Though space was limited inside this creature, and the floor was spongy and difficult to roam around atop because Ares was likely standing on a wet and squishy tongue right now, Ares was just about able to hop to the side to avoid a gastric-acid coated tooth that shot out of the wall to his left like a protruding spike trap in a dangerous dungeon. The fangs seemed to be capable of extending their reach to a decent degree and rather quickly at that. This was good to know as right now Ares was in reconnaissance mode and gathering valuable information. He would do deeper and and explore properly once he understood what he weas going to have to contend with combat wise. Speaking of, this time four spikes shot out at him from the different cardinal directions and he was forced to act like a contortionist in order to dodge them. Ares stepped to the left, ducked, bent backwards, pushed himself forward off the floor and rolled ahead in that precise order to avoid all the attacks that came his way like bolts out of the blue.
There was a slight tell to the emergence of these spikes but it was brief and the attack that followed did so at lightning speed so Arse had his work cut out for him. Ares had to trust his reaction speed and move the second he noticed anything out of the ordinary, namely a slight swelling in the wall which was typically where the spikes broke through shortly after. Ares thought he was in the clear after dodging the last batch of spikes but he was forced to keep pushing on deeper when he noticed they were closing in on him from behind. They were whirring and rotating around the walls, gradually eking towards him by shifting around inside the worm's mouth. As it turned out, they could advance and retreat too instead of just retracting and letting other spikes do the job. Essentially, this meant the worm could shift around its innards relatively freely so long as the manipulated object / body part was touching the inner walls of its body. Ares had sufficient time and space to run away from this set of teeth but if more were shot out at him down the line this would just become a never ending chase. Countless spikes would amass behind him and give chase until he could no longer avoid the ever growing sharp cluster so Ares decided to strike back and give his expert dental opinion on why they should get lost!
Ares didn't have a ton of space in this cramped oesophagus so the scythe was a no-go but the war aura flag ought to be sufficient for what Ares needed of it and thus that was the play he made. He coated the flag in disintegration and got to stabbing the incoming fangs with his toothpick-esque weapon. The gum-walls bled a little whenever Ares' strikes missed the moving teeth but Ares wasn't aiming for that. He could, and it would no doubt cause the worm considerable pain as the repeated attacks added up, but it was causing some kind of dangerous acid to leak through the walls and form a puddle. Ares would have to leave through this path in the future once he was done digging deep. If the way back was filled with corrosive substances capable of melting him, in sufficient quantities to form a small lake, he would be screwed! Swimming through that acid to escape was not a possibility and, as such, Ares focused and aimed his lunges at the teeth far more carefully. There was a bit of hesitation in his strikes but it was still more than good enough for now to deal with these teeth without screwing up and taking a hit.
These teeth specifically were manageable... At least they were when there was only four of them but soon another batch of four spawned, doubling the level of this constant threat on the spot. Ares let the war aura flag fly around automatically and begun weaving annihilation pressure to form physical pressure and attack with that. It had been a while since he last used this technique but there really hadn't been much point. He had stronger options typically but now he needed the versatility and freedom it offered him to create whatever his heart desired... Almost. He had to operate within reason but there was a lot of leeway with physical pressure. Still, the point was that Ares couldn't really rely on magic other than disintegration here, and that was already doing its thing alongside the flag, so pressure was Ares' next best friend. It was still one of his predominant talents so, if anything, he really didn't use it nearly enough.
Ares' shiny new aura flag toy had distracted him! In fact, it had been so long since he last used physical pressure that when he summoned his golden frog companion, that Ares took on Dominus and even Mako with, the frog refused to even look him in the eye! This was quite a similar moodiness to Garuda but this time Ares actually felt a twinge of guilt. This tiny fella hadn't seen the light of day in God only knows how long and must have been itching for some action all that time he was cooped up. The frog was mad but couldn't stay mad for long because the fight taking place before him was impossible to resist so the little frog tightened its bandana, accepted the mini golden sword of pressure Ares created for it, and then flung itself around and bounced off walls to tackle the fangs like a speedy menace. It gradually chipped away at the teeth one by one while avoiding comfortably any retaliatory strikes thanks to its otherworldly speed, dexterity in parrying attacks, and reaction speed. It was somewhat reminiscent of Rox's mole Echo art but this guy was far superior and a perfect ally to have helping out in tight spots like this. He was treating the teeth like platforms and bounding across them while slicing and dicing through the air with criss-crossing slashes at imperceptible speeds.
Actually, now that Ares thought about it. Between Garuda, this frog ninja, the war aura flag, Rox, and Rox's mole echo... That was a lot of support Ares had on deck if he never needed it all. Astraeus was also technically on that list but he wasn't available twenty-four seven and so best not factored in lest he wasn't ready to be summoned. Still, Ares could, on demand, gang up on a person and overwhelm them with sheer numbers. It's not like any of those listed individuals were weak either as the most poxy of them all was the mole Echo and even that was a considerably dangerous foe if left unattended. Right now it was just Ares, the flag, and the ninja frog but that was more than enough to deal with all eight teeth at once as the interplay between them was beyond perfect. Ares had direct control over he flag, so him working well with it was a given, but the frog was a slightly different case. Ares and the frog were each acting independently and covering each other's tracks but this was an entirely natural phenomenon based on their preferential combat styes aligning. The frog being born of Ares' pressure must have helped, and it being annihilation pressure likely also contributed as that was highly personal, but it was still primarily that they were on the same wave length when it came to manoeuvring through combat encounters.
In a way, Ares and the ninja frog had very similar fighting styles. Ares sped around with his swift-footed nimbleness and utilised his Zephyr as a mobile platform to bounce off and redirect himself in midair while the frog did something similar but used natural terrain. Against Veteran it took advantage of Ares' telekinesis and the rocks he lifted but, down on the floor, the frog had way more options if it wasn't in an open space. An enclosed area like this was a God send for the frog and so it became a real menace to make up for Ares' somewhat lacking performance comparatively. There just wasn't enough room for a big and clumsy human inside these walls to really make use of their speed or excellent manoeuvrability so Ares wasn't amazingly efficient at swiping aside the fangs. The frog, on the other hand, was a whole 'nother level of mosquito-like nuisance behaviour. It was a golden blue ravaging the teeth in unstoppable fashion. blasting up and around the worm walls and leaving behind a golden trail that formed a complex web of light marking everywhere it had been and struck!
As for Ares, he'd created two golden swords and was attempting to dual wield them. This was a weapon type he was relatively unfamiliar with, and only ever played about with in his younger years against a tree, but he was a living enabler so he'd surely be fine! That was his reasoning anyway and, to be fair, he was partially right. Ares' bad habit of testing new things against somewhat dangerous foes had clearly not gone anywhere so now he was learning how to dual wield against the teeth because it was somewhat appropriate. Swords weren't too long for an enclosed area like this and he was better off using multiple weapons at once to tackle the multiple incoming attacks. Dominus had some memories of dual wielding so Ares took to it like fish to water, and he was slashing with clean swipes in no time flat, but this time things felt a bit different for him. He'd been using the flag, and to a lesser extent the scythe, almost exclusively for a long while now so holding anything else in his hands was an odd sensation. He felt as though his movements were partially dulled and inefficient but that was just the price he had to pay for showing favouritism to specific weapons this whole time. Ares was still primarily a varied weapon wielder so while learning the scythe and the flag was great and all he really couldn't afford to be straying away from other weapons to this extent. Maybe throwing himself into the deep end and strapping two swords to his hands in this kind of situation was a bit risky but, then again risk often paid off for Ares and he didn't view this situation as being too problematic. He parried a tooth and cleaved it in half via an 'X' shaped dual slash so this was clearly something he could overcome long before it became a problem. Rusty jitters would not get the best of him nor would his relative inexperience cause him to falter when it came to swinging the weapon in his hands! Confidence, and Dominus' memories, were key!... Although maybe the latter more so than the former...
Ares took an aggressive stance with his weapons and made sure to launch attacks at the incoming teeth before they could launch any at him. He was able to slice through teeth in one deft blow if he combined both swords and struck along the same path, at the same time, and landed them in the same spot, but, other than that, he had to hack away at the teeth swing by swing. He parried excellently with his left sword while delivering sharp thrusts with the other but, ultimately, it wasn't the correct way to use the sword types he was wielding. These swords were better for slashing so Ares reforged them with pressure to get a feel for a more riposte heavy style of combat with a rapier instead. As for his other hand, Ares created a sword breaker type of weapon that enabled easy dismantling of the teeth's' extend-attacks. The teeth were relatively one note for now and stuck to lunging directly at Ares, allowing him to effortlessly predict their course of action and respond accordingly. He could drag each and every blow off to the side or, in cases where he was struck at by more than one tooth simultaneously, Ares could block one attack and drag the caught tooth into the path of another to cause collateral damage. From there, a swift follow up with the rapier was enough to do serious damage against the stunned and clumsy teeth and he was racking up enough score here to set a new Olympic world record. Though slashing the teeth to pieces with two bulkier words was faster, as it required less attacks to break each individual tooth, Ares had made multiple dents and holes in the teeth now and was a having a better time of things with far less close calls. These two new weapons didn't require exaggerated movements in this tight hallway so it felt less risky and required less energy on Ares' part, be it psychically or mentally. It was the superior choice and Ares' decision to swap was objectively correct. It might not have been the most interesting weapon choice, and maybe if Dominus were here he would have encouraged dual wielding bouncy shields to ricochet off the walls with, or something equally ridiculous, but Ares was still erring on the side of caution for now. He was rusty! Safe was better than sorry!
In this manner, Ares splintered countless teeth while the ninja frog crept into those freshly dug holes and ravaged the interior of the weakened teeth. The war aura flag dealt a final mighty blow to the root of these teeth too and they were all broken in short order and left shattered on the floor in small pieces. Though Ares was limited in his options he still formed the core of this trio as they danced down the hallway and the actions of the frog and flag revolved squarely around him. It was a highly co-ordinated offensive and the movements of all three individuals were perfectly tailored to compliment one another flawlessly. A golden black blitz of annihilation pressure and disintegration tore through the worm at blinding speeds and no amount of teeth could stop them in their tracks. Groups of ten and even fifteen teeth showed up to bar their path but they were all destroyed bar none.
Ares was too light-footed to ever be struck by such simple foes so while he gathered the attention of all the teeth on him his summons were able to act freely and causse mayhem wherever their fancy took them. If ever the teeth shifted focus to the frog or flag Ares would go on a tear with Black Blossom and wipe the careless, unguarded teeth out far faster than he was able to otherwise. Ares was definitely, quantifiably, the biggest threat and couldn't be ignored but attaching too much importance to him meant the teeth were doomed to die anyway. It was a hopeless endeavour so the teeth made one final push to try and kill Ares before giving up entirely and resorting to another plan.
Ares weaved through a maze of twenty sharp fangs, gracefully curving his body in arcs to narrowly avoid each and every strike while poking with his golden rapier in return. He was like an expert pole dancer the way he gripped the extended teeth and swung around them to reposition himself. He hurled himself with incredible momentum, sliding around the floor and bounding off the walls and ceiling with swift kicks. The attacks meant to run him through were doing little other than giving him extra mobility to play around with so Ares gradually accustomed himself to the limited room he had and was becoming more and more frog like with each passing second. This claustrophobic space was becoming a playground to Ares with every passing moment and the teeth were to blame for enabling him! As per usual, Ares was learning at a frightening rate and he had that same nirvana like state from before to thank for it. He was able to achieve a combat-oriented flow state much faster now and, if he wasn't killed before he acclimated himself to any situation, he became practically unstoppable. Forget the frog and the flag, Ares could singlehandedly take on all these teeth b himself now if he needed to. They were just minor weapons of the worm but that didn't mean they were weak either and so this was decently impressive. What started off as a rough rumble, in which Ares was definitely on the back foot and overly cautious, had become a dance with death that the teeth were not remotely in control of.
Ares' right hand was the embodiment of finality with each swift thrust reaping the life of a tooth as the rapier held within wedged itself between the root of the tooth and the wall, severing them all with pinpoint accuracy. His left hand was an undauntable wall that redirected each and every attack with an elegant and unhurried flow. The ultimate in offense in one hand and and the ultimate in defense in the other. Combine it with an untouchable body drifting through the worm's insides like an otherworldly phantom, now even taking advantage of the previously-inconvenient spongy tongue to sink below attacks aimed at head height, and Ares was rapidly becoming a problem the teeth were only exacerbating with their presence. As such the teeth were all retracted and Ares was free to walk wherever he pleased within the monster's own sanctum because it was tacitly acknowledged that feeding him experience was objectively the wrong choice. Even a monster as unintelligent as this worm recognised Ares' frightening rate of adaptability and it provoked a kind of instinctual dread in even the most mindless of beasts. This was what the Anubis went through during their first encounter with Ares and they also knew all too well the horror of Ares once he got going. Monsters' and animals' inherent understanding of the difference between a predator and prey was what caused Ares to have such a colossal intimidation factor that dwarfed any confidence they might have possessed going into a fight with him. There was only so much any given monster could throw at a person before it realised, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was hopeless to continue fighting. It wasn't hard to notice Ares' astonishing rate of improvement and attribute it to whatever the worm had been doing this whole time so retracting the teeth, while an act of concession against the demon storming through its body, was inarguably the correct choice. It also came with an unexpected and unintentional benefit for the worm as removing the teeth forced Ares to at least somewhat drop the flow state he'd been in. Ares' fun was interrupted out of nowhere! He'd been blue balled, basically, and would have to restart his proverbial engine to get the blood pumping and his mind racing again.
None of this meant the monster was giving up though, not at all. The teeth were just the start and if Ares really wanted to go all the way there was still more in store for him yet! As if to prove this point, and display the worm's willingness to fight to the bitter end, a large red object came charging down the hallway before grinding to a halt a few metres in front of Ares. It was a pulsating, grotesque heart of sorts. Ares assumed the worm had more than one, as openly displaying it like this was suicidal otherwise, and that, more importantly, this thing could fight back pretty respectably. Presenting it to Ares so provocatively and assuredly meant it was almost definitely a tough customer but that was fine because Ares' main goal was in sight. He was still only really in here to collect any extra loot he could find and, right now, there was something lodged into the heart that looked rather attractive to Ares', the loot goblin's, eyes. He didn't know what it was exactly, and it probably wasn't the One With The Universe tome unfortunately, but it was enough to make Ares feel inclined to fight for it.
This was perfect.
Ares could destroy one of this monster's hearts to slow it down in subsequent encounters, steal the goods, and then leave before things got really messy. This worm might be able to shift all of its hearts to one location and then things would really kick off big time. as five or more of these weapons sieging Ares at once would probably be hell on earth. Thankfully the worm was either testing the water with one heart for now or the others were already en route and just taking a while to get here because there was a long distance to travel through the worm's innards. Either way, Ares wanted to quickly deal with this and leave. Killing the worm / fighting it to the death was pointless. Again, Ares had a much more efficient way of killing this massive headache that didn't involve battling with it in this cramped and corrosive belly.
As for how strong this heart was, and how much a difficult fight it would be... Ares had no clue whatsoever! He roughly understood what the teeth were capable of, and they would no doubt show up to aid the heart, but this new organ's arrival brought untold danger. Still, Ares remained confident as he took up a stance, his ninja frog leapt off his shoulder and began flanking the heart, and the war aura flag rose to the ceiling like a devilish crow looking to peck out the eyes of an unsuspecting victim. No matter how Ares looked at it he had the upper hand in this situation so whatever the heart had buried inside it was going to be his before long, of that he was certain!