I was awoken from my nap by a ringing sound and a notification telling me that Arthur Polendina was calling. I sighed, realizing with a glance out my balcony doors that it was only around midday, though a snowy rain made me glad that winter would be here soon. The warmth was great but I longed for the clean, cold air I had lived in my whole life. Past life, I guess.
Crawling out of bed, I grumbled. I didn't need sleep, but having some would be nice. Sometimes I needed to recharge my mind, even if I didn't have to do so for my body quite as often. I answered the call as I went right back to training.
"Hello?" I said, pulling a Blue Dust Crystal out of my inventory as I began repeatedly using Featherweight. I absorbed the crystal, charging up the Dust Battery while simultaneously pushing the dust right back in. The result was an endless loop with me holding an oddly shifting Blue Crystal and training. This method had shot the skill up in leaps and bounds, though it was slow going after level 60.
"Remember what I said about the Temple?"
"I couldn't hear it over your snoring, remind me?" I shot back. There was a pause, then a half-hearted chuckle.
"Even the best of us take naps. I meant about the gaming thing. You're at your apartment, right? Of course you are. I'll be there in 2 minutes."
My eyes lit up. There was no way he was going to blow all of my money on some sort of entertainment. Maybe half would be fine, I mean it was a lot of money, but no, I wanted to get myself one of those Omni-Fabricators. The ability to just make weapons from scratch of whatever design I please with little to no effort? Sign me up.
I had just enough time to empty the dust battery and place both crystals on my kitchen table before I heard a knock at my balcony door. I slid it open and Arthur strolled in, throwing himself on my unmade bed. "So, how much are we working with here?"
I sighed and pulled out a chair for myself in front of the table. "You do know I'm not spending half of my money on games. I could get behind the home entertainment system because I just train in here most of the time anyways but I need my hands to train, and to play games."
He frowned. "Fine, but that doesn't mean you're off the hook. How much did you get from the temple?"
I put my hand into my inventory and pulled out 100,000 Lien, throwing it onto the table nonchalantly and hoping he accepted it as all I had. He did.
"This should be enough. So, let's get planning, shall we?" He said, tossing an orb onto my floor that then lit up with… holographic stereo and television equipment. "I'm thinking we throw a screen on this wall with subs behind it, and…'
For the next half an hour or so he babbled on with my occasional grunt of affirmation before he grabbed the orb, did something with it, then tossed it out my balcony door and shot it with a laser. "Alright, it'll be done by the time we get back. You have 20,000 Lien left. I'm giving you two options: Games, or Dust."
"Dust!" I shot back instantly, pushing him towards the balcony. "Let's go, I haven't been able to get anything good from the temple for ages."
He whipped around. "You went back alone?!"
I waved a hand. "Only until the Respite, don't worry. " Truth be told, I didn't want to go back to that grove. The rest of that temple reset every time, but I had no idea if I had destroyed one of the last beautiful places this world has, even if it was dangerous. The thought tugged weirdly at my heart in a way that the Gamer's Mind seemed to have trouble suppressing. Arthur continued to glare at me. "What, it's not as if I would be seen! I go right from here to the temple, right back, and I need to get stronger."
He sighed. "Yes. Yes you do. You're right. Tell you what, let's go get some dust then head over to the Temple for a run. I'll sit back this time." I raised an eyebrow. So far, Mirian had been adamant about me staying inside, staying safe. As tends to be the case with Arthur, however, that was all there was to it.
He gave me some clothes and a helmet that hid my eyes. The helmet also hid my hair, so I felt pretty covered. From there, I carefully hopped across slippery rooftops and he flew until we came to a warehouse. Without hesitating he pushed open a man door and I followed him in to see racks upon racks of dust vials, crystals, rounds, and every form I'd seen. The stockpile was guarded by a trio of spider mechs, a few soldiers and a man I assumed to be a Hunter from his get up. I kicked the slush off my boots as we strode in.
"Arthur! Good to see you again, how'd the last experiment go?"
Arthur laughed and clasped the man's arm. "Fantastic, but you know I can't give any details. James would have my head."
"Who would tell him?" The man replied with an uneasy chuckle.
"This here's Jacob." He diverted. "I'm taking him under my wing for a little bit, teaching him the ways of the badass. Just here to grab some dust."
The Huntsman raised a shaggy black eyebrow that disappeared into his curly brown hair. "Hm. Well, you know the best I can give him is Lesser."
"Yea, yea, that'll do, I doubt he's looking to mess with time anytime soon." My eyes widened, having never even considered the possibility.
"So what's your gig, kid? You got a Dust semblance or something?"
I shrugged; Arthur had told me not to talk. Instead, I pulled a red crystal out of my inventory and held it out in my palm, letting him watch as I absorbed it. He let out a low whistle. "Damn kid, I'm glad you're on our side. You could sneak Dust just about anywhere." I fought the urge to inform him that I could sneak almost anything anywhere. "Well, take your pick, if you steal I'll know, and please for the love of everything holy don't knock anything over." With that, he retreated to a desk and Arthur turned to me.
"Well great job, now you have an alternate persona with a semblance. Go get what you want, I need a couple of things."
I grinned and took off into the rows of racking. I skipped by all of the Basic types, going on instead to the Lesser types. Steam, Explosive, Ice, Growth, Sand, Metal, Acceleratory. Glass?
Some of these didn't seem so powerful, but I knew for a fact that almost anything can be used as a weapon. I grabbed a couple crystals of each then went to the back of the warehouse where they had one rack that was armored and guarded by two more of the spider bots. With a grin I peered inside.
Plasma Dust Vial (Greater)
Radiation Dust Vial (Greater)
Fusion Dust Crystal (Greater)
Super Control Dust Vial (Greater)
"Wow…" I said, having no real comparison to how effective these might be in combat. I immediately decided I wanted them, and resolved to find a way to get it myself. Maybe I could go and find a dust mine when I left the city? Who knows. I just wanted to see if absorbing Lesser Dust would give me stronger abilities, because that would mean that the Greater dust also did so and while I'm not sure what most of these words meant, if they were stronger than explosives then it must be good.
"You done yet?" Arthur came up behind me, a briefcase small in his large hand.
"What's Fusion?" I replied, pointing at the crystal.
Arthur sighed. "Of course you look at fusion… it's an odd crystal. We can use factory techniques to make Lesser dust out of the basic dust types, right? We can do the same to bring Lesser to Greater, but it always requires at least a little bit of Fusion Dust, even to make more Fusion Dust. Schnee says he can do it without but I think he's full of it."
"Oh…" I don't know what I had thought. "I was looking for something a bit more powerful."
He chuckled. "Dust is like sex, my young apprentice. A bigger crystal gets a bigger bang, but it's a lot more important how you use it."
"Spoken like a man who's running low on Dust."
He laughed truly this time. "Clever man. What'd you get, anyways?"
I pulled the bag out of my inventory and showed him the contents. He slapped his palm to his face and immediately began putting all of my Lesser Dust back. "Do you want to put your new self on a watch list in the first building you go into? The only people that buy this large of a variety of Lesser crystals are either manufacturing Greater's with black market Fusion or about to blow themselves up."
I shrugged. "I learn fast enough and heal fast enough."
He scoffed. "We know that."
In the end I just got a butt load of vials of Basic Dust. Arthur assured me that it would be more than enough for the Temple but I still was upset enough that he caved and let me get one type of Lesser Dust. I thought about getting Explosive, but his words from earlier came to mind and for the sake of keeping a low profile, I stuck with Ice.
It ended up costing exactly 20,000 Lien. It was only then that I made the connection that this wasn't a regular Dust store. I asked the armored Huntsman about it as we left.
"It's one of Oz's stockpiles. He stared placing them around the city when the White Fang activity started rising. Wanted to ensure he could always equip his Hunter's. I abuse the privacy for my own purposes. Now, to the Dungeon? You can bring people with you, right?"
"I think so. One second…"
With a thought, I brought up the Party Options menu.
Another wonderful thing I had discovered since my tutorial ended. If I mentally envisioned one of the blue menus popping up while… I guess thought-speaking the words? Regardless, if I tried I could use my menus silently.
PARTY OPTIONS
Invite to Party
Party Members
Rename Party
XP Distribution
Loot Distribution
Map Options
Disband Party
I invited Arthur to the Party mentally, then made sure that the XP distribution was set to Individual. No reason for me to share if he wasn't going to be doing anything. I set Loot to Even-Split for items underneath Rare quality just in case something went wrong, then quickly renamed the party.
I hoped he wouldn't notice as it was just a little something for myself, but… "Party name has been changed to 'Doovahdeein'? What the hell does that mean?"
I glanced at the name.
Party Name: Dovahdein
"It's pronounced 'Doh-vah-dayn. It means Dragonguard." He looked at me quizzically. "My old company." I explained.
"Neat. Shall we?"
As predicted, the skeletons were child's play at this point. I kept my dust battery empty, and simply sent in Air Slashes to clear the hallways. When they didn't detonate from the Fire Dust, they would just plow right through 3 or 4 until they dissipated. When my Aura got low, it was a simple matter of tearing them to pieces with a shout, holding off any survivors with whatever weapon I felt like at the time, then repeat. I did let myself take a couple of hits here and there, just for the resistance experience. Due to the monotony, we had plenty of brainpower left to talk.
"So." I swung vertically, bisecting a skeleton with Boar's Tooth then following through with a lazy twirl breaking the next apart at the hip. "Last time we were here, we were talking about unlocking aura. How exactly would I go about doing that?"
"Very fucking carefully." He answered, face grim. "You don't understand the position you're in right now, do you?"
I thought about replying.
"Of course you don't. Long story short, people want you dead. Not very many, but very powerful people."
"What the hell?" I drew a red dust crystal out of my inventory and absorbed it, planting Boar's Tooth in the ground with one hand and using the other to launch a Flamethrower down the hall every now and again. Not quite as impressive as my Yol but still very effective. "Why?"
His face darkened. "You can blame Jak for that one. He's a bit of a wild card. Does what he wants, when he wants, and can do it too well for his own good, I think."
"Okay so, what did he do, and why is it all of a sudden my fault?"
"Well, somehow word got out to some people about your Semblance and because of the things that he can do, people are scared you'll turn out like him, or worse. These are the types of people that like to nip the problem in the bud, so to speak."
"Right. Thus, I'm stuck in my apartment, getting stronger until… what? Do you have a list of all of the bad people in this world?"
"No, don't be stupid. I do know of a couple persons of interest-"
"Persons you could take in a fight?"
"I'm not exactly a one-on-one powerhouse. I'm more of a mobile fortress that people don't get past."
"Fine, then persons that I could take in a fight?"
"Ha. Maybe in a year or two."
I grit my teeth. "At this rate."
Arthur flicked his wrist and an opaque, glowing blue barrier popped over the hallway entrance. With a snap, the other two entrances to our room were sealed in the same way. "Got a problem with training your skills in comfort and ease?"
I nodded, having made myself ready for this question. "I haven't gotten a single quest since my tutorial ended. Those are what gave me the big XP, those and hunting the big stuff. Quests are better though, I can get skill books. There and-" My eyes lit up as I realised I completely forgot about Tukson! After all the fuss I made about coming back too. I threw my arm up for the Dungeon Escape skill and with a pop we were back out front of the Temple.
"I take it you have a destination in mind?" Arthur was clearly not bothered by our abandonment of the Dungeon.
I glanced up at the sky. Still a few hours until dark. "Ever been to Tukson's?"
"Never. Where is it?"
I put my hand on my scruffy face, scratching the itch. "I don't actually know. Apparently I need to unlock more skills before I get my map back."
He sighed, then closed his helmet. After a few seconds, it slid back. "You can follow me, or do that gravity thing you do and I'll carry you."
I considered asking how he suddenly knew where to go. "Do you know what a catapult is?" I said instead.
He scoffed. "Mate, walking is easier than building a…" He narrowed his eyes, checking me over to see if I was being serious. He appeared to think for a moment before giving a shrug.
"How long does that lightweight skill last for?"
"3 seconds."
"How light do you get?"
"The skill says I lose 95% of mass."
He shook his head then grabbed me by somewhere on the back of my armor. "As soon as your feet leave the ground, use your skill, got it? Not a second sooner or later."
Doubts began to arise but were quickly quelled. There was no way I would die from an impact, not with the amount of HP and AP I had available. Besides, maybe I would get a Fall Resistance skill.
"Ready."
He grinned and flipped his visor down. From this distance I could hear something faint coming from his helmet.
"After burners engaged in 3...2...1...Firing."
I barely managed to fire off Featherweight before it felt like every drop of blood in my body shot to my feet and we were suddenly shooting towards the clouds at an alarming rate. The forest shrank beneath us in moments and just as it started, I stopped accelerating right when the skill cut out and I started soaring through the air. Arthur pulled up beside me and spoke through his suit.
"Don't use it again!"
I blanched but the Gamer's Mind took away the fear and replaced it. With what, I don't know. I did know that the view of the city was absolutely stunning. The rain had stopped, though clouds still covered the sky for the most part. I realised something with a grim chuckle that was taken from my lips by the wind; Beacon was one of the few places that went unshrouded.
I began to fall towards the city.
Arthur flew beside me, tracking my progress. The ground rushed up at me, too fast for me to make out any details, and I was about to activate Featherweight when a curved blue slide appeared right in the middle of the street. I hit it shoulder first and tumbled down, remarking at how slippery it was, before the slide went straight up again and I was airborne, but not nearly as high. Or as fast.
I let out a whoop of joy. That had been incredible. I had never moved that quick. I used Featherweight at the top of my arc and floated down while Arthur Polendina landed. "That was incredible!"
"Yep." He replied. "Here's your stop, thank you for flying Air Arthur and have a wonderful day."
"You going somewhere?"
"Business to take care of. I can't just gallivant around with you all day, I've got a company to run, headmasters to appease, that sort of thing. You'll manage. I'll bring by a few movies for you to watch tomorrow." Once more, that was that as he shot into the sky.
I took a glance around to take my bearings and darted to the side as I realized I was holding up traffic. The drivers had just been waiting patiently. I guess that Arthur's lenience as a known Huntsman extended to me as well.
I then glanced across the street and realized I had gone to the wrong side for Tukson's. With a grumble I waited for the cars to finish passing by, then got impatient and crossed it my way. I jumped straight up, above the cars, and Shouted.
"Wuld!"
Part of my felt cheapened by using the Thu'um to cross the street. I got over it as I walked up to the book store.
"Closed?"
I shrugged. Nothing I could do about that. I knew I could find my apartment from the roof tops, so I made to jump up when a television screen from the next shop over caught my eye. It showed a pair of Hunters in furious battle, then it cut to clips of teams.
I walked into the other store, curious.
There was fast, heavy music coming from the various screens displayed throughout the store.
"Get ready for this year's Vytal Tournament! Huntsmen and Huntresses from around the world to take home the Vytal Cup for their academy, in exciting head-to-head combat! Tickets on sale January 4th!" The commercial cut to black and I decided I wanted tickets before the screen came back alive with the same music, but faded and in the background. Pyrrha Nikos was on the screen. She looked forlorn.
"Beacon Academy is excited to announce a new measure that allows civilians or military members to put together a team to be entered in the tournament. Entries must be 21 years of age or less. One team from each Kingdom will be allowed to enter, with the Ruling Parties of each Kingdom having final say over the team." She gulped. "The Faunus are permitted to field a team as well."
I heard a smash from behind me, and saw one of the TV's had been punched through. An angry man with a reptile's tail was storming out of the building. I had a brief inclination towards following him, but a quest screen popped up:
[Quest Alert:] Tournament Of Heroes! (Civilians!)
You have learned about the Vytal Festival, and have decided you want a slice of the pie! Fight your way through the preliminaries to earn a spot on the team!
[Main Objective:]
-Compete in the Vale Martial Combat Tournament
[Side Objectives:]
-Win First Place
-Remain Anonymous
-?
[Reward:] 10,000 Lien, 50,000XP, 1 Ticket of Participation for the Vytal Tournament
[Failure:] Depends upon time and cause of failure.
Accept? [Yes] [No]
I resolved to find out the date of the preliminaries and hit yes regardless. I turned to leave, realizing that my own TV was probably in my apartment by now. I made it only one step out to door before a black and white blur landed in front of me, pausing just long enough for her to see my face and me to see hers. My mask hid nothing, not from her.
Blake apparently had better things to do, as she sped off down the street, not bothering to watch for traffic as she jumped from car roof to car roof. I figured my assumption was correct when a barely shirted kid and a giant robot moving many times the rate of a Centurion sped by after her.
[Quest Alert:] Painting the Town!
Something crazy just happened and you have no idea what. Find out!.
[Main Objective:]Investigate
[Reward:] 10,000XP
[Failure:] REP-, 100XP, 1L
Accept? [Yes] [No]
I hit accept once more as I raced after them.
I quickly realized I was too slow to keep up to them. I went through my scroll, looking for numbers. Richard was the first to come to mind, but it had been difficult for him to get out when he was supposed to ferry me around. Arthur had just left, Mirian scared me as much as I hated to admit it, and I didn't know anybody else fast enough that could get me there.
I tapped a name and sighed, having not been looking forward to this.
"Kinda busy right now!" The young voice of Ruby Rose shouted through the speaker.
"Ruby, it's me. Blake's in trouble and I can't catch up. You've gotta call Oz, or something. This thing looks big."
There was a pause. "Torga?"
"Yes Ruby."
"You're alive?! You're here?"
"Ruby, stay focused. You need to help Blake."
"What do you think we're doing? Look, we have this covered. I'll call you after." She proceeded to hang up on me. There went my plan to ask her sister for a ride.
I glanced at the traffic moving by. Maybe if I asked nicely, one of the civilians would take me after them? Not much use, considering they were long gone.
I sighed, then hopped up to the roof, sliding slightly on the icy surface. Time to make my way home, I guess.
A loud crash sounded to the south. I estimated the distance to be about 5 blocks or so.
Thinking back on how I had gotten here, an idea clicked into my head. I liked to believe it was thanks to my increased wisdom, but it also could have been due to sheer boredom. Or stupidity.
I clenched a Red Dust crystal between my teeth, un-equipped my gauntlets for a bit of extra control, then cast Featherweight and two Flamethrowers at the same time. The result was me slowly, very slowly but surely leaving the ground. My AP was dropping at a fairly quick rate. I guessed it would last about 30 seconds. My dust battery would last around a minute at this rate, so I dropped the crystal out of my mouth and back into my inventory, and released my Flamethrowers for a second to charge back the AP I had spent.
What I really needed was a skill that worked opposite to conversion to let me turn HP into AP. Or for that matter, one that would let me use HP directly would be fantastic. This time with a running start, I jumped up into the air off the edge of the roof, firing the Flamethrowers. It was a lot more difficult to remain upright while I was moving, but I did have a bit of practice keeping steady while using Featherweight so I made it to the next roof, one a few stories higher. From here I could see a raised intersection with an unnatural fog beneath it. Lasers pointed through and out of the fog, and I could hear the reports of weapons.
I briefly realized that my first Zweihander would have made this trip simple, I could have just swung from building to building. Property damage wasn't an issue at this point, I had already left a scorched rooftop behind me. Instead, I made another running jump, pointed my 5% mass self towards the battle, and used Whirlwind Sprint while under Featherweight for the first time. I used only two words, but the effect was astronomical. In the time I had taken to Shout I was a quarter there, a distance I had guessed was around a kilometre. I fired the Flamethrowers to try and slow myself down but the effect was almost negligible as I hurtled towards the highway.
Figuring I had less than three seconds left before impact, I used my thoughts to place one of my remaining shout points.
"Feim!"
I breathed a sigh of relief as I hit the overpass, cracking the side of it to pieces. Becoming Ethereal was an odd experience. It was as if I and my body became separated for a brief moment. The imprint of my body takes the damage of my body while I still control it, then when I come back, I bring my body with me. The body I separated from. It doesn't make much sense and so I don't use it often, but moments like this it's a life-saver. It even held up as I fell through the mist and hit the ground. I put my gauntlets back on, then lay there as I heard gunshots around me and I still couldn't see. I was content to wait, even as my Shout's effect faded.
That is, until I was hit in the dragon with a missile. The detonation sent me flying, smashing into a building with enough force to crater the solid stone wall. That impact was nothing compared to the pain that an explosion between my legs had caused, and even though the Gamer's Body prevented any real damage, my AP had been completely drained and about a third of my HP had gone with it. On the plus side, the explosion had cleared away most of the fog.
Clearly I had missed something while I was trying to get here, because now Yang and the white one were here, and so were two more mechs. Ruby shouted out a command, and as her team leapt into action, I made an observation of the situation.
Roman Torchwick
LVL 68
The Red Pawn
White Fang Paladin
LVL 70
White Fang Paladin
LVL70
Ruby Rose
LVL66
Yang Xiao-Long
LVL64
Blake Belladonna
LVL59
Weiss Schnee
LVL58
I felt kind of inadequate but as one of the White Fang Paladins turned towards me, I pried myself out of the wall. I had no option but to fight. Now, these things looked similar to Dwarven Centurions, but were faster, stronger, and could shoot missiles and guns.
My usual strategy for taking one of those monsters on is to stay as close as I can while hacking at the legs until it becomes immobile, then getting a mage to cook it, or setting it alight with Fire Breath. Eventually the metal would weaken to the point where we could destroy the soul gem and dynamo to keep it from repairing. So, I guess I could try the same here. Or I could see how much stronger I was. I yanked my shield out of my inventory, leaving my other hand free to grab a weapon or use a skill as needed.
The robot took a lower stance and another missile streaked out of it. It was much too fast to dodge, too fast to block if I hadn't been ready for it. As it was, I planted my shoulder against the back of the shield, leaned into the impact, and felt a crack as my shoulder was briefly dislocated, and then… it wasn't. The resulting ball of fire streaked around me, but thanks to Aura Enhancement, my shield wasn't damaged. My AP was depleted again, and a chunk of my health taken, but the health was shooting back up to the top by the second. By my estimate, I could take about 1 missile every… 2 minutes? Looking back at RWBY and their explosive battle, I realized I probably wouldn't have that long.
The Paladin dropped, firing another missile but I wasn't there anymore. A whirlwind sprint had brought me closer on an angle, and I pulled out a basic warhammer in one hand and a Super Red Dust Crystal in the other. The Crystal went into a mount on the head of the hammer and got locked in. I had made this, and had 3 in my inventory. I figured that sometimes the best way to use dust is to bludgeon something with it until it breaks and releases all the pent up energy.
In this case, it took me one hit, before the robot's leg flew off in a violent flurry of metal. It toppled to the side, even as it spun up a machine gun. I jumped off to the side, dropping the now-useless handle as I went. I barely stayed ahead of the bullets, and eventually the stream of projectiles caught up with me. The first didn't move me much, but the next few shredded the rest of my pitiful AP. I yelled out as white-hot pain tore through my abdomen and I felt the incredibly disturbing sensation of my body exploding in gore before I was moving the other direction to escape the bullets. My throat hurt from my shout of pain
I glanced at my health and considered running away from a fight for the first time since I picked up my axe and walked over to Bleak Falls. It was under a quarter. The Paladin I fought lined up a missile, just as cold and lifeless as a Centurion. The missing leg didn't seem to hamper it.
I flashed through menus, placing my last shout point. As the whoosh of the missiles rocket igniting cut through the sound of honking horns, police sirens, and crumbling concrete, my Shout cut through as an opposing force.
"Tiik!"
Time crawled to a halt as I tore out from behind the pillar, well aware of how little actual time I had. I hit the missile with an Air Slash as I sprinted toward the fallen Paladin. I hadn't been paying enough attention as the other leapt over my target, fist cocked back to punch me. My shield went up as I spun low, barely redirecting the fist and slipping underneath the airborne robot. Time cut back to normal so I leaped at the grounded robot, yanking another hammer out of my inventory. This one I just covered with Aura Enhancement and smacked it in the face.
It didn't do much but it did put a crack in the armor, which was all I needed. Time to fight it like a Centurion. I placed my right arm over the crack and unleashed a Flamethrower.
I was shocked by a pained scream that came from inside the robot. Shocked enough to jump back. A good thing too, as the second Paladin had leapt again and hit the ground where I had been. It proceeded to tear the front of the other Paladin off as I chugged back my one Health Potion. My health went up by a sliver and I frowned. That barely did anything.
Then the screaming got louder as a flaming figure crawled out of the smoking Paladin and began frantically rolling across the ground. The fighting seemed to stop, for me at least. RWBY was still taking on that other Paladin.
As the man's screams faded and his rolling turned to flailing and then twitching, the remaining Paladin turned towards me and the white lights on its… cockpit? The lights turned red and a plume of steam began shooting out of the back of it.
You have levelled up! You have levelled up! You have levelled up!
I felt slightly guilty for this kill. Yes, I had burned people with dragonfire before but that was quick, not full of suffering.
I readied myself and my shield as one of the mech's arms morphed from a fist into a sword. I yanked Boar's Tooth out of my inventory. It began stomping slowly towards me, and I began my own slow approach.
At least this guy had an appreciation for battle etiquette. I would be the first to abandon it if it would mean survival, but some parts were just too great to pass up. The slow charge, for example. The amount of people that pull this off and survive is cut in half every time, so if you survive three you are considered an expert in the move. I was beyond an expert at this point.
Surprisingly enough, of all the possible moves, when the robot got to its top speed, it jumped again. Whoever was driving this thing really seemed to enjoy taking it off the ground. I slid to a stop before where I figured it would land, and prepared to shed the attack with my shield. I was surprised when it tucked in and flipped, launching an overhead kick at me. I barely had time to step aside and I still had to parry the lightning-fast kick away with my shield. It ended up missing, but the impact still lifted me off the ground. I fired off Featherweight, glad that I had gotten it's AP cost down so much by training it.
I dug my sword into a pillar as I flew by, dropping it as the mech crashed through the support. I bashed it with my shield but the attack didn't do that much without the help of my skills. The Paladin responded by punching my shield which sent me sliding back, thankfully on the ground this time. By the time I ground to a halt, it had stricken again with its sword and pushed me into the air. I rotated my shield between it and myself in a move I had seen Pyrrha pull off once. I didn't quite make it all the way around, but the size of my shield negated most of my failure.
A punch smashed me back, though I was able to get my feet beneath me in the air and land gracefully enough. At the angle I was at, I could see Ruby and Blake tearing their opponent to shreds in a blindingly fast coordinated attack. That was all I had time to see before the robot was almost upon me again. I gritted my teeth and used what AP I had regenerated, kicking the ground with my back foot. I was out of AP, but as the fist flew, I threw out my shield with all the force I could muster. The result was me being able to transfer the energy of the hit into the earth.
The pavement cracked, but I didn't move. My HP had gone slightly down, but I was up to about half now from my regeneration. My other hand longed to lop off the offending arm. Instead. I spoke.
"You have one chance to get out of the suit."
"Why would I do that?" A voice similar to Arthur's came out, but more distorted. I guess the Huntsman's suit was better even if it was much smaller.
"Because if you don't you're going to end up like him." I gestured towards his buddy. "Or him." Roman Torchwick seemed to be missing an arm on his suit and as I watched, Yang began punching the shit out of the robot with absolutely perfect timing. "But if you do get out, I'm just going to let them ask you a few questions then you can be on your way back to wherever it is you White Fang type hide out. Hell, if you make this easy on me I'll even throw some gold your way."
"Let me see…. No."
"Figured." Regardless, Roman had literally been punched out of his mech at this point, leaving me the sole fighter. I was still locked with my Paladin shield against fist.
As he (or she, I really didn't know) raised his sword for a strike, I dropped my shield and grabbed the fist, yanking it towards me with all my might as I grinned and struck the poor fellow with Unrelenting Force. The Paladin flew upwards, striking the bottom of an overpass and continuing through. My aim was apparently much better than I thought, as I had to get up and run out of the way as it came back down in the same spot. Upon hitting the ground, it burst apart into many pieces. Unfortunately, so did the man inside.
You have levelled up! You have levelled up!
I frowned at yet another White Fang member that didn't have their Aura unlocked. These people would be fighting. There's people with Aura within the organization that could unlock it, but don't.
Why?
"You!" Weiss, surprisingly, was the first to come over to me. I figured that if even Weiss recognized me, the helmet wasn't doing me much good. I took it off so I could see clearly.
I gave an apologetic glance, but that's as far as I went. "Me."
"We thought you were dead!"
I raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Ruby-"
"Hey, I just said what I saw!" Ruby cut in.
"You didn't see much."
"I saw a bunch of Grimm, and I saw you fighting, and then when I looked back you were gone. Ozpin said he had no idea where you were."
"That's the point."
"What?" Weiss cut back in. Yang and Blake were content to stand back quietly. "So you what, ran away from school and your team because you didn't want Ozpin to know what you're up to? You ran away from your friends?"
"Weiss, all due respect, you've never treated me with anything but disdain. You wanna pull some shit about friends, do it with someone that considers you one. Everyone else, my apologies for not letting you know I was in the city. This does need to stay secret, though. " If Mirian found out that the first thing I did when I went out into the city on my own was get into a fight and tell my colleagues exactly where I lived, she would probably change me into a woman or something like that.
She huffed. "Fine. But you need to tell your team or I will. Do you not remember when Blake ran away? Do you not remember how worried we all were?"
I glanced over to blake but she looked away, not making eye contact. "I will. Sometime next week."
Ruby shook her head. "You can't. They leave for their first mission on Monday and they're heading out of the Kingdom."
"Sunday."
Yang raised her hand. "School dance."
"Fucking tomorrow then, Divines take you…" I muttered.
She raised her other hand. "Don't get mad at me, you're the one that bailed on everyone. Hell if you're team wasn't in that show, you could have ruined Pyrrha's career. I know Ren and Nora were heartbroken."
I felt more guilt now than if I had set ten men on fire. "Tell them… tell them if they'll see me, to go to this address tomorrow."
I sent Blake the address. She didn't know my team very well, but she could relate in some way, I could see. I could trust her not to do anything different like send Ozpin there instead. The sound of police sirens was growing louder.
"I… I've gotta go." I took a couple steps back then made sure there was open sky above me. A leap, a Featherweight, and a Whirlwind Sprint later had me soaring up towards the clouds. I picked out my apartment, picked out a high roof between myself and there, and used my Flamethrowers to get myself on the right angle.
I walked in my balcony roughly ten minutes later, unequipping my soaked boots as I stepped onto my carpet. The noise of the city faded as I slid the door shut. With the sun setting, and no lights on, my apartment felt strange and lonely.
I flicked the lights on and pulled out my scroll changing what I was wearing in favor of comfort.
My mind went to my status page, having already decided how I would be spending my points.
Status
Name: Torga
Age: 17
Level: 32
Race: Human
Title: Dragonborn
Status: Healthy
XP: 51.04%
HP: 3850
AP: 1182
STR: 28
VIT: 50
AGI: 19
INT: 26
WIS: 51
LUK: 10
STAT: 35
I placed ten of those points into AGI, and the rest went into VIT. My hope was that I would heal even faster at 100, maybe even get a new skill out of it. I gained another Shout Point, but I decided to save it after seeing how useful it could be in an emergency. My main issue was how useless I was when I ran out of AP. So much of my hitting power depended on Power and Double Strike plus Aura Enhancement. I adjusted my spending to throw a few points into Strength.
I accepted the changes, this time prepared. The world again felt like it slowed down, but as I got used to it last time, so I would get used to it this time. The most noticeable difference was that I suddenly gained an inch in height, though I felt many changes happening to my insides. It felt odd.
For nearly an hour I flipped that scroll over in my hands, thinking. About what has happened to me so far since I got here. About how much I knew of the why. What was my goal at this point? Why was I brought here, of all places? Could I go back, and did I want to go back?
"Nothing solved sitting here." I muttered, picking a name out of the list and pressing the 'Dial' option. It rang once before being picked up.
"Who is this?"
"Hey, Richard." I sighed, nearly at a loss for what to say. What did I call him for?
"Torga? Is that you?" He sounded angry. "You motherfucker! I got grounded because you fucking decided to go fake your death? Where the hell are you?"
"I can explain everything. Maybe I can even get you in the air again. Just meet me for a drink somewhere, okay?"
The line was silent. "You're fucking buying." He spat out before hanging up. I lamented the fact that I would have to call back and ask where.
My scroll vibrated again with a message from Richard. It was a black man's middle finger, with the name of a bar and a time on it. I glanced at the clock, realizing I had only 30 minutes to make it. My scroll said it was only a 15 minute drive so I called myself a taxi and picked out a plain black long-sleeve shirt and a pair of those 'jeans'. I had yet to really get anything for clothing. A waste of inventory space when I could just have weapons.
Life's better with more weapons.
In case anyone is confused, time-skip. I'm trying to treat Volume 1-3 as a prologue as well. Vytal Festival Tournament with civilians? is it a power-play to remind the people why they need Hunters? Is it a trap for Torga? Maybe it's just to shake things up!
This will change things significantly in terms of canon.
With the power of the Dragonborn blooming magnificently, I needed to make a few changes to the story. First, more enemies. I added a mod of the same line to my Skyrim save and it's done nothing but benefit. Second, Death. It's possible. No character is safe. Thirdly, Dust. I have a whole hierarchy of which Dust types make which dust and what effects they'll have with each skill.
Finally, can someone please beta-read. I'm fucking begging here.
