evil while the surviving hero was left with many… many doubts.”
His eyes looked like they shined as he looked deadly serious when he said, “What happened? What went wrong? What did he do wrong? And how can he make a difference the next time it happens? From that point onwards, he trained and trained, determined that the next time he faces such a situation, he will not be a loser.”
Lakshman turned to look at him with a mixture of sadness and sympathy towards his rival, whom he knew quiet well. The Phoenix Titan actually does not possess full memories regarding their battle against the Ancient Evil back in the ancient times before his eventual sacrifice to defeat it. He was not even able to recall what that monster even looked like, a possible memory damage that had occurred to him during when the Ancient Evil bestowed a curse onto him.
Even so, he felt for his rival like the many times he, who was Asura in the past, did during the times when Lagron was forced to contend with his weaknesses. That was why, even if Lagron is an arrogant prideful man that will not treat anyone he meets with respect, Lakshman deep down respected him for his never-ending determination, the courage to stand by his beliefs, and the difficult decisions he had taken in life for the greater good of his clan, friends, and family, something not many knew about.
The Dragon Titan raised his finger and pointed at them before saying, “That spell, Sorcerer Downfall, was used once before by the Ancient Evil, the first time the hero had ever faced it, and now, he faces the same spell the second time! And you know who that hero is…?” He jabbed a thumb at himself and said in a furious voice, “Me!”
“What?!” Jagav exclaimed, stunned by what he just heard and so was his comrades. “Y-You? B-But… your story… it sounded like it happened a very long time ago!”
Lagron grinned and said, “You’re a smart guy, right? Figure this on out on your own,” and he winked at him.
As his words shocked both Jagav and his comrades, Lagron clenched his fist tightly, gritted his teeth as he began to forcefully break the spell cast on him. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the ground started to shake slowly before the tremors began increasing steadily.
Jagav, realising what he was going to do, quickly ordered his men, “Quick! Stop him!”
Reacting a little jerkily, every one of them began casting their spells or gathering energy in their hands before launching them at him. Before they reached him, however, they were blocked by an apparent invisible barrier to them, but it was actually Lakshman shielding his rival from their attacks.
“I’m won’t let you!” Lakshman shouted, hovering in front of where his rival stood, using all the force he could muster.
While they struggled to get an attack to go through, the pressure in the air began to thicken with the immense forcefulness that he was applying. Jagav watched as Lagron slowly began to exhibit random bursts of lightning from his body as the spell was tethering on the edge of being destroyed.
At that moment, his eyes flashed, and he began to scream, “UUUUUUURRRRRAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”
His screams intensified and that signalled the end of his struggle because the spell suddenly got destroyed. At the same time, his power was unleashed all at once, and the first to hit them was the wind before the shock wave. The ground cracked everywhere as everyone was buffeted by the strong blowing wind while the shock waves went in all directions.
Lakshman, who had expected this to happen, quickly flew through the air and hovered in front of where his wives were. As the Dragon Titan’s power got unleashed, Lakshman activated his Magic Force and cast a powerful Emperor Ranked Barrier Magic Spell, Reinforce, to his wives and sisters. He was not alone in this case because his two familiars converged and enclosed the group with their large bodies while placing their wings at the front to act as gigantic shields.
The powerful wind and shock waves smashed into the wings and pushed them back till they touched the barrier that Lakshman had cast. The pressure of holding the barrier in place was causing him to lose his Astral Form quickly, but he knew he has to keep it up as long as he could. Thankfully, the wind slowly subsided and the shock waves stopped several seconds later, but smoke continued drifting everywhere for a few seconds longer before disappearing.
“Draga. Phylex. I think it’s alright now,” said Lakshman, making his familiars remove their wings and separate from them.
“That was an intense release of power,” commented Draga in a telepathic voice.
“Yeah. That’s what makes him the Dragon Titan,” said Lakshman with a smile.
As the smoke cleared, their enemies were brought into view and it appeared as though they did not fare too well. Several of them were lying down, unconscious from being blown away and smashing against the ground while others sported several bruises and cuts all over their bodies. Their pained moans while struggling to get into a sitting position made Lakshman feel an array of mixed feelings; anger, sorrow, satisfaction, sympathy.
Jagav had cast a barrier around himself like the selfish person that he truly was while his comrades were struck by the wave. He alone escaped with minimal injuries while the rest were lying around him, moaning softly by the pain that only they felt. After glancing around his surroundings, he turned around and saw Lagron standing at the exact same spot as before, where all the ground was cracked and caved in slightly due to his power being unleashed all at once.
Lagron was stretching his body and cracking his fingers experimentally, testing out his released powers with minimal output. He kicked off the ground and soared a little into the air before soaring back down to land gently with a smug smile on his face. Feeling satisfied and sensing a pair of eyes focused on him, he turned and smiled happily at Jagav without any sign of anger or annoyance he had felt previously.
“Oh! That was quite the workout you gave me! It really got the blood flowing!” He said before letting out a chuckle. “I must admit, you do a good job of being a trainer more than an evil guy with an ugly face.”
Jagav was enraged by the comment, and he shouted, “What the hell was that?! What did you do?! How the hell did you break free?! It defines all logic!”
Lagron grinned smugly and said in an arrogant voice, “How course it defines all logic… because it’s bullshit!”
“What?!” Jagav exclaimed in a sharp voice, his eyes widening in disbelief because it did not make sense.
At that moment, the Dragon Titan suddenly vanished and surprised Jagav before reappearing directly in front of him. Before the bearded man could react, Lagron pulled his fist and delivered a powerful punch straight into the man’s stomach. The impact released a strong wind to blow in all directions while causing him to open his mouth in reaction as the pain stung him hard.
“That’s for taking me lightly!” Lagron said in a quiet voice so that only his enemy could hear him.
Jagav, stung by the pain from the impact to his stomach, coughed a few times and croaked, “Y-Y-You…You’re… insane…!”
Lagron suddenly pulled his fist back and pulled it back before delivering a powerful uppercut straight to his enemy’s jaw. Jagav slowly rose into the air and was about to fly away from the force of impact when his enemy suddenly grabbed his legs, swung him around like a rod and slammed him forcefully into the ground. The impact was so hard that his body sank a little into the ground, where Jagav’s screams of pain were muffled because his head was planted into the ground.
Still grabbing his enemy’s legs, Lagron switched his hold to one hand and began dragging him across the land while running at a speed above normal. He knew running at his full speed while dragging a person could kill him and did not like the idea because he wanted this man alive. And so, he continued running while dragging the man by his feet while the ground split from Jagav’s body being dragged with immense force.
After running for a few meters, Lagron lifted him into the air by his leg and began swinging him around and slamming him down repeatedly on the ground. Each time he landed, his body frame was etched into the ground from the powerful impact before it was repeated on another fresh ground. The Dragon Titan did this for a few times before swinging him around like a string launching him high into the air.
Jagav’s limp body flew up into the air high speed, but he could not see nor feel due to the amount of damage he had taken. It would take a lot of time for him to recover from the many bones that were broken and the internal bleeding that was happening within him. He wanted to end it all and be at ease, but his enemy had other plans because Lagron suddenly appeared above him and grabbed him by his leg, causing it to get stretch and snap, to which Jagav managed to only moan in pain.
Lagron brought him down by his leg and grabbed him by the neck while fixing him with a fierce look. He was not particularly mad at him, but the urge to wanting to beat the living daylights out of this man was very tempting for him. Still, he knew where to draw the line, and he decided to end the man’s punishment by doing one last act that would fully satisfy him.
He looked down at the ground, which was very far from the position they hovered at. Then he glanced at the man, momentarily hesitating as he wondered if it would kill him or not. In the next moment, he shrugged it off and smiled as he decided to experiment with the man’s life considering the man had also done something similar to him earlier.
“Break a leg… or your life,” said Lagron, and he switched his hold on the man from the neck to his face.
While holding Jagav’s head firmly, Lagron swirling around before throwing him with full force towards the ground. Jagav plummeted several meters before smashing heavily into the ground, causing it to crack while dust rose into the air from the explosion of him crashing. Lagron flew down and landed next to the crater looking down at the immobile form of Jagav, who was luckily alive and breathing slowly.
Feeling satisfied with what became of his enemy, Lagron folded his arms and formed a smug smile on his face before speaking to the unconscious man in his undying arrogant voice.
“By the way, I’m not insane; I’m Lagron, the Dragon Titan. Keep that in mind, fool.”