Four days prior to the start of the international.

"ALRIGHT YOU LAY-A-BOUT LOUTS! GET OUT HERE ON THE DOUBLE!"

For the briefest of moments Ares thought he was having a nightmare when Rud's bootcamp-esque voice came barrelling into his ears first thing in the morning. Unfortunately it was not a nightmare, it was cruel, harsh reality. Teng had come to collect them and have them distributed into their tiers and Rud was probably just passing by to help get everyone up and gathered. With a sigh, Ares got up and interrupted the shouting outside by chucking some Shock Beads out the window. Contrary to his intention, after a small window of quietude, the shouting resumed... Even louder... Specifically in his direction. The language used by Rud shall not be documented here as it breached various ethical codes of conduct.

Ares picked up the still-half-asleep Appa and left the room. As he did, he came across Enyo slumped tiredly over Bellona's back in the hallway and just pretended not to see anything as he walked in the opposite direction. Enyo had been harassing and pestering Bellona for a while now and, although nothing had come of it so far, she claimed to have been buttering up her sister successfully. Ares simply rooted her on and left her to it. If he involved himself he might spook away Bellona by making things awkward so in Enyo's capable hands he left it all. Allie and Aejaz came out of their own room hand in hand and, once again, Ares pretended not to see anything and kept walking. His own house had become a nest of deviancy and PDA traps lying around every corner.

As he neared the front door, he found Leo lounging around and put Appa down nearby so the two could play around while he went to go pick up some ingredients from the kitchen. He would make breakfast in the Primordial Blade for everyone so they had something to nibble on while they watched the tier assessment. He returned back to the hallway and found Leo perched upon Appa's head. A cute sight indeed but Ares was still wary of the tiger because he was a grade A piece of garbage sometimes. The only two people he never betrayed were Allie and Appa, and that was great and all, but if anyone else turned their back on him there was zero guarantee this furball wouldn't scratch their spine to kingdom come. Maybe the pesky fellow was just bored having had nothing else to do recently. Ares was tempted to ask Rud outside if the sect needed a chief mouser or something. Ares headed outside and caught sight of everyone else already waiting. For the first time he was the last to arrive. In all fairness, he was busy prepping food for everyone so anyone who complained wasn't getting any! He stuck his tongue out at Rud who demonically glared at him before chucking the Shock Beads at his head one by one. Each Bead hit their mark and bounced off his cranium but Ares made no effort to pick them up, he could always do that later or maybe some desperate inner court might pass by and steal them for his own personal use. Technically these two were playing with pretty rare and powerful treasures that most others would kill to have.

Teng could sense Rud's desire to beat Ares up so he coughed to himself and started talking to change the subject. Rud kissed his teeth and started leaving because his work here was done. Or rather, he didn't have any work here to begin with, he'd just tried to pull off a bold strategy. Anyone that knew Rud knew he disliked the bandit brothers with a passion. Therefore, when he was discovered to be slacking off at work, the one place he was least likely to attempt to hide was as close to the two brothers as possible! Teng had found Rud sleeping in Ares' front garden and plucked him like a parsnip before haranguing him and threatening to report this incident ot Yulo if he didn't make himself useful. Rud desperately searched his memory banks for a reason to slash Teng's pay check but, unfortunately, Teng was the epitome of a goody two shoes. He followed rules by the book and was faultless in that regard. Rud had to simply bide his time and try to catch him messing up in the future to pay him back for this transgression!

"Alright, like last time, none of you will be competing during this tier assessment. I'm telling you now that everyone other than Ares is going straight into tier one. There's no exceptions to this as this is the way its always worked. You all may be talented, but you're at the bottom of the pecking order here because you're cultivations doesn't match up to other people's. I don't doubt some of you would be better suited to other tiers but figuring out which tier you each belonged in individually sounds like a nightmare. The only reason Ares is getting a free pass is because we're rearing him to be the next sect master and the fifth tier gives out a decent amount of stardust, amongst other things, weekly. As for the tier leaders. I myself am the first tier leader in the inner court. This decision was made a while back because I tend to get involved with the outer court frequently, thus I can act as a familiar face for all the outer court disciples who make it this far. Ares, the fifth tier leader is Alaine, Elaine's sister. Alaine used to be the third tier leader but we've done some reshuffling lately as the previous fifth tier needed some time off for personal matters. We've decided things will stay like this for the future so I'm just letting you know now. Uh, good luck with Alaine. She's a bit handsy with her disciples, so maybe try and keep her at arms length?"

Ares could feel the wrath of a thousand Enyos and a couple hundred Bellonas bubbling behind him, the heated stares of which were burning his back, so he opted to take extreme caution going forward. God only knows how either would react if they caught a whiff of another woman's perfume on him... If what Ares had heard about Rhea's proclivity for rampaging when she was annoyed was anything to go by, upsetting either one of the sisters would have drastic consequences let alone both at the same time... Rhea would also be visiting some time soon and Sadie was still here so, if they couldn't deal with the problem themselves, all they would have to do is tattle on him and all hell would break loose. Of course Ares had no intention of setting off either of the two land mines behind him and he was just as perturbed by this information as either of them were. If anything, he had way more reasons to be annoyed by this arrangement! He could faintly hear Rud snickering at Ares' dilemma as he departed and never before had Ares wanted to go and cause the man trouble than he did in this moment as he could have sworn that same snickering only made Enyo and Bellona's attitude worsen. Ares had to tiptoe around these two dangerous women as he followed Teng to the new training field that was used in the inner court. It was bigger than the outer court variant and had a section where people could train against dummies. They were supposed to be unbreakable by anyone in the inner court but Teng forbid Ares from attacking them because the result would be pretty obvious. Ares grumbled under his breath as everyone else received permission to use the dummies as they saw fit.

In a manner that was similar to the first time they showed up to a tier assessment in the outer court, everyone took their seats on the side while the already established disciples eyed them all up. There were a few new additions, and a few missing old hats, but the general hatred for Ares and Aejaz remained constant. As an aside, Ares decided not to call out the fact that Fate had somehow snuck into the inner court and was also here. She was seriously obsessed with winning him over to aid in the war, and he understood that, but how on earth did she even get past the gate? This person was way too good at her profession. Ares tried his best to just ignore the tiny spy and figure out what the fifth tier was like. Specifically if there was anyone there who held a grudge against him. These people would have way higher cultivations than him and, although it wouldn't be impossible to defend himself, he still would like to know in advance if anything troublesome was headed his way. Surprisingly, there was only really one person that seemed to have it out for him so he thanked his lucky stars the number wasn't way higher. Interestingly, however, that same person didn't appear to have any issues with Aejaz. He was trying to stare holes into Ares, but Aejaz got off scot-free... From him, anyway, everyone else staring made sure to include the cowardly brother as well. Ares couldn't fathom what he'd done to this person in particular as he'd never even met the guy before but he figured that, with the frequency at which problems popped up on his doorstep, he would figure out sooner than later. The person staring at him with malice seemed to be a bodybuilder type of cultivator, probably a behemoth aspect user. He had a bulky build not dissimilar to someone Ares could have sworn he'd seen before somewhere... Ah! The head of security back at Accelyn's place? They do look almost identical... His son maybe? Is that why he's annoyed? Oi, but I'm not even the one who killed your papa, you know? That was 100% Slick, I didn't do nothin'!... Actually, the explosions did clip him a little at the beginning... But still! Weren't me! Ares hazarded a guess and just assumed that was where the grudge stemmed from. Maybe he would have to clear it up at some point so he got his excuses in order! He mostly just didn't want the hassle of dealing with the guy. He had no personal animosity towards the brute and he could somewhat understand his anger. Unless the brute decided to start causing him or his family trouble, he could just ignore him. Although, really, it didn't look like the brute was sparing anyone else even an iota of attention, so it didn't look like he would be bothering them, but that just made it all the more strange... Whatever, maybe I'm overthinking things. He seems like the type to come to me and say what's on his mind... Err, on his chest, at some point even if I do nothing. Ares deduced that this man probably didn't have much on his mind ever and, yes, that was a stereotype against brawny people, but in the cultivation world it was rarely wrong! For some unknowable reason, cultivators obsessed with muscles rarely trained their brains. Finding one who did, and was actually making any sort of headway, was unprecedented for most people. You would have better luck searching for an enabler.

The fights kicked off and the new group all minded their own business and paid the happenings of the inner court no attention. Unlike before in the outer court these people were certainly tougher but the people here were all prodigious so who cared really? Anyone at their cultivation level would get smoked by anyone on these benches and it wasn't even close. This was a level of arrogance that bothered the inner court disciples but the rumours about literally every single person here made them all bite their tongues and hold back their criticisms. Two hours passed, during which the only thing Ares did was receive an earful from Enyo and Bellona about 'dangerous skanks'. He slyly managed to dilute the rant somewhat by asking Bellona why she cared about his chastity, somewhat pushing her out the conversation. Enyo, however, was unshakeable. Plus she even went above and beyond, saying that 'Bellona was her sister which was why she cared so much. Bellona didn't want Ares to cheat on her sister and, thus, she was permitted to speak on the matter as if she were involved herself'. Ares had to commend Enyo's stupid intelligence and applaud her dedication to winning the dumbest arguments with infallible logic. The tag team berated Ares until the matches were over, at which point they collectively made the throat slitting gesture towards him and stood up to be moved to their tier. Ares was deeply unnerved because he would genuinely not be surprised if either one of them actually did slit his throat for even thinking about Alaine. It's not like it would kill him either, so it would probably happen more than once at that! He had no intentions of going anywhere near the woman, obviously, but whether he could avoid her was another matter entirely. If Elaine's nosiness manifested in her sister to any degree whatsoever then trying to avoid Alaine was going to be annoying. Ares could tell both the sisters were going to have a word with Alaine if she even so much as looked at him funny and he couldn't tell if that would be a good thing or not. Either Aline wouldn't be as frisky as Teng claimed, in which case she would steer clear of him after the threat of the Legion clan was dumped on her... Or... God forbid... She would redouble her efforts just to spite the sisters and mess with everyone...

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

As with before, everyone was slowly directed towards the first tier. All was well up until Enyo was called up to go to the first tier, at which point Ares realised why the brute from before hated him. Jealousy. This thug was mean-mugging him because Ares was in a relationship with Enyo and he seemed to be crushing hard on her. His lovesick appearance was absolutely horrid however, and a man of his size should never be seen swooning like that. With a bit of effort, he could probably turn his current appearance into a mental attack if tried hard enough... Whether or not this person would actually try to fight him was up in the air. Trew had gotten over things and been a good enough sport but he was a different breed of human altogether thanks to the Legion clan setting him on the straight and narrow from a young age. Someone like Trew was not common. Most people would not be willing to let matters like this go and this brute looked pretty enamoured. It wasn't like he was the only one who took a fancy to Enyo so Ares doing anything untoward to him specifically would just be childish but he would absolutely be keeping his eyes peeled for this guy in particular because he was actually being genuinely hateful towards him. The 'Ares death cult' was mostly a group of pansies that wouldn't ever dare lay a finger on him or even try to but this person seemed like he truly had it out for him. What a way to complicate things right off the bat... Still, Ares didn't show up for lectures and whatnot very often so the chances of him bumping into this guy were low, thankfully. After Trew, Ares had already gotten sick and tired of explaining to dull men that Enyo wasn't up for grabs anymore and no amount of tantrums were going to change that fact. While the sisters fought off Alaine, Ares would have to keep the brute at bay. What a pain in the neck, seriously.

"Ares, fifth tier." Last but not least, Ares was called up to go to the fifth tier and that was when the whispering started. The rumour that Ares would be the next sect master had already begun circulating already and this was basically putting the final nail in the coffin. There were less overt complaints than the first time this had happened, Ares skipping tiers, but there were still a few. They went ignored, though, as no one really cared what a few inner court disciples thought about the situation. All the elders were already onboard so the matter had been settled beforehand.

As Ares walked past the brute he heard him mutter the words 'scrawny wimp' at him... Really? The fact that Ares was an adept and literally couldn't bulk up aside... Really? Trew believed reputation was why he 'deserved' Enyo, and that was pretty stupid in and of itself... But to think the brute thought he 'deserved' Enyo because he had big muscles... No, really? The fairest maiden in all the land did not belong to the greatest arm wrestler for Christ's sake. Ares hoped the people lusting after his wife weren't all going to be this moronic going forward otherwise he would legitimately just start killing them on sight because being this stupid had to be a crime against humanity. It's not even like the guy with the biggest muscles would be a shoe-in to win a fight anyway because of how prevalent and important magic was in this world. The value of muscle wasn't particularly high to begin with. This person was a dunce. Besides, if what Enyo truly cared about were muscles, she would have dumped Ares for Bellona if anything. That woman was low-key a gorilla. She was almost as muscly under her clothes as this guy was! If she didn't wear her baggy witch clothes so often she would get approached by gym bros looking for advice twenty-four seven. Objectively she wasn't the most attractive person ever. Granted she had her moments where her physical strength combined with her facial features gave her a sort of tomboyish charm but that wasn't enough to turn most heads. And yet, when she dressed up casually, she still managed to get more looks than her sister just because of how different she was from the norm. Being able to control muscle mass and still looking the way Bellona did was rare for most women who would sooner die than look like that. Whether it was because Bellona had given up all hope of traditional sex appeal, whenever it was she came to terms with her flatness, was anyone's guess, but it was the route she took nonetheless. As far as Ares was concerned Enyo was definitely more beautiful but Bellona could be really cute sometimes too. Whenever they wrestled and she came out on top with a smile, one that radiated cheekiness thanks to her relatively sharp fangs, it helped her amber eyes really pop from behind her hair. She also bit her lip when thinking deeply and the pensive look suited her precisely because it contrasted with her usually sharp features. She would occasionally jump for joy when practicing magic with Ares too and she definitely had a precious side, the gap between which and her solid abs was something Ares could appreciate. You could definitely list attractive qualities for Bellona if you actually paid her any attention and, now that Ares was doing precisely that, he could enjoy seeing her unique charms whenever they cropped up. That's why, if anything, Ares was surprised the brute wasn't looking in Bellona's direction instead. He wasn't getting anywhere near either sister and Ares would make sure of that, but he was still surprised nonetheless. Maybe the guy was just a hypocrite, not caring about muscles himself but expecting women to? Who knows? It was better not to try and decipher this strange person because understanding him would only ever be Ares' loss. Dragging himself down to this person's mental level was insanity and he really wasn't concerned about this guy... Although he didn't exactly appreciate being called a wimp for no reason... Scrawny was true to some extent, Ares couldn't help the fact that his muscles literally would never grow beyond where they were currently without the aid of a rare treasure... But being 'wimpy' was just flat out not true! This idiot threw himself at a mecha-dryad less than two months ago! If there was one thing Ares usually wasn't, it was a coward. That was his brother if anything!

With a sigh, Ares just carried on walking and moved to the back of the fifth tier line... Next to Alaine who prodded him in the sides and winked at him. "Please, I'm begging you, my wives-to-be are watching like hawks..."

"Oh?" Alaine daintily raised her palm over lips and gave a coy smile that didn't quite make it up to her mischievous eyes. "Wives? Plural? I'd heard about one but to think you'd be so bold as to go after both sisters. You're quite a brave man aren't you? You know, Elaine and I are also sisters, and we happen to be quite lonely..."

"Stay back, temptress! You are dangerous to my health! I have no desire to be murdered in my sleep by jealous lovers. Or rather, I don't want to make them jealous in the first place... So have mercy?"

"Hmmm. But it sounds like too much fun to give up here!"

"You have a twisted sense of fun! Do you seriously want the Legion clan matriarch breathing down your neck? I hear she's a dangerous woman."

Alaine ran her finger up Ares arm and whispered into his ear, "So am I." She tittered to herself as she looked over at the enraged sisters and merrily strolled away. Whereas a woman like Bea would respect other relationships, it seemed Alaine got a kick out of disrespecting them. Ares could tell she harboured no intentions towards him whatsoever, she was just doing this to spite the sisters. That was all well and good and all but he was going to be the one to pay for this later! In order to avoid getting chewed out for as long as humanly possible by the sisters, Ares slunk out of the line and went to go hide next to Enyo in the first tier line. He would rather figure out where everything was in his own time than abandon Enyo and spend time 'alone' with Alaine during the guided tour. Despite making the correct choice he was still side-eyed by the sisters who did not approve of his tier leader. Ares wasn't sure what more he could do other than commit seppuku so he just silently followed the two like a good little dog and wagged his tail to try and look cute whenever they glanced at him.

The tour of the first tier area came to a close and Teng actively sought out Aejaz. Ares was nearby so he hobbled over to escape the sisters silent wrath and listen in on the conversation.

"Hey, Aejaz, Zhang wanted me to let you know that your family is going to be participating in the international. You probably already knew that, but hew has a bit more information to share too. He said your three brothers and one sister are all on the team as well as some other woman from the clan. He figured he would let you know now that the team had ben finalised as he had an acquaintance in the region that informed him."

Aejaz scratched his head and thanked Teng who left afterwards to go and do some work elsewhere. Ares walked over and draped his arm over his brother's shoulder. "I never did ask but you mentioned you got along well with one of your family members... Is it one of the four competing?"

"Yeah, my little sister was always kind to me. She was too young to really understand the family dynamic and the politics of a massive 'failure' in a clan like ours so she felt pity for me when I was treated differently. She was a kind soul not really cut out for the assassination life, I think. It'll be good to se her again and I hope she's doing well now. If I'm not mistaken, the other woman on the team is someone else I know too. A childhood friend that could sympathise with me behind closed doors. She was really fun to be around and, for a while, I even had a crush on her. She was everything I wanted to be like and I was envious of her... I guess that's all in the past now, though. She probably forgot about me by now... And then there's the three 'brothers'..."

"Ha, what are their names? Rob, Nick, and Jack?"

"Very funny. No... I'm not really sure how things will go with them. Two of them are extremely unlikely to even look my way but one of them always really hated me down to his core. Maybe their opinions of me will have changed, or maybe it'll just be the same as usual. I think the one I'm most curious about is my dad though. After all these years, looking back, I kinda realised he was just being pushed along by his own father. He did wrong by me, and I don't plan on forgiving him ever, but it didn't really seem to be of his own volition. My mother never gave even a single shit about me but I could occasionally catch a glimpse of regret in him. I wonder if my grandfather will show up too. Ah man, what a pain in the neck this all is... Whatever, I have my own family now."

"Well said, coward! Don't let them push you around during the tournament and make sure to stand up for yourself. Still, if things get hectic I'll be there so don't stress too much. I know I usually try to push you hard to solve your own issues for your own sake but, just this once, I'll show some leniency and deal with any problems that come up myself. I can understand why this would be hard for you so leave anything you can't deal with to me during this period."

Aejaz, with a solitary tear in his eye, gave Ares a hug. "Thanks brother."

"Yeah, anytime." Ares fulfilled his role as big brother and offered protection but, little did he know, he was going to need his own protection sooner rather than later. Aejaz' family aside, tomorrow was going to be a very risky day for Ares. No one was aware of this as there hadn't been any communication with Rhea recently but the woman had bargained hard with Calla and managed to eek out a few more days of leeway for coming down to Sheryashka. Or, to put it in simpler terms, tomorrow, Rhea would descend upon the sect and come hunting down the revenant scum that had seduced her daughters!... Both of whom were not currently in the right mind to give a testimony on his behalf as they were still annoyed with him thanks to that damn woman Alaine!