Chapter 392: Resilient

"Deal?" Although Ares was certain he knew the answer he double checked anyway just in case. He was still expecting her to be affiliated with the sect and that might conflict somewhat with her desire to roam freely. Of course she wasn't going to be tethered to the sect or anything, and she was free to go off and explore whenever she wanted, but it was still an anchor of sorts she wouldn't be able to shake off so easily. If the sect ever needed help, for any reason, and Ares found out she abandoned them he would chase her down personally for an explanation. This was true of pretty much everyone in the sect, though, so it's not like this applied to her specifically, but the last thing Ares wanted was to have a sect full of ingrate cowards who were just hitching a ride until it was no longer convenient.

There would be consequences for abandonment and desertion without valid reasons or a long enough period of affiliation. If a disciple or elder had been with the sect for plenty of years and wanted to retire somewhere out in the galaxy in peace Ares wasn't going to act like some kind of slave driver and force them to remain. Of course the point of cultivating was that age was something mostly irrelevant as long as you kept at it, so the number of people to whom this would wind up being applicable was slim, but the point was that Ares wasn't locking everyone up in some kind of mobile prison for his own benefit. This was a mutual thing, so he expected to actually get something out of it, and the same was true of this deal. Ares figured he was stronger than Juggernaut but not necessarily by a staggering amount so this monster hunting exercise was inevitably going to be a tiring endeavour that wasn't as easy as it sounded. Right out the gate, even if Ares didn't take into consideration literally anything else, there was the alien stepper that forced Juggernaut to retreat. There was a very real chance Ares was going to have to use a Canis Stimulant for that thing. He would really rather not but if it was just that strong then he wouldn't really have a say in the matter. Honestly, as long as the stepper wasn't running around causing problems, he would maybe leave it until last. Ares imagined it would take a few days to wear it down and kill it so starting the fight while he was pre-occupied with everything else, and didn't have the time to spare, was unwise.

"Hell yeah deal!" The bundled Juggernaut nodded, gave a vigorous thumbs up, and a high-spirited response. "I'll make a list of all the monsters that have our elders concerned and give you a copy in two days time. There's a bunch in both the east and west but none in the centre, as any old cultivator can usually deal with that, but we can discuss that more later. Killing our way through the western monsters should be a breeze until we get to the stronger lot if we work together so Ill say it advance, I look forward to working with you from here on out."

Ares nodded "Likewise. So about this spar, how do you want go about this? Until one of us can't go on? Until someone surrenders? Knock out? Empty mana? Should I set up a Training Field or no? I'm fine with anything and have no preference." Ares didn't mind playing by Juggernaut's rules even though she already had homefield advantage because he was just that confident. Maybe she was stronger than he was giving her credit for but he felt unbeatable as of late and was convinced he would win regardless of what she had up her... Many many sleeves. She was wearing multiple baggy jumpers and Ares seriously couldn't count how many articles of clothing she was wearing on her top half unless he used Omniscience! She could state that she was wearing a piece of clothing for every stepper she'd killed this week and Ares would believe it without raising any questions!

Juggernaut shrugged. "Whatever, I don't really care. Might as well just go until we reach a normal stopping point or someone gets bored I guess." Given that neither of the two combatants here were ever going to get bored, as they were fanatics for a good fight every now and then, she was effectively saying to go until a clear victor had been decided in a typical combat scenario. She was just happy to finally have someone to fight and train with, because nobody else gave her the time of day, so setting up an intricate list of rules felt like a slog that would just delay the good stuff that came after. She was a rather novel person to Ares because he'd never met anyone who was as into fighting strong people like he was! Technically Verv existed but he was an oddity and Ares really wasn't sure what to think of that guy or how to categorise him. Was he fighting for the sake of fighting or was he4 doing it for his memory? Maybe both? Well, also, his clone had met Havanah and that was a whole thing, but Ares didn't know that yet so it wasn't relevant!

"Ah, I'll warn you in advance so you don't get buzz-killed later. I don't think I need to hide this from you to win or sneak an underhanded victory so I'll be upfront. If you ever have less than 7% of your mana remaining I will automatically win the fight. I have a conditional art called Grim cessation that kills you instantly under that condition so, if you've spent a lot of mana today fighting that elephant, or other monsters, you should keep that in mind."

Juggernaut hmm-ed to herself as that was quite the conundrum she'd been blindsided by. She had indeed spent a lot of her mana but how could she have possibly predicted such an outrageous art? There was literally not a single cultivator in the world that would be unhappy with that art as it was just highly functional in just about every conceivable situation. It was absurdly powerful and, between that and the Yggdrasil, she was starting to get a feel for how ludicrous the power level of Ares' arts were. Every single one seemed more unreasonable than the last, like a bratty kid lying about his talents to win an argument by constantly raising the bar and exacerbating, if not flat out lying, about what he could do, and neither those Wheels nor the Crystalised Void were as insane as it got. If it weren't for Ares sincerity about this whole thing she would feel like he was trying to be competitive and braggadocios!

Actually, Juggernaut was feeling a little in over her head but she was still more than willing to go through with this as she still predicted a win for herself through close combat. A Wheel or two, even if they hit directly, wouldn't do her in so she simply needed to outlast his aggression and then dish it all back out in a fistfight he couldn't possibly win! He looked average in the strength department and so that was where she would shine. Unlike a lot of other cultivators, she had a pretty decent pressure enhancement to boot thanks to her exploits in the pagoda. She earned her way up to the fifth floor back when the pagoda passed through Xasca briefly, unlike a lot of the people in Red Sun who tried it out because the other floors had been cleared out of their trail examiners after Ares' win, and it only served to make the gap between Juggernaut and everyone else around that much wider as she learned through trial and error across those five stages much like Ares had. Had she known that Ares beat the fifth floor she might have reconsidered the odds of winning she had in her head, and given Ares more of a fair shake despite his lower cultivation, but all she knew was what her brother mentioned of him. About how he was a 'fundamental champion' that blew everything up and won the international. Other things were unknown to her, like the Federation Armillary, the pagoda, and Red Sun being ready for lift off, but whether that would all be relevant or not was another matter. Truth be told, both parties were drastically underestimating each other here and they would both soon learn that this was going to be a more interesting fight than they bargained for. "Well I'm sure it will be fine. If I run low on mana we can just end the fight here on my loss I'm actually not that reliant on mana anyway so it should be fine."

"Alright then, I'll go take a few paces, turn around, and then we can begin when Arla shouts 'Ares' scorpion meat is delicious'."

"Hell no!" Arla took umbrage with this but Ares had only said this to get a reaction out of the bundle of clothing anyway so he chuckled to himself in amusement.

"Alright alright. How about you do the honours then, Sandy?" Aaaaand Ares had given Juggernaut a new nickname just like that. He still didn't know her real name so he unleashed his inner revenant and let it decide what to call her. Calling her Juggernaut just felt weird and he figured that he would either get to hear her proper name here or she would just accept this one. She seemed to not care about the nickname so it was likely going to be the latter but now Ares was curious what the deal with her name was. He wasn't going to pry, though, as it was probably a personal issue and thus he started walking away, giving her time sort through whatever emotions she was battling with. Ares did hear a small laugh from behind him so he assumed things were fine and she'd be ok going forward. He really did want to fight her so if he was the reason she wasn't in the mood to anymore he would have slapped himself! Thankfully whatever the sore spot was it wasn't something she couldn't brush off and so this battle was still on!

Everyone else was interested in this spar, from Aejaz and Arla to the civilians riding the carriages... And even the scavengers were taking seats. If they were screwed either way then enjoying some entertainment, as two expert cultivators going at it could be fun to watch and enlightening in some cases even, was for the best. Their only regret was not having popcorn!... Or maybe some of that scorpion meat... Ares had given Aejaz some to chew on. Well, he held it out in front of him and Aejaz took the initiative to steal it into his grasp but that was fine because it was what Ares had been intending anyway. Couldn't let his greedy brother go hungry around lunch time otherwise he'd get moody and keep staring daggers into the back of Ares' head. This shmuck could make his own damn food! Well, Ares thought that but he'd already promised him some homemade grub today and he wasn't going to walk back on that. Plus Aejaz had made himself useful against the scavengers and wasn't too too bad against the steppers either as he fought with one eventually back outside the city.

Ares stared down the Juggernaut's blood red eyes without backing down even though there was a fierce aura around her now that signalled it was go time. Friendly and perfectly normal one moment, a bloodthirsty skirmisher that never backed down and knew no fear the next. It was a drastic change between personalities and, though Ares didn't agree with it, he could understand where she got her reputation from. Just being in her presence while she was ready and primed for combat left you feeling dwarfed by a massive existence that eerily loomed above you with seemingly infinite strength at its disposal. What Ares felt now must have been what others felt when dwarfed by Garmr and he could have sworn the world around him seemed darker than usual. There were whispers in his ear that he was going to be beaten to a bloody pulp and visibility in the surrounding area was growing worse by the second as a sandstorm whipped up. Eventually only Juggernaut's two red eyes could be seen through the thousands of sand grains and Ares felt like he was trapped in a sarcophagus made entirely of sand. It was suffocating and claustrophobia-inducing as every step he wanted to take would be met with his flesh being grinded away and peeled off until he was nothing but a skeleton.

This wasn't even an art, this was jsut what it meant to have such an incredible affiliation to the 'sand command' aspect. Much like how Ares could one day manipulate explosions, the fellahin could control sand to some degree as well without the need for arts. Their method of doing it was innate whereas Ares would have to apotheosise or work extremely hard, so there was a difference in their ability to manipulate their affiliated element, but it was still roughly the same idea in that everything possessed relevant mana inside it. The sand all around in this desert was filled to the brim with sand command aspect mana and while extracting it for arts was easy, manipulating it raw was hard. You needed to be incredibly in tune with the mana you wanted to freely manipulate which was why control like this, or just magic in general that didn't become arts but was still potent enough to be useful, was impossible for most people. And yet, Juggernaut was whipping the sand into a twisting frenzy, drowning out all noise other than the buzzing of grains scratching against one another as they were swept around, sounding almost like a small plague of locusts echoing in Ares' eardrums. His senses were clogged by the tiny grains and he could feel himself crusting over in sand and being slowly enveloped every second he remained inactive. His skin was scratched constantly and his head was being pelted by this annoying desert hospitality so he splayed his hand and opted to get rid of this problem, or considerably reduce the hassle of it, before doing anything else.

"Not Even Light."

The black hole appeared immediately and got to devouring the storm bit by bit. It was a longer process than usual because, A; there was an infinite source of sand nearby and destroying it quicker than Juggernaut could tap into the surrounding desert was a tall order and, B; the mana being used to manipulate the raw sand was minimal and so the black hole's pull was drastically reduced. All that being said, however, it was doing a good enough job and formed a sort of shelter for Ares which was impressive enough as is. Most people, or rather nobody else in the entirety of Xasca, had ever been able to stand inside the sandstorm safe from harm before. It was typically something people just had to deal with and accept as fact when fighting Juggernaut in the desert. Juggernaut could beat most opponents without even having to cast arts as a result of her affiliation so that jsut went to show she was in a league of her own and could easily contend with the current generation of geniuses had she been born any later...

Well, Sandy wasn't exactly old, saying as such would be rude! She was only, what, about six or seven years older than Ares? Mid twenties if Ares' guesstimate was accurate? Still, that meant a lot in the cultivation world. While he was roaming back alleys in Red Sun like the little scamp he was, she was exploring the world and becoming an unstoppable legend in her own right... Not that many people knew about her. She was a local legend but the name didn't spread too far because Yulo hogged the spotlight. Ares had only jsut gotten started in this fight but he knew he was in for a good time because she was definitely an incredible cultivator and that was something that could be gleamed from this all-natural sandstorm alone. It wasn't simply a matter of her cultivation being higher than his, she was powerful, well trained, and familiar with combat unlike someone like Fin. Fin's biggest weakness, ironically, was his lack of opposition. If he'd ever trained his strength against monsters in the deep waters of the ocean he might have been a real powerhouse himself. In comparison, Juggernaut, who'd spent all her life chasing genius rivals and fighting monsters in the west of Xasca was far more talented and developed overall as a fighter. To that end, Ares wasn't too surprised to see two red dots in the middle of his Not Even Light.

Whoosh

Juggernaut came barrelling through his black hole, swatting the blob aside and charging him down with a ferocious battle cry of a roar that tickled Ares' spine and made him shiver with a smile. His Not Even Light had been treated like a piece of thin paper and brushed aside in its irrelevancy. Juggernaut was bearing down on him with a raised fist and he felt tiny like an ant as he had to look up at this monster of a human being. There were incredible people in Sheryashka and Ares had been blind to it. He genuinely considered himself invincible and, while he wasn't planning on losing, there was definitely room for doubt! As the fist came crashing down, he acknowledged that he couldn't go head to head with her and trade blow for blow even with annihilation enhancement. She wasn't an amateur when it came to pressure so she had a physical boost too. Her pressure wasn't better than his but her innate strength was, and it was arguably her main specialty, so he would lose out... His annihilation enhancement had never failed him before in contests of physical strength so it was an unusual feeling that Ares hadn't felt in a while, to be helpless against a certain method. One of the things Ares prided himself on was the ability to outdo anyone in any department other than mental attacks and even that he was working on. Currently, however, he was outclassed in the strength department by a margin that was unassailable. To prove this point to himself, and really get him in he mood to move this immovable mountain before him, he chanted Absolute Reversal and took Juggernaut by surprise. This art would almost always work against slower opponents with less technique than raw force the first time it was deployed in a fight but, rather than exploit a massive opportunity and get ahead in the fight, Ares simply used it to swiftly slink past the incoming fist and throw his own. He wasn't wielding a deadly blade covered in disintegration, he wasn't using a Grand Annihilation to rattle her skull. He was simply testing how far behind Juggernaut he was in a match of strength. Halfway through his punch his aura soared and a golden tint outlined his body, especially his fist which was practically glowing with the brightness of a thousand suns packed into one unstoppable train of pure force. Juggernaut's eyes widened, spreading her red glare in shock as she watched the golden wrath incarnate come blasting into her face.

BANG

...

Ha, ok. Ares couldn't help but be awed at the result of his fist sinking into Juggernaut's facial region because it felt like he'd punched a bundle of pillows with rocks inside them. His fist created a blast of air behind Juggernaut that even blew a hole in the sandstorm, unlike anything the black hole he summoned earlier could have done, but, as for the person he'd hit, her upper body simply rocked back an inch or two and then immediately reset back to its initial position. His fist was resting on her unmoving forehead and, despite the resounding strike, he had essentially done zero damage. All he'd accomplish was awakening the slumbering beast because an eery chuckle was emanating from behind the his outstretched knuckles. That punch had seemingly amused the Juggernaut, who hadn't expected such devastating pressure mastery, but it still wasn't enough to even leave a dent. A most she might have a tiny bruise somewhere on her cheek later but, otherwise, Ares shouldn't have even bothered striking her with his paltry and feeble fists. Ares almost laughed alongside Sandy but his situation was no laughing mater because he'd just been grabbed around the waist and brought in close. Juggernaut's threat to bear hug him earlier was finally being followed through on but this was extremely unpleasant.

CRACK

One by one, Ares bones were snapping in Juggernaut's heavy embrace. It felt like she was a giant twice his size, gripping a toy with enough accidental strength to break it and snap it into multiple tiny pieces. His organs were pierced by his splintering rib cage and he almost threw up when his stomach was crushed. He needed to escape this soon otherwise he would be doomed so he mustered all his courage, took a deep breath, and swung his back as far as it would go. "Annihilation Echo!" Ares' headbutt could rend a mountain and the sheer velocity at which it came crashing into Juggernaut's skull was enough to make any sane person cringe. The expected result was both parties' heads exploding into bloody confetti as Ares' head could not handle Juggernaut's and Juggernaut's head could not handle an Annihilation Echo... And yet...

BBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG 

The Echo had been timed perfectly to soften the blow on Ares' head as he deflected he blast to cushion his brain and skull... Juggernaut did no such thing and took the Annihilation Echo straight to the dome. It was lacking in power somewhat compared to a normal Annihilation Echo, as Ares' head room to swing was limited and he wasn't using his fist, but this was still an attack that leveled multiple buildings as though they were sand castles facing a tsunami. This attack had blasted average cultivators into blood fountains and yet she simply staggered backwards and fell to the floor. She paused still for a brief moment in the sand while Ares rubbed his forehead but he froze in trepidation when the laughter from before resumed and Juggernaut's upper body snapped and sprung up and out of the sand. Like a zombie risen from its tomb, Juggernaut stood stood up with a slight sway and kept chuckling to herself as she turned to face Ares.

Nothing.

Not a single visible injury.

No head trauma.

No broken libs.

Nothing.

At most she maybe had a busted lip or a slightly off-centre nose under the clothing that needed to be clicked back into place. That Annihilation Echo's entire force had bounced around inside her like a cannonball in a bouncy castle and done nothing other than rouse her fighting spirit. The force petered out before her body caved in at literally any spot which meant a single one of her bones, nerves, organs, or patches of flesh were more resilient than an entire cultivator all on its lonesome. An annihilation Echo would have blown up even a transition realm scavenger, leaving nothing behind, and yet it had failed to even chip a bone in this crazy woman's body,. At this point, Ares would be better off treating this abomination of a cultivator like a mecha-dryad on steroids than an actual normal creature. Physical attacks were categorically never going to work and this grand failure was all the proof Ares needed that magic was going to be his best and only friend for the rest of this fight... But seriously, how incredible was this damn woman!? Ares hated to admit it but even Enyo might not be this tough! Her shields would make her a better defensive wall overall but in terms of raw bodily power she was actually outclassed by this freak of nature! Though Ares didn't know it, Havanah was actually stronger but that was also an unfair comparison because she was a fundamental champion and had plenty of benefits. Juggernaut might have actually just been a real body tempering prodigy and a once in a life time talent. God only knows what calibre of fine grind she'd taken to get this beefy but it must have surely been something people would start wars over. All in all, this woman was a tank and Ares was going to have to figure out how to dismantle her bit by bit!