Why?
That was the question running through Phobos'' head right now. Why did this happen, exactly? Why was he in this specific situation here today? Why did things reach this point? Phobos ran through the entirety of this match up until now over and over again in his head and, no matter how he looked at it, the answer was always the same and he couldn''t come to any other conclusion. He was the problem. He was the dead weight, he was the weakling, he was the coward. He was the one losing miserably and needed saving, he was the baby on the team dragging everyone else down, he was the one making a mockery of the Legion name. Him him him. All him. No one else was to blame for this series of events... And he was technically right, just not for the reason he thought he was. The Pali ploy was a result of his anxiety fuelled failings but Phobos was still blissfully unaware of the ploy part. Really it didn''t even matter much because if he knew he would still place the blame squarely on himself for requiring the aid of others to set his mind straight. Long story short, there was no worming his way out of the fault resting on his shoulders with this one.
In some ways, the message he took from all of this was both the wrong and right one. Wrong because Pali wanted him to be crestfallen over her and have a new found appreciation for her, which was pointless because clearly his affection was already at max and couldn''t go any higher so that was pointless. Right because this was precisely the kick in the ass Phobos had needed not just to man up for the remainder of this match, no, this was what he needed to grow a pair for good. Of course he was still dismayed at having lost Pali, and in that moment he was mortified, but it had been a few seconds now and he was reminding himself on repeat she was still alive. He was thankful this had all just been a tournament with no real stakes and that he could breathe a sigh of relief in that regard. That''s not to say he didn''t appreciate Pali''s sacrifice... He just didn''t want it. He didn''t want any of his family to throw their lives away for him and it almost made him annoyed that Pali had done it at all. Was this a realisation of how much he cared? Yes... But he was likely going to be a bit mad at her later for this... But that was something they could sort out after because the match was still going on right now and there were more pressing matters. Three people were out now and Fate was MIA as she''d cloaked and gone to hide while she waited for H.I.JACK''s Overclock penalty to run out... Probably? There was a non zero chance she''d spring up with one of her treasures somewhere and cause problems but that was something nobody could predict and so it was better to deal with Fate on the fly if and when she did try anything.
What this meant is that, although the Umbras had a numbers advantage at this moment in time, all the fights currently happening were effectively still even. Deimos and Verv, Phobos and Venus, and Scar and Tyr... The latter of which wasn''t really much of a ''fight''... And actually, neither was Deimos vs Verv as they were still running around the edge of the arena and playing their unusual game of tag. Verv was like a wild dog chasing the postman''s van right now... He was catching up though and it looked like an actual duel was about to start any time now for them. But none of that mattered to Phobos! He had his own one vs one to sort out! He''d mucked it up so far but this new calmness sweeping through him like a measured gale would be the gateway to him succeeding against Venus. She still had a lot of power left in the trunk, and a few tricks up her sleeve, but Phobos himself was also only just getting started! So, once more, the ranged duel kicked off. The major difference being that it didn''t look like a creepy woman was bullying a helpless child anymore!
Phobos fired a single steady shot which brought Venus out of la la land where she was currently raging away at the fact that she''d been one upped by that brat Palioxis. Venus sighed to herself and fired a shot to knock the arrow off course but the bullet was the projectile that deviated on contact and the arrow remained true in its flight. Venus kissed her teeth and fired two more shots, fixing the problem as the first bullet caused the arrow to wobble with the second knocking it out of the air. Venus thought nothing of this change in competency though because firing one or two more shots per arrow really wasn''t a problem.
Twang
Twang
Twang
Twang
Twang
... And suddenly it became a problem! Phobos was rapid firing at a rate that put professional bowmen to shame and, while a gun could obviously keep up with this pace... A gun had limited ammo. Yes the bow could only shoot one arrow at a time but firing a follow up shot was a quicker process than reloading a gun and Venus would run out of bullets eventually. Yes her weapons reloaded automatically but its not like that was a process that happened instantly so it put Venus on the back foot and forced her to take this fight seriously for once. Things had been going wrong for her as of late, as the local kids had wizened up to her game and were usually trying to actively avoid her, so everything that was happening today was just the cherry on the cake, leaving Venus P.I.S.S.E.D.
Venus flourished her two guns, spinning them around her finger as she raised them up to eye height before pushing out her arms and aiming her weaponry at the oncoming train of arrows. She narrowed her gaze and took a sharp breath to facilitate her deadly precision before firing off exactly ten shots, five from each gun. Half of these ten bullets were directed towards the arrows while the others went sailing past them towards Phobos. Venus was done being polite and if she had to be a bit more aggressive with her prey in order to get it to calm down then she would damn well do it! No more children running away from her! As for the five bullets tackling the arrows, that might have seemed strange considering the earlier tussles in which a single bullet wasn''t enough to fell the arrows but this was where Venus'' magic came in. Her Unpredictabullet gave her control over all ten bullets and she was an excellent multi-tasker so, even though they were all split into different tasks, Venus'' supercomputer-like brain got down to business. Each bullet that hit an arrow, and was bounced off immediately, reversed direction in mid-air and hit the arrow again, this time from the side which caused them to wobble. These wobbles drove the arrows off their intended course, even causing a few to collide with one another and end the threat they posed to Venus. As for the five bullets heading towards Phobos, the kid managed to duck and dive away from them all only to be hounded down by them again, leading to a swarm of lead buzzing around him while Venus was preparing even more shots to come his way. If he just relied on shooting one arrow at a time there was no way he could keep up with Venus right now so he chanted an art to temporarily alleviate his current problem before he worked on evening out the playing field.
"Stop All."
Clatter
Clatter
All five of Venus'' bullets fell to the floor and rattled around while the woman in question kissed her teeth. Stop All was a notorious technical that culled the momentum of all non-magic based projectiles in a small area around the cultivator who casted it. Most, if not all, ranged weapon users learnt this art as it would do a good job of becoming the deciding factor in duels against other people with ranged weapons. It didn''t much matter if two snipers shot each other at the same time if one of them used Stop All in time to prevent their death. Of course it stopped more than just bullets and any and all projectiles were halted dead in their tracks by this no-go zone the art created for a split second. If a ninja threw a shuriken at you or a gadgetry expert threw a miniature bomb at you, that was all fair game to be denied. Even random trash and garbage could be stopped so a lot of high status politicians also learnt the art to prevent any untoward attacks from angry protesters. There was a limit to what could be stopped but that was mostly dependent on the velocity and size of the object as well as the cultivation of the person who threw it relative to the would-be victim. A lot of small calculations went into figuring out how effective the art would be and many a cultivator had guessed wrong only to meet their demise but that was to be expected.
Most people only relied on Stop All as a last resort and, if it didn''t work, it''s not like anything else would in that situation anyway. Plus experts with this technical practically never got it wrong as they dedicated a lot of time and effort to experimenting with the art to get a feel for its upper limits. The art was typically useful against attacks that were plentiful in quantity but weak in quality. Things like shotgun blasts, kicked up and subsequently scattered earth, or arrow volleys were all susceptible to being halted in their tracks by this art. It was ironic that gunmen and archers almost always learnt the art but absolutely detested fighting against it. Venus was kissing her teeth but the truth of the matter was that she also knew this art... In fact, the real reason she was kissing her teeth was mainly for two other, separate, reasons.
First of all, this Stop All seemed ridiculously powerful compared to a normal version of it. Venus knew why too, it was imbued with Echoes which aided the Stop All in defensive measures and could thus allow it to stop more powerful attacks than Phobos would typically be capable of dealing with. It was a clever place to shove an Echo, certainly, but this development reeked of Ares'' involvement! Venus knew he''d been occasionally interacting with the kid in his down time, helping him cook and what not, but clearly that wasn''t all he''d done! Or maybe it was and Phobos was just really smart, having worked all this out by his lonesome... Smart shota! The technical tome for Echoes was in the Heaven''s path''s library and having ties to Ares meant the Legions and Umbras were allowed in there at their own discretion basically, not that anyone would try and stop them considering their status anyway. It wasn''t inconcievable Phobos saw some elders practicing the art and figured it would be beneficial for his Stop All, leading him in his search to the library. He was right too as Venus could practically feel the resistance against her Unpredictabullets which was a first. Usually people who tried to use Stop All on her Unpredictabullets were met with failure after failure because her magic was just stronger than theirs. This was important because when Stop All worked it killed any and all momentum which was disastrous for Unpredictabullet and this was the second reason she was annoyed. All the latter art did was change a bullet''s direction, it didn''t increase or decrease velocity. If her Unpredictabullets ran out of gas, she couldn''t start them up again period. Venus could spin the bullets currently lying on the floor around in circles like the hand of a broken compass but what was the point of that exactly?! A neat parlour trick?!
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All in all, this situation was annoying. Venus was going to have to try even harder and desync the timing of her bullets so that a single Stop All wouldn''t take them all out in one fell swoop. It would no doubt give her a bit of a headache when this match was done as controlling that many bullets to begin with was hard and, when you started adding in fancy delays and separate timing for each shot, that problem only became a whole lot worse. The one solace here was that Calla would make her a hot choco after the match and that would fix the pain in her brain! Good ol'' fluffy mother with the perfect remedy at the perfect time. Though Venus was the least social of the siblings even she couldn''t help but respect her mother... The father not so much but he was a clown like Ares so that was a different matter. Still, Calla was deeply appreciated by all the Umbras and they wouldn''t hesitate to pick fights with anyone who disrespected her. Now whether that was necessary when Calla was more than capable of defending her own honour, and frequently did so, was another matter entirely...
The nullification of the each others'' projectiles meant Venus and Phobos had returned to a stalemate position with neither person possessing an advantage over the other. Despite Phobos'' enhanced Stop All Venus wasn''t really bothered as she was still holding back the full extent of her power. A part of her was still desperately clinging to the original plan, and she was convinced it could work, so she was reluctant to put the cute shota six feet under. She didn''t want to lose Phobos to that damn Legion brat! Yes she''d played with a lot of other toys, and dumped them after when they got older, but she was actually invested in this one! He wasn''t going to slip through her grasp if she had any say in the matter!
"Triple Up. Double Down."
Phobos casted two different arts back to back and Venus winced. Apparently Phobos was a bigger catch than she''d given him credit for... Triple Up was an art of the bow aspect, under the weapons pillar, that enabled the user to fire three shots at a time provided they had the expertise required to pull it off. More specifically, as Phobos drew back his bow, two more arrows would automatically appear already notched on either side of the original arrow. being able to withstand the physical pushback of this art, as well as actually aim the bucking bow, was where the difficulty of this art came in. It was incredibly powerful but also a real problem child of an art, almost like a horse that didn''t quite like its rider. This was an art you had to earn the respect of before you could use it properly even if you had an affinity for the aspect. Although the three arrows were separate entities, they were actually packed so close together it was generally a better idea to treat this art as though it was tripling the impact of a single arrow. This was troublesome for Venus, who relied on her ability to knock arrows off course, as the amount of bullets it would take to dislodge the other arrows before ultimately swatting all three aside was significant. Then there were two other issues. The first of which was how quickly could Phobos fire in this state? If the recoil prevented him from firing again for a few seconds then Venus could sort of breathe a sigh of relief... If he could chuck triple shot after triple shot though... This fight was going to get ugly, fast. As for the second issue, and this was the big one, the second art Phobos cast, ''Double Down'', doubled the impact of every arrow fired while it was active... Overall, each arrow this kid fired now basically came loaded with six times its original power... Triple Down Double Up was an infamous combo for a reason. The skill needed to handle these two arts in sync with one another was monstrous but, provided you could do it, you essentially immediately became considered a top bowman on the spot. You could guarantee your place in a hall of fame just by being able to do this... Phobos had displayed many sides to him so far but Venus was just now understanding that, actually, beneath it all... He was a talented shota. she''d underestimated the wimpy kid and she was being pushed hard.
Phobos wasn''t the greatest bowman to ever live though so its not like Venus had yet purchased a one-way ticket to Loserville. In comparison to the greats Phobos was still lacking and there were many faults in his shooting that needed correcting before he could hit the big leagues. Hell there was even a third art that could be added to the Triple Up and Double Down combo called Quadruple Convergence... Ok maybe that was pushing it. Throughout all of history there was only ever one person who''d been capable of simultaneously casting all three and, even then, she''d only fired off a single shot before twisting her wrist and swearing never to do it again. Asking Phobos to go that far in his cultivation journey was just plain unfair and he wasn''t that kind of cultivator. He would cultivate to protect his loved ones from now on but he didn''t want to be a God or an exemplar or anything, he just wanted to cook for his family. Rather, there was someone else in this world that would go on to accomplish this feat instead. Someone who''s talent with ranged weapons and artillery theory was incomparable to anyone else, putting them in a league of her own. Ares, or rather the pagoda clone, would meet this person eventually and their interactions would be... Odd, to put it lightly. After all, it''s not everyday you opt to train someone who wants you dead but Ares was Ares so it might not actually be that surprising. Still, telling an assassin all the details you possibly can about yourself to make their life easier isn''t exactly normal. Maybe something compelled him to? Well when it happened the answer to that question would reveal itself but non of that mattered right now. Right now, Venus was unleashing her own arts and treasures to combat the resilient shota. She wanted to come out on top... On top of the shota! Ride the shota! Venus resembled Enyo in this moment as the degenerate panting was almost a one for one image and all Ares could do here was smile wryly and try his best to ignore this bizarre scene.
Down in the arena, Venus had brought out her personal treasure, the Aristocrat''s Finest. This treasure was an oxblood red, high wing chair made of leather. Venus slumped back into her throne and tilted her head ever so slightly to the side as she reaped the benefits her treasure passively provided her. Her mind was soothed, reducing the pain she felt when using Unpredictabullet, her mental resilience increased which could prevent mental attacks but also allowed her to simultaneously control more bullets, and she could remotely control her guns. The Lock ''N'' Loads were now hovering around her seat and could either be put in a sort of tower defence mode wherein they shot everything that approached with hostility, or be directly controlled by Venus. The upside to this was that it compensated for her lack of mobility while in the seat. She could have one gun fly around to the right of Phobos, and the other his left, and spray him down in the middle. She could also keep one gun on her person for defence while the other snuck around to do her bidding from a different location.
The chair also increased the fire rate and general power of any weapons controlled remotely so the level of danger she posed increased by a large amount when on this chair. Venus rarely moved about during a fight anyway so this was a strict upgrade for her 9 times out of 10. Also, to really hammer home how much of a useful tool it was to someone like Venus, the treasure could summon a barrier. It was but a single barrier, and not the strongest thing ever, but it did exist and could delay Venus'' opponent long enough to put them down before they broke through it. On this chair Venus became a do or die machine that massively boosted herself but made her a sitting duck. She either won quickly or lost quickly, there was no in-between. Add the increased number of bullets Unpredictabullet could now control to the various arts she casted in this chair and you had the true Venus. The woman in the Umbra clan who had the highest threat level of all the siblings at any given moment in time excluding Skyzo chicanery. She had a limited window to get all this carnage out of her system but during this time she became, what those in the simulated planet in Vraizon might call, a bullet hell boss. Actually all the Umbras could be described in such terms. Venus was the bullet hell boss. Skyzo was the gimmick boss. Fate was the boss with a summon that ''ganked'' you. Verv was the berserker boss that just never stopped attacking. And Scar was the final boss who was just all-around strong and a pain to beat... Then there was Ares who was like the super secret optional boss hiding in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere that whooped your ass when you finally found him and kept doing so for hours on end. Actually, although this was the most logical ''boss type'' to assign to Ares, when he eventually ended up visiting this planet, his revenant form would earn him the title of ''raid boss''. It might have sounded like a title that earned him respect but all it really did was paint a massive target on his back with players that wanted either loot or EXP.
The fight that was happening in the arena wasn''t a game though. It was a tournament match that both Venus and Phobos wanted to win and so this duel was reaching its climax as both sides threw everything they had at one another.
"Arrow Storm."
"Unload."
Both Phobos and Venus launched arts that would cause mass disarray simultaneously and the fight was about to become a shit show that was hard to follow from a spectator''s POV up in the crowds. Arrow Storm was an art that fired five volleys of arrows in a row with a two second gap between each of them. It was a powerful art and the number of arrows per volley, volleys in total, and the duration of the gap between volleys could all be improved by raising a person''s cultivation. The real crème de la crème was that it took on any bonuses other arts gave, including Triple Down and Double Up. This was the bow aspect art that won fights and could be used as a finisher so Phobos was clearly not beating around the bush any longer. He wanted to go all in and end things here if he could.
Meanwhile, Venus chose to use Unload. Seeing as how she only had two weapons on her person this might have seemed strange but the real benefit here was the unlimited ammo, not the fire rate. Venus could control more than ten bullets at once while sitting atop her treasure but her weapons couldn''t hold more than five shots each. Temporarily unlimited ammo fixed that issue and allowed her to summon more than seventy controllable bullets at any given time. When Unload ended she would have no weapons left at her disposal and just a flimsy barrier to ''protect'' her so, like Phobos, it seemed she wanted this fight to end in a single clash. No long, drawn out push and pull fight was going to take place here, it was just going to be a clusterfuck of projectiles in which skill meant little. Both cultivators could attempt to sway the outcome but, really, now that the die had been cast, it could really go either way. The actions of Phobos and Venus would maybe affect their chances of winning by, give or take, 1% per action and, at this point, that might actually matter so they prepared themselves to adjust however they could in the upcoming madness they themselves were responsible for. The end of this fight would be determined in a matter of seconds.