"Talking"
Thoughts
'Mental Communication or using a magic item'
[Debuffs]
Skills/Systems
Hello, guys. I know I didn't go over what actually happened in the war despite hyping it up. I realize I wrote myself into a corner with that one, so let's rip the band aid off. I'm going to give you a summary of what happened in the first part as well as the conclusion.
I wonder who can recall which characters are which, without looking at the character breakdown. I'll also be introducing the series' big bad.
doctor3027: I haven't thought of cross-posting, but I'm not opposed to it. I'll look into it and update everyone on a later chapter.
yann0406: You're welcome.
Toyamasu: I'm still alive. She left after "persuading" me not to do the war cut scene. Too bad for her, I'm doing it in this chapter. And all it cost me was having to fix my colon with some duct tape.
Chapter 29 – Moving Forward
Shore of Huang He
Along the northeastern coast, a gargantuan multi-eyed and multi-limbed monstrosity that towered over most mountains opened its massive maw to form a black hole that absorbed the falling asteroids that dwarfed even its impossible size, reducing them to dust in mere moments.
From the center of the Huang He formation, A woman with a floating giant draconic purple witch hat, the size of a circus tent sat calmly upon her ruby red mechanical steed as the ground around her spiraled and swirled like a tsunami clashing against a giant mechanical orca-dog hybrid that released wave after wave of explosives as it continually dove into the now pitch black waters only to reemerge somewhere new as though it was some sort of teleportation. Land and sea were merging into little more than a marshy quagmire that swallowed friend and foe alike.
To the southeast, a man, a stone-faced enforcer of justice wreathed in black chains, clashed with a maddened and cackling mass murderer clad in golden springs. Chain and spring gouged large chunks out of the land and armies. Those on the side of the black chains experienced pieces of their bodies being sent flying, while those on the side of the golden springs found themselves unable to even blink, bound by heavy dark chains that moved like snakes.
In between the three points, along the shoreline, Huang He Masters, aided by an army of dragonified monsters and golden birds, clashed with a seemingly impossible army of level 500 tians and Masters. A feat that should be all rights, even for Tenchi, would be impossible to field in such large numbers.
In Huang He's command center a giant white mechanical humanoid aided by a cat faunus ninja and a female samurai in a white kimono fought against an army of mind controlled tians lead by a bear-man with a chain saw shaped like a shark and a woman with eight spider legs sticking out of her back, while the ruler of Huang He, Bailong, a muscular ballerina with a blue and gold hammer, and a Jiangshi with a mirror shield did battle with a flaming bat-winged faunus wielding a cursed sword. Each swing of his sword seemed to ignite everything around him as he grew larger and more monstrous, becoming a literal bat out of hell.
Moving through the madness, a humanoid Dragon King engaged with a tiger faunus floating within six large rings as their clashes reshaped the land, the sea, and even the air itself with a burst of force that seemed the games of gods instead of mere mortals. Each clash broke the world around them in the way the clash of warring armies shattered the world of insects. The suffering of those outside the battle was not even a mere thought.
Yet the war took another unexpected turn as several faunus Masters turned sides, betraying Huang He, and armies of maxed level faunus tians seemed to manifest behind enemy lines out of thin air.
It seemed as though Huang He, despite having more Superiors, would be crushed under the weight of superior numbers. Yet from some unknown signal, a blonde-haired Master on a flaming armored horse towing a cart of barrels that seemed to be leaking oil that was creating a flaming trail as they zigzagged through the battlefield. The previously outgunned Huang He army was beginning to push back the higher-leveled forces of Tenchi, who were now either on fire or trying to catch the madman on the horse.
But fate had different plans as a lone wolf faunus with grey ears and a golden mask walked casually onto the battlefield between the Draconic Emperor and the Overlord Ira.
Then there was nothing.
And Ruby didn't mean everyone just stopped moving. One minute, there was chaos everywhere, and then the video cut off.
No matter where on the web she looked, she couldn't find anything on what exactly ended the war, only that seemingly every Master was given the death penalty and almost every Tenchi tian was grievously wounded, numerous killed even.
According to some reports, Huang He lost nearly thirty percent of their forces while Tenchi lost nearly sixty percent in that single moment.
They basically just surrendered after not being able to even fight.
If he wanted to help Huang He, why take out all of their Masters?
She spent the next three hours searching for anything on the gold-mask-wearing faunus, but all she got was a weird player name: Ego Wizdeth.
/-/
As she and Wotan walked their way up to the Coliseum, the Maiden Master checked her stats for what felt like the hundredth time today.
Name: Crescent Rose
Total Level: 300
Embryo: Maiden of Metal Runic Script, Wotan
Embryo Type: Maiden with Arms
Embryo Form: IV
Main Job: Pilot
Main Job Level: 50
Sub Job:
High Mechanic
Appraiser
Mechanic
Engineer
Sub Job Level: 250
HP: 10,400
MP: 2,100 (200)
SP: 1,900
STR: 10
END: 11
DEX: 2,150 (150)
AGI: 20
LUK: 1,000
It wasn't that she was nervous.
Okay, she was nervous. Even more so than the time Yang had dragged her to the Signal Prom.
Though, in her defense, she told her sister she couldn't walk in those death stilts she called heels.
As far as she was concerned, accidentally knocking the principal over the second-floor railing was their fault.
And even he agreed with her…once they took the wires out of his jaw.
But she digressed.
The silver-eyed girl also felt…excited. Red Rose had been her dream mecha. Not only had she BUILT it – something she had thought she wouldn't be able to do unless she worked for the Atlas Military or became a genius inventor – but she was also going to USE it.
She was going to FIGHT with it. Every cool idea she could come up with. With every gadget, every weapon, EVERYTHING.
She even finally managed to figure out how to make the Storm's Core work…kind of.
She knew how to activate it, at least without blowing herself up.
That was progress.
As they made their way to the counter, they were greeted with the sight of a very tired and bored-looking tian.
"Yes, what can I help you with?" She drooled, elbow on the counter and head in hand.
Remember what Yang told you about dealing with people like this: "I'd like to register for the Dueling Coliseum, uh sweet cheeks." She said, giving an awkward, even to her, finger gun. Wotan just burst out laughing.
Uh, Yang made it look so much easier. She internally bemoaned.
"You're too young for me." The receptionist replied blandly, causing Wotan to burst out in further laughter and even start rolling around on the ground, laughing like she was being tickled to death.
The receptionist pulled up what looked like a keyboard, but the keys were a type of glassy crystal.
Suddenly, a translucent blue screen appeared, floating above the keyboard.
"Name?"
"Oh, uh, Crescent Rose."
"Uh Crescent Rose."
"No, there's no 'uh' in my name."
She just looked at the sliver-eyed Master like her existence was an offense to her, "I already typed it. If you want to change it, you'll have to pay an additional four hundred lir on top of the fourteen hundred registration fee."
"You didn't say anything about a registration fee."
"Do you want to participate, yes or no?"
"Grr, meanie." She snapped, slamming the lir on the counter. Both the fee and to change her name. She meant to make it more intimidating, but her strength wasn't all that great.
The receptionist looked like she would prefer to be doing literally anything else.
"Level?"
"Three hundred."
"Have you participated before?"
"No. That's why I'm registering."
She typed on the keyboard a few more times before reaching down and taking out a silver tag with her name, level, and a numeral on it.
"Duel Rankings are broken down into five ranks from I to V. The first three ranks are broken up by level. The other two are based on your matches. Because of your level you'll start in II. If you win, you'll advance to III and so on." She said it like she was half-reading a script, half-improvising it.
"You can register for matches in the main lobby. You can have as many unofficial matches as you want at any time, so long as you pay the fee to use the arena. Official matches require you to register and show up when the match is scheduled. Failure to do so three times will result in a decrease in rank. If you're rank I and don't show up for your match, you'll have to reregister."
"Do you have any questions?"
"Yes."
"Ask the guy in the main lobby, I'm going to lunch." She waved off before just leaving her post.
She didn't even leave a sign or anything that she was out to lunch…wait, turning her head to look at a clock on a pole, Crescent gaped, "It's eight in the morning and the Coliseum just opened!"
/a twenty-minute wait in line at the main lobby later/
"I've got this," Crescent said as she did some last-minute diagnostics in her Garage. Interestingly, the locker rooms in the arena actually had sections separated for Garages to be placed.
After that, the crabby receptionist told her to go to arena six. She hadn't expected to be fighting so soon.
It was some Master she had never heard of called Drunk Mann.
Then again, she wasn't even the top of the noob rankings so she probably shouldn't expect to fight anyone like Bun-Bun or…Empress Cryoconite.
Despite all this time, she still felt fear from that woman. She utterly decimated Crescent like she wasn't even trying.
What hurt more was that she likely wasn't.
She had spent so much time and effort on the Marshall Rose. It was her baby, and with a wave of her hand, it was reduced to slag.
A soft warmth enveloped Crescent's hands as she saw her Embryo holding her hands. "You don't need to worry. We won't be facing anyone like her, and even if we did, the Red Rose won't be destroyed. The barrier will restore it after the match is over."
"Thanks, Wotan."
"Thank me by eating this." Her Embryo replied by taking out a large cookie and handing it to her before taking out another one for herself.
Wotan's maidenly eating habit was that she could only eat things she saw her Master eat, so if she wanted to eat something, Crescent would have to eat it first.
This had led her to several foodie tours throughout Dryfe and a spicy nightmare hell that had left her with a [Burned] debuff inside of her stomach.
Turns out internal debuffs were more expensive to treat.
Who knew her Embryo loved insanely spicy foods.
/-/
She entered the arena in her Red Rose, Wotan's red energy cape flowing behind her Magingear.
Her opponent entered from his corner.
He was…not what she was expecting.
His face was an average-looking man with silver hair hanging over his forehead, glasses, and a goatee.
[Identification] showed the sword he was carrying was made of mithril-coated steel.
But what was the most noticeable was his…pants(?)
It looked like he was wearing one of those weird Halloween costumes where it looks like you're riding something with fake legs dangling off of the sides. Though instead of the usual horse, this looked like an ostrich.
Since her skill didn't work on it, that was likely his Embryo.
He could have used an item to conceal it, but given that she could use [Reveal] on him, he likely didn't take those countermeasures.
Drunk Mann
Job: Great Fighter
Level: 100 (Total Level: 350)
HP: 16,000 (200)
MP: 100
SP: 2,860 (150)
STR: 1,960
AGI: 1,000 (1,500)
END: 2,050 (210)
DEX: 540
LUK: 50
She could see several items he had equipped were mainly for stat bonuses. He didn't have anything related to resisting or countering debuffs.
Given that none of his equipment or items boosted AGI, then that was likely his Embryo.
So, he was a speedster.
But wait, wouldn't something like the Lancer or Kicker job suit him better?
No, focus.
"Are the participants ready?" the announcer asked.
The man grinned and nodded, and Crescent pushed a button that made her Red Rose node its mechanical head. And people said that it was a useless feature.
Well, she just proved them wrong.
"Begin!"
Drunk Mann wasted no time and started running at high speed. Almost immediately, Crescent responded, using the Vulcan Guns on the forehead of her Red Rose, forcing him to slow and block her attacks with his sword. (1)
Normally, it would be nearly impossible to do this, but in Infinite Dendrogram, the higher your AGI, the faster you could move and the faster you could process information.
But that's only if you are thinking instead of reacting.
Drunk Mann still forced his way forward, moving at high speeds, just like Crescent had planned. Drawing her Magingear's gun, she added to the barrage of bullets.
While he was distracted with her gunfire, her Magingear had been releasing a clear super glue-like substance she had developed.
Just as he was about to step on the glue, he…walked on air?!
Before she could react, the silver-haired Master was on her, and with a slam of his sword, her Magingear was sent flying back. Its right arm was barely hanging on at the elbow joint, and the gun it had previously held was broken from the barrel to the grip.
"You're not some Demon Cyborg; you know that, right? That trick has been done to death" (2)
Grinning, he gloated, "You really shouldn't look down on jobs like Messenger. Air Walk is no joke."
"And another thing- oof." Whatever he was about to say was cut off by a smoke grenade to the stomach. A smoke grenade that was glowing red with runic symbols.
/-/
Great Fighter, Drunk Mann
As it burst with a force several times that of what it should have been, the entire arena was covered in dense smoke.
"You're gonna pay for that, you little brat -gah!" coughing up blood, he noticed several [Bleeding] debuffs. By focusing on them, he could see where the bleeding was occurring.
It was in his lungs.
While the blast had damaged him, it shouldn't be shredding his lungs.
Unless…as someone from Atlas, he knew about Miner's Lung. Coal and Dust particles got into the lungs from breathing it all day and caused damage over time even with face masks and other protective gear.
She put something in the gas.
Normally, the best move would be to get out of the gas, but since he was in an enclosed space, that wasn't gonna happen.
He needed to take her out quickly.
In the smoke, he suddenly saw a red light. She was charging another attack.
That was a bad move, kid.
Rushing forward, he invoked another skill from his Messenger Job: Great Runner.
It boosted his AGI by 10% of the skill level for 60 seconds. At level three, his AGI just shot up by 30% to 3,250 for the next 60 seconds.
More than enough time as he stacked the skills Steel Cutter from his Swordsman job that doubled damage towards metal, his job Great Fighter boosting his damage with a sword, and his ultimate skill from the Swordmaster job, Laser Sword, which enchanted his blade with light attribute magic.
Thanks to his Swordsman passive skill of Blade Speed-Through, he reduced his opponent's END by 10% of the user's AGI multiplied by the skill level if the opponent is unable to defend against the user's attack. At level three, that 975 off of her Magingears' END.
He might just be copying something he saw on the net, but damn if it didn't make him feel like he was about to cleave Darth Maul. (3)
However, what he struck with a force that cut clean through his target only for it to…pop?!
Looking around, he saw more silhouettes, all of them glowing.
Had she released inflatable balloons in the shape of Magingears with LED lighting?!
Before he could ponder that further, a violently glowing red crescent-shaped blade of metal came speeding towards him. Out of reflex, he rotated on his foot, allowing the blade to pass in front of him.
Briefly smelling something burning, he looked down to see that his sword had been cut clean through.
If that had hit him, he would have lost the match then and there.
Taking a step back in shock, he heard something click.
Oh shit!
Rather than thinking, he simply ran forward with all his might, being launched forward by the force of the explosion.
Using Instant Equip, he drew his spare sword. Unlike his previous one, which focused on sharpness and durability, this one was a sword he got while PK'ing that was enchanted to send out spectral copies of the blade. Supposedly, it was like a knockoff version of the ultimate skill of the King of Swords in Altar.
He combined it with his Skill Thunder Slash, which enchanted the blade with the lightning attribute.
Swinging it, it released several lighting blades surging forward in a burst of flying slashes, striking the dozen dummies that all popped on impact.
However, something happened that he hadn't expected.
Attacking some of the dummies set off hidden explosives.
Sacrificing a one-time item, he increased his END by 20% for 10 seconds.
Despite being new to the Duel Rankings, he was still part of a PK Clan. He wouldn't be taken out this easily.
The resulting explosions heavily damaged him but still managed to clear the smoke.
Aside from his Embryo, which was nearly in tatters, his armor and avatar weren't much better.
Even with his item, between the explosions earlier, he was down to about sixty percent of his health, and those debuffs weren't exactly helping.
At least the concealment coating on his items that granted him minor passive healing and debuff resistance to weaken the effects were worth the lir he put into them. They were so expensive that he couldn't do it for the rest of his equipment.
Still, he could admit he might have underestimated the noob.
She knew she couldn't beat him in a straight-up fight and used everything she had to make sure it wasn't a straight-up fight.
And if he was being honest with himself, she did a damn good job. She wasn't as strong as Savage Machine or Shining Beacon, but she was still better with her Magingear than most players he'd come across.
Too many had a habit of thinking they could automatically win just because they were in a giant robot. Even in real life, that wasn't true, so why would it be in a video game? (4)
Now where… is…she? Looking around, Drunk Mann couldn't find his opponent.
Was it illusion magic or light magic, maybe?
No, those jobs were incompatible with the Pilot Job…or was this an Embryo or item skill?
As he pondered the possibilities, he felt a chill down his spine. Being a PK in Infinite Dendrogram had allowed him to develop a certain sense for when things were about to go bad. With a clan leader like his, you couldn't help but do so.
Without thinking, he jumped full force to the left before releasing an upward slash of lightning from the sound alone. He knew before the crash he had hit his target.
That's when he noticed sections of his opponent's Magingear opened up to reveal thrusters.
So, it can fly.
Even Atlas hadn't gotten all the bugs worked out of that with their Paladins.
Oh well.
Charging forward, he thrust his sword through where he knew the cockpit was. Based on the sensation of his blade, he knew he hit flesh, but given the fact the match hadn't ended, he knew it wasn't an instant kill.
He hefted his blade, actually lifting the Magingear off the ground and hopefully heavily damaging the Pilot.
Said Master tried to use the left hand of her red Magingear to strike him with what looked like a glowing red scythe, but he activated his skill Thunder Slash as electrical energy seemed to dance across the entire surface of the machine. Seemingly paralyzing the Master inside.
Before he completed his arc, he activated his Physical Berserk; his stats increased greatly as his avatar's body became more muscular and well-defined. His grip tightened as it twisted, the outer frame of the Magingear groaning and becoming dislodged.
Normally, he wouldn't be able to control himself after using the skill, but he had already obtained the skill that removed that side effect. Now his STR was comparable to his AGI.
With the boost in stats, he effortlessly tossed the multi-ton machine, and several dozen metels hit the wall of the arena with a metallic grating thud as several pieces of its inner frame were now visible.
Most people thought that you had to attack Pilots themselves to deal damage, and while that was true, so long as you roughed them up enough inside their tin cans, you should be able to achieve the same results. After all, you could survive a car wreck without a scratch or end up paralyzed from the neck down. This game was so real that you could get debuffs for things like whiplash or broken bones, which you could get from just being knocked around too much.
Someone tried explaining inertia and conservation of mass or something like that to him once, but he wasn't paying attention.
He preferred acting as a can opener before ending his opponents. Something he wished he could do to those Atlas "elites," but this poor stooge was a good enough substitute for now.
Charging forward, he swung his sword, several phantom slashes ripping forward and cutting several long deep cuts into the metal chassis.
Only for those red runes to appear on the scythe blade again. With a swing, the Magingear sent the red pulsing projectile at him, but he simply jumped over it.
"Too easy." He taunted only to be met with the Magingear raising its broken right arm and the red energy swirling around it.
Don't tell me.
"Rocket Punch!" came from the Magingear's speaker.
Shit.
Normally, a person might not have time to think, given that a giant, likely explosive, metal fist is now rocketing towards them while in midair, but this is ID. If you have a high enough AGI stat, you can THINK faster.
Tapping into this game mechanic he saw the rocket start to slow down. It was still pretty fast, like that time he and his best bud used to play catch in the park as kids.
Using this new time, he grasped his sword and prepared to gamble.
An unfortunate side effect of his Physical Berserk skill was that, despite the effect of losing control of himself being negated, he still hadn't figured out how to get around the skill preventing him from using other skills while it was active.
He'll just have to find a way to make it work.
As the fist began to move closer, he allowed his perception of time to increase a little as he raised his sword, swinging it down in just the right way to cleave the giant metal fist in half.
Only when he sailed between the two halves did he notice the long, nearly transparent wires connecting the fist to the rest of the arm. When the wire grew taught, he heard an all too familiar click.
"Shit."
The hand detonated. Caught between two explosions, in his blind spots no less, midair, he wouldn't be able to do anything from this position.
Thankfully, a lot of his jobs granted him a decent HP pool, and the explosion wasn't as big as with the dummies.
Suddenly, a Hand Canon was pointed at his face. If not for his high AGI, he might not have been able to move out of the way by just forcing his head to the side.
With a strong slash, he cut the barrel clean off before jumping back. After everything else that exploded when he cut into it, he wouldn't be surprised if the little gremlin managed to rig the barrel of her gun to explode.
Dropping its scythe, a compartment on its leg opened up, and it took out a Battle Knife.
While it was called a "knife," it was roughly as long as a surfboard.
I don't think she's out of blades for the scythe. He mentally pondered. So, she's probably out of charges for her skill and has decided to go on the defensive.
While he was certain he hadn't done a lethal amount of damage, the way her Magingear moved told him two things. One, her right arm or at least right side were damaged in his attack, so likely she was trying to overcompensate. And two, even if the damage wasn't immediately lethal, he had done a lot of damage to her.
This might be their last exchange.
Without any exterior signal that could be seen, the two charged. Having finally reached the end of his skills' cool down time, he deactivated Physical Berserk before activating his previous combo, creating another pseudo lightsaber as he sped up even faster.
What caught him off guard and probably surprised him the most was the fact that the red energy cape encapsulated the entire Magingear, causing it to give off the impression of rose petals of pure red energy fluttering behind it in a flurry of scattering power.
Moving faster than anything he had seen the machine do before, he heard it groan under its new speed as its giant knife stabbed forward.
Even with his high AGI, he still wasn't able to process the sudden jump in speed quickly. Just barely managing to turn his body at the last minute, he saw his left arm being cleaved clean off.
He raised his still attached arm, grasping his sword wreathed in light magic, only for a kick from the Magingear's left leg to strike him, sending him back several metels.
Forced to use his sword to stop his momentum by jamming it into the ground, he saw the glowing crescent of metal and energy jetting towards his face.
She not only had more charges, but she intentionally planned all of this for the sole purpose of making him think she was on the defensive.
Grinning, he raised his blade to meet her's. Invoking his sword's skill, he created several slashes of energy alongside the physical blade, eventually slicing through it, sending the pieces flying behind him as he rocketed forward.
He couldn't let her have another chance. She was too dangerous and too good at making chain combos.
Executing a maneuver that should have required a High Pilot's level of skill, the Magingear, still flowing with rose petals of energy twisted in midair like a rosy grim reaper, he brought up his sword to meet her scythe. The light pole-long farming tool bent under the strain but didn't break.
He saw another leg coming to kick him. Still, he disengaged, jumping onto the raised leg before running down it and delivering an over-arching slash across the torso of the Magingear. His magic-enhanced sword cut through the metal like a hot knife through butter…only for the doors of the cockpit to jettison themselves forward, forcing him back and sparing the Master the defeat.
"Why won't you just die already!" he shouted in exacerbation. He had fought individual survival types who weren't this stubborn. And that's their whole thing.
Looking her in the eye, she held a handgun pointed at his head. Her right side was covered in blood as a gaping, smoking wound through the right shoulder hissed in the fresh air. Apparently, his need to paralyze her with his lightning skill ended up partially cauterizing the wound.
She fired a half dozen shots at him. Her aim was clearly unstable from not using her dominant arm.
His blade was still stuck in the cockpit door.
As her bullets neared, he moved his sword with all the muscle in his arm he could muster, deflecting the shots before abandoning his and using the cockpit door as a platform to jump off of and towards the silver-eyed Pilot.
Most people assumed you could only use Inventories to store things, and most of the time, they genuinely were the better option, but sometimes a simple pocket did the trick. Such as the one on his hip that held a folding sword he bought as a goof since it was cheap.
Drawing it, the collapsed metal sprang to life as he dodged another shot before cleaving the Master in half down the middle.
The sound of the buzzard and the disappearance of his opponent told him that this time, he had finally gotten her.
Ruby gave it her all and put in everything she could think of. (Before anyone asks, yes, the decoy idea came from RWBY: Ice Queendom. I just added my own little spin.) Ruby is a pretty strategic fighter, coming up with plans mid-battle. At least in the early seasons. So, I thought her style as a Pilot and Mechanic could reflect that.
I know some of you won't be happy that Crescent's first step into the Arena ended in defeat, but that's for character growth. Also, she doesn't have a lot of experience fighting other Masters. Up until now, it's mainly been monsters or an out-of-control robot. This will also help set up for some future arcs.
(1) Machine guns commonly used in the Gundam franchise
(2) See Genos from One Punch Man vs Awakened Cockroach
(3) Darth Maul from Star Wars was famously cut in half with a light saber (which Drunk Mann's sword resembles)
(4) In the AU, Grimm don't exist, but Semblances do, so a person being able to fight a giant robot is feasible. See Volume 2, Episode 4 and Volume 3, Episode 11 for further detail.
Ego Wizdeth = ?
Crescent Rose = Ruby Rose
Drunk Mann = Drunk Mann
Bun-Bun = Velvet Scarlatina
Empress Cryoconite = Weiss Schnee
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