So, how to deal with the staff? A simple question that necessitated a convoluted answer because there was no such thing as an easy way out of the current predicament. Plus, it didn''t help that when the only thing you had was a hammer, everything looked like a nail. Ares brain just kept demanding he whack everything in sight and that the problem would therefore then solve itself but that was clearly never going to work out in the long term. Still, the nail line of thinking wasn''t something Ares discarded entirely as pinning down the staff would give him ample leeway to reverse the current status quo and gain an edge... But how to go about it? The clone was just performing repeated thrusts at Ares without ever going for sweeps low to the ground, where Ares could hammer the staff against the floor and keep it there with pressure, nor was there a wall nearby at the moment. The closest one was behind the clone but Ares wasn''t going to be able to push the clone backwards while he was on the defensive so that wasn''t an option... So if he couldn''t make the attacks go near a solid object, the only logical option was to make a solid object come into the vicinity of the clone''s attacks! As this would be an unexpected development, the clone wouldn''t see it coming and would almost definitely fall for it but, if Ares botched it on the other hand, then he would lose the element of surprise and this wouldn''t work at all due to the clone keeping an eye out for it from then onwards. He had one chance to make this strategy shine so he had to keep taking the bo blows for a while until he saw an attack that was even at least a little sloppier than the others... It also had to not be a fake. Ares was absolutely the kind of person to leave his opponent a fake way out of their predicament and capitalise off it so, by extension, the clone might be looking for a chance to do the exact same and Ares had to be wary of such a convenient option.
As if on cue, a somewhat sloppy attack was launched by the clone with a few glaring holes in it that Ares simply glanced at once and didn''t bother with. He was the king of this silly little game and so, while this may not have been apparent to a lot of other cultivators, it was like showing Ares a piece of mid grade stardust and a bigger piece of high grade stardust while trying to tell him they were both the exact same. He could see the con from a mile away and wanted no part of it! Hell, he could practically see the clone''s expectancy in his eyes!... Actually, Ares changed his mind. Maybe this was a good opportunity after all? Not to hit the clone, that was foolish and would result in him getting hit hard and falling for this deceptive ruse, but to turn the clone''s bait into one of his own? Pretend to fall for the fake opening and then exploit the situation even further with the plan he''d already developed? Ares would be rubbing his hands together in glee right now if he wasn''t busy playing the fool.
The clone''s lunge was slow and gave Ares plenty of room to slide around the side of it so he did precisely that and raised the hammer up high while closing the distance, ready to launch his strike at the clone who responded immediately. The clone had hidden an Echo within the end of his staff so the second it missed, and Ares ''fell'' for the attack, it detonated, pushing the clone and his staff backwards a few feet. This was a devious trick because now Ares was out of range to strike the clone, holding his weapon above his head, and in range to be poked by the staff again. It was a similar trick to using illusion magic to create a defenceless copy of yourself a few inches ahead that the opponent would strike at and leave themselves open. Instead of relying on illusions, however, the clone had opted to use a burst of mobility to alter his position flawlessly without any prior indication. Using an attack like Echo to push himself back to an ideal range for his weapon was a decent trick, and Ares gave it a round of applause in his head, but he''d seen something like this coming already. His Omniscience had just about caught sight of the Echo and so all the pieces had fallen neatly into place, precisely how Ares wanted them to.
The staff was gunning for his heart region and he wouldn''t be able to pull his hammer back down in time to block it but that wasn''t his goal right now. Bringing it back to block was impossible but going forward with it was still more than doable so he doubled down on his attack much to the clone''s confusion. Ares should have tried to either deflect the staff or use an Echo to soften the blow so this bizarre aggression was a bad sign in its mind. Ares was no fool, and he wouldn''t just give up like this either, so he was plotting something... The clone was very tempted to call it quits on the attack but it wasn''t sure if that was Ares'' real goal or not. A bluff to force the clone to pointlessly give up its victory of its own accord... The clone was reading into the situation too deeply but it couldn''t really be blamed for that because Ares was the kind of person to overthink even the smallest details during combat. That was fine against anyone who didn''t, as they became easier to predict, but against an exact copy of himself the amount of mind games at play could become seriously overwhelming. It wasn''t just a matter of second guessing intentions, Ares and the clone were tens of layers deep into each other''s heads at this point. It was far worse than fighting against literally anybody else because, technically speaking, they were able to read each other''s minds without a hitch if they gave it enough effort. They were one and the same and their ideas were basically shared between the one brain cell they each possessed at the best of times. All they had to do was put themselves in each other''s shoes and, bam, they would understand the answer their foe had come to lickety-split. Understanding this was a plague, however, and was where all the complications arose because if your opponent knew that you knew what they knew, then nobody damn well knew fuck all because it was too confusing to keep track of!
Despite knowing deep in his gut that seeing this attack through was a bad idea, as the potential gain was not as important here as the potential risk, the clone had convinced itself Ares knew this was bad idea too and was attempting to play around that in some convoluted manner. The clone stuck to its guns with the hope its prediction was correct, and Ares'' was wrong, but Ares showed no worry on his face at the result of the clone''s determination and that was when it knew it had made a real mistake here. In hindsight, Ares would never go all in on a pointless gamble at a non-critical junction unless he was really in the mood to mess with his opponent. Ares seemed deeply invested in this fight and, while that was great and all, he would never potentially throw it all away just to try something that would only ever work on busy-minded fools like himself. Most opponents wouldn''t fall for this because they would merely see it as a last ditch gamble and carry on, none-the-wiser of what was coming. This wasn''t something Ares needed or wanted to practice right now... That and he''d probably already accounted for the clone''s inability to parse though the thoughts they shared logically which resulted in him not quitting his attack half-way through. In truth, it really was a mix of both.
Ares would much rather practice deceitful trickery against a random, but smart (as that was necessary), stranger than against himself. He wanted to practice weapon mastery here not his underhanded measures. To add onto that, who would know what kind of wool he would try and pull over their eyes better than himself? If Ares wanted to practice fighting dirty he needed someone who wouldn''t sniff out his bullshit the second he attempted it and the clone was a terrible target for that. Bullying random strangers would have a much higher rate of success and would be far more conducive to getting meaningful results about the validity of his evil efforts rather than failing constantly against himself. It was like trying to play chess against yourself and wondering if you were terrible because your opponent could see through all your moves... Pointless! Not that playing chess against yourself couldn''t be helpful, just not with such a redundant mindset as that was not the direction a person''s improvement should take in such a situation. Actually, it was a surprisingly pertinent analogy because Ares was improving in this ''solo chess'' game against himself precisely because he was focussing on the right things and not getting too distracted whenever his moves were seen through or bested. It was all a matter of perspective and Ares had the right one to make notable gains here by dedicating himself to honing what he actually could in this given scenario.
Ares brought the hammer down with conviction while simultaneously raising the earth underneath the staff with telekinesis. Ares formed a sort of crude workbench underneath the thrusting staff and smacked it with his hammer, welding the bo to the raised earth with some heavy pressure. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail OR an artifact! Ares had never been a smithy in the truest sense, as he rarely if ever fiddled around with tools such as these, but he''d been around the forgery block a couple of times now. He''d even, at one point, experimented with whacking pressure into his artifacts to make the process go by quicker so this was home field advantage! This was territory he understood so his aim was spot on and the application of pressure was accurate down to the last millimetre. The clone''s spear had gone from light, and easy to wield, to completely impossible to lift. It was like a mortal trying to pick up a pipe fitting attached to the floor. No way, no how was the clone ever going to be successful here because Ares had laid the pressure on thick as can be so relying on strength wasn''t possible. Ares had to be careful when he was doing this though because if he put too much pressure into the staff then the whole thing would go kaboom. Maybe that was an acceptable outcome in some ways but Ares had other, grander plans. Sure sticking the bo to the makeshift workbench was effective but Ares was actually doing the exact same thing the clone had done by leaving a false way out of the predicament. The pressure holding the staff down could absolutely be removed, provided the clone used its own pressure in a timely manner, if the clone wanted to take that route... But that was precisely what Ares was hoping the clone did! Ares wanted the flustered clone to recover its weapon and try to defend himself with it, hell he was even indirectly encouraging it by using physical pressure that could be seen abundantly clear with the naked eye. He was guiding the clone into using its own pressure reserves to free the staff. Had Ares used his regular pressure his bloodline would have made it tricker to overcome, dissuading the clone, but he''d really gone all out in permitting the clone to retrieve the bo. Why? Well, there was a little something Ares had learnt about wielding pressurised artifacts and treasures a while back, thanks to a certain dwarf''s experiments on the matter, that this clone was going to have to learn the hard way.
Ares felt a wave of satisfaction roll over him when the clone did exactly what was laid out for it and falling for the trap like a rat leaping for the cheese. To be fair, it was a relatively innocuous trap because it required some rather expertise knowledge on pressure and forgery that Mako didn''t possess. The clone couldn''t know what Mako didn''t unless it learnt it first hand so this dastardly ruse was going to pass the gut check with flying colours. On the surface, nothing seemed wrong with the bo that the clone had just freed by blasting the pressure away with its own... That was, at least, until the staff was picked up as that was where the troubles began. While the clone struggled with the impossible-to-wield weapon, Ares looked to strike at his distracted and defenceless foe. What was happening here was the same thing that happened to ''artifact three'' back when Dabble was showcasing the results of his testing.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
As a quick refresher, too much pressure made the container, be it weapon, armour, treasure, or artifact, explode. Not enough left the container in an unfinished state, weaker than it could potentially be. Artifact three sat in the middle ground whereby it was filled to the brim but had some difficulties surrounding the usability. First of all, and what was relevant here, was that anyone who didn''t put the pressure into the weapon to begin with would have a rough time controlling the weapon as it bucked around like a wild horse. It was like trying to grasp an oiled snake as it tried biting you with venomous fangs, not a wonderful experience. Plus the snake, in this analogy, had the strength of a rhinoceros for added measure just ot make life really uncomfortable.
Second of all, the pressure was what mattered here and, since the pressure rampaging around in the staff belonged to Ares, the clone couldn''t fake his identity and get away with it. The clone''s pressure reserves were large, and the pressure itself was undeniably stronger than most, but it was still not Ares'' no matter how he tried to pass it off as the same thing. Even just Ares'' bloodline alone made his pressure impossible to copy, as mixing mana with pressure was absolutely impossible for anyone other than him, so there was no way the clone could mitigate this issue by pretending to be the real Ares.
Finally, the rocking weapon could be tamed if the person trying to tame it had stronger pressure than the original person who imbued it to begin with... So in other words, not happening. Ares'' pressure was absolutely unbeatable, not even by Dominus who had the same bloodline because of Ares'' ability to mix in annihilation, so if he left a container in this heavily pressurised state it could not be fixed without herculean work. Any and all traces of pressure would need to be removed in their entirety before a container imbued with the stuff could be returned to normal and removing pressure was a difficult task, definitely not something most people in Sheryashka, or any of the other lower domains for that matter, could do. In short, the bo was plagued by Ares'' pressure, flinging itself randomly in different directions within the clone''s grip, and could not be used to block any attacks whatsoever right now. If anything, the clone was far closer to hitting itself over the head with the weapon than guarding himself.
There was no way for the clone to solve the pressure infested staff; he didn''t have time to drop it and pull out another weapon from his spatial ring (which he needed because he didn''t possess a Primordial Blade, obviously), and he would barely have time to raise his arms and block the hammer. Regardless of what he did here it looked like the clone was about to suffer another major attack. In some ways, blocking a hammer was worse than blocking a sharp, piercing weapon because the hammer would affect a wider area in total, potentially even putting an entire bone out of commission. The clone would have preferred being stabbed in the arm or something as opposed to maybe having its arm flat out broken but Ares had stuck with this troublesome weapon through thick and thin, made it work, and was now enjoying the benefit of his well thought out assault. Ares'' hammer came thundering down and the clone had no choice but to raise both its arms and fold them directly in the path of the weapon to jeep its already injured stomach region safe. Trying to catch the hammer, or deflect it, with his hand was an option but would also be disastrous if it failed so the clone took its lumps and accepted its loss.
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCRACK
Though this impact was somewhat quieter than the kick earlier, it felt more tactile than the other one and made people in the crowd wince in sympathy. Even the clone let out a small yelp of pain which was interesting because Ares was sure this thing, save for casting arts, was completely mute! Turns out pain is one hell of a motivator! It must have have really stung, though, as the clone''s arm was completely limp and the only signs of life were the fingers on the hand that belonged to the broken arm grasping at the air in a bid to try and regain some feeling. The arm would still be just about useable, barely, and the clone had salvaged the use of its hand by not throwing it to the wolves earlier and trying to block the hammer with it, but it was still a pretty detrimental injury that only piled on the difficulties the clone was going to have from now on. Ares had done a number on this clone with the kick and that injury was now leading to more and more punishment thanks to how slow the clone was moving comparatively to before. It was a brutal cycle in which a single injury led to two, then two led to three, then three led to four, etc... Any advantage the clone had due to Ares'' own injuries was rapidly fading and, although Ares had just coughed up some more blood after really throwing his back into that last swing, the clone was almost definitely in a worse shape right about now. Throw in the fact that the original, Ares himself, was superior to begin with, and mostly immune to his own magic, and you had a recipe for disaster as the clone''s match was going to spiral out of control as it lost a lot of options in real time.
BANG
The clone fumbled around in its spatial ring to pull out another weapon, this time a set of chakrams, but Ares had been on point with his follow up attack and booted the clone in the chest before it could even realise what hit it. Ares had abandoned the hammer now that he''d gotten what he wanted out of it, and given it a fair shake, so now he was going to swap his own weapon out as well. This time, however, he had let his opponent choose first and now he could pick something that was generally considered to be effective against the clone''s choice in weaponry! As the clone was tumbling away due to the mighty kick, Ares gave his choice some thought and ended up on a weapon that he''d seen used a lot by a certain someone but never quite given a fair shake himself. Ares nodded to himself and whipped out a shield of all things! Enyo was the de facto shield person in Ares'' life and he''d been considering asking her for pointers but he ended up putting it to the back of his already long list of to-do tasks because it wasn''t as immediately important. There was likely no one better suited to teaching Ares how to use one of these things than Enyo but he could only imagine how distracted she would get, wasting precious time that could be used for something else like pressurising his treasures, creating arts, or practicing with weapons he used more frequently.
It''s not that Ares had completely given up on ever learning to use this thing, he might one day seriously need a good shield to cover for his magic''s lacking defensive options, it''s just that he was more concerned with winning the tournament and there were more pressing things he could fix that would yield greater results in the short term... Which was ironic ''cause he was now using a shield in the tournament so his assumptions had been dead wrong. hubris was nibbling him in the ass, currently. His own assuredness that a shield would be irrelevant had come back to bite him in the butt but, in a way, this was fine too. figuring something out from the beginning without outside aid could be a positive sometimes as it meant his style of using the shield wouldn''t be contaminated by Enyo''s ''correctness''. Enyo was very much a by the book shield user but Ares was a revenant and, so, learning such straightforward measures might not even really be useful to him. Of course minor things like the best way to block a head-on attack weren''t a part of that but, as far as using it offensively went, there was room for Ares to experiment somewhat. To put it simply, Ares would have Enyo teach him proper defensive measures but he would explore the offensive side of things at his own leisure right here and now.
He''d picked a shield because it would do good against the chakrams, nullifying the range advantage and forcing the clone to say goodbye to them if he ever dared throw them. Ares would whack them off to the side with the shield and that would be the end of that. The clone was kind of stuck with the chakrams too, as Ares could run down the clone long before he could pull out another weapon, and so it opted to keep the chakrams albeit begrudgingly. It really didn''t want to get smacked by another blunt weapon so letting Ares get close with that shield, while he was wielding these things that couldn''t stop it no matter what he did with them, wasn''t a good idea... But how to stop him? Ares'' shield was pretty bulky and there was no way to get around it without Ares bashing him in the process... It was going to have to be a magic solution otherwise the clone would just keep backing up until it hit a wall and then Ares would do unspeakable things to it in the corner with that giant shield...
Grand Annihilation was the most plausible method of circumnavigating the shield. The art itself would tickle Ares but that wasn''t the goal. One common trick Ares pulled was using the Grand Annihilation as a smokescreen to get up close, and deploy Rox typically but that wasn''t really relevant right now, so the clone was going to try and copy that. Inside the golden mire of tidal-like explosions, the clone would try to ambush Ares from the side and dance around his shield with the chakrams. It wasn''t a solid plan, and a lot could go wrong, but the clone was no longer in a position to be picky and it had to take what little scraps of decent plans it could piece together. It would have to try and rely on impromptu plans and pushing itself to the edge of its talents once more... Whether it could pull that off yet again, and whether Ares would fall for it twice, remained to be seen but the clone wasted no time in chanting the art and making moves. One thing it had learnt about being Ares was that constantly moving was the correct way to use this body. It was like the persistent motion and activity energised his brain, much the same way a hamster on a treadmill could muster up energy, and so maintaining, at bare minimum, a walk was necessary to function at peak performance. Though the clone very much wanted a second or two to analyse the situation, it felt a stronger desire to keep moving. Also, the real Ares did too and he''d been steadily advancing behind his shield even though holding his ground as a valid strategy at the moment. Ares had a decent bit of time still on his hands before Mako woke up and, yet, he was being impatient with a defensive weapon regardless. He had ants perpetually in his pants and couldn''t sit still and that had rubbed off on the clone in a big way. This little duel between them wasn''t quite over but it was ramping up and about to get a whole lot speedier as the clone ran out of options and had to face the real Ares'' directly. Throw in Dominus, waiting to tag in in the wings, and the duel still had some life in it yet despite both participants being deeply wounded in their own way. The staff and the hammer were both gone, replaced now by a shield and chakrams, the both of which Ares had never done more than some preliminary testing with in his downtime. How was he and his clone going to wield these weapons? Not properly, that was for sure, but it would be interesting regardless!