Ares and co entered the encampment and Ares eyed up the competition before deflating in disappointment. The people here weren''t really worth his time. The vibe here was much more energetic though. People were chatting away and getting to know one another. They were all people who''d been contracted by Hans at some point, so most people were on the same page as one another with everyone generally wanting what''s best for Red Sun. There would undoubtedly still be betrayal and competition when things kicked off, but not to the same scale that it would be happening with the other lot. A few people here and there glanced over at the bandit brothers either because they recognised them as such, or because Hans was paying them special attention. Ares and Aejaz were the proverbial big fish so people would naturally keep an eye out on them.
As Ares and Hans were discussing the current state of Red Sun, and occasionally the oddity that was Transmit, an overexcited disciple came tumbling into the encampment. "IT''S OPEN! THE TOMB IS OPEN!"
Hans stood up and took charge, leading everyone calmly to the tomb. Hans and Maro already agreed not to be petty by squirming in a mad dash to get in first. Everyone would start at the same place, at the same time. What happened after that though was fair game. After a five minute walk, both groups appeared at the entrance to the tomb.
Ares stared in disbelief at the entrance... Which was very clearly an elevator! Where was the romance?! Where was the 1000 year old cave entrance?! Where was the deep, dark hole in the ground leading to untold danger?! What was up with this shopping mall looking-ass tomb!? Was he about to go grocery shopping? Was there a self-checkout?! He needed answers damnit! Ares shook his head and cleared his doubts by slapping himself awake. In the end, it didn''t really matter. There was treasure to be had!
Hans took out a golden stopwatch and flipped it open. Inside was a picture of his late daughter, upon seeing which Hans accidentally raised the temperature via Ifrit as he glared at Maro. Hans took a deep breath before speaking up. "In ten seconds you can all scramble as you please. We won''t be intervening, so go wild.
Tick
Tick
Every tick of the stopwatch seemed to sync with the heartbeat of the tense competitors. Every cultivator stared determinedly at the elevator, minus a select few who were interested in Ares'' bounty.
Tick
Tick
Ares activated Omniscience and took stock. Three people were targeting him with magic and two others were probably going to charge him when things kicked off.
Tick
Tick
Ares checked his brother next. Aejaz was blissfully unaware of the animosity directed towards Ares. He seemed ready to run, and boy was he ready to escape if need be. Ares took note of his brother''s posture, in particular the area around his feet.
Tick
Tick
Tick
The last order of business was to formulate a plan. That was honestly probably the easy part. In fact, Ares had already done it. Now it was just a matter of execution, but the Celestial Prisms simplified that nicely via Omniscience. Just before all hell broke loose, Ares couldn''t help but be grateful to the Prisms. They had been doing monumental work for Ares lately and were every bit as powerful as he''d hoped they''d be. Even right now, they were about to make his life a whole lot easier.
Tick
"" Grim Warden./Flash Thunder./ Water Bullet."" All three arts were released sequentially at Ares with the intention of locking him down, stunning him, and finally finishing him off with the Water Bullet. All of the above arts were familiar to Ares so he could tell what they were after and see it all coming from a mile away. Ares stood still with his arms behind his back in a lofty pose as bloody chains burst out from the ground, entangling him in the kind of bondage that Enyo would most definitely appreciate if she were here. The Flash Thunder came crashing down onto Ares location, but failed to hit the guy himself as he had already Shifted out of the mess and was watching the arts hit nothing but thin air from afar. The three cultivators casting arts kissed their teeth and gave up for now, they still had a tomb to enter and if they weren''t able to make it into the elevator before it went down they would have a massive disadvantage compared to everyone else.
As for the two charging at Ares, they''d been bamboozled by his disappearance but veered back towards him after they caught sight of him. Ares had Shifted a little ahead of Aejaz and was watching as the two men caught up to them both. When they were sufficiently near, Ares aimed a flicked Echo... At his brother!
"Eh?!" Aejaz freaked out as the ranged Echo came out and tripped him up by striking his foot as he was running. "Why meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?!"
"Grand Annihilation!"
"EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!" Aejaz thought his brother was truly going off the handle when he heard the art being chanted. He sighed in relief when he looked up and saw Ares aiming it behind him, but couldn''t for the life of him figure out what Ares was doing..."
BOOOOOM BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
The chain explosions engulfed the two cultivators who immediately regretted picking this fight. A part of them, and everyone else here, believed deep down that the rumours had been exaggerated and that the attack launched the other day was done by someone else. Although this art wasn''t to the same scale, it was pretty much confirmation of a truth they really didn''t want to see be proven. One of the two cultivators died somewhere inside the explosions while the other used a life saving treasure to form a barrier and yet, even then, he came out of it poor condition, missing an arm and part of his shoulder.
As for Ares and Aejaz...
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
The explosion had been close enough to sweep Aejaz off his one foot. Aejaz, as he was being whisked into the air, came to the conclusion that his brother was terrible person! Ares had tripped him so he could throw him off balance and send him flying forward via explosive propulsion! Ares himself had also taken a ride on the blast wave and was currently gripping Aejaz by the shirt as he dangled beneath him, screaming as he went sailing over the heads of the other cultivators.
All of the cultivators looked up as they continued racing along toward the elevator, but a few couldn''t help but stop and gawk at the bandit brothers blasting through the air. Ares spread his swings to slow his descent as he neared the elevator while also throwing Aejaz to the floor. Aejaz'' natural, cat like instincts kicked in allowing him to land safely on his feet and take off running... Primarily from his own brother who was the biggest danger to him around. Ares swivelled to face the other cultivators after he landed and brought out the Black Ice Bane.
"Crystalised Void: Tricky Rink!"
Ares dug the tip of the sword into the ground, leaned on it in an exaggerated pose even though it was completely unnecessary, and watched on as Crystalised Void began rapidly spreading across the floor. The Crystalised Void fanned outward and extended far enough to replace everyone else''s footing with an iced floor that was difficult to navigate without falling over. Unlike the wall Ares could also summon, this Crystalised attack contained hints of black and gold under it''s solid exterior. Although it just looked like an annoying obstacle and a minor inconvenience at first glance, this Crystalised Void attack actually took up around 60% of the Black Ice Bane''s state because it was deceptively powerful. Ares smirked as he addressed the cultivators struggling on the ice. "I wouldn''t try to remove the Crystallised floor if I were you, things will get messy if you do! Consider that your one warning!"
The cultivators working under Hans decided to grin and bear it, not messing with the crystals beneath them. There was a slim chance Ares'' threat was just an empty one... But if that earlier explosion was indicative of what could wind up happening to them if they attempted to call a bluff and lost the bet... It was far better to just keep inching forward or, in the case of one skilled cultivator, skate forward with finesse. Plus, they would find out soon enough anyway about the veracity of Ares'' claims as the other encampment seemed to not falter in the face of potential danger. One of the cultivators working under Maro had seriously had enough of the slippery floor so he channelled his mana in preparation to cast Flamethrower and be done with it.
"Bleugh." The man''s plans went to shit as he was skewered by disintegration tendrils that broke out of the floor and impaled him in his upper body. These tendrils were mana-seeking and would aim to disintegrate any and all mana channelled by anyone standing on top of the crystal flooring. The man was shaking as the tendrils retracted under the floor. He looked down at the holes that had been drilled into him and he almost fainted when he saw parts of his inner organs cleanly punctured. The tendrils were made with disintegration magic, so they had obliterated any part of the man they had touched even remotely. If he didn''t seek immediate aid, he would die a dog''s death stumbling on an iced floor. The humiliation of tripping and falling to his death would haunt him in the afterlife, so he sat down and accepted he wasn''t going to make it to the elevator as he began healing himself on the spot with various potions he brought with him. He almost instinctively used some healing magic he knew... Almost... To think he almost got himself skewered again so soon after the previous incident... It would have been even worse this time as he was sitting down and his body mass was clumped together. He shivered in fear as he realised he was this close to having his head popped like a balloon.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
This wasn''t the end of the Tricky Rink''s tricks, though, as another impatient cultivator found out the hard way. Everyone had come to the same conclusion that anything other than mana was a-ok, but the Hans Hire-ees made the wise choice of not acting on that assumption. Ares hadn''t stated not to use magic, he''d said not to try and remove it... And they saw what happened to the last person to not heed his advice, so once again they let the other idiots figure it out for them. As for the woman who thought she was clever by trying to break the floor with her weapon, a mace... Well she had it far worse than the previous fool, and by quite a large margin at that.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The Tricky Rink was also imbued with annihilation magic, as was evident by the explosion that was roughly similar in size to a shock bead that had just engulfed the overconfident woman. If anything, the Tricky Rink explosions were more dangerous than the Shock Beads as they were guaranteed to go off directly next to the cultivator. Weapons only had so much range, and the explosion would be triggered wherever the Rink was struck, so the distance between the explosions point of origin and the cultivator would never be more than a few feet at most. This woman, in particular, had swung almost straight down... There was a pool of blood where she was once stood... But she was alive! Kinda. What had happened was everything below her waist had been blown to smithereens and her upper body had been blasted away, back to the starting point. The pool of blood was the only thing remaining of her legs. Luckily for the woman, she had fainted as soon as the explosion detonated so she was unaware of the bodily harm that had been inflicted on her. Maro kissed his teeth and begrudgingly stabilised her to prevent death. He wasn''t happy about the thought of having to lug this stupid woman back to town. She made her own mistake, so he saw no reason to have to be the one to pay for it, but if he let a civilian die right before him like this there would be an uproar, exacerbated by an opportunistic Hans, that he really didn''t want to deal with. As for what the woman would do when she woke up, her only real option was to travel to Neo Gear land and have prosthetics made for her. They were quite advanced so, if she had the stardust necessary, her life could go still back to normal yet. If she didn''t have the money though, well she was simply screwed. It wasn''t even like she could sell herself off anymore as her lower half was gone... Although maybe there would be people into that, but that was her problem. Next time, if ever there was one, she should learn not to ignore a cultivator far stronger than herself. Or at the very least be smart enough to investigate properly. If she had thrown her mace at the foot of someone else, for example, she would have been in the clear while simultaneously taking out an opponent. Maro had thought of this idea because he was cruel but also because he was experienced with the harsh world of cultivators. The woman had not because she simply didn''t have what it took to be anything other than cannon fodder to people way above her league. It was really just that simple. This world was not one someone could coast by in just by being average, especially not if they got involved in competitions of strength like this as it was where the powerful gathered to further themselves even at the cost of others. Maybe if she had understood her relative position, she could have walked away from this mess or never even been here to begin with. Well, as it would turn out, this woman was born under a lucky star. When the international rolled around, a Legion clan elder would take pity on the wounded, homeless woman, and take her back to his home planet for recovery. As for whether she would still hold a grudge against Ares... Who knows?
Speaking of the devil, he was currently chucking Shock Beads at Maro''s henchmen with an evil sneer on his face.
Boooooooom
Boooooooom
Boooooooom
Cultivator after cultivator was sent flying as Ares'' bombardment rained golden torment upon them. the worst part was that they couldn''t defend themself either! The stupid Tricky Rink would be the death of them if they even bothered to try. One cultivator tried to Blink out of the zone and take Ares by surprise, but as long as Ares Omniscience as up and running, this was a decision that could only ever bring the person a considerable amount of harm because not only...
CRACK
… Was the blink interrupted, mangling the cultivator as his limbs were ruptured; but also because...
SPLAT
… The disintegration tendrils came after the man, running him through and killing him as his body was mid slump. When the tendrils retreated back under the floor, the body collapsed to the ground with a thunk. The interrupted Blink had put the man on death''s door to begin with and throwing the tendrils on top was basically a guaranteed one way ticket to the afterlife. Unfortunately for those in the immediate vicinity, his dead body colliding with the floor triggered another explosion.
Boooooooom
Hans'' employees were sweating buckets as their eyes twitched nervously. They paid the forlorn cries of the other cultivators no mind as they thanked God they were on Hans'' team because the golden devil ahead of them had everyone''s fate in his palm. How they were supposed to get any treasures with this person around was going to be a complicated issue, but their lives were more valuable and they, now at the very least, knew better than to try and fight him for them. They would probably have to resort to indirect methods... But looking at the Shock Beads go flying past their heads was enough of a dissuasion to prevent them from having any funny ideas about backstabbing Ares. As for Maro''s cultivators, some persisted by hanging further back, giving them time to dive out of the way of the Beads. This meant they were never going to make it to the elevator first, but that was a minor setback when compared with, say, death.
Ares, who''d been treating this like nothing more than target practice, slowly realised he was scoring less points with each Bead, so he turned and Shifted over to the elevator. Aejaz was already inside and sitting in the corner, grateful for only having had to put up with the whip earlier as it clearly could have been way worse. Aejaz didn''t put it past his brother to start playing Shock Bead dodgeball with him at some point. Ares looked back outside at the Tricky Rink with a satisfied expression. Even this was really not the optimal use of it as he''d used it in a wide open space. If used in a small room, say, he could really wreak inescapable havoc. A cultivator either had to be extremely mobile, even on ice, or have impeccable defences to not be affected by the rune''s attack. Tricky Rink was very much worth the 60% cost of doing business in the right circumstances. Even if this usage hadn''t been optimal, Ares was mostly just experimenting to see how effective it could be even in unfavourable conditions; and he was pleased with the outcome. He felt particularly empowered when he was just mindlessly, half-heartedly launching Beads at people who could do nothing but squirm before him... Now if only he had an actual, consistent, long ranged attack... Oh the fun he could have.
The mad scramble over the slippery surface came to an end for the cultivators under Hans and they too entered the elevator. Ares poked the button with the downward facing arrow and went to go sit in the corner next to his brother. The other cultivators all simultaneously shimmied off to the other side of the room. Ares hadn''t attacked them, and he''d even patiently waited for them, but there was no telling if he had plans to chuck out another Grand Annihilation in this confined area. The elevator was bigger than a normal one, with enough room to hold roughly 25 people, but it was still nowhere near big enough to flee an explosion of that magnitude.
The elevator''s descent began as the doors closed shut. The atmosphere was tense as everyone kept nervously side eyeing one another. It wasn''t just Ares who could make an attempt to thin the competition at any given moment, so everyone was on full alert. Just as tensions reached a boiling point...
??Du du du, du du dududu ??
Elevator music?... Ares chuckled at the ingenious prank of whoever set up this tomb. I can''t tell if this has made things more or less awkward.
Ding
The doors opened as the elevator came to a halt and everyone madly dashed out of the confined space so they could take some distance from one another. Before everyone took off running deeper into the cave, they had a choice to make. A choice as old as time itself. Left, or right! The left path was lined with fur of some kind, and the right had cobwebs dotted around it. It should comes as no surprise which direction Ares went. Highly likely chance of a cute animal, or spiders... Yeah, there really wasn''t a contest. Ares made a lightning fast decision which everyone else assumed was because he knew something they didn''t, causing a few people to rush after him for all the wrong reasons. Some of these people even overtook Ares who opted to take his time and go through things cautiously. Of course, these fools who thought they were on the easy path were about to come face to face with the kicker. A man with lightweight armour and a dagger in his hand reached the end of the cavernous path which opened up into a grassy area. It was still cavernous overhead, but there was a bit more light thanks to some bulbs that had been installed by whoever created the tomb. The man sprinted into the opening and was immediately blasted horizontally by a tiny, brown creature with white streaks that moved extraordinarily fast. The creature ran away and hid in a nearby bush before anyone could see what it was. Anyone other than Ares, anyway, as his Omniscience had allowed him to identify the little blur. He had no reason to hide the information, so he shared it with the rest of the group. Well, that wasn''t his goal, he was mostly just informing Aejaz who looked like he was about to wet himself.
"As it turns out, the kicker is a ''kicka.'' Ironic, I know."
Aejaz cooled off somewhat when he realised Ares was unphased by the foe at large which meant he was capable of handling it, with room to spare, on his own in a worst case scenario. With that reassurance came curiosity, so he asked a question that, actually, a few of the other cultivators were interested in as well. "What''s a kicka?"
"Hm, it would probably be more accurate to ask what ''kickas'' are as they almost always come in packs. Put simply, they''re a tribe of bunnies with incredibly powerful legs which they use to dive kick opponents after launching themselves into the air. Our rash friend who went charging in, and is now slowly crawling back out, got his ribs kicked in, which should give you an idea of how strong they are. They''re speedy too, so not the easiest enemy to fight, but they become incredibly weak if you can damage their legs at all as it''s basically their only method of combat and mobility tied into one. AOE attacks that cover a wide range tend to be useful against them. As a side note, a group of kickas is called a ''leg day''. That wasn''t the original name, mind you, but a bunch of bodybuilders who deeply respected the kickas suplexed the scientists in charge of naming and, thus, had their own name ''taken into consideration''."
"... I''m not sure that last part is relevant... But remind me to stay away from bodybuilders..."
As Aejaz and Are talked, a confident cultivator, presumably because she was capable of launching wide-ranged magic, tried to enter the open area.
Ares put his hand out in front of her and stopped her dead in her tracks however. "Ah ah ah ah." Ares waggled his finger at the cultivator who frowned deeply at him. "Tsk, don''t give me that look, I''m saving your life here lady! Granted its only because you lot can potentially be useful cannon fodder down the line, but you didn''t hear that from me, ok?" The woman scowled at the mad man who openly admitted to his dastardly plans. "Yeah, yeah, poor little angry you. Anyway, look up." Ares pointed at the ceiling of the open area and everyone else''s'' eyes followed. It''s worth mentioning that Aejaz stole from everyone while their attention was elsewhere, but that''s neither here nor there really. As for the other cultivators, they honestly didn''t know what they were looking at which caused Ares to sigh in exasperation. "The lights, people, the lights. Kickas basically have night vision so either the lights will go off when you start fighting to blind you, or the kickas will destroy them anyway for the same effect. Unless you''ve been eating carrots by the truckload, I would suggest you either come up with a plan, or just let me deal with it. If you pick the former, I will not save your asses when things go pear-shaped. If you pick the latter, I''m keeping everything in that room and killing anyone who disagrees. So go and discuss what you want to do. You can go rabid over potential treasure, or you can cede the opportunity to me and let me grabbit myself."
The cultivators all went off to the side for their discussion, but not before giving Ares the stink eye of the century while groaning in disgust at his stupid puns. Ares couldn''t fathom their behaviour, though. "Those jokes were primo! Don''t get mad at me just ''cos they didn''t tickle your bunny bone!"
A few of the cultivators left to go back down the other path. This one simply wasn''t going to be worth it.