Lakshman chased after the alien as fast as he could while leaving a trail of golden-red aura behind him. Earlier, he had grabbed the enemy’s face and threw him into the air with all his might to send him away in order to give him time to speak with Alestor with hopes of getting the older man, Erza and his familiars to safety while he engaged against the enemy.

“You know you could’ve destroyed that fool in an instant, right?” Asura asked inside his mind.

“I know that, but I wasn’t sure if his death would trigger something bad to happen. Remember that bombing incident from when that person’s dead body was used as a catalyst for a remote detonating of a destruction magic? I fear the same because he doesn’t seem like the type to go down without a fight.”

Asura snorted and said, “You’re being too cautious.”

“Better to be safe than sorry, Asura. Better to be safe than sorry,” thought Lakshman as he flew towards the enemy.

It took him a few a few seconds to spot the alien flying away, appearing as though him getting thrown through the air caught him by surprise. As he approached him, however, Lakshman’s Elemental Sense triggered an alarm in his mind while, at the same time, his enemy reacted by spinning in the air and propelling himself towards him.

As he saw his enemy pull his fist back, the Solaris Hero pulled his fist back in a split-second decision and slammed it straight into his enemy’s incoming fist. The collision of the two forces caused a violent repelling force to occur, blasting the two men away from each other.

Quickly recovering, Lakshman flew forward at high speed and attempted to hit him again, but this time his enemy was ready; dodging him and smacking him on top of his head and sending him towards the ground. Then he flew away the falling hero at high speed while aiming his right hand down at him.

Several waves of slicing wind soared down on top of him, but Lakshman merely flicked them away with his fingers with ease. Then he spun in the air and landed heavily on the ground, causing many cracks to spread in all directions. A moment later, he pulled is fist back and unleashed it up at his enemy, who had soared down with his fist aimed straight at his face.

The collision of their fists once again caused a powerful repelling force that caused the ground beneath Lakshman to quake and break apart. However, the king from another world quickly recovered to grab the enemy’s fist and swung him around before sending him flying away. Then he chased after him and put his hands together to hammer him hard on his skull.

That was when the alien showed quick reflexes, quickly recovered to land on his feet that got dragged along the way. Then he waved his hand up at his enemy, causing the ground to suddenly rise up and defend him just as Lakshman brought his hands down at it.

His slam against the rock destroyed it to pieces and startled him, which was all the time his enemy needed. At that moment when the rock got destroyed, the alien pulled is fist back, gathered great amounts of energy into it, and smashed it straight into Lakshman’s face before his enemy could do anything about it.

As his fist slammed into his face, Lakshman was blasted backwards for several meters before he recovered and landed on his feet, which got dragged before he came to a stop. He felt a pained sensation from his nose, and he touched it experimentally to see if it was broken or not; luckily it was not broken. Still, that made him become aware that something was different about his enemy.

“Were his punches always this strong because I feel as though I was hit by one of Lagron’s attack?”

“No. His punches aren’t this strong. Maybe, he put a lot of power into his attack that caused this result,” replied Asura inside his mind.

The alien, Bruton, stared at the enemy with a cool expression on his face, but his thoughts were racing. That punch carried a lot of power behind it, and yet, it did not even manage to break his enemy’s nose. This simple demonstration showed him that his enemy was more powerful than he had expected, even without his Hero Weapon.

“Damn! He’s too overpowered!” He complained in frustration. “I’m so close to completing the mission that I can just feel it, so why now did he have to show up?!”

“I’m surprised that you’re capable of punching this hard, and here I thought you were just a magician,” commented Lakshman casually.

Bruton snorted and replied, “Please…! There’s more of where that came from!”

In an instant, he took on a fighting stance to thoroughly trash his enemy while Lakshman appeared cool and relaxed. He did enter into a fighting stance, but it was slightly different to the one he always took; it was cool, relaxed and seemed to make him look almost casual. However, anyone would be a fool to think he had dropped his guard because he was ready to strike at a moment’s notice without pause or hesitation.

For several seconds, they stood there without moving a centimetre from their original position, staring fixedly at one another. If they had been hoping for one of them to make the first move, they were mistaken because both sides did not feel it was necessary to initiate the fight. The alien was waiting for the enemy to make his move to spring a trap onto him while Lakshman was aware of this fact and was waiting for his enemy to attack first.

Finally, with no movement coming from him, Bruton finally exclaimed, “Well, come on. I can’t waste my entire day staring at you.”

Lakshman smiled and replied, “My thoughts exactly.”

The alien smirked and relented by saying, “Fine. If you aren’t going to make the first move, then I will!”

With that shout, the alien raised his fist into the air and clenched it very tightly. As he did, the ground began to shake all around them before Lakshman felt an immense force pulling him down. His knees buckled, and he was almost brought onto his knees when he saw his enemy surge with power and charge towards him at high speed.

“You have to do better that this!” Lakshman exclaimed and aimed his hand down at the ground.

As he activated Maga Distrab without saying it out loud, the magic spell got destroyed, and he felt like he could move freely again. Then he engaged in a fierce close combat battle against the alien, who worse a twisted look on his face. He was amazed about the alien’s ability to hold his own in a battle against him, but he could sense the desperation in the fighting style of his enemy.

“It looks like he’s trying to take you out with as much force as possible to overpower you,” commented the fairy inside his mind.

“Pathetic,” remarked Asura in a cold voice. “He’s gotten desperate and lost his cool because he’s probably feeling the pressure of being so close to completing his mission or whatever.”

“It looks like he hasn’t realised it yet,” stated the fairy.

“Which is good for us,” said Asura in a confident voice. “Don’t prolong this fight, Lakshman! He could pull a trap on us!”

“Right,” muttered Lakshman, leaping away from the enemy to give himself some room to prepare his next attack.

“What’s the matter? Are you chickening out?” The alien taunted him daringly with an arrogant look on his face.

He was clearly trying to goad the hero into feeling angry and letting his feelings cloud his judgement and attack head on. Asura would probably have done the same, but Lakshman was a cool-headed warrior and realised the hidden intentions behind his enemy’s goading words.

So, he smiled and said, “Sure,” before clapping his hands together.

In an instant, there was a violent flash of light, causing Bruton to cover his eyes to shield them from the sudden brightness. When the light dimmed, he uncovered his eyes and stared in shock at the fact that a thousand copies of his enemy stood before him, all with smiles on their faces.

“Let’s see you try this on for size!” The copies of Lakshman spoke simultaneously.

As they charged towards him, Bruton grimaced and raised his hand into the air before conjuring a black ball in the middle of his palm. A moment later, small bullets of energy flew rapidly in all directions, smashing into each and every copy and destroying them. Within seconds, all thousand warriors were reduced to a single lone figure as smoke drifted around, created when the copies got destroyed.

Then he aimed his hand at him and squeezed his hand tightly, causing his enemy to feel a tight pressure around him and made him trip and fall to the ground. Still, his enemy got back to his feet and glared menacingly at him, which made the alien smirk, boost himself with his magic and fly towards him at an incredible speed.

His movement was so fast that it looked like a blur; one moment he was standing still, the next he was right in front of his enemy. Reacting to his attack, the hero reacted by taking on a fighting position and attempted to punch him in the face. However, he was stunned when Bruton dodged around his arm and delivered a powerful strike into his gut, which carried with it a large amount of energy.

Bruton was pleased with himself, but he became shocked when his enemy suddenly got destroyed and vanished in a puff of smoke. At first, he was puzzled as to what had happened before realising that he had been tricked. As he came to the conclusion, the real Lakshman appeared through the smoke with his fist clenched and at the ready to strike.

“You won’t get me!” The alien exclaimed and reacted quickly by pulling his fist back, amplifying his arm with magic and then throwing it straight at his enemy’s face.

His attack struck Lakshman squarely on his forehead and caused a violent wind to be sent in all directions. However, he was shocked when the king from another world remained smiling while standing firmly on his feet. In the next moment, Lakshman pushed forward and startled his enemy before bringing his fist forward and delivering it straight into his enemy’s stomach.

The alien gasped for breath while widening his eyes in shock, but the attack did not stop there. Going with the flow, the Solaris Hero pulled his left clenched fist forward and delivered yet another powerful strike in his enemy’s gut. Then he took a low stance and launched an uppercut straight at the alien’s jaw, momentarily lifting him into the air. Before he could fly away, however, Lakshman grabbed his enemy by his leg, spun him around like a lasso and smashed him down on the ground, causing it to shake violently while cracks appeared all around them.

“This is what you get for messing with an enemy who’s just way too much for you to handle alone,” stated Lakshman, looking down furiously down at his enemy.

He heard the alien making small groaning sounds, almost sounding like he was in pain. It was no wonder because Lakshman had used almost all of his strength in each of his attacks just now that could have crippled an ordinary man and destroyed all of his internal organs, causing them to die instantly. He felt he had to do at least that much to knock his enemy down and make sure he would not pull any kind of trick on him.

“Now, tell me what you’re hiding in the city!” Lakshman demanded, glaring down at his fallen enemy.

There was no reply except for the groaning sound the alien kept making. He sighed before he lowered his hand and raised the enemy up by his shirt collar so that he was in a kneeling position facing him. Lakshman could tell that he was badly injured by his powerful strikes and momentarily wondered whether he had actually caused his organs to fail.

Suddenly, his Elemental Sense triggered an alarm in his mind while, at the same time, the alien’s third eye suddenly appeared on his forehead and fired a powerful laser beam straight at the right side of Lakshman’s face, burning his face and causing him to feel a great deal of pain.