Ares took a few light steps counter-clockwise around the Scylla because he''d just noticed there was a sort of strange tether behind it that led back to where the heart was originally before turning into this clone. He figured that cutting that thing and severing the heart from the body might even just kill the Scylla then and there but naturally it was closely guarded. The Scylla clone kept moving to match Ares'' predatory roaming and stand in front of the tether while the large body swung the monumental glaives to force Ares back if he went too far to either side. He''d been somewhat corralled here and could only really operate freely in a cone directly in front of the heart clone. The body seemed to be aware that it couldn''t hit Ares if it went after him directly so it was choosing to play defence instead which was the correct decision to make. Unfortunately for Ares this meant he was going to have to go to a lot more trouble to take care of this thing but that was fine as he hadn''t expected the Scylla to drop dead so easily anyway.
Ares went for a slow swing with his Black Blossom to see if he could force the Scylla to move but it must have understood Ares'' goal and simply deflected the strike with both glaives. Ares hadn''t made it easy to accomplish but the Scylla wielded both weapons perfectly in sync to guide the attack away from its intended destination, allowing the Scylla to take a single step back and be out of range of the ensuing disintegration blast and the subsequently scattered petals. Ares tried to push this advantage over and over with multiple slow swings, because even a single step mattered if taken repeatedly, but the large Scylla behind the clone breathed some kind of demonic red fire down at Ares, forcing him to retreat unless he wanted to be toasted and roasted, and that avenue was cut off before he''d even had a chance to try it out properly. Ares reverted back to quick and light strikes as he was more likely to gain ground this way without the large body''s interference due to his close proximity to the clone. He swung diagonally down right and the Scylla dodged before snaking back in range and thrusting out with a single glaive, keeping the second one in reserve to fling out once it saw Ares'' next move. Ares sidestepped the first glaive and fired an echo at the hand holding the second while swinging horizontally at the Scylla''s waist. The goal here was to prevent the second glaive from defending while the first was still stretched too far out to block, enabling the horizontal scythe slash to tear into the Scylla''s side freely or nick it even if it tried to retreat. It was a good plan, and a well executed one to boot, but the Scylla did not falter and used pressure to deflect the Echo before blocking the scythe slash. Ares was still in a better position here overall so he threw out three quick attacks sequentially and managed to claim some ground for himself that the large body could do nothing about while the clone was forced backwards.
Out of sheer curiosity, Ares threatened to Shift past the Scylla and make a run for its tether, but before Ares could commit to that plan the large Scylla spewed more fire directly at the end location of the Shift, giving Ares no choice but to close the portal immediately lest he get burned without even going through it. The positions were linked and so that was the main downfall of Shift, compared to a Blink, in that the opponent could attack the end destination before he even arrived and harm him even though it would look like the strike was premature. The upside, however, was that Ares didn''t have to go to the location and strand himself there in order to make something happen from the ending Shift point. As if to prove that, just before Ares cancelled the Shift, he dropped some Shock Beads through the portal and they were hovering behind the unaware Scylla. Ares had expertly hidden them within the fire breath such that they didn''t take the brunt of it and melt but were still decently out of view. Unfortunately the Shock Beads glowed brightly, like a miniature golden sun, before they detonated and so the clone managed to catch sight of that glow coming from behind it and react in time. Not that it''s large body wouldn''t have seen it anyway but having to send the heart clone that message would have bought Ares'' ambushing Beads maybe another second or so to charge up. The Scylla was able to swivel around and cut about five of the seven beads in half whereas it would have only gotten about three had it not been for the Beads giving themselves away. Still this was good and two beads, plus Ares following up on them after, was a nice win that could potentially lead to more if Ares kept up the assault.
BBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Both beads detonated at the exact same time, one to the Scylla'' left and one to its right, smacking it in the ribs and somewhat flattening its already thin body between two encroaching golden domes. Its rib cage was crushed due to the force but that only seemed to barely slow down this thing''s movement down as it came ferociously charging out of the golden explosion domes and swung wildly at where it thought Ares would have been. It knew it couldn''t stay inside the explosion radius, as that would cause it to sustain even more damage and leave it open to attack once they disappeared as it wouldn''t know where Ares was coming from, so it opted to go on the offensive but it was to no avail. As for Ares, he''d expected this non-compliant disobedience and had successfully hidden himself near the edge of the explosions so that he could ambush the over eager Scylla as it rushed out. He dashed out of the domes from behind the Scylla with his Converter active and used Esoteric Compression to further bog down the Scylla. It had been wounded, confused thanks to Ares'' plan to hide and wait, and now this on top so when Ares next struck out at the Scylla it was unsurprising that he managed to finally land a solid, damaging hit. The scythe tore into the Scylla''s already ruined garb and kept going, digging into the bony body and cutting off about a third of this thing''s waist before Ares yanked the scythe back out. That chunk of skeleton fell to the water below as the Scylla clone and body both roared in pain while thrashing about to get Ares off them and create distance. Though it was pathetic it did work because of the sheer amount of space the glaive swinging took up, as there were four of them between the original body and the clone, and so Ares unwillingly retreated a few feet and pulled out his Biome Eagle. He could have used Adaptive Shot here but that wasn''t his goal. The Scylla would stop rampaging soon but he didn''t have time to cast any slow arts, because they''d be blocked or avoided, so he had a very different plan altogether to exploit this mindless attacking from his foe.
"Big Game Hunter."
A spear would take too long to travel, and give the Scylla enough time to see the threat, calm down, and dodge, but a bullet? There was no way it was wrapping its head around this attack at the speed it would be hurtling towards it! Sure a lot of power would be lost, as a bullet did not pack half the power a thrown spear did when a cultivator was the one chucking it, but this was still Big Game Hunter he was using and so the Scylla''s overall size would play a major part here in the surprising effectiveness of this art. The heart clone was small and vulnerable compared to the body it was attached to so predictively this art was going to sting! BANG. The bullet whizzed through the air and the Scylla did eventually understand that it was a threat but it was too little too late. The bullet had already arrived directly in front of its forehead and was about to cause a real problem for it as it kissed the clone''s skull and pierced its mushy brain. The bullet collided with the Scylla''s head and the old blue scan from Big Game Hunter froze time again as it studied its target''s biological makeup. This was the longest pause Ares had ever seen as a result of this art but, then again, this was the largest thing he''d ever used it on so that was fairly self-explanatory. It did eventually finish the scan and the results were glorious because the clone''s head splattered on the spot and offered no resistance to the magically enhanced bullet that tore right through it. Ares had Just been expecting a massive hole and, well, he''d gotten that and then some. This wasn''t lethal necessarily because it was still just a part of the reshaped heart clone, and no one part of it was more important to destroy than any other even if that weren''t true of regular human anatomy that it was mimicking, but it was substantial damage that made the large body rock side to side and rage with fierce screams towards the skies. It looked like Ares had made this thing really mad and he was curious to see what came next. Nothing good, presumptively, but hopefully something he could handle without resorting to drastic measures like the Scylla had done!
While the clone''s head slowly regenerated, the body of the heart clone kept fighting off Ares thanks to the large Scylla''s input. It was staring down at Ares in anger and making sure not to give him ample room to do as he pleased by directing the clone at him without pause. Letting Ares cast arts was a terrible idea, and had led to every single injury the Scylla had sustained during this fight, and could only ever go poorly thanks to the raw power they came attached with. Now that the Scylla had come to this realisation, it was reversing the tide and keeping up the pressure on its end with its dual glaives forging a path. No longer was Ares the pace setter but rather he was along for the ride as the clone ran him down relentlessly, even willing to take small wounds when it overshot on its aggression and Ares exploited the opening from range safely with the scythe. These small cuts must have still been preferable to the Scylla, while it was charging up some kind of attack with its tentacles, compared to anything more significant like the Big Game Hunter it just ate in the face. By pestering Ares it would get hurt, sure, but it would prevent him from running around like the vermin he was and causing untold havoc with that obnoxiously powerful magic of his that either damaged the heart clone or facilitated Ares'' tricky fighting style.
Ares wanted to break free from the clone''s chase but the thing was stuck on him like glue. He thought he might be able to sneak in some damage towards the tether if this kept up but, annoyingly, the clone was still wary of that and had enough room spare to make sure Ares, in his attempts to swipe it, was only really wasting his own time and putting himself further on the backfoot. The bony tentacles had converged once more, and were clearly channelling some kind of unique art, but Ares couldn''t take the time to look at them with his Omniscience and figure it out because this damn clone was demanding his attention constantly! It''s glaives were like prowling twin dragons, lunging at him with the intent to bite his heart out or wrench open his head with their fangs. They twirled through the air gracefully and were in sync with one another to the point they almost melded together like a twin headed dragon instead of two separate entities. Their assault was fast, lethal, and varied as the glaives made sure no angle was left unguarded by Ares lest they catch him slacking and punish him for it by cutting off a limb. Ares was stretched to the limit of his current scythe mastery here in defending against this rampage and so the scythe was deftly twirled to position it exactly was needed over and over again, deflecting and blocking, in that order, to ward off the glaive''s combos comfortably. This just about gave him enough room to recover and do it all over again the next second when the heart clone begun swinging for the fences again. Ares could maintain this defensive stance for a while but there were more important things to be doing in this fight...This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Ares wanted space so he was tempted to throw out a slow swing with Black Blossom but that had failed last time and he didn''t want to get deflected while he was on the defensive as that would be a real problem... And yet he did it anyway! Screw being at a ''disadvantage''! Such an attitude was temporary, victory was eternal! Whether the Scylla thought Ares was being stupid, the dumb smile on his face might have honestly worked its charm, or whether it just assumed Ares was giving up and trying something desperate was unknown but the Scylla paid a lot of attention to what came next in the hopes of catching Ares off guard. It wanted to deflect this swing and rush through the Black Blossom detonation as it would only be off to the side and not really impair it in any way. Once it brute forced its way past the diverted magic, and sustained some small injuries as a result because the explosion was still pretty big and would barely hit it, it would have a clear path to Ares'' completely exposed front while the Scythe was still being flung to the side and wouldn''t be able to return and block in time. This was a way to win the fight so the Scylla raised its glaives to meet the oncoming scythe and it stared at the weapon so hard its eyes would have bled profusely if it were a human. It just needed this one more deflect and the tide of the fight would turn to be overwhelmingly in its favour so the intensity of its stare only doubled as the swing got closer... And closer...
...
...
And yet all of its excitement, that had previously been ramping up, had just hit a brick wall because, moments before the scythe made contact with the glaives, it just stopped! Dead in its tracks, the Scythe halted any and all movement. Ares was no idiot! A fool, certainly, but dumb enough to make a massive mistake like the one the Scylla was hooping for? In its dreams! Ares took to combat like a fish to water so expecting such an easy win was really undersealing Ares'' competency here! In order for Ares to get a big bang out of the Black Blossom, he only had to swing slowly. That was the only requirement. Fully going through with the swing wasn''t needed in the slightest so having the Black Blossom get thrown off course didn''t need to happen either. He could just cut the swing''s momentum early and have the Black Blossom be smaller in size but closer to the Scylla and guaranteed to land. The black tear in reality from the Blossom swelled and burst with a bass-heavy roar, scattering petals over the top of the glaives with a few even landing on the shocked Scylla''s body. This stunt had really taken it by surprise because it didn''t know what to do from here. If it tried to push onwards like it wanted to then Ares'' scythe was in prime position to attack it, plus it would have run headfirst into the Black Blossom anyway as its end point was not deviated.
The large body had been ordering this semi headless clone to keep advancing forward but it hit a wall and lost its composure, resulting in segments of its body fading away into ash after getting thoroughly disintegrated. Before it could get any worse, the Scylla Did finally relent and give up on pursuing Ares, giving him the freedom to look around and take stock of the situation like he wanted to earlier. He glanced over at the bone tentacles with his Omniscience and kissed his teeth. Shit. More clones? It seemed like converting a body part into a clone wasn''t a one-off trick and it could actually be repeated more than once. The bone tentacles could also morph into clones but there would likely be differences. For one, they wouldn''t be half as strong or be controllable to the same degree as the heart clone. Two, the tentacles must take some time to reform and regenerate after otherwise there was no reason for the Scylla not to use this all the time... Unless, 3, doing this meant that the Scylla could no longer use any arts that required the tentacle, I.E the laser beam from earlier. It could retract the heart and fire a laser but, if these tentacles became clones, there would be nothing left to charge the attack with. Basically this was an option it had for dealing with a single pesky foe that was too strong or too nimble to be bothered by large scale attacks that were a result of the tentacles charging up the arts. It was preventing itself from using a wide variety of powerful arts in favour of this...
Despite the negative connotations of using this, as in it was signalling that Ares was a threat it couldn''t handle and it was struggling mightily so had to brute force the fight with raw numbers, and despite all the detriments of giving up the tentacles, it was still a move that troubled Ares greatly. How was he supposed to deal with this? Sure the clones would not have the same glaive mastery the heart clone did but when was Ares supposed to be able to find the time to attack them while he was beset on all sides as is already? The large body, the heart clone, and now another seven or so tentacle clones? It didn''t matter that they were weak, they were annoying... Could he let this happen? No, not at all. He would have to fall back a considerable amount to recuperate if he did but then the chances of this thing running away with the time its clones bought were quite high... In other words, he needed to win now before the tentacles could come out but, again, there was only one real option other than the Canis Stimulant... It felt like this fight was skipping a lot of the middle section, as countless arts had yet to be thrown about, but Ares was really not in a position to keep playing with his thing forever as he had a journey to get back to. Again, if this happened out in the middle of nowhere, with no time constraints, he would have a blast going back and forth with this beast for days on end and slowly ramping up to a climactic finale. As is, though, Ares had a playdate with water pillar enabler destiny and he wasn''t in the mood to miss it. Plus he wanted to arrive in Xasca and go look around for some fine grind blue as Garmr was right around the corner. Ares was expecting to be in bloodline awakening by the time he left Xasca so the sooner he got there, the better! Plus killing this Scylla would give him lots of cultivation as well as a good Converter magic improvement on top of that so Ares took a deep sigh and feigned a half-retreat.
The heart clone was hesitant to chase further as Ares was really going all in on making a run for it right now with Shifts galore. If the clone followed, and Ares snuck around it, the large body would not be close enough to stop him from ravaging the heart tether so this was as far as the clone went. The Scylla was contemplating a retreat but not doing as such the instant Ares left would be the final nail in its coffin. There was a belief deep within the Scylla that it could still maybe win if Ares came back for round two once the tentacles had finished being converted into clones so it had hesitated to turn and leave, and kept charging up the art with the tentacles, but, the second it saw Ares gathering swarms of mana, it knew it had made a grave mistake. It was sincerely hoping right now that it wasn''t too late to flee so it didn''t even wait to see what this golden God was doing before retracting its heart, cancelling the tentacle clone art, turning around, and barging through the ocean with its tentacles acting like makeshift oars to help paddle it away faster. It knew that going deep under the water was pointless, it could still see the crater from the Subjugation earlier after all, so it was banking on the idea that maybe it could escape into the horizon long before Ares finished charging. Ares couldn''t hit what he couldn''t see and / or reach! This was a gambit but the Scylla had no other real options because taking that art, whatever it was, head on was a guaranteed death waiting to happen five times over. Its scale was unlike anything the Subjugation from earlier could ever match up to so the Scylla had ''two'' choices. Run or interrupt the art. If it tried to attack Ares it would have placed itself firmly in range of the Federations'' cannons, after cancelling the tentacle art, giving Ares a massive advantage in the next round of fighting if for no other reason than because of Aejaz'' stolen destruction magic firing at it from the side-lines. Of course the thousands of other cannons would also rack up plenty of damage and so that was a terrible option no matter how the Scylla sliced it... But was running like this any better? The Scylla sure hoped so... Maybe Ares'' art would take too long to charge? An art like that was never going to be fired in less than ten seconds at bare minimum so, for the Scylla, this had really turned into a race against the clock. it didn''t want to die, not again! Bad things happened to it the last time it died as some weird dragon scientist named Sevorus stole its corpse and interfered with its regeneration process, leading to various complications before throwing it down here and abandoning it alongside the rest of his research. The Scylla just wanted to cultivate safely until it could return home and yet it was being bullied by this madman!
Meanwhile, over by Ares, he wasn''t concerned about the Scylla''s attempt at running away. If anything, it was just doing Ares a massive favour. He could not control the blast radius of this art he was readying and if the Scylla had stayed resolutely put he might not have even been able to use this thing without blowing up the entire Federation. As is, the only way to safely throw this monstrosity of magic was, ironically, to chuck it so that if flew over the horizon and detonated somewhere over there. The Scylla''s goal was benefitting Ares more than it was benefitting itself and going deep underwater, though it wouldn''t have saved it, as nothing would at this point, would still be a better outcome for it as it would throw off Ares aim by a wide margin. He would be forced to try and calculate the explosion radius, and only hit the Scylla without damaging the Federation, and, honestly, even with the Omniscience, that was borderline impossible. There was a non-zero chance Ares would have missed if the Scylla stayed close so its fear had driven it into a corner and prompted it to make the wrong decision.
Also, the Scylla not interrupting Ares meant he could calm down and focus on this blasted art so as not to make any crucial mistakes when charging it... Or, rather, charging it wasn''t the issue, it was joining everything together without integrating the pieces incorrectly... And what did that mean, exactly? Well the base of the art was a single Perish Wheel, and Ares had already summoned that, so it was everything that came after that got complicated. Next up, Ares summoned... Another Perish Wheel... Instead of being horizontal, however, this one was vertical and, interestingly, intersecting with the core of the first Wheel. The two cores were being slowly merged via nothingness while the outer disintegration rings were slowly starting to spin. Once Ares felt confident these two had been successfully glued together, he created a third, and then a fourth, and then finally a fifth Perish Wheel with each being somewhat larger than the one previously summoned. Each of the disintegration rings were were spinning in different direction around the bulging annihilation core that was spewing golden liquid everywhere like an unstable experimental blob. The nothingness was doing its darndest to keep everything unified but this was its limit and no more Wheels could be added to this already complex amalgamation. This was the moment of truth so Ares took a deep sigh and lifted the new art high above his head with telekinesis and prayed things wouldn''t go awry here. If it was going to go wrong, the throw is when it would all collapse as the new force Ares put on it would collapse the core structure and result in a catastrophe the likes of which Sheryashka had never seen before. Regardless of whether he was successful or not, this explosion was going to destroy literally everything nearby. Was it the Scylla that was going to go kaboom or the Federation? There was only way to find out so Ares mustered up his resolve and chanted.
"PERISH ARMILLARY!"