"Three..." Ares braced himself as the cane drew ever nearer. "Two..." He took a deep breath and slightly twisted his wrist, adjusting the angle of the sheathed blade so that the flat side was aligned precisely how he wanted it to be. "One..." Ares swivelled his upper body and bent low to the ground, gradually moving his chest in a 'u' shape. "Absolute Reversal." The cane appeared directly above him just as his upper body's descent started and his Blade made contact with it as his body curved at its lowest point. The cane screeched against the sword, scattering sparks every which way as it was slowly guided alongside the motion of Ares' body and, upon lifting his chest up once more, Ares felt like he had perfect control of his opponent's weapon. He lifted his head and torso further up and his arms followed suit, dragging along the tip of the cane that hung on his every motion. Ares then thrust right the sheathed Blade back towards the Anubis hologram with his outstretched arm and looked like a commander directing an army with a ceremonial weapon. In one swift motion Ares put on a baffling performance and masterfully redirected the incoming strike that seemed impossible to stop hitherto his impromptu matinee. It looked almost like Ares was a snake charmer and the cane an obedient cobra that coiled around above his body, slithering over the left arm, around his nape, and finally lunging off the tip of his right arm. It had merged with his fluid, watery form and repeated his movements precisely to the letter, making a 'U' turn and blasting straight into the hologram's unexpecting face. The cane blew right through the Anubis head and shattered the hologram in the blink of an eye, ending the spectacle mere moments after it begun. Anyone who wasn't watching carefully, or looked away for even the slightest nanosecond thanks to their trepidation over Ares' dubious odds of success, would have completely missed a miraculous manifestation of legendary dexterity and finesse via sheer willpower.
As the world turned silent, Ares could see the stunned faces of everyone watching but, honestly, he was a little stunned too. He hadn't expected things to go so flawlessly. Not a single hitch, he'd pulled off that ridiculous stunt without any hiccups or deviation from his original goal. It could have gone drastically worse than it did and yet, from start to finish, the process had been smooth as butter and he felt empowered and emboldened as a result. He'd aced his plan's execution to an unexpected degree and completely forgot he was even in the midst of battle, though, so he was just sort of floating around with an indomitable aura. Then again, the Anubis had become unmoving and awe stricken too, alongside the spectators, Aejaz, and Sandy, so this could be considered a temporary time out of sorts before the fray resumed. Everyone needed a breather to comprehend and digest the manner of impossibility they just bore witness to.
Even Dominus was pretty damn impressed with what he just saw because it took him a long time to learn how to deflect large attacks like that; it required a kind of knack to pull off consistently due to the awkwardness of shifting around that much weight. Meanwhile Ares pegged it on his first try and came out completely unscathed?! Dominus had caught up on Ares' memories, and so knew he was a living enabler for the weapons pillar, but even still... He'd really gone above and beyond here. Ares' absolute arrogance in using Absolute Reversal didn't go unnoticed under the radar either because it was completely necessary! What was the point of amplifying the cane counter attack against a hologram that would have faded after being struck regardless?! He'd done it purely for style points... Sort of. Technically it was good practice, and he might be able to replicate this feat in the future now that he understood the feeling and timing, but only absolute maniacs would practice risky techniques in do or die scenarios. No two ways about it, it was insanity. That was the kind of thing a cultivator worked tirelessly on in Training Fields and, even then, rarely tried it in actual combat due to the numerous risks involved. Meanwhile Ares was using actual combat to practice such mind blowing and showy moves! He was a revenant, sure, but he was definitely pushing his luck and sooner or later, if he kept doing stuff like this, he'd have to make use of that immortality at the rate he was going!
The giant hologram was felled by its own weapon and it dissolved out of sight and out of mind for the time being, not to return again for a considerable period of time, freeing Ares up to head back over to the Anubis' waist and keep being a pest. His action ended everyone else's inaction and stupefaction so the fight continued with memories of his bravado and daring do etched into everyone's brain. It was inspiring for Allies but deeply concerning for the two foes as they were stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to figure who to attack and devote their efforts to. Ares was the big fish here, that much was clear before and doubly so now, but everyone else combined was like a school of piranhas constantly nibbling away... It seemed like it was finally time for the Anubis to start using some of the other tricks up their sleeves so the Anubis trying to swat aside Sandy took a few steps backwards, causing the entire desert to shake after each and every time its foot landed on the floor, and its shoulder pads opened up.
It seemed like Sevorus had experimented with their true forms and that was why their miniature versions in the Riddlemyd looked the way they did. This was proof the real Anubis also had technological marvels fitted to their frame and that was worth keeping an eye on. As for what was happening now, it could either be rockets coming out of the shoulder region or nano-scarabs. Ares placed his bets on the latter as that would help the Anubis even the playing field and reduce the number's advantage his side currently had over theirs, thus making it quite an attractive option right about now. The real question was how tough were the bugs going to be exactly? If their size was scaled up to match the Anubis then things might get a bit messy and Ares would have to devote time and attention to killing them so that they couldn't bother anybody else. Ares watched with vested interest as his guess was confirmed to be accurate and a caravan-sized scarab flew out from within the Anubis' shoulder. It was just the beginning, however, as the first scarab was then followed by another, and then four more, and then ten more... And then about another fifty...
It was expected that there would be a lot of scarabs but each of them being as big as they were, with some even doubling in size compared to the initial one that emerged, meant this swarm was going to be annoying. Fortunately Ares figured that, when killed, they wouldn't be able to come back anymore, and the Anubis wouldn't have any more to spare, but it was still a pain having to take a break from wounding his current target to deal with this pop-up army. Though the Anubis that unleashed them was the one fighting Sandy currently it had commanded the scarabs to go bother Ares, unsurprisingly, so he had more on his plate but showed nothing other than his usual calm demeanour. After parrying the giant cane not too long ago he now felt on top of the world so what was a few bugs going to do against him, exactly? They were an inconvenience but Ares never viewed them as a threat from the start for he knew that they weren't powerful enough to contend in the big leagues alongside the likes of Ares. Being large and plentiful didn't make them not-cannon fodder.
Ares kicked off the giant Anubis and Shifted towards the bug army while running Annihilation mana through his scythe. Normally, when using a Grand Annihilation with a weapon in hand, Ares would swing vertically to generate as much force as possible and fling his magic forward with violent momentum. This time, however, he wielded his scythe in a large semi circle horizontal arc as he chanted and this caused his Grand Annihilation to sail forth and spread carnage in a wider area from right to left. The incoming bugs were all forced to tango with the unruly golden annihilation magic and, though they were experiencing slightly less mayhem due to Ares' swing type somewhat watering down the potency of the magic, it was unavoidable and they all had to fend for themselves and try to crawl through it. A few managed to luckily escape quite quickly but their luck ran out as they came face to face with Ares who was lurking in wait to kill the army. One by one he massacred the scarabs as they scurried out of the blitzing gold magic boosted and amplified by his Extinction Converter that was tearing them to shreds.. As long as it was just a small handful of scarabs emerging at once Ares was able to cleave through them on the spot and, even though the process took a while, he soon managed to destroy at least half of them with this method of hunting down the escapees.
Ares Grand Annihilation faded eventually, unfortunately, but he'd long since wiped out a significant chunk of the scarabs' comrades and had done a good job in reducing his workload by at least half. Ares would have to continue fighting these things, and hopefully kill them before they could start unleashing their own attacks en-masse, but the Anubis he ignored up until now finally managed to rotate around and face him so there was another problem to concern himself with other than his current punching bags. Ares could feel the cane coming at him from behind and, though he was tempted to try and divert it once more, he knew better than to tempt fate multiple times over. His hands were still somewhat shaky after last time so he simply disappeared into the void and watched as the cane blew away a few of the scarabs that had gotten too close to Ares before he vanished. They were dumb creatures so accidentally flinging themselves headfirst straight into the path of guaranteed death wasn't all too surprising. It was only a couple of scarabs that perished, though, so Ares still had to finish off the rest of them. He emerged from the void, following closely behind a "Flashbang" that disoriented his targets and allowing him to riot amongst their ranks. The skirmish was one sided as he slipped through their defences and brutally murdered the bugs one by one, cutting them in half with a single measured swing. One step of his Voidwalk thrust him through space, planting him firmly beside a stunned bug and before it could possibly react he was already stepping off to go reap another life. The bugs watched Ares fade from view as their lives dissipated and they felt their innards gush out fo them retroactively once he vanished for good. Their bodies took a split second to catch up their own gory deaths and so they even had a front row seats to their own delayed demise.
The scarabs did recover somewhat form the Flashbang and grouped together to prevent Ares' ceaseless slaughter. They spread their wings and fluttered them rapidly to disseminate a plague of nanoparticles in Ares' direction while charging themselves up with electricity to stun him if he got close. Two separate issues to overcome but Ares was undaunted and unperturbed by their meaningless resistance so he vowed to tackle the problems head on and display his might to these oversized beetles. Though Ares didn't say it out loud, because it was unnecessarily vulgar and he was concentrating too deeply to un-immerse himself from the flow state he was in, these beetles, for all he cared, could 'eat shit and die!' The former was what they were good at and the second was the new purpose Ares was going to give them.
First up came the nano particle plague and Ares wasn't entirely too sure what the repercussion would be for getting caught up in the greyish miasma filled with small black balls. He was hardly up to date on modern technology and this seemed particularly advanced even then so, rather than figure out the hard way what this would do to him, he opted to avoid it entirely! If nothing else, the sheer size of the of the nanoparticles was enough to insinuate danger without even needing to know the purpose they served. No matter how simple the effect, it would be amplified to eleven and leave a real dent so Ares got to chanting a countermeasure. "Not Even Light!" This was shortly followed by Black Blossom and Ares swung his scythe with slow grace. It was closer to the sort of movement you would see in traditional weapon dance but the calm swing allowed Black Blossom to charge up a deadly burst that shook the sky. The disintegration flared to life and roared while spreading black petals every which way, painting the air with multiple small black blotches. The sky was now filled with pretty-but-ominous and disastrously deadly leaves as they were scattered around by the initial blast. Still, the petals didn't fly too far away as the pull of the recently generated black hole warped their trajectory around its core. The pull of the Not Even Light allowed it to combo effectively with Black Blossom much like the last time Ares tried this back in Red Sun when he was getting Dirk's heart back. A lot of old tricks up Ares' sleeve were being deployed again lately and this one was perfect for this situation because the petals were destroying the huge nanoparticles while the black hole ravaged the remaining miasma. Ares' splayed hand directed the combination of magic to clear out the roadblock before he left his arts on autopilot and took off with a Shift.
Ares barreled through space and arrived before the electrical horde of scarabs and pointed at the nearest one before gesturing with his pointer finger. Strangely, the scarab he pointed at seemed to be dragged towards him slowly but surely and so it would seem the influence of his telekinesis was highly effective. Normally he could only use it on inanimate objects but if the divide in strength between him and his target was substantial then this, forcibly yanking his foe towards him, was possible. Ares reeled in the lone scarab, accepting the jolts he was occasionally receiving from it as they was negligible by itself. Had Ares dived head first into the swarm he would have been completely fried and struck down but just one scarab's electricity was tolerable as he enacted his plan. It seemed like the scarabs had their own plan, and were charging up some kind of collective screech attack, but Ares was going to be quicker on the ball here and obliterate their ranks long before they could act. With a flick of the wrist, Ares' scythe cut into the pulled Scarab's bran and instantly rendered it nothing more than a giant corpse. Ruthlessly, Ares began stamping his foot on the dead bug as though the thing was still alive and owed him stardust. Ares wasn't usually one for needlessly desecrating the corpses of the dead, in most circumstances but not always as there were exceptions, but there was a method to his madness this time around as every stomp allowed him to plant a Shock Bead inside the scarab. He was turning it into a explosive whoopee cushion but his plan was a little more interesting than just that as he moved onto phase two. "Grounding." Another classic. This was the Stygian Zephyr rune Ares used against the four axe men back in Baja forest. It dug the Zephyr into the ground and acted like a lightning rod that could either discharge the pent up electricity into the floor to nullify it or redirect the electrical energy into something Ares was holding and then turn it into a highly charged weapon. This was Ares one true anti-electricity / lightning measure but it was undeniably effective whenever it needed to shine and save the day. Right now it had a very different purpose, however, as Ares buried one tip of his Zephyr into the Bead-bloated scarab corpse.
"Echo." Ares stomped the scarab one final time and blasted it onto the squadron of scarabs as he watched on with interest at the result of his antics. Essentially, he'd shoved massive amounts of explosives into the scarab and then turned it into a lightning rod. The ludicrous amount of electrical energy inside that field of scarabs was going to funnel into the scarab corpse and supercharge Ares' Beads.... The result was going to be quite catastrophic and Ares was already backing off to get a clearer view from far away. If he stood stock still he would be engulfed within the explosion and be unable to witness it properly. Even the Anubis were taking a step or two back to make some distance because the surge of magical energy happening right about now over by the scarab's was enough to frighten even them. This was going to wind up being, give or take, an Armillary level attack just by utilising about thirty or so shock beads and the scarabs own unique feature against them. Ares put on the shades he bought form the Federation and sat cross legged in the sky to enjoy tthe show.
BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
Each individual Bead detonated in a chain reaction that culminated in a single monumental golden dome that erased both any doubt about Ares' power as well as the remaining scarabs in one fell swoop. Nobody needed to wait to see the result of that art as it was pretty understandable how much ferocity was packed into that one massive dome. It was dangerous enough to maybe even blast an entire arm off one of the Anubis if they carelessly strolled into the lingering explosion, never mind what would have happened to anything inside the initial detonations. Surprisingly, however, the real danger was yet to come as Ares Not Even Light happened to drift nearby and it began turning the dome into a golden whirlpool that was capable of moving about. The stationary threat had become a mobile nightmare of gold and black ruination, cascading back towards the Anubis who each took a few more steps back. Ares' magic seemed hellbent on chasing them, though, so rather than continue to try and outlast it both Anubis fired off their trademark sound waves of magic nullification. The two rings they emitted merged together to form one large, murky white halo that ebbed and flowed while pulsing towards the pain train. Ares was interested in who would win the clash but he had a feeling it wouldn't be his own arts because those anti magic rings were seriously obnoxious and had proven themselves to be a handful back when he first came across them. Summoning a small Wall here with Crystalised Void, like last time, wouldn't allow him to pull off the same trick as before, that was a pipe dream given the scale of these new rings, so Ares would just have to work around them in the future.
While Ares' amalgamation of arts collided with the giant sound ring and vied for supremacy, the two Anubis ignored the results and turned to face Ares while firing lasers from their reddened eyes. They'd fired these before so Ares knew what to expect, roughly, and was on the move while summoning some physical pressure. He created a tiny ninja frog once more and flung it far off into the distance while raising chunks of ground via telekinesis for it to play around with. The frog's job was actually quite simple but it's purpose was also yet unfulfillable so it hid around and waited for its designated target to show up while Ares kept narrowly avoiding the humongous lasers scorching the desert behind him. Each laser was more than capable of erasing his existence and turning him into a pile of ash so he kept up his precise dodges and even Echoed himself out harm's way whenever he wasn't able to Voidwalk in time.
Eventually, when Ares' Not Even Light and Shock Bead tornado was finally destroyed by the sound wave, the Anubis focused all their firepower and reserves on Ares. Now that they were certain that art amalgamation wouldn't come creeping up on them they began unleashing the rockets, which Ares hadn't seen since his first encounter with them, again. Ares recalled theses things being heat-seeking and eternally persistent. Whereas the holograms and lasers missed and never came back, the rockets would hunt Ares down like starving wolves chasing a deer. Even if he Shifted out of sight they would relocate him the second he reappeared and veer off in his direction. Of course these rockets were multiple times larger than last time but Ares figured they would still be just as fast and unrelenting. This was where Mr Golden Frog came in handy, thanks to Ares predicting the appearance of the rockets, as its job was to intercept the ballistic missiles and slice them in half. It would take a while but Ares wasn't in any rush, he was expe3cting this fight to take a while anyway. The Anubis may have impressive weaponry but it's not like they had infinite ammunition or mana to work with and so playing the long con was also an option. Ares might even be able to Grim Cessation the Anubis if they weren't careful so Ares kept up his evasive manoeuvres and simply watched things play out for now.
Ares dove down towards the ground and slid down a hill while the rockets chased after his tail. He kicked off small hills, used his zephyr to fling himself around the wreckage of a destroyed cartage, surfed down a second dune, and Voidwalked back up into the sky while remaining on the move constantly. A laser came piercing through the sky but Ares kicked off the nearby Riddlemyd and thrust himself out of the way while chanting Double Jump to avoid the rocket swarm by diving sideways again. Meanwhile, while Ares was pulling off all manner of theatrics to dodge the Anubis' assault, the ninja frog was dismantling and disabling the rockets one by one, prioritising those that were looking to cut off Ares' path to make his life even a little easier. The frog's nimbleness enabled it to prance freely through the rocky sky, thanks to Ares' telekinesis, and at one point, after destroying a rocket, it used its tongue as a grappling hook to fling itself off the debris. Not only did it lunge towards another rocket but the destroyed one from earlier was chucked into the path of a third rocket, upping the Frog's missile kill count by three in rapid succession. It was doing incredible work, blitzing through multiple rockets in the blink of an eye, and would be repurposed to aiding the flags up top once it was done here. Oddly enough, the frog worked well with the flags after all the practice against Wormy, and Ares knew it, so one of the flags could come down and give the bandanna wearing ninja frog a ride later on.
The rocket swarm was thinning at an incredible rate, the lasers weren't able to singe even a single hair on Ares' head, and the small holograms that charged forth at Ares from time to time couldn't make him blink let alone stop in his tracks. This fight was slowly turning into a repeat of all the others as Ares found his footing against the giant Anubis but there was still another method of attack hey hadn't yet utilised. It was time to showcase their true power and demand the sands of Xasca heed their beck and call, obediently gathering before them so that they may expunge this pest from their territory. They were going to display a level of mastery of sand control that even the fellahin couldn't possibly fathom. Hell not even any living Sheryashkan could fathom. Ares was unique in his ability to launch a mini nuclear attack on demand... Or at least he was up until he met these two Anubis, that is. Sure there were no known other cultivators in Sheryashka that could do it... But what if monsters could? These two hadn't lived and been around for multiple eras without having anything to show for it. If they were battling anyone other than Ares then this fight would have been over right after it started but, seeing as that wasn't the case... For Ares, they were going to bring out their own big guns...