The Phoenix Titan was surprised when his ancient rival suddenly chose to call him by his nickname. This amazed him and went a long way in showing him the great change that the previously arrogant and self-centred man that was his rival had gone through. So, he smiled as the two warriors began to surge with incredible power that shook the ground violently as the they looked at one another.

They continued to surge with power while the ground shook and the wind blew wildly around them before they kicked off the ground and flew towards each other at an immeasurable speed. The two lashed their fists out and collided them against each other in mid-air at the centre of the arena which resulted in another release of wild wind and energy everywhere.

They tried to push with great force against each other, and Lakshman was amazed when he suddenly got pushed back by his rival. With an immense push, Lagron sent his rival flying away as he bested him in that small contest of strength, but the Phoenix Titan quickly regained himself by rotating around in mid-air and landing on his feet.

As he recovered, Lagron kicked off and rocketed towards him at such a speed that he was on top of his opponent in the blink of an eye. Lakshman was startled by this and immediately kicked at him, but his rival vanished before and Lucky’s foot flew through empty air.

“What?” Lakshman reacted with surprise at his sudden disappearance.

The Dragon Titan suddenly appeared behind him and delivered a powerful punch to his back, which sent him flying away to the other end of the arena. The Phoenix Titan gritted his teeth from the pain he felt before recovering and rotating his body around to land his feet before kicking off and flying towards his rival while surging with immense power.

He lashed his fist out, but Lagron easily caught it and retaliated by throwing his own fist towards him. Lakshman evaded it and spun his body around to land his leg on top of the Dragon Titan’s head. However, his attempt failed when his opponent caught him with his free hand and swung him around like a doll before slamming him down hard against the ground.

Lakshman was momentarily stunned before he was, once again, grabbed by the leg and hoisted into the air before swung down to land heavily against the ground again, this time on his back. He groaned from the pain before he was hoisted into the air once again. Like a cycle, Lagron performed this repetitive action of hoisting his rival into the air and then slamming him down hard against the ground before hoisting him up again to repeat the process.

After numerous times like this, Lagron let him lay there and said, “Surprising isn’t it, Lucky? I’m much stronger than you now.”

His opponent did not give a response as he lay there silently and did nothing when he suddenly pushed himself off the ground and aimed both of his hands with the immense energy he had gathered towards his opponent. The Dragon Titan was surprised by this as Lakshman fired the massive wave of destruction at him at a close range.

Lagron gritted his teeth and crossed his arms in front of him while taking a defensive stance as the wave rocketed forward and enveloped him. It continued to fly towards the wall before smashing into it and exploding, resulting in a lot of smoke to spread everywhere in the arena.

A moment later, the smoke cleared and showed Lagron standing there in the same defensive form as before. Then he unravelled his arms and looked towards his opponent, his eyes gleaming with confidence. Lakshman, on the other hand, was amazed by the sheer strength and endurance of his rival.

Lagron began to surge with power and kicked off to rocket towards his rival by pulling his fist back. Then he unleashed it forward with immense force while Lakshman surged with his own power and retaliated by punching the incoming attack. Once again, there was a struggle of powers between the two before the clear victor was seen when Lagron began to push his rival back.

This time, Lakshman pulled back to leap away from the attack before gathering energy in the palms of his hands and firing them directly at his opponent. The Dragon Titan reacted by defending himself against each and every energy ball. By deflecting them away from him in other directions.

As he deflected the energy balls, Lakshman stopped firing them and gathered immense energy before unleashing it into a wave of destruction at his rival. The wave soared towards Lagron at an incredible speed possessing great power, but the Dragon Titan did not move away from it. Instead, he joined his hands together and pulled them back before swinging them at the wave upon it reaching him.

There was a strong impact with the wave against his joined hands before it got deflected up into the air. As the attack soared high into the sky harmlessly, he looked back at his opponent, who was looking at him with surprise.

“Surprised?” Lagron asked him, who appeared to be smiling despite his appearance not revealing it.

“I guess so,” Lakshman replied with a wry smile.

“Don’t worry because the surprises will keep coming!” Lagron shouted and charged his own wave of destruction before firing in an instant.

The red wave of destruction came soaring towards him and made Lakshman leap into the air to avoid it. As it flew by, Lagron looked up at him just as Lakshman clapped his hands together in front of him and shouted a magic spell out loud.

“Thousand Army!”

There was an instantaneous flash of light that occurred from where he hovered that caused everyone to cover their eyes. Once the massive light died down, they looked back at the arena and were startled to see a thousand copies of Lakshman hovering around in mid-air as they all focused their attention down on their opponent.

“Woah,” remarked Lagron in amazement. “I forgot you had this technique with you.”

“You should’ve remembered,” said the copies of Lakshman with smiles on their faces before declaring, “Attack!”

At their shout, they began to unleash a barrage of energy blasts down on Lagron, who began to dodge and leap around the incoming balls of destruction. He dodged a few of them before surging with power and kicking off the ground hard to rocket towards the nearest copy of Lakshman. In an instant, he disappeared on the ground and reappeared in front of the copy before landing a powerful punch into his gut, causing him to groan and vanish in a puff of smoke.

“Simple,” remarked the Dragon Titan as he turned to face the remaining copies of Lakshman. “Here I come!”

As if he was smiling through that armour, he rocketed towards the next one and just like before, he delivered a powerful punch to the gut that made them vanish in a puff of smoke. Like this, he continued flying towards the next copy of Lakshman and punching them so hard that they would vanish in a puff of smoke before they could defend themselves.

The copies of the Phoenix Titan attempted to attack him while others fired blasts at him, but the Dragon Titan merely dodged around the attacks and deflected the incoming blasts straight back at their caster, taking them out in the process. Like that, Lagron decimated the copies of his rival with relative ease, and he appeared to be enjoying it from his body language.

“You’ve got to do better than this, Lucky!” He called while his eyes gleamed with pride.

After several seconds of destroying the copies, only one remained. Smiling, he charged towards him while Lakshman used Elemental Coated Armor and sent out his energy hand to grab him, but his rival was too quick. He weaved and dodged around the hands as he flew towards him and arrived hovering above him.

At that moment, as he was about to attack his rival, he suddenly realised something and raised his left arm in defence. His action proved to be correct as another Lakshman had come soaring down to kick him with all the force behind it. But the plan failed and as the two Lakshmans stared at him in disbelief, Lagron grinned as he charged up a large energy ball with his right hand and flew up a little to slam against the Lakshman that had attacked him in a sneaky play.

The large ball of destruction struck that Lakshman on the side of his face, and he was instantly propelled downward with immense force before smashing heavily against the ground as an explosion occurred. A few seconds later, the dust cleared and revealed Lakshman laying there and groaning from the heavy impact.

Lagron chuckled at the sight when he suddenly raised his left hand and caught the punch that was directed towards him by the second Lakshman. Then he clenched his right arm and delivered a powerful elbow attack onto his rival’s stomach. Lakshman groaned from the attack before Lagron whirled around and joined his two hands together before landing them directly on top of him.

The heavy impact sent the Phoenix Titan propelling downward before smashing heavily into the ground. A few seconds later, the dust cleared to reveal him lying there, motionless, before he turned into a ball of light and flew off to merge into his real body. A moment later, Lakshman began to push himself up while moaning from the heavy pain he was dealt by his rival.

“It seems that a clear winner can be declared from this!” Lagron said triumphantly.

Lakshman gritted his teeth and replied, “I’m not beaten yet!” Then he began to surge with immense power while he screamed as his power grew.

As he was fuelled by immense power while radiating golden-red aura, he kicked off the ground and flew so fast that Lagron was taken by surprise. As soon as he reached him, Lakshman lashed out and delivered a powerful punch straight to his gut that stunned the Dragon Titan. From there, he began to unleash a barrage of fists and kicks at his stunned opponent before firing a massive wave of destruction at point blank range.

Lagron got blasted back several meters before he broke out from the wave and flew back to land a heavy blow against Lakshman’s face. However, the Phoenix Titan remained resolute as he continued to deliver blow after blow into the Dragon Titan’s armoured body but it did not seem to be dealing any damage because Lagron suddenly pulled his head back and delivered a headbutt that knocked Lakshman back and momentarily stunned him.

In that one moment, the Dragon Titan rushed forward and unleashed a barrage of fists and kicks at him at a faster speed than his opponent. Finally, he gathered a large ball of energy into his hand and unleashed it on top of his rival, which propelled him downward and that resulted in a mighty explosion that shook the ground, sending debris everywhere. A few seconds later, the smoke settled and showed Lakshman laying there with a disgruntled expression on his face.

“Seems like the Phoenix Titan is down for the count!” Lagron proclaimed energetically.

“Like I said, I’m not beaten yet!” Lakshman said, and once again, he rose to his feet and looked up at his rival.

Lagron descended and landed gently on the arena floor and looked on at his rival, who also rose to his feet to look back at him wearily.

“What’re you going to do next? Pull another transformation like me?” Lagron asked sarcastically.

Lakshman did not say anything, but he was thinking about what his next move should be.

“He’s certainly gotten way stronger and way faster than before, more so than me right now! I’ve got to put maximum output but even then, I don’t know if I can still win against him. Not with my current level of power, and I doubt I can transform since I’ve already unlocked my full potential already,” he thought to himself.

It was then that Asura suggested, “No. You haven’t unlocked your full potential. Not with me around.”

“What? What do you mean by that, Asura?” Lakshman asked his past-self.

“Like I said, you aren’t at your full potential because I’m not a part of you right now. I’ve separated from the Spirit Cells of your past lives, which is why you possess such immense power, strength, and speed, but you aren’t complete without me because you don’t possess any of what I possess other than the memories we share.”

The Phoenix Titan was surprised to hear this explanation and did not like where the conversation was going, but he still asked nonetheless as the first Phoenix Titan incarnation seemed to know the solution to this.

“So, what do you suggest we do about it?”

To that, he sensed Asura smile as he replied, “It’s simple really. I permanently become one with you.”