"Aaaaaaah!"

With a loud yell, Ondine lunged at Lakshman. The two swords she held in her hands were glowing brightly in blue light. His wasn't sure why she lunged at him like that. He brought his sword up, intending to block it, when a sudden realisation dawned on him.

"Wha-!"

He moved his sword away from her swords and jumped out of the way. It turned out to be a good move. A moment later, the swords struck the ground. With a tremendous force, the ground got smashed. His eyes widened when he saw what the swords did to the ground.

"W-what... was that?!" He shouted.

"Tch! I missed," Ondine said in a disappointed tone.

"Of-course you did, I dodged you!" Lakshman said in an annoyed expression on his face. "Seriously! What were you thinking using so much force suddenly on me like that?!"

"Oh... I didn't intend to hurt you master," Ondine said reassuringly. "My aim was at your sword."

"My sword?!" He said incredulously. "Whatever did my sword do to you?!"

"No, no! This’s not it!" Ondine said, waving her hands in surprise. "I only wanted to win the match without hurting you."

"...what?"

"Master, I only intended to break your sword. That way you will be weapon-less and I will automatically be declared the winner!"

For a few seconds, Lakshman stood frozen to the spot. He could not believe what he just heard. Then he looked down at his sword and shuddered when he remembered her previous attack.

"Why... why destroy the sword? Couldn't you just... um... scratch me up or something?"

He was obviously shaken by the thought of his sword getting destroyed.

Ondine sighed and said "No master. I do not wish to bring harm to my master. Besides, it is allowed to break the weapons of your opponents to win a fight."

"What?!" He said in disbelief. "There is no way that could be allowed!"

“You don’t believe me? Then ask Sumara over there. I’m sure she agrees as well.”

He blinked at her suggestion, startled. Then he looked over at Sumara, who was sitting on the grass watching them.

Sumara sat on the grass, got tired after standing for some time, and watched them. She was impressed by the level of skill both Lakshman and Ondine showed. Both possess incredible speed and strength. However, the difference could easily be told.

She noticed Ondine was slower in reacting than Lakshman, even though she had accurate attacks on Lakshman with her two swords. However, it amazed her at seeing Lakshman’s lightning fast reflexes and movements. Secretly, Sumara was actually voting for Lakshman to win.

When they stopped fighting, she thought she heard them talking. Wondering what they talked about, she noticed raw energy suddenly flowing around Ondine. She watched, as Ondine’s two swords slowly glowed brighter in a blue light.

“Wow...” Sumara muttered as she watched blades glow. “Maximum Energy Blades...?”

She was surprised by Ondine’s weapons glowing, but she didn’t have time to ponder on it. The next instant, she saw Ondine lunge at Lakshman with her blue glowing swords. Sumara watched, fearfully, as Lakshman raised his sword to parry Ondine’s swords.

“No...” Sumara muttered in a desperate voice. “Get away... Get away!”

In an instant, Lakshman broke his stance and had jumped out of the way. The two swords swung down and struck the ground. The ground erupted, causing great cracked rocks to rise into the air and splitting the ground in the process.

“Incredible...” Sumara muttered. “What power...”

Sumara was amazed at the power the two swords had. She was even more surprised at how quickly Lakshman had gotten out of the way. She knew if Ondine’s swords made contact with his blade, Weapon Force applied or not, his sword would have broken into pieces.

Then Sumara heard them arguing, but she was still unable to make out the words they were saying. Just then Lakshman turned around and looked at her. Then he shouted a question at her.

“Miss. Sumara, is breaking the weapon of your opponent allowed?”

Sumara raised her eyes in surprise. For a moment, she was speechless. Then she looked down and wore a depressed expression on her face.

“I thought I made it clear in my rules,” she muttered. “Stupid Lucky...”

She then closed her eyes and sighed heavily. A few seconds later, she raised her head and looked in his direction.

“Yes!” she shouted back.

“YEAH!!!”

“NO!!!”

At hearing Sumara’s response Ondine let out a hearty cheer, but Lakshman screamed in dismay. Sumara’s judgement, it became evident that destroying the weapon of the opponent is allowed. This meant, his weapon is a sacrifice for the sake of Ondine winning the battle without hurting him.

“There you have it, master!” Ondine said grinning broadly. “The verdict is in!”

“No!” Lakshman said in disbelief. “I can accept this!”

“Oh... Well... Too bad, but I will!”

Ondine suddenly gathered large quantities of energy and poured it into her swords. However, this time she did not apply a lot of energy. It seemed she learnt from her previous attempt to be careful with her energy which was released in the previous attempt.

“Here I come, master!”

She lunged at him and Lakshman jumped out of the way. As he landed back on his feet, he suddenly saw her appear before her. She swung her swords around, but he quickly moved his feet and dodged her. Once he dodged the swords, he jumped away from her only for her to follow him.

Getting frustrated, he tried taking the offense. One time after a dodge and escape, she suddenly appeared before him bearing her swords ready at him. He made a quick move and tried to aim his sword towards her shoulder. He was attempting to cut her.

Lakshman’s eyes widened when, with a loud clash, his sword diverted up and away from her shoulder. That was when he saw her holding her sword with her left hand. It appeared that she used her left handed sword to bring it from the bottom and made his sword miss her.

“Close call,” she said with a smile and he gritted his teeth in frustration. “But, not close enough!”

At the exclamation of the last words, she moved at him. She moved her shoulders down and shoved against him. He tried to keep his balance, but the force she applied was too strong to hold. As he toppled backwards, he saw her bring her right handed sword in the air.

“With this, I win!”

Yelling in triumphant, she swung her sword down. He watched the swung and noticed where it was aimed at. At that moment he understood her plan; it was to shatter his sword against her own which was holding it still from the bottom.

“No... you haven’t!”

As he slowly fell backwards, he smiled. Seeing him smile, she was stunned realising what he planned to do no.

“No you-!” she said, but he did not stop to listen to her.

At that moment, he moved his body leftward and lightly pushed his legs off the ground. He soared in mid-air as he rotated leftward. Using the spinning movement, he forcefully moved his sword away from her sword.

It was just in time. The next moment, her right handed sword clashes loudly with her left handed sword. Her eyes widened in surprise at his unbelievable feet. He continued to rotate in mid-air, he thought of something.

When his mid-air turn was about to turn upward, he brought out his sword.

“Ah”!

Realising what he intended to do, she tried to avoid him. She successfully avoided him from cutting her shoulder. Instead, his sword clashed against her swords.

“AAAAAAAAH!” he screamed as he tried to use his sword to push against her two swords.

Then he suddenly felt no resistance. Ondine realised her disadvantage and jumped out of the way. Surprised, but not out of the loop, he continued to rotate in mid-air. Upon his next mid-air rotation, he used his left hand to touch the ground.

Lakshman was successfully in stopping himself from rotating. Immediately, he pushed off the ground and flew into air. Spinning wildly in the air, he landed back on his two feet. Then he spun around and looked at Ondine, who had an astonished expression on her face.

“How was that?” he asked while smiling.

“That was... um...” she hesitated.

“Well...?” he pressed her in questioning.

Ondine suddenly sighed and said “I don’t know master.”’

“What?”

“You, doing those crazy moves to get back to your feet, are great! However, putting yourself in that disadvantageous position is not... advisable.”

“Disadvantageous position?!” he asked in disbelief. “Oh! Fine! I’m hearing it from the person who’s the REASON I did that!”

“If you just had let me break your sword, all of this would’ve ended peacefully. “

“As if!” he shouted in frustration. “Do you have any idea how many swords I broke when I tried to control my strong Weapon Force?”

“... Should I care?” she asked quizzically.

“Argh!” he shouted.

“Master?” Ondine said, alarmed by his reaction.

“I broke over fifteen wooden swords and three bladed swords!” he said angrily.

“Wow... That’s an impressive count,” she said.

“It’s not a joke!” he said. “But, dad was furious with me the last time I broke it. The next time... argh!”

He suddenly shuddered at the thought his punishment. Ondine sighed, realising he was imagining some things that might not even happen. She decided to press on, believing Indra is not the type of person who would punish his son for something as simple as breaking a sword.

“I don’t think your father would hurt you, master.”

“I don’t know...!” Lakshman said fearfully. “He had a very scary expression the last time and scolded me severely.”

“That’s because you were clumsy at controlling your powers,” she muttered.

“What?” he said, looking confused at her.

“Oh, nothing, nothing...,” Ondine said hastily. Then she looked seriously at him and said “Well... we can simply explain the situation.”

“No, that won’t work,” Lakshman said in a worried voice.

“Oh well, we can worry about that when we cross that threshold,” she said casually.

“What?” he said, sounding confused.

“I’m bored talking. I'm going to attack,” she said almost lazily.

“Ah-!”

Lakshman had barely enough time to react to her sudden movement. Without warning, she moved very quickly and reached him while his guard was down. He looked up at him and smiled.

“Now, I’ll be breaking this sword!”

She tried to swing her swords to shatter the blade, but he kicked off the ground and moved away from her.

As he did, he shouted “No!”

Her swords clanged loudly upon impact against each other. She then straightened up turned to look at him in exasperation.

“You’re not escaping from me, master!” she shouted and she lunged at him once again.

After that, they continued to clash, although it was one sided. Ondine continued to do her very best at destroying his sword, while Lakshman dodged her attempts successfully. She even started to plead with him to let her destroy his sword.

“Master, please let me destroy it.”

“No!”

“Don’t worry! Indra will make you a new one!”

“That won’t stop him from punishing me for letting the sword break!”

“Then, I can make a sword for you if you like.”

Ondine was obviously bluffing and Lakshman did not believe her

“As if I can believe that!”

“We can use healing magic to put the broken blades together.”

“Healing magic doesn’t work on non-living things!”

Watching them continuously clash and dodge, Sumara yawned. She rubbed her eyes and watched them with her eyes half-open and a sleepy expression on her face. This fight has dragged on for nearly ten minutes and she was feeling bored.

Fed up with Lakshman continuously dodging around Ondine, she raised her voice and bellowed “Lucky! Fight back already!”

“Eh?” Lakshman said in surprise. ”Fight ... back?”

He stopped and turned towards Sumara.

“But... Miss. Sumara, I don’t think I can win!” he shouted. “I’m just a kid and her skills are far greater than my own!”

“What?!” Sumara said in disbelief, getting to her feet and she walked over to them. “Did I just hear you put yourself down?! Lucky, tell me. Who was it that taught you the way of the sword?”

“Um... my dad,” he said reluctantly.

“And...? What rank is he?”

“He’s... a Saint ranked Water Weapon Style swordsman.”

“Good! Which means... you, as his son, can do it!”

“I... ah...”

Lakshman was hesitant, but Sumara forced the point home.

“Lucky, you’ve been training with him for nearly five years! You had five years of training and you are just twelve years old! He believes in you and so do I!”

“You... really think I can do it?” he asked nervously.

“Yes I do!” Sumara said confidently.

Over the years, Sumara watched him train and was impressed by the level of skill and the potential he possessed. It always amazed her when he did something that took her far longer to do the same.

Watching him now, nervously contemplating about a real battle, she realised the crucial point. He may be a warrior, but mentally he’s still a kid. He may have fought against monsters and rushed into danger to help others, but he never had intentions of fighting other living beings like him.

When fighting monsters, there was the need to survive. When he rushed in to save his father, it was to save his father and everyone else. He did spar sometimes with Ondine in their morning training, but it was never serious to hurt each other. Always fighting to save and protect.

Inwardly she cursed herself for not realising this fact. She never thought about this because of his eagerness in training regularly. However, she finally realised the reason behind it. Unlike herself and Ondine, he did not fight just for the sake of fighting and winning.

She sighed heavily and turned away to hide her face. She did it to hide her expression from them. A few seconds later, she heaved a huge sigh and turned around to face them once more. Then she put on a smile on her face and faced him.

“Go and defeat your Slave Spirit!” she said encouragingly. “I know you can do it!”

“You... think so, Miss. Sumara?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yes. Use your Weapon Force and Energy Force and win this thing!”

“Um... sorry?” Lakshman said as if he missed something in what she said.

“I said, go and defeat her using either your Weapon Force or Energy Force if you have to.”

“I-I can use them?” he asked in a surprised voice.

“What?!” she exclaimed in shock. “You mean to tell me, throughout this whole time, you had no idea?!”

“Well... I did hear you speaking about them, but... maybe I misunderstood?”

“Okay... Then, why didn’t you speak about it when Ondine used Weapon Force on you so many times?”

“Um... no...” he muttered in a low voice.

Sumara’s eyes widened in astonishment and even Ondine was looking surprised at his words. Sumara placed a hand on her forehead and sighed heavily. A few second salter, she removed her hand off her forehead and looked at him with a serious expression on her face.

“Listen Lakshman,” she said. “You are allowed to use both Energy Force and Weapon Force in this fight. Did you get that?”

She was making sure he understood.

“Yes!” he said, nodding vigorously at her serious face.

“Good!”

“I’m sorry!” he said and he wore a depressed expression on his face.

She turned and made to walk away. Then, she hesitated feeling slightly guilty. She thought that her behaviour with him was slightly overstrict. Thinking of how to cool him down, she suddenly had an idea. She turned around and gave him a thumps up.

“Good luck!” she said and smiled.

Lakshman’s eyes widened. Looking at her smiling face and the thumps up she gave him, it rendered him speechless. An unfamiliar feeling washed over him and this feeling was something he had never felt before.

He remembered his mother, Lakshmi, telling him about an idol during their time together. According to her, an idol is someone that gives strong belief and willpower to their followers or worshippers. Thinking over her words he felt like, at that instant, he had seen his idol. That was how he felt about Sumara smiling at him in encouragement.

For a moment, he stood there in a daze at the realisation. Then, he shook his head and returned to the present. He saw Sumara smiling in his direction him and pointing a thumps-up gesture at him. He smiled in return and returned the thumps-up.

“Don’t worry Miss. Sumara!” he said. “I’ll win!”

She nodded and walked away. Lakshman watched her go and then turned to face Ondine. Ondine wore an uncertain expression on her face. She had felt a strangeness come over Lakshman, but couldn’t explain what it was.

“I’ll win this battle, Ondine,” he said and smiled at her.

She widened her eyes in surprise. Then she grinned and looked at him expectantly.

“Oh? Sounds interesting...”

With that, they squared off against each other. The final round of this fight was about to begin!