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97.03% The Wandering Calamity / Chapter 359: Chapter 359: Making Waves

Kapitel 359: Chapter 359: Making Waves

"Hello ghostie!" Ares took a few light steps through the air and and Voidwalked in front of his target, the now fully formed water wyvern soul, and gave it a perfunctory greeting as he looked it up and down to get a feel for his new opponent. Its body was an ephemeral blue colour, much like the jewel it spawned from, with a rippling pattern like that of waves rolling vertically down the length of its torso. Speaking of which, its body was about the same size as the krakyrn but a little bigger, roughly a third bigger to be precise. Wyvern's were pretty huge to begin with, and they only ever got larger when cultivating, so it was only natural for them to dwarf the land and ocean below if they never adjusted their size in any way. Most creatures that grew large could prevent it from getting out of hand but it was really a matter of personal preference. Some could even take on a human form but evidently this wyvern just went full-on size queen and made no effort to tone things down for the sake of public decency. Much like its child, actually, as the krakyrn presumably also had the ability but shied away from using it.

Anyway, the wyvern's most troubling trait of all was the fact that physical, magical, and pressure attacks would pass through this thing as though it were a buttery sieve. Maybe some stronger magics could do some damage, namely Armillary, but Ares wasn't going to be using that at this distance as he didn't want the Federation to take a trip the afterlife just so he could kill a single annoying soul. Also, that soul was kinda attached to the enabler so that was not happening. Ares needed to weaken it, and bully it back into the necklace, and no other outcome was acceptable so he got to work in his brain and started devising appropriate measures. Unfortunately, until then, Ares was going to be massively on the back foot and essentially be this thing's punching bag temporarily but there was nothing he could do about that. He would just have to treat the pressure of a currently unwinnable fight as motivation so that he could once more overcome his current limits!

RRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR

Evidently, despite being dead, the lungs on this monster still worked like a charm so Ares got a face full of wind that buffeted his hair and ruffled his clothes. He dusted himself off and frowned at the rude behaviour of this thing but he was actually more concerned about the art it had just used. Unlike the krakyrn, the wyvern's speech was decipherable without much of a fuss and so Ares heard the 'Tidal Greetings' chant loud and clear. Tidal Greetings was an art of the surge aspect that required either a decent affiliation to the pillar to learn or extreme time and dedication over the course of multiple years... Or an enabler because they kinda cheated a little bit. In this case, Ares assumed it was the former of those three options, as the wyvern seemed to drawn to the water element even in death, but what really mattered was that Tidal Greetings was a catastrophic art if left unchecked. It wasn't complicated by any stretch of the imagination, no, it literally just summoned a massive wave... Which was where the 'Greetings' part of Tidal Greetings came from... A lot of art creators were pun lovers at heart, for some inexplicable reason, and though this was primarily true for the gadgetry pillar it did occasionally extend to the others too... Getting back on track, the art sounded simple but what really made it shine was the bewildering scale of the Greetings. Upon learning the art, even at the most basic level, the wave would be about the length of a skyscraper if it was to be laid down on its side. Height wise it was about as tall as three double decker busses piled neatly on top of one another either so you couldn't see the other side of it if you were standing on the floor. This also technically made it useful for ambushing opponents as they would have to deal with the wave before they could find out who, or what, was assailing them from behind it. That wasn't the main use for it, though.

It was an art that frequently made the rounds in wars due to how wide spread the chaos it could cause would be, killing countless frontline cannon fodder, but the catch was that, at lower levels, the wave was pretty easy to break through in one specific spot as its not like the entire might of the wide wave congregated in any single place. Its power was spread out and so a pinpoint precise attack could bust through one spot if it had enough oomph to it. That being said, this time it was being cast by a water affiliated wyvern so the power was going to be considerable no matter where Ares tried poking a hole into it. Add on the slightly inconvenient fact that this battle was taking place in the middle of the ocean and it was no surprise that the wave this thing summoned looked like it could wash over the entire Federation as it was multiple hundreds of feet tall. It wouldn't sink the country, it was still somewhat lacking in that regard compared to Ares' destruction magic, but it would cause countless deaths and drown tens of thousands of mortals in a heartbeat. They would either be washed away or crushed inside the long hallways of the Freefire layout of the Federation depending on where they were located at the time of the wave colliding with the country. Both were grim fates but, thankfully for them, they were to be spared it via the efforts of Ares... Not that it really required much effort to deal with, just some quick and clever thinking and the matter was solved in simple fashion.

"Not Even Light. Not Even Light." This was, surprisingly, sufficient to deal with the art in its entirety. Two casts of Not Even Light might not have seemed like a lot, especially when considering how many he used against the Scylla's meteor attack, but the structure of this attack had a glaring fault with it. Namely the bottom half of the wave was carrying all of the momentum of the art so all Ares had to do was command the black holes to specifically devour from the trough and not the crest or mid section. By putting each black hole about a third of the way along the wave, from the left and the right, they could cover enough space to suck up the troublesome parts and cause the wave to collapse. As if to prove Ares' point, the black holes got to work on consuming the vast quantity of water heading towards them and showed no signs of struggling. Quantity was rarely an issue for the borderline never ending Not Even Lights, it was typically only ever a problem if the quality of the attack was impossible to deal with. As such, this Tidal Greetings was easy enough pickings because it was still in the wheelhouse of arts that Ares could handle at his current cultivation base. Had this wyvern been above the transition realm, in terms of rough strength, maybe then Ares would have had to take more aggressive measures and blow the wave up. As is, though, the black holes became of vortex of spraying water, siphoning away all the power of the oceanic devastator art. Before the wave could even get within 100ft of the Federation, the tip of the wave was left without support underneath it, as it had all been swallowed up by the black holes, and so the remaining water harmlessly fell, dropping into the ocean where it originated from. It did create a massive splash along a giant line, causing another smaller wave, but it was nothing the Federation couldn't handle and would barely even resemble the trouble caused by stormy seas by the time it hit the country. Most of the power it possessed would taper off shortly meaning this attack had been quelled before it could even really phase anyone. The people aboard the Federation had about five seconds to spot the wave and fear for their lives before it vanished, leaving behind barely even a trace.

This seemed like a win at first glance but the main issue still persisted... Ares was going to have to remain on the defensive for however long this damn wyvern kept feeling like being a pain in the butt. Ares might be able to outlast it, maybe, but then the krakyrn would just run away so he, to some extent, had a time limit for dealing with this thing which was not helpful! The only other outcome was that maybe Hunter and Geordie would somehow manage to kill the krakyrn... The enabler wood stop working at that point, as its controller had bitten the dust, but it was quite a serious ask of them to win that fight. The krakyrn, on its own, was maybe a somewhat even fight if literally everyone aboard the Federation gave it their all. Aejaz might be able to do a lot of good work with his stolen destruction magic but there was still an upper limit to it. He didn't have the Converter either so his potential magical output was considerably lower than Ares'. Still, alongside Hunter and Geordie they might be able to make something happen... Normally, that is... Yes the wyvern soul was out and about, running amok and giving Ares a head scratcher of a conundrum to solve, but that didn't mean the enabler wasn't still doing its job and working overtime. The krakyrn still very much had access to the water pillar right now and that meant it was, quite frankly, impossible for the Federation lot to ever kill it. They wouldn't necessarily lose, though it was in the cards if things went horribly wrong, but claiming a victory? Not unless the krakyrn had a heart attack... Although, given its poor genetics, that wasn't something that could be ruled out even if it was unlikely...

As much as Ares wanted to kill the krakyrn himself, as that would shut off the wyvern soul and prevent him from having to come up with an answer for it, he couldn't. He couldn't leave this powerful wyvern to the Federation because then it really would get destroyed in record time. The wyvern was stronger than the Federation and it would only take one art to put the entire country on the back foot and another two or three from there to obliterate it for good. Ares beat the krakyrn easily in a fair fight, sure, but could he beat it quicker than the wyvern could beat the Federation? That was a tough gamble to appraise and the odds were about fifty fifty, actually, but that meant Ares wasn't going to touch it with a barge pole as he was not a gambling man now or ever. He'd be reluctant if the odds were 99 to 1 in his favour even, so a fifty fifty split? Might as well be a zero percent chance in his eyes. Of course if push came to shove and that was the only option remaining... That changed things. Ares was not a gambling man but he was not one to sit around and quietly take a loss because he was arrogant and stubborn. He had the tools to take the simplest path and would do so up until that pathway became unpredictable and branched off beyond his calculations. Then, and only then, would he become a risk taker to try and get back on track. All that to say, long story short, he was stuck with this blue, knockoff dragon.

Ares was extremely grateful this thing was not a real dragon because those bastards were apparently strong! He might not even be able to kill such a creature at his current level unless he could Armillary it but what were the chances of that? A dragon would not just let him charge up the attack for free so it would more than likely result in a lengthy, drawn out stalemate. Ares wouldn't be able to kill a water affiliation dragon over the ocean but it wouldn't be able to kill him either thanks to the raw power of the destruction pillar outclassing all other magic inherently. It would wind up just being a battle of attrition until one party got tired and left, putting the fight on hold while they retreated to safe location where they could recover before returning and wasting more time with a never ending fight. Dragons were not to be trifled with and were extremely tough! At least according to what he knew of them via books and Dominus' occasional jabbering in his head. Ironically, however, a dragon might have actually been a less difficult foe to contend with here and now because at least Ares might be able to hit the damn thing, force it back a bit for a moment, and then kill the krakyrn while he had some space... This wyvern was obstinate! It couldn't attack physically, it would just sail through Ares or the Federation, but that didn't mean it was going to stop being a nuisance any time soon! it would just keep hovering in front of Ares like some kind of stalker as it chucked endless arts at him and refused to budge! Annoying!

Ares was still running through plan after plan to kill this thing and he was in the testing phase currently. He was consuming fish souls with the Converter so that he could try and attack them with disintegration magic right as they entered his body. It was awkward as all hell but also the only real way he could test his theories as souls were tricksy things. If he wasn't busy absorbing them they would fly off in who knows what direction, never to be seen again. If he didn't have the Converter he wouldn't be able to do this so, even though his empowered magic couldn't currently hit the wyvern, the treasure was still on track to win him this fight eventually! Super treasure, much? Was there anything this thing couldn't do? It was becoming more generally usable than even the Celestial Prisms and that was saying something because Ares had yet to find anything, related to sight / vision, that Omniscience couldn't do. Actually, the combination between Converter and Prisms was doing good work right now as Ares could spectate his attempts with ease and get a feel for where he was going wrong with attacking the souls. With these two treasures amplifying his capabilities he was convinced he would figure out a solution at some point, namely with his disinsertion and nothingness magic.

Annihilation could do basically nothing, at this point anyway as maybe if it reached ridiculous levels it could just blow up the soul space a rend reality around it or something, so it was up to the other two aspects with their specialties to save the day. Disintegration was something that went beyond just plain 'anti magic' and had become, effectively, anti existence. Honestly, Ares might even be able to kill a revenant permanently with disintegration if he worked on that idea for long enough. Disintegration was fundamentally a rule breaker aspect and was looking to be easily Ares' strongest aspect in times of dire need. In combat it was lethal, sure, but generally outclassed by annihilation which could kill with way more ease. Outside of combat, though, and just for dealing with whatever complicated problems came Ares' way... Was something unfair on the horizon? Disintegration was going to deal with it no problem. In this case, damaging the soul seemed like something disintegration could do. Its power was still too lacking to actually hit the soul but, when it did, it would leave its mark. As for nothingness... Well Ares had already seen what happened to souls over in the void and they were not immune to the pull of nothingness so he already had a good idea of where to start with this task. If nothingness could enable Ares to hit a soul then it would become an unsung hero going forward, allowing disintegration to shine, as that was an ability that was not to be trifled with... Annihilation for damaging the physical body, disintegration for mental attacks and other miscellaneous damage types, and nothingness to punish the soul. Of course there would absolutely be cross contamination, and no one aspect had to be dedicated to anything, but it seemed like defensively, at the very least, that would be the rough go to. Having the ability to deal with all three, and literally anything else non-standard thanks to disintegration's versatility, was a powerful hand Ares had been dealt and he was planning on making full use of it.

Of course the wyvern wasn't going to just sit around and do nothing. It failed once but try, try, try again might as well have been this thing's life-long motto because it barely waited for even a second to start casting after it realised the first art wasn't going to cut it. Another loud roar shook the ocean and this time it was using an art called 'Deepcaller'. Deepcaller was an art of the flow aspect that summoned water clones of various sea monsters. They were similar horrors compared to what Ares had seen in the Scylla fight but these were way stronger than that pathetic, leeching riff raff clinging ot their superior for protection and guidance. There were less of them but each and every single sea monster clone had quite the presence to them so Ares was now outnumbered ten to one, not including the wyvern who wasn't going to let the pressure up either, and was going to have to fend for his life for a while here. Each sea monster was about the size of a truck but they were far more nimble than one as they were in their home turf and making full use of their fish-like bodies to prowl around Ares and get into position to encircle him. Sure Ares was in the air but, with their speed and power, they could easily leap out of the water to try and take a nibble out of him. A nibble from them would definitely saw Ares in half, though, so he had to avoid their chompers at all costs.

Ares was a strong cultivator but he was not invincible! Sharp objects would hurt and they would, rather easily, cut him in two! Punches and physical blows he could take, to some extent, but that? Nope! His adept trait body, lacking in muscle mass and overall defensive prowess, was not resilient enough in its human form to resist such lethal attacks. If he was in his real revenant form? Not a problem. Human form? A very big problem! Conclusion? The fish had to go. They were decently mighty, fast and obnoxious, and more importantly they were a distraction. The wyvern was going to start casting other arts while Ares was preoccupied so he had to deal with the clones first so he could go back to focussing on the bigger issue. He would get swamped in minor tasks if the fish weren't dealt with so he changed up his priorities and begun charging a physical pressure attack. Annihilation would have worked too but he was a tad concerned the blowback might reach the Federation and they were just now getting embroiled in a fight with the krakyrn. Bothering them at this stage might cause even more issues that Ares had to deal with so he took the safer approach and went with the attack option he had greater direct control over. Plus, and this was an important benefit to using pressure over annihilation, he could feel out his targets directly.

Annihilation was impersonal and gave little to no feedback when hitting a foe, right now anyway, so pressure, which could actively detect and spot opponents was a nice additional benefit. Each of the sea monsters had their own specialties, and there were a few stealth oriented monsters hiding below him, so such a trait of pressure was going to make Ares' life a lot easier in fishing those beasts out. Camouflaged and invisible? Ares would feel them either resisting, or succumbing, to his pressure and locate the area they were hidden in. Trying to reside deep in the depths and bide its time, waiting for an opportune moment to strike? Ares pressure could go down there now and give them a warm welcome to this world! Physical pressure was just going to be more reliable here so that was his course of action. It wasn't going to be a wide reaching attack, though, as then he might not cast a wide enough net to deal with all the sea monsters at once if they fled in different directions. Instead, he was summoning a dragon. It was similar in nature to the one he used against Veteran back during his pagoda days but this one was far smarter and stronger overall. It was going to charge headfirst into the ocean and bite through the hearts of each and every monster down there, much like they planned on doing to Ares, so these things could get a taste of their own medicine.

Also, dragons beat wyverns! It was a vain hope but Ares was wondering if seeing a 'real' dragon might spook the wyvern soul. Ares' bloodline had made him a teensy bit more draconic as of late so his pressure would carry traces of it too and, thus, the end result of him charging his attack might actually give rise to a feeling of fear in the soul. Such a thing was embedded deep into the very DNA of every wyvern, that feeling of inferiority to the real deal, so this attack might strike a chord and slow it down for a while, leaving it reeling shock and giving Ares some room to think. Hell Ares was tempted to put the damn Scaled Insulator on! Anything to give him an extra smidgen of time! Unfortunately, however, it seemed the soul was just a soul and it was unbothered by this mounting display of draconic pressure. Its only shred of remaining intelligence was being diverted to protecting its offspring and there was no room spare for any other trivial matter like the animal kingdom hierarchy. Had it still been alive it would have dragged its child away from here pronto but, as is, it barely recognised the draconic presence as a threat. Afterall, it was a soul! Even a real dragon would have to run away from this thing if it didn't possess the means to damage it as a death by a thousand cuts from a weaker, but invulnerable, wyvern was still very much possible even for such a mighty animal.

Ares didn't bother charging the dragon anymore, as it was already powerful enough to take down the sea monsters and it clearly wasn't affecting the wyvern soul, and simply let it loose. The dragon was about as big as a five storey building so it took a while to unfurl around Ares before charging headfirst into the water and hunting down its prey. Ares could feel it working wonders and tracking everything down like an expert hunter by utilising the pressure it was emitting. The lingering pressure would detect nearby foes and relay that info to Ares who would then direct the dragon to that rough location and its kill count was rising rapidly as a result. It had already brushed by invisible sea monster clones before swinging back around for the kill when Ares felt them out with the pressure. Already, three quarters of the sea monsters were dead and this had been a simple endeavour so far so Ares was feeling confident he could return to his previous task soon enough... Until he felt mana gathering behind him and he realised he made a pretty massive mistake... The wyvern soul was not something that was affected by pressure and so he couldn't keep tabs on it passively... Pressure passed right through the soul and he'd forgotten about that so the monster had crept up behind him and was charging a powerful jet of water to blast him in the back with. It gave off no shadow, couldn't be detected by normal means, and sight barely even worked without Omniscience. Ares had fallen for the distraction of the clones and was about to get ambushed and pay the price for not keeping his eyes on the prize. He was just about able to turn in time and throw up a last ditch wall of disintegration but that wasn't enough to prevent the stream of water from crashing into his stomach and blasting him down below the waves. SPLASH Ares landed like a cannonball and sunk like one too as he was mostly unable to move his injured body immediately. The few remaining sea monsters were taking this chance to close in on him now that they smelled literal blood in the water so he had to redirect the dragon to come back and guard him while he consumed a healing pill and let his regeneration take over. Things had gotten bad as his movement was temporarily sealed away until he recovered so he was going to have to use telekinesis to get around for the time being and using arts would be hard... This fight was not off to a great start... he needed to make some progress on the soul injuring front, fast, or it would just continue to get worse...


AUTORENGEDANKEN
TWC_Guy TWC_Guy

Sorry for no chapter yesterday. I left a note in the previous chapter, as I previously mentioned I would, but I'm writing this here just in case that one wasn't spotted. I will try to make up for the missed chapter with a double upload at some point, presumably after the break at the end of the arc. Again, apologies for missing an upload but a personal problem sprung up out of the blue and I didn't have time to create a chapter.

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