Chapter 542: Protection Racket in Action

Verdict?

"That's one huge ass mountain..." At the base of said huge ass mountain, Ares stood, mouth agape, as he stared up towards the peak. Or at least he attempted to but it wasn't even visible from the bottom so he could only take in the spiralling mountain above and around him. The mutated mountain was like a helix of mountains spouting off one another which left a hollow middle that would be the starting point of everyone's ascent. You could look around and see all manner of challenges awaiting you at every step of the journey and some curious tourists were using binoculars, and other such treasures to spot different habitats on the various mountains. Apparently there was even a school trip here as a teacher was handing out clipboards to bundled up children and asking them to note the differences between the mountains at different altitudes. It was too dangerous for them to attempt to climb the mountain without any cultivator guides but they'd probably take a trip to the second or third mountain at a later date with assistance from the locals.

The joining segment between mountains looked like a tumour, a growth that was highly unnatural and stretched the flesh of the mountain in grotesque ways resulting in conjoined dishevelment at the point of transfer between them. If mountains could have Siamese twins, this is probably what it would look like. The mountain growing out of the original source would be angled upwards and diagonally to form a sight that was reminiscent of the Jack and the beanstalk fairytale. The mountains shot up and into the clouds in a diagonal spiral but there was no golden goose to be found up there... Although maybe some giants might be lurking. Iciclops existed and they could get pretty big if left unchecked, by the Vikings tha inhabited the upper mountains, for multiple years on end. Of course there were also many other monster types worth keeping an eye out for. Apparently there was a giant shark buried in a frozen lake somewhere near the top of the mutated mountain that could still launch magic despite being inanimate and trapped under multiple layers of unbreakable ice. It was a relic of the past that was still lethal to even attempt to pass by today. Ares would have to figure out a way of remaining unscathed during his encounter with it because it was confirmed to be near the top of the mountain and pretty much un-skippable. The frozen lake it inhabited was at the connecting growth location between mountains and so it was a challenge that needed to be faced head on rather than avoided as there was no way around it. Still, if other people could do it then Ares would find a way too! Plus, for now, he was still at the bottom of the mutated mountain and things were pretty simple down here comparatively. Unless he ran into the Frozen Throne there weren't many enemies that could really give him run for his money and, even then, the Throne probably weren't expecting him to show up here and thus weren't well equipped to deal with him. They might have regulars stationed here but nothing out of the ordinary. Ares had already dealt with their border guards before and knew full well he could take their clan's dregs with both hands tied behind his back. If news of his arrival here spread then he might have to deal with the clan's heavy hitters later but it's not like Ares was going to try and make a lot of noise and draw attention to himself!... Well he would try not to anyway...

Ares took his first step onto the mountain and immediately he noticed a slight upwards curve, shifting the ground level underneath him as if it was a warning of the far steeper inclines he would find later in his journey to the peak. "Challenge accepted!" Ares grinned and trudged onward through the slanted snow in his Scaled Insulator. Originally he planned on sticking with the Brotherhood robes he donned but there was something else he hadn't considered back then that would be relevant going forward hence changing his mind at the last minute. He hadn't yet tested this 'plan' of his but he soon found a group of miniature ice fairies floating about that would make for excellent target practice. His goal was to use the Scaled Insulator to generate a heat haze around his body which he could then absorb using the Protection Racket. Fire mana was tricky to come by, and Ares was hardly capable of generating such a thing on a whim let alone in this frosty region, so the Scaled Insulator could fulfill that role nicely and allow Ares to shoot not only a fiery Garuda, but also normal fiery bullets. Now Ares wasn't some kind of elementalists, nor was he an expert in those sorts of pillars, but if there was one thing he knew, a tale as old as time itself, it was that fire beat ice. There were exceptions to everything, and there was definitely ice out there with strange properties that could maybe beat fire under strange conditions, but for the sake of not complicating things, fire beat ice. If there were ice imbued foes, foes born of ice such as ice golems, or even just monsters that used ice attacks regularly then Ares' flaming bullets would be highly effective in bringing the heat. That, combined with the new functionality and raw power of the weapon, meant Ares was looking to blast some little fairies and turn them into pixie dust. That was only half exaggerated too as fairies, from just about nay region, could be used in alchemy and getting Allie a souvenir was looking pretty easy right about now.

Four fairies hovered around aimlessly, chatting with one another in their own language and giggling like harmless, innocent spirits. Ares could understand them, however, and their conversations were anything buy jolly nor were they fooling him with appearances alone. Fairies like these were carnivorous monsters that joined together to partially freeze their targets to death. From there, while the dying cultivator was frostbitten and on death's door wishing it would all end, the fairies would eat their frosty flesh and drink the iced blood from their veins. Supposedly it didn't hurt but having to watch the whole process while still alive was probably not an ideal way to go and so it was undertakable that these little munching munchkins were generally detested by all. As for what the fairies were giggling about, apparently the last cultivator they ate was a bit of a lard ass and so they were feeling particularly well fed and energetic. They also devoured a guy they thought was 'pretty cute, especially when his arm was nibbled off as the look on his face was rather charming'. Though Ares was a cook himself he didn't much fancy listening in and overhearing tips for making preserved cultivators edible, one fairy amongst the group liked to pour hot sauce over the dying cultivator's chest and start there, so Ares figured now was as good a time as any to ambush these flying critters and lay the smackdown on them. Before the conversation could get anymore detailed and disturbing, Ares carefully aimed the Protection Racket and fired a single fire-imbued shot at the nearest fairy.

WhirBang

The first, and most obvious change brought about by Mimi's tempering of the artifact, was the short windup noise when firing the Racket. It was a downside that made ambushing like this harder as keen eared opposition would react to the noise and find an opportunity to defend themselves before they were struck. Of course these fairies were just common hand-cannon fodder, and weren't capable of such a thing, but experts would never fall pray to this in a million years as the initial whir was simply too much of a dead give away. Perhaps the normal bullets really were silent in comparison, and perhaps with this biting wind howling in everyone's ears Ares could have silently dispatched the fairies one by one if he tried, but the elemental shots were never going to serve that sort of purpose and it was better to accept that now and come to terms with it. The elemental shots didn't need to be capable of assassinating but it was still unfortunate as that was one less potential use case for the weapon to shine in. Nonetheless, this was merely the first change of many in the new Racket and it being a negative wasn't so bad when the positives were considered alongside it.

Before getting onto that, however, it was also worth mentioning that the recoil for the Racket was... Obscene. And even that, suggesting it was extremely unwieldy, was putting it highly lightly. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever to try and control the recoil of this hand cannon because it just wasn't manageable with Ares' meagre strength. Even after taking on the mythical fine grind and reconstructing his body from the ground up he couldn't keep up with the requirement to wield this thing without recoil affecting his aim on follow up shots. Ig he wanted a second go at an opponent with this gun he was going to have to wait a while and find another angle, that or transform into Garmr to control the damn weapon. Ares' arm had been straight prior to firing but it was now angled towards the sky as if he was haling a taxi up in heaven. Waving to angels up above was polite and all but it was hardly an effective combat strategy as they weren't going to come down and fight his battles for him so his arm had no business being up there. He also wasn't saluting a commander either so ideally Ares could find a way of toning down the recoil a bit lest he wanted to look like a fool every time he let a bullet fly. Maybe some pressure related shenanigans could do something about this mess but first and foremost Ares might as well focus on utilising nothingness to further adapt his pressure's capabilities. One discovery might just happen to lean into the other, or outright solve both issues at once, so worrying about the recoil for now was pointless and he could touch it up later.

Besides, there had to be some manner of drawback to using this weapon otherwise it would be far too powerful. Ares would feel a little guilty if the Racket didn't make a racket and there was no recoil to hinder him. Why? Well, the fairy he shot was a smouldering pile of twisted, burning, ugliness. It was melting to the point that even its fairy comrades wouldn't dare try to eat the carcass. Fairies weren't so picky they wouldn't touch their own kind but this particular corpse was runny and overcooked to the extremes. The bullet alone had pierced the fairy and warped its body around the injury like a black hole, dragging the organs inwards and dislocating bones and veins. The shot alone would have killed the fairy, especially if Ares didn't imbue an element as the shot would have been even more deadly in that case, but that was still just the beginning of the fairy's short lived torment as the fire spread soon after and engulfed everything into a small blazing inferno. Now the fairy merely resembled mushy roadkill at the centre of a pyre and its eyeballs had fallen out of their melted sockets, rolled around, and were gruesomely turning into puddles at the feet of the fairy's friends. Arguably, Ares had done something rather demonic here and he was maybe a practitioner of more frightful methods than the fairies even... It wasn't intentional! He knew this weapon was strong but to that extent?! It was news to him! With a scrunched face Ares flipped the weapon upside down and grimaced at the playful shade symbol etched onto the bottom... Apparently the word 'moderation' didn't exist in Mimi's dictionary...

The fight was on now, though, and Ares didn't have time to get stuck in his own head. The fairies, enraged at the sight of their fallen, and arguably tortured, companion, flew up high and banded together to take down the intruder. They joined hands, huffed, puffed, and blew an ice wind towards Ares that discoloured the air and made it stale and rigid thanks to the lingering frost that passed by. The air became visibly blue in the wake of this deathly wind as the surrounding temperature dropped to extreme levels. Ares could have just brushed this aside with many means, the Scaled Insulator alone meant he could probably withstand the icy wind like it was a chilly breeze and shrug it off without lifting a finger, but instead he took off running and slid under both the wind and the hovering fairies. He threw his back onto the floor, shot by like a speeding shadow gliding over the ice, and fired a well aimed shot directly upwards. His fiery mana bullet pierced a fairy from below, rocketing up their skirt and bisecting them in half as both sides of the flaming corpse fell apart in mid air and shattered in a bloody explosion. The sound of his shot resounded throughout the mountain once more and another life was reaped. One shot, one kill. There was no longer any doubt this thing was a menace to society as the Racket was well and truly capable of some serious devastation now. It was arguably, aside from the Primordial Blade, the most outright lethal weapon Ares owned. Even the Nyxian Prowler was preferable to being on the receiving end of this bad boy! Ares might even be able to start an avalanche if he fired this thing enough times in the right spot.

Ares swivelled low to the ground, spun around to face the fairies, and slid to a halt as he threw out his spare hand to direct pressure at the remaining foes. Both the flying pests were immediately crushed by gravity and flung onto the cold hard floor, to lay there amidst the blood and guts of their most recently deceased companion, as Ares steadied his wobbling arm and fired off another round.

WhirBang

The bell that tolls echoed a third time and another life was mercilessly claimed. The bullet rocketed through the fairy, dragging its dead body away for many metres like a flame racing across the ground. A trail of fire and chaos uprooted the ice on the floor and left a steaming, burnt, dredged up path of destruction in its wake at the end of which was a third pyre of flames. Ares had turned three of the fairies into makeshift bonfires and was lighting up this small section of the first mountain with torches made of monster flesh. The Racket might as well have been firing miniature suns from the perspective of the last fairy as that was what it felt like to be on the business end of this monstrous weapon. It hit like a freight train and the velocity of the bullets made it almost impossible to register when a bullet would connect in order to to even attempt to dodge.

Having slain all of the fairy's friends, Ares posed a significant threat to the last monster still alive who was aware that something it couldn't handle had showed up in its territory looking for a fight to the death. The fairy bolted towards a series of rime-tipped trees that formed a small white picturesque forest, aiming to hide somewhere within the vast foliage and outlast Ares' persistence. It was a good idea in theory, Ares would get bored of wasting his time searching for a needle in a haystack and just move on because this wasn't important to him, but he wasn't going to ever let it get to that stage to begin with as there was still more yet to test his new artifact. Ares aimed the Racket skyward and pulled the trigger with a chant. "Adaptive Shot."

Ares couldn't remember if this marked the first time he'd ever used Garuda with mana that wasn't his own. He might have summoned a watery Garuda on the Federation but couldn't remember for the life of him if such a thing happened. Either way, this was definitely the first time he'd done this elemental infusion with the new and improved Garuda and so it was spectacle with observing... Even if the bird itself was a smug bustard who deserved to get defeathered for his unruly attitude! Still, Garuda played along the last time Ares summoned him during his cultivation sessions, and did his job quietly and professionally, so currently the two were on acceptable terms with one another. Ares fed the bird, the bird, and his little crow minions, did the work they were supposed to without raising a fuss. Very businesslike and proper.

Anywho, Garuda didn't immediately appear from the blazing barrel of Ares' Protection Racket. Instead, a small waterfall of lava appeared directly in front of the fleeing fairy from which a lordly crow emerged with fire trickling down its burnt orange form. Lava showered its beak and dribbled across the ridges of its sharp wings while Garuda's cold and emotionless stare into the fairy's soul showed his mastery over adaptability. He'd definitely never controlled fire before and despite this being his first imbuement of this specific element he was at home with it, untouched by the rage of elemental wrath, and seemingly knew the ins and outs better than even some lifelong practitioners of flames. The fire obeyed him and curled around his imposing figure as though he were a king of hellfire, protected by the spirit of the element. The fairy was stopped dead in its tracks as its eyes met with Gurudas and, moments later, the fairy spontaneously combusted like a soul in the underworld. The fairy screamed at the top of its lungs and rolled around on the floor in desperation as Garuda's cold gaze pierced down at the insignificant creature from above. He'd combined his psychic element properties, from the feather that upgraded the Racket, with fire to drown the fairy mentally in a sea of flames. This was then reflected in reality and there was no longer anything the fairy could do to survive or overcome it. It failed the mental task Garuda imposed and therefore its fiery fate was sealed for all eternity. No matter how far it ran, no matter how may lakes it dipped into, no matter how much it basked in rain, this pervasive fire would cling to the fairy until it was ash and nothing more, only then granting it respite.

As Garuda's job here was done, he shot a resentful glance at Ares, for making him come out and deal with a monster as puny and weak as this, before disappearing and leaving ember-tipped feathers drifting in the wind. Meanwhile, the fairy was still screeching like a banshee so Ares decided to put it out of its misery. He activated Quietus and tested its new properties as well by utilising a trick he only found out about recently. After last night he spent a good deal of time testing everything new, and going over everything he could think of, while en-route to the mountain. In particular, there was one thing his Quietus could now do that was a real stand out ability. Ares pointed his golden glowing hand towards the burning fairy and, silently, a barrage of golden explosions rippled out from his hand and buried the monster in a tide of pure destructive energy. This was a grand annihilation but anyone listening in from the sidelines wouldn't recognise it as such due to a lack of chanting. Put simply, Ares' Quietus Edict now not only prevented silent chanting within its range but could also enable it for anyone Ares permitted, himself obviously included.

This was massive.

One With The Universe was a top ten art at least partially because it allowed the user to silently cast arts without being overheard. This was a function that gave Ares a lot of wriggle room regarding how to use his more high end arts without drawing as much attention to them in the middle of a fight. Of note, he could launch buried Shock Bead traps without having to chant anymore which raised their usability to the utmost. Announcing the activating of his Beady traps beforehand reduced their effectiveness by a fair amount but that was no longer relevant so long as he set them up inside a Quietus field. This was big news in Ares' world and it was still only really touching the surface of the improvements Quietus had undergone. AAAs were not minor upgrades. There was more to discover, and Ares would in due time, but he was excited to make use of all his new toys going forward and this would do for now. The early mountains during his ascent would be packed with plenty of weak monsters to try out whatever he wanted so taking advantage of that, and understanding Skip, Quietus, and the Racket better was in order. They were going to be a core part of combat in non-Garmr form going forward so it was best to integrate them with everything else ASAP. By the time he reached bloodline awakening Ares wanted to be, unquestionably, an inviolable existence that could determined the fate of Sheryashka with a wave of his hand. He wasn't going to stay here long term but that wasn't a valid reason not to run the show while he was still here and claim the befits that being an overlord brought. He wouldn't pilfer or exploit but he might nudge some extra resources into the hands of his sect coincidentally! And if he had to bully the C.O a bit to get those resources, and take advantage of the strategist of the round's ploys to get it done, then so be it. The C.O must have found it funny when they constantly took advantage of Ares' lenience but he was not a person to forgive easily and he definitely never forgot. He was merely biding his time and would rob them blind when they could no longer pose a threat or stop him. What goes around comes around.