The Fall of Marbas and Buer

Edenia

~490 AD

Devils are annoying to fight, or at least that's Aatrox's opinion on them so far. They fly into the sky and proceed to bombard you with their magic while screaming out the name of their attacks even if it's a simple lightning bolt. Then, once you close the distance between you and them to engage in close quarter combat you find that their skills in that area are severely lacking.While that may not sound that bad to some, to Aatrox it is very annoying for two simple reasons. The first is because he hates fighting in the air. Yes he can fly without his chariot and yes he can fight while flying without his chariot, but the entire experience is so bothersome that so far he has contemplated cutting their wings off on more than three occasions due to their tendency to evade in order to fight with their magic, and that's all without mentioning the ones who have a bloodline ability. Those devils are the worst to fight because of their overreliance on their bloodline.

The second reason why he finds fighting them annoying is due to their poor close quarter combat skills he feels as if he is fighting a civilian. Some have no proper fighting stance, those who do are full of openings and the ones who have a proper fighting stance usually lack the physical prowess needed to use it to its optimal capacity. Their strikes are slow, sluggish, and easy to predict. Their movements are wasted and full of unnecessary motions, and they can barely take a hit before dying. All in all they're close quarter combat skills are very poor, or at least that is what he thinks. Little does he realise that his sense of skill and power are extremely skewed.

In reality the average devil is quite skilled in close quarter combat and the problem does not lie with them, but with the Edenians who are absolute monsters. All Edenian Warriors have been trained by some of the greatest warriors from the Knights of the Round for decades, they have trained with the likes of Setanta, Arturia, Mordred, Connla, and Aoife, all of whom are considered as some of the greatest warriors humanity has to offer and have all left their mark on history. And those are only their mundane teachers and sparring partners. They were then trained by The Four, a god and three goddesses who have spent the majority of their lives fighting and killing beings that many considered unkillable while also training people like Setanta and Mordred. In addition to all of that the physiology an Edenian makes them perfect for battle even without all of that training. All of these factors have resulted in all Edenians' views towards power to be skewed while making warriors like Aatrox annoyed at fighting devils.

It is for this reason that Aatrox has opted to simply mount his chariot and use it to run over the devils as opposed to flying and fighting them like most of his peers. And while being run over by his chariot does not generate an instant kill, it does severely injure the devils due to the powerful lightning that the chariot discharges at the bottom. It may not be how one typically uses a chariot, but he's sure that Achilles wouldn't mind him using Troias Tragōidia: Tempestuous Immortal Chariot in such a way.

As Aatrox runs his chariot over another group of devils, something powerful slams into the side of his chariot, overturning it and sending Aatrox flying out of it. Before the chariot can slam into any of his allies, Aatrox dismisses it while turning in the air to see what attacked him and stopping his fall.

"That was a pretty impressive hit." compliments Aatrox as he looks at his opponent, a large male devil that stands at seven feet eight inches tall, possesses short, spiky black hair, red eyes, and a body that seems to be made of muscles only. He wears a battle skirt reminiscent of a hoplite warrior, a black cuirass with the sigil of House Marbas in a red circle in the middle, and golden spaulders, greaves and gauntlets. "Ahhh, you must be Hadad Marbas." observes Aatrox.

"You will pay for your transgressions on House Marbas." replies Hadad with a scowl on his face.

"What House Marbas? Last I checked they were quite extinct." taunts Aatrox with a blood thirsty smirk as his touki explodes from his body and surrounds him in a green aura.

Hearing Aatrox's words, Hadad lunges at him with an enraged roar, earning a smile from Aatrox. Dodging the first punch, Aatrox grabs Hadad's outstretched arm and uses his momentum against him to throw him far away from the battlefield and into an open clearing. This is one of the tactics that they've been suggested to use once faced against a Pillar leader, face them away from the battlefield in order to reduce the possibility of their allies being caught in the crossfire.

With a smirk on his lips, Aatrox follows Hadad's flying body with a sonic boom, his spear poised to impale the devil through the chest. Before he does, Hadid barely dodges, resulting in a gash running across his chest horizontally as opposed to a stab through the chest. Readjusting himself, Hadid tries to kick Aatrox's back, only for the warrior to backflip over it and land in front of Hadid.

"Not bad. You survived my initial attack." compliments Aatrox. "But I can't help but feel as if you're looking down on me, where's your tamed beast?" he asks as he dismisses his spear.

"I have no need of it to kill you." replies Hadid with a deep rumbling voice.

"If that's the case then I'll just have to make you summon it!" exclaims Aatrox as he disappears from Hadad's vision in a burst of speed, causing the devil's eyes to widen in shock as Aatrox appears in front of him with a bloodthirsty grin and proceeds to smash his fist on the devil's chest, sending him flying into a mountain.

As his body collides with the mountain and creates cracks on its surface, Hadad can feel his rib cage crack while his internal organs are jostled around in his body. Before he can recover however Aatrox once again appears in front of him with another punch aimed towards his stomach, only to immediately retreat just as a series of dark red magical beams hit the ground where he once stood.

"Oi, you're interrupting my fight." says Aatrox as he glares at his attacker, a devil who stands at around his height with long blue hair and venomous green eyes. He wears a golden cuirass over a black shirt, greaves over his black knee high boots, and vambraces.

"It seems that you require my assistance Hadad." says the new devil.

"Just don't get in my way Gelsen." he says as he venomously spits out his fellow devil's name before launching himself at Aatrox.

Dodging his opponent's first punch, Aatrox retaliates with a kick that Hadad is barely able to block before Aatrox is forced to retreat due to a magical onslaught from Gelsen.

"Those spells, they feel poisonous. Are you Gelsen Buer, Head of House Buer?" asks Aatrox as he proceeds to dodge the crimson magical spells.

"Ohhh, so the dog does recognise his betters." comments Gelsen as a sword with a milky white blade appears in his hand and he joins Hadad in his assault on Aatrox.

With the two devils working side by side, the assault on aatrox is intensified as he is now forced to defend against Hadad's powerful strikes and Gelsen's precise slashes with a blade that he is sure is quite poisonous. Despite this however Aatrox simply grins as he continues to effortlessly parry, block and dodge every attack while adding his own strikes once in a while. Little by little the intensity of the battle increases as the devils begin to realise that they cannot hold back if they want to win. With this revelation they begin to magically enhance their bodies to the point where every clash between them and Aatrox creates a shockwave that resonates throughout the island.

"Yes! This is what I wanted, a battle with you devils that isn't disappointing!" exclaims Aatrox as he redirects a slash from Gelsen's sword before sending the devil flying away with a punch while also dodging a kick from Hadad. Grabbing hold of Hadad's leg, Aatrox proceeds to pull him towards him and pummels him to the ground with a series of punches before kicking him towards Gelsen.

With groans of pain the two devils struggle back onto their feet while swallowing down the blood they feel rising from the back of their throat. Once back on their feet, Hadad begins to draw upon a big amount of magical energy, making Aatrox interested in their new scheme.

"I didn't want to resort to this, but you leave me no choice." claims the Head of House Marbas, shocking Gelsen.

"Are you insane? If you summon Kulshedra our forces are guaranteed to be wiped out!" exclaims Gelsen.

"So what? At least we'll be rid of these Edenians, they have far too much power to be allowed to survive." refutes Hadad as he summons a massive magic circle over the city.

"Oi, do you really think that I'd let you summon your beast and allow it to rampage on the battlefield?" questions Aatrox.

"Of course not." replies Gelsen as he too begins to draw upon his magic. "But you'll be too busy with my hydra to worry about Kulshedra." he says as he also summons a magic circle over the city.

From the first and biggest magic circle emerges Kulshedra, a large serpentine demonic dragon with nine tongues, hornes, spiked spine, and massive demonic wings, emerges from one of the circles and releases a deafening roar that brings a halt to the battle. From the second magic circle, a gigantic nine-headed hydra emerges and proceeds to exhale clouds of poison that kills every devil in its vicinity while the Edenians merely cough due to its smoky nature.

"Shit!" exclaims Aatrox as he summons his spear and hurls it with as much strength as he can towards Kulshedra. The throw creates a sonic boom as the weapon cuts through the air and plunges into the side of the demonic dragon's head. Despite the impressive amount of power behind it however the spear does not plunge through the beast's body and instead stops once the blade is completely through. That does not stop its momentum however as it carries both the spear and the beast away from the city and far into the island's coast.

Finding the demonic dragon to be a bigger threat than the devils, Aatrox stops holding back and easily knocks out Hadad and Gelsen before he races towards the beast in order to slay it before it can recover and return to the battlefield. With speed unmatched by all of the mortals on the island due to Dromeus Komētēs: Comet Form, Aatrox appears before the dragon in less than a second and retrieves his spear from the side of its head before using it to create a long gash on the dragon's body, starting from its neck to its tail.

With a pained roar, Kulshedra turns to Aatrox's general direction and proceeds to spew a pillar of fire at the warrior. Flaring his touki, Aatrox races through the fire and into the dragon's mouth where he plunges his spear through the roof of its mouth and using all of his strength pushes it into the beast's brain, killing it.

As the dragon's body falls limp on the beach, Aatrox makes his way out of the mouth of the beast just in time to see the nine-headed hydra slowly disintegrate from the head down to its tail. With the naturally enhanced vision of an Edenian, Aatrox is able to clearly see the culprit, a man that every Edenian, regardless of age or gender, knows very well.

He stands at five feet nine inches tall, possesses the same brown skin as Ambrosius along with the same white hair tied into a ponytail. He wears a sleeveless red cuirass made of an unknown material with horizontal lines going down it and a single vertical line that travels through them, and five silver sea shells going across the chest. Attached to the cuirass are red tassets to protect the upper thigh, and a red cloth that hangs between the legs. On the left tasset are five silver sea shells, while the right has only one.

On the legs the armor is one piece separated into two colors, with the division occurring just above the knee. The top is made out of the same scales as Lord Ambrosius' very first atlantean armor, colored silver, and ending at just above the knee. The bottom covers from the knee down to the ankles and made from the same materials as the cuirass.

The boots are colored red, reaching just under the knee, with the part of the feet covered in a grey armor that makes it indistinguishable from the greaves that go over the part of the boot that covers the shins. To finish the armor are two red vambraces, with a single fin each, that go over two grey sleeves that start from the biceps and end at the wrist. All in all the man could easily pass off as a relative of Lord Ambrosius despite not being one.

In fact, the man is a mortal Edenian with no more blood relation to Lord Ambrosius than any other mortal Edenian. What makes him special is that he is the most powerful Edenian Warrior, is the leader of Squad Alpha, the most powerful squad, and was personally selected by Lord Ambrosius for a special experiment. His name is Gawain and he is the closest thing to a noble that the Edenian Empire has.

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AN: Here's the chapter. Kulshedra is killed quickly and so is the hydra. Some of you may not be satisfied with the way they were easily defeated and I get where you may come from, but Aatrox is an absolute monster and his spear has the same properties as Gae Bolg but without the special moves. We're also introduced to another Edenian mortal, Gawain, who also serves into giving a deeper look into Edenian culture. I will only say this, Gawain is not related to Ambrosius. He is 100% human turned into an Edenian. As for Edenian culture, we'll get a deeper look after the war is over. Right now it's still being developed. As usual, tell me what you guys think.

Also the third chapter of my Campione fic is published. The name of it is The Godslaying Pharaoh. The third chapter is already available on my p a t r e o n The link is, (p a t r e o n . com / servantambrosius), minus the spaces. That story will be updated once a week and patrons will be able to read chapters a week in advance along with other patreon exclusive content such as the Authorities that I have come up with and are considering for the main character.