Chapter 265: Weather Forecast: Snow, Heatwave, Thunder

Mako looked up to the sky and took in the sight of dark clouds congregating above, ready to rain all over everyone's parade and not just metaphorically either. It wasn't calming down, instead becoming more and more severe but that was to Mako's advantage given some of the arts he knew. Specifically, the creation pillar was notably great at summoning runes and gadgets out of thin air. Pretty much all of the fundamental pillars outright dwarfed certain other pillars and there was no two ways about it. Destruction was just better than space-time and the fire pillar thanks to nothingness and annihilation / disintegration. Creation was superior to runemancy, the earth pillar, and anything gadgetry related. The mind pillar was better than the psychic pillar and could pump out infinitely better mental arts. The reality pillar's gravity magic didn't really outrank anything specific, maybe the wind pillar at a stretch, but the reality altering arts were quite diverse and could arguably be considered a better version of the technical pillar. Black was obviously the darkness pillar on steroids and white was the holy pillar taken further than it could ever normally go. Still, these were just things the fundamental pillar encompassed, it wasn't their only tricks up their sleeve and they were generally capable of so much more, not being limited to any one avenue with more room to branch out into relevant territory. Point in case, Mako hadn't used any gadgets or runes up until this point, even though he had a great many of them up his sleeve and they were all respectably powerful, and it wasn't even because he was trying to save them for anything specific. He just had enough other tools that he wasn't reliant on them. That being said, a gadget was about to be deployed as Mako was intent on taking advantage of the poor weather. Although it was a highly specialised gadget, Mako did know of one that could be used specifically during a heavy downpour such as this one. That wasn't too surprising though because Mako learnt of every gadget he could get his grubby hands on, no matter how niche, as the ability to summon them instantly, without wasting his spare time creating them ahead of time, meant they all had some value at the bare minimum due to their instantaneous nature when he wielded them.

The gadget in question was one that went by the name of "Snowflake Conversion Kit." Simply put, it was a wide ranging net that transformed every rain drop that hit it from above into a falling snowflake that was sharp as a knife. The snowflakes were numerous and lethal during sustained assaults. Provided you could lock your opponent down in a specific area, which this arena was doing nicely considering it was a tightly packed venue with no means of escape lest Aers forfeited the match, and provided there was ample rain, and not just a few drops here and there, this gadget was highly functional!... It was on the stronger side of gadgets but hard to find the exact scenario it was particularly good in. Actually, in Mako's case, if he used the Buh〜Bye art and created rain on the spot above the hole he basically had a guaranteed way of making it useable in most situations.

There weren't any places in Sheryashka with consistent rainfall so this art had been extraordinarily difficult for Mako to find out in the wild as not many people had much use for it in this domain. He actually found it from a book that supposedly originated on the other side of the severed path of nothingness in Vraizon. Or, more specifically, the book had come from the Dueuer domain wherein there was another duality land, much like Neo Gear, that alternated between a hydroelectric / nature paradise and a barren dessert, in both of which heavily customised vehicles roamed. Bellona would really like this place as people drove daily on tracks that swapped between industrialised water plants with thick jungles mixed in and bumpy, sandstorm ridden expanses. Racing was a pretty massive deal over there and so, when Bellona found out about it, she would naturally want to visit it ASAP. Anyway, the original point was that the hydroelectric half the planet, whenever it cropped up, had pretty consistent and heavy rainfall so this art had been created there by a water pillar cultivator with a strong affinity for the ice aspect. They were a magic engineer who frequently worked on vehicles and, as such, had an array of mechanical knowledge with which to construct a gadget that took advantage of the planet's natural biomes, his techy expertise, and his pillar affiliation. He was long dead now, the poor guy had one of his vehicles stolen, his pride and joy, before he got run over by it but his invention had stood the test of time and was still used pretty frequently on that planet. As an aside, the guy who lost his life did have a daughter, frequently referred to as 'mad Maxine', who was still trying to get her father's vehicle back to this day from the thieves that stole it.

But that was that and this was this. Mako created a chilly cube in his hand and chucked it into the air while chanting the name of the art as he watched on calmly from the side-lines. Now that he'd bought himself a bit of time and space to comfortably do his thing, he could breathe safely and re-organise his thoughts and plans to stop Ares in his tracks and slow the fight down once more. Mako took in the sight of the cube's width rapidly expanding while the heigh was flattened until it became a wide and frosty panel that covered the top of the coliseum. Small square holes opened up in the panel and a light blue x-ray covered each gap. The second a rain drop touched the light blue scanners they were scanned with a neon light and mutated into snowflakes with a deadly aura. As the flakes fell they tore through the air and chilled it, lowering the temperature of the arena even further. Though still dark, the arena was now being progressively tinged in a pure white that clung to the walls. Not because the snow was sticky, no, but because its jagged edges were cutting into the arena walls and lodging the flakes inside them. Each flake was like a mini shuriken and they were starting to gravitate over towards Ares and Rox now that they'd been identified as a target but it would still take a while for them descend fully as they were rather slow.

Ares, out of curiosity, let a flake fall by his finger and, although the thing seemed harmless enough, a cut spontaneously appeared on his finger a split second later with blood pouring out. It was a serious wound if you took into consideration how little the snowflake had actually done to him in terms of attacking him. Just passing by his finger was enough to cause this much damage? At a glance these things were all roughly as dangerous as the disintegration petals that spawned from Ares' Black Blossom. There was also way more snowflakes than Ares' petals, whenever he used the art, just because the source wasn't a cultivator who was limited by the amount of mana in their body; it was a completely natural source via some clouds. Of course that's not to say it couldn't be outdone by a cultivator who was strong enough, as Dominus had caused a sword rain over an entire planet as mentioned once before, it's just that, at this level, Ares wasn't matching it no matter what he did. As for getting rid of it, Black Blossom would allow him to cover his immediate area but Ares had a better options available, one that could keep him and Rox safe without any fuss as well as keep them warm and potentially remove the net above too.

Ares looked over at Rox before he brought out his own solution to the incoming flake storm, just to check how the mimic was handling things, only to see Rox constantly poking the flakes... He was getting cut every time without fail but it was obvious, to Ares, that he was trying to learn how to deflect them. This guy was just like him! Experimenting and trying to improve at the weirdest times! Still, kudos to the mimic for trying at least. In fact, Ares felt like throwing him a bone so he put on his Omniscience and started successfully deflecting the flakes in front of him to provide an example of how it should go and how it should look. Most of them were still descending above and so he only had a clump of five or so to work with but that was seemingly enough for Rox who'd watched intently. Rather than wait patiently for another five or so seconds, until the snowflake madness fully descended, Rox leapt upwards with a Double Jump and Echo combination that sent him soaring. Ares was worried he'd go too fast and cut his head open on the snowflakes above but he shot through them all safely like a pro. He'd used the deflect on his head to bash aside the flakes without sustaining any injury. That was pretty impressive! Even Ares wouldn't be able to do that as fast as Rox had without the Omniscience aiding him! The mimic was showing off! Then again, Ares would totally do that too if he was in Rox's position so he couldn't say anything on the matter. Actually, the reason Rox had done it was likely because a part of his personality was also mimicking Ares'... Ares realised that and decided on the spot that Rox was a great guy! The greatest even!

Ares' self praise aside, it was high time he brought out his solution to the snowflakes. It was something he got recently and had only somewhat experimented with ever since. That's right, it was parka time! Ares threw on the warm jacket and immediately the chill creeping into his flesh was long gone. He couldn't tell if it was snowing or if it was a warm sunny day! The scales were warming him up and he was well and truly nice and cosy. He could sit around here and watch the snow all day because the parka's defences were actually solid enough to withstand the flakes. All he had to do was put on the hood and he would be untouchable but that wasn't his plan right now. He wanted to take the parka off because it was slowing him down so he needed to get rid off the snow. Thankfully, with the parka on, it was an easy task. The Scaled Insulator suited Ares but the major aesthetic detail here was that the dragon horns he usually had in his Garmr form were present on his human head now. They were smaller but that made sense because his head was nowhere near as gigantic in his human form as it was in his revenant form. It would be weird if he walked around with those massive horns on his tiny head; he'd look almost like a human hydra deer! The horns were fitted quite nicely, just slightly above his forehead and angled backwards at a 50-55-ish degree angle. Combined with the parka, Ares looked like some draconic young master who's ego was immeasurable thanks to the pride he held in his lineage. Of course the reality was verry different but the design was giving that sort of vibe and there was naught he could do about it. Them's the breaks.

Rox had landed back down on the floor, and was copying Ares' horns onto his own head because he must have thought it looked neat and wanted to steal them even if they did nothing for him, so Ares decided to test the heating function on this thing. He didn't need to chant to increase the heat in his surroundings, that was only necessary if he wanted to unleash the attack boiling away and charging up under the surface. He could do that later but right now he wanted to try and use this thing as a mobile campfire as it would be highly convenient right now. All the testing he did in his own time was pretty lacking because the best he could do was have Appa create an icy room. This snowflake storm was far more useful as it was both colder and more dangerous so the parka's results here would be indicative of how much trust Ares would put in it under stressful scenarios. It seemed like a really high-grade treasure, and Ares had a gut feeling it would do good work, but he still wanted to be sure of that, instead of throwing his life away pointlessly because he was too lazy to put this parka through its paces properly, and probe into its protective properties. Based on Rox's content look off to the side, it was very subtle but Ares did notice it as Rox was essentially cosplaying him right now, it seemed the parka's ability to heat up nearby friendlies was sufficient. Next up, Ares wanted to test his fire breath... Although Mako was being a little shit and tossing another rocket at him! Ares just sighed to himself as it was apparent Mako wasn't going to sit around and do nothing. Thankfully, however, Rox was here to save the day! Rox dodged past the rocket and went to go annoy Mako and buy Ares some time! What touching loyalty! You would think being sacrificed in Training Fields over and over again would have annoyed Rox somewhat but he was still a good kid who helped Ares out when he needed it. Ares should really let him out and about more to explore the world as thanks. Anyway, Rox was going to go and hang around Mako to distract him. He obviously couldn't beat Mako but if he kept a respectable distance he could dodge until the cows came home, especially now that he knew about the hole art, and buy Ares all the time in the world to rid them both of the Conversion Kit. 

As for Ares, before he breathed fire at the flakes, he tried using some telekinesis on the incoming rocket to see if he could take control of it. It was tough, and there was a lot of resistance due to how massive it was, but he did manage to at least change its course. If Ares had another realm worth of cultivation he might have been able to freely control the rocket's flight path and redirect it towards Mako. For now, though, sending it flying into a wall was good enough. Anyway, Ares turned his head up and looked at the white cloud inches from his cranium. The gadget was relatively slow to get going but once you were in the thick of it you were basically screwed with no way out. If Ares let the white cloud fall on him it would be a nightmare trying to remove it all bit by bit. The distance the snow had to fall did give victims a chance to come up with a counter measure but it needed to be a damn good one to deal with the snow, and the gadget itself at the same time, otherwise you would receive death by a thousand cuts and become a corpse with ice in your veins. Ares took a deep breath and felt a heat welling within his throat. It was manageable but keeping it trapped felt uncomfortable and so he expectorated the rumbling blaze in a steady stream of jetting fire. For all intents and purposes, it looked identical to a Flamethrower. The key difference was that the stream of fire was nearly thrice the size of the art because this was pure draconic fire here! That also meant it would be far more deadly and burning things to a crisp was a significantly easier task with it.

Ares was like a fire spewing pillar that slowly rotated on the spot, turning the sky ashen and red in his immediate vicinity. The air was charred and burnt as the snowflakes melted away into water and subsequently evaporated with no mercy being afforded. Though he was humanoid, Ares took on the appearance of a mighty dragon throwing a temper tantrum and burning away the nuisance that was the very weather right now. He stormed through the countless flakes, marching forward slowly but decisively with a heavy step and obliterating everything even remotely in his path. He tilted his head further and further upwards to the sky to catch every single flake in every single layer nearby and fully eradicate the immediate threat. His neck slowly moved in a clockwise rotation, causing his head and mouth to follow suit. This made Ares' fire breath come out in a spiral pattern, forming a small tornado of dragon breath directly above him that sucked in all the flakes and generated enough passive heat to dry up the nearby area. This tornado rose higher and higher, all the way up to the Conversion Kit near the tip of the coliseum where it slammed against the underside of the Kit. The entire net rattled but stayed firmly in place with a brand new burn mark splattered against the bottom of it. The tornado had done good damage but Ares would need to maybe do that three or four more times to even break anything. It was surprisingly sturdy for a gadget so Ares was going to have to be more hands on with his approach but he'd expected as such from the get go anyway and wasn't fussed.

Much like how Rox had done earlier, Ares used Double Jump and Echo to spring upwards on the spot. Unlike Rox, however, he had enough force in his jump to create a small crater directly where he'd been standing previously. As he'd already cleared out the nearby flakes he didn't have to deflect any so that process was irrelevant. Ares reached the Conversion Kit in a single jump, and was close enough to reach out and touch it, so he activated Voidwalk to hang about in the air and destroy this thing once and for all. To do it, he decided to activate the other art this parka possessed; the heatwave that had been ready and waiting to lash out since he put the jacket on. "Furnace Bomb." This art was a pretty one as the Scaled Insulator lit up with a bright orange glow where all the scales where hiding inside of it. It bore resemblance to a row of artsy halogen heaters and the scales were positioned such that they formed a dragon's tail around the entirety of the jacket from front to back. This pattern grew brighter and brighter as a whooshing noise ramped up in severity over the course of about two seconds. The surroundings became hazy as the heat rose to unbearable temperatures for all living creatures besides Ares, who felt no different, before an ashy black, magma and fire eruption detonated from the parka. A cloud of soot and fire swept over everything around Ares and some magma broiled within the cloud as well for good measure so that it could melt anyone who stood within it. It was a massive unloading of all things hot that both burnt and blasted everything close by.

The art was somewhat slower than Overheat, as it took two seconds to charge roughly, but the burst that followed was incomparable. Overheat was a standard art, Furnace Bomb was an art from a powerful treasure, with draconic heritage, wielded by a draconic-blooded cultivator who happened to be an explosives expert to boot. There was no doubt part of why the explosion here was so majestic and fear-inducing was because it was Ares' personal treasure. If it belonged to anyone else it would just be a small blast that fogged up the air, made people choke on the lingering ash, and turned their flesh red. Ares' version would do all of the above but it would also singe their throats, strip away their flesh, and broil their skeletal frames from within. The pain from the blast would also be significant too as it functioned like a Shock Bead explosion in a way. It was roughly as powerful and had the same width / height to it so the only real difference was the heat attribute and the colouring of it but the former of which did definitely elevate the overall strength so it was more dangerous than a regular Shock Bead for sure. It was a very usable art and, although the delay on the explosion was somewhat inconvenient, it was incredible to have handy. Again, in icy regions, this thing would be Ares' go to and he was basically set in any and every cold environment for life. Hell he could maybe he even use this underwater to keep warm even if the fiery benefits were nullified it was just that good at what it did.

As for the Conversion Kit... What Conversion Kit? The pile of rubble crashing down from the sky? Yeah, it was broken and burnt into many, many separate little blackened pieces. Ever since Ares had spied it, and wanted it gone, this thing had been doomed to die so no tears were shed for it by Mako who was still chucking rockets at the pest Rox. In fact, Mako already had somewhat of a replacement ready to go in the form of a rune he'd been concocting while Ares was distracted by the Conversion Kit. Mako had wanted things to go this way since the start and now he finally felt like he was in the driver's seat, controlling the flow of the fight as his plan had been successful. The rune he was about to summon also required, and converted, heavy rain which meant he couldn't even use it until the Conversion Kit was gone regardless! He'd wasted Ares' time on something he wanted gone ASAP! Mako snickered at Ares for having finally one upped the bastard and made him run around in the palm of his hand! Speaking of the palm of Mako's hand, the rune he was creating had finally taken shape within it and it was shaped like five thunderbolts conjoined together in cursive fashion. He lifted his palm to the heavens and the rune disappeared, reappearing shortly after in the sky near the grey clouds. Ares would really have to go out of his way to destroy those runes given how far up they were... Or he could maybe launch an attack that was capable of hitting it from here... Still, before Ares made any decisions on the matter he wanted to see what the rune did. Mako had chanted "Charge Discharge" earlier but Ares had never heard of the art so he was looking up with his Omniscience to try and figure things out on the fly. As far as he could tell...

CRACK

... The rune created massive Thunder Strikes repeatedly, one of which Ares had just dodged in the nick of time. These Thunder Strikes were larger, fell about as fast as a Flash Thunder would, and hit harder too. Each and every single one was life threatening but there was a silver lining here in that the firing rate wasn't exactly fast per se. There were five runes up in the sky, one for every thunderbolt Mako had drawn on the original rune back when it was in his palm, and each needed to be filled up with water before it could fire. They were in different positions, and not stacked on top of each other, so they weren't being inefficient or anything, they just required a pretty large amount of rain to fill. It was like charging a battery that would automatically discharge when filled to the brim. These runes would likely just keep going forever until the rain was fully depleted from the clouds above or until destroyed meaning it was a fantastic art for area denial. The zone they protected would be struck with mighty and menacing thunder consistently that was hard to avoid and constantly targeted foes within the area. This art alone could kill a normal cultivator at Ares' cultivation level in a second flat. Though Ares had 'dodged' that last Thunder Strike, it did clip his toe, and he lost a chunk of it as a result, so if that thing hit his head... It would be game over, no questions asked!

CRACK

CRACK

Ares hopped about on the spot as he realised something else about this art. The runes fired whenever they happened to be discharged but that was technically a random occurrence. You couldn't tell precisely when each one would fire because you'd need to pay an ridiculous amount of attention to the rainfall above to see which ones were filling up quicker than the others. Point in case, the first Thunder Strike fired relatively quickly but the next two took longer and happened to fire simultaneously. All five of the runes were acting independently, giving their timings an unpredictable element that was really annoying to work around. In order to avoid being taken by surprise you would have to stare at the sky and squint at the runes to watch them fill up but, at that point, Mako would just hit you with his creation magic off to the side. This art was devious because it divided your attention on top of the already lethal threat it posed passively. In short, Ares needed to get rid of this thing! Thankfully Rox was doing a phenomenal job of bugging Mako, though, so Ares had room to spare and knew just how to deal with this obnoxious set of runes. The best part was that the Perish Wheel he was about to throw could be aimed directly at Mako as the pillar of destruction it created spiralled high enough into the sky that those runes would be toast even if they weren't the primary target! This was the first major art that Ares was chucking at Mako, other than maybe the Yggdrasil Detonate if that also counted, so he was curious to see how he would deal with this now that the Whatever You Are art was cooling down. What other tricks do you have to show me, little elf? Ares wondered internally as he hovered back down into the arena. Ares started gathering the man to cast the Perish Wheel but a Thunder Strike interrupted his casting... Nothing could ever be easy! Ares sighed to himself and prepared himself to cast another Not Even Light to use as a sort of mock roof, enabling him to cast without interruption, but he stopped himself...

This was as good a chance as any to show off! Not because he wanted the world to see how great he was or anything, no, this was business! Ares' Shock Beads were damn popular, and everyone knew of them, but the Block Rocks, the portable black holes that were defensive in nature, were still pretty fresh on the market. If he used them here then the sales of them in the sect ought to improve provided they did a good job! Ares' thoughts on the matter would truly make Onno proud if he could read his mind! Not that Onno wouldn't be able to figure it all out; he was in the crowd right now and had actually been hoping for Ares to use the Block Rocks so he was getting his wish! In fact, the sneaky rodent even had some Block Rocks on him to sell to the general public the second they made an appearance during the match... Having foreseen this and using it as an opportunity to boost sales... Onno was maybe a little too good at his job...