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.

Unlocked Area

I set foot on the shore, taking a deep breath as I enjoyed the sea breeze.

For a place that had devoured entire civilizations, this part of the continent was beautiful. Though we'd technically just come from a beach, the shores near Mistral are rocky and pitch black—a remnant of the significant amount of volcanic activity in that area. Not too far north of Mistral, the low fields gave way to the icy plains that ringed the upper edge of the Sea of Monsters, while further to the east, along the northern peninsula, there was a mix of fields, forests, but also wastelands. Mistral and its surrounding area was a place of extremes, with tundra, deserts, and volcanic fields all relatively close to one another, making it a hostile place to the unwary.

This was the first time I'd ever seen the eastern side of the continent and the difference was striking. We came ashore on white sandy beaches with nothing but clear skies above. In the distance, the shores gave way to forests, but ones far different from those around Vale or far north—these were tropical forests, beautiful in a way that was almost foreign to me. There were animals here I'd never seen, simply because they would never even think of approaching the places any of the Kingdoms resided in.

Of course, that was the point. The Kingdom's hadn't survived because of the tourist revenue—rather, they had survived by understanding that the world was dominated by the creatures of Grimm and thus the majority of tourists would be of the heartless, flesh-eating monster variety. Therefore, they'd chosen places that no one really liked to visit—a barren desert for Vacuo, a lifeless frozen plain for Atlas, and a half-frozen, half-volcanic hellhole for Mistral. Vale was the only exception in that it was mainly just hard to get to, but I could only imagine what life had been like before our technology had advanced enough to deal with climate issues on a broad scale. Supposedly, the closest the Kingdom of Mistral had ever come to annihilation were the three or four times the volcanoes they'd built their city next to had decided to have a mass eruption.

Given that, the dangers inherent in such a beautiful place were self-evident. Any place people would actually want to live were bound to be filled with the monsters that had killed and devoured the people who'd chosen to settle down there.

Still, it was a nice place to visit, at least for us.

"I'll have to remember to bring Autumn here later," I mused, looking at the flowers blooming a little more than a kilometer away. "I'm sure she'd love the flowers."

"Love eating them, anyway," Adam grunted, panting harshly as he stood on the beach beside me. Even with repeated heals to restore his stamina, running across the sea on his own power must have been hard on him. I'd have to make him do it more often to keep him in shape—just because he couldn't grind his Vitality in quite the way I did didn't mean he could slack off. I'm sure Raven would approve.

"Jaune, have you located your target?" Gou asked directly and I shifted my focus to something else I'd been keeping an eye on.

"Yes," I replied. "It seems we're in luck; there's a Hydra nearby."

"For a given value of luck that leads us to constantly running into things that want to kill us, anyway," Adam said, this time a bit petulantly. I showed my usual amount of sympathy.

"Walk it off, pussy," I commanded him before healing him with a roll of my eyes.

Adam snorted but stood up and cracked his neck.

"Whatever," He brushed off now that he was feeling better. "How do we want to handle this one? Take turns again?"

"Nah," I said with a shrug. "No point in taking risks the first time out, especially with a Hydra—we'll go all out and crush it outright to see how much resistance it puts up. Remember, these things don't die easily and they can recover from damn near everything, given time, getting stronger with each hit that damages them. Don't relax just because we can handle Leviathan's with ease now."

"I didn't intend to," Adam answered, rolling his eyes. "Gou, you up for the usual?"

"Certainly, Adam," He answered as he lowered his head enough for Adam to hop onto his back and sit astride him. "Jaune, should I grow larger to attract attention."

I shook my head absently.

"Why don't you work on your sneak attacks some, Gou?" I asked. "Just because you can turn into a giant monster doesn't mean there aren't any advantages to sneaking up on someone and breaking their necks before they even know you're there."

"Very well," Gou said, seeming to mull over that before nodding. "In that case, it may be for the best if you start charging your attack now, Adam. As your attack is difficult to charge during battle, it makes more sense to do so while the element of surprise is with us."

"I know," Adam answered, hand already on his sword. "I've been sucker punching people with this thing for years, Gou."

"Ah," Gou replied, making a sound as if he were embarrassed. "My apologies, my friend. I didn't mean to question your ability."

"Don't worry about it," Adam told him with a shake of his head. "Always best to be sure, anyway. You never know when someone who's supposed to be competent is going to do something outrageously stupid instead."

"Listen to him, Gou," I butted in as I crouched low, eying the two of them. After a moment's thought, I gave a mental shrug and reapplied all the buffs I'd laid upon them. It was unlikely they would have run out during the course of the battle, but why take any chances when you didn't have to? The lost was momentary to me at best. "He knows all about outrageous stupidity."

"And in case it needs to stated, Jaune's a horrible role model," Adam continued, ignoring me. "Just in case, check with me before imitating anything you see him do."

I chuckled at that and shrugged, thinking of cyclones of broken glass.

"I'll be going on ahead," I said. "Follow when you're ready, okay?"

Without waiting for an answer, took off at full speed—and I mean full speed. I pushed Acceleration up to the highest level I was comfortable maintaining in a battle, layered Bai Hu's techniques, brought out the White Tiger of the West, pulled from the skills I'd gained from the Grimm, and then capped it all off with something special.

Angelic Steps (Passive) LV1 EXP: 78.20%

An ability born from an inherent skill at using Aura to enhance to movements of one's body. Thanks to the natural structure of one's body and soul, this skills passively bolsters the user's speed and grace to inhuman levels.

100% Increase to Movement Speed.

50% Increase to Evasion.

The pristine beach exploded, throwing up sand and massive waves in my wake. The sheer force of my departure boiled the water into steam and melted part of the shore, though my two friends merely grimaced and turned away. Within moments, I was closing in on my target, analkyzing him one more time before the battle.

The Mouths of Oblivion

LV 138

Hydra

Like all Hydras, it was unique—one of the things that set it apart from most Grimm that belonged to a specific species. This one had twenty-eight head, each of which was different. One was entirely coated in smooth white scales, the structure of its face akin to that of a snake's. Another was black but for a long arch of webbed spikes down the back of its neck and seemed more like a dragon or a sea monster. But while those two shared reptilian traits, others did not. There was a head like that of a wolf, one that seemed like a bizarre cross between a spider and an ant, and one that had no true head as such, but was simply a mouth where the stump would be.

The nature of the Hydras were to grow stronger from anything that failed to kill them, which was why the Kingdoms made sure to stop them before they grew up. But no one had stopped this thing and it was possible that whole cities had paid the price for it. Each head was something the Hydra had grown to triumph over a situation and each could have entirely different attributes. Its body was armored both outside and within and it built to be a weapon. I could see poison on the claws and in its blood and it had bizarre growths in various places, most likely built to count opponents that had tried to climb onto it and attack it directly. Standing on four legs, its longest neck reached up far past even the largest Goliath I'd seen and its many heads calmly surveyed its surroundings as if it were a king overlooking its court.

And what was perhaps more impressive was the fact that it was barely within the range of levels that I could see—and it had been the weakest Hydra I'd been able to see from a distance. Generally speaking, these were monsters you got young or didn't get at all; it was strong enough that I was wary of picking a fight with it, even knowing my own abilities. Yet at the same time…I knew this wasn't going to be the worst I'd have to face. From what I'd head, Jericho Falls would make fighting something like this a cake walk and that wasn't even getting into things like the Riders and Knights and Malkuth. I had a number of ways getting out of this if it went south and power far beyond my actual level, so…why not try?

Besides. My team could use some experience fighting an opponent we couldn't just crush. If we were going to work together, where better to learn than in a situation where we actually needed to. I could say without even the slightest doubt that I could solve any problem we were likely to face on the fields to the east, entirely by myself. At this point, we all could. Even when we practiced working together, we all had to hold back simply to keep from breaking whatever we were dealing with.

Not that I didn't plan to break this thing too, of course—but hopefully it would last long enough to make itself useful.

The Four Winds (Passive) LV1 EXP: 34.07%

An ability born from an inherent skill at using Aura to enhance to movements of one's body. By guiding power in accordance to one's movements, it is possible to properly grasp the flow and let it hasten one's movements until the user's attacks are no more than fading blurs and lingering pain.

100% Increase to Physical Attack Speed.

50% Increase to Physical Attack Accuracy.

As I came close, my hands flickered until it seemed as if I were striking with four arms instead of two—and with each, I landed a hit upon the Hydra, each blow packed with more power than I'd used to level Haven.

The air seemed to shatter at the touch of my fists against the Hydra's scales. It's flesh rippled for a moment as my Shockwave spread through it, apply damage to a larger area—and then the Hydra gave a sudden cry as the flesh on the other side of its neck mimicked the ripples, swelled, and then burst from within. As a byproduct of Devastating Blows, the damage of my physical attacks penetrated deeply into the flesh of my enemies and—on an Auraless foe such as one of the Grimm especially—could potentially inflict internal damage.

Of course, that was for normal attacks. It normally meant stuff like harming the internal organs or perhaps breaking bones, and indeed that would normally be the limit with my Strength around a hundred or so. But with Bai Hu's techniques, Sacrifice to Vanagandr, and all my other skills? With the sheer speed of my impact? We'd gone well past inflicting a bit of internal damage.

I blew one of the Hydra's heads clean off.

At once, twenty-seven heads screamed in mixed outrage and loathing. At once, the creature's many eyes focused upon me, several of them multifaceted and—as my power and a quick Observe informed me—able to perceive more than just visible light. I backed up quickly as several of the creature's mouths opened and the matter lining their mouths and throats reacted.

The first column of fire was extremely thin, relative to the creature's size, but with all the intensity one would expect form a Grimm of its level. It wielded the attack as a cutting blade, slashing through tree, stone, and air with equal ease before slicing through the Skin I'd left behind. The next attack with a wave of amplified sound, meant to shatter eardrums and disrupt the equilibrium of entire armies, but even without Midgardsormr's Skin reinforcing that relatively fragile part of my body, the Gamer's Body allowed me to shrug off such things. A flash of electricity accelerated a sharpened stake that I analyzed in midflight to determine the nature of—there was a liquid inside that was hard to determine the nature of because it was simply inert Grimm-stuff at present. At a guess, it was either a poison or some type of hostile magic nanite thing.

I redirected it by called upon Vulturnus, who appeared in midair and unraveled into a curving streak of Lightning. The railgun faltered in midflight and flew past me into the distance, crashing into the side of a mountain with an explosion. As another head began to fire what seemed to be organic spines, I noticed the cilia on their surface and deduced that they were the type of spikes that would drive themselves further inwards, towards an enemy's vitals. I ignited my hands with Karna and released a massive cloud of flames with a wave of my hands, burning the life from the malicious thorns.

The wave of fire continued towards the Hydra, crashing over its many heads. Though several of its eyes popped and burst and some of its flesh burned, it largely seemed to ignore the attack and press on. I saw one of the heads—which looked like nothing more than the upper jaws of seven snakes sown together, fangs and all—release a cloud of poison that was invisible to normal light. I considered it for a moment, reminded myself to deal with it when Adam and Gou arrive, and then turned to face the oncoming attack.

Thirteen of the creature's heads were gathering power enough to cause their throats to glow from within and when they opened their mouths it was to release a series of energy blasts that reminded me of Crom Cruach. While weaker than the Legendary Grimm's attack, I estimated each as having more than enough power to carve a path of destruction across several city blocks and each mass aiming right at me.

A moment before they did, however, I gathered my own power, timed it, and fired. Lux Aeterna darkened the earth and sky as it streaked towards my opponent. My most powerful attack also serve as my defense against the thirteen heads, consuming the energy attacks as they were released and using them to fuel the Light Eternal. I saw my power clash with the darkness for a moment before breaking through with a sound like thunder, and the Hydra's released another cry as the light of the moon and stars returned.

A long, faintly glowing hole had been burnt straight through the Hydra's body, starting at the base of one of its necks and stretching clean through its chest. The removed head fell away, dropping to the earth with the sound of a building falling, but though the Hydras released another agonized cry, the pierced body pressed forward almost eagerly, each of its footfalls shattering half a dozen trees.

Damage and pain didn't frighten the Hydra, nor did the possibility of a fight. To it, they were just a way to grow more powerful.

I empathized. But this fight was for my sake, not his.

Drawing back, I gathered Gungnir in my hands, Bai Hu following my lead. In a heartbeat, a spear was sent flying towards each remaining head, detonating with a thunderous explosion in each of the creature's faces. I followed them the moment the last spear had been set loose, my gauntlets burning even more brightly as I channeled power through Karna, piercing lances of fire cutting through the smoke as easily as my own gaze. I aimed for eyes and throats, cutting deep, cauterized wounds in the Hydra's flesh, tear open eyelids and mouths, and searing existing wounds wider. Following that, I gathered flames between my hands in a pure white sphere that grew as I brought my hands apart until it was as wide across as I was tall. Hurling it down without hesitation, I watched as it expanded into an even larger orb that encompassed the Hydra as a whole, surrounding it with a burning prison.

With a snap of my fingers, the top of the sphere began to ripple as Suryasta rose from it like water and then knelt upon its surface even as Levant gathered into place above it. With the amount of power I'd put into it, the burning sphere would have radiated heat enough to ignite anything nearby, but the temperature barely changed. Fire and Air worked together to keep the heat from escaping, fighting one of the most basic laws of thermodynamic to stop it's natural flow and keep the Hydra burning hot. Though the heat and light, I saw the creature of Grimm bowing under the attack, its skin melting, eyes bursting, and makeshift bones cracking in the heat. It made for an ugly sight, like a melted wax imitation of a child's nightmare, but I didn't let up.

Taking a pair of deep breaths, I held out a hand and Agneyastra formed in my grasp. I hurled it forward and it penetrated the surface of the sphere without so much as a ripple, piercing straight through one of the heads and slagging the upper half of it in the process. It continued on its path, stabbing clean through what would have been the spine on a normal animal. The area around it exploded as the attack triggered, throwing up a coating of unnatural flames that swept over the Hydra and clung to it. At once, I felt the flames of Karna being drawn into it, consumed, bizarrely, as fuel for the fire.

By the time that Karna's sphere was wholly swept away and devoured, the Hydra had been fully coated in Agneyastra's flames, the supernatural fires cruelly covering the whole of its form. It baked its flesh, slipped into the flowing holes of its eye sockets, and even made use of its many mouths to claw at the creature's insides and send up growing columns of filthy black smoke.

I pressed it further quickly, striking while the flow of the battle was with me. The earth beneath the Hydra's feet shuddered and then flowed upwards to shape a new body for Ereb. The Earth Elemental reached out quickly and the solidity of the ground gave way under the Hydra's weight, leaving it to sink up to its knees into the dirt and stone. Its body struggled quickly, trying to break free even as it burned, but Ereb was working hard beneath the ground. Points pressed up against the Hydra's limbs from a dozen different directions, each the diamond hard cap to a massive drill. They began to turn, grinding hard against the Hydra's scales for a second before piercing its flesh and drilling further in. Impaling each of its limbs upon the twisting spears, Ereb locked down its ability to move and left it burning beneath the sky.

Naturally, I was quick to do my part. Allowing myself only a moment's reprieve, I held out my other hand and released threw another Agneyasta, followed by a third and a four. Each strike removed a head and melted a massive hole through the core of the Hydra's body even as it fanned the flames. At the same time, Levant and Suryasta worked to fan the existing blaze into an inferno, not stopping even when the Hydra's body began to appear skeletal as more of its flesh melted off with every passing second.

If I were anyone else, I might have thought that was enough, that things were all but done with—but I was a Hunter and, perhaps more importantly, I knew what I was up against.

I could see it, after all. At least for now.

The Mouths of Oblivion

LV 140

Hydra

XxXXxX

Aug 15, 2015

Shalist, DtPrince, rysworld and 290 others like this.

Thanatos757

Thanatos757

Captain of the Four Knights

Oh shit, it got two levels, and it didn't even kill anything.

Aug 16, 2015

anathematic, TonalArchitect, cj304 and 10 others like this.

Asunder

Asunder

Getting the crap beaten out of you so that you can level up? Hydras are the basically Jaune Arc of Grimm, which makes this fight really about whose the better masochist. Adam and Gou better start covering their eyes...ears, just generally all sensory organs. In fact just go back to Haven, the two of them are going to be at this a while.

Gou: They've been doing this a long time.

Adam: Hmm.

Gou: I don't believe it to be normal human behavior to smile when a hydra drools poison on your body.

Adam: hmm.

Gou: Are you even going to try to pay attention?

Adam:...Listen Gou, I know all about when Jaune gets into one of his moods. I remember back when he needed me to do it and I've gotten used to it. Just as long as he doesn't do it in front of anyone impressionable...or sane, there's nothing to do but let him have his...fun.

Gou: So why are you taking scroll snaps of it?

Adam: Because I want to make sure Raven knows what she getting into.