Appropriate Skillset had limits, just not many. For starters, the stolen art / pillar affinity wasn''t capable of functioning at 100% The art would be roughly 95% as powerful which wasn''t too bad, at least until you went further down the rabbit hole as that number decreased to about 85% for unique aspects and arts. That was still arguably very useful but in a head on clash between Aejaz'' stolen art and the original he would not be winning necessarily. He might come out on top due to his above average cultivation but, in a hypothetical situation wherein both people had the same amount of cultivation overall, he would more than likely not be winning the duel. Additionally, Aejaz had to actually be able to see the person he was stealing from so if they left his vision the ability to use their magic would disappear shortly after. He had a one minute or so grace period but it wasn''t a particularly long window of time. If Aejaz left this arena, a minute later he would not be able to copy to Job''s unique art anymore. Yes Aejaz could steal basically any art or pillar in the world but he needed to actually be around someone capable of using it in the first place which curbed his immense power somewhat. On the upside, however, the art couldn''t really be avoided. You could prevent the siphoning of your physical attributes if you paid enough attention but the pillar affinity and art stealing was going to happen regardless of anything a normal cultivator did. The only thing Aejaz couldn''t steal was specific mutations to arts via dedication cultivation or attribute changing resources. If someone found, say, a wind attribute resource and used it to enhance the effectiveness of a Flamethrower art, Aejaz, when copying it, would only get a normal Flamethrower. Them''s the breaks! Not that he had a reason to complain, the art was disgustingly powerful as is. He really didn''t need it to do anything else as this was already the kind of art you could rely on for the rest of eternity. Aejaz could safely base his entire cultivation journey around this art and he''d be golden. He was almost like a slightly better Rox in that his copycat prowess was sky high. They filled different roles though as Rox''s non-magical mastery of weapons, pressure, and hand to hand combat was far superior whereas Aejaz was the expert assassin with a toolkit of magic that was particularly versatile.
Aejaz walked past the stuttering Scowl and Phlo who were forcing their bodies forward, inch by inch. Their struggle to involve themselves in the fight between Aejaz ad Job was futile but they raged against their invisible shackles anyway. This fight was hard enough as is, losing one of their team members at this critical junction would just make it all even worse. They wanted to at least kill someone before the end of this match and keeping Job alive was imperative to fulfilling that goal. They weren''t sure how to go up against Aejaz exactly but an extra person would lighten the individual load placed on them. Of course no matter how much they wished to change fate, they were seriously stuck. The duration of Aejaz'' art would run out shortly but by then... Well it would all probably be over already...
Aejaz arrived before Job but didn''t immediately attack him. Steal Your March prevented the opponent from moving first but that effect ended the second Aejaz gunned for them. It was effective in creating temporary stalemates while Aejaz readjusted, letting him get the drop on faster foes, and just outright being rude and taunting his opponent like he was doing right now. Scowl and Phlo were whatever, Aejaz didn''t spare them much attention because they were more annoying than they were detestable, but Job? Job was detestable. The comments about Allie last time were inexcusable and the same was also very much true of what he attempted to do to Trixie way back when. Unfortunately Aejaz couldn''t kill this despicable creep for good inside the Training Ground but he would have absolutely loved to if it were possible in any way. Even if he was disqualified from the tournament, if he had a method to end this idiot''s life he would. Aejaz thought he was content to just let the Glimpse''s fade out of existence and relevance on their lonesome but now, standing here before Job, he realised he wanted one more person dead before he could say he was truly satisfied. Aejaz decided to make that clear here and now so Job knew what fate he had instore for him.
"Job..." Aejaz'' voice was, perhaps for the first time ever, incredibly steady and carried a kind of weight to it that was very unusual for Aejaz. "... I can''t kill you here but, in many ways, that''s going to be a lot worse for you. At least dying here would have been quick, painless, and most of all, expected. You would have seen me coming and been forced to unwillingly accept that death was unavoidable. Now though... Now I hope you''re up to do some running when this match ends. After we win here, I''m going to exit the coliseum and I''m going to hunt you down in the streets. You will not be escaping from me if it''s the last thing I do today. You''ll flee like a rat and secretly hold onto the vain hope that maybe your mother or father can save you. You''ll think that if you can just make it out of the city you''ll be safe. Maybe even crowding your clan members around you will be able to save you if you''re lucky. No, no, and no again. Your parents will not be able to stop me, the city walls are unreachable to you when I''m on the prowl, and numbers do not inconvenience me. I am going to kill you shortly and finally put an end to this stupid feud between you and I. Within the next hour you will be lying in a pool of your own blood with your throat slit in a back alley somewhere and your corpse probably won''t be found for a week or so, by which point the rabid stray dogs will likely have eaten chunks of you and shat you out into a nearby river. Your burial will be closed casket for good reason. I should thank you, though, you''ll be the perfect example to the rest of the clan that my family and I should be left well enough alone. I''m telling you now, no amount of apologising or unsightly begging is going to save you so spare me the whining when I come looking for you. For now though, this will do."
Aejaz brandished the Carnwennan and vanished from view while stealing Job''s memories again, sending his perception back in time by about a minute. Job came back to proper consciousness wondering why he was standing around doing nothing while Scowl was being attacked! He turned to face his brother, who should have still been getting bullied by Aejaz and stabbed repeatedly, only to see Scowl yelling at him to turn around. He didn''t get the chance to, however, as a particularly sharp knife pierced the back of his head. It was a strange feeling, like a zap that kept causing him to spasm. It was a weird, all-encompassing pain that progressively numbed him every time Aejaz poked a little deeper. After reaching a certain point, Job couldn''t even feel anything anymore but he''d lost control over all his limbs and was uncontrollably shaking and twitching like a malfunctioning robot. Eventually everything just shut off and he limply fell face first onto the floor with a heavy thud. There was no elegance or grace in his fall, it was a quick and spiritless collapse that was almost more ominous than anything dramatic and drawn out would have been. He was just dead, that was all. Alive and standing one second, dead and on the floor the next. No fanfare, no last words, no reason to remember what happened to him. Poof, gone. Aejaz'' murder had been clean. Actually, that was a litote if anything as it was nothing short of surgical. No fuss, no fight, no mess, nothing. Job''s removal from the fight was so unremarkable that he might as well have not even been there from the start...
But was that really true?
Everything that led up to the death had been pretty incredible on an individual basis. Aejaz'' magic, his thievery, the verbal threat... The rapid sequence of events had all been individually good... So why did it leave such little lasting impact? It''s not like it was a bad thing, it was actually horrifying! This was the assassin ideal. Someone who could declare his presence in front of a whole crowd and still murder his target and make it seem like a common occurrence before walking away with no one feeling strongly about the matter, almost like their emotions about the events that had transpired were completely stolen from them! If this had happened outside the coliseum, nobody would have bat an eye or felt the need to try and stop Aejaz after murdering a person, they would have just let him go and not cared. It was a scary prospect that he could, at will, impose this unwillingness to care upon people. His style of assassination was blatant and disregarded common strategy but worked anyway because of how plain it all looked. Job wasn''t murdered, he was stabbed in the back of the head.
That was all.
Aejaz had convinced everyone they were two entirely different matters and that caring about the latter was a waste of time. To Aejaz, murdering someone was not much different to taking a walk, he could do it as easily as he breathed which was exactly why it had come across as such a trivial non-issue. Aejaz didn''t take it seriously so why should anyone else? He was already looking for his next target because the previous one was dealt with and needed no lingering attention. Job? Who? Aejaz might as well have not even known which was off-putting considering the rant he just went on. Swearing to murder a person and then disregarding them like a pile of dog crap on the side of the road after, without faltering from your intentions, was kinda creepy. Was Aejaz hyper focused on the match or did he really just not care about Job right now? It was impossible to tell as his attitude had just completely reset back to normal. Being able to hide his animosity at the drop of a hat was an incredible feat that left everyone confused and unenthused. There was no reason for them to care if Aejaz didn''t, that was the vibe he gave off which swayed the entirety of the audience. He''d roped them into his play and assigned them their emotive stances on various matters ahead of time; right now they were supposed to be unempathetic, calm, and apathetic and it was working. Some of the expert cultivators were able to detach themselves from the wild ride Aejaz was taking them on after shaking their heads from side to side but that natural instinct to join right back in and dance along to his tune was hard to ignore. The showman was on stage so why not grab some popcorn and be taken on a magical journey of deceit, fraud, and sleight of hand?
Aejaz'' Steal Your March had worn off but neither Scowl nor Phlo rushed forward to attack him. He''d already showcased his ability to separate and discombobulate them so any careless moves would be akin to willingly throwing the fight away. They still believed they could kill Aejaz at least but they needed to change their approach. First things first, Phlo instantly disabled his Double Dark because it was also benefitting Aejaz. Part of the reason his Steal Your March had been so powerful, and lasted so long, was because the zone had improved his darkness pillar magic. That was a very real problem with Double Dark as it didn''t discriminate between friend or foe and was usable by anyone within range. Given the fact that Aejaz had plenty of access to the darkness pillar right now, be it his unique aspect, the Prowler, or Appropriate Skillset stealing all of Scowl''s offensive arts, Phlo was forced to disable the zone as it was better to pick a close range fight than a magical one. This didn''t stop Aejaz from casting his own arts but if they could rush him down then maybe he''d struggle to get any out in time and they could collectively overwhelm him. The splotches of shadows from earlier were still around so Phlo and Scowl still had mobility options in their back pocket, to apply consistent pressure to Aejaz, so that was how they chose to go about starting their comeback. With no hesitation for his own safety, Scowl was the first one to jump back into the fray with Aejaz despite his already proven inferiority. Phlo was slightly less capable in a direct fight so letting him take the back seat now, freeing him up to attack Aejaz without fear of repercussion, was the best option. Phlo may have been worse in a head on fight but, in terms of finding the perfect opportunity to bury his dagger in a victim''s back, he wasn''t far behind Scowl.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Scowl repeated his plan from last time but paid more attention. He wasn''t giving up on swift and light strikes that were non-committal, he couldn''t really. He was not the stronger combatant so swinging his full strength around was a doomed endeavour. Instead, he swiped at the air in front of Aejaz to dissuade him from moving forward while pushing him slowly backwards towards a creeping Phlo. The pincer attack last time failed due to unforeseen circumstances but, now that they were aware Aejaz had a tricky position swap magic at his disposal, they wouldn''t make the same mistake twice. They could keep an eye out for strands of mana to prevent the swap but they would also keep an eye on the situation far more closely than last time to react accordingly even if it somehow worked irrespective of their cautiousness.
Aejaz was unfazed by the swiping Scowl and carefully retreated back step by step without clashing against him. He could have deflected the blade multiple times by now, and punished Scowl heavily, but he was somewhat curious to see how well Phlo could do if given some breathing room to launch an attack. Aejaz was going to use this opportunity to show off his dagger mastery and kill Phlo before ending the fight with a bang by killing Scowl in a way that was sure to turn heads, or at least that was the plan anyway. Plans were subject to change based on the circumstances but it ought to not deviate too far from the original intention.
To prove Aejaz was still very much in control of the situation despite appearing to be on the back foot, he turned sideways to dodge a small lunge and performed a spin kick, hitting Scowl''s ankle and causing him to trip forward. Scowl''s face fell squarely into Aejaz'' palm before being pushed backwards with a small stumble that almost tripped him. Such a small lunge was punishable so what did that mean for Scowl exactly? That every time he tried to launch an attack he was basically killing himself against someone of Aejaz'' level? What even was Aejaz'' level right now? His cultivation was out there for all to see, as he was sitting pretty at sensory enhancement 10th stage, and that was undeniably impressive but he''d always been the kind of person who cultivated quickly so it wasn''t exactly surprising. All the Hans missions had massively boosted his cultivation but that wasn''t what Scowl wanted to know right now. If every assassin in the lower domains was gathered into one spot, and their cultivation bases were evened out to be equal amongst everyone, where would Aejaz stand amidst that crowd? Near the top? At it? Would he be seated casually atop a pile of dead experts? The way he dismantled Scowl''s attack with such fluidity and precision was indicating as such never mind the well aimed kick that crumpled Scowl afterwards. That attack was faultless. It wasn''t too soft to have no effect but it wasn''t all-in on the power front as that would have done lasting damage to Scowl, maybe even breaking his ankle.
Technique, speed, control, Aejaz had it all in spades and was looking like an incredibly daunting wall that Scowl couldn''t really overcome no matter what plan he stuck to. Yet, still, Scowl returned to his duty diligently and kept stubbornly occupying Aejaz'' at the front, buying Phlo time to discover the perfect opportunity he was digging for.
Clack
Aejaz had stepped backwards on top of a small pebble.
The arena could be quite dusty and, sometimes, arts cast in it would crack the floor during a fight that wasn''t then fixed by the C.O. These cracks were tiny and mostly irrelevant but they could leave small pebbles behind, such as the one Aejaz stepped on, that impacted a cultivator''s movement. Nobody had ever lost a fight or a match as a result but this wasn''t the first time this issue had cropped up. Last time it did, the C.O swore to hire cultivators with impressive divine sense to scan the arena after every fight. They stayed true to their word and it had worked for a good while but this time things were likely different due to the scale of what happened a week ago with Garmr and the seasons. They were responsible for this mishap, yes, but it was hard to fault them given the unpredictable nature of what had occurred so most people saw it as an unavoidable risk that spiced things up occasionally. Aejaz had been clearly dominant but this would put him in a do or die situation. Even though it wasn''t fair in the slightest, as none of the cultivators in the arena were responsible for that pebble placement, it did result in more entertainment for the spectators so they were lenient and willing to ignore it.
As for what changed down in the arena thanks to the existence of the tiny pebble, Aejaz had slipped backwards a bit. He wasn''t toppling over but he was taken by surprise and was now going to be left in an awkward situation, one that was easy for Phlo to capitalise off of. In fact, Phlo was already on the move. This was all too good to be true and he couldn''t pass up the chance that had presented itself practically stark naked, waiting for Phlo to come and claim it. He leapt at both the chance and at Aejaz'' falling head, giving rise to a tiny spark of hope that a small win could be dredged back from the ever-looming jaws of defeat. Losing the war seemed inevitable but winning the battle was in the cards... At least that was what he thought until Aejaz'' next move was essentially equivalent to pulling a joker out of the deck.
"Segregation."
"Huh?" Phlo couldn''t help but temporarily pause when he heard the name of that art. His reaction wasn''t much different to Enyo, over by the wall of the coliseum, after she just had her art stolen! It wasn''t a unique art but there probably wasn''t many other people in this coliseum that knew it and she was the only person that Aejaz would know for sure had access to it. The real issue here was that Enyo wasn''t a part of this fight! Apparently, Aejaz'' Appropriate Skillset could steal from anyone he could see and not just those who he was in combat with or against, which was a misunderstanding the Glimpse lot had inflicted upon themselves but an understandable one to an extent. Such a power was pretty un-orthodox so they''d subconsciously placed limits they found reasonable on it to try and understand it better. They''d been too generous with those limitations, though, so this whole string of affairs had taken them by surprise.
Clang
Phlo''s attack was blocked in its tracks and he was forced to take a few steps back due to the recoil of striking what may as well have been a metal wall. Aejaz recovered with time to spare and could kick away Scowl again with a boot to the chest. Aejaz dusted himself off and casted another art, this one even more ridiculous than the last. "Meteor."
...
...
...
Nobody was safe... Including Bellona who had been minding her business on the top floor of the coliseum but had just spat out her bubble tea all over the floor... If Aejaz wasn''t restricted in who he could steal from, and even someone at Bellona''s considerable distance was a potential victim, that, in turn, meant Aejaz had the magic of every living creature in this coliseum at his disposal whenever he wanted... How many thousands of people could Aejaz borrow from right about now exactly?! And better yet, why wasn''t his magic blocked by the Training Field rune?! Why was his art allowed to cheat like this!? Actually, there was a pretty valid reason why but it wouldn''t become apparent to the C.O ''till later when Julio swung by to check on the Training Field. He would instantly recognise what had gone wrong as it had happened to his own runes countless times before already. He knew all too well how his runes could just vanish without a trace like that... But that was that, and Aejaz casting Meteor was another matter entirely.
As long as Aejaz had mana, there was no real limit to the amount of varied arts he could cast in this place... He was a dedication cultivator with access to as many pillars as there were people in the crowd. Aejaz had basically found a way to turn every living organism into an enabler, one he didn''t even need to own or borrow. Plus he could use arts from different pillars without pause. He''d just used a holy pillar art and now it was a measurement manipulation art, an art from a unique aspect that shouldn''t have been castable by anyone else! It was even a unique art because of the ammo system that Bellona used! Better yet, did Aejaz just steal one of Bellona''s meteors?! How did that even work?! The meteors were countless miles away from here... And yet Bellona''s mark must have been replaced or, if not that, Aejaz'' own mark must have been added to the stockpile. Bellona would still have to be nearby in order for Aejaz to use this art but the fact that an assassin could just casually summon a METEOR wasn''t exactly normal. This ''skillset'' went above being appropriate, it was overkill! Aejaz had wanted everyone to be awed with his magic and it was safe to say mission accomplished right about now!
The Meteor came crashing down through the atmosphere and Aejaz used Bellona''s halving magic to shorten the distance much like how Bellona did. At this point, Aejaz might as well have just been Bellona for all the difference it would have made. He''d stolen her entire character. The copycat supreme watched on as Phlo banged against the Segregation barrier in a bid to escape to safety. This was yet another point worth mentioning, Aejaz could freely combine these arts and aspects. He could only steal one person''s pillar affinities and arts at a time but if he was quick, or if the arts lingered, he could freely combine them into a deadly combination. Using Enyo''s barriers to trap and Bellona''s Meteor to kill was a perfect example of the kind of chicanery Aejaz could pull with the new tricks up his sleeve.
CRASSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The arena shook and a massive dust cloud blocked out everyone''s view of the arena. Not that they needed to be able to see right now to understand what had become of Phlo. Put simply, he was a pancake now. It wasn''t often anyone had to predict the assassin vs meteor matchup but, if the betting brothers were to make a guess, the odds would definitely not have been in Phlo''s favour... Ever... The poor guy had tried to use a mobility art at the last moment but Aejaz cut him off with some of Onno''s anti magic via a well timed Blip cast. To nobody''s surprise, when the dust settled, Phlo was on the respawn platform looking like he was seeing stars which, depending on how you looked at it, was actually rather close to the truth. He''d technically seen a meteor, not a star, but the difference was negligible at that point...
As for the arena, Aejaz was stood directly in front of a hole-ridden Scowl with his pointed finger place squarely on his brother''s forehead. During the dust cloud cover up, Aejaz had taken advantage of the situation and was now seemingly mocking Scowl again... But was that really the case? At least two people watching from the side-lines knew it wasn''t. Ares knew what was coming and, as Yulo jumped up and off his seat in shock, it became apparent that so too did he. The future Yulo had just witnessed was incomprehensible and crossed way too many lines to be acceptable on a global... No, dimensional scale. Yulo couldn''t believe that Aejaz was as powerful as he''d foreseen, he didn''t want to believe it. Yulo had assumed that Ares and Mako were one of a kind but Aejaz was about to prove to everyone that he belonged in the big leagues too, and in a big way at that. It may have been a para-social accomplishment but that didn''t mean Aejaz'' life wasn''t looking incredibly bright; bright much like the shine of his finger which was glowing in a very specific colour right now, one that was nigh unbelievable. Aejaz confirmed everyone''s doubts, putting them to rest with two simple words as he sealed Scowl''s fate.
"Grand Annihilation."