Ares (manhwa)

Infobox manhwa
name = Ares


imagesize= 200
caption = Cover of "Ares", Volume 1
ko_hangul = 떠돌이 용병 아레스
romanized = Tteodori Yongbyeong Areseu
genre = Action, Adventure
Adventure = y
author = Ryu Kum-chel
publisher = flagicon|South Korea BB Comics
publisher_en =
publisher_other =
magazine =
first = 2001
last = 2007
volumes = 26
ko=y

"Ares" (떠돌이 용병 아레스) is a Korean manhwa drawn and written by Ryu Kum-chel. The story takes place in an era similar to that of ancient Rome in a country called Cronos. It follows a group known as the Tample Mercenaries. In particular, the manhwa is about Ares and his brothers in arms Baroona and Michael.

The manhwa is notable for its subtle use of anachronistic elements (Ares' shoes are similar to that of classic Addidas), as well as very dynamic and fluid action sequences.

Story

Ares, Michael, and Baroona are admitted to the Temple Mercenaries through a simple test of skill against rank B soldiers. After passing the test with ease, they enter the same unit in the Mercenary Corp, and intrigued by each others’ skill, they soon became friends. They later meet the cowardly Gohue, often the comic-relief if the story starts getting too serious.

The Temple Mercenaries soon take on bigger and more important tasks, due to the backing of their new recruits. Soon we meet the Chronosian general Icarus. Impressed by their skills, he hires them to protect him while he goes to attempt to negotiate his way out of a war with Chronos’ western neighbors, the Radink Alliance. They defend the general from an attack by the very soldiers sent to guard him, an attack ordered by rival generals eager to overthrow the king and seize his power.

Through pure genius, Icarus wins the civil war with minimal losses to either side, and then takes both armies to defend Chronos' western border. The former King’s advisors request that Icarus be the new king, and he accepts their offer. In this battle, Icarus once again uses the Temple Mercenaries and brilliant strategy to provide an advantage to his side. Soon, the black knights were all defeated and the presumed red eyed swordsman escaped. Ares and Michael took chase and was astonished to find out that he was not the red eyes swordsman, but his brother. The Red eyed swordsman soon appeared and revealed himself to Ares again in order to antagonise him in an attempt to make him stronger.

With the war over, the country seemingly entered peacetime. Baroona was sent as a bodyguard to a remote place to guard a wealthy man. However, Michael got an urgent message saying his uncle was planning to start a rebellion. He immediately returns back to his kingdom to kill his uncle and take over as King of Isiris. Michael's first act as king was to take over the two neighboring nations of Galant and Mukala with conquering Chronos in mind and then the world.

He brutally slaughters innocent civilians, and we find out he has a child army who is willing to die for him composed of orphan children. They are very well trained, and after seeming to attack Silonica, Icarus' sends 200,000 troops there but to his dismay Michael turns his sights on Chronos. The Temple Mercenary is attacked, wiping out all but Gohue, Ares, and Baroona (as well as the others who were sent on a mission). Ares is crucified by Michael's troops and is later rescued by Gohue after which he goes in to a state of shock due to Michael's betrayal. Gohue travels with the shocked Ares to find Araidne in hopes that seeing her will knock Ares out of his current state. While Gohue and Ares are staying with Araidne they are attacked by an elite group of Michael's personal assassins. The fighting and Araidne's peril awakens Ares who proceeds to, with the help of Baroona and Robin, kill all of the assassins. Ares' personality changes greatly after he awakens though he pretends to be his old cheerful self. On the inside Ares has become empty and cold hearted, now killing without mercy.

As of end of volume 17, 119 Michael engages Icarus in a battle and Icarus was decisively defeated but survived.

Characters

Ares:The apprentice of the deceased Kiron, famous Master Swordsman of Chronos. Kiron, who had lost his sight, was murdered by the Red-Eyed Swordsman. Kiron’s sword was taken by the Swordsman and Ares lost an eye to him as well. Ares is devoted to avenging his master’s death by killing the Red Eyed Swordsman and taking back his sword. It is shown that Ares' real name is Sebastian but he lost his memories when he fell off a cliff. He became B-rank after the first mission with his companions, and he is now an A-rank.

:Ares is shown to be light-hearted and friendly in normal situations. His personality is somewhat similar to One Piece's Monkey D. Luffy in that he is often goofy and cracks jokes with friends and is also shown to be somewhat simple minded ( exemplified by the fact that he only joined the Tample Mercenaries because they offered food for members).

:In battle Ares is deadly. His fighting prowess is so that very few people are shown to be able to stand their ground against him in battle. He almost always fights with a sword but is also shown to be quite capable of incapacitating weaker opponents various unarmed attacks (usually kicks or elbow strikes). His swordplay and his fighting style in general incorporates quick, hard strikes and numerous acrobatic maneuvers used for both dodging attacks and adding power to his own attacks. He can also be very resourceful in serious fights and will use the environment to his advantage, be it jumping off walls, dropping a chandelier on an enemy or taking swords from defeated soldiers to continue fighting after his sword breaks.

:Ares is 18 years old.Kiron: The late Master Swordsman of Chronos, also known as swordsman of the wind. He is the one who found Ares after he had fallen off a cliff trying to escape an assassin. After rescuing him, he took him in and named him Ares. He went blind a few years after he took Ares in, and was murdered by the red-eyed swordsman due to this disability. He was called swordsman of the wind because of the sound he produced when he swung his sword.

Kirberos (Red-eyed Swordsman) : An infamous swordsman who goes around killing other swordsmen and collecting their swords. He murdered Kiron in an unfair fight and injured Ares' right eye. He is a descendant of the "Red-eyed clan", a clan consisting of people with red-eyes who were mysteriously prone to be stronger than normal men, and has "purer" red-eyes than previous red-eye. The Red-eyed swordsman also is the little brother of the Captain of the Black Knights, although he never acknowledges this because he thinks his brother is a weakling. During the battle between Darakian and Chronos, he kills off the remaining Black Knights at the battlefield when he talks about his brother in front of his subordinates making them angry.

Michael: The heir to the throne of Isiris. He has come to Chronos to experience war and the life of commoners. He is well educated and intelligent, understanding many strategies used in battles and wars. He is also the most bloodthirsty of the three main characters. He became B-rank after his first mission, and became A-rank after the war with Minos. He is the murderer of Cygnus, after encountering him alone, without a weapon, and on the brink of death (as a result of Cygnus' previous battle with Ares). He quit the Tample mercenaries after the war with Daraakians to go back to Isiris, as his uncle has started a revolution that he wishes to quell. It is shown that his father, the king, is sick and that Michael seems to be in charge of him. He has formed an elite squad of assassins (including Carnival) along with an army that are completely loyal to him. He has expressed an interest in conquering Cronos.

:For the most part Micheal is only nice to his close friends. He is not very sociable and sometimes Ares and Baroona are put off by this. As mentioned earlier, he is also very bloodthirsty. He is merciless to his to his enemies ( exemplified by a time when after the battle has already been won he drags an injured, unarmed enemy soldier by the foot to kill him as he desperately tries to crawl away and begs for mercy only to be stopped by a commanding officer who orders him to stop several times) and is even shown murdering an ally wounded on the battlefield who was begging for help.

:Michael is 18 years old.

Baroona: It was involved himself with the mercenary ones of the Temple at the same time that Ares and it participated in the same session of examination of entry that him. It succeeds besides in an original way since it eluded all the blows carried by his opponent and the time was flowed the moment it was going to pass to the offensive. Following the example of Ares, one notices oneself that it is not a warrior as the others and consequently is promoted very quickly. One discovers that it uses a unique weapon: two daggers linked between they by a cable in supple and resistant steel, necessitating a handling expert. One will discover afterward that it was a matter of an inheritance of his master, only user of this weapon.

Then, it will have revealed us that Baroona was the champion in title of the fine gladiators of the country of Daraak, of which it escaped to rejoin Stopwatches. It keeps the track of his previous life through the affixed tattoo in the back of all the gladiators of Daraak. The apogee of the personage of Baroona will intervene to the beautiful environment of a war between the country of Chronos and the alliance of Raddink, constituted country neighbors.

Baroona is a personage calms, kind and maybe perceived as the personage "plug" in the middle of its two friends to the behaviors to the extreme one opposed. Constant smoker, it knows taken its fight with calm and intelligence. It has the same age that Ares, and trembles with craving to beat Daraak when people talks about it, region that flew him a part of his life of liberty.

Cygnus: Son of a deceased Darakian general. Noble by birth but became lower-class. A powerful spear man, he was recruited by the leader of the Black Knights because of his great fighting abilities. He was said to be the apprentice of the Red-eyed Swordsman.Defeated by Ares during the war with Daraakians. He was spared when Ares found out that he too had a girlfriend waiting for him. However, he was murdered by Michael right after Ares left. Same age that Ares, Cygnus see itself to reserve a part of weaves it manhwa. One there learns how, while being the son of a general deceased Daraakien, it became poor and abandoned. This is in this context that it met his girlfriend that it dut to defend against an entire battalion of soldier. Expert in lance handling that it inherited of his mother, its capacities interested the Order of the Black Knights that launched its ten better men (the ten captains of the black knights) to neutralize it, after it had killed 150 soldiers. Between the options of life and death, chosen Cygnus therefore to serve the Black Knights and some became the most ferocious warrior, pushed by his hate towards the Chronosiens; hate that its parents knew to develop at his place as early as his younger age. Cygnus is a very powerful enemy of which passed it raises questions as for his mental balance. Nevertheless, it will become a personage attaching and noticeable for its qualities of fighter but equally of man. His destiny was going to cross the one of Ares, and of Michael.

Gohue: A Tample Mercenary whose true passion is for painting. He joined the mercenaries so that he could witness and paint the passion of epic battles. His fighting skills are nonexistent and he survives battles by playing dead or hiding. Despite this, he has shown courage and loyalty to his friends. Since he has survived so many battles, he has risen to B-rank. It is a matter of the fourth personage forming with Ares, Baroona and Michael groups it mercenary friends to the history center. Its principal characteristics are: his big cowardice that one rediscovers in his aptitude to do the death on the battlefields, and its talents of designers.

:The shaved skull, the easy tear, it not some is less one of the personages attaching history, and will prove itself very important in the pursuit of the adventures of Ares with that it will divide a beautiful friendship.

King Icarus: The current king of Chronos. A brilliant strategist and a former general of Chronos. He led the attack in Minos. After the previous king was assassinated, he fought and defeated those who killed the king with the help of Tample Mercenaries. The nobles of the country decided to make him king afterwards. He constantly uses the Tample Mercenaries after he realized their strength during his first encounter with them. At the time of the war against Minos, it was the General that took the army to the victory. This is besides at the time of this conflict that it became aware of the power of the mercenary ones of the Temple and therefore interest that that gave rise to. Thus, it recruited them, average finance, in every battle that it was going to take. Big military strategist, it fought the General traitres of the kingdom of Chronos having taken power while murdering the King. At the head of a constituted army of his regiment, faithful, and mercenary, it succeeded in put them some undone. The noble ones of Chronos insisted for that it climbs on holds court it, which it did, while becoming of go out it the youngest King of the history of the kingdom.

Intelligent, it more is endowed with to direct an army in battle than to carry himself the weapons. It is very liked elements of his regiment that it connait all very goods.

Ariadne: The love interest for Ares. She is a rich noble girl who followed Ares into the battle at Minos, where Ares was stuck trying to protect her time and time again. After Ares was wounded in battle Ariadne treated him. When Minos' knights came and attacked Ares, he saved Ariadne's life, but she called him a savage and left him. However, she then returned and remains as his girlfriend.Helena : Helena is Ariadne's body guard. She dislikes Ares and thinks he is a bad influence on Ariadne. She followed Ariadne into Minos and tried to bring her back home. In the end they left after knights attacked Ariadne and after she realized the horrors of fighting. After seeing how bravely Ares fought to protect both Ariadne and herself, Helena seems to have become kinder to him.

Robin:A skilled archer of the Tample Mercenaries. Has become friends with Ares and Baroona. He is mute.

Carnival:Previously an A Soldier of the Temple Mercenaries Carnival was kicked out for being too merciless. Carnival uses two swords and a manic fighting style that reflects his savage nature. Carnival joins the Ex General Shion and creates with him a bandit group. Carnival meets with the Temple Mercenaries again when they are hired to destroy the bandit group. Carnival nearly kills One-Arm Jack when he is stopped by Michael who fights with him while the rest of the Temple Mercenaries go onward to fight Shion. Carnival is narrowly defeated by Michael who spares his life causing Carnival to be in Michael's debt while at the same revering him. Carnival is later recruited by Michael's personal group of bodyguards and becomes Michael's right hand man.

Shion:Previously a General of Chronos Shion goes off to become a bandit lord. Shion uses a giant sword to fight that crushes and slices through most other weapons. Despite the size and weight of his blade "Ionix" Shion moves extremely fast. Shion will fight with his sword sheathed until he finds an opponent that he considers worthy of his blade. Shion leads a bandit group that terrorizes a nearby town. Shion's group is eventually decimated by the Temple Mercenaries who were hired by the town to defend them. While Michael fights Carnival Shion crushes many Temple Mercenaries eventually meeting his match when Ares appears. Shion begins with the upper hand in battle against Ares but ends up succumbing to Ares' incredible strength. Shion tells Ares that he is born a hero and requests that his men be spared. Ares agrees and with that slices Shion's throat.