The wind quickly picked up pace and blew rapidly towards the first prince, the new person in the group, and the rest of the Nine Heroes of Legends. It was coming from Lakshman, who was facing them, as he surged with power that resulted in the pressure in the air to thicken. The pressure was so intense that many of the warriors stood rooted to the spot and stared at the wind and surge of power with shocked expressions on their faces.

“W-What is this?!” The new person, Mark, shouted in a shocked voice, his eyes shooting upward wildly.

“Wow! He’s serious!” Vikram exclaimed, feeling a little scared by the fearsome expression on Lakshman’s face.

“Man…! This is tense!” Maxwell commented through gritted teeth as he struggled to stand firmly on his feet.

Martin was shaking where he stood, ready to collapse at any second because of how frightened he was off the atmosphere that Lakshman had created for them. Fred was in the same situation as him, but he was at least able to remain composed enough to speak properly.

“G-Go easy on us, Lucky!” Fred implored his comrade in a beseeching voice but his voice was drowned out by the wind.

William faced this with one hand in front of him as if to block the wind’s advancement while wearing a grin on his face.

“Wow…! I’ve faced dangerous pressure before when faced against overwhelming enemy forces, but this is the first time I feel like I won’t come out unscathed!” He commented, sounding quite happy despite the struggle he was facing.

Ward, who stood behind them all, had his book closed and was using his as a shield against the wind. Natsu was also unable to say anything due to the struggle he was faced with against the wild wind, forcing him to use his hands to shield himself against it. Even Gram was gritting his teeth as he struggled to keep his balance in check against the wind, but he had his eyes focused solely on Lakshman with a serious expression on his face.

Asura, who was watching this scene through Lakshman’s vision, sighed inside his mind and said, “They certainly are shaking in their boots.”

“For now,” replied Lakshman with a smile as he looked at one individual that was not reacting like the rest.

The certain individual was none other than the first prince, who seemed to be doing a better job of standing firmly against the wind. It appeared that he was initially taken by surprise by him suddenly unleashing his power, but he quickly composed himself and was facing him with a definite confidence on his face.

Bolten, who had gotten accustomed to the pressure when Lakshman unleashed his power, quickly pressed several buttons on his Magical Enhanced Devices and it immediately caused the wind to split away from him. In the next moment, he pressed several more buttons on the device before kicking off the ground to head towards his opponent.

This time, it was Lakshman’s turn to be surprised because Bolten had instantly covered the few meters separating him and him. By the time he noticed him coming, Bolten had already raised his sword and was in the motion of bringing it down on him.

Reacting fast, Lakshman summoned his Hero Weapon, the Golden Trident, and swung it upward to deflect the oncoming blade. When the two weapons smashed into one another, the repulsive force from the impact sent Bolten backwards, but as soon as he landed, he vanished only to reappear right behind the Solaris Hero. Sensing his position, Lakshman spun his trident around and blocked the next strike before spinning his body around while moving the spear in an attempt to strike him.

Once again, Bolten showed quick reflexes when he diverted his sword swing to clash against the opponent’s trident to evade the assault. Even so, it did not dither his efforts in the slightest because he was back to moving at an incredible speed as soon as his feet touched the ground. Watching this spectacle from the sidelines, everyone was quite amazed with the proficient skills that the first prince was demonstrating against the Solaris Hero.

“I must admit, his speed is incredible!” Asura voiced his amazement inside of Lakshman’s mind.

His present self-smiled a little at the comment and replied, “No. This isn’t speed. He’s teleporting.”

“What? Teleporting? Are you certain?” Asura asked, sounding stunned.

“Of course, because the fact that even I can’t keep track of him is proof of that,” replied Lakshman in a confident voice.

While he was speaking inside his mind, Lakshman managed to evade Bolten’s attacks several times, including the one occasion where he fired a fire ball at him after pressing the buttons on his Magic Enhanced Device. As the first prince closed in on him again, Lakshman decided to send a clear message that he was onto his trick and swirled around to kick him in the back where he suddenly appeared.

The force of the kick was strong and it sent Bolten flying through the air for several meters before he gracefully landed on his feet. He then straightened up while rubbing the center of his chest where the impact had occurred, wincing slightly from the pain.

“That’s some skill, teleporting back and forth like that,” commented Lakshman, looking impressed.

His words surprised Bolten before the prince smiled and asked, “What gave it away?”

Lakshman seemed to ponder for a moment before he smiled and stated, “Well, this isn’t like boasting or anything but… I’m confident that I’m the strongest warrior in this world—ouch!”

As soon as he finished his words, his Elemental Sense triggered an alarm before he was suddenly struck from behind. It was a simple matter of the attacker punching him in the back, but the force carried from the speed was so strong that Lakshman was blown off his feet and he crash landed on the ground.

“You let your guard down,” said the assailant in a gleeful voice, who turned out to be Vikram.

Taking the opportunity of Lakshman focusing only on Bolten allowed the rest to calm down and allowed Vikram to make his first move. Lakshman slowly stood up and turned around to look at him while the young man continued speaking in a confident voice.

“You may be the most powerful warrior in the world, but I’m the fastest man around here!” Vikram said boastingly.

With that said, he immediately charged towards Lakshman at super speed and punched him across the face. Once again, having been taken by surprise, Lakshman stumbled backwards as his face hurt a little while Vikram raced away from him. A moment later, the Solaris Hero lurched forward with a grunt as the Sonic Hero came back and punched him again in the back before racing away like before.

Like this, the Sonic Hero raced back and forth while delivering punches and kicks to Lakshman in an effort to evade a retaliation. This did not last long because, all of a sudden, Lakshman got very serious and moved so fast that everyone was stunned that he was able to move like that.

Vikram, speed running as fast as the wind, was shocked when Lakshman turned around to face him and seemed to match his every movement. As the king from another world pulled his fist back, the Sonic Hero realized he was about to get hit and desperately changed the direction of his travel. Unfortunately, he slipped and fell that resulted in him crash landing several meters away.

At the same time that he fell, Lakshman unleashed his fist forward and sent a powerful force to where Vikram was at moments before. The attack force travelled the length of the arena and smashed heavily against the boundary wall, leaving a cave-in on the wall as mark of his attack.

“Wow…!” Bolten muttered, staring at the impact on the wall in total amazement. “If a normal person was hit by that, they’d be knocked out in addition to having several of their bone broken in several places.”

“It was meant to be a knock out punch but,” said Lakshman, and he trailed away while he turned to face towards Vikram, who was slowly getting back to his feet while sporting several bruises on his arms and legs. As a consolation for evading his attack, Lakshman said, “You did a good job evading my attack even though you ended up slipping.”

The wounded Sonic Hero did not say anything as he winced from the pain he felt from his injuries, who were bleeding a little bit. He did, however, look very annoyed when he glanced at Lakshman because of the comment he made.

“I know. I lack practice and you’re going to tell me I need to practice to perfect myself. Isn’t that right?” Vikram asked, looking dully at him, and Lakshman smiled while spreading his arms out in surrender.

Suddenly, there was a movement from behind as someone attempt to attack Lakshman from behind, but the Solaris Hero vanished on the spot before the attack could reach him and reappeared standing a few feet away. He looked at the assailant and smiled to see that it was Gram, the Tempest Hero. It looked like he was ready to attack him with full force, and he had good reason to want to fight him with all he had because of their past dealings.

“Don’t you dare hold back on me like last time!” Gram said, gripping his sword firmly with both hands as he focused only on his opponent.

Lakshman, realizing that perhaps tantalizing his enemy was a better choice, chuckled and replied with, “If I don’t hold back, you won’t be standing for much longer.”

He had expected it to rile Gram up into a fury like it did many times before, but it clearly did not work this time as Gram suddenly smiled a little and said, “I’ll take that as a challenge accepted. Now, here I come!”

With that shout, Gram kicked off the ground and shot straight towards Lakshman before commencing their battle. It was a speedy movement between sword and spear as the two warriors squared off against one another. Only Bolten was smiling because of this expected outcome. He was confident in his swordsmanship, but he knew it paled in comparison to Gram and the rest of the Nine Heroes of Legends. As such, he used his momentary distraction to divert Lakshman’s pressure away and let the others commence their assault on the him.

“Hey! Your movement is dull! Are you serious?” Gram asked, looking rather annoyed that his opponent was moving in a sluggish manner.

Lakshman grimaced while dodging the attacks and said, “Ward is certainly using his magic prowess to impede me.”

He was right because one glance at the Walmeky Hero could easily tell what the mute warrior was up to. Ward had his Magic Book open and it was glowing as its spell was active, which was the reduction of speed and skill of the victim. Normally, it was a dangerous spell to use as it almost renders the victim weak, but since the target of this spell was Lakshman, the effects were not as strong.

“Maybe, it’s to do with the level of his power or skill in using that spell?” Lakshman thought curiously.

“In any case, it’s better you knock Ward out!” Asura suggested.

Silently agreeing to him, Lakshman clashed his spear against Gram’s sword before using brute force to push the Tempest Hero aside. With his other arm, he aimed it towards Ward and fired a powerful energy wave that was enough to knock the Walmeky Hero off his feet, smash him into the wall and knock him out. However, that plan was interrupted when Fred came in between them, summoned his Hero Weapon, a shield, and used it to stop the attack.

He struggled for a moment to block the attack before relaxing when the wave died and vanished. Lifting the shield and holding it to the side, he looked in Lakshman’s direction and showed him a serene smile.

“You’re forgetting that we’re also here,” Fred commented lightly.

“No, but I was confident you’d use your shield to defend him so that I can do… THIS!”

Lakshman yelled the last word and clapped his hands together, causing a violent wind to blow in the arena that sent Gram flying to the side. Then, he charged towards Fred with incredible speed but suddenly had to sidetrack when arrows seemingly flew out of nowhere, being fired by William, the Titanium Hero.

“Not so fast!” William said, firing arrow after arrow in Lakshman’s line of path to obstruct him.

At the same time, Fred unslung the shield strapped to his arm and, with great strength and accuracy, flung it straight at Lakshman much to his surprise. As it soared towards him, Lakshman evaded it, which was exactly what Fred had been waiting for because he suddenly aimed his right hand towards the shield and shouted words that were the trigger to a spell.

“Detonate!”

In an instant, the shield glowed brightly and exploded right near Lakshman, causing the ground to shake a little while a violent burst of wind was unleashed within the arena. Smoke escaped from the explosion and spread in all directions within the arena, causing everyone to lose sight of their surroundings.

As the smoke cleared, they saw Lakshman lying down on the ground with several bleeding injuries. They watched in silent astonishment at the achievement they were able to obtain while fighting him.

Natsu wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, “Phew. That’s good. I was a little worried that it might kill him since it would’ve killed and reduced a normal man into ashes. Thanks for seeing it through, Fred.”

Fred shook his head and smiled as he replied, “No way! It was your plan, to lure Lakshman towards me and then use the shield as a bomb to knock him out! I only carried it out, but I will admit I was a little worried whether the power output was sufficient or too much.”

“For a guy like him, it’s sufficient enough! Rather, I expected more!” Vikram commented, who had just walked over to them while clutching his injured arm.

“Yes! That was quite surprising, but it turned out good in the end!” William said triumphantly.

Gram, on the other hand, complained by saying, “I don’t like this! My battle with him was interrupted!”

“You wouldn’t have stood a chance against him with your current level of strength, Gram! Understand that!” Vikram replied with an annoyed look on his face. “I’d say you should be thankful that you didn’t end up being defeated outright thanks to their effort!”

The Tempest Hero was silent as he had no words to reply with, but his angry expression showed how unhappy he was.

Bolten reached them and just as he was about to congratulate them on their effort, they suddenly heard a familiar voice say from high above, “Positron… Lancer…!”

Shocked by the voice, they all looked up in the direction the voice came from and saw a floating figure high in the air. They instantly recognized that it was Lakshman with a grin on his face, and he held a spear of energy with his right hand. As they stared up in shock, his grin broadened as he hurled the spear in their direction with immense force.

“What the?!” Vikram exclaimed in horror.

“He’s up and about?!” Martin shouted in shock.

“No! He’s still here!” William exclaimed, pointing at the unconscious form of Lakshman before them.

“Now’s not the time!” Fred shouted, reacting the quickest among them as he focused his attention on the energy of spear. “Whatever that attack is, it’s strong!”

“I’ll dispel it!” Natsu said, moving forward and aiming his hand up at the spear of energy. “Vanish!”

As he shouted, he concentrated on visualizing the attack disappearing, feeling confident it would happen like he was able to so many times before. When he opened his eyes, his smile slowly faded and was replaced with horror as the spear of energy continued to fly towards them, seemingly splitting the wind as it came down.

“I’m afraid you’re not strong enough to nullify that, Natsu! I suggest you all to evade it!”

They heard Lashman’s voice echo inside each of their minds and were stunned by how light his voice sounded. While they were all stunned, Bolten quickly recovered his wits and issued an order towards the Walkemy Hero.

“Ward! Please deploy your strongest barrier you got! I fear this one’s too powerful to be stopped.”

Ward nodded without reply, and his book flipped several of its pages before it showed what he wanted to see. As soon as the book began shining, he activated the spell, Reinforced Reactor, and caused a dome like visible barrier shape to envelop them while keeping them safe on the inside. Just as soon as the barrier formed, the spear of energy came down and struck it with incredible force, which resulted in a massive explosion.

It was to be expected that the immense power carried within the spear was great due to its user, but none of them could realize that. It decimated the battleground and the destruction quickly spread in all directions, threatening to engulf the unprotected second prince and the princess. At the same time, Lakshman aimed his spell, Reinforce Barrier, that formed a really powerful barrier around them.

The blast cracked and destroyed the ground, causing massive damage to the landscape of the arena. The explosion lasted for several seconds before everything became quiet and still. Smoke could be seen spreading in all directions, clouding their view until it slowly cleared to reveal the massive amount of destruction that attack had caused. What they saw was something close to a devastation and made them feel amazed that their surroundings did not come crashing down on top of them.

“Are you kidding me?!” Vikram yelled, his eyebrows shooting upward in shock. “This is insane!”

“Unbelievable,” muttered Natsu, who was equally as shocked as Vikram.

Martin had hit the ground with his bottom and sat there, shaking like a leaf as he stared at the destruction around them. Fred, Maxwell, William, and Gram were silent but they knew how close they had come to being on the receiving end of such a disastrous attack. Even Santa and Erza were appalled at the destruction that had transpired before them.

As Lakshman descended several meters away with a smile on his face, Bolten turned to him and asked in a cool voice, “Was that planned, or did you do it unintentionally?”

Lakshman shrugged his shoulders and said, “Perhaps both.” As they looked at him with confusion, he grew serious as he said, “I mean, all of you lost sight of me and believed that I was defeated just because my body was down and injured. Seriously, didn’t you learn anything during your battle against the aliens, about the way he tricked us into believing we had won when he pulled a surprise on us all?”

He did not know the full details considering it had been Asura who had been fighting at that time, but he was able to surmise the details just from the information that Asura relayed to him later.

The alien was clever, tricking them into thinking they had won the fight against the gigantic boulder when he suddenly made it explode, causing a shower of rocks to fall in all directions and greatly injure Asura at that time. While that was happening, everyone had been desperately trying to live by not caring what happened to the other people that could have been in the line of fire. Remembering this, they lowered their heads in shame and remained silent.

“If we were stronger, we could’ve been able to handle it!” Vikram said with a heated expression on his face.

Lakshman shook his head and said firmly, “No! It’s not possessing more strength and all; it’s about being aware of your weaknesses, working towards improving them, and anticipating the worst. They are the fundamental key factors in ensuring a warrior stays focused and at attention at all times. Like earlier, for example.

You all believed I was downed because of that explosion taking me by surprise, but did you stop and think ‘How come such an immensely powerful warrior get defeated so easily?’ None of you came to that conclusion and instead were feeling triumphant about your apparent victory. If you had anticipated the worst, you could’ve realized that I was up to something and then maybe be ready to react, but none of you were ready; you were too shocked to do anything!”

He was hammering them with strong verbal insults at their easy attitude because he was furious by the fact that they had left their guard down at a crucial point. After coming to this world and meeting that alien, Lakshman came to the realization that nothing was as it appeared to be and that there was going to be more danger if he was to ignore the obvious clues. That was why, he was a bit serious about his earlier attack in using the Positron Lancer attack.

Seeing them looking depressed, he realized he had to take it one step further and said, “If you were anticipating an attack from me, you would’ve realized that I would do… this!” With that, he pulled his right hand up and conjured yet another spear of energy, then he took a position and hurled it at them while shouting, “Positron Lancer!”

As it flew towards them, most of them reacted in shock and took a step back in retreat from the sudden fright. Out of them all, only one person charged forward with the intent of fighting against this sudden attack that none of them were expecting or prepared for. That person was none other than Raze, who took her position in front of the group and faced this attack without a shred of hesitation.

“Raze!”

“Get back!”

“Get out of there, miss!”

Ignoring the shouts of protest, she pulled back her sleeve to reveal the Magic Enhanced Device strapped to her arm. She began pressing buttons at a quick pace and seemed to finish entering the activation code of a technique she was about to use. Thus, she took aim with both of her hands at the incoming attack and shouted out the attack she was about to unleash.

“Blaze Cannon!”

In an instant, fire began to gather around her out of thin air and formed into a large ball of energy, which was released in a massive wave of destruction that soared straight towards the Positron Lancer.

“Wow!”

That was the collective whisper that the group said when they watched her powerful attack soaring away. Lakshman, on the other hand, had widened his eyes in shock; not because of the attack or its power, but because of its implications. There was only ever one person, other than his ex-mentors, who had been able to use such a powerful spell. In later years, he even realized that attack had become something like a signature reserved by the one person that he met at the age of sixteen. However, it shocked him to find that the person using it now was not the same person he knew off.

He slowly shook his head in shock, his eyes wide with alarm, as he slowly muttered, “No… way…! It… It can’t be! T-That’s… That’s the attack that… that Erza always uses!”