Resolving herself to help Palioxis with her stupid goal, Fate kept commanding the Overclocked H.I.JACK to assault the Scytheguards. it pushed aside the rear guard and threw it to the floor while drifting low over the ground to rush up to the front guard, preparing its jack to further embed its mark into the opponent. One or two more jack applications and that mark would complete, giving Fate control over the front guard for a considerable amount of time. How long exactly depended on a number of complicated factors including the cultivation of the treasure''s owner, the current state of the treasure, the power of the treasure, the compatibility of the treasure with Fate, etc... Even Fate was only loosely aware of the various elements that affected the outcome but, still, she had done this countless times already and could make a rough guess. Hijacking the front guard would give her access to it for about two and a half minutes total under optimal conditions. Now, in reality, it probably wouldn''t last that long as killing Palioxis would end the hijack and return the Scytheguards to her outside the Training Field. If this was real life then Fate would gain permanent control over the treasure but, as that wasn''t the case, it wasn''t how things would play out. Even if it did then Fate would simply return the treasures after the match anyway because she didn''t want the Scytheguards. Controlling one puppet was hard enough as is and, although she was very capable, she wasn''t as talented in controlling puppets as Palioxis and couldn''t handle more than one very well. She''d outperformed Pali in combat but not only was Pali holding back, her control wasn''t impeccable and if she tried to handle two, let alone three, she would inevitably fail without thousands of years of training. Different people had different specialties and Fate was way better as a scout / infiltrator than a front line puppeteer.


    H.I.JACK switched on its cloak, hid within the fog, and crept around the Scytheguards as it looked to deal the final blow. One more solid hit with the jack and the front guard would become property of Fate, thus all but dooming Pali. The rear guard was seemingly aware of this as it kept shuffling through the air in a protective spiral around its companion. This desperate bid to save the other guard was pointless though as H.I.JACK had already proven itself very capable of slithering past the rear guard to get what it wanted. The rattling of chains gave away H.I.JACK''s next avenue of attack but what was the rear guard supposed to do about it? The front guard wasn''t in a position to dodge with how weak it was right now but if the rear guard took the chain attack it might be even more disastrous in the long term. Getting chained and attacked, leaving both guards on the brink of death, only for H.I.JACK to steal away the front guard anyway, was a far worse outcome than just giving H.I.JACK what it wanted. Even though Pali was ordering the rear guard to retreat, it seemingly had reservations about abandoning the other guard. Maybe it was in its nature to care considering the history of the parts that it was created from? Clearly that bond was limited by the fact these weren''t the real dancers, just pale imitations, as it did eventually respond to Pali''s demands a short while later. It drifted backwards, out of the way of a chain lasso that nearly successfully caught it off guard from its flank, and watched on as the front guard was dragged towards H.I.JACK inside the fog. Clashing sounds rang out as the front guard presumably fought for its life, wildly waving its scythes around to combat the predator hunting it down. These clashes were rapid and fierce but died down bit by bit, indicating the grim fate that had befallen it.


    The rear guard raised its shield and blocked a set of spiralling chains that ambushed it from behind. If H.I.JACK was on the prowl once more it could only mean one thing... The rear guard felt a presence appear behind it and swung its torso around to block yet another surprise attack, this time from its own comrade. The rear guard''s shield blocked one of the scythes while its own scythe blocked the second but this left the rear guard completely exposed.


    CRACK


    H.I.JACK''s deadly screwdriver pierced the rear guard from behind as its claws gripped the poor puppet''s head. With its spinal area damaged, the front buckled under the weight of the scythes and left the rear guard open to being slashed across both its arms.


    THUNK


    With both its arms falling to the floor and rolling off into the fog, with the now-blue-eyed front guard prepared to slash it in half, and with H.I.JACK slowly crushing its skull... The rear guard was truly in an unwinnable scenario. The front guard raised its twin scythes and stretched its arm''s sideways so that the momentum of the slashes to come couldn''t possibly fail to devastate their target. Though the rear guard bucked wildly, the two scythes crashed down onto its body and severed it into two halves whilst H.I.JACK fully crushed its head into spare parts and chucked the metal clump onto the floor. A small data stream in the nearby fog flew inside the front guard, forcing it to obey H.I.JACK''S order to follow it over to its master''s side but, for some strange reason, the front guard refused this order and went somewhere else entirely. H.I.JACK was briefly stunned before it received some information from its puppeteer and decided to ignore the issue. If its master was ok with this situation, and seemed to understand why this was happening, then it didn''t need to raise any questions.


    Though H.I.JACK was highly intelligent, it knew all too well how cunning and conniving his master was. Fate was a clever child and could easily manipulate situations to her advantage in subtle ways so if she was aware of what was happening in this fog, but didn''t care and/or was responsible for it, then H.I.JACK assumed everything was under control and would sort itself out soon. H.I.JACK, as ordered remotely by Fate, cancelled the Overclock and a sigh-like sound emitted from its gas / plague mask. Evidently Overclocking made a mark and left its toll on H.I.JACK which was understandable given how much power it afforded the puppet. It could still function right now but was weakened much like the front guard. This would fix itself in a minute or two and he would return to his default state but, until then, it was best if he and Fate didn''t fight if they could avoid it. The usual strategy for these two would either be to hide amongst the fading fog or to remain cloaked until they were good to go again. H.I.JACK, after recovering, could immediately Overclock once more if it was deemed necessary so right now it would be wise to kill Palioxis and rest. Maybe Fate could annoy some of the other opponents by harassing them from afar with treasures but H.I.JACK would almost definitely be sitting things out temporarily. That''s not to say it couldn''t throw itself at enemies if push came to shove, just that it was highly ineffective to do so. The solace here though was that his recover period was about the same as the resurrection period of one minute for Skyzo and Pele, plus Pali when she died here. If things went on for that long then he would be ready and willing to fight hard yet again. Long drawn out fights weren''t H.I.JACK''s forte but some expert manoeuvring and decision making from Fate always alleviated that issue so he wasn''t worried.


    H.I.JACK cloaked and left the fog, sneaking up behind Pali who was still resolutely hunched behind her shield and various life saving treasures. H.I.JACK could probably hijack these treasures and then just kill the kid but he was being ordered to stand down for now and only attack at the precise moment Fate commanded him to. Something was very clearly going on here but, given that it involved Umbra and Legion relations that H.I.JACK wasn''t familiar with and didn''t rightly care about, it just minded its own business and eerily hung around Pali''s neck like a phantom. Fate kept side-eyeing a different fight happening nearby and was waiting for the perfect opportunity to enact this dumb plan of Pali''s and get it over and done with. The fact she allowed herself to be roped into this mess bummed her out and she was no doubt going to get an earful from a certain someone later... But whatever! She didn''t care! The sooner she got this over and done with, the sooner she could go back to fighting on her own terms!


    A small lull in the other fight Fate was keeping tabs on meant it was go time and so she enacted her operation to enable Palioxis'' silly fantasies. Fate commanded H.I.JACK to launch a slow attack with the chains such that Palioxis could react to it and dodge. She also asked H.I.JACK to ''chase'' after Palioxis, applying ''pressure'' to her as she ran up until the climax of this farce. H.I.JACK obliged and made sure to float a few feet back, so that its attack was react-able by the tiny human, before launching the chains lazily... And missing completely! Pali had dashed the second she heard the rattling and H.I.JACK was made to look a fool with how lenient he''d been against the brat. Turns out, the tiny troublemaker was also really nimble and so H.I.JACK put away its reservations and put some actual effort in to hounding her now that it had received reassurance she could handle it. H.I.JACK even mixed in some electrical dragon breath to make it all seem more realistic as he hunted her down.


    There was a limit to how believable these two children could make this ''fight'' look however, and some of the more prominent cultivators in the crowd were already speculating about potential match fixing, but for now everyone went along with the show. The spectators had no clue what was going on, and would only find out shortly, but Rhea was smacking her palm against her head and sighing out loud to anyone within earshot who was willing to pity her. Calla was nearby snickering and giggling away and Ares was just smiling wryly at this bizarre play the two brats were putting on. As Ares had dealt with Pali and Phobos before, he could see from a mile away what was happening here and he had nothing to say... It''s not like he was in a position to critique their family relation because... Well... Bellona was sitting right next to him and he strived to not be a hypocrite if he could avoid it... Unless he was messing with someone then all bets were off but, right now at least, he couldn''t fault what he was witnessing.


    Ares couldn''t.


    Bellona wouldn''t.


    Enyo, however? A small part of her was clearly not all too pleased with the chicanery going on here as her leg was shaking up and down as she tapped her armrest over and over. She may have had her own issues with the various Legion problems that plagued them but, unlike Bellona, she hadn''t completely given up on them. To that end, wanting her family to win and bolster their reputation, making things better optics wise at least, was something she hoped for. If Tyr won here, him overtaking his father in popularity and potentially usurping the Legion clan through legitimate means, leading it down a brighter path in the future, wasn''t a pipe dream. Enyo had little and ever dwindling interest in the clan and so the only other person respected enough by the Legions en masse to have the unofficial ''right'' to take command was Tyr. If he lost here it would hamper him going forward and potentially result in a situation were more direct methods for fixing the Legion clan were necessitated due to an unwillingness to serve under a ''loser''. Especially someone who lost to revenants on a public stage... Whether the revenants won or lost here really didn''t matter to them, and if everyone was being perfectly honest the team that won here was just going to get rolled over by Mako anyway, so Enyo wished for a home-team victory on this occasion. The harsh truth before her, however, was that it was looking more and more unlikely with every passing moment. Pele and Skyzo exiting the Field at the same time was not an equal loss on both sides. Pali sacrificing herself for this roundabout and manipulative plan of hers was also not helpful even if might result in another ''even'' loss for both the Legion and the Umbras. If Enyo was being truthful, Deimos wouldn''t beat Verv. Verv was a maniac, unpredictable, and just a general nuisance that couldn''t be properly put down in a five minute match. Plus Verv was just way better in terms of combat and it really wasn''t a contest. Overall, things were looking terribly tragic for team Legion...


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    Bellona, on the other hand, didn''t give a crap. She thought this was hilarious, actually. She spent more time looking at the depressed faces of the Legion elders and disciples who she bore deep seated grudges with than she did spectating the match for the most part. Also, technically, no matter which side won, she could claim her family were triumphant regardless! She''d been a little upset when Pele died, ''cos sister power and what not, but other than that she wasn''t opinionated on this match at all. She''d discarded the whole Legion thing a while back and, even if the clan were to be fixed tomorrow, she was just kinda done with it. There was still way too much lingering resentment between her and the other Legion families to just undo it all or try to play pretend and ''get along'' with each other. that would be awkward and not Bellona''s style in the first place. It''s not even that she herself couldn''t get over what everyone else had put her through, it''s just that she knew the Legion people who put her through it in the first place would eternally cling to this problem. It wasn''t even really their fault or anything, all cultivators were stubborn when it came to feuds as that was just how things worked. Bellona would face them head on and complain to their face but all they would do in return is feign acceptance of the matter being over while harbouring a grudge in secret. If anything this was incredibly problematic as her mere presence in the Legion hierarchy, inevitably near the top, would be a sour spot for people who would otherwise unconditionally support the new Legion administration when it came time to replace the old one. ''We''ve taken over and out first order of business is reinstating this person you all hate. Make sure to get along now!''... Yeah, no. Why this wouldn''t work out in the long run, and definitely not the short term either, didn''t really need to be explained. That didn''t mean Bellona was suddenly an Umbra from head to toe either though. She had familial ties but she was more personally interested in her Legion family that she grew up with. The Umbras were like weird and noisy neighbours you met every now and then growing up and Bellona was fairly distant from them in terms of connections. She was getting more and more used to them progressively as time passed but, really, when it came right down to it, the family she was picking from now on was Ares''. Enyo was also in this boat mostly because of, well, Ares. He''d fostered an environment that was perfect for them both and that was that. Neither Bellona or Enyo would choose the Umbras over Ares, absolutely not, and Legion was more of a nostalgia trip by this point than anything serious. Ares was the perfect middle ground in that sense.


    Speaking of the only clown in the clown car that hosted his expansive family, Ares also didn''t care who won this match. Yes he wasn''t a Legion clan member but, really, this match meant nothing. It''s not like the other three clans would feel emboldened to pester the Umbras in the future if these guys lost here because Ares existed! He was a very real threat that couldn''t be ignored. Taking drastic measures against the Umbras while he was still in this neck of the woods was foolish because inciting the wrath of the next God of destruction came with consequences that didn''t need to be elaborated on. So what was their plan exactly? Wait until Ares traverses the gap between the severed dimensions? By that point Ares would be strong enough to reign in all four clan simultaneously if he so desired. The only thing the other clans needed to concern themselves with was how to deal with Ares, that was it. This match wouldn''t make a blind bit of difference to their measures going forward in regards to warring with the Umbras.


    Ares was the roadblock.


    Now, openly, he was positioning himself as a third party that didn''t intervene directly but that was only because it was convenient to avoid being directly dragged into matters should he state he was working with the Umbras. It''s unlikely anyone would ever actually fall for the non-intervention excuse he was giving but, lest they wake the sleeping tiger, they had to refrain from involving him. Realistically, only drastic measures were a valid solution to a problem like Ares and his stance on the matter was nothing more than an attempt to delay whatever Major was inevitably going to do, or try and do, about him. By not taking a hard-line stance against the Legion right now it would take Major longer to convince everyone of the threat that Ares really was to their clan, and that they should ignore his literal heaven''s mandate, so they could put him down before he destroyed them. Not that Ares had any intention of destroying the clan but removing Major and demanding the clans tolerate one another was bound to cause a stir regardless. It''s not that he didn''t have any clear goals in mind, it''s just that saying them to ease the Legion''s tensions and actually doing it were another matter entirely.


    Ares knew that he, and probably Mako too, would get dragged into the whole Atria issue in the Dueuer domain and have to investigate what exactly happened with the revenants but that was his hope. He wanted to assure the clans that they didn''t need to fight anymore if he could just fix the original problem and get permission to reform the link between the domains... Now how he was going to do that precisely was beyond him. According to what limited information he had, Atria... Atria had done a real ''no no'' in terms of ruling over her citizens. It would be hard to erase the scars of such a tyrant, and he had no clue where to even start, but that was a problem for future Ares. Supposedly some members of the Umbras had some serious dirt on the whole event that brought everything everyone knew about it into question but it wasn''t really discussed openly. Ares would have to do some digging on his home planet to get any answers so he kept that in the back of his mind for now and just watched the match in front of him. Might as well enjoy the entertainment now while he can before things got busy on his end once more.


    Pali was running around, dodging H.I.JACK''s ''attempts'' on her life, and heading in a very specific direction... Towards Phobos! For most of the spectators, the assumption here was that she was seeking help from her already-struggling brother. As Pali drew ever closer, however, a certain puppet came crawling out of the woodworks, from within the dissipating fog from earlier, and started gunning for Phobos from his flank. The front guard that Fate had ordered H.I.JACK to effectively brainwash was being driven to attack Phobos when he least expected it. The poor guy was already having a bad time but combining Venus'' pestering with this sneak attack only exacerbated his issues ten fold. When Venus saw this, she was immediately displeased because she didn''t want her itty bitty boy toy to die! That wasn''t the point of any of this! She turned her attention to the Scytheguard and was fully prepared to put in some effort and riddle this thing with holes... But she paused before firing because she analysed the situation properly and could do naught but gnash her teeth in frustration. Her sister had sold her down the river for the enemy! Yes Venus could fire at the Scytheguard but Fate would block that with her treasures because its attack against Phobos needed to be ensured for Pali''s end of the plan to be successful. Venus couldn''t shoot at Pali either because H.I.JACK was oh-so conveniently trailing her from directly behind and blocking Venus''s view. In short, and there were definitely a lot of short people around here so that phrase was particularly fitting, Venus could not stop Fate from attacking Phobos nor could she stop Pali from making a hero play here and leaping in front of the attack! That was the brat''s goal! Venus'' plans of acting like a hero were being snatched away from her by the ultra competitive and incestuous Legion brat! Pali had watched with gritted teeth as Venus had her way with Phobos and drove him into a corner before having the bright idea to swoop in at the last possible moment and steal the glory! Plus it also served to fix the other issue of getting Phobos fired up because Pali throwing her life away to protect him would undoubtedly make him take this seriously, at which point Venus might actually wind up losing... Betrayal! Fate was betraying her!... Now granted there was this one time when Venus used Fate as human bait to attract young boys so she could pounce on them but that was in the past and a totally separate matter!


    Phobos heard the creaking of a faulty puppet and turned his head just in time to see the nearly-broken front guard raise a single scythe up high. His arrows were not notched, and his head wasn''t in the right space to react to this, so his dull reaction made him a sitting duck as the scythe came swinging towards his vulnerable heart.


    Splat


    Phobos'' eyes, which had been shut in anticipation of his life being reaped, slowly opened only to see Palioxis impaled in front of him. She used every ounce of acting ability she possessed to give him a gentle smile and stroke his face before heroically succumbing to her fatal wound and falling dead on the spot. The Scythe was retracted from her corpse and spun to the side, flicking her blood of the weapon and even splattering a bit of it on Phobos'' face, leaving him bewildered and confused. Though this situation wasn''t real, and although Palioxis was already respawning outside the Training Field, it didn''t'' change the fact that he''d just witnessed something that made his heart stop. It would take him a few seconds for his world to stop spinning, and a few more to come to terms with had just happened, not to mention even more to finally discover his determination to act but, when he finally did, a part of him that could currently be considered lacking was going to be fixed as a result of this interaction. It wasn''t that he would become totally fearless, such a thing was nigh impossible for most people, but just because he was fearful that didn''t mean being brave was contradictory or impossible in the face of fear. In fact, arguably, without fear there could be no bravery to begin with. And while Phobos had never shown anything of the sort prior to today, that was going to change shortly. The more fearful you were, the more potential for bravery you held within you and, right now, Phobos was understanding that Ares had been right all along. There was nothing a person should fear more than watching someone you loved die in front of you because you were too busy feeling sorry for yourself. So in this moment, in which the greatest fear he wasn''t yet truly aware of until now was happening right before his very eyes, it was only natural that a considerable well of bravery was being dipped into and the result of that was about to be made clear. Unfortunately for Venus, she was about to bear the brunt of it.