Hell on earth was the only correct way to describe the scenes of carnage taking place in the arena. Arrows rained down from the heavens and a thick, silver fog of disaster consisting of upwards of sixty bullets was gradually expanding. As the arrows pierced the fog, some were torn to shreds by the razor sharp ammunition bouncing around in the sphere of the death while others fell to the floor beside Venus who was slowly engulfed in the chaos. As she fired more bullets from her Unloading guns the size of the silver fog grew until it encompassed even Phobos. As the first volley of arrows were slowly annihilated another volley came tumbling into the mix and reignited the projectile war. The remnants of the first volley were still present so it seemed the swarm wasn''t capable of defeating the empowered arrow spam quick enough to completely nullify it, meaning it would be a matter how many arrows were allowed to pass through the fog and hit Venus. If they missed, or hit her barrier but didn''t break it, then she would remain safe and be able to break down Phobos with her bullets. If it all went wrong for her then she would be pierced to her chair and die a solemn death instead. The spectators couldn''t see anything within the fog. Not even the matriarchs or the four seasons who were all present but in hiding could pierce the silver mess down below. Only Ares, with his ridiculous Omniscience, could watch the havoc unfold in its entirety unimpeded.


    Arrows vs bullets. It was like watching two schools of fish fight for dominance in a murky lake with no clear winner. The arrows were stronger but the bullets more persistent and plentiful, never giving up even if their original strike couldn''t cause the arrow to falter. Venus being able to wield every bullet simultaneously and expertly direct them precisely where they needed to be, so that no two bullets were wasting time on the same target unnecessarily, was a phenomenal display of her weapon mastery. Alas, the shota was packing some incredible mastery of his own and it wasn''t surprising. Phobos was younger than Venus by a fair few years, otherwise she wouldn''t have been interested in him to being with, and yet his cultivation wasn''t far off hers. They both hovered around the peak of mental accumulation and it was hard to tell whether that was because Venus was lazy or because Major had seriously whipped Phobos into shape. Of course Phobos deserved a lot of credit as, at the end of the day, he was the one who did all the cultivating. He was prodigious which is why it was also unfortunate he didn''t have it in him to become something more. There were occasionally people like this, people who could cultivate extremely quickly and had respectable talent but just never went further in life. This was typically either because they didn''t actively pursue rarer opportunities than what they were initially offered, out of fear of the unknown risks that awaited them, or simply because they genuinely didn''t care about getting stronger. Phobos was a mix of both. Still, he''d evidently spent a lot of time holding onto that bow of his. It wasn''t even a treasure and yet he still got this much milage out of it...


    The first arrow to spook Venus, by dropping in next to her unannounced, landed a few inches away from her chair and was currently embedded into the ground. As this was the first arrow to reach this point it became a symbol of what was yet to come as another volley fell down into the silver fog and became entangled in the projectile mish mash. Somewhere in this nightmare of dangerous objects whizzing about quicker than the eye could see, Phobos was struggling to stay afloat as he very nearly kept drowning in the chaos. He was battered, scraped, pierced, and thrown around like a rag doll. His frequent casts of Stop All helped for a small window of time before the siege on his person resumed immediately after. To make matters worse, his Stop All also affected his own arrows so he was unintentionally lowering his own output by doing this but it was important. The volley would cease prematurely if he died and Venus wasn''t dead yet so that wasn''t an option. In the few moments he had to himself before being grazed by a haywire bullet he would take up his bow, aim carefully at Venus'' last known position, and fire his arrow straight and true. Venus not moving was a blessing as it meant Phobos didn''t need her to be directly visible to give her a hard time. She would be forced to redirect more of her bullets to deal with Phobos'' shots, thinning out her defence and potentially risking her own safety. Phobos could have just as easily shot his bow at the bullets surrounding him but, if he wasted his time fending them off instead of aggressing, the Arrow Storm would end. If Venus wasn''t dead, or about to be, by the time the art ended, Phobos would almost definitely lose. He needed his current strategy to pay off so he abandoned protection just to be even an ounce more of a nuisance to his opponent in the hope there would be some kind of slip up on her end. Despite the reaper''s scythe practically dangling around his neck, he remained stoic and steady in the face of danger and this was a new side to him he wasn''t even aware existed. He felt oddly comfortable, like he was capable of filtering out all the excess noise and buzz around him with ease. Only the bare minimum of his brain power was directed to avoiding the bullets but it was still enough to do its job, affording him considerable mental computing power to keep his aim perfect under what would normally be a stressful scenario.


    In regards to this brawl, what once looked like a forgone conclusion had now trended in the same direction as every other fight that had been happening down here in the dirt arena. Would Phobos come out of the cloud intact? Would Venus'' corpse be draped across her throne? Would they both perish at the hands of one another in tandem? It was hard to tell back when visibility had been at acceptable levels but, now that the fourth volley had descended, and Venus was wielding as many bullets as she possibly could, totalling around ninety, making a reasoned bet on the victor was impossible. Deduction was out the window as countless arrows were heard striking the ground around Venus, and some even clanging off the barrier around her, while small cries of pain came from Phobos occasionally in different parts of the silver fog. He was evidently moving around, jumping from one location to another, rolling through the gaps in the Unpredictabullet offensive, and diving to safe zones that had yet to be infected by bullet damage. So much of the nearby ground was scratched, grazed, and shredded and sooner or later the entire nearby area would be nothing more than a deeply scarred pit. Another bullet flew past Phobos and marked his cheek as he rose to his knee and fired off another shot. He nearly crumbled when a bullet pierced his abdomen but he remained strong and stood up to move to another position. He couldn''t hang around anywhere for too long otherwise his spot would be compromised and ground into dust by the lead onslaught, after which he would follow suit.


    Meanwhile Venus was starting to sweat. She''d already dropped a few bullets and was losing control of even more. The best she could manage was flinging the bullets she was failing to wield properly at Phobos one last time before she dropped them for good. Her own stash of ammunition was lowering while Phobos'' last volley had still yet to fire. The arrows sprawled around near her chair were abundant by now and her barrier was cracked in multiple places. The previous, fourth, volley was still being contested and a full on war between arrows and bullets was raging. If another volley was added into the mix Venus stood no chance and she was painfully aware of that. She was starting to get desperate, and could tell this was turning rapidly into a losing battle, so she firmly resolved herself to make one last ditch effort. She would continue to fend off the current volley but, the second the next one came in, she would forgo defensive measures entirely, just as Phobos had done, and direct all of her attention towards the shota. Keeping both him and her alive was no longer in the cards and Venus was finally forced to prioritise her family over her own interests. She wasn''t particularly social with any of them, typically tried to manipulate them into aiding her in her hunt for shotas, and didn''t hold them as dear as they held her... But family was still family at the end of the day. Although her depravity appeared limitless that wasn''t completely true. It''s not like Venus didn''t have a soft spot for the silly pooches in her family and, just as she knew they would never let her down, she knew she could never let them down... Even if the reason she was in this position to begin with was because of that treacherous rat Fate! That scamp needed a talking to...


    The moment of truth descended in tandem with the fifth, final, and largest volley of the Arrow Storm. The spectators watched with baited breath as the hundred or so arrows sunk into the silver fog and the screeching of clashing projectiles ramped up to an intensity that dwarfed everything prior. Arrows and bullets were sent flying out of the fog and were strewn across the floor around the rest of the arena. Even the other contestants were forced to occasionally dodge or swat away a stray projectile as the climax of this fight was starting to affect the others who were nearby. Deimos had to perform a wheelie to avoid getting his tire shot out while Verv behind him caught an incoming arrow between his teeth and held it there like a dog chewing on a bone. A camouflaged Fate was nearly struck by a bullet but H.I.JACK drifted in front of her to take the hit with its claw while Scar let the bullets assaulting him pathetically bounce off his rock solid body. Scar was so invested in Tyr he didn''t even flinch or blink at the paltry power of the bullets striking him, almost as though they were all mini Don Quixotes attacking a windmill. Tyr didn''t have to move to dodge any haphazard hazards as, luckily, everything seemed to sail right past him. This wasn''t an art or his treasures kicking in or anything, he was just in the right place at the right time... Which did admittedly lead some of the Legion members to deify him in their minds but that was neither here nor there. Divine intervention was definitely not the cause of this as Terros, Ares, and Mako were all just passively watching from the sides.


    Back by the origin of these runaway projectiles, the silver fog of swirling pandemonium was finally settling down. Small glimpses of the area within, that had been reduced to rubble and countless motionless arrows and bullets, could be seen through the gaps that were becoming wider and wider. Nobody cared about the inanimate, however, as they all had the same questions in their minds... Who was alive and who was dead? Technically a dead person was inanimate but that wasn''t the point! Pedantic semantics didn''t answer their question but, a few seconds later when the fog partially cleared near the southern side, they had at least half an answer. Phobos was alive, barely. Venus redirecting all her salvo straight towards him meant the end result was not a pretty one for him. He was riddled with holes and slumped down onto his knees after staggering out of the fog.


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    Phobos had to crawl over to the nearby wall and sit against it as he applied first aid with shaky hands. His hands were covered in blood and the rest of his body drenched in it. One of his eyes had been shot too and left for a gory sight but, thankfully for the more squeamish audience members, he soon patched that up with a cloth. Though it looked like he might still die at this rate, he too had some life saving treasures on him which he promptly guzzled down his throat. A red potion of sorts was the beverage of choice and, although a lot of it missed his mouth and splattered on his face thanks to his wobbling hands, it seemed to be highly effective. As far as the spectators could tell, it was a potion that blocked blood flow in open wounds which was quite something. It basically created thin red tubes to connect any damaged body parts, acting like temporary replacement veins. Blood loss was halted so, as long as you weren''t dying from organ failure, you wouldn''t die in the long run. Such a wondrous medicine was naturally rare but Rhea always stocked up her children before they went anywhere and this had been especially true when they originally departed for Sheryashka. The Legions being strong and famous meant people didn''t really pick fights with them so the treasures had mostly been saved  in their back pockets up until now. The Legions didn''t have much use for them outside this tournament so it wasn''t a surprise to see this many coming out of them, like candy out of a pinata. Hell even Pele would have used a couple life saving treasures and potions if she''d had time to react to Skyzo''s scam.


    Anyway, what this all meant was that the shota had survived. It wouldn''t take more than a single enemy combatant to finish him off, and people were already wondering if Fate would sneak over and do him in, but until anyone actually finished him off he was still technically in the arena, and thus in the fight!... His poor state did elicit many a sympathetic emotion from those in the crowd who still couldn''t help but see him as anything other than a helpless little boy though. Mothers and fathers throughout the crowd wanted to rush down, pick him up, and remove him from this dangerous place!


    In particular, Calla had to hold Rhea back. She had tears in her eyes and was sniffling as she kept trying to reach down over the railings. She wasn''t crying because Phobos was half dead though, she knew it was a Training Field simulation so, although it stung, that wasn''t the problem. She was happy! Enyo had been the biggest, or rather Major, problem up until recently but that had already been solved and resolved, raising Phobos from the number two problem child spot straight to numero uno. He was just sort of passive and quiet and, while that was definitely fine in some cases, the reason he was like this wasn''t natural. Phobos was someone who could have had at least a little pep and fight in him if he hadn''t been relentlessly bullied by his father so this moment was important for him! Rhea wanted to give him a hug but, for many many many reasons, that would be classified as intervention. A tournament for those who were all typically entering adulthood, as that was when their cultivation usually aligned with the requirements for entry, would definitely be made unfair if someone like Rhea stormed into the match. Even if she just removed Phobos and did nothing else her presence would be incredibly distracting for the Umbras and that was a no-go.


    Although Rhea storming into the match would result in disqualification, and it would therefore benefit Calla, the revenant matriarch didn''t want that to happen. It wasn''t the right way for things to end and not a single person from either clan would be happy with their potential win being either devalued or robbed depending on which side of the argument you were on. It''s not like Calla didn''t understand where Rhea was coming from though so, in order to calm the woman down, Cala made her some hot choco on the spot and promised to make some for the Legion kiddos too when they were done fighting. This generosity baffled the other matriarchs, Rhea included, and left them all speechless. Perhaps this had been her plan from the start or maybe Calla was just in happy to see Rhea happy. Either way it was too good of an offer to decline, or ruin by stubbornly jumping down into the arena , so Rhea sat back in her seat and calmed herself down. Afterall, this match, and also the fight between Phobos and Venus, wasn''t finished yet. What state the shota hunter was in hadn''t been determined properly so its not like things were over...


    Any questions everyone may have had about Venus'' state were put to rest when her languid body came into view. She was still atop her chair, and she was still ever unmoving, but it wasn''t because of her usual inclinations that she was so lazily slumped against the arm rest. She''d been run through with arrows in multiple locations including the stomach, the knee, both her arms, her neck, and most importantly of all, her heart. Like Phobos she wasn''t dead, but she was about to be. Her breathing wasn''t quickened intentionally but rather because it was repeatedly cut short and her breaths were stolen from her thanks to the arrow in the neck, partially piercing her throat as well. She couldn''t lift her hands properly so healing herself wasn''t really in the cards and the injury was too severe for a revenant with such poxy cultivation to shrug off. The hole in her heart was damning and the suffocation was an added bonus... And yet she still wasn''t dead yet. Much like how Skyzo used his last moments to finish off Pele, it seemed Venus was attempting the same. She couldn''t lift her hands but, while she was in her chair, she didn''t need to. The weapons, which had been pinned to the floor by arrows, broke free from their shackles and hovered above the chair. Their aim, unlike Phobos'' throughout the fight, was not steady as Venus was having a hard time maintaining her concentration in this asphyxiated state. Still, they did eventually manage to loosely point in the direction of Phobos and now the crowd was holding their breath as the jittery guns prepared to fire. The treasures had passively reloaded themselves so there was no doubt in everyone''s mind that a shot or two would end it all, leading to another draw. Venus hesitated for a brief moment, clearly reluctant to shoot the shota, but she eventually closed her eyes... And...


    BANG


    Venus'' eyes remained closed up until the moment she succumbed to her wounds and was resurrected outside the Training Field. She chuckled lightly before turning her head over to Fate, who was just underneath the platform Venus was currently standing on, and mouthed the words ''thank you'' to her sister. Venus had not pulled the trigger, Fate did. Fate had hoisted the problem of an enlightened Phobos onto Venus to begin with and she viewed it as unfair to make her sister unwillingly pull the trigger on a shota when she clearly didn''t want to. To that end, Fate did it instead and, like this, nobody lost. Venus didn''t have to betray her family and not kill the recovering Phobos nor did she have to bring herself to kill a shota. Although Venus'' entire spectrum of morality was stupid to Fate, extremely stupid, that didn''t mean she would force her to make a choice that would tear her up and cause her sleepless nights. Was it strange that this was the kind of scenario Venus would have actual nightmares about? Of course it was but, really, that was her prerogative and who was Fate to judge? Venus was her sister at the end of the day so helping her with her problems, no matter how stupid, was only natural.


    That was just how the revenants operated. So much so that both Verv and Scar were also secretly prepared to intervene had Fate not shown signs of doing so herself. Yes, Verv would have given up the talisman, and in turn the match, to help Venus. And yes, Scar would have lost the standoff with Tyr just to help Venus. The Umbras, and the revenants in general, always had a family first mentality. Blood was an inseparable bond, and an eternal one at that, for revenants. If there was anyone who was guaranteed to be by a revenant''s side for the rest of time, it was other revenants. This match did not matter more to any of the Umbras than maintaining good family cohesion. It was a shame that this was something the spectators wouldn''t ever really pick up on. They''d just seen Fate take the shot, but were likely thinking it stemmed from a lack of trust in her sister to finish the job, and there were many who were disgusted at Fate as a result. In many ways the Umbras were equally as morally ''just'' as the Legions but perception was a bitch. Family dynamics couldn''t be understood just by watching them play out first hand so a lot of revenants'' intentions went under the radar and left a bad impression in others. That was par the course really and revenants knew it so they kinda went to town and embodied what others thought of them. If people thought you were all slimy, disrespectful, unjust cretins then, hey, why not act like that and have some fun in the process? The revenant''s reputation amongst the wider world would never be fixed, that was assuredly true, so at that point there was zero reason not to actually enjoy the perks of being what others saw them as. Maybe it was lazy not to at least try and work on their reputation but, then again, it was lazy of others not to try and change their own perception as well. It''s not like anyone specifically was at fault for all of this, other than maybe those who started all the various rumours about Dominus specifically, but for the most part no one was really to blame. People believed fake stories, the revenants acted truthfully to them, and the cycle perpetuated and would continue to do so. Que sera, sera.


    As for how the match was panning out now that both Phobos and Venus had been removed from the premise... Well Tyr was sighing repeatedly to himself. This was his way of acknowledging that he had to make the next move here and lose the standoff. If he waited around and did nothing then Fate would probably EMP Deimos at some point and kick off a 2 vs 1 fight he couldn''t possibly hope to win. Fate would be willing to sacrifice herself and chuck H.I.JACK face first at Deimos to guarantee the win. Verv would utilise her sister''s selflessness to kill Deimos and then it would be another 2 vs 1 with Scar and Verv against him if he stood around here and refused to move. Plus if Skyzo and Pele came back the favour would shift even further towards the Umbras... Still, there was hope even now. They may have lost the battle on the combat front but that wasn''t the only option to win the war. Time. It was getting dangerously close to the two minute and thirty second mark and, if they could hold the talisman for that long... There was a way to win this yet! If Tyr could break through Scar and act as a bodyguard for Deimos, slowing everyone else down, then maybe a win could be earned yet. Tyr would have to go up against Scar directly, and probably Fate too to prevent her from annoying Deimos, but if it was what needed doing, he would do it fearlessly. So with his resolution firmly set, the remainder of how this match would play out was basically guaranteed to follow one of two paths. Either Tyr would accommodate Deimos'' retreat and they would win through time or, unfortunately, the Umbras would wipe them out down to the last member. Reputation wise, neither was great as it would reflect poorly on them either way for having been in such a disastrous situation but, if they could at least come out victorious, there would be a way to salvage this poor showing. As Tyr understood this all perfectly, like the natural born leader he was, his determination right now was soaring as he was ready and willing to put his pride and his life on the line. The spectators were about to get what they''d wanted from the start of the match. It was time for the captains to begin their fight to the death!