Multiplayer

by NeoShadows

Life is a game. In an attempt to save a friend during the Breach, Jaune Arc died. Brought back to life with powers of a Gamer, he must now attempt to beat the game called life. He's not alone though. Every win or lose ends in a Reset, so how will he beat a game that never ends?

25. Just a Game

NeoShadows here! And yes, I am single.

Sorry for the delay, the chapter was actually finished last Friday if I remember correctly, but due to problems on both ends of myself and my beta, the chapter wasn't polished until a few days ago. Life, what more can we say?

Okay before we scroll down and read up, yes, this is another monster chapter. I got carried away writing out the action scenes again. So, it's a heavy action oriented chapter. But there is much to learn from it. I apologize if large chapters aren't to your liking, but what's written is written! I just couldn't see myself splitting it up in half.

So, seeing as we're already running at a huge amount of words, I'll answer a few reviews this time so we can move along.

That guy: Glad you love it. So, the people have spoken, have they? Hmm, well I have no heart to deny them that. We just might have a new story up by Summer's end involving a certain group of hot mamas.

Pokemon Trainer Tom: Happy Birthday, bud!

Flametusk: RWBY Loops? Hmm, it does sound familiar. I'll check it out some time.

Ssjzohan: I just beat the game at lvl72! And my 'waifu'? Kawakami, hands down.

TheNakedFlame: Hey, it's alright. Critiscim is welcomed. The scene with the girls was just for humor, showing varying signs of their romantic feelings for him. The only ones with Affection for Jaune are Blake and Pyrrha, and the emotions vary between person. As for the multi perspective thing, sorry to say that's my writing style. And trust me, there's a lot that I keep hidden even with the perspectives of the others shown. Sorry if that hinders the experience, but it's how I write. I have taken something from your thoughts though. I'll be careful not to overdue it too much.

Saint Danielle: I love ya too, bud. As I do with all my fans who read my story. . .No homo. God, I need a lady in my life. . .one that's not a pillow from a japan. Who's idea of a gift is that anyways? Moving on from that, Roman was a fun Gamer to work on. And you've just given me an idea for a DLC for Volume 2. We're done with DLC's for this volume, sadly. And I'm a breadsticks man myself.

Okay, that's enough for now. We have plenty to read down below, trust me. I think my Beta's already signing papers to drag me back to the rehab. Ha! Jokes on them, I'm immune to their drugs!

Now, let's get scrolling!

---

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to RWBY, they belong to RoosterTeeth. You know what's hard? Writing and editing when you've just bought a new game. Bloodborne is calling to me, damn it! They give you weapons to fight monsters that mech shift, like RWBY! That, and the old guy says to do whatever I want with the doll girl. Hmm, that sends warning bells off the bat. Almost like a body pillow come to life.

---

Chapter 25: Just a Game.

In the smoking remains of Kuroyuri, a small raven haired boy with a lock of pink hair released a ragged breath as his arms finally stopped trembling. Below his body the decomposing body of a large Nevermore let out one last death caw, the deadly curved knife belonging to the boy twisting into its chest one last time to ensure its passing.

Ren watched the sliver of HP above the monster's body reduce to nothing. He stumbled back as the large dark bird's body died away into a black miasma smoke. Even with the beast now gone and the surrounding area free of Grimm, the boy's eyes were still trembling as he stared down at his blood-stained hands. The knife fell out of his hands with a clatter.

What just happened? How did he end up back to the day of his home's destruction? He vaguely remembered that it had only been maybe a month since he had been forced to run away from his burning home ransacked by the creatures of death. So how was it possible that he was back to that very nightmare? And how had he been able to fight like that? He reacted without even understanding what he was doing. His vision now displayed an odd screen, displaying what was called HP and MP.

But even with the scary odd situation and the new powers in his body, Ren forced himself to turn back to the very reason he had fought the small Grimm and what was called a Boss. A little girl around his age wearing dirty, tattered and torn clothing stared back at him with slight fear and what he could barely make out as relief. She had orange dirtied hair from living on the streets and seafoam green eyes.

Faintly he recalled the girl before the destruction of Kuroyuri. She had been picked on by a couple of kids before his father stepped in to make them stop. And when he had been running for his life, he thought he had seen her hiding below a burning house before a Nevermore had perched itself atop it. Shamefully he had run away, his fear overtaking him as he left her behind.

A voice, a powerful one full of mirth had talked to him when he had reached his home again. It promised him power, unimaginable power to change the world and save others. All he had to do in exchange was save the girl.

Fighting his own fear and anxiety, Ren worked up a smile for the girl. She was like him, alone and scared in the world. Warily, the girl stood back up on her wobbly feet and looked down shyly. Her green eyes peeked at him with trepidation and he decided to give her a bigger smile. And that was enough.

Ren was taken back as the girl ran at him and hugged him deathly tight. Her body trembled against his, her soft cries drowning out the cackle of the flames eating away at his home. Carefully he patted her back, feeling a bit awkward at the situation he found himself in. It was odd, but his mind was calm, the fear receding as if it was never there. He was. . .at peace.

"Um, hello there. My name is Lie Ren, who might you be?" he said slowly after a moment of letting the orange-haired girl cry. She sniffled one last time and looked back to him shyly, going silent for bit before finally speaking.

". . .Nora." she said softly, wiping away her tears as she stepped back from the boy. No, she shook her head as a tiny small made its way to her face. He was her hero.

Ren nodded his head with a calm smile, "Nora, that's a nice name." he said warmly.

The two little kids in the middle of a burning, smoking, destroyed village smiled at one another as dark clouds began to roll over the skies above. Despite the passing nightmare, the two were at ease. Even though they were alone, they were together.

Well, not alone, alone.

Just as the clouds let loose a light curtain of rain onto the village, the drops of rain were frozen perfectly still. Even the flames and smoke froze. The world was paused, growing deathly silent.

Ren frowned as Nora didn't move an itch. Not even a breath of motion. He grew worried, walking over to her as he looked her over for any serious injuries.

"Nora? Are you alright? What's going on?" he asked, gulping anxiously when she didn't answer. She wasn't breathing. His frown only grew deeper as he turned his eyes to the skies, finding the rain frozen like a picture.

"What's going on?"

"That, little Renny, is called a Pause. Nifty little ability I'll say."

A mirthful voice chuckled from behind Ren, appearing out of thin air. He grew still, fearing another monster attacking him like the others. Slowly he turned his head to find an odd man grinning down at him. The man wore an expensive long white sleeve shirt under a black vest with white stripes running down, a red tie, black slacks with a golden pocket chain, black dress shoes unsoiled by the dirty ground, and a black bowler hat. The man had orange hair combed neatly back and amused green eyes reflecting his confused expression. He looked like a man of high class, the ones his mother had described to him from a story in a big city of glamor.

"A pause? What is that?" Ren asked with a confused frown, shaking his head before narrowing his eyes at the strange man, "And who are you?"

The man chuckled as he leaned down and ruffled the boy's dirtied raven hair. Ren didn't like the gesture, tearing his head away as he glared at the man. The expression only further amused the stranger.

"No need to fear, kiddo! The names Roman Torchwick, the gentlemen thief, and Player numero uno!" Roman said with a stylish bow and wink. Ren looked at him funny, finding the man odd. And what did he say? What was a Player?

"Don't understand, do ya? From your baffled expression, I take it you don't recall your earlier life. Seems you're like Addy-boy, born naturally with The Gamer within you until you made a deal with The Will. Conniving ball of flaming excrement, to think it would use this Event to draw it out."

Everything that the man known as Roman was saying didn't make any sense. Ren tried to understand what he was saying, but found himself coming up empty. All he did know was that the orange haired man was the one who stopped the world.

"Why are you here?" Ren decided to ask after forgoing trying to understand the lowly mumbling man. Why would such a well-dressed man come to a place like this? Especially while it was being attacked by the Grimm?

Roman stopped his mumbling to stare at Ren blankly for a moment, "I had some. . .unfinished business to attend. Business that a certain someone had ignored." For a split second, Ren could have sworn he had seen a dark glint in the man's green eyes before it had disappeared as quickly as it came. Ren was surprised to find his hands shaking again before calming himself, "When oddly enough, I found myself thrown back in time about a month or so to this very day. Most likely due to my earlier presence." he mused.

"Anyway, in my stroll, I was surprised to find you, small, frightened, little Ren battling a small house sized Nevermore with quick timed reactions and the Title of Mind on your status. To think you of all people would be dragged in this game." he said with bitter mirth.

"And you know what's happening to me? To my body?" Ren asked curiously as he looked down at his battered, dirtied hands. A faint coat of pink energy covered his hands, the very power that had allowed him to survive the attack of a monster that could have easily ended him with one hit before.

"Pretty much. I could even go as far as saying I know you pretty well, Lie Ren. Tell me, would you like to know more of your powers? Of your fate as a Player?" Roman asked, leaning down to meet the boy eye to eye. Ren looked back at him warily, not sure if he could trust the man. A man who literally appeared out of nowhere. Someone who said he knew of him when he had never meet the man before today.

But for some weird reason, a part of his soul trusted him.

"Would that mean you would take me with you?"

Roman tapped his chin and lightly nodded, "I suppose. I'm already taking care of one rowdy little squirt with an ice cream obsession. Having someone like you would actually be a boon." he grinned.

Ren found himself smiling at the notion, "Then I accept! I'm sure Nora will be happy to meet a new friend!" he said happily.

At that Roman winced, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly as he looked away from the little eastern boy, "Sorry, kid. But if you were to come along, the girl would have to be left behind."

"What? Why?! She doesn't have anywhere else to go!" he said in frustration, glaring back at the man.

"Trust me, I know." he said uncomfortably before sighing, "I'm not so cold hearted as to leave her alone in this hell hole. We can take her to a nice orphanage where she could live a normal life. It's just that. . .there are reasons why she can't come along." he said sternly.

Ren now found himself at a crossroads. He had the option of following after a man who understood the powers that ran through his body and was willing to teach him about his so-called fate, or stay with a girl he had just met and knew nothing about other than her name. The smart choice was obvious; follow Roman and learn of his powers. His mind had been sharpened, granting him intelligence beyond his young age. It was telling him to listen to the man.

But then came the strong tug at his heart at the thought of leaving Nora behind. She was the sole reason he could even fight the Grimm, his need to save her unlocking his Aura and by proxy the new powers granted to him by the bodiless voice in his head. In the end, he was all she had in the world. And he found himself growing sad at the idea of abandoning her after getting a smile out of her.

Even with his increase in intellect, Ren wound up following his heart. It wasn't the smart move, he knew that, but he refused to leave Nora alone again. He did it once and he wasn't going to do it again.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Torchwick, but I can't leave Nora alone. I know I may have just met her, but I'm all she has now." he said firmly, standing his ground before the intimidating man who radiated unimaginable power.

Roman didn't say anything. It was as if he was in thought. Sighing, he finally spoke.

"I had a feeling you would say that. You've barely known her for a few minutes, but you're already hanging onto her. Seems that bond of yours truly does transcend The Game. How amusing." he chuckled lightly. Ren and Nora, an odd friendship that actually balanced itself out. It was the same as every world, not even changing now that Ren was a Player.

Perhaps. . .that was a good thing.

"That's fine, I suppose. If you stick with her, you'll be in safe hands. Believe me, that girl. . .she'll grow into some bombastic powerhouse."

Ren smiled, glad that Roman understood. It was weird that he believed that the quiet girl would protect him, but Roman seemed like he knew what he was talking about. If anything, Ren was sure that he would be the one to be watching over her. She appeared so fragile and shy.

Inwardly Roman was laughing hysterically. Oh, if only the kid knew.

Patting the future great huntsman's head one last time, Roman moved to continue on his way. He did stop, reaching into his coat to hand something back at the boy. Ren took the small piece of paper in hand, finding numbers on it. Instinctively, his free hand caught the smooth tablet thrown at him.

"That's a scroll, Renny. While I can't take you with me right now, I can lend you some help every now and again to help you as a Player if you call. I'll even give you the basics before I end our Pause to get you on our way. After all, we Players got to stick together." he grinned cheerfully.

Ren didn't know what to say. After all the carnage and horrors he had witnessed, it was hard to swallow such kindness. He found himself tearing up a bit as he stared at the gift. He wasn't sure what awaited him in this new world, but it was warming to know that there was someone out there to turn to. He looked back at Roman with a mirroring grin even as a few tears slipped out.

Roman Torchwick, he would be sure to remember that name fondly.

---

A sharp snap of fingers suddenly caught Ren's attention, bringing him out of his wandering thoughts. He shook his head around to clear himself of the drifting memories and found Yang snapping her fingers in his face.

"I'm sorry, did you say something, Yang?" he asked politely as the girl huffed and crossed her arms over her impressive chest. Beside her, Tsuki looked at him passively, just as annoyed as the blonde beside her.

"I was asking if you had gotten any word from Jaune lately before you went stupid for a minute. Jeez, what were you even staring at?" Yang asked irritably. He had been just fine before his eyes turned to the distant. Out of curiosity, she spun her head towards his line of sight and found a column of smoke rising into the night sky. 'It's night already? How the hell long have we been looking? Man, I'm must be losing my touch if I hadn't even noticed the sun set.'

Tsuki scowled at the sight. Something wasn't right. Her heart was suddenly steering her towards the origin of the smoke and she had learned from her mentor/caretaker that sometimes you had to follow your instincts. Without another word to the younger hunters, she took off for the direction of the commotion.

Her Jaune senses were tingling.

"Great, now raven tits is running off again." Yang said tiredly, slumping her shoulders as she didn't even bother to follow. She was done chasing those cold jugs around when she was supposed to be finding Jaune. And they were still no closer to finding him. Turning back to Ren, she found him rubbing his head and sighing.

"Something on your mind, Ren?"

"Yeah, you could say that." he said with some annoyance. He shook his shoulders loose with a sigh, mentally going over his Inventory for the coming fight. Because when Roman was involved, there was a fifty-fifty that things would end in a fight. He began walking forward, shifting through his abilities as Yang began to follow closely behind.

"I think I might know where Jaune is. And Blake. Because if there's one thing I know, those two are drawn to trouble." he said flatly.

Yang couldn't argue with that. That and they didn't have much leads. If Ren believed he knew where they were, then she would follow along. He was the smart one and she was the muscle! And Tsuki was the stalking tracker nutcase with useless fun bags.

"Then lead the way, Captain Ren! It's getting late and I want to get this shit done with so I can eat and sleep! And I can't do that without my Blakey or Vomit-boy back at home!"

'Hopefully we make it back in one piece. With Roman, you never know what might happen.' Ren thought tiredly.

Roman Torchwick, a name that had lost its warmth.

---

"But do you really think you need it?"

"I mean, how else do I distinguish myself from the others?"

Perry, a normal looking White Fang grunt with round glasses shook his head, trying understand the logic behind his fellow freedom fighter's reasons. What reason was that, you might ask? That would have to be the rather bulky and loaded heavy machine gun in his friend's hands.

"There's a reason why we all look alike, you know? It's so we can't be tracked down in our civilian lives. And that kinda gives you away."

"But I don't carry around a machine gun outside of my Fang clothing."

"Not. The. Point." Perry stressed. Why the hell did he have to watch over the new recruits? This wasn't exactly a good start off mission for them, they were stealing several cargos of Dust at night using bullheads that anyone walking out at night could point out. That required some skill, not no skill whatsoever.

"Just drop the heavy artillery and focus on hooking those cables to the cargo. We don't have all night to be doing this."

The White Fang grunt nodded sadly and turned back to the mission. He was ready to leave the machine gun behind but found himself puzzled as three separate rotating circles of playing cards materialized out of nowhere at the center of their location. Suddenly, three oddly dressed teenagers feel out in a daze.

Perry gaped at the sight. What the hell was that? His ear piece went off a moment later, connecting him to one of his brother's watching over them in the air.

"Looks like we got three huntsmen in training, Perry. Roman says to deal with them however you can."

Fixing his glasses over his mask, Perry resisted the urge to slap his forehead, "I should have known it was one of his weird tricks. Why couldn't he deal with them himself?" He had rookies with him for crying out loud! They weren't trained for this sort of thing!

"Yeah, I'm not going to ask him why. You of all people know how he gets. But he says that if they're giving you trouble, you have permission to bust That out."

Now that got Perry's spirits lifting. His face split into a grin, revealing the sharp canines associated with his heritage. Oh, he had been hoping to bust his newest toy out! Roman was an asshole, but he treated the men who listened to him and followed him very well. And after working alongside him in that last heist in Atlas, the master thief had rewarded him with one hell of a reward.

"Is it me, or is everything still spinning?" Other than the pain from that sly bastard Roman's attack, Sun was wincing as he tried to get his bearings. He wobbled a bit on his feet and held his mouth closed. There it was, his breakfast.

Blake winced as she held her aching head. What was that? Was that Roman's semblance? Clearing her head and fighting the nausea she focused her attention on her surroundings. Now, where were they? Her memory flashed back to certain missing member of their group.

"Where's Jaune?!" she panicked. Where they the ones targeted by Roman?

Ciel shook her head, narrowing her eyes as she finally took notice of the company gathering around them, "I don't think we have time to be worrying about him right now."

Trapping the hunters with their numbers, Perry nodded his head as he had caught the dark skin's girl's words, "No, she's right. You have much more important things to be worrying about," behind his mask, his eyes narrowed dangerously as he got a good look at Blake, "Traitor." he hissed venomously.

Sun nudged Blake and whispered lowly, "I think he's talking about you."

Blake rolled her eyes.

"Ready your weapons men!"

"Ahem?"

Perry groaned, "And woman. Now, FIRE!"

"Scatter!"

Blake and Ciel didn't need to be told what to do. Together three hunters leapt off the spot and dodged the mad gunfire chasing after them. Pulling out his trusty gun-chucks, Sun met the gunfire with his own. A few of his shoots knocked down a few of the grunts but found himself being chased after by two katana wielding grunts. One aimed a swipe for his head but was blocked by a swing of his gun-chuck. The second one aimed to stab at his chest. Sun sidestepped the deadly steel and tensed the muscles of his right arm before slamming his bicep against the grunt's windpipe. The lariat attack robbed the man of his breath and sent him flying back past his fellow White Fang sister. The grunt growled, tossing her weapon to the side in frustration before swinging her arms apart. Her wolf claws popped out with a 'shink 'and allowed her to wildly swing at the monkey faunus with a dangerous edge.

Sun easily evaded the deadly claws, smirking and even winking at the faunus girl playfully. Growing tired, he quickly stepped back from a downward slash and swung his gun-chucks at both sides of her head. The blow disoriented her, leaving her open to a high kick to the chin that sent her up before he spun on his foot and kicked her away.

Ciel frowned as she was forced to dodge both the attacks of a White Fang grunt's blade and the knocked-out girl faunus. She ducked a wide swing, danced around several poor stab attempts, and used the back of her hand to bat away a swing too quick to normally dodge. The grunt huffed, glaring at the girl as she adjusted her gloves. He frowned, noticing the black gloves weren't normal, the back of them were platted with metal smooth studs. Again, he swung at the girl, unleashing a barrage of swift slashes and stabs that she calmly blocked. Catching the blade in hand, she took the grunt by surprise by snatching the katana from his hand. The hilt of his own blade was the last thing he saw before he could aim the barrel of his gun at the girl.

Catching the gun in hand, Ciel holstered it to the back of her waist and quickly ran in to intercept a slash aimed for Blake's back as she busied herself with three grunts. Hearing the clang of steel, Blake peeked behind herself to find the Atlas student watching her back. They both nodded at another in understanding before pushing back their attackers. They spun around each other with a wide swing of their blades that deflected the striking enemy attacks. Gunfire answered gunfire as the two girls stood back to back shooting down the surrounding enemies.

Dodging a barrage of bullets behind a large Dust crate, Perry grunted in frustration as he watched another few of his men drop like flies. They were just kids for crying out loud! Kids that were trained to fight monsters using crazy weapons, but kids none the less. Catching the eyes of the grunt he had spoken to earlier, he gave the relenting nod for him to bust out the big guns.

Heeding the gesture, the White Fang grunt grinned widely as he loaded the belt of ammunition into his heavy artillery. The barrel of the large machine gun spun wildly, its barrel growing red hot before firing a continuous rain of metal after the hunters. Sun cursed as he found its sights aimed at him.

"Someone's overcompensating for something! You know size doesn't matter, bud!?" Sun shouted as he evaded the rapid-fire shells. He gritted his teeth as a few grazed him.

"Shut up! And in this fight, size does matter! You're just jealous because mine's bigger!" the grunt shouted angrily, sweating as his body fought the strain of the gun's kick.

In the gunfire, one of the crates had been busted open and spilled several colored Dust crystals onto the ground. Thinking quick, Sun snatched a few before flipping over several bullets. Recalling his lessons in Dust Studies, he charged them full of aura and flung them after the machine gun totting grunt. Several elemental explosions blew up around grunt, clouding his vision. With a mighty swing of his gun he cleared away the smoke clouding his vision before he found a red staff swinging for his face. He stumbled back with a shout and then found himself struck several times before a spinning upward strike knocked him back. A powerful gust of dust blinded him before a hard knuckle to his temple knocked him out.

Turning back to the girls, Sun was forced to throw up his hands to block a downward slash with his bracers. But luckily for him a kusaragi blade took out the grunt from behind. He waved thanks to Blake for the save and went back to cleaning up the docks of the Fang.

More and more of his brothers and sisters were taken out by the hunters, only causing Perry to further lose his patience. This was why he didn't want to be left in charge of the newbies, they sucked. Thankfully he had few experienced fighters on standby. Craning his neck over the corner of his safe spot, he caught sight of another two grunts knocked out with ease. He rolled his eyes as he reached into his vest for a silver cylinder with burning orange lines running across it. It looked like he was going to have to break out his own big guns and to do that he needed a distraction. Sad to say he was actually happy to bring out his new modified toy. Turning toward one of the grunts firing at the three hunters, he gave him a command, "Keep them occupied for as long as you can. I going to bring out 'That'." he grinned widely.

The White Fang grunt nodded and watched his superior on the mission toss the object at the enemy. Blake, Sun, and Ciel caught sight of the cylinder and went on edge. From the little trinket, an orange smoke was released to cloud the ground around them. Blake was the first to take notice of the odd scent the smoke contained.

"Everyone, get away from the smoke!" She shouted in alarm. Sun and Ciel didn't question it and jumped back. But all it took was a one bullet striking the ground of the orange smoke a second before they could completely escape to reveal the danger the smoke presented.

An explosive wave knocked them back as the smoke was ignited and unleashed a carpet of flames. Their auras took the brunt of the damage as they landed on their feet and tried to clear their heads of the ringing in their ears, coughing as smoke entered their lungs.

"Dust?! How the hell were they able to add Fire Dust to smoke?!" Sun coughed as he tried to get a view of the enemy through the veil of black smoke around them.

"Save your dumb questions for later!" Ciel grunted before reaching into one of her pouches. Finding what she was looking for, she added her own aura into the object and slammed it onto the ground. The Wind Dust shattered with a brilliant gleam, unleashing a powerful burst of whipping wind to clear the toxic smoke. With the distraction out of the way she found more White Fang members surrounding them with their weapons drawn. She held back a frustrated sigh. Well they certainly made up for their lack of strength with numbers.

Reaching for more Dust, she flung the fire infused crystals at the grunts on her side, blowing them back with the explosive flame bursts. The elemental attack gave Blake the opening she needed to charge into their ranks, drawing her sword and bladed sheath to cut who she could down. She was careful not to land any lethal wounds in her attacks as two went down before three blades fell from above. She crossed her blades, blocking the attacks with a clang. She struggled to hold her defense but found the three White Fang's swords throwing down her blades and cutting her apart. The sword wielding grunts grinned in victory, only to be robbed as the dead girl faded away like a shadow. An aura infused hilt slammed into the back of the head of the middle grunt before the other two followed him to unconsciousness.

But in Blake's distraction, another grunt ran behind her with a forward stab. A Lightning Dust crystal met with his chest, stopping him dead as his body was electrocuted.

"Bitch, do you know who I am!?" Sun shouted, backhanding one of the grunts that tried to sneak up on him repeatedly, "I'm Sun-MotherFucking-Wukong! And you will taste my mighty pimp hand! And you will give it a Five-God-Damn-Star rating!"

"Sun, stop playing with your enemy and take this seriously!" Blake shouted back in annoyance as she swung Gambol Shroud around in its kusaragi form.

"Aww, but they make it too easy!"

"Don't make me get Ciel!"

Sun turned his head to said dark skinned girl just in time to watch her confront four charging White Fang grunts clearly bigger than her. In both her hands, she held one Lightning and one Fire Dust before she slammed them together in front of her. The collision of elements created a powerful reaction from her wildly sparking palms, unleashing a human sized orange orb of blue sparking energy. It fired off like a cannon, carving a trail of destruction in its path and taking out whatever poor soul it found its path. It ended in a mighty explosion, sending lightning sparks flying around its collisions. She turned her cold dark blue eyes to meet Sun, the look she was sending him causing his tail to curl around his waist in fear.

He dropped the dizzy grunt to the ground and threw his hands up with a nervous smile, "I-I'll behave!" That was one scary chick. She certainly knew her way around Dust.

Ciel rolled her eyes as she dusted off her hands of the Dust.

Taking a small breather, Blake rested her hands on her knees as she surveyed the area. She blinked, surprised to find all the enemies incapacitated.

"I think that last attack took care of most of them." she observed as she sheathed her katana.

Sun whistled at the damage, "Damn, those guys were a bunch of pushovers. I would have expected more from the White Fang. Aren't they scary terrorists or something?"

"I believe what we were dealing with were trainees. I know that members are trained rigorously to stand a chance against huntsman. This is actually insulting." Blake said amusingly. If Adam had seen the poor excuse of a fight, he would have had their heads rolling before they could protest. Which was sadly too close to the truth to really be funny.

"I don't have a problem with that, though I guess I'm a bit bummed out that they went down so easily." Sun relented with a crack of his neck. At least it was a good work out. His eyes suddenly fell on Ciel, growing curious as he found her talking to her fancy watch. "Watch ya doing, Ciel?"

Ending her call, Ciel answered, "I was contacting the authorities close by of the situation. You didn't think we would be able to take them all down ourselves, did you?" she asked with a raised brow.

"I mean, yes?"

"I know that the White Fang grunts seemed easy, but I don't believe that we're done with them just yet. We still have Roman Torchwick to deal with after all."

Remembering the master thief, Blake's worry was reborn as she scanned the area, "Where are we? Jaune should be close by since we're still at the docks. We can't leave him behind with Roman." she said in frustration. She gripped her recovering stomach, remembering the last blow from his cane.

He could have killed her, she had seen that in those mischievous green eyes. Jaune wasn't safe fighting a man like that.

"We'll find him before the authorities arrive. I'm sure he can hold his own until we arrive to lend a hand." Ciel reassured her, "We should expect some helpful company in less than half an hour. We should hurry and search for his location."

Sun and Blake nodded as they put their weapons down. They were ready to begin their search but found their attentions drawn to the sound of a loud boom. A massive ball of flames from above engulfed one of the Bullheads in the sky, bringing it down to erupt in an explosion. A tower of black smoke lifted from overhead, alerting them to an idea of where their friend might be.

"Let's go!" Blake shouted, making a running start towards the directions of the explosion.

"Stay back!"

Sun tackled Blake to the side suddenly, just in time to save her from having a sharp needle of ice stabbed through her body. The ice spike lodged into one of the nearby crates, shattering upon impact as Sun helped Blake back to her feet. He glared at the origin of the attack, stepping back as a smug laugh entered their ears.

Something odd came into sight, its mechanized short hoofs clopping as frigid mist escaped the machines snout. It walked ten feet high with a metal body armed with small mounted guns and two quad missile launchers welded atop. Its tail swished lazily as it stomped its front hoof aggressively, its ice-cold eyes glaring at the three hunters in training.

"Is that a pig?" Sun muttered unbelievably as said pig released an odd sounding squeal.

From within the mech suit, Perry shook his head with a smirk in the controlled space of his armored toy, "This is not a pig! Don't you see the four tusks? This is a warthog!" he swiveled the warthog's snout to accent the deadly razor sharp tusks, two of them pointing forward and the other two curving upward, "Actually this is a small Atlesian tank that we stole. But since Roman gave it to me, I decided to custom the shit out of it! Now it's a Mechanized Warthog Tank with an Ice Dust Core! I call it, Arctic Warthog!"

". . . .I hate to say it, but that thing is fricken awesome." Sun breathed in awe as he looked over the armored tank warthog. A damn mechanical warthog with machine guns, rockets, and it was powered by Ice Dust? How cool was that?

"Get out of our way." Blake bit out as she made out the sound of more explosions in the location they believed Jaune was fighting.

Perry shook his head with a tsk, grinning as his monitors locked onto the trespassers.

"Sorry not sorry, traitor, but I got orders from Roman to keep you brats occupied. And I've been meaning to test this baby out on some actual competent targets!" The belts of ammunition hooked up to its many guns loaded up audibly as the mechanized beast cracked open its maw to release a cold breath with a glare, "Time for a live combat test! Don't die too quickly, I need as much data gathered as possible if I'm going to convince Adam to fund my future war machines!" he roared excitedly as his beast tank squalled ferociously.

Blake loaded a fresh cartridge into Gambol Shroud as she glared at the menacing machine, "I don't have time to deal with some oversized toy! Get out of my way!" she shouted angrily as she dashed at the warthog themed tank.

Someone was quick to die. Aiming his sights on the speedy cat girl, Perry went to work on testing out his machine's weapon system. Cold blue light lit up one of the missile launchers, firing four sharp tipped missile heads after Blake. Her shadow took her place, swapping places to let her flip over the ice spears and fire several shoots at the steel beast. The Arctic Warthog's body bounced the feeble bullets off, swinging its tusks to swat the girl aiming to slash its snout. She gritted her teeth as the bladed tusks fought to tear her aura and she was sent skidding back on her feet.

"Don't think so little of my pride and joy! It's basically bullet proof!" Perry laughed smugly as the beast lowered its head to the ground. Its four legs folded to reveal its balled joints spinning madly. Its upward tusks straightened, lengthening like javelins before it drove after its targets. Blake, Sun, and Ciel were quick to evade the charging spear rush. Even as it missed, the Arctic Warthog simply spun on its balled joints and fixed its trajectory to continue charging them. Sun bit back a violent curse as he found it ramming his back, gashing the sides of his ribs as its force threw him back.

Ciel ran in to catch Sun's flying form, grunting as her back hit a container of Dust. She frowned at the sight of blood running down Sun's sides and his grimacing face. Those tusks weren't just for show.

Forming its legs again, the Arctic Warthog grounded itself before firing its machine guns at the two hunters. Ciel grit her teeth before quickly going to her watch. Fingers flying on the hologram controls, she summoned a blue luminescent energy bubble to swallow them. The heavy gunfire bounced off Ciel's defense, protecting them for the moment. It wouldn't last long though as the bubble began to visibly wane.

"That doesn't look like that will last long!" Sun grimaced with a labored breath. His aura was working as fast as it could to repair the bloody flesh, leaving him useless for the moment.

He wasn't wrong. What Ciel had activated was a nifty little energy shield but its power was limited. And against the rapid machine gun fire it was only a matter of time before they were left with nothing. She could only believe in her own shields endurance for now.

Luckily the chain of bullets ran out, pausing the Arctic Warthog's fire. But from its metal hide more belts of ammunition popped out and worked on loading it back up. Ciel called off her shield to let it recharge and worked quickly to hook Sun's arms over her shoulder and get out of sight. Perry scoffed from within his creation, rotating his sights to follow their backs with a feral grin. As if it was that easy to escape his beast!

"Escape this!"

Cracking open its maw, the Arctic Warthog unleashed a strong breath of chilling mist plowing after the two. Thinking quickly as he peeked back at the chasing danger, Sun shut his eyes and calmed his mind. Clearing his thoughts, he created two golden silhouettes to flow out of his body. With a mental command, he sent them colliding with the cold front in their place, saving them from its effects as they blew up in a cold explosion.

Sun gasped as they found themselves hiding behind some cover. His semblance required concentration and staying still, something unlike him. Activating it while wounded and being carried was a long shot. At least his wound was healed. Just barely, but it was enough for him to carefully stand back on his feet.

"Are you alright?" Ciel asked after taking a moment to peek around the corner for the deadly machine.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. But what are we going to do about Iron Ham over there?" he grunted as he wiped away the sweat running down his forehead. That thing was immune to bullet fire if they were to believe the grunt's boasting. They were going to need some heavy fire power to match it back, "Can't you do that thing you did before with the Dust? Fire a firebolt, or whatever you call it."

"Firebolt? That was a reaction of Lightning and Fire Dust created by their purities counterbalancing each other in a perfect chemical blast, not a magic spell." she said exasperated, "Unless you can find the same counterbalance in Dust, I won't be able to perform that attack again."

"Come on and stop hiding! I don't have all night to test my baby out!"

Stray missiles of ice struck the area around their cover, rocking their shelter as the Arctic Warthog neared. Sun scratched his head in frustration, trying to think of way to fight back. Wait, he blinked as he remembered something important.

"Where's Blake?"

Perry smirked as he activated the infrared vision on his mechanical marvel. So, they thought they could hide behind boxes? Ha! This wasn't some video game. Revving the engine, Perry prepared to charge at the hunters with another javelin rush. Full speed ahead, his beast squealed as it drove to skewer its prey.

Burning bright red crystals slammed into the Arctic Warthog's left side, the explosive flames force created on impact messing with its course and sending it driving past Sun and Ciel's cover to the far right. Perry cursed foully, finding his path veering into a crate full of Dust filled with holes from his earlier gunfire.

Multiple elemental reactions created a colorful cloud from the explosion of Dust and machine colliding, engulfing the Arctic Warthog in fires, ice, lightning, wind, and earth forces. Sun whistled at the sight, marveling at the pretty colors. Hearing a thud behind his safe spot he swiveled his head until he found Blake's yellow eyes looking back at him with the same old stoic expression she always had.

"Blake! There you are, where you been?" he asked, wondering where she had gone when they had dodged. "I almost thought you left us?" he said with a playful quivering lip and wide eyes.

Blake rolled her eyes at the blond monkey faunus as she walked over, "I may be worried about Jaune, but I'm not heartless enough to leave you two to fight something like that by yourselves." she said with a small smile. Reaching them, she quickly handed them a handful of Fire Dust into their hands as she explained, "I was searching through the various shipments of Dust to combat the machine. If what Perry said is true, then Fire Dust should help in damaging its body." Ice was weak to fire after all, that was a no brainier.

"Perry?"

"That's the name of the man attacking us. I faintly remember him from my time in the White Fang. He's not much of a fighter but he was always in charge of stocking up the weapons and repairing them." To think that the scrawny man wearing glasses would grow up to become such a threat.

"These are fine quality Fire Dust." Ciel said, impressed that Blake could find them in the many laying around the battle ground. With her watch, she was able to scan the magical minerals and deduce their purity. It was how she had been able to perform the fusion of Fire and Lightning.

"I've robbed enough Dust to tell such differences with some careful inspection." Blake said sheepishly as she looked away. It was handy skill she had picked up as her time as a terrorist.

"If we augment our weapons with these Dust, we should be able to damage it and put it down."

Sun didn't need to be told twice. With a grin, he quickly loaded the red Dust into his gun-chucks and watched as they were bathed in orange-red wisps. Blake did the same, her black katana shroud in flames as Ciel shuffled her share around.

A bellowing release of cold mist dispersed Dust reactions around the Arctic Warthog, clearing its vision as it spun around to face the readied hunters. From within his control space, Perry was sweating as the inside began to heat up. His systems were reading a 20% in damage taken by the little elemental light show. At least he knew that his baby could take even a hit like that and still stand. The Arctic Warthog snorted, its belt of bullets jingling as it shook off the ice, sparks, and embers on its hide.

"You're all going to pay for that! It's about time I stop playing around with the controls and take you out. Otherwise Roman's going to have a bone to pick with me."

"Why are you even working for a man like that anyway!?" Blake shouted in frustration, finding it hard to understand why her kind would work with such a person. He treated them like trash, as slaves!

"It's a joint operation as he says. He can be an ass, but he's not as bad as he seems if you're on his good side. At least we won't be surprised if he stabs us in the back, traitor!" he spat angrily. Flipping the switch on his controls, the Arctic Warthog's quad launchers began to twist until they faced opposite of their earlier position. The launchers then spread apart from another as they clicked, releasing from their barrels bellowing cold winds to lightly raise it up in the air.

"I thought that thing was a tank! Now it can fly?! Bullshit!" Sun shouted incredulously as Perry laughed smugly at their reactions.

"Time for Phase 2! Launching Program Beta: La! Let's see you if you can stand up to this!"

Tired of talking, Blake fell into a fighting stance as she raised her blade. Now wasn't the time to be asking any questions. She had a friend in need of help after all. And she was done letting her ties to the White Fang hold her back.

"Let's go!"

---

"Haaaa!"

"Too slow, kid! Come on! Where's all that energy and bravado gone? Do you need to do one of those funny poses to get into it?"

Breathing heavily as sweat ran down his chin, a small spiky red haired boy did his best to glare at the orange haired man dressed in a loose samurai robe. Though with the fat of his pudgy face due to his age it was a difficult expression to create. His glare was more of a huffy pout, even with his favorite white Grimm mask hiding his eyes.

Roman chuckled at the sight. The red-haired boy wore a white haori jacket over his bandaged chest, black loose fitting hakama, and wick sandals. In his slightly trembling hands he held a wooden sword chipped on its edge by the many swings on practice dummies. And other then the white Grimm mask on his face, what stood out most about the boy was the red horns on his head.

"I think it's about time we took a break, Addy-boy. Your body's ten right now, even with eight lifetimes of experience under your belt it doesn't mean nothing if you don't have the body to handle it yet."

'Addy' growled at the fond nickname, going as far as aiming his practice sword for Roman's chest as he spat, "Shut your trap, old man! My name's Adam, Adam Taurus! And you'll do well to remember the fear and power behind that name!"

Roman scoffed amusingly as he tapped the angry child's head with Melodic Cudgel playfully, "I'm shaking in my boots, truly I am." he said flatly as the younger Player swatted his weapon to the side, "And didn't you die in the last playthrough to a Creeper of all things? Oh, how the mighty die so young."

The master thief was only further amused as the small boy's arms flailed wildly in attempts to hit him. True, Adam was a powerful Player with the Strength boosting effects of his Title, Body, but he was still too green and arrogant to pose a real threat. He did show promise, he would admit that. Batting away the weak smacks, Roman ruffled the boy's hair as he began to pant. Little Addy was still reeling from their sparring.

Huffing, Adam spun away from the older Player with an embarrassed blush on his face. The bastard didn't need to remind him of that. It was savage blow to his pride remembering how he had been sent back to his Reset point or Save point, or whatever he called it. The memory of his previous life suddenly caused him to grit his teeth in frustration.

A girl with cute cat ears, ebony hair as dark and elegant as the night sky, and stoic yellow eyes full of surprising warmth came to mind. And his failure in protecting her.

". . .What happened to Blake after I died?"

Roman quirked a brow at the low, soft question from the wrathful Taurus boy. He tapped his chin in thought, recalling the last life they had shared.

"From what I remember, the kitty cat had stayed by her friends' side until the bitter end. Sadly, The Final Boss was too powerful for them to take on this time and Remnant was plunged into darkness again. If it makes you feel better, she died fighting with your blade in hand despite your differences."

A brief smile made its way to Adam's face hearing that. The idiot, even when she hated him, she couldn't completely let go of him. An angry scowl replaced that small happiness.

That was the fifth-time Blake had died since he had been gifted with The Gamer's powers. In the eight lifetimes he had come by, she had only lived in three. And every time she had left him, abandoning him to fight on his own for a dream that they had once shared.

"That girl needs to understand that she's not safe without me. She'll suffer in every world if I'm not there to protect her!" he hissed, clenching his fists with a pop.

Here they go again. Roman sighed as he felt another tirade of vengeance and drama coming on along with 'Flames of Revolution'. The kid really knew how to make things dramatic. Well if he was going to be training with him, then there was going to be none of that crap.

Bonking the kid's head again, Roman stopped Adam from another speech, "Yeah, yeah, you are vengeance incarnate and the world will bath in the flames of the oppressed that it should have seen coming. Calm down, Red Avenger before you bust a vein." he sighed tiredly as the kid held his bumped head with a glare, "Why don't you try another style of playthrough instead of the path of 'darkness' you've stuck with since the beginning? Blakey would surely follow you if you followed the just path."

"A Just path isn't what the world will understand or learn from. All those corrupt human figure heads will understand, or deserve, is bloodshed. Humanity and Faunus kind will never come together as long as those monsters hiding behind the kingdoms stay in power." Adam said firmly with resolve. "Even if the world sees me as some villain, a terrorist, a madman bent on destruction, I will not sway in my path. I will consume this corrupt reality, these twisted worlds manipulated by monsters, by the flames of my revolution and usher in a new world from its ashes. One where the generations of both species have learned from the mistakes of their forefathers and come together as one." he said softly.

He wasn't an idiot. Adam knew the road he walked, strewn with dead bodies and the pain of innocents was wrong and evil. But he believed one thing, that the world could learn from its pasts and create a better future. He would not let history repeat itself over and over again. So he would create a nightmarish past/present for the future generation to learn from. A darker past led to a brighter future.

"And I'll do whatever it takes to accomplish that. Even sacrifice the one I love for it."

"Is that what you'll be using that Risk-Free Wish for if you beat The Game?" Roman asked curiously as the boy turned back to him, "To Resurrect your little Blake in that world you create? For a bad ass swordsman, you're pretty romantic." he said dryly as Adam grew embarrassed.

"Shut it, old man! I just want her to live in a world where humans and faunus can get along, just as she always dreamed. Then she can live happily. . .with me." he said shyly, much to his annoyance. It was the damn younger body his soul was residing it, it was full of hormones and emotions unlike him. The sooner he grew up, the better. He was not a child, damn it!

"Right." Roman drawled lazily with a skeptic look. The kid seemed to still not fully comprehend the way the world worked. Oh well, he would leave the boy to his fantasies. He was there to train the boy. Raising his cane as if it was a rapier, he urged Adam back to their earlier training.

"Come on, if you got enough strength to dream, then you got enough to continue fighting. Remember, you're the one who came to me, begging me to teach you how to fight and control your powers as The Body. I don't want to easily put you down when next we fight. Don't forget, you're not the only one aiming for the Ultimate Wish."

Nodding, Adam returned to his earlier stance. He only had this playthrough to learn all he could from Roman. He wasn't going to waste it. Despite how much the old man got on his nerves, he couldn't deny his skill. Frowning, he crossed his wooden blade with Roman's, blocking the others strike as a thought occurred to him.

"That reminds me, what do you wish for? Why are you fighting as The Soul?"

Roman easily deflected three rapids strikes and frowned lightly.

"I. . .would rather not say. What I wish for is personal, kid. Something I can't get back any other way." he said solemnly. Roman shook off the emotion, sidestepping a Power Strike stab for his sternum before going for a downward slash.

"Now, let's stop talking and play! This is as good as time as any to level up my Samurai Class, so show me some bark!"

Adam said no more. This was the first time he had heard such a tone in Roman's voice. Whatever it was, the cheery thief with a smug smirk on his face valued it deeply. But that would still not affect his own wish. A world of piece with the one he loved. They would just have to see whose ambition was stronger. For now though, they would continue training before they continued their mission to recruit Roman's favorite little assistant into his care. Adam shivered at the thought of having to temporarily work with Neo, the silent ice cream loving sociopath's company was never something he could get used to. It would just be until he grew strong enough to form the White Fang in his image again and take it from that bastard Sian Kahn's hands.

With Roman's help, he was sure to grow strong enough to make his dream a reality that even the gods of The Game could not deny.

Roman Torchwick. Despite how annoying he could be, he was the one human he could trust.

---

Blinding red lines crossed over the training bots in the White Fang's training room of their temporary hideout. They fell apart with the sound of a blade clicking back to its home as Adam appeared behind the training dummies in a blood red blur. He scoffed as the EXP appeared in his HUD. Only 87,000 Experience? He had thought he had the training session set to MAX Difficulty. Was that all he was capable of earning at Lvl57? What he wouldn't do for another Event, he was only three levels away from hitting the current level cap.

With a bored sigh, he tapped his ear to continue his call over earpiece with one of his men stationed in Vale.

"So, we're down to how many men?"

"We're running things with twenty men from our original forty. Our operation has hit a road bump in the form of four hunters in training. Perry has sent what men we have left to continue securing the Dust while Roman himself deals with one of the huntsman. It won't be long until the authorities arrive to the scene, so we're wrapping up with what cargo we have."

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. It was such an easy mission. But even fresh recruits couldn't complete it sometimes. It was good experience for them. Now if only they could learn to dodge!

"Just continue with what you're doing. I'm sure whatever you have secured will be more than enough. Just make sure not to lead the enemy to us. Abandon any who drag you down." he said sternly.

"What of Roman? He's still engaged with a huntsman in training."

Deciding he had enough training his blade for the day, Adam left the room and headed for the upper level of the warehouse to prep things for their return. He scowled at the mention of said stylish man, gripping the hilt of his favorite weapon tightly.

"That man can take care of himself. Forget about him and do your job. He's just another human even if he's useful."

That's right. Roman Torchwick. Just another filthy human to be slaughtered for his perfect world.

---

Docks.

Jaune Vs. Roman.

Jaune gritted his teeth as he was flung back from another powerful jab to his chest, the strength behind the cane hitting his core felt like an iron slug. For a man who didn't show much in the terms of muscles, Roman was proving to be a real heavy hitter. Catching himself in midair, Jaune skidded back on the ground and raised his shield in front of himself, just in time to block the three flashing flares following him. An explosive boom echoed into the night, creating a veil of smoke as he took a labored breath. Now wasn't the time to be finding a small break though. His eyes spun past the smoke for the stylish man, wary of the mischievous man's next move.

Something shot through the air, the sound picking up in Jaune's ears. He moved his shield up just in case it was another volley of flares but found a hook catching onto his defense. With one tug, his shield was robbed of him before the veil of smoke was banished by several emerald green arcs of wind.

"Reflect!"

"Banish!"

Jaune cursed as his magic reflection shield withered away the moment it was formed. Leaving him open for the deadly spell of wind edges. He raised up his arms in a guard, knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge in time. Lacerating lines cut up his combat vest, splattering red onto the ground as he endured the blades with wide pain filled eyes.

Jaune Arc, Heart of The Gamer.

3,323HP/17,600HP.

Whistling a jaunty tune, Roman walked over to the bleeding blond boy. In his left hand, he held Crocea Mor's shield, shift back into its sheath form. Giving it a once over, he flung the ancestral shield back to its owner, the force of the toss nicking Jaune's cheek as it dug itself by the metal container behind him.

"Sheesh, is that all you got, Mr. Hero? I would have thought you would have posed a little challenge even with our level's matching each other now. Don't tell me that you can't even keep up with a handicap in place?" Roman smirked smugly.

Jaune's anger was only growing stronger with the minute. Once the fight had begun, Roman had shared with him one of the powers under his control thanks to the Quirk associated with his Title as Soul. Level Sync, a Status changing ability that forcefully matched another Player's Stats with The Soul. Currently speaking, Jaune was fighting Roman with the same stats as his own. At least that's what Roman had said. But there was no way that was true. A simple jab from his cane was capable of knocking out a thousand points from his health!

"How is this a handicap!" he glared back with a labored breath. Roman tapped his chin, nodding his head in understanding.

"Well it's not a handicap to you, it's a handicap to me. If I hadn't raised your capabilities to a level to my own, then this fight would have been boring, like swatting a very persistent fly. Then again, Level Sync only matches our stats by our natural growth rate and I've been taking Stat Boosters. My growth rate is also permanently boosted after a Raid in Shade, so I guess we aren't technically matched in strength." he shrugged the matter off, not finding much reason to be upset. "The point is that you should at least pose some threat now. But all you've been doing is playing defense. Come on, where did all that anger from earlier go? Do I need to kill a few more NPC's to get your blood pumping?" he said with dark amused chuckle.

Struggling to stand on his feet, Jaune didn't say another word as he reached into his Inventory. The downside to his stats being jacked way the hell up was that his healing items were ineffective. They could heal a good amount when his HP was at 8,000, but now he would have to take several Large Potions to get a good chuck recovered. Thankfully his bond with Nurse Sprig had evolved his Perk, Fairies Grace, into a new form. Blood Faith, a Perk that increased healing items effects by 15% and allowed him to buy quality health items from Nurse Spriggan herself along with the ability to stop bleeding when his health was in the red every so often. With an Everybody Loves Grape Fruit Soda in one hand and an Ether in the other, Jaune synthesized a more effective potion by slamming the bubbles containing them together.

Everybody Loves Grape Soda MAX, Synthesized! +2,000EXP!

Without a second thought, Jaune downed the tasty beverage. A good 7,000HP was recovered and his MP was fully restored. He wiped off the excess fizz from his mouth with his sleeve, his glare never leaving the orange haired thief. Ripping out his sheath from the container, he went on the attack.

"Sonic Line!"

Phasing out of sight with his speed, Jaune reappeared swinging his blade from behind Roman's back. He clicked his sword back into place and waited for his ability to kick in. Roman tsked, Melodic Cudgel's long cane held before his chest just as an unseen paper thin slash attacked him. He blocked it effortlessly and spun back for the knight, only to find the boy back on the attack again. Jaune swung his sword in several wild directive slashes, each one blocked by the easy-going Player as they fell into a blitz of attacking and defending. A downward slash was bounced back, leaving Jaune to run with a forward stab that Roman slapped away with the back of his hand before swinging the back of his other hand to block a shield swing. Jaune frowned, noticing the man's cane absent before he looked up. Melodic Cudgel's barrel burned bright, firing a flare down at his form. He thought quickly, chanting a quick Firebolt to collide with the projectile that blew up above them. He spun back to Roman, finding the man performing several rapier-like strikes with his cane now back in hand. Jaune was back on the defensive as he used his own blade and shield to block the furious barrage. Each missed block ended in him suffering a thousand HP depleting jab.

Growing bored, Roman kicked Jaune back a few feet. He clawed his right hand over the length of his cane, coating it with his own orange aura. With a grin, he swept his weapon widely in front of him, lashing out a large area spreading a wave of energy to crash after Jaune. The knight knelt, hiding behind the cover of his large shield just as the energy wave hit him. His hair flew back as he still wound up suffering a loss of 2,000 in HP with the buffer his shield gave.

"Magnum Flare!"

Standing quickly on his feet, Jaune narrowly evaded the firing of the hellish bullet by a hair's margin. It flew towards the docks waters, growing unstable and erupting into a mini sun of licking flames.

"Show me something interesting already!" Roman laughed joyfully before firing another round of flares.

Carefully dodging the projectiles, Jaune sprinted towards Roman with his sword gripped in both hands. He roared as he slashed a Power Strike to Roman's side to no avail as the thief merely moved his cane to block. Roman leaned over to the younger Player, shaking his head in disappointment.

"You know, I would have thought more from you, Jaune. Despite your rocky beginnings, you've always held potential to be a real pain in my ass. Why, I remember the version of you that went all dark avenger and left your team in Mistral to follow Raven. That son of a bitch proved to be a real challenge with cold, calculative strikes. I think he even used a modified shield that could transform his sword into a samurai blade, never understood how." he mused in thought. Pushing back the kid, Roman fired the hook of his cane to snag his tattered vest and swing him around wildly like a wrecking ball, all while fondly recalling his many lives against the knight, "Sad I couldn't see how far that kid could go, that version of you killed me. Cut my head right off if I remember correctly." he laughed.

The world spun madly around Jaune as Roman bashed him all over the area. His head rung as he was smacked into a crane and spun above the experienced Player's body. If this kept up much longer, Jaune would be losing more than HP, he would be losing his lunch! Face green, Jaune used the connection between them to his advantage, "Hedge fang!" Spinning madly in a ball with his glowing blade extended, Jaune reeled himself toward Roman before sawing into the man with his sawing sword.

Roman Torchwick, Soul of The Gamer.

67,989HP/69,600HP.

Roman looked over his slowly dwindling HP in the face of the sawing human knight. Not bad, he supposed before shrugging. But still not good enough.

"Power Strike."

Foot glowing with his magical energy, Roman kicked the human saw up from under it. Jaune was sent up into the air, still in rotation before his ability ended. He landed back on his feet, holding his spinning head in his hands as five stars circled him. Roman chuckled at the Confuse status, most likely a side effect of the ability.

"Vertigo Rush!"

Pink purple lines of energy sprang up around Jaune suddenly. With a snap of Roman's finger, the magical energy twisted around Jaune's body and expanded in width to wrap around him like a whirlpool. He gritted his teeth as his skull felt as if was being split in two by a rusty ax, his vision only growing worse as he felt his stomach churn. Weakly, he threw his right hand to his face and struggled to chant through clenched teeth.

"F-Fairies Peck!"

A soothing pink red cool glow enveloped his palm, almost like a light kiss, treating the worsened Confusion status. He gasped as he turned his attention back to Roman, finding the man loading a yellow crystal into his cane with a grin. Hearing the click of a trigger, Jaune went on the defensive and raised his shield as a large cannonball of sparking yellow lightning barreled after him. His body was then engulfed in a golden aura before he charged straight at the electrocuting ball of sparks.

"Chariot Bash!" Colliding with the cannonball, Jaune plowed right through it with no damage and then rammed into Roman with the force of a chariot wagon. Roman actually frowned as he was sent skidding back on his feet by the powerful blow.

'Huh, that actually stung.'

Jaune didn't stop there as he activated Gale Speed to appear in front of Roman in the blink of an eye. With his upped Speed courtesy of Roman's Level Sync, Jaune was able to quickly perform a cross slash onto Roman's chest, creating a white X to stamp on his body. And with a primal roar he stabbed his sword into the brilliant sigil, "Piercing Light!" The sound of glass followed the enormous eruption of luminescent light escaping from the broken letter, drilling Roman with a tremendous force in the form of a torrent of spear piercing light magic. Rippling rings of force could be seen in the wake of the spell engulfing the master thief in its wake and carrying his body off into the waters of the dock.

Piercing Light was safely the most powerful spell in Jaune's disposal. But it came at a great cost of MP and even drained him of his own stamina. Watching the spell detonate and further swallow Roman in its brilliant light, Jaune thought it would be good as time as any for a small breather. Sweat rolled down his dirty face as he gasped from the exertion. Standing was proving to be difficult as his legs trembled.

It would be arrogant to believe that an attack like that would take out Roman. Out of all the Players, Ren had said the first to have attained these powers was the strongest by leaps and bounds. And he had a feeling Roman wasn't even considering the idea of even unleashing a fraction of his power. He was toying with him, the attitude he was displaying during their fight was proof enough of that. Roman was playing with him, going as far as forcefully boosting his stats on somewhat even ground so he could last longer. Only someone out of their mind would do something so reckless.

Winning would be impossible. But at the moment Jaune could care less about his odds. All he cared about was making Roman pay.

"I'll be, that one really packed a punch!"

Clearing away the deadly light, Roman stunned Jaune as he appeared suffering little visible damage other than some small bruises on his face. He was even going against physics as he stood nonchalantly on the docking bay's water.

Roman Torchwick, Soul of The Gamer.

59,100HP/69,600HP.

"You've got to love the Skill, Miracle Step. It lets you go against natural physics and walk on surfaces normally unwalkable. It's like you're a god!" Roman laughed as he tapped the surface of the ocean water. He gave Jaune an impressed grin. The knight did some good damage with that last attack combo. Even as his body was trying to get use to the boost in power, the kid was holding his own. What a joy!

"Is that is all a game to you!?" Jaune shouted in frustration.

Roman looked back at the blond knight with a funny expression, "I mean, yes? This is a game after all. Surely you understand that, Jauney-boy. Even Ren and Adam understood the reality of their existence in the first few months with The Gamer within their bodies. Don't tell me that still hasn't gone through that thick skull of yours?" he said in disbelief.

"What's gotten through my head is that you're deranged! Who else would kill an airship of people like they were swatting a fly? This may be a game to you, but these are living beings with hopes and dreams that you're killing!"

"NPC's." Roman calmly clarified with a raised finger, "Completely different matter, kid. These 'people' that you speak about are simply your average Non-Playable Character's, serving little purpose other than filling empty space. And it's not like they'll die, they're immortal!" he smirked as he gestured to the city behind him with his arm, "Heaven, Hell, a plane of nothingness, they don't have to worry about such things. Because they'll come back to life all honky dory to make the same mistakes again and again. Graced with the blessing to live their lives over and over again without any idea that they're just little puppets programmed for the entertainment of some gods."

"This is a Game, and we are the only important characters in this reality. All others are just EXP free for the taking."

The anger in Jaune's being was struggling not to boil over as his face was twisted in a furious snarl at the orange haired man. That way of thinking was poisonous. And he had taught Ren and Adam the way of the world? It was no wonder they were so twisted. Ren's uncaring and ruthless attitude was all due to Roman then, he was the reason why he had lost hope as he began to lose faith in making a difference. Add in the countless Resets, deaths, and Roman's line of thinking, and Jaune could now clearly understand Ren's reasons for being so stoic and cold.

The anger, it was too much to handle. All Jaune could really see was red as he started to get lost in adrenaline pumping through his veins.

"If this is a game, then I guess I got to start treating this boss battle seriously. I know from experience that talking to you about how the people around us aren't NPC's won't get me anywhere. So, I'm just going to have to settle with taking out my aggression on you!" Jaune spat as his body released a dark shadowy aura to bind around his body.

Roman liked the sound of that. He spread his arms apart, welcoming the challenge as he grinned.

"That's the spirit! Forget everything else and just enjoy yourself! This is our world now, so let's have some fun!"

"Shadows bound by Duty. Do not shy away from the Light. Free yourselves and run rampant by my Blade!" Erupting in a pillar of dark energy, the shadows twisted wildly around Jaune as he activated his Trump card. Through the pillar, six ebony blades pierced out from within before tearing the energy off from Jaune's body, revealing his new form. He wore a white dress shirt under a black vest with a hood over his head, white dress pants with two belts holding ebony throwing knives, black ribbons wrapping up his arm and black gloves, and darkish purple socks with heeled buckle boots. Blake's symbol was centered on his back in the middle of his grandfather's arc's, giving it a flaming detail.

Three throwing knives were held between Jaune's knuckles like claws, replacing Crocea Mors. Opening his eyes, he crossed his knives over his chest as the dark energy lingered from his body like smoke. His shadow suddenly came to life, standing behind him with glowing yellow eyes before receding into its proper place as Jaune ended his chant.

"KnightShade!"

Roman whistled at the new form. So, the kid was capable of altering his abilities, skills, and stats with a form. Just like Ren and Adam. Lucky bastards, he wasn't able to do such a thing, unless you counted his Class system. Readying his cane, he stepped back on the ground of the docks with a sense of excitement. This was proving to be more fun than he had thought.

"Now, let's see how well you do in your new getup!" Roman smirked as he vanished from sight. Appearing behind the blond knight, he swung his cane for his head intent on bashing open his skull. Jaune briefly glanced back at him, his blue eyes stoically watching the cane come for his head. He evaded it, ducking beneath it easily before spinning on his feet to slash his six knives at Roman's feet. Seeing that, Roman jumped over the blades and spun his body to slam his cane downward. Jaune sidestepped at the last second and retaliated with a side swing of his knives that Roman blocked. The two quickly fell into a blitz, trading blows back and forth with no real damage dealt as they countered another in a flurry of steel clangs.

"Barrier!" Pushing back Jaune's clawed swing, Roman summoned his emerald bubble to shield him from the wild slashes. It wasn't his strongest defensive spell, but why bust out his heavy hitters and spoil the fun?

Growing bored with defending, Roman shattered his Barrier and deflected a downward slash before following with swiping his hand at the stumbling knight. Several playing cards flew out of his sleeve, grazing Jaune as his senses warned him to dodge at all cost. Small nicks opened along his new combat gear, cutting up his vest as small drips of blood escaped from the razor-sharp cards.

"Let's play a game, shall we?" Roman said with a devilish smirk before snapping his fingers. Jaune moved to dodge whatever attack he was going to throw at him, only to pause as his body locked up on the spot. He clenched his teeth as suddenly four playing cards flew around him, enlarging to block his view of the dangerous man.

"The game's simple, kid. Four cards with the Ace, King, Queen, and Jack will flash before your eyes. Seeing as you present yourself as a knight, you will have to pick out the Knight as the cards shuffle around you. Win, and sadly I take damage, but lose, well you'll just have to see for yourself." he chuckled as Jaune watched the cards slowly spinning around him flip over to reveal the characters. Unfortunately, he couldn't fight and break out of the trick, it was the same as Ren's Reaction Commands. For now, he would have to play along.

Keeping his eye on the Jack, the cards flashed and flipped back over to hide their characters before shuffling madly around Jaune in a disorienting spin. He struggled to follow along with his card, fighting the dizziness. The cards came to a stop. His arm was given its will to move and now he had to choose which of the four cards was his.

He lifted his hand to the large card on his right, confidant in his decision. Roman's eyes were lit with glee.

"Gambler's Folly."

The card spun around to reveal the Knight to Jaune's relief. That is until the face of the Knight grinned madly at him and morphed into the King to gloat.

"What!?" Jaune shouted in anger before all the cards spun around to face him. They imitated the King's mad grin, even the spade formed its own expression as the Jack, King, and Queen raised their spears. From all four directions, elegant golden spears shot out from the cards, stabbing through Jaune to splatter his blood onto the characters. One of the spears had the luck to pierce his left lung, filling Jaune's throat and nasal cavities with red leaking out of his mouth and nose.

With another snap of his fingers Roman called off the game and winced playfully at the bloody mess. With the cards gone, only the spears remained to run through the blond boy. It didn't look like he would survive the attack.

"Tough luck, kid. But it seems you didn't keep your eyes on the birdy." he said with a pitying shake of his head. What a letdown. He frowned though. Something wasn't right, the kid's HP bar was still intact even as a pool of red poured out of his heavily gouged body. Jaune's agonized blue eyes stared back at him, trembling with pain before smirking.

"Ebony Crossing!"

The dying Jaune faded away like a shadow, catching Roman by surprise before copies of the blond appeared surrounding his Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast. They gripped one throwing blade in reverse, burning with dark purple energy before yelling in sync as they dashed. No sound followed as the vanished, reappearing a second later at opposite ends in swinging positions. Roman moved to blow every single one of the clones away before finding himself grunting in surprise. A large ebony X formed from the points of the clones, the sigil creating a deep cutting force that froze his body still. The clones turned back to glare at Roman's surprised expression, three of the copies glitching before drifting back to the one Jaune raising his bandaged arm at the man. From his bindings, several sharp tipped wires shot out to stab into Roman's body as the knight raised said hand to his face. A small ember of angry orange-red fire grew on his thumb before he took a deep breath.

"Dragon's Blaze!" Roaring flames crawled along the wires seated into Roman from Jaune's bellowing breath. For a moment, he could have sworn he could make out the illusion of a snarling dragon within in the flames before his vision was consumed by the blaze. "I'm not done yet!" Jaune shouted before dropping the ninja wires. Reaching into his inventory he took out two Dust crystals to wield in each hand. Both were of fire and the perfect purity to match another. Time to use Russel's Skill for once. "Burn, Grand Firebolt!" Slamming together the two crystals with an audible shattering crack, Jaune fired a body sized ball of licking flames with the speed of a lightning bolt.

The blaze consuming Roman erupted into a grand bonfire of roaring flames striking everything in sight. Jaune squinted his eyes as the detonation blew back a wall of air to smack into him and try to push him back.

Never had he ever been so thankful for his natural ability to dodge. KnightShade's activation bar could only fill up with every perfect dodge or evasion he performed. The closer the attacks came to landing, the more points he earned in KnightShade. And it was the best form for further avoiding attacks. His natural Evasion was 100%, but in exchange for a decrease in Attack and Wisdom his Evasion was increased by 25% along with a bump in his Speed. That wasn't even the best part of it though, it came with a Shadow Stock, a supply of Shadow Clones he could use to avoid critical and devastating blows.

And then there was Russel's Skill, Dual Dust Cast. With it Jaune was able to cast spells with Dust as conduits along with two different elements. Something amazing had happen though. With more power in the form of the Dust crystals fueling it, Firebolt had evolved into a stronger version of its spell. Its incantation had simply grown to a small verse rather than a simple word and had come at a heftier MP cost.

But even a combo like that wouldn't be enough to stop Roman in his place. A pillar of tearing winds blew out from the center of the roaring blaze, blowing away the flames to reveal Roman patting down his slightly sooty white coat. He looked irritated, not happy with the damage his stylish clothing had suffered.

"Fire, fire, fire, is that the only elemental spell at your disposal, you pyromaniac? Though I guess it does suit your character." he sighed while taking out a cigar. He used the lingering flames close by to light his favorite addiction and took a deep breath.

"Take me seriously!" Jaune yelled in frustration before tearing off several blades from his waist to fling at Roman.

Roman rolled his eyes as he blocked the throwing knives without a care.

"I'm trying, trust me I am. But you're making what is supposed to be a fun fight melodramatic. What did I ever do to you to deserve such anger? So, I killed a few NPC's. Who cares? It's not like those enemy grunts even mattered to you."

"They had families, friends, people who cared about them! Doesn't that mean a damn thing to you!?" Jaune roared as more knives materialized on his waist. He launched off the spot in a sprint with one knife held in reverse, clad in magical energy. "Power Strike!"

Several soaring bladed cards flew to intercept the blond, but with his increased Evasion he was able to swerve past them and spin on his foot to swing at Roman's side. Again, Roman simply blocked the attack with his cane as he leaned over to his fellow Player.

"Why would that mean a thing? They're just filler, there to fill the space. The only important NPC's would be those little friends of yours and even then, I could kill them with no real consequences to The Story. Except for Adam." Roman scoffed lightly, "Kill Blake a few times and the boy never forgives you. I don't see what the big deal is, he killed her more times than I could count out of sorrow. You'd think he'd be nicer to the man who showed him how the world worked."

"Then it's no wonder he's as twisted and cruel as you!" Jaune spat seething before pushing back from his attack. He threw his left hand up, the knives between his knuckles growing darker before morphing into balls as dark as the night. Slamming the balls down, a carpet of bellowing black smoke erupted to cloud their visions. Roman coughed suddenly as the smoke entered his lungs, replacing his nicotine air with a new toxin.

"Ebony Veil!"

Sight clouded, Roman tried to blow back the annoying smoke with another wind spell. A glint in the veil though warned him to raise his cane in front of him, just in time to block a rushing stab from Jaune. He kicked the boy back but found himself blocking another rushing stab from his left. Then his right, and then his back. Again, and again the knight ran in with a raid of quick slashes, stabs, and swings, leaving Roman to block each one. The little rush of attacks was growing on Roman's nerve. Aiming his cane into the veil, he shot a flare but before it could reach a good distance from him, he spun on his foot and caught the firework shell by the hook of his cane. The flare grew a red-hot tint before Roman swung it around in a spin, unleashing a wide ring of flaring energy to clear away the smoke and send the blond clones flying out with shouts in the dispersing wind.

The clones fell away into black wisps as only one Jaune stood back on his feet. Roman fired another flare to catch with his cane, this time swinging the caught projectile in a downward slash. Another shock wave lashed out in the form of a flaring arc. Jaune met it back with an Air Slash, detonating the two in a ringing boom.

Through the smoke, several playing cards cut through and dug into Jaune's body before he could make a move to dodge. He flinched as they dug deeper, staining with his blood before an odd whine escaped them.

"Let's see them cards! Boom!"

Jaune's health dropped into the red as the cards stabbed into his body ticked and erupted with an explosive force, kicking his smoking body into a crate. His vest and gentleman's shirt were ruined by baseball sized holes, burnt as the visible skin was badly burned and bleeding. He fought back a cry and reached into his inventory, pulling out a golden crystal vial. Chugging back the item, he sighed in content as the flavor of mashed potatoes, chicken nuggets, and gravy paired with a cold glass of Everybody Loves Grape Soda washed over his tongue. The wounds over his body were healed in an instant as if by magic, leaving him in his tattered new gear as he stood back on his feet with a stat boost by the Ambrosia.

Jaune didn't say another word as he swung his arms apart, clenching the throwing knives in his knuckles tightly before they were enveloped in crimson energy. The blades lengthened, shaping into elegant claw like blades as long as his forearms that sparked with black-red static.

"Oh, someone's busting out something dangerous. That actually looks like it might hurt." Roman teased with a chuckle before flipping his cane over. He held it by its barrel, resting it on his shoulders as he gestured for Jaune to follow through with his attack as he smirked smugly.

"Reaper's Grin."

The hook of Roman's Melodic Cudgel twinkled with an orange light before it gushed with his aura overflowing him. For a second, the energy ran wild around him, striking at everything in sight before freezing still like ice. The energy twitched then gathered back around his cane to form an orange scythe of aura. What could be mistaken as a grin could be seen along the surface of the energy blade along with a single azure beady eye open wide with insanity.

Roman frowned, noticing the timer on his HUD throbbing like a vein as the minutes ticked on.

"Well, it looks like our time is almost up, Jauney-boy. And as much as I would love to continue this game of ours, I got an airship to catch, Dust to steal, a sexy pseudo flame witch to appease, and some rewards to collect. Time is Lien after all."

Jaune panted, swallowing back a dry lump as he clenched his new knives with trembling fury. He didn't drop his glare, refusing to back down.

"We're not done yet. Not until I make you pay for what you've done!" he shouted angrily.

Past the pain and anger, Jaune was thinking. Roman was underestimating him, the man's high level and countless years of experience giving him the edge and confidence to look down at him. And that was what Jaune was going to use to deal a blow not only to his body, but to his pride.

With his free hand, Roman used it to gesture a mouthing off as he rolled his eyes, "Yadda, yadda, yadda. You never do change, do you, kid? You've said the same thing in just about every Reset I've fought you in. Haven't you wet your blade yet?" he said with narrowed eyes.

Jaune's body stiffened, his eyes clouding with guilt as he openly clenched his teeth in frustration. That told Roman plenty. He actually blinked in surprise, stunned at what he had just learned.

"Call me an uncle and slap me with a bass, you actually killed someone?" he said in earnest disbelief, "That doesn't usually happen until things go downhill after The Fall. And you dare call me out as a monster for killing a few measly NPC's? Someone's a hypocrite~!" he sang joyfully with a wagging finger.

"Shut up! It's not my fault! It's Adam's for leading me into the kill!"

"Say what you want, but you're still the one to die that war born blade of yours in blood. Don't make excuses, kid." Roman glared darkly as he spun around his new scythe cane, readying it to fight, "Be honest with yourself and accept that you're just like us. Embrace your role as a Gamer and let go of your sickening naivety."

"I'm not like you." Jaune softly spat.

Roman smiled with melancholy, "You will be."

The blood colored sparks reacted to Jaune's emotions, growing unstable as Jaune clenched his teeth. He was done talking to a madman, he was letting his claws do the rest of the talking from here.

"Vial Edge: Para!"

He dashed forward with his large claws intent on tearing through the mirthful Player. Roman met him head on, swinging rapidly around with his scythe cane to slash at the blond. Jaune jumped above the spin slash, blocked the rising swing with both his claws and then pushed back the blade. The knife claws in his right hand sparked madly as he swung a left chop into Roman's side. The red sparks crawled along Roman's aura, sending a pricking sensation along his skin. Jaune threw a clawed uppercut his way that Roman quickly blocked with the handle of his weapon. Pushing him back, Roman gripped his weapon with both hands before heaving a wide swing. A strong gust of wind followed his swing, pushing Jaune back on his feet as a lashing wave of orange energy followed. Bringing his claws to his chest, he parted them to slash a three lined X to tear away the wave. Roman appeared in his sights behind the torn wave, his scythe raised high above with a grin. Jaune swung his claws above his head, blocking the downward strike as he fought to stay the death blade.

"That's the spirit!" Roman laughed as he pressed his scythe down harder against the claws. The ground under Jaune cracked audibly as he felt his knee's tremble under the force.

"Get lost in the adrenaline and play to your hearts content!"

"SHUT UP!" Jaune roared before gathering all of his strength to throw back Roman's scythe. The action left the older Player wide open, giving Jaune the perfect opportunity to strike. His eyes narrowed dangerously before he turned into a blur. A tear opened on Roman's shoulder, spreading more red sparks as more unseen tears appeared over his body. His eye could only catch the faint after image of Jaune dashing past him like a ghost, slicing open his skin with those damned claws.

"Hyper Blade!"

'A simple Barrier should be more than enough to cease this.' With the ability in mind, Roman snapped his fingers. At least he would if he could. His green eye glanced back at his right arm, finding it unable to move a twitch as the sparks crawled over his entire body. He gritted his teeth as a large red slash sliced open his coat before looking over his Status.

Roman Torchwick, Soul of The Gamer.

53,200/69,600HP[Paralyzed].

'Clever brat.' Roman couldn't fight back a smirk as another myriad of slashes hit him from the speedy knight. Those sparks weren't just for show.

Three deep gouging slashes opened along Roman's left ribs as Jaune ended Hyper Blade with a stabbing rush. The energy in his knives withered, leaving him with his knives. He panted tiredly as sweat rolled down his face, slouching as he tried to regain his breath.

KnightShade didn't have long now, it was only a minute away from ending and leaving him without the boost in Speed and Evasion. And the Ambrosia was going to be hitting him with its drop-in stats as well. As great as that item was it wasn't perfect. Turning his head back to the paralyzed trickster, Jaune didn't waste another second on his breath as he drew out a Fire Dust crystal from his inventory.

Even with his body locked up, Roman still had the power to swivel his head to meet Jaune face to face, "So, what now? You going to put an end to me again?"

Jaune shook his head tiredly with a solemn look, "I told you, I'm not like you. I may have killed, but I won't let that become an excuse to ever do it again. And just because some past version of myself has done it, doesn't mean I will follow the same mistakes again."

"Mistake?" Roman chuckled deeply from the core of his being before grinning darkly at the blond knight, "If only you knew of your own mistakes. You are no different than me, boy. It will be only a matter of time before you come to understand that." he said knowingly.

"Then I'll just prove you wrong." Grabbing another Fire Dust in hand, Jaune readied himself to fire another Grand Firebolt to silence Roman. His body was enveloped by a golden aura as he recited a Spell he had recently learned courtesy of his bond with Yang, "Revolt!"

Critical Hit Rate Up!

Roman sighed at Jaune's belief. The kid was truly a green horn. That must have been nice, they always said that ignorance was bliss. It was why all the NPC's could live their lives normally even as the times darkened. But Jaune was a Player now, blessed with the gifts of a Gamer, he no longer needed to act like an NPC. It was time he shattered that naivety.

"Salvation."

The ailment preventing Roman from moving muscle was suddenly lifted as the illusion of golden holy bells chimed above his head, showering him in a luminescent green and gold energy. His wounds were completely restored, going as far as fixing up his ripped coat as his body was completely refreshed. Even his stamina had recovered as if he had just woken from a well-rested nap. He cracked his neck with a content sigh, stretching out his arms before turning his eyes back to the knight slamming together his Dust.

"Wonder Steal." The crystallized flames dulled in Jaune's hands as his mind went blank, the power within drifting out of his body to carry over to Roman's awaiting hand. The power transformed into a card that dissolved into Roman's hand, "Burn, Grand Firebolt!" Clapping his palms together, a ball of flames the size of his body shot off after Jaune. The effect of Wonder Steal prevented Jaune from evading, leaving him to be engulfed in his own spell's scalding fires. He bit back a scream as his memory returned before tearing away the flames with his knives. He flinched, several patches of his skin burning brightly with flickers of fire.

Jaune Arc, Heart of The Gamer.

15,500HP/18,600HP[Burn].

558 points of Jaune's health was dropped as his burn flared up. At least he wasn't Paralyzed. Grand Firebolt had a high chance of either inflicting Burn or Paralysis.

"All that damage you've succeeded to inflict and you're back to square one. Ain't that a kicker?" Roman said amusingly into Jaune's ears. The knight's eyes widened in shock, the image of Roman standing in his sight blurring in an after image as he felt his presence from behind. Jaune quickly spun around with his knives ready to block, only to prove too slow as Roman's wicked scythe blade slashed across his chest, mirroring his death scar. Red sprayed onto Roman's white coat from the heavy wound, annoying him as he called off Death Grin and fired a flare into Jaune's chest.

He just had it repaired too.

Forcing himself to stand his ground as he skidded back, Jaune ignored the wound as his Status added Bleeding along to his Burn to glare defiantly at the orange haired trickster.

-1,302HP!

"Looks like you won't last too long with those wounds, kid. You should really heal before you die on me." Roman suggested with a smirk.

Jaune growled, but knew he was right. Reaching into his inventory, he grabbed the last Ambrosia in his stock to drink.

Roman's smirk widened.

"Steal!"

A golden hand of light suddenly shot out of Roman's by a chain, snatching the Ambrosia from Jaune's hand before he could tip it over his lips. It reeled back to Roman, dropping off the high-quality item in his palm. Well, wasn't that a rare treat? Just where did the kid get a high-quality healing item from at his level? Hell, buying it from Husk when he had it in stock cost a hefty 40,000Lien. Which wasn't much to a man such as himself, but still. 'Eh, I could use a drink.' he shrugged before drinking the tasty rich liquid.

Jaune grimaced as his Burn and Bleeding dropped his health again. Damn it, he didn't have anything else to heal his ailments, only items to recover his HP. With nothing else, he reached for an Ether and an Everybody Loves Grape Soda to synthesize.

Roman wagged his finger with a tsk, his cane's sights locked on his target, "Sorry, but we're done playing evenly. Revolt! Sure-Kill Shot!"

A drilling flare fired from his cane, piercing Jaune's chest. The pain was agonizing, enough to make him drop his items before completing the fusion as he gripped the gushing hole.

'Critical Hit! Bleeding: Severe.'

Breathing became difficult as blood seeped out of Jaune's gritting teeth. He nearly fell to his knees as the pain became too much to bare. But he had suffered worse than this. Even as he stumbled to stand straight, he pushed on to attack. But KnightShade's time limit ran out on him at that moment, leaving him back in his Cross-Eye gear. Roman couldn't help but grin as he deflected Jaune's attack and jabbed his cane into his wounded chest with no problem. No more Evasion boost.

Jaune coughed up a mix of spit and blood, but glared back at the twisted man. His free hand latched onto Roman's cane, gripping it tightly as he shouted, "Spark!" Lightning magic ran through his arm, crawling along Roman's weapon to shock him, lighting him up like a Christmas decoration.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" Roman said in frustration through the lightning. He had thought his last attack would be enough to at least bring the kid to his knees. Raising his fist, Roman dropped a hammer fist over Jaune's head, ending the spell and sending him stumbling back.

"Time's up, kid. Our little fun has outlived its novelty and I'm kinda growing bored here. Seems you still need a few more lifetimes before you can stand at my level. Guess it's too much to believe you could break my arm this early in your playthrough." he mused.

Ringing in his head aside, an idea suddenly struck Jaune as he held his head. It was true, it would be impossible to actually heavily wound Roman. That last spell seemed to be able to heal him back to 100% without any drawbacks like Ambrosia. Hell, Roman didn't even need to drink his healing item, he did it because he could. Roman could steal his items, his abilities, and he had a feeling he wasn't even scratching at the capabilities of his Quirk. If Roman had a Semblance as well, then there was no question that Jaune wouldn't stand a chance.

Roman was out of Jaune's league even when the man had upped his own Stats close to the trickster's own. But if there was one thing Jaune was good at it was strategizing. And he now had a plan in mind.

"You're lucky that I didn't have any idea that I would be fighting a monster like you, otherwise I would have equipped my trump card to break that arm of yours." Jaune grunted with a confident smirk on his face. That was enough to peak Roman's curiosity.

"Trump card? Do you seriously believe that one little Ability would be enough to actually harm me so?"

Jaune nodded, biting back a groan as his burns and wounds dropped his health again, "I know for a fact that if I had it equipped with my Strength increased as it is, I would be able to wipe that smug smirk right off your face!" he shouted furiously.

"Really now?" Roman drawled lazily. The kid had such an ability on hand? That was hard to believe. But Roman knew Jaune, his endless cycle of life and death had taught him much from his confrontations with the aspiring hero. Even more so during the few worlds where he was able to snag the kid as his own henchman. And that conviction in his voice was no bluff, it was the honest truth. An Arc's word.

But such truth meant nothing to Roman. He could change such an outcome to his favor with a snap of a finger. Jaune needed to understand that. The thought of turning the tables on the knight as such brought a smile to Roman's face.

"Well, I'd be a horrible bastard if I didn't at least let you try. And I'd like to think of myself as a gentleman. So, how about you show me that little trump card of yours in action?" Roman chuckled, going as far as sending his weapon away and spreading his arms wide in a sign of go ahead.

Jaune smirked, "You sure about that?" he grunted as more blood seeped out onto the ground to spread the puddle of red below him wider, "Because you'll regret it."

'No, kid. It'll be you who regrets it.'

Seeing Roman only grin openly at him in response, Jaune fixed his stance as he took out his scroll. He had only once chance at this, and it would only work if Roman did exactly as he planned. Finding the ability in question, Jaune swapped out one of his abilities for SP space before going into his Skills. For his plan to work perfectly, he needed some insurance to survive. With everything in place, Jaune sent his scroll away along with Crocea Mors. For what he had planned, there was no need for his weapon.

He clenched his right fist, ignoring his HP dropping closer to the red. Just a little longer. An otherworldly golden gauntlet suddenly materialized on his right arm, clanging as three steel prongs popped out from his arm as a lustrous golden aura coated it. Roman eyed the piece of armor with interest. That was a new Ability he was sure he had never seen before in his many, many, lives. He'd give the kid one thing, it looked intimidating. Jaune reared his fist back, releasing a shock wave to erupt around him just from the action before he dashed after Roman with a roaring shout.

"Shatter Armament!"

Roman grinned in victory.

"Steal Wonder!"

Just spaces away from delivering a devastating blow, the golden gauntlet around Jaune's arm vanished and left him dazed with a blank mind. Grabbing hold of the Ability card as it whisked towards him, Roman mirrored the same stance Jaune had taken as the ability registered into his own.

Jaune Arc, Heart of The Gamer.

7,602HP/15,500HP[Burn].

Luckily for the kid, his Bleed Status had healed. Too bad he wasn't going to last long after this next hit. Time to see what he was packing!

The golden otherworldly gauntlet formed over Roman's right arm, coating in its rich aura. The three steel prongs shot out of his arm, growing red with heat as he reared it back in the face of the blank expressionless knight. It was game over.

"Shatter Armament!"

The very air twisted around Roman's fist as he shot it for Jaune's face. All Jaune could do was watch blankly.

Even as a notification popped up in his HUD.

'Activate Skill, Auto-Block: Critical.'

Automatically, Jaune swung his right forearm in front of himself before Crocea Mors sheath materialized in the face of the colliding fist. Its shield sprang open with a click, just in time to block Shatter Armament's blow. A resounding booming clang erupted from the drilling lustrous fist, creating cracks of red energy to spread from the center of Crocea Mors shield to spread over it. Roman scoffed as he added more pressure to the attack. From the looks of the shield in Jaune's arm, it wasn't going to last long. Which was good, he never liked the damn thing. It always stretched out his fights with the kid.

Suddenly Roman's attention was brought to the three steel prongs on his arm, hissing loudly before they stabbed deep into his skin. He found himself snarling, grinding his teeth as the steel dug into the bones of his forearm and shattered them like glass. In sync to the action, Crocea Mors shield was shattered as well, its metal shards flying past Jaune as his mind cleared.

With no resistance, Shatter Armament was clear to attack. Jaune swiftly raised both his arms up on instinct, blocking his own ability. The insane force behind was too much though, blowing off the sleeves of his vest and sending him flying off his feet to smack into the side of a freighter's hull. He gasped in pain, falling back to the ground before automatically recovering to land on his feet.

For moment, his mind was all over the place, jarred after recovering from a blank mind and blocking a devastating blow in less than a minute. But he shook it away and turned his squinting eyes back to his opponent. Jaune couldn't help it when he found Roman tightly gripping his right arm as three gaping holes leaked blood out of his shattered arm. He grinned.

"I told you, you'd regret it." Jaune laughed hoarsely, "Can your Salvation cure a shattered humerus bone?"

"Level Sync, Off."

-30,000Lien!

Jaune Arc, Heart of The Gamer.

7,602HP/15,500HP 7,602HP/8,000HP.

Jaune suddenly felt his body grow heavier and weaker as his HUD displayed his HP returning to normal. He was back to his natural Stats. He frowned as he glanced at Roman, growing on edge as the man's body blurred.

"God's Strike!"

Hearing the shout come from behind, Jaune spun around quickly to block, only to curse and realize that Crocea Mors had been sacrificed. Roman's fist sunk into his gut with a whistle like chime, twisting the skin underneath his vest like a drill. Jaune's very breath was robbed to leave his lungs dry.

Roman's shadowed green eyes stared into Jaune's own, haunting him with their hollowness. With trembling vision, the blond knight found his eyes staring down at the fist nearly gutting him. He found the shattered arm, lightly trembling as it dug further into his being and a golden aura illusion of a great being standing behind the trickster.

"Die."

It was like an explosion had gone off. Roman's fist dug into his gut one last time before it shot him away like a roaring missile from his knuckles. The world sped past Jaune's vision in a blur before he found his body shattering past some kind of wall and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Roman frowned deeply as he watched the knight disappear like a shooting star through the cracked hole in the barrier that separated them from the world. It wasn't long until he heard the kid's body crash into something, stopping his flight as he faintly made out an explosion. The pain in his arm brought him back to what really mattered. He lifted the broken appendage up despite the agonizing pain and sighed.

"I suppose I deserve that for being cocky. Neo's going to be laughing her ass off when she sees this." he grunted before The Game's barrier shattered from above. The glinting shards raining harmlessly over him signaled that their match was over as he reviewed his rewards for the win.

+21,700EXP! +9,000Lien!

That was it? He had been hoping for a rare item at least for all his trouble. With a grumble, Roman reached into his inventory for some supplies to treat his broken arm as he followed after the direction he sent Jaune flying.

He wasn't leaving this mission without repaying the favor.

---

"Systems down to 37%! Main guns are jammed, left missile launchers are damaged, and ID Engine is running at 44% capacity! Suggested course of action: Book it!"

"Shut up! I know perfectly well how fucked we are, La!"

Multiple explosions rocked Perry from within his Arctic Warthog's control space as he shouted at the left screen of his monitors. An animated girl with mint green curls and red eyes pouted back at him with a glare, dressed in a female White Fang's gear. She crossed her arms over her small chest in a huff and turned away from him.

"Meanie."

Perry growled at the program, "Now's not the time! Send whatever reserved power into the ID Engine and focus on keeping us running as long as possible!" Another explosion shook him from within, sending the damaged body of his mechanical warthog skidding on its feet, "And where are those reinforcements I called for!?"

"No idea, probably ignoring a jerk like you."

Steadying his machine on its legs, Perry decided to ignore his computerized assistant and focus back to the three hunters charging at him with flaming weapons. He should have seen this coming with all the Dust laying around. The Arctic Warthog's maw creaked open with some difficulty, revealing a turret from the tanks original design to fire a shell case of ice.

Blake reared her blade back and swung a flaming arc to meet the cold shell head on, slicing the attack clean in half. A cold explosion clouded the mechanical beast's sights, leaving it to swivel its head around in search of its targets. Something broke through the chilling fog in front of it. Perry grinned, commanding the Arctic Warthog to stab its two surviving chipped tusks into the body. A flaming clone modeled after Sun waved back at the Arctic Warthog as its metal tusks stabbed through it, detonating it in a plume of flames. Two more appeared at its side as it shook away the fire and shoulder rushed into it, blowing up and sending it flying. Catching itself back on its hoofs it readied itself to fire another shell. Ciel wasn't having that as she channeled her aura into her Lightning Dust and fired several bolts of lightning at its frame. Scorch marks burned its metal as it struggled to move another step under the barrage. With a roar, it unleashed a blanket of ice to block the bolts. Its tusks straightened, lengthening to pierce the wall it created and shatter it in a charge.

"Blake, Now!" Ciel shouted as she braced herself for the rushing spear thrust. From above the Arctic Warthog, Blake appeared with Gambol Shroud swinging for its head. Its kusaragi form tied around its tusks, tightening as she landed on its back and reared it back before it could stab through Ciel. The metal groaned but stopped in its tracks as it was lifted slightly up.

"WHAT!" Perry yelled in shock at the turn of events. How was that possible? His precious war machine wasn't a bull! He tried to shake the cat girl off, throwing her body around as his warthog bucked wildly.

"I can't hold on much longer!" Blake shouted over the bucking, doing her best to hold onto it and stop it from attacking.

Ciel could see that. It was a longshot for their plan to be working this well. Turning her eyes back, she looked on as Sun sat down in a meditation form. He needed to be calm and resolved, shutting out the entire world for his Semblance to work right. In his clapped hands, he held a large red crystal, enhancing his Semblance as the clones he created were born with fire properties. A total of ten clones stood beside him now with another two forming a second later. Sweat was running down his face, his concentration waning in the fighting. Blake's shout and body hitting the ground was too much to bear as he finished off with fourteen clones. He gasped from the strain, standing back up to glare at the squealing weapon setting its sights on him.

Perry was sick of these kids. He had spent Oum knows how much Lien on customizing his Arctic Warthog, only for three brats to break his heart and joy! Oh, he'd be damned if he let that slide.

"La, send every ounce of power in the ID engine into firing chamber. We're wiping them off the face of Remnant!"

His green haired animated program saluted to his command and proceeded to send everything the Ice Dust engine was still capable of to the chamber. The Arctic Warthog's body released a stream of cold mist from its vents as it dug its hooves into the ground. Settled in, it opened its mouth widely, stretching its face as the silver turret within fully revealed itself. It shined, gathering a large ball of ice cold energy at the front of its barrel as its frame shook.

Falling back beside Sun and Ciel, Blake looked on at the loading turret with worry.

"Think you can block that?" she asked Ciel, only for the dark skinned Atlesian to shake her head negatively.

"My energy shield doesn't have the power nor strength to block whatever he's charging. We have only one choice."

Sun smirked despite the weariness, his aura clones mimicking his stance as the fell in line behind him.

"Take him out in one blow. Or blows. It's time for this bastard's pig to be cooked and what better fire for the cookout then a sun's flames?"

The two girls rolled their eyes at him, but nodded their heads with smirks. They had been holding out since the battle began and they now had the enemy in a corner. It was time they ended this fight and moved on to their friend.

Perry bared with the strain within his weapon as the temperature inside rose to boiling points. He had only one shot left at this and he wouldn't let it miss. If they tried to dodge he would simply spin his mechanical warthog around for a wide spread. In the end, they were going to die, no question about it. He grinned ferally as the meter for his charging attack reached 90%.

"You think a small gang of clones can stop me? Then come at me! I'll erase you all in the roar of an Ice Age howl!" he laughed boisterously.

Sun smacked his fists together as his clones mirrored him, "You heard him boys! Let's roast some cold metal ham!"

Running forward, Sun commanded his copies to follow as they rushed the mechanical beast. Perry laughed at the futile attempt as his weapon finished charging. It was too late!

In the swarm of Suns, Ciel and Blake sprinted past them with their sights on the loading turret. They suddenly slid on their feet and reached it before kicking their feet below it with all their strength. The Arctic Warthog fired, unleashing a beam of white-blue ice above the hunters' heads from its new angle.

It was on that night the people of Vale wandering the streets or looking out their window witnessed an odd sight. A streak of light crossed the sky, blinking as fast as it came. Some would say that they swore they saw snow fall onto the docks of the city a second later.

Perry was dumbstruck. How? How could he fucking miss!? His monitors glitched as the power within was drained, leaving behind the image of more than a dozen golden yellow clones ramming into his mechanical beast. He chuckled weakly as he slouched in his seat, feeling tired as sweat ran down his body.

"We're fucked, aren't we, La?"

"Yup! Well, you are. And they didn't even take you out to dinner either." La giggled before its image turned to static.

Striking all sides of the machine, Sun detonated his clones as he swung his staff over the Arctic Warthog's battered head. An eruption of red hot fire swallowed it whole as he jumped back from the roaring pyre. He stood by with Ciel and Blake to watch the bonfire's flames spike and poke the sky before dying down, leaving behind the smoking wreckage of the once tank's skeleton. A heavily platted oval shaped case stood in the middle of the flaming wreckage, creaking before falling apart to leave Perry knocked out in his pilot's seat.

It was over. Sun couldn't help but laugh in relief as he fell back with a thud. It was finally over!

"Holy shit, that was awesome! It was like a boss battle! Man, am I happy that I ignored Neptune on not sneaking my way here. Because this is the most fun I've had in a long time!" he grinned stupidly.

Ciel sighed at the monkey faunus attitude. She could hardly say that it was fun. All her training would have never prepared her for fighting a tank shaped warthog with ice elemental attacks. Maybe if she had her weapon on her things would have been different.

"We should start moving. No doubt he has more comrades nearby already heading our way." she said firmly before turning to Blake, "Mr. Arc shouldn't be too far from the sounds of fighting close by. And the authorities should be here by now. So, let's proceed on our way to his side." she smiled.

Blake nodded back with her own smile as she sheathed her blade. It was time for her to save him.

"What the hell am I seeing? It looks like someone started a party without me! You can't start a party without a Yang!"

"Yang?" Blake frowned in confusion as she heard the sound of many rushing footsteps arriving on the scene. She spun her head around, surprised to find not only her team but team JNPR. And was that the raven-haired girl from team HRTH?

Ruby smiled happily as she found her beloved teammate ahead. She didn't waste another second being away from here as her body turned into roses and sped after the girl. She tackled Blake to the ground with a big old hug as the girl shouted in surprise.

"BLAKE!"

Blake groaned, feeling the small girl crush her waist, "Ruby, please, stop." she whimpered. She had suffered a few blows from the robot warthog and her body was sore.

Ruby shook her head furiously with a pout and a glare, "No! Now shut up and grit your teeth! You'll take this and you'll like it!"

"She's my partner, you know? Shouldn't I be the one killing her with love?" Yang chuckled as she grabbed onto the back of Ruby's cape. She smiled warmly at Blake as the girl stood up with a cough, happy that she appeared fine. "So, mind explaining why we're seeing a bunch of weirdos in masks knocked out everywhere we look? And are those airships?"

"It's a long story." Blake said tiredly with a smile.

"Right, I bet it is." Yang said distractedly. Her eyes were more focused on the top of her partner's head, "Am I seeing things, or are those kitty ears?"

"Oh! Kitty!" Nora squealed in glee. She quickly ran over to Blake and awed at the adorable cat ears twitching at their mention.

Blake gave the hyperactive girl a flat stare, swatting away Nora's hands from petting her ears. This was the kind of attention she didn't want.

"Well, doesn't that explain a lot? I always found it a bit odd that you were so enthralled with tuna."

The polite yet cold sophisticated voice made Blake flinch. After living with her for the past few months, she recognized Weiss's voice anywhere. Past Yang, Blake could see Weiss walk over with an unreadable expression. It looked like she had nowhere to run to anymore. And that was fine, it was time she stopped running anyways.

"Weiss, I-"

"Zip it!" Weiss immediately cut the cat girl off with a zipping motion of her mouth, "Do you know how long you've been gone? Two days, 48 long hours! Do you know how worried we've been? The least you could have done is sent us a message that you were alright! And what exactly have you been up to? Fighting White Fang members in the middle of the night with two strangers," she shouted, gesturing to the awkwardly grinning Sun and calm faced Ciel with a small glare, "without your team like some vigilante? What do you have to say for yourself, huh?"

Blake shrunk under Weiss's glare, sweating nervously before the heiress's famous no-nonsense glare. She didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry?" she laughed nervously.

Weiss's glare dropped further, "Sorry is not going to cut it. Once we all go back home, you are going to have to explain everything, from what happened today to what happened in the past, to us all. And we will listen to what you have to say before coming to any cemented conclusions." she said softly with a small smile, easing Blake's fears, "As your friend, it's only right to hear your side of the story."

"And I will tell you everything, I promise." Blake said happily before frowning as she remembered one last thing they had to do, "But first, we have to find Jaune."

Hearing her partner's name, Pyrrha immediately rushed over, "Jaune? Where is he? We haven't seen him since Friday." she said with worry as she scanned the area for her beloved mop of blond.

"I would also wish to know of his location." Tsuki said coldly as her eyes narrowed, "For some reason, I can't sense him. I was sure he would be here."

"Don't worry, he's nearby. But he's fighting a dangerous criminal and we have to-"

Something whistled in the air loud enough to catch Blake's attention as her ears registered an object flying towards them at unbelievable speeds. Before they could move out of the way, the object flew past them and crashed into a crate full of Dust with a resounding metallic boom. The force of the crash was enough to create a strong gust of wind to blow past them.

"What the hell was that?!" Sun shouted over as the gust settled. He turned his eyes to the object and grew silent in shock.

"Jaune?"

Several gasps of horror greeted Jaune as he struggled to get out of the crate. His vision was blurred, only seeing fuzzy shapes as he stumbled out with various Dust falling off his heavily wounded body. A twisted spiral grove marred his bloody stomach, courtesy of Roman's God Strike.

'Thank you, Yang for Dragon's Scales! If it wasn't for that, I'd be dead!' A Perk that granted him survival of a lethal blow with at least 1HP. What a godsend and granted a Strength boost. Little good that would do him now.

Jaune Arc, Heart of The Gamer.

1HP/8,000HP[Burn].

Jaune grinned a bloody grin in victory. His thoughts weren't clear after that blow, but he knew for a fact he was still alive. A strong ache nearly dropped him to the ground as he coughed up a large amount of blood to the ground. He was barely hanging on to a thread, he was lucky his health hadn't fallen into the negative.

"Jaune!"

'Huh, that's funny. I could have sworn I heard Pyrrha. He must have hit me even harder than I thought.' Was his mind playing tricks with him again? He squinted, his poor vision making out an odd red blob running towards him. It reminded him of his partner, enough to make him smile dizzily as he lost the feeling in his legs and fell forward.

Pyrrha quickly caught Jaune in her arms as his head fell on her shoulder. Blood seeped out of his smile, wetting her bare skin as his eyes fought to stay open. She was horrified at the sight, her mind going back to the day she had seen him in a similar state during the FoF. She hugged him tightly as she sniffed back tears.

"Jaune, what happened to you?!" she cried.

Ren moved to their side quickly as he scanned over Jaune's status. He scowled at what he was seeing and immediately went into his inventory. 'How is he still alive? A blow like that should have killed him.' he thought in disbelief, recognizing the mark of God's Strike before forcing Jaune's mouth open. He tipped the vial in hand down his lips, glad to see Jaune had enough strength to swallow it back.

Pyrrha looked back at Ren with question, her green eyes filled with tears. It struck a nerve in his heart to see her like that.

"Don't worry, he should be fine now. Look." he smiled, gesturing back to Jaune. The heavy wounds were mending as the potion worked its magic, dragging him out of the red into the green. Noticing the burns crawling over his skin, Ren laid his hand over his leader's back as a soft, cool light glowed on his palm. "Refresh." The burns were healed, saving Jaune from suffering any longer.

Jaune blinked as his vision cleared. It became easier to breathe suddenly as he took a deep breath. Holy crap, what just happened? And what smelled fruity with a hint of steel? Turning his head, he was surprised to find Pyrrha staring back at him with teary eyes. He was further confused when he spun his head around and found his team and team RWBY staring at him with worry. And was that Tsuki? He dared ask why.

"Oh, thank you, Ren!" Pyrrha cried in joy as she hugged her leader to the chest.

"Still wounded here!"

"Jaune!"

"Aw, come on!"

Ren shook his head in amusement as he watched Ruby join in and tackle both Jaune and Pyrrha to the ground. And it wasn't long until Nora joined, dog piling the three with a whee. Why? Because she felt like it. 'I might need another potion if this keeps up.' He wasn't sure if it was possible to die from a hug, but he was curious to find out.

Getting the girls to release him, Jaune nodded his thanks back to Ren, "Thanks for the save, Ren. I wasn't sure I'd be able to hold on for another minute like that." he chuckled weakly before grimacing as he held his stomach.

"Don't go straining yourself. It was only enough to bring you out of the red and stand on your feet. Your body's feeling the damage and exhaustion and that's something I can't heal at my level." Ren explained as his leader flexed his hands, "I'm honestly surprised you're alive."

Jaune understood the hidden meaning. Ren knew all about his fight with Roman having warned him beforehand. And he could see why. Roman was a monster, completely different than even Adam.

"What happened to you?" Weiss couldn't help but ask as they all gathered around Jaune. She gazed over his beaten state with scrutiny, inwardly frowning at the wounds he was still covered in, "What's going on in general? You and Blake vanish into thin air for two days, and we now find you in the middle of some warzone again."

"It's a long story." Jaune said tiredly, mirroring Blake's exact words as he looked past his friends to the danger ahead. He narrowed his eyes as his HUD displayed an incoming enemy. "And we don't exactly have time for stories right now."

"Annihilate. To ash and wind, expire in the flames, Ignidyne!"

From the backs of the Beacon students, a large torrent of streaming flames chased after them. The face of a devilish smirk could be seen within the fire, growing giddy as it reached it targets.

Jaune and Ren glanced back at another, nodding in understanding before they threw their palms up in the air in sync.

"Reflect!"

Above their heads a dome of magical reflective pixels formed around them just in time to block the hellish flames. Unlike the other times they had used their spell, the dome had grown wider and bolder in color. Their eyes fell to Ciel, finding the girl erecting her own barrier with her watch to strengthen their defense. They didn't question it and focused back on holding their spell.

The flames fought to break through, cracking the surface of Reflect's upgrade as the heat passed through to sting their skins. But their combined strength proved too much. The fire spell was swallowed by the magic of the shield, encasing it in its power before sending it back to its owner like a firing cannon.

Roman didn't pay the glowing giant ball of flames any heed. He simply threw out his palm just as Ignidyne hit him. The flames twisted, absorbing into his palm with a vacuum like sound before leaving nothing behind.

"CC: 3D18R1A9I14N 6F9I18R5E!"

-30,000Lien.

"Well, wasn't that a bit of a surprise. I was sure that attack would have been enough to break through. Seems you boys had some help in that regard." Roman chuckled as he continued to walk calmly to the large group of hunters. He frowned, counting and recognizing every last huntsman and huntress in their little party but one. Cold, blood red eyes glared back at him, flashing back memories of a similar stare in his many lives.

"Roman Torchwick?" Ruby said in surprise, recognizing the well-dressed orange haired man after her last run in with him, "What's he doing here?"

"I should be asking you that, Little Red. Isn't it past your bedtime? Don't tell me someone forgot to feed the little girl her bedtime cookies and milk?" he mocked with a teasing grin as the girl glared back at him with a red face, "What? Do you need old Roman to read you a bedtime story before you can go to sleep?"

"I don't need someone to read me a bedtime story, I can do that myself!" she shouted back with frustration before her silvers found red dripping down his bandaged arm. On closer look, it seemed to be mangled.

Roman noticed the little's reaper's eyes pointing out his handicap and chuckled amusingly, "You can thank that little knight of yours for this. Despite that goofy expression, he can be pretty savage."

Jaune grinned back mockingly at the master thief with a grimace, "You did that to yourself."

"Someone's awfully mouthy now that he got a good hit in. Don't worry though." he said with a dark grin as he lifted his cane for another fight, "I'll be sure to repay the favor, tenfold."

"I have no idea what going on." Yang said flatly as she punched her fists together, activating Ember Celica from its sleep before glaring back at the well-dressed man with a challenging smirk, "But I'm guessing you're the reason my buddy here's fucked up. And I can't let something like that go without an asswhooping!"

"You hurt my beloved." Tsuki uttered coldly as she reached for her elegant bow. She notched an arrow while cracking her neck, "I cannot forgive that. I'll have your head mounted in my dorm in payment for his spilled blood." she said menacingly.

Ruby nodded her head as she readied Crescent Mors as the rest of their party followed along for a fight.

"Whatever you're doing here, we're going to stop you. So, don't think you'll get away again!"

Roman sighed. His time here was up, his timer was telling him to end the mission or risk facing consequences. Did he have time to play games with the kids?

'Eh. I got nothing else to do. I'm crippled with one arm, facing eleven hunters in training, and two of them are fellow Gamers.'

The timer buzzed, signaling he had failed to escape in time with the goods and was now left to face a large group of enemies. He couldn't help but grin widely.

'Sounds like fun.'

He just needed to do one little thing though.

Roman's body vanished, putting both Jaune and Ren on alert. Their eyes spun to the center of their group and found the older Player standing in the middle as if he was always there. Roman didn't pay them any attention, his eyes completely focused on the seafoam green eyes staring back at him in surprise. He gave Nora's forehead a gentle little tap.

"Dormi."

Nora's eyes grew heavy as lead, her body feeling light as air as she overtaken by some unknown force lulling her to sleep. She couldn't fight back and fell forward onto Roman with a light snore. He caught the bubbly girl in his arms without a word and blurred in their sights to appear again near a large stack of crates. He propped her against one and spun back to the meet the angered eyes of the girl's team and friends.

"What? It's only smart to knock out your heavy hitter. I've got only one arm on me, it's not exactly fair unless we're all on even ground." he said amusingly.

"You bitch! What did you do to Nora!?" Yang shouted in anger before running after the man. She flung her fists back, firing a shotgun shell from her gauntlets to boost her speed and run in with a right hook the smirking man's face. Her hook was blocked by Roman's hand catching her fist with little effort. She growled at the action before throwing her other fist only to have it caught as well. Roman chuckled at the expression on the fiery girl's face before surprising her with a savage headbutt to her face. She stumbled back, leaving her open for a cane swing aimed at her face that nearly sent her falling. But she gritted her teeth, her lilac eyes flashing angry red before charging in with a roar and a shotgun boost.

Roman sidestepped Yang and laughed before aiming his cane's sights for her back. He leaned his head to the right suddenly, frowning as a light scratch marred his cheek. A red arrow with black feathered tails pierced the ground a few feet away from him, warning him of a new comer. Three rapid fired arrows shot after him that he deflected with a spin of his cane. Turning to the attacker, he found the ominous raven haired girl notching another arrow. He aimed to take her out but found her body blinking out of sight with a blood red effect. Above his head, Tsuki appeared falling and fired her bow as its arrowhead sparked.

"Reflect!" Forming his magical barrier, Roman watched as the elemental arrow was fired back to its owner with a teasing grin. Tsuki evaded her arrow encased in odd energy easily and flipped in her descent. She clicked a button along her bow, the action causing it to straighten and hid away the bowstring within as its ends sharpened and formed a doubled ended spear. Diving after the criminal, she drove her spearhead onto the dome, causing a rush of sparking energy to flow past her as she fought to shatter it.

'Now that is a scary chick.' Roman thought to himself as the girl's passive eyes met his own as she fought to pierce through. Did she have a creepy Grimm like mask on her? Because he was calling bullshit.

With Roman keeping his attention on the mystery girl, he had forgotten about Yang. And she wasn't happy. With a roar, she evoked her semblance and charged up with a furious scowl. Rearing her fist back, she dashed in and smashed her fist onto the barrier with a shotgun shell added in for oomph. The combined fronts from the busty girls was enough to break Roman's Reflect, leaving him to open for an attack.

Or so they thought.

Yang and Tsuki dove in to strike, but found both their wrists caught in Roman's grip. He chuckled at their looks of shock and spun on his foot, twirling them around in a whirlwind swing. The force of which was enough to create a gust of wind that resembled a twister. He let go of them after building momentum, sending them flying away with no way of recovering. His two palms sparked madly, bouncing emerald sparks as he aimed them at the girls in their flight.

"Plunge, Shatter earth's body, Odin's Twin Fury!"

A spearhead of emerald lightning harmlessly pierced out of his palms and fired after the girls, piercing their bodies before they could fall to the ground. With thuds, they hit the ground and found themselves unable to move as the spears stayed in their bodies, leaving them to writhe in agony as they were lit up with lightning.

'Well, that hurt.' Roman moved to take a look at his shattered arm, ignoring the painful spasms as he flexed the bloody fingers. Worth it though.

"YANG!" Seeing her older sister get hurt caused Ruby to dash in. With a riding shot of her scythe, she appeared in front of Roman for a wide swing of her death weapon.

"You're too slow, Little Red." Roman taunted with a wagging finger before moving his cane to a position that had the inside of the hook touching his knuckle. Before Ruby could swing, he gave the trigger a little tap, firing a flare behind him and sending his cane shooting into the girl's stomach like a bullet. He then grabbed the barrel before she could even register the pain with a gasp and prepared to fire a matching lightning spear to match her older sister with his free hand.

Weiss wasn't having any of that as she dashed in with a rapier strike to his back. Roman tsked, deciding to swing his cane upward to uppercut Ruby's chin while following with a flare and turned his spell to the Schnee heiress. Weiss evaded the lightning spear and retaliated with a flurry of stabs. Roman mirrored the white girl, deflecting her own stabs with his own. Spinning the chamber of her rapier, Weiss loaded it with a cold magical energy before swinging one of Roman's strikes to the side and kicking him back. She didn't waste the free second and stabbed her rapier down, unleashing a rush of spiked ice to chase after the man.

Roman fired a flare in the face of the stabbing ice, spun on his foot, and caught the flare with the hook of Melodic Cudgel before swinging it in a horizontal arc. A whipping lash of whistling energy shattered the ice, continuing on its path. Weiss was hit, the whip breaking through her aura and cutting her down as she fell back.

"Come on, you all make this too easy!" Roman laughed before moving his cane to block a downward slash from a black katana. He grinned at Blake's furious yellow eyes, "I only have one arm! Can't you land a good hit on a cripple?"

"How about I take a crack at it!?"

With his gun-chucks swinging madly, Sun appeared from behind Blake and fired at the master thief. Roman pushed back the faunus girl and swung his cane at the bullets, catching them in his hook and fired another lashing whip at the spiky blond monkey. Sun evaded the whip with a high jump and spun in his descent to bash his staff onto Roman's skull. Blake followed along, crossing her blades across her chest and swung them apart to fire a purple cross to cut him up.

Roman's broken arm trembled as it moved up and caught the staff in his hand while he blocked the cross slash with his weapon. The strain of the effort audibly cracked a bone but he showed no signs of feeling the pain as he brought Sun down and threw him at Blake. He then reared his cane back like a sword and blurred out of sight, appearing running through them with a wide swing while they were still airborne. He sheathed his cane in an imaginary sheath, clicking as a thin orange light crossed the two hunters. Blood shot out of their mouth as they fell with drawing slashes over their bodies.

"Well, it seems you're all still too inexperienced to be of much of a challenge, even when ganging up on me." Roman sighed with boredom. Scanning their statuses, he found most of them drawing close to the red with Yang and the girl named Tsuki down to mid-health with Severe Paralysis. Curiously, he spun his eyes to his original opponent and found Jaune's blue eyes glaring at with fury he had rarely seen. From the looks of it the only reason he hadn't run after him to cut him down was his partner's hand holding him back.

"Pyrrha, let me go." Jaune hissed furiously as his wounded body trembled with rage. That bastard! He couldn't stand by and let Roman hurt his friends when he could still fight!

Pyrrha shook her head firmly, frowning as she met Jaune's glaring eyes. Seeing such an expression took her back a bit, but she knew better for him.

"No, not when your body has just recovered half of its aura. It doesn't even look like you can stand on your own feet." she said sternly before looking back to the dark-skinned girl beside her. Pyrrha had no idea who she was, let alone her name, but she couldn't just leave her partner by himself as he was.

"I'm sorry, but can you watch over Jaune for me? I don't want him fighting in his condition."

Ciel nodded her head in understanding as the red-haired girl handed Jaune over her shoulder to lean on.

"Leave it to me. But what are you going to do?" she asked as she casually smacked Jaune's head as he tried to leave her.

Pyrrha turned her eyes to Roman, green eyes meeting green as she answered.

"I'm going to stop that madman from further hurting our friends. He's powerful, within only a few short minutes he was able to incapacitate our comrades with ease. I feel I might be the only one right now who can stop him." she said honestly as she commanded Akou and Milo into her hands.

That wasn't pride, or arrogance talking. She hated to admit it, but she was just stronger than everyone else. It was a simple fact.

"You're right, but that doesn't mean you should fight alone."

Stepping beside Pyrrha, Ren offered his hand as he rested his palm on her shoulder. She looked back at him with surprise as he gave her a small smile.

"They're our friends, so let's fight to protect them. Together."

The hand on her shoulder felt reassuring to Pyrrha. In all honestly, she never liked fighting alone. But she had friends now, who were willing to fight beside her despite how talented and skilled she was. She couldn't fight the warm smile on her face.

"Then let's do our best." Pyrrha said with a gentle expression before steeling her emotions and glaring back at Roman with a firm resolve, "And take this criminal down!"

'The Girl Destined for Ruin, and The Mind, working together as one.' Now Roman's excitement was peaked. He was starting to look forward to the fight with high hopes, 'What a combination! I think I might have to bust some of my mid-tier abilities and spells to actually take them down.' And here he thought Ren had taken his advice and given up on playing The Game. No doubt his renewed energy was the doing of Jaune, the kid had a way of inspiring even the most difficult people.

With Ren's Reactions and experience, plus Pyrrha's natural combat prowess and impressive mastery over her semblance, they posed a challenge at even their current levels. Now this was going to be a challenge!

Unfortunately for Roman, all fun had to come to an end. And that end came in the form reality blaring its sirens.

"Freeze! Roman Torchwick, stand down and put your hands behind your back! We have authority to shoot if you do not comply!"

The sound of a large number of footsteps cut Roman's fun then and there as the entire Vale Police Force stormed the docks, armed with heavy armor and weaponry as they raised a circle of riot shields to trap him. From the crowd of police, a red-haired woman wearing the standard uniform pushed through with a mic in hand.

"Game's over, Fancy Pants. You ain't got nowhere to run." Ann smirked smugly as she aimed her own standard gun at the wanted criminal.

Roman groaned in frustration at the new company. But he was just starting to get into the fight! Spoilsports. Guess this was part of the consequences for running past his scheduled deadline.

"Now, you say I don't have anywhere to go, but I care to disagree." he said smoothly as he turned away from Pyrrha and Ren to meet the police force with a confident grin, "You're just a gaggle of cops, and I've fought children stronger than twenty of you."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Most of our men wouldn't cut it to pass as hunters. But that's why I got me a secret weapon!" Ann grinned back before a familiar orange haired girl stepped up beside her.

Penny waved her hand at Roman as he stiffened, "Salutations, Roman Torchwick! By order of the Vale City Police, and several commanding forces in Remnant and even Mr. Ironwood's orders, I hereby place you under arrest!" she said with bubbly grin as her backpack opened to levitate several swords behind her. Her eyes suddenly narrowed, her pupils growing a small red tint as she took notice of Ruby and her new friends laying around with wounds of varying degrees around the man. Her blades glinted dangerously before the tips folded and revealed slitted barrels glowing with green plasma energy.

"I'm more than willing to use force if you refuse and even encourage such an action."

'Yeah, no. I think I'm done here.' Roman thought with a drawl. He was a high level, hitting the current level cap before even Adam, but he wasn't dumb enough to take on that many opponents while including Ironwood's little puppet. The girl was actually stronger than Pyrrha and could beat her if it wasn't for the whole metal thing. Add in Ren, Jaune, and the rest of the hunters once they recovered and he would have a hard time winning. And that wasn't a gamble he wanted to take right now.

Besides, he had his fun. Roman glanced back to Jaune, finding the blond's tired blue eyes still glaring at him with a glare. He may not have gotten the Dust he needed, but he got something even better out of it. Besides, he had little back up plan just in case he failed Cinder's mission. What mattered was not getting caught.

So, with a begrudging sigh, Roman threw his arms apart as Melodic Cudgel warped into his inventory in a show of surrender.

"I said hands behind your back." Ann said sternly before Roman gave the red-haired woman a mischievous grin. She frowned, following the line of his palm before finding a dirty, mess of blond hair in her sights. Her heart clenched as sparks bounced around the criminal's hands.

"Sorry to cut and run, but this man has got to skedaddle. But before I go, some payback."

Quicker than any of them could react, a spear of lightning shot of Roman's palm with its aim set on Jaune. On instinct, Jaune threw Ciel to the side so she wouldn't get caught in the attack before moving to dodge. He flinched deeply as his legs wobbled, nearly toppling him over as he was left to watch the spear come closer. He shut his eyes in frustration and prepared to weather the attack.

'Critical Hit!'

From thin air, Ren suddenly appeared right in front of Jaune, surprising everyone as he seemed to fade into the scene, his body gaining its color as a faint gray dye drained. Ren grit his teeth as he got in the way of the spell, piercing his chest before he clapped his hands onto its handles before it could exit out and harm his leader. His body lit up in a beacon of lightning, horribly burning his skin as he tried to suppress a shout of pain as his eyes went wide in agony. Eventually the voltage running through his system died down, leaving him slumping forward as smoke bellowed from his body. Faintly, he could hear people shouting his name, bringing a weak smile to his face before he fell back and his consciousness left him.

'Why did I get in the way? I don't even remember moving my feet. Oh well, it looks like I wouldn't have stood much a chance anyway. At my level, I'm nowhere close to keeping up with Roman yet.'

With a groan, Jaune quickly caught his friend as he fell back. He checked his HP with a quick scan and sighed with relief before slumping back against the cool surface of a Schnee Dust crate.

Lie Ren, Mind of The Gamer.

6,100HP/9,600HP [Severe Paralysis/Bleeding/K.O].

The pain of the shocking spear must have been too much for Ren to handle. Jaune smiled at his friend before feeling his eyes grow heavy again. He snarled in frustration as his muscles tensed, panting in heavy breaths as clenched his fist.

'Not now! I can't lose consciousness when Roman's still here! I have to fight! I have to-'

A sharp chop to the back of Jaune's head cut off his thoughts as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He gasped weakly before falling into Ciel's arms as she dropped her knife hand.

"You're in too much pain and too little energy to be fighting anymore. You'll only be hurting yourself more." Ciel said softly as she eased both boys down. She went on the defensive as she turned eyes back to Roman, his grin still in place as an army of guns aimed for him.

Ann bit back a curse as she lost control of her emotions. The second Roman aimed to harm Jaune, she pulled the trigger of her gun and watched the bullet cut through the air and dig through Roman's skull. The master thief made no motion of feeling the bullet break through his skull, frozen deathly still before the hole in his forehead cracked. Everyone watching by witnessed Roman's body audibly crack before shattering into shards of glass.

"What just happened?" Ann said breathlessly as the orange haired man disappeared with the glass breaking illusion.

"He's a fucking wizard! I told you they existed!"

"Not now, Rob! Get your shit together and take in what White Fang remain! And somebody treat the wounded kids already!" Ann commanded loudly as the many heavily armed cops scrambled into action. She didn't waste a second either as she sprinted over to Jaune. She scowled as she stopped in front of the knocked-out blond as his partner hovered over him and the raven-haired boy next to him.

"Are they alright?"

Pyrrha spun her head back and found the officer from earlier standing behind her. It took her a second to process what was asked but nodded weakly as she bit her lip.

"Jaune thankfully appears fine other than exhaustion and some wounds that are still healing, his aura's already working on fixing him up. But Ren seems to be more wounded." she said worriedly as she added more pressure to the spear wound still bleeding, "He's losing blood and it appears he's suffering from paralysis."

"Don't worry, I'll have some medics look over them once an ambulance arrives. Until then, keep pressure on the wound. Do any of you know first aid?" she asked them before getting a nod from the dark-skinned girl besides them. "Good. Start by treating this guy, both of you. I'll treat the wounds on Blondie in the meantime."

"What about the others?" Pyrrha asked as she turned her eyes for the rest of their friends.

"I already have some of my own guys doing what they can to treat them until more help arrives. They'll be fine, so don't worry." Ann smiled reassuringly before moving over to Jaune. She moved back a lock of her hair as she found herself staring at his sleeping face, lost in memory.

'Ann, I'm sorry.'

Jaune's bloody, heavily bruised, sobbing face popped to mind. She smiled sadly as she gently caressed the bullet scar created from the man she had seen as a father. It had only been two months since she had last seen him in a similar state for crying out loud. Not the reunion she had been hoping for.

'You damn idiot, you don't look anything different since then.' He was still the same stumbling blond boy with a heroic heart. Always getting into trouble for someone's sake. And ignoring his wellbeing for what he believed in.

The sound of sirens drawing closer signaled Ann that their help was close by. With some effort, she lifted Jaune up and supported him on her shoulder as she walked over to the parked ambulances.

Breaking through the crowd of officers, medics, and even news reporters who caught wind of the activity, Officer Church found Annabel with a familiar mess of blond hair. He sighed, feeling a headache coming on. Why was it that whenever something went wrong in Vale, Jaune could be found in the mess? Filled with questions, he made his way over to the red-haired girl handing Jaune over to a medic.

"Dare I ask what happened?"

Spinning her head back in surprise, Ann grimaced as she came face to face with the man currently watching over her well-being. He narrowed his eyes at the young woman as he tapped his foot impatiently.

"And do you want to tell me why you're here? You're a trainee, well, intern more like it. The moment trouble like this goes down, I expect you to return to the station while we do our work. And where's Penny? I can't even begin to tell you how much trouble we'd get if we lost one of Ironwood's students."

"She's close by. One of her friends was hurt during the attack and she's currently with her as we speak. Look." Pointing her finger past Church, she gestured to the odd orange curled girl hovering over Ruby as the small girl came too. Ann then crossed her arms with annoyance as she looked away, "And I was close by when the commotion began. Plus no one else was nearby when you sent out all these men to investigate. Someone had to take charge."

"Yeah, but not you. I can already hear the rant the Chief's going to go on when he finds out about this. You're lucky he even let you work at the front desk." Church groaned as he rubbed his head. Chief Rola wasn't Annabel's biggest fan. If it was up to him, she would have been locked up for her crimes. The only reason she was working at the station was a favor the chief owed Church after Annabel had expressed how she started to want to make up for all her crimes. She was supposed to be helping with paperwork, not leading an ambush.

But what was done was done. What mattered now was taking what White Fang members they could into custody. He could get the story out of the grunts one way or the other. One thing was for sure, Barbie was going to have a field day as interrogator.

"I'm not happy with what went down, but we can deal with that after figuring out what exactly happened tonight. And why our old friend Jaune over here is out in this mess." he sighed as he gestured to the blond knight currently being strapped onto a gurney.

Ann nodded her head with reluctance. She had a feeling she was going to be in a world of trouble for taking charge like that. But she'd be damned if she just stood by and watched. Turning back to Jaune, she bit her lip as they loaded him up into the back of the ambulance and shut the doors.

'I guess now's not the time for a reunion. What rotten luck.' Ann thought sadly before a loud ruckus caught her attention.

Church must have heard it too as he frowned and ran over to the source of the noise. Ann followed closely, stopping along with the senior officer as group of officers stood in the way of a warehouse. The officers stood frozen after opening the large doors of the warehouse, losing their voices at what they were seeing.

"What's going on here? Why are you all just standing ther-" Moving past the silent officers, Church found his own voice dying as he got a good look at the inside of the warehouse.

Bodies of the White Fang laid around, mangled and strewn around like rag dolls. Limbs could be seen lobbed off like some animal had gone rabid. Blood spattered the floor and even heads chopped off laid about with frozen expressions, their mask shattered to bits. The stench of rotten flesh hit his senses, breaking him out of his stupor along with the rest of his brothers in uniform. It wasn't a surprise to hear a few of them retching.

"What the fuck happened here?" Ann whispered deathly still, her own eyes not believing the sight. She'd witnessed some messed up things in her life, but this was just grotesque.

Church didn't answer, choosing to fight back his own sickness as he walked into the slaughter grounds. Past the horribly disfigured bodies, he found deep slashes and even marks of fire about. A few embers remained on some of the dead, crackling lightly in dark shades of black-red. What an odd color for fire. Just looking around at all the carnage and destruction told him one thing.

Whoever did it wasn't human.

"Seal the doors, NOW." Church commanded fiercely as he turned away from the drying bloodbath and walked out to the open. The officers standing by didn't need to be told twice as they moved to shut the large doors and set up the yellow tape. Reaching into his pocket, he twisted the cap off his flask and took a large swig of the strong liquor.

'My night's not getting any shorter. And the Chief's not going to be able to keep his dry streak going any longer once he sees this.' Too bad, the Chief was three weeks sober too. It looked like they were going to need to hide the strong liquor again.

Following along Church, Ann was silent as the police activity around them drowned out all noise. She didn't understand what was currently happening, only that Jaune was once again at the center of another mess. It was looking like their reunion was only getting pushed back further and further.

---

'You're Level has risen by 1! A new Ability has been Unlocked! DeathMill, Unlocked! A File has surfaced! File004: DeathKnight, Recovered!'

In the empty streets of Vale, a lone boy walked the sidewalk as blood trailed the edges of his tattered dark cloak. His face couldn't be seen, only the faint white tips of his messy silver-white hair as he kept his red eyes ahead.

A baseball sized wisp of azure flames floated beside him, grinning toothily with satisfaction.

"Wow, that was killer! The way you tore into them and slaughtered every last one of those grunts even as they dealt some heavy damage to you! For a Lvl5, you were a beast! I can't even get goosebumps, but I think I've got them. Look! My flames are ridged!" Will said gleefully.

"Lvl10."

Will's beady red eyes blinked as the cloaked boy spoke, "Eh?"

"Lvl10, I'm no longer a Lvl5. The EXP boost from killing those grunts made sure of that."

"Good point. At least you listened to me about the benefits of killing your enemy. If you want to level up fast, then you need to aim for that boost! Don't be like that coward Jaune-"

"I AM NOT A COWARD!" The boy roared furiously as he glared hatefully at the ball of godly flames.

The Will didn't pay the boy no mind, staring back at the seething red eyes flatly, "We've been over this, I can't call you Jaune, or Heart. That spots taken. At least for now." it chided as the boy scoffed and turned away, "You're just going to have to settle for something else in the meantime."

The cloaked, white haired boy with red eyes bit back shout of frustration as he clenched his fists. He didn't care what the so called 'god' said, his name was Jaune, Jaune Arc. And no one could tell him different.

"Call me what you want, but I'll always be Jaune. And once I've grown stronger and mastered this power, I'll be sure to take that name back." he said bitterly.

Glad to have come to an understanding, Will danced around happily as it already had a name in mind. And the perfect Title for his newest little Gamer.

"Don't worry, as The Will of The Gamer, your Will will overwrite all those in your way. So, just trust in me and I'll help you regain your rightful place as The Heart," Will said soothingly before breaking out into a face splitting wide grin.

"Blanc."

---

The Night ends with questions. A once bright color, dulled by death and bitterness to a white shade follows his Will of vengeance. The battle is over, and Jaune now awaits one final hurdle as the semester ends.

"Ya damn punk! Born with natural talent from a family of warriors, it's easy for you to shine like a bigshot! It's people like you I hate the most!"

Their is only one true star, one hero to the story. A battle of stars awaits. Jealously can be an ugly sin.

You know what that means, right? Yup, Multiplayer is finally coming to an end. Well, Volume 1 is. We have a free event coming up, the last one. No more DLC's either, not until Volume 2. It's time for me to wrap this up with one last huzzah! Chapter 27 will be the last chapter to the story of Volume 1. Let's see if we can hit 900 reviews!

As for the final Lost Fairy Tale for this volume, I have news on that on the final chapter. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten it. It's a very special one. Along with news on that, we will also have news on The Journal. So, keep your eyes peeled for that.

Sorry for the long chapter, I can't help myself sometimes. Hope you enjoyed it. We should have the next chapter up in two weeks, that's just how long it takes nowadays. I wonder why? . . .Okay, so maybe I do need to go to rehab.

Read and Review! It's common courtesy.

NeoShadows fading in and out.