Arav and Yaksh stood inside a circle that was made by the burnt ground under them. Aizen, the boy and the twelve men stood a small distance away from these two while their eyes anticipatedly stared at the Unconscious centaur. Ambu sat right next to the centaur and was using her abilities with absolute concentration.

“Tch..” Yaksh shook his hand in annoyance;

“Hmm?..” Arav looked at him curiously while raising one of his brows;

“Why are we even treating him, let’s just beat him up until he speaks..” Yaksh spoke and caught the attention of all all present, excluding Ambu;

“....He is unconscious and under the effect of dark magic, no amount of beating will make him speak.” Arav said after a brief pause, while his eyes gazed at Ambu.

As Arav answered, he and Yaksh saw Aizen forwarding towards them.

“Young master, are you still willing to fight me?” Aizen’s blatant question surprised Yaksh,

“....Oh?...and the prohibition?” Arav asked with a smirk,

“Current circumstances forced this change..” Aizen answered while slowly moving his hand on the hilt of the sword on his waist.

“Haah…we should move a little, I don’t want her to get troubled by our spar…” Arav opened his criss crossed arms and took a deep breath. Aizen began walking away as soon as he heard Arav. The boy looked towards Arav with a concerned gaze, but once he looked at Yaksh, he saw him standing without a care in the world. He got curious and walked towards Yaksh,

“Hey you, who are you? and why are you with my brother?” The boy asked in a voice filled with authority;

“Tch, these annoying humans..” Yaksh whispered and turned his head away. This act made the boy’s face red,

“ARE YOU DEAF?...I ASKED WHO ARE YOU?” The boy asked in a loud voice while pointing at Yaksh;

Yaksh stopped his movement and turned towards him;

“I am someone you don’t need to worry about..”

“Grr…” The boy clenched his fists while gritting his teeth;

One of the twelve men saw the commotion and stepped forward,

“Apologies for interrupting, Sir Yaksh is an elf and is accompanying young master Arav.” The man said in a respectful tone;

“Huh?...An elf?...Ohh…I understand….Big brother probably uses him to carry his luggage..” The boy mockingly said;

Yaksh was reminded of the moment he cleared space for Arav, but he did not feel ashamed of that fact, as serving the dragon lord was an honor for him. The boy’s smile disappeared by the non existent response from Yaksh;

“Are you using some kind of magic to hide yourself?...I think changing your ears has affected your ability to hear..”

[WOOSH!!]

Intense green energy appeared from Yaksh and he quickly turned towards the boy;

“WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU LITTLE SHIT?” Yaksh angrily said;

“DID YOU JUST CALL ME A LITTLE SHIT??!!.. I, THE PRINCE OF CHANDRA KINGDOM CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL!!” The boy unsheathed his sword and exclaimed;

***

Arav and Aizen stood in opposite direction, in an open space some distance away from the rest, they both gazed at each other with a serious expression;

[CRASH!]

They both were alarmed, as something crashed right in front of them. They both found Yaksh on the ground with an annoyed expression;

“Tch..”

“WHAT HAPPENED?...DID I HURT YOU?!” The boy jumped out of the forest and landed in front of Yaksh few meters away;

“This-..” Yaksh stood up and nocked an arrow;

“Wait!..I don’t know why you two are fighting, but I suggest we do this together..’’ Aizen said and stopped both The boy and Yaksh;

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[BHUM!]

Yaksh jumped and landed beside Arav, while the boy stood beside Aizen.

[WOOSH!]

Intense green energy appeared out of Yaksh while he glared at the boy, who was surrounded in silver energy.

[THWOSH!!]

Both pairs leaped at each other, the boy slashed at Yaksh, who easily dodged it and landed a strike using his bow on the boy’s gut.

[SMACK…SMACK…SHING…SHING..]

Aizen slashed his sword at Arav, who dodged it and launched a punch towards Aizen’s gut. But Aizen quickly moved and blocked the strike using the flat side of his blade.

[WOOSH!!]

The boy got angered even further, he raised his energy that crushed the rocks present around him and leaped towards Yaksh.

[SWOO…BOOM!]

His eyes widened, as he saw an Arrow rapidly heading towards him. He again failed to react and the arrow directly hit him in the chest, with a huge explosion, the boy was thrown several meters away. He wasn’t hurt, as the clothes he wore seemed to hold some kind of protective magic;

“Hmph..” Yaksh looked down at him from a distance while placing the bow on his back.

[HUM!]

Arav created dozens of arrows made of Yellow energy and launched them at Aizen.

[SHING…SLASH!]

WIth a single slash of his sword, Aizen cut every arrow and negated the attack. Yaksh looked at them fighting with amazement, as he saw Aizen negate Arav’s attack.

“Young Master, we don’t have much time…how about giving it our all?” Aizen said while pointing his sword at Arav;

As Aizen spoke those words;

[THWOOSH!!!]

Intense dark red energy raged out of Aizen, Yaksh and the boy felt their chest getting heavier and slight trouble breathing just by being present in his energy. Arav’s brows contracted,

[HUM!]

Yellow aura erupted out of Arav and surrounded his entire body,

[BOOM!]

They both jumped at each other with a powerful explosion;

[BHUM!]

Arav punched at him with immense strength, Aizen used his sword and blocked Aizen’s attack. A powerful shockwave was released around them and made the boy fall on the ground, while Yaksh momentarily lost his balance.

“Don’t hold anything back..” Aizen calmly spoke, Arav’s brows widened as he felt the strength from Aizen’s side increased tremendously;

[CRASH!]

Arav was thrown back on the ground;

Aizen descended slowly and kept gazing at Arav, who was standing up;

“Hooh…You sure are strong…much stronger than I had expected…” Arav clenched his fists and raised both of them to his chest’s level;

[BHMM!!]

The air around him began vibrating, Aizen instantly took a fighting stance while he stared alarmingly at Arav and noticed a small amount of red flames behind Arav’s back.

‘What a strange aura….Is that even Mantra?’ The clouds of doubt and curiosity plagued Aizen’s heart while he kept attempting to try and gauge the origin of Arav’s abilities.

[BHUM!!!!] [GRARGH!!!]

A powerful red aura erupted with a terrifying roar of a beast out of Arav and blasted a huge chunk of ground to dust.

[SWOOO!]

Arav flew towards Aizen with immense speed,

[SMACK!...BOOM!]

Aizen tried to block his strike, but the impact threw him meters away.

Arav flew down at him with his fist stretched forward, his powerful red aura raged and his speed increased rapidly;

[BOOM!]

A huge explosion happened the moment his fist collided with Aizen, the ground had a huge chunk of it torn apart and a crater was formed.

Both Yaksh and the boy gazed at the two fighting with utter surprise for different reasons. Yaksh was surprised by Aizen keeping up with Arav while the boy could not believe Arav was fighting toe to toe with Aizen.

[BOOM!]

Arav and Aizen both jumped away from each other,

[WOOSH!]

Aizen’s dark red energy began condensing on his sword while Arav brought both of his palms together and his red aura began forming a sphere in his palms. Yaksh and the boy both got goosebumps and sprinted forward;

“STOP!..YOU BOTH WILL DESTROY THIS ENTIRE PLACE!” Both Yaksh and the boy said in unison while standing in front of their respective companions;

[PHISS!]

Both warrior’s energy disappeared and the battle came to an abrupt halt. The atmosphere around them calmed down, Yaksh and the boy took a sigh of relief.

Arav and Aizen both forwarded, Yaksh and the boy’s hearts skipped a beat.

“You certainly are the strongest opponent I ever fought..” Aizen said with his eyes stretching due to his smile, that was hidden behind his black mask;

“...I won’t call you the strongest opponent, but your strength certainly is impressive..” Arav said with a smirk;

The sighs of relief of Yaksh and the boy returned once again;

“THAT WAS INCREDIBLE!! I never expected someone to stand against master.’’ The boy excitedly said while jumping in front of Arav;

“Master?..” Arav asked in a curious tone;

“Yes, I am the one who is responsible for teaching young master Adhrit.” Aizen replied;

“Oh…so that’s your name.” Arav turned towards the boy and said;

“Yes big brother, I am Adhrit, prince of the kingdom Chandra..” The boy said while bowing his head. Then suddenly, Arav’s expression turned serious;

“Adhrit,..I sensed your flow of aura is quite rough…” Arav’s words startled Adhrit and his smile disappeared, he looked up with a concerned expression;

“What do you think?” Arav turned towards Yaksh;

“...I felt that as well.” Yaksh replied and then quickly turned his head away.

Arav turned back towards Adhrit;

“Your energy was trying to reject you…Why is that?” Arav asked with a serious tone;

“I…well…” Adhrit could not muster up the courage to speak, he turned his head towards Aizen.

“Haah…the Chandra kingdom has a powerful mantra called Chandrastra possessed by every generation’s king. But the astra has the tendency to be passed on to only one person from the new generation and that’s the way the ruler of the kingdom is decided….” Aizen looked towards a disappointed Adhrit;

“Young Master wasn’t born with the mantra…and possessed a strange ability never seen before. He attempted to make the ability combat oriented, but unfortunately his efforts were in vain. He constantly trains with me and tries to learn my swordsmanship, perhaps his energy isn’t meant to be used this way either.” Aizen completed his explanation.

Yaksh, who felt indifferent to the humans until now, suddenly felt sympathy for the teenager’s situation that even he did not expect.

“Hmm…Are you able to show me said ability?” Arav said after a brief thought,

“I…well…I can..but..” The boy voiced his hesitation;

“I do not expect it to be impressive, I’m just curious..” Arav placed his hand on Adhrit’s shoulders;

“Haah…fine..” Adhrit stretched his left arm towards his left;

[HUM!]

His entire body got surrounded in silver energy, Arav stepped back and stared at his palm with utter curiosity;

[THRR!...WOO!!]

Yaksh’s eyes widened, while Arav’s eyes sparkled. They both were equally surprised by the phenomenon even with different reactions. A tear appeared in the space with a silver energy being its border, an image of Ambu treating the centaur appeared inside it.

“WHAT IS THIS?!” The twelve men were alarmed and unsheathed their swords and pointed it towards the tear;

Adhrit forwarded and went inside the tear, he turned back and looked at the three standing on the other side.

‘An ability to cast portals?’ Arav thought with a smirk,

“This…is it..” Adhrit said in a disappointed tone;

Arav stepped forward and entered the portal, followed by Aizen and Yaksh entering.

“You have an incredible ability….and it has immense potential in combat..” Arav said while smiling at Adhrit;

Ahdrit’s eyes widened, his heart raced rapidly with anticipation;

“REALLY?!..HOW??!!” He asked with his usual enthusiasm;

“It might be a tough goal, but if you manage to master the casting of these portals…You will have an unbreachable defense, while using your opponent's attacks against them as offense.”

“He is awake..” Before Arav could continue, Ambu’s voice interrupted them. The twelve soldiers pointed their weapons towards the centaur while Ambu stepped away from him.

“Ugh!...” The centaur grabbed his head and slowly stood up;

His eyes widened the moment he opened them, as he saw dozens of swords pointed at him with the kingdom’s prince and Aizen standing there as well.

“Th..the prince?...and the shadow master as well?.” The centaur stuttered in fear and quickly bowed his head;

“Where are the children?” Aizen stepped forward and asked in a cold tone;

The centaur began sweating heavily and gulped;

“Th..they are in the divine realm..” He answered with a shaky voice;

“WHAT?!” Adhrit unsheathed his sword, but Arav quickly grabbed the blade of his sword.

“How to enter this divine realm you speak of?” Arav asked in a serious tone;

“That…is the way..” The centaur pointed at the portal made by Adhrit.

[Chapter 24: END]