Chapter 231: Starting to Get a Little Annoyed

Ares was peeved! Miffed! Displeased even! What was the point of going to all that effort to save him if the fool was just going to let him drop to his death immediately after! Was this all some kind of elaborate prank! Where were the cameras?! Was this going to be some kind of viral video!? Ares wanted his cut at least! Ares was annoyed big time and even made an effort to try and lift his hand so he could at least give Ye the middle finger but, alas, he still couldn't move even now. At the very least it seemed like Ye realised his mistake and was about to come pick him up. Ares had watched the fight with his divine sense and, even now, he was still watching Ye's every move. He was a talented swordsman but what Ares really appreciated was the free masterclass on footwork he was able to watch from relatively close up with his Omniscience. Ares was damn good with his own footwork but stealing from others was never a bad thing and Omniscience made that whole process nice and simple. Ares had learnt a fair bit from the fight, mainly how to convert the recoil from a block into momentum he could utilise to reposition himself. That was arguably one of Ye's greatest strengths and Ares had been taking as many notes as he could because it wasn't everyday you got a chance to watch an expert in motion. Not that he was going to forgive him for forgetting about him like this! Ares saw that subtle 'oh crap' look on his face a second ago! 

Ares felt his falling speed start to drop sharply which was strange because Ye wasn't anywhere near him right now. In fact, Ye seemed to be heading down to the arena and ignoring Ares so it seemed someone else was rescuing him at the moment although he had no clue who. He did end up figuring it out eventually, however, when the rate at which his falling speed slowed progressively became lower and lower. Blo Blo! She was slowing his fall speed and, presumably, Enyo was going to catch him with a barrier. Teamwork makes the dreamwork and this was a combination that could soften his fall and simultaneously catch him so he had no complaints. Something interesting did happen during his fall though as Bellona appeared to be experimenting with something interesting. Her magic really was quite unpredictable but what she'd just tried would no doubt be her first step to broadening her magic's horizons and doing some truly bizarre things with it. Ares was falling straight down. The direction he was travelling in was 180 degrees away from his body's starting position. Bellona was seemingly trying to slow Ares down before halving that angle and adjusting his fall so that the gravity would pull him sideways instead. Half of 180 was 90 and a 90 degree angle would send Ares either right or left instead of down. It was a clever and neat little idea but Bellona just didn't have enough control and experience with her magic to pull of such a weird trick without any practice. Ares did feel his body shift around a bit though which was a good sign she would be able to pull it off if she just continued working on it. Being able to change a person's direction, be they friend or foe, on demand was a pretty useful application of magic so Ares would gladly act as her guinea pig to be tested on if she wanted to later. Ares had to work on pressurising his Backfire Bindings but the next time he would actively participate in a match was about two weeks from now. The Aejaz one didn't count. This meant that, provided pressurising his treasure only too around a week, he would have nearly another week to spend with family and help out Bellona. He wasn't going to be able to pressurise anything else he owned in such a short time frame so just relaxing, and occasionally training with Sadie, before the big fight was definitely an option.

Blo Blo wasn't able to single handedly save him as her forced sideways shift in direction didn't work but Enyo was still there to summon a barrier under Ares and bring him over on a silver platter. Ares was thankful, and about to openly be grateful to the sisters, up until he spied evil intent in the eyes of both of them! Why couldn't things ever be simple!? Ares sighed and accepted his fate. Technically it was his fault he was in this mess to begin with as he could have been smarter about this, not leaving himself in the middle of the arena after his Canis Stimulant ended. He'd been greedy for Lex but, if he'd ordered Garmr to run away, he could have very well hidden in a back alley somewhere... Provided Garmr would have even listened to an order to retreat anyway... Of course the seasons would have found him regardless but then he would have been safe from his impish wives, both of whom wanted to hold him for very different reasons right now. Did he even have a say in the matter? Ares wished he could at least choose his own fate because right now he was still thirsty and Blo Blo probably had the drinks. Getting abandoned somewhere in the sect was fine if Ares wasn't starving or dehydrated. Enyo, on the other hand, would simply never let him go! How was his body supposed to recover from its fatigue if Enyo was just piling it on? Plus cooking while Enyo put his body through the trials of Apollo, NSFW version, would be incredibly difficult. The final nail in the coffin was that Bellona could be reasoned with! Although Ares was going to spend time with her anyway, if he bargained on those grounds, under the pretence he wouldn't, he could maybe sneak away from today without being bullied too hard. You could argue manipulating one's wives to get what Ares wanted was evil but, then again, Ares would argue what they were planning on doing to him was equally as evil!

Ares was finally brought over and his peaceful magic carpet ride had unfortunately come to its natural conclusion. Ares rolled off the barrier and was now lying squarely at the heels of his two wives who were already arguing over who got to keep the pet today. "You just want to hog his hog, stupid whore!" It really didn't need explaining who was talking to who here but, just in case, Bellona was giving an earful of reprimand to a horny Enyo... Not that that said much, that was practically her default state nowadays and it would be weirder if she wasn't. Ares might actually think she was ill or something and start asking around for medicine if she wasn't in the mood, not that Enyo would probably need anything more than a aphrodisiac to feel right as rain. This wasn't even a joke as her pleasure pillar affinity may very well enable her to treat such things as medicine provided it was potent enough. Again, dedication cultivation, and to an extent Enyo, was just weird like that.

"So?" Enyo tilted her head. "At least I wasn't planning on throwing him in a lake..."

"Say what?" Ares just heard something he very much did not appreciate! Alas, the conversation continued along without him as his presence was very much not needed for this debate.

Bellona didn't back down in the face of a reasonable argument, instead doubling down which baffled Ares because he was still right here! "You've spent way more time with him lately than I have! Go shove a finger up your cootch, that'll occupy you! I just want him for five minutes."

"Five minutes is a waste. By the looks of things he won't be able to move for a couple of hours. If you actually want to spend time with him then I wouldn't be so opposed to lending him to you but you're just being an uncaring wife and I have every right to deny you that!"

"Oh please, like you 'care'. I know exactly what you 'care' about! Ah fine, whatever. I'll look after him properly so shoo off already you damn pest!" Bellona didn't wait for confirmation as she knew Enyo would stand aside now that she'd been promised Ares would not be treated poorly in Bellona's care... However, whether she intended on keeping that promise was another matter entirely! Technically, if she had Appa create a pool of water and throw Ares in it that wouldn't count as Bellona mistreating him! Technicalities: 1, Enyo: 0! Ares was only somewhat convinced he was safe, and he had no idea the fate in store for him, but it's not like he had any say in the matter so he just accepted things and prayed to a non-existent deity of luck that Bellona would uphold her word or, if nothing else, be willing to negotiate.

Bellona used some magic to make Ares lighter and picked him up, placing him horizontally in a position whereby his legs were resting over Enyo's and he was receiving a lap pillow from Bellona who was contentedly striking his hair right now. This was particularly blissful for Ares but the threat of being dumped inside some cold water somewhere was still hovering over his head! Hovering over his head and humming to herself, that is! Still, for now at least, Ares was willing to give Bellona the benefit of the doubt. He sighed and gave thanks to the sisters who finally acknowledged his presence and the fact that he was a living being who possessed free will and could openly communicate. He was no longer just a doll being tossed around from wife to wife and so that was a nice change of pace. He even managed to receive a drink from Bellona! Although the request was met by a counter request in that Bellona wanted a kiss so there was that. Whether it was because it had been a while since she received one or whether it was just to spite Enyo Ares didn't know and he figured it was better if he didn't ask and set them off again.

Bellona took advantage of Ares, much like Enyo had been planning on doing, as he couldn't initiate the kiss so she made sure to really take her time with the matter, interlocking her lips with his and not letting go, which just confirmed Ares' suspicions this wasn't about him! For two women who were more than happy to share Ares they had certainly been quarrelling a lot more as of late over who got to put a leash on him and drag him around to their heart's content. It was fine though, Ares felt no need to intervene because it all seemed to be in good sport. Ares assumed it was just sister things and left them to it. Granted their dynamic must have changed considerably since the last time they bickered like this back on their home planet but life comes at you fast. Enyo's life path had been one hell of a curveball but, luckily, it hadn't affected her familial relationships so she and Bellona were close and that was something Ares was grateful for more than anything. Given Bellona's almost-hatred for the clan there was very much a possibility they could have had a serious falling out at some point before now which would have made pampering them, and having them live under the same roof, a tense situation. Then again, whether Enyo would have even allowed Bellona into this little three-way life in that scenario was unlikely but, thankfully, Ares didn't have to think about any of that. He'd gotten the good ending as far as he was concerned and everything was peaceful... At least up until the point he was going to be chucked into a lake for daring to be immobile for all of a few minutes... 

Now that he'd sorted out, again as far as he was aware, his own immediate and impending doom, Ares was able to spectate the fight in the arena with his divine sense... Sort of. The fight was still ongoing but it was going to be difficult to watch for everybody here as the snowstorm had finally enveloped the entirety of the arena and so getting a view on what was happening inside it was pretty hard. Thankfully Ares' Omniscience allowed him to bypass the snowstorm so, although everyone else could only see scraps of the fight here and there, Ares had a clear view of it. As for how things had gotten to this point...

About a minute earlier...

A pretty white flower had bloomed on Asha's head. This was the Kiss Of Death mark that came in the form of a Gladiolus. It almost looked like an accessory the way it was neatly tucked into Asha's short white fur. She looked rather dainty for a werewolf but, obviously, this was a flower she would much rather not be wearing right now. If pulling it out was possible she would have done it by now but, not only was it incredibly hard and painful to do, it would just regrow anyway. It lasted for a set duration and removing it before it disappeared on its own was never going to happen without a magic nullification art of an extremely high level.

The way the art worked was that it treated a person's meridians like a seedbed and the flower grew from the victim's own mana pool. The sprouted flower could technically form anywhere, and when Theodore was usually fighting he would summon it on a person's back to enable the art without them noticing. In this situation, however, it wasn't really relevant. Everyone here knew he was hanging around and he wasn't exactly being stealthy so he wasn't going to get the drop on anyone. Instead, he simply opted to give the pretty lady a flower in her hair. There was no ulterior motive to this, he just liked being fashionable with the flower when it didn't matter where he put it. Although Asha wasn't in her human form right now so it wasn't exactly how he planned it in his head. Still, the white wolf with a white flower was an interesting sight nonetheless and he didn't doubt the starlight matriarch, and her kin, would be very pleased right now. In fact, all three of them were now scribbling away in their notebooks. Edgerton in particular seemed to be especially enthused and would no doubt end up creating a ten-plus minute song off the back of this one incident. He'd been dragged here by Margaret but it all seemed to be paying off so he wasn't being moody right now. It was actually somewhat miraculous to have Margaret and her sons in one place without any arguing but it seemed they were all too busy with everything that had happened until now to be having any kind of spat. Although really that was mostly just Edgerton and Eagerton. Margaret only ever really got involved to calm them down and settle the disputes, trivial though they frequently were.

As for what this flower entailed... Well Theo's weapons were going to be able to lock onto Asha regardless of whether she remained within sight or not. The machine guns had all quit poking holes into the gnolls and were now trained directly at the white wolf. They weren't particularly threatening but she did need to keep an eye on them which slowed her approach down. Seeing as how the hyper-cannon was very nearly finished charging, this could only possible be a bad thing.

Asha pushed onwards, deflecting the hail of bullets with her claws and / or avoiding them by throwing herself on to all fours to keep a low profile and make herself harder to hit. She zigzagged her way closer but she was starting to see a light inside the hyper-cannon and she knew she was running out of time. What's more, after taking a grand total of ten steps, Asha had the misfortune of setting off the exact trap she'd been worried about, the drill artillery. The sound of earth being torn asunder under Asha indicated she'd made a blunder. She couldn't have possibly known where it was but what remained true regardless was that she'd fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ BANG

The drill ripped through the earth and breached into the arena, whizzing right by Asha's flowery head and almost taking it clean off. Had Asha been even a second slower to react the drill would have broken into her skull and poked around in her brain, forcing an end to the fight immediately. Instead, the drill went sailing up into the sky without harming anybody. This was both good and bad because, on the one hand, it gave Asha some breathing room to refocus on the hyper-cannon. On the other hand, it was going to come back down at some point with even more speed than before and then the real chase was going to begin. For now at least, that was a distant concern that Asha could put to the back of her mind. She was nearing the hyper cannon and it was looking like it was going to be a race to the finish. Asha was too close to try and escape or dodge so she was just going to have to go all in and go for gold to prevent the pain train from ramming into her full force. She had the means to stop the weapon from firing but she really needed to be in melee range to successfully use the art that would save her form this predicament. Chill Grip was an art of the ice aspect that could instantly freeze anything grabbed by the cultivator. Non-living objects were also frozen in time as an added benefit so this art had a lot of utility to it in regards to stopping bombs, arts, and projectiles in their tracks. A skilled enough user could even freeze asteroids in their tracks and so on so forth. As for living creatures, strong enough ones could break free on their own but weaker targets were just kinda stuck. It would break eventually anyway but you'd be half frozen over and dying of hypothermia no doubt. The cultivator could also manually unfreeze the victim so it was very useful for capturing foes and dumping them in a prison cell. Law enforcers, whatever form they came in, had a tendency to learn this art and a lot of Legion members in particular knew this art so they could capture scoundrels when on patrol.

Asha's goal here was clear as day, freeze the cannon... And maybe see if she could unfreeze it while it was pointed at the creep Theo... Actually, although she was tempted to try, it wasn't worth the risk. With Kiss Of Death active Asha wouldn't be surprised if the cannon performed a 180 spin the second it was unfrozen and blasted her to smithereens instead. Theo's art was incredibly potent and not worth messing around with unless you had a a death wish. Speaking of having a death wish, what Asha was doing now looked incredibly risky. She was about three steps away from the barrel of the cannon which was about a second away from firing. Everyone, Theo and Asha included, waited with baited breaths to see who would come out on top here. There was truly no telling if she would make it. She pounced forward, arrived one step closer, and now there was roughly two thirds of a second left until it unleashed all manner of chaos. At her current pace, she would make it in the nick of time but that was provided she made no mistakes. Her sprint down on all fours needed to be stable but, given how she didn't spend much time in this form, it wasn't as easy as it sounded. She was not as well versed with travel in her revenant form as other people in the clan were so not messing up anywhere was a task that required a lot of concentration and power of will.

Asha took another step but this one had been far slower as the pressure had admittedly gotten to her a little and her front right paw stumbled on the ground for a brief moment. She now had roughly one fifth of a second to take the last step and that just didn't look possible no matter how she sliced it as her original step had been perfect yet still took one third of a second to complete. That didn't mean all hope was lost, however, as a dive was still in the cards! Hitting the dirt and performing a take-out slide, baseball style, was very much an option. It was actually the only option but that was an irrelevant thought right now for Asha who had just leapt forward with all her might and was shoving her hand as far forward as it could go. She emptied her mind of all distractions and simply threw her body at the cannon. It felt like her hand was going to twist off her wrist with the amount of force she was exerting but it was better to sustain a wrist injury or a pulled muscle in her arm than be blasted in the face at point blank by a hyper-cannon. Plus she was still a revenant at the end of the day, small scale injuries would heal before the end of this fight even. Asha's hand was mere millimetres away from the cannon when...

WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR BANG CRACKLE

The cannon fired and some of the squeamish spectators in the crowd shut their eyes and tightened their facial muscles. They had imagined the white revenant being blown apart and it was not a pretty image but, had they opened their eyes, they would have seen that she was currently A-O.K! Yes the cannon had fired but the beam was still within the barrel and, so, when Asha froze the cannon the beam was frozen along with it. The beam was still considered a part of the cannon until it exited the barrel and became its own entity, at which point it would have shot through the ice encasing and obliterated Asha's upper body had it come out even a second earlier. The beam could travel at the speed of light so having frozen it within the cannon was nothing short of a miracle and Asha was lucky to even be alive right now. But alive she was! She rolled past the cannon and eventually came barrelling to a skidding halt in front of Theo who was still twirling his moustache like some kind of cheesy comic villain. With the twin machine guns pointed straight at her, the drill in the sky slowly coming back down, and the cannon raring to go, it was pretty evident the fight wasn't over yet just because Asha had dealt with the most pressing matter. Still, all hope was not yet lost as her snowstorm was closing in, her gnolls were catching up, and Asha had a lot of fight left in her. Of course she'd much prefer it if Ye could hurry up and deal with Bravo so that he could then come and aid her here. She didn't really need the help right now but if it would speed things up then she wouldn't complain about it. The sooner Asha could get away from this whacko, who was clearly currently trying to figure out where on his wall she would look best, the better. Or rather, that look was starting to annoy her and she was seriously considering stringing him up on one of her walls instead. She'd been going relatively easy on Theo up until now because they were all seasons and the bare minimum respect was expected but, after nearly blowing her up and showing no remorse or hesitation, Asha was not in a good mood right now... Maybe she should put the fear of God in him at least once before the end of this spar to keep him on his toes in the future...