MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
Full Recovery
I knocked on the door, my grandmother standing just a few steps behind me. Though I dressed as casually as ever, she was wearing an expensive-looking business suit, as if she were planning to spend the day hammering out a contract with an associate.
Hell, given the circumstances, maybe that was exactly what she was planning on doing, listing the specifics of our coming stay in Mistral. It was a little odd to think about as any planning at this point was just a formality, as everything was already in place; the therapists had made their judgements, with or without outside influence, grandmother had arranged rooms back home, those who kept track of that type of thing had already been informed, and so on. Everything was already in place and we all knew it, but the moment I'd told her I was going to heal my mother today, Grandma had gotten dressed for legal warfare. She even had a briefcase in one hand and a series of notes prepared on the scroll at her side, presumably all to assist her in the demolishing of paperwork, red tape, and other such sundry beings.
And yet, despite the fact that she seemed prepared to commit assault by contract the moment Mom fulfilled at least half of the 'of sound mind and body' criteria, I didn't get that feel from her. I was pretty certain she'd have been fine with letting Mom stay in Mistral for as long as she needed with no strings attached.
But maybe Mom wasn't, I mused. Maybe she'd feel better about this if there seemed to be some very obvious strings to be wary of and if her mother came calling for her to sign her name in blood the moment she was physically capable of holding a pen again. If instead of kindness—or, as she might see it, pity or charity—this was business, with cold terms and conditions and obligations that she could argue over, wiggle through, and make her own peace with.
Yeah, that sounded about right—and it would give Mom the chance to try and manufacture her own silver lining from the storm clouds she'd been dealt. I wondered if Grandmother would show her some mercy and throw her a few bones, to subtly help her out.
…Probably not. Even when it came to taking care of each other, my family could be a bit dysfunctional.
"Come in," My mother's voice answered, sounding a touch hoarse. I wondered if she'd been drinking enough water; there was a machine there to assist her with it, but I could already tell she'd have preferred to do it herself. Hopefully, that wouldn't be an issue for much longer.
"Hi, Mom," I said with a smile as I pushed open the door. Glancing her over once, I called to Xihai and drew water through the tubes of a nearby container, forming a floating orb in front of her with a bendy straw of water. "Have you been doing okay?"
Mom stared at the sphere for a moment and did a good job covering however she felt about needing assistance just to drink. In turn, I pretended I didn't notice anyway and went to her side as she took a sip.
"Oh, you know," She answered, sounding a touch better now. "Just lying around. Been trying to get some exercise when I can—pushups, jogging, that type of thing. I've gotta hand it to myself; I think I'll have a real leg up on the competition next time the marathon rolls around."
I flashed a smile at the jokes, even if they were self-deprecating, because doing so was enough to make her crack a smile in turn.
"That's cool, I guess," I shrugged lightly. "But don't you think it's about time you got up? You can't stay in bed all day, Mom."
At that, she turned her head towards me, eyes widening even further as she glanced quickly towards her mother. She drew a slow breath and I heard her heartbeat quicken as understanding sank in.
"Jaune…" She whispered, swallowing. "Are…can you…?"
"Shh," I replied, putting a finger to my lips and then extending it to poke her lightly in the nose. As I did, I let my power surge, charging my new healing spell fully and releasing it. With the five second charge Quick Soul granted, I could boost the effect greatly in exchange for about five thousand MP—and with the amount of MP I had access to, I could cast it three times back to back.
So I did.
At once, light filled the room, shining brightly over the healed stumps of her arms and leg. The color was a bright, pure white—the color of my Aura—and existed as a trio of flat disks that slowly began to move. They slipped easily through the holes in my mother's hospital gown, down from her shoulders and thigh, and in the space they left behind was new, whole flesh. The growth of it almost seemed to be pushing the disks away, but at the ends of the reforming limbs were patches of flesh that glowed for a moment before dimming and becoming flesh, casting off sparks as they went.
It took most of a minute, but we watched as my mom healed. When it was done, my mom looked down at her hands in awe and seemed to have been struck speechless.
"You didn't doubt me, did you?" I asked her, resting my chin in the palm of a hand. "I told you I'd heal you."
"I know," She sounded breathless. "I…and I knew you would, it's just…I…thank you, Jaune. These are…."
She shook her head and blinked quickly, before seeming to remember that she had hands and lifting them to touch her face. For a minute, she just seemed lost in the fact that she could do such a thing—to touch things, hold them, and use her hands.
"Something you take for granted until it's gone?" I tried to finish for her, drawing her back to the conversation.
"Yeah," She nodded quickly as she clenched her hands into tight fists and rolled her shoulders. "Exactly."
"Well, they're not gone anymore," I told her, lay a hand on hers. "How do they feel? Is everything alright?"
"They feel…" She paused, tilting her head to the side as she struggled to find the words she was looking for. "Different. Not bad or anything, but…."
"New?" I suggested, looking the new limbs over quickly to make sure they were okay and spotting the changes quickly.
She nodded slowly once and then again with more confidence.
"Yeah, that's a good way to describe it," She mused. "They feel new."
"Your own Aura can heal you pretty well," I considered. "But while it tries to restore you, your body's limits mean it can't always do so perfectly—that's why people can get scars and such. Sometimes, small signs of damage remain and if there's enough of it, it can add up over time. I guess what you're feeling now is that going away."
"It feels nice," She assured me. "But odd. Especially with my legs; one's old, one's new. It's strange, is all."
"We could always cut off the other leg and have Jaune regrow it," Grandmother suggested from her seat by the wall, her tone deliberately distracted. She had her briefcase open on her lap and was quickly flipping through it, making a show of organizing files that were already perfectly arranged. "At this point, it wouldn't be that big of a deal."
Mom's smile became somewhat strained—though whether at the suggestion or the reminder of her mother's existence, I wasn't sure.
"I'll take it under consideration," She said, dropping a hand to the bed and shifting. Realizing at once what she was about to do, I rose to assist her, curling my fingers around her own and placing a hand at her back.
"Need a hand?" I asked, smiling.
"Haha," She answered tonelessly. "That was pathetic. If you're not gonna try, don't even bother."
I shrugged, expression unchanging as I helped her out of the bed.
"It seemed like an easy shot," I defended. "And I was the one who regrew the damn things; I think that gives me a free pass or something."
"Pretty sure that's not how that works, Jaune," She shook her head as she settled her feet on the ground, breathing carefully as she stood at her full height as if expecting to topple over any second.
"Then what was the point?" I asked myself.
"Helping your poor mother," She reminded.
"Ah," I said as if suddenly remembering and placed a hand on her shoulder. "But really…I'm glad to see you up."
"Me, too," She smiled. "I take it you'll be going to heal the others, now?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "Onyx, Ren, and a few patients I missed on my first run through. But I can stay a minute if you need me to."
"Go," She chuckled, looking lively for the first time since, you know, losing most of her limbs. "We can talk later."
"Yes," Grandmother said, tapping a stack of papers against the bottom of her briefcase to smooth the pile. "Your mother and I have several matters to discuss now, after all. I assume you've had time to prepare, Isabelle?"
A touch of cold but comfortable-seeming steel slid into my mother's shoulders as she looked at Grandma—and it was something that had been missing from them over the last week.
"Naturally, Mother," She replied with the slight tilt of her head. "Shall we make arrangements, then?"
I rose and left them silently, allowing them to play this game of theirs in peace as I moved on to my next visit. In the silence of the mostly empty hospital—a result of my frequent visits this last week—I heard them both easily. Nora was laughing loudly, her honest exuberance uplifting in its own right. Despite a week in a hospital room, Ren's mood seemed bright enough and his heart beat steadily, a fact that made me smile. Whatever happened, it seemed those two would be okay—and I decided to go along with the good mood and see if I couldn't help improve it even more.
"Hey, Ren," I all but shouted as I reached his room, throwing the door open and striding quickly towards his bed. Without a moment's hesitation, I slapped my hand against his, already upraised to reach for something on his bedside table. "Give me five!"
Ren blinked once at the sudden act and then again as the stump of his other hand began to glow brightly. Instantly, both his and Nora's gazes swerved to the limb in question, widening as they saw what happened. The room was completely silent as his hand and fingers returned and even afterwards, they couldn't tear their gazes away from it.
"What…?" Ren breathed, surprise coloring the sound of his voice. "How did you…?"
And since his attention was on said limb and not upon, say, me, he was caught completely unprepared by what I did next.
"Now drop and give me twenty!" I ordered as I literally rolled him out of bed. With his friendship with Nora, I figured he was probably used to it.
"Gah," Ren grunted as he caught himself with both hands and rose enough to look at me. "I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to treat hospital patients like this."
I sniffed disdainfully.
"I'm the miracle worker here," I stated. "I do what I want."
"Ren," Nora breathed, going to her friend's side at once. She took his new hand in her own, helping him up quickly. Even when he stood, his other hand on the bed to support him after a week of bedrest, she held his hand between her own, as if worried it would fly off and disappear if she let it go.
Ren allowed it without complaint for a minute before gently laying his other hand over hers. Immediately, Nora let go and stepped back, eyes intent on his fingers as he flexed and stretched them. He tested the range of motion, flexibility, and steadiness of his new hand as calmly as a soldier inspecting their weapon, making sure it was in order. I could tell from the furrow of his eyebrows that he'd noticed the same newness as my mother had, but it seemed to mean less to him than it had to her, most likely due to the simple fact that he was far younger than her and had taken less damage over that shorter lifetime.
"All good?" I asked.
"Yes," He replied simply, rolling his wrist several times. He paused for a moment, gaze tracking to Nora, and then tilted his head before nodding with something almost like resignation. "Thanks for the hand, Jaune."
Nora's face promptly split into a massive grin and in a moment she was hugging him tightly enough that I checked to make sure he wasn't going to need any replacement ribs to go with that hand. Despite the fact that Nora was significantly shorter than him, I had to step back as she swung him around in a wide circle, lifting his feet completely off the ground.
"Yes!" She shouted, stopping quickly enough that I added whiplash to the list of injuries Ren was suffering on his way out of the hospital. "You're okay?"
"I'm fine," He assured her calmly, not at all off put by the fact that Nora had needed to force him to his knees to look him eye to eye. "I'll need at most another week to make a full recovery and most of that will just be getting used to the new hand."
"Mhm," I hummed in agreement, quirking an eyebrow as they turned my way, as if only now realizing I was still here. "I already checked it over and there's nothing wrong with it—that's kind of the issue, really. It's brand new and in perfect condition while your other hand is showing some wear and tear from a few years of use. Still, it shouldn't be an issue once you get used to it—but if it is, just get in touch with me and I 'll see what I can do."
About halfway through that sentence, I was forced to lift my arms as Nora collided with me and wrapped her arms around my chest. On anyone else, it might have been a bone-crushing hug—but my bones were made of sterner stuff than most, even without getting into my Adamant skin, so I bore the hug with grace. I even kept talking over the stream of thank yous that poured from Nora's mouth as she squeezed me hard, patting her on the back as I did.
"Will do," Ren nodded, talking the matter as seriously as it deserved to be. I honestly didn't think it would make much of a difference for Ren once he'd had a few days to get accustomed to it, but if it did…if it threw him even slightly out of sync, it might be enough to put his life in danger one day. "Will you be sticking around, then?"
I shook my head.
"No," I said. "I'll actually be leaving Vale before too long; my mom and I will be moving in with my grandmother for a while. I'll leave you a way to contact me, though, just in case."
"I see," Ren replied, expression contemplative as he nodded again, more slowly this time. After a moment, however, he extended his new hand towards me. "Then I should thank you now. For everything."
I chuckled but took his hand in my own and shook it once.
"You don't need to talk like we'll never see each other again," I told him. "I'll be heading to Mistral, but not permanently. Once my mom's okay and we have everything in order, I'll come back."
"That's good news," He smiled. "With any luck, maybe we'll see each other again."
At last, Nora let go of me and bounced a step away.
"There's no need to bring luck into this, Ren," She shook her head, beaming. "We're friends so wewill see each other again. Right?"
"Right," I nodded firmly. "I take it you two have decided where you're going as well, then?"
"Headmaster Ozpin came by to speak to us a few more times," Ren smiled slightly. "With everything that happened to the village, we weren't sure, but he said there wouldn't be any problems enrolling at his school. Since we'd intended to do so even before all this, he said he'd pull some strings once we were healed."
"He even threw in free housing," Nora chirped, which didn't fully conceal the uncertainty she felt about that. She was thankful for the offer, even glad for it, but I suppose it just hammered in that she had nowhere else to go. No house, no place to call home, not even a family except for Ren.
But maybe having each other was enough. I'd hope so.
For my part, however, I covered and put aside any suspicions or reservations I might have had concerning Ozpin, refusing to let it put a damper on my good mood today. For the time being, it was a problem I had no real way of doing anything about without exposing a lot of people to a lotof risk, so I would keep my paranoia to myself.
"Oh?" I asked aloud, illusory face smiling.
Ren tilted his head towards his friend, the gesture somehow carrying a confirmation.
"I wasn't clear on the specifics," He said. "But it seems there was already something in place for…people like Nora and I, kids with the training required but who lacked…."
Ren paused and frowned, seeming to search for the proper word.
"So it's like a scholarship fund?" I put forth to save him the trouble, getting the general idea.
"Yes," Ren said, sitting up slightly and all but snapping his fingers. "Exactly like that."
I nodded, not having known about such a thing but not surprised by its existence, either. I'm sure there were a fair number of Hunter kids who had been left abruptly orphaned and suddenly had a whole new set of things to worry about that went beyond training to kill Grimm. The kingdom made arrangements to aid the children of fallen Hunters for that very reason—but at the same time, it wasn't hard to imagine a few families falling on hard times. Having a system in place that allowed those children to go to places like Signal or Beacon anyway made plenty of sense, both from the perspective of supporting the families of those who'd died keeping the kingdom safe and the somewhat more cynical perspective that noted that the honor, prestige, and money involved with being a Hunter would all but ensure those children followed in their family's footsteps.
It made me wonder if Keppel and Carmine's children would receive offers like that someday. I'd stayed away from them thus far at Ozpin's request, giving them time and space to breathe without the fresh wounds I might have opened, to say nothing of the dangers if they learned the truth of my actions. I wasn't entirely sure what story had been woven about their parent's deaths, but I was sure it was heroic, daring, and awe-inspiring, however much of a lie it may have been. I part of me was nauseated by the idea that they'd grow up never being told the truth—but another part reminded me that in a world ruled by the Grimm, beautiful lies were worth more than painful truths.
Knowing that, however, I had to wonder how many lies I'd been fed in my life—and what I might have been told about my parents, had I not come into my powers all those months ago.
"That's good, then," I clapped my hands brightly, shrugging the thoughts off. "Everything's in order, then?"
"Not quite," Ren admitted. "He said there will be a few tests and other conditions, to ensure the process was fair. Professor Ozpin said he didn't control the selection process—"
Bullshit, I thought.
"And there might be other applicants," He shook his head and rested his hands on the bed. "But even so—"
"We'll get in!" Nora stated, sounding certain of that fact. "Ren's practically a genius and I'm, well, I'm me! There's nothing to worry about!"
"Well that's good," I smiled. "I think you're right, though. I've seen you both in action and you should have no trouble getting into Beacon."
"See?" Nora told Ren. "I told you so!"
"You did," Ren allowed before looking at me again. "Will you be going to Haven, then?"
"Maybe, maybe not," I replied, shrugging slightly. "I don't have much interest going to school right now, but a friend told me a few things that have made me think about it recently. I guess I'll figure it out when I get to Mistral."
I paused for a moment, considering something.
"Although," I slowly mused, lining things up in my head. "Talking about it reminds me. All the big Hunter academies always meet at the Vytal Festival later in the year, along with everything else that happens around that time. To be honest, I usually just stay home and watch it on TV like a normal person, but my sister's going to start teaching at Haven this year. I hadn't thought to talk to her about it, but a lot of the teachers always go with the students to keep everything in order. If she goes this year, maybe I'll tag along. If I do, maybe we'll see each other around."
"Would you be allowed to come along?" Ren asked, raising an eyebrow, to which I simply shrugged.
"Sure," I said, chuckling a bit at the question. "Whether as a healer, my sister's plus one, or just because my grandmother said so, it should be fine—and if not, I have other ways to travel. But we'll see what happens, yeah? I've found life to be pretty full of surprises, but we'll see how things play out."
XxXXxX
MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
Destination
"I was so worried I couldn't stand it, but now I think I'll have a leg up on the—"
"Mom already made that joke," I said with a smile, shaking my head as if in disappointment. In the end, I'd left my mother and grandmother to sort things out alone and I hadn't wanted to be the third wheel to Ren and Nora, so I'd made my way up to Onyx's room and fixed his leg. The older Hunter was standing and stretching, rolling his new leg in small circles before balancing on it.
"Aww," Onyx groaned, making me chuckle as I looked around his hospital room. In most ways, it was pretty much the same as everyone else's, but there was a marked difference between his, Ren's, and my mother's. Unlike the latter two, whose rooms had been barren, the table beside Onyx's bed was stacked high with flowers and candy and colorfully, if crudely, drawn get-well-soon cards. Ren didn't have any family to speak of besides Nora, who'd pretty much been stuck to his hip during his entire stay thus far, but as for Mom…well, I suppose it was to be expected that she wouldn't get anything. I'd known I'd be able to heal her eventually and had focused entirely on that, but my sisters…
Well, like I said. It was to be expected.
"Did your daughter make those?" I asked, nodding my head at the table.
"Hm?" Onyx asked, lifting an eyebrow as he followed my gaze. "Ah, yeah. She comes by every day, after school lets out. With any luck, I'll be able to surprise her today and pick her up instead."
"There shouldn't be any problems checking out," I said. "The lady at the front desk knows what to expect from me, so you'll probably just accept it if you say you're good to go—I mean, your leg isright there. Might be some paperwork to fill out, but nothing that should take you too long, I don't think. School doesn't let out for about five hours yet and I can't imagine anyone inflicting that on someone fresh out of the hospital."
"You'd be surprised," Onyx assured me. "Though it really depends more on how you got into the hospital. There was this thing up in Atlas that I'd tell you about, except I'm not allowed to tell you about it."
I chuckled at that and my smile widened.
"Thanks for the heads up before," I told him, inclining my head. "It turns out I'll be travelling some after all."
"Ah," Onyx's voice fell and he paused in changing into the clothes he'd been keeping in a bag in the corner. After a moment, his desire to be out of a hospital gown seemed to overcome everything else and he switched into comfortable looking black pants and a floral print T-shirt that made me suspect his daughter's involvement. When he finished, he cracked his neck and looked at me over his shoulder. "Where to?"
"Mistral," I said. "To my Grandmother's."
"Ah," He said again, face scrunching up in thought. "Yeah, I vaguely remember hearing that your mother was related to the Big Bad Wolf. Didn't seem much like the type of thing she'd want anyone asking about, so I never did."
"Probably for the best," I nodded. "My family is pretty dysfunctional."
"Plenty of that with Hunters," He shrugged.
"Mm."
"You got any plans for what you're gone do over there?" He asked. "I only ever spent a little while in Mistral, but while it's a creepy place in a lot of ways, it's easy to have a good time there, too. I guess that's what you get when your run by…"
He gestured vaguely.
"Yeah," I agreed. "And sort of. I have some ideas, but most of them are works in progress. A lot of unexpected things have been happening lately and it's kind of hard to plan things out the way I'd want to, but I've been talking with my family and friends a lot about it. Whatever happens, I'll work something out."
"Well, with skills like yours, you shouldn't have any problems getting by," Onyx laughed a bit and stretched again, probably glad to be out of bed. "With your skill at healing alone, you could probably set up shop and let the money roll in. And I know you can Hunt pretty goddamn well, too. Your grandmother might have to smooth a few things over, but you could do just about anything you wanted, once you had a little time to set everything up."
I hummed quietly, the sound acknowledging.
"You want me to help you check out?" I asked.
"Nah, you don't need to bother," Onyx shook his head. "I'm sure you've got a lot of things you'd rather be doing than helping me with paperwork."
"Not really," I said. "I've just about run out of things to do but I need to wait until Mom's done. Might as well help out a friend, right?"
Onyx snorted at that, eyeing me for a moment.
"Yeah, I suppose that would be an issue for you," He said. "If you become a healer fulltime, you'll probably spend a lot of your career being bored. I guess there's nothing worth watching on TV this time of day either, huh?"
I shifted my attention away from the boring news broadcast I'd been only distantly been paying attention to in order to quickly scan the other frequencies, checking. Most children were in school and most adults at work, so a lot of channels weren't airing anything of value. There were a few interesting videos that people in houses near the hospital were streaming, but even then, I wasn't all that interested.
"Not really," I said before tilting my head as I felt the door to my mother's room open. "Although it seems Mom and Grandma are done talking. I can still stay if you—"
"Go," He rolled his eyes. "Like I said, don't worry about it. I've been getting buried up to my ears in paperwork since the day I entered Beacon; I'll be fine."
"Pretty sure that if that's true, it means you're doing something wrong," I said, but rose obediently. "But if you say so. Take care, Onyx. Hopefully, we'll see each other again someday."
"Hopefully," He agreed, turning to face me fully. "But really, Jaune…you take care of yourself, okay? I owe you one for the leg, so if anything happens…"
"I'll keep that in mind," I promised. "If you or your daughter ever needs help, you know who to call, too. I'll try to remember you even when I'm ludicrously rich and famous."
He laughed again but extended a hand for me to shake, which I did. Then I left and ambled on down to my mother, to save her a trip up the stairs.
"Mom," I greeted as she turned the corner that led to the stairwell.
"Jaune," She blinked once but recovered quickly. "I didn't keep you waiting too long, did I?"
"You didn't keep me waiting at all," I answered. "I was just talking to Onyx upstairs, but I sensed you coming and headed down. You and Grandmother settle things?"
She sighed slightly, looking over her shoulder.
"More or less," She said. "Though saying we settled things might be a bit of an exaggeration. I'm fairly sure everything was decided long before we started talking. Would I be correct in assuming you already know everything?"
I made my smile demure at her words.
"Well, saying I know everything might be a bit presumptuous," I mused. "But…"
She snorted at that and rolled her eyes.
"Saves me from having to explain everything, at least," She said. "When I first woke up, I figured…"
"I know," I replied. "That's why you called Grandmother, right?"
"Yes, I suppose it was," She sighed deeply. "But…going back to Mistral after all these years…."
She shook her head.
"It can't be helped," She muttered under her breath. "But are you okay with it, Jaune?"
"Its fine," I assured her. "Location isn't really an issue for me, given everything, and it's not like I couldn't just swim back to Vale if I needed to. But really, Mistral's probably the best place to be now, anyway. You, Grandmother, Violet, Indigo, Olivia…I even made some friends last time I was there, who I can go and catch up with."
She reached up to bat me on the head.
"I'm glad to hear that, at least," She said, ruffling my hair slightly. "Did anything important happen while I was in bed?"
"Not too much," I said, lying right to her face. Plenty had happened, but most of it wasn't stuff she'd benefit from knowing. "We—the girls and I, I mean—had a Hunter's funeral for dad. I figured you and I could have one of our own once you were okay, but we were playing around and it seemed like a good time for it. We didn't quite scour the city to the bedrock, but we gave it a pretty good shot. Inside Naraka, of course. Beyond that, though…"
I shrugged.
"I was kind of focused on practicing my healing, though," I continued. "I told the others about what I've been doing the last few months and then threw myself back into my training until I got results. I talked to Grandmother and Ozpin a few times about the Mistral stuff, but other than that, I was busy working on my healing."
Her smile turned a bit sad at that.
"Thank you for all the hard work," She told me, patting my head again. "Sorry I made you go through all the trouble."
"It wasn't any trouble at all," I shook my heads at once. "And besides, with this power, I'll be able to help a lot of people. Everything I had to go through to get it is worth it because of that."
"Yeah," Her smile became at once wider and sadder. "I figured you'd say that."
She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath.
"We never really got to talk about it, did we?" She asked at last. "Your father, I mean. I—"
"It's okay," I said gently. "I spoke to lot of people about it and…more than that, I was the one he spoke to last. I'm mad about what happened and sad and I miss him, but no matter what happens, I'll keep fighting to protect people, just like he did. So…you don't have to worry about me, Mom. Even in just this last week, I've gotten stronger. I'll be okay."
"Jaune," She whispered, hugging me tightly. "I…already know all of that, but…"
This time, I was the one to put a hand on her head.
"Yeah," I smiled softly. "I know. But we have time, so you don't have to force yourself to talk about it, alright?"
She blinked away several tears and nodded quickly.
"Yeah," She said. "Alright."
Then, taking another deep breath, she stood up straight.
"We have to get ready to leave soon," She stated, probably more to herself than anything. "We'll have to make arrangements for the house, the mail…Ozpin already knows, but I'll need to—"
"No need," I shook my head. "Grandmother and I already handled all of that."
She stopped and pinched the bridge of her nose, annoyed at herself.
"Right," She nodded. "Of course you'd have thought about that. Everything's done then?"
"We can leave whenever you're ready," I confirmed. "Or we can stay a while longer, if you'd prefer."
"We'll leave soon, then," She muttered distractedly, as if making notes in her head. She turned her head slightly to stare out the window with a slight frown, mulling something over and then nodding to herself. "Yes, that's probably for the best. We'll make the final arrangements tonight then, after I talk to a few people."
"Okay," I accepted. "Shall we check out, then?"
"Yes," She whispered, tone still absentminded until she paused and looked at me again. "You said you'd become even stronger this last week?"
"Yeah," I said, tilting my head slightly. "Quite a bit stronger, in fact."
"Then without a doubt, you must be quite a bit stronger than me now," She mused and then stood on her tiptoes to kiss my forehead. "You really did grow up fast, didn't you? Jaune…."
XxXXxX
Lunch and dinner that night were pleasant affairs, at least for me. My sisters barely spoke to my mother and she didn't say much to them either, though she obviously wanted to, but I spoke to everyone over the course of the meal. We had a large meal that night to say our goodbyes and made arrangements to stay in touch and meet each other later. As Hunters, they were all used to separating for vast lengths of times, and so didn't make a big fuss about it. It wasn't quite a cold or casual occasion, because they also realized that anything could happen, but…well, they didn't show it in big ways. We were all together, having fun, and that was enough.
And the next morning, we left. Not all of us, of course; most of my sisters would stay for a few more days until arrangements could be made to travel back to Atlas and Vacuo—but since we'd been planning this out for several days already, the trip back to Mistral was easy to set up. We left in the same ship my grandmother had arrived in and were in the air by the time the sun started rising.
Whatever my grandmother claimed, I knew it wasn't a coincidence that the airship was just large enough to fit all of us and so did my mother, but neither of us mentioned it. Violet took up watch near the front, her body now almost entirely back to normal, while Olivia seated herself in the middle with her power slowly unfurling from her skin. She wasn't using it to do anything yet, but she seemed prepared to, just in case.
It was a good mindset, but I wasn't worried. While there was always the chance that an unkindness of Giant Nevermore would happen upon us, to say nothing of the worse creatures that ruled the skies of Remnant, I wasn't especially worried—this airship was packed full of enough firepower to trivially slaughter just about anything we were likely to come across in a routine flight and I'd sense anything we couldn't long before we actually encountered them. I wouldn't say we were completely safe, because nowhere in Remnant was that, but we were as safe as could be reasonably expected. Indigo seemed to share my opinion, because she'd fallen asleep in the back of the airship, shadow curling around her.
After a moment, I followed her example and slipped, for the first time in quite a while, into a meditative state. It was something I'd fallen out of the habit of doing lately, simply because the benefits were now relatively minor compared to the sheer amount of MP I could already regenerate—it just wasn't worth the time or effort of falling into a trance when going from zero to full took less than a minute. Still, with little else to do, I took the chance to Accelerate as much as was sustainable, made sure all the other skills I maintained constantly were functioning as they should, and let my awareness expand.
The world my meditation revealed had changed since the last time I'd seen it—but then, I had become accustomed to that at this point. Figuring it was most likely because of my Extrasensory Perception and the other passive skills I'd gained lately, I accepted it easily and took in the differences.
It was…more, for lack of a better word. The patterns of energy, the shifting motions of the world, the breadth and depth-the sheer scope of it all had grown. My mind expanded through the open sky to touch the land below and sink deep into the earth. As I did, I felt the wind on my skin and the titanic motions far beneath the ground. At once, I felt myself standing beneath shaded trees, amidst the clouds in the sky, in fields open to the rising sun, and in the hidden caverns of the earth below. I could sense it, not simply in massive patterns of energy, but as if I was there in truth. I could see it, smell it, feel it all, though very little left an impression on me. In the slowed time of my Acceleration, the world turned sluggishly, with monsters and beasts alike almost holding still.
But it went beyond that. I reached farther than I ever had before, using senses that were now so much sharper. For all that it seemed as if I could feel everything, my mind didn't focus on anywhere in particular, but rather exploded from my body in a wave that seemed to carry me from horizon to horizon. I heard voices and whispers that were so small even I struggled to notice them, but after a moment it just didn't seem to matter. Power flowed through the entire world in a circuit that I was but a part of—but I played my part well and in an instant the beating of my heart matched that of the world's. I felt it encompass me entirely, like I was a drop of water that had fallen into the sea, and yet I remained separate from it, retaining myself thanks to the Gamer's Mind. If not for that, I could imagine myself being subsumed and losing track of the world. With my skills and the form of enlightenment they granted, I could have remained that way for weeks, months, or even years, doing nothing but listening to the crashing flows of the world around me.
A part of me considered it, but only briefly. While such a state would allow me to grind the skills I kept around myself persistently, it would do little for my Active skills, nor would it allow me a chance to find and invent new ones. Even beyond that, I couldn't afford to simply drown myself in the soul of the world when there was so much to do—and I could grind my persistent and passive skills as easily while awake as I could like this. Although it was peaceful and relaxing, it wasn't worth it.
For the moment, however, it was nice and interesting and new. My awareness slipped into the sky and the earth, the rivers and trees, the light and the shadows, and it flowed as easily into me as I did into it. For a moment, I wondered if this was how my Elementals felt and considered asking them about it later.
But then I realized there was no point in doing that when they were already here. Our souls would be one until they met their ends and so they were with me always. I felt my heart beat along with the pulse of the world and became aware that they had been with me all along. Levant danced through the skies even as her arms embraced me from behind, while Xihai coursed through the rivers and settled in the puddles and dew, swimming beneath my feet. Vulturnus flicked through the earth and sky alike, potential more than reality, and Suryasta stood with him, a fire waiting to happen. Even so, they stood at my shoulders, watching as I did for a moment and a path. Ereb walked beside me in the caverns of the earth, rested with me beneath the dirt, and climbed with me to the mountain peaks, standing still whenever I saw him, yet always in motion between my thoughts. Even Crocea Mors was there, though he stayed close, in the hull of the airship and the weapons of my family.
We didn't say anything because we didn't need to, but we saw each other now and our gazes, if they could be called such, were acknowledging. I stayed with them—or perhaps they stayed with me—when the airship took us over barren wastelands and beaches and then the sea and throughout the rest of the trip that followed. I kept track of the time absently, altered as it was for me, but remained aware that we were moving and getting closer to our destination. When, through a combination of the airship's travel and the turning of the planet, we were facing away from the sun, I distantly sensed that we were close and opened my eyes.
And when I did, I saw my Elementals watching me, all of them spirits within the ship. For a moment, I thought that they'd returned the moment I'd awoke, but realized just as quickly that that wasn't the case. What I saw before me now were just the parts of them that were small enough to stay beside me, within the limits of my power. That was true, if somewhat less so, of what I'd felt out there—that had been them, too, just…more of them. Pieces of them that I had never been able to see, parts of a greater whole. When my skill with my Elementals improved, I wasn't making them stronger, as such, I was merely drawing upon more of them.
Obviously, I told myself, somewhat annoyed I hadn't fully realized it until now. As it leveled up, Summon Elemental didn't make the Elementals themselves stronger, it merely allowed me to summon more Elementals which I happened to be able to shape into a single, more powerful form. Even the name of the skill should have told me that. Only a small fragment of their awareness was here with me, compressed down to a human scale and time frame, while most of them was scattered throughout the elements they embodied. It was both humbling and amazing to realize that as I looked at them and I smiled at them all.
When they smiled back, I felt certain that they'd seen me out there, as I'd seen them. I guess that no matter where I went, they were watching over me.
"Awake?" Violet asked, looking back at me. Gou was standing at her feet, allowing her to scratch his ears and looking like a normal dog if one ignored the fact that were going through a spot of turbulence and yet the motions of the ship completely failed to move him. Noticing that I was awake, he turned back towards me, trotting my way and absently leaping into my lap to sniff at Autumn's blossom. My daughter was wrapped tightly around my chest, quietly enjoying herself as she fed upon the Aura I expended—a fair bit over ten million MP thus far. She was squeezing me hard, I noted; tightly enough that she would have left marks in steel and horrific wounds in a normal human. Was she having a bad dream?
"Wasn't asleep," I answered, stroking her petals absently. "Just meditating."
She pondered me for a moment before shaking her head.
"I'm actually not sure if that's a joke or not," She said.
"It wasn't," I assured her, removing my seatbelt and ignoring the turbulence as a matter of course as I rose. Turning my head slightly to the side, I looked at my grandmother who was hard at work on her scroll. "Grandmother, there's a herd of Goliaths less than thirty kilometers from the walls of the kingdom."
She kept working for a moment, but I knew she'd heard me by the slight frown that crossed her face. Looking into her scroll, I saw her bring up a file on Grimm movements in the area and check it over, but I finished reading it before she did.
"Thirty to fifty is the norm," I told her.
She nodded once, reading the file for herself before typing something. Towards the front, Violet looked at us both with a raised eyebrow, but said nothing.
"Do you think something's wrong?" My grandmother asked, not mentioning what happened the last time we saw a Goliath or bringing up the possibility of a repeat incident.
I shrugged.
"They aren't moving particularly fast, either, so probably not—and if they tried anything, they'd be noticed by the sensors in the pass. But they are there." I said. "And I do kind of hate Goliaths."
"How many?"
"Three," I said, double checking. "It's a smaller herd than normal."
She closed a window and typed a few words in a document, probably more to do something while she was thinking than anything else.
"Could you kill them all and catch up to us?" She asked.
I cracked my neck and nodded.
"Then do so," She gestured dismissively, glancing towards Violet once, who nodded. "Return before we get near the city."
"Got it," I answered, going to the doors of the airship. I saw the pilot look up to glance quickly at us and knew that Grandmother wouldn't have him do that unless she trusted him completely. "Open this for me, would you?"
"Sir…" He whispered quietly, risking a look back.
"Do it," Grandmother commanded and a moment later the hatch was opening. I controlled the air absently to keep the open door from making a disturbance and stepped into open air a moment later.
Time to get some exercise, I thought, marveling at how things changed.
XxXXxX
MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
Second Try
I hit the ground running and took off through the rock fields of Mistral. Moving quickly enough to bake the stone around me, I reached out with my senses and checked my surroundings again. In the distance, I could sense the volcanic fields to Mistral's southern border and could literally taste—and see and hear and everything else—the volcanic ash and smoke that rose into the sky. To the east and west rested the ocean and an inland sea, the latter of which was now behind me, and the winds carried the cool touch of the waves and the smell of salt. I could feel the ice to the north and heat to the south as well as the ground beneath my feet and knew where those extremes gave way to more normal climates, with fields and forests. Like its people, the land around Mistral was a strange, perhaps even conflicting, patchwork, made of oddities that somehow managed to balance. Somehow, mankind had found a way.
And naturally, so had the Grimm. As my senses expanded, I marked each and every one that I sensed. I tracked them by displacements in the water and air, vibrations in the earth, interplays of heat and charges, and through a myriad of my own senses. Even this close to the walls of Mistral, the creatures of Grimm thrived, from twisted shapes that resembled sharks, octopi, and whales, to the draconic Tyrant Scales and towering Goliaths. The common Beowolves ran through the forests, but I also sensed mighty Calydons leading packs of Boarbatusk, Nemeans waiting in the plains, as well as the other beasts that lived beyond the safety of the kingdoms. They were titanic creatures, one and all; monsters great enough to have earned their places in storybooks and tales of terror.
A part of me, a large part, wanted to swing by and have a go at a few of them just for fun, but there'd be time for that later so I stayed focused. Tensing minutely as I came to a cliff, I Lunged hard and high into the air, rising most of the way to the ship I'd left behind me before contorting in the air to put my feet above me. Pausing for a moment to target myself, I raised my Acceleration abruptly and Lunged again, drawing Bai Hu around me for just an instant and hiding him beneath an illusion. All but flying through the air, I collided head-on with the first Goliath and then rebounded to the second and then the third as if I were a human pinball, each impact rocking the elephantine monsters. Though it didn't quite blow them away, they all went skidding along the ground in different directions, their pillar like feet leaving massive trenches as the force pushed them away.
Landing hard on the ground a fraction of a second after impacting with the third Goliath, the fields of stone shattered beneath my feet and threw dust high. I rose easily, Aura curled protectively around Autumn's still sleeping form just in case something went awry, and turned to face the Goliaths even as Bai Hu momentarily withdrew. There was probably no point in worrying about it with the ship so far behind me and the city so far ahead—especially when everyone on the ship already knew except the pilot, who I was fairly sure would never tell anyone anything my Grandmother didn't want him to—but there was no reason to get careless now, was there?
Besides, I didn't need it for this. No, I wanted to try something a little bit different this time.
"Hey, guys," I greeted, cracking my neck as I looked up—and up and up and up, because the beasts were about twenty stories tall a piece—at the Goliaths. "What's up?"
The Goliath's looked down at me with blank, red eyes, trunks twitching as they saw the creature that had attacked them. For a second, no one made a sound and I got the feeling we were all waiting for each other to act—but I remained as I was, fearless and patient as I waited for the monsters to make the first move. I let my gaze trace slowly to the strongest of the beasts, wondering how it measured up to the one I'd fought before, but didn't otherwise react.
Whose Footsteps Shake the Earth
LV84
Goliath
After another moment of silence—or perhaps silent communication—I felt something change and quickly focused on the smallest Goliath as it lifted its trunk and gathered familiar power within its mouth. It only took it moments to charge the attack, but it was still more than enough time for me to observe the process. A massive amount of heat gathered in the creature's mouth, directed and focused by the inside of its throat, and I took this chance to take a closer look at the process. The flesh of the beast shifted and moved on a cellular level, the dark cells changing in structure and shape to aid in some kind of reaction, even as they were fueled by power that rose from within the creature's body. I watched the Goliath's throat…I suppose the only term was activate, weaponizing itself before my very eyes. Looking past that, I could see materials being supplied and consumed by the cells, accelerating and focusing the gathering heat again and again, even as it prepared to release it at its target.
But even with the head start, I shot first. At the last moment, I gathered my power into a Thunderbolt and threw it hard, straight into the Goliath's open maw, unleashing a rush of electricity to play havoc with the process occurring within its body—
And then I vanished. Slipping quietly under an illusion, I quickly stepped aside, moving silently out of the line of fire for an attack that never came. Lightning wreathed the Goliath's mouth as if it were foaming, but nothing happened as the power it had gathered was neither released nor allowed to run loose within its body. The patterns in its throat shifted at the sudden attack, preventing its own weapon from firing instead of risking that power turning on the Goliath. The Grimm stuff bore the touch of electricity well—once again far too well for it to be at all natural—and nothing else happened as the beast began scanning the surroundings for me. I suppose I wasn't surprised, though; if I were building some type of mystical death machine, I'd probably install a circuit breaker to keep it from exploding in response to random power surges, too. Making sure that hitting the obvious, glowing weak point didn't actually accomplish much seemed like it would be fairly logical as well.
Still, it was interesting, I admitted. I'd wanted to observe a Goliath again, specifically for the heat ray it had fired, having now seen Crom Cruach do something similar on a much larger scale. I'd wondered how creatures without Aura had been able to do such a thing—I mean, attributing anything the Grimm did to conventional biology was rather absurd, but organic death rays were pretty out there, even so. I'd seen and heard of other examples, too; of particularly massive Nevermores whipping up tempests with their wings, of aquatic beasts manipulating the currents, and, of course, I'd seen Ziz casually unleash a horrific storm of fire and death upon waking up. And having been laser sniped by Crom Cruach on top of that…it made me wonder how, because knowing that might tell me that much more about what I was dealing with.
But this…the term biological weaponry was a bit ironic in this case, because they were literally turning parts of their body into weapons. Suddenly, I was reminded of the evil, magical, sapient nanobots theory I'd spoken to Ozpin about during the fight against Conquest. Thinking about it that way, I supposed there were explanations for some of the crazy shit the Grimm could do—and if they were outlandish, they were no more so then the absurd notion that they were capable of any of the things they did solely through biology. I'd already accepted that they had been designed and combined, presumably, with materials provided by Malkuth Theory or whatever else, I suppose it wasn't completely absurd. Something like Crom Cruach could even devour materials underground, process them within its body, and generate all sorts of horrifying weapons.
It was something to look into.
More than that, it was a place to start, and that's all I'd really wanted from this. Given time to train, perhaps my Metamorphosis would reveal more, but for now…
"That was informative," I said, smiling at the Goliath's as I was revealed. The illusions I'd curled around myself warped briefly before being sucked into the light I'd gathered in my right hand. The night darkened further, seeming to almost empty the sky above us as light fled from it. The rising surge of my Aura illuminated my surroundings only briefly before it was torn away from my skin and slithered into my fingers. For a moment, I seemed to hold the only light in the world, at once burning steadily and illuminating nothing but itself. "So thanks. But I don't need anything else from you, so you can just go ahead and die now."
Then the moment passed and night turned to day.
Light poured from my hands in a blinding torrent, burning away the shadows and Grimm alike. It took the Goliath in the side and pierced through it as if it weren't even there. Where the creature's dark flesh was touched by my Lux Aeterna, it simply melted away, replaced by shining wounds that seemed to devour its body further, pushing outwards to enlarge the already massive wound my attack had made. The Grimm shifted as the attack struck but didn't even have time to scream as it was swept away—so its fellows screamed for it, trunks rising in a trumpeting chorus and they edged away from the light. Even though they weren't the targets of the attack, wounds began to mark their skin as if they were burning, mere proximity shredding their skin.
I didn't flinch away even as the light rose into the sky like a second sun. I'd angled it upwards, just in case, and it split the heavens like a bridge as it pierced the darkness around it. In its wake, the sky was briefly marked with everything from bright daytime blues to the beautiful colors of dusk and dawn, and where the light didn't blind, it illuminated as if it were noon instead of night.
And when it faded, everything in its path was gone. All that was left of the Goliath I'd hit were the mighty pillars of its legs, the rest of its body gone as if it had simply stopped existing. The edges of what remained were smooth where they didn't erupt with white and silver fire, but from its belly to its trunk…
I'd made the Goliath disappear.
To either side of the beast, its companions were alive, if worse for wear. They smoked where the light had burned them, the color lightening as it rose from their skin—black to gray to a pure and scattering white that rose into the sky like snow falling in reverse—and in places they seemed just a touch thinner, as if partially melted away. Even so, they didn't back down and their eyes focused on me intently, crimson orbs intelligent and waiting. I could see them both gathering power as I stood, weakened from the sheer breadth of power I'd just released. I felt myself sweating again, panting even as I met their eyes, but it wasn't enough to keep me from chuckling.
"Please," I rolled my eyes as I felt my power return with each passing second. Already, a Magic Missile had formed in either hand and I launched one at each of the second Goliath's eyes. The moment they left my hands, I was gone, Lunging away from an counterattack and vanishing beneath another illusion. I slid into the ground like it was water, barely slowing as I did, and circled behind them even as I gave myself a moment's rest. My Mana Reactor was working full force, accelerating the return of my strength, and less than a second after the first attack I was prepared.
When I slipped out of the ground on the opposite side of the Goliaths, one was trumpeting loudly, red eyes popping under the force of my attacks. Heat and power poured from the jaws of the other, slagging the stony wasteland around us, just missing me entirely thanks to my quick escape. Smile widening, I crouched slightly before leaping high into the air, palming another pair of Missiles as I focused on my already wounded prey. I launched both at the back of its head, where the skull met the neck, and followed it up with eight more over the course of a second. The Goliath jerked once, pained scream coming to a sudden halt. It quivered in place for a moment, rocking slightly on its feet, before beginning to topple, its sheer size making the motion slow.
The other Goliath turned to see its companion come crashing down, its size and weight shattering the ground beneath it as it fell. Its head paused on its fellow's figure for only a moment before continuing to turn, crimson orbs searching—until I kindly saved it the trouble.
"What are you going to do, moving that slow?" I asked as I landed on its mask, standing vertically on the boney material so I could look down at it. Though its eyes had no pupils, they shifted in its skull to focus on my comparatively tiny form. I already had another pair of Magic Missiles at the ready and twirled them absently as I waited, their tips hovering just above eyes larger than my entire body. The Goliath twitched once, trunk rising—and I promptly lifted both high above my head before slamming them straight down into its right eye. It cried out, the sound loud enough to blow a normal person's ear drums and shake them to the bones, but didn't stop. Shaking its head roughly from side to side, it tried to throw me off and away, and so I obligingly went, skating down its trunk and gliding gently away. It stomped its feet hard to shake the earth, cried out with a roar like thunder, but I merely floated on the breeze and danced away from it all, vanishing beneath another illusion.
With its remaining eye, I saw it looking for me even as its trunk spewed a waterfall of disgusting black fluid. The tar-like substance pooled on its back and face, oozing down over its ruined eye, and immediately began to stir. It bubbled up into familiar shapes, stretching into long wings and wicked claws. Long limbs stretched up towards the sky as if reaching for the night and a myriad of voices cried out as a legion of monsters was born into the world.
It was a little sad, I thought. Being born only to die.
A Flare crashed down on the Goliath's back, sending fire cascading over its form. The birthing cries turned into dying screams as Grimm flesh melted like wax in the heat and the tar from which they were born ignited. The Goliath itself, a creature capable of bathing in lava, merely hunched its shoulders against the flames, but everything it had summoned or created burned quite nicely, sending up horrible screams and plumes of noxious black smoke.
"Brace yourself," I warned as I reappeared a few seconds later, stomping hard on the ground. The ground shook as Tremblor created a localized earthquake and Ereb slid into the earth to make the ground buckle and writhe. The Goliath rocked and slipped, struggling to remain upright as the ground beneath its feet literally fought against it, but it was too much and it finally lost its footing. I kindly assisted its resulting fall with a Gravity Crash focused on its ribcage, multiplying its already titanic weight along with the speed of its fall. Stone shattered in every direction even as a deep imprint appeared on the Goliath's side, as if it had been struck by a giant's hammer.
Slowly, I began walking towards its fallen figure, watching dispassionately as its legs and trunk twitched as it struggled to rise. I formed another Magic Missile in my left hand as I went, charging it as I moved to face the creature again. On its left side as it was, it's remaining eye was close to the ground, and I stopped before it, standing like an ant before an elephant. Fallen and in pain as it was, it turned its gaze on me, still watching me quietly. It wasn't afraid and wouldn't have begged for mercy even if it could, but something in its crimson eye glimmered.
It would have been impossible to miss the movement of its trunk, even if I hadn't had such keen eyes—but this time I didn't dodge. I held out my free hand silently and let the swing smash into it full force, pushing into the blow as it did. Beneath my concealing illusion, I felt my flared Aura react, slipping briefly back into my skin. My Adamant skin and the Sacrifice to the Wolf swelled with that power, almost pushing against one another as they did, before aligning smoothly.
The ground to the left of me shattered for forty meters, but I didn't move. With my Aura gathered around me, there was more to me than mere mass, size, and weight, and though I faced the power of the Goliath head on, I didn't even budge. Instead, the force of its own attack worked against it, driving my arm up to the shoulder in its own flesh. I felt something hard touch my hand and grasped it tightly, holding it fast as it tried to pull away even as I continued to meet its eye.
"Was this some kind of test, then?" I asked as if bored. "Did you want to see that I'd gotten stronger?"
I lifted my fully charged Missile and aimed at its eye.
"Well, look all you want," I said.
The Goliath's eye exploded as the spear of light flew straight through its head and I shook off its trunk as I turned away.
XxXXxX
MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
First Sight
Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!
It was done.
I exhaled slowly as the windows appeared, confirming my victory. Four levels wasn't a bad haul for the amount of effort I'd put into this, though I couldn't help but remember what I'd gotten from the first Goliath I'd defeated and how large a difference there was, now that I was a bit closer to the monsters in level. Even so, I was rather pleased as I felt the familiar shift in my power, relatively minute as it now was. I glanced around to see that my item drops had already formed and sent Levant out to fetch them with a quick breeze. Most of it seemed to be money, but there were a scattering of things here and there—nothing on par with the mask and clothes I'd already gotten from the first Goliath I'd fought, but a few things that looked like they might be interesting nonetheless. A few bars of metal, a roll of paper, that type of thing.
Taking only a moment to Observe them, I then turned my gaze up towards the slowly approaching ship above. I could hop back up there easily enough or else go home the fast way, but either way, I knew I didn't want to stay here long. Just in case their creator had been observing things through their eyes, I'd wanted to put on a show and give at least the appearance of strength, but only a blind man could have missed that lightshow and I'd rather not explain myself unnecessarily when people inevitably showed up to ask about what had happened. I'd need to go soon, however I chose to do so, but…
Well, I suppose I had a minute or two to address another issue.
That decided, I looked down, a slight frown touching my lips.
"I'm sorry. Did I wake you, sweetie?" I asked, lifting a hand to touch my daughter's petals. I'd been a touch nervous, even though I was certain I'd be able to protect her—this was the first time I'd brought her into a combat situation and while the opponent wasn't…threatening, per se, I'd been aware of that. For the time being, however, I wanted to keep her as close to me as possible, so she could feed off the Aura I burned around the clock. I'd had to keep her out of things for a while, due to the recent string of emergencies and the danger the training I'd undergone might have posed to her, but now…with my new skills especially, I wanted to feed her all the power I could so that she'd get big and strong. With things as they were now…well, I couldn't be sure of anything, but I'd rather she be able to protect herself and at the moment, she couldn't. At the rate I fed her experience, I was hoping that would change soon, but…
This was a little unexpected.
Her grip, if anything had tightened on me, squeezing down hard on my waist, shoulders, and neck. Her vines quivered for several seconds, making her tiny form shake like a, well, like a leaf—and then spots of bright white abruptly began to shine through the green of her skin. They pulsed as they flowed up towards her blossom, beating like a hundred miniature hearts, and then her blossom twitched. Autumn's flower opened wide as she woke fully, the interior of the petal now pure as freshly fallen snow even as the outside remained a lively red.
And at the center, revealing itself slowly as the rose spread its petals, was a single, lidless eye. It was a simple organ as eyes went, I knew the moment I peered into her flesh, but it looked functional enough. It might not have been able to perceive a range of colors, but it could perceive light just fine, even though the iris was so pale it seemed to blend right into the sclera as it rolled within a nonexistent socket.
This…was a surprise.
But not an unpleasant one.
Slowly, I lifted a hand, smiling down at her as she opened a true eye for the first time. Already, I could see the beginning of other growths, signs of where they would later hang like fruits, but I lifted a hand to touch her vines as she went still, sole eye locked on my face.
"Be careful not to strain yourself," I whispered soothingly, speaking aloud even as I let my Aura convey the real information. She squeezed me tighter, cords like garrote wire at my throat, but I cracked my neck once and ignored the feeling. Her eye stayed locked on me the entire time, wide and unblinking for obvious reasons. I wondered if I looked strange to her which made me think about how alien everything must seem to someone viewing the world for the first time. "There will be plenty of time later and I'll help you. You don't have to rush."
Her eye didn't move from my face, but the jerking motions across her form ceased as the additional eyes stopped trying to bubble up to the surface.
"Hm…is this because of Lux Aeterna, perhaps?" I continued to speak, a part of me wondering if she'd develop the ability to hear next. "Something in the light that allowed you to see? Or was it something about the Grimm? I suppose this was your first time being near either, but…I suppose we can look into that later. For the moment, I'm just glad you can see me. Well, what do you think of your old man? I'm not too hideous, am I?"
Her eye twitched and then hung limply to the side for a moment. Then her branches trembled for a moment, stem-like structure extending up above me and then curving to hang back down right in front of my face. The veins around her white eye were green instead of red and the retina behind it seemingly made of some type of conductive wood, but for a moment she…just looked at me, pondering my face as I looked back with a smile. Additional vines and then branches extended to grow over my face, twitching slightly back and forth as she watched, as if—
"Ah, of course," I said, reaching into my Inventory to withdraw a mirror to hold up to her. "Here I am standing around—you must be more curious about what you look like. Well? Beautiful, aren't you?"
Autumn shifted her attention to the mirror at my words, expression almost eager as vines and branches grew around it and held it fast. She peered closer and closer at her reflection until her eye bumped right into it and she drew back with a flinch, raising curling, thorny vines like tiny fists. She approached the mirror more cautiously this time, coming closer and closer—and then split her eye into four quarters that unfurled into a toothy interior. She pressed it flat against the mirror's surface as if to eat her own reflection, but drew back after a moment when that failed, 'petals' folding back into the shape of an eye.
"I told you," I whispered gently. "That's you. Try moving. See how it moves with you? That's because it's your reflection."
She seemed to consider that, petals flexing slightly opened and closed before spots of color began to grow across them. She drew back thoughtfully, form liquefying around her eye. It surged up and over, taking the form of one of those eyeless heads she seemed to favor—except it wasn't quite eyeless anymore. As she opened its jaws wide, a massive orb was revealed behind the rows of knifelike teeth.
It only seemed to take her a moment to realize the flaws of such a design and her body turned to quicksilver yet again.
"Try putting your eye on top, maybe?" I suggested kindly. "That way it won't get in the way when you're eating and you won't have to blind yourself to open your mouth, either. See? That's how daddy does it."
She retained more or less the same shape, returning to her eyeless form briefly before tumorous growths began to bubble up on her skin, bursting to reveal an array of randomly placed eyes. I saw several of them focus on her mirror image and then turn up to look at me.
"I think you look beautiful," I assured her, reaching out to trace a finger across her face. "Might want to spread the eyes out a bit more to increase your field of vision and give them some form of protection, but it's a very good start. Now that you can see, we'll be able to work on all kinds of things, too. There's so much I've wanted to show you, Autumn, and with your shapeshifting…if you can see, we should be able to come up with something for the other senses, too. Your eyes are beautiful, but they could use a little fine tuning, so you can see color better, but…"
I clicked my tongue, stopping myself.
"Sorry," I apologized. "I'm getting ahead of myself, forgive me. I'm just really excited right now."
Her form rippled again, adding rows of crown-like ridges down her back and sides, white in the center with a rose red trim. Additional eyes grew into place on the ridges, looking in every direction as Autumn seemed to rejoice in her newfound sense of sight. She writhed in midair before splitting down the center, dividing into a pair of identical shapes as she pulled from the pool of mass she'd consumed. Given what little I now know about Malkuth theory, I had to wonder if that was related to where she kept the majority of her mass at any given time. It was something to keep in mind given that she couldn't be keeping all of it here anymore. Dimensional shenanigans, perhaps?
Putting a hand on each of her heads, I brushed a finger down the length of her ridges, which rose in place at the touch. I smiled at her and then rubbed a soothing circle between a pair of differently sized eyes.
"Yes, you're right," I said. "I should introduce you to the others again, now that you can see their faces. Let's go."
XxXXxX
If the airships pilot had ever thought about betraying the Roma family, I suspected he reconsidered that—along with all his other life choices—as we crowded around Autumn. She'd reverted to her compact, rose-like form to allow me to better carry her into the ship, but once I'd made the big reveal she expanded into a small tree, enlarged eyes hanging from her branches like fruits. As a tolerance for weirdness was something of a necessity for Hunters, this didn't seem to bother anyone in my family, but the pilot had focused his eyes straight ahead, looking back only when Autumn had unfurled her eyes into toothed blossoms to devour the snacks Violet had taken to tossing her. After that, though, he didn't look back, even at the crunching sounds.
"We'll be landing momentarily, Mrs. Roma," He said only a touch stiffly.
"Thank you, Vikare," Grandmother answered distractedly, only occasionally toying with the scroll on her lap as she watched her great-granddaughter take in the contents of the ship. It all must have been pretty odd for Autumn, seeing faces—and everything else—for the first time. Gou had approached her quickly, which I feared might have confused her; seeing what her family so far all looked like and suddenly there was a dog, too? But she didn't seem to have any particular problems, likely because she didn't have a large enough frame of reference to realize it was odd in the first place. He and I were still the only ones who could directly communicate with her anyway and she accepted him readily once she attached a 'voice' to his face. And though I answered her silent questions as best as I was able, he translated her words to the others before I had a chance.
"Autumn says that your eye is very beautiful, Ms. Violet," He said as ropes of green vines slowly grew to cover him. "She can…sense it in ways beyond her newfound sight and seems to consider it quite vivid."
"Yeah?" Violet preened at the words. "Why thank you, Autumn. I think your petals are very beautiful as well. You look like an Osiria; it's a nice look."
"She can sense the Aura?" Olivia guessed.
"Mm," I replied. "I wasn't sure how clearly she could perceive the world that way, but having eyes seems to help. I suppose it allows her to tell exactly what it is she's sensing."
Indigo's shadow stretched across the airship at the words, slipping under and around Autumn and Gou. Where their shadows touched her, they came alive, flowing like someone had spilt oil on the ground to take the shape of a growing plant, dark blossoms upon its branches. Autumn's eyes immediately dropped to the floor and she froze, taking a moment to realize the Aura was Indigo's. Once she did, she tried her best to follow along, branches spreading into the air and flowers opening as she shadowed her shadow. When she did, Indigo's shadow shifted, its humanoid shape separating from the rest of the mass and smiling at her niece brightly.
By which, of course, I meant that the shadow pulled away, leaving a spot of light in the darkness, curved in a crescent smile. Other dark shapes began to appear beside her as the rest of our shadows were dragged to stand beside Autumn's, and then others formed in the shape of my missing sisters and even my father—a family portrait done in source-less shadows.
"I hadn't realized you were an artist," I told her, glancing her way. She shrugged once, glancing down at the floor with a half-smile.
"You should see me with shadow puppets," She said, lifting a hand and making a scissoring motion with middle and index fingers. On the wall next to her, a dragon exhaled a wave of dark fire over a shadowing village, wings spread open wide.
I chuckled slightly and tilted my head her way.
"That's your family, Autumn," Violet told her niece. "Or an image of them, at least. We're a bit more colorful in real life, you see."
"She says she's sure you all look beautiful," Gou answered, seated and still as he upheld his self-appointed duties. "She thanks you kindly for the picture as well, Ms. Indigo, and hopes to see them all again herself, in time."
"I'm sure there will be chances," Indigo promised.
Mom peered down at both the flower and the dog quietly, rubbing her shoulder where old flesh met new. She was the newest to the idea of a talking dog—ignoring the pilot who I wasn't sure was actually aware it was the dog. When he'd heard a new voice start talking, he'd simply gripped the controls harder and continued to stare forwards. I got the feeling he was eager to land.
"You're remarkably well-spoken, Gou," She praised. "I would have thought you'd have more trouble, being new to the language, but you compose yourself admirably."
"I thank you for saying so, Mrs. Arc," He replied, tone both polite and humble. "I often fear that I shall exhaust my grasp of your language and embarrass myself, but I like to think that I have done my best thus far."
"Oh, there's no need to worry about that," She replied. "You speak better than many people I know, I assure you."
I chuckled again as Gou inclined his head respectfully. He'd grown quite a bit in the months since I'd first found him and was well on his way to the average size of his breed—but I had no idea how large he'd actually end up being, considering everything that had happened to him as my Familiar. Under the circumstances, I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up a giant, but I'd handle that if it came up.
For the time being though, everyone's attention was on him and Autumn.
Shifting my leg slightly, I bumped it lightly against my grandmother's. Though she didn't react in any obvious way, I felt her attention shift towards me immediately, even as I turned my head to look at Olivia. My youngest sister was letting her power spill through the air, arranging a delicate framework around Autumn and Gou in an attempt to draw her niece's attention as well.
"When do you start working, Olivia?" I asked, making her sigh.
"As soon as we get back, really," She said. "The semester starts next week, after all."
"That when the new students have initiation, right? I guess they'll want to do that over the weekend so they don't interfere with classes."
"That's how they did it at Beacon," She nodded. "Everyone gets in over the weekend before classes so the newbies can get shot off of a cliff and everyone else can point and laugh."
"Huh," I considered, making her quirk an eyebrow.
"Why?" She asked. "Are you interested?"
"A little bit," I admitted. "I was thinking on checking up on some of the friends I made in Mistral last time."
"That Pyrrha girl?" Olivia asked, tilting her head and squinting at me. "If so, you might be a touch late. She's probably in Vale by now."
"Oh?" I asked, a touch surprised but only for a moment. I hadn't really given much thought to where Pyrrha might go after Sanctum, but going to Haven hadn't seemed to fill her with enthusiasm. Thinking about it and the way she'd acted when last we'd spoken…it really wasn't all that surprising. "Hm…yeah, I can see it. I kind of wish I'd gotten a chance to say goodbye, but I can always shoot her a message, I suppose. She'll do well at Beacon, I think. But she wasn't the only person I was talking about, actually; Kyanos and the others are probably getting ready for Haven right about now. I wouldn't mind checking in on them. I never got a chance to see much of Haven either, now that I think about it."
"I actually have some business to attend to in Haven soon," Grandmother said, catching onto my intentions quickly, even if she wasn't clear on why yet. "I try to take something of a hand in things every year, you see, just to keep an eye on things. If you'd like, you can accompany me, Jaune. I can show you around the campus as well—or Olivia could, if she has the time?"
"Uh…" Olivia seemed to consider that quickly. "Yeah, I should be able to make some time.
"Cool. Thank you, Grandmother, Olivia," I answered, smiling at both of them. In the rush to get everything packed and ready to go, I hadn't had a chance to bring her and Olivia into things without drawing the attention of the others. Well, perhaps that wasn't completely true; there was a part of me, an admittedly paranoid part, that felt it would be wise to get a better grasp of the situation before bringing my grandmother, much less my sister, into this. Whoever this third party of ours was, they were strong enough and smart enough that Raven was working with them even if she didn't really like the idea. If something happened…best to be sure, just in case. It would only take a glance to get a rough idea of how dangerous they were and if they were in the school, I'd find them quickly. "I'd like to take a look around, if it's not too much trouble. A lot of people my age will be going there, after all; maybe I'll meet someone interesting."
"Oh?" Olivia asked. "Looking to make some friends?"
"Always," I replied, nudging her foot with a toe. "I have a few other friends to check on when we land, too."
I nodded towards the window a moment before we began to lower.
"Ma'am, we're here," The pilot said. "Shall I get the car?"
"That won't be necessary, Vikare," She said, smile almost kind even as she glanced at me inquisitively. "You've been away from home for a while now and we're all Hunter's here. We can walk—and I for one would like to see my city again. Hopefully nothing's burned down while I was away."
XxXXxX
MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
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I let my senses flow across the city, searching even as I calmly walked with my family. Even though it had only been a short while since I'd last been here, both my power and my senses had grown by leaps and bounds since then and with my new senses…
It was almost like I was seeing the city for the first time. Crocea Mors slipped silently from reflection to reflection, a mercurial figure without a source to be found, hopping between a hundred pieces of steel. Levant found the highest structure in the area and stood at its edge, power expanding through the air currents as they flowed between buildings. Xihai flowed through rivers and pipelines alike even as Vulturnus raced through a glowing web of power lines. Suryasta peered out of fireplaces and candles, furnaces and engines, forming pictures in my mind written in shifting flames, which Ereb walked beneath my feet, matching my stride exactly as he walked on the underside of the street, in the hidden earth.
But even without my Elementals eyes, the city was different now. I felt thousands of emotions bubbling up like air in the sea; ephemeral hopes, seething anger, and hundreds of different flavors of love and fear and despair alike. I felt a sudden shock of a man watching a horror movie, the deep-seated fear of a woman waiting in a hospital, the burning surety of a young man who thought he knew what love was and the quiet certainty of his parents who didn't need any grandiose displays or proclamations to know what they had. There was the pain of the grieving, the fear of a child huddling in the dark as her parents fought—though that was a fear that had the taste of routine, as did her parent's anger, sadness, and guilt. There was exhaustion in the back alleys, joy in a nursery, enough dreams to fill the skies, and celebrations gross and subtle.
Things meant to be kept private, locked behind walls and doors—but no wall, physical or mental, were enough to keep me out. Even without trying, even just standing there, I felt them all. I knewthem all, even if I dismissed most of what I sensed with no more than a cursory glance, as my passive Empathy kept we aware of the truth of the city and its many people, things I hadn't even thought about previously.
And then my more physical senses came into play. I picked up every radio signal in the city, every show on the air, and a flood of information from every direction. Though I could focus my Clairvoyance and ESP far better than I could my Empathy, I kept my senses open as I searched for old friends and new enemies alike. I heard everything around me, saw things on levels that most people probably didn't know existed, smelt traces of things that had happened days or weeks ago, and more.
Once again, I had to give thanks to the Gamer's Body and Mind, without which I was sure I'd have long since been driven mad by my own powers. My Empathy alone would likely have driven me far away from any city and just attempting to use my other senses the way I did now would likely have probably driven me to my knees. Instead, it had reduced all of that to little more than an occasional agony that I'd quickly gotten used to healing and even that had faded as the power of my skills increased. Remaining constantly aware of my surroundings had become a simple habit to maintain now and I was able to stay calm and focused despite the scope of my senses.
As such, it didn't take me long to find what I was looking for. It was simply a matter of searched for a person of the right shape, size, and body mass while screening out anyone who didn't fit. Since my target was a rather distinctive person besides, it didn't take me long to find him.
"Adam," I spoke across the distance without moving my mouth, Levant giving form to the words with her own lips as she stood invisibly by my friend.
At the sound of my disembodied voice, he nearly jumped out of his own skin, a hand falling to a weapon as rose and spun around. Seeing nothing, Adam paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes beneath his mask.
"Jaune," He said after a moment to calm himself. "Don't do that. What if I hadn't been alone?"
"Then I'd have waited until you weren't," I said reasonably. "I'm not an idiot, Adam; I checked before I started talking—no one's nearby. Feel free to keep talking at the top of your voice, by the way, because I silenced the room, too."
He looked around as if to see some evidence to support my claim, a frown on his lips.
"Okay," He nodded in acceptance after a moment. "Fine. Jaune, don't do that—because you nearly gave me a fucking heart attack."
"I also improved my healing abilities recently," I informed him helpfully. "Should you have suffered a heart attack, I'd have rushed to help you."
"That's nice," Adam's frown became a scowl. "But you aren't promising not to do that again. Don't think I haven't fucking noticed."
I hummed noncommittally, making the sound come from all around him just to be an ass.
Adam snorted like a bull.
"I heard you might be coming to town," He said after a minute. "Didn't think it would be quite so soon, though I'm not sure why, knowing you."
"I don't like wasting time," I admitted. "I take it Raven told you the important parts?"
"God only knows," He said. "She was obviously keeping stuff to herself, but I wouldn't know if it was important or not. Your names came up, though—both of them, along with several of your family members. Supposedly, you're working for yourself."
"One of the perks of being a self-made man," I answered. "You get to be your own boss."
"Hah," He feigned a laugh. "But are you sure you want to bring them into this, Jaune? It looks like you're playing a pretty dangerous game."
"Well, you know how much I love my games," I replied. "But yes, I'm sure. For better or for worse, I trust Raven."
"You trust her with the lives of your family," Adam wondered. "But not enough to tell her who you really are?"
"In fairness, even I'm not sure who that is anymore."
"What?"
"It's…a long story," I sighed. "I don't know what Raven told you, but…well, a lot of what I told her was true, if perhaps not complete—and part of that is because I don't know the complete truth. I'll tell you the full story when we meet up in person."
Adam stared ponderingly into the air for a long minute before nodding.
"Okay," He said. "As it happens, I trust you, so I'll accept that. I just hope you realize what kind of spot you're putting me in here. I haven't said anything about who you really are, but…"
He shook his head, looking aggrieved.
"I know," I answered after a moment, adding the traces of a sign to the words again. "I know, Adam. If it makes it any better, I honestly intend to tell her the truth, once I know what it is—about me and everything else. If I was the only one involved, I would have told her everything already, but you know there are other factors."
"I do," He nodded. "That's part of why I haven't said anything. But I don't like being stuck between a friend and the woman who raised me. It ends with me feeling like crap no matter what I do."
We were both silent for a moment at that before he brushed a hand through his hair and looked to the side.
"But it's whatever," He said after a moment. "You want my help looking into our new friends, right?"
"Yeah," I replied. "Raven and I are both concerned. She said you would be her representative? Anything you can tell me?"
"Not yet," He shook his head. "For something that seemingly everyone in the White Fang knows about, no one seems to have any actual information. Raven put me in charge of this recently to try and find out more, but I haven't made any progress yet. Seems their boss is out of town."
I wanted to frown, but Adam wouldn't have seen it and it might have drawn my family's attention so I kept it inside. But…
"I was told she was working out of Haven," I wondered. "Has that changed?"
"Not to my knowledge," Adam replied. "But it seems she wanted to make the most of her break. We only found out recently."
"Oh?" I asked, trying to force the impression of an inquisitively quirked eyebrow into my tone. "How'd they get that one passed Raven?"
"Seems they have an illusionist on their side," He answered. "She left, the illusionist took her place, we didn't even realize until yesterday. Raven was pissed, let me tell you, but—"
"But what are you going to do about it?" I interrupted. "Say it's like they don't even trust us, when we only knew about it because we were watching them constantly?"
"Yeah," Adam smiled grimly. "Sort of forfeited the moral high ground there so we decided to just pretend like we didn't notice anything. Knowing that they have an illusionist is help in its own right, besides."
"True," I agreed, having already filed that fact away. Its stuff like this that makes me feel vindicated in my paranoia and reminded me of why I scanned the ever loving shit out of everything I encountered. "Do we know where she went?"
"Apparently…to Vale," He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Son of a bitch," I said, bemused. "But they'll be back by the time Haven starts?"
"Presumably," He shrugged. "What little I've found seems to point towards that. How do you want to handle this?"
"I've got a few ideas," I answered. "But it'll be easier to just show you. You free tonight?"
"Oh, are you coming down here?" He asked, faking surprise. "I was worried I was the only one getting tired of your stupid Voice of God impression."
I watched him sullenly for a moment, knowing he couldn't see me, and promptly took revenge for that comment.
"But if they have an illusionist on their side," I pretended to muse. "We'll need to be more careful from now on…"
Adam paused, gears turning fast enough that for a moment I thought I could hear them.
"Jaune," He started before hesitate. "Jaune, no. Don't—"
"Don't worry," I said, ignoring his words entirely and speaking over him. "I'll make an entrance so you know it's me."
"Oh my fucking God," Adam swore tiredly, shoulders falling. "Jaune, look, I'll…look, I'll just believe it's you, okay? Just knock on my door like a normal person. Hell, there's a bunch of stuff only you can do; just prove it's you that way. Or use that goddamn barrier of yours."
I didn't reply, effectively hanging up on him.
XxXXxX
I crashed through the wall, sending shards of worn stone flying in every direction—a feat made especially impressive by the fact that Adam's room was underground. As I did, Bai Hu rose around me and roared as I discarded the illusion I held over my form, filling the room with the blinding light of my soul and the sound of shattering stone.
Adam, who'd been waiting tensely for the half-hour I'd spent watching him, fell back in his chair and hit the ground rolling. His impromptu somersault wasn't particularly graceful, but to his credit he moved quickly, drawing his sword in an instant at the sudden intrusion, lashing out with the trained instincts of a Hunter.
Letting the edge of his sword scrape roughly against my chest, I withdrew the light that surrounded me, drawing it back into my illusion. As I did, I revealed the scene we'd made of the room. A moment into their flight, the shrapnel from the wall had frozen in place and now hung suspended in the air, parting like a curtain as I walked through them before beginning to move as if in reverse, flowing over and around me in places to fully reconstruct the shattered wall. I paused for a moment to let him see me as my entry way vanished. Then I calmly walked over to his fallen chair, righted it, and claimed it for my own quirking an eyebrow at him as if he were behaving oddly in a public place.
"Adam," I greeted, making my voice sound bemused.
"Son of a bitch," Adam swore from where he'd thrown himself to the ground, the sound of my voice seeming to jar him from his silence. "You motherfucker. I take it back—I fucking hate you, Jaune. I'm gonna go tell everyone everything, you fucking insane, flamboyant…fuck."
"You don't mean that," I informed him, because he didn't. "And now you know it's me, see?"
"Go suck a bowl full of dicks," He snarled, staggering to his feet.
I chuckled, which made him growl, and then lifted my hands placating.
"I'm sorry, Adam," I said. "I was just screwing with you a bit, no harm done."
"I hit my head," He said petulantly.
"Poor baby," I said as I healed him with a glance. "Better?"
"And then I reacted without thinking and tried to cut you in half." He continued as if I hadn't spoken. Then he paused and frowned, seeming to remember who he was talking to. "Wait, never mind. I don't fucking care that I hit you; you fucking deserved it. I just wish it had actually done something so you'd remember not to barge into my room like an asshole."
"Would you like to hit me again?" I offered. "I'll let you take a shot at me if it'll make you feel better."
"It wouldn't do anything and we both know it," He said, but now that the initial surprise had faded, his heart beat was calming down. He took several deep breaths and sat down on his bed, closing his eyes for a moment. He wasn't actually all that upset with me, it's just that the shock of my entrance had left his blood running high and it took him a minute to calm down.
I waited until his emotions and heartbeat both settled before talking.
"You reacted well, though," I continued. "Granted, I gave you a warning to expect something, but you still reacted fast. Now that we know that they have an illusionist on their side, its best that you be able to respond that way if something happens. If you're lucky, your Aura will be able to tank their first attack, but there's no way of knowing if it'll do anything more than that. If you survive their first shot, you may have only a moment to respond—so it's best that you respond with extreme prejudice."
"You, too," He snarled, heartbeat rising again. "You and Raven, I swear—"
I interrupted him with a laugh.
"Oh, I should have figured," I smiled as he fell silent. "Of course Raven would try to get you ready, too. Has she been dropping in unannounced, then?"
"Yes," He nearly spat. "Woke me up at three in the morning by dropping from the ceiling with her sword drawn, so believe me, I get the idea. I can already tell she's gonna make a habit of this, so I don't need you making this even worse, okay?"
"I…might have to disagree," I shook my head. "Raven's power makes her really great at sudden sneak attacks, but that's only part of what you need to worry about with an illusionist running around."
"Whereas I need to worry about people blowing through the walls of my underground room, shining like the sun, and making an ungodly amount of noise?" He asked. "Because I'm pretty sure that you're the only one who'd do that, you crazy bastard."
"That was me being nice," I denied. "I stuck to the basics; I made a lot of light, a lot of noise, tried to disorient you. If you're targeting an opponent who seems ready for an attack from any direction, why not make it seem like an attack is coming from every direction? I just wanted to see how you'd take something like that and you did well against the first attempt."
Adam considered that for a moment before ducking his head in begrudging acceptance.
"Fine," He acknowledged with a sigh. "I forgive you and whatever."
He fell silent for a moment and I waited patiently as he considered what had just happened, pretty sure I knew what he'd say next. Sure enough, after a moment, he tilted his head at me and spoke.
"If that was you being nice, what would you have done if you were trying?" He asked.
"I might have approached you like Raven," I said, my voice changed midsentence to make hers and making him start. Chuckling for a moment, I returned my voice to normal and gave him a half smile. "Or perhaps I'd have done things exactly the same way. See, even if you try and train yourself to be wary of everyone and everything, it's hard to do that all the time, especially with the people you trust. Take right now, for example—even after that entrance I made, you're back to being completely calm."
I closed the distance between us in an instant, hand outstretched. Suddenly, I stood in front of him, the claws of my right hand pressed lightly against the fabric of his shirt. I didn't press down hard, but I made sure he could feel their pointed tips through the cloth, that he realized how quickly I'd approached him. We both knew that if I'd wanted to, I could have continued that motion until my hand was in his chest, my fingers around my heart.
"It occurs to me," I said quietly. "That if someone really wanted to approach you, doing so in the guise of someone you trust would be an obvious way to do it. It also occurs to me that pretending to give a test to keep you on your toes might, ironically, be a good way to put you at ease. Even after that light show, after all that noise, you relaxed the moment I told you it was a test and never saw this coming. And now, here you are, dead to rights."
I pressed down just a tiny bit harder and a muscle in his cheek twitched.
"Your paranoia's showing," He said after a moment, the sound of his heartbeat loud in my ears. "But I get the point."
"Do you?" I asked, using Delusory to create the illusion of spiders on my arms, my face. "Do you really? How do you know I'm not actually the illusionist, here to trick you again?"
"If you weren't Jaune, I'd be dead," He stated.
I shook my head.
"Not necessarily," I said. "Not if I needed you alive for something. Try again."
"You healed me," He said. "Without even touching me. And when I hit you before, I felt it connect but you didn't even flinch."
"Better," I said. "Far better, enough so that it's probably safe to assume I'm me. What are the odds that someone could heal and take that shot like I did and know how to act like me? It's enough to conclude I'm me, but…how can you be sure?"
"I can't," He answered after a moment of silence. "Not just from what I've seen."
"Good," I took a step away, watching as he took a deep breath. "That's right—and in cases like these, it's best to be certain. The enemies we're fighting now…"
I shook my head.
"We can't assume that things are always as they seem," I told him. "We'll need to be careful."
"What do you propose?" He asked.
"Caution," I said. "Just in case, don't assume anything until you're sure it's me. We'll come up with security measures later, but just to be on the safe side, it's probably for the best that you attack me on sight, unless doing so would draw too much attention. We both know I can take it, so watch how I react to the attack and how it feels when it connects. My power will be the real key here, though. We both know there are things only I should be able to do and we'll use that to confirm my identity."
With a thought and a gesture, I invited him to join my party. He glanced at the window carefully for a moment and then drew up his status screen with a word, nodding slowly.
"Got it," He replied. "And I take it you can tell who I am just fine."
I smiled slightly.
"Yes," I said. "And once you're sure of me, I'll clear everyone else. We'll check to make sure, but I think we both know my senses are up to it."
He nodded again, heaving a sigh.
"Okay," He said. "Okay. Now what? I assume you aren't just here to make sure I'm sufficiently paranoid."
"Yeah," I confirmed. "That's just an amusing bonus. Come on, we're going out."
"Out?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "As in, outside?"
"Obviously."
"Are we going into the city?"
I raised an eyebrow to match his.
"Where else would we go?"
Adam looked at me for a moment.
"In case you haven't noticed, some of us have trouble walking around in public," He stated. "It's an internationally wanted terrorist thing, you see. My union's really strict about these things."
"Hey," I said. "I'm an internationally wanted terrorist, but you don't hear me whining about it, now do you?"
He took a breath and exhaled slowly, refusing to play along.
"You've been cooped up too long," I continued, rolling my eyes. "It shows. I bet you've hardly done anything but jump between missions since your face was revealed and our party got crashed in Vale. Let's hang out for a bit while we sort thing out, okay?"
"If I ask you how, will you tell me?" He asked.
I held out a hand, letting the spiders on it dissipate.
"They aren't the only ones who have an illusionist," I reminded him. "Now let's go already."
XxXXxX
MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
Faces
To be honest, it wasn't actually something I'd done before—use my illusions to make myself seem like someone else, I mean. I simply didn't need to, since I could actually become someone else with a change of a title, physically shifting from Jaune to Jian in an instant. My height would change several inches, my features shift, and I'd even grow a tail, all of which was completely real; a transformation, rather than an illusion.
Even beyond that, I just didn't usually need to pretend to be someone else. With my senses as sharp as they were, I could pick up conversations from enormous distances and pick up tremendous amounts of detail and with Naraka, I could flat-out break into places without leaving a trace. If I didn't want to be noticed, it was usually a simple matter for me to hide myself completely, whether by crawling underground or by turning invisible. Between those advantages and the fact that I hadn't possessed the power very long, I simply hadn't needed to try and change my appearance.
And then there were the obstacles that got in the way of doing so. I could bend light to make myself seem smaller or larger than I truly was easily enough, but both came with their own limitations. If I made myself seem smaller then I actually was, I'd need to both craft an illusion and turn any part of my body that didn't 'fit' into the illusion invisible—simple enough, in and of itself. But there were other things to worry about, too; if I was smaller, I'd need to fake a proportionally smaller reach. Similarly, I'd need to use my powers to make sure that anything that seemed to come in contact with me was made to look like it had touched the smaller figure, rather than the true me. And if I came in contact with an actual person, if I didn't feel the part of whatever I seemed to be…
The same applied to making myself larger, if somewhat differently. Rather than faking the inexistence of any part of my body that shouldn't have been there, I'd need to fake the existence of the parts that seemed like they should have been there. Then you get into other issues of the disguise—minor things, mainly, but a large number of them. Accounting for how a larger or smaller person moved, making the motions seem to flow naturally, potentially adjusting a fighting style to a different body, that type of thing. It was annoying and had been, at least thus far, completely unnecessary. The 'simplest' solution was to disguise oneself as a person of the same size and shape, which limited things a fair bit and, really, and at that point, you might as well just say screw it, turn invisible—and, if absolutely necessary, whip up an illusion without bothering with any overlaying, use it for a short time, and discard it.
But that only applies to someone who has access to the wealth of options I do. I didn't bother because I was already spoilt for choice and could address the problem in a broad array of what were, to me, simple ways. For those who couldn't bend the elements, turn invisible, or shapeshift into an entirely different person with what amounted to the push of a button, there were some uses for such a thing, here and there.
Which also made this the first time I cast an illusion on someone else, actually—and I was betting that maintaining such an overlay on someone else was going to get annoying after a while, but hey. What are friends for, if not to be occasionally annoying?
Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised. Halfway through laying an illusion over Adam, I felt a practiced ease come over me, despite the fact that I had no actual practice at doing such a thing. It became abruptly clear to me that I could anchor such an illusion to a person's body and Aura. After all, I mused, if you actually thought about it, my illusions were already anchored to Remnant, through some means. Despite having no mass—or, at least, no more mass than light—I didn't have to adjust them in regards to the rotation or revolution of the planet I lived, nor the vaster motions of the galaxy or the universe. When you thought about it that way, if was obviously possible to do such a thing, so it was just a matter of figuring out how.
Although admittedly, at their most basic level, pretty much everything was just 'figuring out how and then actually doing it.' Doing it in practice tended to be a touch more complicated—but at the very least, my power seemed to know what it was doing.
A skill has been created through a special action! A skill to magically conceal oneself, 'Glamour,' has been created through the combination of Delusory and Disguise!
But why did I get it for this and not for the illusion I constantly used to hide my light? Was it because I hadn't actually changed how I looked? Or had my skill with Delusory been too low at the time? Maybe a combination of both, with touches of my new skills thrown into the mix?
It didn't matter, I supposed. My power was so absurdly useful, I guess I couldn't fault it for occasionally being picky.
I wove strands of my Aura into Adam's, placing a layer of bright white over shining red. As I did so, his hair changed, darkening even as red streaks faded from brown. His horns, thankfully, were fairly subtle in appearance to begin with and I merely blended them into the rest of his hair before adjusting his skin tone so that he didn't look like someone who did almost all of his work in the dark. I brushed away anything that might give who he was away, changing his mask to sunglasses, erasing the symbols on his coat, and adding colors that weren't blood red and pitch black. His clothes hid most of his body, but I altered what I could of what remained.
"I'm doing the best with what I'm given," I told him. "But limited as I am to…well, you, there's only so much I can do. I'll do what I can to fix your face, but I think it's a lost cause."
He kicked at my shin and given everything I'd put him through tonight, it seemed only fair, so I allowed it. His foot slammed right into my Adamant skin and other defenses and he swore.
"Gah, you asshole," He snarled, lifting his foot off the ground. "I stubbed my goddamn toe."
"Oops," I said mildly before healing him, despite his actions against my person. Truly, the kindness within my heart knows no bounds. I didn't even alter the Glamour I was setting up, I was that nice—and after a few finishing touches, I was also done. "There. It's not much, but you're not so hideous we have to keep you locked up in the basement anymore. Let's go."
He ignored me, taking several quick strides towards the mirror he'd left lying on a desk—Blake's mirror I noted after a quick glance. He looked at for a moment, glanced himself up and down, and gave his opinion.
"Eh," He pronounced. "It'll do, I suppose. I'll probably still look great standing next to an ugly human like you."
"I could write the words 'Princess Blowjob' on your back at will, you realize," I told him. "Literally at will, any time I wanted, without you even noticing. And on that comforting note, let's go already."
He sneered at me, but turned and angled the mirror to check before setting it down gently.
"Fine," He said, tone a tad sullen. "Where are we going?"
I snapped my fingers and drew us both into Naraka before gesturing towards the same wall I'd just come through with a hand. The wall exploded outwards as if sucked through an enormous tube, leaving a smooth set of stair straight to the surface that I immediately began to walk up.
"Around town," I answered, letting Jian's features fade away as I switched back to my usual out-of-combat title. "Let's go see what we can find out about my new friends."
Adam frowned at me as he followed.
"You sure you want to be seen with me like that?" He asked.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," I replied instantly. "Usually a loser like you wouldn't get to hang out with the popular kids like me, but I'll tolerate your presence somehow. Just think of it as me doing charity—you're a poor disabled child that I'm trying to draw from the social void with my general magnificence. No need to thank me; I'm just doing it for the tax deduction and then back into the hole you go."
"Oh, shut your whore mouth," He snorted. "I'm serious."
I chuckled and cracked my neck, vanishing completely between one step and the next and causing Adam to jolt forward.
"Jaune—" He began before cutting himself off as he walked into me and bounced off. I reached out and grabbed him before he could fall down the stairs, reappearing as he righted himself, and tossed him a smile.
"Don't worry about it," I shrugged at him. "If I sense anything worth worrying about, I'll vanish in a heartbeat or I'll change my face or we'll just leave. But even if they do somehow see us without me noticing and somehow recognize you through that illusion…so what? We're allies now—Raven and my Grandmother are working together. We'll just say you're my bodyguard, because Jeanne Roma wanted an extra layer of protection for her youngest grandchild. I even had an actual bodyguard last time I was here, so it makes sense. If you really have to, just say it was a request from Jian Bing and that before his overwhelming masculinity there was nothing you could do but obey."
"I would literally die before saying that," He told me seriously. "But I see your point, I suppose."
"Besides," I continued. "There are advantages to being me—millions and millions of them. This specific one is that being the grandson of the Roma Matriarch gives me a lot of leeway. All sorts of doors open when I ask them to, see?"
"Ah," He nodded slowly, having apparently forgotten what that meant here in Mistral. "I suppose I could see that coming in handy. Where to first?"
"You tell me," I said, continuing my climb up the stairs. "You're the one in charge of keeping in touch with these guys, right? Where do they usually hang out?"
"The illusionist, you mean?" He asked.
"Or whoever else you want to see," I replied, giving another shrug. "Might as well check them all out, right?"
He nodded at that, expression considering.
"They don't usually stay in one place for very long," He answered slowly. "But there are a few places they seem to return to every now and then. Couldn't hurt to take a look."
"Mhm," I agreed, smile widening. "And besides, we got interrupted last time we went out for drinks. I owe you for the Dust and, you know. Showing up."
"You're paying, then?" He asked immediately to avoid any awkwardness.
"Of course," I chuckled. "Try not to get too drunk though, you lightweight."
XxXXxX
I rolled the glass between my fingers, shifting the amber liquid inside. Adam had picked it from the bar when we came in but I didn't recognize the brand. Well, truthfully, I didn't recognize any of the brands; after confirming that drinking alcohol would do absolutely nothing to or for me, I'd lost all interest in it. I played along as Adam drank so that my friend could enjoy himself without worry, but my thoughts were elsewhere from the moment I sat down in the bar.
Thankfully, it wasn't difficult to find distractions. I'd say we'd gotten lucky with our first choice, but I liked to think I made my own luck; the moment Adam had told me the possible locations, I'd scanned them all for signs of activity and then picked the one with the most. We'd picked a bar a few blocks away, got in without so much as a word about my age, and then I'd started keeping watch.
"When did they start using the White Fang for muscle?" I asked, glancing at Adam.
"Hm?" He intoned, reclining in a chair beside me as he watched a game on one of the holographic displays in the bar. I knew more about sports then I did about drinks, primarily because of the many video games about them, but knowledge wasn't the same thing as interest and I honestly didn't care even a little bit about who was playing, much less winning. I kept track of the game in my periphery, as I did with everything around me, but nothing more than that.
"There are a lot of members of the White Fang working down there," I clarified. "Grunt labor, mostly. When'd it start?"
"Ah," He said, frowning abruptly. "That. Pretty much since we began to work together. I'm actually not entirely sure because it was kept under wraps in the beginning but…maybe seven months ago. It was just minor things in the beginning, though."
"Given how little we seem to know, I assume they don't get told much," I guessed.
"No," He stated, tone annoyed before he drained the rest of his glass. "They seem to consider us a delivery service more than anything; they call us up, tell us what to do, and expect us to do it. And we fucking do."
"That must grate on a lot of people," I muttered. "No wonder they aren't very well liked."
Adam grunted in agreement.
"It's the main cause of dissent between us and them," He nodded. "A lot of people say they treat us the way…well, the way most humans do. Thing is, they aren't wrong, at least not entirely."
"Anything you can tell me about the stuff they make you fetch for them?" I asked. "If they're having you deliver it for them, you must have some idea of what they're up to?"
"You'd think so," He sighed, topping his glass off. I rolled my glass again, downing it, and put it on the table. "But honestly, I have no idea what they're up to. Most of its just information—pretty much whatever we can get from the other Kingdoms and local businesses, really. Most of what's left tends to be small stuff that won't be missed and won't draw attention or stuff we can buy from stores. Since we got set up in Mistral, we've been doing a lot more of the latter, so it really is mostly delivery work; we actually picked up a few trucks just to help transport stuff. They might be building something, but if so, it could be just about anything you could make with access to a bunch of hardware stores and the supermarket. Which I assume is a lot?"
"You could build a few things that way, yeah," I understated, nodding slightly even as I frowned. "Doesn't really narrow things down. But…you just deliver normal stuff? Things you could get in a store?"
He nodded and I pursed my lips for a moment, musing.
"Can I assume that a shipment of nearly four thousand guns is outside the norm, then?" I asked. "I'm not really familiar with the gun laws in Mistral, but that seems a bit extreme."
Adam looked at me for a long moment.
"Huh?" He asked eloquently and I nodded in the general direction of our 'friends.'
"The crates the White Fang down there are moving," I said. "They're full of guns. Four thousand, three hundred and, hm, twenty-seven? One of the crates was opened recently, so I assume there are at least three more somewhere around here."
My friend was silent for a moment, a frown slowly working its way onto his face.
"That's…a lot of guns," Adam noted, putting down his drink as he slowly caught up.
"You didn't know about this," I stated, certain of the fact even before he shook his head. "Someone else's doing then?"
"I…" He paused to organize his thoughts. "I admit, I don't know what everyone in the White Fang is doing at any given time, but I feel like I would notice if we had that much firepower lying around. If nothing else, as the guy responsible for…them, I feel like I should be aware of this."
Anger was slowly working its way through the haze of alcohol and I tilted my head at him in consideration.
"Could someone be working with them behind your back?" I asked. "Providing them more…attention-drawing things without making you aware?"
"They better fucking not be," He growled. "What else can you see."
"A lot," I answered at once. "The guns look new. No offense meant, but given the way they're all neatly arranged in marked crates and such, I'd sort of figured they were stolen."
He tilted his head in acknowledgement, but his frown didn't fade.
"It's possible," He answered. "But that type of theft…that's fairly newsworthy. As in, worthy of being on the news, to say nothing of how word would travel within the White Fang. Even then, why would we give it to them? I'm not entirely sure of the size of their operation, but I can't imagine they'd need that many guns; I don't think they have enough people to use them if they wanted to. That's…"
Pieces clicked.
"Ah," I drew out. "Then perhaps they're the ones delivering this time?"
"What?" He asked again. "Jaune, what do you—"
I let my attention drift, eyes turning up to the skies as waves of light filled the air. I shifted through the frequencies, searching for anything that would standout even as I turned my gaze slowly towards the CCT.
"There was a bombing in Atlas recently," I said slowly, the sound of my own voice briefly distant as the transmissions filled my senses, the news reporters face as clear in my eyes as his voice was in my ears. "A lot of stuff got destroyed, including several warehouses. Their still not sure what the purpose of it was or if anything was missing, but…I'm going to go ahead and say 'yes.'"
When I returned fully to myself, Adam was staring at me with his eyebrows raised.
"How…"
"There's a news report about it," I answered. "It was on several channels so it must be getting a lot of attention. I found it in the airwaves."
"God," He muttered before shaking his head. "Whatever. You sure it's connected?"
"I haven't bothered with guns much since I learned how to outrun bullets," I admitted. "But I think they're of Atlesian make. The design on the box matches to one of the buildings that was on the news, too. Seems a bit unlikely to be a coincidence. I assume you'd know if the White Fang was responsible?"
"I dearly hope so," He answered, sounding a touch worried. "If we were responsible and I wasn'taware…"
He shook his head.
"Can you…show me?" He asked, voice a bit uncertain.
I considered it for a moment and then nodded, taking a quick glance around the bar before raising my hands to either side. The air above them filled with color before consolidating into distinct images, holograms I crafted with Delusory. The scenes I was viewing, both in the sky above and the warehouse below, rose from my hands in miniature, as clear as if on television—and after a moment, I had Levant provide audio as well.
"Jaune," Adam whispered urgently, head snapping towards the other people in the bar.
"Chill," I said distractedly. I was splitting my attention three ways, focusing simultaneously on the news report, the warehouse, and everything around us—and on top of that, I was maintaining an illusion around myself, around my table, and above each hand, the latter of which were in constant motion and thus, in constant need of readjustment, which itself meant I needed to pay close attention to the scenes I was displaying and recreate the scenes in the spectrum of light that Adam was used to. I'd say it made it a little hard to think about breathing, much less talking, but the truth was that I'd stopped breathing so I'd have one less thing to worry about. "They won't hear us, they won't see us."
Adam fell silent at that, focusing on the images I created with a frown firmly in place. He seemed to catch on to the fact that I was preoccupied, because he didn't say anything else, watching both scenes in silence. Sure enough, the White Fang began transporting the crates into trucks after a few minutes, one of them getting a signal on a scroll that made Adam purse his lips. The news report played out after several minutes and I switched frequencies to another station when I found one. Several people entered and exited the warehouse as the minutes passed, one of the White Fang's trucks leaving and another arriving a few minutes later. It wasn't the same truck, however, and the contents…
"Adam," I muttered in exactly the same tone, frowning when I remembered to adjust my own expression. I obviously needed to train Delusory some more if maintaining four illusions was giving me this much trouble. Independent images or no, I could keep track of entire neighborhoods with my senses; this should have been nothing, but it wasn't.
"I see it," He said. "Can you see who's driving?"
"What kind of question is that?" I sneered after a moment's delay. As I did, I shifted my gaze a tad to pierce through steel and stone alike to see who was inside.
Two humans, I noted, taking down mental notes fast as I memorized everything about them. One male, one female; silver and green hair respectively, making them stand out almost as much as the rest of them. The way they were dressed and the weapons they held made me think they were Hunters or, at least, Hunters-in-training—and if that wasn't enough, a glance above their head's would have made it obvious.
The Thief The Butcher
LV53
Emerald Sustrai
LV58
Mercury Black
XxXXxX
MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
Sighted
"Anyone you know?" I asked as I Observed them, letting the hologram of the news broadcast fall away. I showed him the information my power displayed, focusing on their stats, levels, and titles, and saw Adam frown slightly out of the corner of my eye. It wasn't very hard to guess why, especially when he'd gotten to take a look at his own profile so recently.
The Beast
LV45
Adam Taurus
"Yes," He said after a moment. "They're with her."
"Important?"
He shrugged slightly, but couldn't shake the frown on his face.
"I got that impression," He said. "She kept them close, sent them to handle important things."
"Like deliveries of large quantities of weapons," I noted, a frown of my own touching my lips. "Neither of them is the illusionist."
It was a statement of fact, but he nodded anyway.
"I never got a look at the illusionist myself," He admitted. "But Raven described her as a small girl, less than five feet, with pink and brown colored hair."
"Shouldn't be too hard to find, then," I answered, raising an eyebrow at the description even as I filed it away.
"If you can find her. Most of us can't, if you recall."
"I'm not most of us," I shrugged. "I'll find her. Anything else you can tell me about her?"
He grunted and thought about that for a moment before nodding slowly.
"She works for Roman Torchwick," He stated slowly. "But he seems to work for our new friend."
"So she's a subcontractor?" I wondered aloud, shaking my head slightly. "Huh. Well, at least we know how Roman's involved in this whole mess."
"No, we don't," Adam sounded annoyed. "We have no idea what any of them are up to."
"That's why we're watching them," I reminded him. "Be patient, Adam. But even if we don't know his exact intentions, we can tie him to our new ally—"
I cut myself off to roll my eyes, abruptly annoyed.
"Does she have a name?" I asked him. "Because not having one for her is getting pretty annoying. In fact, I don't seem to have names for any of my real enemies and its starting to piss me off."
He grunted again, this time in heartfelt agreement.
"You should see all the reports I have to write about her," He snorted. "Last time, I ended up including a note at the very bottom saying 'You know who I'm fucking talking about.'"
"Even you don't know?" I asked. "They want you to work as a correspondent without any idea what they're after or even who they are? I'm all for being discrete and cautious, but there comes a point where you have to wonder what you expect anyone to do when you don't tell them shit."
"I'm getting the impression that all sorts of people aren't telling me things," He scowled down at his drink.
"Like why we're getting a shipment of weapons that could equip a small army?"
"Like that," He agreed, sighing as he leaned back in his chair and walked the screen I was still maintaining. Mercury and Emerald had opened the new truck to reveal even more weapons—enough to make me wonder if the local White Fang even had enough hands to use them all. Maybe they were planning ahead, though that was as worrying as the knowledge of how armed the White Fang was soon going to be. Stuff like that wouldn't even qualify as an annoyance to me, but logically, weapons like that weren't going to be pointed at people like me. I felt pretty sure that the more militant side of the White Fang was going to be pretty pleased by the dividends this alliance was paying.
It made me wonder what I should do. I could jump down there, tear through the walls, and put a stop to all of this right now, but that would have been foolish and I didn't entertain the thought for more than a moment. Even if this was something that needed stopping, that wouldn't be the way to go about it; I didn't even know who was involved yet or what they were planning. Even beyond that, such an overt act would likely cost me my standing in the White and possibly, depending on precisely what was going, my alliance with Raven. Granted, that was a bit unlikely given that Adam, Raven's representative, seemed to be completely in the dark—but that the thing of acting blindly; you have no idea what's going on and thus what is likely to happen. If necessary, I'd do it, but there was no rioting in the streets at the moment, no sign of innocent people dying, and thus itwasn't necessary to do such a thing.
That didn't preclude more subtle methods, though. If I wanted to, I could ruin this with no one the wiser. It would be as simple as sending Crocea Mors into the steel of the weapons and having him tamper with them, render them useless. That would have repercussions of its own, undoubtedly, but they likely wouldn't be directed towards me. Rather, the fallout would likely be aimed towards the people who supplied such faulty weapons, our annoyingly nameless ally.
But I didn't want that. Not yet, at least, because I didn't know anything about them, either, and something like this might be enough to break ties with them permanently, or at least strain them severely. For all I knew, they could be as useful an ally as Raven—did I want to risk throwing that away or complicating it for something as comparatively minor as an arms dealing?
My dad had once told me that the toes you step on today might be connected to an ass you have to kiss tomorrow. Even all these weapons weren't a match for a real Hunter, so it didn't make sense to risk throwing away a potential partnership over something like this. Even if a weapons shipment of this size might one day endanger lives, that just meant it was something to keep an eye on. After all, the weapons were being given to an organization I had a great deal of power in and I could address stuff like this without showing my hand.
The wiser choice would be to wait and see. I had a lot of pull these days, could speak to Raven and my grandmother and apply pressure indirectly if I had to. I could get involved directly if it proved necessary, but…
I shook my head slightly and sighed.
"Leave it be," I said at last. "We'll handle this intelligently."
Adam nodded after a moment, probably coming to the same conclusion.
"Raven?" He suggested.
"You didn't know about this," I answered. "Stands to reason that Raven probably didn't either. What that says to me is that either someone is working behind our backs or our new friends are up to something. Either way, I'd say it's worth finding out what's going on, no?"
"It might be a power play," Adam mused. "Bringing in hardware like that could improve someone's position in the White Fang a great deal. Being able to say you could arm a few thousand men right then and there…"
He shook his head.
"And this would help their position, of course," He nodded at my screen. "A gift like this will silence a lot of the complaints against them. Neither of which is necessarily a bad thing, but I'm really getting tired of being left in the dark, even if I do have good night vision."
I chuckled at that and nodded. That led to the obvious question of what to do about it right now, however, and evidently, Adam was wondering the same thing.
"Should we split up?" He asked after a moment of silence. "If I leave now, I can probably catch up with that truck, you could keep watch here, and we'll see where that leads us."
I shook my head.
"No need," I said. "I've been keeping track of the truck's GPS through the signal it's been giving out, along with the signal of the scrolls inside it; I'll know wherever they go and we'll track them down afterwards to see what we find. I'll be able to recognize the signals later, too, so…"
I shrugged as Adam grunted in understanding, rolling his eyes beneath his mask.
"Of course you can do that," He said. "You'd be a scary guy to try and run away from, you know that."
"I see all and know all," I admitted humbly. "I've been getting the feeling I was in charge of keeping track of stuff in a past life."
He snorted as if I was joking, which I wasn't. My soul had about a million eyes and a humongous book, after all, and it hadn't escaped me that I seemed to have a…propensity for sensory skills, above and beyond my talent for just about everything else.
But I didn't tell him that, figuring it could wait until another time. Instead, I continued my watch over the group of figures down below.
"Should we make an entrance, then?" Adam asked after another minute of silence. "We could go down there and speak to them, see what we find out. An appearance by Jian Bing might make a few people talk."
I nodded, though not in full agreement. The idea had plenty of merit, of course, and it would be a quick way to learn what was going on, even if it might reveal that we'd been watching them and start rumors. Appearing clueless might hurt our position, appearing knowledgeable might hurt our position—it had pros and cons. Even so, it could work.
But something else was bothering me…
"They're seventeen," I mused, putting several thoughts together.
Adam looked at me for a moment before catching on.
"You think they'll be going to Haven?" He asked.
"It'd fit," I nodded. "Ms. Sterious has been using the place as her base of operations, it wouldn't be surprising if she wanted a few subordinates on hand. No, more than that, any allies she wanted to bring in to whatever it is she's working on would need to be able to fit in. They match and…they're strong. I've only seen one person my age that was stronger and she…was a bit of an exception. And Mercury is almost as strong as she was, last time we met."
"I assume you're excluding yourself from that equation?"
"I'm a superweapon that walks like a man," I said, which may or may not have been factually accurate, depending on precisely how this whole reincarnation gig worked out. "I'm an exception to most rules.
Adam snorted but didn't argue the point.
"In a few days, I'll be checking out Haven," I continued, musing as I leaned back in my chair. "My sister works there and my grandmother has business to attend to—or, at least, she's making up something for my sake. I wanted to check the place out and see if I couldn't hunt down our new friend. She should be there and if she's not, then the illusionist will be."
He nodded.
"Sounds like a plan," He said. "What do you want me to do?"
He looked him over for a moment and considered that before nodding.
"Why don't you come with me?" I suggested.
"What?" He asked, eyebrows rising.
I shrugged.
"You have a hard time working in the daylight, right?" I gestured towards his face. "Because if you go outside and people see you, they either realize you're a wanted terrorist or see your face and assume you're a horrible monster that needs be put down. I figure you have to have to stay indoors a lot?"
"You're a fucking asshole," Adam stated calmly. "But yes. So?"
"So, your job is to keep up with these guys and you can't do that underground," I answered. "But I can hide your face, so you can follow me around. Like I said before, it wouldn't be odd for Jeanne Roma's only grandson to have a bodyguard and I could make it official easy enough. If nothing else, it's better than being locked up all day, right?"
He was silent for a long moment before grunting slowly.
"I guess I don't have anything better to do," He admitted. "And though you're an insufferable little shit, I'll probably get more done with you there."
"Mhm," I smiled. "And besides…it gives us a chance to do some training."
"Training?" He asked.
"Well," I shrugged. "I was planning on killing a few more Goliath's since they seemed like a good way to grind and, really, I can't have my henchman being weaker then hers, can I? You need to work out more, Adam, and I guess I can spare a few kills for your sake."
XxXXxX
"Are you certain this is a good idea?" Adam asked mildly, hands at his sides as we walked through the plains outside of Mistral. Even just this far north, it was possible to see where the valleys of black stone and ash met the gentle slopes of snowy hills in a marked dichotomy. It was beautiful in its own way, though, if one could look past the endless hordes of hungry beasts that roamed both lands. "Won't your family worry?"
"I told them I'd be gone all night," I shrugged. "I don't sleep so there's not much reason to. I said I'd either be in my barriers or in town and they accepted that. Why? Are you worried about the Grimm?"
"Always," He stated. "Though that's only part of it. No offence Jaune, but you have a tendency to get into trouble when you do…anything, really. The Grimm especially seem to be drawn to you. If I seem worried, it's just me bracing myself in case another monster out of myth and legend decides it wants in on the fun."
I snorted.
"It's possible," I admitted. It's not like I could ever be certain whether the Grimm's Creator would take a shot at me or not, I just wasn't especially worried about it. Not because of the potential threat it posed to me and those around me—that was still massively concerning—but simply because I knew that if he really wanted to take a swing at my face, being inside the walls of a Kingdom wouldn't be enough to stop him. If he decided to send Ziz or Crom my way again…
So being out here didn't frighten me. The possibility of Adam getting drawn into it worried me a bit more, but even then, if Mr. Grimm decided to actually try, there weren't many places anyone would be safe. If something happened that I couldn't handle I'd have Levant carry him back towards Mistral, where he might be a touch safer.
"And?" Adam prompted after a moment of silence.
"And if it comes up, I'll handle it," I promised with a shrug. "But for now, let's focus on the task at hand. My senses are sharp enough that if anything happens, I'll notice in time to do somethingabout it."
He took a deep breath and nodded, rolling his shoulder's once and doing his best to dismiss his concerns. He mostly succeeded, though I could tell that the sheer scale of what I mentioned we could be fighting had him a touch on edge. He was well aware that if something went wrong and he made a mistake, then there was a good chance he'd never have an opportunity to make another.
But I also felt his trust in me, as well as his respect. He didn't mention either out loud, but that didn't change anything; he believed that if anything went wrong, I'd step in before he was in any actual danger—and I would.
"Fine," He said. "How's this going to work, then?"
"We're more than ten levels apart, so sharing the experience equally isn't on the table," I answered. "Instead, we'll each get a percentage based on our contribution to the fight. I'll find something strong and punch it in the face until it's almost dead, you deal the finishing blow, rinse and repeat. I'll still get most of the experience, but…"
I shrugged and looked off into the distance.
"Just do what I say and things should be fine," I continued, picking my targets silently. "We can keep in touch easily enough and I'll tell you if anything unexpected happens. Other than that, we simply train until we get stronger. With the monsters around Mistral, we should make some good progress, at least for a while."
"Okay," He nodded slowly, masked eyes scanning the skies. "Where do we begin? Are we actually going to Hunt Goliath's?"
"Not yet," I assured him. "I think its best we get a few more levels on you before we do that; Goliath's are fairly rare, after all, and since you'll get rewarded based on how well you manage to do against them…"
He grunted in understanding.
"Let's try to get you to at least…mm, level fifty?" I mused aloud before frowning. "Fifty-five, sixty…I guess it all depends on how much you improve with the stat points you get. Any idea how you intended to spend them?"
"I've given it some thought," He nodded. "You seemed to do pretty well with a focused approach—specializing in Intelligence and Wisdom, right?"
"Yeah," I nodded back, recognizing what he was getting at. "I like to think that's worked out pretty well for me thus far. There are advantages to being both a generalist and a specialist, but the way I figured, all else being equal, a specialist will beat a generalist in their field of specialization—especially in my case, where I get more out of each tier of specialization. In the end, though, it really comes down to whether you can force someone to play your game—if a generalist forces you out of your specialty or another specialist forces you into theirs, it'd be easy to find yourself at a disadvantage. Luckily, when part of your specialty is stabbing people in the face, it's pretty easy to make them play ball."
He snorted.
"Have some experience with that, do you?" He asked.
"Maybe a little," I allowed. "Intelligence gives me a lot of options and Wisdom makes me pretty good at making use of them. I can usually find some way to make people fight me on my terms, whatever that might be at the time."
I paused and then shrugged again, smiling slightly.
"Well, even if I say that, I do like to keep my hand in with the physical stuff," I said. "Most of it was stuff I got through grinding, rather than skill points, but it comes in handy. Something else to keep in mind is the synergy between stats, which can muddle the benefits of specialization a bit—that's why I specialized in Intelligence and Wisdom, after all. A lot of that is the skills I get from improving my skills, but it applies to the basic stuff, too."
Adam nodded seriously.
"I was thinking of specializing in Strength and Dexterity," He stated. "I considered following in your footsteps, given…well, everything you do, but I don't have your skill at picking up…skills."
He paused awkwardly for a moment before shaking his head slightly.
"As such, I figured I'd have a hard time learning and developing new techniques the way you do," He continued. "Having a lot of potential skill doesn't matter if it'll take me a decade to learn how to use it—and there's not much point, since you can already do all of that stuff better then I'll ever be able to. I figured it would be better to leave picking up skills and working magic to you and focus on what I'm already good at. Might help cover our bases a bit, who knows."
"It's not a bad idea," I smiled, tilting my head at him in support. "Hitting fast and hard has worked out pretty well for me—and like you said, if you need someone to fill the Intelligence or Wisdom roles, I can do that pretty well. If we can get both of those stats to, say, two hundred, you should be in pretty good shape. You might want to consider taking some Wisdom, though; it helps a lot with MP regen. I don't think it'll do as much for you as it does for me, but it might help take the edge off some of your more exhausting attacks."
He nodded again, filing that away.
"You're the expert," He said. "Now what?"
"Let's start with…" I mulled it over for a moment, scanning the wealth of options I sensed one last time before smiling again. "Let's start with some Giant Nevermore. I killed a few the last time I was here and it was pretty satisfying, I must say. I'll clip their wings and ground them; you should be able to handle things from there. Don't worry about conserving energy too much, either; if you start running low, I can always heal you."
"Got it," He said. "Where?"
"That way," I nodded, knowing he probably couldn't see them from here, but I stopped him when he started walking in that direction. "One sec. I want to test something out."
He paused, casting me a glance beneath his mask.
"Another new trick?" He asked.
"Something like that," I answered, rolling my shoulders for effect. "I told you about the Pandora Shell back in Vale and how I was immune, remember?"
"Yeah," He drew out, slowly raising an eyebrow.
"Well, this is a skill I got from that," I continued, cracking my neck. "Well, it's actually a set of skills, but that's not the point. You know what Pandora Shells can do to the bodies of the infected?"
He stared at me for a moment and I knew he'd caught on. He was getting used to my shenanigans, I suppose.
"Besides drive them insane?" He asked, a touch of warning and concern in the words.
"Gamer's Mind," I reminded him cheerfully as I looked myself over. I was still me—that is, Jaune Arc. I'd equipped my Grimm Reaper title, since we were going Hunting, but thinking about it…well, of the two forms I'd taken thus far, the three meter tall hulking brute with spikes and five faces seemed like it'd be the more alarming, so I shifted into Jian. What title I wore wouldn't matter in the end, after all, because it would simply be replaced, and the smaller form was more convenient in a number of ways.
He clicked his tongue but accepted that explanation easily enough. I guess that after Lenore, this was just more of the same. Much, much more.
"Should I do anything?" He asked.
"Nah, it's cool," I replied—and began my Metamorphosis. It began on my left arm this time, a patch of dark spots above the wrist that swiftly began to spread, bolstered by my own healing. In a matter of seconds, everything from wrist to elbow was pitch black, at least until jagged white armor began to erupt from my fingers and follow the spread of my discolored flesh. Its progress hastened as it grew, covering my arm, growing over my chest, and then rising up my neck and down my legs. In short order, I was back in the form from before, faceless mask hiding my face completely in a mirror image to the one Conquest had dropped. Turning towards Adam, I brightened my tone slightly, knowing he couldn't see my face any longer. "There, see? Done."
"Everything okay?"
"Just fine," I answered. "Don't worry, I made sure I wasn't infectious. I just haven't really gotten a chance to test this out in live combat and it would unnerve most people, so I wanted to give it a whirl."
He looked me over for a long, silent moment before nodding again, trusting me completely despite my warped visage.
"Nevermore now, then?"
"Mm," I replied, hunching over slightly. With my new healing skill, I'd been able to grind Metamorphosis some, training it far faster than the glacial pace I'd used before. It wasn't much yet, relatively speaking—I couldn't do anything on par with the Goliath's throat cannon—but there was something I wanted to try, having seen Conquest do it before.
I felt the armor on my back bubble and shift—not melting, but growing in a way that was hard to describe, funneling matter both inwards and outwards. I felt several of my bones break and reconnect differently, the muscles of my chest, arms, and legs shifting to accommodate the change, and then felt the complex spikes burst free from my body and expand.
For a moment, they were nothing but skeletal shapes, hanging uselessly. A second later, however, whips of dark material exploded from my back hard enough to make me lean over even further, wrapping around the bones in layers of muscle and then growing patches of flesh fueled by my massive HP regen. Even before that process finished, even as the beginnings of black feathers began to slide from my skin, I gave my new wings and experimental flap and was pleased when they responded.
I stood upright as the change finished and began to rise into the air. Even with such a massive wingspan, over twice as wide as my body was tall, I knew they shouldn't have been able to support my weight—but they did, easily, and in that moment I felt something odd brushing my feathers, itself a strange sensation. At once I was sure that however I was flying, it had little to do with aerodynamics. Hell, I wasn't entirely sure I was flying on air at all; it almost seemed like it was just something that happened to be there for the process, a witness to impossibility. I had no idea what they were truly doing, honestly.
But that was fine.
For now.
"Come on, Adam," I said as I continued to rise. "Let's go kill some monsters."
XxXXxX
MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
Tag Team
The truth was, I'd learned how to fly a long time ago, at least to an extent. Ever since I'd first summoned Levant, I'd been capable of at least some degree of flight and had used it a little during the White Whale incident. It wasn't something I'd been willing to rely on at the time, when Levant's part in that mission was so vital, but I'd been capable of it.
Or rather, Levant and I had been capable of it—and that distinction was important. Flying, it turns out, was pretty complicated, a series of endless balancing acts to stay in the air, and I'd need both Levant's power and more intense focus to make it possible. When the only thing between me and a thousand foot drop—or worse, a high-speed collision with something less yielding than the human body—was my ability to keep everything together, flying was a monumental task.
Or, at least, it had been at the time. I'd come a long way since then, for all that it had only been a few months ago. Physically, my defensive abilities had skyrocketed, to the extent that I didn't have anything to fear from hitting the ground at high speed or making a mistake and running head long into a mountain—but more than my body, my other skills had grown in leaps and bounds. Where keeping constant track of everything around me would once have been an effort, now it was just something I did all the time. The strain of lifting and supporting the weight of my body was marginal at best, thanks to the growing power of my Elementals and my vastly improved MP supply and regeneration. Further, whatever difficulties remained in regards to making calculations had been rendered trivial by the Mathematician's Answer. Now, flying would have been a simple task. And yet, I hadn't truly flown since the day I'd learned the White Tiger's Five Hundred Years, for one, simple reason.
It was far, far too slow.
The nature of drawing upon Levant's power to fly was that I could only move as fast as Levant could move me—as fast as her winds could propel the full weight of my body. Which was fast, especially with my Elemental's ever increasing power; if she needed to, Levant could whip up winds that went hundreds of kilometers an hour and craft storms fierce enough to shred houses. Her power was great and it would only grow as I kept drawing upon her.
But even so, I was far faster. From the day I'd first learned Bai Hu's penultimate technique, there'd been little point in having the winds carry me anywhere—to say nothing of when I'd mastered the White Tiger of the West and gained other ways of enhancing my speed. Acceleration, for instance, affected only my personal time and left even my Elementals moving at sluggish paces, though that never seemed to get in the way of our ability to communicate. Still, as my speeds grew faster and faster, the use for flight dwindled. When I needed to move in three dimensions, I simply created platforms of air for me to Lunge between or addressed it in some anyway; there was no point to truly flying if it reduced my speed that much.
That same issue should have applied to my new growths—but I suppose it was fairly obvious that the wings of the Grimm, like the rest of their bodies, didn't play by normal rules. Perhaps normal Nevermore could fly on their own power and maybe they did, but their Giant cousins or monsters like Ziz? It should have been impossible for them to exist, much less get off the ground on their own power, partially or completely diverging from the natural laws that should have covered such things.
And now, with the power Conquest's infection had given me, I did the same. They didn't beat fast—certainly not fast enough to justify the speeds at which I was moving—but they carried me through the air as if I were running at my top speed. I felt them flowing through something I couldn't make any sense of even when I unified my senses, as if I were swimming instead of flying. And perhaps that was the best way of describing it; it felt like I was swimming through something. It wasn't anything I recognized and barely seemed to have any presence at all, but it supported my weight fully as I moved freely through the air. Was it tied to the other mysteries of the Grimm? It was quite possible, but if so, I'd need to examine it later. For now…
I kept my senses trained on the Grimm even as I rose higher and higher into the air, Observing them carefully. That was the other thing I wanted to test with this experiment—how the Grimm themselves would react to my drawing upon Conquest's power. The Grimm within Naraka didn't seem to care at all, but I still wasn't sure what, if any, differences existed between the ones created by my barrier and the real things. There didn't seem to be any visible differences, but with the unknown power of their Creator and his apparent connection to his offspring…well, who fucking knows.
So here and now, I had to wonder. Would they react to the presence of Grimm flesh inside of me and notice my presence? And if they did, would they recognize me as another Grimm or as an enemy? Would they attack, be drawn towards me, or something else? I paused just beneath the clouds, watching and waiting even as I prepared to lead them away from both Adam and Mistral, if need be.
But nothing happened. There wasn't the slightest reaction. That lack of reaction could have meant any number of things, from not sensing me to simply recognizing me as another Grimm, but I could consider the implications of the experiment another time, once I had the full picture. For now though, the next question was a simple one—how would that reaction change if I attacked them?
Double checking to make sure Adam was in position, I returned my attention to my chosen target and Lunged. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say I Dove, since I moved my wings instead of my legs, adapting the skill to a new purpose. It worked just fine in the end, though, sending me tearing through the sky like a bullet as I Accelerated and landed at my chosen position—right in the center of a Giant Nevermore's back. The moment I touched down, sinking my legs up to mid shin into the beast's flesh in the process, I went one way and Bai Hu rose to go the other. We each grasped a wing where the joint met flesh, used another hand to provide leverage, and, with a piercing cry from the monster's lungs, ripped a wing free with mighty, crushing tug.
It went down at once and I sank my claws into its flesh as it went, guiding it's descent for a moment before crouching and Lunging away. I rose perhaps a hundred meters into the air before stopping abruptly in place, halting my momentum entirely with a flap of my wings. I watched passively as the Grimm crashed into the ground with the echoing sound of shattering stone, stripping away another massive chunck of its HP until less than ten percent was left. I probably could have afforded to leave more for Adam, but it was a test in that regard as well and so I watched as Adam laid a hand on the hilt of his sword for perhaps five seconds before swinging his blade in a vivid red slash that ended the creature's life.
I Observed the attack itself, checked Adam's status screen to see the change the experience had caused, crunched some numbers, and then looked over the Grimm nearby, gauging their reactions to the attack. Many of them had responded to the Nevermore's dying screams and to the crushing impact that had followed, but none of their attention seemed focused on me. Musing for a moment, I summoned my Map with a thought, glanced at the moving red dots nearby, and then created an illusory copy of it beside Adam.
"This one next," I said, Levant speaking the words directly into his ear. I highlighted one of the dots and drew a line from his position to its. Adam moved without a word, all business now that we were on the job. As he did, I crossed my arms and 'fell' forward to hang upside-down in midair, simply to see if I could. As I expected, the different position had no effect on my ability to fly and I continued to slowly beat my wings.
Then I summoned Levant, manifesting her physically at my side. She stood lower than me in the air, such that she was able to look at my nonexistent face as I floated upside-down. For the sake of being polite to my friend, I turned my body with my head as the axis, meeting her eyes with the smooth face of my mask. Our thoughts aligned a moment later and she understood what I'd brought her forth to ask, but before her physical form completely unraveled, I stretched my wings out so she could see them.
"We'll go flying together sometime, Levant," I told her, remembering the words she'd spoke when I'd first contracted her, and she smiled brightly before coming apart. I saw her reform a moment later, stepping lightly onto the head of my next target, and at once the air around the Giant Nevermore turned against it and it began to falter in its flight. No, rather than that, it lost control completely as Levant adjusted the flow of air around its wings to forcibly guide its flight. It tried to let out a cry but Levant strangled the noise in its throat as she guided it down for a relatively soft landing—though the force of it wouldn't change the fact that it would never leave the ground again. Adam was on its way and Levant wouldn't let it rise from the ground again, much less escape. For all intents and purposes, it was already dead, caught within my control of the air.
Just like the first one had been, all those months ago. But now, with my own Grimm wings, I had to wonder why. I wouldn't have fallen in its place, because it wasn't the wind that was beneath my wings, yet it fell despite the fact that its wings alone couldn't have kept it in the air. For whatever reason, it seemed the Giant Nevermore's wings weren't quite as divorced from the world as mine were. Were theere limits to the effect that now allowed me to fly? Or was it simply because I was stronger and using Conquest's wings? Certainly, the Grimm tended to grow in size as they grew stronger, such as with the twenty-story Goliath's whose own footsteps should shatter their bodies. Was that change in size merely a result of the fact that it became possible for them to exist in such forms, further and further from the bounds of rationality?
And if so, was this strange force I was now sensing the cause? Did it allow the Nevermore to fly and let the Goliath's exist? Was this another part of Malkuth Theory or had I stumbled across something new?
I sighed. Every time I tried to research the Grimm, I found more and more questions and very, very few answers. It was rather irritating, really—almost enough to make me want to do something about it.
But, well…I was going to kill all the Grimm here anyway, so there just wasn't much point was there?
I watched calmly as another monster died in a flash of red light before quietly moving on. Giant Nevermore, Karkinos, Tyrant Scales, and so many more…there were a lot of creatures to kill.
But I had all night.
XxXXxX
"You okay?" I asked hours later, fingers digging into the exposed flesh of a Karkinos as I dragged what was left of its body behind me. I'd stripped off all of the crablike Grimm's limbs and had shattered most of its protective shell—but it was still alive when I drew it back above the waves.
A quick swing of Adam's sword fixed that and then there was a long moment of silence as he stood there, his breathing careful.
"Fine," He said after a minute, lifting a hand to his head. "Just…feel weird. Tired and…not, at the same time."
I nodded to show I understood, tossing away the corpse with a flick of my wrist. We'd been at this all night and had fallen into a steady routine of fighting and healing, making sure that Adam didn't succumb to exhaustion. I'd notice that seemed to affect him a bit oddly and wondered if there was a split between physical and mental exhaustion, but he'd put it aside and kept going, battling nonstop until the sun was almost prepared to rise.
"I was about to say we should get ready to wrap things up here, anyway," I said, clicking my talons against my armored chest. Slowly, I began to heal myself, starting with a series of charged and focused bursts and then keeping up the pressure. In a matter of minutes, my altered form had faded away to a small dot on my arm, taking my new wings with it, and I took a seat on an invisible platform of air. "It's almost dawn and I'll need to get back soon, especially if I want to set up the whole bodyguard thing. There's still a lot for us to do in regards to the White Fang and our new friends, as well, and it's best not to leave such things alone for too long."
Adam took a look at my invisible chair and rolled his eyes, but nodded at my words as he relaxed. We'd limited ourselves to the creatures that hunted near Mistral and had systematically slaughtered anything and everything that caught my eye. But though I'd had to restore his Aura more than a hundred times throughout the night and the constant battle seemed to be wearing on him, I was satisfied with the results of tonight's work.
The Beast
LV56
Adam Taurus
"How'd I do?" He asked after a moment, carefully taking a seat in the grass before me.
"Why don't you see for yourself?" I asked right back, smiling down at him. Unlike me, he didn't receive pop-ups except as related to the Party System and the changes hadn't been as obvious to him—and when he opened his status screen with a word, there was no mistaking the surprise on his face.
"Eleven levels already?" He breathed, sounding both amazed and confused.
"The benefits of having an awesome, higher-leveled friend," I replied, shrugging humbly. "Aren't you glad I let you hang out with my magnificent self?"
"It's easier to be grateful to you when you're silent," Adam noted, giving me a mild look.
I chuckled a bit at that.
"It's not surprising though," I said. "I made sure to target things that were above you in level, after all, and we've been at this for hours. It's not surprising you'd grow quickly, under the circumstances."
"What about you?" He asked. "You were doing most of the work, so you should have gotten most of the experience. How many times did you level up?"
I chuckled a bit and glanced over at the windows that had popped up while I was in the midst of working. With my sensory abilities as high as they were, I tended to note what the pop ups said and then push them out of my mind rather than concern myself with closing them in the middle of combat. Still, it was hard to ignore these particular announcements, accompanied by a rush of power as they were.
Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!
"Twice," I told him, shrugging slightly at his look. "Again, it's not that surprising. Enemies that were ten levels above you when we began were nearly twenty below me. I tried to balance the experience out as much as possible, though I think I was still getting about…sixty to eighty percent from each. I have a few skills that improve the amount of experience I get, but…yeah."
He was silent for a moment and then nodded sharply.
"Thanks," He said after a moment. "For the help, I mean."
I snorted.
"Don't worry about it," I said. "We stuck near the city this time, but next time we'll go further out to face the stronger creatures. As you level up, we'll keep facing more and more powerful monsters, so we'll both get experience. Just think of today as getting some of the annoying stuff out of the way so we can have fun later."
"Is that what I am?" He asked, lips twitching ever so slightly upwards. "An annoyance?"
"Damn straight," I replied at once. "But who knows, maybe you'll be useful eventually. I know it's a bit of a sunk-cost fallacy, but I keep hoping that if I help you just a little bit more, you'll manage to shape up somehow."
He rolled his eyes beneath his mask.
"Gee," He answered with a dull sounding tone. "Thanks. Truly, your magnanimity is inspiring."
"I try," I admitted, laughing briefly before adopting a serious expression. "But really Adam, you've come a long ways and it's only been a night. A few weeks or months of this and you'll go even further. As you are now, you should be in about the same league as Emerald and Mercury and if you stick around as my bodyguard…"
"I can imagine," He murmured before slowly tilting his head. "Or perhaps I can't. Stuff like this reminds me of just how quickly you grow, Jaune. It's been a little over half a year and look at you. Fuck, I remember when you were this scrawny runt who couldn't drive a truck worth a damn."
"Bitch, please," I sighed as if listening to his madness was exhausting. "I was a great truck driver. It was your fault for not obeying the law and wearing a seatbelt."
"What?" He sounded disbelieving. "You broke so many traffic laws that I'd wonder who the fuck gave you a license if not for the fact that, you know, you were driving without a license."
"And I drove spectacularly," I stated firmly. "Remind me, who is it that's alive because of my driving skills?"
He rolled his eyes again.
"Whatever," He said. "The point is that you've come a long, long way since then. And this…I can already tell that tonight will probably be worth months—maybe even years—of effort on my part and it was a snap for you. In another year or five or ten…God only knows where you'll be."
I smiled at that, not saying that I was pretty sure things would come to a head sooner rather than later, whether because of my enemies or the deterioration of the Kingdoms. It was, after all, something I myself wondered about fairly often—just like I wondered about what I might have once been. If I'd had this power then, if I was connected to the monster in the Red Rider's temple in some way…how powerful had I been then? As powerful as the Creator of the Grimm himself?
Obviously not, I thought to myself. Or I wouldn't have died. Whatever I'd been in the past, I knew I'd lost that round at least.
I'd just have to do better when it came time for the rematch.
"Don't worry," I assured him aloud. "As my minion, you'll be able to bear witness to my meteoric rise to greatness. Just think of it as your paycheck—because let's face it, being allowed to bask in my greatness is worth more money then you'll ever have in your entire life, so there's no point inpaying you for the honor."
"Please," He snorted dismissively. "I'm no minion; I'm your second in command at the very least."
"Oh?" I chuckled, leaning back and spreading my hands. "And when exactly did that happen?"
"When you failed to find anyone else who was capable of putting up with you," He stated. "Meaning it's just you and me—and, therefore, that I am your second in command by default."
I mulled over that for a moment before closing my eyes and smiling.
"I suppose that true," I allowed. "At least until I find some better minions. But…I guess you make a passable right hand man. You'll have to keep training hard if you want to keep the position, though, because I'm going to keep getting stronger. If you fall too far behind, you'll make me look bad—and, really, what's the point of having an ugly friend if they don't at least make you look better in comparison?"
"How did you survive to adulthood," He wondered. "What series of events made that possible?"
"I got a really awesome Semblance," I answered.
"Ah, true," He nodded before looking at me. "What did you have in mind?"
"Let's say," I made a show of pretending to mull over it. "Let say you get within ten levels of me and manage to stay there. Stuff like that's the minimum for a right hand man."
He snorted.
"Fine," He answered. "It's not like I intended to stop getting stronger. I deserve this much for tolerating you this long."
After a moment, however, he tilted his head to look at his Status Screen more carefully.
"Speaking of getting more powerful…what do you think I should invest in first?" He asked, finger hovering in front of the screen.
I hummed for a moment.
"I suppose it's really just a matter of preference in your case," I said after a moment of thought. "We'll keep grinding until you can improve everything you wanted, after all. You figure fifty Strength, fifty Dexterity, and…twenty-five to fifty Wisdom should be enough? That's fourteen to nineteen more levels, which shouldn't take too long, once we get far enough from Mistral."
He pursed his lips in consideration.
"How big of a change does Wisdom make?"
"A pretty huge one, at least for me," I replied. "For me, my base MP regen—before bringing in any of my skills—was one percent a minute. Every ten points in Wisdom increased that by another percent, so adding forty points would raise it to five percent, with means it'd only take twentyminutes to fully recharge. That's just for me, though. Still…it should work similarly for you, relative to however long it takes you to recover your Aura."
"Hm," He mused. "And the other two?"
"Strength and speed," I shrugged. "Still pretty damn useful—and the more damage you can deal and the faster you can deal it, the better you can contribute to fights like these, which means you'll level up faster. Wisdom's pretty great in my opinion, especially for the other perks you get from it, but I can keep healing you for the time being. I mean, hey, you're the one who got me this Dust, right?"
He nodded decisively.
"Right," He answered, cracking his neck. "Here goes nothing then."
XxXXxX
MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
Masked
My grandmother lifted her eyes from her work to quirk an eyebrow at me.
"And who is this?" She asked, flicking a glance at the man standing stock still behind my chair.
"My new bodyguard," I nodded back at him, smiling widely.
"Your bodyguard," She repeated, eyebrow climbing higher as she watched Adam for a long moment. "Mm…"
I chuckled slightly as her skepticism.
"You gave me one last time," I reminded, smiling slightly. "Grigio?"
"I recall," She gestured dismissively, returning her gaze to me. "Of course, last time you were my youngest grandchild, who I'd seen only a handful of times—and in all of those occasions, you were struggling in your effort to become a Hunter. When I saw you again, I knew things had changed, but I had no idea how much until you told me. Grigio was there to insure nothing got out of hand if the other Families chose to test you and to see that none of my enemies made any choices they'd regret. Now, though…well, I think we all know you don't need someone to protect you, which makes me wonder who he really is."
Through it all, she didn't so much as glance back at Adam, her expression blank. Her words were directed solely at me and we all knew it, which was why Adam stayed professionally silent, hidden within my Glamour.
"His name is Adam," I answered. "You've heard of him, I'm sure—my right hand man."
"Adam," She repeated, pausing to squint at the man. "Adam Taurus of the White Fang?"
Adam inclined his head silently.
"You look different," She noted dryly, returning her gaze to me even as she spoke to him. "I didn't recognize you."
I spread my hands and smiled even wider.
"Hence the disguise," I answered brightly. "We can hardly have a wanted criminal walking around in broad daylight, can we?"
She hummed in acknowledgement.
"Since he is here and you are yourself," She said by way of answer. "I assume he knows the truth?"
"He does," I confirmed. "He was my assistant during the White Whale incident and has helped me out a number of times since. I consider him a close friend and trust him completely."
"Is that wise?" She asked.
I leaned forward slightly to rest my elbows on my knees.
"I'd know if it wasn't," I answered, smile unchanging. "Like I said, he's helped me many times and has never betrayed me, despite having a number of chances to do so."
"How can you be sure?" She challenged, to which I met her eyes and slowly raised an eyebrow. She glanced at the ceiling and shook her head before nodding at me once. "Of course. Then I welcome you into my home, Adam Taurus."
"A pleasure," He answered, bowing his head even deeper before falling silent again. My grandmother returned the gesture a touch less deeply and made several motions on her computer.
"I take it you'd like this bodyguard business to be official?" My grandmother asked me, tone a touch tired but accepting. "And I assume he'll need paperwork supporting his new identity?"
"Yes," I answered. "We'll be working together for some time, you see."
"Mm," She answered, making notes. "To what end, might I ask?"
"Adam's the White Fang's official representative to our mysterious third party," I explained. "He'll be helping me in that regard as well."
My grandmother paused in her typing, a frown of consideration touching her lips.
"I see," She whispered, nodding slowly. "Interesting. And what do you know of these friends of ours, Adam Taurus?"
"Annoyingly little," He answered rigidly, containing a disgusted snort. "They're good at staying out of sight, I must admit. I've never even seen the woman in charge personally."
"A woman," She mused. "Do you know her name?"
"No," I answered in his place, holding out a hand. Images formed above my fingers, taking the shapes I remembered. "But look into Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black. They're associates of hers—and they were the ones responsible for transporting a shipment of weapons. Weapons they stole in the recent bombing in Atlas. Do you mind looking into a few things for me?"
Her frown deepened as the image changed from a picture of the pair to those of the weapons I'd seen and then settled on the symbol that tied them to Atlas.
"I heard you were in a bar last night," She replied after a minute. "I can't say I actually believed that you were simply enjoying yourself."
"Learning's fun," I said, denying her claim. "And I learned a great deal."
"So I see," Grandmother chuckled. "Very well, I shall see what I can find. Their leader wasn't there, however?"
I sighed and shook my head.
"That's why I don't know her name," I shrugged.
"I suppose it would be unrealistic to expect things to be that simple," She mused. "Do you knowwhere she is?"
"In Vale, last I heard," Adam rumbled as I glanced at him.
"In Vale?" Grandmother repeated, sounding annoyed. "All this time?"
"Doubtful," I shook my head. "But the White Fang only became aware of her absence recently. She has an illusionist on her side, it seems."
My grandmother swore under her breath.
"That would explain a few things," She muttered darkly. "We'll have to take measures. Have you checked the house?"
"Of course," I answered, almost offended by the question.
"Good," She nodded, frowning. "If she's in Vale, however, learning about her might be a bit…complicated."
"No need to worry about that, thankfully," I smirked. "We know where she'll be, after all?"
"Oh?" She asked. "Do tell."
"According to Raven, this friend of ours works out of Haven," I said. "She's a student there, it seems—or, at least, is posing as one."
"A student at Haven," Grandmother repeated, a touch of disbelief in her voice until she paused and considered it. "Well, I suppose I wouldn't have looked for her there, which makes it a fairly good hiding place."
I hummed in agreement.
"Do you have access to the list of students that will be arriving this year?" I asked. "Mercury and Emerald are old enough to go this year and I'll bet they're going to enroll as well."
My grandmother didn't answer for a moment, closing several windows and then checking her email. Eventually, she fould one containing a list of names, faces, and profiles and scrolled through it, stopping twice.
"Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai," She said, nodding. "I assume these profiles are full of lies, but they're on the list. I'll look into them further to see what I can find."
Then she looked up at me.
"I'd wondered why you wanted to go to Haven," She told me. "You intend to find her?"
"Either she'll be there," I answered, shrugging. "Or her illusionist will be. Either way, it's worth a look. There's more going on than we know and I don't like it. The arms deal last night was done without Adam's knowledge, though we're still hunting down who was responsible. That implies she has connections in the White Fang and, presumably—"
"The Families, as well," She finished for me before pursing her lips. "Probably within Haven, too, as well as Vale if she's operating there. And Atlas, perhaps, given her thefts there. That is…rather concerning."
"As far as Vale goes, see what you can find out about a man named Roman Torchwick," I said. "He's working for her and he tried stealing the White Whale at the same time I did. But yes, the number of pies she seems to have her fingers in is rather alarming, so I'd like to see what I can dig up. If all is well—which I suppose could always happen—then we'll leave things be and simply keep an eye on her every now and then. If necessary, however, then I've considered filling Olivia in on things and having her observe this friend of ours."
I shrugged again
"Of course, that depends on what I see when I look at her," I continued. "I'll only bring Olivia in if it's safe to do so. From the way Raven's spoken of this friend of ours, that might be too dangerous."
"And if it is?" Grandmother asked. "What will you do?"
"I'll take matters into my own hands, of course," I replied.
She watched me for a moment and I saw when the pieces clicked.
"Haven," She said. "You'd go to Haven for this?"
"If she's a big enough threat, then I'll do whatever I need to," I hedged. "With an illusionist by her side, sneaking in and out should be trivial for her, so we'd need someone who could see through such things. And if that needs to be me, it's better than letting her move without us knowing. But…"
"But you don't want to go to Haven," She finished again.
"But I really, really don't want to go to Haven," I sighed. "Or any other school, for that matter. Reserve me a seat anyway, just in case."
She nodded sharply.
"I'll see to it." She replied. "If you'll excuse me."
I inclined my head and rose, leaving her office with Adam at my back. It would take my Grandmother time to look into what I'd found as well as make the necessary arrangements, so it was best we went back to work and left her to hers. The sun had risen only a short time ago, but there was enough to do that we couldn't waste any daylight.
"Hey," Adam whispered as we went down stairs to steal some breakfast. I didn't need it but he did.
"Hm?" I hummed questioningly.
"If you do end up going to Haven," He began slowly. "What does that mean for me?"
I looked over my shoulder and gave him a flat look, to which he made a disgusted noise.
"What?" He groaned. "No. God, please no."
"You're the White Fang's envoy to them," I reminded. "A job you previously could not do during the day and couldn't do effectively at night. This would get you close enough to keep an eye on them and find things out. Also, you're my second in command and my best friend; if I suffer, you suffer."
"Fuck."
"Just look on the bright side, Adam," I tried to sound soothing.
"What's the fucking bright side?" He muttered. After a moment of silence, he lifted his head and frowned. "Jaune?"
"Shut up, I'm thinking," I told him—and then, once we'd made it the rest of the way down stairs, gotten some food from the kitchen, and finished eating, I gave him a shrug. "Yeah, I got nothing. Let's just hope it doesn't come to that or this is going to suck."
XxXXxX
Adam and I were fed and out of the house before my mother even made it downstairs. I reminded myself that I'd need to introduce Adam—my 'bodyguard'—to the rest of my family soon, but…well, there was no rest for the wicked, or else I'd have made more progress against them by now. With the training out of the way, we had other things to do; I'd had Adam send the message before we left Mistral, which meant it should have reached Raven by now.
And we'd best not keep her waiting.
Between one step and the next, the real world faded behind the walls of Naraka—and in that same step, Jaune Arc and his bodyguard were gone and Jian Bing and Adam Taurus walked in their place. I let Adam set the pace, which still let us move decently fast, and we quickly found our agreed upon meeting place by the tallest building in the city. Adam silently followed my lead as I formed an invisible, airy staircase and then took a seat beside me on the edge.
I shattered the barrier I'd erected with a flash of power, tearing it down and instantly scoured the area with my senses, just in case. Then, once I was certain no one was spying on us, I meet the eyes of Raven's mask and smiled in greeting.
"It seems we're being lied to, Raven," I said, Levant carrying my voice over the wind so I didn't have to raise my voice.
"Jian," She greeted as she walked closer. "As talented at starting conversations as ever, I see."
Then she tilted her head to look at her 'son.'
"Adam," She frowned beneath her mask. "You look different."
He grunted once and nodded.
"I've been training," He stated, jerking his head my way to shift her attention towards me.
I merely chuckled at being thrown under the bus, however, inclining my head slightly.
"I've merely been giving him a few tips," I explained easily, giving him a knowing smile. "Best he be prepared with an illusionist running around, no?"
I could tell Raven understood the true intentions beneath my words from the way her Aura flickered, how her heartbeat rose, and from how her emotions flared, but none of it showed in any more obvious manner and Adam didn't react. I felt her gaze settle more fully on me, but I didn't react either.
"You'll have to tell me about it sometime," She said at last. "But as you said, yes. We're being lied to."
"I trust you examined the location I sent you?"
"Of course," She stated. "It's Kijani."
By my side, Adam took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, so I nodded as if the name meant something to me.
"You don't seem very surprised," I noted.
"The method itself was surprising," She denied. "But the fact that he attempted something was not. I suspected he would do something for quite some time."
I nodded.
"Then would you like to take the lead on this?" I offered. "I would be happy to bow to your experience on this matter."
"I'll handle it myself," She shook her head. "It's not a problem as of yet, especially with what we now know. And it's always possible that he knows something of value."
"A pleasure to be of service," I inclined my head. "I shall leave this to you, then."
"But that's not all you wish to discuss, is it?" She pressed. "You've found something?"
"Indeed," I answered before gesturing to the empty sky around, drawing us silently into Naraka. "I learnt of Kijani's actions while pursuing a different end—this friend of ours. I learnt a great deal in the process and if you have the time, perhaps we could discuss them somewhere that's…not an empty rooftop, perhaps?"
She looked at me, silent and expressionless, emotions caught between confusion and disbelief. I chuckled slightly and glanced towards Adam, drawing his Glamour back around him, making Raven's eyes widen slightly.
"In response to our newest problem, I thought it best to…dust off my own skill with illusions," I explained. "As I made something of a breakthrough, I thought we might meet somewhere more comfortable for once—though naturally, the choice of location is up to you. May I?"
I held out a hand to her expectantly, fairly sure I knew what was to come. She looked at the hand for a moment, settling her own on the hilt of her blade—and a fraction of a second later, I felt my arm come off. I closed my eyes for a moment, exhaled slowly as I healed the damage, and continued to hold out my hand to her as she sheathed her blade, apparently satisfied but unsure of what to make of my offer.
"In the past, you and Adam have had…difficulties moving in broad daylight," I continued as if nothing had happened. "A side effect of being officially deceased and a wanted terrorist, I assume. It occurred to me, however, that under the circumstances, it might be better if you were able to move a bit more freely. Don't you agree?"
She hummed slowly but placed a hand in my own. At once, her appearance shifted, details changing as they went. As she changed, however, I drew a mirror from my Inventory and offered it to her.
"I thought of making you blonde, at first," I stated. "But I feared it would make you look too much like your daughter. Instead, I tried to match your appearance more closely to your son's—or, at least, to how he seems to appear. Should you have any different preferences, however, I would be happy to oblige you however I may."
She took off her mask and looked at her new reflection for a few seconds, lifting a hand to her face once and nodding before handing me the mirror back.
"It's fine," She answered, glancing at her son. "And I know a place, as it happens."
She paused to look down at herself. I'd turned her dress pure black for the sake of simplicity, but left the mask and her weapon be because there were only so many ways to adjust the appearance of either without turning them invisible or making them even more attention drawing.
"I'll hide them if you wish," I said after a moment, returning the mirror to my Inventory. "Or hold onto them if you desire."
Slowly, she extended the mask, a silent gesture of trust in my ability to hide her, but kept her sword as I'd expected her to. Smiling, I stored the mask as well.
"Where do you put them?" She asked after a minute. "The things you make disappear?"
I paused for a moment to consider how to explain that.
"In a…" I bobbed my head from side to side. "I suppose the easiest way to describe it would be as a dimensional vault I keep attached to my person. Beyond that, details get complex, but it's very useful. It allows me to carry everything I might need with me—and hide things I don't want people to see."
She nodded slowly, staring at the air her mask had vanished into for a moment before snapping a finger and turning on her heels, shoulders tense as she walked through the portal she'd pulled together. She wasn't used to the idea of showing her face—but then, that was part of the point of all this. Getting my friends used to the possibilities my Glamour created.
I followed her in, Adam a step behind me, and we found ourselves striding quickly down an alleyway. I shattered Naraka and we returned to reality, the noise of city life returning abruptly, and Raven guided us to a restaurant I didn't recognize. A glance at the sky told me we were still in Mistral, however.
"Adam, why don't you go get a drink?" Raven stated as we enter. "Jian and I need to speak in private for a moment."
"It's pretty early in the day," Adam noted before pausing to think, probably about going to school. "Though it's never too early to drink, really. In fact, I'm going to get into a drinking contest with myself now. If I should start dying of alcohol poisoning, don't bother saving me—it's how I'd want to go."
Raven's eyebrows furrowed in abrupt concern as she watched Adam beeline for the bar. She turned to glance at me questioningly.
"Bad news," I explained. "I'll keep an eye on him."
"Did you bring him into this?" She asked, keeping her eyes trained on mine.
"If by this you mean our issue with the Riders, then no," I replied, making sure not to react. "Although this illusionist gave me the opportunity to begin preparing him. I trust his judgement."
"As do I," She whispered with a sigh before nodding decisively. "And I trust yours. So I'll leave that choice to you. He really has gotten stronger, hasn't he? In just a few days?"
"Best to be prepared," I answered, smiling. "And with time of the essence, it's best to prepare quickly. He will be assisting me for a time, so I felt it best to make sure he was ready."
"For her?" She asked.
I looked at her for a moment, shaking my head minutely.
"I think it best to handle that myself," I said. "But she is gathering friends around her; best to do the same."
"Friends?"
"I assume you know of Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai?" I arched an eyebrow her way. "A boy with silver hair and a girl with green?"
"I've seen them." She confirmed.
"They will be entering Haven shortly," I stated. "Presumably to aid their Mistress's plans, whatever they may be. And she…has begun to move."
Raven took a breath, held it for a moment, and exhaled slowly, looking around.
"Perhaps we should find a seat," She suggested. "I assume you have something in mind. It's driven Adam to self-opposed drinking contests, a few chairs may be warranted."
"I pride myself on being able to make people feel that way," I smiled. "And though his reaction is for personal reasons, I do have several things to discuss with you."
XxXXxX
MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
Interconnected
"I take it something has gone wrong?" She began the moment we were both seated, even as I brought an illusion around us and made sure we wouldn't be overheard.
"Doesn't something always?" I answered with a smile, making her close her eyes and smirk for a moment.
"I suppose that's true," She admitted. "But what, specifically, has gone wrong this time?"
"It would seem this friend of ours is more dangerous than we realized," I said. "Torchwick in Vale, the bombings in Atlas, and her ties here to the White Fang…she has a lot of influence in at least three of the Kingdoms and the power needed to transport thousands of stolen weapons between at least two of them—and I would bet that she has friends in Vacuo, as well. She had an ally within our own organization that we didn't know about until now and likely has similar plants in other places. Whatever she's planning, all signs point to it being something big. She's powerful."
"Yes," Raven whispered before tilting her head slowly, voice growing just a touch annoyed at my words. "There is a reason I have handled this alliance with care, Jian."
I inclined my head to her in an apology.
"I was not trying to imply anything," I told her. "I merely wished to lay down the facts before making a request. Will you allow me to handle things from here?"
She watched me, face as expressionless as her mask, though that did nothing to hide what she felt from me.
"Why ask me?" She wondered after a moment.
"Because I respect you," I replied at once. "And I respect your abilities, which are invaluable. But the circumstances have changed again."
"Again," She repeated before pausing momentarily. "You're thinking about what happened to Summer and Ruby?"
"In a way, yes," I nodded. "This friend of ours is a problem that needs to be handled carefully and monitored closely. But the difference between Ruby and this friend of ours is that we can keep an eye on the former, even from a great distance, and she hasn't acted up yet, while the latter has proven herself able to evade notice should the situation call for it and has most certainly been acting up."
"Because of the illusionist," She stated.
"Yes," I agreed anyway. "Because of the illusionist. She has changed the entire game and we need to change with it. Like Ruby, this is a problem we cannot leave unwatched. Should the situation change, we need to be made aware of it as quickly as possible, which means we must be able to perceive such changes."
"And I can't," She stated, sounding annoyed but not at me. The fact that the illusionist had pulled one over on her seemed to irritate her on a personal level, simply because of how bad it could make this already tenuous situation. Slowly, however, her eyes fell to her reflection in the table—or rather, the reflection of her illusory disguise. "But I take it you can?"
"At the risk of sounding arrogant, very few things escape my notice," I nodded. "But in order to be sure, I'll need to be relatively close by. Your abilities allow you to keep an eye on people like Ruby from a great distance, but I'm afraid my eyes don't reach quite that far. If I am to watch her, I will have to remain in Mistral while I do so."
"Ah," She said at last, seeming to understand. "And you wish for me to handle things elsewhere, in your absence."
I nodded once.
"Information still reaches me, thankfully," I answered. "And I managed to handle most things satisfactorily before my arrival here. But there are still a number of duties I will have to delegate if I am to remain here, the most important of which is our Rider problem."
"Do you think she's part of it?" Raven asked, sounding at once curious and serious. "Do you think she's a Rider?"
"I don't think anything yet, I'm afraid," I stated with a sigh, having considered the possibility myself. There wasn't anything pointing to it, but I'd have been a fool not to at least check for it. "I began researching her as soon as I returned, but I cannot scan her directly without knowing where she is. Do you, by any chance…?"
Raven grit her teeth slightly, shaking her head.
"I admit, I was going to ask for your assistance in this matter myself," She told me. "She's become rather skilled at evading my notice. In light of her recent actions, I find that a bit concerning."
"Understandably so," I replied, wondering how she'd felt about my abilities in that field. "Does her illusionist remain here in Mistral?"
Raven was silent for a long moment.
"Perhaps," She said, pursing her lips. "It would be a lie to say I've seen her."
"I see," I nodded in understanding. "No matter—I know where at least one of them shall be."
"Oh?" She asked.
"As said, Emerald and Mercury will be joining their Mistress at Haven," I smiled. "Therefore, either their Mistress will be there or an illusion of her will be. Either way, I'll find them and keep a veryclose eye on them. Whatever they do, I'll know."
"On the condition that you're close enough to do so," She mused. "How close does that need to be?"
I sighed again.
"It seems you've uncovered the source of Adam's pain," I replied, nodding my head towards my friend. "Close. Within a few kilometers of it, preferably, and for a mission that may last weeks or months…well, closer is better. I'll need to be able to react quickly to anything I find and pick up whatever they're doing, so…ideally, I would be within the building itself."
Raven arched an eyebrow.
"For weeks or months," She repeated and I could practically hear her putting the pieces together. She looked slowly from me to Adam, who was constructing a pyramid out of shot glasses. I saw her ponder the illusion on Adam's face for a moment and then nod. "I begin to understand."
I nodded tired.
"It's not what I would prefer, I admit, but…" I shook my head. "It may be necessary. I'll need to see both her and the illusionist to be certain of anything, but if they're as big a threat as they seem to be, it would be foolish to leave them unattended."
"And you're the only person who can keep track of them," She nodded. "Yes. You have a plan, I assume?"
I met her eyes for a long moment, checked my math again, and told her the truth.
More or less.
"My reincarnation will go," I paused to shake my head. "Or our reincarnation, if you prefer."
"Our?" She asked, eyebrows rising.
"You've probably realized by now that Jian Bing was not the first name I went by," I said. "This soul of mine was first born when Babel still stood tall."
"Then what was it?"
I shut my eyes and shook my head.
"I don't remember," I admitted. "He and the Riders took that life and left little behind."
"You mean…?"
"You saw me," I told her and chuckled. "Or an…artistic depiction of me, at least, on the walls of the Red Rider's temple. The beast with eyes and wings. I fought them, in the beginning, and…I lost."
I clicked a nail against the tabletop, sighing without losing my slight smile.
"I tried and failed," I continued. "But all that meant was that I had to keep trying. So I did and I will, until I win. Too much is on the line to do anything else."
She nodded seriously.
"And so this incarnation continues that fight," She said before pausing. "Are you many minds in one body or…?"
"No," I shook my head. "Can you imagine such a thing? It would be curse on the recipient. But…our souls are one, even across different lives, and so are we."
"And who are you now?" She asked.
I gave her a half-smile, tilting my head at her.
"I think you know," I answered. "Or at least suspect. With this, you should be able to put together any pieces that remain."
"Perhaps," She replied. "But will you tell me your name anyway?"
I chuckled again.
"Of course," I said. "My name in this life is Jaune Arc. And it is, as always, a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
A few minutes later, Raven departed. We spent a short while discussing our plans, but now that she knew who I was—and where I likely would be—there was no real rush. If she needed to say something to me, it wouldn't be hard for her to pop into my room or something, which rather simplified things. Though it had preserved a measure of secrecy between us, it had taken far too long to meet one another by passing messages through Tukson and whoever she used as a contact. Even if it was one-sided, being able to get in touch quickly was a necessity when there was so much that could go wrong.
It was part of the reason I'd told her who I was—if the Riders or whoever else acted, we needed to be able to react quickly. With things the way they were now, I'd shorted our response time from days to minutes and that alone might be worth the risk.
But more than that, the truth of the matter was…I didn't think there was much risk in telling her any more. For better or worse, I trusted her. I'd told her enough at the Temple for her to put most of the pieces together and I'd waited to see how she'd act upon them—and she hadn't. From everything I knew of her now, I was certain that she wouldn't bring my family into this if she didn't have to, and that had been the last thing I'd felt worth worrying about. As such, the story I'd given her was all but true, though I'd left a few details out about the specifics of my Semblance and how it was modeled off of a game. Other than that, though…
I tilted my head back and sighed slowly.
With this, almost everything was in place. I was in Mistral, but Raven could still use her powers to keep an eye on more distant things. Even beyond the practicality, it had felt good telling her. Now, she knew most of my secrets now and I knew her well enough that I didn't really care about most of hers. If she didn't want to tell me about any of the specifics, that was fine as long as it didn't cause any problems down the line. And between the two of us—the three of us, with Adam—we held a great deal of power in the White Fang, just as my family held a lot of power in Mistral. If necessary, I could reach out to my sisters, as well, lay down a few roots in the other Kingdoms, but I'd keep those cards in reserve as long as possible. Already, I was getting more and more used to monitoring signals on the airwaves and keeping track of current events. I'd look for patterns, threats, and opportunities for us and with Raven's help…well, even if I did end up in Haven, I could step out for an afternoon and go pretty much anywhere in the world.
Whatever happened now, I could at least be confident that I had eyes and ears everywhere, that I could react quickly to anything that came upon. I'd just have to hope that would be enough, because it was the best I, we, could do right now.
So for now, the most important thing for me to do is follow the plan and continue to get stronger. I couldn't be sure how long I truly had before things got moving, so I'd need to work hard while I still could.
That in mind, I rose from my seat and slipped over to the bar, claiming the empty seat beside Adam. A fair number of people had gathered around him to watch as he constructed a series of impressive shot glass towers, but since they were being designed by a drunk, no one seemed to want to sit right next to him.
Adam turned to me for a moment, his expression passive, even solemn. For a moment, he was silent as he observed me, expression contemplative.
"J—" He began before stopping himself, furrowing his brows. Maybe he wasn't sure what to call my disguise or maybe he was just struggling to remember my name through the alcohol; I had enough faith in his ability to hold his liquor to assume it was the former. He shook his head once, which seemed to make him a bit dizzy, and then frowned. "Jay. You done?"
"Yup," I replied, nodding easily. "Your mom already left."
"Huh?" He asked, looking over his shoulder for her. He slowly scanned the bar for her, looking focused, and the fact that he was still capable of distinguishing faces struck me as somewhat miraculous. Then again, I already knew how functional Adam was as a drunk. "So she is. We leaving, too?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "I was thinking we'd do some more hunting, but I can drop you off somewhere and train alone if you'd rather be drunk for a while."
He looked more than a little tempted but shook his head.
"Nah, training's more important," He said, shutting his eyes and swallowing for a moment. "Sober me up."
I tapped him on the shoulder once and healed him, making him shudder once and crack his neck.
"Ugh," He said after a moment, not opening his eyes. "Yeah, that's sobriety. Every time I do it, I remember why I try to avoid it."
"You already pay?" I asked, lifting my eyes to the bartender as Adam nodded.
"Paid at the start and told him to keep it coming," He answered as the bartender gave me a slight nod, looking impressed. "I know how much I can take."
I eyed at the pyramid which was flanked by a pair of towers with occasional holes for windows. Sitting down, all three structures were over my head.
"Okay," I accepted easily. "Ready to go?"
He grunted an affirmative, nodding to the bartender as he rose. A few people clapped as he walked away on his own power, but we quickly made our way outside.
"You and Raven figure things out?" He asked after giving his eyes a moment to adjust to the sun.
"More or less," I shrugged. "I told her who I was."
He glanced over his shoulder at me.
"Ah," He said after a moment. "Well, that's good then. I assume she took it pretty well?"
"Yeah, it was fine," I answered. "This should make things easier for you, right? I told her just about everything. Everything but the specifics of my Semblance, Autumn, Gou, and…I think that's everything important. There's a few things I need to tell you, too, but they're kind of a pain in the ass to explain."
"There's no short version?" He raised an eyebrow.
I considered that for a moment and shrugged. Raven had given her permission, after all.
"There's a lot of stuff implying that the reason my Semblance is so powerful is because I'm some kind of ancient, reincarnating weapon from the days of Babel," I explained. "And it seems the guys who killed me last time are still around, too. And they're kind of dicks."
"Ah," He replied after a moment, squinting against the light and pondering me. His eyebrows furrowed for a moment and he nodded slowly. "Ah."
"Mm," I agreed.
"These assholes," He said after a moment. "Anyone I know?"
"They're Grimm, mostly," I answered. "One is the sapient virus inside Pandora Shells—he calls himself Conquest. Their leader is the problem though; he's the one who created the Grimm in the first place. I don't know the specifics, but it seems he and I fought before. Since I ended up reincarnating afterwards and he's still around, seems safe to assume I lost that fight."
"Huh," He frowned. "Well, that's…yeah, maybe you should give me the long version later."
I shrugged and smiled as he lifted his mask—still hidden as a pair of sunglasses—to rub his eyes.
"But I think I get the basics," He mused after a minute. "So we have to kick these guys' asses, yeah?"
"That's the idea," I smiled at him at the inclusive 'we,' even if he didn't have the full picture of what we were up against yet. "Actually doing it might take some work."
"Always does," He huffed. "What's the plan?"
"For now? We get stronger," I stated. "Everything I know about what happened makes me think old me was a badass."
"Oh?"
"My sister Bianca can see people's souls or something like them," I shrugged. "She described me as a giant with a lot of eyes and wings and mouths. Raven and I found a temple one of our enemies made and it had a lot of people fighting a creature that looked a lot like that, setting it up as some grand enemy."
He bobbed his head, seeming to accept that.
"Fair enough," He allowed. "Any idea what you need to do to win round two?"
"Not yet, sadly," I sighed. "Still trying to put the pieces together and learn whatever I can. I know there's something there, but…"
I shook my head.
"But I do have one lead," I continued. "Near Jericho Falls, there's a place that…well, everything we know paints it as a deathtrap it's so full of Grimm. But inside of it—adjacent to it, really, in a dimensional barrier similar to the ones I make—there's an empty, Babel city. And inside of that, there's a computer that seems to have survived all these years. I don't know what's in it, but mentioning it pissed off Conquest, so I'm thinking about taking a look inside when I'm strong enough. Raven said she'd probably tag along herself."
"Heh," Adam chuckled before quirking an eyebrow. "A deathtrap and some ancient ruins, huh? How dangerous is it?"
"Last time a few dozen Hunters went in, only one guy walked out—and it was Ozpin." I said. "And he…well, that's another long story, but he didn't win that fight. He just survived it."
Adam whistled slightly at that and smiled.
"Sounds like fun," He replied. "You have room for one more?"
"Only if you get strong enough," I snorted. "I'm not taking anyone in there with me that I don't think will walk back out."
"Then let's go get stronger, then," He answered. "That's why we're going Hunting, right?"
"Yeah," I closed my eyes for a moment, a smile on my lips. "That's right."
"Well, I don't have anywhere better to be," He stretched for a moment. "So I'll ask again—what's the plan?"
"Same as before," I opened my eyes, smile still firmly in place. "We kill a lot of Grimm, we get strong as hell, and then we kick ass."
"I like this plan," Adam snorted. "Let's see if I can't get to level sixty today."
"Fuck level sixty," I replied. "You're fourteen levels away from seventy. I'm five away from eighty. Let's get to work."
XxXXxX
MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
Passage
With our goals decided, we returned to our training with renewed vigor. My family knew the truth about me and knew not to get too alarmed over prolonged disappearances, so I shot them a message and put them out of my mind. After the last day of training, we were more or less ready to dispense with the small fry that ventured close to the Kingdoms borders and start Hunting the real monsters. The lands beyond the Kingdom's walls were held solely by Grimm and ruled by the greatest examples of them. Where before we'd Hunted the Karkinos, now we chased the mighty beasts called Tegmines, their pitch black shells like mighty hills as they dotted the beaches around the Inland Sea. Most of the creatures, sometimes surrounded by what seemed like entire fields of their lesser cousins, lay underwater and we had to compensate, but there are benefits to being the master of so many elements.
They were powerful creatures, with pincers that could scoop up buildings and crush them to powder. More than that, their shells were an order of magnitude more durable than those of the smaller creatures that gathered around or even upon them, enough that it took a focused assault to crack them enough for Adam to get some hits in. The monsters that inhabited the sea were wholly different from those on land, and the shelled beasts called schools of Grimm to their aid. From the shark-like Akheilos to the Skolopendra—a creature that had no direct analogy, but appeared as something of a cross between a millipede and a lobster—the Grimm of the sea attacked, aiding their greater comrades in their battle against us.
But though the Tegmines were as mighty as glaciers, they were about as fast. Adam and I made short work of the small fry, pun intended, and then focused on them. It wasn't the leisurely battle of the night before, but we made do—I buffed Adam as much as I was able, healed freely, and wasn't afraid to step in and erase everything in an area when need be. They had an army, but Xihai turned the seas to our cause and I underwent a Metamorphosis to adapt to aquatic combat. After about half an hour, the three Tegmine we'd found lay scattered like broken mountains, the shattered remains of their shells reaching up towards the sky. On the miniature island created by one of them, I found the prizes for our victory. Besides the usual enormous sum of money that I split between Adam and myself, there were items that I claimed for my own.
You have obtained the item 'Cancer.' You have obtained the skill book 'Crushing Grip.' You have obtained the skill book 'Armored Shell.'
When the battle ended and we returned to the surface, I led us to the North-East, where the stony wasteland around Mistral turned abruptly into gentle plains—gentle, that is, if you could somehow ignore the monolithic shapes that wandered it, making the ground shake with their footfalls. Nemeans roamed in the distance, even the smallest of the creatures standing more than half as high as a Goliath and hunting in packs of up to sixty. All the creatures in sight had the slick look of lionesses, their hides layers of white Grimm bone with only occasional patches of dark flesh. Rukhs circled in the sky above, their wingspans casting massive shadows on the ground below as the eagle-like beasts occasionally took flight, large enough to casually grasp a grown elephant in each claw and swallow one whole with a gulp. Calydons led herds of Boarbatusk in wheeling swarms, casting dust clouds high into the sky and in the distance I could see the sky turning red from where the Tyrant Scales were no doubt making themselves comfortable.
There were other creatures, so many others, giants that roamed the plains freely far beyond the reach of man. In places, the grass of the plains rose high above our waists, providing concealment to thousands of natural creatures, but it did absolutely nothing to hide the greater creatures of Grimm and even without my enhanced vision, I'd have been able to see the creatures for miles and miles, the kings of the open plains.
Here, even we moved carefully. If I was alone, I might have taken more chances—the Nemeans were a tempting sight, I had to admit, but they were too powerful and too numerous to risk opposing with Adam present, at least for the time being. We'd venture further into the savannahs later, but today we merely skirted the edges, facing the creatures that ventured too far from their herds or didn't hunt in packs, slaying many of the massive creatures we had before as well as a few new ones. I risked bringing down a Rukh for us to fight, even though I feared the fall would attract attention, and faced several of the Calydons. I'd thought I might see a few Basilisks or even the mighty Meretsegers, but the serpentine creatures were nowhere to be found, for better or worse. Even so, this far from the walls, we were not wanting for prey and though we regularly waited and moved to avoid drawing too much attention at once, we fought long and hard until the sun began to sink over the horizon, slaying monster after monster until we'd both gotten what we wanted. Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! You have obtained the item 'Erymanthius.' You have obtained the skill book 'Stampede.' You have obtained the skill book 'Spiraling Strike.'
The Beast
LV70
Adam Taurus
"Adam," I spoke, making sure he was the only one who heard me. We were both crouched low in the tall grass, hiding from sight as the night drew even more creatures to the plains. "Let's take a break."
My friend relaxed a touch beside me, cracking his neck. My regular healings had kept the exhaustion from slowing him down, but constant exertion had left the both of us drenched in sweat and he looked glad for a short rest.
"That about do it, then?" He asked.
"For now," I said, smiling brightly despite the worlds. "Things will move more quickly, now that we're within ten levels of one another."
"Time for you to do all the work, huh?" He snorted. "Can't say I mind. You can think of it as paying me back for all my valuable time."
"You wish," I replied, rolling my eyes. "You're not getting out of this that easy—all this means is that I won't be holding your hand as much and I'll hold back less. We've still got a lot to do over the next few days."
"I take it we're not going home tonight, then?" He asked, lifting a hand to push the grass away from his face as he took a seat.
"Why would we go home when there's still so much fun to be had?" I replied, raising an eyebrow challengingly. "Progress has been a bit slow of late, but I think I can get a few more levels before it's time for Mistral. There's so many types of Grimm here I haven't had a chance to fight yet. We killed a Rukh, but we couldn't find an Aethon, we didn't see any of the snakes, I didn't get to fight any Nemeans."
I shook my head.
"Now that we're done getting you up to snuff, I want to have some fun, Adam," I finished.
"You are such a whiner," Adam snorted. "If you wanted to kill everything we saw, we could have stayed in the sea."
"We could have," I agreed. "If somebody could learn to fucking breathe underwater. I was getting tired of you taking air breaks every few minutes. Can't you breathe on your own time?"
"There's no pleasing you, you realize that?" He asked. "You're just an endless fountain of bitching and moaning."
"And you complain about every little thing," I replied. "Like 'I haven't slept in two days' and 'I can't breathe underwater' and 'I can't fly.' You know who else complains about stuff like that, Adam?Losers."
He gave me the finger, making me smirk.
"So…you want me to spend my points, then?" He asked after a moment of silence, expression turning serious and he stretched carefully, staying in motion. As he did, a muttered word brought up his status screen, displaying his stats. "That's the point of this break, right?"
"It's not just for you, this time," I told him, bringing up my own. "I'm going to invest a little myself, before we go play with the big boys."
"Joy," Adam snorted, pushing the buttons on his screen carefully, raising Dexterity this time. He raised it as high as he had his Strength before it before pausing in thought. "Hey, Jaune, what do you think I should—"
"One sec," I stopped him as I finished raising my Intelligence. "Now, that's odd—no random skills this time?" By raising INT above 200, you have gained the passive skill 'Castitas.' By raising INT above 200, you have gained the passive skill 'Temperantia.' By raising INT above 200, you have gained the passive skill 'Caritas.' By raising INT above 200, you have gained the passive skill 'Industria.' By raising INT above 200, you have gained the passive skill 'Patientia.' By raising INT above 200, you have gained the passive skill 'Benevolentia.' By raising INT above 200, you have gained the passive skill 'Humilitas.'
By greatly heightening your brain functions, you have learned to draw upon the power of the Psychomachia.
I took a deep, steadying breath as I felt the changes take hold, shutting my eyes for a moment as power coursed through my veins. In many ways, my power was tied to my Intelligence, both in how closely it was related to my MP and due to how many of my skills, both Passive and Active, relied on it. Even as new energy began to well up within me, I felt the skills that had been settled comfortably over my form stretch and grow to accommodate. My unified senses whirled for a moment before consolidating and settling once more, my Aura burst forth even more powerfully than before, my skin thickened and hardened—the sudden increase caused major shifts throughout what felt like my entire being, as if I'd swallowed a storm.
But like a storm, it soon passed, leaving me changed in its wake but still whole. Though energy raced through my body, my power quickly struck a balance with itself and by the time I exhaled I was fine again.
"Jaune?" Adam asked. "You okay?"
"Better than okay," I answered as I opened my eyes. I lifted my hands so I could see the trails of power coursing through my flesh, a network of energy given form and function. "Sorry, it's just always a bit of an odd feeling."
"I know what you mean," He nodded, rolling a shoulder and stretching again. "It does feel kind of weird. Not bad, but… when I train normally, improvements are so gradual that sometimes I won't notice for days or weeks at a time. But when I do this, it's such a sudden and massive increase that I feel…well, I guess you know better than anyone."
"Yeah," I nodded, staring into space. My awareness reached out, getting used to the changes in how I perceived the world. I could see better, of course—view things that were even further away or smaller than I had before, distinguish shades and differences more clearly, and countless other differences, major and minute alike—but the changes to my other senses were by far the greater. I could hear something I could only describe as a song and it took me a moment to trace the sound back to the Aura surrounding Adam. I could feel the sharpness to it, near as I was to him, and smell it, and—
It took me a moment to rein my senses in, until the sound of Adam's soul was a quiet background noise rather than a song that filled my ears. Other sounds, sharply different and not quite as vibrant, reached out to me from the Aura around every living thing nearby, but I screened them out for a moment as well, slowly getting used to the chorus around me. There were other things that called out for my attention, from electromagnetic radiation to the motions within seemingly stationary matter, but I gave my senses a moment to adjust and simply altered my worldview accordingly. I'd had quite a bit of practice with something similar from when my ESP had first expanded my senses, this was just…more. Before, the tastes and sounds were almost meaningless, but now I could gather things from them that I was having trouble placing. It was…
Not what I really needed to worry about right now. I'd get all of that in order in a bit.
"Sorry," I said, shaking myself. "Was looking at something else. You had something you wanted to ask me?"
"Just wanted your take on how I should spend the rest of my points," He asked, gesturing towards the status screen only he and I could see. "I've raised my Strength and Dexterity by the same amount and I still have some points left over; do you think I should use the rest to increase my Wisdom now or keep focusing on my physicals? It must be kind of a pain for you to have to restore my Aura so often, so I was thinking it might be a good time to improve my own recovery rate."
I looked at him and saw the thin veil of red light clinging to his form. Even without taking a look at the HP and MP bars above his head, it was plain to see that he was running low on power from the fighting beforehand. I hadn't used a Dust Crystal to heal him in a bit, but something occurred to me as I looked at him. I reached out with an invisible tendril of my Aura, shaping it in a fashion I'd simultaneously never done before and was certain of down to my bones. The tendril pierced Adam's chest like a spear, burying itself deep into his heart, and then power raced down the line like it was a power cord. I saw Adam jerk in place once, drawing back a step, but it made no difference now. Beneath my sight, I could see his heart glowing like a red star inside his chest and each beat sent a pulse of the same color through veins, illuminating them beneath his skin. His eyes became solid orbs of the color in the world I saw and the song that had faded to the background doubled and redoubled into an echoing symphony.
In moments, his MP bar was full and mine had dropped the difference.
"What the hell!" Adam all but shouted in alarm, raising Wilt and Blush. In the bleak realm of visible light, the effects were more subdued, limited to a glow in his eyes and around his skin, reminiscent of a person who's Aura had been freshly awoken. "Holy shit Jaune, are you the one doing this?"
I nodded slowly, still not completely certain about what I'd done—but now that I'd seen it in action and knew what I was looking for, I could feel it at work, though that merely raised more questions. It shouldn't have been possible to simply give him my Aura but that was what was happening; there was none of the usual resistance because Adam's Aura didn't try to reject my own, even though it should of. I wasn't adjusting my Aura into a more consumable form as I would if I were trying to heal him, either. I just…gave it to him somehow and fortified his strength. I didn't know how.
But I was certain of the cause. Looking through the windows that had popped up, it took me only a moment to find the one I wanted.
Caritas (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%
The generosity and sacrifice that cannot be seized by the hands of Greed. Similar to the process in which a soul infuses all living beings, this skill represents the ability to sacrifice one's own soul to bolster the light of another's—for greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.
The owner of this skill may sacrifice their own MP to restore the MP of another.
Range: 70 meters.
"Restoring your MP won't be a problem," I said after a moment. "I have enough for the both of us and I can just give you mine, now. Raising Wisdom might still come in handy since I won't always be there—and being wise is pretty useful in and of itself—but you don't need to raise it right now if you have your eye on something else. It's up to you."
"Huh…" Adam murmured, barely seeming to hear me as he looked at his glowing skin. Since his Aura was full and he wasn't doing anything to drain it at the moment, I severed the connection between us and the light slowly faded, drawing back beneath his skin. "That's…something."
"You don't have to spend them all right now if you're not sure what to do," I continued after he was silent for a moment. "But you should be good to go. Ready to get back to work?"
"Yeah, I'm ready," He nodded slowly, lowering his weapons. "What do you have in mind?"
"Same as before, really," I answered even as I brought up the Party Screen and went to options to adjust a few settings. "We should split the experience equally now, so just go wild. I'll keep an eye on things and tell you if anything comes up, but we're in a target rich environment so feel free to go wild."
"That I can do," Adam smirked, taking a slow look around. "Any recommendations on what I should kill first?"
I chuckled and tilted my head.
"What kind of question is that?" I asked him. "Obviously, you should just kill anything that moves."
He gave a smile that showed all his teeth and was gone, dashing away with his newly improved speed. A moment later, I saw him slip right under a Calydon and jump into the air, sword aimed at the giant creature's vulnerable belly. The sheer force of the blow was enough to lift the beast wholly off its feet and cut most of the way through it at the same time, red Aura bright in the growing darkness.
It was interesting to be able to see the improvements from the outside, especially in a relatively controlled setting. I'd always focused on the mental stats, too, so it was nice to see how the physical ones changed as well. Though he'd only improved his Strength and Dexterity by a little more than fifty, raising each by a bit more than half, the resulting effect was significantly greater than that even after taking into account the matter of his Aura. To use a gaming analogy, I suppose his Strength and Dexterity were merely part of larger formulas to determine his damage output and movement speed—and they may have even been a part of the same formulas in places, building off each other like I'd figured they would. If nothing else, his increased Strength went together well with an improved attack speed.
So long as he was cautious and as long as I kept an eye on him, he should be fine even on his own. I'd just need to swing by to restore his Aura periodically and there shouldn't be a problem.
Which left me free to do some Hunting of my own—and I had my fair share of multipliers, too.
My fingers closed around a Magic Missile as if I'd plucked it right out of the air. Taking a step forward, I began to climb the invisible staircase Levant helpfully provided until my healing returned my Metamorphosed form to normal long enough for me to tweak the mutations. Once a new set of wings sprouted from my back, I stepped from the top of the stairs into open air and floated in a gentle circle, counting as I went.
One by one, I marked my targets, picking out every Grimm in a radius several kilometers long. There were tens of thousands of them nearby, monsters of every shape and size, but I paused for a moment to consider them.
The ones at the edge of my little circle of life and death were the most likely to escape if something overt happened.
Best to work from the outside in, then.
Rearing back, I hurled my new and improved Magic Missile across the sky. To the normal eye, it would have vanished into the night, reduced to a spark in the darkness at best, but I tracked its flight all the way to its destination to make sure it hit.
Nearly five kilometers away, a Rukh began to fall from the sky.
By the time it hit the ground, a legion of spears had followed on their predecessors heels, a lethal meteor shower meant for anything unlucky enough to be in my way.
XxXXxX
MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time
The Games We Play
Homeward
Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!
The sun rose high into the sky illuminating the battle-scarred and silent plain. Everything that had once called this place its home were either dead or were wise enough to avoid drawing attention to themselves—not that staying silent did much to hide the creatures that called this place their home from me. Everything I thought worth targeting had learned that first hand.
Shortly after I'd begun my full scale assault, the Grimm of the plains had come together, presenting a united front against me. Those capable of flight had taken to the air and tried to swarm me whilst those restricted to the land around us had organized quickly. Through a series of echoing cries, they'd gathered until the sheer quantity of them seemed to hide the ground beneath them—and then they'd attacked as one. The wings of the Rukh's conjured up storms while the jaws of the creatures beneath me unleashed waves of furious power. When a convocation of Rukh's managed to force me closer to the ground, the gathered creatures leapt for me and tried to tear me apart. A pride of Nemeans, a quiver of Basilisks, a Sounder of Calydons—even a cast of Karkinos that seemed to bubble up from the river and form suits of living armor for the mightiest creatures. As the night deepened, a parliament of Strix arrived to aid in the battle, armed with what I briefly thought were nets of barbed wire until I spotted the clutter of Arachne skulking in the distance. The avian Grimm took to performing sweeping formations with the webbing held between them, trying to herd me where they wanted.
With the sheer number of creatures gathered beneath me…two weeks ago, before Conquest and everything else, I'd have been certain I was a dead man. A week ago, I'd probably have focused on escape. Two hours ago, I'd have probably thought I was facing long odds indeed.
But things change, especially in time—and my new skills helped see me through. I held nothing back as I fought, shedding power at a pace that would have been reckless for anyone else, pushing myself far beyond my previous limits. I fought far beyond even what the breadth of my Aura should have allowed and kept going without a care, because things were different now. I was different now, in a ways that weren't easy to point out or describe, but which were now as much a part of me as my beating heart.
The first—at once obvious and subtle—was the change in my Aura and how every bit of it seemed filled to the brim with power. It went beyond the increase to my MP capacity, beyond the normal feeling of power an Aura conferred. My Aura had been altered on a fundamental level and it was a change in substance, rather than size.
It was, perhaps, the greatest of my new skills.
Humilitas (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%
The quality and purity of spirit that comes not of thinking less of oneself, but of thinking of oneself less, this ability represents the quiet Humility that surpasses even the most ostentatious displays of Pride. This skill denotes an enhancement and refinement of one's Aura, such that it is capable of producing and supplying a greater amount of energy per unit.
Reduce the MP cost of all skills by 50%.
Above and beyond the increase granted by my increased MP, the reduction in price had changed the game. All my persistent skills had adjusted automatically, but this opened up new options for me. For skills like my Acceleration, where I could increase the effect by adjusting the cost…well, halving the price opened up plenty of new resources for me to play with.
And there was more, as my new skills combined to form a greater whole.
Industria (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%
The effort and passion that succeeds where Sloth might make one falter, this ability represents an inherent quality of persistence within the Aura of its wielder. As a result of this skill, the Aura of the user displays a natural integrity that allows it to better retain its structure over a period of time.
Skills possessing a duration last twice as long as normal.
Skills which require upkeep over time now double the length of time between payments.
Armed and empowered by my new abilities, I threw myself into the fray. By halving the base cost and doubling the time between payments, I was effectively paying only a fourth of the initial cost per minute, which further freed up resources for me to make use of. Add to that the simple increase in MP that went with increasing my Intelligence and…well, I found myself easily Accelerating to speeds I'd only briefly touched during the battle against Conquest, even after improving my Aureola as well. Furthermore, all my persistent skills, most of which had a negligible cost to begin with, were reduced to only a vague strain upon my power, even as my increased INT and new skills improved their power.
Between the improvements Humilitas and Industria gave my skills, I was more lethal than ever. My speed swelled as the cost of my attacks shrank and I unleashed Magic Missile after Magic Missile at everything that got in my way. It was a testament to the might of the Grimm, then, that it took me the entire night and much of the following morning to defeat the horde arrayed against me. Despite the time it had taken, however, those who faced me died—a fact that those that watched from beyond my decided upon range must have realized, because they simply waited and observed, red eyes intelligent and aware even as the last of my enemies fell and leaving quietly as the battle drew to a close.
I considered pursuing, but I could already tell that they were headed for a more advantageous position, more Grimm gathering in a dark line over the horizon in a mass that dwarfed even the one I'd just faced. Behind the line, I could already see movement as the Grimm prepared for another round and another attack. It was a grim reminder that however many Grimm we slew, there were always more. I'd stayed close to my initial position, focused on clearing my ten kilometer sphere, but what were ten kilometers to creatures that owned this world? They ruled almost the entirety of every continent, dominated the seas, reigned freely in the skies above our heads and the earth beneath our feet.
For now.
Closing my eyes with a smile, I let myself fall to earth, hands falling to my sides.
"Adam," I spoke, letting Levant carry the words even as I began to collect the items my defeated enemies had dropped. "You ready to leave? We have business in town later today."
"Wouldn't mind taking a shower," He admitted as he stared into the distance, towards the approaching line. He'd stayed close at my command, remaining where I could heal and restore him as needed while also wading into the fray. Putting his improved stats to use, he'd slaughtered the lesser Grimm with the ease of a Master Huntsman and worked with me to deal crippling blows to the stronger creatures as opportunities presented themselves. He'd come a long, long way in just a few days, especially with an equal division of experience.
The Beast
LV82
Adam Taurus
"I wouldn't mind you taking a shower," I answered, making myself sound disgusted. "You reek, Adam. I'd tell you how much so, but most of the analogies would be racist and I don't want to injure your delicate sensibilities."
"Did any of these Grimm drop something you can go fuck yourself with?" He asked. "And you smell like shit, too."
"That's where you're wrong," I stated lazily, clicking a nail against my armored hide. "I don't sweat when I don't want to, because I have heat vents to do stuff like that for me. Add in some help from my Elemental friends to clean me up and I smell wonderful, as usual. So while you waste time doing stuff like bathing, I'll be doing something of value with my life. Speaking of which, when are you going to stop wasting time, Adam?"
"Piss off," Adam snorted, lifting his shirt to wipe away the sweat dripping from his face, proving my point. "Let's just go before those Grimm start sandwiching us."
I lifted an eyebrow at that.
"Do you mean in an anthropophagic sense?" I asked. "Or is there something you want to tell me about?"
"Either or," He replied. "While you were fucking with those birds, a pair of Nemeans followed the smell of badass right to me. Things got kind of awful for a bit when they flanked me—before I knew what was going on, they were the bread and I was the meat."
"Oh, that," I nodded. "Yeah, I saw it, but I knew you could handle it."
"Thanks for the help, then," He rolled his eyes.
"Hey, someone had to distract the rest of the army," I answered with a smirk and a shrug. "And I healed you afterwards, didn't I?"
He grunted, casting another glance towards the approaching army.
"Also," I continued. "Anthropophagic means people-eater."
"I know what it fucking means," He lied with a scoff, making me smirk.
"If you say so," I answered. "Hey, maybe a trip to Haven would be good for you. You never did finish school, did you?"
"Neither did you," He answered.
"Yeah, but I went a lot further. You were, what, a primary school drop out?" I asked.
He showed me the middle finger of each hand, waving them back and forth for emphasis.
"Will they stop after we leave?" He asked, nodding towards the monsters without lowering his hands. "Or do you think they're feeling motivated?"
"We're about to find out," I replied with my arms full of books and masks. "If they look like they'll keep going towards Mistral, we'll just prolong our trip to walk up and down some asses. But I'm pretty sure they'll stop when we vanish."
He nodded without questioning me, waiting patiently until I'd stored my rewards and then following me as I began to walk away.
Just in case, it was probably a good idea to take the long way home.
XxXXxX
Adam and I moved quickly—far more quickly than before, now that Adam's speed had been so improved—and stayed out of sight, hidden underneath my illusions. Just to be on the safe side, we spent several hours watching the Grimm, making sure they didn't show any signs of heading towards Mistral, which they thankfully didn't. The dynamic of the plains had changed, however, and those that remained moved carefully and in groups. Not simply groups of the same species, either, but what were almost teams of creatures. Avian Grimm watched from above while serpents and arachnids crawled over massive Nemean forms, keeping a look out with an array of different senses.
It was an interesting tactic, especially since none of these creatures had actually fought against us—this was all learned behavior but, more than that, it was stuff they'd managed to pick up just by watching us from a distance. It was to be expected, I supposed; Grimm as massive as these creatures couldn't be anything but intelligent. Intelligent enough, in fact, that they could probably make the connection between humanoid attackers and the nearby human city, which was why I watched them as carefully as I did, but nothing came of it. I chose to accept that as a good thing for the time being, odd as the behavior was.
As we kept an eye on them, however, I took the chance to look through the rewards I'd taken from my fallen foes.
You have obtained the item 'Maahes.' You have obtained the skill book 'Cithaeron Hide.' You have obtained the skill book 'Claws of Regulus.'
You have obtained the item 'Garuda.' You have obtained the skill book 'Bane of the Prometheans.' You have obtained the skill book 'Flight of the Vimana.'
You have obtained the item 'Astika.'
You have obtained the skill book 'Shedding of the Serpent's Skin.' You have obtained the skill book 'Gorgon.'
"You look happy," Adam noted, sitting on a rock I'd drawn from the earth. "That everything?"
I cast my gaze across the masks and texts I'd obtained as they floated in a loose circle around me.
"More or less," I replied. "A few pieces of equipment, too, but…"
I shrugged. Just in case, I flipped the books open and flipped through the pages rapidly, making sure I got a glimpse of each page. Then, one by one, I devoured the texts and took a deep breath as windows notifying me of my new skills appeared. Even without the windows, I felt the knowledge settle into my mind and felt as certain of my new skills as I was of my ability to walk.
All that left was the masks.
"Everything but the Arachne and the Strix, huh?" Adam mused, looking between them.
"No Neith showed up," I answered with a shrug. "And I didn't see an Ascalaphus, either. Maybe next time."
Adam snorted as I slowly drew mask after mask from my Inventory, until the entirety of my collection floated around me in a wide circle. I'd collected a fair number of the things since I'd begun all those months ago, but most I'd never worn—partially because I was usually able to rely on one of the stronger masks, when I chose to wear one.
But more than that, I was just uncertain. Worried, even. Not of what the masks could do to me, personally—I had plenty of faith in my power's ability to keep me safe—but ever since I'd fought Conquest and learned of the power behind the Grimm, I'd been forced to wonder. What were these masks? I'd wondered several times about the items created by my power and whether they were completely original creations or, like the skill books, had been modeled off things that had existed. The description of Kronos, the necklace I wore even now, tilted that towards the latter, but if that was the case…
Had these masks existed once? And if so, for what purpose? I couldn't be certain of exactly what effects they'd have if worn by a normal person, but close observation, careful consideration, and the possession of a fucking brain told me that anyone who put them on would probably regret it. But if they had been real then, presumably, someone had put them on and likely experienced that first hand. Given that the masks looked exactly like…well, Grimm masks, the implications of that were rather concerning.
Could these masks be tied to the origins of the Grimm? It was…worryingly easy to imagine those who put them on transforming into horrific monsters, but it didn't quite fit as the source of the Grimm—unless, of course, there were a metric fuckton of masks and an endless supply of people stupid or unlucky enough to put them on. The Grimm could produce more of themselves. Hell, with Naraka, I could produce Grimm and in enormous quantities. Whatever was responsible for their creation, it couldn't be limited just to masked mishaps. But there had to be some connection, surely, or why were there so many connections?
And thinking about that made me think about the quest I'd received so long ago to collect these masks. No, more than that—to collect every mask. And with a name like 'What Lies Beneath—What is Hidden?' on top of that…I'd wondered several times if completing that quest would lead me to understanding the origins of the Grimm and it would be a damn lie to say I didn't want to knowthat.
But to an extent, I already knew where the Grimm came from—namely, their asshole of a creator. And if this quest was leading me to him…
That was a fight I wasn't sure I was ready for. In fact, this entire quest sort of reminded me of the lead up to an ungodly motherfucker of a Bonus Boss. Despite my power, reality didn't necessarily act like a game, but this was a quest my power had generated and I had to beat at least one major example of every species of Grimm, apparently including the Riders, so…yeah. And, come to think of it, I hadn't gotten the quest after collecting my first Grimm mask, Lenore, but rather after I killed an Alpha Beowolf. And that monster was the first time I'd noticed the odd behavior in the Grimm that I'd later associate with their maker.
Maybe it was just me, but this felt like it was leading up to something bad. And powerful as the masks were, that made me worry. If the masks had existed in some sense before my power manufactured them and if this quest to collect them was somehow tied to the creator of the Grimm, then…what? It seemed safe to assume the maker would be aware of the mask's existence, in that case. Could he sense them? Could he do something to them or the person who wore them? When I fought Conquest after getting infected, the mental effects of the disease had run headlong into the Gamer's Mind and splattered all over it, but that hadn't stopped Conquest from getting at me physically, transforming my body into a Pandora Shell. I was pretty confident that none of the masks could get into my head, but they might not have to if the maker played his cards right. If it was as simple as attacking my body, I could escape my own flesh with Bai Hu, but…it was something to keep in mind, if nothing else.
On the other hand, I had another question, and one I'd been hesitant in experimenting with because of my other concerns. Just as I was now forced to consider what dangers might lie in the masks, I was also able to see the potential within them. They were Grimm masks, after all—and I'd recently come into the ability to transform myself in very Grimm ways. What would happen if I did that while wearing a Grimm mask? And even if it made no difference, with the power I now possessed, unlocking the full potential of some of the masks should be within my power. If I did that, who knows what I might find? New power, intimate knowledge of the Grimm, or maybe more.
It was tempting as all hell to take a mask, put it on, and see what happened. It's just that there was also a chance of it being dangerous as all hell, too. A slim chance, perhaps, and probably a long term one that wouldn't screw me over until the worst possible time, but I couldn't ignore the fact that I'd be playing with weapons that my archenemy not only knew far better than I did, but had probably fucking created. It was worth at least some consideration. Testing, too, if I could do so safely.
Which sure as hell meant I wasn't going to do it with my best friend standing right there, so I put the masks away after another moment of observation. If some dark being chose to seize control of my body and turn it against me, that would kind of suck, but hey, I could manage. What I couldn'tdo was expose a friend to that type of danger just to satisfy my curiosity, especially when I could easily test this later, in the woods or the ocean or another dimension.
"So…" Adam drew out as I put the last of the masks back into my Inventory. "I assume you can't get constipated so are you…what? Trying to create diamonds right now?"
I could, however, probably throw Adam down those friendship stairs Shani mentioned. Or maybe a friendship cliff. He'd leveled up a lot recently; he could take it, no problem.
"It's called thought," I answered. "You should try it sometime, Adam."
"I do every now and then," He replied easily. "But I'm so strong, handsome, and talented that I keep losing sight of the fact that I'm smart, too. It's hard to juggle so many blessings; you wouldn't understand."
"Sounds rough," I acknowledge. "But yeah, I really have no idea what that's like. Unlike some people, I can multitask. Speaking of which, the Grimm aren't moving. It should be safe to go now."
"About fucking time," Adam stretched and rose from his seat. "I thought about going to sleep, but I kept imagining myself waking up surrounded by nothing but hideous monsters and Grimm."
"Sleep is for the weak," I replied. "Now hurry up; tomorrow we scope out Haven."
XxXXxX
