Chapter 210: Indefatigable Verv

While Scar was snapping at Tyr's heels, and actively Blinking after him repeatedly in an attempt to crush his spine, Verv was just about catching up to Deimos. Running Deimos down didn't mean things would end immediately though as its not like the guy wouldn't put up a fight but, at the very least, this game of cat and mouse would finally be over and done with. The spectators wanted a fight and, now that the space Deimos had to drive around in was limited, they were probably going to get it. Fate had cloaked somewhere in the arena and Deimos didn't want to head in that general direction so one avenue was already cut off but add Scar's hulking body into the mix and Deimos was stuck in one small quarter of the arena. Back when everyone else was busy with their own fights he had free reign to just keep circling the outer edge. Now though he was being corralled. As for Verv... Deimos could feel some of the mutts saliva hitting the back of his helmet every now and then so he was way closer than Deimos would ever want him to be. The hard truth of the matter was that he was going to have to hold his ground against the mutt with zoomies sooner rather than later and he couldn't just coast to victory on his bike like he wanted to. As for Fate EMP'ing him, although he was going to have to square off against Verv regardless by the looks of things, a core part of the way Deimos fought involved the Grand Prix so losing it would suck big time. If his brother, Tyr, could help him out here and keep Fate at bay then he felt confident he could keep the talisman for the amount of time he needed it. It's not like Deimos would never lose the talisman going up against Verv, the pooch was a problem, it's just that Verv in this state was one-track minded. He wouldn't take the talisman and run, he would take the talisman and... Run... But he would run towards Deimos and not away so that was ok! It's not like they needed to flawlessly shut out the Umbras on the time front and handing over the talisman occasionally didn't really mean much. The Umbras were gunning for a wipe out win by killing all the Legions so, really, they gained nothing from the talisman. At best, the Umbras possessing the talisman meant the Legion timer wasn't going up but that was literally all the use holding it had. So no, Verv wasn't a dumb dog for not running away with the talisman, he was being a clever boy and trying to cater to his win condition by killing Deimos.

When Deimos truly believed he'd pushed things as far as he could, in terms of giving Verv the run around, he performed a bike slide by shifting his centre of gravity, turning the bike's wheels, and making his Grand Prix slide froward horizontally. This wasn't done just for style points, although if pressed Deimos would admit that was a huge part of it, it was also useful in keeping his momentum moving away from Verv while allowing Deimos to face him and launch an attack simultaneously. Sure he could have set the Grand Prix to auto mode and swivelled on his seat to directly face the approaching, rabid dog but doing things this way was way cooler and, thus, mandatory for Deimos. As he slid to a screeching halt, he chanted "Burning Rubber!" and flipped open the gourd resting on his waist. He poured the drink directly over the gap in his helmet, that he'd just opened up, and allowed the contents of the gourd to flow freely wherever they landed. If they went down his throat, allowing him to breathe holy fire, then so be it. If it splashed onto his treasure and ramped up its speed and lethality, so be it. If he were a more surgical man he would have maybe spent some time learning how to accurately divvy up his gourd's resources but he was a wild child at heart and had a more 'go with the flow' approach to such matters. The Grand Prix's contours lit up in bright white as Deimos threw his head back and swallowed before flinging his head back forward shortly after and expelling his art from within his mouth. The fire had been brewing in his throat and burst out from behind his lips as soon as he gave it an avenue out. As Deimos breathed his fire above, the skidding Grand Prix left its own trail of fire below, meaning no matter what Verv decided to do about this situation he would feel the burn of the light of justice. If he leapt high Deimos would catch him with the spewing fire and if Verv chose to slide under it he would trudge around in the burning trenches as the heat above him seared his skull. It wasn't preferable either way so Deimos was curious to see which route the mutt took.

Verv... Well Verv didn't seem to care much. Scar was the kind of person who took hits because he knew he could withstand them without being bothered. Verv took hits for one of two reasons. Either A; he wanted to feel alive in the moment or B; he cared more about freedom of movement and not being restricted. As in, if he was going to get hit by something if he didn't stop running, then would just keep charging ahead consequences be damned. Verv goes where he pleases, when he pleases. To that end, although what he decided to next shocked Deimos and the spectators, his own family weren't taken aback in the slightest as this was all just standard operating procedure with Verv. Did he leap? No! Did he put his nose to the ground and slink under the fire breath? He had to, right? As that was the only other option, right? NO! Instead of picking one option or the other, he simply kept sprinting as he was doing previously! He made no effort to dodge either attack and simply took both like a champ! The searing sensation on the soles of his feet and the palms of his hand as he dashed across the holy floor on all fours was sublime to him. The sweltering blaze of the torrent of holy fire Deimos exhaled tingled his brain and set his heart alight with excitement, nearly causing his speed to double the second his flesh came into contact with the art. His manic grin turned into an open mouth cackle and shortly thereafter into a howl as his head bobbed up and down with glee in his eyes. Or rather his eyes couldn't be seen thanks to the flaring white mist covering it but the black dot hovering within, that was tracking Deimos and his bike with the precision of a huntsman, shone just a little brighter, indicating he was in a good mood and enjoying his play time right now. Hell he even opened his mouth and drank in some of the flames, lapping them up with his tongue and smiling ear to ear when he was fully hydrated.

Verv charged through the fire and the flames, pushing back against the jet of holy fire and clearing a path straight to Deimos. As he ran the biker down, Deimos hopped off his bike and set it to auto. When actually in combat it was better for Deimos to be off the bike rather than treat it like some kind of jousting competition. Technically he could do it with his trusty baseball bat, and he'd run down some various hoodlums in such a fashion before, but he preferred to be grounded when taking his swings. As Deimos stepped down and brandished his bat, the Grand Prix set off in a curve so that it could flank Verv when he ran in to fight Deimos. The Grand Prix had a few tools in its arsenal that allowed it to aid Deimos in combat and they were going to be put to good use against probably his toughest foe yet. Deimos never really took part in sparring back on the Legion planet so he'd never fought against anyone particularly strong throughout his life. Some monsters here and there had fallen pray to his flames and bat but an actual human that put up a fight? This would be a first.

Luckily, or maybe unluckily depending on how you looked at it, Deimos' first opponent was an 'idiot'. Not in the sense that Verv was dumb but, rather, in the sense that strategy, plotting, and trickery were nowhere to be found on this revenant as his brain possessed no capacity for such thoughts. Verv ran towards you and that was really it. There were no smarts on display here it was just a straight line philosophy that needed no deviation. Deimos wouldn't have to bait Verv into doing what he wanted, he could just launch whatever he wanted straight at the guy and it was bound to hit provided Deimos himself didn't miss for whatever reason. As for why this could be considered unlucky, well getting used to an opponent like this would set a bad habit down the line if Deimos wasn't careful. That and it almost put more pressure on Deimos rather than less. Imagine having one bullet in a gun as a dog sprints at you, ready to maul your throat out. The dog may just be running in a straight line but that doesn't make the snarling or the aura of viciousness go away and that's not always an easy thing to cope with. Plus it didn't help that in no universe whatsoever was a single bullet ever enough to put Verv down so that only made things worse. Fighting against him wasn't going to be hard, it was just going to require an insanely strong will to keep going, not to back down before the rabid animal, and definitely not to run out of stamina. That last one was especially important because it's not like Verv's would ever run out. Dealing with his unceasing assault would require a lot of effort every time Deimos had to fend it off so, really, his biggest concern was taking whatever small breaks he could between bouts so as not to get tuckered out by the boundless Verv.

As Verv drew closer, the Grand Prix came in from the side with another slide but this time things were slightly different. The obvious change was that the vehicle was now sliding towards Verv instead of away from him. It was on course to catch him in the feet and trip him up but there was yet another difference worth noting and that was the spiked wheels! A few small holes in the wheels had opened up and spikes were now protruding and poking out of them. Usually this was used for off-roading and rough weather conditions but, in the case someone's ankles needed to not just be run over but also stabbed, these bad boys were highly effective. Now, any normal person would see this monstrosity of a bike about to crash into them and think, Hey, I should dodge that... Yeah not Verv. That seriously was not how the guy operated so the bike hit him square in the ankles with one wheel, and the wrists on the other wheel, and pierced his feet and hands in multiple places. He was forced to halt his run down on all fours as the machine that was now attached to him was heavy and had interrupted his momentum. As Verv looked down at the bike with a tilted head, Deimos ran up to him and smacked him across the skull with his baseball bat as if he were aiming for a homerun.

THWACK!

Any normal person would have died here but Verv was simply built different. The momentum of his neck swinging backwards actually caused his body parts to dislodge from the spike bike as he unintentionally performed a backflip on the spot. Deimos had hit Verv so hard he spun clockwise and landed on his feet with a confused smile. Verv's world had literally spun and, honestly, he kinda enjoyed the trip he'd just taken. The way he looked at Deimos was almost like he was encouraging the guy to hit him again and send his body reeling once more... Deimos obliged...

THWACK!

This time, Verv leaned into the swing and bent his back to accommodate for the recoil, allowing him to rotate fully twice during his backflip by curling into a ball. He looked very pleased with himself after nailing the landing but that happiness soon disappeared as he remembered he had a job to do! Deimos smiled wryly as he was hoping the dumb mutt would just let him keep smacking him and forget about the original mission. Evidently that wasn't the case as Verv yoinked the great sword off his back with a single hand and went about swinging it like it was as heavy as a tree branch. That is to say he was swinging far faster than any cultivator should logically be able to. The guy was like a machine purpose built to swing giant weapons. His movements were fluid but had a weird tempo to them. Sometimes he would stumble a step or two forward while dragging the sword over his shoulder in laborious fashion and sometimes the speed of his swing would randomly increase ten fold. The disjoint and sheer variation in his movement and swing speeds was incredibly off putting as it was impossible to tell if you were safe or not as he switched between full on rampage and methodical hunting at the drop of a hat.

Verv swung his sword vertically downwards while Deimos hopped backwards and prepared himself to rush in after the attack missed. The sword embedded itself into the floor and Deimos was convinced this was his chance to bat the freak again. Unfortunately, as Deimos ran past the buried sword, Verv stuck his second hand on the handle of his weapon and Deimos was forced to roll to the side as Verv unearthing his sword nearly took his head clean off. Verv's power with two hands wielding the sword was explosive and would sever any part of Deimos' body it hit if he wasn't being careful. Rather than take any more risks, Deimos waited for his bike to sneakily ram into Verv from behind and knock him off balance before he ran up to Verv again, safely this time, and brought the bat down on Verv's skull from above.

CRACK!

Contrary to the expected outcome, the bat cracked in various places and was warped at the point of impact. Verv was bleeding from his head, and may have suffered a tiny bit of brain damage, but he was still raring to go as, from his perspective, he'd yet to suffer any kind of meaningful injury this entire fight! Perforated? Now his body was taking in more fresh air and cooling him down! Whacked upside the skull? Now his mind was clear! In fact, Verv felt like sharing the enlightenment so he swung his head towards Deimos' and headbutt the poor guy with his thick forehead.

CRACK!

This time, the noise actually was indicative of a broken skull as part of Deimos head was caved inwards near the top left of his right ear. He stumbled backwards as blood dripped out of his head and nearly fell over but, thankfully, the Grand Prix had circled around and caught him mid fall. To add insult to injury, Verv didn't even launch a follow up attack because he was too busy trying to shove the talisman he'd just received on top of his firefly. It was like he was trying to put a sticker on the thing but it wasn't quite working out. The talisman had to be on his body after all, and couldn't be placed on a treasure, so it was rejecting being placed on the firefly time and time again leaving Verv very confused. Deimos would have loved it if smacking the talisman on treasures was possible as he could have just strapped it to the Grand Prix and let it do its own thing while he guarded it. Still, the stupid idiot who was slapping his firefly with the talisman had officially beaten him and was now wasting his time being a moron. That irked Deimos to no end so he brought out a medicine that numbed pain, a small pink flower, and plastered it on his head. It looked a little funny but the effects were immediate and perfectly did as was needed. The flower wasn't a permanent fixture, thankfully, as it sunk into his dented head and soothed any and all pain, relieving Deimos so that he could focus on the fight at hand. The fool Verv was still distracted by the firefly and trying to chase it down by running after it in circles on all fours... So Deimos just walked up to him and smacked him in the knee caps with his bat...

THWACK!

Verv crumbled to the floor but instantly got back up again and returned to business chasing down the firefly. Deimos took his talisman back and tried to slowly creep away but Verv wasn't having it as he rugby tackled Deimos from behind. Deimos wrestled with the mad mutt and was actually doing a pretty good job of it even if only because Verv kept getting distracted by the firefly half the damn time... When Verv wasn't wasting precious time on his little see-through friend, he was actively winning the engagement with Deimos and pummelling him into the floor with heavy strikes. That all came to and end though when Verv finally found an opportunity to grasp the firefly within his hands and shove it back in the lantern. While this was happening the Grand Prix returned and ran him over, pushing him off Deimos and giving the biker some breathing room for once. He had the talisman back and Verv wasn't sitting on his chest and smacking him around anymore so that was a pleasant change of pace.

Verv, now that the firefly was out of the picture, had one goal and one goal only so he charged at Deimos again with renewed interest. Deimos swung his bat once more and Verv swung his own weapon in response. Just as Verv's sword was about to collide with the bat, however, he let the weapon go from his grip, chucking it towards Deimos' torso instead. Deimos was forced to give up on his own swing as a result, and hop to the side, but this left him open to Verv who's fist went flying into his face. Deimos was decked by a punch that was packing enough power to spin him through the air and send him sailing into a nearby wall. The Grand Prix couldn't help Deimos out of his current situation as Verv had aimed the sword throw to hit the treasure specifically if Deimos dodged. The bike was currently pinned to the floor and no amount of engine revving was getting it out of this predicament any time soon due to the angle at which it had been pierced preventing its wheels from getting any real torque. Verv was berserk but his intelligence was definitely still in there somewhere if that smart move was any indication.

With his bike temporarily out of commission, and Verv coming after him properly now, things were looking rough for Deimos but he wasn't screwed just yet. He pushed himself out of the wall and took a swig of his gourd again before tossing the remainder of its contents somewhere behind Verv who didn't bother to check what had happened. Deimos then took a deep breath before firing off another jet of holy flames. Did this slow Verv down at all? Not in the slightest. So why did Deimos do this? There were two reasons, first and foremost it got him the talisman back sooner as this counted as a hit for the sake of transferring ownership of the talisman. Every second with this talisman mattered right now and so he took reacquiring it very seriously. The second reason was because the holy flames that lingered after he finished spewing them would buff him up and make him stronger. If he was going to go toe to toe with this annoying revenant then he would need all the help he could get.

Verv clasped his hands together and swung them both horizontally at Deimos who ducked under the attack and smashed his bat into Verv's gut. Anticipating the fact that this wouldn't even faze the revenant, Deimos immediately launched another attack against the mutt's arm; specifically the one one on the right as that would be the most likely arm to try and swing again given the two combatants' relative positions to one another. Deimos wasn't sure if Verv even felt pain but that didn't mean his body could just ignore these strikes. Although Verv wanted to swing his fist again it wasn't possible thanks to Deimos whacking his arm in the opposite direction. This gave Deimos the chance to hit Verv yet again and blast him across the face, even knocking out a tooth in the process. Deimos wasn't finished yet though as he hopped a step forward, came in from a curved angle, and took another swipe at Verv, hitting him directly in the Adam's apple and toppling the beast backwards.

The holy buffs were doing good work and letting Deimos stand his ground whereas he would have otherwise bitten the dust already without them... Unfortunately, Verv was already back up on his feet as though nothing had happened. Deimos might as well have been beating up plasticine because the way Verv just kept returning from the dead, with a beaming smile on his face, as though he was completely refreshed was starting to get annoying. If Deimos had been batting a normal cultivator the way he'd been laying into Verv, they'd be nothing more than a mangled corpse by now. Verv's regeneration seemed to be a step above his siblings but that didn't excuse the complete lack of care he was showing. This went above and beyond the pale. Some people were born resilient but this guy took the cake, especially when paired with that obnoxiously strong regeneration and inherent berserk nature of his. A lot of the wounds Deimos had inflicted were either already gone or on the verge of fading and the fight may as well have only just started considering Verv's current state. It felt like the guy had infinite health and stamina to just chuck at people until they collapsed under the weight of his persistence. He didn't even use arts... Not that he didn't know any, just that his berserk mastery wasn't yet to the point where he could cast them whilst in that state. This was something that was extremely difficult to learn how to do but Verv would no doubt accomplish it sometime soon. Hell the fact that his control was already this phenomenal was astounding in and of itself.

Unfettered by the unbreakable Verv, Deimos felt like he was having a perfect game as he thwacked Verv in the head again and sent him reeling backwards, headfirst into one of the spiked, burning wheels of the Grand Prix which was up and running again. Earlier, when Deimos tossed his gourd, he threw it at the Grand Prix behind Verv and gave it the boost it needed to free itself from Verv's oversized sword. Now it had come back around and dealt an excruciating blow... Or it should have been anyway but Verv, now with a few holes in his burning head, stood up again like a damned zombie and was ready as ever to keep battling with Deimos. This was clearly going to go on for a while yet but, as long as Deimos could have that talisman timer tick above 2 minutes and 30 seconds, that was all it would take for his job to be completed successfully. He readied himself for another confrontation by directing his Grand Prix to circle around Verv's flank and come at him from a blind spot... But that was when the one thing Deimos had been dreading occurred. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a shimmer, followed by the unveiling of Fate and her H.I.JACK who were preparing themselves to EMP the Grand Prix. Deimos' treasure was out in the open, so there was no way for Fate to miss, and currently behind Verv so there was no way for Deimos himself to run past the mutt safely and defend it... In other words, things were looking grim. Without that bike his chances of success would plummet catastrophically. Just when he was preparing himself to make a mad dash and attempt to budge Verv out the way, Deimos caught sight of Tyr arriving to save the day!... Or ruin it what with the fact that Scar was still on his tail. Deimos had no clue where things would go from here, as all the remaining competitors were grouped in the exact same area now, but what he did know is that things were going to get out of hand in spectacular fashion.