The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Stride

The ground shook with each of Gou's footsteps, sinking beneath his weight to leave behind a growing trail of massive footprints. Streets cracked and dust rose, the air moved as each step displaced several times his volume in air, and the rubble compressed beneath his feet as we ran a path around the city. Whatever buildings had once gotten in the way had collapsed and broken before Gou's relentless advance, destroyed simply for being an inconvenience. On one hand, it was an amazing display of the sheer power of a creature that went far beyond the scale civilization was built for and a reminder of the destruction the mighty creatures of Grimm could so easily inflict upon the world.

On the other, it was surprising how quickly you get used to it.

We ran alongside Gou, allowing he and Autumn to get used to their new bodies. I wouldn't quite say that Gou was slower now, given the distances he could devour with each of his massive strides, but there was a size and a weight to each of his movements now that was literally earthshaking. Even to normal eyes, his legs wouldn't have blurred as he ran, but instead each been a massive affair, like the rise to the top of a mountain and then the race back down. It was harder to move so much mass and it consumed an enormous amount of power with each motion, one that he was trying to strike a balance with using his own HP and MP recovery. Occasionally, he would grow or shrink, testing the limits of his power, but the hardest part seemed to be getting used to the world when his body was so massive.

Autumn, naturally, was just trying to get used to a body, period. It had only taken her a short time to begin making changes to the way she walked, starting with a reorganization of the 'muscles' involved, but she'd also gotten more used to having limbs and moving them in concert—whether that meant two limbs, four limbs, or more. She'd been switching between forms fairly rapidly, modeling them after things she'd seen, whether human or Grimm. At the moment, she most resembled a giant biomechanical spider that was scurrying alongside us. She'd tried to just hitch a ride on Gou's back, earlier, but while I'd praised her for finding the simplest solution to getting around, I'd insisted that learning to move on her own was important and she'd gotten back on the ground.

As for Adam and I…

"How long are you going to lug that thing around?" Adam asked, looking behind me as he kept up with a light jog. In my defense, I'd added more and more weight to my block and it was slowing me down.

"I don't know," I mused with a quiet grunt, pulling the house-sized block along with every step. "A few thousand miles, maybe? Then I'll switch to something bigger."

Adam sighed quietly and shrugged.

"Well, whatever works, right?" He asked before raising an eyebrow at me. "It does work, right?"

"Yup," I answered, not bothering to breathe simply because I knew I'd end up panting. "Today's been a good day."

By raising STR above 100, you have gained a random ability related to your physical abilities.

The skill 'Shockwave' was created.

By raising STR above 100, you have gained the passive skill 'Devastating Blows.'

By raising STR above 100, you have gained the passive skill 'Divine Strength.'

By raising DEX above 100, you have gained a random ability related to your physical abilities.

The skill 'Yellow Road' was created.

By raising DEX above 100, you have gained the passive skill 'The Four Winds.'

By raising DEX above 100, you have gained the passive skill 'Angelic Steps.'

By raising VIT above 100, you have gained a random ability related to your physical condition.

The skill 'Riposte' was created.

By raising VIT above 100, you have gained the passive skill 'Supernal Condition.'

By raising VIT above 100, you have gained the passive skill 'Second Chance.'

One of the benefits of Acceleration, I thought, gritting my teeth. I'd layered it as many times as I could—which was quite a few times thanks to all the skill boosters and cost reducers I'd been getting lately—and I'd prioritized it when it came to MP consumption. Between that and the giant block I'd literally tied myself to, I'd finally broken through with my physical stats, as well as a few of my skills.

By raising Regeneration to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Liquid Flesh.'

By raising Haste to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Celerity.'

By raising Feather Fall to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Featherweight.'

By raising Firepower to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Scorch.'

"No new combinations?" Adam asked, as I'd already told him about today's earnings.

"For Tiferet, you mean?" I replied before shaking my head. "Not yet. I guess I'll need to raise some more skills to find valid combinations on that front. Good news is that quite a few of my skills are getting there, especially thanks to the boosts from my Wisdom skills and Acceleration. I got these buffs in the White Whale incident and it about finishes off the stuff I got there, but there are a few more to go and then…"

I shrugged.

"Just going to hope your skills pair off once you have enough of them?" He wondered, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't have much choice in the matter," I answered with a shrug. "Tiferet won't work unless I have the right pieces. I'm hoping my sensory skills get me something, though."

"You and your absurd senses," Adam said, snorting. "You're not going to be happy until you can see the future and read minds, are you?"

"Both of those would be helpful," I admitted. "I don't know if I'd stop there, even if I could do it, though—if it's even possible."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Well, the future is…" I considered how to phrase it for a moment before shrugging. "Who really knows. It depends on how you look at it, I guess."

"Like the endless possibilities thing?" Adam guessed. "With a million fucking futures to choose from?"

"That's one way of looking at it," I confirmed. "Where the future is defined every moment by the countless choices and actions made around the world. That relates to stuff like the Butterfly Effect and several theories on parallel worlds and it might be possible. There are a number of Semblances that make vague predictions that change frequently, which might be a result of choices changing the future or could simply be the result of them modeling things based on the present. But there's also support for other interpretations."

"Like what?"

"Some people believe that, since time is a dimension like space, points in time simple exist along an axis like points in space do along a graph. That is, there is only one future—or, more precisely, there is no future. Everything exists as it exists, at some point along the line. You and I, here and now, are just coordinates in space and time, and the you and me in five minutes are just five minutes and however far away. We've always existed there, in fact, and the progression of time is simply how we interpret the universe. Free will doesn't exist, because everything that happens has always happened."

"Oh," Adam stated after a moment, shrugging. "That would kind of suck, I guess. There any support for that or is it just people making guesses."

I hummed once, nodding.

"There's some support," I said. "It's not a very popular belief for obvious reasons, but several people with Semblances that can see the future can actually see the future—as in look at it and see exactly what will happen. There are always limits to it, whether in how far or how much they can see, but there's so who can do it, including a girl in our class. She can't see people, but she can see the effects they leave on the world around her, supposedly with complete accuracy. There was another person who could feel things but not see them and a few others like that. Those guys are rare as hell and what they can see tends to be incomplete, but accurate within their limits."

"Hm," Adam replied, frowning. "You think they're right about the future being decided?"

I shrugged again.

"Maybe, maybe not," I answered. "Some people think that those guys aren't seeing the future at all, but are simply sending messages back in time. No one really knows. If I could see the future, though…well, that might be a little awkward. There could be a trillion different possibilities, in which case picking out what will happen from what might happen would be a huge pain in the ass, or there might be only one future and nothing I can do to change it. Or there could be one future, but I can change it, in which case, is it the future at all? Or one possible future that I'm reacting to without seeing the full picture? Can other people change it, too?"

"Time is bullshit," Adam noted, sounding annoyed.

"A little bit," I agreed. "It's one of those things I want to know and don't want to know, because I might not like what I see. Reading minds might be more useful, but you'd have to get through people's Auras, I think. My Empathy sort of reads emotion states from the Aura, but I'm not sure if it could do that with complex thoughts—and if it did, it probably would show those thoughts in words."

"Eh, even if it did, you'd probably end up hearing a lot of stupid shit," Adam said with a shrug. "Maybe it's for the best."

I chuckled at that.

"It would make a lot of things more convenient, though," I answered. "I'll make do with what I can get either way, though. Speaking of which, how are those buffs doing?"

"They're weird, as expected from you," Adam said, taking out his sword and absently stabbing it through his own hand. His flesh rippled as if it were, well, liquid and barely bled, holding tight to the blade. As he slowly lifted his blade, he cut a jagged wound between his middle and index finger, spreading the two digits far apart as his flesh bent and flapped. Even so, the wound didn't bleed so much as well with quickly solidifying fluid that created a connective web between the two sides of the wound and literally pulled it back together, at which point it sealed quickly closed. "It doesn't even really hurt, it just feels like there's something wrong with my hand. And the others…well, they're freaky, too, but a bit less so."

I nodded at that and chuckled.

Unsurprisingly, the buffs I'd gained at the end of the White Whale incident had leveled up to create even stronger buffs. Liquid Flesh didn't allow one to liquefy at will—sadly—but injuries inflicted upon someone enhanced with it would almost flow together and close do to the enhanced regeneration it allowed. In fact, so long as limbs weren't completely detached, or were reattached quickly, it could even allow the ends to simply stick back together as if never cut. Featherweight grew of its predecessor's ability to soften impacts and falls by making the user…not quite weightless, but able to stand on string and have it support your weight, while just as easily standing up to attacks. With Scorch, attacks that inflicted damage could leave behind traces of Aura within the wound that could ignite a moment later, inflicting secondary damage based on the size of the injury.

But needless to say, I had a thing for speed boosters and Celerity answered that desire. Where Haste helped boost the speed of the body in general using the influence of Lightning Dust, Celerity took it a step further, from carrying electrical signals through the Aura instead of the body to increasing the rate that muscles could expand and contract. It was more visible then Haste, with small trails of electricity racing down one's spine and limbs but…well, I can ignore a lot when it comes to multiplying my reaction times.

Besides, it let me pull this block faster. As is, between that and my new Strength and Dexterity skills, I was still moving about as fast as a car, despite how much I was being weighed down. I might add some more weight on to counter that, but it let me move without slowing down the others and still helped me grind. Once I was sure enough to leave Autumn be—with Adam and Gou to supervise, of course—I'd make it so every step forward was an effort, but for now…this was enough.

"At least it should help with your Iaido," I said, knowing Adam would feel the same way.

"That is true," He admitted, sheathing his sword as he sparked quietly. "And weird is better than dead, anyway."

"That's the spirit," I replied, laughing. "Let's do another ten laps around the city and then get ready for class, yeah?"

And just like that we fell into a routine. I'd meditate all the way through class, slowly but surely building up my reserves. After classes ended, I had what I considered a free period, which varied day by day—sometimes I'd end up training with Cinder, other times I'd hang out with Albus and Finn or just relax by myself, whatever happened to come up that day. It was early in the school year and people were still getting into the swing of things, or else were using that as an excuse, and we didn't have a lot of time to do stuff together, being in separate classes, but I already knew that would change soon. Once preparations for the Vytal Festival began in earnest, I'd be spending a lot more time with the seniors.

After all, Mistral had to get its team ready. Usually, a freshman wouldn't be in the thick of things—even for particularly gifted new students who managed to quality, the Vytal Festival was more of a chance to learn than anything else, seeing as it would pit them against students all the way up to the senior level, who not only had far more experience but were hand picked to win the tournament for their schools—but…well, I was me. I'd already proven that I would be the person to beat and they'd bring me in as soon as things started up, along with Albus, Cinder, and Finn. It didn't really make much difference to me, but I didn't mind the opportunity it presented, either.

But at night…at night, I did some preparations of my own, readying myself for what would really matter. We'd spent the rest of the week working on the basics in Naraka, giving Autumn and Gou a chance to get used to their new forms, and then moved on to bigger and better things.

Gou snarled, shaking himself wildly as he tried to throw away the flock of Grimm that had swarmed him. They were distractions at best and annoyances at worst, but there were downsides to being so massive and the Grimm were taking advantage of it, trying to cluster in blind spots and cling to his hide as they scratched and peck. A few particularly innovative creatures tried to go for his nostrils and ears, hoping to strike at the enlarged vulnerabilities therein, but Gou merely growled fiercely as I activated Karna for him. At once, massive bonfires ignited around his ankles and paws and more gathered between his teeth until it began to flare from the corners of his mouth like incandescent foam. He exhaled a massive, luminous nimbus that surrounded him and made the feathers and fur of the creatures clinging to him catch fire. Some of the sparks caught in his own coat, but he simple dropped and rolled as if scratching his back, shattering the bodies of the Grimm in the process and craving furrows in the ground with the sword-like spines of his fur.

The Nemeans that Gou had been keeping at bay leapt forward at the perceived vulnerability, teeth flashing towards his throat and hamstrings while he was down. Just as they were about to fall upon him, though, he blurred, flipping over and sliding beneath one of the Grimm in a maneuver that left swaths of burning lines in his wake. His massive size slowed him down immensely, in a relative sort of way, but none of the Nemeans seemed to anticipate his still impressive speed as he Shed away from the attack and slid behind them. Instead of pressing his advantage, however, Gou simply opened his mouth wide, spreading light as he displayed the conflagration between his teeth.

And, if you looked closely, peering through the light and the warping heat…a figure.

Adam stood at the front of his mouth, the flames raging behind him. His left arm was wrapped in layers of spider silk whose other end bound it tautly to a nearby tooth, the bone like a stone column beside him, and with the other, held his sword behind his back. The flames of Karna that filled Gou's maw simply came to a stop at the blade, as if warded back by its edge, but though the flames seemed to blend together, I could see them swirling towards and around the hungry blade. As Gou took a deep breath, the flames cut of, plunging the surrounding area into darkness again—but for Adam's sword, which shined like a beacon in the night as he lifted it.

Wilt glowed pure white, the heat within it so intense that it was almost painful to look at, but as the flames at his back fell away, he didn't hesitate to bring it back around and sheath it within blush, hiding its light with a quiet click. Small trails of electricity crackled down the length of his body and around the sheathed bladed, even as he lifted his hand from the hilt. With echoing stomps, the Nemeans scrambled to their feet, but Adam simply twitched a finger at the sight of them.

His trigger finger, to be precise.

Wilt shot from Blush and light flooded outwards from it again, small trails of lightning sparking between sheath and blade. When it was mere inches out, its hilt slide neatly into Adam's hand and he pulled it the rest of the way free in a blinding slash of his blade that released a wave of power that expanded from Gou's mouth in a flash, cutting across the field in front of him—and straight through everything in its path. The charged strike tore through the pride of Nemeans, cutting them from their chests to their haunches as it went and leaving the resulting mess to fade away. Absently clicking the side of his blade against one of Gou's teeth, the pair moved on.

"Autumn, finish up here," I said, returning my attention to the matter at hand. Autumn stepped forward without a word, the majority of her body hidden within one of the many white cloaks I'd made her. With her hood up, all that was visible of her face were her faintly shining eyes. While the cloak itself fell over a mostly humanoid figure, it came to an end nearly a meter above the ground, barely touching her 'knees.' Six legs, oddly jointed, spined, and insectlike, they curved up around the underside of the cloak and carried her forward easily. Pushing off, they threw her into the air above the Grimm I'd all but slain and then lost their shape for a moment before speeding towards earth like half a dozen wooden lightning bolts. They pierced through open wounds, eyes, mouths, and more, pinning her targets firmly in place before shimmering slightly as smaller, bladed limbs unfolded and pierced through any vulnerabilities they found. When a creature died, Autumn plucked the limb free and stepped on the next, never lowering her from her position ten meters above it all. When all the Grimm were put out of their misery, she stepped back up to my side and shrunk back down to normal.

I chuckled and patted her side.

"Not even going to use your arms, huh?" I asked.

"…Pointless," She answered after a moment.

I hummed and inclined my head at her, knowing what she meant.

"It won't be long now," I assured her. "But we can't let you fight before you're ready, can we?"

"No," Autumn replied, staring off into the distance. She wasn't objecting, she was just bored. Recently, her only job had been to finish off the creatures I'd weakened for her—I was like a Papa Bird, preceding her food. Still, it was working.

Thus Kindly I Scatter

LV 68

Autumn Rose

"Where to next?" I asked her, letting her pick our next target. Autumn tilted her head and began walking, six legs moving quickly as she headed towards the forest again. I'd taken us pretty far from Mistral simply to avoid notice, far enough to find wild trees, and Autumn seemed as happy to consume them as she was to slaughter Grimm. When we reached the edge of the forest, Autumn hunkered down, the tips of her feet biting deeply into the ground, and then went still. I could feel her roots spreading and eased their passage with Ereb as they flowed up to the roots of other trees and then into them, beginning her consumption from the bottom up. I walked around, absently laying my hands upon the trunks and drawing out what power I could. I knew from experience how this would work; Autumn would remain as still as a tree above the ground, spreading her roots to touch everything she could and merge with it—and then, when she was down, she'd suck them all down at once and simply walk away.

In terms of the experience granted, it wasn't that impressive compared to slaying Grimm, but the added mass seemed to benefit Autumn in other ways, so we spent a fair bit of time like this. For my part, I stood watch and made sure nothing attacked her while she spread, grinding my own skills as I did. Whatever Grimm came near—or inhabited the forest to begin with—I crippled and left on the ground for crawling roots and vines to finish off and drag away.

"Jaune," Adam murmured on the other side of the battlefield, drawing my attention several hours later.

"Hm," I replied, making my voice carry as I walked through the forest.

"Raven just called," He said. "She wants to meet in a few days."

"Ah," I answered. "I know."

"What should I tell her?" He asked, patiently. He probably knew that any irritation on his part would simply give me strength.

"That I'll be there, of course," I answered. "With company, this time."

"…You mean…?"

"It's about time she met the rest of the team," I confirmed lazily. "Unless you think there's some reason she shouldn't?"

"No," He said after a moment. "That's fine."

"Good," I replied, smiling as I stretched. "Then just make sure to finish up anything you want to show her before then. You'll want to look impressive for your parent-teacher conference, right?"

"Ugh," Adam grunted as if struck by the mere thought. "Don't call it that."

"I'm totally calling it that," I answered. "Thinking about making you a report card, too."

"Hmph," He snorted, annoyed in spite of himself. I could feel it and it bolstered my moral that much more. "You done with whatever you were working on, then?"

"Not quite," I replied with a sigh before my smile return. "But I'll finish it up soon, I think."

By raising White Tiger's Five Hundred Years to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Bai Hu's Five Hundred Years.'