The man stood before them with his swords pointed towards them after giving them a threatening message. Lakshman, Emilia, Sumara and Ondine were certainly surrounded by what Lakshman felt the number of thirty people within the forest. Lakshman sensed that they were nervous, but very determined to get through this job of steal or kill.

“Drop all of your possessions and surrender peacefully!” the man repeated in a louder voice.

Lakshman looked at him and sighed before saying, “So, you want to steal our possessions by surrendering peacefully?” Then, he shook his head and said, “Unfortunately, there’s one of us that won’t agree to it.”

As he finished, he turned to look at Ondine, who held both of her swords firmly in her hands. She had a serious expression on her face with a slight grin to indicate what she was thinking. Then, feeling his gaze, she turned to look at him with a surprised expression on her face.

“Who? Me?” she asked and he nodded. Her grin broadened and she confidently said, “Naturally! There’s no way in hell I’m giving up to a rough nut thugs like that guy!”

With those words, she angered the enemies and they slowly moved to stand in the clearing surrounding them. Lakshman did a quick look around and was correct in thinking there really were thirty of these men. Even though I’m suppressing a lot of my power so that I stay incognito, these people were able to detect the strong power that Ondine, Emilia and Sumara gave off.

Lakshman sighed once before saying, “Elemental Sight.”

In an instant, his eyes began to glow dimly and his vision changed to show only the colours while having everything coloured in grey colour. Lakshman looked at the men surrounded them and he was startled to see that all of them were filled with green colour. This did not make sense to him because they were clearly showing hostile intent, but for them to be coloured in the neutral colour, there must be a deeper reason behind their motive.

Sumara sighed and said, “For once, I agree with Ondine. We won’t give up and we certainly won’t surrender to the likes of you.”

Emilia, on the other hand, had a worried expression on her face as she asked, “Can’t we just talk this over instead of always fighting it out?”

“That’s just silly, Emilia! When you’re faced with a strong opponent, taking them down with true power is the right way to go about it!” Ondine said proudly, causing Emilia to sigh wearily. “Anyway… Come on! Let’s kill them!”

Lakshman turned to her and issuing a Spirit Slave Command, he said, “Ondine, I forbid you from killing them in any way.”

Ondine, so shocked from hearing his words, lost her footing and almost fell over. Emilia and Sumara looked at him with a surprised expression on their faces as Ondine quickly recovered to talk to him.

“What? You don’t want me to kill them?” She asked in an alarmed voice. Then, she pointed at them and said, “They are clearly enemies!”

“No… They are neutral,” said Lakshman as he slowly shook his head. “They must know what they are doing is wrong, but they are still doing it, which means that there must be a strong reason behind the motive of stealing our possessions.”

“Oh… I see,” said Emilia and she nodded in understanding.

At that moment, they heard the man speak loudly again and they turned to listen to what he had to say.

“What’s the matter? Aren’t you to give up your possessions and surrender peacefully? I promise I won’t hurt you if you do so in the next five seconds!”

“Oh…? You expect us to surrender in five seconds?” Ondine asked in a sardonic voice. “Okay then! Here!”

She raised her hand in front of her and started counting one by one at a second while lifting one finger up from her folded fist.

“One… Two… Three… Four… Five…! There! The five seconds you gave us are up and we haven’t surrendered! Now what will you do?” she asked them finally a broad grin on her face.

Emilia looked at her wearily and muttered, “Please… Don’t taunt them...”

The men gripped their weapons, which were either short swords or daggers that appeared to be stolen as well. They became furious at the Ondine’s mockery and all turned to face towards the speaker, who appeared to be their leader.

“What are you standing around thinking for? They’re looking down on us!”

“Yeah! Did you hear that arrogant voice of that woman over there?”

“She’s ridiculous and doesn’t take us seriously at all! On top of that, she mocked us for our leniency!”

The leader guy nodded and said, “Okay. Let’s show them our might!”

With a chorusing roar, they charged towards the place where Lakshman, Emilia, Sumara and Ondine were standing at.

Several of them, charged ahead and reached Ondine before swinging their weapons at her. She easily dodged them all with ease and with an energetic grin on her face, she swung her swords to either side and smacked hard into the sides of their faces.

As they got blasted away, she raised her leg and kicked a guy in front of her. The men flew away in their respective directions and crashed into more people before making hard impact against the forest trees. The rushing men stopped in their tracks and looked towards where their men had collapsed form just her simple attacks.

Ondine swung her swords skilfully and held them in a ready position as she said, “Lucky told me not to kill you bastards, but he never told me to not beat the crap out of you! Come and receive the beating of a lifetime!”

For a moment, the men were frozen with shock, but the leader walked forward and shouted, “What are you fearing? Let’s do it!”

Spurred on by his words, the men charged forward and Ondine grinned before charging towards them at high speed. Once she reached them, she raised her swords and forcefully swung at the leader, who had quickly brought his swords up in surprise. The force of the impact caused his feet to get dragged on the ground and pushed him back.

For a moment, he appeared to be surprised as she asked, “What’s wrong? Surprised by my power?”

He made a serious face and said, “Yes. I’m just surprised that a woman like you is this strong!”

“Thank you,” said Ondine with pleasure.

“It wasn’t a compliment!” he said angrily and he pushed himself back from her before straightening up. He looked at his men that had frozen in the act of attacking to look back at him and shouted, “What the heck are you staring at? Attack the people over there, idiots!”

“Yes!” the men shouted and once again, they charged towards Lakshman, Emilia and Sumara.

“You’re men are certainly bright,” said Ondine sarcastically and he sighed heavily.

“That doesn’t matter. Your main concern is me!” he told her as he took a fighting stance with his two swords.

Ondine grinned and as she took a fighting stance, she said, “Finally! I can fight someone who duel wields, other than Lucky!”

For a moment, the two of them looked at each other intently as the wind slowly blew around them. Then, at the wound of a twig snapping, the two rushed forward and began their clashes with swords. Their first clash sent a powerful shockwave in all directions that picked up the fallen leaves into the air to distract them. However, it was not enough as the two surged through the leaves and fought each other.

As their battle went on, Ondine proved herself to be fast and strong, moving around her opponent and lashing at him easily. However, she was unable to deliver that much damage onto him due to him being able to block most of her attacks fairly easily. He quickly realised that he cannot win this battle through speed and strength like her, so he instead focused his concentration on watching her movements and blocking them while quickly using the opportunity to strike back.

“You’re not bad for a thieving thug!” Ondine to him with a grin on her face.

“Yes and you’re not bad yourself, wild woman,” said the leader with a small smile on his face.

Ondine instantly got angry over those words and she indignantly said, “I’m not a wild woman!”

She leaped back from him and charged towards him at high speed while bringing her swords forward. Just she reached him, he realising something was wrong and jumped over her just in time. In her anger, she unleashed her full might and rapidly swung her swords at an incredible speed. If he had been standing there a moment longer, he would have been able badly wounded.

Landing back down, he turned around and stared at her in disbelief as Ondine, who took a few seconds before coming to a stop. He could not believe what just happened or the fact that her speed and power suddenly increased dramatically due to her becoming angry.

“If I had stayed there, I definitely couldn’t have reacted as she would most likely have cut me up!” he thought with eyes filled with shock.

Ondine turned around and said, “Why did you evade my attack? I wasn’t going to kill you, you know?”

He slowly shook his head and said, “No… Anyone in that position would’ve thought you were off to kill them!”

“Oh… Well, that’s what you get for calling me like that…!” she said wearily as she flexed her arms. “I was trying to hold back and fight you at your level, but it’s annoying when you take advantage of that. Now, I’m going to fight you seriously!”

He was surprised and he was even more astonished when she suddenly disappeared from her position. For a moment, he lost track of her when, all of a sudden, he detected that she stood behind him. He swirled around and saw her disappear instantly before reappearing elsewhere. Like this, she kept disappearing and reappearing at a different location while making little noise. She was clearly trying to disorient him so that she can attack him without him being able to detect her.

At one point, she appeared right next to him and lashed her swords down at him, but he instantly reacted and brought his sword up to defend. The heavy impact on his sword caused him to get move from one position to another while his feet got dragged.

He recovered just in time to see her appear over his head and attempted to cut him, but his reaction speed once again protected him as he brought his sword overhead to defend. The heavy impact caused his knees to buckle and he fell to his knees just before she disappeared once again.

The next time, she appeared at his side and tried to cut him again, but his reflexes kicked in once again and brought his other sword to defend himself. The heavy impact sent him back to where he stood previously and winced as his knees got dragged on the grassy ground.

Like this, she kept disappearing and reappearing quickly and attacked him before he could react. However, all of her attacks were quickly defended by his quick acting reflexes. This surprised her because she was moving at seeds that only someone as powerful as Lakshman would be able to perceive her movement, but this guy was reacting in a heartbeat between when she appears and lashes out at him with her swords.

While reflexively blocking all of her attacks, he thought, “Damn...! She’s face! I’ve totally lost track of her! Luckily, I’m still okay thanks to my reflexes being in such good performance, but still… Who the hell is she? Is she even human to move at this inhuman speeds?!”

Getting frustrated, Ondine appeared over his head and brought both of her swords heavily down. He instinctively realised he cannot block this one and instead, stepped aside and let her hit the ground hard with the swords. A ray of grass leaves rose into the air, but she quickly reacted and brought her swords up and attempted to cut his face. Shocked, he quickly moved his body back and avoided getting cut, except for a few of his hair strands.

With his body bent down, he realised his opportunity and lifted both of his legs to smack her hard on the side of her face. She winced and cried out in surprise from the impact before getting away from him while rubbing the side of her face quickly.

“H-How could you hit a woman’s face with your legs?!” she shouted at him angrily while rubbing the side of her face to calm the pain.

He rose to his feet and straightened up before smiling and asking, “Sorry? You’re a woman? I was sure you’re a man with woman’s look and outfit.”

Ondine stood there still and silent as her eyes widened slowly from the shock of hearing those words. The wind began to blow once again and it carried a coolness with it, but she began burning with rage. She held her face down and firmly held her swords, which shook slightly from how her body was shaking slightly due to the boiling anger inside of her.

“I… I had it!” she bellowed angrily.

Ondine began surging with strong power while being surrounded by blue aura and she lifted her face to glare furiously at him. The wind from her powering up surprised him and it buffeted him for a moment as he staggered back a little. The next instance, Ondine moved towards him at high speed by kicking off the ground.

He saw her coming and prepared to fight her, but was shocked when she suddenly disappeared. The next instance, she reappeared on the other side and landed firmly on the ground in a kneeling position. For a moment, the wind blew fast and buffeted against him. Then, large cuts appeared on his body and blood erupted out of them. He slowly fell backwards and crashed on the ground with a shocked expression on his face, with his blood flowing out of his wounds, including his mouth.

As he lay there bleeding from his multiple wounds, he thought, “Wow… I’m seriously wounded… How…? I didn’t see any of it. She just vanished in front of me and then appeared behind me. In that space of a second, she cut me up so much that I didn’t notice at all?”

Just then, he saw a shadow fall over him and he looked up to see Ondine staring down at him with her swords held at her side. Looking down at him, she gave a satisfactory nod from the result before sheeting her swords at her side.

“Good. You’re still alive. Otherwise, I would’ve been punished by the Spirit Slave Commands,” said Ondine with a satisfying smile on her face.

He blinked at her several times before quietly asking, “Why…?”

“Hmm?” she said and she looked down at him curiously.

“Why…? Why did you go easy on me…? If you’re this strong, then you could’ve ended the battle the moment it started…” he said weakly.

“Yeah and what’s the fun in that?” Ondine asked and surprised him. “Look. The moment I sensed your power, I knew you’re much weaker than me! So, I just stepped my power down a bit to match yours so that I can have an interesting fight. However, don’t think I did it because I pitied you or anything. Rather, I did it so that I can have fun fighting.”

“Have fun fighting…?” he asked wearily and chuckled lightly. “Really… You’re one strange woman.”

“Oh…? You just realised I’m a woman…?” she asked him with a stern look on her face.

He chuckled once again, but coughed out blood before sighing heavily. Then, pulling his strength together, he smiled up at her and said, “Well… With your mannerism, you might as well be another man.”

In an instant, Ondine whacked him with her foot and said, “Hmph! I don’t need that kind of rubbish from you, thieving thug!”

He chuckled when, all of a sudden, a large explosion took place from somewhere nearby. The ground shook violently from the explosion and Ondine tuned to face towards the direction the explosion came from. A huge cloud of smoke slowly into the air from somewhere ahead of the forest.

“What the hell?!” she exclaimed in shock when she saw the great cloud of smoke rising into the air.

The man lay there and looked up slightly to see the smoke rising into the air. In an instant, he realised what it was and where it originated from.

“No…! It came from the village…! Arsha!”

Author's Note

I split the chapter into two parts, one for Ondine's battle and the other for Lakshman's battle.