They began to battle, and the air was filled with explosions of fire and water. Azurael conjured fire that spread like a blanket that would swallow any small village whole, and Eros made a towering wall of water to slam into it.

Sandskar shuddered around Thaedric, who was shivering from excitement. "Do they do this every day?" He watched the two of them go at it, their attacks clashing and sending waves of steam into the air.

"No! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a battle of this scale before!" Sandskar answered.

From what Thaedric could see, they were evenly matched, and their attacks canceled each other out. Then Azurael changed the mood of the battle by chanting a spell.

The fire around him flared a deep blue, and he shone like a lone star. Three arrows of blue material appeared around him, and he fitted them into his bow.

Thaedric felt the change. The mana space whined, vibrating at the power in those arrows. It set Thaedric’s senses on alert.

"He’s using that?" Sandskar asked, surprised.

Azurael fired the arrow. It shot off with a blast of destructive force that sent even Azurael himself flying back. The arrow started to gather mana in the air as it crossed the distance.

Eros made a desperate grab for the case on his back, but it was already too late. All the water shields he put around himself broke with no resistance, and all he could do was throw himself out of the way.

Still, the arrow caught him in his left shoulder, eating through it and taking the whole arm off. Green blood splattered, and Eros let out a shout of pain.

"Azurael, you bastard! You’re courting destruction! We are using the big weapons now?" Green plants grew out of the wound in his shoulder and stopped his bleeding.

Then Eros began to chant too, and he brought out what was hidden in the case. It was a staff, the same length as his body, and it ended at the top with a small blue crystal ball.

Immediately after he brought it out, a carpet of grass and flowers sprang to life below him. He raised the staff, and the pressure found deep in the sea slammed into Azurael. It drove him into the sand and held him struggling there.

Eros wasn’t done. Lightning flickered in the dark sky, gathering into a thick rope of blinding light, and with a wordless shout, he sent it at Azurael, who was struggling to free himself before the attack hit him, but with no such luck.

"I can’t believe they are using those," Sandskar muttered.

The sand around Azurael turned to glass and broke apart from the searing white heat, leaving a big crater. When he stood, the fire around Azurael had lessened, and he stumbled as he walked, holding his broken bow.

Thaedric shuddered. That attack looked like something that would turn a town into rubble. All these attacks looked like something only the strongest of the Rashakas could create.

Azurael glared at Eros, his two special arrows still hovering around him. He looked weaker, but as he continued to walk, his fire started brightening until he was once again standing like a blazing comet.

Azurael floated up again and took one of the special arrows. "You want me to go all out?" He sneered.

Eros raised his staff higher, and lightning flashed close to his opponent in clear warning. The staff he was holding was amplifying his power on a massive scale.

"Burn with heat hotter than fire!" He sent lightning at Azurael, but instead of the sound of thunder, nothing happened. Eros frowned at the sky, which was now clearing rapidly.

Another power had entered the fight.

"Well," Sandskar said. "Today has gone wrong."

They saw the new Ancient as a shimmering silver dot in the sky that got bigger the closer he came by the second. All the lightning that Eros failed to control had been hijacked by him, and he wore it like a cloak around himself.

"Someone dared control lightning when I am close." He raised his hand, palm up, and lightning pooled there, a thing of silver liquid. "Such disrespect."

Eros’s eyes widened, and he floated down to stand atop his carpet of grass. He went to his knees. "Forgive me, Lightning Dragon."

Lightning Dragon was a man with white hair and a long beard that he stroked as he floated down slowly, the ball of lightning spinning gently on his left hand. "Oh...it was you, Eros. I thought your specialty was that water. Why are you tampering with lightning?"

Thaedric studied the newcomer. He looked like all those overpowered old men in anime. The type to give you a ’heaven-splitting’ technique. ’I won’t mind getting a heaven-splitting technique of my own,’ he thought.

Eros shot Azurael a glare. "It was only a misunderstanding."

Azurael was also on his knees. "We are only playing around here." He looked at Thaedric, then at Lightning Dragon, shook his head, and flew away in a streak of blue.

"I better start going too." Eros returned his staff to its case and, with a last bow to Lightning Dragon, he also flew away without a look at Thaedric.

"Is he that powerful?" Thaedric whispered.

Sandskar was still acting as his protective shield, and he answered in whispers. "Yes. He’s a Lord Destroyer. You don’t want to mess with him, and I’ll advise you to make the contract with him."

"So you are the young one that turned the mana space into erupting waters?" Lightning Dragon was hovering in front of Thaedric now. "You even issued a challenge."

"Young ones these days." A voice replied.

Thaedric started. He looked around, and even Sandskar didn’t see anything.

"Come out, you old hag!" Lightning Dragon said.

Space parted like a curtain, and an old woman stepped out. She was bent over a walking stick, her eyes on Thaedric. "So he is the one that got our attention. Not bad. Not bad at all!"