Chapter 388: An Entirely Predictable Run-in

Oh. That was the only word and / or utterance that came to the scavenger loudmouth's mind as he lay on his back in the blood-soaked red sand beneath him. His legs were blown clean off, he had a massive hole in his stomach, and a chunk of his head was missing. Was he in pain or completely numb to it at this point? He wasn't sure as the two feelings had begun to merge together into some unusual sensation that was guiding him towards the afterlife. Was the world serene or had he gone deaf? Did the world stop or was everyone else too stunned to move? None of it really mattered but there was one thing he knew for sure, he'd made a big mistake picking a fight with that kid. He'd figured out the identity that had eluded him this far and understood he'd been played for a fool. Perhaps he deserved it, though, as he wasn't a great guy by anyone's standards. Still, he did what he needed to do to live this long in a harsh world that hadn't exactly done him any favours either. Maybe if his life had gone down the right track from the start. Maybe if he'd married that one baker next door and not been ousted from his residence by greedy landsharks. Maybe if he'd paid more attention back in school or joined a sect that would have set him right.

Maybe maybe maybe.

It was too late for all of that now and so he closed his eyes, hoping that, at the very least, as many of his companions could live through this disaster as possible. They were all like him in one way or another, outcasts and misfits who were angry at the world for their fate and taking it out on others. Almost everyone in the scavengers was one terrible event less away from never becoming who they were currently and, thus, they'd formed a sort of unspoken bond between them. Yeah the lower ranks were used and tossed away but that was who the higher ranks had become, not who they were originally before becoming a scavenger, and there was an appreciation for that even in death as he felt controlled but never manipulated. Loudmouth had been sold down the river but at least it was guided by the hand of his friends and not that of a fate which had nothing but enmity towards him. The other scavengers had put him to good use, more so than the universe at large, so he could rest well now and wait to see them again in hell.

Meanwhile Ares was wondering why this idiot was lying on the floor with a content smile and murmuring to himself. He didn't exactly deserve to pass on in peace so Ares chucked a sword at the guy's brain and impaled his head to the ground to just end his life here and now. He was going to die anyway and having him lie around on the battlefield in that oddly peaceful state was just weird! Ares looked around after and the rest of the scavengers seemed annoyed but he couldn't care less! What were they gonna do? Complain about him being underhanded with that explosive trap? The pot calling the kettle black? As if they'd never resorted to such measures before! Also it's not like Ares had to do it to kill them, they ought to know that, this particular trap didn't move the needle or change what was going to happen here regardless. It was clear who he was now and that was likely a large part of why the scavengers were hesitating to move any further forward. The people hiding behind the dunes for a second ambush were trying to figure out how they could possibly escape this place while abandoning their cohorts but it was all doomed for every single one of them. Death or capture, there was no other option permitted and their fate was sealed!... Which was rather ironic. 'Fate' had prevented these people from living a normal life, if their own complaints were to be taken at face value, and yet now it was chasing after them for daring to try and do literally anything else. They weren't able to live normal lives nor lives as scavengers because fate really had it out for them either way and would chase them to the ends of the universe just so it could chuck them off the edge.

Aejaz was still working away in the background and thinning out the scavengers' ranks so the end result was looking to be a total wipe-out. Not that any of this was surprising. Ares alone would have been overkill let alone throwing bloodthirsty Aejaz into the mix. He only seemed to be doing this to stretch his muscles a bit because it had been a long while since Aejaz last assassinated anyone. Ares could have sworn this guy was enjoying it a little too much! For someone who'd been adamant about not becoming an assassin he really did enjoy being an assassin! His family issues being mostly dealt with now probably lifted a weight of his mind... That or he was just a psychopathic slaughterer and it could honestly be either or at this point. 

Ares clicked his knuckles and begun striding towards the rest of the scavengers to take them all out. There were only two transition realm cultivators here, sill in hiding behind the dunes, and neither of them were at the peak of the realm, or looked particularly strong, so this was going to be a breeze and Ares wouldn't even need magic or pressure to beat them. Not that he could get by with pressure alone anyway. Annihilation pressure sure but an Esoteric Compression, using regular pressure, wouldn't beat the transition realm cultivators. This wasn't going to be a repeat of what happened at the dock and Ares would actually have to get his hands dirty against this group of scavengers as a result. It had been a while since he threw his fists around in a good ol' brawl and so he didn't bother pulling out a weapon either as it would make this more boring than it would be otherwise. He could practice some more with the scythe but would he even really learn anything even remotely valuable against cultivators this weak? Training himself how to fistfight people stronger than him physically was a better use of his time even if it was something that would have limited relevance going forward. Garmr wasn't an art or anything magic related so there was basically nothing that could prevent Ares from gaining ludicrous amounts of physical strength whenever he needed it. Plus there was his annihilation enhancement too so the chances of him coming up against someone stronger than him, that he couldn't overpower, was slim to none but it was still a better use of this time punching the daylights out of these scavengers than anything else he could be doing!

It seemed there was a taker and so, while the other scavengers watched to see how things went, Ares got to work and ducked under a wild swing that was poorly aimed and clearly a result of anger. Maybe this guy had played cards with the loudmouth regularly or something and they were close. Regardless, he was madder than a bull seeing red and came charging right at Ares with a fail right off the bat. Ares punched him in the stomach, kicked his knee, and this one-two was followed by a headbutt to really lay the hurt on. Ares controlled his power to make sure he didn't crack his own skull and delivered the pain train with a resounding THUD. The scavenger stumbled back but Ares chased after him and drop-kicked the guy in the chest, flinging him backwards and rolling down a dune where there just so conveniently happened to be a stealthy Aejaz waiting for him. Though no-one saw it, Aejaz had just reaped another life like the stalker of the sands he was. His kill count was really wracking up back there but it was like stealing candy from a baby so Ares wasn't sure this counted! This was stat-padding at its finest! Well whatever, Ares had more scavengers to deal with because three were approaching him all at once this time while the remainder were jsut now realising something was amiss with the rest of their squad.

So many people had disappeared into thin air so they were weary of a potential stepper horde gathering nearby and didn't think backing up their reckless comrades was the correct decision right now. If they ran head-first at Ares they would be stabbed in the back! Unfortunately for them, while this was probably the correct decision, there was someone else here who was going to complicate things. Arla wasn't exactly idle so she sunk into the sand and summoned her hounds to go and pester the group not attacking Ares. With her sand whips she could divert all of their attention to her without fail as she couldn't be ignored. Aejaz was preparing to take advantage of this and he was very appreciative of his fellahin because she synergised well with assassins given her obnoxious arts. It was jsut a bunch of crap that was constantly distracting and never ended so he could sneak up behind people even if they were trying to be cautious. Was that the wind behind them, was it just another sand hound, or was it going to be Aejaz with a blood stained dagger? Was it a sand whip from Arla or a Spike from a dagger wielding assassin attacking your blind-spot? Aejaz' attacks would blend in with Arla's and eventually wear down the mental resilience of those he was targeting, tiring them out and exhausting their measures one by one until they were ripe to pick off. They would realise there was an assassin about but it would be far too late and, if anything, they would be wishing it was anything else. A horde of steppers would be infinitely better than a single Aejaz.

Back over by Ares, he'd just poked one of his aggressors in the eye and temporarily partially blinded him, forcing him to hang back and heal himself so he could be useful again. This gave Ares some wriggle room to fend off the other two foes at the same time by ducking and weaving between their strikes while dishing out quick hits in return while they were exposed. He retreated back with every step and drew them in, forcing them to waste time by constantly chasing him and delaying their own strikes. It was completely favourable for Ares but they were reluctant to give up and thus kept following along to the pace he set, falling over themselves just to swig inefficiently at what felt like a ghost. One of the two scavengers tried kicking Ares but he lightly hopped back a half step out of range and then placed his own foot against the sole of his attacker's. From there a light push, one that required very little force to achieve its goal, threw the scavenger onto his back leaving Ares in a one vs one duel with the one scavenger he hadn't actively removed from the fight. Ares swiftly ran in and sidestepped a punch while darting behind the scavenger. From there it was easy pickings and he could do as he liked. The scavenger knew this was bad and so he desperately tried to swing his fist in a wide arc behind him but only ended up slapping his comrade across the mouth as Ares had pulled him up to his feet and chucked him at his teammate knowing this would happen. The scavenger who had just been put back on his feet was immediately floored by a brutal swing and Ares took his place to get some payback by kicking the other scavenger in the nuts. A swift uppercut to the jaw after knocked the scavenger out cold as he flew to the ground and slid all the way over near the caravan, stopping only when hitting a rock and coming to a complete halt on the spot. He had a gash on his head where his face had grinded over the coarse sand and a bump where his skull had been bashed in by the rock.

Next up was the scavenger who'd taken more damage from his friend than Ares but that was about to change. The guy was still reeling on the floor so Ares jsut stomped on his stomach about five times in a row and caused him to cough up blood while breaking his rib cage. He could lie there, unable to move, until it was time to collect the prisoners later. Ares only picked who was living through this fight and who was dying based on their cultivation as it was only natural those who were stronger would be more privy to useful information about their group overall. Some low ranking grunt would never know too much information about the scavenger organisation and it stood to reason that a transition realm cultivator, who was rare to come by usually (unless your name was Ares), would never be a low ranking grunt in the first place as they were too valuable to throw away carelessly on the front lines. The two people Ares had just knocked out weren't transition realm cultivators but they were the two scavengers with the highest cultivation of the lot that started the attack. The transition realm cultivators hiding behind the dunes were also on Ares' capture list but pretty much everyone else was going to bite the dust. Four scavengers was enough and Arla could handle transporting that many if she borrowed a carriage from the owner back over by the caravan as well as the Puny Prisoners from Ares. Two transitions in the cages and two under her supervision that she could manage on her own. It wasn't the upper limit, as the cages could easily fit more, but any more than four was risky as the situation could potentially get flipped on its head if the captives tried to put their brain cells together to find a way out. Ares wasn't escorting Arla so it was better to be safe than sorry! Plus taking along people who would almost definitely be useless just didn't make sense as it would be more mouths to feed and more resources to spend on scavengers who didn't move the needle in any way regarding the investigation.

Last but not least was the third of Ares' aggressors who was just now able to clear up his eye with some kind of healing art he'd used while everyone else was getting their asses beat. As punishment for being cowardly and selfish this was going to die!... Well that was all just an excuse because he was going to die anyway! Just beating the guy to death was plain and boring, though, so Ares was going to use Omniscience in a way he hadn't yet used it in combat and try to poke this guy to death! It sounded silly but nerves were frail things if you knew how to hit them hard enough! Ares could see all the weak spots highlighted so even someone as lacking in knowledge regarding the structure of a human's complex innards as him could find what he was looking for in a matter of seconds. Omniscience combined with Dominus' knowledge on various martial arts gave Ares a rough idea of how to proceed even though it was his first time ever attempting such a thing.

Ares swatted aside the scavenger's fist that came barreling at him, held the arm in place, and poked his foe slightly under his armpit region to get the show started. Was there anything there that Ares wanted to damage, exactly? No, not at all, but that wasn't the goal. The brand of martial arts Dominus knew best was actually rather similar to Echo in that the strikes would rebound internally. The major difference was that the strikes didn't do any damage while they bounced around and only ultimately hurt whatever they landed on. The bounces were the exact same every time if you aimed correctly so as long as you knew where to strike you would always get the desired result. In this case, Ares' strike had actually bounced around and hit a nerve located near the scavenger's necks and his head was now a teensy bit lopsided, affecting his vision and balance going forward. Teh scavenger tried tilting it back into place but his head felt like it was locked there and refused to budge.

This was the real strength of this particular martial art Dominus learnt in that the area you had to poke was usually pretty easy to access. Hitting someone just under their arm was far easier than the neck as the latter would be guarded twenty-four seven by any sensible combatant given how important it was. The whole point was ti hit easy to reach body parts and then transfer the damage to somewhere more important, thus leaving the foe no choice but to try and guard everything all at once. Even if nothing else, this put the opponent massively on the backfoot because a single poke to the tip of a finger, or something equally harmless, would result in dysfunctional body parts until there was eventually nothing left. Point in case, Ares elbowed a rising kick back down to the floor by hitting the bridge of the foot square on. This also had the benefit of being exactly where he wanted to aim as the strike bounced up the leg and subsequently twisted the man's hip. The nerve in the rear of his hip was smacked to the side, dragging the rest of the scavenger's upper body with it and Ares could only imagine how uncomfortable this guy was right now. His body must have felt light and numb but also painful as can be every time he tried moving the affected body part. Not that it really mattered anymore as two heavily injured nerves in such key places was a death sentence for someone this weak.

The scavenger's body and line of sight was now so tilted he couldn't possibly fight back no matter what Ares did to him so, usurpingly, Ares' next attack landed without a hitch. It was a stomach blow with the tip of his pinkie finger and the result... Well the scavenger collapsed dead on the floor because the strike wound up landing on the heart and that was the end of that story. Some cultivators could live though such an injury but definitely not this chump. What made it worse as well was that Ares used the pinkie specifically. It made his life harder than using any other finger, as he had to aim in a less convenient place, but that, in turn, made the strike much more powerful. The strikes smaller size caused it to bounce faster and pick up more speed during its travel, making the final impact far more severe. Even if the bouncing strike was smaller, than what it would be had Ares used any other finger, that was still for the best if it meant hitting over ten times as hard due to all the momentum it picked up along the way! That being said, which finger was used also meant where Ares had to strike differed too and figuring that out on the spot was hard. It was a really complex form of martial arts, this one was, and you had to do a lot of rough calculations on the fly to figure out what would work and what would just bounce around aimlessly before tickling the opponent's toe. No wonder Dominus had been partial to this martial art more than others because it was a constant minigame for him that always offered new puzzles and interesting solutions. Sure using it against humans could get boring after thousand of years of practice but when going up against anything with a different, unusual bodily structure he would get to play this game all over again with new pathways to explore. For someone who loved an endless pursuit, this martial art was no doubt right up his alley!

Now that the first wave of ambushers was dealt with... Sort of as Arla and Aejaz were still finishing up the others... But regardless, now that there was nobody left to stop Ares from doing as he pleased, he gave a rather polite middle finger to the lot hiding behind the dunes. This made it abundantly clear he knew they were out there and he could hear the kissing of multiple teeth as they were upset about this. And why wouldn't they be demoralised? It was obvious what Ares was doing and those lying in wait all knew who was going to die and who was going to live if they fought here and now. This was where the frustration set in because what was the point of fighting if they were going to lose anyway? The stronger cultivators would get beaten up for no reason and captured regardless of what they did, so they didn't want to fight, and the weaker ones would be killed like lambs to the slaughter, so they didn't want to fight either! All around this was just terrible and morale was at its lowest but hat didn't mean they didn't have one last plan up their sleeves...

Run away!

Scatter in all directions and hope for the best!

This would normally be faulty, as Ares knew who he wanted to capture more and would jsut chase the important targets down, but it seemed like they were passing around some kind of scroll between each other and now Ares was damn curious what was in it! It could be nothing more than a worthless distraction to lure Ares away from the higher cultivation targets or it could even be something as useful as a map! If that scroll contained the location of their base then its worth was considerably higher than that of the transition realm lot... Was he being led on a wild goose chase in one direction or had he found the goose laying golden eggs? Should he stick to the original plan and capture the transition realm cultivators in the other direction to get guaranteed and reliable info or was he going to be missing out on potentially crucial information? He didn't know but the scavengers had all taken their first steps and begun sprinting for their lives so he had to choose soon! It's not that Ares couldn't normally trace each and every one one of them with his divine sense and Omniscience but there was some kind of dust cloud on the horizon that would inevitably obscure vision if Ares took too long... Still, this was rather strange because that sandstorm was moving incredibly quickly and there was a faint rumbling in the earth, both of which signified there was something very unnatural about all of this... He didn't know what it was but everyone else, other than Aejaz, had frozen on the spot. The scavengers somehow managed to wear an even more dejected frown on their face than the ones they were sporting previously while Arla's face was doing the exact opposite. There was definitely a faint smile under all those pieces of clothing so Ares assumed this was some kind of co-incidental backup? The fellahin all had an affiliation for sand magic so it was entirely possible that sandstorm was the result of one of them heading over. If that was the case then Ares could relax and not be too concerned about picking a direction as this external aid would allow everyone to be rounded up... But he did wonder who this new person was. That sandstorm was considerable and, when talking about strong fellahin, there was only one Ares knew of... The Juggernaut... Also, none of this explained the rumbling sensation causing the sand to tremble... What exactly was going on here? Ares activated Omniscience and took a gander only to be left with a wry smile on his face. He didn't know if the Juggernaut was over there but he could see a colossal monster stampeding inside the storm and that was enough info to go for Ares to take a guess... The Juggernaut was wrestling with a creature from the west side of the desert and their tussle bled over to the centre of the desert where Ares just so conveniently happened to be located... His luck was really something!