Chapter 408: A Thousand Battles, a Thousand Victories

BANG

The Anubis trying to swat the fly that was Aejaz, constantly buzzing around him and clinging to his legs like a slippery snake, attempted to deal a death blow to Aejaz' skull with his cane. In the end he missed completely, was way off target as he'd been thoroughly bamboozled by Aejaz' slick movements, and smacked his cane against the floor hard enough to leave a small crater in the immediate area. His miss was Ares' way in to the fight, though, and he capitalised off it by hurling a ranged Echo at the mecha-nubis' wrist, hitting it dead on and causing the cane to be flicked out of his grasp. It bounced off a wall nearby and spun in the air. Though the mecha-nubis reached their hand out to try and grab it back, the cane suddenly floated out of the way and snuck around him as though it had a mind of its own. The Anubis was extremely confused at the sight of this magic trick but quickly realised Ares was responsible as he directed the cane towards himself with his telekinesis. Ares was a tad concerned this Anubis fellow would act like an excited dog seeing a thrown stick and go chasing after the cane above all else but, thankfully, Aejaz was still on distraction duty so the Anubis was forced to turn around and deal with him again lest he get stabbed in the back of the head or had his throat slit. Honestly,that may have been a better outcome than what Ares was going to do to him, though, as this was gonna hurt! Ares pretended the cane in his hand was a baseball bat, channeled his inner Deimos, and swung for the fences at the Anubis' legs from behind. "Annihilation Echo!"

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

The mecha-nubis had his legs swept out from under him and he spiralled in the air, performing at least a 1080 degree spin vertically before crashing back down to the floor in the same spot on his back. His legs were twisted slightly, and seemed mostly non-functional as every bone within them had been turned to mush, as Ares flourished the cane and admired his handiwork with a smirk. It wasn't impossible for the Anubis to get up and keep brawling but it was going to take a considerable chunk of time for it to familiarise itself with its new, broken limbs. Ares was impressed that this thing didn't seem to feel pain of any kind but just because pain could be ignored that did not mean its bodily woes also could. The Anubis was dizzy and struggled to lift itself up, especially after losing the cane which would have helped massively, and could only really wriggle its upper body into a sitting position. It almost fell right back down because the world was doing flips and his head felt light but he managed to stay seated by leaning forward and grabbing its own long nose which helped it get a rough feel for the correct orientation of things around it by having a point of comparison. His view was getting wonky but so long as he focussed on the perfectly straight nose in his hands facing directly forward to a groove in the wall opposite he would know if his head was truly veering sideways, and needed to be adjusted, or if it was just trickery of sight.

The Anubis' legs were still refusing to play ball after Ares' homerun and this curveball had throw the Anubis for a loop because it could no longer attack his targets! Tom Tom gave him an order to do it but he literally couldn't right now and it was annoying because the order buzzing in his head couldn't be obeyed and silenced right now! Raow! Raow raow! The Anubis barked at its legs and tried twisting them back into place but, while it helped a little, it wasn't enough to get him up on his two feet again right away. He was making too much progress for Ares liking, despite not making much at all, so, instead of standing around and watching the Anubis progressively heal himself unimpeded, Ares was finally about to conduct his test! The rockets were arriving just behind the floored Anubis and the Anubis Ares had been dealing with earlier had also caught up to his brethren. In short, both Anubis were right next to each other and surrounded by multiple missiles which was truly perfect timing for Ares goals to finally be achievable in one fell swoop!

"Grand Annihilation!" Once more, Ares was aiming to blow up the rockets in a glorious blaze of golden annihilation and technological catastrophe merging into one spectacularly explosive disaster. Though the floored Anubis was still getting its bearings straight, the one that chased Ares over was capable of firing off a second white ring from its other ear to nullify the Grand Annihilation so, unsurprisingly, exactly as Ares hoped he would, the Anubis summoned the second white ring this fight from its ear with a sound wave as the origin. This was looking to be a repeat of what went down last time but Ares was more knowledgeable about this trick now and had seen it once which was enough for the gears in his head to turn until a viable solution presented itself.

"Crystalised Void: Wall!"

This was gonna be a fascinating interaction because it wasn't as simple as one would expect! Sure the white sound ring lost to physical walls but it also beat magic... So what would happen if it went up against a magic wall?! Though it seemed like a fifty fifty toss up Ares had done the maths in his head and calculated his way to a theoretical result he quite liked the thought of! He couldn't guarantee he'd be 100% correct here but he was pretty expectant nonetheless for this strategy because the reasoning was solid enough!

First of all, magical walls and walls raised by magic were two entirely different beasts for the purpose of this experiment. If someone with earth pillar mastery raised a wall form the earth then it wouldn't be generating earth with magic, it would simply be lifting that which already existed and it would serve as a normal, physical wall. The ring would lose in this case because there as no magic to nullify. This was not applicable to what Ares was doing, however, as he was raising a wall of crystalised void that did not naturally exist. He wasn't technically raising a wall, he was summoning one, to put it simply. In this case, the ring would actually probably both win and lose! The ring would lose all of its remaining energy and vanish when it got stuck in the wall but the magic wall would be nullified and crumble alongside the ring, leading to a tie. Ares' expectation here was that the ring and his crystalised void would destroy each other on contact but, and this was the kicker, the wall meant nothing! Ares' crystallised arts were like gift-wrapped explosives as the crystalised void contained disintegration and annihilation within it! The contained magic would be released when the wall was destroyed but the ring would also be gone, meaning the attack within the wall would be propelled forward with no ring to stop it!

All of this was in addition to the Grand Annihilation racing over so all the Anubis' ring really did was enable Ares to launch a second attack from point blank range that he normally wouldn't be able to. Ares would have had to Detonate the wall himself to get this effect, and his own Grand Annihilation would have been stopped by the wall had he not, but the ring acted as a pseudo Detonation method for the wall without obstructing or affecting the buried magic held within! Killing two birds with one stone, Ares could remove the ring from the equation and summon a second magic bombardment freely without paying mana for it or having to chant Detonate! It was no longer just going to be a Grand Annihilation and rocket cocktail; now there was also going to be disintegration tendrils and even more random explosions to cause even more chaos added onto to the pile. The Anubis would have been safer if it did literally nothing as Ares would have walled his own magic off with a faulty prediction but the Anubis' complacency, having assumed his defensive sound art was infallible, led to this world of hurt that was speeding towards him... Correction, them! The other Anubis was still glued to the floor and was also going to have to take this abuse on the chin. Ares had won his little experiment and gotten a two for one reward that would change the direction of this fight just like that. 

Both mecha-nubis were dragged unwillingly into the absolute mess that was the explosive hell raining down upon them and it was safe to say they weren't going to be appearing again for quite some time. Half the room became inaccessible and filled with pure gold and burnt orange explosions. Small fires drifted away from the scene of carnage but Ares and co were standing way too far back to have any drift onto their clothing. Ares whistled to himself in satisfaction while waiting for the remainder of the fight to start up again because it certainly wasn't done yet, Aejaz was shaking Ares' arm and begging him to take over his own fight even though he was doing fine as is, and the rest of the group were huddling as far away from the explosions as possible even though they clearly weren't in range of them at all. Basically five scaredy cats and a non-chalant Ares summed up the state of things right now o this side of the room. Still, despite his annoying whining, Ares agreed to Aejaz' request and promised to take on both Anubis at once provided the one ordered to attack Marcus' group didn't just keep ignoring him. Tom Tom ought to change the orders up a bit now that the Anubis were falling behind because of it so it was possible Aejaz would get to sit out the rest of the fight and hide in a corner somewhere like he so desperately wanted to. Naturally the same was true of Marcus' group and they could also follow in Aejaz' footsteps, taking a breather and staying away from the Anubis to let Ares deal with them.

Of course there was still a chance Tom Tom changed nothing about the orders he'd given but he'd already made it clear he was testing Ares more than anyone else and, so, if Ares could deal with one Anubis then Tom Tom would check how he fared against both simultaneously. It only made sense for things to progress in that direction and Tom Tom's inner game-master would demand he slowly ramp up the difficulty like that. Ares had only really floored one Anubis temporarily, and blown them both up a little, but it was apparent enough that he wasn't really struggling yet. He hadn't even been hit by anything and was playing around to figure out weaknesses rather than giving it all he had to fight for survival. That told Tom Tom what he needed to know. There was too much leeway and Ares' skill was higher than the level Tom Tom was currently testing for. The difficulty needed to be upped so Ares would be shocked if both Anubis weren't on his case, hounding him as it were, the second these explosives faded. It seemed like he was about to find out if his guess was accurate or complete hogwash because signs of life could be seen moving about within the golden haze maze.

The Anubis had been beaten black and blue by the explosions but they wouldn't die from this so the movement was likely them throwing up some kind of defensive measure. They'd already been hit by the worst of it but saving themselves from extra harm wasn't something that needed to be explained as standing around inside an explosive wave, for an extended period of time when it wasn't necessary, was just silly. Chances are the Anubis still holding onto his cane created a zone of wind around the both of them to push back against any lingering annihilation mana... Though the amount of movement indicated that more was happening in there and Ares could hazard a guess, based on their interactions prior, that they were probably fighting a bit... The Anubis Ares broke the legs of was blatantly a bit of a grouch and so he was getting some vengeance right about now on the careless canine Anubis that let Ares run amok freely.

A headlock?

If Ares Omniscience was divining their outlines correctly then that seemed to be what was happening in there. This did clue Ares in to the fact that the Anubis with the broken legs was standing again but that was to be expected. These monsters were not push overs that could be beaten with such a simple injury and Ares hadn't expected as such anyway. He was merely doing it to set up for his test and any real damage he inflicted was going to have to come from disintegration magic or sharp blades. It's not that nothing else he had was lethal enough, just that casting any bigger explosions within this Riddlemyd was going to be tough unless the rooms increased in size by a large, LARGE amount. A single Perish Wheel would be enough to fully obliterate every single inch of s[ace in this room at least three times over at minimum so Ares was technically constrained here too like the Anubis! They weren't the only ones struggling!.. Actually, Ares felt like giving Aejaz a headlock as well for his cowardice... Perhaps the bandit brothers and the Anubis associates shared a lot in common with one another...

Ares put that thought aside right now because his brain was needed for a more important task, fighting! The explosions finally settled down and revealed two scruffy dogs, one of which was gnawing at the other's tail, and Tom Tom had to intervene. He coughed aloud to himself and seemingly sent these two mutts their new orders so they stopped playing around with one another and immediately directed their full attention at Ares as was predicted. Ares had no room to breathe or fully take in everything that was happening as a result of this new order because multiple holograms were fired off at him one after another from the two Anubis working perfectly in tandem with one another. Their bickering belied their true power in a group as they were very capable of filling in for each other wherever a gap should have normally existed. The holograms were stacked in line perfectly to form a constant barrage of single attacks that were then replaced by another mirror image attempting to catch Ares out with another attack from a different angle.

Ares could dodge a few of these strikes but after every dodge he made his predicament only grew worse as the interval between attacks shortened and his options kept vanishing one by one. If he took a step to the side to avoid a strike he was now closer to a wall and couldn't really keep going in that direction. If he ducked, the next swing would be even lower, forcing him to crawl if he kept up his ducking manoeuvres. No matter what he did he was forced to pick between doubling down and doing it again to avoid the cascading attack pattern or risk taking a hit to reset his position and give himself more options. Plus his body could only perform so many moves before running out of humanly-feasible moves to make. He could only twist his arm so far before it would break if he went any further and yet attacks kept piling on in that specific location, whenever there was an opportunity, so Ares was constantly put between a rock and hard place from these holograms' simplistic but effective persistence. Ares couldn't advance past them because their numbers were incredible, and there was simply no room, but every step he retreated backwards didn't buy him much time either as he was advanced upon mercilessly. At this rate he'd never gain ground or get a chance to fight properly ever again!

A never ending cycle of dodges, deflects, and parries, with the scythe Ares brought back out, was tiring but also phenomenal practice. Ares had never had such a good practice opponent and he'd never been pushed this far when wielding the scythe before. Only a clone of himself could really fight back so this was actually a position he was happy to be in... But it didn't change the fact he needed to overcome it at some point before things got worse! As for what strategy could get him out of this mess... Magic was a good plan!.. But he kinda didn't want to...

Yes Ares could just run with Shift or Voidwalk, reorganise, and work his way in to a closer range with an overwhelming black, gold, and red magical assault... But that was lame! Was Ares really going to waste this golden opportunity to develop his skills with the scythe beyond what they were at currently? What else in Sheryashka could offer such a perfect scenario as this? Ares was learning there were plenty of monsters in Sheryashka that could match his might but, in terms of humanoid opposition that was good for testing weapon mastery on, his options were probably limited! Screw it! Scythe it is! 

And thus Ares' stubbornness reared its head and refused to budge even a single inch. Unless death was about to come pay Ares a cordial visit he wasn't going to touch any kind of magic that wasn't simple imbuement. Coating his weapon in disintegration to ease the strength deficit between him and the Anubis was acceptable, as was pressure enhancement, but any arts that could lift the pressure off? Nope! Not even Black Blossom was an option to Ares because it was too much of an enhancement to fall within the framework of 'normal, non-magical combat' for Ares. He was dead serious about improving his weapon mastery and he sort of had a valid point. If he had to resort to magic here and now then what about when he fought these two again next time? Or the time after that when they're true potential was unleashed in full? They would only get stronger each meeting and he would have stagnated by relying on the one tool capable of besting them! What if his magic stopped being effective later on? What then? Was he just going to be screwed? It was time to improve once more and Ares' new goal was to beat these two Anubis with nothing but his own abundant mastery. He'd not yet invented any arts for his scythe and that had been true for far too long now! If this fight was a complex combat riddle then Ares was going to de-scythe-r it!... Ares giggled to himself amidst the flurry of holograms because he quite liked that last dumb pun! Maybe he'd tell Tom Tom it after he was done here and get his thoughts on it. Tom Tom probably appreciated puns given his fondness for riddles... Nonetheless, it was time for jackal jackass jack-a-poos vs the jack of all trades jack-a-lad; round three!

Ares shook his head. He was getting distracted with random crap again! Bad Ares! Bad brain! He dodged a cane swing from a hologram by pivoting on his foot and this was where Ares decided to start his counter attack. First things first, he struck the disappearing hologram to find out what such a move could even accomplish. The hologram disappeared as soon as it sustained an injury which was good news because what Ares wanted to do next revolved around the holograms being beatable! He hadn't checked this before because the holograms disappeared on their own after launching an attack so individually dismantling each was a waste of time and a crazy idea! but Ares was at least a bit crazy so that was his new plan going forward! Sure the holograms disappeared after each attack but, if Ares struck them before they could attack, he would make them vanish without having to play by their rules and get forced into uncomfortable positions! This was a nightmarish task that required precision, ingenuity, speed, incredible reflexes and adaptability, and mastery that was dumbfoundingly impressive, because the number of holograms was enough to be considered a small scale army by the time Ares would be done, but that was what made it so thrilling! Tearing a path of bloodshed through multiple foes, striking them down inches before their blades struck his own flesh, and emerging victorious after a gruelling series of duel to the deaths. That was Ares' plan! Minus the flesh and bloodshed part, because these were holograms with no such features, but he wanted to blaze a path through these creations and assert dominance so thoroughly his exemplary talents couldn't be brought into question by any who witnessed it.

Two seconds. That was how long Ares permitted himself to stay focused on any one hologram as any more than that and he would be struck down by another assailing him from a blind spot he couldn't react to. He was going to have find a way to outmanoeuvre and defeat each and every foe within two seconds. This included dealing with the momentum from their run up, analysing their angle and method of attack, keeping an eye out for other holograms and long range attacks like the eye lasers, overcoming the opponent's attack and counter-attacking or pre-emptively dishing out a strike when it was possible to do so, and finally rinse and repeating this process ad nauseum for potentially an hour straight to make any progress. He was going to painstakingly gnaw his way through this constant stream of holograms one by one even if he had to raise hell and obliterate thousands. One step at a time he would forge a path of dissipating nano-particle corpses and reach his end destination like an unstoppable, triumphant warrior of legend! There would be no going back when he started this mission impossible so he readied his mind, readied his scythe, took a stand, and got down to business. This was going to be a long trial and everybody better buckle up for their own sake because Ares was on the warpath!