It was not going as planned, Lu Bu considered, as he deflected a strike from Nemea before having to twist and counter-throw Sphinx in Medusa’s general direction.

He had honestly not wanted to fight these people, not without confirming what happened to Solomon and hearing what she had to say.

She was his voice of reason, and he needed her quite a bit right now.

“You know I might not have recognized you if it weren’t for your weapon Lu Bu.” Sphinx stated as he landed after being caught by Medusa, getting back into his simple stance while Nemea took a stance similar in form to Chinese martial arts.

“I don’t often wear my armour… I dislike it.” Lu Bu admitted, his voice slightly echoed due to the nature of his helmet as he charged forward, using the Nano-tech in his weapon to change the shape of the head whenever necessary, surprising his enemies as he’d go from a pointed spear to an axe or hammer.

“Why would you dislike it, you’re clearly stronger with it on?” Medusa asked as she clawed Lu Bu from his back, only meeting sparks as thin grooves appeared in his armour, showing that her claws would not pierce his armour.

And considering Nemea’s claws were equal in strength, the two of them weren’t piercing his armour…

He felt that it was unfortunate that they found out about that bit of information, because he knew what they’d logically do next.

“I have many of them, many sets of the Red Hare armour… but none of them were made by Sol.” Lu Bu’s statement was with measured breath as he held onto the shaft of the weapon he held, squeezing it as it compacted itself, the head changing into a sword shape as he swung at Sphinx, only for Nemea to appear and block it with her bare arms.

Right, she had heavily cut resistance skin, her skin had fibreglass woven in… how that worked without harming her, and letting her live even was unknown to Lu Bu, and he was pretty sure that was the dumbed down explanation he was told.

She was still sent back a bit from the weight of his attack, giving himself space to lengthen the weapon once more, changing the head of the weapon into a Morningstar with a chain.

“So you rely on Solomon? She’s joined us, you know?” Medusa asked, noticeably glancing at a nearby confrontation between Gilgamesh and Odysseus.

Lu Bu felt conflicted when he saw that look, because he recognized it. It often came over his own face if he ever saw Solomon in trouble… she truly did care for her leader apparently.

“I was warned of the possibility. I do not trust your words though… if anyone’s going to tell me the truth, it would be Sol.” Lu Bu warned as he swung the spiked ball at his opponents, giving Nemea the chance to grab the spikes as she tried to swing him.

Instead, the ball emitted sparks causing her to shock and let go of the weapon, allowing Lu Bu to retract the ball with a frown under his mask.

His face actually matched his mask now…

That electric attack was pitifully weak because if it were stronger it could damage the Nano-bots. And he could only use it under certain circumstances, notably when someone grabbed his weapon.

Nemea had the unfortunate habit of doing so to attack, something she was doing subconsciously due to fighting weapon users occasionally and that was how she beat them, by taking their weapons…

She’d have to pry the Sky Piercer from Lu Bu’s cold dead hands first though.

“She is not with our current group because of Baal. Baal requested a meeting with our leader, and Solomon agreed to go with.” Medusa admitted as she and Nemea stepped forward, Sphinx acting as their support.

It was a ruse, Lu Bu knew, even as he kicked one of them backwards and the other tried to claw at his mask making him use his weapon to flip them behind him, Sphinx came running up to attack his chest.

It’s exactly what he would have done, using an armour piercing blow.

It’s a myth really, of a man punching a row of glass bottles and somehow making only a select bottle burst. It wasn’t physically possible to let that happen.

But it was possible to break a few in a row by hitting one, as long as the force penetrated deep enough, and it was very easy for an Ascended to get that much force going.

The palm strike hit and Lu Bu stumbled backwards, a pain in his chest as he squared his stance, Sphinx frowning as he shouted out.

“He rolled with the hit, it was shallow!” he shouted, and Lu Bu rolled his shoulder slightly, wincing…

That was shallow? Sure, Lu Bu had moved with the hit, but it sure as hell didn’t feel shallow with how much pain his arm was in…

Heck, the Red Hair was slightly indented at that position. That worried Lu Bu, but he knew that was a hit that could be seen coming, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

And the reason Lu Bu knew about the hit was because he got hit with it before, under his right arm against the side of his chest.

He had needed to lie in bed for a while after that fight because his ribs had broken and he was having trouble breathing due to a pain in his right side…

That was when he didn’t have Red Hare though.

“He knows our attacks… Nemea and Sphinx, the two of you have to change fighting styles as much as possible.” Medusa said, her own knowledge of fighting styles were not synched to her body type, given that she learnt from reading the memories of others, their bodies weren’t hers.

There was a sense of mismatched timing when she tried to use a style she hadn’t practiced with, even if she knew the style already.

That wasn’t her fault really, it’s the same way teenagers going through their growth spurts don’t measure distance correctly when moving.

“You know, if you could just direct me towards Solomon, we might not need to fight?” Lu Bu offered and Medusa shot a glance as Aaron being knocked flying by a large blade of solid light…

He wasn’t cut? How… he had blocked using his shield out of Nano-bots? Was that what Gilgamesh was complaining about?

That made little sense to Lu Bu, but after seeing that happen, Medusa sighed.

“I’m not sure where she is unfortunately… but she should be outside the stadium. So if you want to just walk over?” Medusa offered, and then cursed as she had to use her claws to block a sweep of Lu Bu’s weapon.

“Are you joking, Gilgamesh would kill me if I didn’t honestly try and kill you. Move the fight as I chase you.” Lu Bu offered advice even as he attacked and Medusa sighed…

Why did this feel like an annoying escort quest?

While this fight was occurring, Aaron was rolling from being hit flying from the blade of light… right, solid-light, he knew the theory, and Gilgamesh’s armour somehow did it.

Solid light was created by (somehow) making temperatures cold enough that even light froze. The idea made sense seeing as light actually had a speed and freezing something slowed it down, but somehow keeping the space of the freezing so narrow?

This was technology on the level of the Zeta Generators which powered Tartarus; it did not make sense beyond concept.

And while he was unaware of exactly how powerful the cutting edge was, it was proven before his very eyes when it cut through a Ferrari…

Oh god he owed Baal a Ferrari… he was lucky he didn’t take the Ford.

“Little Aaron, how nice of you to appear in front of me…” Gilgamesh’s words were spoken with a sensual purr, had any hormonal teenage boys been in the vicinity they might find their pants too tight.

Gilgamesh would just accept that she was beautiful enough to cause such a reaction, and then kill them all for having dirty thoughts of her.

She was a being almost entirely comprised of double standards, what was not allowed for others might easily be allowed for her in her mind, and why wouldn’t it be?

She was a narcissistic megalomaniac who could back up her desires and attitude with power, be it financial power or physical power in this case.

“Gilgamesh… it’s been what, five months since my last session in the Ascension Chamber? You seem a bit more boyish since then.” Aaron did not insult Gilgamesh; she would brush it off similar to water off of a duck’s back…

Compliments could get a reaction from her, but she didn’t consider them as such, she considered them observations.

When you call a beautiful person ugly, it is an insult. When you call an ugly person beautiful it is a compliment. When you call a beautiful person beautiful, it is an observation. When you call an ugly person ugly, it is the harsh truth.

Four sentences taught to him by Gilgamesh back when Aaron was still a child.

“Well that’s likely a result of wearing my armour. Even for someone of my beauty it’s difficult to show my figure in armour.” Gilgamesh’s words were, likewise, merely observation, even as she glanced at Cyclops with the same gaze one would direct to an ant…

Then she looked to Empusa with a raised eyebrow.

“Little Aaron, I believe the older man behind you is Cyclops, but as for this girl… she is not Medusa, she is not Echidna, she is not Solomon or the Nemean Lion. So she must be Empusa?” Gilgamesh asked as Empusa flexed her hands, making claws appear at her fingertips.

“That is indeed fascinating… she was meant to be a weakling of an Ascended, specializing in seduction and guerrilla warfare due to her ability to change shape into animals and control pheromones…” Gilgamesh swung her arm, a beam of light shooting out for where Empusa was a moment ago.

No matter how fast the Ascended were, none could move faster than light… but that was fine, they just had to move faster than Gilgamesh.

“But from what I hear you have somehow trained her to fight above her station, improvising her ability to new heights… I might have her dissected when you die little Aaron.”

The sheer nonchalance in her statement worried her three opponents; Gilgamesh could tell… it just made her happier seeing them worry because of her.

“You taught me to never make false promises, so I won’t promise that none of us will die… but I promise that you will at least die before I do Gilgamesh.” Aaron’s statement was said with action as he summoned his Xiphos and Aspis.

“Yes, I did teach you to not make false promises, and yes, it is unrealistic to say that none of your following will die… but did you forget?” Gilgamesh’s smile sent shivers down the spines of Empusa and Cyclops as they got close to Aaron, knowing he was the only one capable of actually blocking her attacks.

“I’m immortal.” Gilgamesh’s arm separated the earth and the sky, and a lone shield connected the two as their battle began once more.

Outside of the stadium had Baal’s group stopping a few blocks away from where Behemoth and Jormungand were tearing up the buildings, Baal, Solomon and Mino standing outside their vehicles talking.

“It’s like clash of the titans or something, how are we going to handle this?” Baal asked for suggestions from the two with him, knowing one was a long-time follower of Aaron/Odysseus and the other was technically his ‘Lord’.

“That depends, Baal, can you actually help against Behemoth?” Solomon asked with curiosity as Baal looked to the massive beast which had moved from all four to two legs instead, using its fore-limbs to try and pummel his best friend’s skull in.

“Yeah… that’s gonna hurt, but I can do it… especially if that’s Echidna fighting with Jormungand. Don’t know if you all forgot, but I never got help from her you know?” Baal reminded with a hefty chuckle, getting wide eyes from Mino before the bull-man smirked.

“That’s good news then; you get Echidna to Synchronize you, and then join the fight. As for the rest of us, we should head to the stadium…” Mino got a nod from Solomon at that.

“I’ll go with you… as scary as Gilgamesh is, at least I won’t be crushed to death against her.” Solomon admitted, and Baal nodded, running off… after moving his car a bit away from the fight.

The mustang must survive!

“Okay, so we’re going to go help out the boss? Any idea of who they’ll be sending at us?” Ein asked as the usual spokesperson for the Hydra triplets as Solomon looked surprised at seeing them taking the situation seriously before she sighed…

She shouldn’t judge a book by its cover… Satyr was similar, and he was one of the eldest Ascended in Tartarus.

Speaking of the alcoholic, Solomon was unsure as to where he was… he was amazingly stealthy when he tried, despite reeking of alcohol.

“Gilgamesh has to be here, otherwise Behemoth would not have betrayed Jormungand if they were friends for as long as you all claim.” Solomon’s words were met with confused glances between the members of the Key.

“Gilgamesh, she’s the head of Tartarus right? Okay, she’s here, and she’s dangerous from what everyone is saying… anyone else?” Cerberus asked, normally silent due to his nature as a bodyguard of sorts, he only really spoke to Mino, Sphinx and occasionally Empusa.

“From what Odysseus found out, Leviathan should also be a part of Gilgamesh’s group, and I recall seeing him and another new recruit, Gilgamesh called him Jaeger.” That almost got Mino to crash when she heard the latter name.

“Oh that’s not good…” Mino recalled that while Solomon knew about the Hunters, she wasn’t aware of the third iteration and his name…

Mino would have to explain the problem here as they went.

Baal, back near ground zero of the world’s first Kaijuu fight, was contemplating his sanity…

Then he remembered that he could shoot plasma from his hands and figured sanity was for pussies and ran to the nearest building.

Once there, Baal did some creative climbing to get to the top of the building and look over to Jormungand, who had just hissed a bit of vomit at Behemoth.

Technically Jormungand spat venom, but Baal had a weird mind like that.

The venom Jormungand possessed was his ability as a Chained; he could digest anything and spit his digestive fluids at something.

It was actually very dangerous, but only because Jormungand had a huge stomach and the freaky jaw of a snake…

It did little against Behemoth though, given that his ability was overall physical improvement, which included regeneration and toughness…

He was essentially Typhon supersized into a monster, had Baal known about Typhon’s strength.

Behemoth scraped the gunk off of his left arm, before using that same injured arm to launch a deceptively quick punch at Jormungand, who just barely managed to twist his head out of the way.

It was at this point that Baal saw where Echidna was, and he immediately considered calling her the manliest woman in existence, given that she was doing a rodeo of the largest calibre ever.

“Hey, you’re Echidna right? I’m Baal, and I’m on your side! Solomon sent me!” Baal screamed getting the short white haired woman to shoot him a glance from her perch on Jormungand and his wide head, anchored in place by her string swords.

She asked first, and Jormungand agreed, equating the feeling of having the swords stabbed into his skull to getting a mosquito bite, itchy and annoying, but in a fight it would be forgettable.

“Jormungand, I’m going to go talk to him, hang on for now!” Echidna shouted as she retracted her blades and jumped to the nearest building, which happened to be next to the one Baal was on.

Jormungand didn’t spare a glance to see if she was alright, given that he had to worry about his own safety with a beast like Behemoth attacking him.

Granted, Jormungand was technically larger than his powerful friend, but Behemoth had always been a bit stronger between the two.

Behemoth never let it get to his head though, given his size and how dangerous he would be to a crowd of people if he just rolled over in his sleep, Jormungand was the only friend he had, he wouldn’t fight him…

And that just pissed off Jormungand even more, knowing his friend was unwillingly involved in this battle, heck, even Jormungand wasn’t fighting willingly…

Typhon had arrived to their home with some friends, saying they were just visiting the different Areas, but then they began to explain that they were being chased by two Chained who could control other Chained.

Behemoth and Jormungand were obviously sceptical… and it just so happened that those Chained arrived at that moment and Behemoth was controlled by one of said Chained.

Jormungand wasn’t certain on whether or not he would even survive this fight, but if he did, he would be demanding answers from those members of the Key.

They hadn’t explained everything about the mind control, so Jormungand would give them the benefit of the doubt and await their explanation, especially given that their leader Odysseus wasn’t amongst them.

He’d make his decision about the Key after hearing their explanation… either this was inevitable, or they invited trouble into Area twelve. Either option brought a sour taste, but one would definitely result in their deaths.

His thoughts were interrupted by Behemoth’s roar as he tried to grab Jormungand, only for the snake to slither backwards, something Jormungand found extremely uncomfortable to even attempt, and then having his tail lash out from above his head, hitting Behemoth square in the jaw, sending the titan stumbling backwards…

Right… survive first, think later.

“Wow, never thought I’d see those two duke it out, they’re best friends after all.” Baal stated absently as he looked to the side, seeing Echidna land in front of him.

She was usually covered in a cloak, but she had discarded that for the fight, showing the wires holding up the blades somehow connected to her spinal cord…

No wonder she could control them like that if they were connected there, all nerves were connected there in some way, and if someone (Baal’s father) managed to figure it out, then connecting things there would allow this.

Baal also took a moment to consider what that would mean for people with broken spines and damaged nerves in that area medically… how he wished his father was more into medical pursuits rather than super soldiers.

Without her cloak, the resemblance to Typhon was even more obvious, given their near identical faces and hair colours, the only difference being gender differences and eye colour.

She also dressed similarly, wearing boyish clothing of a long sleeved white shirt and loose pants…

Quite frankly she and Typhon both looked like they were wearing white pyjamas when they fought in these clothes, but that also made a lot of sense to the two, given that the clothes provided ease of movement, which was a life saver in fights.

What if you needed to do the splits to survive? Tight pants would restrict that from happening and get you killed.

A farfetched example, but Typhon and Echidna were determined to never let it be a reality rather than an example.

“You’re Baal right, so how are you going to help us?” Echidna asked, having more emotional range than her ‘elder’ brother.

Elder by barely a few minutes more like.

“Well I can shoot plasma from my hands, and I’m super strong compared to most Mechanical Chained. I figure if you fix me up, I can help even more.” Baal offered as they witnessed Jormungand lash out with his tail, and Echidna realized they simply didn’t have the time to discuss more.

“Alright, get over here, this is going to hurt.” Echidna said as she stepped behind Baal, kicking in his knees so he was kneeling.

She didn’t need to, but she had obtained her brothers complaints over being short and Baal was huge.

“Eh, I’ll be fine.” Baal said, ignoring the weight on his knees as Echidna placed her hands on Baal’s back, making sure not to go near his spinal cord as there were metallic objects there…

Then the pain hit, and Baal felt that no, he would not be fine.

To his credit, he didn’t scream, though he did grunt in pain and shake for a solid thirty seconds, before he shot up, knocking Echidna slightly back as he raised his hands into the air.

“Dear God I feel good! Now to go punch a giant bipedal Kaijuu in the face with lightning while helping a giant snake Kaijuu and a white haired sword wielding loli!” Echidna felt her eye twitch until she eventually released a roundhouse kick at Baal’s back, launching him off of the building for that last comment.

“I age slowly, that’s all.” She muttered to herself as she looked towards the stadium in worry before rushing to Jormungand…

She really hoped her brother was doing okay… he was strong, he could take care of himself, but she was also worried about Cyclops, knowing that he wasn’t as strong as the other members of the Key…

He wasn’t weak exactly but… Cyclops, unlike Empusa, had a hard limit on the fact that he was a low-level Chained compared to the rest of them.

She was really worried for him and her brother… those two were the people she was closest to in the Key, Typhon was her only remaining family and Cyclops treated her like a granddaughter.

Curse Nemea for thinking something else was happening between the two of them…

Back in the stadium, Typhon had three important thoughts in his mind.

One, Jaeger was terrifying.

He had already known this, but as usual, it needed repeating when it came to Jaeger’s skill.

“Are you going to keep hiding? It’s not going to help you beat me you know?” Jaeger’s taunt fell flat as he unloaded shot after shot at Typhon’s Nano-bot wall, not getting close yet as Typhon blocked the bullets, knowing Jaeger’s position through the smell of gunpowder, given that he was the only one around using any.

Two, Typhon was not going to beat Jaeger like this.

“I’ll beat you as soon as I’m done thinking.” Typhon replied as Jaeger took a moment to reload… he couldn’t attack because Jaeger had two pistols, firing one after the other while using a device at his hips to reload his weapons quickly.

He had a limited amount, five magazines for each hip plus the original ones in his guns left for a total of twelve magazines.

Jaeger reloaded after firing eight bullets, meaning he had ninety six bullets, not counting any other oddities he might have such as his EMP-baton and knives.

Typhon took a moment to consider the weapons and he had to wonder…

Three… the turrets in the Cradle weren’t really good guns.

It was obvious in hindsight but those turrets didn’t fire as powerfully as the weapons in Jaeger’s hands, but that also made sense, given that the Cradle was a place of training, not getting the trainee killed.

The bullets hurt, and just barely penetrated his skin, but they weren’t threatening like the ones currently being fired at Typhon.

Super soldier or not, getting a bullet in the skull would get him killed.

Knowing all these things, though number three was not as important in the current situation, Typhon decided to do something stupid.

Focusing on his Nano-bots, Typhon pulled and condensed the tiny robotic matter eaters into a half-armour.

Half, because the entire back half of Typhon was still visible, making it look like he fell face first into tar or something.

“Oh, compressing a shield huh? You’re going to get hurt though.” Jaeger wasn’t wrong, while the shield was denser than the one he was using before, Typhon’s flesh was closer to the Nano-bots, providing greater control at the cost of more pain when hit.

“That’s fine. Fights involve getting hurt, it’s inevitable.” Typhon was prideful, and occasionally arrogant…

But he had long since stopped underestimating Jaeger, for that was a quick way to die, and he wasn’t stupid.

Aaron actually considered that Typhon was a genius with an IQ of about one thirty to one forty.

It wasn’t much compared to Aaron’s ‘average’ of about one seventy, but having an IQ of one twenty already put one as ‘very smart’ in a schooling system…

But like Aaron’s thoughts on IQ, the score only mattered if the person who possessed it used their intelligence… if they didn’t, there was that saying:

Pearls cast before swine.

“You’re right, but… well, I’m squishy compared to you guys, so I’m afraid I can’t fight like you.” Jaeger’s half-hearted excuse was pointless, and at this point they were just making conversation as Typhon rushed at him and Jaeger responded with gunshots aiming for the king of monsters.

Typhon was using this moment for more than just getting close enough to attack, but also to figure out Jaeger’s tells on where he would attack…

Jaeger was trained to show as few tells as possible, but it was impossible to completely erase such things… if he could, he wouldn’t be a human but an android or something.

And Jaeger’s tells were extraordinarily difficult to find, and it had taken two shots, one to the shoulder and the other in the stomach, before Typhon figured them out…

Jaeger’s eyes were distractions onto the easiest tells, as he stared straight at Typhon’s green eyes the entire time, not looking at where he fired, which confused Typhon as a person usually had to look where they were aiming… common sense.

But Jaeger didn’t need to do so… it was odd, but using lower quality firearms all his life might have been training for this, but those weapons were very inaccurate compared to his current ones, and he could use those with such expertise that he almost never missed when no outside factors were included.

At this point using weapons more accurate, even if they were unwieldy due to the recoil, Jaeger was able to tell exactly where the bullets would go based on slight twitches of where the barrel was pointing.

It was practically a super human skill unto its own, and Typhon admired it.

It also told Typhon where he was shooting though, because Jaeger’s advantage was a double edged sword in this case.

Jaeger was, in actual fact, too accurate. He knew where he would hit because the bullet would go in an almost exact straight line from where he aimed, he didn’t need to raise them to eye level to know where they would go.

So Typhon ‘just’ had to see where the barrels were pointing, trace the lines, and wait for the slightest movement in Jaeger’s fingers to dodge out of that line.

It was insanely complicated to actually pull off, especially given that Jaeger was moving backwards as Jaeger chased him down, dragging out the chase and hitting Typhon another time in the thigh, slowing Typhon down slightly…

The only reason it was even working a little bit was because Typhon’s reaction speed, eyesight, and movement speed were all much higher than average.

If a single one wasn’t as it was, Typhon would have gotten hit more than just three times by now.

“That is scary.” Jaeger admitted, and Typhon couldn’t help but wonder why the pot was calling the kettle black in this situation…

“Don’t joke around Jaeger… we both know this fight isn’t serious, not yet… but before we get into it, I need to know… why did you join Gilgamesh?” Typhon asked, and Jaeger looked downwards at the field grass, his hat covering his eyes slightly.

“Typhon… you rampaged across Tartarus with Aaron because you were looking for your sister right?” Jaeger asked, and Typhon respected his opponent enough to stay on guard, but not attack, waiting for the conversation to end before doing so.

“Yes…” Typhon admitted, and Jaeger sighed, looking over to Gilgamesh, who was paying attention to Aaron while practically ignoring Cyclops and Empusa, her sweeping attacks only occasionally aimed to include them in the radius, forcing Aaron to use his shield to block before he would be sent stumbling a bit.

“Well… I have a son, he’s about fourteen now. I hadn’t seen him for twelve years because Gilgamesh kidnapped him. My son’s name is Chase, but he responds to Beowulf now.” Jaeger’s words drove Typhon’s blood cold as he looked to the sorry face of Jaeger.

No wonder he was angry with Aaron… Aaron claimed that he knew what happened to his son, but could not help him… and now Typhon finds out that Jaeger’s son was a Lord, the fifth one?

“Sorry man… I’m not happy with Aaron, but that doesn’t mean I hate you… but between my son and you, the choice is obvious.” Jaeger’s words were punctuated by removing his EMP-baton…

Typhon hated that stick.