Chapter 26: Deer Are Friends, Not Food

"Ok, that's just weird," Ares complained as he started to wish he had just killed them in one fell swoop as, now, that hideous sight would remain lodged in his memory forever. One of the beams of lights passed over Ares and he felt his blood start drying up. The deer's main method of attack was to try and put as many beams of light on a person as possible to cause them to wither and rot away before eating their corpse. This was how they collected their heads. As for how they got their first head, the answer was quite simple. Cannibalism. It's thanks to their cannibalistic nature that hydra deer aren't completely helpless in close range combat, even their many shrivelled heads can open their jaws and chomp down on their prey if the need arises.

Ares naturally wasn't going to have much of an issue dodging the beams of light. Keeping a steady visual on Ares when he moved as fast as he did was near impossible. He also had no real need to get up close to experiment with Echoes, so this was predictably going to be an easy fight. It was part of why he picked it. Trial and error is much safer when the error can't possibly result in the loss of your life. Ares kept dashing around the deer who had yet to move, weaving around trees to block the head's vision. As the lights passed over the trees, they began to age rapidly. Some even wilted to the point that they died right there and then. The roots of those trees curled up and let off a foul, decaying odour. 

Ares wasn't particularly worried about running out of cover, but he also wasn't going to just keep dashing around forever without attacking. Ares swayed his arm and clicked his finger in one fluid motion and the air rippled around his finger. Echoes were invisible but created pressure as they travelled so you could only keep track of it if you were actually paying attention. Technicals and arts could be created in such a way that they didn't require a chant, like Shift, so Echo was also useful as a stealth attack under the right circumstances. Although the deers noticed something was off, they weren't giving the Echo the attention it was due, so they never saw it coming.

Bang

One of the deers was sent reeling backward, flailing its front two legs desperately in an attempt not to fall over while its hind legs were fighting not to buckle under the pressure. The Echo had connected with the right side of its antler and had completely blown it, and subsequently all the heads on it, off.

"Seriously?" Ares was stunned. He hadn't expected the ranged version of the Echo to be so potent. Although a ranged Echo could never compete with a direct contact Echo, the results were still beyond what Ares had envisioned when he threw it out. He had only been prepared to see, at most, about half the damage it had actually done. The time he had spent perfecting it with Lizzy had really done wonders for the technical's potency. Ares realised he had created something truly ridiculous, and the most ridiculous part of it all was that it was a technical. Anyone could learn this. In fact, some people like Rud already had. A technical this ludicrously strong and easy to learn was just wasting away in the library. If the other disciples had any clue how monstrous the technical was, there would be a queue for it leading out of the damned sect. Just how much value did Ares' very presence have for the sect? At this point it was basically inestimable. Ares kept firing off Echoes with a mixture of wild-abandon and pure glee. One Echo missed and hit a tree, one that hadn't even been touched by the yellow lights from the deer yet, and still it stood absolutely no chance whatsoever. The tree crumpled at the base and came crashing down on a nearby deer that was too slow to dodge it. Ares felt a little bad for that one as he wasn't actually planning on killing the deer. As he'd been removing the freaky shrivelled heads, Ares came to a realisation; Without the creepy antlers, these creatures are literally just normal deer. Unfortunately for Ares' guilty conscience, normal deer were cute and, therefore, he simply couldn't bring himself to kill them. Of course, without their antlers, in a place like this, nature would take its course and they would inevitably die anyway, but at least he wouldn't have to feel bad about doing it himself.

Ares effortlessly blew the rest of the antlers into smithereens and lined up the now meekly obedient deer in front of him sitting on the grass. He really felt bad knowing these poor 'sweet' things were going to die, and probably be eaten too, but there was nothing he could really do for them. 

…

Or was there?

After petting the deer for a good half an hour to try and gain their trust, and also because he really just wanted to, Ares drew a circle in the grass with his sword. "Stay here, ok? I'll be back in a bit, but stay here for now," Ares tried to communicate in a slow and steady manner, hoping that maybe it would help.

The deer questioningly tilted their head at this strange human that had just entered their domain, blew off parts of their head, doomed them to suffer for the rest of their short lives, and finally drew a weird shape around them like he was performing some sort of satanic ritual.

Ares could see they really weren't getting it, so he sat them all down again and bopped them on the nose while telling them to stay and be good.

As if to confirm their suspicions, one of the deer, presumably the one that had been their leader previously, poked a foot outside the circle and looked over at Ares.

Ares shook his head and lifted the hoof before placing it back inside the circle and, with that interaction, they came to a mutual understanding of sorts. It was a good thing these creatures had some degree of intelligence otherwise it would have taken far longer than he would have liked to convey his intention. Ares couldn't help but feel these deer were maybe even a little smarter than Allie, they could at least fill in the blanks themselves when prompted... Although he joked about Allie in his mind often, he knew that she wasn't actually stupid, just really bad with logic chains.

Ares left for an entire day before he came back and escorted his entourage to the new home he had found for the deer. The environment was unfamiliar to them, but when Ares introduced the deer to the 'locals', they realised they would actually be rather safe here, provided the 'locals' didn't get hungry and eat them that is. This place also doubled down as somewhere Ares could come and relax with relative safety as he was now, after a great deal of work, AKA feeding, on very good terms with the locals of the area. It took a bit of explaining to the locals that they were 'not to eat the deer under any circumstance', and that he would find them a suitable, edible replacement when he came back, to which the locals begrudgingly mewed.

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

Thud Thud 

"What are you doing?" Allie looked on confusedly at Aejaz as he repeatedly stomped his foot on the ground.

"Soft and springy. Good to manoeuvre and run around on in a fight." Aejaz gave Allie a thumbs up.

"You don't seem like the kind of person that does much fighting," Enyo said as they walked deeper into the forest.

"Nope, but it's good to keep these things in mind. Wouldn't wanna slip on ice or anything."

"Who would be dumb enough to get into a fight on ice and slip?" Enyo said in a dismissive tone.

"Ha, I've seen it before."

"Let me guess, drunk?"

"One of them, yeah."

"And the other?"

"Made sure to teach me the value of checking my surroundings in advance."

Enyo stopped in her tracks briefly and unintentionally let out a little snicker before trying to pretend she was coughing to cover it up.

Allie was slack jawed as this was the first time she had ever seen Enyo laugh at pretty much anything. She also hadn't understood what Aejaz had meant, so she didn't understand what was so funny. She walked up to Aejaz, tugged on his clothes, and pointed at Enyo. "What's so funny?"

"Hm?" Aejaz was trying to bring himself back from the heavenly satisfaction of Allie cutely tugging on his clothes. "Oh, the guy that fell was Ares."

"Hahaha," Allie let out a little laugh. "I can't even imagine him falling over."

"Ah, I'll never forget it for as long as I live. Neither of us had ever seen snow or ice before, so we weren't used to it. Ares really struggled with tuning his speed accordingly and caution completely slipped his mind the second he got into a fight. Haha, the look of disappointment he had on his face as he lay on the floor was brilliant. It was the first time I'd ever seen him get mopey, he sulked for a good week until the ice went away."

Aejaz heard another snicker come from Enyo up front.

"Aww, now I wanna see young, grouchy, pouting Ares." Allie was trying to imagine it.

"Honestly, Ares wasn't much different to how he is now. His looks have been pretty consistant since I met him. I don't know about before that, though."

"How did you meet him anyway?" Enyo wanted to know how the bandit brothers came to be.

"Ah, I suppose I should tell you how I wound up in Red Sun first." Aejaz briefly explained his family situation.

"I'm sorry," Enyo said.

"No need to apologise, not like it's your fault, and I don't mind talking about it."

"Huh, all four of us have family issues then," Allie said.

"Hm?"

"My family was murdered when I was still a baby. I don't remember anything about it. All I know is that Zhang raised me in the sect."

"Oh, that's, um, I'm sorry for your loss." Aejaz didn't quite know how to comfort her.

"Ha, no need to apologise, not like it's your fault, and I don't mind talking about it," Allie said in a gruff tone.

"Deja vu." Aejaz chuckled. 

"So, how did you meet Ares then?" Allie prompted.

"Oh, right, yeah. It was just after I arrived in Red Sun. I stole an amulet from the Chen clan's patriarch. Later, when he finally realised, I'm guessing he sent guards out to go and find it. They happened to catch me inspecting it in an alleyway and then they chased me around the festival for a good ten minutes straight."

"Festival? Ahhhhhhhhhh, you were that boy I heard about from Zhang! The one being chased around!" Allie had gotten giddy.

"You saw me?"

"Nope, I missed you, but Zhang did. He said he also saw another boy chasing the people chasing you."

"Haha, small world. Yeah, that other kid was Ares." Aejaz gave a detailed recounting of the events that unfolded that day.

"There was also an incident with a flying sword, but you'd have to ask Ares about that."

"A flying sword?" Allie's eyes lit up in wonder.

"Oh yeah."

"Guess I'll have to ask the next time we see him. Are you sure he'll be ok… With us, I mean?" Allie was fidgety.

"Yeah, he's not the kind of person to stay annoyed for too long, I think. He'll probably just want some time alone is all. If I were to make a bet, I'd say he blew up some part of the forest somewhere, and now he's probably looking for cute animals to hang around with."

"He really likes cute things that much?" Allie asked.

"Mhm, it's his second greatest weakness," Aejaz replied without thinking.

"Second?" Enyo stopped walking and turned around.

Aejaz laughed nervously and scratched his head aimlessly. "Ha, um, yeah." Aejaz steeled his determination. "Look, I've already screwed up once this week, please don't make me tell you his secret. It's even more embarrassing than the ice thing, so he'll be furious with me."

"Worse than the ice thing!?" Enyo was very interested in having something else in addition to the ice mishap to leverage against that insufferable bastard.

"Ha, ha, OH, hey look a squirrel."

"Where!" Allie squeaked.

Enyo slapped her helmet out of frustration when she saw Allie fall for such a blatant and silly ruse.

"AH! Silver rabbit weed!" Allie spotted something entirely different as she was frantically searching around.

"An ingredient?" Enyo asked.

"Yep! Somewhat rare too!" Allie spoke as she hopped and skipped over to the plant, "Need to be very careful though, if it gets set off, things are gonna get shaky!"

"Really? Isn't it just a plant?" Aejaz was completely lost as he wasn't knowledgeable about alchemy, alchemical plants, and/or ingredients.

"Yes, but they aren't called 'rabbit' weeds for nothing! If you try to harvest it wrong, the weed will start jumping about."

"Plants can do that?"

"Mhm, yep. Some can even attack you or show signs of sentience. The rabbit weed is actually quite dangerous if you aren't careful. Because it's a weed, it's rooted quite stubbornly. If it tries to jump, it causes miniature, localised earthquakes as it pulls up the earth with every hop. They're especially dangerous if they happen to grow in towns."

"Huh, I never knew how cool plants could be."

"They're great! And of course, they're also valuable for alchemy."

"And they're great to sell," a strange voice came from behind a nearby bush. "So, you'll be handing that weed over to us, little missy." A group of five people moved into view and the woman who was leading them stood at the forefront. She wore standard merchant clothes as opposed to the four behind her who were obviously some sort of protective detail.

Allie hugged the weed close to her chest and hurried behind Enyo.

"This weed belongs to us. Leave," Enyo spoke with an authoritative air.

"It's cute that you're playing dress up and think you're an actual knight but, hon, we're going to hurt you if you don't give us the weed."

At some point, Aejaz had snuck over next to Allie and had started whispering in her ear, "Hey, do you trust me?"

"No, why?"

A small part of Aejaz died inside. "Well can you trust me for, like, 30 seconds?"

"Ok, I guess."

"Good, good good. Give them the weed."

"What?"

"Just trust me, I'll get it back."

"Why should we give it to them if we're just going to take it back?"

"We're running out of time here. They're getting angsty. Just trust me, ok?"

"Fineeee."

"OK, you lot can have the weed," Aejaz turned and spoke to the merchant.

"Huh?" Enyo, who had not been made privy to his plan, was at a loss. She had already taken out her shield and was very much prepared to knock some sense into this travelling circus. These people weren't even remotely as strong as her and she could handle them with ease. Allie poked Enyo in the back and nodded at her when she turned around to look at her.

"Good choice." The merchant opened up her palm and held it out, waiting for the goods.

Allie threw over the weed and the merchant put it into her space ring. She then put the space ring inside another space ring. This woman was clearly paranoid, not that it was going to help anyway. The merchant simply turned around and left when she got what she wanted with her bodyguards following suit. Time waits for no one, and she had many more people to rob!

"Tsk, I know you stole it back from them so we wouldn't have to fight, but people like that should be taught a lesson as a preventative measure if they can't be arrested." Enyo was displeased.

"Ah, maybe, but that wasn't why I did it." Aejaz shook his head and reached into his pocket. "Ta〜daaa!" Aejaz pulled out a weed that was identical in shape and size to the rabbit weed Allie had picked earlier, but this one was gold in colour.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! GOLDEN RABBIT WEED! GIMME! GIMME! GIMME! GIMME!" Allie was practically drooling as her wide eyes stared at the weed.

"Ha, of course, but is it really that big of a deal?" Aejaz handed over the weed.

"YES, YES YES YES YES!" although Allie responded, she was engrossed in the weed and wasn't even looking at Aejaz.

"That's the quality enhancement thing you mentioned?" Enyo questioned.

"Yep," Aejaz replied proudly. Raising the tier of stolen items was truly heaven defying when it came to obtaining rare items.

"Can't you just do that over and over again?"

"Nope, I can only do it once per thing I steal. Also, the person I'm stealing from has to be unaware and unwilling. It's not exactly stealing if the other person wants you to take it."

"Makes sense, although I still wish I could have drilled some proper etiquette into those hoodlums." 

"Yeah, but then Allie wouldn't have gotten the Golden Weed. She seems really quite happy to have it, even if I have absolutely no idea why."

"Hm, I guess I can see it," Enyo mused.

"See what?" Aejaz was curious as to what she meant.

"Allie at home, making pills and Mini Pillies, while you go out and steal high quality plants and ingredients. Even if I don't quite agree with your thievery habits, I can see it."

Aejaz immediately swung his neck over to look at Allie and sighed a heavy sigh of relief when he realised she was completely unaware of Enyo's remark as she was too busy studying the weed. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Oh, my poor heart." Aejaz held his hand over his chest and could feel his heart operating much faster than usual.

"Don't worry, when she's like this, you could poke her in the head and she wouldn't even notice."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, go ahead, try it. It's quite fun actually."

Aejaz narrowed his eyes at Enyo as he couldn't tell if she was messing with him or not. Since when did this woman understand the concept of 'fun'? He decided to try it anyway, though, so he turned around and slowly moved his index finger toward Allie's head. He kept hesitating as he got closer and closer. He was half expecting someone to shout 'BOO', and just psyched himself out even more.

Poke

Aejaz had closed his eyes and scrunched his face in preparation for Allie turning around and having a go at him, but it never happened. He opened his eyes and, sure enough, Allie was still in her own world. "Oh, wow, you weren't kidding."

"I have no idea why she gets like this. Anyway, me letting you poke her was a one off, so I hope you enjoyed your fun moment."

Aejaz gave Enyo a thumbs up and a smile and then practically leapt out of his own skin when Allie started speaking behind him.

"This will work!" Allie exclaimed as she held her newly acquired weed in both hands.

"What are you making?" Enyo asked.

"An upgrade!"

"Upgrade?" Aejaz had no idea what Allie was talking about.

"Mhm. With pill ingredients, I can make a pill, a Mini-Pilly, or an upgrade for a Mini-Pilly. You see, upgrades I make for Mini-Pillies are permanent. Even if the Mini-Pilly is destroyed, when I make it again, it'll come pre-equipped with every upgrade I've ever made for it. Upgrades require progressively rarer ingredients in order to make, and I've been trying to find something suitable for Mini-Pilly Strength's upgrade for nearly an entire year now. Golden rabbit weed is at least 8 times rarer than its silver counterpart, and even Zhang couldn't find any for me when he left the sect specifically to go look for some."

"Huh, I guess today's your lucky day." Aejaz still wasn't entirely caught up, but he was just happy to see Allie happy.

"Thank you!" Allie skipped over to Aejaz and gave him a quick hug. "Oh, Oh, Enyo, can we set up camp so I can make the upgrade?"

"Fine."

Meanwhile Aejaz was in his own world, stunned stupid as though he had just been struck by lightning thrice. He had experienced handshakes with Missy before, but a hug was a whole new frontier for him! Aejaz decided that he would find more rare ingredients for Allie even if he had to descend into the pits of hell to find poisonous flowers that only bloomed in purgatory. Aejaz floated like a piece of driftwood over to the impromptu campsite Enyo had set up and took a seat.

Allie brought a cauldron out of a spatial ring as well as a selection of plants and alchemical ingredients. "Golden rabbit weed, ichor gelling agent, seven sins tar, gringyhorns, praying mantis lungs, and a pinch of wintry-wood. That ought to do it!" Allie listed off the ingredients one by one as she put them into the cauldron, making her sound like a wicked witch out of a fairy-tale. Allie used her mana to set the cauldron aflame and rhythmically tapped on the cauldron at specific points to raise and lower the temperature while also using mana to stir the ingredients. She stood up and rolled up the sleeves on her arms before reaching over and putting her hands into the cauldron. She used mana to prevent burns and was fiddling around with the ingredients, massaging them to bring out their full potency and maximise efficacy. It was also necessary for her to draw runic patterns from within the mixture. There were many types of alchemical procedures, and some would say her style was rather crude, but it worked, and that was what was really important to her. 

This particular method allowed for much more precise control over each individual step and was typically favoured by more skilled practitioners that didn't care much for their companions and cohorts' cries of indecency. Selling pills concocted with this methodology required, by law, a warning label as there were more than a fair few picky customers that wouldn't touch anything made in such a fashion.

Allie raised one hand out of the cauldron and clicked her finger. When she raised her other hand, she held within it a round pill. Although it looked normal, it wasn't hard for anyone who was a cultivator to tell that the pill was hollow. It was just a casing, a shell for what was hidden within. "Ahhhhh, this is my favourite part!" Allie stowed away her cauldron and summoned a Mini-Pilly.

The Mini-Pilly was very obviously 'Strength'. Like 'Scout', it had tiny, thin black lines for arms and legs but, unlike scout, it didn't have a giant maw to bite things with. Instead, it had odd bumps along its arms that somewhat resembled muscles. The pill gave off a self-obsessed macho-man vibe as it kept alternating between various bodybuilding poses so it could flex its muscles.

"Hey Strength, look! A new upgrade! All for you!"

The Mini-Pilly strutted over to the hollow pill and curled the muscles on his left arm. He leant his head over and made a kissing motion on his muscles while stretching out his right arm to poke the pill. The pill started rattling and rolling around while emitting a dazzlingly bright golden light.

Aejaz could have sworn he heard cheers and clapping coming from within the pill.

Crack

"Ooooh, I can't wait to see what you'll get!" Allie was paying rapt attention to the pill and rocking back and forth on her log seat.

The pill finally broke apart and a small, golden orb drifted down to the ground next to Strength. The light of the orb dimmed and revealed within it a shiny, gilded, wrestling championship belt.

Strength was mid muscle-kiss when it snapped back around to look at its new upgrade. It confidently swaggered over and picked up the belt before wrapping it around his body. The belt was a little big for it and looked comically silly at first, but, after a few seconds, the belt shrunk down in size and looked considerably better, almost natural even. Strength began posing with renewed vigour and Allie clapped away in the background.

"Hm? Oh, you learnt a new art!? Haha, cool! Let's try it!" Allie had long since established a mental connection with her Mini-Pillies and could understand basic information that they wanted to share with her.

Strength hopped up onto Allie's shoulder and stood proud with the ends of its arms resting on the belt it was puffing out.

"Go! From The Top Rope!"

Strength slid down along the length of Allie's arm, jumped up her wrist, and bounced his way to the tip of Allie's pointed index finger. Allie's finger bent downward slightly then acted like a springboard and flung Strength up high. Strength pulled off a mid-air somersault while basking in the criss-crossing, scattered rays of sunlight before transitioning into an elbow drop.

Aejaz pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming as this was hands-down the weirdest thing he had ever seen. 

He also quickly realised it was the weirdest thing he had ever seen, heading towards him.

BANG

Dirt was sent scattering every which way and a small dust cloud was kicked up in the wake of what had essentially been a nuclear wrestling finish. 

Strength hopped out of the crater he just made, dusted himself off, and immediately went back to posing. Behind him, poking out of the crater, was Aejaz's raised arm, shaking uncontrollably.

"I… I… I'm f…Cough Cough… I'm… Fine." 

Aejaz was most definitely not fine. 

A large number of bones were broken and he was bleeding in more places than he could count. He had a concussion and, quite frankly, needed a stretcher.