Chapter 400: A Flashy Magic

"Go on, you know you wanna." Ares was shoving his brother over towards the sphinx head with a smug grin. Aejaz was conflicted here because he really did like riddles! He also knew he was shockingly awful at them! He remembered one time, back when he was young, when he and Ares snuck into the library to read books all night long. Little Aejaz found a book of riddles and went through them one by one, getting very single one of them wrong in the process. He kept going with that book all night, though, but his persistence never paid off! He either spent way too long thinking about the answer, and never came up with one, or was confidently wrong in seconds flat. There was no in-between and that sparked a year long pursuit of becoming a riddle master by bugging Ares to go and find him riddle books to quiz him with. Ares thought it was hilarious watching this dunderhead get everything catastrophically wrong without fail so he obliged and treated the pile of books he found for him like a birthday present, dumping them on Aejaz all at once. Alas, riddles were to Aejaz as spiders were to Ares. That is to say they were his natural enemy!

That being said, Aejaz still liked riddles, he just refused to embarrass himself anymore by trying and failing constantly! Also, Red Sun ran out of riddle books to read... He and Ares had pilfered and read them all so Aejaz had to begrudgingly give up. As soon as he heard about the Riddlemyd from Ares, however, it became a dream destination!... Until he actually got here... Now he realised he'd made a crucial mistake, forgetting that he was going to get punished every single time he guessed wrong! The punishment was no longer Ares getting a good laugh out of his poor guesses but actual danger! To what degree Aejaz didn't know but that was actually the real problem! This was risky business and Ares was throwing him to the wolves!... Still, he was aware this was an early floor so it surely couldn't be that bad. Ares was here too and would come to his aid if need be so, although he was hesitant, Aejaz was at least looking forward to attempting a riddle again after taking a long break from them! Who knows, maybe now that he was older and wiser he might actually get one right for once! He'd put up with Ares' gag-worthy puns for too many years to fail now! Aejaz took a deep breath and pointed at the sphinx with fierce determination. "Alright! Hit me with your best shot!... Not literally, please. I mean a riddle. If you attack me I'll run away."

Slap

Ares facepalmed himself because, for the briefest of seconds, Aejaz almost looked a little cool. This conniving coward really just couldn't get over his irrational fears for even five minutes! Regardless, the sphinx was either still automated or flat out didn't care about Aejaz' request and simply did as it always did and spit out the riddle for this floor.

"I stay with you even when I am lent or given. What am I?"

A bright smile appeared on Aejaz' face and he almost practically leapt forward to give his answer but, as he leant his upper body towards the sphinx, he froze... He'd been here before! He thought he knew the answer, was dead certain even, but he always ended up saying something completely stupid if he rushed himself like this! Unsure of how to proceed, he turned around and looked to Ares for encouragement... And the damn rat was hiding behind one of the pillars! He was sticking his hand out and giving Aejaz a thumbs up! If Aejaz was wrong he'd be safe from whatever dangers came barreling through this room because he was protected while Aejaz was standing in the middle of nowhere! Ares was seriously expecting him to get this riddle wrong from the start! "Tsk, who's the coward now! I'll show you!" Aejaz wagged his fist at the pillar, that was currently shrugging and sincerely wishing Aejaz the best of luck, before turning around and confidently declaring his answer! "A good book!"

"What the fuck?" Ares muttered to himself from behind the pillar as he braced himself for the inevitable failure. What one earth was this dingus thinking?! Ares seriously had to ask this muppet what the hell he was talking about because his answer was incomprehensible! Well, Ares would have to ask him after whatever came next because the sphinx wasted no time in entertaining Aejaz' foolishness.

"Incorrect."

"Really?" Aejaz, for some absurd reason, almost couldn't believe what he was hearing. He looked genuinely shocked he was somehow wrong about this... His reaction stunned both the sphinx and Ares simultaneously because this guy might actually be the worst riddle-guesser of all time. He gave a terrible answer and then doubled down! The sphinx was clearly flummoxed by this response and even took a second to shake its head before enacting the punishment. If Ares wasn't certain this thing was sentient before he definitively was now but this was not the way he expected to find out! 

"Extremely incorrect! Whatever. Push the button to end the punishment!" The sphinx head turned to stone and Aejaz was left standing in front of it with a tilted head and a confused expression.

"Button? What button?" Aejaz heard a rumbling behind him and, on the opposite end of the room, a button had just risen out of the ground and was positioned atop a tiny pedestal. This certainly answered his question but now he had more! What was the catch here exactly? It looked like a straight walk over to the goal and there was nothing in his way... "Ares! Go and push it!" Aejaz technically had a point here because Ares, currently, was definitely closer to the button than Aejaz was. The pillars he was hiding behind were in the centre of the room, and Aejaz was on the furthest end of the room from the button, so it made logical sense for him to go and do it! Unfortunately, however, Ares stuck his head around the pillar and shook it before rolling a Shock Bead along the floor. At first Aejaz assumed Ares was giving him this trinket to aid him in his quest, which would have been something at least, but Ares clarified the harsh truth a second alter.

"I'm giving you to the count of three. If you haven't started moving towards the button I will detonate the Shock Bead at your feet!"

"WWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?" Aejaz started running with tears in his eyes and gave his brother a pitiful look as he passed by him. His puppy dog eye guilt tripping was interrupted, however, the second he passed by the slab in the centre of the room as two different clank sounds rang out from in front of him. Though he was curious as to what was happening, Aejaz charged forth anyway because he wanted to commit to the button! The sooner he pressed it, the sooner this cruel game ended and he could feel safe again! No matter what was happening around him all he needed to do was ignore it and push the button! He was extremely fast on his feet so the chances of anything stopping him in time were low and he could always dodge incoming attacks or turn invisible should the need arise! Aejaz sniffled back the tears and doubled down on his sprint to the finish line but, as it turned out, this was a mistake! Two sandy bricks on the wall behind the button retracted back into the ,depths of the Riddlemyd and out came two small planks of wood with a normal enough looking lizard sat stop each of them. Both planks were positioned to the left and right of the button and the two fist-sized creatures appeared to be guardians of some sort that were going to protect the button come what may. Aejaz didn't look too impressed with these tiny creatures but Ares knew better than to underestimate monsters in general and was already scanning his notebook in search of information about these things. He'd repositioned himself so that a pillar was between him and the button just in case things got messy!

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wwwwwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhhIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Though Ares was tempted to move from behind the pillar he was sitting up against, and take a look at whatever the two animals were doing to create that weird noise, he figured it would be better to stick to what he was currently doing instead and gather information on the new threat. He'd jsut located the lizard section and, continentally, these little critters were on page one! This was rather convenient! Let's see, let's see. What do we have here... They're called...

RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA

RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA

Ah, they're called gatling geckos... I think I get why. The sound of two rapid fire lizards firing an endless stream of bullets had already clued Ares in but, on the off chance he still wasn't certain, a storm of pellets hailed across the room and put holes in just about every single surface. Aejaz had already been shot a couple of times and was cowering behind a pillar like his life depended on it while rubbing the blackened skin where he was hit. One bullet wasn't enough to penetrate his skin, and just hurt like hell, but if he were to be hit in the same spot twice then he would be pierced without question. As soon as Aejaz had seen the first bullet he twisted his body in all manner of directions to avoid the incoming faux-lead swarm and managed to dip, duck, dive, and dodge his way behind the nearest pillar. He could see Ares from where he was sitting, and was currently glowering at him with a tear in his eye for being used to trigger the trap, but Ares was too engrossed in his notebook to respond right now.

As for the monsters spraying and praying their little hearts out, these gatling geckos were, you guessed it... Geckos... With gatling guns for tongues. Not exactly hard to figure out... Anyway, any food they ate was stored inside their stomach and used as ammunition after fully digesting it into bullet sized pieces. The more well fed they were the longer their supply would last but, on the off chance you came across geckos with an affinity for the spatial pillar, they could store incredibly large amounts of bullets that were said to last for up to an entire day straight if need be. The type of gecko you came across really mattered because they had no typical specific affiliations to any pillar and could come in a wide variety of types, like treetop tigers, that you had to be capable of reacting to. Fire bullets, poison bullets, mental damage bullets from the psychic pillar, etc... They were a diverse little group of monsters that were frequently seen hanging around with mafia cacti. Double the machine guns, double the lethality. Not exactly a dynamic duo but a potent one nonetheless that could put an impressive number of rounds down range per minute when combining their might. The whirring noise Ares heard earlier was the geckos' stomachs churning out the ammunition and what followed next was self-explanatory. A group of gatling geckos was called a 'covering fire' and, while on the subject, a group of mafia cacti was referred to as a 'mob'.

So what type of geckos were peppering the room so obstinately like it owed them money and / or a blood debt?... Well, there was a reason the spatial variants of these geckos was described in detail compared to any other type in the notebook. Put simply, while they weren't the strongest, they were easily the most annoying of the bunch because they were incredible at holding down the fort for extended periods of time. Some wild geckos with this affiliation were trained as pets by more magic-oriented cultivators because their long chants could be covered for by the never ending bullet barrage forcing the opponent to sit and hide passively behind cover... Like what was happening here to Ares... Thankfully there was no mage back there channeling a devastating art but how long would these pillars hold out for? Would they last longer than the bullet onslaught? Better yet, and this was the primary concern, would Ares not just grow incredibly bored!? He didn't want to sit here for more than a day straight waiting for these little shits to stop coughing up yesterday's lunch!

Sevorus was a real asshole for putting spatial affiliation geckos, specifically, in this trap. They were less deadly overall, sure, but far more annoying! This punishment was nothing but a colossal time waste and Ares wasn't having it! Sure this type of punishment made sense for newie explorers, as it was a thinly veiled warning that things could get so much worse if the trap designer wanted it to be worse, but Ares was a fundamental champion and he refused to sit here through this!It wasn't even him that triggered the trap and, yet, Aejaz seemed to be impossible to coerce into dealing with this situation. His earlier confidence was shattered because no amount of dodging or invisibility was going to change the fact that the geckos weren't even really aiming to begin with. There was no way in hell Aejaz was making it to the button without getting thoroughly pelted and left curled up in a ball, bruised form head to toe and wanting to go home to his sweet family. Those geckos were really close to the button so you'd have to take a few beatings on the way there unless you actually dealt with them first and that was where the real problem lay. If you couldn't leave cover, you couldn't aim at them! For some cultivators this would be disastrous and effectively force them to wait patiently. Alas, Ares was not any ordinary cultivator! Explosives had no aiming requirements and Ares could very well just roll a Shock Bead back there... Although if it was shot in the process then it wouldn't do jack all... Ares had other solutions, though, and so he wasn't too fussed about the oversight he almost just made.

Ares took a deep breath, concentrated in a bid to ignore the buzzing in his ears that came with bullets ricocheting off the pillar he was leaning against, and started weaving his pressure... But suddenly he stopped! Aejaz was wondering what his annoying brother was up to, and why he wasn't just dealing with the issue, but he had a gut feeling what came next wasn't going to be good! Ares had a simple solution that would work here and was choosing not to go through with it which could only mean one disastrous thing... Ares wanted to experiment! Right now!

[Aeja...]

[No.] Aejaz cut off the mental connection and refused to have a conversation with this lunatic! He didn't know what Ares wanted but the answer was no! A resounding no! Noooooooooooooooo! En Oh!

Ares sighed and decided to use himself as the experimental guinea pig this time. He'd already gotten enough info about these rooms and how they worked out of Aejaz so, to be fair to him, Ares would do his part too. As for what he was aiming for, exactly, Ares had invented a new art a while back, on the Federation, and had been looking for a good opportunity to test it. It wasn't the most powerful thing ever, and actually might be the smallest scale annihilation art he now knew, but it was the kind of thing that would come in handy under very specific situations and really do a number on whoever it hit... Which was strange because the damage it did was actually rather minimal. Hell, if possible, Ares would have made the art do no damage at all, so that it's primary function could flourish on a greater scale, and yet it was an art with high highs and low lows. Ares wasn't even too sure it would be useful here but, if he didn't use it now, he didn't know when the next half-decent opportunity would present itself.

As such, Ares clicked his fingers and summoned a small golden ball. It was round for all of a second and no longer before it began to mould itself into various spiky shapes. The core remained relatively round, though, so it looked like something was trying to break free from the core by lashing out in random directions. The art was volatile but Ares could keep it stable until he chucked it at which point all hell would break loose about half a second after it left his hand. As for how Ares was going to throw this thing while pinned down like this, thankfully, the art could be controlled freely during the half a second duration it was travelling through the air. Until it blew up, Ares could make it do whatever he pleased and fly it in whichever direction he so desired. This meant he could throw it to his left or right and have it curve back around the pillar all by itself. This trick was a result of some telekinesis shenanigans that Ares had built the art around and, though it raised the mana cost, it was well worth it for the versatility. This art was one that was hard to use in a lot of scenarios as-is so giving it more chances to shine had been the correct call. So what exactly did this art do when it blew up, exactly? Well, like the gatling geckos, the entire purpose and functionality of the art could be easily deciphered just by hearing its name.

"Flashbang!"

Ares tossed the Flashbang over his shoulder and directed it to creep around the pillar. Regardless of whether it was shot out of the air or it detonated on its own this thing was going to blind the geckos and make life easier in terms of reaching the button. Sure these creatures weren't 'aiming' in the truest sense but they were at least consistently firing in a rough cone in the right direction. Ares hoped that, after being blinded, they would spiral out of control and start shooting waywardly at the ceiling, floor, and maybe even each other. It made the spray of their bullets more difficult to predict but Ares wanted to test out his art and feel the consequences of it failing first hand to motivate him to do better next time. Not that he wasn't already somewhat happy with the art, though, as its reach was decent and being blinded by it would leave the victim seeing a pure gold light, and nothing else, for a good few seconds. It could be blocked with magic or any solid object, currently, and Ares wanted to at least fix the former. If it was destroyed by magic then sure, whatever, but summoning even a poxy wind blade to block tthe flash of light, and having the art be reduced to being completely ineffective, was rough! This was still the trial an error phase of the art so, although Ares could just kill the geckos normally, he wanted this experience badly. He wouldn't die here, or sustain serious injuries, so there was no better time than now. He was treating the Riddlemyd the same way he did the pagoda and training in it!

B-ANG

The Flashbang actually managed to blow up on its own accord without being struck by a roaming bullet first and it was a two parter. The core of the Flash ripped apart and made a tearing noise, unleashing the rampaging energy within which caused the second half of the dull bang that sounded like a mini thunder clap lacking in bass. There was also a slight fizzle noise that followed but that was the least of anyone's concerns because, by that point, a brilliant flash of light had already blinded anyone who saw it. Ares could maybe make this art deafen people too but that was a problem for later. Right now it was go time! He dashed around the corner and, thankfully, the geckos had temporarily stopped firing and were spinning around on their planks. One fell off their plank and that the catalyst for mayhem because it began spraying bullets at random and hit the other gecko. Rather than wait for the blindness to dissipate, the second gecko retaliated for the damage it took but wasn't facing the right way anymore. In this fashion the two geckos formed a crisscrossing array off bullets directly in front of the button and were even occasionally hitting each other. Ares could maybe even just stand stock still and they might even kill each other on their own at this rate! Still, he wanted to know how long the flash lasted so he kept going forward. After all, when the blindness ran out, they would readjust their aim and start firing again so Ares wanted to be as close to the button as possible when that happened.

One... Two... Tsk, already? Ares hadn't managed to count to three before both geckos recovered at the exact same time. The art was undeniably too weak in its current state! It was functional for a version 1.0 but it could really do with more time and touch-ups in the ol' brain workshop. Fortunately Ares came prepared as he'd generated another Flashbang while he was running up to the button so it was time for round two of blind the geckos! "Flashbang!" Ares chucked the second one and the geckos were looking pretty miserable right now and pouting with tiny frowns and wrinkled eyes. They had no way of preventing this extremely obnoxious art and just had to take it head on. Ares, however, did not. This art was supposed to be indiscriminate but Enyo's anti friendly-fire mutation was rearing its head again. Seriously, that mutation was perfect for Ares and he was unbelievably grateful to have it. It meant he could toss this art freely into crowds, only hitting the desired target and nobody else, and that was the thought that led to him inventing this in the first place. He'd dreamt up this ability back when he was a kid, even, but never acted on it since because there were better arts to work on that were more consistently useful and less detrimental in most situations. The dream was revived thanks to Enyo and it was going to bare fruit sooner or later. Ares predicted that this art, when fully developed, would shine... Literally!

But that was all irrelevant as he leapt through a bullet bonanza and slid his way to the podium, slapping the button with his palm after only sustaining a single injury to the knee. He would be walking funny for the rest of the day but, other than that, he'd succeeded!

Click click click

The geckos were still trying to fire at Ares but they'd had their ammunition forcibly removed. Perhaps these lot didn't actually have a spatial pillar affinity and were just being forced to mimic such a thing with Sevorus' experiments. Having infinite storage within oneself, a portal that led to never ending resources and reserves, was pretty handy and Ares knew that first hand. His Blade served a very similar purpose right now and so this direction of Sevorus' experimentation actually made a lot of sense. Still, the geckos looked incredibly confused now that there ammo source had been cut off. Ares was going to kill these annoying things but they suddenly vanished. Spatial magic again, no doubt. If Ares had his Omniscience on he would have seen it coming and could have shattered space to prevent it. Oh well, those lizards would live to see another day and punish some more trial takers yet.

"Ahhhh! My eyes! My eyes! I'm blindddddddddddddddddd!" Aejaz was running around like a headless chicken with his hands covering his face and Ares jsut sighed and shook his head.

"Are you an idiot or what? The Flashbang doesn't hit friendly targets you dummy!"

"Eh?" Aejaz slowly opened a single eye with a wince and realised his brother wasn't lying to him. "Oh. Heh."

This guy stared directly at the flash because he was curious about the art and then just proceeded to assume he'd been blinded because of the initial flash. Sure the initial flash was just a bunch of bright light but it wouldn't blind anyone for any real period of time on its own, that was where the magic came in! Aejaz had covered his eyes and never even bothered to check again until Ares called out to him... What a guy... Speaking of his idiocy, Ares had another question! "And what the hell was that answer from before about!? Care to explain your genius to us mere morals so we can comprehend even a fraction of your unrivaled intelligence?!"

"What? I though it was a good idea! I still think I'm right about the riddle!" Indignation could be felt within his words and flappy gestures so Ares insisted he explain himself.

Sigh

"Go on then, lay it on me."

"Ok, well you can lend or give a book, right?"

"Right."

"So that first part of the riddle is fine, right?"

"Right."

"So then, for the part about staying with you, have you ever heard the phrase 'a good book stays with you for life'?"

"I see where this is going and I'm already disappointed."

"Oh come on! Sure the book doesn't physically stay with you but it does in spirit! I bet the real answer is some semantic bullshit anyway so why shouldn't this answer also be acceptable!? I demand a redo!" Aejaz started grumpily storming back over to the sphinx and Ares had to jog after him and hold the guy back.

"Nonononono. It's seriously bad enough we failed the second room once. Let's not fail it again, yeah? You're right! You're totally right! This dumb sphinx doesn't recognise true brilliance! But rather than argue with him, let me give him the answer he wants so we can move on?" Ares was jsut consoling his poor brother whose current record with riddles was at least 0-1000 at this point. Not even for a second did Ares agree with Aejaz' answer at all, because there were undeniably options that made way more sense at face value, but if it kept this guy from stubbornly failing the floor twice in a row then Ares would lie through his teeth! "Look, I'll go and file a complaint on your behalf, ok? Leave it to big bro." Ares patted Aejaz' dejected shoulders and turned around with a look that screamed 'thank God that's over, what a drama queen'. Still, he promised Aejaz he would complain on his behalf so, even if he didn't see the need to, he would!

"I do not leave you even when I am lent or given. What am I?" The sphinx spoke up before Ares could but that was fine because he knew the answer anyway.

"A hand."

"A HAND?!" Aejaz wanted to storm over again now that he heard the correct answer! This was garbage!

"Correct."

"Correct my ass!" Aejaz was clearly not happy...

Ares scratched his head as he faced his brother. "Well, you know, you can lend a hand, or give someone a hand, but yours wont't exactly disappear..." Ahem. Ares turned back around to the sphinx. "... But, you know, there is a valid argument to be made here that this riddle is a bit off..."

The sphinx remained silent for a while but Ares unyielding, intense stare led to it buckling and speaking up again. "Alright brat, what do you mean? What's your angle?"

"Well, first of all, Aejaz' semantic point from earlier does hold up here to some degree. You expect people to ignore the fact that 'hand' is a noun but, in the context of 'to lend a hand' it's actually a verb. They're technically two different words with entirely meanings. According to your question, if you gave someone your literal hand, as in the noun, you wouldn't be able to keep it because you'd have to cut it off... Which does lead me to the second point. You could absolutely cut your hand off if someone else needed it for whatever reason and you were willing. The hand does not have to stay in every conceivable situation so its a bit off for a riddle. And finally, and this is big one, there are multiple correct answers anyway! You can lend someone an ear! Although people don't say 'give an ear' as often, it is still correct! Since another answer exists, that means there can be more than one, and given that it's subject to interpretation and not the actual definitive meaning of the word, ala ''hand', then Aejaz' meaning of the words 'staying with you for life' should also apply! The 'hand' isn't technically a 'hand' and Aejaz' 'say; isn't necessarily a 'stay' in the expected meaning either. The logic behind your answer and his is the exact same so arbitrarily calling it wrong is incorrect!"

"... Tsk, fine. What do you want, a medal?"

"Wow. You. Are. Moody! What's up with you anyway? Got a story to tell of some kind?"

"No."

"I've decided I don't like you, stupid cat."

"If it weren't for the fact that I owe you for correcting me I would have made every riddle from now on impossibly difficult. Your reward for noticing that earlier mishap is that I shan't. And here I was considering giving you an actual reward if you didn't open that stupid mouth of yours. Boo-hoo loser!"

Ack

Ares posturing had bitten him in the ass and Aejaz was nearly crying over in the corner of the room. He was demoralised because the reward would have been proof of his correct guess! He could have fixed his awful record! He could have finally been right for once... But Ares went and ruined it!... Though, to be fair, the only reason Aejaz even would have gotten the reward in the first place was thanks to Ares' haggling... But he was still upset, damnit! Aejaz would be writing about this in his letter to Allie and Trixie and he would not stop until every last complaint and curse had been transcribed from brain to paper!

"Uh... Chin up... You can get the next one, maybe?" Ares ignored the sphinx for now and comforted his brother. He didn't expect that to work but Aejaz sprung up to his feet with a blazing fire in his eyes and unwavering determination emanating from his balled fist.

"I am doing every riddle from now on!"

"Oh fuck..." Ares regretted everything immensely... This was not going to be an easy journey at all... How many traps was this foolhardy brother of his going to set off?! And to top it all off this insufferable sphinx was going to be mouthing off the whole time... Actually, now that Ares thought about it.... What the hell was up with lions in this domain? Why were they all so bitchy? This sphinx reminded Ares of Leo! A bigger Leo who was going to be mocking him twenty-four seven during every stage... This Riddlemyd was going to be a right nightmare... And it was self inflicted too! If Ares had just kept his mouth shut none of this would have happened! Curses!