"Grand Annihilation."


    Strike while the iron''s hot, as they say. The clone cast the art and flung it directly at Ares'' shield to blind him amidst the rumbling golden cloud that came thundering his way. Ares'' Omniscience could technically see through all of this but he would need to stick his head out from behind the shield and expose it to danger so it wasn''t likely he''d try, giving the clone the freedom to stalk Ares from within the depths of the Grand Annihilation. Of course the clone''s vision was also affected but, as it was his art, it was to a lesser degree and made everything that much more tolerable. Plus, with the heavy shield on his person, Ares wasn''t going anywhere from his starting spot anytime soon. He would just hunker down on the spot and patiently wait out the harsh conditions. As if the universe was trying to prove the clone''s point, he managed to peek around an ebbing explosion and catch a glimpse of Ares'' shield stood upright and unmoving, undaunted by the chaos. Ares was behind it... Wasn''t he? It was impossible to tell from this angle which raised a valid question in the clone''s mind that, if Ares was relatively unaffected by the annihilation arts the clone had available to him, then did Ares really have to hunker behind the shield for safety or could he use it as a distraction to...


    BANG


    The question the clone never got a chance to finish asking himself was answered by the real Ares who dive kicked his head from behind after silently ambushing him. Ares had cast Quietus Edict and snuck around through the Grand Annihilation with ease thanks to both Omniscience and his annihilation mastery which allowed him to detect persons within the range of the explosions. As he wasn''t constraining himself to hiding behind the shield, he had become the hunter and the clone had become the hunted. That''s not to say he wasn''t paying a price for this, as his fresh wounds were opening up further than they already were and he was losing more flesh and blood by the second, but it wasn''t as big a deal as getting kicked in the jaw like the clone had just been. Ares wasn''t able to use any arts, unfortunately, as the flow of mana would have given the game away and revealed him, but the kick was still pretty brutal and packed chock full of annihilation pressure to really lay down the hurt. The clone was blasted away via a kick for the second time this fight and went rocketing out of the Grand Annihilation and blinding speeds. As it rolled away along the floor, Ares went back to his shield and hid behind it to endure the rest of the art in safety. There was no valid reason to stand around and keep getting hit, after all, and he wouldn''t have been able to chase the clone after how hard he hit him anyway. Fighting his way out of the art when he could just patiently wait the remainder of the duration out without suffering any more injuries was the smart decision and Ares was appreciative of the shield''s efforts. Gool ol'' reliable shield! It was being thoroughly battered by the stormy winds generated due to the explosion but Ares had imbued it with mana and so it was handling it well enough. Of course the whole mess was quite rocky for Ares himself who was actually doing most of the heavy lifting here, by anchoring himself with pressure, but the shield was preventing the worsening of his condition and was appreciated for it.


    When the art finally died down, Ares poked his head over the top of the shield like a curious meerkat only to have to duck again immediately as his head was nearly taken clean off by a spinning chakram. The clone had recovered and thrown one of them, predicting Ares raising his head to get a view of the combat zone, to maintain some level of pressure against his opponent despite the loss he just took. The clone had been completely correct in his guess and Ares'' assessment of the situation had been cut short as a result but he did still have enough time to spy the clone running towards him. The clone had shrugged off the kick and barrelled straight back towards Ares in a bid to take him by surprise and it was actually working well. Ares had to be stuck behind the shield, obscuring his vision, while the clone was able to run up to him from his blind spot on the other side of the shield and brandish the remaining chakram. ''Wasting'', if it could even really be called that due to the intentional nature of his earlier discarding, a single chakram to enable gap closing was a wise decision at this point. Forfeiting something was undoubtedly necessary to course correct the clone''s failure and make its last two losses as meaningless as possible. Ares had been read like a book here and successfully pinned down so now it was time for the clone to go back on the attack for once and get his own licks in. It had been far too long since it got a hit in on Ares and it was starting to get a little annoyed much the same way Ares would if the roles had been reversed. Ares was quite a momentum based creature and, regardless of which way the the fight swing, be it in his favour or otherwise, it wasn''t wise to leave him in the depths of ''winning'' or ''losing'' for too long because his overall performance would see a drastic increase either way. When fighting Ares it was much better to just deliver a swift death blow long before he could get into the swing of things as he was particularly great at adapting to opponents over the course of an ongoing fight. Now, of course, this was a difficult ask as Ares was rather hot blooded near the start of a match and would make going toe to toe with him incredibly hard but it was still in his enemy''s best interest to fight back with him and try to seize victory then and there, as soon as possible. Part of why this fight was taking its sweet time was because both Ares and the clone possessed regeneration, sure, but it was also because of these wild swings in who was winning at any given time due to the aforementioned nature. They kept trading the dominant position back and forth and it would take a pretty big shift / mistake in order to decisively swing things one way or the other.


    Ares, stuck behind his shield even though he was aware his opponent was closing in rapidly, tried to use his divine sense to scout his immediate surroundings but was completely denied by a block of physical pressure the clone had put up in front of him. It had expected Ares to try and get a better view, so this was a good move to make, but it didn''t end there either as it had one more sensory trick up its sleeve to aid it in coming out of this shield vs chakram duel as a winner. Ares couldn''t see so, naturally, he would use his enhanced senses to attempt to listen to the clone''s footsteps and deduce his location via those... But they had disappeared for some strange reason! At first, Ares assumed the clone had used Quietus Edict and Ares simply hadn''t heard it but the reality of the situation was a little different... THUD. Ares heard the sound of an incredibly loud footstep directly on the other side of the shield and momentarily panicked. Did the clone Shift nearby? Did it jump to avoid making noise prior to landing right in front of Ares? Did the clone use an Echo to blast itself around and land nearby?! However it had done this, Ares was convinced the clone was no more than a foot or two in front of him and so he instinctively lunged forward with the shield in an attempt to bash him back. Ares wanted space to regain his bearings and so he went for a quick push that wasn''t damaging in anyway but impossible to avoid had the clone truly been where he assumed he was. Ares didn''t manage to get more than halfway through his shield bash before he spied his clone some sauntering around the side of the shield with his chakram at the ready and this was going to be a serious problem.. "Fuck."


    This was the second time Ares cursed aloud this fight after having been fooled into a bad situation but, this time, it was more so directed at the sneaky method rather than the inevitably painful result that was about to hit him hard. What the clone had done was actually rather simple and Ares had figured out the trick the second he saw that one of the clone''s shoes was missing. All the clone had done was stand still, remove his shoe, and toss it to land in front of Ares... Ares then pushed his shield forward, exposing himself from the side, and opening himself up to an opponent who was never where he thought he was to begin with. It was so childish, and required such a minute amount of effort on the clone''s side of things, and yet Ares had fallen for it hard. Having all of his senses restricted was damning but then he was intentionally permitted his hearing back to bait him into a rash decision. It was the same old, ''here''s a way out of your predicament'' spiel that Ares had literally just avoided but the punk clone had done it again! Ares hadn''t expected the clone to revert back to the playbook and try the exact same method two times in a row but maybe that was precisely why it had done it. The clone had smelled blood in the water and called Ares out big time, predicting his unwillingness to believe the clone would just keep repeating its methods over and over until it finally worked. It was sort of like guessing whether a coin would land on heads or tails and, after the coin landed on heads ten times in a row, assuming it couldn''t possibly be heads once more. Now, granted, that was entirely luck based, and it very well might not be heads again, but the fallacy was relevant here as Ares was dumbstruck that the clone could, in fact, just do it again!


    Ares wasn''t sure if he was stupid or if the clone was but this whole situation did not bear resemblance to a high level fight because it was all so pathetically cheesy... Though, in all fairness, that could happen in high level fights sometimes. Both individuals would get tired of pointlessly smacking each other across the face for thousands of years and eventually resort to more absolute means that could instantly win them the fight. Whether or not these means were ''pathetic'' or ''childish'' was irrelevant because they were capable of freeing the expert cultivators from their seemingly never ending grudge match and that was what truly mattered. This situation was no different because the fight had gotten hard to win fair and square, due to their respective injuries, and so Ares and the clone were both keeping an eye out on easy ways to one up their opponent. So what if the clone had to toss his shoe at Ares'' shield? It looked dumb but it worked, didn''t it?! Also, it was a pace changer. So many proper tactics and well-thought out strings of attack only to be interrupted by a muddy boot of all things was impossible to predict. Wackiness could one hundred percent throw someone for a loop in such an otherwise serious duel so the clone had outdone itself here and Ares couldn''t fault it. He was annoyed he fell for it, sure, but he did also respect it down in the silly depths of his revenant heart. Hell, he imagined this was the sort of thing he would do if he ever needed to fight against Enyo so he really couldn''t negatively judge the clone lest he wanted to indirectly incriminate himself at a later date! Ares only wished he could have done this to Enyo at least once before she''d seen it in action. If Ares ever trained against her and she wound up in this scenario too, stuck behind her shield with no vision, then she would be hyper aware of Ares'' tomfoolery because the clone had already revealed the plan to her in full now. Damn spoilsport... Why couldn''t he beat his wife in peace without outside interference?!... Ok, even with context that came across really wrong! Ares needed to work on his language as this was happening a lot lately! Something about being confronted with his own devilishness head on was bringing silly thoughts to the front of his head because he was busy trying to get into his opponent''s head. It''s not that he was unsuccessful, quite the opposite, he was maybe a bit to successful and, now, it was like he was in possession of two Ares brains, both equally as moronic!


    Side-tracked, much? Maybe Ares was trying to distract himself from the fact that he was about to suffer at the hands of  the chakram that was gunning for his neck. Ares would never let the thing slice his throat open but he was going to have to let it have its way with at least some other part him as he retreated to the best of his ability. The chakram came slicing through the air and tore viciously into his upper chest like a rabid dog as Ares threw himself backwards in an attempt to disengage before things got any worse. Ares was able to avoid the chakram piercing his heart but it did cut deep and there was a long line of blood pouring out of him that was quite troublesome. The amount of blood he was losing was only making his whole situation that much worse and there was only so much his regeneration could do before he bit the dust due to blood loss. His regeneration was still in its infancy due to his lacking cultivation but it was important to remember that the clone''s was slightly better than Ares'' and he couldn''t afford to be alternating blows like this. Ares needed to maintain a consistent win streak in their smaller interactions before delivering the death blow with Dominus and this had not been good for him at all. Ares threw the shield lightly into the air, rolled backwards to accommodate his fall onto his rear, and managed to flip back up to a standing position as he caught the shield and charged forward while ignoring the searing pain in his chest. The clone had gotten an attack off but now it was close enough that Ares could run him down like a fearless bull and there was nothing to be done about it. The clone did try to back up and give itself time to think of a way to escape but there really wasn''t any. Nothingness was out of the cards, that had already been proven, and no other form of magic was going to stop Ares in his tracks. The best the clone could do was imbue his chakram with disintegration and slash the shield, denting it and maybe making it unusable if it could tear a hole in it after it hit him, but that was a waste of mana as Ares wasn''t likely going to stick with the shield anyway so the clone just didn''t bother.


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    BANG


    With a running start, Ares leapt spiritedly at his foe and ran him down like a deer in the headlights. Ares had hit the clone so hard he stumbled forward and almost tripped over the floored clone who had been pummelled straight down into the ground. The clone looked dazed and its head was partially split open near the top due to the uncompromising brutality of the shield''s solidity. Ares raised the shield overhead and went to bring it down on the clone''s head but was kicked in the stomach and pushed back slightly. The shield still came down regardless and managed to hit the clone''s knee, doing a solid bit of damage that would have lasting repercussions regarding the clone''s mobility going forward. Shifting wasn''t an option, it had already suffered a pretty bad injury in its stomach, and now this? Ares gave himself shtick for not doing well enough but he''d actually done a fantastic job of setting himself up for victory by chipping away at the clone''s ability to move without hindrance.


    Ares put the shield away, took a few steps back as the clone stood up, and pulled out a weapon that was familiar to all, his scythe... The one he did absolutely nothing with until a flash of light blinded everyone and it suddenly, inexplicably, became the strongest weapon in his arsenal for all of a split second. It was still lost on everyone exactly what Ares had done in that moment, he didn''t even really know himself, but they were a lot more lenient to him pulling out this damn thing again now that there was precedence for him not being a complete dunce with it. Ares wasn''t going to perform that unknown art again, he couldn''t, but he did feel like his ability control the scythe had gone up leagues as a result of his body''s automation during that Timeline Splice. It had been strained to perform movements that real, current Ares was still grasping but had a rough idea of. His future self was teaching his current self by taking the wheel and showing him how to do doughnuts first hand, essentially, and Ares wanted to give this weapon another whirl. He felt more comfortable with this than something like a shield anyway and so it was in line with his two different goals, improve and win. He was a little more wary about not fulfilling that last part which was why this scythe had come out because it had pretty quickly become one of his better weapons overall.


    Ares foundation and fundamentals with the scythe were hastily rushed during the duration of this tournament but his ability to actually swing the thing was top notch and calculated. He could make it work better than other weapons, which was the major point here, and so he was assured in victory no matter what the clone pulled out. The only weapons Ares knew how to use better were swords and knuckle dusters because he''d used them all throughout his child hood when roaming the streets. Ares opted not to bare knuckle brawl often due to his adept trait but he was handy when throwing fists. The clone mimicked his somewhat lacking physical strength, and was sub par when compared to a normal cultivator at his cultivation base, so Ares didn''t fear the clone trying to punch him because it wouldn''t do much. That and the clone didn''t have annihilation enhancement to make up for the lacking strength either so it using no weapons was not a good choice for it at all. As for swords, they wouldn''t do much against a scythe so Ares would be more than happy to see one, or even two, if the clone wanted to pick something comfortable as he would hold the range advantage. Either the clone was going to have to pick something entirely new to try and gain an upper hand or it could pick something it understood at the cost of a major disadvantage...


    Or it could also pick the scythe... Much like it just did... Well, Ares couldn''t deny this was a good option... As far as the clone knew, anyway. They, Ares and the clone, were supposed to be even in terms of mastery, right? Well, no, because Ares had actually undergone the Timeline Splice and his new and improved mastery with the weapon had not yet been displayed to Mako. Ares'' proficiency had jumped up multiple levels since then and the clone would never be able to replicate that in its current state. In other words, this was going to be a one-sided massacre and Ares wasn''t complaining! He had to avoid letting the welling smile out because this was a golden chance and he didn''t want the clone to figure that out before it was too late to regret its decision. All it would take was one clash of their scythes and the clone would know but, by then, it would be too little too late and it would be stuck with the weapon so Ares started the fight quick and didn''t give the clone a chance to change its mind.


    Ares ran towards the clone and tilted sideways as he chucked the scythe forward along the ground with a vertical orientation, rolling it forward as it tore through the arena floor like a spinning whirlwind of death kicking up mud and dirt as it went. The clone had to throw itself sideways to avoid this and it barely managed to stay standing on leg as it steadied itself after the impromptu leap. It hadn''t expected Ares to recklessly abandon his weapon already so that move very nearly caught the clone off guard and ripped his leg off! But now Ares was surely weapon-less and at the perfect range to strike down with a scythe so why had he done this? The clone looked back towards Ares and had to dodge a second dime by ducking down low to avoid another weapon that went soaring through where his neck had been a second earlier, one that the clone had almost forgotten about entirely, the Stygian Zephyr. Ares'' treasure was the real deal but the clone''s was purely aesthetic, and was more likely to get stuck on something than actually be helpful in anyway, so it had nearly slipped the clone''s mind entirely that this thing even existed. Ares hadn''t really used it at all this entire match so to bring it out near the end and almost claim the win via surprise factor had been a rather interesting ploy but not one that worked. The clone had dodged the slung Zephyr and now it was time to... Strike back at Ares? No, no it wasn''t, it was time to dodge again!


    The clone hopped into the air and crouched to raise its legs as high as possible as the scythe came sailing back towards Ares from underneath him. Ares hadn''t aimed at the clone from the start and was catching the fleeing scythe by wrapping the Zephyr around its handle before dragging it back to him. Neither of his first two attacks were the real danger and the clone had nearly been severed in half from behind by this manufactured pincer ambush. If it weren''t for the clone seeing Ares tug on his Zephyr hard he wouldn''t have realised what was happening behind him, by thinking things through from Ares'' perspective, and the fight would be over. The clone was unable to punish Ares throwing his weapon from the start, and trying to attack Ares would have only resulted in its loss, which explained all of his actions up until now and made the clone instantly wary of Ares'' current skill level with the weapon. This was not something the Ares from even five minutes ago would have ever even attempted and, yet, this Ares here and now was pulling it off without breaking a sweat. It had been duped into this scythe duel but, as the clone had to lift his scythe horizontally to block an incoming strike, he didn''t need to be told he couldn''t escape it anymore. The clone got what it wished for like a kid at Christmas but was being ungrateful and trying to return the gift because he wanted it in a different colour. Unfortunately, Ares was going to be strict with this clone and no such leniency would be given. This was a scythe duel and it would not end any other way.


    Ares slashed vertically and, after his strike rebounded off the clone''s block, repositioned himself a few quick steps to the left while repurposing the momentum of his scythe into a cross slash that made the clone''s wrists hurt. The clone had to swap its grip on his scythe just to keep up with the footwork of his true self and it was honestly a tad jealous that Ares was this gifted with the weapon comparatively to itself. Still, there was no time to feel sorry for itself as Ares wasn''t done yet. Ares hopped a step back then slid forward with a rising slash that the clone sidestepped nicely but Ares dug the butt of the scythe into the ground, used it as support to lift himself, and performed a flip kick to payback the clone for doing it to him earlier. The kick connected and Ares had officially kicked his clone in the mouth twice now... This was absurdly humiliating regardless of who came out on top and Ares had definitely won the morale battle off the back of this disrespect alone but he wanted more than just that. He wanted to win the battle and the war so he pressed forward with the scythe held firmly behind the lower end of his spine.


    Ares two arms were leaning back and his hands were gripping the scythe pole from above as he strafed around the clone with a grin. His footwork was doing wonders here as his fleetfooted drifting around the clone was hard to track. The clone didn''t have Omniscience so it fell behind, as Ares'' footwork was so good that even he himself couldn''t follow it without aid from the Celestial Prisms, and Ares preyed on the clone by dashing further in the same direction and out of its vision. He also made an effort to run towards the clone such that the edge of the scythe would rip into the clone as he passed by. Essentially, the scythe had become a passive weapon that damaged his foe just by running past them at the correct angle which his footwork enabled quite easily. Of course this wasn''t his end goal but Ares did leave a nasty gash in the clone just off the back of a simple manoeuvre that wasn''t even all that impressive in the eyes of an average cultivator. Only the experts could see how brilliant Ares'' steps had been in the lead up to this outcome and it was truly admirable. Either way, Ares rushed past the clone''s back with a quick spin, leaving another wound on the clone''s lumber region as he spun once more and flourished the scythe around to cut into the back of the clone''s legs. usually Ares would avoid spinning too much but his movements had been bizarre to say the least and the position of his scythe meant it was typically quicker to turn 180 degrees than to flip the scythe around in his grip and then swing. He''d been holding the scythe behind him this entire time to accommodate his footwork, so light swings behind his back mid turn were considerably faster. Point in case, after he ran past the clone the first time, he was back to back with it so, rather than cumbersomely reposition the scythe in front of him, turn around, and strike slowly, he''d just pointed the scythe backwards in his current grip behind his back and spun clockwise and that was effectively a slash like any other. From there, he was facing the clone''s back with the scythe still behind him so he pushed the scythe firmly into a one handed grip and spun again with a low sweep behind the back that swung back up after into his grip to return to his original position. In short, Ares'' odd movements necessitated a slightly unusual approach but it worked in the end and was definitely not something he would have been good enough to pull of earlier this fight before the Timeline Splice. He was effectively fighting this entire duel, up until now, with the scythe swinging exclusively behind him thanks to his weird grip but his nimbleness had made it a requirement and so he just went with the flow. If he wasn''t considerably better than his opponent this might not have worked as easily as it did, and there would have been pushback, but Ares'' incomprehensible string of attacks served their purpose and left the clone in the dust.


    As for the last strike he''d performed, Ares would have gone for the head, instead of the legs, but the clone had wisely tilted his neck as far away as he could to avoid it. The clone also attempted to dive away to avoid injury entirely but Ares'' quickness didn''t let him do as such without taking a hit first. Ares'' scythe had torn into the back of the clone''s legs and tripped it as blood spurted out everywhere, staining Ares and the ground he walked upon. Ares wanted to give chase and end the fight now if he could, burying his scythe into the fallen clone''s back, but he was forced back when the clone chanted Black Blossom and swung around wildly with the scythe. Black Blossom was still as excellent at controlling space as ever and Ares had to respect it, not challenging it head on because a single mistake would mean Ares wound up on the resurrection platform before he could even blink. The fight was still on but a winner was slowly emerging thanks to the weapon currently resting in both competitor''s hands. It favoured one combatant a lot more than the other and the gap was just going to keep widening the longer they each clung to it. Ares could feel his win coming and he was going to bask in alcohol and good food tonight to celebrate!... Although a slight complication was arising over by the corner of the arena. Ares hadn''t been able to sneak past the clone but that hadn''t really mattered up until now because a certain elf had kindly remained asleep the entire time... Unfortunately, he was stirring now and would become a hindrance again soon so the edge Ares was progressively earning was about to fade away just like that. Looks like Ares was going to need Dominus after all and winning off the back of the scythe play wasn''t in the cards. Still, Ares had two more tricks laid out and they would be the real win clinchers that he relied on. it was nearly time to enact his plans but, first, he wanted to push the clone around a little more and set thins up juuuuust right.