The entirety of the Red Sun team came together to bust through the other members of the Nomad group and end the fight before Accelyn''s poison became problematic. Not that they didn''t have their own trick up their sleeve should it become necessary, but that could come as a surprise for Accelyn later.
The two golems, bricky and rocky, stood tall side by side. ''Tall'' was somewhat of an understatement if anything as these golems were, give or take, 9ft each. Then again, the size and shape of golems varied because their extremities were mostly just visual and not really a part of their actual body. Golems, when it came right down to it, were just sentient cores that could gather things around it to form a body of sorts. Different Golems had different inherent talents and could form their bodies from various materials. Rock was typically the most common building block for your average golems but it could really be just about anything. The stronger the golem, the more material they could control at any given time. In the case of a God like Terros, he could very easily turn himself into a planet if he wanted, maybe even an entire domain if he really pushed himself. Using golems with a high cultivation base as fortresses was a common tactic. As a bonus, golems that were strong enough to be used in this manner were usually sentient, meaning they could also act as somewhat of an automatic defence system by expunging any threats they detected within their walls.
No matter the golem, whatever material they could control aside, they all looked and functioned the same. Their pitch black, round, glassy core could would create shadowy tentacles that ''impaled'' their respective material. The tentacles skewering the material could freely bend and retract instantaneously, allowing the golem to reform itself and change its shape at any given moment. Any golem that had lived long enough knew the trick to getting the most out of this shapeshifting ability wasn''t to create a giant mass of hulking material but, rather, to leave as many gaps as they could without exposing the frail core. The tentacles were formless and couldn''t be damaged by any known means. Magic and weapons alike would just phase through them. To that end, they didn''t need to be protected by clumps of material which would unnecessarily weigh the golem down. Bricky and Rocky were both currently taking on the standard golem shape, which was mostly humanoid, and they were a perfect example. The arms and the legs were made of three clumps of rocks each, but the gaps between each clump meant the golems weren''t bulky, slow, or inflexible. The minor loss of overall power was worth it considering the monumental upsides. There were a few other neat tricks the golems could perform. For instance, by retracting all the tentacles simultaneously, without dropping the materials first, they could form an omnidirectional shield with the materials that were still attached to them. They could also abandon their form entirely and ''sink'' into their respective material. A rock golem could drop all the rocks, retract its tentacles, and phase its core through the rocky floor, move around, and rise up from the ground whilst reforming its rocky exterior as it did so. In short, as long as golems were around their preferred element / material, they were infinitely stronger than they would be otherwise.
As for Bricky and Rocky, their cores floated side by side as numerous tentacles worked at blinding speeds. Their humanoid appearance was disassembled before the discarded rocks were then reused and reassembled to create an even larger humanoid clump of rocks. The golems treated their rocky carapaces as building blocks to build a single, gigantic entity in which both their cores were swimming through the torso freely. When two golems teamed up like this, even if one was defeated, the other could maintain the form and keep fighting. Additionally, the amount of attacks that could be performed at any given time doubled, as evidenced by the four extra limbs that were created by the spare tentacles. One golem core, Bricky, would control the original legs and arms to move and block while the other, Rocky, maintained an overwhelming offensive by wielding four new arms, that were split into two groups and attached to the chest and back, simultaneously. Their coordination would cover the front and back, defence and offense. Throw in some occasional earth magic here and there from both golems and the titan standing in Red Sun''s path was more than capable of holding its own for a prolonged period of time. Chipping away slowly would be the most effective strategy on paper, but actually employing it in this fight would enable Accelyn to have all the time she could ever want to Suffuse her poison.
The Golems eyed up the Red Sun group and assessed Ares to be the biggest, immediate threat. Their defences meant nothing before his gold magic so they targeted him first. Bricky controlled the body, bounding it over to Ares while Rocky wound up a punch with one of the four arms under his control.
Ares, in his infinite wisdom, scratched his head and stood still. Instead of hightailing it out of the way of the charging titan, he spread his arms wide like he was going to attempt the impossible and hug it. Although Ares'' unsettling behaviour confused the golems, they didn''t stop for even a second as they ignored the rest of the team and rushed the clown down. Bricky slid to a halt in front of a non-plussed Ares as Rocky threw a punch that whistled through the air.
Thud
Before the devastating rock fist could pulverise Ares, much to the chagrin of his many haters in the crowd, the fist got stuck on a barrier that refused to budge come hell or highwater. Ares wasn''t the only person here and Enyo was someone that couldn''t just be ignored like this, rather she was someone who you had to get around first. Targeting Ares from the get-go was nonsensical to the extreme. Of course the rationale was understandable, but actually trying to do it in practice was putting the cart before the horse.
Ares sprung off his feet as the barrier disappeared and jumped onto the clump of rock that was shaped like a fist. He hopped onto the next segment and begun his ascent up the titan as the other arms took action. One hand had to block Li Li who came in swinging at the leg to try and collapse the titan while another obstructed Esme''s wind magic. Two more were kept at bay as they waged war against Enyo''s barriers while the final two tackled Ares as he clambered around the titan''s frame.
Ares hopped over the first fist but couldn''t stay his course with the second incoming so he threw himself off the arm he was already on and adjusted his route by aiming towards the titan''s chest. As he fell directly at his target, he brought out his sword and aimed it at a small indent in the carapace. Given that the titan was made out of rock, having a smooth body all over was nigh impossible so, with a bit of finesse and the aid of Omniscience, Ares lined up his thrust. "Gamble!" Utilising another art that hadn''t seen the light of day in a while, Ares struck the titan and lodged his sword into its chest before flinging himself back up towards the head. Using Gamble by embedding his sword into a living creature was completely untested but it worked fantastically as he soared past the arms that had been blocking him and landed on the titan''s head. Bricky tried to sneakily let the head fall off the tentacle so that Ares, who was holding onto to it for dear life, would fall alongside it; but Ares had already seen that trick coming before hand. Sure he''d been clinging to the head, but he''d stabbed his Zephyr into the neck to act as a secondary stabilising point for his balance just in case. Ares raised his sword high, ready to pierce it straight downward by coating the tip in disintegration magic. That alone wouldn''t do much so, on top of that, he circulated annihilation magic through the weapon. With a grunt, Ares brought the sword down and sliced through the neck, burying the sword inside the headless titan. "Grand Annihilation!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
BOOOOOOOOM BOOOOOOOOOM BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM BOOOOOOOOOOOM
BOOOM BOOOOOOOOOM
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Riding the rippling golden airwaves, Ares let the blast throw him off the crumbling titan and into the air where he activated Voidwalk and watched the behemoth continue detonating beneath him. The chain explosions burrowed down into the ground, taking the rocky structure with them as they pummelled the ground, digging straight down into the coliseum floor. Bits of dust, dirt, and rock were blasted around the arena under the deafening booms.
When the golden barrage ceased, only a few traces of the foes remained. Cracked golem core pieces were scattered in the pit the Grand Annihilation had dug out. Ares side eyed the platform and kissed his teeth when he only saw one golem revived and waiting to return to the fight.
As the titan crumbled, both golems escaped into the ground but one must have stayed behind to facilitate the other''s escape. Whichever golem, Bricky or Rocky, stayed back must have used some kind of earth pillar art to buy their teammate enough time to swim away through the floor, thus resulting in the current situation. Ares spun on his heels and searched around with his Omniscience by staring at the floor. As golem cores were basically just balls of mana, Ares could pinpoint the other golem''s location and track it''s escape route. "Aejaz! Get over here and make yourself useful!" Ares called out to his brother who hadn''t done anything during the previous attack on the titan. Part of it was due to the restriction Ares had placed on him not to use his new, secret art, but the other half was because there wasn''t much he could realistically do against a clump of rock. What was he supposed to do exactly? Swing his dagger at it? There was only one option for Aejaz against the golem, but Ares had sent him a mental note asking him not to play his hand just yet in case it was needed later. Fast forward and, sure enough, the perfect chance had come knocking. One of the combination arts that didn''t get shown off yesterday was about to get its five minutes of fame!
Ares put his sword away and brought out the Biome Eagle. He stuck out his tongue as he concentrated hard on aiming his shot before loading the weapon with disintegration mana. "Adaptive shot."
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
CAWWWWWWWWWW
The eagle had returned, this time black as night and filled to the brim with disintegration magic. It left petals behind it as it flew, petals that were identical to those of Black Blossom''s, and its wings oozed black mana. The eagle looked around and, for a split second, wore a disappointed expression after being unable to find Oat. It seemed the eagle had retained its memories from last time and wanted to ''play'' with the stoat again. That or it was just hungry. Ares, the ever eccentric chef he was, wondered if the eagle would like a mustelid pizza... Putting that random thought aside, and apologising to Oat in his head as he very well should, Ares pointed at the floor and followed the golem''s underground movement with his finger. The eagle watched its master with a keen eye and understood the implication of the silent gesturing. It flew higher while tailing the location Ares was pointing out. "Now!" The eagle wasted no time in diving down at the floor even though its prey for the day had yet to emerge; it trusted its master to not be making a fool of it. Besides, if Ares was lying, the eagle was wilful enough to make him pay the price next time he was summoned! That wouldn''t come to pass, however, as the golem burst out of the floor while flicking its tentacles in every which direction to reforge the titan. The golem saw the bird coming straight for it and had to abandon its grand plans in order to defend itself so, instead, it retracted all of its tentacles to create a rocky, spherical shield all around it. Unfortunately for the golem, that action had sealed its fate as the bandit brothers combination art came into play. Standing back to back, Ares created a handful of Shock Beads in his palms as Aejaz clicked his finger and chanted,
"Swap ''N'' Shock!"
In Ares'' palms, the Shock Rocks that were once present had vanished and, in their place, lay a couple of large rocks. There were too many too hold onto so they spilled over and onto the floor, clacking off the ground and rolling around near his feet. These rocks were the very same ones the golem had attempted to defend itself with so, if they were here, and the Shock Beads were gone... Sure enough, the golem was defenceless, surrounded by countless Shock Beads, with the eagle bearing down on it. As the rocks weren''t actually a part of the golem, Aejaz could steal them! This made for a perfect opportunity for Swap ''N'' Shock which allowed Aejaz to steal and replace objects from his victim with Shock Beads, leading to an explosive surprise. Aejaz was usually all take and no give, but this art changed that and gave his victims a consolation prize. Of course that gracious gift would inevitably be short-lived. The Beads hovering around the golem lit up and thrummed as the eagle crashed down into the helpless core, pinning it to the ground within its clutches to prevent the golem from escaping. The golem was in agony as its core melted under the eagle''s disintegrating grip, but the relief from the pain it felt when the bird disappeared wasn''t reassuring, no, it was horrifying because that could only mean one thing...
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
One Shock Bead went off and that kick started all the rest, creating a series of golden domes that enveloped the semi-dead core and finished off the job the eagle started. Ares didn''t even need to check the platform to know he''d done the deed properly this time. His plan was formulated and executed without a fault. Two were down and out and now it was time for the next duo to come up to the plate. As for why the orc and the human hadn''t interfered with the fight up until now, that''s because they had been busy... Deriving sexual pleasure from one another in public... Thankfully nothing truly indecent had happened and there wasn''t any nudity of any kind, but all sorts of improper acts had been taking place further back in the arena. This was a common sight by now in the Nomad region matches though, and it was justifiable thanks to the types of magic the weird duo used so no one could really file a complaint. The spectators had stopped bringing their children to these matches though... As for what it was they were getting up to, each of them had cast a pleasure pillar art on themselves at the start of the match, two arts that could technically scale forever. The orc had cast Sadistic Swelling and the human had cast Masochistic Motivation. The ''make love and war'' aspect arts each provided a different, stacking benefit to the caster as long as they kept fulfilling their role. As long as the orc, Sado, kept whipping the human, his Sadistic Swelling would toughen and enlarge its muscles, making him physically bulkier. As long as the human, Maso, kept allowing himself to be beaten and abused, his Masochistic Motivation would increase his speed and resistance to mental attacks. While the golems acted as a decoy, these two would reap benefits repeatedly until it was their turn to step up and fight, by which point they would have been considerably empowered by their not-so-private session. The orc would stand up front and soak all the hits while the human sped around and poked holes in everyone with his weapon of choice. You would think the roles would be reversed, but clearly they liked to switch it up every now and then.
Under normal circumstances, these two would be more of a threat than the golems... Normally, anyway. They weren''t exactly up against what could be considered a ''normal'' team so their antics weren''t gonna fly here. Ares provided Li Li with some mana and she activated Blockbuster to take on the walking talking pig while Enyo dropped a maze of barriers on the human. Maso tried to scramble through and find an exit, but all he found instead were a bunch of Wind Mines that Esme had been setting up while Ares had dealt with the golems. See, unlike ''we''ll do it live'' Ares, Esme had done her homework and she already knew about these two creeps. She''d sent Enyo a mental message, informing her of where to put up barriers to trap the rodent and force him to run into the Mines. It took all of ten seconds before Maso ran into one and, although he enjoyed the sensation of his flesh tearing in the wind, he wasn''t going to enjoy what came next as he stumbled to the floor, right in front of Ares.
Poke
Ares lightly jabbed Maso with the Black Ice Bane and looked down at him while shrugging his shoulders. "What I''m about to do to you is excessive, but I''m making a name for myself and for Red Sun here, so don''t take it personally. Crystalised Void: Yggdrasil"
CRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCCCKLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
A sight that all the residents of the city, Chen Lo in particular, were familiar with popped into existence to say hello. Anyone with good enough vision could have seen the tree sprout out of Maso''s body and grow bigger, but the process was so unreasonably quick most people would miss it. There were even a few baffled audience members who had the nerve to blink less than a second ago and were now dumbfoundedly staring at a tree that was most definitely not there before. To make it all as trippy as possible, the tree''s leaves and branches extended towards the audience, meaning some people, depending on their floor, had literally blinked and there was now a bevy of golden leaves inches away from their face. Frost rolled off the branches and the dangerous, explosive aura tickled the crowd''s spines. Chen Lo felt like he was having a nightmare. Suddenly, a whole lot of things made sense. Ares, in the span of two days, had gone from annoying, to a problem, to the embodiment of the end of times. Lo was going to have drill it into his clan member''s puny brains that this was do-or-die and that Ares needed to be killed on sight. More than anything Ares was a bag of tricks, each more deadly and ridiculous than the last. What if this wasn''t even his last ace in the hole? As far as Lo was concerned, Ares needed to die as soon as possible. He was honestly tempted to even hire assassins. They would need to be worth their weight in gold if they were going to snoop around without Hans sniffing them out... Lo wasn''t the only person who was unhappy to link Ares to the tree, the mayor was downright fuming. In rage, he snapped the armchair of his seat and nearly lost control, jumping into the arena and killing the brat here and now! It was because of that fork-tongued hooligan his bird suffered a pointless injury, one that Maro couldn''t even heal. Maro conjured images of torturing the bastard to quell the part of him that wanted to leap into action and rip Ares in half. It was a death sentence anyway as the C.O would have his head before he could even blink. That was only part of the issue though as, even if he could succeed and live after, he would be an unrivalled disgrace! Killing a junior cultivator, one who''s representing the city, one with talent, in front of a public audience, mid match, and one who now had directly announced he was tied to the well respected Mr Hans... Career suicide summed up that decision quite nicely. He would never be mayor of this city ever again, that''s for sure. in a way, using Yggdrasil here was a genius ploy that would cement Ares'' status in this city for a good while. Now everyone knew Ares was taking up assassinations that were beneficial to the public... He became that much harder to deal with. At the very least, framing him and putting him on trial would be nigh impossible going forward. It was a shame too, Maro had been considering something of the sort... Although his performance during the tournament would have complicated things... It was in this moment that he had a strikingly similar thought to Chen Lo, the only question that remained was ''who should I hire?'' Maybe these two old morons were born under a lucky star because their prayers for capable assassins would be answered eventually. Whether they''d get exactly what they wanted after hiring them remained to be seen.
Speaking of remains to be seen, Maso''s remains were still frozen within the tree, preventing him from reviving on the platform. Nothingness wasn''t just ''negative space'' but also ''negative time'', so keeping something preserved like this, in a state that was neither living nor dead, was technically possible. This meant that Maso''s ''one minute before returning to the fray'' hadn''t started yet and never would. It was a useful thing to know going forward in case Ares ever wanted to keep a troublesome opponent out of a fight during the tournament.
Ares hadn''t invested much time and effort into experimenting with negative time yet, and he probably wouldn''t for a good while. He had merely peeked at the edges of the field of knowledge and his brain felt like it was melting. It seemed like the kinda thing that was best left for when he had a higher cultivation and was more familiar with the pillar as a whole. The last time he fiddled with negative space he was inside the void and almost broke a timeline, summoning himself from the future? Past? Both? It was honestly hard for a pea brain like Ares to understand a complex thing like time, so to the back of his brain for now it went! Like Ares in the morning after being punished by Appa, negative time had been officially put on ice!
Meanwhile, back on the floor of the arena, Ares was staring at the tree with despair in his beady eyes.... He wanted to blow it up... And Enyo was being mean and not letting him! They still had one more combination art to test / show off and Ares would just win the match if he detonated the tree, so permission had not been granted. Computer says no! Ares trudged along and over to his brother to cast the last combination art. He would do it, but he wouldn''t be happy about it! He had no excuses though. He still had enough mana left as, funnily enough, detonating the tree took a much larger chunk than summoning it. If it had been the other way around, he wouldn''t have had mana to cast any more arts! Curse you mana efficiency, curse you! Ares waved his resentful fist at no one in particular as he and Aejaz walked towards the orc. Ah to hell with this match. Let''s kill this pork pile and get it over and done with. At least I''ll get to finally try using a mental attack on someone... And then I can mess with Accelyn after too... Maybe it''s not so bad after all? As long as I can get a good reaction out of Accelyn, maybe it will all be worth the hassle!