One by one, Ares cracked each of his knuckles. This was entirely pointless because, chances are, he was the only one going to be getting punched here but it set the mood damn it! The unofficial bell was rung when a precariously teetering three legged chair collapsed on the floor, encouraging both fighters by reminding them no amount of damage they could do to the building via their brawl would leave it in a significantly worse state than it was in already.
The air whistled as Veteran dashed up to Ares and threw a punch not dissimilar to the one that had taken him by surprise last time. Ares was more than prepared, however, and could react to it in a timely manner. Whether it was because Ares was aware of the sneak attack ahead of time or because he was able to wield more of his pressure for his enhancement this time around he didn''t know. What he did know though, was that raising both his arms to block was both a great and terrible decision. Yes he stopped the pain train from connecting with his face and making his head spin again but now his arms were cracking under the weight of Veteran''s fist, making it harder to use them going forward. Ares clearly couldn''t go blow for blow with Veteran yet as his pressure enhancement still needed a lot of work so his best option would have been to dodge... If that was even possible against this guy. When Veteran followed up his punch with a kick Ares decided to put his theory to the test by ducking under it and advancing towards Veteran.
Whoosh
The wind pressure Veteran''s kick generated was enough to ruin Ares'' plan as, although the duck had been successful, the sheer force of wind had pushed him down into the ground and immobilised him. Also, calling his dodge ''successful'' was a bit of a stretch because giving Ares a chance to dodge in the first place had clearly been Veteran''s goal from the start. A heavy hit to persuade Ares to dodge followed by an attack that could be dodged but really shouldn''t be had left Ares in his current predicament. He had to put all his strength into lifting his knees just to raise up off the ground and jump over a sweeping kick from Veteran that would have severed his body in two. His right foot was barely caught by the attack, however, and half Ares'' toes were blasted into smithereens, leaving a bloody mess of pulverised flesh in the gap of his torn shoe.
Ares'' wobbly landing as a result of his injury was an open invitation for Veteran to run him down and strike the defenceless Ares so he charged at him while readying his fist to deliver a final blow. Even if Ares could manage to stumble forward and block, all Veteran had to do was deliver his heavy strikes repeatedly until Ares couldn''t muster any more resilience and took the deathblow head on. With his mobility curbed Ares was like a fish on a chopping block to Veteran. So much so that Veteran actually got distracted by thoughts of sushi. He was a human being at the end of the day and so his mind was prone to wondering when his body was on autopilot. The man liked sushi and he''d been stuck in this pagoda, never having eaten anything, for far too long. Accidentally bringing up fish, even if it was just as a simile, was enough to bring back memories of better days... Maybe he could ask this kid to bring him some sushi from outside? Most participants that made it this far were rarely if ever talkative so maybe he could probably get a small favour out of this chatty Ares fellow the next time he came in. He would''ve asked him now but Ares was likely about to die and it was too late to stop it...
...
Actually, it had been a while since Veteran had swung his fist. Originally, when his punch didn''t connect with flesh, he assumed it was because Ares hadn''t thrown up a block in time... Now though Veteran was reconsidering that assumption so he brought himself back to reality and paid attention just in time for a boot to kick him square in the jaw. Veteran''s face barely twitched, and the foot just kind of sat on his face while Veteran came to terms with what was happening, but what remained true no matter how many times Veteran blinked in a bid to annul this bizarre dream was that he had been kicked in the face. Booted in the brain. Toed in the teeth. Punted in the prefrontal cortex. No matter how he worded it Veteran''s face had become intimate with Ares'' shoe. As for how this had happened exactly, Ares'' ''wobbly landing'' had been an intentional ruse from the start to lower Veteran into a false sense of security. The tripping backward motion Ares faked was actually just a way to transition into a roundhouse kick. Normally Veteran would have dealt with this effortlessly but allowing his mind to dwell on other things, less important than the fight at hand, meant this was the second time Ares had hit Veteran during the trial. Unlike the first hit during his first attempt, Ares didn''t have to sacrifice his life to get it either. More than a little mad at having been embarrassed in such a way, even though it was entirely his fault, Veteran grabbed Ares foot and slammed him into the ground off an overhead throw. He tried to step on Ares'' face to return the humiliation but Ares deftly rolled out from under all of the repeated stomp attempts.
To escape this awful situation Ares threw his Stygian Zephyr at Veteran to temporarily blind him, giving Ares a chance to rise to his feet and fend for himself in a better position. Veteran swiped aside the feathered cape but couldn''t find Ares as the tyke had disappeared...
Whoosh
Veteran had sensed an incoming attack from his right and ducked to avoid Ares'' ambush attempt. Back when he threw the Zephyr away, Ares had reattached it to his back, causing it to drag him along off to the side while he was still hiding behind it. Veteran hadn''t just flung away the cape but also Ares too, allowing him to sneak up and launch an attack uncontested. And it didn''t end there either, Ares had copied Veteran''s force of wind trick and the kick that sailed over his head had been a bait from the start! Ares'' couldn''t immobilise Veteran in quite the same way he''d had it done to him but even just slowing Veteran''s movements for a brief window gave him the upper hand for once. His arms were still out of shape from the very first attack and so the power behind Ares'' oncoming punch was hardly impressive to Veteran but what really mattered here was that he had no choice but to take it. The kick to the face had been nothing more than negligence but this punch had been earned the hard way by one-upping him... And it had been earned extremely quickly too. A clean, no strings attached and no sacrifices made, offensive on the second attempt... Maybe Ares was a better combatant than Veteran had given him credit for.
Of course Dominus'' ancient knowledge had a lot to do with this but Ares had inherited a portion of his skill seamlessly. Just because someone had the knowledge of how to do something that didn''t mean they could replicate it without a sweat. Ares was talented in his own right it''s just that it was buried underneath all his gimmes. Dominus and the destruction pillar overshadowed any of Ares'' latent abilities but they did exist! It would take him a while to find a way of showcasing them but, one day, he would. It also happened to coincide with his desire to learn a weapon that Dominus was unfamiliar with, a weapon that Dominus had made an effort to learn a while back but shied away from due to... Certain complications. Namely a very overprotective Grim Reaper who was fond of his position, being a bearer of the reaper''s mark, and actively... Dissuaded anyone who attempted to get good with the scythe. See there was no such thing as a ''scythe exemplar'' because the ''reaper'' technically existed long before the exemplars. It was a position given to anyone with sufficient talent in the weapon and the only way it could be taken was by beating the current reaper in a one-on-one duel. When the reaper wasn''t busy being summoned to various places to kill various targets for various reasons they were typically, actively, chasing down scythe wielders and beating them into submission to prevent them from developing their skills any further. Being a reaper had benefits and so keeping the competition down was extremely common with reapers.
Dominus didn''t even really care for the position all that much but was still ''paid a friendly visit'' by the current reaper who... Well... Kicked the shit out of him before leaving Dominus cut in half on the floor. The reaper threatened to do worse if Dominus ever picked up the scythe again before disappearing to fuck knows where. The reaper was always simultaneously a well-regarded and infamous individual who was considered the pinnacle of scythe mastery. Their duty was for the common good, undeniably, but the tantrums they threw when anyone tried to usurp their position was always legendary. Whatever benefits they received were clearly not small for them to be so overprotective. That or they just really enjoyed being the peak of scythe wielding. Anyway, point being that Dominus took the reaper''s threat very seriously because the guy was, to put it simply, overpowered. His scythe wielding was miraculous and Dominus felt like even he couldn''t catch up to it so wasting his time on it was pointless if it would only bring trouble to his doorstep and nothing else.
Ares, however, was a stubborn mule and learning any of this in the future would not stop him, not even remotely. Even when the ''fight'' between Dominus and the reaper was relayed to him, and the clear difference in strength made apparent, he just wouldn''t give a damn. In fact, if anything, it would just spur him on as that was the kind of person he was. As for how he would beat the reaper and what his plan for that would be exactly... Well he wouldn''t even really have one... And yet, somehow, by a stroke of miraculous luck, that would be the defining factor that pushed Ares over the edge. Ares would go on to wield the scythe in a way no one else ever had, mostly because it was deemed stupid beyond belief, and the strangeness of his techniques would propel him to great heights. Heights attained unassisted by any of his inherent advantages. That was yet to come though and right now he was still fighting for his life inside the pagoda.
His punch landed on Veteran''s one arm and there was no fanfare here. His punch was lacklustre and led to nothing. Ares knew this would happen but he was content with at least this for now. He had hundreds of attempts at this floor yet to come so even something small like this was a win worth celebrating in his head. It meant it was possible to beat this guy! Even if he had to land a thousand of these small hits at his current power level it could theoretically be done. Plus he was passively getting stronger as his pressure enhancement became more and more developed over time anyway so, by the time he reached full strength, it would require considerably less than a thousand strikes to bring Veteran down. Currently he was wielding a little over 20% of his max and he was already capable of forming an offensive, pitiful though the result was. That was a good sign success was a possibility at some point. Of course Veteran had his own ace up his sleeve for a rainy day but eventually Ares would likely be able to overcome that too.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Veteran regained control over the flow of the fight and refrained from carelessly allowing his thoughts to drift away from the battle. He didn''t want to be taken for a fool again so now the fight was steadily looking more and more grim for Ares who was receiving blow after un-contestable blow. Veteran''s strikes were too fast to dodge and too powerful to keep blocking forever so Ares could feel his defence crumbling by the second. He tried to make use of the fact that he had an arm up over his opponent by blocking with one and swinging with the other but that made no change to the current status quo as Veteran was capable of blocking the strike and retaliating in one swift motion. All it did was force Ares to take the brunt of his foes attacks with one arm instead of two, meaning he was mitigating less of the force and sustaining more and more injuries.
Ares took a quick step back and pulled off his Zephyr again to block Veteran''s view. It was a cheap trick and nothing more but it was easy to keep executing thanks to the fact that he could regenerate the cape on demand even if he needed to throw it away. Ares had infinite means to block Veteran''s vision so, while he was still too weak to win head on, he decided to make full use of that as it enabled his tricksy plan of action. If Ares couldn''t overwhelm his opponent directly then underhanded means were next on the list! To that end, when Veteran next saw Ares after swiping away the fathered cape again, and attempted to punch him without quite understanding why Ares'' eyes were now glistening red, Veteran received another boot to the face while Rox was blown up on the spot by Veteran''s punch. Rox, the mimic that had allowed Ares to dupe people for the second time now, would be ok. He was currently standing outside the pagoda and minding his own business until Ares came to pick him up and put him back in the Blade. He''d become rather obedient ever since he realised Dominus would help him ascend and become and powerful creature. Also he was still scared shitless of Ares but that was its own matter. A few of the onlookers were wondering why Ares'' eyes were red now but when Rox bared his giant maw at them everyone turned away and refused to look at the demon spawn any longer. They had a multitude of questions but when Ares, the real one, respawned later and they saw two of him standing side by side, a lot of those questions would be answered... Not that they wouldn''t also have more as a result of this strange situation.
Back in the fifth floor of the pagoda, Veteran was really not happy with the way things had just transpired. Sure he was annoyed about receiving a second kick to the face in a single fight but what he was truly angry about was Ares circumnavigating the rules by bringing out a pet! Yes a pet was neither magic nor a weapon but come on! The rule was implied! Ares had done it because he wanted to get at least one more hit in before he lost, and Veteran knew this, but that didn''t make his scoundrel tactics any less devious! Ares would never have attempted to win like this, and he was really just being annoying, but Veteran couldn''t bring himself to calm down. Clearly he''d been going too easy on this kid up until now and he was starting to feel comfortable making a mockery of him!... Then again, the kid was a revenant... That was par the course really. Veteran had genuinely forgotten how insufferable revenants were, they were always the type to pull stupid stunts like this and then go on smiling without a care in the world. Well this particular revenant wasn''t going to be having a good time for much longer. If Ares was capable of landing a hit more than once then Veteran was going to up his game and put even more pressure on by levelling up his enhancement by a degree. As for why he''d been holding back, this was still a place of learning primarily. His job was to teach people to maximise their efficiency with, and control over, pressure enhancement.
Ares retracted his foot before Veteran could grab it but he was mysteriously teleported out into the hallway... And he seemed to have a mysterious dent in his forehead! Ares knew the answer, he''d been beaten up again! Veteran''s strikes had become considerably faster and Ares had been socked so hard he wasn''t even aware of it until the pain started kicking in across his body. ''Teleported'' into the hallway? Nope, he''d been punched out here. The violence had ramped up and Ares was back on the back foot. There would be no way out of this but still he tried to return to old tricks by pre-emptively tossing his Zephyr at the doorway. If Veteran ran through it he would be blinded yet again and Ares could try his luck with another sneak attack.
BANG
Rather than go through the door, Veteran simply blew a hole through the wall as he''d been expecting Ares blinding trick again. He was one step ahead and that step was being taken on Ares'' face. He''d repaid his debt in full by smacking Ares'' head with his own boot and sending the guy rolling down the staircase with a bloody cranium. Ares was too dazed and disoriented to stop himself and the constant bumping of his head wasn''t making the situation any better. Before his falling body could even come to a halt at the bottom of the flight he was tumbling down he felt Veteran''s foot flatten him against the step he was on. Veteran''s fist was raised high into the air and would come crashing down on Ares'' skull in a matter of seconds but Ares wasn''t going to go quietly into the night! Ares threw out his own punch to block Veteran''s and everything above his wrist exploded on contact.
"AGH!!"
He couldn''t help but yelp in pain as bits of his hand splattered everywhere around him. Still, he wasn''t deterred as he kept forming a blade of pressure on the heel of his foot. He tried digging it into Veteran''s foot but was having difficulty piercing his pressure enhancement. While this was happening Veteran raised his fist again and Ares prepared himself to sacrifice his other fist... What was the point of this futile struggle really? Make a small hole in Veteran''s foot and claim a moral victory? Feel some pride at having made a dent? Yeah, that too. But really the most important thing to Ares right now was practice. He operated well in high stress situations so he wanted to try and overcome his current limits here even if only by a little. It was a great opportunity as death was looming over him and that was the kind of pressure he needed to draw out every last bit of effort hiding within him. He couldn''t increase the amount of pressure he could use as that was a natural process that happened with time but he could improve his control over what he currently had available to him. In the cultivation world every little mattered. Ares threw up his other fist and, once more...
SPLAT
And there went Ares second hand. His fate was decided and it was a grim one at that. Veteran''s fist raised once more but, before he could bring it down and onto Ares head, Veteran felt a small prick in the back of his foot. That small prick became a tiny cut and was progressively becoming a bigger and bigger wound. If Veteran didn''t put Ares out of his misery soon he would have a long gash in his foot with a stream of blood pouring out of it. So, to prevent that, down came Veteran''s fist onto Ares skull. The last thing Ares managed to do before departing from the pagoda was quite clever as he inserted some of his normal pressure into Veteran''s bloodstream. His non-physical pressure was boosted by Dominus'' bloodline and, no matter how incredible Veteran was, he couldn''t resist the rampaging pressure creating a ruckus inside him. Ares was dead and gone but the pressure he''d injected through the last minute wound was still fighting and doing harm, arguably more than Ares himself had done. Veteran could resist the physical attacks as they were weak currently but the pressure was another matter entirely. He was forced to take a seat and remove it all bit by bit otherwise it would keep tormenting him for a considerable amount of time. It wasn''t an issue though as it would be a while before the kid returned because he would have to sit in the queue and wait for hours on end. Actually, Veteran believed the reason Ares took so long to come back between his first and second attempt was because of said queue. Never in his wildest dreams would he imagine Ares casually went back to his house to host a dinner party for his family. Given his misunderstanding, the look of pure shock on his face when he noticed Ares return to the room almost immediately after his beating was pretty self explanatory. Was there no queue? The queue was such a massive problem that the people on floor five, despite not usually being talkative, would occasionally huff and puff while complaining to themselves about the length of the wait. Even someone like Veteran, who''d been stuck inside the pagoda and never seen head or tale of the queue personally, knew how bad it could get just from second hand complaints alone! Why was the kid back?! He had to know... "Ares... How did you get back in here so quickly?"
"Oh that? I have a deal with Transmit. I have ties to the founder of Transmit and they expect me to beat this pagoda so I get a free pass on the queue. Pretty nifty, eh?"
"Uh, sure..."
"Yeah so, in other words, until I kick your ass, you''re gonna be seeing a lot of me."
"Hmph, you sound awfully confident. Don''t think those small hits you''ve been accumulating mean anything. I''m aiding your growth but you''ll hit your limit eventually."
Ares smirked as his cocky attitude reared its head for the first time in a while. "Yeah, maybe, but not before you do."
"Whatever you say kid... Why has your pressure enhancement percentage gone up again? This is the second time I''ve seen it increase... Do you have some of those herbs like the elf kid did?"
"What? No. I only gained the ability to use pressure enhancement shortly before I entered this floor. My body is still playing catch up."
"You''ve only just learnt enhancement?! How much of your total pressure are you using right now?"
"Now? About 21%, close to 22. It should keep increasing for quite a while."
"Only a fifth... How much of your pressure can you use overall?"
"Heh, why so anxious to know ahead of time? Weren''t you confident I would hit my limit soon? Why not keep it a surprise so you can find out for yourself just how much gas I have left in the tank? I''ll give you a hint though, it''s a lot!"
Admittedly, Veteran was a little worried after hearing this... If the kid had upwards of 80% there was a non-zero chance he might actually lose to Ares for real... Even if it was just 80% total pressure Veteran wasn''t convinced he would be able to maintain a 100% win rate against Ares and might slip up during one of their bouts. If it was 85% total pressure then Ares would be able to guarantee cinching a victory at some point. 90% and Veteran would now have real world competition that was equivalent to him. 95% and suddenly Veteran was completely trumped and would no longer be the top dog in town regarding pressure enhancement... 100%.. Was surely impossible so he didn''t even entertain the thought. How utterly preposterous that would be...