Chapter 37: Ares, You’re TOO Kind

Unsurprisingly, when Gladius and Aejaz woke up the next morning, Ares was dragged off to the side and peppered with cooking questions. Gladius wanted Ares to make a recipe for a specific dish, one he knew was Charity's favourite, so he could take it with him and practice repeatedly.

Aejaz was in the same boat but, as he was going back to the sect with Ares, he was practically begging Ares to teach him how to make good food when they returned.

"Alright, alright. A potato dauphinoise recipe, huh? Luckily, I haven't used any of the potatoes I got gifted from a merchant friend of mine earlier, so I have enough ingredients left to play around and experiment. I'll get back to you some time before we split up with a recipe. Good luck, Gladius."

"Thanks man, this means a lot."

"No worries." Ares swivelled to face Ares. "And you! You should be training to fight, not to cook!"

"Aresssssss!"

"Ha, I'm joking. Fine, I'll teach you when we get back, but you better at least take this more seriously than your other 'training' that you've been 'doing'."

Aejaz stood to attention and saluted. "SIR, YES SIR!"

Ares just rolled his eyes. goofball. "Well, anyway, we're leaving soon and those two still aren't back yet. I'm gonna go see if everything's ok on their end." Ares gave a carefree wave and then went to go find Enyo and Bellona.

"Whatcha talkin' about? Hmmmm?" Allie intoned knowingly with a sly smile. She had eaten the honeycomb too and could tell Aejaz was determined to create something of that ilk for her.

"What can I say? You already know and I'm not trying to hide it." Aejaz shrugged. "On a completely irrelevant side note that categorically has nothing to do with what we're currently discussing, what's your favourite food?"

Allie giggled. "Banana split!"

"I've no clue what that is, but hey, this is where Ares comes in."

"See? Relying on others can be a good thing!"

"When you're right, you're right."

Meanwhile Charity was questioning Gladius, "Aejaz I get, but why you?"

"I want to do something to say thanks for all the times you've healed me, god knows it's a lot."

"You're making food for me?"

"Yeah, why do you sound surprised?"

"Because it's surprising. Surely you aren't so blissfully unaware of what kind of cooking that was?"

"No? So what? The guy can cook, and I want to know how to do it too as a kinda nice gesture for you."

"You're not trying to make me fall in love with you, are you? 'Cos that's a waste of time."

Gladius' heart sank and he felt sick. "Ha, no. I'm really just trying to repay you is all."

Charity sighed. "Then maybe I should ask Ares for advice too."

Gladius was confused. "But why? You don't owe me anything?"

"Because unlike you, I want to make someone fall in love, you dunce."

"Huh?"

"You can't make me fall in love with you because I already love you, Gladius. Tsk, if I had just known you felt the same, I would have bloody said it years ago. Couldn't you have made it more obvious? We grew up together and I've liked you for a long time now. Why do you think I spent all that time studying the healing pillar? Day in, day out? It was so I could beat out the other healers in the clan and be one of the four people fighting alongside you with your unique magic. It was also because of that scar on your face. That happened because you saved me from stray magic during training, remember? You took that injury for me and it's my deepest regret that I wasn't able to heal you that day. I even followed you to Red Soil because I wanted to spend more time with you, you absolute buffoon. I had heard men could be oblivious, but seriously? If it weren't for you so blatantly talking to Ares about cooking, I'd still be trying to figure out if you would reciprocate my feelings or not. Thank God you suck at lying. Not that I'm not touched by your willingness to attempt cooking for me, but can you even cook? How about we choose something together, ask Ares for a recipe, and learn to make it together. Wouldn't that be better?"

"... Huh? ..."

Ugh, men… can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

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Enyo felt something gently shaking her arm. She awoke to find Ares on one knee, hunched over her and smiling warmly. The sun had risen and was shining down on him as birds tweeted away in the background. Memories of the night before came flooding back and she had to resist the desire to pull him closer and kiss him right there and then.

"Good morning."

I can't do it! Patience be damned! Enyo couldn't hold back anymore. The voice Ares had used was soft, tender, and affectionate and she simply couldn't stop herself if she tried. She was already blushing, and he could definitely see it. She figured she might as well power through the embarrassment and get the kiss she wanted. 

She put her hand on his face, brought him a little closer, leant forward, and managed to ruin everything in spectacular fashion.

Thud

"Ah, ouch." Ares was rubbing his forehead.

"D… D… Did you put my helmet back on when I was sleeping!?"

"Uh, yeah, sorry. You've only let me see your face once before, so I felt like it was wrong sneaking a peak while you were asleep. I guess I deserved that headbutt, haha, sorry."

YOU BASTARD! YOU CAN'T SEE ME BLUSHING AT ALL! WHERE'S MY KISS DAMN IT! YOU INSUFFERABLE MAN! WHO EVEN DOES THAT!? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!? GIVE ME MY MOMENT BACK! "It's fine, you don't have to apologise." BECAUSE NO AMOUNT OF APOLOGISING WILL EVER MAKE ME FORGIVE YOU! "I appreciate you being thoughtful." NO, I DON'T! "Thank you." FUCK YOU!

"Um, I was curious if you liked the honeycomb?"

"Yes, it was really wonderful, I loved it." AND YOU'VE GONE AND UNDONE ALL THAT HARD WORK YOU MORON!

"Oh great! I really enjoyed making it. If you'd like, I can make you more whenever you want."

"Really?" Awwwww. Ok, I forgive you. WAIT! NO! I CAN'T LET YOU PLAY WITH MY HEART LIKE THIS! 

"Yeah, absolutely. I can even make you other stuff with mint too! Pick whatever you like."

NO! "NO!" wait… I didn't mean to say that out loud… "I mean… I really loved the honeycomb. I want more of that, please."

"Uh, sure. I mean, I can make you the honeycomb as well as other mint stuff too. I'll make anything for you."

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! WHY WON'T YOU LET ME KISS YOU! "Ok, that sounds great. You should prepare yourself though, I'm going to want a lot of that honeycomb." I WANT IT EVERY DAMN DAY! LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME ARES!

"Is everything ok?" Bellona woke up as she could practically hear Enyo's internal screaming in her dreams

"Yeah, we're leaving soon so I stopped by to wake you. I'll leave you two to your own devices now. Ciao!" Ares Shifted away.

"Bellona… BELLONA… HE'S RUINING ME."

"Wow, already? You know, apparently, it took mum a couple hundred years to say that about dad. This has to be some kind of record."

"BELLONA, THIS ISN'T FUNNY."

"Ok, ok. What happened?"

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

Bellona returned to the camp with Enyo to set off, but couldn't help snickering every time she caught sight of Ares. 

Ares noticed this and was curious, so he decided to bring up her strange behaviour, "Are you ok there Bellona? Do I have bed-hair or something?"

Snicker

"No, no, not at all. It's just that Enyo wanted to tell me something and she was adamant it wasn't funny. Turns out, it was the funniest thing I've heard in years."

Snicker

"Oh, uh, ok." Ares wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Don't worry, you'll find out eventually. If she doesn't tell you someday, believe me, I will."

Snicker

"Well alright then, I look forward to it. Anyway, everyone's ready. Are you two good to go?"

"Yep, should be all dandy. Need to keep an eye out for monsters on the trail though, still need a few more parts for our mission. By the way, is it me or… Is there a little something-something going on with those two?"

"Gladius and Charity? Oh yeah, big time. They came up to me together and asked for a recipe that they wanted to learn to make with one another and share after. Let me tell you, they seemed very touchy feely."

"Oh come on! Am I seriously the only one left out!?"

"Haha, well… There's always Trew…" Ares joked.

Smack

Bellona whacked Ares. "Don't you dare even joke about that! I'd rather be an old maid!"

"So, what you're saying is, he's not your type."

"Ares, I will throw spiders at you. That man is no one's type."

"Please, I beg of you, anything but the spiders." Ares winced.

"Oh? Why not?" Bellona wore a devilish smile as she placed a finger on Ares' wrist. "Do you hate the way they… Crawl?" Bellona's fingers climbed their way up Ares' arm.

Ares shivered from head to toe and scampered off to hide behind Enyo. "ENYOOOOOO, YOUR SISTER IS BULLYING MEEEEEEEEE!"

Enyo replied flatly, "Good! You deserve it!"

Everyone set off again and took a slight detour to look for more monsters. After searching for a while, they happened upon a large group of 'buzzbladers'.

Buzzbladers were humanoid-like insect creatures with incredibly sharp swords in place of their arms. As for their name, it came about due to the buzzing noise they make when sharpening their blades. They would form a circle and link their 'arms', resulting in a raucous grinding sound that was absolutely horrid to listen to. The noise had been frequently described as 'chalk scraping against a blackboard' or 'a fork raking against a plate' depending on which you found worse. These monsters had long since discovered their latent talent for pissing off other creatures and would do this outside their settlements at night, every single night, to try and prevent them from getting any sleep. After repeating this for a number of days, they would have an advantage in combat because of their large numbers and because the other party would be exhausted. Incidentally, a group of buzzbladers was called a 'Foul-Play'. Killing these things on sight was considered a common courtesy, especially among people like Rud and Yulo.

Ares cracked his knuckles and stepped toward their habitat but, strangely, no matter how many steps he took, he never got any closer.

"And where do you think you're going!?" Bellona had gripped Ares' cape and was preventing him from moving anywhere.

Ares tilted his head in confusion and pointed at the buzzbladers. "Uh… To kill them?"

"Form up! Don't rush out like a headless chicken!"

Ares slapped his forehead. "You've got to be kidding me? A formation? Those things are weaker than Aejaz!" Ares ignored Aejaz who was protesting in the background. "What on earth do you need a formation for?"

"There are a lot of those monsters and, besides, it's good practice! Formations are efficient and save lives. Recklessness endangers lives. There's power in numbers, that's basic knowledge. As the person with the lowest cultivation here, minus Allie, you would benefit the most."

"Yeahhhhhh, I think I'll pass. That doesn't really sound like my kinda style. By all means, feel free to stand around in a circle and hold hands like a bunch of buzzbladers, but I'm just gonna go and do things the easy way."

"Don't come crying to me if you get injured," Charity complained.

"Injured!? Against those things!? What is the Legion clan even teaching you? I think Aejaz could put up a better fight and he only paid attention to, like, half the things I ever taught him!"

Trew was indignant. "What do you even know about how to fight? Who taught you?"

"I taught me. I taught myself the hard way, with real combat on the streets against real people that wanted me real dead. Also, I know enough to put you on your ass in two seconds flat, in case you're forgetting."

"You wouldn't win in an actual fight."

"Sureeee. There's only one of me, and five of you, and I bet I can still kill more than all of you combined!"

Enyo scoffed, "Maybe if you switch your brain off and commit to blowing up the whole damn forest like you usually do! How are they even supposed to collect the parts as proof if you do that!?"

"Hmph." Ares folded his arms and took a lofty stance. "Who says I need my magic to outpace you?"

"Oh really? How about a bet then?"

"Them's fighting words. I'm in. What do you have in mind?"

"Like you said, whoever kills the most buzzbladers wins. Only open-pillar magic is allowed. I won't hear any complaints about there being five of us as you've already made your claim!"

"Ha, alright. Hmmm, what do I want when I win?" Ares stroked his chin. An idea came to mind and he couldn't stop himself from grinning. "Ok, I know what I want."

"And that is?"

Ares leant over to Bellona and whispered something in her ear.

"Hahahaha, well, aren't you a forward thinker? That's still aways away from now, but I like it! Ok, deal. I can guarantee that, when the time comes, it will happen," Bellona agreed with no hesitation.

Enyo was compelled to ask, "What does he want?"

To which Bellona smirked and simply said, "Don't worry, it's fine. Trust me." She then whispered the contents of the bet to Charity and Gladius who also agreed.

Trew felt left out. "Can I know?"

"No," Bellona responded dismissively without even looking at him.

Enyo's mind was tossing and turning to figure out what Ares could have possibly wanted. If Bellona was telling everyone but her, then it probably had something to do with her, and she wanted to know!

Ares asked, "Alright, well, now that that's sorted, what do you all want in the hypothetical situation I have a heart attack and lose?" 

Ares had barely finished the sentence when Enyo blurted out, "Honeycomb."

"Uh, I mean, I'll make that for you whenever you want anyway."

"Honeycomb," Enyo almost sounded violent, like she was going to tackle him if he didn't agree to her request.

"Ok, ok, um… More honeycomb. Noted," Ares simply caved, even if he didn't truly understand the request, how could he say no to her?

"I want you to beg for forgiveness," Trew demanded.

"Of all the things you could have asked for, you just had to pick something utterly pointless? Fine, whatever, but I won't get down on my knees. I do that for no one."

Charity was next. "I want you to promise me you'll never teach anyone the runic formation for Diagnosis."

"I wasn't planning on doing that anyway."

"Oh… Ok… Then I don't want anything." Charity shrugged as she really didn't care about anything else.

Gladius took his turn. "I want you to create a basic rune formation, or have someone do it for you, on both hands, that reads in a neon light, 'I'm overconfident', and keep it until we meet again at the regionals."

"Wow, I didn't have you down as a practical joker. Sure, sounds good to me. And you, Bellona?"

"Hahahaha… Oh… Don't worry, I know what I want to see. It's really quite simple, I want you to cook for someone."

"... What's the catch?"

"I'm not going to tell you who."

"Can I get a clue?"

"Nope." Bellona whispered to Enyo, "Don't you think it would be fun if he cooked for mum?"

"..." it took a second for the information to process in Enyo's mind. "Hahahahahaha. YES."

Ares was starting to get nervous. The last time Enyo laughed like that; he was chased around by a spider. "Uh, admittedly, I'm a little hesitant, but I'll agree anyway. Too late to back down now, and it's not like I plan on losing anyway."

"Alright then! Shake on it and let's start." Bellona held out her hand and Ares did too.

As soon as the handshake finished, Ares Shifted away and the sound of dying insects rang out. He had a pretty massive advantage in that he didn't need to set up a formation ahead of time and could just hop right in which he planned on making full use of. As for that sneaky Shift, well, technically, he just used it to get into ring.

"Wow, that was quick." Bellona shook her head and cleared her thoughts. "FORM UP!"

The Legion clan took their positions with Bellona and Charity at the rear, Trew and Gladius at the centre, and Enyo at the front with her shield readied.

Allie tugged on Aejaz' clothes. "Who do you think they want Ares to cook for?"

"Don't know, but it doesn't matter. Those guys have no idea what they're in for. There's categorically no way they win, not with the way Ares fights."

"What do you mean?"

"Ares is more of a lone-wolf type fighter. He's not used to group combat so, when it actually happens… When Ares fights alongside others… He can be a bit… Selfish."

Ares was in full swing and practically dancing through the insects, evading his way past every strike in perfect fashion. He would land in front of an insect, kill it, and move on in one fell swoop, barely even giving the monsters a chance to react. His feet were never touching the floor for more than a single second as he raced into large groups and narrowly weaved his way through large clumps of insects, leaving piles of corpses wherever he stepped. A flash of steel would result in a minimum of one beheaded creature without fail and yet, his competitive fire hadn't even been lit yet. This was boring for him. 

The Legion clan entered the fray and took up a spot a short distance away from Ares. Formations weren't great at moving and did a better job of holding their ground. If they positioned themselves next to Ares, he would just use his mobility and run circles around them, stealing their prey. On the way in, they couldn't help but notice how many buzzbladers Ares had already killed as it was quite an impressive number for having had so little time. They glanced over and were awe-stricken by Ares' unique sword style. It wasn't professional in the slightest, yet it looked nearly flawless. The sword just seemed to conveniently, perpetually be exactly where it needed to be, when it needed to be there. It was a blend of agility and cunning that seemingly had countless openings but, when attempting to exploit them, would lead to you being punished for even considering it an opening in the first place. This was the first time they had seen him actually fighting for longer than a split second and they couldn't help but want to watch.

"Cool," Gladius let out a short compliment as he glanced over at Ares' movements. Time was of the essence though, so he immediately went back to impaling the monsters with his spear. Gladius was an expert with spears and javelins and was unmatched with them in the Legion clan's younger generation. His movements weren't necessarily flashy, but they were definitely masterful and well-practiced to say the least.

"There's nothing cool about it," Trew refuted as he cut an insect in half with a clean swipe of his sword. "It's a heavily flawed 'style', if you can even call it that, that makes him look like he's a cheetah fused with a rabbit. All it takes is one misstep and he'll get run through quicker than you can call him an idiot. If our instructor were here, she would be embarrassed by whatever the hell that is, I guarantee it. If he's so proud of how fast he is, he should put it to good use instead of using that mockery of a 'style' that's littered with needless time spent in the air."

"It is a bit strange that he keeps jumping, I wonder why he's doing it? I'm sure there's a good reason, but I just don't see it. Either way, he's killing fast and seems perfectly safe, so I guess it's working." Charity punched an insect's vital point so hard it crumpled on the floor and just died miserably without even letting out a scream.

"Based on the rate we're killing insects, we should overtake his kill-count soon," Enyo said. Two insects came charging head on toward her. She headbutt one and elbowed the other in the gut with her shield hand, caving in its stomach. She then raised her shield and brought it crashing down onto the insect that was still reeling from the headbutt, demolishing its skull. Enyo killed the other insect by bringing the shield back around and barrelling straight through it. A rune on her shield lit up and cleaned the viscera, restoring its pristine state. A similar runic pattern had lit up on her armour too and performed the same function. 

A Legion clan member's armour and weapons were their pride and joy, so every member of the clan would always get that particular cleaning formation engraved on all their equipment, Gladius, Charity, Trew, and Bellona included. None of them were quite the neat-freak Enyo was, though, and they would wait until the fighting was over to use it.

There was brief lull in the fighting on the Legion clan's side as the buzzbladers regrouped to concentrate their attacks. The insects had figured out that this was the best way to retaliate against the formation as individual attempts at cracking it were doing nothing. To test the waters, they sent a squad of five insects to poke at the formation. Currently, the Legion clan had just about caught up to Ares and only needed three more kills to tie the score. Five was plenty and would put them in a lead. Enyo effortlessly waved aside the wind-blade magic that the insects fired from afar and let the five-insect squad through while staring down the rest of the swarm. No more were going to pass on her watch. Even if all of the remaining insects attempted to breakthrough simultaneously, she would repel the tide. In fact, all the members of the Legion clan were more than capable of killing all the buzzbladers on their own, they were just stubborn about following their instructor's guidance.

Bellona was more a magic specialist than a hand-to-hand fighter so, when one of the buzzbladers ran at her, the most she could really do was bash the insect's cerebral cortex to a pulp with a magical staff like the kind a wizard or a witch from fantasy stories would use. She began whining to Trew and Gladius, "I can't use arts 'cos of the bet! Stop being lazy and don't let them come back here or the next living things I smack will be you two!"

Gladius rolled his eyes. "Yes ma'am.' Legion clan women bossing Gladius around was seemingly a common occurrence.

One of the remaining four buzzbladers tried firing a Wind-Blade at Trew who simply responded with his own. Wind-Blade was a basic art of the sword aspect under the weapons pillar. The sword would create a crescent shaped jet of wind that travelled rapidly, slicing through anything in its path. Trew's Wind-Blade was far stronger than the insect's and it carved straight through it, continuing along directly into the insect's throat. It even managed to retain enough momentum to carry on travelling and slice through a boulder behind it. There were only three from the insect squad left, with only one more kill needed to catch up to Ares.

As for why Ares hadn't killed any buzzbladers recently, it was impossible to tell. He was still nimbly ducking and diving through the horde that had surrounded him with great ease but, strangely enough, he wasn't swinging his sword for some reason. It was actually rather impressive the way he danced through the horde without touching a single one of them or being touched by them.

The last three buzzbladers charged simultaneously with one heading toward Trew, and two at Gladius. One of the insects attacking Gladius stretched out its arm to try and pierce through Gladius. Gladius took a step back and thrust out his spear to meet the insect's sword-arm head on. The grade of Gladius' weapon, and his skill with it, was far too much for the insect to contend with, so its arm split apart on contact. The spear kept travelling along the insides of its arm, gouging out every tendon and muscle in its path until it coiled its way through the insect's shoulder and blasted through the buzzblader's brain.

The Legion clan had evened the score with Ares and there were two insects left, one for Gladius, and one for Trew.

Trew swung vertically to cut his insect in half while Gladius attacked his incoming insect with a sweeping attack. Neither attack connected though as they both ran their weapons through empty space. Gladius' insect had simply vanished from his line of sight and Trew's insect had its head blown off, causing him to falter.

Gladius looked around to try and make sense of what happened and everything became crystal clear instantly. "Ah, this bet was never really fair to begin with, was it?"

Trew's insect had been blasted by a ranged Echo that Ares had fired off and Gladius' buzzblader had been dragged away by Ares' Stygian Zephyr. The Zephyr had pierced the monster and was reeling it in along the ground as the insect desperately scrambled to try and flee. When it was brought against its will to the slaughter zone that was Ares' effective range, it was killed on the spot.

Ares had evidently been slowing down and waiting for the score to even out before kicking it into overdrive and getting serious. He was so confident in his ability to win he allowed the Legion clan to catch up just so he could leave them in the dust again to prove a point. Not only was he somehow even quicker than before, but his fighting style was now 'complete' as he was actively using his Zephyr and Echoes. Both his hands were constantly busy doing one of four things, swinging the sword, physically beating an insect, swinging around the Zephyr, or creating Echoes. He was now also using the Zephyr as a platform to lengthen the time he spent in the air which allowed him to move freely despite the buzzbladers crowding around him. Any insect over by the Legion clan that even attempted to strike them was either taken out by a ranged Echo, or pierced/pulled away by the Zephyr. It's not even like Ares was slowing down to do it either, his motions were like one complete process that flowed seamlessly from one action to another. 

He cut down an insect with his right hand while crushing another's skull with his left hand. His right side was clear so he passed the sword to his left side and swung it horizontally to decapitate three nearby insects all the while raising his right hand to flick an Echo at a buzzblader that was trying to attack the Legion clan and wasn't even next to him. An insect tried creeping up on Ares from his flank, but Ares leant back to dodge it before taking a step closer to the insect so he could run his sword through it without giving it a chance to dodge. His free hand grabbed the Zephyr of his back and swung it in an arc behind him without even looking. The Zephyr cut through another four insects that were also trying to sneak attack him, ending them in a flash like a brief black gust of death. His hand passed over his head and brought the Zephyr swinging around to his front. The hand holding the Zephyr swatted aside the head of the buzzblader he had run through earlier, giving the Zephyr that came trailing after a free shot at another insect who was further away and trying to attack the Legion clan. The Zephyr pierced through the back of the insect's head and Ares jerked his arm, sending an Echo through the Zephyr that detonated explosively and killed another three insects nearby.

This wasn't even a competition anymore. Only about a quarter of the buzzbladers on the Legion clan's side could even get remotely close to them without dying to some unforeseen attack from across the battleground.

Ares was frenzied and completely caught in the thrill of the fight. Whenever he got like this, he would just start killing everything that wasn't on his side that was within his reach, regardless of whether or not someone else could take care of it. He wasn't even stealing the kills for the sake of winning, this was just how he fought on a regular basis anyway. If it wasn't dead, it should be, and he would see to it that everything was deader than dead before he ever stopped moving.

The Legion clan collectively gave up when their insect horde abandoned them to go and try and stop the madman Ares from single-handedly decimating their entire population as he was clearly the bigger issue. This was part of the problem with formations, they were more effective as far as safety was concerned, but considerably less efficient than solo manoeuvring. They probably could have put up somewhat of a fight if they disbanded and chased the insects down individually, but that would just be proving Ares' point and they likely still wouldn't win anyway due to the hefty gap that had already formed in their scores. That was what Gladius had meant when he said the bet was never really fair to begin with, formations weren't suitable for any race-like challenges as they were more the slow and steady type operation, one that was instead reliable in war or large-scale battles. 

The Legion clan had taken to watching Ares fight and couldn't help but admire the precision of his movements and the purpose with which every single motion existed solely to achieve. Ares was basically untouchable regardless of whether he was on the offensive or defensive. His speed combined with his control and unusual movements was impeccable. His dodging was unparalleled and there was consistently a counter attack at the ready no matter which position he was in after dodging

Ares' bizarre tendency to leave the ground was now entirely justified thanks to his use of the Zephyr as it was impossible to gauge whether or not he would allow himself to return to the floor, extend his time in the air, or bounce off it in an entirely different direction. He could even use Gamble multiple times in a row now that he had finally turned it into an art of the sword pillar. Gamble had gotten much faster than the time he used it against Slick, this was a result of becoming an art. This didn't mean he couldn't use it if he ran out of mana, it just wouldn't be an art and therefore its effectiveness would lower slightly. Gamble, as an art, had become so fluid in fact, that if an enemy fell for it, Ares simply disappeared from their view and they were beheaded before they even knew what happened to them. Gamble meant that if Ares chose to return to the floor after leaping, even if someone was prepared for it, they still had to follow it up with another prediction to even have a chance at fighting back. Seeing as how Ares always had to land at some point, he could effectively always force his enemy to Gamble if he was given enough space to initiate his offensive gameplan.

Long story short, if you attacked him, you missed and died. If he attacked you, you played an 'aerial or grounded' guessing game with horrible odds and died. If he attacked you and you somehow won the guessing game, you had to play another guessing game with even worse odds via Gamble, and died. Even if, by some miraculous gift of God, you won both guessing games, you got very little out of it, if anything at all, and still had to deal with his magic follow-up. It was simply absurd the lengths you would have to go to in order to beat Ares in even a single interaction. Of course, Ares wasn't using his destruction pillar here, but his Echoes and Zephyr provided more than enough versatility for him to remain lethal in countless ways.

By the time he was done murdering the buzzbladers, Ares hadn't even received a single scratch. Despite having found himself surrounded on all sides constantly throughout the whole fight, he wasn't touched once. The utilisation of his speed was undeniably his greatest asset and he was basically an untouchable glass cannon. He had won the bet quite handily, having killed roughly 100 buzzbladers in comparison to the Legion clan's 50. The part that was beyond belief was that the Legion clan had originally evened out the score at the 40-kill mark. Everything that came after was extremely one-sided. If Ares hadn't handicapped himself from the start, the Legion clan's score compared to his would've been laughable and humiliating.

Ares Shifted over next to Bellona, draped his arm over her shoulder, and leant towards her. "Ares: 1, Tin Cans: 0."

Bellona tutted. "Alright, alright. You win." She took a quick step to the side causing Ares to fall over.

"Ouch, and here I was thinking about going through with your forfeits anyway 'cos I like cooking." Ares dusted himself off and stood up.

"Really?"

"Yeah, but only your forfeit and Enyo's, obviously." Ares wagged his finger at Gladius to dash the hope in his eyes.

"Damnit!" Gladius had surprisingly really wanted to win the bet and publicly humiliate Ares.

Enyo, however, was very pleased with this outcome. "More honeycomb?" 

"Yes Enyo, more honeycomb," Ares replied while chuckling to himself. As he was turning to face Bellona, out of the corner of his eye, Ares could have sworn he saw Enyo doing a celebratory mini fist-pump. "Well, whenever you want me to cook for this secret person, let me know."

Bellona gave a mysterious response, "It'll happen around the same time you get your reward for the bet. For now, we need to collect the monster parts. Do you mind giving us a hand?"

"Nope, sorry. I'm far too used to making that lazy sod do clean-up." Ares pointed at Aejaz. "You should seriously get him to do it, it'll save you a couple hours for sure."

"Awww, do I have to? It drains all my manaaaaaaaa," Aejaz moaned.

"Clearly you aren't going to use that mana to fight anyone or anything anytime soon because you're such a massive coward, so you might as well be put to some kind of good use."

"Hey! I have feelings, you know?" 

Ares didn't care. "Yeah, feelings like constant trepidation, laziness, and boredom."

Allie looked up at Aejaz. "You can steal from dead-people?"

"Oh, yeah, easily. It's not like they fight back." Aejaz gave a thumbs up as if showing his approval of corpses' inability to defend themselves.

Allie figured she would throw Enyo a bone and help her get out of clean-up duty, so she gave Aejaz puppy eyes and asked, "Can I see?"

Allie's display was simply irresistible to Aejaz who would bend over backward to make her happy, so he agreed with no further questions asked or complaints raised. He brought out an empty spacial ring and rolled it along his fingers before flicking it into the air. He pointed his index finger at the ring and chanted,

"Relocate!"

Relocate was the art Aejaz used to steal and, while it typically put things in his possession, he could change the end destination of any object he stole provided he was close enough. All the monster heads disappeared straight into the ring which was caught as it fell by a rather tired looking Aejaz.

"It just occurred to me, I've never heard you chant before when stealing, how do you do it?" Enyo asked." Surely you didn't design all of your arts to be chant-less as that would take up a ludicrous amount of mana." 

Aejaz caught his breath and explained, "It's one of my family's bloodline traits. I can cast all of my arts silently. For now, doing so slightly raises the mana cost, but that caveat will disappear as my cultivation increases. Pretty much all the assassins in my family, which is everyone I guess, have this bloodline."

"Lucky you, it really suits you."

"Yep but, unfortunately, like everything else at my disposal, it's not particularly useful in a straight-up fight."

"That's a matter of perspective. It would be useful if you ever actually fought anything," Ares said with a narrow, piercing gaze.

Bellona was curious, "you said you taught him, right? Is he actually capable of putting up a fight?"

"Yes."

"No," Aejaz and Ares' voices overlapped with one another.

Ares further narrowed his eyes and stared at his brother. Everything was peaceful one second and, the next, Ares had pounced at Aejaz and kept taking pot shots that were all avoided quite comfortably. "See? Like a damn weasel! Even I struggle to hit the bastard! I'm pretty sure everything related to aggression I taught him went in one ear and out the other, but I'll be damned if he didn't pick up on the defensive side of things." Ares was still chasing Aejaz around. "I hate to admit it, but I think he's even harder to hit than I am. GET BACK HERE YOU SLIPPERY SCHMUCK!"

"NOOOOOO, HELP MEEEEEEE." Aejaz was deftly running in circles and weaving like a snake around anyone he thought might save him, but no-one came to his rescue in his time of need. Everyone was pretty impressed with how nimble he was though; Ares wasn't kidding when he said Aejaz was hard to hit. From the side, it looked like Ares was losing a game of whack-a-mole.

Ares stopped running. "Of course, he's still got a lot to learn though." He Shifted in front of Aejaz and tripped him with a low, sweeping kick.

To Aejaz' credit, he managed to perform a last-minute roll to stick the landing, which allowed him to keep running and find a hiding place behind Allie. "You wouldn't hit a girl, right?"

Ares just shook his head. "I'm convinced there's an incredible assassin in there somewhere. If you could just put half as much effort into training as you do reading god-awful novels, you might actually make some progress."

Enyo remembered something so she asked, "But wouldn't becoming an assassin be a hard mental block to overcome because of what happened with his family? You should be more lenient with him, Ares. If he doesn't want to fight, then really, he doesn't need to."

Aejaz unsurprisingly hopped aboard that train of thought. "See!? She gets it! You're just mean!"

"No! No, no, no, no." Ares shifted next to Enyo and tapped her on the top of her helmet. "Bad Enyo! Didn't you just learn the value of not letting your past weigh you down and control who you can or cannot be? Don't encourage him!"

Enyo wanted to refute him but realised pretty quickly Ares was right. She also wished she didn't have her helmet on so Ares could have patted her head directly. Allie seemed to really like head pats and strokes so Enyo was curious to know what it was like too, and who better to do it than Ares? Enyo decided to make Ares do that for her at some point in the future, but that thought then led to others such as cuddling and so on and so forth and, with that, Enyo paid no more attention to the conversation. She was now lost in her own happy world filled with honeycomb.

Ares raised his hands to signify he wasn't going to run after Aejaz anymore. "Ah well, I can't force you to fight. I just wish you would consider it now before you end up regretting it later. I really do wish it never comes to that of course but, if it does you're gonna be seriously upset with yourself and rue all this wasted time. There are some things that can't be avoided, Aejaz.

"And that's where you come in!" Aejaz stuck his tongue out.

Ares just sighed and gave up.