Mako was really in the thick of it. He'd seen destruction magic from afar a few times now, and had even felt it when it was mixed in with Ares' annihilation pressure n the pagoda, but this was the first time he was ever getting hit by it directly and purely without any pressure diluting it. It was a bizarrely calming experience. The hectic nature of the explosions faded once you were actually encased in them like the eye of a storm typed of deal. An all consuming, depressing and nihilistic urge to disappear from reality kept enticing Mako to give in and bite the dust. It was tingling away inside his flesh and demanding he just let go of life, whispering sweet nothings about a joyous end into his ear. It wanted him to stop fighting it and fade away to nothingness, let Grim Cessation gorge on his remaining mana, and provide sustenance to Ares so he could continue to turn the rest of the world into a historical stain and nothing more. It was a one track path to the end of all things wherein everyone and everything in existence felt the desire to disappear, leaving absolutely nothing left. It was the polar opposite of everything Mako's pillar stood for and he was probably the most discomforted and affected of all people to be hit by destruction magic due to the vast gulf in ideologies. Mako wanted prosperity in every form, everywhere. Numerous objects and tangibility in every inch of existence. A world consisting of all manner of variation, life, and tactile sensations. To feel all those wishes and beliefs disappear one by one, consumed by the golden wave and leaving him empty, was saddening and Mako's mood rapidly deteriorated which further spiralled his attitude and reluctance to resist his seemingly inevitable end. The end that came for all things and could not be refuted...

Mako had to shake his head to make these feelings leave his brain while he raised his arms to protect his body. This was a small sign of disobedience but it did help him prevent sustaining any major damage. His clothes were being torn, although that was mostly a non-issue because he could resummon them with his magic, and cuts and gruesome bruises were popping up all over his body. Each bruise was thrice the size of a fist and deathly purple because the blows his body was receiving from the explosions was considerable. Each hit was like being struck by the broad side of a broadsword at Mach ten and caused him to buckle under the weight. As the explosions rocked him from every angle his body was contorted, battered, pushed around, and dragged every which way. He was forced to his knees, kicked backwards, and pelted in the stomach on repeat for the entire duration of the Grand Annihilation as it bubbled away all around him.

Thanks to the pocket watch, Mako was currently sitting pretty at the 7th stage of sensory enhancement. Normally he was around the same as Ares in terms of cultivation and he was now realising just how one sided this fight would have been had his cultivation not increased massively. He hadn't received the full benefits of the Pocket watch yet but he had receive a lot of them and they were doing a good bit of work right now. Mako would probably be able to learn from this whole experience and narrow the gap between him and Ares going forward, making it actually possible to contend with him at equal cultivation levels even when he didn't have a a huge cultivation advantage, but right now he was getting ran through due to his inexperience and lack of knowledge on Ares as a combatant despite how much he'd rumour gathered recently. Ares was also unfamiliar with Mako's whole shtick but he was far more combat practiced and capable of adjusting on the fly so he held a pretty sizable advantage in this fight off the back of that alone. Be it in terms of cleverness of art usage and / or development mid combat, or technical skill with weapons, he just outclassed Mako far and away in every aspect. He had the cultivation disadvantage but the skill advantage and that was winning this fight for him single-handedly despite the cultivation deficit.

It was also worth noting that the pocket watch had increased Mako's defences all around so, had it not been for that resource coming in clutch, he might not have even been able to come out of this Grand Annihilation on his feet. He owed a lot to that pocket watch, as it was keeping him in this fight that he otherwise would have folded in already, but that was just the kind of person Ares was. He hit you hard and fast, not expecting you to be able to live through the rapidly paced onslaught which was a reasonable assumption given how much power he held and dumped on you with no room to slow things down. It's not that he didn't have options for longer fights, it's just not where his specialty really lay. Mako had always been a slow and steady combatant who prioritised ranged fights so Ares was his worst nightmare, directly countering his whole gameplan and that was evident right now.

Still, Mako wasn't down nor was he out and he still had an arsenal of tricks with which to try and take Ares out. his confidence had dipped since the start of this match, as he'd seriously overestimated himself compared to Ares and if he had even a single teammate this whole fight would be one-sided right now, but he still believed he was currently roughly equal to him on his own. It wasn't a misguided thought either as some of the things he had in his back pocket were pretty serious aces he had yet to play. The extent of what creation magic was capable of would throw Ares for a loop that he simply wouldn't be able to do anything about, Mako was sure of it so he withstood the barrage and held his ground to the best of his ability. He was still dragged a few steps back but that proved to be beneficial as the untamed explosions accidentally pushed him out of the range of the Grand Annihilation a second or two before it ended.

Mako considered this to be a lucky break but, the second that thought crossed his mind, he immediately raised his guard. There was no way Ares, in his current hyped up and perfect state of operation, would allow such a boon to fall into Mako's lap without some kind of plan catered to exploiting it. As if on cue, Mako noticed a strange red glow coming directly at him from within the Grand Annihilation. This was extremely worrying because this was yet another thing he wasn't familiar with that was going to force him to be reactive and put him on the back foot. His only guess was that this was something nothingness related due to the red colouring but that was as far as his guess went. He was shocked to find, a second or two later, that the only thing that came rushing out of the Grand Annihilation was... Ares himself! Did Mako misread the situation? Was he seeing things? No... Not quite. In fact, he was seeing red again and that red dot had even become far clearer... And doubled... They weren't dots. They were eyes? And they were supposedly Ares, if Mako's vision wasn't playing tricks on him anyway? Had Ares' Omniscience changed or mutated? Were they imbued with nothingness now for some inexplicable reason? Mako wasn't sure what Ares was doing but something felt very off... Very VERY off...

Ares was running towards Mako in a straight line, ready to fire an Echo. Mako could tell thanks to the way Ares was rotating his shoulder as he leant into the punch... Was this going to be an Annihilation Echo? Mako had heard of this particular art and knew how ridiculous it was. The stories that came out of Remmy's restaurant a while back, corroborated by Mako visiting the scene of carnage himself, had all but confirmed the existence of this Art. It was hard hitting and Mako readied himself to deal with it the second he saw Ares' mouth move chant it. It was the wise choice here for Ares to make given how easy it was for him to press his advantage at this range. Devastating art after devastating art would keep Mako suffocating under the constant assault, leaving him no room to retreat to safety and re-organise. Mako had a solution but he wanted to make sure Ares was actually casting the art before he wasted his solution on a problem that might not even exist. He really didn't know what Ares was up to, after all, so he waited patiently despite Ares drawing ever nearer...

...

Mako waited and waited, getting more and more frustrated that Ares was playing this silly game of chicken, but this whole thing seemed fishy? No matter how long Mako spent preparing himself, Ares wasn't showing any signs of casting the art... Also, Ares' pressure felt off, like he wasn't operating at full power. It was all incredibly strange but Mako had to put it to the back of his mind as Ares mouth finally opened... At point blank?! Was this guy doing some kind of suicidal Echo? Mako could retaliate from this range if he so much as dared! The time it took him to chant this close would allow Mako to fight back! Was it going to be a normal Echo? Was he playing it all safe?! Mako's mind was spinning, searching for a plausible answer, but the longer this charade went on the more he wanted to just reach out and slap Ares for being annoying! His mouth was open! Speak man, speak!

...

No chant STILL? Now Mako was really confused. He was being thrown for a loop here and had to admit that Ares had truly bamboozled him on this one. He admitted it, Ares had won this engagement for no reason other than that Mako could no longer be bothered to figure out his plan, it was too convoluted for him. Mako summoned a sword and aimed it straight for Ares' throat. The simple approach was best for this elf! Mako wasn't too talented at close ranges but he wasn't going to just sit around and take a punch for no good reason! He could still beat an average, or maybe even an above average, cultivator up close and personal!... But why wasn't Ares dodging? Was he going to trade hits here? He was a revenant, so the sword in the throat might not be lethal, but it would still be unpleasant and affect him going forward. Mako would suffer less than Ares overall so he was fine with doing this... But he couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something was very wrong here...

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" A few of Mako's questions were answered when 'Ares'' jaw split open into two rows of jagged teeth and formed a creepy maw big enough to swallow a head whole... But, honestly, he now had even more questions that needed answering and he didn't think he was going to get them. Ares wasn't exactly going to halt the fight and give him a rundown of the nonsense he was pulling so Mako was just going ot have to roll with the punches and figure it out the hard way.

One of Ares' better kept secrets, and something people who even knew forgot about regularly, was that he was in possession of a pet! Rox wasn't walking around the household like everyone else, which was likely why nobody ever remembered him, but he was still hanging around and improving in his own time inside the Blade! Ares even occasionally brought him out to train with Sadie so he was getting his reps in! The issue here was that, because so few people knew of Rox, the fact that Ares had a tricky mimic up his sleeve was a dirty little secret that could net him some really cheap wins or even just put him in beneficial situations like this. While Mako was struggling to decide what to do against the mimic that was about to try and bite his head off; Ares came gliding out of the Grand Annihilation behind him, hovering and leaning at an angle that was nearly completely sideways, as his foot was mid swing and about to blast Mako's head in.

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Mako was really in a tough predicament here was he was caught in a pincer, both attacks of which were undoubtedly lethal if left unchecked. Ares', the real one and not the strange monster Mako had never even heard of before, attack was less intimidating and probably less likely to result in death if placed second in terms of priority. It was fast and dangerous for sure but Ares had to sacrifice potentially using an art to guarantee this hit so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Mako wasn't good as this range but he still possessed the reaction time needed to stop Ares had he been greedy if he tried to use magic. Still, Ares was too clever to fall for that so he was taking what he could get safely. The kick was tearing through the wind and looked to be rather strong so he must have put a lot of effort into his leap before leaving the Grand Annihilation. In fact, knowing this dork, he probably used the Grand Annihilation to propel himself via an explosion to the backside. He must have used Omniscience to pinpoint a convenient explosion he could ride the blast of which would explain his mid-air momentum.

Ah but Mako was getting distracted. He needed to forfeit his sword lunge at the mimic, defend against the bite properly, and then throw up a last second block to stop Ares. After that he needed to kill the mimic swiftly to prevent it from being a permanent problem before he went back to dealing with Ares. None of this was easy but it all needed to be done and Mako had a few ideas formulating in his head so now he just needed to escape from this current ambush alive. First order of business was pushing away the mimic to buy Mako some time while simultaneously stopping the bite and Echo coming his way... Or rather, now that Mako got a good look at the mimic, it was using its jaws to transmit the Echo. Spinning its shoulders only really happened to facilitate generating the Echo but it wasn't going to use its hand to bring it forth into the world after all. Rox was trying to keep his hands free so that he could grab Mako's, block his sword swing, and bite him freely. Mako had given up on the sword already so this smart decision was wasted but it was clever nonetheless. If Mako had realised what was happening a second slower, without Ares interference giving away the ghost, Rox would have come out on top and maybe even killed him!

Rox had gotten pretty decent at rushing down opponents after being summoned by Ares and functioned like a pretty decent pocket assassin in his own way. Weaker foes would absolutely get eaten by him on the regular as he sprung out of the Grand Annihilation and, even then, he had other means of fighting with people that weren't reliant on taking them by surprise. He wasn't the strongest in the household, not even close, but he was a force to be reckoned with! He was roughly equally as strong as Trixie, maybe even a bit stronger. In the house, he was tied for fourth strongest after Ares, Enyo / Aejaz, and then finally Bellona. Part of that was that he'd gotten damn good at using pressure in his training so he had some nasty surprises for opponents not paying attention to his every move. In particular, his pressure deflects were astonishingly good. For some odd reason, he was maybe as good at them as Ares was provided he wasn't cheating with Omniscience. It was to the point that Ares could genuinely considering whipping out Rox to use as a meat shield and deflect magic occasionally, he was seriously that good at it!

Mako didn't know about any of this but he really didn't need to as the art he was about to use couldn't possibly be deflected regardless of how good Rox was. Even Ares wouldn't be able to do it with his Omniscience! In order to use the art, though, Mako had to finally give up on the Proving Grounds as his new art affected the ground. The Proving Ground was still dotting the floor here and there, and Mako had been hoping he might be able to revive it if he fought hard enough to get some freedom to act as he wanted to, but that had clearly not worked out and so it was getting removed for good and replaced. It wasn't useful anymore and any golems spawned from it would just be enabling Ares to replenish mana off them. Mako grinned at Rox, which was actually a requirement to use the art because the twitch of the facial muscles allowed mana to flow in the correct way, and chuckled as he chanted the art. The laugh wasn't necessary but Mako L.O.V.E.D using this art on unsuspecting opponents. He always got a massive kick out of it and, although it wasn't Ares himself getting hit by this, it was someone who looked identical and that was good enough for Mako! He could take out his frustrations on the clone and that would be as good as hitting the real deal!

"Buh〜Bye Now!"

... Why were all of Mako's arts either straight-laced and serious, maybe even a bit edgy in some ways, or completely lackadaisical and blasé? Childish even? Ares seriously wanted to know what was going through this guy's head whenever he was coming up with names for this stuff... Probably a preposterous amount of pride and kid-like wonder at the ability to just spawn into reality whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Mako's naming habits turned him into an open book that displayed his true personality, the one hidden behind his overbearing front, pretty clearly... Anyway, as for what the art did, well, Rox had vanished. Not into thin air, no, he'd vanished into the giant, and somewhat cartoonish, hole that appeared directly underneath him. Why laboriously dig out a hole with a shovel over the course of hours when you could just create a pit at will? It was a steep and pretty gigantic pit that was about thirty feet wide and deep. It just sort of immediately spawned wherever Mako was pointing so anyone who was asleep at the wheel, or couldn't avoid it for whatever reason, would invariably just tumble downward and maybe break a bone or two.

Mako really did like this art just for the comical look on people's faces when they suddenly lost their footing and tried to scramble to the edge of the pit in mid air even though it was completely pointless as they never made it. Well, sometimes they did but then Mako got to peer at them from above and stamp on their fingers to drop them into the pit anyway, and that was debatably an even more satisfying conclusion for him, so it was a win win either way. Point being; he really liked it, so much so in fact that this was an art he wanted to develop over time. He wanted to create pits filled with deadly traps, monsters, and other such shabby surprises. Also, he wanted to find an anti-magic attribute resource that could be used to upgrade this art in a despicable way. Most methods of flight involved magic so anti-magic would definitely spice up this art and prevent people from escaping it. Were there other arts that might have benefitted more from an anti-magic resource if and when Mako found one? Obviously, yes, but who the hell cared about efficiency and optimisation of resource allocation when you could turn your opponent into a laughing stock whenever you wanted to?! As a fundamental, Mako had enough leeway to waste good resources on fun stuff like this without falling behind. Also, it's not like this art couldn't get really powerful in its own way as trapping someone in the pit with anti magic and then hitting them with the Whatever You Are art was kinda devious in its own right. Even just summoning a plethora of random garbage to chuck at the trapped and magicless rat was valuable in its own way! There was potential here! Potential for kills and potential for mockery, both of which delighted Mako to no end!

While Rox was sent crashing down into the pit below, Ares was unaffected both because he just wasn't in range of it but also because he was still in mid-air anyway. Dodging the pit in this manner was an unexpected, but still very welcome, dose of luck that he wasn't going to let go to waste so he followed through on his kick and barely managed to eke out a Stamp Out before his foot connected with Mako. The art he chucked on at the end of his strike allowed him to pump out just a tad bit more damage but every little counted here and rocking Mako's world, even a little bit more than he was already going to, was worth every bit of effort it took to chant the art in such a difficult position. If Ares hadn't been in top form right now there was a decent chance he would have either missed the kick or stumbled the chant so the fact he managed to cleanly do both at the same time, considering his weird angle and momentum, was honestly impressive.

Mako managed to raise him arms and block once more but things were slightly different this time on his end as he managed to summon some arm braces in time to soften to blow. This was a simple measure to curb some of the damage he received but it was indicative that Mako's mind was finally starting to spin up and get back to work. He wasn't just endlessly chucking rockets at his problems or staring blankly at the Grand Gambit Annihilation anymore, he was actively addressing each and every issue that came his way and properly summoning something that could ease up his predicament. Was an arm bracer the most ingenious option available to him? No, of course not. If Eagerton were down here with creation magic he probably would have summoned a shield made of living sheep or something equally whacky to soften the blow. But what Mako lacked in creativity, he made up for in being a more dedicated and persistent cultivator who just never quit. Plus he was generally smarter in combat scenarios as well even if his creativity was inferior. Mako had been chosen for good reason as he, himself, was essentially a well rounded cultivator save for his currently lacking close quarters but he could work on that in due time. Eagerton's biggest flaw was that he just never put in the effort. He believed stringently in the idea that art was not something pre-meditated and had to be explored and discovered in the moment. That was all well and great and all but never coming up with plans and measures ahead of time could really leave him high and dry if he wasn't careful. Someone like Mako was infinitely more useful in a wider variety of situations because he would actually take into consideration what needed to be done and how it could be achieved seamlessly. Also, for what it was worth, Eagerton was limited in terms of what he was willing to create as he had a dislike for modern inventions as a whole so the neon vibe and aesthetic that was common with this pillar didn't really gel well with him. Part of what made the creation pillar strong was that it could freely summon most arts from the gadgetry pillar but Eagerton would inevitably not use that function much. It was a strange aversion but one that would definitely put him out of the running in terms of fundamental champion candidacy. The fundamental pillars would never pick someone unwilling to use their full potential so Eagerton's obstinance had really shot himself on the foot with that one...

BANG

Mako was blasted backwards to the opposite end of the arena. His arms were hurting like hell, and some of his bones had chipped a bit, but he was alive and his head was mostly safe. The blowback from receiving that high-powered kick had rocked his arms and pushed them straight into his head but the injuries suffered from that mishap were minor. His brain was rattled but there was nothing else wrong with him so he was in good shape considering the fact he appeared to be in a disastrous situation not even two seconds ago. Mako recouped his bearings while Ares helped Rox out of the hole with telekinesis. The Proving Grounds were gone and so too was Yggdrasil so it looked like round two was starting and Mako was thinking it was high time to pull out his special treasure... All he needed was a perfect opportunity to make the most out of it and then he would summon it for all the world to see. It was a damn cool treasure and, honestly, Mako just really wanted to gloat about it. Objectively, even though Mako hadn't seen Ares' Blade, it was a way more desirable treasure to possess than Ares' special treasure and would definitely leave him incredibly jealous! In fact, Ares would even be more than willing to trade for it but, naturally, Mako would refuse him on the spot. This treasure belonged to Mako, now and always, and he cherished it deeply!