Chapter 450: Explosive Payback

Bang

Ares was blasted through a weak wall that turned into rubble as his body rolled through it. The stepper finally managed to bypass his defenses and land a hit on Ares' abdomen, sending him flying and leaving a nasty looking cut in his mid section. Steppers were proficient in poison, and this mutated one looked no different, but thankfully Ares' revenant regeneration meant he was pretty much immune and didn't have to be concerned about it. The stepper clearly hadn't bothered making its poison a more lethal tool than it already was and instead opted to hone its physical abilities to the utmost. This wound would have been somewhat of a problem otherwise but Ares could ignore it for the most part as is and it would heal up eventually. His movements hardly dulled and, if anything, he was happy to receive the blow if it meant getting launched closer to his goal, the black market square.

Ares raised himself up but was caught stuck on one knee as the stepper dashed behind him and swung two of its limbs down at his head. He valiantly raised his sword while twisting his body in response but was pushed down due to the sheer force of the attack as it severe enough to crack the floor underneath him. As he struggled to repel the two limbs, another two came darting at his head but he was in no position to escape so the best he could do was lean away and fall onto his back to let the attacks just barely trim his scalp. The stepper pushed its advantage and struck at Ares again, forcing him to block with his sword once more but now he was on the floor with nowhere left to go. When more limb struck out at Ares he grit his teeth and kicked upwards with his two feet to intercept the blows, leaving all his limbs occupied. This was a terrible situation but he was hanging on by a thread and looking for an opportunity as he still had some tricks up his sleeve the stepper didn't yet know of. Ares was forced to expose one such trick, however, when another limb extended form the stepper's torso looking to impale Ares between the eyes. This limb was sharp enough to glint under the moonlight but that shine was soon hidden from the world as Ares' Zephyr sprung into action and half of it wrapped around the limb, holding it in place. The other half of the Zephyr was like a razor ribbon of black death made manifest, snaking through the air as it looked to reap the stepper's life by decapitating one of its two heads... Although Ares didn't actually know if that would even kill it as it may very well still be able to function with just one.

The stepper had some more limbs at its disposal but it hadn't been expecting this treasure sneak attack, and wasn't ready to block, so it was forced to move back and give Ares room to get off the floor. Ares kicked his legs out and the soles of his feet planted firmly against the stepper's knees before then using them as a springboard to push himself away from danger by sliding backwards and backflipping to his feet. With barely any room to breathe, right as he landed, the stepper was once more on his case and had chased Ares down while showing more caution to the Zephyr this time as it was an unfamiliar weapon. It knew Ares wore it all the time but not the extent of its abilities so it didn't go overboard, opting to take a more cautious approach as it wasn't pressed for time. That being said, the stepper still used more than two limbs at a time now as it felt comfortable doing so after drawing out one of Ares' tricks and roughly understanding what it was working with. Four deadly limbs at once was more than enough to keep Ares on the backfoot so it swiped consecutively with them, sequentially bombarding Ares with no room to spare as he was run ragged blocking each one individually. By the time Ares reflected the fourth arm the first was already mid swing and looking to keep him locked in this cycle endlessly. The stepper was like a concentrated but feral animal as it swung its arms with brute force looking to overpower Ares. Sharp flicks left and right, carefully executed to perfection by Ares, swatted away the arms but never gave him much room to fight back so Ares incorporated dodges into his defensive as well to give him more breathing room at the cost of some extra risk. If he made a mistake he would pay for it dearly but the other alternative was allowing this to continue forever without ever managing to change the tide and that wasn't going to work for obvious reasons.

To make matters worse Ares was now moving away from the runic setup and he had to change the situation sooner rather than later. He concocted a plan and bided his time, willing to be pushed around a little more so that he could concentrate with Omniscience and look for a flaw in the stepper's assault to exploit. That was wishful thinking, however, as the stepper was not a pushover like anyone else Ares had fought before so such a thing never came. Ares realised he had to make his own luck here so he summoned his divine sense mid battle, which was typically a terrible idea unless absolutely necessary as it was a distraction most people couldn't afford, and repositioned it behind the stepper. Taking a few slashes to the arm was the tradeoff for accomplishing this, as Ares' swordsmanship became sloppy as soon as he summoned the divine sense, but he then made up for the loss by imbuing his divine sense with Echo. A pulse was sent out, originating behind the stepper who was struck by the surprise attack and forced to stumble forward. it didn't hurt but it was annoying and halted the flow of the fight. Though the stepper had yet to recover from its teetering it relocated one of its many limbs, shuffling it around his body to rest comfortably on his back and prevent such a thing from happening again. Once bitten twice shy. Ares didn't care, though, as he'd already removed his divine sense and gotten his plan underway so he didn't have to try and do something like that again regardless. He deflected one more errant strike from the stepper, that had already been in motion before it was ambushed by the Echo pulse, and dove headfirst around the side of the stepper. This was utterly suicidal and both combatants knew it. Ares had left himself completely unguarded doing this and there was no way his Echo ambush bought him the time he needed to make it past the stepper safely. Despite feeling like this was a trap, the stepper didn't retreat and lunged at Ares mid dive with five limbs ready and raring to rip him to shreds. Rather than show caution, it went all out in a bid to put Ares down as it felt this was a good opportunity.

"Hunker!" Ares tapped a rune on the Zephyr and, soon after, the entire treasure formed an impenetrable cocoon around him. This was a rune he seldom used but always got decent mileage out of it whenever he did and this time was no different. In the face of the domineering series of stepper slashes, that would have cut him into confetti had he not blocked, Ares' Zephyr simply bounced all the strikes away and remained in pristine condition with nary a scratch. Ares felt the pain, though, as that was the unavoidable downside of this rune. Borderline impregnable defence but he took damage regardless, that was the compensation. Still, he wasn't chunks of flesh and meat lying in a pool of his own blood right now so some pain was a worthwhile tradeoff if it meant getting past the stepper, with his life intact, and finding a way to make it to the runes he pre-emptively created earlier. Not that this was the end of his plan, though, as he still needed more. The stepper's attacks were reflected but that didn't mean the machine of murder that was this psychopath was going to stop giving chase just because of it. It still had the advantage here as Ares was forced to deactivate his Hunker rune at some point. The Hunker couldn't move under normal circumstances, and was only mobile this time because he leapt before activating it which gave it momentum, but once he landed on the floor he would become an immobile sitting duck. It was in Ares' best interest to deactivate Hunker as soon as possible, to give the stepper little room to set up its own ambush, so, unsurprisingly, the Zephyr began retracting almost instantaneously after its original purpose had been served. The stepper, in response, poured inestimable might into a single limb and went on the offensive yet again but the sight of Ares, who'd recently emerged from the cocoon, gave it pause as his clothes had changed...

"Furnace Bomb!" Ares Scaled Insulator lit up like a God summoning beacon, obliterating any trace of darkness wherever the warm light roamed and caressed the night. The temperature rose sharply and an ominous, fiery premonition burned its way into the stepper's brain but it was too late to back off now and so it decided to trade blow for blow rather than just taking the hit and getting nothing in return. The stepper had been fooled into launching an attack by Ares who equipped this treasure while still obscured by the Hunker. He'd set a landmine on himself and lured the stepper into living up to its namesake and stepping right towards its own demise.

ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

A dragon entity born of smouldering flames sprung forth, warping the air and bringing forth an orange tint to this otherwise greyish and dull world as it coiled around Ares. The air sizzled as the dragon curled up into a ball and began radiating dangerous levels of energy. A burnt smell crept into everyone's nose and the hairs on their head were alight before they could even blink, sending nearby spectators into a panic and forcing them to run for their lives. If this was simply the result of the dragon charging then it was impossible to tell how fierce the detonation was going to be. The stepper knew this was problematic but it had already made this mistake and wasn't too concerned. It would lose a pound of metaphorical flesh here but Ares wasn't going to get away Scot free either even if it was the last thing the stepper did and it was confident it could make this a terrible blow for blow trade for Ares if its aim was true.

CRACKLE

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

In a glorious display of burning brilliance the dragon erupted in a spectacle of glowing lights, becoming a pillar of sheer heat that enveloped both Ares and the stepper. Both disappeared among a sea of spewing flames with the last scene that was visible being that of the stepper piercing Ares' chest with one of its limbs. What happened after was impossible to tell, not that anyone watching could even see the stepper to begin with. As far as they were concerned, some random powerful cultivator was attacking thin air and going completely mad right now, ruining the black market and attracting the attention of the guards. The nearest patrol was already heading over to see what all this noise was about and no doubt the fire pillar was acting like a flare or a signal to every other patrol to come and investigate post haste. It was their duty to protect the peace and whatever this was, it wasn't peaceful. There was clear apprehension on the faces of these guards as they stormed though the streets and ran towards the altercation, though, because that one magic alone was more than they could really handle without calling in any of the bigger guns amongst their ranks. Unfortunately all such people were either off duty or elsewhere and would take a long while to arrive so it looked like this was a problem that was going to have to sort itself out.

Back at the scene of the crime, Ares was the first to stumble back into view by escaping the fire pillar. It was his own attack, after all, so he wasn't affected by it and, to him, it was more like standing in the eye of the firestorm. He was clutching his chest near the heart region, though, because that was where the stepper's strike landed with surgical precision. Though the stepper wouldn't know this, Ares' heart barrier, that he'd received from Enyo, had shattered and protected his life. He wouldn't be able to rely on it again this fight but it had done its job spectacularly, giving Ares ample room to do as he pleased without dying and he was home free to head over to the square now. The stepper was stuck in the raging inferno and wouldn't get out until it was done releasing its full force so Ares swallowed a healing pill and got to work on the next step of his plan. As for his injuries, the chest blow was relatively minor thanks to Enyo's barrier stopping it early so it was less of a concern than the injury he sustained to his abdomen a while back. His abdomen was already healing, though, thanks to his innate regeneration so he was essentially as good as new and ready to keep brawling with the stepper.

Ares' current analysis was that the stepper wasn't something he couldn't handle if he kept playing his cards right and leading it around by the nose. That being said, it was getting hard to keep up during direct confrontation and he might need to switch over to the scythe soon to make sure he didn't start falling behind in a way he couldn't overcome. Ares' technique and skill was better but he was lacking in speed and raw power comparatively. It's also not like the stepper was clumsy or anything so being marginally better, mastery over weapon wise, wasn't really good enough, hence the need to bring out the scythe. It was highly unlikely the stepper was familiar with such a weapon or how to deal with it appropriately and thus it would prove invaluable to Ares. All in all, Ares understood the rough level of the stepper and could sigh in relief... For now. He had a feeling things were not going to stay this 'easy' for long. Ares had tricks up his sleeve but so too, inevitably, did the stepper. None of this was even factoring in the shadow yet either so there was still plenty of trouble on the horizon to overcome. Ares held out his palm and summoned, from a nearby shadow, his Nyxian Prowler. He left it with Aejaz but it was a personal treasure and he could resummon it at any given moment no matter the distance. Admittedly, Ares nearly forgot about this function of personal treasures, as he'd almost never used it, but it was extremely helpful right now and he was glad that he remembered as he was going to need as many tools as he could get his hands on... Aejaz might be wondering where the the treasure disappeared to and he might be panicking right now trying to locate it... Or maybe he was just asleep and didn't even notice. Could be either or but, regardless, 'stealing' from a thief was certainly a funny thought. Ares shook his head as he couldn't afford to be distracted by such irrelevant trains of thought right now. The Furnace Bomb had done its job and was dying down. Ares needed to keep up the pressure against the stepper so he clutched the Prowler tight and chanted...

Meanwhile, the stepper had just flung an arm in a wide arc to wave aside the remaining fire still clinging to reality. Embers flickered their last sparkle around its visage and its eyes were somewhat reddened, indicating a smidge of anger at not having killed its target despite putting itself through the fiery ordeal precisely for that very reason. It didn't know what happened but, as it struck Ares' heart, a massive, unbreakable wall appeared in front of its limb and it felt like it was attacking an entire planet's worth of mass. Ares got away without suffering a major injury in the end while the stepper's body was burnt blacker than it initially was. Charcoal ash drifted off its body as some of the crooked fingers on its various limbs burnt to a crisp and faded away in the wind. Hook line and sinker, the stepper had bulldozed headfirst into the trap and paid the price but that was fine as, like most other monsters, it had some innate regenerative capabilities and would be good as new by the end the fight. it more so felt a tinge of shame if anything.

The stepper looked around and saw Ares dawdling towards it with one hand raised and a dagger held firmly in his grip as he looked to stab at its torso. This attack was far too slow to ever realistically work so, confused though the stepper was, it simply flicked a wrist and decapitated the strange 'Ares' in front of it. The severed body turned into particles of mana and floated away to become one with the atmosphere once more as two more 'Ares' appeared to the stepper's left and right. Before it could deal with them, though, another four 'Ares' appeared behind, in front, above, and below it in a reflection under the ground. The stepper, thanks to its shadow, knew this art well and even had a fondness for it given the despair it induced in weak willed cultivators who were surrounded with no escape in their final moments. 'Cult Killing'. Ares had used this art on Chen Prem a long time ago and it was finally seeing the light of day again here to bother the stepper. Not that the stepper was too fussed, however, as it began tearing thorough each of the clones one by one. They all rushed him down but only one even managed to barely scratch the stepper's body as it was simply too swift in brutalising the clones and ripping their heads off. The one successful clone was the one directly underneath the stepper but, after barely managing to make a noticeable dent in the monster's foot, it was stomped to death and shattered into many fragments. The stepper was trying to keep an eye out for the real Ares, as this art was usually best utilised as an ambush tool, but it soon felt a welling pool of mana forming behind it and so it spun around to confront the massive art Ares was charging. Instead of blending in with the clones, Ares sat aside and readied up a magical bombardment.

Though the stepper wasn't fearful, it did acknowledge the horror of the art it was staring down. Perish Wheel was no joke and the suffocating pressure of having one aimed directly at you was enough to give even a creature as powerful as the stepper a small fright. Its sharp edges alone were enough to tear through the stepper and kill it in one swift motion, let alone anything else that bundle of magical energy could do once it finally exploded. The stepper assumed it roughly understood Ares' prowess after a day of stalking him in the desert but only now that it was staring down the barrel of Ares' loaded gun did it realise how frightful a cultivator he could be. Winds whipped around his ruffled clothes and the air was sucked into a vortex, chasing after the spinning edges of the Wheel. A horrible, ear grating buzz that hummed an omen of death and destruction resounded throughout the slums and every living being within many miles could feel this thing's presence as Ares really put his back into this one. By the time the stepper could fully comprehend the degree of threat this magic boasted, and was able to find peace with the tingling sharp sensation tickling its neck, the art was already being throw straight at it. The only option that kept prevailing other the others, vying for dominance in its head to be seen and heard amongst the rowdy rabble, was to 'flee as fast and as far as it could' from that devastatingly powerful art. Unfortunately, however, Ares was not going to be so lenient as to permit escape. He'd been bullied for some time now and it was only right he got some payback at long last.

"Crystalised Void: Tricky Rink!" Blur vision with the Furnace Bomb, distract with the Cult Killing, launch the fully charged Perish Wheel, lock in place with the Rink. A flawless strategy, devised with purpose, and executed brilliantly by a confident Ares who was at the top of his game despite the repeated provocations he'd suffered. The effectiveness of the rink was all but set in stone not just because of how complex an art it was to decipher at a glance, what with the annihilation and disintegration traps hidden under the surface activating under certain conditions, but also because of the nature of the change in surface grip. Ares himself was a footwork genius, an unmatched prodigy of the ages, and during his first encounter with the dreaded substance known as 'ice' even he too took a mighty fall. Who did this stepper think it was to be any different or expect a better outcome? It had lived in a desert, and a desert city, all its life so the chances of it experiencing something like snow, let alone ice, was effectively impossible. It was not going to know or understand how to move on this Rink any time soon and certainly not before the Perish Wheel paid him a visit. To really solidify the fact the stepper was screwed, the disintegration tendrils would bust out of the ground and deeply wound it if it tried using magic to escape whereas the annihilation would trigger and thoroughly abuse it if it tried hopping around forcefully. It liked kicking off walls but Ares' Rink was layered over every surface around the stepper so it was getting hit by something here regardless of whatever it tried to do. Plus there was no way it could escape the Wheel's detonation radius in time given the rapid and unexpected shift in terrain it had never encountered before. The stepper might have had a better knack for bullying people outside of combat but in- combat bullying was Ares' wheelhouse and it was learning that the hard way. Ares had tricks up his sleeve that would be sure to allow him to run circles around this dumb monster no matter how fierce it was!

Ares watched on as the stepper clumsily stumbled across the ice with a resentful look in its eyes. The flat eyeball heads were becoming more red and agitated with every minor trip it suffered until, eventually, the inevitable happened and the Perish Wheel arrived before it. The stepper let out a defiant roar that burrowed into every living organism's brain before throwing its pride away, hitting the deck, and letting the Wheel barely sail above it. It had scrambled out of the way just in time, only suffering a minor injury and losing a part of one of its heads, but having to drop down to the floor was an insult it would not forget any time soon. Not that it was in the clear as of yet. It only avoided the initial impact but the Wheel was aimed such that it landed right behind the stepper and it still had to contend with what came next.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

The explosions created a vivid scene of boundless power but that was hardly the end of it as Ares had one more card to play.

"Detonate!" While the golden Perish Wheel pillar erupted forth, Ares overlayed explosions by detonating the rink as well to cause outright mayhem on a scale Xasca city had never seen before. Thanks to his anti-friendly fire mutation from Enyo he could spare lives but it was safe to say this part of the slums was getting a destructive make over tonight. The Rink cracked and an ominous black and gold light show signalled the end of days before finally unleashing its pent up magical energy in one fell swoop. Today was not a good day to be the stepper.

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