“That might be what they sound like, but your wounds look worse,” Leif shoots back to Ares, taking a look now that Ares was being compliant. “Whatever injuries people get at a festival aren't going to be as serious as whatever did this to you. And you only don't whine because you're a Crusader. I bet things just hurt way less for you...”
Though that was merely speculation on Leif's part. It's hard to know for sure when the difference in their blood was as different as it was. Of course, Leif had some holiness to his veins, but to compare himself to Ares...
It was no contest, was it?
Contrary to Ares's expectations, Leif takes the wet cloth in his hand first to clean the dirt, blood, and grime from the Black Knight's arm first.
“Nanna wouldn't be happy with me if I let you out without doing something now that I've seen you either,” Leif reminds him, thinking invoking the woman that links them beyond circumstance might be a better argument than anything else he's said to this point. Once he's satisfied with his work on Ares's arm, Leif swaps to the staff he'd been given, at last casting its healing light to mend the first of his wounds.
"This," Ares scoffed tightly, covering up a breathy wince as Leif's cloth grazed the heart of his wounds, "coming from the Master Knight who kept springing back through every wall this Crusader put him through, and then dared ask for more."
Ares didn't recall those children discriminating along bloodline when plucking them from the clutches of the Empire either, but he had a feeling that would make little difference in Leif's frustratingly persistent perceptions if it hadn't already.
More than anything else, Ares was disappointed to find them still riding on the back of one who'd now distinguished himself through so many wars across Jugdral. If it weren't for teeth being grit so tight, he'd have been offering him the frown to show it.
"My Blood doesn't spare me any pain, I assure you. Least of all when so taken unawares." But it wasn't the pain souring Ares' tone now. A wound to his pride was a different matter, if not more stinging.
"Until you tell me what's wrong." Seliph meets his gaze, making it clear he has no intent to stop his persistent prodding and poking until the other man relents. Admittedly, he feels a little bad for doing this. But sometimes, being this stubborn is necessary.
He stabs a slice of meat on his plate with his fork without bringing it to his mouth.
"Although I don't know the details of what happened in that mirror, you seem... different after it. Tired."
If Ares were the same as ever, Seliph would have accepted his reassurances without question.
What in the Crusaders' name had happened in there? Seliph only knows it was a dangerous artifact that shattered in the aftermath. Perhaps he should have participated in that task after all, even if it is only so he could understand what is going through Ares' mind right now.
"You don't have to tell me everything, Ares," he continues, voice softening. The dining hall may not be the best location for such conversations, but at least no one is paying them any mind. "But I am worried about you, and the least I can do is hear what's on my friend's mind."
Ares took a silent, slow, long breath while he could, as Seliph continued talking in that way he'd come to know well by now. That hardened line running through his stiffened posture, right up into his eyes, that betrayed the truth beneath the soft tone wrapped around it.
Even with his own social illiteracy, Ares had come to know some of the more visible signs of when one of his closest friends was in one of those moods.
And unfortunately for Seliph, Ares was inclined to dig himself deeper into his.
"You've already given yourself the answer," Ares replied flatly, gesturing a hand out towards Seliph's own mouth while the other guided a fork through his food with steady, albeit sluggish, prods and cuts. "The mirror's magic took its toll on all of us, but our recovery still proceeds nevertheless."
“You don't think it was thanks to your quick action?” Leif asks honestly. “I'd always assumed it was thanks to you noticing. Though Lord Seliph's officers are also hardy people...”
A wry grin works its way onto Leif's face in recollection. To call it only recollection would be only a half-truth though.
He still thinks them hardy. He thinks of all the prominent figures who had followed Lord Seliph and at times thinks they shine in a way as to blind with their radiance. Compared to Leif's own dull light that could only mimic the same effect with the efforts of everyone else's light beaming through his own...
“But anything from me might've just cooked off. I'd already made sure to clean the fish...”
“What the... Ares?!” Leif had cried in disbelief, mind belatedly catching up to all that had just happened: he'd just been kicked out. Kicked out!
His closed fist had banged on the door but it too had lacked his full force even as the fire deep inside him had wished to burn bright. “I can't leave you to do everything!! I...”
But even his power to form strong arguments had extinguished. He could have claimed he didn't trust Ares to deliver that meal without messing with it, but if he had, it would be Ares who would stand to lose more. Powerful though the Black Knight may be, he was but one man compared to all the strong allies Lord Seliph surrounded himself by.
One man who stood far more alone than Leif himself did.
If foul play had gotten involved, Ares would be the one found out instantly. Quest for revenge or not, it was this string of logic that let Leif have some faith. No, the anxiety that had seized him upon being banished that time was...
“Can't I... do anything...?”
A miserable, terrified, delirious moment of frustration muttered itself through, one last strike against the door that could barely create a thud, as he knew in his heart that Ares had been right to toss him out.
“Damn it...!!”
“...But for the water... I don't think it was anything special,” Leif confesses. “Around that time, I was training to be a master knight. I couldn't understand why Lord Seliph kept you around knowing you wanted him dead... so I told myself it must be because you were strong with Mystletainn.
“I couldn't wield a holy weapon, but... if I got so strong he didn't need you anymore, maybe...” he then rushes to add, “!! I-I know you're fine now!! I don't have those thoughts anymore obviously!! But... I probably pushed myself harder than usual. I didn't sleep for days on end during that time. Even I was forcing myself past my limits back then.”
Ares regarded Leif with a long and thoughtful sideglance, twigs and leaves crunching softly underfoot at the same pace several old and forgotten cogs slotted into place in his head. And at the end, there was the smallest little flash of surprise across his eyes.
"...Indeed," Ares finally said with a small nod, "but you still misunderstand."
Not entirely -- in fact he was mostly correct. But midway through Leif's explanation, Ares realized that it lacked a certain piece of context.
"Seliph knew nothing of the Black Knight, nor of the feud that fueled my lifelong desire to see his family pay for the pain his caused mine." That he'd kill them both was something Ares had promised Leif plenty of times back then, but he struggled to remember having a moment inbetween their other words and blows where he actually elaborated on much of his flawed logic.
"He only knew of our fathers' undying friendship, and struck a deal with me that he would prove it was always so, or offer himself up to my blade personally if he failed." Nonchalance kept Ares' cadence deceptively cool, in contrast with the gravity of the news it carried. The coincidental snap of a fittingly overweight branch beneath his boot highlighted the moment they properly converged together, as he added, "There was no getting rid of me once I found him."
Ares' grimace at the burst of noise doubled as a fitting peek into the disgust he still carried for his past foolishness, but as he checked around for a fresh pulse on the wildlife's mood, his expression softened by a crack.
Each of them on opposing sides of the same person, clashing near daily over him, and both for reasons that he now realized never had the chance of coming true. Seliph emerged from that deal utterly vindicated, without ever having to do anything besides what he always did, whereas Ares had left nothing but a lot of broken kitchens behind just to understand that. The embarrassment would probably just grow with time rather than fade, but something about it was oddly sweetened too, and Ares only realized once he remembered who else was there making the messes with him.
"...But I suppose the same was true for you."
Ares added quietly, once he was sure that the forest's tension had settled again, this time taking a lot more care with his steps as he began checking the trees for signs of their prey.
"Much as I respect it, I trust I don't need to add that driving yourself to such lengths shouldn't become habit." Except he knew he shouldn't trust it, and shot Leif a suspicious glance to convey as much.
Lene folded his coat carefully, listening to every sound and every word that Ares had to say. It was a little silly to do this, and yes she shouldve probably not sat around and played dress up for so long.
But where is the fun in that? She knows more than anyone that there isnt anything wrong with having a little fun.
"I was...... just having some fun!" Lene states, handing over his coat which she had subconsciously folded up "I promised my intention wasnt to have you walking around like...... this" She motioned over at him, trying not to crack a smile and break her serious facade. "Thank you for bringing my clothes. Ill change out of your stuff, but the rest of it is in the basket.
This was the only thing she took out of the basket, everything else stayed untouched. "I hope no one was too mean to you" Lene added on, a small smile on her face.
"Oh..." Ares shifted his weight from one leg to the other, to better bear the brunt of such a difference between what he expected and what Lene actually said. The dancer enjoying clothes was the most obvious explanation possible for something as silly as this, yet it never crossed his mind. Nothing did, even as Ares fought for just a single word to put towards one, until the simplest of them got tired of waiting for him to look up.
The difference slapped him clean and hard across the face, and left a burst of heat on the back of his neck and cheeks.
"...I'm fine, Lene," Ares insisted, albeit with a lingering shade of red on either side of his frown that colored him more sheep than lion. "It's a school, not a battlefield." Yet he still couldn't get his clothes over his head fast enough, taking Lene's offered cloak and trading it with his basket while starting on the lower layers.
"My own carelessness is to blame for this, not your..." Ares popped his head through the neck of his undershirt and glanced down at Lene from over his shoulder. "...pastimes."
He does not give, easily. Unsteady he may be, the magic that protected him was not so fragile that it would fail to something blunt, as if it were something capricious and not divine. Though each blow reeked of practice- of well-honed blade-work stained with the blood of-
Someone he knew- someone he didn't.
It was no different than what had once been restrained and sharp, both unable to cause him permanent harm. Yet, even a hint of restraint would have failed to move him from his post. Without it, the kick, while powerful, only sends him a few paces away- stumbling, but not felled- perhaps the Goddess even grants protection for his pride.
Not that it was any use here- with glazed eyes, staring into a world that only he recognized.
Is he sane yet?
How could he be, when he replays the same tragedy in his mind, once and again? Even if he knew it was merely a memory, it was enough to drive him mad, once. And once was enough for another, and another-
Without recognizing his surroundings, he could not realize when he had been forced out of the center of the town- blind to the world around him, focused only on the one who sought to cause him harm. Blow is exchanged for blow, light magic flashing, though it slowed.
And, on the edge of town, where it begins to fade into something more wild, he glances down. For a moment- he finds under the illusion of ash there is a sprig of green, though it fades, yet it is enough to give him pause.
Pausing, of course, was not stopping. For a moment, lucid, and no more.
There was no mistaking hesitation's subtle ripple running down the man's limbs after his latest collision with the ground, his stiffening figure spelling out a flash of hope before Ares as it lengthened into their longest pause yet. While the man's gaze lingered on the ground, Ares slowed the rhythm of his assault to match, easing the pace of his march as he closed the distance without immediately finishing it with a swing. His sword arm instead kept a firm grip around the hilt, waiting half-cocked behind his head.
"I ask again," Ares called as he narrowed a glare at him, "are you yet sane--?"
"--HEY!"
The reply came so fast it clipped off the tail end of Ares' question, but the voice was very distinctly not the priest's.
Rather than him, this obnoxious shout came from over Ares' shoulder, on an outcropping further up the path that offered an overhead view of the two. And if that hadn't announced his location loudly enough, the Church member's stark white sleeve waving stupidly against the dulled colors of the mountain ensured there was no missing him. But worst of all was that, when Ares only offered him a murderously cold half-glance over his shoulder, he kept going.
"HAS THE SPELL BEEN BROKEN, LORD ARES--?"
"Begone, you fool!" Ares barked back, "Lest you draw his--!!"
A soft breath stalled in his throat, cutting off his scolding mid-sentence as the tingle of magic rapidly grew hot on the back of his head again.
"Damned priests--!"
BOOM!
There had been no time to dodge, not without risking the outcropping tumbling down and taking the idiot along for the ride as it buried Ares beneath. He could only spin around to meet the spell head-on with his sword. A swing coming from him had enough strength to cut through it, and enough leftover to swipe him a little further down the mountain, but not disperse it safely before its resulting pieces blew up around him.
Smoke and dust again swirled up into a new plume, and for a moment there was no shadow stirring in it, until grew from out of nowhere and burst out all at once.
New marks scorched his face and arms as streaks, but he ran after the priest like he was still fresh to the field, ready to deliver just as powerful of a blow as the ones before.
I have covered this before but I will give like an updated one here that also includes inventory and class and stats and all that, because all parts of Ares’ unit design contribute to him being considered one of the best units in Gen 2 -- both in lore and in game:
--Stats and Growths
HP
Ares has an inflated HP growth of 130%. I say inflated because this is one of only two stats that have boosted growth rates from his Major Hodr Blood, which in this case he gets a 40% boost from it. This is kinda standard for most Holy Bloods anyway, it's a bit of a freebie stat. Among the main Gen 2 cast, that is not the highest HP growth possible (hi Febail) but it is defs far from the lowest either, especially when you compare to the subbies' growths. Of the main cast + subbies whose growths are set in stone, Ares sits squarely in third place alongside Leif, and that still puts him above a lot of the other child units with ‘standard’/’optimal’ pairings; and those top 3 all completely clear the Gen 1’s, where Sig and Chulainn have the highest (110%). On top of that, Ares' base HP stat is very solid – 40 HP to start off at just level 7. On average, compared to the HP of some recruits you get around his time, such as Oifey, the Dozel bros, and Ced, it’s notable he already is on pace to beat them (or already has). Basically he’s got a solid HP stat, and I hc this to mean he is quite hardy and can take a beating physically, including when it comes to things like illness and poisons. Imo this contributed to his rep as the Black Knight, because folks treat him as an unstoppable win button in-universe. So having a very hardy constitution would certainly help contribute to the sense of having no chance of beating him if he can just keep chugging along no matter how many attacks people lob at him. I like to also think it lends itself to comedy – being able to eat silly amounts of damage from equally silly causes but still walk away from it more or less ok, just grumpy and embarrassed lol.
Str
His Str stat is his most defining feature about him. Starting at 13 Str at lvl 7 is already nice, but 90% growth is fucking SCARY, especially when it to this day has still been rarely matched in the series (exceptions including folks like Karel). This stat being so high is due to the central boon of his Major Hodr Blood, the only Holy Blood to give a fat 60% to this stat. It is also notable that without that blood, Ares’ Str growth would be pretty blah at just 30%. Given his mother being noted as naturally frail and sickly, I hc that Ares would have taken after her more in this department if not for inheriting his father’s blood to offset it. But since he DID inherit that Major Hodr, I like to think that this strength boost manifests as two things: the more obvious super strength, and then also the less obvious muscle gain. Or more just strength gain, since this is magic blood that doesn’t quite obey the regular rules of how humans build strength. That is, I think he builds strength faster than others, so his already frightening strength gets more growth out of training it than others might, and at a faster rate. Such as even after being weakened (say being bedridden for a bit) -- he can recover any lost strength quicker. In and out of battle, this is about as obvious an effect as it gets -- he can smash steel like twigs, chuck wagons like softballs, stuff like that. And he had this strength from when he was an infant (shortly after when I hc his Brand manifested), with his fast growth meaning he was already well outpacing adults as a child. If he is not holding back, all it takes is one good hit or two from him usually to break even well-trained armors open. And he does just about the same in game too – Ares hits like a truck and it largely stays that way. His superior strength means it is quite hard to push him around too, contributing further to this unstoppable machine rep he has.
Mag
Lol. Lmao. Where his Strength is a series high, Ares’ Mag is the opposite, sitting at just 5% and a 0 base. Honestly all of the Hodr Bloods lean towards low Mag stats at base. Lach’s is 5% too, and Dia and Nanna need a magical father to have good Mag or else they suffer similar growth rates, whereas all their Str stats are always still good to great thanks to Minor Hodr Blood’s 30% boost. This is why I like to think that being a Hodr Blood likes to utterly screw your Mag potential in exchange for that disgusting strength, like make you genetically predisposed towards a certain makeup. But that would require all Hodr Blood muns to be in agreement so it’s not something I reference, but I still like to think about it. As far as Ares goes though, his blood/genes made him good at one thing and that is breaking shit, not casting shit lol. How this low Mag stat manifests is that any Magic he casts hits like a stiff breeze. This stat is something I see as just Magical potency though, not understanding. His understanding sucks too though, the only exception in my hc’s being Dark, but that isn’t due to his blood or anything like that. And still doesn’t matter because it doesn’t change it hits like a noodle coming from him. Ares never had any interest in trying to hone it or study it anyway either, cause why would he when his Str stat is right there, so that probably helped further stunt what little growth he coulda gotten out of it.
Skill
Now this is a very interesting stat for Ares, as his base in it is quite solid at 12, but his growth is a paltry 20%. Skill deals with accuracy, crit rate, and how often skills proc, which in character can just be largely lumped into just how good they are at hitting a target, but it also is called Dexterity in the series. So I like to think it deals with how gracefully and fluidly you can maneuver as well. This would further fit with the skill and crit procs side of the stat I think too, so yeah. I interpret the fact that Ares has such a low Skill growth as meaning he has inherent aim issues and is otherwise rather stiff/rough and ungraceful in his movements at base. He’s all power, and if you think about it, why do you need to be super precise or fancy most of the time when even an off-center, straightforward hit can cave your opponent’s rib cage in, or punch a hole in a door? And really, Ares wouldn’t have learned a style filled with fancy flourishes anyway since his teacher was a merc. He learned a combat style that got the job done not put on a show; although I can see any maneuverability tricks Javarro (who is actually a high Skill unit himself) would try to teach him being a tough spot in his learning. These days tho, owing to his solid base that helps carry him through his level ups and keeps his Skill stat good enough to work with, I hc specifically his combat to still be quite effective and experienced despite it being comprised of that rough and straightforward style. Like he canonically is a crazy dangerous merc and he would not have that rep if he let his inherent skill issues get in the way of combat. Practical, efficient, and uncomplicated (if a bit brutishly so) can also still go a long way in the hands of somebody who really understands how to apply it with the art of combat, which he has a very good grasp on. It’s about how well you do with your tools you have not having the fanciest ones that distinguishes a real master yknow?
Not to mention, Mystletainn GIVES Ares a free +20 to his Skill stat. He could never gain a point of Skill and still have a whole 32 in it anytime he picks that sword up. So from a gameplay standpoint it’s another instance of minmaxing as well – why give a high skill growth to someone with a weapon like that? But then, why is his base in it so high, besides it just being insurance for a bleh growth? How’d he get so lucky with that base at just level 7 if he is so low in Skill, and how does that fit with my hc he has aim issues and isn’t the most flexible or deft? I like to hc that it was pure stubborn determination (and discipline!) on Ares’ part. Basically he got frustrated at his issues with hitting or moving precisely how he wanted and didn’t wanna have to constantly lean on Mystletainn to do so. It’s not good for business or tactics if you take longer to mop up enemies, or butcher a kill and drag out somebody’s suffering as you hack away. Especially when each failed hit is expensive, and especially when Javarro likely didn’t tolerate any bumps on the road of Ares’ (or the job’s) progress. Ares himself wants to be the BEST at his job anyway, not just passable.
It’s also an interesting issue for a unit like him to deal with too – you got the natural power to crush people but not necessarily what else you inherently need to make it consistently connect. Plus, I doubt he could wield Mystletainn initially due to his young age/small size, so the problem was more prevalent; thus he had many reasons driving this desire to address this problem. So, he grinded the hell out of his Skill with lots more additional practice to shore it up, and even now he needs more practice with his aim than others to keep it from slipping. These days I hc he has help from recalling where Mystletainn has guided him in past battles to help be more familiar with weak points and such as well. His skill being even what it is at base is what I see as a nice expression of overcoming his natural limitations, but still being a bit restricted by them going forward without extra effort.
But there is more to expressing a lack of skill than combat, an area he has worked tirelessly to shore up anyway – and an area he also has a lot of talent in to help further smooth it over (will discuss that later). Since I see this stat as dealing with not just aim but also maneuverability and grace, I think that means he has ongoing issues with anything that requires being deft with your hands or other complex maneuvers (outside horsemanship). Hence the best examples of Ares’ lack of skill stat are often outside of battle (though there are still signs of it in battle too). I hc he sucks at dancing, he can’t do most precise crafts well, he has worse aim with ranged weapons/any weapons that require a higher skill to use/balance, he’s not acrobatic, his gait and posture lean stiff, he gets clumsy if distracted, etc. etc. He’s like a brick lol.
I also think his superhuman strength mixes into the downsides here as a guy who exists in a world generally not built for him day-to-day. Everyday objects and such are all built for someone who can’t crush it freely in their hands with just one wrong twitch. Somebody else bangs on a wall in frustration and all they usually do at worst is break their hand; if Ares does it he breaks the wall. He has largely gotten used to knowing how much force he needs to apply to things, but it’s just he can’t be thoughtless. Ever. It’s always this extra level of awareness he has to keep in mind. Which is why I also hc he hates being drunk – it tanks his awareness/control he needs to keep from doing random damage. Sometimes, such as with objects he’s unfamiliar with, he will be even more awkward and stiff in handling them until he feels out what is his version of appropriate. Or on the flip side, if he gets worked up and focuses a little too much on something, he may just turn into a bulldozer and cause a lot more damage to his surroundings than he intends. Also his Skill stat being low amuses me from a mythology standpoint because Hodr in Norse myth was literally blind, so hurr hurr accuracy jokes for the guy connected to Hodr.
Spd
His Speed stat is a similar case here. Very solid starting base at 13, but rather blah growth at just 30%. As far as that goes in FE4 it’s a combo that won’t DOOM him by any means though. Most Gen 2 enemies aren’t speedsters, and thanks to his good base and just good enough growth + promo bonuses he will do just fine. He will lag behind that small section of faster enemies (which are mainly just bosses) by the time you get to the later chapters, which while not enough to always get doubled will still be enough that he can’t always double them. He still is a great unit at this point that beats most enemies handily thanks to the rest of his myriad advantages, and most enemies lacking the stats needed to fully capitalize on his gaps, but it’s something to keep in mind. You can’t just chuck him at any boss mindlessly, such as Simia of the Deadlords, or a whole horde of Hel users, without risking a potential retaliatory ORKO. Rather poignant for his arc too imo that he needs juuuust a bit more help in later chapters against those extra tough bosses (although he still can do quite a lot if you need it lmfao, which is also fitting for him as the win button of Jugdral). He also has the lowest Spd growth of the Junior Trio so I like to treat that as him being slower than both Leif and Seliph in universe (pending N and Susanne approval) x)
I also like the image that this creates in character for him when paired with his iffy Skill growth – a bruiser who can smash you to bits but is rather rough in his style/not the best shot and also potentially even too slow to land it before you can zip away. Think of the type of enemies in video games who are hulking brutes with powerful hits that punch through enemy ones but have a slow wind up of their own. You can dodge if you’re deft/quick/both, but you damn well better, because he only needs to land one shot to shut you down. Like his Skill, I think this became a problem very quickly for Ares when starting out as a warrior; can’t hit anybody if they run circles around you, and that was just unacceptable. So he added speed training to his list, which he again keeps up with now and must do more than others have to just to avoid being completely outmaneuvered. Given most enemies in FE4 are not very fast, it could be he is just average to slightly below average by the standards of Jugdral too rather than being unusually slow. But in TOA where he is around everyone else in the series, if you put those growths across the whole then...yeah he’s still skewing slow LOL. Hence why I still stick with my hc’s as they are here. I also like how this helps make his style more distinct from the other Junior Trio members, especially in most direct contrast to Leif who is all flippy and acrobatic and zoomy.
In addition, I like to think he adapted other ways to get around faster or more acrobatic kinds of enemies that no amount of training could make his body match (which I’m sure frustrated him at first). The big one I think of is paying attention to how they move, anticipating where they are GOING to be, then having just enough speed not to outrace them, but line his sword up to meet them. I just referenced this one in fact with a thread with Lach and Nanna – he was the slowest of them all but leveraged his strength to throw something way faster than anyone could outrun, and aimed for a target that was too big to miss as easily. For a guy whose bases are high but the growth isn’t, I think that’s a neat way to bridge the stats to the narrative, and also show off some other tactical skills that glimpse his more kingly abilities in his future. I also really like the flavor that these iffy stats add to the discussion around Holy Blood. Sure he’s blessed with Major Blood, but nothing about that necessarily prevents his other aspects of his body that aren’t augmented by it from being a notable hamper to his ability to make use of it, which others may not think about or notice at first glance. They may think his Blood lets him not have to work much for anything, and that may certainly be true for stats like his strength, but not for everything. He’s still more mortal, more like them, than people think, but nobody sees that easily when they’re too caught up looking at the results of both his hard work and his blood on the battlefield.
Lck
His Luck stat is interesting. In FE4, Luck simply helps influence Avoid, but in flavor it’s meant to be exactly what it says – how lucky your unit is with avoiding things they may otherwise have been hit by. Sometimes it’s also treated as like divine favor flavored luck as well. For Ares, his Luck starts at 6, which is not really notable, but what is is his 50% growth in it. Absolutely crazy this is higher than more relevant stats like Skill and Speed lol, like why Luck of all things??? What this means for him in universe is just about what the stat itself says – he’s pretty decently lucky. So this can range from things like finding money on the ground, lucking out with enemies making critical fumbles that would have otherwise punished him, and so on. But I like to think it also extends to more cosmic levels, such as his meeting Lene and Seliph when he did and how that changed the course of his whole life, or surviving the collapse of Leonster despite it being something that should have killed a vulnerable child like him. Had Javarro not chanced upon him in the ruins, he may very well have too, based on what Ares says. Javarro is a toxic POS who preyed on Ares’ loyalty and vulnerability tho so it could be that the circumstances got exaggerated to try and guilt him and he’s internalized that, but still. Surviving that as a kid (even a Major Blooded one) has got to have SOME level of luck involved.
Def
His Def is also pretty solid too, sitting at 40% growth rate and a nice 12 base. Not much to say about this in game besides it being a good defensive stat. Combined with his HP, it bolsters his ability to take his fair share of hits, which is really important for a frontliner like him to have when you are likely to be using him a lot. For me, it is kind of linked with his HP as far as narrative flavor goes too. He’s just a tough and sturdy dude, which really helps stretch out his already impressive hardiness. His size certainly helps that too, so he’s kind of like a big and tough, muscly wall. I also take the solid Defense to mean he doesn’t budge easy, especially when he has the strength to easily push back much harder against anyone who tries. And this of course is all a fantastic set of advantages when in combat that once again contributes to why he has cultivated such a scary rep as the Black Knight. He not only hits stupid hard, but you need a lot of force just to try and slow down his plowing right through your ranks, nevermind stop. Further, it makes him more self-sufficient for longer, which as a merc in Javarro’s company was probably expected of him. I see him as being expected to solo and essentially carry a lot of the work on his own back, contributing to his attitude he seems to have about being willing (and very stubborn enough) to just go out and do everything himself, as well as his sense of loneliness. Part of his arc after all is learning that he can’t do everything himself, but before finally learning that in Ch 7 onwards, it makes sense that he still got good at being able to largely handle himself and go on solo tears against enemy armies. Again, it would certainly contribute to why he is treated as unbeatable in-universe. Outside of battle, it makes him a great wall to lean on. You can throw all your weight to the side to have a nap on his shoulder/side and he won’t move lol.
Res
Finishing off his stats is Res, which is another very interesting number on him. His base is 4, but his growth is 30%. Unlike Speed or Skill, the latter is actually quite impressive for Res on a melee unit – or any unit in Gen 2 for that matter. Even magical units like Lana will not usually have that high of a Res growth unless they have Claud as a father, with only a few units like Lene, Coirpre/Sharlow, and Seliph available as exceptions. Ares’ being even that high thus makes him a notable outlier, especially amongst combat melees, allowing him to grow quite a workable level of magic defense that, on average, leaves him just 4 pts shy of capping it. This impressive Res, bolstered by Mystletainn, is a big contributor to why Ares continues to stand out through Gen 2, becoming one of the most effective answers to the increasing number of magical units the game throws at you. Said enemies are often part of mixed damage formations that become hard to breach due to their status staves or siege tomes ringing the perimeter, softening up your units before they can effectively neutralize them all and avoid getting walloped in Enemy Phase. Units that can not only handle both physical and magical damage but also clear both types out without much trouble are rare, and Ares is one of them. If you need him to, he can even pinch hit against some scary magical bosses like Arvis (usually you throw Seliph, who is even better at mixed tanking, at him instead), making him one of your best mage killers by far.
Narratively, this Res is just as impressive despite how simple it translates, again especially due to how much more impressive that Res becomes when paired with his other stats. Most folks would certainly look at a physical melee juggernaut like Ares and assume he’ll easily fold to magic just like the rest of them; then they watch in horror as he largely shrugs said magic attacks off just as easily (what I see as an effect of his iron will, since will sometimes is explained as a part of resistance to magic). And often even BETTER than he does physical ones. Solid constitution, solid physical defense, and solid magical defense all in one = no easy openings to exploit! What the hell do you as his enemy DO when you see that? This right here rounds out the defensive side of his rep as the Black Knight – when people in-game cower at him and tell you you have no chance against him, he has the stats to show that it’s not an exaggeration. People usually can’t wear him down faster than he can tear through them in just a swing or two. So he just keeps mowing people down as they throw everything they can at him, and he comes away with nothing close to mortal damage usually. If he can force you into a dps race, which he usually can because his offense is very hard to ignore or be stopped, you’re going to lose. He quite literally can warp a battlefield around himself because of what an oppressive presence he emanates through this combination of stats alone. It makes the Shield Ring you get from the villager who describes him this way make more sense – your first and biggest hurdle you face with Ares is surviving long enough just to have a chance at running away, nevermind keep up a fight against him. Because he already has the stats to outlast whatever most bring against him.
--Skills + Weapon Ranks + Class
Now we get into his skills and weapon ranks. For the latter, he has a star in Swords, and eventually a B in lances. For skills, they are Follow-Up/Pursuit, Adept, and Vantage. He also gains access to Critical whenever he holds Mystletainn, being unable to crit without equipping it or another 50+ kill weapon, but I’ll be keeping Critical for Mystletainn’s section since it is part of that weapon’s abilities.
Weapon ranks are easy enough to translate to narrative. His star in Swords is from his Major Hodr Blood, making him able to wield any non-personal sword in the game, which I translate narratively as an instinctual understanding of not just actual swords, but also anything he can wield LIKE a sword. So a butter knife for example, or a large daikon joke weapon – if he can wield it like a sword he can wield it like an instant pro. It’s just like slipping on a glove for him, even if he has never seen or held that glove (sword) in his life. This doesn’t mean he automatically knows how to use any sword TECHNIQUES (eg Astra, Luna, Sol) or such though – he just can skip all the practice about how to hold them properly, how they play in his hands, and so on. He is only limited by other physical barriers, such as swords being blood or gender locked, or being too big for him when he was a child. This still gives him a huge advantage with learning techniques though, since he skips past familiarizing himself with the weapon and can go straight to the techniques. He has always been able to instantly use them in battle, it’s just that if he doesn’t know how a technique works, he will just go by what he does know. This as a child was simple hack and slash, whereas now he knows many techniques he can carry over between blades and adapt them as needed to fit. He’s also a good judge of swords at a glance too, able to pick out what they’re best at, how they’re supposed to play, their quality, and so on. He obviously didn’t have the words to articulate this understanding as a child, but still intrinsically knew it. It’s like the peak of raw, inherent talent, which few can match him on, and that’s by literal biological design.
Lances are a weapon rank his blood doesn’t help him at all with, so this is one he has had to cultivate like anyone else. Based on my hc’s of his skill/aim issues and whatnot, lances as his alternative weapon of choice make sense. Axes have the lowest inherent accuracy of the main melee trio, and we already discussed why his ranged aim would be too shit for bows. Lances offer him valuable reach his swords can’t, and they don’t demand as much extra dexterity as axes do.
I also think Ares may have chosen lances if he knew his father wielded them, since he still looks up to him and wants to be a powerful warrior, specifically a knight, like he was. Eldie’s class was Paladin, and that is what Ares promotes into from Cavalier, thus they share the same weapon ranks too. So I like to treat that as nod he follows in his father’s footsteps in this regard too, possibly even just having a personal preference for horses too since his Cipher shows him enjoying a horse ride as a kid. Perhaps even has a knack for them like his father presumably did. That he starts as a Cav is notable also because horses ain’t fucking cheap. He likely had to work for it, pay for its upkeep and so on. The fact that he has a horse as a mercenary, and in fact a lot of Javarro’s men are mounted as well, speaks to just how high tier this merc company is. They must get paid about as well as mercs can go to afford all that upkeep, and I am sure that is thanks in no small part to Ares himself (and Javarro’s own ruthless pursuit of gold above all).
Next up we get into his skills, starting with Vantage. Honestly it frustrates me how this skill was translated/localized, because imo its’ original JP name suggests a distinctly different flavor to it. Apparently called Ambush over there instead, this imo suggests a much more dirty or guerrilla style mindset driving the flavor of the skill. It only triggers at less than 50% HP or less after all, suggesting the image of a soldier who is wounded enough that he moves to a less direct style of combat that helps survival/victory without needing (or being able to) retreat. It imo is a nice and quiet way to differentiate himself from his father, who is meant to sort of be the White Knight trope to Ares’ Black Knight. White Knights are honest and honorable and are more married to a strict code and all that. And Ares himself does carry Eldie’s good and knightly heart that makes him express similarly good morals and such, and he is quite rigid himself. But where Eldie is shown in art and such to be the typical peak of grace and refinement for a knight, and follows his loyalties to a fault, Ares by contrast embodies a more raw and unrefined sense of pragmatism and practicality. There is a stronger sense of survival and grit bred from having to claw his way up as a mercenary with little to his name that Eldie never had to deal with living in the lap of noble luxury.
He didn’t have a support network to guide him, or cover his ass when he screwed up, or take care of all his needs while he focused on what he needed to. One mistake as a merc and you are dead, and having somebody there to fix up your wounds or carry you back was never a guarantee. And if you aren’t dead or injured but still don’t get the job done you still die later because you aren’t getting paid enough to eat. Eldie still had plenty of finances, food, and a place to return to to heal; he could AFFORD to lose more than Ares ever could. So the much more dire and unforgiving circumstances encouraged Ares’ already inherent stubbornness to take on new forms to survive, manifesting in this skill that shows he isn’t afraid to get dirty or resort to less ‘honorable’ kinds of fighting if it means he will win. This is also shown in him being willing to join Seliph to save Lene. Like yes Seliph offers that deal with him to keep him from attacking, but him turning blue without needing to have that convo when they easily could have done so ala Ayra makes me think that says something about his willingness to bend a bit to satisfy his goals. Calling it an ‘ambush’ to me also suggests that Ares is quite good at at surprise attacks when he locks in. I hc he’s good at hunting for similar survival reasons so this just all fits together. Given several of his loss quotes make it sound like he repeatedly underestimates people (or overestimates himself, or both), I like to also envision having a 50% activation skill is sorta like him realizing he needs to cut the cockiness a bit and really focus.
Next we have Adept and Pursuit, and I kinda wanna put them together for my analysis because they kinda both embody the same hc for me here, which I will get to in a sec after I discuss a few other things about the skills a bit. First, Adept basically lets you attack again twice in a row as if you had a Brave Weapon, and in FE4 at least, Critical is checked on each hit. Meanwhile you have Pursuit, a skill that activates if you are faster than your opponent, allowing you to do a follow-up attack (which also has individual crit checks iirc). Because yeah that wasn’t a thing anybody could do in 4, you needed a skill. Notably, Ares naturally has it and Adept as personal skills, whereas his father doesn’t (Eldie has no skills at all actually). And on the note of skills, Javarro actually has Adept himself, because it comes free with being a Ranger class. So I like to think that, as part of Javarro training him, as well as an extension of the idea he got his fighting style influenced by being taught by a merc, Ares now has Adept because he picked it up from training under Javarro.
Further, ALL of Ares’ skills are personals. None are just a gimme from his class, and only one can be inferred to be from a teacher’s fighting style he was exposed to. None come from genetics either, unless Grahnye was absolutely stacked lmfao (hence the joke the fandom has about her). Imo this suggests to me a fair amount of hard work and natural talent went into Ares picking up these skills for himself. Yes I said he has a low skill growth that manifests in many ways, but that is quite different from being a good study or a hard worker. Talent shows up in all sorts of ways, and imo there’s no way Ares isn’t a natural at combat (ha). That he picked up these skills specifically lends to that imo, because of how they really enhance what he wants to do in combat. Cause I mean you got Vantage, a good all-round survival skill, then you got two skills that each offer him plenty of opportunities to multi-hit and work together to proc more Criticals. His whole bread and butter as a unit is abusing Mystletainn to melt through people and proc Critical as much as possible to blow everyone up asap. So the more he can swing, the more it fuels the rest of his playstyle, handing out ORKO’s/2HKO’s like candy to limit damage opportunities.
These skills all synergize with his strengths and help offset some minor struggle areas, so since these are all personals I like to see this as a sign that Ares is not just being a tryhard who blindly learns everything because he wants to be the BEST at whatever he sets out to do. Like yes he is a tryhard who wants to be the best, but he’s not all stupid about it. These personal skills all being so good for enhacing his gameplay suggests he is specifically good at optimizing himself, and later on others/things as a King who rebuilds Agustria. He’s quite a flexible learner despite his stubbornness, but more than that -- once he’s keyed into how something works he can make it work to the best it can be. And I see this as a natural expression of his practical and pragmatic style. He may be a bit of a dum dum in the social side, but for other areas like this that are just concepts to learn without a human to decipher he becomes VERY good at how best to do them.
But I said I wanted to lump Adept and Pursuit together for some reason, and in addition to the above, I also do that because I see both as rooted in a relentless combat style. That is, when manifesting these ‘skills’ he taught himself as something that narratively embodies the above paragraph’s points, I wouldn’t translate them as him just teaching himself the x and y skill. Instead, like saying Vantage embodies switching to a guerrilla ambush style when sufficiently injured, I’d blend these two and say they embody another aspect of Ares’ combat style: unyielding, any means necessary assault. He is constantly hunting his target, always searching for any and all exploitable openings to help him catch you off guard before you can escape, and chaining as many hits in as he can against you until you go down. This even includes knees, trips, or other dirtier moves (which he doesn’t see as dirty) to FORCE open a shot. He is not waiting, he is not letting you breathe -- he will not stop until you surrender or he’s torn you in half. And as we see with Seliph, he can wait years without giving up a goal or target. Even when you are faster, if he is determined enough, he will find a way to get you (Adept) if you don’t hurry up and kill him to take away his chance.
--Inventory
And lastly we have inventory, a very short section because of his limited starting inventory, and further limiting that is the fact I already covered Mystletainn in detail over here. So I’ll just let that do the talking for me here without dragging in another wholeass essay within this essay.
Second up is his Iron Lance. Pretty simple narrative explanation -- it’s his backup weapon. The weapon he uses when he needs to pick off a weaker foe without wasting an expensive use of his nuke stick. He doesn’t have a lot of stuff in his inventory, but then again who does unless you inherited it? Cause iirc not many have a lot of starting stuff at base. And in Ares’ case it makes sense because Mystletainn handles most issues, and he would spend most of his money keeping it in shape. Which also explains why his starting gold is only 3,000. He joins you with a fresh and crisp 50/50 uses on Mystletainn and his lance, and we know he isn’t in a job that lets him sit on that for long (especially for his trigger happy ass). So between that, Ares telling Lene that they have begun preparing for combat, and also how much this battle especially would mean to him cause it included facing off with Seliph, you bet he’d have paid a visit to the smith to top himself off. It is also the amount of money Eldigan has on him when he dies so, maybe it’s actually part of the inheritance he’s kept on him for a rainy day lol. But I like the former more x)
One last thing I will note though is that Ares is not carrying any ranged options when you pick him up. He just has the lance and Mystletainn, despite having access to it if he wanted to in the Javelin. I took a look at the prices and, Iron Lances sell for 1k in FE4, vs 3k for Javelins. So perhaps it was simply a money constraint. Ares is actually the only member of Javarro’s mercs besides Javarro himself to carry more than one weapon, so that he could even afford a second weapon (even if it is cheap, assuming he didn’t scrounge it off a corpse or smth) says he may have more money to play with as a top earner. Or, we dunno how long he had that lance for so, maybe he invested in some extra weaponry just for this fight? His father carries a Steel Lance in addition to Mystletainn in Chapter 1 also though so, maybe this is meant to be a nod again to his father’s build, albeit iron instead of steel because he is poorer.
Andddd on one last general note before I begin to wrap up, I did a comparison on Ares’ average stats against Eldie’s. And at the same level (23), Ares will on average have less HP, Mag (lol), Defense, and Res than his father, and by a fair amount (Res is fucking 20). He will have higher raw Strength and Luck on the other hand, and usually tie in Speed and Skill. I just find that interesting that Ares overall leans into the strength over his dad, who is even MORE well rounded. Stats wise, Eldie’s still do what Ares’ do, but arguably better in some respects since he’s even BULKIER, and I just got done explaining how that makes Ares so scary. Now look at his dad. Of course Ares has other things that round him out in ways his father can’t be, such as those amazing skills that indeed are a huge advantage Eldie lacks, but like, it’s crazy to me. Even without skills, Eldie is just that strong, and Ares’ stats mimic his, but in some spots still don’t quite measure up at the same level.
Narratively I like to think of this as, in Ares’ pursuit to be the best warrior to please Javarro, he also took on such an interest in mastering combat because he was trying to specifically become as powerful as his father was. Because honestly, ‘best warrior’ and ‘Eldigan’ are synonymous in his head anyway. Although Ares I think respects his father too much to think he can just match him/beat him, so maybe that was the wrong phrasing. I think he’d have approached it like trying to be someone who would have been worthy enough to stand beside his father as a fellow warrior, using what he knows of him as an image to strive towards or guide what he should be like, even if he never quite meets it.
But in the raw stat department it’s hard to fully beat him in every area, and even though Ares didn’t know the details of this, I think he could get an idea based on the stories Grahnye told him. And that Ares cannot match him in raw stats but makes up for it in his own ways he seemingly developed himself is such a cool way to show their differences despite how similar they appear.
--Conclusion/Tldr
So to round this long rant up, what does all this say about Ares? First off, Ares is generally regarded as one of the best Gen 2 units, an extremely consistent and reliable killing machine who still holds up very well into endgame. He’s got a very specialized/specific statline that is rounded out by his extra boosts from Mystletainn, his class, and his skills, turning himself into a versatile fighter that can usually do whatever you need him to do. Tank a mage? He’s got that. Eat some physical hits? Yep he’s usually good there too. Hit something really hard, as many times as needed, til it explodes? Yep. Go on a fetch quest somewhere to solo some guys pillaging a town? Yeah. Turns out being good at eating hits and blowing people up – and having a horse – gets you really far in a war game. I do like how his versatility as a unit comes from a simple shortlist of strengths. Can he heal? No. Can he do any status? No. Any other utility outside combat? Not much besides his horse’s boosted movement (which is huge but that’s not much for diversity). And he doesn’t need to. He just has to punch you really hard, and tank/survive well enough to keep doing it, until he gives your side the victory. And is there anything else really asked of a merc except to kill and win? It’s no wonder that Ares became so feared he earned his Crusader ancestor’s epithet when he is one of the best in these areas then. You can FEEL the weight of his rep when you use him in FE4, and that is so cool.))
She stood there... Staring at Ares for a solid minute or so— watching him trying to process what he was seeing. Lene herself was thinking about every possible excuse she could give without sounding too creepy.
"Oh! Well... Yes I was just sitting around pretending to be you!"
No. That sounded too honest and too sad— she couldn't possibly say that.
"Actually I was going to go look for you but I forgot because of an assignment!"
Ok that was too far-fetched for a lie. Everyone knows that she always leaves her assignments for last minute all-nighters. Lene inevitably clears her throat, and when Ares finally asked his question, she placed her hands behind her back.
"Sorry Ares, I promise I was going to go look for you but... I got a little sidetracked! I hope you're not too upset" Lene decided on that excuse, giving him her best smile. "And well, since you're already here with my clothes too we should swap! And act like nothing happened." Lene added on, already taking off the rather long coat.
Ares echoed it to himself as he met Lene's smile with a raised brow.
"That's a... 'modest' way to put it..." he said, filtering a mirror of her emphasis through his own deadpan that gestured at the Black Knight's near complete outfit with a sweeping glance.
She was only missing the pants he now wore, which his tunic made a fine substitute for on her anyway. It even surprised him just how well it worked as a gown at her height, oversized and improperly worn as it was. All the borrowed pieces looked the same, would obviously look the same on anyone else but him, but something about this was different.
Different from the many looks she'd worn for herself and her work, different still from his respect for how she made each look effortless, and different still from own simple pride in the quality of his gear.
Words failed him again to translate it beyond this gut-deep ache, even as it balled into a lump at the base of his throat and unknowingly reduced his voice to soft mumblings this whole time. He did know it was far from anger though.
That it had become as deep as a trance, however, was something Ares only realized once Lene broke it by reaching for the shoulder of her borrowed cloak. "Yes, of course," Ares answered much more hastily now, almost as quick as he spun himself around to face the wall while Lene changed. "But..."
Ares crossed his arms, failing to cough up the "why" at the end of that sentence. And when it still refused to come out, he simply went straight to the heart. "...Were you truly so taken, dressing in my clothes?"
She kinda just took the closest basket near her and left. It was not until she arrived at her dorm that she realized her mistake. Actually she realized the moment she stopped and LOOKED inside the basket to realize that these clothes were…. Just not her aesthetic at all. No that wasn’t the problem. It’s the fact that Lene KNEW from the moment she set her eyes on them that they belonged to Ares.
A reasonable person would return them immediately.
But something had clicked in Lene’s head, a small, fairly harmless idea.
So instead of finding the clothes’s owner, what’s the harm in… playing a teeny-tiny game of dress up instead! Because that what she did… pretty much all morning, up until she heard a knock at her door. She wasn’t expecting anyone.. so it could only be one person. Lene slowly creeks the door open, only to have to bite her tongue to stop any kind of outburst to happen. She kept the door open just enough for Ares to see his face.
“Is that so..?” She could tell that this was causing a commotion outside, so to spare, or to worsen the situation Lene opens the door enough to slide the man in to her room and close the door behind him. Well, now her crime was at full display, and she knew her time playing dress-up would have to end.
Ares put no more thought into such a vague reply than what it took to pass Lene a quizzical little frown through the offered crack in her door. That he could hear only fragments of it at most played a fair part of that. When said so softly, and at the same time overshadowed by the boy's much louder mewlings quickly growing behind Ares' ear, little remained to judge her ushering as anything besides an opportunity to hear himself think again. What was left to think about, besides keeping the basket from catching on the door as he sidestepped inside?
Ares thought he knew the answer, felt the peace of it wash through his head as the door shut right on the nose of that boy's whines with a muffled cry of surprise. Then his sight adjusted to the dim dorm light, and knocked himself stupid with what it showed.
Too stupid to speak, too stupid to think of what he should say anyway, and too stupid to close his mouth before allowing a small and inarticulate little noise to slip out.
His arms were still fine enough, so he set Lene's clothes basket down instead, but his eyes were still stuck in place. Bending low only allowed him an easier time to look her up and down, and count up all the articles of ill-fitting clothing she had buried herself under.
"...Is," Ares started, finger slowly curling up and readying to fire at Lene as a point, "Is that--?"
"Is that my cloak," he was about to say, before stopping himself by bringing that curled finger beneath his lip. Probably the smartest thing he'd done today, along with not letting himself rephrase it into any of the other equally stupid variations that crossed his mind.
"Is that my cravat?"
"Are those my boots and gloves?"
The actual question he should've been asking was, "Is the Black Knight blind?"
Finally he found the strength to pull his eyes off her for a moment, and it was just to roll them at himself. Fingers crept up from his lower lip to pull and rub at the edges of them, concealing his frown while he breathed a fresh pause.
"...Is that," Ares began again, flipping his hand outwards to gesture at her and his clothes, "what you've been up to all this time?"
((So due to the change in activity rules I wasn't keen on picking up new threads because I didn't wanna increase my thread count beyond what it currently was. But good news, I forgot one of them was about to conclude. So now I have exactly 1 open spot to play with, and with that, I'm gonna be picky about what one I ultimately pick up rather than just going strictly by first come first serve.
I will prefer to have a very strongly plotted out course to the thread/a strong core plot driving it as opposed to a general one that wings from reply to reply, so please don't feel bad if I don't vibe with an idea. And also be prepared for me to discuss the thread in detail with you from start to finish. If you don't vibe with that style of rp then you prolly oughta skip over me. Due to my thread count needing to stay limited, I am just trying to see if being more choosy will help with my speed. So with that said, I'm looking to use it for one of these prompts below the cut, whichever bites first. Ping in Discord DM's or Tumblr IM's:
Hand holding: Ares can be either the troublemaker here or the model student, since while he may have a streak of getting into fights for what he believes are good reasons (which include 'he asked for it/started it') he is otherwise well behaved and disciplined in class. He can cause problems for the other muse either way, because he's a) A stubborn fucker; and b) Got the super strength and size to ignore most of what his partner would be trying to do, good or bad. This probably works best with muses with vastly different priorities or mindsets to his to create friction between them, but then we'd need to discuss where that friction would ultimately go/what we want it to work towards, lest it just turn into a repeating tug of war thread. Alternatively I can see it working with muses he actually gives a fuck about, since sticking him with someone he cares about is one of the more effective ways to make him stop and think before doing something stupid. Sometimes anyway. If he's the model student for that kind, it would be him being more earnest about trying to help reform his buddy (albeit in a potentially strict way), or just holding back in general when trying to navigate the restraints of being glued together.
Potion Cheating: Ares would not have used potions to cheat. He has the super strength one naturally, and he takes pride in his own efforts to shore up his other areas like speed. Instead, he would still be doing extra work alongside your muse just for extra pay or extra class credit, most likely brought in to help supervise the muses who took super strength potions because he naturally has it himself. I think this would be fun to explore with a muse who took the super strength potion and then is dealing with some unintended consequences of it. Like sure you have super strength now, congrats. Do you know how to handle it? Do you know how to leverage your new strength to open a door without breaking it off its hinges accidentally? Or breaking somebody's hand when you go to shake it? Great power creates a great need to use it responsibly, and a lot more goes into that for something as destructive as super strength than the muse might have thought at first glance. Ares naturally has a lot of experience with these caveats, and so it would be interesting to exchange that via guiding somebody unfamiliar with what dealing with that is like. World of cardboard and all that yeah, but also maybe we could even slip in how having power can change how others perceive you, and not always for the better. Eg the power creates a sense of alienation or even reduction in others' eyes, viewing you as a tool or object more than a person. Maybe the person in charge of doling out the tasks has started abusing this group of super powered kids or something idk? Or not taking as good care of watching them while they work because they have the strength to handle it themselves right now. That sorta thing, if we can fit it in. Moreover, I think this would be especially interesting with somebody who maybe always wanted power like this and now finally has it, such as a nonblood/Minor Blood from Jugdral or a Crestless person from Fodlan, or someone else who has always been just weak.
I am open to suggestions or variations on these or others as well if you got a burning idea, just keep in mind that I am more selective atm with my choices, and that it is not meant as a dig at anybody or their ideas if I say no. Ty.))
Protest built behind his lips, still pressed shut into a tense frown for the moment, as he passed a strained glance between the office further down, then the light of the courtyard pouring in from beyond adjacent archway, and then back again. One time around stiffened his already slow pace; a second tightened the grip on his aunt's arm into a momentary squeeze. Then, rather than having a third...he looked down instead.
It was dizzying to have to do so for his aunt, rather than up from below like he remembered, only to just be thrown again by the sight of her now resting so easily against him. It barely registered as enough weight to pull his attention down in the first place, and yet the smile it wore had been enough to make the realization he had slowed to a stop slip right by.
"..."
It took less time to catch up with it than it felt to Ares, marking the moment with a hiss of breath through his nose as he picked up his feet again.
"If you collapse again," Ares replied, "I'm taking you." His firmness stressed the agreement well, along with the lack of space he was willing to allow for changes, yet it nevertheless made no resistance when changing their course. Carefully, gently, he steered them away from the hall and towards the archway she asked for, and as that better light grazed the first few inches of their faces, Ares began to wonder to himself.
This brought a laugh to her lips, a sound that she had not been sure that she could make any longer, that her vocal chords had forgotten in the cold long dark where she had been, in the dry and endless expanse of the desert that had taken the lives and happiness of all who had set foot within it.
She would not have called it a comfortable sound, tugging dry against her throat, unpracticed in so long, but it was a melody that her body almost remembered as well as she did the sharp planes of the face she looked up into, the bob of the apple in his throat as he spoke, the warm way his arms curled around her-
“Will you indeed? Listen to how stern you’ve become, nephew, and bold enough to threaten me.” The tease came out lightly, less of the force behind it than Lachesis might have known a lifetime ago, and it was all for the better, the emphasis of all that time had changed him, but her as well.
And they both appeared to know it.
The light of the winter sun almost warmed her fingertips as they moved into the courtyard, tables readily available for the sparse amount of people out and about, and out of instinct she flexed her fingers against the warm grip Ares kept on her arm.
“This one, here,” she directed, seating them down with no small amount of relief.
For when he sat opposite her, with the full splendor of the sunkissed halo behind his golden head, Lachesis felt the breath taken from her once more, and her throat tightened.
She smiled, reached a hand across the table to take his into hers.
“Now. From the beginning. Everything that I’ve missed, and leave nothing out. We have all the time in the world, don’t we?”
🎀 — What persona does your muse play for the sake of keeping the community happy?
SWEET LOVE HC’s (Not Accepting!)
((Soooo, on the one hand Ares doesn't change his personality much for others' sake. Like he doesn't PRETEND to be somebody else entirely. He would hate that, and it's part of why he is having such issues with learning how to be a noble. He's a straight shooter and hates the high context mask shuffling you have to do as a noble.
Now on the other hand though, what Ares will do instead is 'hide' parts of himself. As a child, this was hiding behind momma and the servants, cause I hc him to have been a shy and clingy lil boy who usually kept a blank or babylike "o.o" face around strangers. Go look at his Treasure art with Grahnye and tell me that isn't a shy mommas boy type. Makes extra sense for my iteration especially since I further hc he was largely kept hidden and isolated from the greater world inside his maternal grandparents' house. For his own safety sure but, that surely didn't help this kind of behavior I imagine.
Course, he can't very well do that as a merc that's expected to carry out all these responsibilities and work with fellow mercs and so on. He also can't just be out here talking about his feelings in a healthy matter to help cope and process his trauma or any of that junk. Hell no. Slimy mercs don't got time for a kid with those, and Javarro especially would find it an inconvenience since he never truly cared about Ares beyond his power and usefulness.
Thus this childlike shyness evolved into shunting most of himself behind a stony and very grumpy-seeming exterior to keep Javarro happy, cope with his issues without drawing ire, and so on. Military life + trauma + shit guardian figure all together means that he can largely put those feelings on ice when he needs to in order to finish a goal (eg saving his meltdown over Dahna for after he finds Lene). The only other way he lets them come out is if they are in ways that his effed up military-like community found more acceptable, usually physicality and anger and such. Not that he's out here having gigantic tantrum meltdowns of anger or anything. He has things he won't tolerate that will make him snap very quickly, and is also quick to use physicality and a scary face to make it stop if time is of the essence (eg seeing someone getting attacked), but he actually hates needless violence. He usually just keeps the grumpy/stiff and distant face up and only gets angry/physical if you won't knock it off and sees no other appropriate avenues, or you just step on a big berserk button. So like, say he's spooked or worried about something. He's not going to show much of that beyond remarking to himself that he's worried. And if it's in the face of an enemy or something, he's putting on the 'grr' face and locking in. Those are things his upbringing taught him were acceptable because Javarro likely wouldn't turn those away like he would a crying child who had an umpteenth nightmare about Leonster's collapse that he nearly died in.
'Oh well isn't that just mask shuffling too?' I mean I guess but I mean them a bit differently here. One is actively swapping in different personality traits vs the other is just keeping some hidden and absent but not replacing them with a fake smile or something, hence he looks even more stiff and distant for it.
So not only will Ares put a lot of himself and his deeper feelings behind what is basically a grown up version of his baby "o.o" face, but also nobody besides close friends and family gets let in off the bat. Seeing as he still doesn't like strangers getting too chummy too fast, keeping people at a prickly distance is his new answer for that as well. He's quite private anyway, which probably makes keeping parts of himself hidden feel more easy and natural, so he doesn't see why he needs to say much to most people. When he does need to say something it's usually just business anyway. This conflicts with the fact that, at the same time, his lonely ass craves connection from stuff like deeper convos, but there's a gap between that and starting off as a stranger and he ain't great at crossing it. You need to get close to him first (or speedrun it by being related to him) before you start seeing anything more than a regular tough exterior, which is a genuine part of him mind! It's just all he lets show to strangers usually.
As I have said before, even when you get to know him he still sounds and acts very similar. You just usually know him enough by now that you can pick out his moods and intentions better despite his stiffness. That and he is way more candid and chill about convos when he likes you/knows you. He is, essentially, not keeping the distant shell up anymore, but he's still socially awkward lol.
This in turn highlights the significance of when he deems you close enough to do things like break down in front of. We only know or see him doing so to Lene/Laylea, and while an argument could defs be made for Javarro given how long he's known Ares, we also know he never cared about him either. Hence why my hc for now is that, even if that happened in the past, Javarro's dominating nature that stresses blind obedience likely wouldn't have tolerated it. Thus he stopped showing the real depths of it to him, and he retreats way further after cutting ties from Javarro.
Beyond using a prickly exterior, Ares has also shown great ability in being able to adapt to any role to get what he wants in the name of his loved ones. He became a scary merc to please Javarro (the BEST merc in Jugdral at that), dropped part of that role as Javarro's adopted son and employee when he cut ties, even put his feelings about his mortal enemy on the backburner to be said enemy's ally for Lene's sake, and so on. More than personas, he is willing to adapt and learn/do/become damn near anything if it means it will make his loved ones happy, which honestly IS a good mindset for a king to have towards his subjects too.
That his first thought was to her well-being spoke only to the kind heart that she knew rested in that broad chest, and Lachesis could not help but laugh, a wispy little sound that fluttered from her throat in surprise, as though she had not been aware she could make such a noise anymore.
"A nurse...yes, I'm sure I do look quite..." She shook her head, cut herself off. There was no use in disparaging her current state, irritated though she was at it; he was worried enough, and it was not her job to make him worry further.
"If it's all the same, Ares, I should like to simply take a walk. A short one, of course, I...find myself rather tired at the moment. But it would do well enough to make for the...I believe there's a courtyard just down this path, isn't there?" His hands were warm and broad, and littered with the callouses that she knew with great familiarity, that told the story of the life he must have led far greater than anything else could – she patted one of them fondly, nevertheless.
It was the normalcy of the motion, the illusion of simply an aunt and nephew in a situation that any family might have been in – a visit to the academy, to hear about his studies. Her throat tightened, but she smiled up at him, before she dipped her head to rest against his arm.
"A short walk, and a quiet sit, and a look at my baby nephew in better light. And you can tell me how you have come to be here."
Protest built behind his lips, still pressed shut into a tense frown for the moment, as he passed a strained glance between the office further down, then the light of the courtyard pouring in from beyond adjacent archway, and then back again. One time around stiffened his already slow pace; a second tightened the grip on his aunt's arm into a momentary squeeze. Then, rather than having a third...he looked down instead.
It was dizzying to have to do so for his aunt, rather than up from below like he remembered, only to just be thrown again by the sight of her now resting so easily against him. It barely registered as enough weight to pull his attention down in the first place, and yet the smile it wore had been enough to make the realization he had slowed to a stop slip right by.
"..."
It took less time to catch up with it than it felt to Ares, marking the moment with a hiss of breath through his nose as he picked up his feet again.
"If you collapse again," Ares replied, "I'm taking you." His firmness stressed the unspoken agreement within well, along with the lack of space he was willing to allow for changes, yet it nevertheless made no resistance when changing their course. Carefully, gently, he steered them away from the hall and towards the archway she asked for, and as that better light grazed the first few inches of their faces, Ares began to wonder to himself.
When Ares ducked under the tent's heavy cloth, he was expecting relief, not a new stabbing in the ears. Nor was he in any mood to reprise his old recruit wrangler role for a nurse far greener than he'd expected to be manning things on her lonesome at a supposed military academy. There was no chance he could keep up with them in his state anyway, so all he could do as they scrambled circles around him was bite down on a wince -- in agitation more than pain.
"I'm not dying." Ares couldn't have rumbled it out any flatter, and that was his first mistake. His second was repeating himself, in a half dozen differently phrased ways:
"I've already treated the worst of it--"
"The bleeding's already stanched--"
"…Stop this flailing and listen--!"
Each just made them flail faster past his legs, back and forth for this and that almost straight into a table at worst on her way to the bandages, and not much else. Because as it turned out, when a bloody body spoke so calmly, or lifted its arm to rub at its temple until it began to drag down the eye, what it was saying didn't stand out as much.
So Ares turned to Leif and his staff instead with a small sigh. "Start here," he said, undoing the knots on his cloak and cravat in two swift motions that flowed from one to the other. Those fell easily enough into his arm, then onto one of the chair's while he used both of his to slip the top of his shirt down to either side of his hips.
He fell back into the seat to a fresh round of shrieks as the nurse recoiled upon the sheer number and length of wounds lining his upper body. Then came the mutterings, mostly along the lines of disbelief that he could still move, or hadn't bled out already...or had a "fancy for marking himself."
That last musing marked the turn into much more idle and fragmented ramblings, which for a half second Ares entertained breaking up with a correction about what Brands were, but for the sake of his ears ultimately decided to limit to a small grumble.
"They sound in greater need of this than me," Ares mused dryly to Leif as he offered one torn up arm to bathe in the staff's soft glow.
(aka the post where I discuss the group's activity rules update)
((So shortened and dirty version:
Here's my tracker, it'll be in my stats page as well. From the main page of my blog, click Muse then Classes and my Thread Tracker will be there. Lmk if said tracker is not working.
After sorting through my backlog this past month, I am formally dropping the following two threads because I have lost energy for them for one reason or another (nothing against muns or their lovely muses as usual): Like Glue @knighteclipsed and Fruit Ninja @luminousrider (there were other muses in this thread that have since dropped so not tagging them)
Lmk if you do not see your thread in the tracker and believe it should be there. Besides the two above, there is one thread (The Lion, the Mermaid, and the Pirate) that is not in the tracker yet because Tumblr was being a bitch when I tried to post + link it. Other than that, if something is missing, my scatterbrained ass prolly just missed adding it in the setup hustle.
Beware I am still slow af as an rp'er, even if I now obviously will be working on bringing things within the new rules about reply speeds. If you do not like slow partners, you still will probably not like rp'ing with me.
I still don't care how slow or fast you are with replies to me.
I will now be going over personal expectations wrt reply speed and stuff with each potential thread I pick up -- both yours and mine. Please be frank and upfront with me about whatever they are, including when something changes.
My new goal for thread replies on my end will be to keep them within the 3 month drop rule, assuming nothing else has been discussed between me and my rp partners OR special circumstances have come up that keeps me away from writing for a prolonged time.
One of those special circumstances is happening this month (June) because I will be taking a hiatus to focus on archive stuff. I will still be continuing to work on my backlog, which has been almost fully brought within the 3 month reply window, but it will not be my primary focus this month, so some threads may go back over this window. Please lmk if this bothers you and I can try to work something out (eg fast track a reply). After that though, these new standards will be in full effect.
I am very sorry to anyone I have upset with my slowness; I hope these changes encourage people to tell me in the future when there's a problem with me if they were afraid to before so we can sort it out.
Longer version:
I of course am one of those slow rp'ers the May newsletter mentions. The potential why's of that are unimportant/irrelevant for this since they don't change anything about it for me or yall. What matters to the discussion the mods' newsletter has brought up is only that I am definitely one of these slowpokes, and also that there seems to be this growing sense of dissatisfaction/frustration/[whichever negative emotion(s) you think fits best here] lurking behind the scenes in regards to reply speed, muse hoarding, etc. Whether these feelings have been brought up to the people they're directed towards, I don't know. Whether those feelings are also directed at me, I also don't know.
I only have one muse at least so hopefully I don't count as a muse hoarder too, but as a slow poster I know that this surely still includes me in some shape. I have responded whenever anything has been brought up to me, but I can't say that has assuaged my concern brought about by the newsletter. I can't fully know for certain if there are or aren't still people who have issues with me but haven't been able to tell me about them. But like the newsletter said, if it has become this pervasive yet silent, I wanted to make a general post/reflection on the info so that everyone in the group, rp partner with me atm or not, knows what to expect from me now after these new rules have been implemented.
This post is not meant to vague my partners or anybody else to be clear; what you do or don't tell me is always gonna be your choice and your business, and I will respect it/never force you to do otherwise. That said, I also don't like the idea of muns potentially having issues with me (or anyone else) but choosing to sit and stew on them/vent to mods instead of taking a stab at bringing them directly to the mun in question at all. Not that I think muns shouldn't report things to mods either of course -- by all means do it -- but I fear a tendency of holding onto these feelings and never wanting to at least also discuss them 1 on 1 will breed a silently corrosive atmosphere prone to resentment and blame even if these rules fix the group reply speed. (If again that is indeed what's going on, since idk if these feelings already were discussed privately or not). And at least on my end, I certainly don't want anybody who interacts with me to feel so trapped that they not only don't wanna talk to me about their issues they have with me, but also just choose to grin and bear it through any threads they may have with me and no longer wanna do just to avoid a confrontation they fear. That's an awful feeling/situation, one that I've been on the other end of before, and I would like to try to control what things I can on my end to hopefully help contribute to an environment where muns are as comfortable discussing grievances and expectations directly as they are taking things to mods. Especially before they are allowed to build like they apparently have if I understood the newsletter right.
So with that all in mind, let's start again with the biggest problem the newsletter brought up -- mun activity/reply speed. As I said, I am one of those who are super slow. I have never pretended any different to myself or to my partners and done my best to be upfront about that. My slowness is, in general, not because I lack interest in a thread or I don't wanna do it anymore -- I would tell you if that was ever the case (as I just did above). This is just what I have been like as an rp'er for years now. I am also very aware of how that slowness can chafe with people, which is why I try to warn about it in my rules so people who wanna start threads with me can make a more informed decision without being blindsided and nope out anytime they want to without worry.
None of anything I've said in this post so far (or will say) is me saying 'well it's your fault if you still went in and felt bad when I'm slow to reply'. Nor is it an attempt to blame people, shift responsibility, or call anybody out, etc. As I said, I have always been aware of how my slowness can piss people off, and those feelings/preferences are valid. My being upfront about it here, in my rules, and all of this in general is not to disrespect people's feelings or set up any gotcha's; it's to try to acknowledge them and not betray any trust and expectations people place in me as an rp partner.
To that end, let me be frank again here: I am still gonna be slow compared to others. Anytime I push myself to be exceptionally faster is never sustainable for me in the longterm, and I'm not gonna pretend that can change all of a sudden.
This isn't me digging my heels in and giving a middle finger to any of the mods, the newsletter, and/or the dissatisfied muns out there who prefer faster partners/thread turnaround. I'm obviously gonna work to bring things in line with the new rules, with my specific goal going forward being that no post gap goes older than the 3 months marker on my end (see bullets above for my thread tracker). And that is just coming from me being realistic here about how much I can conceivably speed myself up. Even if I only have like 5 threads, I am not ever gonna be consistently shooting replies out on the daily either. I will always skew towards whatever slower side of the ratio there is, and be erratic at best. So as I've always said, if you hate slow partners/reply times, I am probably not gonna be able to provide you with an enjoyable threading experience even after I bring my threads up to speed. Don't be afraid to tell me no flat-out if I approach you with an idea or anything either and you know this. It's no skin off my nose, truly, and it spares us both a lot of headache and hurt feelings down the road.
"But what about the part in your rules about no nagging for thread replies? You seem sensitive there about being told certain stuff."
I worry this may have contributed to why some people, if they DID have any grievances with me, never spoke to me about them, or might not in the future if I don't clear it up now. That part of the rule was never about people checking in every so often. It was for people literally asking every day or other day or so on about when a post is going up -- messaging repeatedly within a very small timeframe. Which had been a problem in the past in other groups and does indeed stress me out, so I added that in to prevent it. That's all really. I tried to explain in the rest of that rule section that it is a separate thing from checking in every so often, but if that wasn't clear I hope this is: it's not the same thing. It's ok to ask. Just don't do what I just said further up in this para.
Being on the same page in general is important to me to ensure we both enjoy threading together and know exactly what to expect before even agreeing to start a thread, as I see no point in rp'ing with somebody who hates me or the thread or my slowness or whatever else, and vice versa. On my side at least, I personally do not feel negatively about any of my partners and am always endeavoring to make sure they feel content on their end as well.
I have also encouraged via my rules for people to speak up and tell me when they do feel that way; my dm's/im's are always open and they always will be, and that goes for vice versa too. Unless something so egregious has already happened that it's made me believe I can't speak to you, but the number of those instances are something I can count on like one hand and very much in the past. If there are those harboring negative feelings or grievances towards me out there and you just have been too nervous or disgruntled or w/e else to tell me, be it due to my reply speed or anything else, then I'm sorry. I never want to be a source of such feelings for anybody, or intimidating enough that people are too afraid to say so to me. If you would be willing to let me know about them somehow, then we can work on an answer from there so I don't continue perpetuating things for you, even if you have to have a mod play mediator for you to help you feel ok enough to do it.
There's even several options I can offer depending on what the issue is, such as keeping IC mentions of your muse out of my posts if you, say, have a muse connected to mine. However, I can't correct anything if I don't know about it. Simply coming out and saying you are done and wanna drop interactions counts under this umbrella to me and is totally fine too -- I again would just need you to tell me somehow. Doesn't even need to be a dm in the latter case. I read dash, so just put it there if it works that way. But as I said above, the decision to tell or not tell me is always very much yours to make, and I will respect it still.
I would also like to note that, while communication needs to be clear if rp is to happen (like in general), that doesn't mean it's gotta be frequent. I tend not to talk unless prompted after sorting out initial discussions, just because I have nothing more to say. I assume everything is clear and set up after that point. If I needed to say something else, you'd hear about it, but I just usually don't, and I then assume things are fine on your end too if I hear nothing. If that's not the case then I implore you to tell me.
To that end, my next change I will be implementing from now on will be that, for every potential thread I discuss with a mun, I am gonna preface it with explicit warnings about my post speed, my expectations for the thread, ooc communications, and so on. Basically slap in a condensed disclaimer/reminder about all this stuff I just said so far. And I will be asking about yours as well, with a hope that you update me when/if they change. That way there will hopefully be less hesitation and more understanding/communication to help nip any potential negativity before it gets to fester longterm.
And on that note regarding expectations, know that I still will always not care about YOUR post frequency with OUR threads. I never have, and I've said as much. Take your time, however long that is. And if you gotta do a big catch-up sesh on threads to avoid getting bonked for activity speed, you never have to worry about ours being part of your priority list -- you aren't gonna mess me up if you don't post unless we're in the middle of an event that makes things extra time sensitive. If both of us are of the same mind about this, then great. Maybe we can cut each other some slack and just let that thread go with the flow, if that's ok to do within the group's new speed expectations of course. This isn't me trying to circumvent the mods or anything though. I just figured if all parties are in agreement for a particular thread there wouldn't be any harm being done, especially if they are keeping up with the rest of things just fine. Feel free to correct me though mods!
That's about the extent of the changes I plan to do, as well as my logic behind them. My rules have been updated to reflect these changes. Hopefully this will all be enough to ensure I personally am not contributing to this negativity and satisfying the new speed rules. And hopefully I've made my intentions clear enough here to not have them be misconstrued as some kind of attack or whatnot, or some demand on the group to follow my logic, cause it isn't. Cutting back on any sense of blame and resentment is my goal here, not adding to it, and communication/clarity on expectations is imo just as important to that as speed adjustments. This is just how I have personally chosen to go about it, and I hope that my approach is ok and kosher with group rules. Maybe I'm wayyyy overthinking/overexplaining things here, which I tend to do, but better safe than sorry.
If this is still not good enough to meet new expectations, then we'll re-evaluate from there. Hopefully I can make things work with this though, so fingers crossed.
It’s slow, but uninterrupted, before the glow of white magic manifests itself in the world just as a second strike hits him, the swordsman faster- always faster, always stronger- but unable to break the casting of the spell. A kick, too, just as the orbs of light descend upon the world.
Destroy him, as he is trying to destroy you.
As they do, he stumbles backward, covering his eyes from the dust that rises, though it matters little either way. It is not as though they are focused- either on his opponent or the battle, and he pulls his tome tighter to his chest, unwilling to part with it.
Mantle continues to prove itself, time and again, the injuries inflicted causing sting but nothing near what the damage should be without it. Just in case- he raises his hand to send another, weaker blast of magic where the swordsman last stood.
Two strikes, in response to the two that he had been given.
Ares was sure of that now, as well as its impenetrability, thoughts exhaling through his nose as an agitated huff that rode down his dust-veiled shadow. Older ones came to fill their place at the same time, borne from within throbbing muscles that finally recognized the sting of their own strength being bounced back as more familiar than he'd realized.
The lack of a big shield waving in front of his face had kept him too distracted to notice, but amidst the settling dust he saw it clearly now. This mage's frail and slight shadow was identical to the hulking fortresses of armor he faced in Jugdral. Not even Mystletainn ever managed to cut through the glow of their shield... yet he had felled them all the same in the end.
The instant Ares remembered how, at the same time another round of dim balls of magic gathered above the mage's tome, his freshly battered figure settled.
Flashes of their arc reflected off his blade as they traced down the length and closed in on its wielder, then kicked up a fresh plume of rubble upon connecting.
But when the dust cleared again, nothing but the ground would be sporting any new marks. Their target had already lunged from that spot well before they grazed that stone, broad side of his blade locked up in a double handed grip wound far behind his back.
The resulting spin it produced when he stepped back into the mage's space was plenty fierce, and lacking the restraint that had bound his last strike, yet it wasn't meant to obliterate, or cut or stab. Its sole purpose was only to launch.
Colliding with that magic shield again came with a deep 'CLONG!' that reverberated right up into his teeth, but as with the metal ones in Jugdral, nothing was keeping either bolted to the earth. His full and unfettered strength tossed both with ease, working in tandem with gravity to do the brunt of the damage for him.
Ares wasn't looking for any damage on the outside though. He knew, upon crashing back down from any height, that there would be none to see. It was what was inside that he was counting on, breaking into a casual jog in search of a closer look at other various hints the body might offer. Wobbling legs or stumbling gait. Harder breaths or dilated eyes.
Anything that might betray the havoc wrought upon soft flesh slamming against the inside of its own impregnable shell.
Sometimes the armors' shields would falter just enough for an opening. Sometimes they'd simply collapse from the exhaustion before anything else.
Ares simply had to wait for one or the other, although there was also a third this time.
"Are you sane yet?" Ares called after the mage, pace trickling from a jog to a saunter just short of where the mage landed to offer him one chance at proving so before he finished closing the remaining gap. By then, when he still saw none --
-- 'CLONG!'
Again and again the same few steps, prepared to bounce him all the way to the village outskirts, until he got the right answer.
