Dominus vs Rocket, start!
This appeared to be a real David vs Goliath type duel here as, as far as the spectators were concerned, Ares was still doing his thing down in the arena. There was currently no distinguishing between Ares and Dominus other than their generally different personas and skill level. To a complete stranger it would look like Ares randomly cranked up his latent talent to eleven for no apparent reason. As such, although Ares had dealt with rockets before, they expected him to struggle here in his current state due to decreasing mana reserves and a weakened body. A single movement was all it took, however, for even the blindest of those amongst the crowd to realise something had changed. It was a simple pivot ''Ares'' performed, giving up on the clone to face the rocket head on, but it was so sharp, fast, and precise that it almost looked like Dominus had been facing that way to begin with and everything prior was just a trick of the imagination. With not even a single muscle twitch Dominus had swerved on his foot and snapped to an entirely new direction like some kind of horror show creature bending its head backwards. Dominus'' entire body performed a rotation on the spot that was mechanical in nature and stopped facing the rocket without even an inch of leeway one way or the other. His turn was neither too long nor too short and it was honestly creepy how accurate his blindingly fast turn had been. Those who blinked in the crowd at the wrong time were still rubbing their eyes even now trying to figure out if someone had spiked their drink...
As for Dominus down in the arena, though he maybe could have gotten away with striking at the clone and escaping the rocket safely afterwards, it was wholly unnecessary. He didn''t need to take such risky measures and could just beat the clone after dealing with this rocket. Mako being awake now or not was irrelevant and Ares had been underestimating Dominus by an amount that wasn''t funny! The only reason Dominus even got hit back during the inner court trials was because he was experimenting! If he wanted to, a fight like that would ne nothing more than a walk in the park and the same was equally true of this one. Not to disrespect Ares but a weakened clone of him stood no chance. Maybe if the clone had been at full power would Dominus have taken a little longer to get the deed done but the deed would most assuredly get done regardless. Only the pagoda clone would whoop the crap out of Dominus but that absurd thing had both Garmr and pressure mastery out the wazoo. Plus there were restrictions in place, regarding weapon usage, that evened the field way too much for Dominus to be effective so it would unfortunately not go his way. Not that it mattered as Ares couldn''t enter the pagoda anymore anyway, at least not directly in a way that allowed Dominus to also enter and take control, that is. Putting his conscience inside a third party, be it living organism or treasure / artifact, would allow him to sneak back in there if he really wanted to, it''s just that Dominus couldn''t steal control of a body or object that wasn''t Ares'' own body so he would be relegated to the side-lines.
As for Ares sneaking in, the pagoda was great at doing what it was supposed to but, realistically, many people were capable of cheating it one way or another if they went all out. In fact, cheating had become a pretty rampant problem for a short while right before the pagoda came down to Sheryashka. Nothing stopped the cheating, per se, other than the fact that these expert cultivators with unfathomable tools to enable cheating in the pagoda couldn''t enter the Primordial barrier and keep trying their luck. As soon as the pagoda returned to the outside world Ares, the clone, and not Mako''s, was going to have to deal with all sorts of dodgy competitors on the regular. Still, he was the champion now so sorting these people out once and for all was his job. If Veteran could do it near endlessly, there was no valid reason for Ares not to be able to. Besides, his pressure mastery and Garmr would basically catapult him to a point that nobody else could reach even if they did cheat. What would they do at most? Enable the use of magic and / or weapons / pets? It was not even remotely enough to put a dent in the fifth floor. All Ares needed was the pagoda''s cultivation averaging rune to function properly, even out the cultivation bases fairly, and he''d do the rest.
Thankfully, that rune averaging rune specifically had the most layers of protection on it and had been engraved so deeply into the pagoda that nobody had ever found a method of cheating it since the pagoda''s inception. Every other rune had been bested in some manner before but that one alone stood the test of time, even before being revamped by Candy. in fact, the only thing Candy did was give it a little update and then copy it in a few other places, she didn''t even add her own rune. Whoever did the original rune really outdid themself so Ares was safe from the one thing that would doom him. He was from a lower domain and only possessed a pitiful cultivation base so 95% of the outside world could wipe the floor with him if such restrictions weren''t in place. Harsh but true. It was undeniable Ares would win fair fights but expecting fairness in the cultivation world... You would probably also have to believe in Santa and the tooth fairy in order to believe in such nonsense... Although Enyo did believe she could enforce such things on a wider scale at one point... Then again, that was more limited in scope as managing Vraizon and Sheryashka wouldn''t actually be impossible. If she tried doing that outside the Primordial barrier though... Even an immortal wouldn''t be able to fix that problem with infinite time on their hands. Criminals and cheats aplenty was an understatement and they infested every inch of every planet of every domain. Accepting it was the only way to move forward, regrettably, and so pagoda Ares was going to have his work cut out for him... Provided he didn''t also cheat! Candy had generously shown him the backdoor way back and could very easily exploit the runes himself if he so desired. He wasn''t going to, because believe it or not there was some integrity in the revenant bastard here and there, but if someone else was cheating first?... Well, Ares'' tolerance had its limits. Being able to use destruction magic with a massively boosted cultivation base? Ares was going to cause very literal shockwaves when the pagoda left this domain... But, hey, if somebody wanted to cheat, why not throw an entire exploding planet at them? Ought to quell the desire to circumnavigate the pagoda a bit when rumours started to spread!
But that was that Ares, not to be confused with this Ares... And by this Ares, that was in reference to the real Ares being controlled by Dominus, the fake Ares, who was squaring off against the other fake Ares, Mako''s clone... Yeah, this was getting out of hand now! No more Ares! The world can only handle so many smug destruction Gods! Ares, AKA Dominus, wasn''t concerned with the Ares plague and was more interested in the rocket coming his way. He didn''t just cast Absolute Reversal for the fun of it, he was very much aware of what using such an art entailed. He would either counter the rocket, or he would get run over by it and dragged across the entire arena before being splattered against the wall... Maybe. He might not outright die to that last part but the body was in rough enough shape that the fight would likely end there. If Dominus'' Reversal was off by even a millimetre that was the fate in store and yet he threw the art out immediately... Ares, internally, was starting to wonder if this, letting this madman take the wheel, was a good idea or not... Dominus had never let him down so far, though, so Ares was going to give him the benefit of the doubt and ignore his child like wonder with the new art he was using.
"HUP" Dominus leant forward and lobbed the scythe at the rocket... For who knows what purpose? There was absolutely no chance the scythe was somehow magically going to beat the rocket on its own so his plans right now were still unknowable. What manner of devious tricks was Dominus plotting? How would he circumvent everyone''s expectations? Uh, well, the truth of the matter was just that he really didn''t wanna wield that thing lest the reaper''s mark potentially show up followed by that fuddy duddy Charon. Dominus didn''t even really like the scythe anyway, and that was looking to be more so Ares'' territory, so he was really just looking for an excuse to get rid of the thing.. Kinda? He wasn''t entirely done with the scythe just yet, and it would play a role a little later, but for now he didn''t need or want it. It wasn''t a completely pointless throw, however, as the scythe did spin perfectly before piercing into the rocket head directly. The tip of the scythe''s blade broke through the forefront of the rocket and just sat there, waiting for whatever fate Dominus had planned out for it.
This attack only led to more confusion amongst the crowd because ''Ares'''' oddly perfect pivot earlier had been followed up an entirely redundant move that accomplished nothing... The Absolute Reversal was still in effect but nobody in their right mind could see where any of this was going as it was a little too late to be pulling a new weapon out now... In other words, this nutjob was planning on taking on the rocket with his bare hands! It made no sense! Only the people who were aware of Dominus'' existence felt comfortable not worrying too much about the outcome because he was just a different breed of cultivator, one who''s machinations went beyond the realm of anything ''normal''. He was the greatest weapon''s master of all time and he was also the greatest, up until now anyway, revenant of all time. That was a bizarre combination that resulted in a lot of unusually effective stupidity so those familiar weren''t really all that surprised by this turn of events. If anything, Sadie and Rox, the latter of whom was sitting on the resurrection platform like a leashed pet waiting for its owner to come back, were paying rapt attention to see what their pseudo master was going to do this time. He always did something ridiculous each and every single time he cropped up and it was looking like the same was true of this Dominus encounter and all.
Dominus stared down the rocket and bit his lip as he focused while slowly lowering his centre of gravity. The rocket came rushing through the arena and eventually arrived right before Dominus who half-slid, half-ducked underneath it. HIs left leg slid away from his body which then had to slink after it, almost like he was moving in an elongated ''u'' shape. How he was able to fit under the rocket without throwing himself to the floor entirely was a mystery and it was a feat that required some serious flexibility which, honestly, Ares didn''t exactly possess.... Ares'' was going to be sore tomorrow, that was for sure, as Dominus had really pushed him harder than was needed here. Anyway, while underneath the rocket, Dominus raised both his hands on either side of it and started doing something incredibly weird. Simply put, he was playing the drums on it... Or more like bongos, actually, as he was rhythmically slapping specific points of the rocket as it flew over him. At first, Ares assumed Dominus was maybe targeting weak points and, by the time the rocket flew past, it would break down due to its foundational structure having been pierced or broken by these taps. That was seemingly wrong though as Dominus wasn''t using Echoes here and so his strikes wouldn''t exactly travel through the outer sheet of metal to affect the rocket''s internal framework.
Despite Ares'' original incorrect guess, it didn''t take him long to figure out what was actually happening and he couldn''t help but sigh. The rocket was turning. Dominus'' taps were slowly, but surely, changing the direction of travel for the rocket and it was beginning to gradually spin clockwise. With every tap, the turning process quickened as the locations of the taps were happening closer and closer to the back of the rocket as it soared over Dominus'' head, giving him more leverage. This was also just the beginning as Dominus started using telekinesis to further alter the flight path and take control of the rocket much like Ares had tried to earlier. Ares'' attempt mostly failed because his cultivation wasn''t high enough and yet Dominus'' attempt, with worse pressure mastery, was succeeding because he was getting physically involved... Show off! Ares felt indignant but he also readily admitted he couldn''t do this. The precision of the slaps on the rocket''s hull were pinpoint and even a single miss could cause a massive deviation, spiralling the rocket out of control and sending it crashing into the floor and crushing anybody under it.
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This was Dominus Absolute Reversal and he was absolutely reversing the direction of the rocket to fire it right back at sender. The rocket had already turned 90 degrees by this point and Dominus was still chasing it from below while shepherding it towards the direction he wanted. This was slow though so, from here, he decided to speed things up by utilising the annihilation enhancement and telekinesis simultaneously to grab the rocket and pull. Dominus reached up, latched onto the rocket, and dragged it rightwards with all his might, just about manging to finish up the turn and launch the rocket before he threw himsel onto his back and kicked out at the rocket with with an outstretched leg and a Stamp Out. These two last measures boosted the speed of the reversed rocket and now Mako was the one who was going to have to deal with it... But he couldn''t! There was no way for him in his groggy state to really do much of anything about this as he could maybe summon a small wall at best right now. It wouldn''t fully block the rocket so it looked like he was going to die here but that wasn''t Dominus'' real goal. The clone was still hanging about, after all!
The clone would sooner throw itself head first into death and blow up alongside the rocket than let its master die because the result was indirectly the same either way. Mako would never die to this rocket but the clone potentially could. Dominus might not even need to attack the Ersatz as it would willing sacrifice itself here... Maybe. It wasn''t impossible for the clone to take the hit and live if it was quick with its repositioning and magic. Not that Dominus cared. He didn''t mind playing with the clone a little more if it wanted to tango. Speaking of the clone, it froze on the spot when it realised what Dominus was doing, making it throw itself headfirst into the line of fire, but immediately started sprinting over to block the rocket by using Double Jump and Echo to boost its speed even though it knew this might wind up being fatal for it. Double Jump and Echo combining wasn''t something Mako had really understood properly when creating the clone but it had seen Ares do something similar enough times to copy it to a satisfactory and usable level.
Annoyingly for the clone, it was still lagging behind the rocket, and it wasn''t going to make it in front at this rate, so he jumped and spun around while raising his palm. "Echo." The clone blasted itself backwards at full power despite how devastating the hit would inevitably be. Its stomach was still partially split open from the major kick it had suffered earlier and the regeneration hadn''t fully sealed everything up. As the clone was blasted through the air its guts opened up once more and the wound was back to being a very real problem. It''s not like the clone had much choice here but it was still aggravating to have finally healed somewhat only to have to forcibly re-injure itself. Meanwhile Ares was healing up just fine as he hadn''t been hit properly in a while. The slash across the chest with the chakrams was the last good hit the clone got and it looked like that might have been the final one it was going to get at this rate too.
Slap.
The clone clapped its hands together on either side of its face and punished himself for being such a pessimistic defeatist. The fight wasn''t over and there was still room here to make a hero play if it looked for an opening hard enough. It wasn''t over until the fat lady sung, as it were, so the clone flipped backwards through the air, landed on the ground, and skidded in a curve to halt in front of the rocket. Staring down the rocket, now that it was the target, was daunting but it still had magic left in the tank and a decent bit of it at that. Ares might not have cared much for the arts, and was barely even touched by them, but this creation magic was a different beast entirely and would be blown away by the clone''s raw power... But there was an issue. Whenever Ares blew up the rockets previously, he was always in a position to dodge the debris afterwards. The clone was extremely close to the rocket and its wounds were pretty severe, hindering it from moving about too wildly, so it was almost definitely getting pelted by metal scraps after it destroyed this thing. It had been tempted to try a Not Even Light, as that might fully eradicate everything without risk, but the clone actually wasn''t sure if it would work. Sure this rocket spawned from creation magic but it was also a physical object, right? Did this thing even count as magic? The clone didn''t want to find out the hard way, which was a wise choice as the rocket was most definitely a very real entity and not just a clump of magic so Not Even Light''s effectiveness would be rather low, so it chanted the all around best art for the job.
"Grand Annihilation."
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
Both the clone and the incoming rocket disappeared in the golden storm that ravaged the arena... Not that the arena was in a great state to begin with. The entire top layer was long gone and only a rocky pit was left. Some parts of the arena were jagged and pointy while others formed depressions in the earth and sunk relatively lower than the rest of the ground nearby. It was a pretty bumpy place to fight in but, on the bright side, it was hard to damage this place any more than it already had been... For now... Ares wasn''t entirely done causing carnage but that was a problem for the C.O to figure out later. Right now, the Grand Annihilation was also doing a pretty good job of causing carnage on the scene as rocket parts flew out of the golden clouds in every which direction, scattering through the air and pelting the edge of the Training Field. The clone must have been hit by some debris as well at this point but whether it was just a few scratches or whether it had its head sliced off was pure chance and couldn''t yet be deduced through the lingering gold.
Dominus was actually hoping the clone lived because he''d had barely gotten any play time thus far! It wanted to use Absolute Reversal some more so he was wishing the clone had miraculous luck right about now and survived otherwise Ares would just kick him out and kill Mako while he was still reeling over in the corner of the arena. Fortunately for Dominus, the Grand Annihilation started to die down and the clone could be seen wobbling but still on its feet. It must have been rough in there but if it was still capable of standing on its two feet then it wasn''t anywhere near as severe a beating as it could have potentially been. At a glance, Dominus saw a bunch of cuts on the clone''s lower half with most of its legs having been torn into without mercy. Multiple chunks of leg were missing and half of one of its feet was flat out gone... To compensate, the clone was doing something even Dominus would hesitate to do because it must have hurt like hell... The clone had shoved a dagger into its foot to act as a replacement bone, enabling it to keep walking around and moving ''properly''... With every step it took the dagger would dig into his flesh and nerves even deep and be excruciating to suffer through... The clone was definitely very dedicated to serving Mako, that was for sure.
Mako really needed to do this loyal clone a solid and remove its susceptibility to pain otherwise it would go through hell and back in the upcoming years doing crazy crap like this all for the elf''s sake. Dominus winced because he would honestly just rather run away from a fight than do that... Then again, he was never great with stuff like this and could actually be squeamish at times. Persistent pain in cruel of brutal forms really bugged Dominus and he hated looking at it, even making him cringe at the mere thought. Part of this stemmed from one miserable injury he suffered once that couldn''t really be regenerated normally. An enemy of his had buried a weapon in his body, something similar to a Stick ''N'' Tick, and left it there. Normally this wouldn''t be a problem, as Dominus could just remove it, but his healing prowess was impeccable by this point in his life and so his flesh just kept regenerating around the spiky object before getting torn into on repeat. It was also hitting part of an organ so it was a never-ending torture in which his insides were reborn only to immediately get shredded over and over. Dominus had to scratch his way through his own body to claw it out and it was not a pleasant experience in the slightest. It was this specific event that led Dominus to learning how to control and or turn off his regeneration on demand even though it seemed like the kind of thing you''d want to have on all the time. It really wasn''t and could be exploited by clever enough opponents. To that end, what the clone was doing right now was ugly! Dominus wanted to hurl because it brought back some atrocious memories that he wanted to forget, thank you very much! This clone was gonna get it! Dominus was in full ''humiliation'' mode and decided to make the clone pay for its transgressions so it walked up to him, looked him dead in the eye, and did something batshit insane.
"Absolute Reversal!"
Firing off some spit at the clone''s foot, Dominus activated the Reversal art and waited patiently for whatever attack the clone wanted to throw at it. The clone could do literally anything, Dominus would win anyway, that was what he was saying through his actions... This was embarrassing... There was no clearer way to make a gap apparent between you and your opponent than to make a stupid move like this and still win. The art didn''t work if Dominus failed his understanding of the attack by even the tiniest of fractions so if the clone could bait Dominus with a sneaky trick or a long string of attacks that Dominus couldn''t keep up with then the clone might even kill him for his unchecked hubris... And yet Dominus just kept staring into the clone''s soulless eyes with an arrogance that was off-putting. despite the ball being so firmly in the clone''s court that it might as well have been rolled over by a cement mixer, the clone was having trouble bringing itself to move in the face of living death. Something about Dominus'' aura was frightening in a way that couldn''t be properly put into words. It was like the clone wasn''t staring down human but rather an infinite armoury made manifest. Like countless thousands of swords, axes, bows, hammers, and every weapon under the sun were all just pointed right at him, waiting for him to even so much as breathe before they all hurtled right at him. It was suffocatingly sharp and imposingly blunt but the clone needed to do something here so it kept things simple. It swallowed its saliva, took a deep breath, and moved an inch forward to throw a punch. Something was very wrong. Dominus had yet to move a muscle but the clone could feel death getting closer and closer the more he committed to the attack, almost as though Dominus was going to kill him while completely stationary somehow... This was wrong, something else was at play here that the clone wasn''t understanding properly so it slowed down its attack and thought backwards until it finally came across an oddity that had yet to be explained...
The scythe!
The clone leapt and staggered backwards just in time to avoid the spinning scythe come crashing down from the sky above it. It had been blown up alongside the rocket and Dominus had stood underneath it, waiting for the clone to fling itself at him and get decapitated by the falling weapon without him needing to lift a finger. Dominus'' Reversal didn''t even involve him, he was just a bystander who''s counter had been launched nearly a whole minute ago when he threw the scythe and lodged it into the rocket. To think the clone almost got done in by such a crafty and embarrassing ambush... It would never have lived it down. Not that it was in the clear just yet as Dominus had merely dissuaded the attack, the follow-up was still yet to come and the clone couldn''t really do much. Throwing itself backwards like this meant it was literally tripping over backwards and Dominus was free to do as he pleased here... And yet, all that came out of this was Dominus decking the clone in the face with a rock solid punch and flooring it. The clone was slightly dazed but, seeing as how Dominus could have killed it there if he wanted to, being alive was something to be thankful for... But the clone didn''t quite get it. Why not just kill it? The answer to that question was clear as can be when Dominus walked up the clone, crouched down by its side with a soft smile, and muttered two truly despicable words as he looked down at it.
"Absolute Reversal..."
This was bullying! The clone was being bullied! Was Dominus mad he hadn''t come up with this art himself and now he was taking it out on the clone?! He was more petty than Ares! It was like an older brother constantly taunting his younger brother as he threw him to the floor repeatedly. Dominus was just going to keep using Reversal on the clone over and over! Bastard! Well, technically the clone still believed it was Ares doing this and was wondering if it had to become this cruel and evil itself down the line... It would rather not! This person was detestable! There was rubbing it in and then there was whatever the hell this was! Absolute Reversal my ass! He was being fucked with!