Chapter 390: An Itty Bitty Digging Ditty

Ares had gone digging! Not in search of gold or treasure, no, he was currently shoving his disintegration coated sword into the scorpion's exoskeleton with great vigour akin to a poor man on the cusp of striking oil. Ares' 'shovel' was a bit worn out and pathetic, as it was just some dreary old sword he'd robbed from God knows who, God knows where, but it was working as it should and so Ares had disappeared from view. Aejaz almost felt a little jealous because it looked as though Ares had sunk into the pilot seat of a giant mech and was about to go take control of the lobster but, alas, that was not the case as Ares was going to be rummaging around and causing damage where he could. Ares still wasn't entirely certain what manner of mischief he was going to get up to when he finally arrived at the skeleton but he was free to treat the dead scorpion's insides like a jungle gym while breaking whatever he felt like breaking because who was going to stop him exactly? Unless the smaller scorpions all arrived soon, climbed up their dead papa, and swarmed Ares it was pretty much assured that Ares' little playground would remain undisturbed. He wasn't quite in there yet though and, though he could feel it in his bones he was getting close to his destination, he had to wipe the sweat off his brow and keep at the manual labour he really hadn't expected to be doing today! It was a good work out for his arms but, regrettably, that meant nothing as only Garmr was benefitting from Ares' repeated swings. Ares was getting oddly in the mood so he started humming to himself which eventually devolved into a singing session not unlike those heard during a hard day's work in the wild west.

"'Nother day out in the mines, time to find all that glitters and shines. Gonna dig 'till I can't no more, gonna find all kinds of riches for sure.

Never 'ad much luck, that won't stop me, I'm like a minin' machine! Working round the clock 'till I find me a precious rock.

Work starts at dawn, ends sometime after I yawn. Already got to swingin', already got to singin'. 

Hack and hack, hack and hack, bustin ma back, bustin ma back. Cling clang, clang cling, gonna find enough tiny shinies to make me a king.

I swung 'till my arms were sore, hit something sturdy and it fell to the floor, shiny, score!

A real shiny rock, I knew it would 'appen! bad luck though 'cos my co-workers gums are a yappin'.

Can't hide this here find and take it home but I don't mind cos boss man's gonna make it worth ma while! I can see it in his smile I'm adored and due a big reward!

Perfect!

Made workin' to tha' bone all worth it, cos' I got invited to the boss man's shindig up there in that fancy mansion.

So up there I'll be dancin', hot diggity dawg I'll be prancin' all the night away. It's really all been worth it, these hard workin days, so I can get a lil' tipsy, and take centre stage!

With tha' parlance of a farmer I will sing of ma' greatness 'midst the parlour 'bout how I made boss man richer than rich to garner endless praise at this here gala! 

Then back to work 'morrow, I'll go with great sorrow, with pick in hand, nothin' planned, and my weary bones in great demand but hey! At least I had a blast while it lasted!

Oh but boss man saw me cheering, told me 'behave' so guess I''ll oblige cos he's the one steerin', and go back to digging 'till I dig my own grave.

Cos' out here there ain't no such thing as freedom, just these bleeding fingers peelin', and I've got a feelin' that this is where I'll stay 'till my very last day.

So back to swingin I go, it's the only thing I know! But here's to hopin', cos lord knows I'm still hopin', that one day I strike gold!

...

And get to keep it!"

Clank Clank

Ares whacked away and bobbed his head to the sound of his own dumb off-the-cuff fun until he let out a jubilant cry and threw his hands in the air. "Woohoo!" He'd done it! He'd burrowed through the exoskeleton and was now inside the scorpion's shell! This place was weird! It was almost like a hollow and open sewer with pipes galore running through it. The poison was the goopy and foul smelling substance best left untouched while the bones made up the pipe-ways that led everywhere and anywhere in a complicated web. Ares opened up the hole below him further and fell in so that he could take a look around. He had to tip toe around some leaky poison, because there were no sacs in this undead to hold it so it sort of just sloshed around as the scorpion moved, but he managed to worm his way to some high ground nearby so he could get a better look at things and try to figure out what to do next. If push came to shove, and Ares could think up no better solution, activating annihilation enhancement and breaking all the bones one by one would eventually work. Still that was a long and bothersome approach so Ares felt like he was going to wind up just blowing everything in here up sky high. In fact, he was already spawning and throwing Shock Beads all over the place because sometimes the simplest solution was the most optimal! No need for flashy tricks here!... Or actually... Maybe there was something more interesting he could do here after all... He wasn't trying to stay undercover anymore around the loudmouth so he could always do that. It had been a while since he last did that! Ares clapped his hands together, decided on his new course of action, and started making his way back up to the entrance he dug out for himself. He didn't really need to be here to use the art he was about to cast as he could simply delay the activation such that it activated remotely.

It had been a short while since Ares descended inside the scorpion but everyone saw him return without doing anything and wondered what exactly he was up to. He hopped off the scorpion and started casually walking back towards the caravan like what came next didn't concern him even though he was supposed to be helping here! Even the sandstorm briefly paused when it saw its helper start abandoning it! At this point, the Juggernaut might as well say screw it too and go fight Ares if this was how it was gonna be! No running away on her watch! That being said, Ares did turn around briefly and give her a thumbs up which, in turn, caused her to rethink. Surely he hadn't just done nothing inside that scorpion right? Such a great opportunity couldn't have possibly been wasted like this... Though she wasn't happy about it, as not having control over this situation bugged her, she decided to let things stay their course for now and see what happened. He was heading to the caravan and not ditching this area entirely so that was enough to convince the Juggernaut this was ok for now.

Besides, Juggernaut could hold her own against both monsters without being in any real danger for a long while. Neither of them were really able to deal with her sandstorm form so as long as she had mana there was no risk involved in this fight. The elephant's eye beam laser was the only real issue but that wasn't going to show up again for a while, Juggernaut reckoned! As such, she went right back to battering the elephant and all the steppers it kept summoning. There really were a crap ton of them but it made little to no difference in the face of Juggernaut's overwhelming might. One, ten, a hundred, the elephant could summon as many as it pleased it would not be enough to change the tide on its own. Rather, even if they could be summoned, what then? Steppers were usually pretty terrible at dealing with magic so this was all just delaying the inevitable really. Only the scorpion could possibly do something but, even then, if it couldn't cast sand magic then what good was it? It still remained to be seen if the undead scorpion was able to channel mana and, if it couldn't, then the elephant might as well lie down and die obediently at that point. It could keep clomping around in search of more undead brethren but there was a limit to its luck! Or, rather, there was a limit to Ares' bad luck and the elephant couldn't keep relying on it!

Ares made his way back over to the caravan and was questioned by Arla's stare within a single second of his return to base. She was holding back a hint of agitation and a look of frustration but, despite the layers of clothing, Ares could just about sneak a peek at a small frown that gave away her feelings currently. Ares had 'run away' from her boss who, while not in trouble necessarily, was having a rough time of things and would appreciate a hand. If his explanation wasn't good enough she would be angry!... And that was really about it... It's not like she could do anything to Ares... She wouldn't set up his meeting anymore! That was something! Also the fellahin would never co-operate with him ever again, that was the real threat. Ares was unbothered by this though and dismissively waved his hands. "Patience is a virtue and good things come to those who wait. From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow. Proverbs are great, I'm going to eat some scorpion meat. That last one wasn't a proverb, I'm just really curious about scorpion meat is all."

Ares, on the way back to the caravan, had picked up one of the dead scorpions' shells, or at least a cracked part of one anyway because the whole thing was way too huge to carry, and searched around inside for any edible meat that remained. Turns out there was a decent chunk of it so Ares had gotten to cooking the thing in the primordial blade and, thanks to the function of speeding up time in the Blade, it was nice and hot already. When he pulled it out there was much confusion regarding where it came from but also much jealousy from the scavengers who were drooling over themselves at the sight of the juicy meat. As people who lived almost exclusively in the desert for most of the year, they knew how great scorpion meat could taste as it was their primary source of meals. Typically speaking, the bigger the scorpion the better the taste would be so scorpions as big as the ones Ares felled would have a real punch to them and knock his flavour socks off. Ares had already skewered the meat and taken a bite and the look on his face said it all. He was beaming from ear to ear with his eyes closed as he chewed contentedly on the meat like a dog in food heaven.

"Can you provide a better explanation instead of gorging yourself like a pig?" Though Arla had remained polite up until now, she had reached her limit and was demanding answers! Still, it was far kinder than what a lot of other people would have said and she wasn't even threatening him so it was actually rather tame. Ares didn't appreciate being called a pig though! Greedy? Sometimes! Pig? never!

"Rude! I'll have you know I'm a wolf, not a pig. Very different creatures. Anyway, you want some meat? Might help you unwind and destress if you can put your mind on something else for a while. Look, I already told you its fine. The scorpion is dealt with and you have my word on that. I could explain everything to you but, by the time I'm done giving yo a rundown of what my art is and does, it would have already gone off and solved this predicament so you can wait see it for yourself. I do not think I have a more perfect art in my entire arsenal for resolving this current situation so I have done all that I can save for throwing myself at that monster... Unless you want me to chuck an art that could kill every single one of us? If I threw an Armillary from here it would kill the elephant, kill Juggernaut, come barrelling over the sand and then kill us too for good measure. Is that what you want?" Ares' last remark left Arla and the scavengers speechless because the art he was describing was horrific if it could do exactly as he stated. There were rumours about him casting such a thing on the Federation... Everyone who disembarked from the Federation was adamant it happened but nobody in Xasca wanted to believe such a thing was actually possible so they treated it as hearsay and denied it thoroughly. And yet here was the person responsible for it himself saying it existed and he was able to use it. He could still be bluffing but it certainly didn't look like it with how calmly and casually he was referring to it. Maybe it had been overexaggerated, or maybe it hadn't, but what the people here were sure about now was that it almost definitely was real!

"... Please do not do that..." Arla didn't really know what else to say. He'd repeatedly told her things were fine so if she pushed her luck any further he might get tired of this pointless back and forth and just leave this place. Of course he would be the one to lose out on the fellahin's aid in the future but it's not like the fellahins didn't stand to lose in such a scenario either. This guy was clearly a big shot cultivator and he was worth the anxiety of sitting around and waiting for his 'seed' to grow into... Whatever it was he'd done. The only solace was that the wait ought to not be too long as the scorpion was finally nearing the elephant's immediate area and joining up with it. An answer would be given soon so all Arla could do was take a piece of scorpion meat and chew on it for now... She'd buckled in the end because Ares' insistence was damn near impossible to ignore... Although Arla had to admit the scorpion tasted really good... Ares had put some spice on it and it went down a treat. It was a bit spicy but the fellahin could handle spice any day of the week, that was one of their many talents they prided themselves on and they regularly took part in eating contests. Still, water would have been appreciated.

Perhaps Ares was psychic, however, and could read minds because he was offering Arla a glass of water the very next second. Arla was no expert in water but this particular glass of it looked oddly clear. Was she staring at water of liquid crystals? She wasn't sure but she took it and gulped it down before sighing in satisfaction and asking for more. It was damn good! She had no idea it was from an enabler, and she would have considered this extreme overkill for a drink, but what she didn't know couldn't hurt her! Ares turned back around to watch his antics bear fruit now that he'd successfully placated the moody fellahin and needn't watch his back any longer.

"Three, two... And a one!" Ares' countdown coincided with a giant flash of pure white the second the scorpion entered the sandstorm and nobody could tell what was happening here other than Aejaz who'd seen this before! Crystalised arts were making a comeback in a big way because Aejaz knew an Yggdrasil when he saw one! Ares had planted the art in the scorpion's core and used the entire monster as a seed to grow the tree out of. The scorpion formed a giant base near the bottom for the trunk to extend out of and tower over everything in the desert for at least a mile in every direction. For once, there was shade in this scorched land and quite a significant amount of it too, enough to set up a small colony underneath at the very least. Although you would have to not mind the plentiful golden leaves dangling way above your head up and in the sky as they were each as explosive as two to three Shock Beads and ready to drop in at any given point. This Yggdrasil was almost an extra third as big as the one Ares previously summoned and it was taller too so the branches spread out further and covered a wider effective range. This was a massive art and being boosted by the converter meant all the tricks it knew before were amplified now and incredibly potent. Hell the first thing the tree did was lash out at the nearby elephant and knock it over with one swing of a giant crystal branch loaded with disintegration. The elephant that Juggernaut had been pummelling for ages now was blown to the ground in under a second flat of this monstrous tree forming and so it was pretty obvious Ares hadn't spared any effort in the creation of this thing. Honestly, a tree like his could have beaten the krakyrn all on its own! Of course Ares hadn't trained with his Crystalised Void back then, so it wasn't an option, but having a tool like this now was pretty handy. Hell it could have beaten Mako, the international version of him and not whatever he was currently, all on its own too. This thing was like a portable powerhouse in Ares back pocket and it was still just getting started.

No wonder Ares let the scorpion go! It was a delivery service that brought the Yggdrasill directly beside the elephant like a suicide bomber! The main weaknesses of Yggdrasil were still its inability to move and its limited range, although the latter had been fixed somewhat considering the reach it now had, but Ares utilising the scorpion had mitigated all of the aforementioned issues and singlehandedly won both fights. He killed the scorpion, that thing was deader than dead and had been flash frozen into oblivion inside the disintegration tree, and he was now brutally murdering the elephant! the swing from the crystal branch didn't merely knock over the elephant, that was jsut the start, it also tore away at its flesh and bone and created a line of black flames along the elephant's trunk that was burning it constantly where it had been struck and whipped. These branches had always been lethal but now they were capable of unleashing hellfire disintegration that stubbornly clung to the victim with even just a minor scratch. None of this was even factoring in the golden leaves above that had begun to steadily fall down to overkill their target. They absolutely were not necessary at this point but Ares wated to watch it all go boom in glorious fashion!

This was all a pretty hefty waste of mana, especially when considering the fact that he was about to fight the Juggernaut and then go to the Riddlemyd... But Ares had an idea! It was dumb, and might backfire horrendously... but if it worked he would be a genius worthy of renown for his quick witted thinking! He might, theoretically, have an infinite source of mana in Xasca if he was lucky enough! Still, he had sufficient mana for now so he could check if his plan was a good one or not after duelling Juggernaut. The converter would generate a boatload of mana and keep him afloat until then. Or, rather, it was Ares generating the mana, the Converter simply sped up the process. It was also even better now than it was before thanks to the occasional spot of pressurising so the passive rate of regeneration was absurd currently. Ares could already feel his reserves of mana steadily filling up and it was a very smooth sensation too. Quick, clean, and efficient!

Anyway, back over by the elephant and the tree, the leaves were about to crash land on the elephant that was also being approached by multiple branches. A single branch had knocked it over so the next ten or so, combined with the incoming explosions, had effectively sealed its fate. It couldn't stomp its feet anymore and death was knocking on the door so it mustered all the strength it could to fire off the eye laser one more time. This visibly drained what little life it had left as flesh fell from its carcass in droves and the eyes split open even further, leaking a strange ooze and breaking apart which all-but destroyed the monster's vision. It's best bet was to go blind firing this laser, somehow save itself, and then turn around and run back to the west. Sure there were dangerous monsters there that could easily kill it in this state but maybe they'd be more focused on the monsters chasing it and it could slip away unnoticed! The elephant had been minding its own business when it was ambushed by this damn fellahin and bullied mercilessly!... Although it had been gradually moving towards Xasca city... This sneaky thing wanted to kill cultivators and create an army of underlings via them! It was not innocent! The fellahin rarely bothered with western monsters that were idle or uninterested in human society and so the smarter creatures over there stayed away from the centre path. There were a lot of fellahin, they were persistent, and their boss was actually a real threat. If it wasn't for this one group the western monsters would have run rampant across Sheryashka already and what was happening to this elephant was a good example of why. Grated Ares was killing this monster but the point was that there were some humans that occasionally showed up in this desert who were not to be trifled with. Risking an assault against Xasca only to find one of these prodigies in the area and get wiped out was not wise.

The elephant was learning this lesson the hard way as the branches struck it centre mass and the leaves decorated its soon-to-be corpse. Well it was undead, so technically a walking corpse anyway, but it was going to return right back to being devoid of life completely shortly.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

WHACK WHACK WHACK

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

A deadly duo of blunt and fiery disintegration lashings and rapid-fire explosions tied to sharp leaves let loose catastrophic mayhem on the elephant that seemingly never ended. It was a constant barrage that sent shivers up the spine of anyone watching because of how overkill it truly was. That was a western monster buried underneath the magical bombardment and yet it was being treated like an ant... More branches were joining in on the whipping session, as time passed, and smacking away at the elephant drowning in the explosions so it was jsut a mishmash of gold, see-through crystal branches, and splattering grey flesh that could be seen. Any distinct features of anything inside the mess had been blurred in a golden haze. The explosions were rampant and random, creating domes and pillars under the shade of the Yggdrasil so Juggernaut was forced to reposition the sandstorm lest it get caught up in the mess and blown away. This was not an attack it could carelessly sit in so Ares had done what the elephant failed to do, forcing away the Juggernaut, without even needing to be anywhere near her. The power discrepancy between Ares and the elephant was obvious and it, in its last moments, was seriously wishing it was fighting the Juggernaut again... That woman hurt but at least it wasn't as bas this! That was the last thought that ran through its head before a storm of at least a hundred golden leaves also ran through its head. The resulting explosion was ginormous and the air blast it generated could be felt all the way back over by the caravan! A bone splintered through the air and shards of it were flung into the carriages like fragmentation but Ares kept everyone safe with his telekinesis so any stray bone shards were halted in place and dropped to the floor without fuss. This was fight was over and everything was dead! Ares was the victor here by a mile and that only served to irk the sandstorm who'd been one-upped! This would not stand so it began hovering over towards the caravan to have a word with this kill-stealing thief! The glory of hunting that monster was robbed from right under her nose after about ten minutes of hard work but, at the very least, there was a consolation prize waiting for her in Ares! Beating him would suffice!