Chapter 391: I Scratch Your Back You Scratch Mine

The sandstorm drifted over, came before Ares, and halted in place as it stared down at him... An awkward silence ensued and Ares eventually realised that this Juggernaut was trying to communicate with him but had clearly forgotten to turn back into their human form first! You have no mouth! Arla slapped her forehead off to the side as this was incredibly embarrassing. Ares had made an entrance that was still ongoing in the background, as his Yggdrasil was battering the elephant corpse and any nearby stepper without mercy, and yet her boss' debut was Juggernaut doing this... Way to set the stage! Knowing Juggernaut she'd overthought how exactly she wanted to approach this conversation to the point of forgetting literally anything and everything else as that was the kind of person she was. Not good with words but great with her fists. It was a frequent occurrence that she would spend all her time trying to figure out how best to speak to someone about a matter only to then screw up something else in turn! One time, back during her ascendancy to boss off the fellahin, she spent multiple preparatory days coming up with a speech only to, on the day of, arrive at the wrong building... It was a good speech though!... If only a couple hours late...

Juggernaut had also walked into numerous walls while in deep contemplation but, to be fair, that would usually only happen when she was trying to decide how best to word condolences to the family of fellahin that died in battle. It was hard to laugh at her whenever it happened given the circumstances but the point was that she could be quite careless at times be it for a good reason or a nonsensical one. This, and her preposterous strength in comparison to average cultivators were her defining features and, otherwise, she was just a normal person with greatly overexaggerated traits. She liked to fight people, sure, and she was a real menace when she did, but she wasn't as pushy about it as some people claimed she was. That rumour stemmed from an incident when she was younger and bullied a scavenger who was criminally misbehaving and stalking kids so she gave him the choice between fighting her to the death... Or death... It was obvious who walked away that day still alive but some onlooker witnessed the scene, didn't understand anything that had led up to that murderous point, and spread the rumour that once Juggernaut wanted to fight you she would get her wish one way or another. Even the people in the fellahin family / clan could think this way sometimes if they were from a different region or hadn't spent much time around her. They simply assumed her lack of daily rampaging was because she wasn't interested in fighting any of the fellahin because they were too weak for her to get a kick out of. While that was mostly true she had tried asking a few people who, unsurprisingly, all turned her down so she just never bothered again. In reality, she was more like an excited puppy who enjoyed going for walks and got a bit sad when nobody wanted to go with her. All in all, a very normal person who could be incredibly scary at times and had thus caused a long series of misunderstandings over and over again that culminated in her current reputation being as is... Hence the derpy entrance she'd just made being completely normal.

The sandstorm eventually converged together with each grain forming a strand of Juggernaut's DNA, resulting in the formation of a large, hovering sand elemental that possessed zero flesh from head to toe. Juggernaut was the one fellahin that could freely swap between sand and flesh across her entire body at any given time and wasn't constrained permanently to either. It was a rare, once-in-a-generation, at best, degree of control that few fellahin had ever had before and was regarded as a sign of an incredibly powerful cultivator even in the early days of Sheryashkan history. Plus the ability to pick and choose what body part transformed individually was arguably the most powerful aspect to this level of racial affinity as nullifying physical attacks anywhere on demand was a phenomenal trick that came with no drawbacks. If someone tried to punish her for turning into sand, by using some kind of wind-generating art to blow her body away, she could simply transform back into a human with the snap of a finger. Arts weren't particularly effective against her bulky human form, with all her defensive artifacts snuggled into the bundled layers of thick clothing, and physical attacks did absolutely nothing against her sand form. Her offensive output was notable but she really shined as a resolute wall that never died or succumbed to anything you could throw at her. An unceasing onslaught from a brick wall that could both dish it out and take it in return meant her Juggernaut nickname was rather accurate. Even other options, like mental attacks or poison, did nothing to her sand form so you were always in for a longer fight against Juggernaut no matter what you specialised in. Drawing out a fight against her wasn't exactly preferable though because her sand form had near infinite stamina, and costed no mana to stay in either, so overpowering her quickly, which was a tall order, before she could exhaust you was the ideal strategy to come out on top. If you used every single art you knew on her and she wasn't dead, you were in big trouble!

As for her appearance in human form, and not this sand elemental form, well she'd just turned back but the clothing that materialised from her spatial ring was covering her much like it did every other fellahin. Her eyes were a shiny red but that, and her considerable height and bulk, were all that could be surmised at a glance about her. She looked to be massive compared to Arla but how much of that was the artifact clothing and how much of that was her just being a tall woman with a lot of muscle mass was unknown. She could very well be anything under all those clothes, it was up to every onlooker's imagination. This was probably why some rather rude rumours about her secretly being a demon had spread and became a bedtime story told to kids to keep them from acting naughty. The residents of Xasca were far meaner than Juggernaut was! Hell Juggernaut wasn't even her real name but nobody knew it because they kept referring to her as a big ol' brute! Regardless, Ares was willing to not take anyone at face value and actually decide for himself what kind of person he was dealing with after speaking to them and getting a feel for their personalty first hand! If she just accidentally went on some long rant in her sandstorm form then she could do it again now and Ares was willing to listen!

"... Hello."

Or not! She gave up! 

Honestly, that was fair. Going through everything for nearly a minute straight, only to have to start over from scratch and repeat yourself was incredibly taxing no a person's mental state and would bother them to no end. Losing progress, and so much of it, on literally anything was a detestable feeling that Ares knew all too well whenever he was working on a new art and forgot a crucial part of it he failed to note down. This was especially bad if he wasn't able to replicate it through trial and error and had to resort to something vastly inferior in its place even if only temporarily... This happened mostly when he was about to doze off and dreamed up something new that he couldn't remember the details of the next morning. So for Juggernaut, having to recite the speech she just screwed up big time, and probably miss like half of it on the second go around, and embarrass herself further... Yeah it was probably better to give up and do things on the fly like a normal conversation at this point. Besides, most of what she wated to talk about was probably related to formalities regarding co-operation in the future and Ares wasn't exactly partial to being 'formal'... No revenant really was and they would almost all rather just speak their mind plainly and be forthright.

It's not that Ares couldn't be overly polite, rather he just didn't want to! Thankfully he was a strong enough individual that nobody could force him to alter his mannerisms otherwise he would have gotten in serious trouble already! If Rud were actually capable of punishing him, for instance, he would have long since done so the day Ares joined the sect even! Ares had a big mouth and an even bigger attitude at times. Still, he was understanding so he would be helpful and actually push along this conversation now that Juggernaut was stuck and overthinking where the hell to go from here. The plan to talk formalities had fallen through and, in her mind, there was nothing left to say other than 'fight me' but that was a bit too much for a first meeting on its own... Dropping nothing more than a 'Hello' on Ares' head and leaving things at that was an awful introduction and beyond awkward! Ares pretended it didn't happen, though, and returned the greetings with a bit of overexaggerated friendliness to ease Juggernaut's worries and steer the conversation back on track.

"Hello! Nice to meet you... Juggernaut? I'm pretty sure that's you anyway as you fit the bill. Rather, if you aren't Juggernaut, and there's someone stronger than you in the fellahins, I'll seriously crap my pants you know?" Ah yes, the perfect strategy, idiocy! Ares figured self degradation / praise for his conversation partner would get things started on the right foot. Thankfully, though clumsy, Juggernaut was not the shy type or anxious and she could manage a conversation that had been kicked off the right way. As such, a response came naturally to her and things were finally getting back on track.

"Ah, I'm flattered, but aren't you quite something yourself, Ares? I heard about you from my little brother... Sorry about him, he's prideful and knowing our other brother lost during the international was enough to set him on the warpath. I mean I get where he's coming from though. I feel the same way and really want to fight you but if you're busy, not in the mood, or running out of mana after casting that giant tree art, then I get it and won't hassle you for a spar. Still, if you'd be willing to fight me sometime before you leave Xasca that would be much appreciated... Wait, crap, I'm being rude. We should be talking business and not personal requests... Tsk, I had everything planned out and wasted the long speech. Damnit. Whatever, you don't seem like the type to be bothered so I'll be blunt from now on 'cos that's what I'm best at anyway.

Wanna work together to deal with the scavengers? You know, share info and fight them back together? They're a sneaky bunch so one more informant is always welcome and, I really don't need to say this, but in combat I'm assuming you're as capable as they come. Plus if you ever need anything form us, a place to stay in the desert, reinforcements, or supplies for a long trip to the east or west then we'll be happy to help how we can. Sound good?" Juggernaut held out her mitten covered hand and Ares shook it before responding because he was most definitely in. Passing up such a valuable opportunity, with no strings attached, would be stupid as he had a gut feeling he could trust these people. His lie detector never went off either so Juggernaut here was either being completely, 100% honest or there were machinations going on behind the scenes that her innocent and simple soul was blissfully unaware of. She was in a high enough position, though, that she should be aware of the happenings within the fellahins' ranks and never be caught unaware by any of it. There were also capable people, like Arla presumably, capable of detecting such things on her behalf if she wasn't able to herself so it was likely all good on that front.

"Sounds good to me. Still, it's probably better for cohesion's sake that I show up in some official capacity later on. Arla and I were talking about a proper meeting in two days to discuss the finer details. Also I want to check in on the scavenger prisoners and question them a bit myself. Ah I don't mean to say the fellahin aren't good at interrogating, it's just that I'm lucky enough to have my own skillset that ought to come in handy. I would go along with you now if I weren't in the middle of travelling to the Riddlemyd. I think giving you those two days to have your way with the scavengers and get everything you can out of them first is the most polite thing to do, though, so I'll leave them with you for now.

As for your brother and his antics, don't worry. He may be a bit quick to anger but he's also equally quick to kiss ass and understand when he's made a mistake. I would have ignored him anyway but, at the very least, he knows when to bow his head and avoid trouble. It might be embarrassing for him, and cause the fellahins to lose some face here and there, but being alive is pretty great no? You never know when someone with my kind of power will show up and not have my kind of willingness to ignore small slights like that without some kind of massive apology. Honestly, if I weren't going to become the sect master I might have pushed him around a bit. Hopefully this incident scares him into being a bit more careful around strangers, I guess.

Finally, your request to fight me. I can oblige here and now if you really want. I'd rather get it over and done with while I still have time because I've got a sneaking suspicion I'll be rather busy from here on out. I'll talk about it later during our official meeting but there's a lot going on with the sect I'm staying at right now so I'll make the most out of the time I do have. It's been a while since I fought a strong human and it'll be good to prevent me from going rusty. Fighting monsters is great and all but humans are the real threat in the cultivation world for the most part. Don't worry about mana, I have enough. Rather, are you sure you want to fight me right now? That tree is still there you know? It can't walk over here or anything but if I blow it up the ensuing attack will chase you down even all the way over here. I technically have an advantage having an art like that already out and about."

With a shake of the head, Juggernaut made it apparent she didn't care. Rather she was clearly still thinking it wasn't an advantage for Ares no matter how she looked at it. The mana cost for an art that did essentially nothing was definitely a huge problem! She didn't know that Ares detonating it would allow it to still carry a frightening amount of power and, more importantly, the hundreds of steppers he would catch in the blast would refill a huge chunk of mana! This was related to his infinite mana strategy, just happening on a smaller scale than what he had planned. Was Ares going to start randomly chucking Armillarys in the desert to kill thousands of steppers and refresh his mana constantly via Grim cessation? Well, if his experiment worked and he saw positive results... Why not!? He would have to scout out a large area before chucking the thing, so as not to catch any humans in his range, but provided there was no one around who was going to miss a few steppers? There'd be large pits dotted across the desert from here on out but it's not like there weren't plenty of dunes already! Adding a few more wouldn't raise any eyebrows... Unless they were massive in which case they would... But that could be the work of a rampaging western monster for all the Xascan citizens knew! Ares wouldn't exploit this too much but, if it did work, being able to regenerate his mana to full, and collect large numbers of stepper souls at once for his Converter, wasn't exactly something he would refrain from using when it was needed. Staying his hand when such power was right at the tip of his fingertip was impossible and it could come in handy at any point!

"Thank you for agreeing to my selfish request. Before we get started, though, you said you were becoming the sect master of Heaven's Path, right? The name of that place brings back memories... About seven years ago I was sent over as a foreign aid disciple from Oasis and I met Yulo there. As much as I hate to admit it, he beat me up pretty good. I'd heard stories about him, sure, but never expected him to be quite so powerful. Definitely took me by surprise so learning he's being replaced is both understandable but also a little shocking. It's only fair someone like him gets to be free again and return to his cultivation journey, I get that because I'm jealous he has that freedom now to resume from his hiatus, but also shocked he found someone to fill his shoes. Not that you aren't fit to, just that you're willing to. Wiling to be his replacement and get stuck in the role... As someone who's had to stay here in this desert and look after the fellahin I have to ask if you're sure about this decision? You're going to be stuck in your sect for a long time to come until you also find a replacement..."

Ares tilted his head in confusion because, apparently, this woman had no idea what was happening with the sect and Red Sun! Ares wasn't going to be stuck anywhere! "Uh, about that..." Ares gave a quick rundown and the more he explained the more annoyed Juggernaut seemed to get.

"Am I seriously the only one of the previous generation going to be stuck on this infernal rock?!" Juggernaut was tapping her foot on the floor repeatedly and kicking up sand, evidently not happy about the situation. "Everyone else from our generation has already left for Vraizon at some point but I took solace in the fact that the strongest of us was still also stuck here. Now it's just going to be me and even the replacement for Yulo is going to be fucking off! When's my turn?! How long do I have to sit here and keep fighting off these damn monsters? It's so damn annoying!" As if in line with her emotions, the nearby sand was shaking as violent winds blew around Juggernaut. It died down shortly after though as she regained her calm and didn't blow her top completely. "Goddammit, now I wish I could pluck Xasca up and drag it with me wherever I went... You know, Yulo once asked me to join his sect. If I'd said yes back then I'd be so free right now but i was practically begged not to... I was guilt tripped into protecting the fellahins and the people of Xasca so I guess that's just it for me then? Stuck here for all eternity to waste away... What a piece of crap this place is!" Despite her affiliation to the sand all around her, Juggernaut seemed to resent the stuff and was still mindlessly kicking it about. She would be much happier if there was no sand around whatsoever as that would mean she wasn't in Xasca anymore and free of this place even if it meant a reduction in her overall power. It was like an underwater race choosing to live on land because they got tired of eating fish everyday so Ares understood her plight. Rather if he was in her position he would want to pull his own hair out as well.

"Hmm, you're stuck here protecting people, correct? that's why the fellahin elders were bugging you?"

"Yeah?"

"What if there was nothing left to protect people from? If, hypothetically speaking, every single monster worth being concerned over disappeared, you would be able to leave then correct?"

"... Are you suggesting what I think you are? because if you are, then I'll bear hug you right now you know? I might even crush your bones yeah?" If Juggernaut wasn't mistaken, Ares was suggesting he take out all the problematic monsters before he left this place, allowing her to roam 'freely', on the condition she joined the sect. Anyone in Ares' position would no doubt be trying to get a hand on as many powerful cultivators as possible to turn his home base into a powerhouse capable of fending for itself. A veritable mobile fortress packed with impressive expert cultivators so it couldn't be bullied during its infancy or prevented from getting its feet off the ground. If Juggernaut here was a member of the sect he would no doubt be happy to have her and all it would take was killing a large number of monsters. It was a good trade for him, would solve all of her issues, and mean even the elders of the fellahin would have no right to complain. Juggernaut had been trying to accomplish this for years now but just wasn't capable of hunting everything down herself. The original Stepper alien alone was a wall she couldn't overcome but this opportunity was perfect!

Once it was all dealt with the fellahin base, and surrounding area, could also be scooped up and taken along too. A new sub-faction of fellahin could be born and spread far and wide across the universe while the old guard stayed here and kept tradition alive if they really wanted to. There would be no danger to their life so they could just keep living in peace if that was what they preferred. Juggernaut would be the biggest winner as she would get to keep the sand beneath her feet, and have a biome all to herself and her people, and her desire to explore the skies above her head all intact. She regretted not joining Yulo's sect that day but could rectify the issue now while continuing her cultivator journey that had been paused for far too long. Maybe she'd even get to see a few familiar faces that had already bolted to Vraizon. Much like Ares had his generational comrades, such as Onno and the rest of his neighbours, Juggernaut had hers and would appreciate seeing them all again as they got along for the most part and were worthy foes. As long as Ares was actually capable of dealing with all the problematic monsters here in Xasca then there was zero reason to turn down this suggestion!

Ares had been planning on taking aboard the Transmit lady too as a sort of data compiler for all the monsters and plants he discovered anyway, by sharing his memories with her and having her draw them up and write notes to be publicly available in the sect, so a few more Xascans would definitely be welcome given their power level compared to average cultivators. There were diamonds in the rough here so if Ares smoothed everything over he would be left with all the spoils! He was greedily absorbing all the talent in Sheryashka into an amorphous blob back in his home town but if it worked, it worked! He still wanted to test her in the upcoming spar but he was fairly confident she was worth the hassle of dealing with all the other monsters in this desert. It was one more thing to add to his already lengthy list but he could find the time to do it if it meant a drastic increase in power for the sect!