Chapter 24: Hope II
Dagger of Sparks. I thought, blocking the swipe with my shield. Velvet had gone to take care of the skeletons and was doing an excellent job of it, but her efforts determined that the headstones were next to invulnerable so they just kept coming. My job was dealing with the Scourge.
I was slightly thrown off by this one. No draugr was buried with a dagger. It implied a level of shame. See, when a Nord is buried in the crypts of our ancestors, we are placed within the crypt according to our status, and buried with items befitting our honour. For this Nord to have been buried with full ceremonial armour, but left with only a dagger for the fight against the Daedra… Part of me felt angry on this person's behalf, but the rest of me pondered just what he had done to deserve this.
The armour implied that he had lived a life of a warrior, that much was certain. No Nord is buried with armour that had never seen battle. Along the same lines, they are typically buried with their weapons they used as a warrior, but I had yet to meet the one who used a dagger while wearing heavy armour.
He was still a draugr, though, so lamentations and ruminations on previous lives would have to wait. The draugr was ineffectively slashing away at my shield, small sparks jumping to shock my arm beneath the metal. I took the hits to my HP, and quickly figured the dagger would likely run out of charge long before he cut me down. I shield bashed to open up room, and switched my weapon into longsword form, holding myself in an Ox stance as I waited for its move.
I was not disappointed, as the undead charged at me again, swinging its blade wildly and with no technique. Truly shameful to bury a man this way. I thought to myself, sighing as the draugr telegraphed a slow duck. I moved my sword down, and it impaled itself on my blade, the steel sliding through a dusty torso. It did not back off, but lunged further up the sword to stab me with the dagger. In my surprise, the first one went through and skittered off my chest armour, but the second stabbed down where I had yet to place a gorget.
I felt the tingling pain of a low-level shock enchantment, and the wet slide as the dagger was removed, but my Gamer's Body asserted itself before the vital hit could have killed me.
"Alright, enough of this." I grit my teeth, pivoting to place the Scourge between myself and the wall before-
"FUS RO DAH!"
The Scourge bent low and braced, but was unable to prevent the force from lifting it up and slamming it bodily into the wall, where bits of its armour crumpled and bent. It hung for a moment, then fell to the floor with a crash. The wall was unscathed, but I watched with fascination as the Scourge managed to pick itself up, right shoulder and left knee immobilized by the crumpled armour.
I shifted into harpoon form and let loose, impaling the draugr through the head. With a small cloud of dust, the projectile pierced right through the helmet and dried flesh beneath, embedding in the wall. I triggered the retracting mechanism and let the weapon go, watching as the sword pulled itself along the line, impaling the Scourge through the face with enough force to tear the head free from the body and carry it to where it sat, quivering against the wall.
The blue glow faded from the creature's eyes, and as I went to retrieve my weapon, a pile of bones flew right in front of me, tumbling to a stop against the wall. Velvet stood panting atop a mound of white bone, though she did have a grin on her face that shone through to her voice. "Looks like we've got-"
A flash of light erupted from the crypt, and when it faded the room had reverted to how it was when we had arrived, with a small wooden chest in the place where the crypt used to be. I swept it into my inventory. "Looks like we've got…" I trailed off urging her to continue,
She leapt off the mound lithely, and with slight frustration on her face. "Nothing."
I shrugged, and we followed Velvet's ears to the closest sounds of fighting.
"RUBY!" Yang shouted in terror as the wave of fire expanded and billowed from their foe.
The girl in question had just enough time to widen her eyes and start to bring up Crescent Rose, before she felt a yank on the back of her ammo-belt and was pulled bodily to the floor. Her eyes were still wide when she rolled to her feet, hands frantically trying to pat out the charred edges of her skirt.
Pyrrha faltered, but caught herself.
A blazing comet shot back, even as the flames impacted the back wall and spread off to the sides and back in, forcing the group to advance.
The figure stood strong.
A resounding clang. A dark chuckle. A shout, as the comet was flung back tumbling blonde head over combat heels.
Two darting figures, one right, one left. The steady staccato of SMG fire, the powerful retorts of Gambol Shroud. The shadows blur, cut for the center, and unleash a flurry of blows faster than most could register.
The figure does not move, does not falter. The figure endures.
A shout, a phantom, a lent hand from a stranger. Blake and Ren retreat, the boy shipping his weapons for a brief moment to shake out his hands which throbbed with the pain of a thousand strikes against unyielding steel.
A barrage of explosives, twisting and twirling, streak towards the figure, encompassing it in smoke. A set of footfalls, heavy and foreboding, advances.
A scion of a noble line steps forth, calling out to her privileged training. With arcane light and mundane steel, she toes the line between speed and safety, making a perfect strike to penetrate the weakest part of the armour as a blur of rose petals circles around back.
The figure stops, counters, and growls as a woman falls.
A perfect strike has no path through a perfect wall.
I thought desperately of something with which to break the silence, but before I could, the sounds of fighting approached my own ears. "Must be close." I muttered around quiet, heavy breaths.
"You hear it? Sounds like Cardin." Her voice was flat. I entertained the thought that if it was, I might find myself needing to watch out for any 'accidents' from either of them. It had been a long, long time since I had to be on a team with people like that. I then struck that notion, remembering that it was really not my problem.
Neither Velvet or Cardin were in my team, and while I did appreciate Cardin's attitude, in truth I wouldn't be too torn up if he were to fall in battle. Sovngarde would be a good place for him, should he prove more capable than last we fought.
We rushed around a corner to find them in a much larger room than any we had seen. Most of Cardin's team was off to the right, at least 50 feet away, while to the left was the dagger wielder.
I rushed over to help the dagger wielder. "Help the rest!" I shout out, hoping Velvet heard me. She would be fine. There were two mages and a large handful of draugr warriors, but there was a greater threat I needed to deal with before we lost the man. Cardin's final teammate being attacked by 3 frost trolls.
I opened my inventory, Equipped the Dryad's Embrace, then let loose with a fire breath.
A great pillar of flames erupted from me, lancing forth to slam against the corner containing the roguish boy and his quandaries. He let out a high pitched scream, like a true rogue, as the pillar detonated, sending bits and pieces of flesh flying in every direction as the boy continued to scream. I grinned at the thought that, while my body was weak, my soul had just killed three trolls in one go. The grin faded as the boy continued to scream.
"HEY!" I shouted at him, and was going to go slap the kid when I saw a bone come soaring from out of my vision and impact him right in the head, cutting through. He frantically looked around with wide, glassy eyes, vision locking on me.
"Y-Y-Y-you t-tried to…" His voice caught and he clamped a hand over his mouth.
I rolled my eyes. "Kill you?" I finished for him. "No. I was killing trolls." He flinched. "Are you a troll?" He flinched again. "Are you killed?" He shook his head. "Good. Now, how about you get your ass up, and we get a move on?"
"Yea, get your ass up!" Velvet shouted over with audible glee in her voice. I think she may have been enjoying our rescue of this particular team a little too much.
"C'mon Thrush, get a move on!"
"Hurry the fuck up!"
Apparently the ribbing from his own team was enough to snap him out of it and he rose shakily to his feet.
Ruby and Weiss had fallen back in disarray as Weiss flinched at the axe-head not an inch from her eye. A suffuse black aura surrounded it, and Pyrrha shouted for them to retreat, before letting go and watching with morbid fear as the axe buried itself into the stone below, even the halted strike holding power beyond belief.
Two more had fallen in the fighting after that. The battle went poorly. Any attack made quickly enough to avoid a counter did not have the power to penetrate his armour. Any attack strong enough to punch through was punished heavily.
Pyrrha had been the first to engage, being the only one with both the power and speed to both do enough damage and avoid the deadly head of its axe. She even now harried it with her spear, her shield laying by the crypt and by where the door had once been, though she knew deep within that she was running low on aura. The figure had not managed to hit her, but enough usage of her Semblance to avoid said strikes had taken its toll.
Nora had endeavored to take advantage of a perceived opening, and had her aura shattered for the attempt. She stood now with Ren, who had tried so hard to push his dagger through and with such ferocity that he had broken his own wrist through his Aura.
However, the armour had been scratched.
Team RWBY stood off to the side, half planning, half cheering Pyrrha on. Ren couldn't believe it. Where was the action? Taking a page out of his leader's book, he stormed over to them with all the anger he could manage to push through the pain. He did not cry out, though. Lie Ren never cried out.
"Schnee!" He did not know why he used her last name, but the situation seemed to warrant it and he faltered for a moment as all four girls stopped their conversation and turned to look at him. "Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help?"
"This is bullshit, Torga." Cardin griped. "Those skeletons kept showing up until you did. I don't mind running through some sort of game dungeon, it's pretty cool actually, it's-"
"It's a mystery dungeon." The dagger wielder, Thrush, said weakly.
"Riiiight. It's mysterious, sure. It's just… well, I kinda feel like an NPC right now."
I stopped in my tracks. A man in a hooded cloak jumped to the forefront of my thoughts.
"Where did you hear that word?"
"NPC? Uh…. like every game ever? Where you from, under a rock?"
I resumed walking as I thought of the twin moons orbiting my home. "In a manner of speaking, let's say I am. What do you know about NPC's?"
Velvet was giving me an odd look, but thankfully Cardin decided to humour me. "I don't know, they're just characters in the game that are put there by the game rather than the player. How much you wanna bet that those other girls are in another room, fighting some other bullshit that won't stop until you show up? Like us, they're probably NPC's. I mean, if this were a game, that is. So I'm wondering what makes you the hero."
I flinched. "I'm not."
Velvet caught on. "No, he's right, you kind of are. You show up with your own team every time, so they're like your party. Doors open and events trigger when you enter, your allies are put into 'quest' situations where you need to save them. You know, once we clear this dungeon, I bet you unlock an even tougher one."
I caught Thrush's shiver.
"Okay, so let's say I'm the main character. How should I move forward to make sure I succeed in saving my allies?" I asked, equal parts excited and anticipating.
"Well, you should be rolling everywhere to increase your acrobatics, jumping to increase your jump, then use both of those to start speedrunning past enemi-" One of the taller ones with girlish bangs started spouting before Cardin punched his shoulder.
"You'd follow your map to the quest marker then complete the quest. Just gotta make sure you pick the right dialogue options if it's an RPG. There could be hidden rooms, traps, monster houses, secret encounters… if it's a mystery dungeon, there could be anything."
In our talks we had come up to a large and ornate door. The surface looked to be covered in some sort of runes, but they blurred when I tried to focus on them. "Huh, that's weird…" I cut Thrush off as he was having a debate on wether or not they should go and see a potion seller so they don't run out of HP in their next spar, while Cardin interrupted with his thought that it would be more likely to be MP, wouldn't it?
"What is?" Velvet stood beside me, pondering the wall.
"It looks like it should be my script. From home." I clarified at her look of confusion.
"What does it say?" She asked tentatively.
"That's the thing. I can't tell." I squinted heavily at one spot, desperately trying to bring the run into focus, but I couldn't manage. My Observe skill had triggered when I squinted, but it just said Decorative Door. A sudden flash of light both cut off Team CRDL's ironic debate and my inspection.
I glared at Velvet. "Going to throw a door at someone next?"
She bit back a laugh. "No, as funny as that would be. This is a normal camera, too. Just wait til we get back to Beacon and give me some time to develop it."
"Which should get around whatever aura effect is making this unreadable!" The one with the girlish bangs spoke again.
"Not how I would have put it but… oh shut up, we've been talking about games for a bit."
I looked again at the door. Maybe if I could trace the symbols with my hand, I could piece it together even if I couldn't see it. My finger reached out, the gauntlet touched the door, and a boom sounded within as a crack opened and shouts poured from within.
6 were out of the fight, 3 of which were unconscious.
Weiss had taken a heavy blow that had broken right through her aura and sent her slamming against the eerily lit wall. The impact sounded muted, and she had fallen to the floor with barely a whisper over the cacophonous litany of rage that had poured out at the event.
Yang's hair had burst into flame and her eyes lit red as she screamed defiance and fury at the figure. The girl leapt in, both arms wide, and unleashed her blows. A solid buckshot assisted hook to the inside of his knee to drop his weight, a second rising uppercut to the groin as she reloaded her left gauntlet.
The still steaming barrel shot forth, impacting the countering axe-haft with such force, the fearsome weapon was split. Without missing a beat, the figure wrapped its meaty, armoured gauntlet higher up to wield it as a handaxe, but it was too late, for with a final strike Yang unleashed all the fury of her Semblance into a vicious uppercut, the figures enclosed helmet ringing out with a clang.
The fatigue came all at once, and she had fought the urge to stumble back, but the figure had been knocked off balance and she had to press. Barely hearing a shout of "Yang, no!" she pressed her advance and brought her weapon back to reload it one more time as the figure lifted a foot -she moved it, she thought with savage glee-
Something struck her on top of the head and she crumpled with that cocky smirk still on her face. Rose petals blurred, jinked out of the way of a swiped swing from a bloody haft, and rushed the blonde to safety as Mistral's Champion once again approached, tired and limping. That she lasted more than 10 seconds before her face was knocked back bloody from a brutal punch was a testament to her tenacity and skill. Rose petals again swept through the battlefield to defend a fallen comrade.
The figure was content to stand in the middle of the room as Ruby, Blake, Ren, and Nora stood panting heavily against the wall, forming a line between the figure and their fallen friends.
"What do we do?" Blake asked frantically, her eyes searching the room desperately for something, anything that they could use to escape.
"We have to keep fighting! We've hurt it!" Ruby insisted.
"Hurt? We scratched its paint!" Blake retorted.
Nora looked to Ren with meaning. Ren looked back, gulped, nodded. The two turned as one to face the remnants of Team RWBY.
"We can back you up." Ren said. "Involve us in your plan." Ruby looked with desperation for a protest from Nora but found herself looking into a face with the same look.
"You have no aura." Blake stated plainly through her shock.
"Torga's people had no aura, and they had to deal with fucking dragons." He growled back, shocking everyone present. "If half of my villagers would have had the balls to fight, maybe we wouldn't even be here, but they didn't, we are, and I'm not going to sit around waiting to be saved when I can do something about it! I have ammo, and so does Nora." She nodded. "If you won't work with us then just don't get in o-"
"You'll die!" Ruby finally broke out of her thoughts to yell. "We can't let you!"
"Do I look like I'm asking permission?!"
"TO COMMIT SUICIDE, YE-"
A resounding boom.
The figure charged.
A voice thought lost, shouting.
"MOVE!"
I let my eyes widen as I took in the situation, cursed at the people in my way, and bellowed for them to get out of my way. Ruby and Blake turned to me with shock.
I took my first step.
"There was no door there." A voice said from the ground, and I felt something primal stir in my chest as I saw my partner on the floor. That thing twisted when I saw the blood.
I took another step.
A figure in the middle of the room, broken Wuuthrad in hand, beautiful Stalhrim runic armour clad. I had never before seen myself from the outside, and my armour was looking worse for wear, but there was no mistaking the down curled horns, the spiked elbow, the braced joints. It appeared to have run out of charge for the enchantments, for which I was immensely grateful.
I took my last step then flew.
Pyrrha watched from the ground as within the span of a second, the battle went from hopeless to suddenly fine. She fought through the haze to see her partner, the rude blonde who could barely hit a static wooden pole, come rushing through the door with unbridled rage on his features. She saw him look to her, and somehow that rage twisted to fury, then he was gone.
Those terrible, terrible words sounded again. She knew not how he did such a thing, but to say he spoke was an understatement. She could feel the power in the air, the reverberating tempest, the whirlwind threatening to sweep her away. She basked in it, watching in the split second as the boy charged the man almost twice his size, dropped his shoulder, and then the figure was embedded an inch into the back wall.
Her heart strengthened, watching him pull out his weapon and shift it into a form she thought he would never use but had insisted he train with it anyways. He pulled out the spear, then called out. "Nora, now!"
I had seen it on her. I had seen it when I had watched her tackle Ruby out of my way and rather than resist, Ruby Rose had tossed aside her utterly dangerous weapon to catch her in a way that kept sharp bits of her combat uniform away.
I knew her aura was drained.
I also knew that unless there was some way she could pull out her power, preferably soon, there was a less than zero chance of getting through that armour. Leaving aside the self-repairing enchantment that appeared non functional from the scratches still stubbornly on the surface of the darkened breastplate, I had tested this armour by calling a dragon to first breath fire on it for as long as possible before biting it as hard as possible.
He thought he was fighting me. It was kind of funny, thinking back on it.
I knew there was no way I would get a spear through it, because I had personally accidentally Whirlwind Sprinted into a metal barricade and just bent the prongs. I knew none of these guns would get through, because I had been able to stand against literal meteors dropped by Alduin in that armour. Oh how it was great to see his ugly immortal face when I pulled that off.
I knew it could not be broken, I knew it could not be bent.
I did know how to take it off, though, and that required a hooked tool that we just didn't have, and due to the rarity and difficulty of finding said tool, I'd made a backup. I allowed there to be one single spot where, if shocked deeply enough, would release the clasp that the hooked tool was meant for. If it was shocked all over, the minor enchantment wouldn't activate. Couldn't have a lightning mage shocking me out of my armour.
Just the clasp. Not a quick release for all the armour, but a release that would let you access the strap for the outermost layer-
Let's just say that it takes me roughly 15 minutes to put it on and take it off, after 15 years of practice, on a good day.
I was about to try and do it on a struggling opponent.
This would likely hurt.
Weiss felt like she had been hit by a truck. A large truck, full of SDC lux-
Oh. And she might be concussed.
Which is why, when she saw Torga, the ruffian who had dared to call her, Weiss Schnee, the weakest on her team, that dastard-
Right. Which is why when she saw him molesting the large figure, she assumed she was dreaming, and put her head back down to sleep. Or, at least, she tried, before a blur of red filled her vision.
"Weiss! You're okay!" She heard her partner exclaim.
"Uh…"
"Torga's actually fighting it! So is his team, and they're out of aura!"
"MMhmm.."
"Uh… Weiss?"
"Yes Ruby?
"You okay?"
She sighed as her headache continued to pound with the rhythm of beating swords and clashing steel. "I want a massage."
Ruby giggled. "Yea, you're okay."
The outer parts had been easy. Well, technically it had been easy, though it had been incredibly hard on my body. With everyone watching, I had to fight against myself in a way that would reduce the odds of any dismemberment. With my new power it wouldn't be a problem, but the questions… Which is why ten minutes into my plan, I was down to about half HP though MP was sitting pretty at full. For my efforts, I was - no, Torga was-
Draugr-me was now missing his pauldrons, gorget, and helmet, which lay scattered around on the floor. I would have liked to equip things as I stole them but, well, everyone was watching as I fought the now identified creature.
True to form, apparently, the pieces were just crafting materials for the various body sections. I wouldn't have my chest armour until I got all the components together and crafted them. Part way through the fight, my anger had faded and I was now stuck with the goal of reclaiming my armour off my draugr self.
Which led to the part I had been dreading. I was to somehow reach into the side, under the plate and above the mail, then down to where the release for the groin armour was. The armour was somewhat of a puzzle, but it had an order, and the groin was next.
I had intentionally designed it that way, and I hated myself for it now.
After another 10 minutes and a broken arm, I finally had most of the legs off. There was still the chain layer, but I resigned the fact that I would need to take that off a corpse.
In all this time I had realized one thing. In Skyrim, you were either strong and hardy or fast. Here, I was both, and with an intimate knowledge of my own style as well as the sloppiness with which it was used, I depressingly consoled myself with the fact that none of my actual enemies could have pulled this.
I then wondered if the armour remained because nobody could get it off. It would clearly be a target for grave robbers…
Or it was made up by the game.
I dashed in, pulling a dagger from my inventory as I slipped in and cut a series of ties and leather straps, watching as the plate fell to component pieces and dangled from its body before a final slash sent it clattering to the ground. With only the draugr's arms covered with plate, I disengaged and feinted, making an easy spin around the overhand blow I would have made.
My dagger went in and I reached my hand into my inventory to call back my own weapon but I faltered. Shit, I don't have a name for it…
Uh….
Ruby's Gift?
The weapon came out and with a wince I noticed it was now named just that. I activated my enchantments, confident that of all the locations for me to lose the gear, it would best be the head. I was unsure if the game would count it this way, but if I destroyed the coif and was unable to make my helmet, I would be just fine with having my vision opened back up.
It was with that I activated Power Strike, Double strike, swapped out the Dryad's Embrace for my Nevermore gear, dashed to the side and up a wall and leapt into the air above my draugr-self.
Never had anyone do that in Skyrim so my style wouldn't account for it, and I can guarantee nobody will ever do this.
I fired a Flamethrower from my right hand as my left triggered the harpoon. I cut off the flames as I felt the tension increase and was whisked to the side. Two more button toggles had the weapon whole in my hands, and I equipped my goggles while my weapon shifted into its longsword form.
I activated Divebomb.
Divebomb (Active, Cost 50 AP) Lvl: 1
Attacking from a height advantage, you can make a bodily attack with the power of gravity on your side. On impact, you release that energy, crushing everything around you.
100% increase in personal gravity when attacking from above
25% AoE damage
Radius: 1m per level
I was halfway to him when the Shouted wave of frost ran over me, solidifying my body in a block of ice. My momentum held up as I fell, unsure of whether divebomb had been cancelled and knowing my draugr self would be ready to hit me.
You have been Frozen!
You have been Solidified!
I grinned, and cast Ice Spike.
Ice Spike LVL1 (Active) Cost: 15AP
Through your time spent among the frozen wastes and tundras, you've gained a true understanding of what it means to be cold. Draw ambient moisture out of the air, take its heat for your own, and launch the result as a deadly weapon
Range: Ballistic
Removes Status Frozen, Chilled, and Solidified
The ice melted and froze. Well, it all crawled off of my body and into a gigantic spear forming in my off hand. Were I not airborne, there would be no way I could even lift this.
"You think you know cold?!"
I threw it with all my might as the spell completed, magically projecting it through the air. The hand dropped to my inventory and grabbed the rest of my Ice Dust.
I waited for a beat, watched with a grin as it shattered, and made my own Voice heard.
"WULD NAH KEST!"
I was struck with a confusing sense of pride as I impaled myself through the throat with an Ice enchanted sword, and Wuthrad fell to the ground.
I lowered myself, twisted, and threw the draugr aside, blade tearing out of its throat without a hint of blood.
I set to work stripping and collecting the armour, swiping away the level-up notifications.
"You didn't have to take off his pants for that."
"Cardin, I swear to every motherfuckin god this existence worships, if the next words out of your mouth aren't 'Thank you Torga, shutting up now.' I'm going to lose my shit. You guys sat there, doing fuck all nothing while I dealt with him." I said as I finished on the loose pieces and got to work on the body. Bereft of magic, it was little more than a bag of bones and thus easy to strip the gear off. I resolved to wash it before wearing it regardless. If my-
I pulled out the helmet component to see if unfazed, looking as good as the day it was made.
Neat.
"You said to cover them while you dealt with the 'greatest warrior from your world'. Then you pulled its pants off. I'm just saying. Oh, right. Thank you Torga, shutting up now."
I grit my teeth, but a meaty thud satisfied my anger as Blake punched him in the jaw. "Hey! What was tha-"
She gestured around wildly. "Read the room, moron!"
Pyrrha sat against the wall, groaning and holding a medical ice pack to her swelling eye. Yang was still unconscious. Nora and Ren were spent and bleeding, but standing. Blood, dried and dark, trailed from smaller wounds they had received for the assistance. I smothered my feeling of pride, seeing that the two were providing enough for themselves at the moment. I imagined the only thing keeping each up was the other.
I sighed, the Gamer's Mind washing away the adrenaline and my body not feeling fatigue. Instead of resting though, I tapped through menus and placed my skill and shout points.
For raising your Strength to 50, you have gained a new skill!
For raising your Agility to 50, you have gained a new skill!
Raising all of your physical skills to 50 has pushed your body to new heights!
You have received the Perk 'Runaway Train'!
Path of the Warrior (Passive) LVL: 1
You have begun down the life path that can only end one way. While on this path, you will have plenty.
Increased drop rates for enemies killed with melee combat.
Increased effectiveness of martial skills.
Gain 10% Physical Damage Reduction.
Muscle Reflex (Passive) LVL: 1
Through time and training you have honed your body to an edge and it answers your call.
Increased XP gain for Physical and Movement skills.
Gain 0.1% dodge chance.
Runaway Train (Passive) LVL: MAX
Once you get moving there's no stopping you. Using the ancient art of aura-shaping, you are a true force to be feared.
Reduce impact damage received by 50% while moving above half speed.
Increase impact damage delivered by 50% while moving at maximum speed.
Was it a dumb idea to waste points? Maybe. But after getting this far compared to my old self and seeing how I was easily - it took a while, but it was easy - able to pick it apart, I felt the time for conditioning was well and long passed. Not like I'd get more than a point or two anyways, whereas these levels I had gotten from that one enemy had trounced this last week's progress.
"Let's get you all healed up, and we'll get moving. After you."
I gestured to the newly present stairway to collective shock.
It took some prodding but I eventually managed to funnel the group down the stairs. Of course, we landed right in the Respite, but I had known it was going to do that from the design of the stairs. I stood silently as the wounded girls helped each other into the seats around the fire, not making mention of any of the oddness. Cardin's team also appeared silent, though that was likely because they were all glaring at Blake.
My team stood at my side, exhausted and aura-less, and the Gamer's Mind was truly put to the test. I quashed my pride and bade them sit, watching the magics of the dungeon work out their exhaustion. I averted my gaze when it lingered a second too long on Pyrrha's split lip, the shape returning as the wound healed.
"So." I said, once it was clear nobody else would talk. "In case anyone missed it, that was my old body."
Almost as one, everyone not on my team shot their hands up.
"Let's see if I can help. No, I don't want to talk about it, yes it was dead, and yes, I was a badass."
"You hit like a fucking Bullhead! You knocked me out with a stick!"
"Wuuthrad is hardened beyond what you could even consider, calling it a sti-"
"YOU PROMISED NOT TO BREATH FIRE AT ME!"
I held my hands up at Nora's accusation. "That wasn-"
"What's that armour made of?"
"Nothing we can g-"
"YOU SAID YOU DIDN'T USE A HAMMER!"
"He didn't," Ren tried to defend me and I shot him a look of gratitude. "It was- a hammer, of course." Nora was giving him the look.
I sighed and drew the broken weapon out of my inventory. It was a good weapon, true, but compared to this… steel flash forged with the heat of two suns… it was little more than a museum piece.
Thank you, old friend…
I handed it over. Then, as has almost become a tradition, I withdrew a box of Pizza. Then another, and another, passing them out until everyone had their own. I knew they were too big for one person, I just wanted to show off. Besides, I thought, glancing at the counter in my inventory, I have enough. Of the normal ones, anyways.
Velvet's even had a carrot in it, still cold from when I had pulled it from the grocery store, and she sat perplexed at that and slightly offended.
It was only when Pyrrha opened hers to a mass of leafy greens and Nora to two pizza's that good cheer invaded the eldritch space and I brought out cups and juice to sarcastic but still much welcome applause.
I waited until everyone finished, the Gamer's mind only just barely holding back my excitement. Once the boxes had been disposed of and everyone was looking anxious or restless, I spoke.
"Ren, please say 'Status." I ignored the menu as it popped up and silently closed it.
"Uh… Okay? Status." He flinched back, flipping over the seat and scrambling back before pausing. "Is this what I think it is?"
"Yep!"
"Are those… stat points?"
"Should be, you all fought that crazy thing too and it boosted me up to level 35."
He looked at me, almost pleadingly. "And they work?"
I shrug at that. "Why don't you find out?"
"Uh…. Do we have that?" Ruby asked from her bench where her whole team watched the proceedings with clear interest.
"Status. Status! Damnit, Status!" Girly-bangs appeared unable to open it.
My team had opened their pages and from the looks of things appeared to be getting a small tutorial via pop-up. I pitied them.
"Look, they can do it because they're in my party. You guys rushed ahead, so no party, so no stat boosts."
Ruby raised her hand. "Uh Torga?"
I sighed, glancing over, then flinching at the popup before me.
"Ruby Rose has invited Team Dovahdein to pair up with Team Cooki-Klub to form an adventuring expedition…"
"So you can join parties together and not get lost in caves and swamps." She let out a sheepish grin and an innocent shrug. "I play a lot of games."
It took a little figuring out, but apparently Ruby had a title that doubled party size in the presence of Grimm, as well as any party-wide benefits. I knew she was charismatic but damn.
We had to do some switching, replacing Velvet for Ruby temporarily. We kept Team CRDL out, that way we could at least make sure they went through as a team. They were unhappy, but not the point of revolt. Thank Talos I didn't have to solve any issues there.
I took the hint that the dungeon was Grimm related with more than a little unease, but there was nothing to do about it now. Team RWBY got a crash course in how my game mechanics worked, though since they had just joined, they didn't receive the xp my own team did.
Eventually, the excitement from that settled down. I'd go over what my team put their points in after, in privacy. I could see a lot of nervous faces. With food gone - I held onto my one last special pizza - and resting done, there was only one thing left to do.
"So, that… that was rough." I lied, opening up the topic.
Weiss of all people desperately jumped on the chance. "It was so strong… I hit it as hard as I could, and it laughed."
Ruby shuffled closer and hesitantly put an arm around her shoulder. It went barely noticed.
"It." I emphasized. "Was a reanimated zombie of my former self. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we're lucky it was so slow and uncoordinated."
"It spared us." Blake noted, gazing into the fire.
"What?" Yang looked over. She hadn't said much since the fight.
"Weiss went down, then you did too. Pyrrha and Ruby held it off, but it managed to get her. It was just her, and me."
"Hello?" Nora said, most of her usual cheer holding a saccharine edge to it. "Not only was Ren there, but so was I. Didn't see either of you helping when the thing actually got taken down, did we? Oh dear, I guess we didn't."
"Nora." I barked out, mainly to cut her off before she could continue too much. I still didn't know what to make of a connection between the dungeon and the Grimm but negativity wouldn't help either way.
"I didn't…"
"No, she's right." Ruby said, though not with guilt but patient defiance. "We did sit off to the side. And so did Cardin and his team-"
"Hey!"
"- because you were just attacking it and taking its armour off and didn't explain anything! You just stormed in all mad and yelled at us and." Ruby cut herself off there.
I sighed. I couldn't even blame her because I distinctly remember feeling the clear anger as I stormed through the door. It was the clearest, longest burning emotion I'd felt since I had gotten here and it had fled all too quick. I had… clung to it. Embraced it.
"You're right. I did save you, but…" I wiped a hand over my face. "I should have read the situation better. Devised a plan, informed and executed. That was a failing of mine and I apologize to you all for it. I retract that: I don't apologize, but I recognize my shortcoming and will endeavor to fix it."
Ren caught on. "I foolishly put my own ability as a primary deciding factor. I pushed myself too far, and was taken out of the fight before necessary." He looked at me with a grin, and nodded before finishing. "I recognize my shortcoming."
Nora huffed. "I wasn't strong enough."
Ren nudged her.
She gave him a complicated look. "I… thought I was strong enough. I do that sometimes, and when it looked like I wasn't, I felt like I had something to prove. I got taken out early, and I recognize that."
Weiss Schnee surprised me again by standing. "I let my training and heritage convince me I would succeed and did not even plan on how to do so. I, too, recognize room for improvement."
A bit self congratulatory, but she got the spirit.
"No."
Nora disagreed. "Now that I've heard you say it… I can't say my shortcoming was thinking I'm strong. I am strong. And I'm sure you're strong too, Weiss, but… what did you do. In this particular instance, where did you fail?"
She sat down with a troubled look on her face, and Nora continued. "It's not about kicking yourself while you're down. It's about getting better! Not just through training, but through how you're going to use that training. If an old man with an ax can kick the crypt out of 7 huntresses-"
"Ahem."
"Six huntresses and Ren, then why don't we all quit and give all the old guys axes?" Nora sat down, having said her piece. I decided now was not the time to point out I was 80 now, at best, even if you added things after the swap. I look great for my age.
There was only a moment of silence and thinking before Yang stood up. "Oh, screw off dude! Who do you think you are giving everyone crap? You can do that with your own team, but I'm no-"
"I kept trying to find a way out." Blake said. "I fought, yes, but I was trying to tie it up, find a tunnel or escape hatch… there was nothing, but I didn't stop looking." The rest went unsaid.
There was silence after. "I don't expect everyone to do that, but we're moving forward soon. If you want to, last chance."
Cardin stepped forward boldly. "My ancestors were Generals. Leaders. I know they did not choose the right side of history, but the fact that history remembers them means they were still men of consequence. I've let their memory down. Thrush, get over here buddy. Sorry we let you get trapped, we'll never leave a man behind again."
Team CRDL had a touching moment while I messed with a few components.
"If there's still any hard feelings, you can beat me up later?"
12 faces whirled and flinched at seeing me equipped in the armour of the creature that had nearly defeated them.
They recoiled when I poured the dust into the various parts, charging the runes and causing it to give of a faint shimmering glow. "Ohhhh that feels nice. Very nice. Hey Nora, high five!"
She got a glint in her eye as usually her high fives left my arm tingling and my hand pulsing with pain.
I didn't move an inch as the missile impacted, and she glared at me as she rubbed her own hand. Then she leaned in a little closer and ran a finger along my jaw line, rubbing it together with her thumb as if she had wiped something off me. "Did you… I don't know, Ren?"
"You look more chiseled."
"Yea! Like you lost weight but gained muscle."
Thrush raised his hand. "Isn't that the point of training?"
"Skill points." I answered the mystery before they tore into the poor guy. "I spent mine before we came down here. I think I got a little taller too."
"Save some for the books back at the dorm." Ren reminded me. "You needed more Intelligence."
The group snickered.
"I have enough."
"Did you spend any more in it?"
I cringed. "No. But still, the skills I got from the physical are good, you'll see. All Passive, all built around being built like a walking siege tower with a catapult strapped to the top."
"A tank. You're a tank. Infinite access to all the skills in the universe and you're just gonna… stand there and let people hit you."
I raised an armoured hand to stop him. "No, young one. I will let them try. Now, on your feet, all. This here room only shows up before the end of the dungeon. No idea why it went from over ten floors to just two, but I'll chalk that up to the 'mystery' part of this dungeon." I ignored the kid doing a fist pump at hearing me call it that. "Either way, we're almost done. Just the boss through here."
"What is the boss like?" Pyrrha asked, and I stopped myself from snapping that she already knew and shouldn't waste time. She wasn't asking for herself.
"I've faced two, here. The first was just a Taijitu, a large but not particularly powerful one. The second was a dryad in her grove, which was much more problematic. Get all your red dust ready, I wasn't able to truly win last time until I burned the whole forest down."
"A forest." Yang said hotly. "Underground."
"You just walked down magical teleporting stairs to sit on a magical healing bench beside a magical rejuvenating fire, and you're concerned about some trees?" Nora was baffled. "Torga pulled out 7 pizzas, and you're worried about photosynthesis being able to correctly resolve."
"Yea, check your priorities, gi-"
"Shut up, Thrush!"
"Get a move on!"
"Pick your ass up Thrush!"
The moment the boy had begun to speak, his team had laid into him as they had just after their rescue, though I could tell it was in good nature. Considering I had prevented it last time, I let it go. At least they weren't upset about the party anymore.
To answer Yang's question, I pointedly didn't. The next staircase, however….
DOOR: UNLOCKED
DESTINATION: FOREVER FALL BOSS RUSH
RECOMMENDED LEVEL 30
Oh look, I thought with a grin, I'm overlevelled. That's fine by me.
"Ren, what's a boss rush?"
He looked up from the fire. "It's a dungeon of its own, though instead of floors you fight a series of bosses. Typically with a theme. In this case, I'd imagine it means we fight the Taijitu and the Dryad back to back."
"Oh, well that's easier than I thought."
"You thought it meant all at once, didn't you."
I ignored Ruby's giggled comment. "Alright well, both of those are pretty straightforward fights, almost trivial considering I have my armour." I did not mention how absolutely enthused I was to have the armour change sizes to fit. I had watched it made, and knew that while it could adjust slightly for girth or added insulation (You ever walked through a desert in a suit of plate designed for Winterhold? Very unfun.), this degree of change was physically impossible. Not to mention I should need a soul gem to charge it all up, and Dust should most definitely not be compatible.
"CRDL, I want you to follow Velvet's lead and take out the Taijitu." The girl in question nodded her thanks. I hadn't figured she would want a rematch but was glad to see that decision pay off. "RWBY, JNPR, we let them handle it and save our resources. I want us all fully prepped for fighting the Dryad, she was able to summon creatures from the grove and had an airborne spore that put you into a magical sleep. Honestly, Yang should be able to pull it off solo. We regroup, hangout for a while so I can gather some crafting materials, then take the exit and tell Goodwitch off."
"What about Team RUTT?" Ruby asked.
"What."
"Team Root." Blake answered, "the team that entered before us."
"Well, they weren't on the first or second floors and there's only one left. They're probably fast asleep in the Dryad's grove. She's actually incredibly nice until she finds out you're there to take her shit."
"Have you tried, I don't know, not doing that?" Yang looked at me with an odd expression.
"Doing what?"
"Taking her shit!"
I blinked, having not considered the possibility. "That's… the whole point of delving into dungeons, to take the cool shit. I... What?"
"Okay well, how about this time, we don't? We just grab Team Root and leave?"
I sighed. "Because I need to clear the dungeon. You're always welcome to come back and speak with her, she's very sweet, but the stairs don't appear until she's dead and most of her forest is burned down. Hell, it's an excellent place for a picnic. Puts your public parks in Vale to shame. Now c'mon, let's get moving."
We packed up, unshipped our weapons, and went forth to rush the bosses.
CRDL did just fine against the Taijitu. A few minor hits were taken but at worst, a couple of them were down to half aura. I was more surprised with how quickly the mood had lifted, with the peanut gallery shouting taunts and encouragement at the team in combat. It went down within 2 minutes, and was quick to kick open the chest and grab the potions and Lien. The skill books stayed untouched, as I already had two copies of these ones. The chest could stay behind.
Actually, to save space..
The chest from the Scourge fight went on the floor, though I kept the more ornate one that had self-inserted into my inventory after I defeated Draugr Dovahkiin. Inside I found its dagger, though looking very new instead of almost rusted apart. I also found a yellow ingot, and with a quick observe:
Dwarven Metal Ingot
Then, we came to the door. The gold had returned, and right then and there I had realized my money issues were solved, so long as I could find someone to buy all this gold. I didn't try to loot it this time, the previous mass still taking up much of my inventory space. With my armour, it wasn't as bad, but there still other things further ahead. Besides, I could solo that Taijitu now. Can't bite harder than a dragon.
What? Gold isn't light and my inventory is weight based. At least the limit increased when I lifted my strength.
I did not bother with the forest or the encounter. I entered the door, and unleashed a Fire Breath with all three words. Or, I was about to, but Pyrrha caught my arm.
"There's still people in there!" She whisper-shouted. I gestured to the group to go ahead. It looked odd, a group of teenagers with clothes and such hung over their mouths, but there was a beautiful patch of flowers nearby they went to go lollygag around.
"No, there aren't." I answered her, having not known how to break the news.
During my fight with myself, I had gotten a notification that the quest had updated. At the Respite, I looked for the changes, and it took me some time, but I eventually found it.
One single, cursed, checkmark.
The location? Right next to a cursed objective:
[Side Objectives:] No Allies Die, 8/12 students saved.
I told Pyrrha as much. She threw up. That brought over the rest of the group.
Lie Ren summed it up best. "We were too late?"
I nodded, thinking back on the day with an odd sense of something detaching. "Divines, and to think I had us stop for something to eat…"
"It's not your fault." Nora shot out immediately.
"I know." I answered, and it wasn't. If someone falls into a lake that cannot swim, and you try to save them and fail, you are not at fault for the person falling in the stakes were higher and the consequences heavier… But people shouldn't jump into water if they can't swim.
"You couldn't hav-"
"Pyrrha. I know. You don't go to the White Fang for a tea party-" Blake flinched "- and you don't become a Huntress to sit on the couch in safety. By virtue of Team RUTT being at Beacon, they made their intentions clear and to say their demise was my fault would completely invalidate everything they've done up to now." I didn't admit to not knowing anything about the team and so largely being unaffected save for a slightly smaller quest reward.
"That being said… Is anyone feeling particularly vengeanc-ey? Burning down a forest is cathartic, so feel free."
A wind whipped up and the sound of rustling leaves built to a crescendo. A deep voice emanated from the forest.
"You come here to destroy? To desecrate?!" The voice sounded older…
"Not me personally, and I wouldn't have to if you would ju-" I cut myself off before requesting the guardian forest spirit commit suicide to make my life easier. There are some lines one just does not cross.
Telling a spirit of nature to off itself is one of them, and the projectiles and explosives streaking past me said enough.
Ahhh... Finally Torga is mostly whole. Missing some weight, but he has his armour and a proper weapon.
Only took the equivalent of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in words to get here, but hey! I always said I did this for fun and it's true.
In case anybody was wondering... No, you do NOT know everything that happens in this story. Things happen behind the scenes. Not a single person commented on Raven working with Ozpin, or at least adjacent to, and I had figured I would have a lot of explaining to do on that one.
As for the leaving school thing... a few things had to be set up for the story to go in the direction I want it to.
Thanks for reading!