"... Can I help you?" Ares was currently having a staredown with the Pooka. As for how it had come to this, after waking up in the morning Ares went to go purchase some provisions for his cooking. Upon leaving the Elliot, he stumbled across the pooka who was slowly walking towards the vehicle under the guise of a fat, grumpy human. It was so obviously the Pooka, the uncanny face with the wide mouth gave it away instantly, and so the two had a staredown for a minute until Ares spoke and broke the silence. The Pooka did not respond, it simply turned around and walked away without saying a single word or making a single utterance. Ares threw a Shock Bead at it but, just like last time, it vanished the second danger neared so the bead flew through empty space, hit a tree, and rattled across the ground like a dejected dud. Ares scrunched his lips sideways and narrowed his eyes because he was really perplexed as to what the point of the Pooka even was. It had both exceptionally amazing and poor manoeuvrability in the sense it could pop up without anyone noticing it but always categorically failed miserably when it came to actually approaching the target. Ares hadn't noticed this thing's presence, it arrived undetected, but then it walked at him in a straight line and made no effort to do much of anything else. It did try to walk at him from outside his direct view but all it took was a single head tilt for Ares to spot it and that was the end of that. Maybe it was a child, maybe it was stupid, regardless there wasn't much chance of it sneaking up on anyone not because it didn't have the talent but rather because it didn't seem to understand how to use it. If it could disappear and appear at will like that then surely it would be better at this whole stalking thing? It didn't even wait until Ares was deep in the cluster of trees to try sneak up on him, it waltzed into the open and just ambled in his direction with a slow and steady gait. It was less like an encounter with a deadly monster, presumably, and more so like stumbling upon a socially awkward mute who runs away at the first sign of life. Ares didn't doubt this thing was deadly, he doubted he would get to ever understand why before leaving Akarala at this rate. Unless the Pooka could somehow follow him outside the country, that would be hella creepy. Given how adept it was at tracking Ares since their first confrontation maybe it could? Honestly, Ares had no clue what the Pooka's deal was and asking the chief when he arrived in the village later didn't clear much up or tell him anything he didn't already know. The only titbit that interested Ares, and only because he found it funny, was that the locals had named him Pooko. Pooko the Pooka.
While in the village, and while he already had the chief lending him his ear, Ares asked about the rough location of the bow based on his own estimation of the direction it travelled and how far it was. After some brief contemplation, the chief drew a map of sorts into the mud with his cane-cum-stick and advised Ares on the optimal travel path so as to be able to bypass some of the more territorial monsters. It was at this point Ares was introduced to the concept of Akarala guardians but there wasn't much to say about them. There were six of them, they were better off avoided. The only one that didn't actively seek out and hunter intruders was 'bloody big bear' but even then it was considered polite not to tread on his kindness if it was possible to avoid him. As for the other guardians, the chief gave Ares permission to kill them should he have to for whatever reason. The path to the bow was unfortunately one that, at its fastest, went directly between the territory of three guardians and a clan that had been acting eerily as of late. Eery as in propping up skulls and etching taboo symbols onto their gates. Put simply, if Ares didn't happen across a guardian, he was likely going to run into troublesome humans instead. He couldn't really avoid a meeting with either or unless he went the extremely long way around and, even then, there was a chance of getting into a mix-up with other guardians as well regardless. The consolation here was that one of the three guardians Ares was going to pass by was the fabled bloody big bear himself so that lowered the odds of a violent altercation by a decent margin. Ares had no intention of picking any fights, it wasn't really what he was here for, but at the very least he had explicit permission from the chief to defend himself. The only thing in this forest he should try not to kill was the heamomancy bear, everything else was fair game and almost encouraged in a way. The major reason most of the clans and tribes were at war with each other was due to their ever increasing scale. They needed more space and picking a fight with a guardian was usually suicidal. If the guardian didn't kill your people they would leave you exhausted, weak, and easy to pick off by any off the tribe's contenders. All you would be doing is gifting free territory and slave labour to whoever was ready to capitalise of your selflessness so the guardians were mostly untouched throughout recent history. They weren't despised, they weren't revered, they were seen primarily as natural disasters best avoided or exploited but never directly interfered with. If one went missing due to an outsider killing them it would probably benefit the major clans the most, they had the manpower to claim the empty land afterwards, but as a whole nobody in the region would be upset at seeing them gone. Sabotaging or poisoning humans was easier than felling a mighty monster so the prospect of stealing the land out of a tribe's nose in the long run was preferable to fighting, say, a giant winged brick monster capable of wielding multiple elements freely. The aforementioned guardian just so happened to be another one of the three Ares would be passing by and it was the one he had to be most alert to as it had a tendency to regularly scout its territory for prey and wasn't much merciful to anyone who so much as tiptoed across the region boundary.
After procuring information and some extra rations, the latter of which Ares already had in spades but figured he could never have too much of thanks to his Blade freezing ingredients in time, he set off inside the Elliot with everyone else. He didn't have to bring anyone else along with him, he was essentially just doing the equivalent of a fetch quest to go pick up his shiny new bow, but they all seemed intent on exploring the region and seeing what it had to offer. While Ares was out like a light for the week they'd already seen much of the local area and were hankering to spread their wings a bit. Also, though unlikely, it was maybe for the best if someone followed after Ares on the off chance the bow paralysed him again once he reclaimed it. It shouldn't happen but it technically could! Anyway, point being, it was a family road trip of sorts. Multiple times throughout the drive could people be heard 'oohing' and 'aahing' at the colorful fauna or peaceful animals seen outside the windows. Ares could have sworn he saw the rhinobeetle again, literally the exact same one he traumatised, but it ran away so fast Ares was unable to get a good look at it. Ares hadn't given it much thought at the time he initially met the animal but wasn't it's name hella confusing?! It was a rhinobeetle alright but also definitely way more 'rhino' than 'beetle'. Compared to a normal rhinobeetle this thing was overgrown as can be! At some point in this country's history someone, most probably a merchant, must have died searching for a 'rhinobeetle' for their materials, not expecting their quarry to be a literal rhino. Actually, now Ares was curious as to whether normal rhinobeetles even existed in Akarala or not. Hopefully not or it would get complicated real fast and Ares had already dealt with a similar issue back in the aevysquall village. Before he departed he was introduced formally to the hunter / scout he met out in the wild, ironically the one found Ares with the rhinobeetle. The chief wasn't always guaranteed to be in the village, he had to conduct negotiations with other tribes somewhat regularly, so Ares would have to chat with 'Anju' if he needed anything. This, in and of itself, wasn't an issue. It rapidly became an issue, though, when Ares found out that Anju's wife's name was 'Mi'. Mi... Anju. It took a sighing Enyo to come and drag Ares away from the troubled couple who were being bombarded with 'me and you' questions.
"Who are you?"
"Mi."
"Yes?"
"Yes. Him, Anju."
"Him and me what?"
"Yes, him and Mi couple."
And so on so forth. Ares had naturally figured out what was going on after about a minute of back and forth but he perpetuated the cycle of no progress intentionally because he was having way too much fun with such a silly little misunderstanding. it was lucky Enyo happened across the bickering trio otherwise they would have gone at it for the entire night. By the end of it, Anju was wishing he left the rhinobeetle to its fate that day and stayed far away from this lunatic! Had he seen that very same rhinobeetle run away in terror upon spotting Ares through the Elliot's front windscreen he would have laughed but also understood the reaction and considered it perfectly natural. Despite hearing the chief talk about how Ares was a 'fundamental champion' Anju could help but think the most deadly part about Ares was his unzipped mouth. In some ways, he was right. Ares had spent the better part of the last day mocking his brother over the Leo incident at the beach and so Aejaz wouldn't necessarily disagree with the sentiment either. Something something, "The phrase crouching tiger will never be the same", something something. Ares was fulfilling his older brother duties as he'd been somewhat lazy in that department for a while now and he was pent up. It was to the extent that, as soon as a monster showed up for the first time during the journey, Aejaz actively volunteered to go fight it simply under the premise he would get to avoid Ares' comments for a few minutes. It wasn't a tough fight... But it wasn't one Aejaz would ever forget. He took the battle to avoid dealing with Ares but, unfortunately, Akarala was home to parrot monsters that specialised in psychic mastery. Vocal-induced hallucinations. Put simply, Aejaz tried to escape Ares only to run into a bunch of bird-brained copycats who dug into Aejaz' mind and bombarded him with a barrage of even more of Ares' comments. This spectacular fail was enough to make Ares fall out of the driver's seat laughing but Aejaz, who returned to the Elliot with peck marks, covered in feathers, and small bits of blood trickling out of his ears, was not quite as pleased. Maybe being around Ares for too long had turned Aejaz into a trouble magnet as well because he'd been extraordinarily unlucky as of late... Though whether it had anything to with Ares' bad mojo or a certain blue entity that had been trailing the group for some time now was another matter
Blissfully unaware of the floating blue dog Dido hovering in the clouds above them, raising her paw to her mouth and guffawing at the manufactured misfortune of others, the group had a relatively peaceful journey during the early stages. Aside from the parrot attack, which went poorly due to the incredibly 'coincidental' timing of their appearance, relative to Ares' banter burrowing in Aejaz' brain and making him an easy target, most attacks and ambushed were dealt with without a fuss. With Enyo, Bellona, and Sandy aboard this was arguably the most dangerous cohort in all of Sheryashka currently. Adding Ares onto that, and Aejaz who could 'borrow' his destruction magic, was overkill of the highest order. Otherwise powerful monsters were crushed by barriers, drowned in sand, or burnt alive by instantaneous combustion when Bellona doubled their body temperature to unnatural heights. All six guardians could show up for a team brawl and they would get the floor wiped with them, Ares reckoned. To be fair, though, he didn't know much about them so he couldn't say in good faith it would be one-sided. Maybe they had tricks up their sleeve that made them foes worth taking seriously, he had a hunch he would find out eventually as the odds of running into one on this trip were not tiny. He'd already driven by the aforementioned 'dodgy' tribe and they were every bit as unnerving as he'd been told. Even the grass and foliage in the area had become a dullish grey with purple tinges. The air was thick and misty and the place they inhabited seemed more like a witch's swamp thana anything. Lily pads atop a murky lake that lifted ever so slightly to reveal an ominous pair of red eyes, a sickeningly sweet smell in the air that numbed the senses, and even the fog that condenses on the windows of the Elliot naturally formed in odd shapes that resembled runemancy curses as if the spirits of the area were trying to invade the vehicle or turn it into a living tomb and metal deathtrap. Very creepy stuff and Ares hadn't even caught sight of any of the locals. There was a temptation to investigate and find out what went wrong with this lot, apparently this was all completely new and things were normal not even two weeks ago, but he had bigger fish to fry. If, on his return trip, the situation escalated and the unnatural mist was encroaching upon other regions he would take a looksie. He was staying with the chief free of charge and he was welcomed by that village even despite the initial rough hump when he mentioned Thundraga so casually so the least he could do was make sure whatever this particular tribe were doing didn't affect them in any way. Ares could sense a warped presence of some sort coming from deeper within the territory but it was still faint and could be mistaken for a shiver of unpleasantness so whatever these lot were doing it was still in the early stages and could be chalked up to wacky experimentation. Whatever it was, it didn't feel worse than the necromancer Ares ran into briefly at the sect so he confidently ignored it in favour of tracking down the Goddess' bow which was far more important to him. After all, whatever these people summoned or invoked, one shot form the bow ought to right their wrongs no? Maybe he was being overconfident but Ares didn't place these lot in his eyes whatsoever. To him, only maybe bloody big bear was worth his tie in this country. Whether he would still think that way by the time he left the country remained to be seen...
Departing from the evil swamp, filled with random ghastly cries and lurking apparitions and abominations that were sharpening their claws in the dark, was like a breath of fresh air. Almost literally at that as opening the windows brought in a powerful gust of wind that filled everyone's lungs but also almost knocked over a few who were standing. This was the territory of the bird guardian the chief mentioned and really there wasn't much to do here other than pray they could make it across this open stretch, these gusty plains, without alerting the guardian. Fighting it wouldn't be too taxing but there was also no reason to stop and fight it. Plus Ares had already declared he would not be fighting anything on this trip unless it was a matter of life and death because he wanted to others to get training in. There wasn't often much point in Ares toying with significantly weaker creatures. Sometimes he would experiment with previously unused arts, weapons, or combat styles sure but, for the most part, it did little for him. In comparison, a lot of the people in this vehicle could do with the experience of fighting a tough battle. Even if someone like Bellona was a powerhouse, for example, her list of difficult battles could be counted on one hand without the need to even use all five fingers on it. Hell her hardest battle, really, was the one she fought against Ares during the international. Knowing how to fight a losing battle was important because survival was both a necessity and a burden. When life actually hangs in the balance during a fight it changes the way you approach. Not being careless means being considerate and that alone creates a mental taxation let alone the physical restrictions that come with not being able to do as you please anymore. So, in other words, if a guardian showed their ugly mug, Ares was going to take a back seat. He wouldn't let anyone de or suffer injuries but he wasn't going to babysit anyone either. He was the giant red button they could push if things went irreversibly south for whatever reason. Still, with Enyo amongst their ranks the chances of that were slim. Enyo's might and magic were unique in terms of how much easier they made just about every fight as they relieved part of that burden of survival. There was a massive difference between firing magic at range and firing magic at range with an indestructible barrier in front of you at all times, for instance. Ares was tempted to ask Enyo to also refrain from getting involved but, to be honest, she needed the experience too. She got by, and she was the second strongest in the vehicle, but she was paying the price for being too prodigious in that she never struggled basically ever. That was a flaw in its own right so if it could be worked on then why not take the chance to try... Though finding something that could push her that far wasn't exactly a walk in the park... And at that point Ares' presence would be mandatory because if Enyo struggled then pretty much anyone else in Sheryashka would.
While Ares was musing internally over this matter, another gust of wind rattled the Elliot. The windows had long since been closed, as the constant air bursts were starting to get annoying, but this most recent one was forceful enough to swing open the locked windows and nearly throw them off their hinges. Ares was going to have to supply mana to the Elliot to have it fix the damage it was suffering, the air was cutting into the frame and scratching it all over and the tires were being battered senseless too. The more pressing issue, however, was that the air burst signified the arrival of large monster and its ear-piercing cry. The high pitched squawk echoed throughout the Elliot and made all who heard it cover their ears in frustration as a looming shadow was cast over the vehicle. They were still in the middle of open grass land and yet only their little patch of grass was covered in darkness. The Elliot was still moving too meaning the bird above was tracking and following them, locked onto their presence and unwilling to let them leave peacefully. This development wasn't unexpected but it was unwelcome. Ares could tell the guardian was divebombing the vehicle currently, the rapid shifting of the shadow clued him in, but he didn't want his precious Elliot to be damaged that heavily so he leant his arm out the window and chucked a Flashbang straight up above the roof without even checking to see the results. He then swerved to the side as the blinding light did as its name suggested and flashed a brilliant white / gold above the vehicle. Ares also used some telekinesis to drag the Elliot away from the landing point even faster and no sooner than he did he heard a loud CRASH right behind him. The guardian thankfully missed on its descent and fell headfirst into the earth. It must have been pretty massive considering the size of the dust cloud it kicked up, enough to smother then entire vehicle under its weight, so Ares patted himself on the back for his quick thinking. He could have attacked the guardian and forced it away in that manner but, again, he really didn't want to be the one to fell the monster. He diverted the ambush, swung the Elliot to a halt somewhere safe, and now it was everyone else's job to clean up the mess. He'd be watching but he wouldn't be participating... Maybe. He was prone to boredom... For now, though, it was time for the group to do battle with one of Akarala's guardians and see how strong they really were!
Kelo-Koloko, 'the elemental overlord', had come to play.