Chapter 24: Squabbling

Enyo had just finished setting up some logs as makeshift benches and was on her way to fetch Allie who was sitting by a nearby lake.

"Yo."

"... What are you doing?" Enyo's head slightly tilted at this unexpected encounter.

Ares had leant backward off a tree branch and was hanging upside down in front of Enyo's path. Ares fell further back and let himself flip upright, landing standing on the floor. "I was looking for you, actually."

"You're not going to keep pestering me, are you?"

"Depends on what your stance is on apologies."

"You're apologising?"

"Yes, truly a rare occasion I know, but here we are. I'm sorry for earlier. I can be quite opinionated, as I'm sure you can tell. The only reason I got so into it was because, as someone in a very similar situation to you, I felt like I kinda understood your problem. I was just trying to relay to you what worked for me in the hopes that maybe you could glean something useful from it. Now that I think about it though, different people will always have preferences for the way they go about things, and my way and or experiences may not be applicable to you. So again, I'm sorry."

"The only thing that bothers me is that you keep saying you understand. I thought you said that you, Appa, and Aejaz didn't have a family? How can you understand something that has never happened to you."

"Ah, all of our situations are a little different. I won't speak on behalf of Aejaz, as it's really not my place to, and damned shades never have parents so Appa is a fairly standard case. My situation is a bit more complicated though. Long story short, my entire clan screwed up somehow. In order to rectify whatever their problem is, my parents essentially abandoned me the day I was born and told me to come back stronger so I could sort out their problem for them. I don't even really care about whatever it is they want me to fix, but I do want to at least meet them at some point. You may be right though, maybe I don't know what it's like to want to please parents. Maybe I would be exactly like you had I ever actually interacted with them. But the idea of responsibilities that are thrust upon you is something I'm definitely familiar with. For me, putting that responsibility in the back of my mind and only caring about it when, and if, I choose to has worked wonders for me. If my life and free-will never concerned my parents, then their wishes will likely never concern me."

"I suppose I should apologise too. I made an assumption and I shouldn't have. I still don't agree with you, but there's no reason we can't agree to disagree."

"Soooo, we're good?"

"Yes. Besides, Allie is the type to get upset if the people around her constantly bicker and argue. It's better to sort this out and just be done with it."

"Oh, by the way, there's no need to go get Allie. I think Aejaz has already gone over to fetch her." Ares had waited patiently for a moment like this when Enyo and Allie were split up so Aejaz could have some alone time with Allie.

"He has, has he? It's not really any of my business, but you're quite the wingman, aren't you?"

"No comment."

"No comment is still a comment."

"So anyway, the weather is really nice today, isn't it?" Ares started whistling and looking around aimlessly.

"Hmph."

"I'll take that as a yes."

"So will I."

"Fine, fine. You win. You're not going to intervene though, are you?"

"And if I were?"

"Then we'd have a fight on our hands."

"You'd be crazy enough to fight someone at mental accumulation, 3rd stage while only being 4th realm, 2nd stage just to let your brother flirt?"

Ares had benefited from his explosive outburst yesterday, thanks to dedication cultivation, and had increased his stage by one.

As for Enyo's cultivation, although it was higher than even Aejaz, that was because she was 19 years old. A whole extra year or two is worth a lot in the cultivation world.

"You'd be crazy enough to fight me, of all people, just to stop your sister being flirted with?" Ares had a stare-down with the helmet in front of him.

"I get the feeling you can't replicate that massive explosion from yesterday. I don't fear you."

"And there's no real reason to. I'm not particularly fond of the people around me fearing me for any reason really, but you should definitely consider showing some more respect if you think you'd just walk all over me."

"There are very few people I respect. Not even Allie has that honour. You, definitely, are not on that list."

Something about the idea of Enyo's respect being an honour Ares 'definitely' didn't deserve sent his bloodline into overdrive. He ran annihilation magic through his blood and the runic patterns on his wings lit up gold. His entire carefree and easy-going demeanour flipped instantaneously and a heavy, overbearing pressure filled the forest. "If you want to throw around the term, 'honour'..." Ares Shifted in front of Enyo, who was caught off guard, as it was a movement art she had never seen before, and used a single finger to push her back until she fell onto one of the log benches. "... Then you should first be made aware that it is your greatest honour to even be in my presence, let alone have me speak to you as though you were an equal." Ares stared down at Enyo with a condescending gaze.

Enyo was stunned. This was a drastic change to say the least. This must have been the bloodline Aejaz had mentioned. She'd never felt this feeling from anyone other than her father when he was in a foul mood. She absolutely hated it, being made to feel as though she were as insignificant as an ant. It was through these repeated scolding sessions as a young child that she had become so prideful and rigid, constantly out to prove herself and live up to her overbearing father's expectations.

And then most of the pressure simply vanished.

"Ah, there I go again. My bloodline has been really unruly lately. I would apologise, but that technically wasn't my fault, and you've already gotten one apology out of me today anyway. Besides, I blame you for being so blatantly disrespectful when you really are in no position to do so. I would have understood if you had said I wasn't on the list, and just left it at that, but 'definitely'? That's one emphasised word too many for my liking."

"What the hell happened here? Why are you two arguing again? Can you seriously not be left alone for five minutes?" Aejaz had just come through a clearing with Allie in time to catch the last couple of seconds of the 'discussion' that Ares and Enyo were having. Aejaz was surprised though as it seemed that this time, it was Ares that had gotten annoyed. It didn't take him long to come to the conclusion that, given how ridiculously prideful those two were, Ares' bloodline had likely gotten involved and things had gone south because of it.

"Hm?" Ares let out a short reply that very clearly passed along the message that Aejaz should watch his tone.

"So anyway, the weather is really nice today, isn't it?" Aejaz laughed nervously.

The lingering pressure finally disappeared in its entirety as Ares lightly chuckled to himself.

"Is something funny?" Aejaz didn't understand why Ares was suddenly having a good time.

"I guess so. Let's just say it's all my fault and move on. The food is ready, so help yourself. Sorry if it's not to your taste," Ares tried to dismiss the earlier bad mood and transition into lunch.

As for the food, Ares had made it himself. He was actually surprisingly accomplished as a chef thanks to all the meals he had made for Aejaz whenever he did well in his training. It was basically the carrot and the stick treatment, but it worked as Ares' food was like honeyed nectar to Aejaz. He was quite proud of his ability to cook. In fact, if he had truly dedicated himself to cooking, he probably could have lived a life as a professional magic chef under the employ of the rich and powerful. Naturally, Ares would much rather be the rich and powerful himself, so it was more of a hobby than anything.

Ares had bought some venison and some blackberries to make an accompanying sauce. He wasn't going to be able to afford to cook like this every day as he hadn't earned that much from his Shock Rock sales yet, and he spent almost all of his stardust on the substitution talismans, but he figured day one would be a good day to show off a bit and help break the ice. Of course, he couldn't have predicted the repeated arguments he'd gotten himself into that had somewhat soured the mood but, oh well, at least the food would be good. 

He also heard from Aejaz that Allie had a particularly sweet tooth and liked something called 'cotton candy', so he did a bit of digging around before he left the city and found a recipe to make it. Now that he was observing from the side, though, he realised that actually Aejaz was beyond excited, if not even more so than Allie. Conned. Absolutely conned! He should have just directly asked Allie herself what she wanted but, hey, she definitely seemed happy to have the cotton candy too, just not as happy as Aejaz.

As for how he cooked everything, Ares had gotten really fond of cooking the few times he did it as a slave for the Chen clan. When he went to live in the streets with Aejaz, he progressively stole and stored everything you would expect to find in a typical kitchen inside the Primordial Blade. He could pretty effortlessly move things around and cook without having to actually go inside the sword, so he could do it as something of a background task while he focused on other things. It really was quite relaxing and cathartic for him.

"Mmmm, itsh sho good!" Allie was stuffing her cheeks like a squirrel and seemed to really enjoy the meal.

Ares had figured she would. He'd intentionally done everything he could to make the venison less gamey and have the more pronounced flavour be the berries to suit her sweet tooth.

Aejaz was silently and happily munching away. Ares didn't have to look over and check to see if Aejaz would like it as he already knew from years of experience that Aejaz loved pretty much anything he cooked for him.

The only one not eating was Enyo. 

Ares wasn't sure if it was because she was still hung up about earlier, or because she didn't want to take the helmet off. Either way, the reason technically involved him, so he decided to at least take some responsibility. "Hey, 'Jaz?" Ares waited for Aejaz to finish chowing down at the speed of light.

"Hm?"

"Can you come with me for a while?"

"Sure, lemme just have some cotton candy first."

"I have some more on me, come." Ares tilted his head and nodded off to the side. "Oh, and here's some blackberry jam, you can have it with the cotton candy." Ares brought out a small pot, seemingly out of nowhere, and put it down in front of Allie whose eyes widened with glee. 

Ares dragged Aejaz off, by the scruff of his collar, deeper into the forest. "I suppose this is far enough," Ares muttered. Aejaz frowned and was about to start complaining about the rising tensions so, when he opened his mouth to speak, Ares shoved some cotton candy into it to shut him up. "Chew on that and listen."

Munch Munch.

"Things are fine. Not great, mind you, but fine."

"Didn't seem that way to me."

"You arrived late, so yes, I'm sure it looked awful."

"Was it not? Looked pretty bad to me."

"It started off fine, then it kinda devolved. Shouldn't be anything irreparable though. Even still, this bloodline just won't stop making my life harder than it needs to be. That being said, I don't feel like I'm completely in the wrong here."

"You rarely do. What even happened anyway?"

---------------------------------

"What do you think?"

"I'm just surprised he got the better of you like that." Allie was shocked to hear how easily Ares had brought Enyo down.

"Tsk, don't remind me. I let my guard down because of his awful cultivation base. I'm furious. If he ever tries that again, I'm going to break his fingers."

Allie blinked a few times while staring at Enyo. "I don't think I've ever seen you get this mad before, are you ok sis?"

"No. He's so God damn annoying, and I'm not even sure I know why. I also can't stand the fact that, for a brief moment, he reminded me of my father."

"Maybe that's why you think he's so annoying? But you know what that being a bad thing means, right?"

"I don't want to answer that."

"'Cos if it's a bad thing, then that would mean everything he said earlier was right, and you resent your father for what he's made you do? That you don't actually want your responsibility."

"Drop it, Allie."

"Fine, you can mope all you want, but you should eat. It's really good!"

"I'm not sure I want to."

"Is that because you don't want to take your helmet off? Or is it because he made it?"

"Both."

"Oh, come on, there's no one else around. Ares left for a reason you know. When he comes back, I can just say I ate it all."

"Do you really think that's why he left?"

"Yes. Actually, Aejaz told me Ares can be rather considerate sometimes."

"Speaking of Aejaz, you two seem to be getting along well."

"Yep! He's nice. I wish you and Ares would stop annoying each other though, it makes things awkward." Allie didn't catch onto what Enyo was implying.

"Yes, well, I'm trying, and he is too. Well… I think he is. It can be hard to tell."

"Then eat! Don't pretend you aren't hungry."

"... Fine, but if it's terrible, I'm spitting it out."

---------------------------------

"Can't you just let things like that go?" Aejaz looked exasperated. For the last couple of days, he couldn't decide if Ares was the smartest or stupidest man to ever walk the earth.

"Nope, guess not."

"Why did you even bring me out here? I wanted to enjoy a nice, peaceful meal with Allie. Damn you!"

"That's awfully selfish of you, what about Enyo? She'll probably only eat if we aren't around."

"... Ok, you got me there, I hadn't thought about that, but stillllllllll, good food is best enjoyed with good company. Don't take this personally, but I would much rather be eating cotton candy with Allie right now than be out here with your grumpy ass."

"Tsk, I'll make you two more some other time you ungrateful schmuck. Speaking of which, care to explain why you seemed to be more enthused about the cotton candy than Allie?"

"So anyway, the weather is really nice today, isn't it?"

"I think I've taught you almost too well." Ares smacked his head and shook it. Annoyingly, that little trick was actually incredibly capable of lightening the mood.

"Well, whatever, let this disastrous attempt of yours be a lesson." Aejaz puffed up his chest and tried to pretend he was some kind of advice-spouting sage.

"Disastrous? You're really underestimating how silly and strange the human mind can be. I guarantee you that, like I said earlier, this was fine. Enyo isn't brittle like Allie. An argument or two won't ruin anything permanently. Don't think that just because what I'm doing is weird to you, it isn't working... I hope"

"Honestly, I have no fucking clue what you're doing or if it's working. For a while, I kinda felt like I understood, but now? You've lost me. If this all somehow works out for you, then I'll prostrate myself before you and call you the wisest man under the heavens. At that point, you'd deserve it." Aejaz felt like banging his head against a tree. "Anyway, when can we go back? It's not that I dislike our little conversation, but I…"

"Want to get back to Allie? I get it. Just give them a couple more minutes. Supposedly, absence makes the heart grow fonder... Or something."

"Seriously, where did you learn all this!?"

---------------------------------

"You know, you really don't have to wear the helmet all the time." 

Enyo was finishing off the last of the food and putting her helmet back on. "I want to."

"You're prettier than you give yourself credit for."

"That's the problem. I don't want to be some pretty doll like you. You have that covered. I'm a different kind of person."

"Still annoyed?"

"... Yes. Why was the food so damn good? It just reminds me of that stupid idiot."

"Ha, I told you it was good. I wonder if he has any more."

"They should be back soon, you can ask him yourself."

"And you?"

Before Enyo could respond, the two heard rustling from the direction Ares and Aejaz had left from earlier. The two had returned.

"Welcome back, brute," Enyo used her intimidating voice from when she had tried to arrest Aejaz.

"Hm? Hahaha, it's good to be back, tin can. Ready for round, uh, what is it now? Three? Four?" Ares was completely unfazed. It's not that Enyo's presence wasn't impressive, but that pressure and all things alike were basically non-existent to Ares. He felt no intimidation whatsoever. If anything, it was actually kind of a cute attempt.

"Utterly detestable. Don't think being a decent cook means you're a decent human being."

"You actually admitted to eating the food? I was expecting Allie to say she ate it all. Truly commendable. I respect that, although not that you would care about whether someone as worthless as me respects you or not."

"I'm proud enough that admitting something as trivial as that won't dent my pride."

"I don't want to hear a lecture about pride from a coward who hides behind a helmet."

"Wretch."

"Stubborn mule."

"Vile demon."

"Brick wall."

"..."

"..."

Aejaz had, at some point, snuck over to Allie's side. "I can't be the only one that has no clue what's happening, right?" he whispered to Allie.

"Hehe, nope. I'm lost too! But, you know, it almost kinda looks like they're having fun."

"I'll be damned, you might just be right." Aejaz was truly awed at how Ares had somehow managed to get this nonsensical idea of his this far.

"Phew, I don't know about you, but I feel like I got pretty much everything out of my system." Ares put both of his hands behind his head in a relaxed manner.

"Good for you. I'm not done. Actually, I want to fight you."

"Hmmm, I would really rather not."

"Oh? And you call me a coward? I happen to have a new artifact I want to try, and I'm sure bashing your head in with it would satisfy me to no end."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to hurt whatever…" Ares grinned evilly as he knew that what he was about to say would set off sparks inside Enyo's head. "... Pretty little face is hiding behind that helmet of yours."

Enyo was taken aback. "YOU BASTARD, WERE YOU LISTENING AND WATCHING THIS WHOLE TIME?"

"What? No? I specifically left so you could take your helmet off and eat in peace. What are you talking about?" Ares knew that a woman like Enyo would undoubtedly detest being called pretty. He knew nothing about Allie and Enyo's previous conversation.

"I AM NOT PRETTY DAMN IT."

Allie was practically gawking at this side of her sister that she had never seen before.

"Soooo, you're ugly? Look, I don't judge but, if even you yourself are saying it, then wow, it must be bad."

"N, No… I'm not ugly." Enyo wasn't happy being called pretty, but she was even less pleased at the thought of being called ugly.

"So, you are pretty?"

"NO."

"Are you pretty ugly?"

"What?"

"Or are you pretty pretty?"

"Huh?"

Enyo's mind was practically jumping through hurdles just to try and keep up with this unorthodox barrage of questions. "ENOUGH! Just fight me already you fork-tongued hooligan." 

"I'd rather have a fork-tongue in my mouth than be born with a silver spoon in it like you."

Everything went dead quiet. Enyo, Allie, and Aejaz all just sat or stood respectively, silent and shocked to their cores. This level of verbal fuckery was truly astounding. 

Enyo took a deep breath. "Defend yourself," she voiced out calmly. 

As she spoke, she pulled out a weapon that Ares was very familiar with. Ares simply grinned again which gave Enyo an unpleasant feeling in her gut that she finally knew which 'talented disciple' had created this shield for her.

"Ha, nice shield." Ares couldn't help but snicker a little as he tried to hold back his laughter.

"You didn't? Did you?"

Pfft 

"Who knows?" 

"Ugh, on second thought, I don't want to fight anymore." Enyo dejectedly sat back down with a huff. 

Allie giggled off to the side as Aejaz explained the situation to her.

Trying to use an artifact against the person who forged it was the very definition of a dumb decision. Every good forger would leave traces of their own magic in their works for two reasons; the first was as a marking so it could be identified like a brand or insignia. The second, was that it allowed them to disassemble and reassemble it at a moment's notice. They could also snatch it directly out of the hands of the person wielding it and use it against them, or even detonate various runes that may be on it. There was a whole slew of ways to make the forged artifact backfire. In one word, attempting to kill the creator with the created in the world of cultivation was never anything but foolish. Kind of like how Fen had tried to use a Shock Bead against Ares. In fact, Ares could have just detonated it remotely himself while it was still in Fen's hands. His magic would take priority for the detonation of all Shock Beads and they were basically a detriment to try and use against him.

"HELLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP," a shout rang out from deeper into the forest, catching everyone off guard.

Ares was a little hesitant, but only because the voice didn't actually sound too distressed.

Allie and Aejaz were a little slow on the uptake and just looked at one another, unsure of what to do. By the time they looked back, Ares and Enyo had already sped off in the direction of the unknown voice.

Although Enyo was focused on rushing to aid the person in distress, she couldn't help but be vexed in the back of her mind by the fact that she had already lost sight of Ares who simply vanished like a blur. Thanks to that strange movement art of his, that bastard could move damn fast.

Ares, on the other hand, didn't particularly care about who was first, he was more preoccupied with the thought that, interestingly, he recognised the voice. Not in the sense that he could instantly place the voice and who it belonged to, but that it seemed somewhat familiar, as if he had heard it once before, and only once. Of course, if someone needed help and he happened to be passing by then sure, whatever, but he was mostly heading over because it was bothering him that he was unable to ascertain the origins of that voice. Ares arrived, close to the point the scream had come from, and slowed down. Sticking to the edges of the area, he progressively crept over and found the source of the commotion. Ah, so it's you, Ares thought. How unlucky must you be to find yourself in this type of situation, again? He really did know the person, although saying he 'knew' her was maybe an overstatement, they had certainly met at least once though.

Enyo caught up to him both surprisingly swiftly and surprisingly quietly. You'd think someone lugging around such a massive set of armour would be slow and loud but, somehow, Enyo maintained an impressive speed and degree of stealth. When she arrived, she looked over and saw a female disciple of the Heaven's Path Sect backed up against a tree. There were two men encroaching upon her with blades in hand and obvious intentions in their pants. Enyo was about to leap across the bushes and charge head first into the thick of things when she felt a hand on her shoulder keep her in place. "What are you doing!?" she whispered aggressively at Ares, the culprit.

Ares rolled his eyes, he seemed to be doing that a lot today. "I'm waiting to enjoy a good show. What the hell do you think I'm doing? Do you honestly think I would sit here and let some poor women be abused by two men in a forest like this? Ye of little faith. Have patience and wait, or, you know, charge in headfirst and pay the price for your actions. I don't care either way."

"Hmph, you truly are a coward. All talk, no action. Justice is not, never has been, and never will be passivity."

Ares simply gestured towards the scene playing out in front of them. "Go ahead, but do try not to die. I would feel somewhat guilty if I indirectly offed you."

"Pathetic," Hurling one final insult, Enyo jumped over the hedges and charged forward just as the event unfolding was about to reach a climax. Contrary to what Enyo expected to happen, the distressed disciple was actually unhappy to see someone else jump into the mess she was in. In fact, she looked weirdly… Guilty? It was then Enyo noticed the two men had horrified expressions and were trying to scramble away from some strange, dark gold Bead that was heading towards them. Although the two men were running away from the Bead, and thus, directly at her, she was more interested in the Bead that was also moving in her direction. She had seen it before, or at least something nearly identical. Wasn't that one of Ares' fireworks? Why did this random disciple have one? What exactly had she been expecting that firework to do? Why were the two men so afraid of it? She had many unanswered questions running through her mind all in the split second it took for her to jump out of the bush and run over. When the Bead lit up and an absurd amount of energy welled up, a few of her questions were answered on the spot. Enyo promptly realised that she was about to get hit by something non-trivial. She took out the Steadfast Aegis and immediately became incredibly agitated at the fact she was using an artifact Ares had made for her, in order to defend herself against something else Ares had made, all because she ignored Ares advice. "Incorrigible scum!" she yelled before the sound of a violent explosion cut her off.

BOOM

The explosions Ares created were truly an inspirational marvel, but he himself simply ignored the minor ones as he was all too familiar with them. He was only really interested in witnessing explosions like the one he caused yesterday at his stall. Now that was true beauty. As he was waiting for the dust to settle, Aejaz and Allie arrived. He briefly explained the situation to them before making it clear that it was not him who blew up Allie's sister. He didn't think she'd die from it, or even really be wounded for that matter, but he still didn't want to somehow be blamed for that woman's stubbornness and refusal to accept good advice.

Sure enough, the dust faded and Enyo was still standing, although noticeably wobbling a teensy bit from side to side. She had the shield firmly planted in front her and it was completely unscathed. 

Ares felt like the universe had just asked him the question, 'If you punch yourself and it doesn't hurt, are you weak or are you strong?'

Is the shield strong, or was the Bead too weak? Oh well, at least the knucklehead was alive, if admittedly a tad disgruntled. Of course, Ares couldn't see that through the helmet, but it was fairly obvious to anyone with functioning eyes that this walking suit of armour was not in a good mood. Her yelling earlier may have also clued him in.

"You…" Enyo waved her finger at Ares while trying to keep her breathing in check. "... Owe me an explanation."

"I don't believe I owe you anything. Hell, if anything, I should be charging you. Good advice typically never comes for free. It's not my problem if you choose to ignore it. Also, you technically owe me twice because that shield I so graciously made for you clearly just saved you from a whole world of hurt." Ares had never seen someone shove a treasure into a storage ring as fast as Enyo just did. It was so fast he didn't even see it as it happened all within the timespan of a single blink.

"Ares?" The disciple recognised Ares and called out to make sure it was really him, after all, his Shock Rocks had helped her out of a tough situation twice now.

"Ah, it really is you. You seem to have one hell of an issue with lecherous men." Ares recognised the disciple as the same first-tier that threw Shock Rocks at a fifth-tier pervert that had been harassing her, the one that Elaine had dealt with.

"Ah, don't even joke about that. I was minding my own business and these two just showed up out of nowhere. I really can't thank you enough for those Rocks. I really don't know what I'd do without them. Ah, it never occurred to me, but you don't even know my name, right? I'm Fate."

"Fate, is it?" Ares decided not to bring up the irony of the situation.

"It is! And I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but thank you!"

"Like I said, no need to thank me. I'll tell you what, because you seem to have horrendous luck, take this." Ares tossed over a storage ring with three sacks inside it.

"What's this?" The disciple thought it would be rude to take everything out and start inspecting it like a kid on Christmas.

"Two sacks full of Shock Be… I mean Shock Rocks. That should amount to about 200 total and should keep you safe for a good while. If you run out, just come find me for more."

"R… R… Really!? Are you serious? I can't afford this."

"It's free. I'm supposed to be helping the sect with them anyway, and I don't want the money."

"Thank you." The disciple had a few tears in her eyes. "I've been trying to save up enough money to get a large amount of these. I've wanted to go visit my family, but they're… in another country. I really do have an issue with perverts, so I've never felt comfortable leaving. Now though, I should have enough to get me there and back safely. Thank you, really, this means a lot."

"No worries. Oh, and the third sack is something I've been working on, when you come back, please let me know if they're satisfactory."

"I will, but what are they?"

"Haven't named 'em yet as I haven't consulted with my business partner, but they're defensive tools. If someone throws a magic attack at you that you can't stop, just use one of those and it should be ok. It has enough defensive properties to neutralise even a Shock Rock."

"Seriously? That's insane!"

"I hope so, good luck on your trip." Ares waved as the disciple started to leave. Ares then realised that there was one other important thing he had to ask her, but he whispered the question into her ear instead of asking aloud. After getting the exact answer he was expecting, he smiled and then continued to wave her off.

"Bye! Oh, and sorry knight lady."

"IT'S OK," Ares shouted out in Enyo's stead as the disciple progressively got further away. "SHE DESERVED IT ANYWAY."

Thunk

Enyo had come up behind Ares and smacked the shield, which she had brought out again for this express purpose, against the back of his head.

"Um, ouch? That really kinda hurt you know."

"It was supposed to." 

Ares rolled his eyes for what he felt was the millionth time today. "Fine, I suppose I should explain what those things are. Although, really, it's your fault for not knowing. Literally every other outer court disciple and Elder knows."

"Shut up and speak."

"What? Did that explosion rattle your brain? How would that even wor…"

Thunk

The shield had come out again and Ares didn't bother dodging. The trick was to let people hit him every now and then to make sure they could at least relieve some of their pent-up stress so they wouldn't go completely berserk.

"I'm starting to see why Rud dislikes you so much. Your roguish tongue and insufferable nature drag those around you down into a pit of idiocy where you reign supreme."

"That may be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Does this mean you finally recognise me as a king-like existence then?"

Thunk

"That's neither what I said nor meant."

As the two were bickering back and forth, the two men groaned and woke up groggily. They had made it away from the centre of the blast zone, and were only caught on the edges, but they were still far too injured to move.

"Oh? It's fun time! It would seem, Enyo, that you and I are about to have yet another disagreement." Ares laughed to himself as he entirely forgot about explaining his pillar.

Enyo looked over at the two men and could feel a massive, Ares-induced headache coming on.