Garmr clicked his bones into shape all across his body as he hung sideways of the coliseum wall by the nails on his feet. He cracked his hands together and rolled his neck, even managing to click the bones in his legs and feet simply by flexing his muscles which was showing off to a highly unnecessary degree but was cool nonetheless. Garmr placed all four of his paws on the wall and gripped tightly, preparing himself to set off with a bang. He took a deep breath, located Maro amongst countless other people via the decrepit old man's unique smell, even though he was no longer visible, and took action.

BANG

Shooting straight up like a bullet, Garmr launched himself upwards. He broke the part of the coliseum he'd been attached to previously and the chunks of rubble crashed down to the ground below with a loud thud. As for where Garmr was right now, he'd sailed up and over the tip of the coliseum in one clean, fell swoop. His jump packed enough force to propel him high up into the sky, a couple hundred feet even, where he could sense the eyes of a strong individual gazing down at him from above. One of the four seasons must have been resting atop the fluffy clouds but he wasn't Garmr's priority right now so he was thoroughly ignored like the insignificant ant he was. Instead, Garmr turned his attention back down towards the coliseum as what goes up... Must come down.

Garmr took another deep breath and updated his tracking of Maro so he knew where to aim during his descent. Furthermore, he'd located every single individual on his collision course beneath him and was plotting a route that could avoid everybody perfectly. Between his sense of smell, and the various vibrations of movement affecting the air beneath him, Garmr could plot out the location of every living creature not at the strength of one of the matriarchs, giving him a absolute overview of all life within range of his senses. Now that the sensory task had been completed, he allowed his weight to drag him back down towards the coliseum headfirst. His freefall only became a measured, precise dive about halfway down when he could finally be bothered to act. With a small twist, he corrected his previous angle of approach and was now moving in a straight line with no deviation. According to his calculations, Maro would be three floors beneath the top one and directly underneath where Garmr was landing. He'd accounted for travel time, the erratic nature of Maro's movement, and even given some consideration to deviation in Maro's speed due to panicked mistakes in rounding corners. All that remained was to plunge straight through the building, obliterating the multiple floors in the way, and pounce on Maro through the holes he created during his improvised hunt. Now Garmr was just being nonsensical. This was a building that withstood countless wars, and even Vargaraad's cleansing of silver fire, so the fact that Garmr could blast holes in it by exerting some effort was enough to make a sane man go mad, especially if they were currently trying to flee through said building and were relying on it to block the monster chasing them. Assuming Garmr wouldn't be able to pop up unannounced, only to have him crash through multiple walls in a supposedly impenetrable building... Well Maro might not even be awake to watch himself die as he'd almost definitely faint at the sight of Garmr hurtling towards him through the roof.

With just one leap, started from an awkward position, Garmr had thrown himself into the sky and was now about to divebomb an unsuspecting foe through a building. Singling out one target. of the thousands in the mess of people without causing anyone else harm or doing more damage to the building than was absolutely necessary. was a feat of talent that nobody else in the coliseum could replicate. Maybe one of the matriarchs if they really went all out but the combination of Garmr's physical strength, his masterful control over his beastly limbs, and his unrivalled senses gave him an edge that couldn't be matched. Garmr could pull this off 10 times out of 10 without ever making a mistake. It would take the matriarchs, or even the four seasons, 100s of tries to be successful even just once. None of them had x-ray vision so tracking the target through the building would require expert control of divine sense that needed constant updating and a lot of skill. Plus not accidentally striking a passer by would be a difficult task.

Garmr was displaying his superiority in a strange way. He was a beast that possessed a well immeasurable strength within him and, yet, he was mostly showcasing his other talents here. His control was masterful as plucking out Maro specifically was one thing but he would also need to stop on the designated floor and go no further. In terms of what was the least impressive thing he was going to have to do here, breaking the floors in a feat of strength was an easy contender. But that just went to show that this was not some dumb brute, Garmr was a highly intelligent beast who knew how to come across as an imposing figure. The low brow cultivators in the crowd would be awed by his divebomb regardless. There would be an assumption of strength attached to this feat regardless of how much there actually was and how important it was. Meanwhile the experts would be awed by the technical display that was utterly mind blowing. A finely crafted spectacle that even impressed Dominus who was also watching this all unfold. This was technically his first time seeing Garmr too. The impact was lessened considerably due to the whole ordeal not being drawn out over a long period of time but he was still stunned just like everybody else.

Garmr's fall was nearly over as he was a split second from crashing into the top floor where the matriarchs and their kin were. Almost everybody was glued to their seats but Ares did notice Appa wagging its rope and waving at him from below... Clearly it was happy that its father was now a big and fluffy toy which was pretty similar to how Calla, who was also wagging her tail as a gesture of greetings, felt. Ares stopped paying his family attention for now though as his current task was inching ever closer. Garmr shoved one hand ahead of his head and extended the claws downwards. The claws would first pierce the building and then the knuckles on his fist would blast the weakened structure away with ease. Garmr's paws were going to function like breaching charges, only they packed way more power, were mobile (As they were part of a body that could fling itself around at ridiculous speeds), and could be reused as many times as the owner wanted.

CRASH

Like an Olympic diver, Garmr breached the top layer of his target without causing much chaos. His collision was loud but the amount of scattered rubble was minimal with only a few small pebbles flying off the back of the coliseum. Even the direction of the debris had been intentionally directed as far away from people as possible. So many little things added up to create an incredible scene of pure mastery. It didn't end there, though. As Garmr kept falling through the next floor, he shifted his weight to the right slightly to avoid someone who'd stumbled backwards into his path when the ceiling collapsed behind him. It was a minor shift in direction and it was performed at such high speeds, with such little time to react, which just added onto the already impressive showcase of Garmr's abilities that a few nearby experts had to pinch themselves as Garmr crashed through the floor again. All the experts present in the coliseum were watching Garmr's every move with their divine sense to see what he would show them next in this impressive series of subtle displays.

Crash

The noise Garmr made busting through the floor was noticeably quieter than it was previously because he was intentionally slowing himself down already. He was applying more force to his knuckles when sinking into the ground, decreasing his overall speed. By the time he reached Maro he would be able to regain control over his movement entirely thanks to this strategy.

Crash

Once more, Garmr brutalised the floor and came crashing down headfirst into another spectator's area. This floor was his last stop and, sure enough, he saw Maro trying to escape by taking a beeline for a nearby hallway. Unfortunately for Maro, the beeline he was running along passed directly underneath Garmr's current position. Garmr had killed off all his momentum by this point so, upon entering the same area as Maro, his poor victim had just enough time to look up and see Garmr's bloodstained hand come crushing down on top of him. The last thing he felt was his bird's blood smearing his face before he became nothing more than a blood cocktail on Garmr's paw palm. Bird and master were no longer living creatures but, rather, intertwined blood splotches that would eventually be washed away and forgotten about. Only in books detailing the history of Red Sun would these two be remembered and even then not fondly.

Garmr didn't care about such trivialities however, he just wanted to kill them for the sport. Speaking of murder for murder's sake, there was actually one more target he had been given permission to kill from Ares. Garmr prowled past the partially petrified spectators, all of whom retreated to the edges of the room, as soon as their legs actually allowed them, to let the massive monster through. Garmr made his way to the edge of the area and looked down into the arena. Luckily for him, it seemed like Lex had, in the confusion of everything that happened recently, forgotten to run for his dear life. Why on earth wouldn't Ares kill him? Lex was a troublesome pest with a death wish who'd facilitated this farce for petty reasons. Garmr hopped down into the arena and made the entire coliseum tremble as soon as he landed. The fact that his dive through the building earlier hadn't rocked the entire foundation, but he intentionally allowed this jump to, again just went to show how professionally Garmr had weaved his strength. Garmr almost didn't even really value his strength much, what he really cared about was that he had enough of it to do whatever he pleased. Anything more than what was needed in the moment was overkill and it was this mindset that led to him becoming an unparalleled strength wielder while he resided within Ares' internal jail. If someone like Veteran was a master of pressure wielding, then Garmr would undoubtedly be a master of strength manipulation. Of course he also just relatively had the most compared to anyone at his cultivation level but, given how high his benefits were stacked, that wasn't surprising. The right amount of that immense strength, used precisely in the right place at the right time, was what he truly took pride in.

Lex was frozen in place. He was now realising that Ares had no hesitation and would gladly kill someone who hadn't yet been confirmed to be hostile to him from the public's perspective. Some people might lambast Ares for this decision but he was decisive enough to take the small reputation hit. The amount of renown he would gain from his transformation, plus his murder spree that only affected 'evil' doers, would outstrip the amount he lost from killing Lex. Yes the guy was almost definitely a cheating, narcissistic, assassin assisting scumbag but there still wasn't definitive proof of any of it. Even today, though everyone could guess it, Ares couldn't prove it... If Ares went around killing people over unfounded accusations people would not respond well to it. It was normal in the cultivation world but people usually tried to hide their actions if possible! Ares was doing this out in the open and making a very bold statement with the incoming death of Lex. Then again, Lex couldn't blame Ares as he would have done the same thing in this position. A small hit to reputation was more than worth it to rid yourself of an enemy in a position of power who had it out for you. That was why Lex was glued to the spot. He'd just been shown, clear as day, that running wasn't a possibility. Fighting back was not a possibility. And begging, due to the reasons above, was not a possibility either. The only thing Lex was permitted to do right now was die like a dog and pray to God that either heaven and hell existed, so he could move on to the afterlife, or that cultivators were reincarnated after their death. He wasn't sure which would be worse for him because the former would result in him going to hell and the latter... Well his karmic debts were mountain high so the chances of him being reborn as a mindless slug were atrociously high. He ground his teeth and determinately spat at the monster approaching him, "Just make it quick you hideous abomination!"

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Lex had made a massive mistake here. His words did nothing but awaken the revenant's playful side. Garmr flashed a toothy grin with malicious undertones as he glanced down at his new toy. All revenants liked playing with people but the manner it happened in was different for them all. Ares annoyed people and confused them with his stupid actions. Dominus established dominance through combat and smugly taunted his opponents mid fight. Fate would give you a bratty earful and call you stupid or dumb. Garmr... Garmr would enjoy slowly ripping you to shreds as he smiled at you while showing you the body parts he'd torn off, almost like a dog bringing back a dead bird to its owner and wagging its tail. Actually, in hindsight, that was word for word what Garmr had done to Maro. Maro's last vision was that of his dead bird. To Garmr, torturing his foes to a slow death was a great way to anger them and get on their nerves! If anything, he'd killed Maro too quickly... He was regretting it but, then again, he remembered why he'd done it in the first place... That damn timer was ticking away. He didn't have an exact clock in his head or anything so Garmr only had a rough idea of how much time he still had before Ares returned. Torturing people was pleasurable but his orders, which he hadn't been able to deny as of yet, were to kill everyone responsible for this situation so that took precedence. He'd made it to Lex with some time to spare but how much exactly? He didn't know but it would certainly be enough to pull out a couple of limbs, that was not a fate Lex could avoid!

"I will not make it quick," Garmr bellowed in a deep and gravelly voice that came permanently attached with the sound of a small but fierce growl in the background whenever he spoke. "I will make it excruciating and you will accept all of it without question." Garmr's voice and snarls rang through the stadium and shook the earth. His sonorous voice echoed through the floor and vibrated everyone's innards. It was a commanding voice that stood out whenever it wanted to be heard. There was no such thing as blending in with a voice like this. When Garmr spoke, no one else dared to. Anyone who's mouth was already open would make a concerted effort to shut it, that was for sure.

Lex trembled and looked up at Garmr, which progressively became more and more difficult the closer he came as his sheer height was insane for a living creature in a lower domain. Even the iciclops from Isasz would have been tiny compared to Garmr. Garmr could use an iciclops as a club if he wanted to. Even though it was worthless, Lex took a few steps backward towards the edge of the arena. Again, entirely pointless but his body was moving on its own as his control over it had long since checked out. Much like Ares, albeit for a very different reason, he was a captive within his mind watching his body as it was about to go through hell and back. Lex didn't make it far with his backward shuffling as Garmr just extended his hand towards him and plucked him off the ground like a kid examining a beetle.

Garmr pinched Lex's right arm, his dominant one, between two of his nails. This was a surprisingly difficult task because of how small Lex's arms were compared to Garmr's nails but he manged it on his first try anyway. Lex groaned in pain as the two nails pierced his flesh and even his skeleton. The nails had shot through his body like a bullet through cardboard. The resistance his body offered was near enough non-existent and now his arm was dangling by two threads on either side of Garmr's two nails that were joined at the tip inside his arm. Garmr dragged both nails left of their current position, scraping away whatever meat was left of Lex's arm that was allowing it to cling to his shoulder. Doing it slowly made sure to get a few extra exclamations from Lex so Garmr was happy to take his time dismantling the puny human. Plop. Next up, now that Lex's arm had been cut off and dropped onto the floor in a bloody pile, Garmr wrapped his free hand around Lex's right foot and started pulling. He didn't use all his might because he wanted the process of ripping Lex's foot off to be nice and slow. Lex ground his teeth together so as not to let out any noises and give the beast a kick but even still he couldn't help but make a few small exhalations whenever Garmr upped the pulling power on his ankle.

Rip

"AH!" Credit where credit was due, the shout that came from Lex when his foot was torn off his leg was only a small one which was impressive considering how much agony he must have been in during the moment. Or maybe the adrenaline hadn't worn out yet? Either way he now had the bones in his legs sticking out from beneath the shredded flesh and he was never going to walk on that leg again. Next up, Garmr decided to poke Lex's right eye out. He was systematically ruining one half of lex's body. Why? No reason. Garmr just noticed, after tearing off Lex's foot, that he wasn't being symmetrical and, instead of fixing it, chose to double down instead. That was all.

Squish

Lex yelped again as Garmr's nail made mince meat out of his eye. He was wondering if the beast would leave him alone now that he'd had his fun or if he would finally be put to rest but, based on the fact that the monster just kissed its teeth and put him down, it seemed like something was happening with the monster internally. Lex wasn't far off the mark because it seemed Garmr was getting fed up of listening to Ares. Ares had asked him, politely mind you, to kill Lex because the amount of time he had in this form was about to run out. Ares had been nice and yet Garmr rudely kissed his teeth and basically told him to piss off! Who did this guy think he was!? Apparently Ares had given Garmr his last order for today and he was now stubbornly refusing to kill Lex out of spite... This guy... Well, Ares did have one last idea up his sleeve that could at least help him inflict even just a tiny bit more damage on Lex before things ended so he reminded Garmr that he'd missed Lex's right ear... This was incredibly scummy! Even Garmr almost did a double take when he heard the stupid idiot mention the ear but he did have a fair point...

Garmr turned back around to Lex and cleanly sliced off an ear. He thought that would be the end of it but, annoyingly, Ares chimed in again with another fair point and Garmr wanted to smack his forehead against a wall. Ares would be weak after the Stimulant ended and Lex, weak though he also was, could straight up kill Ares when he reverted back. Ares asked Garmr to help prevent this and his response was to pick up Lex, by the collar on his clothes, and chuck him off into the distance. It was a decently powerful throw too so the guy got some wicked air time as he sailed somewhere out of Red Sun. Actually, now Ares was curious how far someone could be launched by Garmr if he was allowed to go all out with every means available to him. Garmr might genuinely be able to toss a person across an entire country at that point if they were light enough and the wind was just right. As for Lex... Well he was definitely not going to have a pleasant landing at all... Ares saw a member of the C.O go flying after him but he wasn't going to catch up to the guy and save him in time so Lex was going to eat hella dirt on the landing. With the right half of his body almost entirely gone, there was no way Lex would learn to fly in such a state before he hit the ground so the guy may very well be close to dying by the time his C.O buddy caught up. If Ares was lucky, Lex might even succumb to his wounds before help arrived. Chances are that wouldn't be the case though. It was more likely Garmr's plan would be successful.

Yes Garmr refused to kill Lex because he had enough of getting bossed around but there was in fact another reason for his disobedience. Simply put, if Lex returned for revenge, Ares would have to drink another Stimulant. Ares was one realm away from truly making his revenant form his own, at which point Garmr would merge into Ares and that would be the end of him. Garmr wanted to make sure Ares used the last two stimulants before bloodline awakening, so he could pop out and have some fun, so keeping Lex alive increased those odds in his favour. He was a sly bastard, Garmr was. Ares inheriting some of that slyness when the two merged could only ever be a bad thing for the world at large, though... Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Garmr's time was up and Ares was due to return to the forefront. Garmr was more dangerous but there was no one left to bite, stomp, or pulverise so actually everyone here was ironically safer in his presence than Ares'. Ares wouldn't hesitate to mock or annoy the spectators if he felt he had a reason to so he was arguably the worse of two evils but, then again, he was going to be curled up on the floor and half dead anyway so it didn't particularly matter that he was out and about.

Garmr shrunk and his conscience was dragged back onto Ares' skull, Garmr didn't resist this and yet reeling him in was still a hard thing to do just because of how weighty he was. It's not just his physique that was bulky but also his mind was solid too. Even if anyone attempted to launch a mental attack it would have just bounced off Garmr pointlessly. Ares' body was now more human than revenant but there were still a few small changes that needed fixing before he was fully fleshed out again.

Meanwhile, up in the top floor of the coliseum, Calla was clapping her hands merrily now that her son's 'zoomies' session was over. It was clearly a little more than just 'the zoomies' but she was a delusional woman when it came to her children so her opinion on such matters was best left ignored. Also, off to the side was the only other person who'd gotten over the sight of Ares' new form, Enyo. She'd climbed to the top of the coliseum after being shooed out of the arena, was panting like a degenerate again, and muttering the words 'I can take him' under her breath for reasons best left unexplored. Bellona, who'd also come along, did overhear this and looked at her sister with a narrow gaze filled with confusion and disgust. "In a fight, right?" Bellona wasn't sure if she was happy or not that she didn't receive an answer from her sister... It was probably for the best that she didn't. Yes Ares could make his revenant form smaller and more, uh, appropriate, but really?! Enyo was well and truly a deviant if ever there was one. Bellona was now really interested to know if there was anything that Enyo wouldn't be willing to try... The answer was probably no, honestly...