The entrance for the public, in the form of a cobbled road with lanterns dangling off poles on either side, was near the centre of the coliseum. It led inside the building where people would be sorted into various categories and guided to the appropriate floor, either by signs or by personnel depending on the prestige of the floor. If Ares ever wanted to spectate, this is where he would go. As a member of a squad competing in the nationals, he would probably be allowed into the golden gallery at best. If he could prove he was a revenant, however, he could go straight to the top thanks to his connection to the Umbra Wolves. That, or he could leech off Enyo and Bellona like the gigolo he was as they were members of the Legion clan. Well they were more than just that, they were kin of the patriarch! If they went into the coliseum and announced their presence, people would start bowing and even getting on their hands and knees.
If Enyo wasn''t the righteous type that had no desire to make her life easier via her reputation, she could enter a lot of places normal people couldn''t and receive preferential treatment just about everywhere. She wouldn''t be able to walk the streets normally without people borderline worshipping her as she wasn''t even just a member of the main family, she was the ace of the entire generation. The golden girl, as it were. Enyo''s name was fairly widespread, even in Sheryashka. Not to the extent it was in Vraizon, mind you, but there were definitely people who knew her. Especially in the Grecian lands as that country was essentially a miniature version of the Legion clan if looking strictly at ideals. They were founded upon the idea of ''justice'' and revered law and divine order. Anyone who wanted to join the Legion clan in some form or another started here and worked their way up the chain of command. Enyo was nothing less than a superstar in this country and was called upon occasionally to use her bloodline lie detector to solve any major issues. She was treated with utmost respect whenever she appeared there which was mostly during the internationals of previous years to escape Trew. She was planning on visiting again at some point. Ares had made it clear he was going to be leaving Red Sun to, almost definitely, go to Xasca via the Freeride Federation sometime after the tournament, so maybe Enyo would take Appa, Allie, Leo, and Bellona on a trip. Charity and Gladius could go along too if they were interested. It would be a nice change of pace and scenery and being treated like royalty was nice every now and then. Enyo was also regularly called upon to mete out justice in the streets which she got a massive kick out of. She hadn''t had as many chances as of late to direct her righteous and holy wrath upon evil doers, so the Grecian lands would likely be her next stop. She was a bit jealous of Ares though, as the Freeride Federation was an interesting country to visit. It was a federation of merchants that banded together, buying an astronomical amount of boats which were joined together to form an aquatic country that could move over water. They could freely travel to and from various countries across by travelling across the ocean, conducting trade in one port before leaving for the next, acting as a mercantile hub and a mode of transport for civilians simultaneously. Anyone who owned a business on this mobile country had enough wealth to be allowed into the nobleman''s quarters layer of the Scorched Grounds with no questions asked. The merchants weren''t powerful in their own right, but they had enough money to make sure everyone they hired around them was. It was definitely needed too as the monsters of the deep that the Federation had to deal with were not to be trifled with. As of late, there had even been reports of a gargantuan creature that had been terrorising them and caused the Federation incalculable losses. All in all, it was extremely dangerous as a lot of the creatures that lived in the area had despicable means of attacking the Federation by taking cheap pot shots at them. That was Ares'' problem to deal with though. If anything, he would be the Federation''s biggest danger as, knowing him, he''d probably find a way to sink the entire fleet if left alone for five minutes!
A queue had formed atop the cobbled path as cultivators and ordinary citizens alike waited patiently to get inside the Scorched Grounds. A significantly larger number of spectators would show up for the nationals than the regionals as this was a matter of patriotism! A lot of people believed this was when the competition truly started and only the strongest of cultivators would start appearing, making the matches more enjoyable from the perspective of a spectator. Most people would want to know exactly who was representing their country going forward and just how strong they were. For that reason, people flocked from around the country to take a gander and would usually stay in Red Sun after the nationals until the international rolled around before watching that too and finally taking their leave. There were also a lot of Red Sun inhabitants, but that was self explanatory. Not only were they the hosts, so it was easy to attend for the sake of free entertainment, but they also had serious contenders competing this year! Who wouldn''t want to see the cultivator that produced that massive golden pillar do their city proud?! The third group of people who were present were those that consisted of foreigners who either wanted to get good lodging before things got hectic during the international, or those who were spying on the potential competition in advance. They would then report their findings back to their own country''s participants so they could prepare countermeasures.
Bellona, Allie, Leo, and Appa split off here as they weren''t participating. Thanks to Bellona, they would be able to go to the mostly empty top floor and enjoy the perks of nepotism. They were only really here for Ares, Enyo, and Aejaz so if they ended up not fighting today they would leave early with them. In that case it would be somewhat of waste going to the top floor, but there was also no reason not to. As for the fighters, there was another entrance around the backside of the coliseum. The entrance was a mish mash of all the various styles used in the different layers. It was a bit of a busy design, but the point was supposed to be that all who entered as combatants were equal regardless of their background and that only strength mattered. Li Li and Esme were waiting patiently here and chatting away about this and that. When they noticed the others, they walked over and complained about them not showing up earlier. Enyo just shrugged and said they were enjoying breakfast, to which Li Li and Esme were now more annoyed about not having been invited. Ares was seriously starting to wonder if he should just give up on cultivation and become a chef at this point as the only thing anyone ever wanted out of him was his damn food!
The group of five walked inside and were sent to their respective waiting area. They could faintly see down the hall and outside into the arena where a familiar man with a clipboard was giving a brief introductory speech. It was the same fellow who''d been officiating the regionals. It seemed the organisation he worked for was going to get a bit more mileage out of him before he was replaced at the international by someone who was more well known in the cultivation world. His speech thus far mostly consisted of basic information about the venue and the way in which the event would be run. A green light in the waiting room lit up which was an indicator for the group to head out. As the man with the clipboard introduced the various groups one by one, Ares could hear a string of cheers and a round of applause for each. judging roughly by the timing they would exit the hallway, they would be the sixth group introduced.
Ares and co stepped out of the hallway and were momentarily blinded by the sun overhead. Not only was it cliché, but it was damn annoying. Ares felt like petitioning the organisers to put up some damn sunroofs above the coliseum. The appearance of the Red Sun group garnered the largest number of supporting cries as they made up the biggest bulk of spectators at this stage of the event. Ares'' eye twitched when he heard a couple boos directed at him specifically as he knew exactly why... His damn cultivation again... It had gone up considerably since the regionals, but that meant nothing to the people who weren''t there. There was zero chance anyone who didn''t know any better would associate the golden pillar with him, so they were automatically assuming it was someone else and he was being carried like a new-born in a baby carrier. They were worried his incompetent self would drag the others down. If chucking Shock Beads at the audience members who were yelling the loudest wouldn''t cause problems, Ares would''ve done it by now. Hell, he might''ve even thrown a Perish Wheel as that was what they wanted to see, after all. On the subject of wide range arts, it seemed the arena was just big enough so as not to be swallowed whole by large arts. Both Yggdrasil and Perish Wheel were usable here as it was spacious enough to pull of. Realistically this wouldn''t benefit anyone other than Ares, but it was nice for him nonetheless.
After lining up, Ares took a glance at the other contenders. There wasn''t really much of anything to say about most of the groups here as Central land was an amalgamation in terms of population. Some teams had robos, some had elves or dwarves. Most races that could be found in Sheryashka were typically present in some form in Central land. Still, what Ares was primarily looking for was Dirk''s fiancé. If Dirk''s heart was a rare treasure, then there was a non-zero chance she would bring it for use during the national. If she had it on her person, Aejaz would be able to simplify the issue. Unfortunately, Ares had no descriptions of the woman whatsoever, so he had to give up... Until he noticed Li Li menacingly glaring at one very specific person. The look in Li Li''s eye was similar to that of Charity''s when she was scrutinising Leo and looking for an opportunity to pounce on the creature. It didn''t take Ares long to figure out the woman on the receiving end of the evil-eye was Accelyn, Dirk''s ex. If Li Li''s animosity wasn''t enough of a guarantee, Dirk'' previous spiel about the size of her bust was another huge clue. in one word, it was unreasonable. How that woman fought with them was a miracle. Surely they were inconvenient, no? Whether that was the reason Li Li was getting heated or if it was because she disliked her in general was anyone''s guess. Actually, Ares bizarrely felt a chill down his spine as someone on the top layer of the coliseum was practically staring at his soul and watching his every movement. It was as if someone was trying to make him feel guilty for having even looked at the boob bonanza even though that was clearly not why he was doing it in the first place! He was wrongly accused! Better yet, why did anyone other than Enyo even care anyway?!… Oh, it''s Bellona being jealous... Right.
"Ahhhhh?!?!" Someone in the line-up shrieked and everyone turned to face the culprit... Or more like the victim, actually. Accelyn was hugging herself as her chest had mysteriously shrunk, almost as if it had been halved in size.... Ares whistled to himself because this had nothing do with him. Just because he''d stopped looking, however, didn''t mean Bellona was done with the baggy seductress as she kept halving her assets until Accelyn''s chest could be used as a tarmac runway. Ares kept the thought that Accelyn was still bigger than Bellona even now buried deep in his subconscious for the sake of his own safety. If Bellona could halve the size of body parts, there was basically nothing stopping her from making his little wolf cub downstairs undergo shrinkage when he was least expecting it. Accelyn''s float sacs returned to normal shortly after, much to the relief of the other men standing around. If they were going to have to wait patiently, they might as well enjoy the view... At least that was what they believed until they too had a slight problem with randomly shrinking body parts. A lot of men on the field started fidgeting uncomfortably as they struggled to not let it become apparent they''d been infected with a severe case of baby carrot. Ares began nervous sweating as he stared dead ahead, making every effort possible not to look anywhere other than the wall directly opposite him. He was unaware that Enyo had actually saved him from a similar fate by erecting a barrier in timely fashion. Enyo would be willing to start a deathmatch with Bellona if she''d successfully accomplished her sabotage mission but of course she would never let it get to that point to begin with.
Ares bravely and boldly looked back at the group while avoiding Accelyn. It wasn''t inconcievable he would wind up fighting them so he briefly scouted the opposition. Aside from Accelyn, there were two rock golems, a musclebound human, and an orc. The human was self-explanatory and needed no introduction. The orc might have seemed strange, but just about any creature could become intelligent if their cultivation reached a high enough level or if they were a mutant of some kind. Chief had been close to becoming such an existence and the mimic wasn''t far off either, they just couldn''t speak yet which was because they''d been trapped in a dungeon their whole lives and never had a chance to learn. Although the orc''s wanton man-lust was being kept in check, that didn''t mean the fellow wasn''t looking around and becoming more and more intrigued as he did. His interest was piqued when he saw Aejaz, the pretty boy of Red Sun. Ares decided to ignore the fact that the musclebound human looked like a jealous lover when the orc spotted Aejaz... As for the two golems, the same applied to them as well. They were sentient, and that meant they were good to go as far as the tournament organisers were concerned. Intelligent creatures and monsters weren''t shunned by society, in fact they were welcomed more often than not. Even some of the Gods were such creatures. A good example would be Terros, the God of earth who was a golem not much different to the two in front of Ares. Of course Terros was infinitely more powerful and he''d evolved into a higher being comparatively, but he was still a golem at the end of the day. Another example was one Ares had already seen, Astraeus, a robo! And, although he had yet to actually see head or literal tail of him, the fire God, Ignizz, was a red salamander. One that was apparently obsessed with envisioning himself as, and calling himself, a dragon. The God had a habit of childishly acting like a big dragon in private and for some odd reason he was consistently caught in the middle of the act. Ignizz was, for all intents and purposes, considered the God of disappointments everywhere. The most common reaction to his presence and antics were plain sighs and narrow eyes. That wasn''t to say he wasn''t a God in his own right, though, as his destructive power, when he wasn''t being a moron, was sky-high. In some ways, he was like Ares if Ares was actually as stupid as he pretended to be.
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With his scouting goal achieved, Ares looked away immediately so as not to incur the wrath of the gorilla looking down at him from above. In doing so, he saw the final group of the nationals strutting confidently out of their waiting area.
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Furries!
Where there were creatures of any kind, there were humans to be found chasing after them. One plus one equals two, up is up, and down is down. You don''t need me to tell you what happens after. The result is half-human, half-animal races. There is no general term for these types of people but each individual race does have its own name. In this case, there was a mustelid, a sheep, a shark, a bird, and a Panthera half-human. The race names were mustkin, baa''ki, preds, aevysqualls, and cattian. Again, all of these races could be found more commonly in various lands / countries around Sheryashka, but being able to find them all in one place like this was something that only really ever happened in Central. Or to be more accurate, Bhorashka. Bhorashka was a large portion of land ruled entirely by half-human races such as the ones lining up. Just about any and every race imaginable had copulated with humans at some point and they would all frequently choose to live in Bhorashka as it did a good job fulfilling all the needs of the various species. What made Bhorashka stand out was the sheer number of differing biomes packed into a single area. If you walked in a straight line for a day without pause you could probably come across four or five entirely different habitats ranging from freezing cold to blistering hot and everything in between. Rainforests, lakes, snowscapes, deserts, grassy plains. All of it could be found in Bhorashka. That''s not to say it hadn''t been civilised though. On the contrary, despite remaining close to nature, these areas had all been urbanised, to an extent, and functioned like ordinary cities that people were more than welcome to visit. Although the region was ruled by half-humans, or demi-humans as some people referred to them, they were on friendly terms with humans who were allowed to freely enter their region. There was a striking number of humans who visited with very specific intent and, to that end, sex tourism was normal in the region. It was all above board though and respectable wages were paid even if the work itself wasn''t the most respectable job you could have. Some demi-humans very willingly worked in these places, though, because they had as much of a fetish for humans as humans did for them. Really, these lot were a match made in heaven. It should also be mentioned that there were demi-humans who were not entirely covered in fur, but they were still called demi-humans. Whether they were more visibly human or animal made no difference in that regard and, although all the competitors from Bhorashka were all more visibly animal than human, there were roughly the same number of both types of demi-humans globally. A pretty clean 50-50 split meant that no-matter the preference, it probably existed which was why business in that sector was booming. Roughly 38% of all income earned in Central came from Bhorashka as people would frequently travel from abroad, thanks to the Freeride Federation, to get a taste. To each their own. In many ways, Bhorashka had been forever immortalised as the region of ''culture''.
As for the furry competitors, they were all male and fluffy instead of fleshy, much to the disappointment of certain people in the audience. Of course there were also those that were overjoyed with the selection of, quote, ''eye candy''. The Bhorashka group had become rather famous in their own right amongst various groups of women and certain groups of men. Even the orc seemed to be rather enthused when looking their way. They almost resembled a boy band what with every member filling a different sort of role. Ramsey the Ram was the bulky ''hunk''. Oat the stoat was the slim and handsome devil. Hark the shark was the bad boy of the group with a cocky disposition. Leopold the leopard was the silent type with a piercing stare. And finally, Hawkins the hawk was the mature overseer of the group who was a bit more composed than the rest. Their popularity was notable and any group that knocked them out of the competition would probably have to fear for their lives when in the vicinity of groups of housewives and bratty teens for the foreseeable future.
Now that everyone was present, Mr Clipboard started informing everyone about how the tournament would work. The rules for the matches were the same as the national, so either having a higher number on your timer at the end of the match or killing the entire enemy team was the methods that would give you the win. The format was pretty obvious, three groups would fight three other groups on day one, with one group getting a free ticket to the next round. Finally, the part Ares was curious about, how the automatic win for this round would be decided. He crossed his fingers and Mr Clipboard delivered the good news. The grouping would be randomised and the only group not picked by the end would be exempt. this meant that if Ares'' group wasn''t picked until the final slot was being determined, he could pull off his silly gamble.
Mr Clipboard showed everyone strips of paper with their regions written on them before placing them inside an upside down top hat. Ares briefly wondered if he was going to pull names out of the hat or pigeons. Ironically, Ares was almost on the nose as Mr Clipboard''s magic was related to the hat. Mr Clipboard had a unique aspect that allowed him to summon random treasures that would disappear after being used once. Mr Clipboard was a walking armoury of sorts that fought in wacky, unpredictable ways. Also, the type of hat did make a difference. If he used something like a ten-gallon hat, he would have a higher chance of pulling out treasures like magical lassos or gadgetry in the form of exploding tumbleweeds. Mr Clipboard had originally wanted to be an entertainer but got bogged down in officiary work. He was thinking about quitting some time soon and returning to his passion. Good for him.
Mr Clipboard pulled out the first strip and it was the ''Nomad'' region where Accelyn came from. Mr Clipboard then proceeded to pull out another four strips, none of which were Ares'' group or the Bhorashka lot. In other words, there were two more strips left in the hat and whichever name was pulled out would have to fight while the other could rest today and go do as they pleased. This was the exact scenario Ares had been hoping for and now he was going to initiate his plan!
Ahem
"Excuse me!"
Everyone, from the other groups to the spectators, all looked over at Ares who''d interrupted Mr Clipboard. None of the competitors had any reason to speak up until now so someone opening their mouth and having something to say had been pretty unexpected. As for what development this caped weirdo with a pathetic cultivation base was going for, they could only wait and see.
Mr Clipboard naturally remembered Ares, he was the source of the Perish Wheel so how could he possibly forget? Normally he would have Ares wait until he was finished drawing lots before allowing him to halt the process like this, but he was curious as to what he wanted. "Is something wrong?"
"No, no, not at all!" Ares clapped his hands together and swivelled to face the Bhorashka group. He singled out the ram and internally hoped beyond hoped that the big and dumb stereotype would rear its head here. "Say big fella, surely your not ok with this method of pure chance? Don''t you wanna take fate into your own hands? How about we settle this on our own without relying on those paper slips?"
"..." The ram looked at Ares and internally considered the ramifications of agreeing to this. Not only was it not his decision to make alone, but he didn''t even know how this strange man wanted to settle it. Did he want to fight? Ramsey would like to fight. Ramsey loved the feeling of squishing fleshy things between his muscly arms. Ramsey was a simple oaf. Still, Ramsey knew he wasn''t in charge, so he turned to Hawkins. When Hawkins simply shrugged and said ''do as you wish'', Ramsey faced Ares and asked for more information. "How? Do you want to fight me?"
"Nope. Not that I''d mind, but there''s plenty of fighting to go around over the next few days, so that''s unnecessary and long..." It wouldn''t have taken Ares long to kill this person, not at all. Still, for the sake of not starting a pointless argument and wasting time, he didn''t mention it. "I was thinking something more simple, like rock, paper, scissors, for example. What say you, my furry friend?"
Ramsey had trouble deciding. On one hand this person was undoubtedly strange and untrustworthy. He seemed to be the slippery type like Oat, the type that shouldn''t ever be taken seriously unless you were actively seeking a loos at their hand. On the other hand, the words ''take fate into your own hands'' stirred Ramsey''s soul and he felt like he would regret it if he didn''t take this opportunity. Could he call himself a real man if he backed down here and let luck be the deciding factor instead of earning a result forged by his own two hands? Of course not! "I accept your challenge!"
Challenge? It''s just rock, paper, scissors... I knew he''d take it seriously if I worded it right, but isn''t this guy a bit too much of a muscle-brain? Ah whatever. Ares internally ridiculed the ram but outwardly maintained his friendly demeanour and even encouraged him further. "Good choice! A respectable decision from a respectable person! Tell you what, I''m so moved I''ll even give you an advantage. Both of us will lose an option. I won''t use scissors if you don''t use paper! Because you won''t have paper, I have nothing to gain by getting rid of scissors as it can''t even win any rounds anyway! I would be better off losing something else. This strictly benefits you, but how could I not reward such a manly man?! So, with that settled, let''s get to it, friend!"
Ramsey was lured into Ares'' bait with his honeyed words and stood in front of him with his hands ready to throw a sign. If he had waited even a few more seconds, Hawkins may have been able to run through the permutations of this match that Ares had imposed and realised what was in store for him. Unfortunately, no one in the coliseum had yet figured it out as there were two groups of people, the ones who blindly trusted the kindly Ares, and those who were still figuring out the catch. A couple of people had just now understood it, but it was too late as the first match had already concluded and, predictably, resulted in a rock-on-rock draw... And then the second match resulted in another rock-on-rock draw... And the third... And the fourth... And the fifth...
It was here that Ramsey finally realised what everyone else had. He looked up at Ares in disgust only to see him evilly grinning down at him. "YOU! YOU ARE A FOUL HUMAN! TO RIG THE GAME LIKE THIS IS SHAMEFUL!" And sure enough, everyone in the coliseum agreed with him. The snake-tongued bastard had effectively guaranteed himself a win. Even Enyo and Bellona were flabbergasted Ares could be this scummy. Ares had pulled off something that would cement himself a place in hell if ever he were to travel to the afterlife.
To put it simply, whenever Ramsey threw a sign, it had to be either rock or scissors. When Ares threw a sign it had to be either rock or paper. Ares could never lose if he threw rock because Ramsey didn''t have paper. Rock for Ares was either a draw or a win every single time. Ramsey, on the other hand, could only ever get a draw or a loss out of rock. All it would take for Ares to win is to throw paper on any one of these matches. As for why he hadn''t, he had no obligation to put himself in a position where he could potentially lose. On the flip side, Ramsey''s only chance to win was to guess when Ares would throw paper into his rock and try to throw scissors to counter it. If he guessed wrong, however, he would throw scissors into rock and lose instantly. The onus was on Ramsey to make a move because the longer Ares kept throwing rock, the worse Ramsey''s chances were overall. If Ares threw rock a thousand times for hours on end, he could throw in a paper during any one of those thousand matches. If Ares stood here for weeks, racking up a hundred thousand rock throws only to throw paper at the end, Ramsey''s chances would be 1/100,000 of guessing correctly by the end as Ares could have thrown paper at any point during those matches. Ares could stack his odds infinitely as long as he just kept throwing rock and Ramsey''s chances would just keep getting worse and worse the longer he didn''t do anything. The only way for Ramsey to stop it was to pre-emptively throw scissors early and pray Ares threw paper on that exact match. The trick here was that Ares framed losing scissors as a negative for him when, in reality, it was a positive because it couldn''t win! What was the point of a sign that couldn''t win but could only lose?! Getting rid of it was fantastic, not a disadvantage! Just because Ares said it was a bad thing and worded it in a strange way, that didn''t automatically make it true!
Ramsey''s spirit crumbled and he eventually threw scissors because the longer this went on, the more depressed he became at having been fooled by his treacherous opponent. Ares didn''t throw paper, so he won with trusty old rock. Truthfully, Ares had no intention of ever throwing paper whatsoever. He would throw goddamn rock until the heat death of the universe if he had to. Ares was immortal, Ramsey was not. Ares would be the winner, Ramsey would not.
Ares chuckled to himself as he felt the collective glares of everyone present. Even Appa felt tempted to float down and freeze her naughty father on the spot! Still, it was inarguable that he''d won... ''Fair and square'' to boot. Ramsey had agreed to the rules that were laid out in advance so he had no one other than himself to blame for not figuring out the problem before it was too late. Mr Clipboard smiled wryly as he pulled a name out of the hat for fun, just to see who it would have been. The name was Red Sun, meaning without Ares'' tricky manoeuvre their group would have had to fight today. Ares'' silly game had won his team a day off. Although it was underhanded, Mr Clipboard couldn''t do anything about it even if he wanted to. Instead, Mr Clipboard simply announced Ares as the winner and declared the final matchup. Everyone stared daggers into Ares'' back as he walked away with his arms behind his head, whistling to himself as he swaggered back into the waiting room without a care in the world. His smile widened as a malicious sentence came into his head, one that would surely make everyone crumble before the might of his ignoble self! He turned and smugly looked Ramsey dead in the eyes as he spoke, "Guess you''re off to a rocky start." Ares simply cackled as a hailstorm of boos rained down upon him.