Chapter 54: Lessons in Chaos Warfare
{Author's Note}
Hey everyone here on Patreon! Sorry that this chapter didn't come out on Monday, but I had some major changes happening, the most pressing of which is that I got a job! I'm gonna try to keep with the Monday and Friday postings, but may also miss a few Mondays due to the majority of my week days being taken up by working in a warehouse.
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~~~
"What the fuck?" Kevin mumbled, still taken aback by what the System just told him about the man.
"Yeah, that's the kind of response I expected," Draco chuckled. "It's one thing to be told that you're gonna get visits from the Chaos Pantheon, but a completely different one to see a Chaos God in the flesh, right?"
The teenager cautiously nodded his head in agreement. For his System to not even be capable of bending this guy to his rules, it was obvious that the man was way out of his league when it came to a straight fight. Which begged the question: what the hell was he doing in the tournament?
"Don't give me that look. It's not like I came here to stir up trouble. Hell, I'm not even allowed to win this battle," the man shrugged.
"...what do you mean by that?"
"Well, if I were to win, then I would be the one moving onto the finals instead of you, which would prevent you from fighting the Champion and unlocking a new power," he explained. "That would go behind the in…go beyond the infer--? No, that's not right. Damn it, I just had the word on the tip of my tongue! It would go beyond…the…"
"Interference?" Kevin suggested.
Draco snapped his fingers and pointed at him with a smile. "That's the fucker! Interference! It would go beyond the INTERFERENCE threshold posed by the Being for my presence in this world."
"So…does that mean we're not fighting?"
"Of course we are!" There was a sudden, visible shift in the man's mood. One moment, he was laid back and smiling lazily; the next moment, he was glaring at Kevin with enough rage to paralyze the poor boy. "Do you think I came here just to quit like some kind of pussy? Do you think I'm that weak? DO YOU, YOU FURRY MOTHERFUCKER!?"
Kevin actually took a step back, his instincts screaming at him that being near this guy was a good way to end up violently murdered. If he didn't know for a fact that crippling him in any way would violate the rules set by the Being, he would've left the arena in that moment and completely given up on the Fighting Type form.
Instead, he waited for Draco to hopefully calm down; which, surprisingly, did happen within thirty seconds of the man's outburst. "Oops, sorry about that," he apologized, back to his lazy demeanor. "Sometimes it's hard to keep a lid on the random mood swings, especially when the pain gets particularly intense."
"So…" Kevin began cautiously, hoping not to randomly piss the Chaos God off again. "If you can't win, but want to fight anyway…how is this gonna go?"
"Good question. I was planning on lightly sparring with you; ya'know, letting you see how far you have to go before you join us; then forfeiting. This was mainly to catch your attention and convince you to meet up with me later after the tournament for a proper introduction, anyway."
This brought a raised eyebrow from the Eevee. "Will this 'proper introduction' include an explanation for why you suddenly went from talking normally to wanting to murder me in the span of five seconds?"
"Hey, if all the blood in YOUR body suddenly turned into boiling mercury, I bet your reaction would've been worse than mine was," the man defended himself.
"...excuse me?"
"You're excused," he grinned. "Now, let's get this show on the road! Can't keep the audience waiting, after all."
'Impression whiplash' would be an understatement for what Kevin was feeling at the moment. The random shifts in the man's personality, him suddenly trailing off in the middle of a sentence, and his overall body language were all just so…chaotic when put together. And the statement of his blood randomly transforming? It was all sending the boy's mind in circles.
"Try not to think too hard about what and why I am right now," Draco interrupted his thoughts. "Just choose an evolution, and we'll get down to brass tacks."
Realizing it was best to just do as he was told and push all of his confusion to the side for now, Kevin tried to focus on picking a form that would be best for dealing with an unknown quantity. His experience with most Pokemon games told him that his base form was his best bet, due to Normal Types only having one weakness, but this guy looked like he had enough experience in fights for any of his attacks to count as a Fighting Type Move. Plus, he'd suggested that Kevin evolve in the first place, meaning that even HE acknowledged that the fight would be more difficult without transforming.
As he was trying to come up with the most logical form, he had an idea. 'Logical…that's it!' A short flash of blinding light later, his Espeon form took his place, adjusting the tie that came with the change of wardrobe. "Alright, I'm re-"
He wasn't even given the chance to finish his sentence before Hell broke loose in the arena. It was as if a switch had been flipped, and suddenly the world stopped following conventional logic and physics. It was only thanks to his increased intelligence that he was able to not only rapidly process the unexpected shift, but also react to it with catlike reflexes.
The first bit of information that registered to his mind as the world slowed down around him was that the arena was no longer solely composed of dirt and concrete. Like something out of a malfunctioning video game, what was once a barren battlefield designed to give the audience the perfect view of the contestants had turned into a hodge-podge of different random elements and pieces of landscapes. A river of lava rushed below his feet, making him dodge to the side into a small patch of oddly colored flowers. Said flowers almost immediately started emitting a shrieking sound as he accidentally stepped on one, almost distracting him from the geyser that suddenly erupted in his direction from the arena's wall. Even when he psychically levitated himself to avoid all of these hazards, he wasn't safe, as the gasses that made up the air above the arena were constantly shifting from oxygen, to carbon dioxide, to nitrogen and more, making it hard to breathe.
Draco, as the source of this madness, stood as a reflection of this ever-changing hellscape. From one second to the next, individual parts of his body would transmute into random substances. An arm made of glass with paper bones; eyes composed entirely from ice which melted from the heat when the skin on his face became boiling water; a torso that looked like a patchwork quilt in one moment, and a sculpture carved from obsidian the next. Just looking at him was painful, with some members of the audience fainting in the process.
"Rule one of a Chaos War, little brother: Never let your opponent have the first move!" he shouted, his voice just as unstable as his anatomy.
Chaos War. They were words that stirred something inside of Kevin's soul, and caused a torrent of information to bypass his System and flood directly into his mind. Chaos Gods themselves were so varied and unpredictable by nature that they often came into conflict with each other, usually escalating to the point of wars being waged between them using their full powers as well as any followers they gathered. It eventually reached the point where entire star systems were being razed for no reason other than that someone said the wrong thing at the wrong time.
The Being, in his infinite wisdom, saw these battles as little more than 'sibling rivalry' coming to a head, and believed it was healthy for his reincarnated children to let loose on each other. However, it was still too early for the Council to learn of their existence just yet, so he wove a new set of contingencies into all of the Seeds of Chaos:
Any time a Chaos God initiated a Chaos War, no matter how small or large, their designated battlefield would be removed from the laws of the world around them. It would essentially become a contained universe in and unto itself, preventing any damage from escaping and harming the world around them. Bystanders could still watch from the sidelines, but the impregnable barrier surrounding them wouldn't disappear until one side either forfeited, or was rendered incapable of continuing.
Now, Kevin found himself in one such situation. He and Draco were in a bubble that now encompassed the Colosseum's arena, and were allowed to use all of the power at their disposal without the risk of anything important being destroyed. The Espeon didn't know whether to be relieved, or worried.
"Rule number two: unless it's beneficial to your power set, don't lose track of your opponent."
Capitalizing on the teenager's sudden lapse in focus, Draco closed the space between them in a fraction of a second, cocking his arm back in the process. By the time the words had brought the Eevee's mind back to the present, a fist made of compacted poison ivy was already slamming into his cheek and launching him into the wall on the opposite end of the arena.
Let it not be said that Kevin wasn't adaptable, though. Readjusting himself mid-air with his telekinesis, he landed in a crouch on the vertical surface and jumped back toward his enemy before his landing point shifted to flowing battery acid. Thousands of thoughts were flying by in his supercharged mind as desperately tried to come up with the perfect Move to use.
Manifesting a blade of pure Psychic Energy in his right hand, he swung it the moment he was within range of his target. Of course, Draco simply blocked it with his bare palm, which was currently composed from a reflective metal Kevin had never seen before, but it did have the effect of biting a quarter of an inch into the 'skin.'
[Psyblade – Psychic Type Move]
[The user rends the target with an ethereal blade. This move's power is boosted by 50 percent if the user is on Electric Terrain.]
A sadistic smile formed on Draco's glitching face. "Rule number three," he started, using his free hand to grab the boy by the throat. "Never fully commit to an attack unless you're ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN IT WILL END THE BATTLE!"
With that said, the man summoned a miniature volcano directly under them and allowed it to erupt, continuing to immobilize Kevin with his unbreakable grip. A split second decision led to the Espeon teleporting a few feet away, and simultaneously taking his opponent's advice to heart.
In a bid to try gaining control over the environment, he executed multiple Moves to both alter the terrain around them, and hopefully even the playing field between them. With how outmatched he felt, he used [Trick Room], [Guard Split], and [Barrier], in that order.
[Trick Room – Psychic Type Move]
[Description: The user creates a bizarre area in which slower combatants get to move first for five minutes.]
[Guard Split – Psychic Type Move]
[Description: The user employs its psychic power to average its Defense and Sp. Def stats with those of the target.]
[Barrier – Psychic Type Move]
[Description: Instantly forms a barrier between the user and the opponent. Defense is sharply increased.]
Space and Time distorted around the arena as the Moves took effect. Since Kevin was the slower combatant, any attacks he made should now be unavoidable, while defensive tactics would manifest before he could be hit. Then, the defensive stats of Draco were divided up between them, but immediately put heavily in the teenager's favor by the [Barrier] now cloaking him like a second skin.
"Not bad, newbie" Draco complimented, feeling the sudden shift in power between them. "But, you overlooked one thing: Rule number four."
Momentarily displaying a level of complete control over his shifting body, every inch of Draco transmuted into an incredibly heavy material. From gold, to tungsten, and even dark matter in some locations, the Chaos God had turned the tables back on Kevin by immediately making himself slower, and increasing his own defenses beyond what the boy raised his own to.
"Rule number four: If you think you've gained the upper hand, no you didn't," he stated, his grin grew even wider. He then proceeded to prove his point by weaving his way into Kevin's guard, wrapping his arms around the boy in a tight grip, and suplexing him into a ground made of shards of volcanic glass with enough force to create a crack down the center of the arena. The boy couldn't even teleport away this time, since dark matter was a particular weakness to psychic types, and all ten of the man's fingers were composed entirely from the stuff.
~~~
{Outside the Barrier}
Throughout this entire exchange between the two overpowered contestants, the audience was on the edge of their seats in anticipation. They came to watch monsters and men duke it out for the right to become the Champion of the Colosseum, with the latter most likely being raped in the process, but what they were witnessing was…extraordinary! Both combatants were throwing out attacks that would cripple even the most experienced of the Colosseum's regular fighters, to say nothing of the way both seemed capable of casually restructuring the environment itself.
The Queen stared just as intently as her audience, if not more so. Of all the things she could have expected from the competition that celebrated her 15th year of ruling the Noah Region, she couldn't have possibly expected such a clash between titans. This event would most certainly go down in the history books as the greatest match ever held within the Colosseum, hands down. Her only worry, though, was whether or not her precious arena would still be usable by the end of the day.
As for Alice and the Spirits…well…
"Why won't it work!?" Sylph screamed, hair frazzled and a look of immense stress in her eyes. "We share a SOUL, and he's literally RIGHT THERE! Why can't we return to him!?"
Alice was in the process of trying, and failing, to calm the two forces of nature down. "Didn't you say he would be fine? That you knew why that man was here and that he wouldn't kill Kevin?"
"THAT WAS UNTIL WE COMPLETELY LOST CONTACT WITH HIM! WE CAN'T EVEN HEAR HIS THOUGHTS ANYMORE, ALICE!"
The lamia turned to Gnome, hoping that she'd be the 'voice' of reason in this situation. Instead, she was greeted by the sight of the child sized spirit repeatedly punching on the barrier that separated the arena from the stands. It would've been cute if it weren't for the panicked expression on her face, the layers of pure obsidian covering her arms and hands, or the visible shockwaves that were being produced with each impact. They say love makes people do stupid things. In this instance, it drove the Spirit of Earth to try to destroy the layers of shielding protecting the audience from the localized armageddon on the other side.
Sighing, the Monster Lord silently prayed to whatever deity was listening that the match would end soon.
~~~
{Back Inside the Barrier}
It was only when the Chaos God finally let him go that Kevin teleported away, visibly looking worse for wear. Aside from the rips, burns, and other damages to his clothes, his body itself was becoming rather battered and bruised. Without the raise in defense at the last minute, he probably would've had a cracked skull, instead of the mildly bleeding head wound he currently sported.
"Any…hah…other rules…hah…I should be aware of?" he asked as he panted.
Returning to a standing position, Draco nodded. "Yes, but only one more. If there were more than five, it wouldn't really be a Chaos War, would it?"
"No…I guess…it wouldn't."
"Luckily for you, rule number five is one that I've been following this whole time, and is one that is very close to everyone in the Pantheon's heart: If you aren't Cheating, you aren't Trying."
Time seemed to slow to a halt as those words struck Kevin deeply. It hadn't occurred to him until now, but everything he had been doing up until now had been keeping to a set of rules: Attack, defend, and only use Moves that will give him the upper hand. He hadn't even bothered to think of flipping the table and changing to a different evolution. There were so many game changers he could've pulled out at this point, that he was surprised even his big Espeon brain hadn't even thought of half of them.
Well, if the man wanted him to cheat, then who was he to deny him?
As the world sped back up around him, he saw Draco launch himself at him again, ready to once again pound the boy into the dirt. The [Trick Room] was still in effect, making it so even if Kevin tried to defend himself, it would come too late.
So, it was a good thing he wasn't planning on defending himself conventionally.
Rather than prepare himself to take the hit, he instead raised both of his arms and positioned them in the shape of a T. Then, in a voice that held more power than he'd displayed throughout the entire match, he shouted. "[TIME OUT!]"
With just those two words, the chaos encompassing the arena shattered like glass. The madness-inducing landscape brought about by the invocation of Draco's power froze for a brief second, before blinking out of existence, leaving only the usual arena the Colosseum was known for; the barrier separating the inside from the outside faded away; and the Chaos God was returned to the human form he'd had at the beginning of the match, confusion practically radiating from him.
"What?" he asked, staring at the boy in shock.
"I said [Time Out]," Kevin grinned. "And by using the power of the [Red Card] I absorbed, I have completely sealed your ability to attack or defend, be it active or passive, for the next hour. In other words: you lose."
A variety of expressions and emotions crossed the man's face over the course of the next five seconds, ranging from disbelief to concentration, realization, anger, and finally settling on appreciation. "I gotta say, good job, newbie. I had no idea you had something that OP up your sleeve."
Kevin shrugged. "It was honestly a gamble. The ability only works on entities that are at or below my power level. I reasoned that, due to the Being stating that any Chaos God visiting me would have the majority of their powers sealed, that you had at the very least been brought down to my level.:
"Brilliant!" Draco exclaimed. "Though, I hope you understand that it will be even more of a risk when you finally ascend."
"I guessed that."
"Good. Well, it looks like that's it for me. Come meet me at the Crow Bar on the east end of the city when this is all over. We have more to talk about."
"I'll be sure to see you there."
With that, they shook hands and parted ways.
However, just as Kevin was about to walk through the double doors back to his room, he was bowled over by two very worried little women.
"KEVIN! ARE YOU OKAY!? DID HE HURT YOU REALLY BAD!? WE WANTED TO COME HELP YOU BUT…but…WAAAH!"
".....!........!.....!......"
It would take him a while to calm them down enough to make his way back to his room, but that was okay. The intermission between the Semi-Finals and Finals was just long enough for him to comfort his crying wives.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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