The area I was momentarily trapped in was positively gigantic and was basically an arena. I was on one end of it, and not extremely far from me was Technos who I was watching carefully. He was flying through the air, his enormous metallic wings beating at supersonic speeds to keep him aloft. His eyes were locked on me.
I watched him silently and I readied myself for his first attack. He was a god, or at least he had been. I wasn't going to try any fancy tricks. I knew that to beat him I needed to overwhelm him. That was all there was to it. After a few moments, he aggressively opened his mouth and bellowed a hate-filled roar at me.
As the devilish echo of a long-dead deity roared at me the missile launchers in his chest came to life in a show of explosive force and I chuckled as numerous missiles began to race towards me. The missiles rocketed towards me and as they did they began to generate sonic booms indicating just how fast they were going.
As a bit of a test, I decided not to jump to my staff right away and instead opt to see how these missiles reacted when they struck one of my barriers. I could have dealt with them in a number of ways, but I was really curious to see if my barriers could take a direct hit from one of the missiles and remain intact.
I rose my other hand in the direction of the approaching missiles and as I watched a number of barriers spontaneously appeared around the missiles. They surrounded them swiftly without being enormous which brought a surprised smile to my face. The speed of the barriers was enough to keep up with the missiles. I was pleasantly surprised that I could make something that could at least adequately surround an attack as fast as the missiles.
The projectiles launched by Technos were not smart missiles so they barreled forward undeterred by my barriers. I was annoyed but not surprised when the missiles reached the edge of the barriers I had surrounded them with and proceeded to punch through them without even slowing down. I watched as my barriers began to crumble into nothingness after the missiles my foe had launched at me penetrated the defensive structures I had created for the purpose of stopping his attacks. That annoyed me, but I was far from done.
I rose my staff high in the air, stretching the arm holding it as far as I could. As I did I carefully aimed at the missiles and began to smile savagely. That was when I activated the single most distinct power my staff possessed: "Vita". My staff began to glow and then a split second later I felt power surge out of the arcane and divine instrument which was one of my first truly powerful tools.
My staff shook in my hands as powerful bursts of light exploded out of it and into the sky between my foe and myself. The lights that exploded out of my first true artifact were differently colored and as they surged through the sky they almost seemed to form a rainbow until they began to scatter from one another so that they could chase down missiles. Technos watched this display of my powers with a confused and hateful look on his face.
When the beams of life-bestowing energy hit the missiles and covered them in potent light the missiles began to behave erratically. They began to swerve and even slow down as they began to come to life and be forever transformed by my powers. As they did this caused Technos to hover in mid-air and study the situation unfolding before him. I locked eyes with him and kept my eyes glued to his draconic, robotic face.
"What did you do?" He asked, his voice clearly audible even where I was. I tilted my staff so that it was pointed at him and I began to speak.
"I brought your weapons to life. I can create life, even where none should be possible, and I can command the life I create." I told the fallen echo of a god, a smug smile on my face as facial features began to appear on the missiles in the distance and as they began to hover in the air unsure of what to do. I began to twirl my staff, a confident grin on my face as I toyed with my artifact.
"Missiles... Come protect me!" I commanded, using my staff to help give myself more authority over the newly create lifeforms, all while creating portals near myself and the missiles that would allow the "creatures" I had created to fulfill my commands efficiently. The portals appeared right in front of them and the missiles all obeyed my commands and appeared in the air around my current position.
This obedience on their part infuriated Technos, whose emotions I felt very keenly and whose fury brought a smile to my face. As if to showcase how angry it was, Technos began to emit another deafening roar, this one lasting for several seconds before beginning to quietly die down.
The dragon-god-bot floating in the air stopped roaring but it didn't shut its mouth. Instead, it kept its mouth open wide and trained on me. I was unsurprised when electricity began to crackle around the open mouth as if gathering around it to signal that the creature was about to attack.
A part of me was surprised that Technos was using an attack with a "wind-up" like that given my speed and the fact that Technos knew I was capable of moving at hypersonic speeds. That said a split second later I realized that against most other opponents, even against other deities, an attack that moved at the speed of light like an attack involving a laser would have been somewhat difficult to defend against. There was also the fact that even I didn't have many attacks that could move at speeds beyond the speed of sound which meant this deific phantom probably didn't either.
I chuckled and readied myself to enter my true speed the very instant that Technos unleashed his attack. The god-like divine entity wasn't playing around and he fully planned to inflict very real damage to me with this attack. There was a pause for a few moments while he finished charging up the attack but when it came the entire area around him was momentarily illuminated by the sheer quantity of the attack that he unleashed even as I felt time slow to a crawl around me due to me ceasing the perpetual slow-down I constantly did.
As time slowed to a virtual standstill even Technos' laser, moving at the speed of light, slowed to a nearly total stop. Watching it slow down made me grin like a fool as it meant that even an attack like that could be responded to and avoided if nothing else. That knowledge made me feel quite safe.
It was very reassuring to know that I was capable of this much. This gave me a lot of leeway in planning how to respond to the actions of my enemies, be they Technos or anyone else I'd run afoul of in the future.
I momentarily considered responding to the laser with a barrier but I quickly realized that there was little chance of one actually working against the laser. This attack felt like a step up compared to the missile barrage as it was something that I couldn't bring to life.
Over the last three years, I had learned that my current iteration of the ability to bring things to life wasn't universal and that as of yet I couldn't bring things like stars, planets, light, or darkness to life. I had also learned that that wouldn't always be the case but I also figured that the day I could bring black holes or stars to life was off in the distant future.
That said it wasn't like I didn't have abilities able to respond to this sort of attack. There was an area that both Technos and I were known for: our ability to use the alteration subdomain. One of the signature abilities of the subdomain of alteration was its ability to create and maintain potent portals that allowed for instant travel from one place to another but one creative way to use portals was to use them as an attack or defense.
While time around me was nearly frozen I rose my hand that didn't have my staff and I willed an invisible portal into existence in front of Technos' attack. My ability to create invisible portals was new and it was a consequence of me having greater power over the trickery domain, which I did the instant that I stepped into this battlefield.
The other portal that was the first one's sibling appeared directly above Technos. It was also invisible. With a smile on my face, I waited and watched as the laser beam that Technos had fired at me began to inch out of his mouth and into the portals that would allow the attack to be completely redirected.
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The battlefield the two warriors found themselves on was a vast and weirdly nondescript arena. The ground at the feet of the actual god was made up of gray stone and the walls of the arena didn't look like actual walls but rather like a strange sort of foggy barrier that would have impeded anyone who tried to walk through it.
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There was a strange almost night-time sky above them that was actually a painted wall designed to resemble the night's sky. Clouds and the moon could be seen in the "sky" that the arena presented to its combatants.
The two of them were both strangely poised and graceful in their own ways. Althos was a skilled warrior and a firm believer in his own capabilities after having trained for three years and having grown used to his abilities. Technos was a graceful figure who sinuously flew through the sky and was in constant motion as he attacked the actual god who had invaded his gravesite.
Despite Technos' far longer lifetime of experience, the ghostly god-like being had had his attacks foiled by the god. The first of his attacks was a missile barrage which Althos could have responded to in a number of ways but had chosen to foil using his life-giving staff. The second of the god of technology's attacks was far wiser and far more powerful but was also destined to not only fail but also be turned on Technos himself.
Althos was a creative warrior who had evolved beyond his past nervousness when it came to combat. Now he was a fully realized combatant who was unafraid to get creative and to face battles head-on as himself and to use the immense variety of abilities and powers at his disposal to have fun getting rid of his enemies.
Technos watched his laserbeam exit his mouth and the ghostly echo of a god had been excited to watch it collide with his divine enemy. That said when the beam began to vanish and Althos was still standing, seemingly unfazed by the attack Technos was momentarily confused. He had less than a nanosecond to visibly express his confusion before he learned, or rather felt, the fate of his attack.
Technos was surprised when he felt blistering pain suddenly wrack his impressive form. He was confused until he felt the blistering pain suddenly become searing pain that he felt throughout his entire body all at once. That was when he realized that somehow his attack must have been redirected, in a terrifying show of speed of thought and calmness in battle. However, while he was reacting to the pain of his own attack something strange happened to the arena he was fighting Althos on.
A distant patch of the arena's floor went from being made of a strange gray stone to being made of verdant, healthy, green grass. It wasn't a small patch of grass either, but it was off in the distance and it was near the entrance to the arena so neither warrior saw the strange patch of nature in the arena of the echo of the god of technology, though Althos detected it since he was a god of nature.
Technos reacted to the pain of the blow by hissing in agony and determinedly clearing his head of anything but the battle. His enemy's latest move proved that the foe he was facing wasn't a regular opponent. He was facing a wise one who had the ability to redirect attacks in a number of strange and unexplained ways. More than that though, the pain that stung Technos' mind and body brought with it the clarity and focus that came with realizing that Althos had the ability to actually harm Technos.
The echo had been arrogant before as Althos' fist was painful but it didn't actually do damage to the vestige. The redirected laser attack on the other hand actually harmed the echo, and that was a sobering realization. Technos was determined to not attack haphazardly anymore.
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The draconic form of the vestige I had set out to fight was reacting differently to me now and that made me smile. The metal beast I had come here to kill was unsure of how I had redirected his attack and after getting slammed by his own power he had begun to just fly and keep an eye on me. That filled me with a wicked joy that only a warrior could feel, the prideful sensation that came with frightening your opponent.
Technos kept his eyes locked on me as he danced through the air, his enormous wings beating in the distance and hitting me with a comfortable breeze due to the distance between us. I studied him for a moment before deciding to take the offensive.
I took the invisible portal that had appeared in front of Technos' laser beam attack and I brought it closer to me. As I did I began to overcharge a powerful evocation spell I had at my disposal. I was planning to signal my decision to go on the offensive in a rather grand way.
The spell I was charging up was a high-level evocation spell named "Flame lance". The name was rather apt as it was a spell that took magical energy and shaped it into a blazing lance to hurl at enemies. That said I wasn't planning to hurl just one lance, I was planning to hurl many at my foe.
He kept defensively flying around in circles and while zigzagging so as to throw me off, but he never did. I kept my eyes firmly locked on him and when I felt I was ready to unleash a truly overwhelming attack in his direction I did several things at once.
The very first thing I did was reach out across the arena with my mind and activate one of my most handy abilities: my empowered telekinesis. I grabbed onto Technos' flying form and held him firmly in my mental grasp. My power was like a truly enormous hand reached out and grabbed the dragon, holding him still. He gasped in surprise when he realized that he wasn't moving anymore and in response to that I "tightened" the grip I had on him and caused him to wail out in pain.
The second thing I did was forcefully move the other invisible portal, the one that had once been on top of Technos, and place it directly in front of his face. Now that he was still that was much easier to do. It was after I did this that I finally launched my first true attack on the god.
I silently cast the "Flame lance" spell, while mentally ordering the missiles to go with the lances. Around me several flame lances appeared, increasing the temperature near me considerably, and as they appeared missiles began to move near them. A second after they appeared they surged forward and nearly instantly entered and crossed through the portals.
On the other end of the second portal was Technos' face, and the enormous thing's eyes flashed in shock when a barrage of missiles and lances appeared right in front of it for a second before beginning to slam into him. As the attacks began to slam into Technos I felt more grass appear off in the distance behind me. As I did and began to wonder if the grass was some sort of indication that I was successfully harming my enemy the domain of knowledge whispered directly into my mind.
"Technos is different from Morehammer in a number of vital ways. One of the ways that the two appear to differ is that Technos is still forcibly and truly barred from leaving this odd gravesite. Another way is that as a lesser vestige there is a way to determine his health. The amount of grass that fills this arena is as hurt as he is. Once the place is filled with grass, that'll be a sign that Technos is on the verge of dying." The knowledge domain revealed, which confirmed my suspicions about the strange grass filling the arena.
It was a strange indicator but it was handy to be able to detect a visual representation of my foe's health. That said Technos wasn't going to be an easy enemy to defeat. Even my attack just now seemed to have dealt only a minuscule amount of actual damage to him, and when the barrage ended he lunged his head through the portal.
I leaped back and as his enormous head attempted to bite at me I threw a single powerful punch at his maw. I hissed in pain myself as I felt metallic teeth, divine, metallic teeth, rake my flesh. That said though his teeth managed to rake my skin he was hurled back and his head was dragged through the portal. Something like blood began to ooze from my skin, which annoyed me so I went ahead and healed the damage he had done to me, which unsurprisingly annoyed him.
"You little gnat! That's enough of these games. I'll take you down myself, using my blades to cut through your staff!" He roared, as his draconic body shuddered. He began to descend to the floor of the arena, opting to change this battle in a way I hadn't expected but could embrace.
As he descended to the floor of the arena his body spontaneously generated a pair of enormous arms. They ended in surprisingly thin hands, and each hand held a gigantic sword made of some sort of strange metal unlike any I had ever seen before. Each sword was longer than I was, and nearly twice as thick as I happened to be. That said I wasn't afraid of battling giants, even giant dragons and I welcomed this rather foolish decision on his part.
"You won't actually be cutting through my staff..." I replied, using my powers over sound to ensure he could hear me. I smiled and transformed my staff into the strange golden sword I had used to defeat Agustino a long time ago. As I did that I allowed my mind to wander and begin to focus on the tens of thousands of years of memories I had hidden away within myself. I focused specifically on the memories I had of swordplay and the memories made by swordmasters in battles throughout their lives.
When my staff was done transforming I pointed it at my foe and began to laugh. I was a powerful deity of war, and I could handle one arrogant ghost of a god in one on one combat. I silently and instantly created a shield made from divine, magic metal, and made it appear on my other hand. As I did that a suit of armor also appeared around me, one I made using the same powers that I had used to make the shield.
"Technos... Come. Face your end. Fight me!" I roared, embracing the side of me that had trained constantly for the last three years and had become a skilled warrior relying on nothing more than my own body. I had put in the work to master my body and now it was time for me to show that.
A second after I roared my challenge Technos roared back, the sound primal and angry, and dashed at me, going ahead and swinging his two gigantic blades when he was close enough for them to make contact with me. He was nimble and unnervingly fast on his feet, but I was still better prepared than he was. I chuckled and activated an ability that assassins had named "Catlike Grace" and I disappeared from his view even as his blades closed in on where I had once been.
I reappeared in his shadow, close to the frighteningly massive creature, and I leaped into the air, sword in hand. I leaped at the god, and began to spin even as I swung my sword. As I spun and swung my sword I activated my powers over nature and felt electricity begin to coat my blade. If Technos was really a robot I was about to find out just how much he liked electricity. Technos noticed that I had vanished, and immediately turned around to try and counter me, but I could tell that I was more than fast enough to land my blow and I began to smile triumphantly.