Chapter 407: Problematic Ring

"How dare you!" Ares was offended down to his soul! He'd finally found out why he was being locked on to as the Anubis was firing a steady stream of rockets from the shoulder compartment. Pods of miniature rockets were firing from what appeared to be a limitless source of spatially stored ammunition but what really ticked Ares off was that he was the explosive guy! This damn mutt had no business making things go boom because that was ARES' job! This fight had just become explosive mutt vs explosive mutt and this mecha-nubis was about to learn the hard way that Ares was the real deal. He was copying Ares whole flow right now and that was not acceptable so Ares hopped backwards, ducked under a rocket that swerved into a nearby pillar and blasted it into pieces, and began strafing around the mecha-nubis while keeping an eye out for the tracking missiles. They were stubborn and determined but Ares, with his annihilation enhancement, could outpace them and lead them on a wild goose chase. They were powerful, undeniably, and very capable of hunting him but he was still a human and they were still mindless weapon at the end of the day. As such Ares was able to take the rockets on a journey and even force a few of them to collide into the other mecha-nubis, by batting them into the back of his head with a pressure deflect, who was distracted with the eternal cockroach that was Aejaz.

Ares didn't have much spare time to check how his brother's fight was going but it seemed like Aejaz was being Aejaz and avoiding every attack as though each would reap his life ten times over. Sure if he was hit in a bad spot that would technically be true but he'd have be extremely careless for such a thing to feasibly happen. Ares almost felt a little bad for the other Anubis because the ever stoic and wise face it usually displayed to the rest of the world was currently gritting its teeth and its eyes were twitching as it tried to hit the pest of a petty thief that Aejaz was. Getting hit by his friendly teammates rockets in the back of the head only served to agitate it even further and it looked like it was about to blow its top and go berserk any moment now out of sheer frustration.

That was Aejaz' problem to figure out, though, as Ares had his own concerns currently. The rockets were inevitably just going to be the start of the tech bombardment and so it was in his best interest to keep the fight up close and personal again so as to prevent the Anubis from having time to fire off its toys. The eye laser was something that Ares would have to keep an ironic eye out for regardless, because that seemed like something that could be activated instantly on a whim, but anything from the shoulders would take too long and give Ares too much leeway as the Anubis would need to keep its shoulders stationary. No moving shoulders meant no blocking and no blocking meant Ares would just cut its head off then and there meaning it was in his best interest not to stay far away from the Anubis anymore. Ares was going to have to willingly run back to the Anubis and stop playing his keep-away game that had been netting him some success with the scythe up until recently.

BOOM

A rocket nearly caught up with Ares so he flicked a ranged Echo behind him and detonated it prematurely in the middle of the room. This dealt with the immediate issue at hand but created a black smoke cloud that made tracking the other rockets a pain in the neck. Ares was still going to have to deal with those at some point, and preferably before he picked another fight with the Anubis, so he activated Voidwalk, slipped past the Anubis to position it between Ares and the rockets, and threw out a Grand Annihilation. The plan here was to deal with everything all at once in one swift motion. The rockets came barrelling out of the smoke cloud, and were ready to pivot around the Anubis to keep stalking Ares, but the oncoming explosion was going to detonate them right above their original summoner and cause him some serious headaches. This way Ares could blow up all the rockets and close the gap simultaneously by springing through thee explosion and attacking the disoriented Anubis. This was his plan and Ares saw success in his future!

...

Or so Ares thought but a sound wave from the mecha-nubis' ear created a white ring that slowly pulsed through the air and stared down the Grand Annihilation. Ares expected the Grand Annihilation to surge through the ring, demolish it, and charge forth unimpeded but the second it made contact his art froze in mid air and refused to budge anther inch. Another pulse of the ring caused the golden trail of explosions to crack and fall apart, turn into dust, and vanish in the wind... That ring was pretty incredible. Ares didn't know how often the Anubis could summon a ring like that but it was a real problem Ares was going to have to consider going forward as it was a powerful tool to cancel out projectiles. Even now it was still dawdling along and daring Ares to fire another art at it that it would gobble and spit on the floor in a broken pile of mana. The good news was that this ring could only block one direction at a time but the bad news was that it stayed around for a long time and refused to disappear on its own. That thing was going to keep plodding along until it hit a wall and dissipated, if Ares guess was accurate, as that made sense given its sound-based properties. Sound didn't exactly travel well through solid objects so the first one it hit would probably cancel it out provided it wasn't extremely thin...

Ah! Walls! I have those! Though the rockets were hunting Ares down again, he wasn't too fussed because he was going to go for round two with the exact same strategy! Even if Anubis could summon a second white ring, one for each ear made sense after all, Ares had a plan this time around and wanted to experiment with a potential avenue for victory or, at the very least, the ability to shut down the rings on demand! If he was going to fight these guys more than once, taking this opportunity to figure out their weaknesses was paramount as he wouldn't get a chance like this again. They were held back by limitations and Ares only had to deal with one currently so testing methods of beating their strongest tools was a good strategy so long as he wasn't struggling with the fight. The Anubis was playing its cards close to its chest and not firing everything at once so Ares wasn't feeling too pressured just yet. The nano scarabs, the eye laser, and a few other tricks, probably involving the cane, were all lying in wait but it's not like Ares didn't have his own backups too! In this case the first to throw everything out and get denied by a hidden ace up the sleeve would likely end up the loser so this was a slow back and forth, constantly checking one another, and Ares was very ok with that because he definitely had more tools in his arsenal currently! Maybe if the mecha-nubis wasn't so restricted would that line of thinking not be applicable but, as things stood, Ares would win out eventually due to a larger set of options available to him that meant the longer this fight went on the more his odds increased.

Unfortunately the Anubis was now keeping an eye out for Voidwalk shenanigans so Ares was going to have to come up with another way of positioning the monster in front of its own rockets. Essentially, Ares wanted to recreate the exact same scenario he'd just made zero progress in and doing as such was a little tricky... But maybe he could find another way of making this work that didn't involve this wizened-in-Ares-ways Anubis!

Ares flung himself around a pillar with incredible momentum. He leapt around it and his arm felt like it was going to tear as he gripped onto it for dear life but he did come away from the pillar at a ninety-degree angle, to his original run up, without losing any speed whatsoever and took off like a rocket. Speaking of rockets, the ones behind him very nearly all crashed into each other trying to veer in this new direction but only a couple detonated thanks to this manoeuvre so Ares still had a sizeable chunk chasing after him. Luring the rockets into each other wasn't his main goal, however, he was changing direction sharply because his goal was something else entirely! He wanted the other Anubis!

Raow? The Anubis Ares was dashing away from let out a short and confused yelp as it tilted its head and tried to figure out where its foe was going... Wooooooooo! The second it realised it informed its brethren with a howl and begun chasing after Ares because standing around like this was going to earn it an earful later. The other Anubis was more grouchy than he was and it already looked to be in a foul mood as is so letting his opponent run over and interfere was asking for reprimand when this was over and done with. He'd warned the Anubis successfully though so anything that came next wasn't his fault! Besides, Ares was still being chased by a rocket swarm and likely couldn't muster up a burst of power significant enough to cause issues while still distracted... Hopefully. The mecha-nubis had been a bit too passive and it had given Ares the freedom to do this so it was regretting its choice here a little. It was nice to turn the tables on Ares, who'd been running him ragged with the scythe a while back, so he'd basked in taking the advantage for a little too long without actually pushing it or doing anything meaningful with it. As such, though the situation was still under control, it let loose a laser from its eyes and added more threats into the mix for Ares to deal with as he was attempting his trickery.

Ares kissed his teeth and was now forced to dance along to the Anubis' tune. His 'peaceful' sprint away from the deadly rockets was now complicated significantly by this new addition and he was hopping around like a rabbit fleeing from a tiger to dodge the multiple lasers flying at him from behind. He never gave up on his course but he was forced to roll, dive, and slide past a light show of lasers that were each capable of leaving holes in these sturdy walls. If this kept up long enough people in other rooms were going to get hit by these lasers! Ares could do nothing but grin and bear it though and kept on charging at the Anubis who was stuck between a rock and a hard place. It wanted to deal with Ares but, every time it turned around, Aejaz would Spike it in the back or toss a Shock Bead in his direction and force him to acknowledge the lowly coward taking pot shots whenever it was most convenient to do so. If the Anubis was stuck on Aejaz forever, however, Ares would get free reign to do as he pleased behind him! If Ares couldn't use his own Anubis for the experiment he would use this one instead! That was his goal and so he ignored the other one entirely and kept up his mad dash. His own Anubis was gaining, and catching up to him, but Ares would make it to the Anubis in time at this rate so it was up to Aejaz' Anubis to solve this predicament himself.

Clack clack

The pincered Anubis tapped its cane against the floor twice and that action created a reality warping zone directly around him that, if Ares' heavy legs were anything to go by, increased the weight of all things within it... Or something to that effect, anyway, as the specifics weren't immediately clear. This sneaky magic would slow down Ares but it would also impede the rockets and lasers chasing after him so it evened out. The real issue here was that it gave the pincered Anubis plenty of time to reposition and move away so Ares couldn't let this happen. "Not Even Light." Ares palmed the floor and summoned a black hole along the ground that was oddly flat compared to the usual. Ares had smashed it directly against the floor so it almost looked 2d if viewed from directly above. It was still functional just a little weaker against anything that wasn't directly underneath or above it. In this case Ares had moulded it to be drastically better at dealing with the one thing he wanted to be rid of as soon as possible. The art the Anubis had cast was running through the ground and wasn't actually something that could cause fluctuations in gravity, that was fundamental pillar / Havanah territory, so Ares' approach here all but cancelled out the pull from below and returned everything to normal. As it turned out, it was wind pillar magic that blew from above, and aimed straight down at the core of the art below the ground, so just ridding the magic of its core caused the winds to return to their usual idle drifting and go back to normal. Ares had Omniscience to thank for this as he wouldn't have guessed correctly what the issue was without it, prolonging his immobile state and giving the Anubis a chance to flee safely. Who or what Ares had to thank for this triumph didn't really matter, however, as his charge resumed within seconds of it faltering and the Anubis kissed its teeth in response to this stubborn adversary.

Grrrrr. The Anubis growled at his teammate who was responsible for this situation but the other Anubis still wasn't caught up yet and could do nothing to calm down his companion or fix the situation. The Anubis between the bandit brothers commanded the scarabs to finally take action and pester Ares while the Anubis himself ran even more chemicals through his body and pumped it up even further. He was going all out and rampaging at Aejaz, swinging his cane with reckless abandon and even creating windblasts that were blowing chunks out of the nearby pillars even if they weren't hit directly. Marcus and co had been providing covering fire from behind the pillars so they were forced out of their hiding spots and had to retreat to the far end of the room to avoid getting attacked accidentally and indiscriminately. They were like ants compared to the people fighting right now and so had to take every possible precautionary measure to survive this encounter. Even still they valued their lives and understood they needed to keep helping if they wanted to raise their odds of keeping them.

Lilly was using basic fire magic, so as not to accidentally light Aejaz on fire with reckless wild magic, to smack the Anubis. Marcus was using a prayer bead treasure of some sort to enhance Aejaz, so long as he kept supplying it with mana and prayers form a language neither Ares or Aejaz knew, and was giving Aejaz a steady stream of mana to play around with as well as stamina. Bess was using support pillar magic to toughen Aejaz up, speed him up, and power him up and, though it was at a basic level across the board, it was still incredibly helpful. She seemed to use variety cultivation, meaning even when she wasn't the star of the show with aggressive magic she could co-operate and make herself plenty useful to anyone else on her team. Finally, the rogue was placing smaller traps here and there, mostly wires, and trying to distract the Anubis with petty, inconvenient, nonsense. The Anubis had almost gotten tangled on these wires multiple times, and even set off some poison dart traps here and there, so the rogue had been buying Aejaz a decent amount of time between small skirmishes to readjust himself. All of this combined allowed Aejaz to dance around the Anubis endlessly and keep its attention directed elsewhere so all Ares had to do was figure out what was up with the nano scarabs, overcome them while dodging his projectile pursuers - in the form of rockets - and all the lasers, and he was home free to bully this ganged up-on Anubis to his heart's content. The plan he'd been cooking up could finally be enacted and his testing would yield answers yet!

Ares didn't exactly have time to stop and smell the roses so the scarabs weren't going to get any special attention. If he slowed down to deal with them properly he would get run down by rockets and that was guaranteed to be a painful experience both physically and emotionally! Ares flat-out refused to get blown up! That was humiliating! Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the scarabs weren't dangerous in the sense they would injure him, at least as far as Ares could tell, so he ran right through them and simply hoped it was nothing serious! He had no idea what they could possibly be capable of and that meant only one thing was reasonably in store for him... A negative ailment! The only real question was which type of infliction was going to pester him? If Ares was lucky it would be a status he could toughen up and ignore but if he was unlucky it could seriously hamper him and his goals right now. He almost wished the scarabs just hurt as that would be far easier to accommodate for...

ZZZP

ZZZP

ZZZP

"Ow! Ow! Owowowowow!" As it turned out, the scarabs did still hurt anyway in addition to whatever they were doing! Ares was zapped to hell and back as static shocks assaulted his every nerve and caused him to tumble forward. His nerves were numbed and his flesh tenderised and burnt until his body was little more than barely controllable jelly. He felt his entire wobbly body cease to respond properly as an electric poison was blitzing every inch of his bloodstream and spreading like a plague until he was fully paralysed form head to toe. Was this actually poison or just electric shocks with some real punch to them?! Ares couldn't even tell because he'd not paid the scarabs any attention whatsoever, expecting their attacks to be simple as he bulldozed through their cloud haphazardly. If it was poison, his regeneration could take care of it shortly. If it was a bunch of high-voltage shocks then, again, his regeneration would take care of it but it would be a more substantial issue in the long run because he was less resistant to shocks than poison.

Ares checked his body where he was struck and found out that, actually, it was a mix of both! His zapped and burnt flesh left a foul odour and a dark greenish liquid at the point of impact so the correct answer here was that poison was literally being zapped into him. This was a tricky combination of fast acting shocks to immediately paralyse the target and slow acting poison to fully seal the deal and keep the person it infected on the floor for good. Ares' regeneration just about kept him stumbling forward and prevented him from falling over entirely but this was still terrible and the rockets were still on course after flying around the nano scarabs. He needed to speed back up but his legs were refusing to listen to him so it looked like blindly running forward without any defences wasn't going to cut it anymore. Thankfully there was an out here he'd been practicing with in his spare time so he equipped the Deep Blue and got to chanting his first ever water pillar art! Well, not including the Pelagic Prison but that was an art of the artisan of war aspect, because it belonged to the treasure and not the water pillar, so it didn't count!

"Aqua Anatomy!" Ares had been close to casting this during the Sandy fight but here and now inside the Riddlemyd would be its first debut! This was the trick Water Guy used to make himself invulnerable to Slick back during the trial to enter the sect but Ares had a slightly different use for it here. His body slowly morphed into a humanoid blob of water and, while it was an incredibly strange sensation, like his flesh was being melted and flushed away, it was also pleasant because something else was being flushed away too! The poison running through his body was diluted and promptly chucked out of him, leaving a minuscule amount of greenish substance on the floor behind him now that it couldn't cling to Ares' innards or blood anymore. Sure Ares had his regeneration, and his Converter, but if he really wanted to get rid of something troublesome that wasn't directly next to his heart then this was also a good option that even came with other benefits! Ares could freely remove foreign objects from himself as well as slip between cracks in walls, ignore broken bones or exhausted limbs (such as in this case where his legs were numb and hard to keep steady after the zapping), and be somewhat immune to physical attacks!

Ares' mastery over this art was admittedly poor, so he barely even visibly resembled his human form currently, he couldn't speak, and he wasn't 100% immune to attacks like Water Guy was, but this was still unquestionably a respectably powerful form in its current, pun intended, state. It more than did the job Ares wanted of it as he could roll his wave legs along the floor like a small tide, pushing him forward, and he wasn't slowed down by his shocked nerves anymore because they didn't even exist! All the remaining electricity circling through his body was fired off backwards and blasted the scarabs head on, sending them flying every which way like a horde of miniature snooker balls in a bouncy castle. Meanwhile Ares was free to return to his human form and former glory! He was in tip top condition after removing all the unwelcome intrusions and regenerating his legs from scratch as Aqua Anatomy effectively destroyed the body and rebuilt it every time it was used. Major damage and wounds wouldn't disappear but small things like numb nerves 100% would! Plus if Ares could improve his water pillar magic a bit then, actually, it would serve as a decent healing tool in some emergency situations. Aqua Anatomy combined with revenant regeneration seemed like a particularly effective mix that could ramp up his healing to a significant degree!

Ares was back in business, there was nothing left to stop him from creeping up on the Anubis, and it was experiment time! He had a theory about how to beat the white ring and it was high time he proved it correct!... Hopefully... This would have been a massive waste of time if it wasn't!