Ares vanished from his spot and began Voidwalking up and around the giant Anubis, leaving Aejaz and Sandy behind to figure things out for themselves. Aejaz could steal Ares' aspect affiliations and do whatever he wanted whereas Sandy, who had less options, could prioritise survival if need be. Sandy's lacking mobility, against opponents like this, was a real problem but she had the ability to hide underneath the sand and remain functionally invulnerable if need be. The Anubis didn't really have very many magical attacks so even just turning into her elemental form would render a lot of their aggression moot. Ares was actually less worried about her than Aejaz but was sure they'd both manage in their own way without his input. To be frank, Ares was going to be far too busy dealing with these monsters to spare them any time or attention. He had a lot of work to do and it was pretty clear he would have to do a lot of the heavy lifting here so they were on their own for the most part.
Out of morbid curiosity, Ares swung his scythe at the right-most Anubis' waist after drawing near. He felt like he was striking at a mountain but was curious to see roughly how much pitiful damage he could inflict with a meagre swipe of his weapon. As long as he could break past the flesh, at least, death by a thousand cuts was an option that would remain as reliable as ever. He didn't much care if he had to turn these Anubis into leaky blood fountains after countless hours of gruelling persistence, Ares was winning this fight one way or another. Thankfully his scythe tore through the Anubis with relative ease and he was relieved to know they were large but not necessarily tough as nails. It's not like they were made of paper mache or anything but if Ares couldn't even wound them like this with his disintegration he would give up and take a Canis Stimulant on the spot. As that wasn't the case, and he'd opened up a metre long gash, give or take, he resolved himself to win this fight in human form through blood, sweat, and tears. Preferably more of the latter two than the former but beggars couldn't be choosers, definitely not in a situation like this at least.
Being bitten by a gnat was the rough sensation the Anubis just felt after Ares' attack. It wasn't pleasant but was it as lethal as it would have been for a normal person or monster? Not even remotely! Another hundred of those and the Anubis might have felt a slight tickle! Not that they were going to idle around and let him do as he pleased, though, as the Anubis raised its hand skyward and a cane materialised between his splayed fingers on his open palm. The Anubis shut its hand around its weapon, while its brother did the same off to the side, and brought the tip of it tumbling down towards Ares like it was trying to crush an ant. The speed at which the cane fell wasn't anything too worrisome but it was definitely far faster than anything of this size should realistically have ever been able to move. Ares had expected more sluggishness out of the Anubis but they were annoyingly faster than he'd anticipated. Still, Ares was able to Shift harmlessly out of the way of the strike and stay clear...
Or so Ares thought but the cane that missed him struck into the ground below and kicked up a sand tornado that nearly dragged Ares out of the sky with the force of its rotational pull beneath him. He reacted in time, however, and sliced it in two with his weapon before Voidwalking away from his currents spot to avoid a hologram that nearly crept up on him from behind. It seemed that, at bare minimum, the Anubis could summon smaller holograms that were similar in size to what Ares dealt with last time. So about ten to twelve foot tall on average seemed like a good rough estimate. They could likely summon giant ones too but not often so they were resorting to more reasonable sized holograms to pester Ares with and force an opening they could capitalise on with their bigger guns later. As for where the hologram just came from, it seemed to have been flung out from within the side of the cane. Long story short, as long as Ares stayed away from the Anubis' weapon he might not have to even deal with the holograms. The Anubis were more powerful but, in turn, the holograms couldn't be summoned at Ares' position freely. Plus the holograms couldn't fly so once their initial burst of speed after being flung wore off, and gravity begun collecting debts, they disappeared on the spot instead of aimlessly flailing and falling to the ground. Moving in the air was also not possible so these holograms, while still very annoying, were not quite as powerful as the grounded ones were. It was a trade off but one that seemed very worth it given the size of the Anubis and their own individual power having gone up considerably. it's not like the regular holograms had phased Ares too much before anyway so prioritising other weapons and means was beneficial for the Anubis overall. Ares didn't really want to see how big their sound waves of magic nullification, lasers, and nano scarabs were in this form as they'd likely become the real problematic tools from now on... Though that wasn't to say the big hologram they had tucked away wouldn't be equally fearful whenever it finally saw the light of day. Ares had to be careful and keep an eye out, basically, but in that regard what else was new?
"Echo." With a light tap to his own stomach, Ares sent himself barreling away from the cane to put himself firmly out of range of it. The cane itself was maybe too slow to hit Ares itself, for the most part unless Ares was cornered into it, so both Ares and the Anubis were treating it as a hologram spawner at best and manoeuvring around it accordingly. The Anubis was raising the staff to swing it horizontally towards Ares, as it would give him less room to dodge it than a vertical poke again, but Ares was aiming to blast himself around the monster's waist and prevent this by hiding out of reach. Ares' decision was smarter, as the Anubis would take a while to turn and swing given the immensity of its form, so his snap decision making won him this round of strategizing and the Anubis wasted its own time. He couldn't avoid the cane forever but by Echoing himself to safety he could avoid it for now and inflict some more damage uninterrupted. He grinded his scythe through the Anubis waist as he traversed around it and, even if he was only 1% of the way to felling even a single one of these mutts, he would take whatever he could get. Besides, his other weapons were about to start causing mayhem and buy him more time.
While Ares activated Black Blossom and went to town down below, the three war aura flags had risen up to face the jackal head and were rotating in a triangular pattern in front of its eyes. They were looking to clump together and spiral at the Anubis' retina, drilling into it and blinding the dog to make Ares' life easier. They had some autonomy over their actions, and their intelligence increased alongside Ares' power and control over them, so they were making a fairly good choice here. Plus they even had their own plan to go about achieving it so the three flags combined into one thick bundle of sharp-tipped poles and flew forward at blistering speeds. The Anubis scoffed and blew through its mouth, summoning an impromptu gale that was plenty strong enough to knock away the flags and send them flying off course. This never happened, however, as the fabric of the flags wrapped around one another and spat out a large red pair of hands that emerged with a CLAP. The two connected void hands generated their own blast of air that counteracted the Anubis', splitting the air asunder and opening a breezy path for the flags to barrel down with nary a concern.
It looked like the flag triplets were going to find success but they were forced to retreat by the other Anubis' hand which came charging over with the intent of crushing the flags. They could probably resist the strike and survive but if the hand was going to prevent them from achieving their goal regardless then sustaining damage pointlessly wasn't worth it. There was a brief 'discussion' held by the three of them about talking the hand itself, as destroying a hand would also be beneficial, but they figured there was more important targets for them to be aiming at. They were swift, lethal, and had plenty options. Constantly threatening to poke out an eye, pierce through the brain, or make holes in the throats of these dogs was extremely good as is. If nothing else, even if they couldn't accomplish any of these goals, they were distracting the Anubis from the real threat, Ares, and so they served a better purpose alive than destroyed. There was a very real chance this fight took a lot longer than five minutes, though, so Ares could resummon these flags multiple times if need be throughout the duration of the fight which very well might end up taking hours. Suicide bombing important targets wasn't entirely out of the cards but there was no need to resort to that so early in the fight when everyone was still getting a feeler for how things were playing out across the board.
"Perish Wheel..." A rather unenthusiastic Aejaz had snuck off to the side, stood atop a small hill, and charged up a stolen art from his brother to try and tackle the Anubis' feet. Toppling the monsters by wearing away at their shins and toes was Aejaz' plan of action for a multitude of reasons, the main one being that it was, for the most part, safer than being anywhere else. The mid section, near where Ares was duking it out, was bound to be where all the firepower was heavily concentrated so being anywhere near that splash zone was definitely a bad idea. Up near the heads would leave Aejaz feeling mighty uncomfortable as he was stared down by the Anubis and he would feel on edge all the time, never more than a few seconds away form one of them going feral and trying to eat him like he was some kind of humanoid snack. Plus the flags were a considerable threat to the Anubis too so it's not like the Anubis would completely ignore them, Even if not to the same degree as where Ares was, there would be carnage up there higher in the sky too! Down here, however, all Aejaz had to do was not get stepped on, keep an eye out for falling canes and relocate to avoid them... And that was it, actually. It was a pretty cushty job and he was content to be as uninvolved as was humanly possible. It's not like his work was meaningless either as tripping up one of the Anubis, while disastrous for the environment after it fell, would allow Ares to do some big damage to it. As soon as one Anubis was killed this fight would become a lot more manageable so a sneaky and underhanded method like this was right up Aejaz' alley, part of his forte, and well suited to his personality and preferences. Long story short, if anyone needed this cowardly assassin, down near the floor and somewhat away from battlefield taking potshots was where he could be found, and what he could be found doing, going forward.
Then there was Sandy. Being in the transition realm meant flight was possible but probably not wise or recommended. She was decently quick at flying through the air but making snap adjustments on the fly, to avoid the wayward canes, was a bit tough. She chose to fly around near the waist area of the Anubis Ares wasn't actively dealing with anyway, however, for two reasons. First of all, if the Anubis she was attacking ignored Ares then that was its own funeral and it would pay the price of that dearly later on. She understood she was not a bigger threat than Ares and his destruction magic so now the question was, did the Anubis understand that? If it continued to attack Ares then Sandy didn't have to worry about her slow-ish flight and retaliation but if it attacked her then she was taking a load of Ares' plate. She would be making this fight way easier for everyone involved other than herself but that led on to point two.
She didn't care about being attacked!
Though the cane looked mighty... There was a feeling, perhaps admittedly based entirely on arrogance and pride, inside Sandy that she could take it head on! It would require a lot of effort, and dodging was still preferable, but if the chips were down and she had to do it, she wouldn't feel like all was lost and the situation was utterly hopeless. As such, with that bold defiance of her ancestors in mind, Sandy began pummeling the Anubis in a bid to crack its bones. Ares had taught her Echo during their climb through the Riddlemyd, the pressurised version too, so her already devastating punches packed an extra force behind them that rattled the Anubis' core. What Ares was doing was far more dangerous for the other Anubis but the impact of Sandy's strikes were more immediately noticeable and caused the monster she was striking to falter and struggle to decide who to attack. When the Anubis finally made the decision to ignore her, Sandy let out a malicious and sardonic laugh laced with contempt and a splash of indignation. If it was going to ignore her, it was going to pay the price and learn the fury of a woman scorned!
Ares was powerful but so much so that she could be justifiably ignored to his extent? She was one of the most powerful cultivators in this entre domain and being treated like dirt wasn't going to fly so she chanted "Entomb". Sandy encased herself in a floating tomb that latched onto the monster's waist like a bloodsucking parasite. She'd created a zone around herself, locking her into a duel with the Anubis' hip bone, and assaulted it relentlessly under the assistance of her support adaptation resource. Her Entomb didn't jsut lock her into a dark cage match but demonstrably improved her combat prowess so she was like an unleashed animal. Enhanced by her art she threw multiple fists one after another in rapid succession until the flesh before her turned to mush and she began beating her way deeper into the Anubis' body. She eventually hit bone but kept up her fist barrage and cracks could be heard echoing throughout the sandy iron maiden so it was obvious how much strain the Anubis' bone was under.
At the rate Sandy was going she would be able to break all of the Anubis' bones one by one in a hour or so. Perhaps this realisation sparked something within the Anubis because Sandy was forced to escape through the bottom of her art, slipping through the floor and flying away, as the top pf the Entomb was split and cracked open by an intruding cane looking to smush her. The Anubis changed its mind and opted to do battle with Sandy instead because it had no interest in dying slowly without putting up a fight. It was convinced its brother could handle Ares for now and that it would deal with this new pest quickly enough to go back to lending aid afterwards. This did mean the flags would be a bit more troublesome, as there was less of of a focus on them now so they could run riot with less impediment, but there were simply too many different threats to pay attention to any one of them exclusively over the others. Despite their strength, the Anubis were outnumbered and that did matter.
Back over by Ares, he'd created a red and bloody ring of fur around the waistline of the Anubis as he'd gone full circle, tearing out chunks of flesh all the while during his round trip. His weapon mastery played a role in making sure his scythe never accidentally dug into tough flesh and got stuck while his Black Blossom further expanded any and every wound he made. If he could keep going like this for long enough he would cut the Anubis in half eventually but obviously it wasn't going to be that simple. The Anubis he was bothering swatted away the flags to buy itself more time to deal with Ares before bringing the cane down once more and summoning holograms to intercept him during its descent.
Ares was forced to stop dragging his scythe through the Anubis and fend off the holograms one by one, tackling them individually while retreating slowly backwards to escape the range of the crashing cane. He crouched underneath one hologram as it faded away after missing, spun the scythe around on his back to free up his hands and grapple with the next hologram in line and blast it to the side with an Echo to the rib cage, caught the rotating scythe by the hilt as it passed over his head and beheaded another hologram while hopping backwards, and finally flicked an Annihilation Echo at the rest of the incoming holograms to blast them all into tiny particles of fading blue light. Ares successfully managed to put distance between himself and the cane so it missed once more, crashing into the floor again and kicking up another tornado. Ares used a Not Even Light this time as it both stopped the tornado and swallowed up any projections coming his way, freeing him up to cast an art at the Anubis and make it feel the hurt. "Perish Wheel!" This was the real deal and, though Aejaz' own variety also stung, this would really bring the hurt so Ares put his back into the throw and lodged the wheel inside the long cut he made around the Anubis' waist. The sharp edge of the wheel got stuck inside tough flesh but it kept slowly trying to rotate, burying itself deeper rand deeper into the Anubis with each passing second which caused the monster to grunt. This was the first instance of real pain inflicted as Ares had essentially buried a nail into a wound with a hammer. It wasn't over yet though as the wheel proceeded to explode with the force of a miniature sun, lighting up the area, hiding Ares' presence within the golden aftermath, and scattering dog chunks across the desert.
Ares drifted out of his explosions with a smug face but it was quickly wiped right off as a blue hologram came thundering at Ares from the side. This one, however, was different from the last few fired a him. It was one of the large holograms he'd been anticipating and, sure enough, it was the size of the giant Anubis one for one. Ares hadn't expected the Anubis to be able to retaliate against the Perish Wheel due to its awkward position, after having missed its cane strike, but it seemed it was all a ruse to lower Ares' guard from the get go. Rather than use the hologram to capitalise on an opening, which may never arrive due to Ares' talent and caution, it was opting to 'play dead' and roll over for Ares to lure him in. This had been quite successful, actually, and Ares didn't have time to avoid the colossal hologram or the humongous cane overshadowing his comparatively small body. 'Canis Stimulant' were the first two words that entered his brain but a more bold, more daring approach also entered shortly after and Ares knew which one he had to pick.
Ares needed to constantly be pushing the boundaries of his own capabilities and showing a lack of fear to skyrocket his rate of improvement. Since when did he ever prefer and take the pansy way out of any given situation and not the wild, carefree, and highly dangerous method that won him massive advantages after humiliating his foes tenfold?! Never! Ares was not his brother, Aejaz, and there was zero cowardice in his movements as he brought out he Primordial Blade, took a deep breath, and readied himself in a measures stance. He raised the sheathed blade up and to the side of his head which was suitable to do what would have seemed impossible to any sane person. Sandy and Aejaz couldn't believe what they were watching nor could any of the cultivators down below who escaped the sand tsunamis. If their eyes collectively weren't playing tricks on them, Ares was seriously looking to deflect the giant cane! It was like trying play baseball with ten thousand trucks and there was no feasible way in hell Ares could swing aside the incoming cane. Better yet, even if he managed it, what about the body of the hologram that was about to bowl him over?! The decision seemed rash but the wicked smile on Ares' face, and the emergence of his war aura leitmotif, had everyone captivated. They couldn't help but watch doubtfully but hopefully and cheer for his success in their minds not because they supported him, far from it, the scavengers and neutral cultivators wanted to loot his dead body, but because the feat of strength and technique he was about to pull off would be a historical moment. Witnessing it would be the start of a tale told for generations to come and so everyone wated with baited breaths as the cane sunk lower and Ares emitted a fiery aura and pressure. This was going to be a clash for the ages!