Back down in the arena...
BANG
One of the coliseum walls, over by one of the hallways leading into the arena, was bust open and debris was sent scattering every which way. The spectators, who''d been craning their necks upward earlier to spectate the tree duel, were taken by surprise and looked like a bunch of bobbleheads the way they kept trying o shift their view upwards and downwards. There was going to be a sky-high fight and a low to the ground battle so skipping between would inevitably make the crowd look a bit dumb but, really, who cared about that right now? If there was anyone busy laughing to themselves about the way the crowd looked instead of watching the fights unfold then they were the ones missing out big time!
As for who came barrelling through the dust cloud by the shattered wall, Theodore, with his arms crossed behind his back, came striding in atop a cannon. The cannon had wheels on the bottom and had rolled into the arena carrying its master atop its back. Theodore brought one hand to his face and twirled the edge of his moustache as he glanced around the coliseum to search for Asha who was hiding out somewhere. This was not his first rodeo against this woman and he knew it was wise to take this fight slower, picking out various locations and clearing them one by one to narrow down her possible hiding spots. Theodore was known for having incredible divine sense that could outrange even a telescope depending on the circumstances so peeking around in the snowstorm, while it would certainly take a while, was not an impossible task. He wasn''t going to leave himself defenceless, because he predicted the Sgnolldiers to start attacking him en masse soon, so he summoned his twin belt fed machineguns on either side of the cannon in preparation for the inevitable. As he sifted through the third layer of the coliseum he occasionally caught sight of some of the Sgnolldiers that were running towards him under the cover of the white blanket. They were pretty ugly creatures with wicked grins plastered on their dumb face that wore various furs to keep their bodies warm despite already having a coating of fur themselves. This was mostly because Asha''s ice magic could make things get real frosty and so this just helped them perform at max efficiency at all times... Almost all times, anyway, in hotter climate it would be pretty terrible so they either had to take the fur clothes off or rely on Asha to keep them cool. Clearly, thanks to their manic appearance, there wasn''t a single shred of intelligence to be found in these animals so Theodore had no hesitation when he ordered his machine guns to start mowing them down. If there were civilians nearby he held back from firing but the Sgnolldiers that were starting to come out in the open were like fish in a barrel.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
The two guns revved up and started sending countless rounds down range, tearing some of the Sgnolldiers into pieces. Whether the monsters were unfazed by watching their brethren get mowed down was a result of their low intelligence, or they simply didn''t care because they were formulated by magic, could very well go either way but they resolutely pushed on with spears in hand. Some even got down on all fours to spring towards their target quicker, a sight that disgusted Theodore and prompted him to fire the cannon underneath him at the manner-less cretins. He kissed his teeth in scorn and tapped the cannon with his cane, setting it off.
BANG
A single explosive cannonball took out a handful of the Sgnolldiers, blasting them into chunks of fur that faded into the wind. Even though there were some Sgnolldiers closer to his position, Theodore focussed on the disgusting animals that were down all fours making his stomach churn. He had other means at his disposal to deal with the closer gnolls anyhow. He could always beat them to death with his trusty cane so all his immediate firepower was directed at whatever happened to be bothering him in the moment. Anyone in the crowd with good enough hearing would have even heard him mutter the words ''Learn some manners you dullard freaks.'' under his breath with a lofty sort of arrogance. The sneer on his face said it all though and made his disdainful attitude regarding these gnolls entirely apparent to anyone and everyone. These weren''t creatures he would skin and hang on his wall back home and he was usually pretty liberal with what he stuck up there. It was mostly whatever took his fancy in the moment but dead revenants were a common sight. Their body could be preserved under certain circumstances and, although there was little value to be found in them, Theodore quite liked them. It wasn''t even because of the war or anything like that, he just really quite liked the werewolf form as he viewed it as a majestic creature. The higher tiered revenants were particularly enticing to him and someone like Ares or Asha were his ultimate goals in life. If he could hang their corpses up somewhere then he would truly be overjoyed and maybe even willing to retire for the rest of his life, just sitting in his armchair by the fireplace, drinking fine wine and staring at his accomplishments.
Theodore aimed his cannon at some more floor crawlers before firing off another shot. As he did so, however, he noticed a bullet come blazing out of the snowstorm and knew he had to immediately take action. He raised his cane and fired off a small explosive pellet from the bottom of it, intercepting the bullet that was aimed directly at the cannonball. Asha had made an attempt to snipe the explosive cannonball the second it left the cannon, making it detonate directly in front of Theodore. It wouldn''t have hurt all too much but it would have obstructed his view, allowing the Sgnolldiers to close in on him easier. Luckily Theodore had been paying attention and caught sight of the bullet, stopping it in its tracks with his pellet. Overall this was a good situation for Theodore as he now knew the rough location of Asha''s current position. Either she''d hang around for too long in it and get caught by his Kiss Of Death, after he spied her with his divine sense, or she''d be forced to reposition which would prevent her from getting too involved for a short while. Either way, Theodore was fine with the outcome as he could work on thinning the gnoll horde at his own leisure. Speaking of the ugly hyenas, one flapped its tongue about as it leapt at Theodore from the side. It had flanked around the guns and actively used the bodies of its dead companions to approach sneakily. Theodore saw him clear as day, however, and made no effort to stop him because it was just one pitiful foot soldier at the end of the day. Theodore struck out with his staff, jutting the end of it into the Sgnolldiers stomach in mid air. He could have shot an explosive pellet and blown the animal to kingdom come but he had another use for the trapped gnoll. He dragged the gnoll through the air and placed him in front of the cannon before tapping the weapon with his foot in a slightly different rhythm compared to usual. Rather than fire a cannonball, the cannon sucked in the gnoll and fired it instead, treating the gnoll like a bowling ball that packed an explosive surprise at the trail end of its flight.
BOOM
The cannons had infinite ammo and only had to wait a second after firing but, if Theodore fed it unique ammo instead, the cannon could convert various other items into more powerful types of ammunition depending on what was shoved inside it. For living creatures, if they would die as a result of being fired out of the cannon, they turned into living bombs with a considerably larger explosion radius than the normal cannonballs. The cannongnoll took out a number of its comrades giving Theodore some more breathing room. He still needed to rely on his guns and his cane to deal with a few of the gnolls that made it closer but he could devote more time to tracking Asha through her snowstorm. He wished he could use some of his more explosive weapons but Asha was being a nuisance and sticking to the spectators making it impossible for Theodore to operate at his peak performance. That didn''t mean he didn''t have anything else up his sleeve but he wanted to find Asha first before resorting to it.
Inside a spectator room on the third floor, Asha had just chucked a bunch of people out and hijacked it for her own personal use. Also it removed any potential risks as you never knew when a civilian would start screaming because they thought they were in some kind of danger. Asha wouldn''t have let any risk befall them but they didn''t know that and might give her position away which would be seriously troublesome against an opponent like Theodore. Both Asha and Theodore were hunters in their own right and being able to get the jump on one another was what a lot of this fight came down to right now. Asha had relocated from her original position and was now directly behind Theodore with a clear shot on the back of his head. She''d inched as close to the edge of her snowstorm as possible to have the best odds of taking him by surprise but she wasn''t expecting much from this. Theodore''s divine sense would pick up the bullet pretty quickly and so a small injury was really only what was in the cards here but, actually, that was enough to get the ball rolling.
Asha had imbued her bullets with ice aspect mana and they would slowly chip away and chill away Theodore if he didn''t track her down quick enough. She could just stay on the move, take a few pot shots, and win slowly without much of a fuss. If he wanted to escalate the fight then Asha would respond in kind but she hoped he didn''t. Their fight was mostly irrelevant as it was pretty much just a whole lot of stalling and she appreciated that. There was nothing stressful about any of this and she wanted it to stay that way as it made her life easier. Theodore creeped her out because of the whole ''I want your corpse thing'' and the further away from him she could stay the better. He''d even outright asked her for a corpse a while back so he was honestly creepy as far as Asha was concerned. She would much rather just be relaxing somewhere and watching the international matches in comfort but getting dragged into this matter was tiresome. She felt a strong sense of duty for her clan though and letting Ares get murdered wasn''t something she was willing to let happen. This was somewhat selfish, actually, as if Ares could grow up safely then he would no doubt shoulder a lot of the burdens that currently fell squarely on her own head. Her opinion on Ares wasn''t much different to Yulo''s in that he was incredibly useful to her. Well it was a bit different in that they shared the same race, and he was effectively every revenant''s God, so she definitely respected him more than Yulo did but that meant little as Ares was generally respected by experts anyway because of his status and talent as a cultivator. It''s not that someone like Yulo didn''t respect him, it''s just that Asha had a few more reasons to respect him more. The appearance of Garmr had been a shock to they system for every single revenant and, even now, they were all still feeling chills don their spine from it.
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Asha loaded the shot and prepared herself to fire right at Theodore''s cranium. There was an off-putting feeling in her gut that was screaming at her not to do this but this probably wasn''t a fight that would last a long time anyway so, if need be, she could go all out for a bit. She didn''t want to but if it kept Theodore occupied, preventing him from hatching any kind of annoying plan, then so be it. Dealing with whatever this decision entailed was likely better than dealing with whatever letting Theodore do as he pleased entailed. If Asha was going to have to exert herself either way, then taking this shot at least left the initiative squarely in her corner of the court. A deep breath, steady hands, and the flick of a finger were all it took to fire off a shot straight at Theodore''s brain.
The sound of the shot was muffled thanks to the snowstorm, which acted like a pseudo silencer, but that would only barely matter. The iced bullet pierced through the edge of the snowstorm and came barrelling into view, to which Theodore responded to this development by muttering "Finally" in a belaboured voice. He''d evidently been waiting for this and was about to put his plan into action. He was more than happy to let a bullet graze him if it meant he could do what he wanted unimpeded. He whipped out another two artillery weapons and fired one of the two directly upwards. This artillery was smaller than the others and didn''t exactly fire off its ammo particularly fast but the utility of this ''weapon'' was immediately apparent to anyone who saw it. This artillery was a pulse bomb launcher that fired a small ball up into the air. The ball was heavy and so it''s ascent was painfully slow but that actually benefitted it as the goal wasn''t to reach any specific height but rather just to provide Theodore with information. Periodically, the ball would send out a pulse that marked all lifeforms within range and allowed Theodore to see them through walls. He was very familiar with Asha''s outline and, the second the ball pulsed, he would be able to locate her without any complications. Furthermore the ball pulsed multiple times during its ascent and subsequent descent so, even if by some miraculous chance things did go wrong, he would have multiple chances. He''d waited to fire this because Asha''s hunting rifle was bolt action. She couldn''t rapid fire shots so, if she aimed one at him, she had to just sit there and watch the ball go up without being able to snipe it. Yes her shot had left a gash along the back of Theodore''s head, and he was bleeding quite heavily from the wound, but now she couldn''t avoid a more direct confrontation. Even if she wanted to fire another shot at the pulse bomb Theodore knew her rough location and could deflect her shot with the explosive pellets from his cane. The iced wound was helpful but it wasn''t an equivalent gain compared to what Theodore had just gotten out of this. Plus, there was another weapon he''d summoned and this one actually possessed frightening firepower.
The second artillery Theodore summoned was, simply put, a giant hyper-cannon capable of firing a devastating laser beam. The beam was precise, meaning he didn''t have to worry about injuring innocents, and was strong enough to vaporise even someone like Asha if she wasn''t careful. It did mean he would have to forfeit half of her corpse but a ragged body was better than nothing at all! The hyper cannon took a while to charge and couldn''t really be used repeatedly but he''d summoned it in advance and, even though the pulse bomb had yet to reveal Asha, it was already charging up and readying itself to blast Asha straight to hell... Well temporarily anyway as a revenant would only actually consider hell to be a detour more than a permanent residence.
Asha kissed her teeth. Maybe letting Theodore do what he wanted would have been easier than dealing with this situation. She couldn''t run anymore so a direct confrontation was looking like a necessity. It would allow him to use Kiss Of Death on her but if she stuck close to him that would limit the weapons he could throw at her. It wasn''t preferable but it was the best option so running him down in her revenant form with ice magic was going to be the strategy she adopted. Right now, her main concern was the charging hyper cannon. Getting pierced by that thing would be the end of her if it hit anything important and she needed to deal with it. She could attack it and put it out of commission but Theodore was surely expecting that and laying out a trap as she thought about her approach. By the time she got over there any number of possibilities could be awaiting her. In particular, as she was somewhat aware of what Theodore was capable of, Asha was worried about his underground artillery drill. It was a trap type artillery that hid underneath the floor and shot a drill straight up when someone stepped above it. The drill would murder anyone hit by it and even if it missed it homed in on enemies so, on the way back down, it could chase you and try again. Actually, it could try multiple times as it was a persistent drill that became something akin to a landshark even if it lost all its momentum, hopping through the earth in a bid to nibble your ankles. Sometimes, during a chase, Theodore would fire this at his target from afar and watch in satisfaction as it hunted down the victim and dove through their body.
Asha had to watch out for this artillery device because it was easily the most pesky obstacle she might face. Still, she couldn''t sit here forever otherwise the pulse bomb would go off, shortly followed by the hyper cannon, and then the situation would be unsalvageable. There were some things still working in her favour though as the Sgnolldiers were still running amok and causing whatever havoc they could, distracting a lot of Theodore''s weapons currently. Also Asha didn''t have to stop attacking as she ran up to him either as ice magic and her gun were still very usable. It would narrow down her position but, if she was going to be giving it away anyway as she jumped out of the spectator area, then it was worth doing regardless. What she really needed to do was be aggressive and buy time for her snowstorm to close in on the centre of the arena, as she could slowly shift its location, because that was when she would be at her strongest. Using the snowstorm as cover was great but when both she and her target were in it simultaneously she became an entirely different beast altogether.
Theodore kept his eye out for any oncoming bullets as he knew exactly what Asha was going to do next. Although it wasn''t what he was expecting, a Mistral Shrapnel came soaring out of the snowstorm but it was fine as it was within his calculations. Instead of firing a bullet, she opted to use an ice aspect art to lead off with. No doubt she would shoot at him while he was busy defending himself against the ice grenade but, as long as the bullet came from the same direction, he had nothing to fear. Theo fired his cane''s explosive pellet at the ball of ice, detonating both a decent distance away from him. It was important to keep that art away as the chilly winds that came after were also quite deadly and that was especially true if it was cast by someone as strong as Asha. The icy wind was more like a mini ice tornado that spawned where the Shrapnel blew up.
Theo squinted at the icy winds to keep an eye out for the expected bullet to come flying out from the snowstorm behind it but he was caught off guard when the only thing that emerged was a gnoll. He was forced to quickly swing his body to the side and perform a last second dodge as a bullet ran straight through his arm that was holding the cane. Had he been any slower that bullet would have shot through his heart, severely wounding him and forcing an end to this fight. Theo didn''t particularly want to have to run away in public so he was glad he reacted quick enough to the change in the present state of affairs. The reason a gnoll came out from the snowstorm instead of the bullet was because Asha had created the Mistral Shrapnel and given it to her subordinate to chuck at him instead of firing it off herself. The Shrapnel could be automatically thrown on generation or it could be held like a grenade. While the gnoll held it for her, she moved around to a different place in Theo''s blind spot and shot at him while he was paying attention elsewhere. Asha had outmanoeuvred Theo big time here which made her approach towards him that much simpler. He was injured now, he hadn''t been dealing with the gnoll onslaught properly for the last few seconds, and he needed to redirect most of his weaponry to focus on Asha now that she was out and about in full view. Plus he still needed to cast Kiss Of Death which took a second or two. He was seriously behind Asha''s pace right now and needed to play catch up.
Asha had come out of the snowstorm in her revenant form with her rifle slung on her back. She was sprinting on all fours and really stood out from the crowd of gnolls thanks to her brilliant white fur. It was a pure and glossy white that was eye catching enough to grab everyone''s attention. Although it was hard to judge revenant beauty standards it was pretty apparent Asha could be a revenant model if she wanted to be one. Right now that was beside the point, however, as she was making good ground towards Theodore. The pulse bomb had just gone off and scanned her but that no longer mattered. The point of the pulse bomb was to force her out of hiding so it had achieved that goal with flying colours. It could potentially be useful if the snowstorm closed in but Theodore would almost definitely have Kiss Of Death up by then at which point he wouldn''t need it.
Asha was ducking behind her Sgnolldiers, using them as meat shields to block the machine gun fire. She could have easily taken the hits if she really wanted to but she just wasn''t in the mood. Asha could be a very lazy cultivator sometimes and, if she was feeling confident, could outright make bad decision''s just to speed things up or make her life less uncomfortable. It had never come back to bite her in the ass thus far because she was a cut above the competition but one day she might suffer the consequences of her lackadaisical approach. Not that she cared, being a revenant meant she was immortal and so death didn''t dissuade her from acting like this. Also, here, one or two extra gnolls wouldn''t matter much. She just kept summoning them on repeat to be annoying and divide Theodore''s attention and time, the gnolls weren''t supposed to be doing anything else really. It''s not that the gnolls weren''t decently strong it''s just that against competent cultivators they could only really serve one specific role. This was an art that saw some use in war, though, as all the real soldiers could use the gnolls as advancing cover to take hits from stray arts for them. Regardless, now that Asha was out in the open, things were going to get a lot more messy. The hyper-cannon was nearly charged, and Asha had no clue what manner of trap Theodore had in store, but Asha was already in her revenant form and making ground so, really, this fight could go either way right now. What was true regardless of which fight the spectators were paying attention to, up or down, was that they were both starting to heat up and reach their respective climaxes. In particular, Ya Ye was just about to unleash his own trademark unique art so a lot of people were temporarily shifting their gaze towards the giant tree to watch that unfold. It wouldn''t be long now before these scuffles came to an end and one side would come out victorious, now it was just a matter of who would win.