Chapter 395: Launching Plan B

Stretch

Ares put his drink away and stood up with a small yawn, ready to get back in the fight after his nice rest. He picked up the umbrella and kicked the deck chair into a nothingness void rift before stepping in after it and disappearing. Juggernaut swung around just in time to block a swing from a scythe that came flying through a reddish portal behind her. Blocking it was a painful experience, however, because it was drenched in disintegration and so a lingering burning sensation was now glued to the hand that was forced to guard the sneak attack. Ares had Voidwalked the distance between them rapidly and taken Juggernaut by surprise because whatever Ares had just done was a far faster movement technique than what even a lot of transition realm cultivators knew. Though she didn't understand the intricacies of it she just assumed it was something akin to Blink and made a note in her mind that Ares could effectively teleport on top of his already impressive speed thanks to his golden pressure. A note was made about the scythe as well because it was a rare weapon she didn't understand all too well and the only thing she could really garner from that sneak attack was that it had good range and possessed some serious lethality as it silently tore through the air. It was hard to track due to its somewhat awkward angle of attack and could be swung surprisingly quickly by someone who was proficient with it.

The longer this fight went on the more Juggernaut was starting to accept that this was never going to be a win. Ares had new tools up his sleeve every single time they scrapped and she was only running out of options. She had magic left but, when it really came down to it, her main source of strength was, well, her literal strength. There were only so many clever things she could do with it before she ran out of nifty ways to use it and the real strong suit of hers was to just overwhelm in spite of a lack of options. Unfortunately she was finding out that Ares' magic could not be so easily overwhelmed and thus a head on confrontation against it was a losing battle. She needed to think of something else. This was why her limited options were really biting her in the butt because the second she ran out of them the fight would be essentially over and she could only just meaninglessly drag it on for a while longer without ever turning the tides and slowly losing. This analysis was entirely correct and also proof she was a great cultivator because only experts could accurately assess the direction of combat and make an effort to retreat before they were in truly dire straights. Were this a life or death fight with everything on the line then Juggernaut would have kicked up a massive sandstorm using every ounce of mana she still had within her and dipped under the sands while hoping Ares couldn't follow or trace her movements. It would be hard to track her, given her home-field advantage so she would likely be safe, and that would honestly be her best option right about now. As this was just a friendly spar, however, it was fine to take a more risky approach and go all in to see if there was a way to cinch the win despite the odds being so heavily stacked against her. Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat was technically always possible!

So now how to deal with this scythe wielding menace appearing and disappearing all around her from some weird red dimension? Well that technique must have drained mana from him at a rapid enough rate that he couldn't keep this up forever and, so, as far as Juggernaut was concerned, it was simply a matter of time before he was forced out of hiding spot. Whoosh. The scythe came cleaving through the air, ambushing Juggernaut from behind once more, but this time it was a little different. Juggernaut couldn't quite pinpoint the issue but this swing felt slower and less practiced than the one that preceded it. The weapon wasn't covered in disintegration, the speed of the swing was considerably slower, and the technique was overall lacking compared to previously. This was still an above average scythe swing but it was lacking the flare and mastery of the previous one which immediately rang alarm bells in Juggernauts's mind. Still, as she turned, she spotted Ares ahead of her, clear as day, swinging his weapon without channeling any mana so what could possibly be happening under the surface here? If it was something pressure related she would feel it approaching and no mana either meant this was some kind of trap that was extremely hard to locate before it was sprung...

Rather than look around, Juggernaut blocked the scythe and looked at Ares himself as the plot he was cooking up likely revolved around him or some kind of treasure he might have in his possession... If only Juggernaut had done this sooner she would have noticed that something was very off about Ares' eye colour right now as it was somewhat similar to her own! Did she understand what those red eyes meant exactly? No, but it was very clearly not normal! Her first assumption was that Ares was going to enter some kind of berserk mode but that seemed unlikely as it wasn't really in line with his fighting style and his lacking strength. Juggernaut couldn't comprehend what was happening here but she finally realised she was dealing with a monster when Ares' head morphed and became a massive, toothy chest that lunged over the blocked scythe to rip her to shreds with a sharp bite. Juggernaut was troubled by this and had to kick away the scythe and redirect her attention to the monster, whatever it was, knowing full well this meant the real Ares was lurking somewhere nearby.

As if on cue, Ares appeared directly behind her from a portal while swinging another scythe at her neck. Ares had more than one of every weapon type so borrowing one to Rox didn't mean he wouldn't have one still up his sleeves! Rather, these were all just common farm implements he pressurised and made into artifacts with typical enhancement runes so having multiple was hardly surprising. Juggernaut was pre-occupied with the mimic but still knew Ares was launching an attack and had to think quickly on her feet to solve this predicament. She stopped blocking, which briefly threw Rox for a loop before he carried on with his attempt to bite Juggernaut who was now ignoring him. She'd swiveled around to face Ares while pretending Rox didn't exist because her plan was simple, feed the monster sand! Juggernaut threw up her arms to guard against Ares' scythe just as Rox's teeth sunk into her waist... But instead of blood pouring out of her clothes Rox stumbled back and shook his head as sand cascaded out of his mouth and left a salty taste on his tongue.

Juggernaut had swapped to elemental form right where the bite was aimed to nullify his physical attack and make him regret even attempting it. Rox was spitting out grains and wiping his tongue down, secretly wishing he'd just used an echo instead of going for a more lethal attack and being greedy. He'd been loosely informed by Ares, when he was thrown out of the Blade, that physical attacks might not succeed... But his damn master and friend had not been any clearer on the details because he was in a rush and didn't want to waste mana on idle conversation in the void! Had Rox at least understood the potential risk / outcome he wouldn't have opted for a bite at the very least so as to avoid this exact situation! Ares owed him something to get the foul taste out of his mouth and he'd seen some scorpion meat floating around inside the Blade so that would do!

As for Ares, his sneak attack was indeed blocked but he didn't seem fussed because his strategy was threefold and not quite over yet. CAW. The dumb eagle was here and looking to peck someone's eyes out! Ares hadn't made the mistake of not feeding him this time so he looked to be particularly active and spry with no complaints about doing his job so, while Ares kept Juggernaut locked in place, the black eagle descended from above. Ares had shot it out of a void portal earlier high enough in the air that the mana it was leaking couldn't be felt from Juggernaut so far below. This mean it would take longer to crash down to earth, and give her time to react accordingly, but it wouldn't be spotted by juggernaut who'd be on alert after Ares' ambush with Rox. Also, Ares chose disintegration for the eagle's construction because destroying Juggernaut's protective measures was the correct option for now as there was still way too much troublesome gear in the way to really land a solid hit that mattered. Of course Ares would have preferred landing an attack with the scythe, as that would shear through more clothing with a long slash, but the eagle would suffice. At this rate it looked like it might even be able to hit Juggernaut's head which would be fantastic news! Making the head trauma worse, plus exposing a fragile location that would spell victory for Ares if he got a good attack in, was a win win that Juggernaut couldn't afford to ignore. Sure her head was tough but if it was exposed and Ares just kept hitting it she would be forced to retire from this spar earlier than if he had to grind out a long fight against this heavily armored titan. Ares couldn't do to her what he did against the mecha dryad, and bypass the armor entirely, so chipping away at one location to find a weak spot buried beneath was the next best course of action.

Juggernaut knew she couldn't ignore Ares like she did the mimic behind her, as he would react accordingly to her ignoring him and blast her away with a Grand Annihilation, so it was looking like she would jsut have to accept this eagle bombardment as she was too busy with the stubborn Ares. His strength was lacking compared to hers but he was going all in with his annihilation pressure and causing his muscles to scream in agony by holding out against her for this long. That being said, she really didn't want her head to be left unguarded by her artifacts because Ares' magic would be disastrous in such a scenario. If she ever needed to transform her head into sand it would get blown away by magic almost immediately without protection and that was one of the worst possible body parts to lose. She wasn't too fussed about the rest of her body so she took a step back and gave Ares a win by letting him slash away at her mid-section because it was less important to her. Instead, she relocated her arms to grab at the eagle, try catching it, and crush it in mid air.

The eagle was dumb in some ways but clever in others, and knew this would be a painful end if it didn't avert course, so it sneakily spiralled around one of Juggernaut's hands before giving up. Had the second hand not been able to chase the eagle in time it would have made an effort to suicide bomb Juggernaut but, as that wasn't the case, it weaved through the air and backed off to safety to keep circling. Ares was getting his hit in anyway so wasting its own life right now was unnecessary and it could live to fight another day. Ares agreed with the bird's decision as dying pointlessly only meant he would have to resummon it and waste more mana which was getting to be an issue. The Converter was doing amazing work, truly, but he overestimated how many steppers he would kill by blowing up the Yggdrasil. There weren't actually that many around because most of the ones that were there died alongside the qwaker. They'd been brought back to life but that was only temporary and so Ares' potential mana sources collapsed back into dust underneath the sands long before he could make use of them! There were still a decent amount around but it barely covered the cost of doing business with the Yggdrasil in the first place. All the Wheels he threw, the Yggdrasil, the Detonate, and everything that followed with Juggernaut meant he was starting to reach a point where he could only throw one more large art or multiple smaller ones and that was no good! Magic was his avenue to victory here so he couldn't possibly give up any more on quality of life arts like Adaptive Shot that won him small skirmishes. They added up!... But did he really have time to inflict death by a thousand cuts? Not really! Ares took his reward for his triple ambush, slashed Juggernaut near her waist and only made a cut that was roughly half an inch deep, and then backed up so as not to be hit by her retaliatory swing.

"Hmm, I'm having mana issues... Change of plan! Time out!" Ares formed a 'T' with his two hands and gave Juggernaut a smile but, understandably, she wasn't willing to take a break to let Ares rest and recover mana! He said he was ok with this mana situation from the start and so there was no backing out now! Especially not while he was winning! This would feel like the most underserved and hollow victory of all time right now for Juggernaut if things ended this way. She'd barely even inflicted any kind of damage on him so she'd categorise this as a loss no matter what anyone said and she refused to end things like this while she was still feeling pumped and willing to battle. Unfortunately for her, she didn't realise yet that she had no say in the matter. The fight wasn't ending right now, so she would have that going for her at least, but Ares could force her to cool off and take a break whenever he wanted.

Ares placed the Deep Blue around his neck and snapped his fingers at Juggernaut who felt the air around her become unusually damp for a desert environment. "Pelagic Prison." The bubble from the krakyrn fiasco was back but his time under Ares' control. He utilised the bubble that he could summon around a foe to lockdown Juggernaut who was confused as she stared at the watery walls around her. Naturally she tried to immediately barge her way out but she found out the hard way that the walls were sturdier than she was and bounced back off it. She stumbled backwards until she fell to her rear and quickly realised she had no choice but to be stuck in here as her connection to the rest of the desert was all but gone. Her affiliation meant nothing inside this bubble and her raw strength couldn't pry open an exit so this was going to be her new home until Ares let her out. The real question was how exactly he planned on recovering his mana.

There were some arts that could do such a thing but they took about thirty minutes, on average, to work. They would restore a large chunk almost all at once when it was completed but the time it took to activate meant it had little to no combat application and thus these types of arts saw little to no use for anyone who got into fights regularly. More often than not they were used by workers who liked to have magic to aid them in their duties so they could recover their mana during a break period. Physical laborers used this in conjunction with body tempering often as it meant they were always ready to work and always performing above expectations. It was also helpful for office workers who could summon somewhat intelligent clones to do their work for them, if they were feeling lazy, and then keep them up and running thanks to a quick recharge during a coffee break mid-day. Outside the Primordial barrier, where technicals were more common and used to trivialise all sorts of work, such arts saw way more use but, even then, saw basically next to no appreciation from combat-oriented cultivators whatsoever. Even the clever experts in higher domains, who'd lived and experimented for centuries, had simply never found a use for mana regenerating arts. There were treasures that reduced casting time and even then they were just unusable due to the amount of concentration required.... Unless someone could learn how to maintain concentration regardless of their surroundings... Like maybe somebody who learnt how to passively cultivate? Ares was still trying to learn such a thing even though his time on the federation was up! He refused to give up because of how useful it would be and, maybe if he learnt it, an art that required a large degree of focus to use during combat might actually be worth learning? Or maybe not, he still had Grim Cessation and the Converter so it was rather overkill.

Anyway, that wasn't Ares' goal right now regardless and Juggernaut was way off mark in her guess. Ares was going to use his own unique strategy that he'd devised earlier. He was jsut going to use it before his spar ended rather than after it. Doing this would refill him back to full without a shadow of a doubt anyway so this massive mana expenditure was risk free in his mind! Of course there was a rare possibility he missed literally everything with his Armillary... But surely not, right? He couldn't possibly be that unlucky! Anyway, it was Armillary time! Sure part of this was Ares just looking for an excuse to cast this art again but it was also somewhat of a valid excuse and he really didn't want to lose this fight because he splurged on mana to deal with the elephant and the scorpion! He could have just used his scythe with disintegration and hacked away until they were dead but he wanted to try out Yggdrasil and was being punished for it now! He should have really taken Juggernaut's fight request into consideration but he had underestimated her ability to shrug off multiple high-powered attacks and seriously thought she'd be done in by now... What a blunder... Now Ares had to cast Armillary... Oh how sad.... Anyway! It was time to launch Ares' new favourite explosion! Well, in terms of raw majesty anyway. Grand Annihilation was still an unbeatable classic due its versatility, cheap mana cost, speed of use, and overall effectiveness. When factoring all the related attributes of each art individually in a vacuum, as well as in various different combat scenarios, Grand Annihilation came out ahead of the rest of the pack far too often to be ignored! Still, Ares needed to unload a big ol' explosion every now and then to get it out of his system!

The first Perish Wheel graced the desert as Ares formed it overhead and kept channeling the mana. This was a rather confusing scene for everyone other than Aejaz because Ares had literally just stated that he was going to regenerate mana and so using an art like this was counterproductive.... Plus, why this version of his Wheel was still growing and being replicated was a question nobody had even an inkling of an answer to. Ares' actions here were completely indecipherable but he kept going. Those scavengers, who were still curious about the legitimacy of the rumours surrounding Ares' federation art, were going to get a very decisive answer. Really, the person who was going to maybe lose out the most here was Ares himself as he wasn't sure Juggernaut would have the courage to keep fighting him after seeing this... Hopefully she'd understand that this thing was guaranteed death and Ares would never cast it at her directly...

Regardless, Ares kept on keeping on and began merging his Wheels together one by one. With each Wheel joining the amalgamation Ares was handling the pressure this art gave off more than doubled, making the air so heavy that even Juggernaut inside the bubble barrier could feel it weighing her down. Whatever Ares was draining the remainder of his mana for, it was clearly going to be a real catastrophic art capable of mass devastation which, honestly, made everyone more confused. What was he even aiming at? Was this safe? 'Everything' and 'hell no' weren't exactly answers that would inspire confidence so Ares didn't bother explaining anything and just readied himself to chuck the art as carefully as humanly possible. Dropping this magic would be a nightmare if he really couldn't control who it affected. Plus he wasn't able to control what it affected either so obliterating the central path to the Riddlemyd would have consequences in the short term for travellers of all kinds and Ares would be solely responsible. If this was later, after he hunted all the monsters that were even remotely problematic, then the middle path getting blown up would be an inconvenience and nothing more but, as is, he would be forcing people to brave colossi because of his antics! He had to do this right so he tuned out the rest of the world, triple checked the structural integrity of his art, and let it rip! On this day, Xasca was going to become intimately familiar with destruction!

"Perish Armillary!"

Ares bottomed out on the mana front and gave his all to release the Armillary in the exact arc his Omniscience had kindly calculated for him. He'd looked at the nearby area with his divine sense and Omniscience, even double checked for invisible civilians with pressure, and was confident that, so long as his aim was true, no harm would come to pass on anyone currently in this desert. There were some fellahin further away in the direction he was aiming, and they were going to be hit with a miniature sandstorm as a result of this art, but nobody was going to die! Of that he was certain and doubly so when he breathed a sigh of relief after witnessing the trajectory of his throw align perfectly with his intentions. The art was flying straight and true and he hadn't messed anything up. He was two for two with this art! His familiarity would only help him be more confident as time passed but he really did need to be particularly cautious until then...

As for the art itself, the Armillary undulated as the golden blob at its centre thrashed about during the painfully slow flight. It wanted to just detonate immediately but Ares' care in launching the art, as well as during its construction, prevented it from lashing out too soon. There were some steppers along the flight pass that were disintegrated simply for existing in this thing's remote area, though, and that was shocking enough as is. To kill a monster that wasn't even hit by your art was a display of power that even Juggernaut hadn't seen or ever accomplished. The sandstorms that followed her could wear a stepper down but they were very much capable of running away before death and dying instantly like this was an impossibility for her as is... She couldn't tell how crazy this art was, exactly, but it was definitely at a power level that should not have been possible for anyone in Sheryashka currently. This was just cheating and was no different to having a Vraizon matriarch drop by and launch a mini nuke on demand! Despite the praise she was inwardly giving this art, though, she still didn't understand the full scope of what was about to happen because nobody could really possibly ever predict what came next unless this wasn't their first rodeo. There was always that lingering doubt, regarding its creator's cultivation, that should theoretically limit its output in some capacity. But no, they were about to learn, and truly learn, what a fundamental champion was. If the explosion itself didn't blow their minds then Ares regenerating to full mana instantaneous, as a result of launching this ludicrous attack, surely would. Being rewarded for launching a nuke was something that would have ordinary cultivators salivating and frothing at the mouths if it was possible for them to experience it. Fundamentals were cheaters, that was all there was to it. To what degree? Well the Armillary had finally reached the end of its trajectory and had started to dip towards the ground so, the onlookers here, nearby in the desert, and even all the way back at Xasca city or over at the Riddlemyd were about to witness first hand the level of nonsense a fundamental could whip up even at sensory enhancement...

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