30 When the Joke Stops Being Funny

War's grin stretched across his face at the desperate Axel as he was about to enter his sword swing. 

He paused his beat down of Iris and glanced upwards before looking back to the incoming Axel. He pointed his finger upwards, "Heads up!"

Axel looked up and saw a massive volley of red arrows zooming down towards them. He scoffed as he saw an airborne Jayden high above. These were his hellfire arrows that could kick up a blaze upon impact.

"You IDIOT!" Axel shouted as he, War, and Iris were within the attack range.

Iris's quick thinking had saved Jayden's life and formed a barrier strong enough to survive the initial damage from the blast. The friction between the energy of the barrier and War's attack had bounced off each other and sent the shielded Jayden even higher up in the air out of harm's way.

It was here that he angrily retaliated and attacked War the second he saw him - unfortunately that meant he hadn't seen Iris underneath him getting pounced on.

Jayden's eyes widened as he now saw the grave error he had made. Of course he had already saw Axel.

"Oh no, Iris!" He yelled.

Axel looked from the arrows to Iris who laid in no condition to move behind War; and War, who stood there with his arms wide open with no clear intent on dodging the arrow storm.

It was like everything around him had slowed down.

He rushed forward with a burst of speed and rushed right past War in an instant.

War looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. "Oh? What's this now?"

Move. Move. Faster. FASTER! Axel thought with intent. He had no idea why his body was feeling such an urgency - he had suspicions about how much his feelings had grown for Iris, but to risk his life because of Jayden to save her? He was at a loss.

He swooped in and snatched her up tightly in his arms.

"A-axel?" Iris mumbled. Her vision had slightly blurred but she could make out his determined face as he only faced forward.

A red light washed over the area as Jayden's arrows fell upon them all. War was swallowed up in a blaze stoked further as more arrows hit him - his laughter could be heard among the roar of the flames. 

The crowd of Angels fell silent as their leader vanished within the fire, but that wasn't the only thing. They were in awe of Axel.

He skirted throughout the arrows, dodging each one with barely even half a second to spare. 

Wow....this is new, Axel thought. Is it the adrenaline? Or...something else?

Axel hadn't felt like this in a long time - just as the arrow would be about to strike him, he would maneuver and be completely out of harm's way. He got just out of the splash damage range and came to a sliding halt, fire and smoke left in his wake.

Axel placed Iris on the ground and saw that she was still breathing. Then he looked to the sky and yelled, "Learn to aim you dumbass! You could've killed us!"

Jayden did a free fall back to the battlefield, kicking himself the entire time. This wasn't the first time he had almost hit his teammates due to his rash emotions(excluding Axel of course which he didn't care if he hit or not). He laced his soles with his energy to make for a safe landing.

Admin also stood on the outside, surprised that Axel made it out without so much as a scratch. "Interesting. Very interesting. It's like his body naturally knew how to move.."

But more importantly, everyone, Angels and slayers alike, watched the center of the arena where a ball of fire still raged where War was. 

They didn't have to wait long as a loud shock wave shot outwards from the flames and dispelled them completely. The shockwave was just from War doing a powerful dash forward - his take off was simply that powerful.

Before Axel could even register that War had moved, he was already beside him heading in the opposite direction. War reached out with a single reared fist as he came upon Axel. He looked down at Axel as Axel slowly looked up at him.

"THIS is how it's done!" War said. He punched forward and transferred all of that forward momentum through his fist and straight into Axel's jaw. There was a loud *BAM* and Axel was sent flying to the other side of the arena, through the standing area outside of it, and collided in an extremely painful impact with the barrier War had set up around the area. 

Jayden and Iris looked with shocked expressions as Axel stuck to the barrier for a moment while the force seemed to catch up with him - Axel then fell forward off of it and hit the ground, unmoving.

War looked down at Iris with his beloved smile. "Now then, where were we?"

War paused as he felt something impact his body suddenly from behind. He looked down and saw the tip of a blade protruding through his gut. 

"You're shitting me." War turned around and saw Jun with his sword shoved through War's back. His face had spattered blood and one of his bottom teeth had been completely knocked out by War slamming his face into the ground not long ago.

"Not even a God can stand up to the sharpness of Verdict, Blade of Souls. I'll be your judge and executioner, God of War." Jun stated with authority.

War grabbed the part of the blade sticking out of him with his bare hand. A *sizzling* can be heard as the cursed weapon that naturally burned his flesh due to his holy energy affinity.

"Ooo, that hurts." War said as he gripped it even tighter. He then began to pull the blade even further through himself so that most of it was through him, yanking Jun forward with it. 

"You're crazy." Jun said.

War quickly turned around which caused the blade to be snatched out of Jun's hands. "Am I?"

He rushed forward and wrapped his burly arms around Jun and embraced him tightly against his body. Jun's eyes went wide as this had caused Jun to be impaled by his own blade.

"Jun!" Iris and Jayden both shouted.

War laughed maniacally as he grabbed the dazed Jun by the shoulders and repetitively pulled him off the sword, only to shove him right back on it.

This....is a true God..., Jun thought in fading thought. We can't...fight this..

War felt a rush of energy behind him that cut his fun to an end. He turned to face it with his favorite Jun toy still in hand. He was met with the site of Iris now back on her feet and her armor completely repaired. She now held an ancient blade in her hand that signified the activation of her secondary release.

War threw Jun to the side to bleed out on the ground. "So you still had something up your sleeve, eh?"

The spirit of the armor let out a short sigh as it settled back into Iris's body.

"Ahh, it's been a long time since I've seen that twisted smile - Doxeus, the God of War."